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.
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)
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.
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.
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
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.
Jitting is a form of dance from Detroit that focuses mainly on footwork, Juking is the Chicago counterpart. There is a healthy rivalry between the two scenes although they both have their own individual styles.
This pointless post is because i got sent an album by a band who sound a bit like NYPC who i thought were cool a few years ago. I have an unabashed passion for punkfunk. I shed a tear when i heard ESG had disbanded recently. Anyway 'Come On' sounds really good if you slow it right down, cosmic style and the others would be good indie disco favourites if indie music still got played in the clubs. Shame you guys are destined to be played the same 'Skins' bullshit for the next year until modern music is a far and distant mirage that you no longer understand.
For this installment i have chosen some records that are dear to me for various reason.
The first is 'You Never Come Closer' by Doris from the 1970 album 'Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby'. I first heard about this record from Mike when i worked in the Cavern. We would drive around Scotland doing collections and since my tape deck had broken we would talk about tunes and albums that we liked. He had a real passion for music that wasn't really cool at the time (like prog, psych, garage punk) and would tell me about loads of records i really should have gone out and bought. I really treasure the times i worked with him and this record (along with many others) reminds me of him. Doris were an odd Swedish band that counted a Scot amoungst their ranks, he didn't where a kilt apparently.
My mum used to go to second hand record shops and buy records for me down south, she got me pretty much every Madonna 12" as well as a load of cool mid nineties house, 80s pop records and a heap of weird records that i probably wouldn't know about otherwise. She would record the songs she thought i would like onto cassette tapes and send me them along with the records. I was listening to one of the tapes one day and there were a slew of tracks that i didn't remember recieving, one of them was 'Take My Heart' by Mary Saxton. I had a mad hunt through all my 7" boxes but couldn't find it anywhere. I never did find it and she maintains that she sent it. The song has the same backing track as The Tamms shag classic 'Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy' but bangs about 100 times harder.
When i first started djing i played at Lowlife and Lifestyle nights quite a lot. They were awesome nights, i got to see folk like Faze Action, Nightmares On Wax, Cinematic Orchestra, The Soul Destroyers as well as loads of other bands and djs. It really opened up my eyes to a more soulful way to dj and build up the night. Admittedly i was also playing quite a bit of 'dad house' and maybe buying into the whole 'love will save the day' ethos a bit too much. It was cool having a dancefloor all getting wild to old soul records and disco though. This song reminds me of Gordon who organised and dj'd alot of the nights i played at back then.
This record i used to play all the time when i played at this cool little tapas bar that every dj who liked soul music seemed to play at. It slipped into disco sets quite nicely as i recall.
The Boardroom are a collective of producers out of London who make nice minimal electro techno. Their ranks are quite large, as is their output and they deserve to be a lot better known. A Boardroom member produced a Two Lone Swordsmen song from their latest album and the 'Bullet Catchers Apprentice' ep by Andrew Weatherall was produced in the boardroom. There is a definite air of mystique about them, you don't really garner much information from their website. Who are they? What have they come to teach us?
The Ramjets were a post punk band from Aberdeen in the mid to late eighties, i have one record by them and it is a private pressing that has a different band name on it. I met one of the band and he gave me a cd with all of their other tunes and a bunch of alternate takes of some of the songs. The one i have chosen to post is a more electronic version of a song that was on the e.p. I think it is from 1984-85 and it has a definite flavour of Depeche Mode and early Mute.
Antix makes mashups and remixes and is based in Falkirk in Scotland. His remixes get regular spin by DJ Muggs and on NYS radio, he also releases stuff through the Crooklyn Clan's website. He has won a bunch of, like, mashup competitions and stuff (including one on something called MTV) and he even made a special mashup for this very blog. I asked him a few questions about stuff and whatever and he was all like, answering and stuff.
EB: you seem to get more love over in the states, why do you think this is?
Antix – I'd say it's mostly to do with the intake of hip hop music in America. Fair enough, the UK is starting to build itself up and is progressing nicely with artists / lyricists like Akala, Sway and Lady Sovereign but generally speaking, the UK isn't even in the same league when it comes to playing the game. Unfortunately a lot of it is to do with the money the artist's labels have behind them, yet again, we're not even in the same league here. The promotion the same music gets at each side of the Atlantic is totally different as well. We get a single playing for a couple of months on MTV here, whereas in the states those same artists are on the news, doing radio & TV talk shows and meeting fans every day. So like anything, the music has much more of an impact when its constantly being rubbed into the public's face. It boils down to the artists / listeners over there doing my promotion for me. There's just more of a market in the states so people such as radio DJ's are more prone to playing material that they just know is good, material that they haven't panicked about whether or not its considered OK to play since its made by wee Antix from Scotland, ya know?
EB: Would you say that Grime and Dubstep are the Uk's equivilant to the Hip Hop scene in America? Certainly Lady Sovereign and Sway come from that background as do Wiley and Dizzee and these artists are generally more accepted as homegrown talent.
Antix - Not exactly. I'd say Hip Hop, just like any style, has mothered a lot of smaller, more locally produced variations, but I wouldn't class any of them as equivalents. Its like a spider-graph with Hip Hip placed firmly in the middle. The aim of the game for a lot of people is to find a new sound, or something that they can market as their own which means each week there's some new label or artist trying to advertise themselves as having created the next hot sound. Truth of the matter is, the general creation of “artists” these days is pathetic. There's no sound on the planet that hasn't been heard already so people are clutching at straws trying to find something to market....since that's more or less all it is now to most.
EB: Last question, you and i are driving home after a gig out of town, it was a pretty classy affair with free buckfast and miniture mince and mealie pie canapes. So we are in a dialogue about whether the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album sounds better on vinyl compared to cd or not and you don't notice that a man has stepped in front of the car. Unable to react quick enough, you mow him down and when we go back to see if he is okay we realise that he was killed by the impact. It is about now that i recognise him as my baby mother's new man, who i was videotaped making death threats to after he voiced his opinion that i should pay some child support. I am not really keen on hanging at the scene any more and want to leave and just pretend it never happened, what would you do?
Antix – Giles, I sincerely hope this is a rhetorical question and you're not looking for the perfect way to murder the Ex's new partner. I think torching the car would be the best solution, with every possible character witness for the prosecution stuffed inside somehow. No case, no charges. We continue drinking and they all lived happily ever after.
Antix has a EP coming out soon called '6 of the best' which has one side dedicated to club remixes and the other to more dangerous remixes. He is also starting a night in Falkirk to try to blur the lines between hip hop and dance music. We will be watching him.
Check his Myspace or one of his two websites for more on Antix.
I have been a fan of Dj C since i heard his mental, jungle mash up of Shinehead's 'Billie Jean' which took the reggae cover of Micheal Jackson's classic warning about nailing skeezers and turned it into a dancefloor annihilator. He seems to shun the normal route of releasing a certain style of music, prefering to be release an ever evolving stream of bass heavy club rockers that range from breakbeat to dubstep to jungle and so on. His Mashit label is a home for similiarly minded producers such as Murderbot, Dj Flack, Aaron Spectre, Dj Sux and more. John Peel was even feeling his steez, choosing Mashit to be his 'Label of the month' in October 2004 and asking him to provide a dj mix for the show. He has also remixed M.I.A., Gregory Isaacs and more recently Dj Donna Summer.
He was kind enough to let me ask him some questions.
EB: The whole bass heavy breakbeat scene seems to be gathering steam again, were do you see yourself in the scene at the moment?
DJ C: I have absolutely no idea. I really don't ever fit into a scene. I'm always doing some shit that doesn't conform well enough to a particular movement.I do like bass-heavy beats though.
EB: What producers are doing it for you right now?
DJ C: I'm really liking Switch, Stereotyp, South Rakkas Crew, Buraka Som Sistema, The Bug, Diplo, Mark Ronson, Rod Lee, Starkey, Sosolimited, Toddla T.
EB: Your style does seem to touch base on a lot of different sounds, how do you go about finding out about new stuff? Does djing help with this?
DJ C: You mean touch 'bass'. ha ha... Yeah, my DJ style has always been eclectic,and was pushed even farther in that direction by inspiration from DJ /rupture back when we used to throw parties together in Boston. I used to find out about new stuff by reading magazines and listening to records at shops. These days it's all about music-blogs, social networking websites, and sharing stuff with other producers and DJs. It's a really exciting time in that sense. The emergence of digital DJing is also part of convergence with file sharing technologies.
EB: How did you get started? who inspired you to start making tunes? Is their a Jamaican link here? as it is a sound you seem to come to alot in your productions
DJ C: I started as a child. My parents are artists and exposed me to lots of culture. My father used to make percussion instruments and play them with me when I was an infant. I then began playing drums on pots and pans, and banging on a little guitar my parents gave me for my 5th birthday. My parents were also reggae fans so I grew up listening to it. I don't know why Jamaican music resonates with me so much, but I really love it.
EB: You got to present a mix for the late John Peel's show, how did this come about? Was he as respected overseas as he was here? (he was pretty much a national treasure over here)
DJ C: Yes, he was really respected over here too, but not as well known. Only music-nerds knew about him over here; mostly because of all the great Peel Sessions albums that were released. When I began the Mashit label I started sending him the records. He dug 'em and would play them on the show. Eventually he decided to feature Mashit as a "label of the month," and asked me to do a mix of Mashit tracks. It was obviously a huge honor. The complete shock was that he died that same month. It was really sad. He did huge things for music culture.
EB: Have you found your records are appreciated more in a certain country?
DJ C: Yes, as a matter of fact, I think they're most appreciated in your country. 7 out of the last 13 of my releases have been on UK-based labels, and probably most of the other 6 releases sold better there too. My recent album was released on a Japanese label but I don't have a report yet on how it's doing there. I think my stuff does OK in other parts of Europe and in the States too, but best in the UK.
EB: So what have you got in the pipeline for us djs to devour next?
DJC: Zulu and I have an upcoming record on the Community Library label called "Darling" with a remix by Ghislain Poirier. I also did a remix for Ghislain's tune "Blazin" that's being released on the first 12-inch for his new Ninja Tune record. The digital version of that is already out: Here it is.
I've got a mashup that's about to drop on the new Heatwave 12-inch seriesCheck it out.
I also recently did a raved-up remix for DJ Donna Summer that'll be coming out around the release of his new album.
There are more colabs with Zulu in the future too. Stay tuned to http://mashit.com for all the upcoming stuff. Folks should check that out anyway 'cause we've been releasing lots of free music on there.
When not working on music videos for Armand Van Helden and most recently the Stereo MC's, young up-start and Brighton based agent provocateur L-Vis 1990 aka James Connolly can be found making bass fuelled dance music made for flying into war. Electrique Boutique takes 5 to talk crap with the man with bleeding ears:
ELECTRIQUE BOUTIQUE - So L-Vis 1990 … Hyper Bass - What’s in a name?
L-VIS 1990 - Recently there has been a massive upsurge in bass heavy dance music that is pretty much unclassifiable Sinden, Herve, Duke Dumont , Switch Etc. I think it is a really exciting time. Dance floors aren’t taking themselves too seriously anymore. Gone are the days when Edbanger ruled, midrange is out and bass is back! The whole Hyper Bass thing was something I came up with, kind of in jest, whilst chatting with Drop The Lime, but I think it works when referring to my music. Hyper Bass draws on all the aspects of dance music that have really inspired me over the last 6 years. Electro, Breaks, Dub step, B-more, Booty Bass and Drum & Bass… its all about the energy.
EB - Yeah, Bass and UK dance music have been synonymous since the Windrush docked; do you feel that there is particular interest from the States because of this? Their bass scene is well established but maybe because of our appropriated heritage we have a unique angle...
LV - I think since the early days of dance music the US and UK have been playing a tennis match over the Atlantic knocking back and forth different styles and sounds. The boundaries are very blurred. I think the roots of my bass sound are firmly UK, I grew up playing and raving to Breakbeat and Drum and Bass. However I tired due to the lack of variance and fun, I guess that is when I started to look at the sounds coming from the US and the rest of Europe. Until recently Electro (Electro not Electro - FOR THOSE WHO KNOW) in the UK was dominated by Europe... fucking arpegiators everywhere! But since B-more, Booty Bass and even Baile Funk leaked into our country things have completely changed. Producers are dropping their Korgs and picking up their bass stations again. I think the British scene is so fresh right now because we pluck all the best bits from US and Europe and then back here - sling it all together. The funny thing is that until say 4 years ago the only modern dance music I was aware of from the US was Crystal Method! BLEURGH! That's all changed now of course... I think the Internet might have something to do with it.
EB - One of my mates once described Breakbeat as sounding like Student Rave - he meant this in a positive way I think - it's interesting how things are almost coming full circle - we're hearing trance and rave sounds from synths in main stream hip-hop tracks, indie kids are gettin' on one and dub-step is forging dynamic ground socially and musically - is the UK dance scene on the cusp of something again? What's Brighton about in the clubs now?
LV - I think you're absolutely right I’ve had many conversations about how things are coming full circle. Its crazy how in the space of two years… I completely denounced breaks and now I’m using aspects in my own sound. Brighton used to be ruled by Drum and Bass and Breaks nights and was in the top three cities in the UK for clubbing. But since those styles have fallen out of favour Brighton has fallen completely behind. At the moment Brighton is awash with dull Indie electro nights... The kind of nights that list on their poster exactly what they are gonna play that night (Hot Chip, CSS, Klaxons etc. etc) Brighton is a tough place to do a successful underground night, because it is pretty much overrun with students who only know about stuff they read in the NME. I played this Freshers party on Thursday that had Hot Chip DJ set on the bill. The kids loved my stuff but they were there for Hot Chip... was funny when their drummer came on and played 2 hours of minimal! CLEARED the floor!!! The promoter had to pay £1400 to get that! Could have had any DJ in the world for that but that is the kind of thing that pulls here. However, there are a few nights like, So Loud! (My Night) and Square Roots which are trying to change things.
EB - Was it through your club night that you came into contact with Drop The Lime or was this something to do with Kid 606?
LV - Yeah. I booked Drop The Lime to play So Loud a couple of months back. We had the official funeral for "new rave" that night. We painted a big banner "New Rave R.I.P" and put it above the 15k rig that i got in for the night. I think that was the turning point for me, the return of Bass. Luca and me just bounced loads of ideas around that triggered me to take the direction I'm going in now. It was quite funny comparing the Brighton scene to what was going on in Brooklyn. The ideas i had for the future in Brighton were already in place over there. Luca was the one to pass my music on to Kid606.
EB - What do you mean, what in particular do you see happening over there which is missing in Brighton? Let me re-phrase that - what has inspired you about BK?
LV - I couldn't really pass true judgment on Brooklyn because I haven't been there, but from what I have heard from Luca it seems to be a really exciting place right now. A lot of people with similar ideas throwing parties and making really forward thinking music... what the Trouble & Bass guys have going on over there seems like a movement, that really appeals to me. Starting something like that in Brighton is pretty much impossible.... but I’m going to give it a good go! Brighton is really small place in comparison to Brooklyn. Can’t wait to go over in the New Year!
EB - Will you be celebrating more vinyl releases - what's the scoop with the record?
LV - The thing with Tiger Bass is going to be my first release. I don't have a deal with them - we are gonna put this EP out and see what happens. I’m very excited though, I’ve been buying Kid606's records since I was 16 and I love everything else that comes out on the label. I’m gonna have to start playing vinyl again just so I can play my own 12" out!
EB - How long has it been since you used vinyl - I see you are quite heavily involved in various creative digital media - what is this exhibition you are curating?
LV - I stopped using vinyl about two years ago when I discovered Ableton Live. I love mixing on decks but there is only so much you can do with two records. I have about 5 or six channels that I use in my Live sets… I try and put my own signature on all of the tracks I DJ, using extra beats samples and hooks. The creative freedom within Live is incredible; eventually I want to hook it up with visuals software. The exhibition was planned for summer last year, but it did not happen, it was to focus on London club fashion. The scene had a great energy and buzz, kinda like NY club kids. But the press got all over the "New rave" thing and it killed it, so I decided not to go ahead with it in the end. Shame.
EB - Do you think some as of yet unknown technology will usurp Serato and Ableton... "Aliens dude ;) " - The VDJ is a rising force in club culture and the new version of Serato is specifically catering to this market - in your experience how is this effecting club goers night's in an underground context..
LV - The guys at Ableton are now working with Cycling, the makers of Max MSP… I think that partnership will create something truly amazing! With Live V0.6 they tried to add the video thing but I think they miss-judged peoples requests. People wanted to be able to use the video aspects live… but I imagine CPU usage would be crazy had they done that. I think over the next 5-10 years we are gonna see a massive change in the whole clubbing experience. I find the whole VJ thing at the moment quite strange, DJs and VJs are performing in parallel but there is no connection. I’m sick of seeing cut up images of b-boys and crappy stock footage whilst I’m playing a real dark set. The future definately lies with the dj controlling their own visuals or working closer with the VJ to create a fully immersive experience. Whilst I was at University I studied Audio Visual Synthesis and started experimenting with it, I was obsessed with TV static so i started cutting it to music. I made one video for a Kid 606 track! Haha! Here it is.
LV - That video was just an experiment not official at all, just quite funny how I used a 606 track and now I’m getting a release on his label! I think minimal really lends itself to the multimedia thing because the sounds are so defined making it a lot easier to translate to visuals. Ritchie Hawtin is killing it. But the bass music sound is a lot more complex and varied. I have this thing in mind for my AV set. There is a Japanese film called Tetsuo, a really dark, hyperactive, industrial film about guy whose body mutates into to a machine… it’s fucked up! Check the trailer:
There are some incredible visual snippets that I'm going to try and match to my sounds. Its gonna be intense audiovisual assault! Bass smells like the Volks in Brighton the place where I first discovered DnB and 303 tastes of toxic jelly!
