Summer 8 year old mix

Here's a mix I did the other day on a log drive back from Wales that's based around various nights out over the summer. I probably should have finished it about three tracks earlier than I did but there was still another 100 miles to go so carried on. Anyway, if you've been out with me in the last few months give it a listen, maybe it'll bring back a few memories.

Download it here.

Tracklisting:

Good Voodoo – Kiki (Visionquest remix)
Sinfonia Della Notte – Dennis Ferrer
Let's Groove – George Morel
The Voice From Planet Love – Precious System (Dixon's Chic-a-go mix)
Summertime – Jamie Jones feat. Ost & Kjex
Darkstar 3000 – Mike Shannon
Afternoon Delight – DJ Sneak
Dis – DJ T
Yogoto – Spencer Parker
Energy Flash – Joey Beltram
Where We At – Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Ame feat. Derrick Carter
Stoned Autopilot – Martin Buttrich (C2 remix)
Full Tilt – Martin Worner
Traffic Jam – Cobblestone Jazz
Huyendo – Alex Cortex
Stranger (To Stability) – Dustin Zahn
D.P.O.M.B. – Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Ame
Far Out – Sebo K (DJ Sneak mix)
Sweat – John Tejada

Big mouth strikes again

At one stage this guy looks like one of the things from Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion...

Um

Watch this...



Then watch this...

Sand painting

The samiad looks a lot hotter than the last time I saw it.

Berlin culture beavers

Just got back from a trip to Berlin, without doubt the best city I have ever been to. This was my fourth visit in less than 2 years and I reckon it topped the previous ones, which I thought would be impossible to do. Probably my favourite night was spent at a packed Watergate listening to Jay Haze, Shonky and others on Contexterior until 5 or 6 in the morning... on a Wednesday night! That kind of thing just doesn't happen in London. Anyway, this was one of many tracks that put a smile on my face.

Samurai skills

If this is real then it's pretty impressive stuff, but you would think if he can hit things that small with such accuracy he should take up baseball and make some money.


Modern Samurai Cuts Flying BB in Half - Watch more Funny Videos

Kanye again

There's a lot of these floating about, some of which are quite frankly terrible, but this was probably the best one I've seen.

Richard Bacon gets right on it

World's fattest cat

Look at him dominate those stairs!

Aawwwwww

Kanye does it again

The world's biggest prick strikes once more...

Modeselektor Body Language 8

Another review I did recently:

Berlin’s Modeselektor are like the Obama of the electronic world, gradually winning over sceptics and uniting dance music’s various factions with their off-kilter sound and general disregard for genres the same way Barack connects with world leaders. Fans from the minimal, house and hip hop fraternities have all sung their praises and they even convinced indie messiah Thom Yorke to make an appearance on their album Happy Birthday.

Body Language vol. 8 gives Modeselektor the opportunity to demonstrate their scattergun approach to DJing and they waste no time in creating a brilliant party mix by merging techno into breakbeat into hip hop into electro – and that’s just the first few tracks. The mark of a great party DJ is the ability to carefully blend the more obscure with the familiar, and the welcome inclusion of 2-step in the shape of Horsepower Productions and Busta Rhymes’ classic Gimme Some More shows these two have it in spades. Dubstep has clearly struck a chord with the pair as tracks from Benga, Joker and Scuba are interwoven between the synth sounds of Siriusmo and the pulsing throb of Marcel Dettman’s excellent revision of Modeselektor’s own The Black Block. I could have probably done without the ubiquitous Animal Collective, but then that’s one to keep the indie kids happy.

The way Modeselektor combine tracks that on first glance appear at odds with each other is the key to this album’s appeal and fans who appreciate the eclecticism of artists like Diplo or have a predilection for bass will garner some enjoyment from this. And as Modeselektor themselves say on Fill #1, ‘expect the unexpected’.

Pumped

Raymond's operating on maximum boost.

Tone Matrix

If you're anything like me and have even the slightest interest in repetative music and time wasting devices you will absolutely love this thing – it is brilliant. I'm going to annoy the hell out of a lot of people now I've been introduced to this I can assure you.

3 massive slams

The title says it all really. These are savage.

Geordie jumpers

Aye, pure class an' that.

Frrrrreesssshhhh

If you like your Nikes Tn, your denim double and you dance moves bubblin' here's a nice little blast from the past from my mate Dan. Old Skool garage at its bump 'n' flexingest. Bo.

Tracklisting:

Plenty More - Chris Mac
Dangerous - Same People
Gunmen - 187 Lockdown
Standard Hoodlum Issue - E.S. Dubs (Z. Bias)
Life Story - Angie Stone (Booker T)
Lost in Vegas - Some Treat
Gabriel - Roy Davis Jr
God Made Me Phunky - MD Express
Panther Party - Mad Moses
De La Bass - Mousse T
Boogie On The Dance Floor - Masters At Work
The Chant (We R) - R.I.P. Productions
In My Soul - Grant Nelson
Never Gonna Let You Go - Tina Moore (Tuff Jam)
Day Creeper - D.C.
R U Sleeping - Indo (Grant Nelson)
Forgiven - Todd Edwards
Golden - Jill Scott (Grant Nelson)

New York Groove

This is off one of those Fourstar videos in the previous post. Not entirely sure why I like it but I like it. Probably for when the guitar comes in at the beginning. Good strutting music.

Fourstar vids

Enjoyable good set of vids on the Fourstar website that'll waste a few minutes including the Day in the Life series that they keep updating. Eric Koston and Mark Gonzalez have been up so far.

Italoboyz – Bla Bla Bla

Time to bore you with another Notion review, though I was pleased with the last line:

The Italoboyz rose to prominence last year with the John Coltrane sampling Bahia, a brilliant song that was made to be enjoyed on sunny days. An album deal with Claude Von Stroke’s Mothership label soon followed, which has unfortunately given birth to one of the most annoying records I have ever heard. Marco and Federico have unwisely chosen to apply Bahia’s formula – unusual instruments not normally associated with dance music plonked on top of a 4/4 beat – to every track on the album. Someone at Mothership must have been massaging their egos a bit too much, causing them to start considering themselves avant-garde geniuses redefining techno with jazz and classical samples, rather than purveyors of sub-standard rubbish. They have given Bla Bla Bla a unique sound, but that’s probably only because someone else tried doing what they do, quickly realised it sounded shit and made something else.

The album starts with Where is London, made in collaboration with producers Masomenos. Here the chimes of Big Ben are coupled with some classical piano and a techno rhythm. Original, but it doesn’t work, and this failure sets the tone for the following 60 minutes. Next up is Chinese, where an intensely irritating voice repeating ‘I don’t speak Chinese’ is thrown together with oriental melodies and a terrible 2-note horn refrain. It’s like 10 people making one part of a song completely separate from each other then putting the results together unedited. Taka Taka Tashhh might have fared a bit better, had they not chosen to repeat the eponymous title ad nauseam for the song’s duration. It does have a touch of the Chemical Brothers about it, but where and Tom and Ed obviously know when enough is enough, this pair keep adding elements until perfectly sane people are contemplating ripping their ears off and stamping on their eardrums to avoid ever having to be subjected to such crap again. Edo Breiss is the same – underneath the unnecessary saxophone noodling is a decent house tune waiting to come out, but it’s overshadowed by a need to show off and suffers as a result.

I thought Techno Tower might offer some brief respite; sadly it wasn’t meant to be. There are too many things going on, including some chump chanting ‘bumbumbumbumbumbum’ incessantly, the occasional acid stabs and tinkling piano, all of which clash. I won’t even talk about the Salvador Dali sampling L’Anagramme.

Apart from Bahia, the only other track of note is The Pink Uniform. For once they ditch the beat and the resulting ambient piece works well. It makes you think that if they stopped classing themselves as a techno act and played around with different drums and BPMs in the same way they experiment with various instrumental melodies and vocal samples, they could produce something considerably better. By sticking so rigidly to the techno template they create a series of tracks that have the foundations of a promising record but are ruined by self-indulgent pointless experimentation. Avoid unless you are a redneck soldier attempting to extract a quick confession from a prisoner during an Abu Ghraib torture session.

Buzzcocks

Watch the whole A Northern Life documentary on youtube cos it's ace, but this is a snippet from the main character Buzzcocks to give you a taste.

Ame at Plastic People Review

Another Notion piece:

Warm have been putting on acts from their artist agency on the third Thursday of the month at Plastic People for a while now, with the likes of Gerd Janson, Mark E, Horse Meat Disco, Prins Thomas and Will Saul all making an appearance. This month it was the turn of Ame’s Kristian Beyer to represent Berlin house imprint Innervisions and in the process provide me with one of the most enjoyable nights out I’ve had in a while.

Plastic People would have to feature highly on any list compiling the best clubs in London. Not for flashing lights, fancy décor or as a place to be seen, but for consistently quality line-ups, an excellent soundsystem and for stripping away a lot of the bullshit and pretensions that can ruin a decent night. It’s no frills clubbing at its finest, and when you get a couple of hundred people together in a small room who know their music and have a DJ playing as strong set as Kristian did, the stars align, the planets collide, the meaning of life is discovered – however you describe it, it just makes for a bloody good night.

Walking downstairs just before midnight I was faced with an almost empty dancefloor and questions from concerned friends wondering why no-one had showed up. Give it time I suggested, so we sat by the bar listening to Helsinki’s Lil’ Tony play some pleasant enough records, included Villalobos’s Enfants, that didn’t necessarily grab you by the throat and drag you to the floor, but made you think that in a couple of songs time it might be a good idea to think about converting that tapping foot into something more akin to actual dancing.

Half an hour later and the dancefloor was full, not over-crowded, but in true Goldielocks style just right. Beyer was on next, building upon the foundations laid by Lil’ Tony with a showcase of the multiple strands of house and techno that would last for the next few of hours. Acid squelches made way for piano riffs, acapellas announced the arrival of forgotten 90s house tracks, kettle drums provided an almost carnival like atmosphere. There was even a toe tentatively dipped into trance territory when the C2 remix of Stoned Autopilot by Martin Buttrich was played. Trance is a dirty word these days, but I confess I used to love it, so when something with a breakdown as epic as this record gets played I’m sent back to 1999 and am hugging anyone within range. And I’m not the only one. When the track finally drops elation breaks out, Kristian allows himself a little smile as 200 faces light up across the room and beam right back at him.

The final highlight came with George Morel’s classic track Let’s Groove on Strictly Rhythm. Once again I’m transported back over a decade by this slice of proto-speed garage, and the memories come flooding back of listening to Kiss when it used to be good and watching holiday reps vomit on each other in episodes of Ibiza Uncovered. And it’s great. Really, really great. Promoters take note, this is how going out should be. No bells, whistles, chrome, glitterballs, lazers, VIP areas or gyrating coke-head models are needed; all it takes is a dark room, one man, a box of good quality records and a set of decks to develop the perfect party atmosphere.

World's biggest nose

Gibbo watch out, someone's stolen your crown!