March 19, 2026 · By Alex D'Arcy

VU Selects 014 - Big Red Al

We asked long term customer and mighty fine South Coast selector Big Red Al to put together our next installment of VU Selects, and boy did he deliver!

You can catch Al’s monthly show, the LATENIGHTBIGNESS, on 1BTN every second Saturday of the month 10pm to midnight. Also check his other gigs and goings on via socials @bigredal . Show him some love.

See what the man himself has to say about his mix, VU Selects 014, and check out the tracklist below. We’re loving that he got ‘Rain In The South’ on there…

“Gonna name a new genre for this mix. AltSynthChugDisco...or maybe DeepPopHouseRaveRock (??)... Just don't call it Balearic, as we all know, that's a place, not a genre.

When I was asked by the Vinyl Underground crew to do a mix, I considered doing a specific genre deep dive. In the end, I thought it might be more fun to go off the reservation, and rather than pile down one straight line, I'd fling in some handbrake turns.

It mostly features bits I've bought from VU over the last year or so, with a couple of zingers from my vaults. There's definitely a lot of edits in there, but hopefully at the more obscure, more interesting end.

I like how now the disco edit vault is almost running dry, producers are looking further afield at R&B, Pop, Rock, and electronica from all over the world. In this mix that means from Australia to Canada to Sweden. Labels like U-Bend, Manchester's Talking Drums/Drums Chums, and Melodies of Love.

For the orginals, I've turned to a bit of OG Italo House, a jaw-dropping bit of Jazz House from Brawther featuring the sax performance of a lifetime from Nathan Haines, a modern classic from Peven Everett, and the excellent Girls of The Internet on the faultless Athens Of The North. I'm so pleased they're now putting out new music on top of their famous reissues.

The Mighty Zaf and Linkwood, Pete Blaker and Artwork are the current masters of the deep find disco edit, and here I feature some beauts.

The challenge was turning all these leftfield cuts into a coherent mix.

I guess you'll have to be the judge if I succeeded.

Big Red Al”

Enjoy the music and check our racks to see what’s still available. As always, respect to the artists and labels for the music.

Tracklist below.