In June 2009, I gave away a free mixtape to new subscribers of FBi Radio during my ‘Disorient’ show. The mixtape, titled ‘Disorientation Session’, features a few tracks that you can find on the first two Discontent mixtapes (Mixtape One and Two), with additions from various artists that appeared regularly on the show’s playlists, or as earlier single posts on the Discontent blog. As an aggregator of the sounds found on the (somewhat short-lived) Disorient radio show, this will more than likely remain the only existing audio document.

I’m particularly fond of this mixtape as its sensibility stretches back to the earlier days of the Fat Planet radio show – a focus on more innovative and often experimental music from around the world, before the beats and bass kicked in.  I particularly like the way that Salem’s screwed, slow-core can nestle near Villa Diamante’s warped take on South American cumbia and AGF’s truly distressing cover version of Rhianna’s ‘Disturbia’.  An eclectic and surprising session, I hope you agree.

DOWNLOAD: Disorientation Session: Disorient’s Mixtape For FBi (105MB)

1. Dalt Wisney – Sci-Fi Dot Fiends [Pakistan] 2:03
2. The Craters – Samba Party [U.S.] 2:40
3. Ghoul – Fuck Math [Australia] 1:54
4. Salem – Brustreet [U.S.] 5:02
5. 7VWWVW – Mammal Theme [Scotland] 5:55
6. Villa Diamante – Tonolec vs Kromestar [Argentina] 2:56
7. Berrettaz – Pense A [Côte d'Ivoire] 2:44
8. AGF aka Antye Greie – Disturbia [Germany] 4:07
9. Filastine – B’talla (feat. Rabah) [U.S.] 3:10
10. I Buried Paul – Favola [Brazil] 3:17
11. Fletcher – Dreadlox Dub [South Africa] 6:17
12. The Peronists – Cumbia Maligna [Argentina] 3:39
13. Atomhead – Unsuspecting Broken Receiver [Belgium] 2:09
14. Growing – Green Flag [U.S.] 6:16
15. Sleepmakeswaves – Exits To Nowhere [Australia] 3:41
16. Rothis Bournias – Last Days Part Two [Greece] 7:07
17. Inverness – Bats [Brazil] 3:13
18. Flica – Mid [Malaysia] 4:53

Note: All music on the mixtape is licenced via Creative Commons or has otherwise been made freely available by relevant artists & labels. If you like what you hear, please support the artists -visit their site, buy their music.

Cover image by Irving Liaw (under CC Licence).

Even back when she was flogging her ‘Pon De Replay’ schtick, I always suspected that Rhianna was hardcore – that at any moment, she would squint her eyes, furrow her brow and come on over and kick the living shit out of you. I think my assessment still stands, or at least it did until I heard AGF’s cover of Rhianna’s ‘Distubia’.

AGF, aka East German poet, artist, musician and vocalist Antye Greie has an illustrious ten-year career behind her, with a phenomenal quantity of output, including work with her partner Vladislav Delay, Ellen Allien and Monika’s Gudrun Gut. Her work revolves around deconstruction / reconstruction, blending ‘real world’ (via poetry, spoken word and installative art) and the digital world together, until such times as the component parts are often virtually unrecognisable. Her poemproducer.com site represents a growing archive of work, including a generous volume of audio downloads.

AGF has always been a fascinating and uncompromising electronic provocateur, yet here she takes Rhianna’s original and crushes it relentlessly into fine shards of glass – and when that feels about done, she picks up her mallet and grinds that down further still, until we’re left with nothing but sand. Thrashing Rhianna’s lyrics through a psychotic blender, then submerged under a layer of digital distortion, AGF tweaks: ‘Am I scaring you tonight?’. Fuck yeah.

AGF – Distubria | mp3

img | mass distraction