A thoughtful, deeply personal set by guest DJ Jon Hicks. This set brings together many of his multifaceted influences that shaped not only his musical taste, but who he is as a wonderful human being. Since we enjoyed talking about each track he played so much, Jon was asked to add some commentary about what each track meant to him, a moment it evokes, etc. Enjoy.

Tracklist:

Topāzu played:

Psychic TV / Infinite Beat

Space Opera / Mandate My Ass

Sumerian Fleet / On To You

In Aeternam Vale / Calling Somewhere

Jon Hicks played (with commentary):

John Carpenter / Main Theme From Assault on Precinct 13 / Death Waltz

“First John Carpenter movie I ever saw, on late night tv in the mid-eighties. Slow burn of blood red credits with this theme dirging along in the background — still hooked thirty years later. Infected with a life long obsession with synth basslines as a consequence.”

Believer/Law / Ashes / Chondritic Sound

“They’ve already gone to ground, as I understand it – these guys played a series of super intense shows in nyc in 2012 and put out a few tapes before burning out. This record compiles most of their recorded work and for me reminds me of that nervous excitement that came from finding something on a blown out mix tape or VHS and knowing it was exactly what you needed but not knowing shit about it.”

16-Bit / Where Are You? / Ariola

“Back when i lived on the East Coast we’d put this on at house parties all the time. It was on a compilation of I think Razormaid mixes that my roommate had on cd from the early nineties – mordantly silly but it really works and I think prefaces a lot of the religious firebreathing satire that Wax Trax was putting out years later.

Cetu Javu / Por Favor / Deme

“Totally hidden gem b side that I first heard on a bootleg compilation that I bought to get a ministry song on vinyl. I associate this vein of synthpop (the plaintive Depeche Mode school) with hiding in the middle of those circular clothing racks at department stores while my mom was sweater hunting.”

Nine Inch Nails / Get Down Make Love / TVT

“Early tween crush. Headbangers ball showing the Wish video and working backwards. Trent’s sincere love of the source material shines through and keeps this from feeling like a generic spooky rework.”

Ministry / Over the Shoulder / Sire

“Not having a giant allowance or any cool older friends, I had to read liner notes really carefully. Down in it was my favorite song on Pretty Hate Machine and it was produced by some guy named Adrian Sherwood – I got Twitch because it had his name in block caps on the back cover.

Einstürzende Neubauten – Yu Gung / Some Bizarre

“My very first Neubauten song! Still hunting after Adrian Sherwood and at this point I think I saw their name crossed with his in a magazine, maybe Alternative Press? I had to hide the record under my bed because the logo really scared me.

Vanligt Folk – Rasseboogie / Progress Productions

“Super intimidating to me because everything of substance about these guys is only in Swedish. Their sound is great, though – big heavy tribal drumming and snotty vocals howling to and fro. something I stumbled on thanks to youtube which would have never been available to me without the internet.

Das Ich – Unschuld Erde / Danse Macabre

“Big big big part of my late high school early college years, which I found out on some gothic mp3 of the week site in russia in like 1996? These guys were/are the real deal – they live in an honest-to-god castle and dress in great big velvet outfits and walk around by torchlight! The synth horns haven’t aged as gracefully as some of the more stripped down songs in this mix but the songwriting is tight. Big hooks and shout-along choruses. I would love to find an excuse to play this in a club.

Tommi Stumpff / Der Letzte Idiot / Mental Decay

“I found some badly labeled Tommi tracks on Audiogalaxy in 2001 and spent the next three or four years trying to hunt down anything I could. This is what the screamers would’ve sounded like if they ever made it into a real.”

André Szigethy / Liebe Banal / Viper

“One of those staggeringly expensive records that I would have never encountered if not for blogs like Mutant Sounds and 20 Jazz Funk Greats that started cropping up in the mid-aughts. Bless them and the labels reissuing all this stuff! Without them I think I would’ve bowed out of music in a significant way during the bush years.”

Forces / Overland (In My Mind) / Siberia

“Australia, Melbourne in particular, has been the source of so much music that I love that I felt like I had to find a way to pay some tribute back in this mix. These guys have a hand in production or engineering on lots of my favorite records, but took the time out a few years ago to put out this twelve inch on their own that used to be my secret club weapon. Impossible to resist. I’m putting it on right now, in fact.”

Front Line Assembly / Big Guns / Third Mind

“My favorite band for a long long time. I think I first heard FLA at a DOOM LAN party in 95? A lot of my musical growth basically comes from reading the liner notes to Millenium, where Bill and Rhys helpfully included a shout out section to a million things I had never heard of…

Portion Control / Refugee / Illuminated

“..which nicely segues to the band that stole their spot as my favorite. There was almost nothing on Portion Control anywhere for a really really long time, just a CD reissue that sounded bad and was released in a vanishingly small number in 1994 before you could buy things on the internet. By the time I heard this track on a Third Generation mix tape i had built them up to almost mythical proportions. Was not disappointed.”

Janet Jackson / Rhythm Nation / A&M

“My sister got the tape for Christmas 1989 and didn’t like it, so I borrowed it and never gave it back. Sorry lauren.”

Hula – Cut Me Loose / Red Rhino

” I first heard this track getting played by Riegler at Warm Leatherette one of the first times I went out in San Francisco. Bought the single as soon as I found a decent copy!

A Certain Ratio – Do the Du / Factory

“Ian and the whole Factory sound had a super profound impact on me – this record in particular opened me up to funk and dance music at a time when I was still about as big a mope as you could imagine.”

Stooges / Down in the Street / Elektra

“I came to the Stooges through Bowie. This was everything that I wanted from tough guy music without all the posturing and is one of the few records I never ever need a break from. If you put this on, I’ll listen to it no matter what’s happening.”

Zounds / Fear / Broken Rekids

“I lived in a punk house for a while in the late nineties and got exposed to all kinds of great bands I had been too myopic to notice earlier. I kind of bounced off Crass the first time I heard it, but Zounds grabbed me right away. Some of my favorite new acts are channeling this sound and a lot of the heavyweights are starting to tour again. Really excited to see what happens next.”