Dollar Bin Jams Mix Series: Relative Q

Relative Q (aka Martin Van Buren, government name Paul Zyla) is a pretty slept on phenomenon, mostly due to geographical inconvenience. He has a number of excellent releases on One Records including the Mogwai-esque Small Craft Excercise Caution and the instrumental LP Beauty and Her Broken Things. Living in Pittsburgh via West Virginia, Paul's primary pre-occupation is house music, but he also dabbles in rap and disco. He has recently gotten over being broke.

I asked Paul to throw together a mix of some Dollar Bin Jams for us, and less than 12 hours later it was sitting in my Inbox. You can download the mix here:

Relative Q- Dollar Bin Jams Mix (direct link)

And here's what he had to say about each track:

I mixed this live while pretty highly caffeinated on my unbelievably shitty mixer (crossfader doesn't even work), so the mixing isn't the smoothest, but this blog is about the tracks, right?

1.) Barabbas - Woman: This track is a disco classic, and since I was planning to play so much weird shit for the rest of the tape, I thought I'd start off with something a little more normal. Also, if anyone wants to donate a 12" copy of this to me, I'd really appreciate it. Disco 45s suck.

2.) S.S.O. - Won't You Try: I love gender-confused cover tunes. I picked this record up because the a-side was a medley of James Brown joints, which turned out to be awful. Glad I decided to flip it over before I put it back.

3.) Platypus - Street Babies: This track has a really solid groove, and I'm a complete sucker for synth bass with live drums.

4.) George McRae - Can't You Feel My Love: Could we get a bit more reverb on the vocals here? I thought so.

5.) Gary's Gang - Knock Me Out: I think this is a really catchy tune, and it's the only disco record I own with an acapella on it. I should probably remix it.

6.) Chrome - Fly On UFO: When I found this record, I put it on in the shop and was almost speechless at how bizarre it is. It's not really anything I could ever play in a club, but I had to own it. Any record that combines misanthropy and aliens is a keeper, as far as I'm concerned.

7.) Giorgio and Chris - Burning the Midnight Oil: Moroder and vocoders. Sayin'. The cover of this record is heinous, too.

8.) 69 Boyz - Tootsie Roll (Quiet Storm Club Mix): Apt One handed me this record when we were digging one day saying I should probably buy it. It's probably the most played record in my collection.

9.) Opus Ten - Love's Calling: This shit sounds like Weather Channel electro.

10.) Orbit - The Beat Goes On (Lunar Mix): Refer to Skinny's writeup about this record. This is the remix he didn't post.

11.) Eve Electro - Take a Bite: Another cheap electro record. I think the half assed "eastern" melody lick is supposed to have something to do with snakes.

12.) Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt: This is a classic.

13.) Alexander Robotnick - Problemes d'Amour: The 303 bassline in this track is pretty serious. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it came out in 1984.

14.) Coldcut - People Hold On (NYC Club Mix): I don't really have anything to say about this track other than Coldcut is dope.

15.) Electric Moog Orchestra - The Cantina Band: If you don't understand why I like this record, there's probably no hope for you.

Relative Q will be making some appearances on the East Coast in December- we'll make sure to keep you posted!

Relative Q webspace