This year Hopestreet Recordings turns ‘sweet’ sixteen, a milestone for an artist-run micro label. In what was once the truest statement of young love, Hopestreet presents the world with a mixtape of hits and deep cuts and brand-new edits and remixes from the vault: crunchy MPC reimaginings by beatmaker/producer Sensible J on one side and a seamless all-vinyl DJ mix from musician and record connoisseur Lachlan Stuckey of Surprise Chef and College of Knowledge.
The ‘Sensible Side’ of the mixtape opens with a boom bap MPC edit of the original 7” ‘Suicide’ released by Zillanova in 2013. Ella Thompson’s haunting vocals from album title track ‘Domino’ are cut up and looped as a bed for verses from Nfa and young Melbourne up and comer Bilalli. RnB duo Zretro’s ‘Superpower’ is turned into a stripped back guitar focused jam with J’s live drum kit flair. Emma Donovan and The Putbacks’ ‘Voodoo’ from the debut ‘Dawn’ is given the same stripped back treatment, allowing Emma’s vocals to permeate.
The ‘Stuckey Side’ opens with his favourite Hopestreet intro; a teenage Hudson Whitlock counting The Cactus Channel into their tune 'Level Up', followed immediately by the closing outro of The Putbacks' ‘Busted’, the second 7” released in the label’s formative years. What follows is a tight grip of 7inch selections that have remained in Stuckey’s record box since purchase; ‘Cosmetic Love’ by One Sixth, ‘Little Bit’ by US vocalist Danielle Ponder and Karate Boogaloo and more, mixed seamlessly with love and care for optimal listening pleasure.
