Various (mixed by Oren Ambarchi) - Black Truffle At 10 (2019)

Oren Ambarchi celebrates his 50th birthday and a decade of uncompromisingly brilliant, diverse releases on Black Truffle with this mixed compilation of cherry-picked label highlights covering the gamut from Keiji Haino to Annea Lockwood and Oren’s classic rock-riffing zingers

The mix simultaneously gives and removes context from the material in a smart way by conjuring unforeseen connection between genres, eons and vibes, craftily connoting links between their mutual idiosyncrasies and disparate coordinates.

With an emphatic focus on bringing work by older, pioneering artists to new light, Black Truffle has become an invaluable, educational service with its myriad reissues of seminal (if niche) classics by the likes of AMM, Annea Lockwood, Keiji Haino and Giancarlo Toniutti, while also providing space for new work by pivotal figures such as Alvin Curran (last year’s ‘Criss-Cross’ is a blinder) and a platform for obscure gems such as the Paul DeMarinis archival dive ‘Songs Without Throats’ and the work of his close peers, cry cole and Joe Talia.

This 3 hour long, 27 track wide mix covers the full wingspan of the label and its owner’s immaculate tastes, with highlights in the likes of Ruedi Häusermann’s gunky jazz freak ‘Susanna I’m Blade’, the deliquescent touch of ‘Burrata’ by cry cole & Ambarchi, or Arnold Dreyblatt’s nerve-jangling ‘The Odd Fellows’ forming peaks in the mix and label’s wonderfully wild and expansive musical panorama.