My Skylab Radio residency continues with a deep dive into movie soundtracks and ambient. The 90 minute mix was inspired by ‘Chill Out’ (of course!) and features movie dialogue, soundtrack scores, ambient soundscapes and some special DJ tools that will feature on future releases. Listen here, tracklisting below:
Brian Eno ‘Saint Tom’ / Tashaki Kokubo ‘Symphony Of Glory & Wind’ / Isle Of Dogs ‘Taiko Drumming’ Ghost In The Shell ‘Ghost City’ / Meitei ‘Ike’ Love Theme From Chinatown / Meitei ‘Seito’ / Anthony Naples ‘Alto’ / Dark Star Dialogue / Satoshi & Makoto ‘Untitled’ / Sound Voyage Interlude / Emerald Forest ‘Burning Of The Shabona’ / Emerald Forest ‘Main Titles’ / The Deer Hunter ‘Struggling Ahead’ / Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement ‘Flytrap Exotica’ / New Zealand Birds Of The Forest / Johnny Jewell ‘Nightmare’ / Johnny Jewell ‘Requiem’ / Morgan Fisher ‘Gnossienne #1’ / Sad City ‘Stream’ / Rex Illusivi ‘Dream I’ / Jura Soundsystem Lucid Dreaming Tool / Blossom Dearie / Jeff Bridges ‘Feeling Good’ / Theme From Spartacus / Batman ‘Thaws Mr Freeze That’s The Way The Ice Cube Crumbles’ / X.Y.R ‘Lost City’ / 28 Days Later ‘Abide With Me’ / LSD / Vangelis ‘Tears In The Rain’
My remix for Detroit Swindle is Out Now on Heist alongside other re-rubs from Sterac, Cinthie, Matt Karmil and Gari Romalis. Its the first Jura Soundsystem remix and is a Boogie-Balearic take on ‘High Life’ featuring Lorenz Rhode. Thanks Juno for the review.
I’m doing 3 shows for Melbourne’s Skylab Radio over the next few months, the first of which aired earlier this month:
Presenting a deep dive into the musical inspirations behind lauded Australian reissue label Isle Of Jura from founder Kevin Griffiths aka Jura Soundsystem. The Skylab residency will cover Dub & Reggae, Ambient & Soundtracks and Proto House & Leftfield Disco. Part one canvasses Griffiths’ extensive digs and influences in the realm of Dub & Reggae and their respective lineages.
Available now on Bandcamp the next release on Isle Of Jura is the first official reissue of Bella Vista’s ‘Mister Wong’. Originally released in 1982 it’s a pop oddity that sits between French Synth Pop and Leftfield Disco, the 12” includes the sought after Disco Dub. The Dub always felt too short to me so I’ve extended the length on my edit and added some live percussion.
“Last year Tsuba Records and Isle of Jura founder Kevin Griffiths returned to the studio, eschewing his house and techno past to create deliciously warm, Balearic-minded grooves under the Jura Soundsystem alias. It was, it seems, a smart move, because the music contained on “Monster Skies”, his first ever full-length, is undoubtedly the best he’s made to date. Warm, humid and wonderfully horizontal, the album sees him fuse a variety of influences – most notably dub, turn-of-the-’90s ambient house, Italian dream house, new age, synth-boogie and those hard-to-define mid 1980s cuts that turn up on Music From Memory compilations – in a myriad of colourful, saucer-eyed ways. The results are uniformly superb, making “Monster Skies” a superb, must-check set.”
Thanks so much to Test Pressing for the review of the new EP.
“Following on from their EXCELLENT compilation album ‘Transmission One’, those Isle of Jura lads (here reconfigured as Jura Soundsystem) lay some of their own productions on us. And it feels so good. Stylistically this comes from a similar place and explores the outliers of leftfield dance music, touching on our old friends boogie, proto-house, blown-out balearics and a heavy, heavy dose of dub.”
Thanks to the The Vinyl Factory for the news piece on the debut Jura Soundsystem EP.
“Like a breezy drink of coconut funk. Isle of Jura founder Kevin Griffiths is releasing a new 6-track EP called Monster Skies, this March on his Temples of Jura imprint. Its 6 original tracks span from proto house rollers (‘Carafe Denim’) to lo-fi calypso tinkles (‘Mamma Capes’) via balearic and ’80s funk (‘Parrot Rhythm Space Jam’, ‘Boogie Tune’). Monster Skies follows Isle of Jura’s Jura Soundystem Transmission One compilation, as well as its ‘The Voice Of Q’ 12″ – one of our favourite reissue singles of 2018.”
