This article originally appeared on i-D Germany.
“Fun is the key to my music,” reveals producer, DJ and Night Slugs label co-founder L-Vis 1990, aka James Connolly. He’s been in the game for almost a decade now, with influences ranging from Japanese new wave to more experimental sounds, telling i-D that when it comes to his DJ sets: “I always play the latest stuff out, but I also like to bring together vibes from different worlds and times.” His freshly pressed mixtape 12 Thousand Nights is representative of exactly that; dancing through progressive hip-hop, R&B, dancehall and pop with features from the likes of Awful Records’ Lord Narf, industrial wizard Gaika, and Detroit techno producer Jimmy Edgar. “Some of them are full of anger, darkness and energy,” he says of the tracks, “while others are full of fun and joy.”
Our personal highlight of the mixtape, and one that definitely falls into the second category, is the club-tastic Cake, featuring forward-thinking Canadian-American producer Sinjin Hawke alongside Cam and China from LA rap crew Pink Dollaz. The accompanying music video was directed by Shaun Bass and Carmel Koster at Nsfw.ltd, shot in Berlin, and is basically the kind of house party we wish we had gone to last weekend; full of local DJs, producers from the No Shade collective, and club kids blurring boundaries between reality and gaming. “We love female orientated hip-hop because it’s a nice break from mainstream macho rap, so it was clear to us that the video should be about strong women,” James adds. Evidence above.