Fact Mix 835: Disco Ma Non Troppo

Disco Ma Non Troppo chase lysergic sounds across a dizzying expanse of genres, tempos and moods.

Disco Ma Non Troppo was the name of a series of clandestine, suspiciously well-attended parties that took place in various basements between 2016 and 2018, so-called to reflect the prevailing musical interests of their audience and the night’s four founders: disco, but not too much. Pursuing an omnivorous, communal appetite for the obscure, the lairy, the sexy and the strange, the crew were committed to chasing a mysterious sound across genre, tempo and mood – impossible to describe, but unmistakable once heard. Though the parties have been on a temporary hiatus, nowadays the four-piece channel their shadowy energies into a monthly radio show on 1020.live, a cult YouTube channel and their own sporadic mix series, Deep Bath. For their Fact mix, Disco Ma Non Troppo step out of the shadows only to drag us down into the lysergic, subterranean realm they are compelled to explore.

“The mix is an attempt to marry our current listening habits and the slightly chaotic approach to DJing we employed at the parties we used to run and plan to resurrect soon,” they say. “We’re also available for bookings at children’s birthdays, gender reveal parties, dogs’ funerals, etc. Even though the genres we play are a bit all over the place, there’s a kind of psychedelic spine to the mix that makes it feel coherent to us, despite the breakneck pace changes. We had a lot of fun putting this together (including some friendly head-knocking over track selection) and hope that energy translates into the mix.” Thoroughly breaking open our heads with the cannibal erotica of psychopath murder ballad ‘Bloodsucker’ from 48 Cameras, the esoteric assemblage project of self-proclaimed “non-musician”, poet and social worker Jean-Marie Mathoul, it’s clear that Disco Ma Non Troppo have spent time in some pretty out-there places during the last few years.

Chugging through the skittering concrète of essential electroacoustic composer Ivo Malec, horrorshow hip hop from ’90s illbient legend Spectre, and the vampirically sexy instrumental from Massive Attack and Mos Def’s ‘I Against I’, perhaps the most memorable cut from the Blade II OST, the acid-dipped 2021 update of John T. Gast’s ‘kings x’ (sister_marion_version2021) signals a plunge into even deeper and colder zones. An excerpt from the stunning score to ‘Anti-Clock’, a forgotten British “puzzle picture” from artists Jane Arden and Jack Bond, oozes into the skunk smoke humidity of Shackleton’s ‘Mountains of Ashes’. The post-punk squirm of The Invisible College’s ‘Between Wars’ trips over itself into the pioneering squat rave techno of Jan Duivenvoorden and Curley Schoop.

Reaching terminal velocity with a lethal sequence of depth charge breakbeat from Hamilton Scalpel, vintage, vicious grime from Crazy Titch and the schizophrenic intensity of Georgia’s ‘Walking Around Soho’, Thoom’s vocals break the spell, dragging us out of the k-hole and into the place to which Disco Ma Non Troppo were leading us all along. The third and final section of this variegated trip, which begins with legendary experimenter Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson’s computer-generated choral project The Threshold HouseBoys Choir and ends with the shredded, four chord invective of beleaguered Manchester punks God’s Gift, sees the four selectors letting loose in spectacular fashion, each pouring their respective energies into a thoroughly crooked dance party. Take us back to the basement.

You can find Disco Ma Non Troppo on YouTube, SoundCloud and every month on 1020.live.

Tracklist:

48 Cameras – ‘Bloodsucker’
Ivo Malec – ‘Spot’
The Spacewürm – ‘Spacegerm’
Spectre – ‘Pillars of Smoke (Return to the Temple)’ [Feat. Sensational]
Massive Attack And Mos Def – ‘I Against I’ (Instrumental)
AIR LQD – ‘

قتل عربي’
John T. Gast – ‘kings x (sister_marion_version2021)’
T.U.M.S.A. – ‘Nezinu’
Jane Arden and Jack Bond – ‘Mindless ‘(Anti-Clock OST)
Shackleton – ‘Mountains of Ashes’
The Invisible College – ‘Between Wars’
Jan & Curley – ‘Part 2’
Aasthma – ‘Los Angeles’
Hamilton Scalpel – ‘Cadzow Skrak’
Crazy Titch – ‘Icee Mountain Vocal’
Platinum 45 – ‘Lava Riddim’
Georgia – ‘Walking Around Soho’
Thoom – ‘Kitabi’
The Threshold HouseBoys Choir – ‘So Young It Knows No Maturing’
Ann Southam – ‘Boat, Moon, River (Edit)’
Belan – ‘Belan 1’
Passarani – ‘Reut-Rc’
Toastyboy – ‘Distant Minds’
DJ Abstract – ‘Identity Crisis’
Heuristic Audio – ‘Wisla’
Clan of Xymox – ‘Stranger (Demo)’
Шесть Мёртвых Болгар – ‘10000 / 200 / 20 / 2’
God’s Gift – ‘Discipline’