While putting together FADER Number 56, our Fall Fashion Issue, we noticed a theme emerging: While other glossies explore layering and shades of black, we peeled back, uncovering designers, creators and musicians who are willing to buck trends in order to stay true. Unsurprisingly, the resulting DJ-mixed podcast of music, which you can download below, expresses that die-hard independence perfectly. It's bookended by two grimy dancehall bangers by coverstar Busy Signal, and littered with next level club anthems by other covermen The Tough Alliance and Gen Fs Little Boots, Larry Heard, Michna and Music Go Music. And for all the dudes and gyal-dudes who don't dance no more, we've got knee-dip joints by Charles Hamilton, Rodriguez, Nisennenmondai, High Places, Play N Skillz and Big Tuck. There's not a stain on this mix.

Download the FADER 56 mix as an mp3 (right click, save as)
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Check the tracklist after jump.

Busy Signal, “Tic Toc"
The Tough Alliance, “Miami”
Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers, “Can You Feel It”
Little Boots, “Stuck On Repeat”
Nisennenmondai, “Pop Group”
Charles Hamilton, “Rockstar Girl”
Michna, “Swiss Glide”
High Places, “Vision’s the First”
Rodriguez, “Sugar Man”
Music Go Music, “Light of Love”
Play N Skillz (ft. Lil Jon, Krazie Bone & Bun B), “1 Mo Gin”
Big Tuck, “Not A Stain (Dallas Remix)"
Busy Signal, “Jail”

Actually, Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever. If you only take into account the fact that he won eight gold medals and might now feasibly be on the next Young Jeezy album, he has eclipsed our own dreams by knowing how to swim on the one hand and doing anything more than buying the next Young Jeezy album on the second. So for that, we celebrate him. However, last night and today, we witnessed the pop culture birthing of one Dayron Robles, Cuban 110 meter hurdler, world record holder and Olympic gold medal winner. Indeed, he is fast as all get out, and he seems heroically impervious to our fear of a hurdle wrecking our genitalia in Olympic ignobility, but that is not what makes him great.

First, in an Olympic Games populated with freakishly attractive athletes who train in world-class American, Chinese and European facilities, Dayron looks like Raj from What's Happening!. He wears wire-rimmed spectacles held in place by Croakies that look like they were cut from an old boot, hangs tinny gold chokers around his neck and keeps time with a fresh executive watch. He is truly a window into what it means to achieve in Cuba while reminding us all that vintage is always a good option when you are light on cash.

Second, he upholds the spirit of the modern Games as a megaphone for justice. The day before Beijing dazzled us all with the opening ceremonies, Robles' signature appeared on a letter issued by the International Campaign for Tibet, in conjunction with Amnesty International, to China's president Hu Jintao calling for him "to enable a peaceful solution for the issue of Tibet and other conflicts in your country with respect to fundamental principles of human rights… China is the focus of worldwide attention… Your decision on these issues will determine the success of the Olympic games and the image the world will have of China in the future." According to the Guardian, "After the letter's international publication yesterday [August 7th] several signatories asked for their names to be removed. Robles was not one of them." BADASSSSSSS. Just saying. No big deal, says Jintao. Or not? Today the Chinese government shut down Chinese iTunes after it was learned that 46 athletes in the Olympic Village downloaded Songs for Tibet, which had been offered to them free of charge. Songs for Tibet was promoted by the International Campaign for Tibet. It featured songs from Sting, Moby, Damien Rice and Alanis Morissette.

Third, we have yet to receive word that Dayron Robles was one of the 46 athletes who downloaded that album, so he also has good taste.

According to Baltimore's Get 'Em Mamis, "They Jockin,'" the Darkroom Productions produced track they laid for the seventh edition of our FADER/Southern Comfort 7-inch series, will get the elderly "doing the Yung Joc in their wheelchairs," and our guess is that it might also spark use of the ridiculous superlative "terrawesome" ("somewhere between terrific and awesome"). Over on the record's A-side, the whole Hood Headlinaz crew (Mata, Mali Boi, Dawgy Baggz, Jhi Ali and Gunt, as well as Wu-affiliate guest Rubbabandz) got together for their track "Tip Down." When we asked Paper Route Recordz CEO Dawgy Baggz to explain "tipping down" to us northerners, because we though it had something to do with cars (thanks for nothing, urbandictionary.com), he said it means simply "going bananas." Fair enough. And to wrap up this little present from us to you, artist Michael Genovese threw down some "tienda style lettering with a local Baptist church influence" on a wall in the Chicago Cultural Center and gave the two groups a little free advertising for the record's cover. E-mail contests@thefader.com with your name and address for a copy until we run out.

Wiley has retired from grime for the second time. Beat that, Jay-Z! What Wiley has failed to understand though is what the implications of retirement actually mean because he is still planning to make music. And that's a very good thing because the latest song I've heard from him, "Where's My Brother" (below), is truly brilliant. His singing voice is pretty decent too. News arrived this week that he has enlisted the, er, talents of Kate Nash and Lily Allen on his new album, I See Clear, but judging by this he will be showing them up in the singing stakes.


Wiley, "Where's My Brother" (radio rip)



I was a bit harsh on the new Roll Deep single, "Do Me Wrong", (and the rest of their latest album) a few weeks back but it has since grown on me. Check the video above.



Let me take a deep breath before I tell you this. Okay. I'm ready now. Bless Beats is working with the Lighthouse Family. Yes, it really has come to this. Expect the grime remix of "Lifted" featuring God's Gift imminently. (I'm not sure if you Yanks know exactly who the Lighthouse Family are, but you'll have to trust me that what I just said was very amusing and British people are now rolling around on the floor laughing uncontrollably).



I've kind of been neglecting my promise to keep you up-to-date on what's happening in the bassline scene, but you really haven't missed much. Above is a recent video by Bully Boyz for the songs "Back ov My T" and "Shut Up Star". According to the info on YouTube this is just a "typical night out" for the guys in the crew — standing around outside some houses with their hoods up and then dancing in a tiny club with a disco light that looks like it was borrowed from an 8-year-old girl's bedroom. Enjoy.

Finally, I've been listening to, among other things, the following mix by London DJ collective Heatwave as I prepare for a weekend of CS gas, dog fighting and watching women try to bottle each other on the last train out of West London*. Yes, you've guessed it - it's Notting Hill Carnival time. Wahey.

*If last year is anything to go by.

Download: Heatwave mix for Resonance FM
Tracklist:
Apple Gabriel - Heat Wave
Sway & Stush - F Ur X
Rubi Dan & DJ Q - Walk & Wine (The Heatwave Refix)
Lil Wayne & Kanye West - Lollipop (Remix)
Honorebel - Lollipop (Remix)
Sizzla - Request My Love
Sizzla - The Solution
Demarco - Sort Dem Out
Japanese & Rudeboy - No Pueden Con Scaredem
Mavado - Money Changer
The Maytones - Throw Down Your Arms
Laden - Do Yuh Thing
Sean Paul - Don't Tease Me
Assassin - Money
Sub Swara & Juakali - The Balance
Sharps & Major Trouble - Big Up Yr Punani

Dissident Records is one of the most talked about UK labels of the last year, its emergence synonymous with the rebirth of London’s underground disco scene. Yet despite putting out 12”s at the astonishing frequency of one a fortnight since its inception last July, Dissident has retained an envious aura of mystique. All its releases are strictly vinyl only, in editions of 200, and there is no online presence – not even a blog or a Myspace page. Message boards have been rife with speculation about the characters behind Dissident and its oddly-named artists like Invincible Scum and Binary Chaffinch. However, when genial label boss Andy Blake emails you to invite you round to his New Cross flat for a cup of liquorice tea and a chinwag about Dissident disco, it’s clear this isn’t a man who’s gone to Burial-style lengths to keep his true identity under wraps.

“We’re not trying to be mysterious or unapproachable,” explains Andy, sweeping aside a lock of his lustrous disco hair. “There’s an email address on the label of each record that you can see from space. We just want people to engage rather than consume.”

Andy has been DJing around London for 20 years, often in the second rooms of house or techno clubs, where he always noted that the stuff he played – wonky disco, classic house, electro and anything else with similar verve and spirit – often got a much more physical response than the linear, laptop sets going on in the main rooms. Andy was bemused. “A lot of those seminal Detroit records were full of rage and passion, they used to make people go crazy. Now dance music in big clubs acts as a pacifier.”

Andy had tried the label thing a couple of times before, with disillusioning results. But last year the climate seemed right for a new disco-oriented venture. Most of the first Dissident releases came from within Andy’s circle of dusty-fingered, analogue-obsessed mates – people like Ali Renault of Heartbreak, Ben aka Gatto Fritto, and Milo Smee, Chrome Hoof’s drummer, who records for Dissident under the Binary Chaffinch and Kruton aliases. Much of the Dissident output has actually been recorded in Andy’s home studio, which he’s gradually restocked with vintage analogue equipment after initially dumping it all when Logic first came out in 2000. Several of Dissident’s daft pseudonyms – Invincible Scum, SCS, Control Voltage – are just Andy and a mate jamming away up there in the label’s spirit of rapid-fire spontaneity. New Dissident acts that Andy is excited about are Photons, a youthful duo from Portugal, Naum Gabo featuring Jonnie Wilkes from Optimo, and Peach Melba, a happily indulgent collab between Andy and Dan Beaumont from Disco Bloodbath. Their first compilation on (whisper it) CD is out this month.

“Good shit to dance to,” Andy summarises, simply. “Something that sounds vibrant and original and puts a smile on people’s faces in a club or in a bar. If there is an ethos to Dissident, it’s about music that works communally.” Hence the dedication to the 12” single format. Dissident releases are malleable club tools, their context to be decided by the DJ.

“Our music’s all a bit ballsy and rough-arsed too,” adds Andy. “There’s a fiery nature to it. A lot of current productions, even a nu-disco record by someone like Prins Thomas, they can sound too perfect. Follow them with a weird old Italo-disco record when you’re DJing and suddenly the room will come alive. We’re trying to put a bit of that naivety and spontaneity into our records. We like them to be a little more… unshaven.”

I’m afraid there are no tracks to post, nor online mixes to link to; that’s just not how Dissident do things. However, if you would like to engage rather than consume, Andy encourages you to email him at dissident.distribution@gmail.com. You may even end up making a tune with him.

We imagine when Henrik Vibskov was a kid he took daily trips to remote islands where the wild things are, visited Mr. Ignanomous and his band of renegades or sailed along in a banana boat on a quest for a magical spear. The matured Vibskov retains some of that mystery still, bringing some wild imagery to the catwalk with amazing creations in eccentric prints and vivid story lines. So it's no wonder that he's conjured up a collection for Euro kids accessory line, Quinny, using strange penguin snow suits and rainbow-colored strollers with dangling knocktabobbles. While getting to the bottom of Vibskov's wondrous aesthetics we discovered a story about a young penguin boy that runs off to the forest to join a musical entourage of traveling bandits, a tale beautifully reenacted in the collection's campaign where small flipper-winged children wander the misty forest, and synchronized swimmers balance umbrellas on their tippy toes. Vibskov manages to capture the dark and exciting qualities of childhood not just in the line but in it's presentation, enough so that we're coveting pieces long before our firstborn are even mentally conceived.

GZA's been eating steadily as of late, thanks to an unexpected (though in no way undeserved) bubble of interest in his 1995 opus Liquid Swords. He's been trekking around performing that album in its entirety so much, we almost forgot dude released a new record yesterday! Which is a shame, because tucked away at the end of Pro Tools is this slice of vintage breakbeat Wu, where GZA and RZA spit back and forth over Gary Numan's "Movies" about duh, movies (at least on the second verse, the first half is pretty...abstract). Unfortunately it doesn't follow in the footsteps of "Labels" by using titles as lyrics - there's no "Norbit had Jungle Fever for The Believer" type rhyme action to be found, but "craft service got nervous" might be in the running for couplet of the year.


Download: GZA f. RZA, "Life Is A Movie"

Totally genius to post this on the same day Barack Obama text messages his VP to supporters. BARACK OBAMA IS LEAKING HIS VICE PRESIDENT TO THE INTERNET. So good. Also, Jeezy is going to email Jesus. (Produced by Tha Bizness. Via USDA2day)


Download: Young Jeezy f. Nas, "My President"

The Presets have decided to start off our day with a mix called Get Off The Beach, which is good advice if you live in Australia and people like to beat you up for being courageously stupid. But for those of us who live in the REAL WORLD, it feels like a taunt. Still, we can't scoff at free entertainment these days, so enjoy with us the first mix we've ever seen that blends Hanadensha with Public Enemy. Tracklist after the jump.

Download: Presets' Get Off The Beach Mix (email reg required)

Get Off The Beach Mix - August 2008
Roy Buchanan - A Fly By Night - Atlantic +
Hanadensha - Acoustic Mothership - Circle Sunshine Records
Public Enemy - Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
Von Südenfed - Dear Dead Friends
Sparks - Beat The Clock
African Suite - In The Pocket
Jamie Anderson & Jesse Rose - Jack Your Body (Body Jackin')
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (End Roll Version)
Toecutter - Terror Australis
Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots
Raymond Scott - Cindy Electronium
Ambivalent - R U Ok
Compuphonic & Kolombo - Passing Light
Tomita - Snowflakes Are Dancing - Children's corner , N°4
Chromatics - In The City
Pantha du Prince - Saturn Strobe
The Presets - Anywhere (Compuphonic & Kolombo Remix)
Cornelius - Scum
Jim O'Rourke - Something Big

For anyone who thought TV On The Radio was going to stay the course on their third proper album, crank out some soaring offbeat space jams and ride the money train to the penthouse of the grandest loft in Brooklyn, you got another thing coming. Dear Science, is a definite change in direction (we'll have more on that later) as evidenced by this new song streaming now on their website. "Golden Age" is clean, brassy, symphonic and, in a world that does not exist, radio-friendly. It is also, as they say, "funky." We're actually more excited to hear these new songs live than on radio, though, and we will all have our chance when TVOTR hit the road covering all of these United States and a few select Euro spots in September and beyond.

Stream: TV On The Radio, "Golden Age"