New York’s MoMa Ready highlights the US scene’s effervescent energy with this neck-snapping blend of house, rave and techno.
In 2011, Wyatt Stevens, aka MoMa Ready, started HAUS of ALTR, a platform to display skateboarding videos and sell clothing. Over time, the idea evolved into an imprint, and Stevens’ love of rave was folded into his passion for skateboarding and visuals. And in 2018, he issued HOA001, a 31 track compilation that highlighted his love for contemporary North American dance music.
“The track list represents all the different styles that are represented in the scene,” he wrote. “The list is designed to ebb and flow the same way New York does.” Stevens picked tracks from contemporaries like The Nativist, Fennec and X-Coast, placing them alongside his own music under the Gallery S. moniker. And the whole thing was opened by AceMo, who Stevens had met in NYC’s A1 Records not too long before the compilation was released.
AceMo and Stevens were fast friends, and helped each other realize their aims, musically and socially. Last year, Stevens told Truants that the duo were “bringing attention to the legacy of dance music and educating young people of color about their heritage in dance music here in North America and worldwide.” With a slew of self-released albums, EPs and singles, as well as collaborations under the AceMoMa moniker that have garnered attention from throughout the dance scene, it’s been refreshing to see the duo go from strength to strength.
This year, Stevens has already released a full album, Gallery S, that builds on the last year of releases, fusing his love of house, techno, jungle and faster rave styles with a rare, uncynical passion. There’s an urgency to his music that can be heard in every note, and whether he is luxuriating in downtempo romance or pushing the beat to breakneck speeds, it never feels forced or unwieldy – it just works.
MoMa Ready’s FACT mix is a journey through New York City’s vibrant scene, with unreleased MoMa Ready and Gallery S. tracks alongside work from Kush Jones, P. Leone and of course AceMo. If you want to know why everyone’s talking about New York right now, this should explain everything.
Tracklist:
AceMo – ‘Other Places’
MoMa Ready – ‘Fixation’ (ft. ambroise)
Quadrant – ‘Dytiq’
Gallery S. – ‘Lauryn’s Wise Words’
MoMa Ready & Cell Hiss – ‘Death Threat’ (unreleased)
Phlowgod – ‘Ninfea’
Gallery S. – ‘We Could Have Been Better’
Second Storey – ‘One Sound’ (Luke Vibert Remix)
TDK – ‘Fougéres a Chartres (treize Juillet)’ (unreleased)
X-102 – ‘descending to the surface’
Gallery S. – ‘A Sudden Collapse’
Kush Jones – ‘Yoshimitsu’
AceMo – ‘Gundam’
Dj Suplex – ‘Workout 6’ (unreleased)
MoMA Ready – ‘We Love Music (dub)’ (unreleased)
P.Leone – ‘Factory Free’
Kush Jones – ‘Faucet’
P. Leone – ‘Anche Se’
MoMA Ready – ‘A New MoMA’ (unreleased)
El Blanco Nino – ‘b4mytime’
Gallery S. – ‘Kage, Titan’s Shadow’ (ft. shampoo)
Kush Jones – ‘Doppler (Weatherman Tool)’ (unreleased)
Nancy Music – ‘Empty Space’ (Ariel Zetina Remix)
