New York’s AceMo reshapes underground dance music with this dynamic, forward-thinking blend of techno and house forms.
When AceMo was nine years old, he was exposed to drum & bass on kids’ TV, copping a funky drummer sample on The Powerpuff Girls theme tune. “I was so dumbfounded about how fast the drums were and how it was possible for someone to keep that beat,” he told Astronautica.
After studying trumpet and learning to produce and record with FL Studio and Reason, Ace began to distill his musical interests into a slew of tracks. A member of New York City’s quietly influential Swim Team crew, alongside Color Plus and others, he eventually began releasing his music on the Bootleg Tapes label. Ace’s output was different for 2014; he was unrestricted to genre or tempo in a way that felt radical. His blending of elements of jungle, rap, footwork, ambient, house and techno felt freeing and transformative and has shaped his development over the years.
In January, Ace released All My Life, collecting some of his recent tracks and defining his musical signature. It’s an album that “combines the influence of everything from lo-fi house and mainstream ‘90s dance anthems to mushy, Dilla-esque beatmaking,” said Scott Wilson in FACT’s first quarter report his year.
Since then, Ace has released another two (!) albums, including this month’s exceptional Existential, and collaborated with fellow NYC-based producer and DJ MoMA Ready as AceMoMA. The duo released the acclaimed AceMoMA EP in July and are putting together a full-length that will appear in 2020.
Ace’s FACT mix shows exactly why he’s such a treasured presence on the New York City circuit right now, as he travels effortless through genres with a presence and sophistication that’s impossible to fake. House and techno is misunderstood globally, and as festivals fill their bills with tourists and posers, it’s refreshing to see a burst of energy from a community of young producers and DJs doing things their own way. This is how it was always supposed to be, and it’s a true privilege to hear.
Tracklist:
M.Bootyspoon – ‘Tom Tom Club’
Color Plus – ‘Icky’
Truncate – ‘Machine Jack’
El-B – ‘2000’
Benny Revival – ‘NON FACTOR’
UR – ‘Panic’ (Mix 2)
Helix – ‘LTMTC edit’
Jenny B. – ‘Wanna Get Your Love’
AceMo – ‘Freak Out’
Scratchclart & DJ Polo – ‘Boog’
AceMo – ‘Ancestor Beat’
DJ UMI – ‘Yu Yu’
Lord Raja – ‘Borderline’
Santiago Salazar – ‘Piano Adjacent’ (AceMo’s Reimagination)
Rhythm Track 2 – ‘Reese’
Oli XL – ‘Mimetic’
DJ JOHN BROOKLYN – ‘Over Los Angeles’
Aleksi Perala – ‘UK74R1405036’
AceMo – ‘Mind Port’
P. Leone – ‘Tight In The Pocket’
AceMo x AshTreJenkins – ‘Mortal Kombat’
Jackie McLean – ‘Sirius System’
Read next: Deep Inside – December 2019’s must-hear house and techno
