Waifs & Strays’ ‘Body Shiver’ was the rousing, strident, electro-tinged house cut that really set Jamie Jones’ fabric mix alight last year. Amos Nelson and Rich Beanland’s bold bass notes and warm, late night neon tones also came on Hot Creations in 2011, and were imbued with some sharp sampling that really set them apart from the crowd.  As DJs they run a gamut of styles and are soon to head to this shores for the first time. As such, we caught up with the Bristol duo to talk about their oft-referenced hometown, house music, touring and more…

Almost from nowhere did New Jersey duo Baba Ali and Jules Born AKA Voices of Black appear with a debut album on Wolf & Lamb earlier this year.  Rather than just another collection of house toons, though, it was a cerebral concept album of sorts, and one which aimed to sartorially poke-fun at the vacuous world of fashion.  Haughty designs for sure, but it worked, and was followed up by a sun kissed disco effort for sister label Double Standard… not bad for a duo who started out making hip-hop before it got “boring.”

Despite only being in the (very) early 20s, the erudite pair are back in November with a new and lengthy EP which features the vocal talents of Rap Lisa and marks something of a new direction.  As such we sat them down to talk socio-politics, to laugh at the art world and to ask them about their ‘proper songs’….

Hopefully you tuned into Barem’s podcast for us last week. It showed a progression in the man’s sound which was also showcased on his latest album back in June. As such we thought we’d pin him down to get some details about that, the post-minimal years, his association with Minus and much more…

How has your year been so far? What has got you most excited (musically or otherwise…)

It has been great so far, lots of work and almost no time off but accomplished a lot of goals I had for some years. The album was a big step forward and what gets me the most excited about it is that I could finally summarize everything I've done through these past 6 years in a full length LP. Every time I listen to it I get the feeling of a work well done, technically, emotionally and artistically. Other than that, I'm very happy that I took many things that were on the pipe for some time and did them all together. Feels good to find all the energy and motivation to do a lot at once.