Oscar Atanga Selects

Sound artist, curator, and selector Oscar Atanga has delivered a selection of tunes to set the mood for Oona Bar summer hangout this weekend at Weserstraße. On Friday, he will share the decks with Richard Akingbehin for two hours of deep and dubby tracks.

"These selections include music that I’ve played in other mixes whether that be at gigs, on my Refuge show Frequency Shift (previously Sequences) or on my most recent Breakfast Shows. I’m in love with a lot of different styles of music but I’m especially drawn to very textural and emotional music. There’s plenty of that here and I think you can feel the emotion even when there are no lyrics…sometimes even more so as you have your imagination to draw from instead and the connection from your own personal experiences. I hope so anyway! This playlist feels deep and dubby, perfect for easing yourself into a summer’s day with some percussive peaks towards the end for an energy lift. I’ve included YouTube links for ease but all of the music is available on Bandcamp so listeners can support the artists directly."

Suzi Analogue - Watch Me Jump (AXIS version) (Disciples)

Suzi Analogue is a really talented artist. She’s a composer, producer and music educator based in the United States. Recently she released a collection of music called ONEZ which includes some music of hers that you could have heard over the last couple of years plus some new material. It’s a really sonically diverse mixtape that showcases the range of her sound and honestly, I’ve been listening to it and playing it so much that I could choose any number of tracks from it. I very nearly went for CHANGGGED which I played minimum 100 times so far since it was released but I wanted a calmer, spacier start to this playlist. Watch Me Jump is a track I’ve gone back to many times, most recently in the early part of the most recent set I played with Alia (aka Alias Error) for our Modalities project. I think it also features in the first on air b2b I played with Richard Akingbehin. Trippy, full of synthy textures and layers of field recordings.

Black Decelerant - two (RVNG Intl.)

The Black Decelerant album was recently released on RVNG Intl. It’s a new collaborative project from Khari Lucas aka Contour and Omari Jazz. Briefly, I’d describe this music as feeling spiritual, expansive and elevating. Khari described it himself as “an exploration of being/nonbeing, a wondering in the concept of “rest” and how it’s defined…”. Sometimes it’s better to allow yourself to emotionally and physically connect with the music beyond any biographical detail or cerebral analysis. Ideally I’d recommend just allowing yourself to connect with this one emotionally and physically. Still very trippy to me but calmly so. Press play at the first sight or feeling of sunshine to start the day right.

Paul St Hilaire & René Löwe - Faith (Vox Mix) (Kynant Records)

Another one I’ve played a lot since release. This actually came out originally in 2003 or so but was recently re-released by Kynant Records. This reminds me of the importance of re-releases because for me, and I’m sure many other people, it was the first time hearing this and I’m very grateful for the introduction. I love dub music and dub influenced music (when it’s good to me!) and I’ve been on a particularly big Tikiman deep dive since the release of Tikiman Vol.1 on Kynant Records last year. The last time I played this was actually just last week on the beach at Plotzensee for Fandango and it was a really beautiful point in the set. This one is perfect for outdoors any time from sunrise until sunset. Full of warm, hazy tones and of course Tikiman’s unique voice floating over and between it all, “You’ve got to let your love show…got to let your light glow”.

Alberto Malo & Infinite Livez - The Underdog, Four (TORO RECORDS)

This track is a recent discovery for me. I went to the second edition of Black Communion which is an event series of live performances put together by Eiliyas who has the Mixtape Menage show on Refuge. Each edition of Black Communion brings together musicians for two nights of performances. On the first night the musicians perform separately and then on the second night collaboratively. I was really blown away by the collaborative performance from Leila Bencharnia, Dudu Kouate and Infinite Livez. In particular I’d never seen or heard anybody playing like Leila and Dudu. Very special stuff! Better to experience than describe. Infinite Livez combined some of the most natural freestyling I’ve heard with really dubby, other worldly electronics. I continued digging after the show and I came across this track by Alberto Malo & Infinite Livez which showcases the lyrical and vocal aspect of Infinite Livez’ music. The track is around 12 minutes long and uses that time to take you through numerous interesting twists, turns and changes without losing it’s groove or flow. This is running through my headphones a lot as I cycle around the city.

Zadeh - Koobideh (Dub) (Psssh Records)

Ending the playlist with a percussive energiser. This is another recent release, this time from Zadeh on Psssh Records which is run by Dauwd from African Acid Is The Future. I’m imagining you listening to this when you’re well into your day. Maybe you need some energy to get the last few things done or even better you’re finally done with life and work tasks for the day and now you’re spending time with some close ones. I love a track like this where the sound design is deep but subtle and what really propels it are the drums and percussion. I think people will play it all year round and beyond but something about it gives me a particularly summery vibe. Sonically and energetically it just feels hot and sweaty to me in the best possible way. Enjoy!

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Tune in or join us on Weserstraße for Oscar's next show on Friday 28th!