Influenced by African and Asian sounds, Molikasi works, samples and magnifies his own voice and instrument, to give an impression of coming from faraway places and break the rules of electro pop. We had a little chat with the French artist and you can also listen to his excellent Kitsuné Hot Stream mixtape!
Molikasi
How did you get interested in music?
I got interested in music thanks to my cousin who used to play guitar. I wanted to do the same so I first learned some standard guitar songs. Then I came to electronic music and production.
Tell us a bit about the Soundress label.
Soundress is a label working with artists like Dim Sum, Clanch, Candidat, Le goût acide des conservateurs…
How’s life in Paris as a musician? What inspires you the most in the city?
Paris is a really cool place for musicians. You can easily meet people and see the artists live. But sometimes you also needs space and time to get inspired so it’s cool to leave the city for the countryside.
Name 3 artists who inspire you the most when it comes to making music.
Bibio / Mura Masa / Fleet Foxes
Name 3 tracks from this year that made a big impression on you.
Kidswaste “Time”
Whitney “No Woman”
Louis The Child “Love is alive”
If you could swap bodies with another artist for a weekend, whose skin would you like to sneak in and why?
Thom Yorke… it could be interesting to be in his mind for a weekend
What do you do when you’re not making music?
I’m drawing while thinking of music
What would you do if – for some mysterious reason – there would be no more music from tomorrow on?
I would be drawing the music instruments of my dreams
What are you working on right now?
New tracks that I will release soon.
Please tell us a bit about your Kitsuné Hot Stream mix, how did you pick these tracks?
I wanted to start the mix with a danceable part so I chose Moullinex “Open House” and Allen French “Nova Vida” which both match well with my track “Danse de l’hiver”. Then I chosed to lower the tempo with Young Futura and Saux and to finish with this incredible song “Umbo” by IFE.
How do you like Pacemaker? What are your favourite features?
Pacemaker is a very cool app, I love the idea! I love that it works with Spotify so that you can easily pick tracks in your library.
We got MASSIVE news! Crop tracks, refine your mix and create unique mashups. Update now in App Store – you’re in for a treat!
Jay-Z’s legendary audio engineer, Young Guru and his Era of the Engineer team supports what Pacemaker embodies: “At Era, our mission is to empower the builder and Pacemaker gives everyday people a tool to be creative with music. Since it’s a mobile app, anyone can now create an incredible professional sounding mixtape or mashup from anywhere in the world.” – says Jerald Cooper, co-founder of Era of The Engineer.
– Studio ✂️ Crop the beginning and end of tracks, set your mix on more precise levels – phrase, bar and beat. You get 500 sessions for free to get a taste of the Studio.
– Profile Badge 💎 Be cooler than anyone else with a fancy Pacemaker+ badge. Cool new features: – Undo Your Mixtakes 🔧 Everyone makes misteaks but not everyone can fix them. You can now fix it all with Undo. – New Play-Marker ▶️ The new play-marker jumps exactly where you want it to. Finally! – New Waveforms 🌊 Pretty, nifty and more functional!
If you have any questions or just want to say hi, send us an e-mail! (hi@pacemakerapp.com)
Watch The Hype is back with ‘Our Black Roots’, a mix dedicated to recognising the importance of black music in shaping electronic music. We have picked two more gems from the community that perfectly fit in the concept. Expect some exotic rhythms and organic beats!
Watch The Hype is back with their second mixtape on Pacemaker. ‘Our Black Roots’ is dedicated to recognising the importance of black music in shaping electronic music. The tracks in this mix were all curated by artists who contributed to their online Our Black Roots feature. So, while you listen, you can read each artist’s personal story behind each track. Mr. G, Matthew Herbert, Hieroglyphic Being and more take part!
Same concept, different style – @jlmickles selected almost 2 hours of dusty beats, booming kick drums, percussions and dub-disco inspired by various African countries and instruments. You can even hear a track from Lee “Scratch” Perry, the inventor of remixing who recently celebrated his 81th birthday.
Playing around with rhythm and beats is a highly rewarding experience, although blending the worlds of electronic and organic grooves can be a challenge. @provocateur accepted the challenge, his afrohouse mix is drawing inspiration from Angola, Mali, Nigeria and all the hidden tribes who shaped and keep shaping electronic music.
We had a cool chat with the ever so amazing Young Franco and he even created a fabulous mixtape featuring Kitsuné tracks. The Australian genius started DJing when he was 16 and got into producing just a few years ago. He’s inspired by hip-hop, soul and funk and keeps sweeping the world off its feet (quite literally) with his unique funky beats. No dancefloor remains intact when he’s dictating the rhythm.
Young Franco
When was that point when you realized that music is going to be your biggest passion in your life?
Music was always a big part of my life and I think I never had a point I realised it just became more and more important to me.
You’re from Brisbane, Australia. How’s the electronic music scene over there?
Really good! Lots of cool musicians coming up at the moment. Feki, The Kite String Tangle, Tyler Touche.
You did what many are only dreaming of: put your studies on hold to pursue your music career full-time. Was this a difficult choice to make?
Not really, it was a very natural progression.
What and who inspires you the most when it comes to making music?
I think anyone doing something cool in their own respective field is inspiring. Whether it be art or music or anything in the creative field.
You’ve recently been on tour with Kitsuné in Europe. Which show and city was the most memorable for you and why?
All the shows were amazing and were equally memorable. I thoroughly enjoyed the Madrid show. Goya Social Club is such a vibe.
When it comes to the audience, do you see any difference between shows in Australia and Europe?
I think it’s just what people are used to listening to. Australia has a unique style and Europe has so much culture and vibe. I think people are always up to have a good time though no matter where you are from.
If you could go back in time 10 years, is there anything you would like to change?
Nothing!
Who would you like to collaborate with the most and why?
Kaytranada, such an amazing artist.
Is there a music genre you can’t stand listening to?
I generally don’t listen to. Maybe heavy metal?
Is there some music you like but you’re ashamed to admit?
I love classical music! Not ashamed to admit it but it is a bit different.
Who would you like to meet the most? Dead or alive.
Debussy
What’s your favourite place in the world?
I don’t have a favourite but Paris is up there. So is Sydney.
What’s your favourite thing on the internet?
Videos of Dogs.
What do you do when you’re not making music, touring or DJing?
Watching YouTube videos.
What are you working on right now?
My next single.
How do you like Pacemaker? What are your favourite features and what would you like to add or improve?
I love being able to use songs from Spotify. I found it hard to give a proper mix between some of the tracks.
Three fabulous mixtapes for the perfect love triangle: deep, house and chill!
To quote @proudspark’s description of his own mixtape: “WOW. Just #wow.” This is a spot on summary of just how nifty this mixed bag of goodies turned out. He mixed his own Discover Weekly recommendations from Spotify and let himself be surprised by the results. Push play and let yourself marvel at how easy it can be to have a top notch selection for your mixtape! 😍
Featuring: Borrowed Identity, John Talabot, Yuksek
“May cause an unsafe rise in blood pressure” – warns us @capturingphi. We turned ourselves into lab rats in order to find out the truth and we’re proud to share the results: this mix does what it says on the can! A gourmet selection of the finest deep house delicacies, ready to take you deep down the rabbit hole. 🐰
@ntropy is a producer, DJ and evil doer residing in Melbourne, Australia. He started his mix series when he joined Pacemaker and been blessing us with new episodes ever since! The journey continues with his latest selection, perfectionist as always – deep house and progressive house flawlessly mixed into an hour-long fervent voyage.
Featuring: Hot Since 82, Leon Vynehall, Detroit Swindle, Purple Disco Machine
We had a chat with Sean Adams, the founder of Drowned in Sound, UK-based music website. Focusing on a variety of quality sounds from electronic music to pop and rock, they have published interviews with everyone from Björk to Paul McCartney. Sean shared a special mixtape on Pacemaker and now gives you some insight on how the life of a full-time music influencer looks like.
Sean Adams
When and how did you get interested in music? Was there a certain moment when you heard something that made you wanna dig further and deeper into music?
There have been lots of steps into the abyss. As a kid I was lucky that my mum had great taste and car journeys would apparently involve me asking to listen to side two of Low or The Cure. My dad also had a lot of records and I remember one Saturday afternoon when I was about 10 listening to Otis Redding ‘(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay’ over and over, trying to work out why it was so powerful and what it was trying to say. It was a whole other world and ever since I’ve found myself riding on the updrafts of Kate Bush or being blown sideways by Nine Inch Nails or finding myself sitting in an imagined bar with Arab Strap’s stories coming to life.
Tell us a bit about the birth of your platform Drowned in Sound – it started almost 20 years ago as a fanzine and throughout those years it became a vital part of the (indie) music community.
My first email fanzine/newsletter started when I was 15 so that is almost 20 years ago… I started it because I found the web a bit empty for people passionately talking about music and a bit overwhelming trying to talk about music in general on forums and newsgroups dedicated to Radiohead or Smashing Pumpkins or whoever. I’ve never been a one band guy.
Drowned in Sound was an evolution of that newsletter which was becoming lengthy as other people began to contribute. Hearing Muse’s first demo and seeing their rise and rise and rise – despite the music press being dismissive and a bit snobby about them – was definitely a big catalyst and wind in my sail to spot and champion artists who might one day headline a stadium.
Nowadays there are hundreds of music blogs / webzines out there, coming and going. You have tons of experience in this field and you’ve been having difficulties yourself with DiS to keep it going. What do you think it takes these days to create a blooming community, to grab attention, to create content that is well-received and keeps readers/listeners come back regularly?
I think not chasing hits has been fairly key. We try to make a site that we would want to read. I’ve shied away from deluging and overwhelming our audience. Our recommendations are infrequent. Our tone playful but thoughtful. Then there’s the forums which are allowed to have the freedom for users to be whoever they want to be and we only very rarely need to reign people in.
Curating music takes a lot of time and energy – where do you discover music these days? What are your trusted sources?
I think my trigonometry of recommendations is kinda the same as it ever was. The three prongs are:
Seeing what other writers and blogs are passionate about – you can always feel the enthusiasm when someone is eloquent and inspired
Record labels – there are a lot of labels I trust and always new labels in different scenes who seem to have all the best flagship artists of a sound. I’ll always check out a new release of it’s on 4AD or Erased Tapes or Hyperdub or Anti- or Sacred Bones or so many other great independent labels. I probably trust record labels more than anything else as I know how much investment, time and risk is required to help out something new into the world, which is so much more of an undertaking than just writing a complimentary blog of a stream.
Luck is still key. You can’t account for having your ears open and finding yourself curiously checking out an act in your feed or being intrigued to see someone at a festival, then finding something really special.
How do you listen to music most of the time? Do you buy lots of physical records or do you prefer the digital streaming nowadays?
Mostly on Spotify. I’ve never really been that interested in having a record collection. I’m far more likely to buy a tshirt of a band I like than a record that will probably stay sealed for months. I find the inflow of music totally overwhelming and I’m constantly listening to music through Sonos speakers or my beloved Bowers + Wilkins headphones. I also listen to the radio a lot as a lot of DJs and their producers are lucky enough to be able to spend the majority of their time rummaging for gems, and have the ability to present and make sense of things which are unfamiliar in the context of things I already know and like.
You have at least 3 jobs and they are all music-related in one way or another. How do you manage to keep it all going, how would you say a regular working day looks like for you?
There’s no such thing as a regular day. My “portfolio career” doesn’t allow much time for sleep. I’m often working from 7am until 7pm and then meeting people for drinks or going to gigs or just collapsing on the sofa.
How did you discover Pacemaker? You’ve been using the app for quite some time now. What do you like the most about it and what would you like to improve?
I first saw and loved the idea of the device that preceded the app. I often get asked to play music before and after bands at gigs and festivals, which can often be last minute and not massively well paid. I loved the idea of having my entire record collection and more at my finger tips and not need to lug stuff around. The app is far better than having 4 CDRs wrapped in dog-eared pieces of paper and I like that I can easily switch tracks in without worrying too much how the song’s intro and outro might neatly fit together without always relying on songs I know intimately. It’s really great for my radio show (once a month on Soho Radio and archived on Mixcloud) as it means I can concentrate more on what I’m saying than how the songs are mixing – found my vocabulary massively dropped when worrying about crossfading tunes. Definitely helps that tracks can be best matched and that I can trawl all of Spotify for songs to include rather than rummaging for CDs or importing tracks and burning CDRs (like, I don’t even have a laptop with a CD drive any longer….)
Please tell us a bit about your selection for ‘Swooning (Not Swooning)’, the mixtape you made for us.
It’s intended to be a bit of a bedroom party. None of the tunes are going to be big floor fillers but they will hopefully light up and expand a little corner in people’s mind’s eye. Lyrically bits of the tracks loosely riff on similar ideas but I’ll leave the listener to find the tenuous discourse and narrative woven between the choices.
Whether you are winding down after a long day or getting ready for the weekend, we have what you need to set the tone.
👇🏿👇🏾👇🏽👇🏼👇🏻👇
@acn is fresh meat on Pacemaker, the kind you should approach with curiosity, taste with high expectations and support with all your earbuds! He’s born to be a DJ and his excellent mixing skills come with the greatest attention to track selection.
Featuring: The Chainsmokers, Oliver Heldens, Zedd, Alan Walker, Robin Schulz
The man, the myth, the legend: @illtino. Whether you are desperately waiting for the summer to arrive or you’re already deep into the tropical heat, this mixtape sets the perfect mood for every temperature. Fire it up!
Featuring: Jax Jones, DJ Snake, R3hab, Jerome, Riton
Whether you are winding down after a long day or already getting ready for the weekend, this fresh progressive-house-EDM selection is what you need to set the tone. The talented @djkem joined Pacemaker a week ago and he’s hopefully here to stay. Welcome!
It’s that time of the year again: Valentine’s Day! You might be knee-deep into roses and chocolate or just waiting for this annoying day to be over… either way, why not express your feelings with a mixtape? Purely 🧀 and 💦 !
Create a mixtape for your better half, your chihuahua, that noisy neighbour, that cute girl or boy in school, for your favourite user on Pacemaker or just create it for @emoke, our Community Manager. (I love mixtapes but I don’t like Valentine’s Day too much, cheer me up!)
Here is some inspiration for starters:
1. Click on the mixtape below.
2. Add/remove tracks to remix it and make it yours.
3. Post it in the community, hashtag with #ValentinesDay & share it via iMessage, Facebook and Twitter!
Unleash all the love and fury, we cannot wait to listen to your mixtapes!
What’s the hottest in the ever so colourful world of deep house? @shisharka knows the answer. The ‘Nu Nu’ series is a carefully selected and mixed collection of deep and tech house tracks, infused with lush vocals and electro grooves. Here’s one of our favourite mixtapes from the series, your weekend treat!
#deephouse #laidback #edm #spinninrecords
@srankfinatra is probably one of our most prominent users in the community. You often see his infamous club mixtapes in the Hot Feed and it does not take too long to cash in all the well-deserved likes on his perfectly synced creations. Take a trip to the deepest depths of house music with one of his last mixtapes and be his 101th follower!
#house #oldschool #rhythm #party
@stacobo is one of our many users who deserves to be more in the spotlight. One of his latest mixtapes is absolutely supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (yes, that’s the word!), the ultimate energy bomb for a successful Saturday night. Disco and house bae, there’s no time to waste – you gotta stay true to the beat!
Stay inspired, keep your mixtapes coming – next week it could be your turn!
Dirty Disco Radio is a weekly podcast on DeepFM by Kono Vidovic – a versatile DJ, producer and radio host from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Showcasing the finest electronic sounds, Dirty Disco Radio recently celebrated its 200th episode. The latest show was created in Pacemaker so you too can savour Kono’s excellent music taste.
Carefully selected deep house tracks, neatly packed and mixed in two hours. He is not only a good storyteller when it comes to music but also when it comes to being interviewed. While you’re listening to his mixtape, read our conversation about discovering, curating & enjoying music.
Kono Vidovic
When and how did you get interested in music?
I always believed I was born with music in my veins. Just like a lot of other artists, DJs etc. As a young boy I had a big interest in anything where sound came out of, especially when those sounds had a melody. 😉 As I grew up, the interest in music grew in me and I noticed at a very young age that I liked to entertain people with playing music for them. Whenever my mother was away for work she told me not to touch her music collection and hi-fi stereo installation. Guess what I did every time she went to work?! That was how I discovered a lot of great artists in the 80s, which set the tone for my musical journey. After discovering music, I discovered DJing. The way I started was pure coincidence, but it was clearly something that needed to happen. From there my journey went through a lot of different styles and genres, and made my sound what it is today.
What made you decide to start your own radio show? Please tell us a bit about the birth of Dirty Disco Radio.
My DJ career started long before the internet revolution. I have always recorded my own mixtapes on cassette, later on CDs and even on mini disc for a short time. Do you remember them? Haha, moments like these make me aware of my age, thanks a lot! 😉 In the years when the internet became very popular, different platforms to upload your DJ mixes to, started to rise. But on a whole different level than these platforms are nowadays, copyrights and things like that were much more complicated than now. I really tried almost all those music platforms. When Soundcloud came, it was finally a proper and easy platform specially made for DJs. It was the time when the Nu Disco genre came in, which grabbed my attention right away. As I loved that sound and noticed that it was very underground and many people did not know the genre yet, I started to upload monthly mixtapes on Soundcloud called ‘Dirty Future Disco’.
After 4 months of doing this, I had a lot of listeners and followers on my account who really liked the sound I was bringing. Then a radio promoter from France contacted me and asked me if I wanted to do a weekly radio show. First I had those thoughts that everyone would have: can I do that? Is my voice good enough? Probably not. But I figured that with all those DJ mixes out there it would be different and something people would like if somebody finally started to talk to them during a DJ set. Not that I was the first one to do this. There were a lot of online radio stations, but 90% of these did not play presented shows just DJ mixes, nothing more. So I just went for it, to see how it would work out – and Dirty Disco Radio was born.
Curating music takes a lot of time and energy – where do you discover music these days when the possibilities are endless and it feels like there’s more and more new music coming each day?
Another great thing of the internet, the limitless possibilities of discovering and making music. The internet is a place where you can go wherever you want, as long as you know where to walk. It gave talented producers new possibilities to create and upload music. The whole digital revolution made it easier to create music for everybody with just a small amount of equipment.
Before the internet and digital revolution I was digging for music in record stores, which could take up days. Those times where awesome. I was always hanging out at local recordshops, met a lot of other people, and dug up some very good records. When the way we consume music has changed, I figured there had to be more places to find music than just the commercial online record shops like Beatport etc. In the beginning of Dirty Disco Radio, I was digging around on a lot of ‘underground’ blogs, which took a lot of time and energy. But that way you can find music not everybody knows and create your own sound. Next to that, you’ll discover a lot of unknown talents. This way I could give their music a platform at the same time and promote their music to a bigger audience. Now after more than 4 years of Dirty Disco Radio, I built up a network. I still get music from all kinds of places like blogs, Soundcloud and online record shops. But a lot of the music that I play comes from my network, record labels that send me their demos, DJs and producer friends.
Next to Dirty Disco Radio, I also occasionally play gigs. As I have a big love for electronic music and that is what DDR stands for, I have love for all kinds of music. In the residency where I currently play, I play a lot of Soul, Funk, Disco old and new combined. Because my musical needs are so big, I work a lot with Spotify. This gives me the ability to always check for new music, find interesting tracks and artists. Wherever I am, Spotify is with me. When I’m in the gym or driving my car, I often listen to the weekly refreshed personal suggested music playlist that Spotify creates for me based on my likes. This is a real cool feature and allows me to curate new music. Whenever I hear something that I like, I add it to a playlist or save it so that Spotify knows what I like.
Do you still buy records or do you prefer the digital streaming more nowadays?
First I was a very stubborn DJ. When all the other DJs started to play with CDs, I still carried my 20 kilos heavy record box with me to every DJ gig. I did not want to surrender myself to the new technology. It took a while, but I noticed that not only CDs came in which made it very easy to bring music and even more music with you as a DJ, but also the digital, which opened up a lot of new possibilities. From there I decided to stop being stubborn and go with the flow. I still like records, they have something magic and that warm sound to them. But I also like convenience, so I’m a really big Spotify fan. I can create playlists on the go. Find new artists and music, and even curate music and play it for other people while I’m not actually playing by creating and sharing mixtapes so people can follow you and listen to them. I see a lot of possibilities in the coming years.
How did you discover Pacemaker?
I’m always in the search for new technology and solutions for my musical needs. With me being a premium Spotify user I searched for an app or device that made it possible to mix tracks straight from Spotify, not for the big PA’s but for small parties this could be very efficient. But also to test which tracks could work well together and to have fun. That is how I found out about Pacemaker. I found more apps and solutions that made it possible to use Spotify, but these were never sophisticated enough. When I met Pacemaker, I knew this was the one to stick with.
You’ve been using Pacemaker for quite some time now. What do you like the most about it and what would you like to improve?
I know there is a separate version for iPad and iPhone but unfortunately I don’t have an iPad, so I’m using it on my iPhone. I’m not using it for professional needs, except this time when I dedicated a Dirty Disco Radio show to the app. But can you see me playing in front of a crowd from my iPhone? 😉 Well never say never, I can imagine some situations where it would be very cool. But with friends at home or in a nice place that gives you that home feeling, Pacemaker can definitely add and create an atmosphere like no other app can.
When I show the app to my friends, they get excited right away and start downloading and installing it themselves to get into the mix, since it’s very approachable. You don’t even need to know the DJ basics or understand DJing at all. That is what makes it really cool. Everybody can do it. Now that there is the social aspect to it, it’s even better, you can now share mixtapes inside of the Pacemaker community. Another very cool thing is that you don’t even need to mix yourself, you can let the app do it for you. This is perfect for home parties, like birthdays and other cosy nights with friends and or family. You can curate some tracks with Spotify, make a playlist of them, open up Pacemaker, open the playlist and just hit play! Pacemaker starts mixing it up.
There is one thing that I would like to see as a new feature, it would be a great thing if you as a user could assign your own cue points for even better mixes.
Kono in action
Please tell us a bit about your selection for the mixtape you made for us. What can our users hear once they push play?
Once you hit play, it gets started. 😀 And with ‘it’ I mean really anything. The party, the cosy night, the listening pleasure. Dirty Disco Radio is a feeling that takes you on a ride, you can approach it how you please. If you want it as the music for a party, no problem, if you enjoy your laid-back moments of peace, that will work out as well. The genres that I curate within DDR are very broad but within the electronic genre. Expect Electronica, House Music, Deep Discofied sounds. DDR is about enjoying every moment of life to appreciate the small things. I try to motivate people to stay positive and healthy, just to get the best out of themselves. You can dance, you can have your favorite drink or a cup of tea, sit back and relax. Just make sure you have the volume up to an acceptable level and enjoy!
