CCL has released a new mixtape through Eris Drew and Octo Octa’s T4T LUV NRG label.

Spanning 69 minutes, the cassette release explores various strains of music that CCL describes as “proto-dubstep”, with its title, ‘A Night In The Skull Discotheque’, nodding to Appleblim and Shackleton’s influential Skull Disco label.

The mix takes in music originally released between the ’70s and ’00s, and some of it is played at the wrong speed or layered so as to recontextualise it. Dub icons such as Lee “Scratch” Perry and Jah Warrior appear among the tracklist, while there is also electronic music featured from acts such as Baby Ford, Leftfield and Kevin Saunderson.

‘A Night In The Skull Discotheque’ was recorded with three CDJs, a turntable and a Boss Digital Delay 200 unit, and is split into two parts, subtitled ‘Bass Is Eternal’ and ‘2-Step Mutual Dream’.

A press release said the mix was partly inspired by Eris Drew’s use of “old records to create new styles out of fragments” on her ‘Raving Disco Breaks Vol. 1’ mixtape, which was also released through T4T LUV NRG in 2019.

Writing on Instagram about ‘A Night In The Skull Discotheque’, CCL said: “After noticing uncanny references in tracks decades before FWD, (some of which) were from the most unexpected places, I started to keep a folder of these ‘proto’, slowly adding to it over the years. They began to tell a story more vivid and eerie than I could have imagined. Beyond just archiving, I wanted it to showcase what an interesting narrative and fantastical place these tracks illustrate, and the rich history of possible red threads.”

A portion of the profits from digital and cassette sales of the mix will be donated to a GoFundMe campaign raising funds for Palestinian relief charities Palästina Kampagne and ELSC.

You can stream the full mix below, and purchase it digitally or physically on Bandcamp.

Revisit CCL’s 2020 contribution to DJ Mag’s Selections feature series here.