Bring back: West Heath Yard

Back in 1999 Edwyn Collins of "Never met a girl like you before" fame and the mighty band Orange Juice opened up his studios to Hothouse Productions for a comedy he had co-written about the travails of two producers and their attempts to create "the next big thing". The show's synopsis reads:

"Denny Lorimar and Jackson Gold are the legendary record producers at the London studios of West Heath Yard. Jarvis Cocker and Natalie Imbruglia are among the hopefuls trying to break into the world of rock and roll."

It was shown on Channel 4 under the auspices of the 4 Later schedule. Really this was a great little piece of satire and should be back on our screens... or atleast available on dvd!

Look out for the series West Heath House as well.

Contact Hot House Productions to get this work of art re-released - click here

DJ P.O.L.Style

DJ P.O.L.Style, the Numbers Crew man in Japan has some high octane shit coming out on ClekClekBoom next week and by way of a taster of things to come he's dropped a couple of Bmore Bangers our way:

Have the people Stompin is a filtered Baltimore track representing some straight up Bukkake theme music - I'll probably ruin my carpet next weekend listening to this with my girlfriend and the 20 or so middle-aged men who have replied to her Jizz party add on Craigslist. Yeah this is Nasty. I'd put it on a mix tape called Sex Crimes and send it to Mike Tyson.

Second up is Get Yo Hands Up which has so many "whuts" you could call it a jiggawhut of party juice. Well, you could call it that but you might get the gas face... but then I'm not all cool and street so I'll call it a Jiggawhut Party Juice track and leave all the trendies to fawn over Sam Sparro whilst compairing Oki-Ni receipts.OKAITHAINXG'BAINOW


NUMBERS TOKYO

Mofomatronix

I first heard of Mofomatronix when Jackmaster (the guy who runs the Dress2Sweat record label, Numbers club night and many, many more things) played me some of their tracks when he came to play my night. He tore it up that night but that is a different story.

I was really impressed by the production style they displayed and looked them up online to discover they are a couple of producers and dj's operating from Montreal. They run the Turbo Crunk night in Montreal and Toronto with their pals Megasoid, Blingmod and Lunice and also the Many Brain blog.

They took some time out from making crazy beats to answer some questions for me and you.

EB: What is and was the club scene like where you guys grew up? Did your night start because you were following suit from other hip hop nights or were you starting from scratch with it?

MFMTRNX: The club scene is Montreal is similar to most other big cities nowadays. The serato-DJ plays the same artist remixed by the same producer at the same horrible bitrate, and that phenomenon is very much present here. However there is a subculture of interesting club nights with considerable draw that have been around and were popping hard by the time we got our first monthly going proper dumb. The like minded homies would be Ghislain Poirier and his infamous Bounce Le Gros nights, Khiasma and his Baile MTL super-eclectic parties, and of course the Megasoid dudes. So as much as we weren't exactly following suit with the club scene of the city, it'd be a lie to claim ownership on what we did or say we started from scratch, as it was a select few monthly parties all individually pushing more diverse interesting sounds that made it good for everyone.

EB: How is your sound recieved in Montreal and Toronto where you run your nights?

MFMTRNX: To our surprise, our "thing" has been accepted as a legit club sound. whether pushing obscure Hyphy tracks, the latest Atlante club anthems, our own sounds or those of our friends and peers around the world like Lazer Sword, we've always been amazed at how it has not only kept clubs popping, but has often dragged people out to dancefloors. Curiously enough this has happened a few times when we were playing on bills alongside techno/electro DJs, and a few hours at 130bpm, we'd come on and play what is even to us at times the weirdest club music imaginable, people got to the dancefloor and really "get it". It's great.

EB: Are there any local mcs that you work with or plan to work with in the near future? (I ask because there are loads of mcs here but the dj scene is so far from the mc scene that the two rarely mix and when they do there are differences due to djs being more geeky about what they listen to and mcs having a hard time grasping where they fit in the hip hop food chain)

MFMTRNX: The thing is, there aren't many MCs in Montreal (at least since Giovanni Marks moved!), and truthfully we haven't really looked. However we have a few people in Chicago, LA, Texas and San Fransisco that we are supposed to work with in the near future. Hopefully we can hook up with some UK peoples as well. Though that's definitely a good point about producers and MCs often being on different wavelenghts, the scope of our beats covers many grounds and we have our secret stash of straight up rap beats that we could possibly throw at an MC, get the acapella back and flip it from there.

EB: Which producers have inspired you so far past and present?

MFMTRNX: Kraftwerk, Traxamillion, Bangladesh, Pinch, Droop-E, The Neptunes, Timbaland, etc. Anything from a banging strip club Collipark Snap beat from the southern States to a solid german Ellen Allien techno tune will inspire us tremendously.

EB: Have you thought about taking that leap and making uptempo music using the same production style? I mean that Common tune is at 120bpm and the Ne-Yo tune is even faster.

MFMTRNX: We don't force any tempo on our tracks and just come up with a melody and see at what speed it would work, otherwise with remixes we'll start from a rap we really like and work around its tempo. We have a few 110+ tracks, and I believe our set goes up to 120bpm right now, but then you gotta do something with it... like make all the verses 60bpm, some polyrhythms, fuck with the dancefloor a tiny bit. Fast bpms give us headaches. And for what it's worth it's not entirely unusual for rap or hip hop to reach those speeds whether full on or half time. My Love and Gossip Folk are both 120bpm.

But essentially if you're going in that bpm range, I bloody hope it's just a vicious transition towards 65bpm hahaha.

There you have it, bass heavy hip hop that works for the dancefloor, check the remixes from them and their fam.


Nas - Made You Look (Mofomatronix Remix)

Kinfolk - So Krisy (Mofomatronix Remix)

Busta Rhymes - Whoo Hah (Lunice Remix)

There are loads more delights to be sampled over at the Many Brain blog so get on it.

Also Mofomatronix are playing at The Ballers Social Club night, in Glasgow, at The Ivy with Rustie and Eclair on Saturday the 8th of August.

I been here for years

In spring 1997 Mathew Chicoine aka Recloose made contact with 2nd wave Detroit Techno scion Carl Craig by way of a now legendary “Demo on Rye Sandwich”. The meeting might have gone a little like this:

Carl Craig “Achtung brethren – gimme some of those extended building intros with the promise of some sort of ethnic style breakdown before you pile in a beat down kinda rhythm yo… oh and stick some pastrami and lachs on the side as well man.”

Matt Chicoine “Certainly Sir”
Putting the
Sarnie together

Carl Craig “…Nice…”

After some time…

Matt Chicoine “You want mayo with DAT?”

Carl Craig “Forget that isht – do I look Belgian to you?”

Ok, so obviously the story didn’t quite go like that but it’s not the most interesting thing about Recloose. In terms of underground dance music he has seen a lot of success in a relatively short time: this is not to say that he hasn’t paid his dues though. His musical roots trace back through eight years of studying music and playing jazz at Ann Arbor University, later shifting his focus to djing. His eclectic sets, which were first heard on college radio, have led to a prolific career playing at festivals and clubs around the world. He has cited the early Jeff Mills AKA The Wizard AKA The Wiz mixes on WKLB Radio as a direct inspiration for getting up on to the ones and twos while artists as diverse as the flamboyant Rick James and the seminal Herbie Hancock have shaped his interpretation of electronic music.

Since serving Carl Craig with the best sounding/worst tasting sandwich in Detroit, Recloose has progressed to holding an enviable place in Detroit’s musical canon. A musical style which although has been likened to representing the continually morphing cityscapes and sonic environs of industrial Detroit, his early sound is too simply defined by such a cliché. He touches base with his forefathers through jazz and takes this compositional flare and uncompromising love of music to produce jittering and funky strains of musical DNA. His talent is in arranging sound not so much as in appropriating its found qualities like his contemporary Theo Parrish.


Recloose - Get There Tonight from Cardiology

An invitation to take part in the Wellington International Jazz Festival in 2000 led to him falling in love with the people and country of New Zealand itself. Eventually marrying and fathering a family near Wellington on the Kapiti Coast. Recloose, the Kiwi by proxy, started relocation shortly after the release of his first album Cardiology. It was a move that invited some comment but however proved to be the right decision for him. It has been the impetus to develop a radically different sound and provide new musical challenges.

Now residing in the beach town of Titahi Bay in NZ with the vibrant musical scene of Wellington nearby, the pieces were in place for the production of his second album “Hiatus on the Horizon”. By teaming up with Wellington musicians like Riki Gooch aka Eru Dangerspiel formerly of Trinity Roots and Lisa Tomlins vocalist for Rhombus the man has built around him a formidable live band as well as locking it down for Wellingtons heaviest crowd every Friday at Metterhorn. The Album, on record label Peacefrog, was described by them as “…encompassing live instrumentation, soul fuelled vocals and featuring many of Wellington’s established and rising musicians… an unlikely musical fusion of the sounds of the South Pacific and the not so distant memories of the Motor City…” Certainly with bravura as accomplished as the track “Dust” featuring Fat Freddys Drop vocalist Joe Dukie the labels tendency toward hyperbole is not with out foundation.



Recloose Live Band - Dust from Hiatus on the Horizon

I met up with the man Recloose and his 7-piece funk band on a chilly morning in Glasgow in 2006 a few hours before he embarked on his European tour. Since than a new album “Perfect Timing” has been recently released and while a DJ tour has taken place (with stops at the Southport Weekender amongst other prestigious gigs) a return of the live band is greatly anticipated. On that morning I found a man missing easy cheese and burritos whilst reminiscing about his homeland, the States. He was about to settle into a veggie burger served by the hardest looking Russian waiter in town…

“You want sauce?” Says the waiter.

Recloose, “Yeah, please, ketchup.”

He’s a polite guy and excuses himself for speaking with his mouth full. I ask him if he smokes in that hope that I may but I find Matt is a reformed smoker, “and this time it’s gonna stick, I tried when I was 25, I tried when I was 30 but this year (2006)… I just had my 31st birthday …” Perhaps hopeful when considering the miles he’s about to chock up with his band. Still with good humour abounding all is in place for a voyage befitting of any Kesey or Kerouac yarn, smoking or non-smoking.

A lot of people have tried to put a tag on what you do, what’s your take on it?

I guess I try not to get too wrapped up in any one sound at any time and avoid the usual pitfalls of bandwagons. In music it’s dangerous to pigeonhole yourself and so I’ve always been reluctant to put a label on what kind of music I make. When people ask me I just shrug myself and say, “I don’t really know.”

I guess it’s like Duke Ellington said: “There’s only two types of music – good and bad.”

Yeah totally, I hope I make good music!

Well whatever it is – it’s definitely not shit!

(Laughing out loud) Cheers bro. I guess that’s the main thing, not to be too wrapped up in your own world and keep a bit of distance between what you do and how you feel about it.

“Dust” has been a massive track for you – can you put your finger on why it’s worked so well on the dance floors and in the market place?

I guess when the like of Gilles Peterson picks something up and gives it airplay that really helps. It’s funny we were just talking about this last night. I t comes down to finding a balance between being creative, being artistic, being true to what you do and at the same time earning a lot of money. So it’s a fine line, a tightrope walk. Being able to make music that’s interesting, creative and breaking some new ground but at the same time not alienating any of the audience is a challenge. Dust was a little different but it incorporates some familiar elements… house, soul… The vocal Joe (Dukie) laid down was golden.

Were you aware of Joe and the band Fat Freddys Drop before you moved to Wellington in 2001?

Just a little bit, somebody gave me a CD when I first came to Wellington. Freddys are the kind of band that just plays ALL the time, so I became really aware of them on the live scene.

I was reading in your sleeve notes for “Hiatus on the Horizon” that you considered the album to be very much a community thing – I take it that community was something you were aware of before moving from Detroit?

Not at all, I wasn’t. I was pretty oblivious to what was going on there musically. It was then and is now, even more so, bubbling away developing underneath most people’s conscience. There’s some real heat coming through. All the components are there. There are some great musicians. It’s all starting to gel now with Freddys, The Black Seeds, in fact, Mark the guitar player in my band is from The Black Seeds. Everyone who is in the band is in other bands and that’s the cool thing. Lisa Tomlins (vocalist) is in like forty (!!!) other bands back in NZ, She sings with Rhombus amongst others, Freddys as well. I’ve got the Kiwi All-Stars with me! Isaac Aesili is with a couple of hot bands to look out for – Opensouls and Solaa – and Riki Gooch my percussionist was 1/3 of Trinity Roots. All hot kiwi bands.

So I take it the current Album was always intended to be experienced as a live event.

Um, not really, it just kinda happened. I wish I was one of these guys with a 5-year plan but it happened through listening back and really just trying to understand it as a performance. Perhaps it had a bit to do with being bored of twelve years of Djing. I mean playing in a band is so much fun… well it’s also a fucking pain in the ass!!! (Band mates chortling in the background) No let me re-define this. (Sarcastically) IT’S AN UTTER PAIN IN THE ASS… I mean touring man, we’ve been on the road for one day and I’m like, “what the fuck have I let myself in for?!?!?” You’ve met my band-mates right? What a rag-tag bunch of kiwi miscreants and party freaks. (Smiling and loud belly laughs erupt from the group) That said it’s a lot of fun – to be on stage is so much more gratifying than playing records. The chemistry with in the band and with the audience is awesome.


Recloose - Mana's Bounce from Hiatus on the Horizon

That really comes through when you are on stage. “Hiatus” presents quite a departure from your previous album Cardiology. Did you change your approach dramatically to build that sound?

I still use Logic as my core program so I didn’t change my approach that much. I suppose it had to do with being in New Zealand. Having a different set of sounds and influences and the change in the visual environment is just different. That coupled with having my son – both those things lightened me up quite a bit. You know Detroit is quite a dark and heavy place and you listen to that music (Cardiology) and you understand how it was made there. You can’t really make that kind of music being in NZ, I mean, a lot of people do but it always comes out sounding empty because you don’t have that frame of reference. Where as music that has that lighter feel to it, well, a more acoustically driven instrumentation inevitably captures the soul of this place. It can still be heavy like when the horns come through but that’s really what is happening here in NZ. The countryside has a lot more substance, a lot more soul, people go to the city to find themselves but the soul that’s there is what people have already brought with them. At some point in time everyone was a country bum, not literally but certainly for the majority of us if we go back to our roots.

So when you hand over a track for remixing is there ever a pang shooting through you?

There’s always a risk when you ask people to remix stuff that they’ll mess it up or lose the core of what it’s about but in the end it’s you that asked them to do the remix and you’ve trusted them to do it and you’ve taken that chance. That’s just the nature of the music business.

Do you enjoy doing remix work yourself?

Yeah I like remixes, they’re fun. I think for me they can be a bit of a distraction because I’ve done so many. Sometimes I wish I’d spent more time working on my own stuff but the thing with remixes is that they are a LOT of fun. You can do them relatively quickly and they constitute, for a lot of artists, our bread and butter.

And finally, what would be your ultimate after party?

Sweet man, well I would love to get my Detroit crew and my Wellington crew together and just mess around, party it up, jam and do it like a good old fashioned house party. I’d get my man Carl Craig across, Theo (Parrish) would be down, John Arnold, Jeremy Ellis, Lisa Tomlins on the mic, Amp Fiddler would be up there, Moodymann would be there and all the Fat Freddys boys… yeah that would be insane.


The new album is due out soon in the UK and is already released down under - by the sounds of it we're getting more high quality musicianship and heavy dance floor pressure. Be sure to cop this.

Recloose Homeboi page
Mixes, mp3's and more

And here's a treat for all you fans of bumpin' fidgety house:
Recloose - Dust (Induceve Mix)

Don't Call It A Comeback

We've been here for... well, a year i guess.

There has been a bit of a gap in the posts of late, which i am sorry about. The Electrique Boutique night on the Monday came to an end to be replaced by The Black Tooth Lounge, a rock night which is going really well. They had The Deathset playing the other week which was an awesome gig.

Electrique Boutique will now be run on Fridays at Snafu, which is a much better slot for it. Upcoming guests confirmed so far are Duke Dumont, Sinden and Herve, Crookers and Jojo De Freq, Andrew Weatherall, Erol Alken, Felix Da Housecat, Slam, Percy X and a load more i will keep you up to date with.

To get back into the swing of the blogging malarkey i have a mix from Kid Bell. I have played with him a lot in the past and always enjoyed his dj style and banter. I remember once djing with him and singing 'Brazilian Rhyme' into the mic whilst he mixed the original into my horrendous warblings. He also ran the Goodfoot night at the Tunnels which i used to love going along to get down to some soulful flavours. Their guests included Mad Matts (owner of Gamm records) Zero Db, Quantic, Monk One, Benji B, Domu and a few others i cannot remember off the top of my head.

Kid Bell - Tuesday Night At Seymours

Tracklist:
Detroit Experiment - Higher
Maspyke - No big deal
Viper Squad - Case closed
Dj Day - A Place to go
Soulphiction - Prison song
Inohs Sivad Feat. Diamondancer - Somewhere Else
Soultoursit - Side dish
Mark E - Scared
Linkwood -Piece of mind
Waajeed - Tron
Imagination - Just An Illusion (Lindstrom dub)
O Boogie - Paper Chaser (Tom Trago & Maximillion's Big Business Remix)
Metro Area - Pina
Steve and I - 96
Patchworks - Celebration (Amp Fiddler instrumental)
Christian Prommers Drumlesson - Rex Drums
Alice Smith - Love Endeavour (Maurice Fulton remix)
Trusme - Working nights
Chic - I want your love (Todd Terje Mix)
Mark Murphy - Love is what stays (Henrik Schwarz remix)
Milton Jackson - Ghosts in my machine
Deetron - I Cling
Flying Lotus - Dance Floor Stalker
Thom Yorke - Eraser (Dixon edit)
Build an ark - You gotta have freedom (2 banks of 4 mix)

Bonus Ghettotech bootie

Skream - Midnight Request Line (Cutlass Supreme Remix)

If you are out in Aberdeen this week, come check me out, i am playing at Snafu on Thursday (filling in for Steven Milne) and Friday, 99 on Saturday and i am Back in Snafu on Sunday djing for this bartending competition.

I Is Bored

I have been so bored today it is ridiculous. I staved off the boredom for a while watching stupid youtube videos. Lasagna Cat is good as it really shows how shit Garfield was.


Also Clark and Michael held my attention during the hours i could have been doing something worthwhile. Michael Cera the star of Arrested Developement and his buddy Clark Duke's internet show is pretty funny and has a few cameos.

I am really enjoying Santogold at the moment, especially the Creator track. Baltimore's Dj Scottie B did a cool bmore version of the tune that i am gonna be spinning out n the coming months. I hope this gets an official release soon.

Santogold - Creator


Santogold - Creator (Scottie B Remix)


The DFA remix of Paper Planes was leaked online this week as well. I wasn't really blown away by the original version, i thought it was alright but not worthy of the reception it seemed to get from the critics. This one is more my sort of speed with a spacey, cosmic vibe that i could imagine sounding good next to some Italians Do It Better release.

MIA - Paper Planes (DFA Remix)


Also hip hop heavyweight Dj Premier has remixed Grammy winning Dj and producer Mark Ronson. The remix of the Radiohead cover is quite a nice spin on the original, putting a hip hop slant on the funk version by scratching in the horn sections and keeping the whole thing mixable.

Mark Ronson - Just (Dj Premier Remix)


Well i am off to watch some more mind numbing television until i feel like commiting suicide.

Holy Chris!

I have been listening to the Toddla T dj set on Sinden's radio show this week and i was really taken with the mashup he did with Holy Ghost! and Chris Brown. So much so infact that i decided to chuck it together so i can play it out when i am djing. Kind of lame and not original i realise, but so what? I'm sure at least one person will appreciate it and that is all i need.

Holy Ghost! vs Chris Brown ft T Pain - Hold On Kiss Kiss


Toddla T dj set on Sinden's Kiss radio show (From Maddecent)

Toddla T Ghettoblaster 1 Mixtape

Live from Electrique Boutique

So i recorded my set last night in the club and even though i am far from happy with it i am offering it up here for download. It's not bad by any stretch, just not as tight as i am usually.

Live at Snafu pt 1


Live at Snafu pt 2


Tracklist

Vincent Price and Michael Jackson intro (i actually stopped the music in the club to do this bit)
Digital Mystikz - Anti War Dub
Benga - Crunked Up
Skream - 2d
Mala - Left Leg Out
Marc Houle - Techno Vocal (Dub)
Pirate Soundsystem - Scream if you wanna go rasta
Underground Resistance - Footwars
Smith and Mighty - B-line fi blow
Bok Bok - World Changing Dub
Blaqstarr - Shake It To the Ground (Claude Von Stroke Mix)
Hannah Holland - Crackney
Crookers - Para De Graasinha
Congorock - Exodus
A Hundred Birds - Jaguar
Danielle Baldelli - Safari
Rhythim is Rhythim - Strings Of Life
Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction
Nuyorican Soul - Nervous Track
Efdemin - Lohn and Brot

Part 2
Efdemin - Lohn and Brot
Isolee - Do Re Mi
Green Velvet - Shake and Pop (instrumental)
Jerome Sydenham - Timbuktu
Jess and Crabbe - Council
Jesse Rose - Wake Up
SL2 - Djs Take Control
Bassnectar - Yo (Speakerpunk Brazilian Rave Remix)
Bassment Jaxx - Hey U (Switch and Sinden remix)
Dr Evil - Mary Jane (Solid Groove Remix)
Bonde Do Role - Solta O Frango
Ludacris - Roll Out
Radioclit - Divine Gosa
Elite Force - Used and Abused (Zodiac Cartel Remix)
Bell X1 - Flame (Solid Groove Remix)
L-vis 1990 - Mr Wobble
Twocker - Stitch
Sawtooth Sucka - Crazy
Pase Rock - The Motherfucking Rave Is Over
Bassment Jaxx - Nifty
Rod Lee - Understand
Pitbull - Move Shake Drop
Benni Benassi - Satisfaction (Mowgli Bootleg)
Duke Dumont - Lean and Bounce
Mattew Jonson - Followed By Angels

That is not a picture of me btw

OOOOOOOFT!!!!!

Drums Of Death promo mix


Drums of Death info

Showaa Dem!

Zomby just sent us this preview of his upcoming official mixtape. It really does sound like some heavy club action. You can check out his vibe soon in Scotland at Dre$$ 2 $weat in Glasgow on the 22nd. Get your London Underground Doves out for some ill but legal NRG!

Zomby - OFFICIAL MIXTAPE PREVIEW

Bulgarian Interview

The Bulgarian is a producer from (wait for it) Bulgaria, now staying in Cape Town. We are pretty big fans of his music under the names The Bulgarian and Mr Elastik over here at Electrique Boutique so we were pretty chuffed when he agreed to do an interview for us.


Electronic Boutique) So you have quite alot of respect for releasing records as Mr Elastik, what made you want to release the Bulgarian stuff as well? Most of the people who i know who play your Mr Elastik records kind of look down on the fidget house genre for not being very serious.

Bulgarian) Really? Haha, thought it was the other way round. ;) Actually mr. elastik and The Bulgarian came about at around the same time. I was really into all the minimal stuff but then I heard “A little bit Patchy” by Switch (the original dubsided release)... and didn’t really like it. But the flip-side was really dope. So i started checking this sound out and really got into it. Back then it still didn’t have a name so i was calling it ‘electrojack’... thank goodness someone thought of Fidget, much better name.


EB) Was there a record or producer that inspired the switch over of style?

B)I never really switched, rather expanded, but yeah, as I mentioned above it was “The Something Like” on dubsided 005, the flip to “A Bit Patchy”. That, and hearing Switch playing later that year at the Exit Festival in Serbia that sealed the deal for me. It was just a real breath of fresh air at the time!


EB)What other producers do you feel an affinity to right now?

B)I value the people more than the products and our personas are just that: products. So I’ll rather just mention some of the cats i’m getting along with at the moment that i think are cool; Bryan Cox, KiNK, my man Vlad Sokolov and also my Potty Mouth cohorts. I’m also on good terms with the Crookers, me and Phra have some funny msn conversations!

EB)Where have you found the Bulgarian sound goes down best? Are you booked to play alot as him in Bulgaria or South Africa for example?

B)Never actually played in Bulgaria! Hoping to change that soon, but i haven’t lived there for a long time and there’s not that much of an underground scene. South Africa is also a very tiny tiny fraction of the musical pie but it was where “The Bulgarian” was born so yeah, played here a bit. ;)

As to where the sound goes down the best... ... i’ll let you know! ;)


EB)Do you feel that the Cape town scene is particularly different from Durban or Jo'burg due to it's Cape Malay, San etc population - the sheer mix of ethnicities must make for some different vibes - the Cape Flats are a hot bed of kwaito right?

B)South Africa is a very colourful place in general and yes the cities are quite different, not least of which is their relative isolation from one another due to the sheer distances between them, JoBurg is about 1500Km from Cape Town and Durban is just over 1000 i think, so cross-pollination is hard, but Kwaito is definitely a national sound! In fact myself and my old studio partner Damien have been credited by some of the local media as having invented a new genre as the Tone Deaf Junkies: We call it Kwaitech, think electronic tech-kwaito. ;)

EB)It was your Discobelle mix that turned me onto Brabe, which in turn revealed Rene Van Munster and Bootlickers. How on earth did you discover him? I have tried looking for music i like on Myspace before and it is a soul destroying task.

B)I have a very time-consuming habit of checking out every single myspace page of everyone i get a friend request from as i think its polite and you never know what you might find. Of my nearly 2000 friends i’ve hand approved and looked at every single one of their pages Brabe and Rene were among those. So if your friend request is taking a few days to get approved its usually because im trying to find some time to get through a whole bunch of back-logged requests.


EB) Are there any other up and coming producers you want to big up right now?

B) While he’s been around for longer than me and is not really doing badly by any means he is still up and coming and so i have to give a shout out to the other Bulgarian. My man KiNK (on my top friends on my myspace page), the dude has talent, especially when you see what he works on!!!

The Bulgarian - Uptown Jack


The Bulgarian - Barnyard Dance


Remember to support the artists we feature here on the blog, if you don't they might not bother making the exciting music that you enjoy dancing to.
Buy his stuff.

Juno

Beatport

It's Fidget Week!

Since it is only five bat days until Crookers grace the stage at Snafu to grace us with a graceful dj set i am devoting this week to the genre of fidget/crunk/ghetto house. After that i'll move onto trend house and then haircut house.

Let's begin shall we?

Dusty Kid - The Cat (Crookers Euro Crunk Remix)


Crookers vs Salt and Pepa - Love To Push It (Ursula 1000 edit)



Make sure and check out the upcoming Knobbers ep on Southern Fried Records.

Piracy Funds Terrorism

We continue our ramble through the bass'ed out environs of the LDN by stopping by the Pirate Soundsystem boys and getting the gen. Donnison Laing and Josh Grigg make up the Buccaneer Suvvener duo responsible for some heavy remix work for the likes of Hadouken, Drop the Lime and Si Begg amongst others.

Electrique Boutique -How did you get started?

Donnison - Me and Josh met via the mash-up/diy scene in about 2003 and were fans of each others work. out of that we started helping each other out with beats and bass lines, and then in 2005 decided to make it a formal partnership.

Josh - We decided that there wasn't enough of 'this' kind of music in the world and we should probably do our duty to help remedy that.

EB - Ok So I'm going bananas over "Scream if you wanna go Rasta." In it I'm hearing elements of what I'm tentatively calling Rave-Step...it's a term Neil Landstrumm coined to describe his own particular sound but I'm increasingly finding it useful in curating like mind producers. How do you feel about this term - I notice from your listed influences a number of old skool heroes.

D - Well, we definitely drew heavily from Rave & Dubstep influences in that track - we sampled the vocal from an old Tek9 track - so Rave-Step is probably about right I love Neil Landstrumm's work... he gets so many ideas into his tracks it's incredible.

J - Terms are annnnnything. Rave-Step is a nice term... It hints at Rave and Dubstep and all the loose genres between those two... but if people hear the name for the genre before the music their cognitive space will only relate to Rave & Dubstep, so what happens when people start throwing in guitars or techno drums... then we have to start all over again. Making up genres is fun though, lets just keep doing it.

EB - Yeah I wanted to touch on the volume of ideas that are in your work so it's handy you've kind of brought that up. I almost wanted to call what you were doing rave-break-mash-step-core but then I decided I needed to slap myself in the face and turn off the pitchfork stream... I think it's a shame so much dance music is so po-faced. I'm not gonna be dancing to Shitmat for example but I admire what he does over, say... Lethal Bizzel

D - Haha.. Yeah I know what you mean - a lot people are scared of hooks. Really great music completely overwhelms you. Drop The Lime's remix of Mathhead's 'drop it' is a perfect example – it’s immediately in your face, and gets more and more intense, and then after the drop when you can't believe it could keep up that intensity, it kicks back in twice as hard – breathless and completely dance-floor. I think that's what we're aiming for... taking all these ideas and influences and making it work on the floor.

EB - Seems that if last year was about Dubstep breaking through to the international mainstream the past 6 months in the UK have been about bassline/niche/4x4 gaining momentum. Now with Bok Bok & Manara (Faggatronix) and Zomby each doing a niche mix on the recent Mad Decent podcast we can perhaps expect to see more exposure for producers of your ilk.

D - Yeah the music coming out at the moment is just fantastic. I think it's the right direction for UKG right now… too much grime was starting to sound like hip-hop. Bassline is a real UK sound. It's such an exciting time to be making and listening to music! It's definitely spreading internationally, we did a gig in Denmark last month @ 'ghetto rave' , and they just love anything bass. The local djs were incredible, and playing some amazing dubstep & bassline.

J - "Niche" is a funny beast though... It likes to stick to it's own turf... So, expect to see a million "basstep", "housebass", "nichecrunk" genres appearing in London...



EB - They look like they really know how to have a party - I was speaking to a friend about the bass scene internationally and he rated the Ukraine as having a really sound scene and the guys there know their history - Do you think enough folk here know their roots - does this even matter?

D - It's not too important. Finding out about the history and context of music can only be a good thing, but at the same time, you don't *need* it to enjoy a track. There's something to be said for feeling like you're hearing music that's come out of nowhere.

J - Yeah.. Of course it's good to do some digging! If you like something then find out about it! There are too many people just getting given a music taste by blogs and pop media. But obviously everyone has to start somewhere, people shouldn't get mad because someone doesn't know where some genre all began or whatever..."

EB - How did that Si Begg remix come about - is he some kind of mentor?

J - "When I was about 17 the music I was listening to didn't sound right. I liked the drum fills and attention to detail in Breakbeat and the shuffle of garage and the bass in hard house and bits of loads of other 'genres' but none of them put them all together in a way that really satisfied me. When I found Si Begg's tracks I felt like this was an amalgamation of everything that I wanted to listen to. A few years later and we get an email from him asking us if we'd like to do a remix. I'm really happy we were asked, a nerdy dream becomes reality.

EB - What's on the cards for the next 6 months?

D- Well we've spent the last couple of months putting together a load of new original material, so the plan is to shortly start approaching remixers and putting out 6 or 7 whitelabels. We'll see how it goes from there!

EB - So what labels are you into at the moment? How do you feel about the current remix culture as seen on say Dubstep forum or Hollerboard? Blogging itself has something to answer for... wait this is getting post-modern...

J - From where i'm sitting mp3 blogging seems to be getting more of a conscience regarding shoving everyones music up in high quality form. Also, the artists being increasingly blogged about are ones who dont have record deals and give the tracks to the bloggers willingly, which is great, there's nothing illegal about gving away your own music.

D - Haha.. There's just so much out there now innit? It's really positive that you can just make music and get it out there now. There's plenty of weak tracks that are just a load of loops chucked in Ableton, but you know, I'm constantly hearing great and original new music made by some kid in his bedroom that more than makes up for the glut of lazy re-edits. The best stuff is always gonna float to the top - witness the success of the Trouble & Bass guys, Dubsided etc etc.

EB - I have a lot of time for both those crews - we've been tracking a lot of the artist's affiliated to those labels but if they had a straight up street fight - like DTL decided to roll deep - which crew would be left standing? No weapons, no biting, no gauging.

D - Hahaha! My money would be on Luca (DTL)... he's pretty tall and he's got so much energy… like the energizer bunny!

J - Switch is like a bear though, he'd snap Luca like a twig. Also, no one would hit Herve because he's too pretty.

Scream if you wanna go Rasta - Pirate Soundsystem zshare

Your Love - Pirate Soundsystem zshare

Non Stop Cut Paste (Pirate Soundsystem rmx) - Si Begg zshare

Romp And Play - Reverberate (Pirate Soundsystem Vocal Mix) exclusive to Electrique Boutique

Bass in your face

Just a quick post because our friend L-Vis (See here for our interview with him) has done a wicked little Hyperbass remix of Benga and Coki's Night record.

Benga and Coki - Night (L-Vis 1990 Hyperbass remix)



Since i am posting some borderline Bassline/Niche badness i'm gonna hook up the hottest 4x4 banger of the moment remixed by the man who gave us the Pow! rhythm, Dexplicit.

Kasia - Over You (Dexplicit Remix)


We are coming up for our 100th post so i might do something special for it. I might not though so don't get your hopes up.

KID TWIST

Hailing from the West Coast of Scotland, a raver in a bothy with a prediliction for kraut rock and hardcore, Kid Twist has risen to notoriety through his commitment to music and his wondering impressario showcase. With a regular night in Glasgow but now based in London, KT has rocked Brooklyns finest and put out his records on the same label as former Snafu guests The Chap. A man with more than one recording name whose sounds reflect a sardonic perhaps schizophrenic approach to production - this electroid power pop is probably just the right kind of fay balladry to moisten the gunnels of your intended come the 14th.

Check out the video to his track "I can't Dance"

A Bionic Yell EP (plus Canada Day as a goody)

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