Episode 48: Freerange

For our 48th Episode of LAVALAVA, residents Barrientos and DVRS took a look closer to home for a label focus on the hugely influential Freerange Records. Founded in 1996 by Jamie Odell (better known as Jimpster) and childhood friend Tom Roberts, Freerange originally explored a combination of electronica, jazz, funk and house but has now turned into a world-renowned outlet for some of the biggest house and techno cuts. The Residents started the focus on the sounds of the early days of the label with tracks from Audiomontage and Trevor Loveys before moving into the label’s modern, rich tech-laced sounds from producers like Dixon, Pezzner and Solid Groove.

The Residents Mix had a big helping of fresh music courtesy of some solid gold promos sent through from Vision Collective, Anjunadeep, Wind Horse & Pias.  Starting off smooth as ever with one of India’s very own producers leading the way in their up-and-coming house scene, Hamza, the boys moved things up a gear with new tracks from &ME, Simian Mobile Disco and Bryan Kessler before dropping the massive remix of Bugatti by Amine Edge.  Of course, the best was saved till last with some lovely exclusives from Burnski, QuestiomarQ and the brand new Gorgon City remix from resident Barrientos’ collab with fellow Glaswegian Illyus.

The LAVALAVA Top 5 was dominated by sounds that were a bit different from the usual, especially the new track from Ephemerals on Jalapeno records.  Following up from their soul-infused cut was some more mellow and smooth tracks from Klaves, Glenn Astro, Leon Vynehall and the one and only Bonobo.  Topping the chart for this week however was the dynamite new sound from the on-form Kry Wolf forthcoming on, our favourite, MadTech records.