Our Finnish friends and Sound Pellegrino members Renaissance Man have just wrapped this exclusive mix for Sixpack France, making it the third installment in a quite irregular series of musical projects, initiated in 1998 with Feadz' Stagnation Reversed mixtapes, followed by Orgasmic & Tekitek's Sixpack Anthem EP a couple of months ago.
Stream or download this hour of sparse and less sparse house, including a couple of exclusives and special edits by the boys themselves.
This mix will be soon paired with the super limited release of a tee shirt designed by Finland studio Kokoro et moi (also responsible for Renaissance Man's logo and identity), and honestly I'm just posting this with the hope that Lionel will send me one... Medium s'il te plaît...
Victor is that Mexican kid from San Diego who pushes you to drink mad bottles of malt liquor when you're all jet lagged, and who's bouncing around like a jumping bean at absurd hours of the night and when the party's over and you just filled your stomach with the most awesome peanut butter chocolate milkshake ever he keeps cracking mad jokes and shouting "FA SHO! FA SHO!". And even once you're back in your hotel room all tired and checking your mail he's still on ichat learning how to say "kikoo" and tricking you every night into watching the same video of that car-stealing 5 year old kid from youtube. Then eventually you find out he makes music under the name HARVARD BASS and that it's the most banging mariachitech house music ever created by men so you ask him to remix The Sixpack Anthem and to put his next record out on Sound Pellegrino, it's as simple as that.
If you have ever owned an Institubes tee shirt, you know about SIXPACK. If not, allow me a moment to try to conceal my disappointment.
Sixpack (.fr) is a tee shirt label based in the south of France issuing two collections every year with designs by the world greatest illustrators including friends like Akroe, Gaspirator, Ill Studio, KRSN, So Me, personal favourites such as La Boca, Noah Butkus, Steven Harrington, Parra, Huskmitnavn and many others. The upcoming collection includes great surprises and artworks from bona fide legends whose illustrous names (I’m not bluffing, you have no idea how big this is) I can’t disclose right now. They also manufacture our official tee shirts (glow-in-the-dark logo, Surkin tee, Para One tee...) since day one.
Akroe (he did our logo and all the designs of Institubes’ early years, in case you haven’t read this) did a whole collection featuring tees, sweaters and jackets called THE FUTURE, and ORGASMIC did a beat, Teki wrote some lyrics about his clothing obsessions and BOOM! there you go: an anthem.
(this is Orgasmic wearing a sweater from the Future collection and some naked chick as shoulder padding)
You see, when labels such as Sixpack and Institubes are so close, them doing something together can’t be called a collaboration: it’s a child. And a spoiled one at that.
(Orgasmic again, with the naked chick acting this time as a safety belt)
There are three versions on the EP.
The original song, by TEKITEK (aka Teki Latex from TTC).
The Harvard Bass remix (more on that one later this week). Orgasmic’s Lay Low remix feat. E.Mackey.
The latter is the one we’re sharing with you today.
Edwin Mackey is a vibe singer, producer and clothing designer hailing from Tallahassee, FL. He describes his own Pop-Hop style as “some Pop music with Southern Rap drum patterns and Miami Bass”. We say long live Pop-Hop.
Gaspirator, born Gaspard Augé, is responsible for all of Surkin’s artworks, giving the young boy his own retro gaming-inspired series of sleeves. He’s the tyrannical CEO of the one-Man-and-one-Mac studio AirBrush Counterfeit.
Gaspirator draws inspiration from the works of Doug Johnson, Hajime Sorayama, Heinz Edelmann, sound library record covers, heavy metal imagery, and 1960’s to early 1980’s pop culture.
His first collaboration with the label was the graphical rehaul for the re-release of the twin singles “GHETTO OBSESSION” and “RADIO FIREWORKS” in 2006. It was also our first departure from the Akroe template.
Then came the heavy metal logo for the Japan-only mini album “ACTION REPLAY” plus its cotton companion, and the “FIREWORKS REFIRED” remix ep.
As a token of his eternal gratitude, Surkin gives him some over-zealous tooth brushing lessons at any time of the day.
(the Def Leppard fan on the right of the picture is Surkin’s own beloved grandfather Vincent, also a true inspiration for female dental hygiene enthousiasts all over the globe)
More recently, Gaspirator has done several collaborations with tee shirt label SIXPACK.
He has also drawn the White Knight’s helmet against a dazzling kaleidoscopic backdrop of the World’s most complex chrome-plated Rubik’s Cube for Surkin’s “NEXT OF KIN”EP, first released on vinyl in a limited silver foil sleeve.
Gaspard is currently enjoying an awesome life as the (truly) mustachioed half of Justice.
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