Here’s the last installment of Midnight Radio for 2024, and thank you for tuning in throughout the past six months—and for the encouraging notes and special requests that have made this such a nice ritual for me.
Next year, we’ll explore matte black drones, extraterrestrial hauntings, and new frontiers in reverb. We’ll make a few more trips to the Death Prom, and we might even drill into the bones of the sacred. But as this exhausting year comes to a merciful end, we’ve earned a little fun.
Here are five joyous songs that I initially selected because they make me smile whenever I hear them. Upon reflection, I realized three of these tracks are thirty years old, and the other two are pushing twenty-five. So these are nostalgic songs, and I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting them. Or better yet, having a first encounter.
- Mike Dunn - God Made Me Phunky
MD-Express, 1994
Possibly the most righteous loop ever made: built from a piano that burrows its way into your soul and makes a very nice home for Mike Dunn to sound like the coolest earthling to spend time on this planet. Back in 1996, I was living in a sketchy flat and inviting god only knew inside as long as they had gin or drugs. One night, this older guy went out to his car and returned with a 12” in a black sleeve with a serif O on the label. “You need this,” he said. Later, somebody told me that guy was 3070, the other half of Cybotron, the godhead of Detroit electro. But those were fever-dream nights, and I have no idea what’s true. Thirty years later, this track still stands, and I’m grateful I’m still standing too, sober and sane and finally able to properly commune with the moment when Mike Dunn purrs, “Well alright, you squares…” - SoleTech - Sole Waves
Detrechno, 1994 | More
This track is both ridiculous and also the best-ever use of a Kraftwerk sample. In the summer of ’94, “chuck chuck” earwormed everyone in the metropolitan Detroit area and improbably became the most requested song on the radio for a few weeks, which might be the easiest way to explain to someone why Detroit is a very special place. It also prepared me for my encounters with the Electrifying Mojo, Deep Space Radio, and Basic Channel. - Detroit Grand Pubahs - If Snow Was Black
Intuit Solar, 1999
One of the most underrated songs I know, this track sounds like the steam that billows from Detroit’s streets on a subzero January night, and Paris the Black Fu’s voice will live in your head all winter if you’re lucky: If snow was black, I’d wear black shades and drive a black car. I’d smoke black cigarettes and hide in the shadows… - Quarks - I Walk (Superpitcher Schaffel Mix)
Kompakt, 2002 | More
Although this song is from Cologne, the memory is firmly New York. My friends and I had a record label, where we managed to lose money on every release because we decided to silkscreen the 12” sleeves by hand. We were in our early twenties, logging time at Other Music, Kim’s, Tonic, and the Bunker—and music-wise, Komapkt reigned supreme. We didn’t try to emulate their sound, but they reminded us that electronic music could be monumental and fun, and this is a lesson I still carry into my writing and other personal pursuits: I’d better be having a good time because I’m sure as hell not doing it for the money. - Basic Channel - Phylyps Trak II
Chain Reaction, 1994 | More
The high hat is the skeleton, but the body never sits still. This song was my first techno encounter, and it reprogrammed my sense of the world. In January of ’95, I snuck out alone to St. Andrew’s Hall to check out a hip-hop show I’ve long since forgotten. But I remember the militant thump thump that drew me upstairs to the dark third floor with windows that overlooked the city. I’d never seen humanity like this: club kids in overalls, drag queens in chartreuse wigs, a man in a three-piece suit, all lock-stepping in a perfect grid, their heads bowed before the bassbin like an altar, which I suppose it was.
I did not attempt to mix these songs properly because 1) they’re such a deeply grooved part of my personality that warping their tempo feels sacrilegious, and 2) I’ve seen too many brilliant DJs juggle these records into the sublime over the years. Aux 88. Daniel Bell. Michael Mayer. Mike Servito. Paris and Billeebob with like nine turntables. So I’ve stitched them together using my heavily-reverberated tactics, along with a sprinkling of Nancy Sinatra, the Paris Sisters, Ricky Nelson, and a brief appearance from Green Velvet.
Although I don’t party, I’ve been taking this mixtape for ugly winter runs in the Middle West, and it’s a pretty good time.
Listen below, or download a festive MP3. If you prefer to celebrate with Spotify, I’m afraid there’s no playlist for this episode because half the songs aren’t available due to licensing or algorithmic fuckery, so now’s your chance to give yourself the gift of an MP3 you don’t need to rent, then spend that money on Bandcamp.
Spend it on Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee, my favorite album of the year. It’s a fuzzed-out AM radio haunting that sounds like something half-remembered from the twentieth century. (I’ll post my other favorite records from 2024 on my website ’round New Year’s Eve if you’d like to know these things.)
Thank you again for listening, and the request lines are open.
Midnight Radio 12 | Download
