I went to Amsterdam once and I didn’t smoke any marijuana. I did sit in that oversized clog just off the main square (you know, where the sex museum with the massive phallic sculptures is) and took a picture where it looks like I’m stoned, but I can assure you Dad, I actually wasn’t. It’s kind of fascinating how the city is so divided; like outside of the stag do epicentre it’s this gorgeous, uniquely picturesque collection of architecture and tenuously moored house boats but inside it it’s a scramble of gangs of half cut guys bathed in a warm neon glow looking at scantily clothed overweight women while pale faced moonlighters wearily plod past them. It’s a very real and weird distinction between that strip and the area that surrounds it; there’s a serene calmness outside of that cluster of pent up tourist energy losing their minds amongst the Dutch liberal attitude.

I guess it’s like anything though, people latch onto the same core principles of something -in this instance the fact that you can watch porn, visit a prostitute and then go and smoke an eighth of carefully engineered super skunk legally – and then word spreads organically. And as tempting as it is to apply this tenuous analogy to the explosion of one arc of ganja soaked, electronic music I’d rather just get on one of those classic framed bicycles again and ride out to the zoo for the afternoon, BUT considering the prevalence of 4×4 and house music on almost internet hotspot, it makes sense to work it into a sentence that hails the creativity of outsider music. Music made by producers who manage to do new and interesting things with pretty much the same equipment as everyone else.

This week’s showcased producer is Presk, he’s Dutch and he lives in Amsterdam – that’s undoubtedly what sparked me to write the above. Having released on Doc Daneeka’s Ten Thousand Yen and Tom Kerridge’s near faultless Fourth Wave imprint Presk has displayed a real knack for convoluting the kind of beats you’d expect from his contemporaries, churning out music that’s as well assimilated as a track like ‘Hesitate’ is. Ahead of its release (Boomkat states it’ll ship in 8 days) James Balf made good on an earlier promise and quizzed Presk on his processes after he submitted Sonic Router Mix #125…

http://www.sonicrouter.com/2012/03/sr-mix-125-presk-fourth-wave/

01. Felix Lenferink – Second Bouree (Forthcoming Fourth Wave)
02. Gerry Read – Crooked (Forthcoming Delsin)
03. Basic Soul Unit – Jak’d Frequency (A Made Up Sound Puur Natuur Mix)
04. Benjamin Damage & Doc Daneeka – Deaf Siren (50 Weapons)
05. Legowelt – Congo Zombie (Bunker)
06. George Fitzgerald – Shackled (Hotflush)
07. Guy Andrews – Darj (Forthcoming Audio Culture)
08. Mau’lin – Starbeast (Forthcoming Diskotopia)
09. Illmana – Hypnosis (Bad Mannerz Entertainment)
10. GoldFFinch – Model (Forthcoming Audio Culture)
11. 19.454.18.5.25.5.18 – Ghosts On Acid (Horizontal Ground)
12. Thefft – Pull It Out (Dub)
13. Round One – I’m Your Brother (Chicago’s Twisted Mix) (Main Street Records)
14. Hackman & Tessela – Feel Like Loving Me (Presk’s Sixt Refix) (Forthcoming Audio Culture)
15. Conforce – 24 (Gesloten Cirkel Remix) (Clone Basement Series)
16. Malin Genie – Rolas (Tomorrow Is Now, Kid)
17. Doc Daneeka – Toby Jug (Lando Remix) (Forthcoming Ten Thousand Yen)
18. Presk – Hesitate (Forthcoming Fourth Wave)

http://www.sonicrouter.com/