Born in Chicago as the faster (and weirder) cousin of juke, footwork music is going global with help from a new compilation dropping this week on Planet Mu, the label run by µ-Ziq frontdude and British dance-music visionary Mike Paradinas. Bangs & Works Vol. 1 features a whopping 25 tracks from a host of local producers, including established acts like DJ Spinn and Traxman and newcomers Tha Pope and DJ Lil Rome. The comp has the feel of a defining moment for the genre, and it includes liner notes from local footwork enthusiast and blogger Dave Quam, who’s been on the scene for years.
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Hard-pressed to find a gift for a music-nerd friend who only harks to the most underground, elusive, and exclusive sounds? Antiopic, the microlabel of local guitarist David Daniell, is having an online sale through the end of the year. The many discounted goodies available via antiopic.com/shop include Vladislav Delay‘s pretechno work as Conoco, MINIT‘s CC/BB—described as “deep-filter reverberant explosion-emanence” [sic]—and an album of recordings of satellites made by Dutch “intermedia” artist Joyce Hinterding using special antennae. “Special antennae,” sadly, is not a euphemism.
Though two years elapsed between their first gig and their recent second one, all-star-ish local cover band Freddie Freeballer & The Breeze are already planning their third. The band comprises Elia Einhorn and Jay Santana (Scotland Yard Gospel Choir), Canasta‘s Matt Priest, Spoony Bards bad boy Dave Kitsberg, ol’ Jesse Alexander (Cobalt & the Hired Guns, Homoticons), and solo artist Aaron Ackerson. Their show last month at Schubas, part of Cynthia Plaster Caster‘s fund-raiser for her mayoral run, featured the Freeballer-Breeze take on 90s shoegaze, grunge, and hip-hop; according to Einhorn the group next plans to tackle 2000 and beyond. Gossip Wolf hopes a rousing version of Black Rob’s “Whoa!” finds its way onto the Freeballer set list.
