Electronic dance music has always been made with the intention to make people move, or indeed dance, as the phrase quite explicitly suggests. And for a long time the creative energy of curious, experimental artists has met the simultaneously loose and rigid structures that comprise the very core of dance music in such a way, that the end result moves people in more ways than one. Nothing makes me happier to feel something while dancing, like the strange sense of togetherness meeting that inward-looking solitude whenever a Burial tune gets played out in a packed club, or the space between cosmic floatation and grounded bass that Peverelist traps you in on ‘Roll With The Punches’. It’s one thing to make beats that make your head nod, but it’s another thing entirely to make you feel something other than just the sub.

The Archie Pelago trio make electronic dance music with the intention to move people, both physically and emotionally. Combining a more ‘traditional’ approach to writing music with the love of being caught up in the moment in clubs, the New York based trio have slowly been making an impact on the way club music is digested live. I remember, around the same time I was getting into the group’s music Well Rounded’s Donga mentioning their remix of Distal & HxdB’s ‘Booyant’ the night after KingThing played it from the edge on Sub FM. He said it was something different, something out there, something that had to be heard. These are all very accurate observations from the reliably informed Donga, but I would also argue that Archie Pelago tunes are something to be not just heard, but seen.

On this notion I suggested that they visually capture their mix for Sonic Router – creating our first ever video mix. The insight it provides to how each sound is born and subsequently manipulated is really quite arresting to behold when you consider that the trio combine live saxophone and cello work with a DJ, whose skeletal selections get improvised over and affected. Sonic Router Mix #121 is what growing, evolving, head-nodding organic music looks and sounds like when it’s twisted and reconstructed through a bunch of wires, connected to a mixer and two turntables.

http://www.sonicrouter.com/2012/02/sr-mix-121-archie-pelago-car-crash-set/

Cuthead – Unacceptable Mustache Styles [Uncanny Valley]
Scuba – So You Think You’re Special (Joe Remix) [Hotflush]
Archie Pelago – Subway Gothic [Forthcoming]
Archie Pelago – Carmen on Gold Street [Forthcoming]
Simple + Helix – Licking Peanut Butter (Archie Pelago Remix) [dub]
Rx – Orbit (Archie Pelago Remix) [Rad Summer]
Archie Pelago – Hall of Human Origins [Forthcoming]
Untold – Sweat [Hotflush]
Archie Pelago – The Fabric [Car Crash Set]

http://www.sonicrouter.com/