Futurism Restated Mixes Digest #6: Island Delights and Tropical Nights

12 sets, including a pair of marathon ’80s club mixes, an ambient tour of ECM, and more

Welcome to issue no. 6 of Futurism Restated’s Mixes Digest, the newsletter spinoff of my long-running Pitchfork column. In this issue we’ve got 10 incredible sets from all over the map, for dancing and chilling alike.

Summer is in the air. Well, actually, here on Menorca, clouds of Saharan dust are in the air, which is lending a surreal, yellow-orange tint to the light. It’s not, admittedly, as bad as it was a week or two ago, when it rained, splattering everything in reddish muddy raindrops. Having subsequently devoted a couple of hours to cleaning the patio and the car—and you should see the lines at the carwash around here when it rains mud—I’m hoping we avoid that scenario this time.

But things are heating up, and this week’s featured sets—12 of them!—bring the vibe to match. We’ve got:

• A pair of sets totaling nearly 15 hours—yes, I’m serious—traversing the back catalog of a legendary label that mixed up funk, hip-hop, dub, and more, and without whom ’80s club styles simply wouldn’t have been the same; if you were looking for a BBQ/backyard party soundtrack for the season, or, indeed, for the upcoming July 4 holiday, look no further

• A cool two hours traversing the ambient side of ECM—call it ECMbient—that’ll go down nicely outdoors with a glass of chilled natural wine and the buzz of the backyard cicadas

• A Miami DJ’s percussive study of the mechanics of the groove

• A mmmmeditative mmmmissive from one of the mmmmost emmmmpathic dreammmmweavers out there

• …and much more!

This one’s a bonus post for paying subscribers, to thank you for your generous support of the newsletter. If that’s you, don’t forget that the exclusive playlists were updated earlier this week and are now at 29+ hours and counting. And if that’s not you… well, perhaps today’s the day you join the club?