Beyond the Stars

Chart - Hot House For 2012

2012-01-14T01:26:00.000Z

It's 2012 and there's LOADS of amazing music coming out and knocking around from the end of last year. Here's some the records that are jingling my jangles - and a quick explanation as to why.

1 - Legowelt mix is one of the best records I've ever heard
2 - Wonky as f**k, well in Dan Beaumont
3 - Drapes = beautiful, beautiful acid
4 - Late night re-rub from SoulPhiction
5 - Slow and groovy head turner
6 - Forthcoming - Feelharmonic's one to watch
7 - Shhh, this one's a secret
8 - Soundstream nuff said
9 - How do remix perfection? Like this y'all.
10 - I've got a funky feeling, have you?
11 - Repress of the month - still banging
12 - JACK IT!
13 - Rubbish vocal, awesome dub
14 - Arp stays sharp
15 - Afropsychojungledub be good to me man

Problems viewing the player? I have too. Follow this >>LINK<<

Hot Newness! Diesel and Jarvis on Moton Records Inc.

2011-12-28T23:41:00.000Z

In the run up to the Christmas holidays, a number of musical goodies dropped into both the physical and electronic mailboxes at Beyond The Stars Towers. The quality of these treats and has driven me to review them all for your delectation. First up is the new release from Moton Records Inc.

Moton is Dave’s long stand collaboration with the more handsome half of X-Press 2, Diesel (sorry Rocky x), starting, albeit with a different line up, in the 1990s when disco edits were some way from most people’s minds. Now, after a break of almost 2 years, they’re back with their 30th release.

The first track, ’Love and Money’, is a slo-mo Italo chugger that quite definitely tips its hat in the direction of Herb Alpert’s ‘Rotation’. In fact if you can imagine a spacey, slow, dubbed out electro version of ‘Rotation’, with wailing echo soaked guitars and a girl breathily panting about money and love over the top, you’ll be well on the way to understanding what this sounds like. Actually, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well it is.

Things get more up-tempo with the second track, kicking off with a heavily edited choppy, staccato percussion intro, before the beats start rolling with a healthy smattering of cowbell, then when the bassline drops and starts to sound s bit like a long lost Ian Dury dub before the slick female vocal slides in and we’re in some sort of left field boogie wonder land. He’s on the run apparently. He’s out there just for you, in fact. Edits like this drive me round the twist. Why have I never heard the original? How can a track this good not be well known? Have I been living in a disco cave? Have they created a silk purse out of a pigs ear? There’s those choppy drum edits again. Then it‘s over. And I want to go straight back to the beginning.

Great track, great record, great to return to form from the Moton boys. The vinyl should be in the shops around the middle of February.

Video - Konk Live in Tompkins Square

2011-12-28T03:08:00.003Z

Konk are one of my favourite post-Punk New York bands, listening to their records always evokes images moments I never actually experienced on the dancefloors of The Roxy, Danceteria and Save The Robots. Pretty much all their records are great, but ‘Konk Party’, ‘Your Life’, and ‘Love Attack’, which is featured in this video, all come highly recommended.

Tompkins Square is just one of those really interesting places New York. It nestles between Avenue A and B in the lower East Side of Manhattan, in an area known as Alphabet City (because the avenues are lettered rather than numbered) just north of Houston Street. But when I first visited, there wasn’t any sort of NoHo vibe going on, east of Avenue B Alphabet City was pretty lawless - derelict buildings were abound, third world-esque shanty towns of homeless people existed on bulldozed blocks, projects bordered the area and drug dealers openly plied their trade on street corners.

Tompkins Square was also favoured by many homeless people and has a history of being a breeding for protest and public disorder, with it providing a back drop to the American Civil War draft riots in the 1860s, the infamous Tompkins Square riots when workers clashed with police in he 1870s, through to clashes in 44 people were injured, when the police tried to clear the square of homeless people in 1988. And the following year the ‘Butcher of Tompkins Square’ fed the homeless people, who were still there, soup made with human body parts (look it up if you’re ghoulish enough).

This video was made 3 years prior to that and 6 years before my first visit, so it was a pretty edgy place you probably didn’t want to hang around too much at night. I’ve been back many times since, not least because the now defunct Dance Tracks record store was a couple of blocks away, and Alphabet City has been massively gentrified and the only thing you need to worry wandering those streets after dark now is which coffee shop to buy your tall skinny frappucino from…

Anyway, the video is great and from another, more interesting time and if you watch the whole thing you get a few glimpses of world in in hard to imagine in existing in the heart of Manhatten. Oh and the music is great too!

Chart - NOVEMBER = THUNDER

2011-11-10T00:23:00.004Z

So with just over two weeks to go until second THUNDER party with Liverpool born and bred Chicago house wunderkind, John Heckle, here a chart of stuff I'm enjoying this month, which includes John's new release, the hot new Strobelight release from Solid State, which Beyond the Stars talent scouted(!), a pair of Omar S double packs, a slick Chez Damier joint, the return of FCL and Storm Queen, a wonky effort from Lone, and the last release from up and coming UK house label, Feelharmonic, which I only just discovered. All brought to you by the late, great, Mr Saville - and no, I don't care what Paul Merton says...

>>Click here for a direct link to the chart on Juno<< or click on the player below

Parties - 'The Idiots Are Winning' with Chez Damier, Friday 4 November

2011-11-03T00:40:00.001Z

About a year ago, I found myself scouting for venues and in the basement of a sushi bar at the Clerkenwell end of Old Street. Whilst standing at the bar, in this small but perfectly formed underground space, a poster a party on the wall caught my eye, with a line up boasting 20:20 Vision act Crazy P, one half of the Unabombers, Luke, and Sheffield house legend, Chris Duckenfield, amongst others. Pretty impressive such a smaller venue, off the beaten track. Almost a year on, ‘The Idiots Are Winning’, have got a series of parties under their collective belts, all with cracking line ups that have included the likes of Luke Una, Rob Mello, Luke Solomun and I:Cube, and they are now preparing for their first birthday party, with bona fide house legend, Chez Damier.

I’m pretty excited, to be honest. Chez Damier is a fantastic DJ, has made some of the best house records ever committed vinyl and ran one of the best house labels in history, Prescription. So, I took the opportunity to catch up ‘The Idiots Are Winning’ resident and promoter, Jake Manders find out a bit more about these parties.

So, who are the brains behind ‘The Idiots Are Winning’ and inspired you get together to do the party?

Both myself and 'Idiots' cohort Louis used to run various parties in a Labour club in our hometown of Hebden Bridge. Having moved to London a number of years ago, I guess we were always potentially looking to get back into it. What tipped us over the edge from 'thinking about it' to actually 'doing it' was a chance encounter with Chris [Duckenfield] on one of the infamous Petrcane boat parties. With no little sense, he agreed to get involved - probably much to his regret as every other month I'm hassling him to do promo of some sort!

Does the party have some sort of underpinning ethos?

There is an ethos, so to speak, but not a particularly ground breaking one: Informal, infrequent parties with the odd red light thrown in. I think being from the north with it's various esteemed nights - Basics, Electric Chair, Scuba et al - played it's part in how we view a decent party.

Life really provides a great basement for your red lights - it’s a real gem of venue, isn’t it?

Definitely. It's a great little venue and works very well for us. We originally heard of it as Gilles Peterson ran a Wednesday night there whilst Defected also use it for one-offs from time to time - Frankie Knuckles recently played down there which as you can imagine, was a bit of a roadblock. On a more visceral level, there's just something immensely appealing about partying in the basement of a Japanese restaurant.

For such a compact space you’ve had some amazing guests - I remember seeing the posters for the first party down there and thinking “Wow!”, it most be a bit of labour of love getting such line-ups together?

We're in a very fortunate position of being able to call on friends and ask a few favours here and there but from a DJ's point of view, I'd take a punt and say that most would prefer playing at more intimate events. Part of the reason we've managed to book Chez Damier for our 1st birthday was on that basis and you only need to look at other parties in London such as Electric Minds' loft parties, Bad Passion and The Lift Party to see that small venues are appealing to both DJ's and punters alike.

Having someone as established and respected as Chris Duckenfield involved in a London party is pretty special, eh?!

Having Chris involved is a huge plus for us and somewhat of a coup. Considering how saturated London is with good, quality parties, I don't think we would have taken the plunge without him onboard. As you know, it's incredibly difficult to carve out a niche and as The Idiots Are Winning is Chris' first residency since Scuba, this has really helped us gain some semblance of a foothold.

Now you‘re almost one, are there any moments from the first year that particularly stand out?

Personally, Crazy P was a particular highlight. To see them play in a venue of that size is practically unheard of these days. There's so little space behind the decks, Danielle was having to sing whilst standing on a little chair in the corner! Seeing Chris, Luke Solomon and Rob Mello going back-to-back was another rare treat.

You’ve got Chez Damier playing too, a true house heavyweight, you most be pretty excited about having him play?

Absolutely. He's flying in from Chicago so as you can imagine for a party of our size, the bare economics of it are difficult but well worth the effort! It's not often you hear a set from a DJ that you know very little of and Chez is one of the few out there that can deliver that.

See you down the front!

WERK! Vogue Video of the Week

2011-11-01T22:45:00.001Z

IT GOT KRAZY! The first in what will undoubtedly be an irregular series, tapping the infinte drama mine of youtube vogue videos.

Chart - The Sound of THUNDER

2011-10-08T19:29:00.002+01:00

New Juno chart chart with hotness from Mark E Evetts. John Heckle, Carl Craig, Modernista Records, Neville Watson, Beond the Stars, and more.

Check the next THUNDER party on SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER, at Visions on Kingsland Road, Dalston, with the amazing JOHN HECKLE (Mathematics Recordings/Tabernacle Records).

You can also catch me playing with TERRY FARLEY at the Gentleman's Pinch (@ The Griffin) on Friday 21 October.

And th new edit I did with Neville Watson of Jamie Principle 'Baby Wants To Ride' out now on Harmless. It's a rework of an obscure version from 1988 rather than the original mix.

Parties - XOYO 1st Birthday with Juan Atkins, Saturday 17 September

2011-09-13T01:02:00.002+01:00

So it seems barely more than a blink of an eye ago that Boys Own hosted a construction party at XOYO, with Weatherall wowing people in the basement alongside Vera and Dorian, whilst Hippie Torales and Severino putting on a disco and house master class in the oh-so-hot and not yet complete bar room.

But it was a year ago, it must have been, because XOYO has reached the grand old age of 1 - and its having a massive party to celebrate!

Even in its semi-finished state it was clear XOYO was going to be quite a special venue. The bar room, which I am pleased report was fully functioning and beautifully air conditioned by the formal opening night, is cool and intimate, offering respite from the throngs downstairs. But downstairs is what XOYO is all about.

You descend down the stairwell onto the edge of a dancefloor that looks very much like someone has cut the end of a circa 1993 Sound Factory and transported to large Shoreditch basement. The iron pillars are there, the high ceilings, and even the herring bone struts (that one for the carpenters) between the beams in the ceiling above, all of which were present at the legendary New York venue, along with the other key feature the two venues share - a killer sound system.

Since that autumn opening night, XOYO has established itself not just as club but as a live music venue, hosting the likes of Mos Def, Jessie J, Friendly Fires, Gold Panda, Skepta, Zongamin, Egyptian Hip Hop, and Matthew Dear.

Club nights are its meat and drink thought and there’s been a few crackers - The R&S parties with James Blake and Hessle Audio, Bugged Out with Tiga and Erol Alkan , The FACT parties with Jamie XX and Joy Orbison, and the fast becoming legendary Boys Own party with Frankie Knuckles, which ended with Faith’s Dave Jarvis acting as cheerleader to the crowd, pumping a giant Frankie poster in the air, as the crowd chanting the Godfather of house’s name.

The 1st birthday on SATURDAY 17 SEPTEMBER looks sure to follow in the footsteps of these fantastic forerunners, pitching techno legend Juan Atkins into the mix with the up and coming XxXy, and the slightly mysterious Radionasty.

Atkins needs little introduction. Alongside Richard Davis as part of Cybertron, he pushed the boundaries of electro music in the early 80s before going onto create a range of bona fide techno classics, such as ‘Nightdrive’, ’No UFOs’ and ’The Chase’ amongst many others, as Model 500 and numerous other aliases.

It is almost impossible overstate his importance in the history of electronic music and it’s rare to get a chance to catch him play in London.

Joining him on the bill is XxXy, who is highly regarded and whose tracks overtly demonstrate some of his influences -‘Know U’ drawing on drum ‘n’ bass and ‘Ordinary Things’ on UK Garage. Kind of like post-dub step with a non-house twist.

Radionasty are also on the bill. Who, I hear you ask? Well it’s Keith Tenniswood (Radioactive Man and one half of Two Lone Swordsmen alongside Andrew Weatherall) has UK techno legend Billy Nasty. Which is some fairly hefty pedigree to with the rather nifty play on words they used for their name.
If you fancy it, advance tickets £8.00 or it’s £10 on the door

You can get them tickets right >>here<<

And here's to many more happy years - London needs special venues like XOYO.

Hot Newness! Modernista Records - modtwo

2011-09-11T17:16:00.001+01:00

Back in Novmber 2009, I wrote about the first release on Modernista Records. The quality was impressive - music, mastering, pressing, design, packaging - and Beyond The Stars waiting excitedly for the follow up release. Now, almost 2 years later, it’s here. And boy, was it worth the wait.

Whereas modone drew more on Paul’s Chi-Town influences, this release clearly has its roots in the productions of Detroit’s most famous techno sons, the Belleville Three. ‘After All The Tomorrows Became Yesterdays’ it a long, multi-layered, and beautifully detailed production that might evoke memories of Derrick May’s mix of ‘Sueno Latino’, with the loop laden ‘Heavy Red’ sounding more like Kevin Saunderson in his more underground E-Dancer mode, and ‘Peculiar Movement’ tipping its hat in the direction of the Juan Atkins. It really is completely different in style to modone, with Paul, who was also behind many of the early and now infamous Moxie edits, showcasing his versatility as a producer.

The attention to detail is still there too - mixed in collaboration with Nick Moore of Linkwood and Firecracker fame, mastered and cut by FST at Dubplates in Berlin and more original artwork and design by Finnie Harrington.

It is both musically brilliant and a physically beautiful product that collectors will want to own. In fact, I can’t wait to buy one and I’ve got a test pressing! If you feel the same way, it will be in the shops later this week.
Paul Bennett - After All The Tomorrows Became Yesterdays by modernista
Paul Bennett - Peculiar Movement by modernista
Paul Bennett - Heavy Red by modernista

Mix - Visions Of Visions

2011-09-10T00:25:00.003+01:00

After I played at the inaugural Thunder party back in August (summer nights seem so long ago already, eh?), quite a few people were jolly nice about a number of the records I played, so I thought why not cobble them together in eth form of a DJ mix but record it for posterity? And just to remove any further doubt I had in my mind, my good friends the Legendary Children asked if they might host it on their fabulous website. And thus the dye was cast and not long henceforth, one cloudy Saturday forenoon, the dark deed was done and the resulting mix be found >>>here<<<

Nope, no idea what I’m going on about either, but here’s the tracklist:

DJ Nature - Celebrate Your Life
Catz N Dogz - Excape From The Zoo (Carl Craig remix)
Paul Bennett - Heavy Red
FCL - Let’s Go
Virgo Four - It’s A Crime (Caribou remix)
Brawther - Ron & Chez D's Kms54
Precious System - Voice From Planet Love
Romathony - The Wanderer (CD Remix #9)
Milton Jackson - Dimensional (Romanthony's Romix)
The Gathering - In My System
Ron Trent - Pop, Dip and Spin
Storm Queen - Look Right Through (dub)
Freedom - Closer (Late Night Blast mix)

THUNDER a new BEYOND THE STARS party Saturday 13 August

2011-07-21T23:11:00.004+01:00

After much procrastination and some pontification, Beyond the Stars has teamed up with some old friends and is finally getting a night that reflects the musical persuasion of the blog off the ground.

The night is THUNDER and is ostensibly about house, underground house and variations thereof . Think Chicago and Clink Street, Detroit and Dalston, SoHo NYC and Soho LDN. Think bass, think basements, think sweat, think smoke and strobes.

It will not be a retro party though. Good music from across the ages will be played. 1985 is relevant but so is tomorrow.

We hope to have a party around four times a year. The DJs will be Beyond the Stars friends Joseph Apted, Rick Hopkins, and of Miles Simpson, along with one carefully chosen guest for each event.

The first THUNDER party will happen on Saturday 13th August with Neville Watson as guest. Fresh from conquering the Panorama Bar in Berlin last weekend and Bob Beaman Club in Munich this weekend, it will be a pleasure to hear Neville’s trademark jacking sound, which has brought his recordings acclaim on labels such Rush Hour, Clone, Poker Flat and Dissident, in small, sweaty Dalston basement.

Rick Hopkins was previously resident at Andy Weatherall’s nights Blood Sugar and Haywire, and has played more techno influenced sounds all over the country and beyond. Joseph Apted was resident at the long running disKomatiK parties. And Miles Simpson? Well the less said about him the better.

The first party will take place in Visions Video Bar, on Kingsland Road in Dalston, is a classic East London acid house venue. Compact, low ceilinged, underground, and with a realness that comes with being owned by a former DJ since the late 80s. It’s the sort of venue we always hope to use.

We will also behaving a FREE pre-Party at the great new pub Junction Room pub, almost next door from 8pm-11pm, with music supplied by the Legendary Children.

There is an invite on Resident Advisor >>here<<

And you can join our Facebook Group >>here<<

Oh and the amazing artwork is from the very talented Neil ‘Best Ever’ Edward

Hope to see you at THUNDER soon.

b Store Magazine Essay - 90s London Clubland

2011-06-24T00:50:00.003+01:00

January 1990 - a cold, dark month and Britain was a cold, dark place. Thatcher’s reign now spanned three decades and like millions of others, I was unemployed again. Heeding Norman Tebbit’s advice, I got on my bike, well the Tube, and headed to the West End, dog eared CV in hand, to offer my services to any menswear stores that might consider employing me. Having trudged around Oxford Street with no luck, wet and miserable, I decided to cut through a still sleazy Soho en route to hustle and bustle of Covent Garden. But down at the end of Wardour Street, in amongst the seedy clip joints, run-down peep shows and dilapidated pubs, there was a shop and it had a sign in the window, inscribed ‘staff needed’. As I stepped into the brightly lit interior from the damp gloom of the street, little did I know that things were never going to be quite the same again.

Until then I had been a typical London rave kid. Swept up in the suburbs by the backwash from the summer of love in 1988, I was propelled into 1989 on a wave of baggy sweat shirts, brightly coloured wallabies and bad haircuts. No hanging out with Boy George, Paul Rutherford and Martin Fry at Shoom for me - it was all Centre Force radio, raves in yardie clubs in Wood Green, and wild goose chases around the M25 in a beaten up Escort van. I thought I was the epitome of cool but Boys Own fanzine might have described me as the epitome of an ‘acid ted‘. But all that was about to change, because Soho was where the heart of London‘s nightlife beat.

Soon after I started another young man came to work in the shop too. Similar background as me, same sort musical taste, clothes and even hair. Other people I knew had been reluctant to travel ‘up west’ to go out but the new guy and I quickly became friends and now I had a willing partner in dancefloor crime.

Initially, we went to Rage on a Thursday. Held at Heaven, a cavernous club under Charing Cross station, it was a logical progression for us – essentially a weekly rave in one of the biggest clubs in London. A few years later, Rage went on to give birth to drum and bass and as the house orientated DJs like Colin Favor and Trevor Fung had been replaced by orbital scene stars Fabio and Grooverider, break beats had already become more prevalent. The vibe was edgy, the music quite moody, the crowd ethnically diverse but this made for an electric atmosphere.

Along with Heaven, we were going to places like the Crazy Club in the equally vast Astoria. Bigger seemed to mean better for raves but the cooler promotors were downsizing. Nicky Holloway was part of the vanguard, opened the Milk Bar on the road next to the Astoria. Tiny by comparison, holding around 150 people, with its white on white interior, it was a world away from the increasingly lurid coloured rave world as it started to go mainstream.

Not long after it opened, we headed along to a night called Pure Sexy, which in the summer of 1990 was as about as alien name for party as one could possibly imagine. Danny Rampling ran the night with his wife Jenni and they were now reacting against the rave culture that they had helped create with their seminal night Shoom, so it was held on a Wednesday to scare off ‘lilac clad camels’ from the suburbs.

We were blown away - cool people, white Levis, Michiko, Destroy, Sol with lime, and DJs whose names we’d only seen on flyers hanging out at the bar. It was like a social club for London nightlife faces and still the best party in London, sound tracked not by the faster, break beat driven sounds that were predominant at raves but by slower UK music, real house music from the USA, and the flavour of the year, Italian house.

We eagerly signed up for membership (a fiver) and happily returned a number of times that summer until things changed at the shop. My friend went to university and I was left without anyone to hit the town with. Then one morning, an envelope landed on the doormat and it contained a coverted Pure Sexy membership card. By this time people were queuing down the road and round the corner to get in. You had to be taken in by someone in the know or queue and get knocked back by Jenni until she started to recognise you.

The following Wednesday I made the journey back into Soho on my own. Strange as it sounds now, it seemed normal then. The same people were there every week many of whom arrived on their own too, because for regulars it felt like one big special gang. Walking around town you would see people from Pure Sexy and give each other a knowing look or a little nod, the girl in John Richmond, the lads on the Berwick Street stalls - and everyone in Soho’s numerous record shops were regulars, Breeze and Dominic Moir from Quaff often warmed up for Danny, Lewis from Bluebird, and Craig and Oscar from Trax could often be found propping up the bar.

Quickly, people you nodded hello to became people you stopped to chat to became people you regarded as mates became close friends you hung out with.

By this time a proliferation of small clubs had established themselves in the area – Flying, Yellow Book, Ophelia, and things had reached fever pitch at Pure Sexy. That Christmas the Ramplings took some time off to go to Miami and there were ridiculous scenes ahead of the last party before their break. I turned up at Sutton Row and could hardly get into the street as hundreds of people blocked the road outside the entrance trying to get one last fix. Eventually the police were called to clear a path for cars to get but before they arrived, I was squashed next to Jon Marsh from The Beloved, in the melee about 20 yards from the door. Jenni pointed in the direction of Jon and shouted "Him! He can come in". Two bouncers then waded out into the crowd, grabbed me by the shoulders and hauled me, beaming, through the throng to the door. "Glad you could make it" said Jenni as I headed down the stairs to the dancefloor.

Clubbing rather than raving was now what London's clued up kids wanted to do. This popularity meant promoters were looking for ways to capitalise through bigger clubs and larger scale one off parties.

Kinky Disco, housed in the large, fairly tatty Shaftsbury’s probably led the way, providing a haunt for every bloke from the home counties with a King Charles perm and pair of leather trousers. The parties were fun but without question, it was rival night Love Ranch that gained the most notoriety.

Promoted by Sean McLusky and Mark ‘Wigan‘, fresh from their exploits at The Brain on Wardour Street, it took place every Saturday in a chrome and mirrors abomination on Leicester Square called Maximus. It really shouldn’t have worked but somehow, with strikingly designed flyers and a ‘fuck you’ attitude, it captured the zeitgeist perfectly. Whilst long locks still flowed at Kinky Disco, the clippers had come out at Love Ranch and ID Magazine ran a whole article on ‘psychedelic skinheads’ ostensibly because three people in one club had cut their hair.

But the affected Love Ranch attitude was a bit much. They had a banner on the dancefloor that said ’This Is Where It’s Fucking At’ but if you were where it really was at, you didn’t need a banner to tell everyone.

London was now in the grip of progressive house, which has become a byword for boring, convoluted music for blokes but there was actually some very exciting records being made at the beginning. It was a really a reaction to the more slickly produced music from New York, Rome and Rimini. The early progressive house producers started to reclaim harder edged sounds we had grown used to the days of acid house, set them in a new context, forging a distinctive English sound. And in these earlier days, DJs mixed this up with European and American records. We went to one of the early Puscha parties and heard Andy Weatherall, Danny Rampling and Sasha dropping new progressive house, alongside Belgium techno, and Miami deep house. And for brief a moment in time, it really felt like the future.

Puscha really ruled the roost when it came to one off parties for about a year or two. There were others, Sign Of The Times was good, as were the Deluxe parties, and Love Ranch even got involved in few, but Puscha ruled because the parties were special. Each was themed ‘Spend, Spend, Spend‘ dedicated to 1960s pools winner Vivienne Nicholson, ‘Oh So Surreal‘ dedicated to Dali, and the more obviously styled ‘Elvisly Ours’. The décor was lavish for glorified warehouse raves. On entering ‘Oh So Surreal’ you passed giant Dali chairs, before entering the main room which had hundreds of picture frames hanging from the ceiling, some of which had ‘art’ projected onto them. At another, people without tickets were fighting to get in and inside, we heard Milk Bar podium dancer John of the Pleased Wimmin’ play records for the first time.

Whilst Pushca was consistent, the best one-off I ever went to was Extravaganza De Paris. It was meant to take place in the then disused Café De Paris but upon our arrival, we were greeting by a lone long haired chap standing in the doorway who informed us that it had been moved to Old Street. In 1991 being told to go to Old Street was like being told to go to the moon - it was miles away and there was absolutely nothing there. Undeterred though, we jumped into a taxi and headed East. Old Street was empty save for the odd crisp packet swirling around in the wind on City Road but we found the fitness centre and entered what was to prove to be the closest thing to a Roman orgy I have ever witnessed.

There were three rooms, the first a bar where the drinks were free as they had been included in the price of the ticket. I went into room two, which was the gym, with all the equipment stacked in the corner and Kid Batchelor and Phil Perry playing acid house. I was oblivious to room three until a wet girl walked past me in her underwear. I went to explore and found a swimming pool and Jacuzzi! No one had brought any swimwear and as things got messier, more and more people started to strip and dive in. Someone had smuggled some ecstasy back from Amsterdam but they weren’t like anything we’d seen before they were big, brown and looked like they should be administered to horses. The locker room had turned into a drug cubicle room and the whole place seemed to half naked, wet and off their heads, with little or no security to keep anyone in check. It was just brilliant.

Another direction changer for London was the Rampling’s venture into the one-off scene. They brought New York DJ legend Tony Humphries over for a then rare appearance on UK shores. Held in some North West London backwater, pretty much everybody who was anybody in London clubs turned up. I’m not sure how anyone else threw a party that night because every DJ in London was there, eyes fixed on The Hump and his mixing. As a party, it never went wild, but musically, Tony delivered a master class in both mixing and programming, demonstrating a level of sophistication we weren‘t used to in London.

London was now looking in the direction of America again and in this was fuelled in no small part by the Ministry of Sound, which had opened in late 1991 with huge financial backing. Apparently it was based on the Paradise Garage but the Paradise Garage was in Manhattan not the Elephant and Castle. Although ‘The Elephant’ may have been apt location because no matter how much money was thrown at the venue, it could never buy soul and it proved to be a bit of a white elephant for serious club goers. We went on it’s second weekend. Early in the night we were confined to the huge, cold, high ceilinged bar which at the time, only sold juice. That might work in New York clubs where the punch is full of acid but it proved to be less of a success in South East London. We weren’t allowed on the dancefloor to start with and when the time came to let us in, it was pure theatre. The entrance to the room was blocked off with closed, venetian style blinds. Security eventually turned up en masse to open the two door ways, and eager dancers waited with anticipation, the keenest of whom ran through the door and down the short corridor to the main room as soon as blinds were up. I followed and entered the room to find the over enthusiastic ravers running around waving their arms in the air in what looked to me like a big school gym. A proper alcohol license arrived soon enough but the club remained a soulless hall.

Manoeuvres after dark were not just confined to London though. Down the M4 corridor lots of clubs had sprung up - Shave Your Tongue, The Full Monty, Check Point Charley, and infamous Sunday session, Full Circle, that saw the likes of Danny Tenaglia playing in a suburban pub.

Further a field, like minded clubs across the country were be brigaded together as some sort of national Balearic network. Road trips followed to places like Most Excellent in Manchester, Venus in Nottingham, Zap in Brighton, and eventually, Back To Basics in Leeds.

However, clubs like the Ministry of Sound and Back To Basics, were ushering in the era of club brands. The innocence of the Balearic Network would soon be replaced mass marketing, coach tours to likes of Gatecrasher in Sheffield and Cream in Liverpool, package clubbing holidays to Ibiza, John of the Pleased Wimmin’ on Top Of The Pops, and magazines like Mixmag, DJ and Muzik screaming about the latest superstar DJ.

This was big business and London clubland was disappearing rapidly into a vortex of handbag house, feather boas, and shiny shirts. More and more money was made until the bubble finally burst on New Year’s Eve 1999, when greedy club promoters finally throttled the goose that had laid the golden egg.

For many people, overpriced clubs, rubbish music and crap clothes has been their experience of house music in London but for those who were lucky enough to be there to hear Seechi and Blunted Dummies played in small Soho basements, we really had been where it was fucking at.

The Sound Of Soho

1 - Blunted Dummies - House For All (US Devinitive)
2 - Seechi - I Say Yeah/Flute On (Ital Energy)
3 - Shay Jones - Are You Going To Be There? (US ID)
4 - Sheer Taft - Cascades (UK Creation)
5 - Inner City - Pennies From Heaven (US Virgin)
6 - C.J. Bolland - Horsepower (Belgium R&S)
7 - Photon Inc - Generate Power (US Strictly Rhythm)
8 - Soft House Company - What You Need (Ital Irma)
9 - Liberty City - Some Lovin’ (US Murk)
10 - Acorn Arts - Silence (UK X-Gate)
11 - D-Rail ‘Bring it On Down’ (Ital DDD)
12 - React 2 Rhythm - Intoxication (Guerrilla)
13 - The Traveller - Just Me (Belgium Wonka)
14 - Yo! Bots - I Got It (US RCA)
15 - Nightlife City Rama 'Running So Hard' (Ital Mighty Quinn)
16 - The Good Men - Give It Up (Dutch Fresh Fruit)
17 - Phoenix - Plaything (US Big Beat)
18 - Johnny Parker 'Love it Forever' (Ital C.B.R.)
19 - Leftfield - Not Forgotten (Outer Rhythm)
20 - A.S.H.A. ‘J.J. Tribute’ (Ital Beat Club)

With love and thanks to Jamie Fahey, Jason Hughes, and all at b Store Magazine - http://www.bstoremagazine.com/

b Store Magazine is available in half decent newsagents right now.

RIP Kenny Hawkes - and Kenny's Synth School

2011-06-18T19:37:00.003+01:00

One week ago, on Friday 10 June, Kenny Hawkes tragically passed away at a criminally young age.

On a professional level, Kenny was hugely influential in British house music. He was an extremely talented DJ and producer, he jointly ran the seminal late 90s London house night Space, and equally important Girls FM pirate radio station. It is difficult to overstate the significance of Kenny’s contribution - without him house music in London simply wouldn’t have be the same.

On a personal level, Kenny was a friend. A warm person, who was generous with his time, knowledge and kindness. There was no pretence and definitely no pomposity, from someone who had achieved so much in his chosen field of endeavour. To put it simply, he was just a bloody nice bloke. And moreover, he was properly funny.

Kenny had a great, if slightly crazed sense of humour, which came easy to him. One of the best examples of this effortless, almost Pthyon-esque wit, was an inncoent, maybe even slightly boring thread about various synths used on various tracks, over on the faith fanzine forum, which Kenny rapidly turned into his own, very special synth school…

***************
Question: What's the synthesiser they use on the opening of 'Supernature' by Cerrone?

Kenny: It's the 'Oberheim Matrix 6' or the "Mounilnex Clairvoyance 4' in the arpeggiator mode, I think... There's also a 'Crazy Fingers' setting with the other 8 preset sounds, that you could use. Then you want to use the 'Drwow' or the 'Dwat' wave forms, and set the envelope to look like Mount Fuji. If you're using the 'Stereo Fizoo' wave form, set your frequency to 6, then go around the back of the keyboard and set your shit level to low.

And then you'll need to give yourself a long delay, I recommend a photograph of Camilla Parker Bowles (Hahahahhahaha - Sorry, that's just an old synthesiser joke). Then cut and paste it all into a XL Spread Sheet (don't use the midi files, as they're as worse as paedo files), and then place it in a folder and name it: "Doctor Beat, Doc, Doc Doctor Doctor Beat".

And remember, keep the noise level down really low - think of the neighbours.

***************
Question: Hey Kenny what’s the sythn playing on Sammy Gordon and the Hip Huggers ‘Making Love‘?

Kenny: OK, this is a common question, and it comes up daily. Now, I know what you're thinking, it's 'The Vox Hall 2000' right? Well NO! Don't switch it on! I can almost see you reaching for it, but don't touch it, as you're too stupid and it's just going to confuse you (I'll cover that in an advance class in a few weeks).

It's the 'Amstrad Miz-Take' with the inverted keys.

***************
Question: Can you please tell me what synth Rick (Wakeman) is using in this clip and also what his settings are ?

Kenny: I’m not too sure if this is a trick question or not! A lot of people think this is the 'Roland Rat D7' but it's actually the 'Amstrad DX Kackhorn 14' which was favoured by synth legend 'Howard Jones', who funnily enough taught 'Rick Wakeman' at Northhob Music College in Eastbourne. No need to adjust the settings as it only has 1 preset and a factory setting of zero on the the wave form. The only trouble is, it's a digital keyboard, so you could just buy an iPhone and give all your money to Hitler, burn down an orphanage and buy the 'Polyphonic Wiggle Application' . It works for me.

***************
Question: Can you name all of the seven deadly synths?

Kenny:
1 - The Synthetic Lightsaber Crystal (commonly referred to as The Sith-Crystal)
2 - The Korg Sorcery 6
3 - The Korg Warlock 8000
4 - The Moog Lockerbie 103
5 - The Roland Brownout
6 - The Vox Hall 7
7 - The Academy i-Raq

***************
Question: Many years ago, I was told I could "get my rocks off" with Synthia Pain. Never understood what on earth they meant. Until now, help me Kenny.

Kenny: Sadly the 'Synthia Pain' was discontinued in the early 80's. Most synthesizer fans found the sound too dry and had to use lubrication on the bottom end. Try eBay.

***************
Question: I've heard herbie hancock used a cumdorian based anthrax modulator on 'rockit'. Can you recommend any settings to achieve that backwardsy sort of noise in the middle eight?

Kenny: OK, I'm going to try and explain this to you, which is going to be really hard, as this is really advance stuff and you're not very intelligent, so you might want to put your tin foil hat on at this point...

The key comment here is you "Heard" that Herbie Handcock used the Cumdorian Based Anthrax Modulator on 'Rockit' - it's just a rumour that's been spread around amongst record shop sales staff. But the truth is, he actually used the 'Vox Hall Cavalier 3000' with the 'Brown Love' foot peddle control, and pushed the sustain level up as far as it will go (Level 3).

Rumour has it, he was working at home and his girlfriend was saying "Have you finished that fucking 'Rockit' track yet?", then (apparently) he planted his face into his hands and at the same time, his pet cat walked over the synthesiser, thus creating the 'Backwardsy' in the middle 8. I'm not too sure how true this rumour is, but I recommend you eBay "Cat" if you want to achieve this sound.

***************
Question: So what were the Japanese using on this?

Kenny: The best thing about the interweb pipes these days is there's actually a mode that will give you the actual sound that is playing in the music clip. I know, it's crazy isn't it, but let me give you a little tutorial..

You probably spent hundreds of american pounds on your computer and was only using $70 pounds worth. Now I'm going to open it up for you, so you can reap the benefits of this modern technology, and you can start using the full $350 pounds worth.

If you look at the Youtube video, down on the bottom right hand side you'll see a football icon. Press that and vouloir, you get the real sound, click it again to switch it off! I hope this helps...

***************
Question: My juno 106 has been in a cupboard for some years now. It hasn't been plugged in for all that time. Can you suggest what might be wrong with it?

Kenny: HA! This happened to me once with the 106. Try tweaking with the top end nipples on the arpeggiator, this helps with the whole lubrication of the bottom end (which you have to squeeze really hard), but I won't go into that right now on this class, as it's too complex for your small brains. Instead you should be focusing on drums!

This is called "The Rhythm Section". They are right there - in the "Product Keys". EVERYONE loves drums, it's an instrument EVERYBODY loves!

There's the Bass Drum.
The Snare Drums.
Crash Cymbal.
Open and closed Hi Hats.
Tom Toms.
(and more importantly) WARM PADS.

Try all these together, but remember to say (in your mind):

One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four.

This helps with quantising, you can even use double hi-hats in your creative process.

It can de-humanise the music, but at the same time, this can humanise the machine, so it's all swings and round-abouts and very organic. A personal interaction with people and the music is SO important, so never be afraid to fondle with your Modulation Wheel, thats what I do in my laboratory.

And more importantly, this helps sell more records.

***************
Question: Hi Doctor Kenny, can you name Chaz Jankel’s ’3,000 Synths’ alphabetically please?

Kenny: This is a trick question, right? Any Synth head will tell you that Chaz Jankel only had a 'Stiff Polydor 800' and the 'Polio X1 Kilburn'.

***************
Question: Kenny what are your tips on triggering a pre patched Roland 303?

Kenny: I got this tip from DJ Pierre when he was in the 'Hoxton Squares'. Put a massive ashtray on the side of your 303, and fill it up with ash and fag butts, and when you get to the point of having no idea what the fuck you're doing, while all the time your girlfriend/wife is bitching at you, saying "have you finished that fucking 'Steve Walsh' remix yet". Roll your eyes in your head, tell her she doesn't understand that you're an artist, and then go down the pub, and sip away on a warm ale, on your todd! Come home, hit the keys really hard, just to make a point that you're home, and BINGO!! Patch Triggered - And you're up for another 24 hours.

***************
Question: For some reason, the thousands of pounds i ploughed into hardware in the mid nineties is now worth around fuck all. I'm not really looking for any tips, just for someone to tell me I can claw back at least a monkey for my JD-800 (never gigged), a carpet for my Matrix 1000 (studio use only, smoke free environment) and a long 'un for my Mackie 24-8 (unwanted gift - first to see will buy!)

Kenny: Well, I don't think you should get rid of these classic synthesis contraptions, as ultimately they're priceless, and nobody could ever afford them anyways. And replacing them with plug-ins would mean going digital, and I don't think you really want to do that, do you? It's rather like inviting your mother-in-law around while the wife is away, filling her up with rohypnol, and then doing a poo on her stomach!
It just wouldn't go down too well, plus you might feel guilty about it afterwards.

Instead, try out the Mackie 24-8, and just near the battery slot underneath there's a noodle switch. Switch that on, and set the envelope to automatic loner mode for less friends. Works for me.

***************

Kenny: OK, here we are onto to week 8 of my synthesiser tutorial. Now it's time to step it up a gear into David Cameron league. So, if some of you people can just take off your 'stupid hat' for a few minutes, cause I'm not sure you're going to understand this very well, and maybe have a pen and paper at hand, yeah?

First of all, get about a five foot (1.524 meters and 33 Khz) sheet of aluminium foil, then fold the sheet 4 times into 5 parts and make sure you keep the shiny side upwards (this is very important), then use scissors to cut one corner from one end to the other, then bend the foil and squash it over your head and use scotch or gaffa tape to make it secure, and protecting your Cranium.

Beware of using commercial tin foil, as you should trust nobody, always construct your own tin foil hats to avoid the risk of subversion and mental dwowling of the Wii.
(Hahahaha, that was another in-house synthesiser joke)

Sometimes Tin Foil Hats will be sold on eBay, but even if the seller seems trustworthy, they may contain back doors, blip holes and other degraded psychometric circuitry, or other methods of mind control, I really can't stress enough how important it is to have the shiny side pointing upwards. This is needed because of psychotronic radiation, and these new satellites can read your mind thoughts with their mind reading equipment. While the dull side can actually absorb it, there is no protection from Trojan Horses. I suggest getting a 'Naynah 406' sound card which would also help with this.

OK, that's about for this week. Any questions? Feel free to ask. And tune in next week as I take you through the rich green pastures of compression.

P.S. And once you've placed this tin foil hat, please re-read this tutorial, as you'll find a hidden message

Question: Dear Kenny, I have been told that in an emergency a hot towel can be substituted for a tin foil hat. Something to do with compresssion. Is this true or just and urban myth?

Kenny: I'd like to start off by saying thank you for your informal, but informative question. Hopefully I'll be able to answer this without confusing that one last brain cell you have left in your head.

A hot towel will "NOT" (and I can't stress enough on the word "NOT" without making it bold and in a different font) deflect the 'Gammer Rays' from todays modern Satellites, with their modern mind reading controls. Hot towels just don't have enough Reggae in them to deal with the Ska. Unless you buy all of Reggae's LP's (some of them are good).

I don't want to go into this too deeply just yet, as it's a tutorial that I'm saving for mid November 2014 (you're going to love it). When I don't have any tin foil, I normally put my cat on my head, if you Google the word "Cat" you might find one. I hope this helps, and feel free to call me if you want me to rewire your studio (just as long as it's not digital)?

Question: Paging Doctor... Kenny (not Beat)

Shiny side up, or they will fuck you up,
Shiny side down, you silly clown.

A little something I put together to help me remember which side of the foil to use. Thing is, am I right? D, D, Doctor, Doctor... Kenny (not Beat).

Kenny: That doesn't sound like a question to my advance synthesiser tutorials, that sounds like a cool kicking rap rhyme, I think the kids will love that. Here's a video tutorial I did that might give you some inspiration:

It helped me get through some those awkward moments with the 'Roland Hastings 1066' and the middle 8 problems

P.S. I don't do paging by the way, I only have a fax and a telex machine, but I intend to get a computer one day, so I can use all the interweb pipes, but that would mean going digital (which is weird).

***************
Question: Dear Kenny, I'm trying to re-wire my speak and spell toy from when i was a kid (please see photo if you don't know what it is)

I'm trying re-wire it so i can get some really demonic voices and so far i can only get my voices to sound like alan ball can you please tell me where I'm going wrong?

Kenny: This is your problem, you're putting too much attention on 'Alan Ball' so it's never going to work, as he had Ginger Hair and was very short, plus he played for that 'Other' club in Liverpool, that we don't ever mention. Instead consider using the 'Bruce Forsyth' mode - and go for the Cuddly Toy and press the 'nice to see you to see you nice' button. Just don't midi it up, cause that would mean going digital, and that would be wrong and might do your head in! Then you want to convert it to digital, so you can midi it up.

***************
Question: Hi Kenny, I just can't seem to get the yodel reverb working on my Castrol GTX 303 Velux Semi Pro. I saw them do it on Tomorrow's World in 1982 and ever since have been trying to replicate this unique effect. My mother has been very patient since I gave up my job in 1986 and moved back in with her to concentrate full time on this important task, but I just can't seem to get it. I've tried pretty much everything, most recently adding extra dampling but this as expected had the classic knock on effect in terms of the uplighter and acrostic overspill in the mid range and as a fellow perfectionist you can imagine that this really isn't acceptable to me. I had thought of inserting padding to fill out the extraneous back trimming but have doubts. Finally, just a silly query, vanity really, but there's a nasty smear on the walnut veneer of my Ultralow Forward (Cordless), just won't rub off, blast it. Any tips?

Kenny: OK, I'm very willing to school you on this, but you don't seem very intelligent, and you being a bit of a fucktard (like most the people on this site) I'm going to have to type REALLY slowly so I can get it into your thick skull! You know that big round thing on the top of your shoulders, it's called a "Head" inside that "Head" is a brain, you may have one or two brain cells left, so try and use them on reading this? I normally charge £3000 per hour for tutorials, but as I'm nice, I'll give you a free-bee! Just imagine me as a Thai Ladyboy you met in Bangkok.

OK so, I'm glad you asked me this question, as 'Castrol GTX 303 Velux Semi Pro' was a subject I was going to cover in my next tutorial, but I'll do it now I guess, as I'm more intelligent than everyone on this website. What you want to do is rob your mum's credit card and then ask her for her pin number, then move out to vietnam and order 18 'Mac Pro's' from Ireland and sell them to kids for twice the price. Then go outside into your garden with your 'Korg Backyard 3000' and your 'Roland Sultan of Brunei 1973' and make some smash hit records.

Here's a video tutorial I made earlier:

***************
Question: If I was thinking of starting an all boy electronic supergroup, say in the vain of Kraftwerk or Bronski Beat. My question would be what synthesizer/organ should we all use ?

Kenny: You'll need the "Euclid Teardrop Explosion 8000' with the inverted keys and the 'Draught Excluder 2.0' plug in, which will stop any draught

***************
Question: Which synth has the best dog sounds please? I'm thinking Doberman rather than poodle, can you please help?

Kenny: HA! Some of you people are so, so stupid, that's why I'm much more intelligent than all of you. This is such a common question that I get asked all the time.

It was the "Matrix K9 Special 1979" which was used on the theme of Dr. Who and "Cat Stevens - Was Dog a Doughnut (from 1977)". Not to be mistaken for the "Roland Yorkshire Terrier 106" which just didn't have the same bite to it. Also you had to bend over it, around the back and click on the "Walkies" button for it to do anything (and it stank).

This reminds me of an email I had this morning from some bloke in 'Beristan headmans', asking me advice on his 'Swine Flu'! I told him to ring the "Swine Flu Hot Line" and ask them to sort it out for ya! He got back to me an hour later saying there was too much Crackling on the line! I told him to put some Oinkment on it...

***************
Kenny: OK, we're now into week 384 of Synthesiser Tutorials.

I hope you're all keeping up and not at some Free Rastafarian Street Carnival in that there West London, or something?

So, get you're pencils and papers ready!

OK, so you want to get yourself a 'Macro Minimoog' they are Massive and hard to come by, but I think you can find one on eBay for about 883.60p English Yen.

I got this information from Dr. Bob Jones (who's the godfather of the modern Synthesiser), and I'm 100% sure he wouldn't mind me sharing this information with you all, but it's rather complex, so I'm going to type really slowly so you can all understand me, cause as you all know you're a bit thick and I'm much more intelligent than you.

So, the first thing you need to do is invest in a 'Macro Minimoog' which is from 1843 and made by Dr. Sharon Carlos (he had a sex change), but it's the best Synthesiser of all time, and fortunately it's analogue, so you wont have to use one of those computers, which give you that Aids thingy, but not Aids in a good way, I'm talking about Aids in a bad way.

So, it's analogue and you can do wave forms that look like Mount Everest, and it plays one note at a time, so it may take you 5 years, but it has an isolator. IT'S AMAZING!

The isolator has a wave form, you can make it into any shape, like car parks, a triangle, a hexagon and that 'Gherkin Building' in that there city of London, it also does circles. And with all those harmonics, you can also shape the sound with filtering through a Kettle and you can also cut these harmonics out by using a rubber!

But it has an envelope, which does 4 things, attack, so you might want to buy an M16 machine gun, the decay and sustain and release, that's when you want to bring in a photo of Margaret Thatcher into the Studio for a long release.

I really have no idea what I'm talking about, but it sounds good eh?
And I hope you're listening?

Tune in next week when I cover 'WOW Peddles'

I hope this helps.

Good luck.

Thanks.

Bye.

Love you all.

K.x

***************
Bye Kenny. We love you too.

Mix - Sasha, Giving It Up, Kiss FM, 1993

2011-06-16T00:48:00.002+01:00

I’m not really a Sasha fan. The man like just never really got me hot under the collar. And I’ve found a lot of his music to be over blown and maybe even a little pompous. The hyperbole surrounding him, such as the infamous 'Son Of God' Mixmag cover, could be quite off-putting too but there is no denying that few DJs engender such an obsessive following.

Sasha has always been a great DJ technically but there was a period, after the piano anthems of the Shelly’s era but before he got bogged down in 5 minute breakdowns that became synonymous with epic prog house, when he really was spot on muscially too. And this time is perfectly summed up by a show he did on London’s Kiss FM in 1993.

‘Giving It Up’ was a regular 3 hour slot, in the middle of the night, midweek, where the chosen DJ just got to do their own thing and Sasha really seized that opportunity. Not throwing records together on the fly but a carefully programmed set, perfectly mixed, with Sherlock Holmes clips, Ronald Reagan toothpaste adverts and an Islamic call to prayer worked in to provide extra atmosphere. It is a beautifully crafted set and whilst it hints of where he was heading musically, it combines a certain energy that probably linked closer to his time in Stoke than what he did at Twilo with a trance like quality that was probably more akin to the sort of thing Sven Vath was playing at the time. Indeed European techno/trance records feature heavily.

There’s also a pretty awkward sounding John Digweed coming on at the end to play a few records, including one of his own that eventually got released as Bedrock and the truly fatastic 'La Musika Tremenda'.

Fortunately, one of my mate’s stayed up till 4am that Wednesday morning in 1993 to tape it all and those tapes provided many a happy hour on the old Sony Walkman. Now I’ve dusted off those TDKs and via the wonders of modern technology, they’re now up on Soundcloud.

I'm sure the Sasha fans out there will be able to fill some of the tracklist gaps.Tape One

Keiichi Suzuki - Satellite Serenade (Transasianexpress Mix)
Eagles Pray – Reverse the Silence
Eden – Do U Feel For Me
Spooky – Schmoo (Steppin Razor Mix)
Moon Child – V.O.A.T (Variations On A Theme)
Virtualmismo – Mismo Plastico (Virtual Mismo Mix)
Virtualmismo – Mismo Plastico (Original Remix)
Helicopter – On Ya Way
?? - ??
Fluke – Slid (PDF Mix)
Funk Machine – Lets Get This Party Started
Fluke – Slid (Scat and Frenzy)
Hysterix – Talk To Me
Disco Evangelists – De Nero (Spaceflight Mix)
LA Factory – Synth Problem
E-Lustrious – Givin' You No Rest

Tape Two

E-Lustrious – Givin You No Rest
?? - Hey-ba-bab
Alexander O'Neil - Love makes No Sense (BIT Dub)
CJ Bolland - Mantra
Esoterix - Void
??-??
??- Only You
Golden Girls - Kinectic (Frank De Wulf mix)
Barbarella - My Name Is Barbarella (My Name Is Barbarella / Spaceship)
??-??
69 - Ladies ands Gentlemen
Bedrock - For What You Deam Of
Emojonal - Silence of Water
?? - ??
Ramirez - La Musika Tremenda (DJ Ricci mix)

Sasha - Giving It Up, Kiss Fm, 1993 (tape 1) by Sasha Tape One

Sasha - Giving It Up, Kiss FM, 1993 (tape 2) by Sasha Tape Two

Mix - DJ Nature, 1992 House Tape

2011-05-29T14:34:00.006+01:00

Beyond the Stars heard from another old friend recently, DJ Nature, who I was luck enough to interview last year. Back home in New York he had unearthed an old mix tape he had made in late 1992 and he was kind enough to share it. It is absolutely brilliant and despite being almost 20 years old, is easily the best mix I have heard this year.

It actually coincides with my first trip to New York and includes many of the records I bought from places like Vinylmania and Eightball that November in 1992. But emotional attachment aside, it is a perfect snapshot in time of the truly golden era of New York house music, Nature’s selection is spot on and the mixing both creative and tight.

Nature has now made it available on Soundcloud for everyone’s listening pleasure - and I’ve had a go at cobbling together a tracklisting, with a few notable gaps which hopefully others can help fill in!

Dj.Nature_house tape 1992 pt.1 by dj nature

Tracklist

01 - Ellis D - My Loleatta (Dish Apella)
02 - ?? - ??
03 - Michael Watford - Holdin’ On
04 - ?? - ?? (love this one *NEED*)
05 - Aly-us - Follow Me
06 - MK - Burning (Gump mix)
07 - Dreamer G - I Got That Feelin’
08 - Instant Exposure – I Need A Little More
09 - Urban Soul - Alright
10 - Cajmere - Perculator
11 - Instant House - Over (Instrumental Remix)
12 - Green Velvet - Preacherman
13 - Dajae - Brighter Days
14 - Cover Girls - Wishing On A Star
15 - Djaimin - Give You
16 - Hermann - Tumblin’ Down
17 - MK - You Brought Me Love
18 - Karen Pollard - You Can’t Hurt Me
19 - Mission Control - Outer Limits
20 - Track Masters - The Basement Jam
21 - Trey Lorenz - Photographs of Mary
22 - Pal Joey - Drum Major Instinct
23 - Lectroluv - People Don’t Believe
24 - Lil’ Louis - Do U Love Me
25 - Cajmere - Coffee Pot
26 - Sax - Jazz Anthem
27 - Club Ice - Manhasset
28 - Jovonn - Flutes '92
29 - Sandy B - Makes Me Feel Like Singing

Hot Newness! Mark E - Stonebreaker Album

2011-05-29T13:58:00.001+01:00

Back in early 2009, Beyond The Stars was lucky enough to be one of the first to interview Mark E, who hot on the back of the success of productions like ‘R+B Drunkie’ on Golf Channel and his edits on Jisco, was blowing up not just in the field of production but as a DJ too, with his very distinctive style and sound.

Mark was never comfortable with the association with edits, as his productions offered so much more in terms of originality and musical craft. Now, two years on, Mark can hopefully shake that monkey of his back for once and for all with the release of his first album, the fantastic ‘Stonebreaker’, on US label Spectral Sound.

The album is entirely original material with even a sniff of an edit, it takes in slo-mo house, sub-aquatic techno, and dream-like house, with the common denominator being the hypnotic feel Mark has made his trademark sound.

It a whole album worth of crackers. I think my favourite right now (will probably change tomorrow) is the Detroit-esque house cut ‘Oranges’ which you can check below.

If you like that and fancy a bit more in the same vein, you can purchase the Album on CD and vinyl from Juno buy clicking >>here<<

You might also want to check the fantastic mix Mark has done celebrate the record's launch, available to play and download below.

GhostlyCast #43: Mark E - Stone Wall Mix by ghostly

Mix - My First Love (for Six Million Steps Radio)

2011-05-27T10:14:00.004+01:00

This is a mix I did when I guest on Andrew Panphlett’s show on Six Million Steps Radio. Andrew is a key member of Six Million Steps crew, who are a London-based collective of DJ's, record collectors, and enthusiasts of soulful black dance music. His show reflects this collective interest but Andrew is a also a fan of house music and encouraged me to do a straight house mix. Not that I need much encouragment! In 30 mins, it takes in more than 20 years of house, covering the influential cities of Chicago, Detroit, New York, Manchester, Berlin and Frankfurt. Mixed in one take with records, it’s quite fun.

Six Million Steps are still going strong and catch their radio shows, live and archived >>here<<

My First Love by Miles Simpson on Mixcloud

Interview - Frankie Knuckles

2011-04-30T11:25:00.002+01:00

Surreal. It had been a long day and surreal is really the only way to describe it. Gone midnight in a leafy London suburb, I’m sitting in front of my laptop and via the wonders of internet technology, Frankie Knuckles, house music legend, is staring out from the screen live and direct from his living room in Chicago.

Earlier that day, notepad in hand, I’d rushed home from work to make the call at the allotted time. Skype was set up, test calls made, nerves were jangling but we’re ready to roll. I log on to get the man’s number, and there’s an email from him saying time’s up. Panic takes grip and I got on the phone to Chicago. The first time I speak to Frankie it’s to say sorry for the clocks not having gone forward. Unsurprisingly, Frankie is busy a man, making music, jetting from gig to gig and he’s moving house too. The moment is gone, for now, but Frankie promises to reschedule. I put a call into Faith/Boys Own HQ to relay the bad news and I head down the pub to drown my sorrows and talk about what might have been. First drink in hand, my phone buzzes, it was a text from Faith HQ saying Frankie hopes I’m not put out! Feeling a little perkier, I headed to the bar for a refill and my phone goes off again. This time it was a call, I didn’t recognise the number, “Hi, is that Miles? It’s Frankie”, who was calling me, in my local, just to check I was okay about what happened earlier. I dashed outside and chatted to The Godfather of House for a bit about vagaries of British Summertime Daylight Saving and what an almighty pain in the arse moving house is, whilst leaning against a life-sized fibreglass cow…

Soon after I head home, fire up Skype, and there’s Frankie, The Godfather of House, looking relaxed in his Chicagoan chair virtually just across the table from me. In my North London kitchen. Surreal.

Beyond The Stars: So, the first time I heard you DJ was back in 1992 at the Roxy in New York - that era in New York, was it a great time?

Frankie: I think it was like a golden era in New York as far as clubs and dance music is concerned. I think it was a pristine period, because it was like the last days of what was really good about dance music, house music, and nightlife in New York City. New York City will never see that it will be that way again, ever. I don’t think it will ever come again.

Why do you think New York has changed like that? Some of the best nights I’ve ever had out were in New York then, but I’ve been back since and the vibe’s gone.

It’s dead! It’s dead, it’s pretty much dead. I think that… well you know, recent events — I’m talking about 9/11 and the scares that followed it, and the way the government here in the United States has beefed up security, not to mention, the Disney-fication of New York City. When the Disney Company bought into New York City, they whitewashed the whole town. They cleaned it up. And the thing about it is, all that little, dirty, gritty stuff that was going on in the periphery, it added character to the city. And the minute Disney bought into 42nd Street, Times Square, that whole area, it just came in and it just hosed everything down and left it sparkling clean, and that takes away from it as well. After 9/11 and everything else, it just will never be the same. Nightlife can’t flourish the way it did before because the powers that be don’t believe in it. The thing about it is, I think that New York and probably this country, period, could do really, really well if it followed the UK and the European lead when it comes to knowing how to regulate this kind of business. Because there’s so much commerce in it, there’s so much money to be made. All you have to do is look at the UK, look at Italy, look at Germany, all these different countries where nightlife is regulated in a way that the money is there. It adds to the economy and it helps bring it up. This country has a stick shoved so far up its ass, it just can’t come to terms with it. They’re so afraid of everything else as well.

That’s such a different atmosphere - it used to be quite edgy.

Yeah, but there was so much you could do. There was so much to do as far as nightlife was concerned, there were so many places you could go, there was something for everybody. And not just a club here, a club there, but LOTS of them. There were a bunch of different house clubs, a bunch of hip hop clubs, that was scattered about the city. There was so much to do, but now? Please. It’s not happening.

There were also a lot of big rooms back then. The Sound Factory was a big room, The Roxy too, and even Zanzibar out in New Jersey, but now they’re all gone. Do you lament the loss of the big room and do you think it’s affected house music generally?

Um, no. The Warehouse was only 3000 square feet, so it wasn’t that big a club. I think, after Paradise Garage closed, to me, that was pretty much it. Sound Factory was great, and I had a lot of fun while I was there, but Sound Factory Bar was so much better. It was a little bit smaller, a little bit more intimate. It could only house like 1,200 people versus Sound Factory that did like 4 or 5,000. Sound Factory Bar was really more of a neighbourhood club, if you will. It really was, because it was right there in the heart of Chelsea, and it really catered for the whole neighbourhood, and the whole neighbourhood came and hung out, which was nice, you know? When you have these big super clubs, you have to rely on so many numbers to make it feel good and be right. Because when people walk into a club that size and there’s not enough people in it, people tend to not have a good time, because they mentally have it fixed that this room needs to packed in order for me to have a good time. There are DJs out here who play but cannot play for an empty room or play for a room that only has a few people in it. Nobody started at the top, no one that I know in this business started at the top, everybody had to start somewhere. Believe me, when I first got there, I worked the Continental Baths almost, I would say, probably five days a week and there was nobody on the dancefloor in front of me. But the club didn’t give up on me, the guy that owned the place didn’t give up on me, and hey, so I’m playing for a bunch of guys that are roaming around cruising in towels, but hey, one thing I knew for sure — they were listening!

So do you think that sort of experience is a good grounding for a DJ? To learn to work what you’ve got rather than just playing peak-time music?

Absolutely, you have to know where you came from and you can’t forget, you just cannot forget. I tell people all the time — sometimes I’ll go and play different events and things for people, big clubs, small clubs, medium clubs, it doesn‘t matter, and they may not have the turn-out they expected, and they’re more upset for me. And I tell them, “Listen, I’m here for you. You hired me to come here to play, five people, five hundred, five thousand, it’s all the same, I’m here for you. If nobody shows up and you the only people that’s here, I strongly suggest you get on the dancefloor and have a damn good time, because you just paid me to come this far!”, and it’s not like I’m not going to play for them. I have to give them the same thing, it doesn’t matter how many people are in the room. Even if there is one person or two people in the room, they expect me to at least give who I am. It’s not their fault no one else is there, somebody just didn’t do their homework and they dropped the ball, but I am there, they’re there, and [I’m still going to play].

I don’t think you’ll have that problem when you come over to London for Boys Own, there’s a lot of excitement about you coming here. But you came to the UK for the first time in 1987, how did you find that?

It was exciting, I thought it was great. The first time I came there I was supposed to be there for two weeks. I come and find out when I first got there, and I got to immigration, that the necessary paperwork hadn’t been handled, so I had no work visas or anything to be there. And I’m travelling — and this goes to show how green I was when it came to travelling — I had a steamer trunk, a foot locker full o’vinyl! And I showed up at immigration and they want to know why I was there and did I have the paperwork, where’s the paperwork for the visas, and stuff, and I didn’t know what the hell they was talking about. So, of course they’re holding me up in immigration and try figure out whether they should send me back out. But I told them there were people waiting for me and they were outside, and those guys, they spoke to them and I eventually got into the country — I was only supposed to be here for two weeks and I stayed for four months!

Where were you playing?

I was playing at Delirium at Heaven, every Thursday night, and once a month on Saturday.

How did you find London clubs at that time?

I thought they were fantastic, I thought they were really fascinating. When I came in 1987, during that period, the most popular music in the UK, was anything by James Brown. Anything by James Brown, the JB All-Stars, anybody that worked with him, if you played anything by them, it was on. So for me to come over there… and house was only working in really, really underground, deep, off the beaten path clubs, or the really, really big fluffy commercial clubs back then. But for the most part, you went to places like The Wag and it was anything by James Brown. So I’m playing Delirium and at the same time, they’re periodically trying to drag me into The Wag to play there because they’re really trying to bring The Wag around, so they take me in there to play. They were all for it but I’m constantly up against all these guys that’s playing nothing but James Brown. Or the All-Stars. It was a treat but by the time I got ready to leave there, people didn’t want me to leave, they wanted me to stay and I really considered moving there. But I got back to Chicago and I made a decision, before I move to London I think I should I go back to New York, and that’s how Def Mix got started.

You touched on what it was like in London on the cusp of the rare groove scene and when house exploded, but in Chicago you would have experienced the transition from disco through to house. In London, that felt like a revolution, it felt like it was beamed in from another planet. As somebody who lived the early days of house’s life, how did that feel to you, was that a natural progression for you as a DJ or did it feel like a revolution in Chicago as well?

Well, when I look back on it now, yeah I can see it where it felt like a revolution or something new was bubbling on the horizon. Back then? I was just happy to be there, I wasn’t giving it that kind of thought. I’ve had people say “Did you know exactly what you were doing when you created house, when you were at The Warehouse?”, how would you know that? I’m a kid, I’m a kid playing records! I’m lucky to have a job doing this. I’m lucky to have a job period, but the fact that I have job that’s paying me for what I want to do and have a good time, and show people a good time, that’s the icing on the cake. What do I know of the technical end of it all? That this is something major, that’s eventually going to blow and it’s going to be everything in the world to everybody else? No, you don’t think about stuff like that, you’re too caught up in what you’re doing. I’m a kid and that’s what it was. You have to remember it’s 30 plus years later, it’s easy when you look back and remember all the innocence of it, exactly where I was at through all that period… yeah, I played around with drugs just like everybody else did. I did all the same things that everybody else did, but I didn’t get caught up in it to the point where it’s wiped half my memory away.

Now, that didn’t take its toll on my health, but things happen as you get older, for whatever reason. Everyone thinks they’re invincible when they’re a kid, they may not say it out loud, but everyone carries on like they’re invincible when they’re children. And before you know it, by the time you reach middle age, between 45 and 55 years old, your body stops talking to you. Your body is talking to you all the way up until then but by the time you reach 45-55 years old, your body stops talking. You don’t hear, you don’t realise it’s stopped talking and then your whole life begins to spiral. If you’re lucky enough to come out the other side of it, then you do what is necessary to pull yourself together and just keep moving forward. Not everyone is as lucky as that, not everyone survives it. But I have. And at the expense of not sounding too deep, it’s never been nothing but fun to me and I have to keep it fun. That’s the reason I get a little guarded sometimes and don’t always want to talk about it — people want to pull it apart. It’s like they’ve found something that’s really, really rare and then they want to pull it apart to try and dissect it, to get to the core of what makes it work. Why can’t it just be what it is? You can see it for what it is, you can hear it for what it is, it’s got enough of a legacy that people can bite into and taste exactly what it is. It’s bigger than what I ever expected it to be and I think it’s going to be even greater than that, long after I’ve gone. But at the core of it all is a good time and that’s the only thing that’s important.

I think in England that transition felt more pronounced. England had that rare groove thing, so it went backwards before it went forwards. Like you said, it was all James Brown, all Maceo and the Macks, so when we heard acid tracks it was like “Wow! Where did that come from?”

You guys had something that was completely different to the music industry in the United States. Music like that gets a second life, a third life — a fifth life! All of a sudden someone can play it, it will spark interest and it gets a whole new life in the UK. Not here. Once it’s flared up, hit its mark, reached its peak, it goes away, it’s buried. You might hear it on an old disco radio show or throwback radio show, but it never sees the light of day or the type of success it can do in the UK, two, three, four, five times around. And that’s what so great and unique about the UK versus the United States or anywhere else in the world — because everyone else was following, musically, what happens in the UK.

On the subject of recycling older music, at the moment there’s a little bit of a resurgence of 90s New York house. You go to a party in a basement in East London and there’s all these 25-year-old kids playing old Hardrive records, MK records, your records. Do you feel that sound is still relevant today?

It must be! I think there’s a certain romanticism about that music from that particular period. It’s interesting because back in the 90s, when everyone was playing classics, they were playing everything from the disco period. Basically from the 70s upwards, not even anything from the 80s, whenever they were playing classics or you went to these classic parties, and you find sometimes at the Sound Factory or at Zanzibar, they were pulling out all these old disco records. Fine. We’re now living in the millennium and now the classics that everybody is romantically involved with, is all this stuff from the early 90s, which is the same thing that happened in the 90s about everything that was in the 70s, 20-25 years before. And I think it’s great! I especially think it’s great because I’ve got some music in there that people have gravitated towards. People have discovered this, especially a lot of these young people, when they’ve discovered it for the first time, their approach towards it in the UK is so completely different than it is here. It’s like finding a rare gem to them and then they treasure it. They play it like it was played back then. Then it inspires all these guys that are making music in their bedrooms, to try and build and make tracks that sound like the stuff we were making back then.

I think that’s right. I’ve spoken to guys 20 odd years younger than me, they’re discovering this stuff now and find it so exciting. There was actually a poll on www.faithfanzine.com to find the greatest house record of all time and you were involved in three of the Top Ten (‘Your Love’, ‘Tears’, and ‘Let the Music Use You’). Then we did a poll at the end of the Noughties for the greatest records of that decade, and your mix of Hercules and Love Affair ‘Blind’ was in that Top Ten too, so you had from the mid-80s till 25 years later covered.

I think that particular song has had something to do with this whole resurgence and renaissance feel everybody has about that early 90s feeling, because ‘Blind’ sounds a lot like stuff from back in that period. A lot of the new music that I’m doing now has the same feel to it. It’s kind of a bit of a throwback but sonically it fits and matches everything that’s going on now.

What I took from those polls and the popularity of ’Blind’ is that you’ve managed to stay fresh. There are references to your influences from the past but it’s not overtly retro. Do you feel keeping that freshness is important, rather than just making a bunch of derivative records that sound like the ones being made 25 years ago?

What I’m doing now production wise, I haven’t tried to recreate what happened back then, I’ve not purposely tried to do that. I’m just trying to make music the way I know how. I think one of the greatest things anybody that’s making music can do is home in on a sound that become a signature and people recognise you for it. You can walk into a club blindly for the first time and you listen to the tracks that’s playing and you know exactly who that is, because you recognise their sound. Or you can walk into a room where a DJ is playing and there could be a bunch of other DJs playing as well, but at the time you walk in, you can tell if that’s the person you came to listen to playing or not. I’ve managed to do that, I’ve created and built a sound for myself, this signature, and it works and people recognise it. Other songs are compared to it, other productions are compared to what it is, which is really, really flattering and I think that’s really nice, but actually trying to revive that? I’m not purposely trying to do that but it is nice that people have that to reference, and compare it to and say “This is like the old stuff but it’s great! It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s like what it was but it’s like the next thing or it’s better!”. But that’s fine by me, I’m just trying to stay in the game, that’s all.

So you think it’s important to keep moving forward rather than dwell on the past?

I think if you’re going to do this, you should be serious about it. I think music is really, really serious, because it’s so personal, it’s so personal to everybody and everybody likes what they like for whatever reason. If you’re going to do it, you have to take it serious. On this particular side of it, especially when it comes to being a club DJ, you have too many people that count on you, to help them escape from whatever bullshit they’re going through in their lives. People can have messed up weeks, working on jobs that they absolutely hate and living with people that don’t give them any kind of peace of mind whatsoever, but then one day out of the week, they go to one particular club and get on the dancefloor and completely lose their mind because that music is the thing that takes them away from all that.

I think you're talking about me when I was younger!

I think everybody to a certain degree can relate to that, especially when you’re growing up. When you get into this particular business, there are guys that get into this business strictly for the women and the money. And there are people that do it because it's such a part of who they are, they can’t imagine themselves doing anything else, even though they probably can, and nobody wants them to anything else. I’ve produced a lot of records, I’ve mixed a lot of records, and my approach towards each and everyone of them was not to do cookie-cutter, not to make it what everyone else is trying to do, not to follow trends.

So as a DJ you think that staying fresh is important as well, to play new music? I know you’re not a fan of wheeling out all the old classics when you play.

That’s not necessarily true. When I get booked to do a gig, if I only have three hours to play then I have to put together the best possible show I can give in that three-hour period. Now, what’s consistent in that show might not necessarily be what you think might be the best of me to give, because you might have certain expectations about things you want to hear, that you think I’m going to play but I’m not predictable in that way. But when I have the luxury of five, six, eight hours to play, which is where I come from, then I have the opportunity to really stretch out and go there. I’m going to take you on a journey musically, that’s going to take you back to them periods, but I’m not going to get locked into doing just one thing or playing one particular way all night long. Or people are going to come in and say “He’s gonna play nothing but the old retro stuff now” or “This is the retro period”, no, no, no, I’m going to sprinkle it here and there to give you a rush. You’re not going to know it’s coming, you’re not going to know what it is — that’s the way it’s done! All these other guys, you have to remember they’re younger, they did not live through that period, they don’t know how that works, they will lump it all into one particular show. And for me, it’s just a bunch of old music being played all night long. I’m too busy trying to work in the here and now. I have to live and work in the here and now, or else I’m going to get pegged a retro DJ. I’m not. The work I do is much too current and much too relevant, right now, to have to wear that kind of moniker round my neck. I’m at that age where I could easily be misconstrued for that but I don’t want to be known for that, which is why I keep writing and producing new music, and working with people.

What do you think about the quality control of house these days? Good vocals seem to be fewer and further between.

Well, you know why that is? It’s because the majority of these guys don’t know how to work with a vocalist. They don’t know who to produce a vocal, they don’t know the first thing about song writing, so you know, it is what it is. And most of that music is disposable, it might have the shelf life of a week, if that, but the minute a new song cuts through, that has a great vocal, is really saying something and on top of that, the production is the icing on the cake, it blows up and becomes really, really big, because it sticks out like a sore thumb and everybody can see it, versus all the other disposable tracks that are played all night long.

I think that ‘Blind’ was a good example of that - it really stood out at the time.

I agree. It stood out at a time when there was nothing else out there like it.

What about quality more generally? Will we get that quality of production back into house, especially in light of the upsurge of interest among younger people — will that fresh blood improve the quality of production?

Yes, I think so. I think one of the things that helped to chase it away was when people like myself and some of my other colleagues just stopped doing the remix thing and producing thing, and got more involved in travelling and playing. But to some extent we were forced to do that, because when you’ve got the industry dictating it’s a DJ culture and it’s all about the DJ and what the DJ’s doing, and you’ve got these DJs who are trying to become producers and they’re only making tracks in their bedroom, and we’re talking about disposable tracks and nothing of any serious quality is coming out — what happened in the industry for the last 10 or 12 years, is what you get. So people like myself and some off my other colleagues, the only thing we can do is just retreat, try and continue to work, try and stay relevant about what we’re doing. And then, when you feel good enough and you feel inspired enough about wanting to do something, then do it. I had completely got out of the remix game and was borderline about to get out of the whole production thing, until Hercules & Love Affair asked me to do ‘Blind’ for them. I didn’t want to do it, I really didn’t, I didn’t hear it at first. But they kept saying, “We need you. Ain’t nobody can do it but you. There is a certain sound that you have, there’s a certain retro feel, a period we’re trying to recapture with the song and it wouldn’t sound as good any other kind of way”. Okay fine. I did it, sent it to them, went on about what I had to do and didn’t think about it. I went on tour down to Australia, I get down there and everybody‘s talking about it, because they had put it out just that quick. Everybody’s talking about it and wait a minute, I just finished that record before I left home! And so by the end of that year, when I find out it’s the biggest record, all I could is sit back and scratch my head, it’s like “What the hell is going on?”, it took me by surprise. Then on the heels of that, Depeche Mode came after me to do ‘Wrong’ for them. I’m like, “Aw, just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!”, and while working on that, I had to give it some real serious consideration to whether I want to do this again or not. Only if I can do it at a level I want to do it at and produce things at the level I can do it, and present that quality. My only fear was that, is there a market for it? Would anybody be hearing it? Would anybody recognise it? Would anybody buy it? Would it be viable enough anywhere? And thank God I stuck with it because now it is. Hopefully, what I’m doing will inspire these guys who have been sitting in their bedrooms playing with themselves to take this shit to the next level, that’s all.

I’m not trying to discount any of them when I call them ‘these guys playing that are in their bedrooms’, I think they’re very creative in what they do. But you have to challenge yourself, when you’re being artistic you need to challenge yourself. These DJs, they will find a certain kind of mixer that they know that they like that they probably played on in their bedroom until they started working in clubs, and then they don’t want to work on any other mixer than that. When they walk into a club when there’s a mixer they’re not familiar with, they get nervous, they’re afraid, they don’t really want to play on it, simply because they’re not familiar with it.

My train of thought is that, every time I walk into a club that doesn’t have a mixer I’m used to playing on, I have to adjust. Because I could be playing with five other DJs and they’re all fine with this one particular mixer, but if I wanted to put my foot down and say “Well no, we only going to have one kind of mixer in here and it’s the one I want”, they’d be pissed and at the same time they’d also be afraid, because they’d be afraid they can’t work on the mixer. Out of consideration to all of them, and none of them ever think about this, I’ll work on the same equipment as they do — whatever makes them comfortable, fine, I’ll do it, no problem. Because when you come into my arena, you’re going to play the way I play.

I rise to the occasion, I have to. Because, at the end of the day, all those people that are out there in that room, they don’t know none of it, they don’t care. All they know is you’re here and we want you to give us the best of what you’ve got. All the other DJs that I’m playing with, they’re nervous as hell, but you have to remember they’re not sound educated, all they know is to put it on, turn it up loud, and leave it to that. I have a sound education, that’s where I come, and there’s certain kinds of mixers that work in rooms and make music sounds beautiful. If I’m going to play, it’s got to sound better to me than it does to you.

So do you think DJs today, the younger generation, are a bit pampered? That they haven’t had the hard-knocks education that some of the old school had?

No, I think they just don’t challenge themselves. What’s the point of doing anything if you don’t challenge yourself? You get complacent, that’s the bottom line. You get comfortable, everything is the same, you get complacent. And when you get complacent, people get bored.

Modern technology swings both ways on this, doesn’t it? It’s cheap and readily available, so it opens things up to more people, and some of those will be hugely creative, which is great, whereas others won’t be creative at all but will still be able to churn out any old rubbish.

We’re talking about music. I’m not discounting any of these other genres of music but you are talking about music. Okay, so technology has helped you along and taught you how to do all these incredible things, okay, what else you got? That would be my question, if I walked in on a child of mine, and he had taught himself all this brilliant stuff with computers and how to make all these fabulous and dynamite tracks, okay great, so what’s next? What else you got? What else you going to do? You can’t tell me about the next technological wonder, “I’m going to be able to this with keyboards, and mix something live, and remix things live in front of the room”, that’s not enough. Where’s the vocalist? Where’s the human condition in the middle of what you’re doing? You can’t just say it’s you, because if you’re just standing there staring at a keyboard or a computer, and not even looking at the people in the room, you’re going to take a second and look up, and the room’s empty — everyone will have left!

Do you think that some DJs get too hung up on the technology? Almost like it is more important to have the latest kit or wizzy software, and be playing in some certain way, rather than focusing on the importance of the music itself?

Yes, absolutely. It’s really interesting, for all technology has done and how DJ s are playing now… I was just in Miami last week and I showed up at the Def Mix gig, and there was some guy who was outside the club as I was going in. And he ran up, said hello and all the rest of it, asked if he could take a photograph. He said “Where’s your CDs, where’s your vinyl?”. I was like “I’m only playing a couple of hours, I didn’t bring any CDs with me, and I definitely don’t travel with vinyl anymore”. He was like “Aw man, that’s disappointing, it’s not the same thing unless you’re playing with vinyl.” I was like “And where do you play records at? And you’ve been playing how long?”, I said “Let me tell you something, I carried vinyl for years. I hired people to carry vinyl for me for years. Technology keeps changing and unless I rise to the occasion and change with it, I’m gonna be one of those guys that’s going to be limited to where they can go and what they can do.” I have to stay involved, I have enough people around me to keep me connected to what’s going on, however, I have to keep the real side of who I am involved in what it is that I do. There’s one thing that I know my audience expect from me whenever I’m playing. They expect me to look up at them, they expect me to make eye contact with them, especially the women in the room. People feel really good when you connect with them in that way, because they feel like “He knows that I’m here, he may not know me but he knows that I’m here”, and if I look up and I smile at them, it makes them feel like they’re at a private party, versus just in somebody’s club. So many guys that are playing on laptops, they are so locked into their computer that they never look up. One of these days they’re going to be surprised — they’re going to look up and the room’s going to be empty!

So technology is great when it pushes things forward but when people get too hung up on it, it can become a barrier?

I think a lot of times it’s a social thing. So many of these kids and these people that are locked into their computers, they have no social skills. They don’t know what it is to go out and sit and have a conversation with someone about absolutely nothing. They’re so used to working in their bedroom by themselves and doing things by themselves, when they get in a club in a DJ booth, in a real club, in a real arena, with thousands of people in front of them, they don’t connect with them. And that’s the sad thing, that’s the sad part of it, because as far as they’re concerned, it’s alright.

That might go a bit beyond the technology though, maybe they just need to get out more?!

But you can see how technology plays into it? Because they’re so used to doing everything in their bedroom by themselves. The human voice never comes into it, unless they’re sampling someone else’s vocal. They don’t know the first thing about producing a vocal, they don’t know the first thing about really writing a song, and to me, if you’re going to challenge yourself, that’s the next step. You know to produce tracks, you know how to lay out a production, that’s great. Now put a voice to it, put a song to it.

You were saying about Miami and the Winter Music Conference, how was it? Do they still have big conference tracks?

I think those days are pretty much over. The internet has changed that, so it will not be that anymore, not the way it used to be, like there would be one particular song that was the highlight of the conference, because everyone’s on the same page, pretty much. But it was great, it was a great buzz, because Def Mix hasn’t had a party there in the past couple of years. I have a new project I was presenting and people were eager to hear it. Morales has a new album that is coming out, we had his album and his party as well, so there was so much focus on Def Mix and the both of us. I think you would have really appreciated it if you were there, it was kind of like a throwback feeling to way back in the day, the early days of the Music Conference, when it was like that — there were certain songs people kept talking about throughout the whole conference, which was nice, and they were songs of mine and David’s, which was cool.

You’ve just done something new with Jamie Principle, is that right?

That’s the first single that’s getting ready to come out, it’s coming out while I’m [in London] as a matter of fact.

And was that one of the songs being talked about at the Conference?

Well, Jamie Principle performed while we were there, so people got to see him for the first time.

So finally, what should the people coming to the Boys Own party expect?

I can show you better than I can tell you!

And with that, Frankie plays me his new single, very Blind-esque, with a nagging, almost tracky feel, a beautifully crafted, delicate piano line, and polished vocal performance from Jamie. Classic Frankie — but I’m not doing it justice, you should check it out for yourself.

Frankie Knuckles featuring Jamie Principle ‘I’ll Take You There’ is out now NOICE! Music.

This interview first appeared on the new, improved www.faithfanzine.com website and appears here with Beyond The Stars' thanks to the Faith Team for making it happen. Check out the site more more great reading.

Video - The Sound Factory, 1993

2011-04-10T14:56:00.001+01:00

The Sound Factory is simply the best club I've ever been too. This is some rare footage from around the time it was at its most popular. Junior was playing Friday and Saturday by this time and the club kids had rocked up - you can see them throughout this video in their outlandish attire. A year or so before, Junior was just playing Saturdays, the crowd felt a bit more street and the club a little rawer. However, it was still the best club in the planet in 1993 and was the fiercest of ruling divas.

Read more about my first trip to the Sound Factory >>here<<

Jamie Principle 'Baby Wants To Ride' (Beyond The Stars Swedit) - WAV Download

2011-04-10T14:00:00.001+01:00

Some years ago, I picked up this obscure Swemix version of Jamie Principle’s Chicago staple, ‘Baby Wants To Ride’ in the 50p basement of Record and Tape. Mixed by Stonebridge in 1989 and apparently limited to 1000 copies, when I dropped the needle in the groove for the first time, I was pleased to with what I heard, smutty vocals to fore and jackin’ beats… for about 2 mins, then it became apparent that Mr Stonebridge had just bought a new sampler and boy was he gonna use it, mutilating the track with an avalanche of pointless ‘Uhh-uhh-babies’ and ‘Give It To Thems’, along with a really rubbish wet squelching acid bassline.

So it went on the shelf with all the other ‘I might round to editing that one day (but won’t)’ records never to be played again.

Things turned out a little differently this time though. Through a Trax edit competition I got talking to London based acid house producer Neville Watson about it and he offered to give me a hand having a go at sorting it out. So, one afternoon I popped round and we got busy chopping it up.

Essentially, it’s meant to be in the style of an old tape edit, cut and spliced together. There are no new bits, just new arrangement and effects added here and there to the old bits. The original is quite busy so we were limited to what we could use, but hey, that didn’t stop Ron Hardy with ‘Peaches and Prunes’!

The finished article is half decent - but that is mainly down to Neville, his technical ability, finely tuned ear, creative mind and ability figure out what the bleeding heck I was going on about most of the time.

You can check it below and also Neville’s own production on his Soundcloud page >>here<<

Follow the link to download.

Baby Wants To Ride - Beyond the Stars Swedit (Me & Neville Watson) by Miles Simpson

20 Years of Planet E

2011-03-04T13:06:00.004Z

So, Carl Craig is in town this weekend to celebrate 20 years of Planet E, and predictably internet forums and social networking websites around the land are alive with chatter about the highlights of those 20 years.

As mentioned on here before, I’m partial to a little c2 on the old stereogram at Beyond The Stars Towers, so these discussions have been of some interest to me. General consensus seems suggest that ‘Throw’ and ‘At Les’ are his most popular efforts, but let’s be honest, we probably don’t really need to hear either record ever again, do we?

So, here’s some of my favourite that aren’t ‘Throw’’ or ‘At Les’. Not definitive by any stretch of the imagination, but they work for me.

R-Tyme ‘Use Me’ (Carl Craig’s R-Tyme Groove) - Criminally under played, not even on Youtube, and everyone bangs on about the MK mix on the other side, but basically one of the best house records ever made. In my all time top 5. Live sounding drums, funky as fuck, the vocal drop sounds like Robert Owens but isn’t, then the melancholy keys, oh my god, the hairs stand up on my arms just thinking about. And then when you think it can’t get any better the bass hits you and the flute kicks in. It’s work of musical craftsmanship but it’s still raw. Basically, it’s fucking amazing.

BFC ‘Galaxy’ - One of his first efforts on Transmat. Got a real Transmat feel, but darker and more sinister than Derrick May and frankly, more other worldly. Moody synthetic strings, frantic, staccato beats, and backward sounds. Like what you expect the future to sound like.

Dave Angel ‘Tokyo Stealth Fighter’ (Carl Craig Remix) - This never gets a mention either? Why not? Driving beats, air raid sirens, tearing lazer noises, deep bass drops, echo and more backwards noises. It's late 90s techno at it’s trance like best (and I don’t trance as in shit but as in lose yourself in a musical trance) and is unfathomably heavy

69 ‘Ladies and Gentleman’ - First heard this on that Sasha's ‘Giving It Up’ show on Kiss (mid week, early hours take-over type thing). It’s a crazy record, ravey in places then goes off on so many tangents. It’s one to dance too in dark basements but also one to listen to at home on the headphones. And when it goes all dream like and trippy near the end? Blimey. I think this really demonstrates that Carl Craig is actually a musical genius. It’s almost classical like in its complexity. Where do these ideas come from? Is he on some sort of heavy drugs? There are more musical ideas crammed into this one track than most house/techno producers have in their life. It’s completely fearless, completely insane and really quite beautiful. Awesome in the truest sense of the word.

Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russo ‘ Relevee’ (Carl Craig remix) - This is like illegitimate child of ‘Tokyo Stealth Fighter’ and ‘Ladies and Gentleman’, who was sent away to stay with an Aunt as baby, only to turn up and bang on Daddy’s door 10 years later. More properly mental composition - a lengthy acidic intro, building and building, and then wallop, massively heavy big room sounds, intricate piano, almost disco-like bongos and really delicate strings. There’s so much going on, and again, how does he sit down and have ideas like this? First heard this when Ame played the promo at Faith at Turnmills, it was one of those ‘WTF?’ moments and was the talk of the town (ok, internet forums) the following week, as people scrabbled around trying to find a copy. A kindly AandR sorted me out and I probably still owe him a beer for that. 5 years old now, where the fuck does the time go?

You can catch Carl DJing at Phonica between 6-8pm on Saturday and then later at the Planet E party, at Ewer Street car park in SE1 (sounds great). More deatils here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=13340

Interview - DJ Nature

2010-10-03T10:44:00.131+01:00

Regular readers will know that Golf Channel Records are pretty big round at Beyond the Stars towers. Last year a couple of releases by DJ Nature really caught my ear. They had a real fresh house vibe and sounded really unlike pretty much anything else I was hearing at that time.

What I didn't know is that New York based DJ Nature has been producing quality music in the Big Apple since 1991.

Beyond the Stars caught up with the main man to discuss the DJ Nature project, Tony Humphries, slum rats, Japanese sound systems, minimal house and much, much more.

Here’s what was said.

Your recent releases on Golf Channel and Jazzy Sport have really brought the Nature project to people’s attention, but it’s not a recent thing, is it? Can you tell us a bit about project and how it came about?

When I first moved to the US my intention was to release stuff on my own label as that was impossible to do at that time in the UK. I knew I could put out a limited amount of stuff whilst doing other things and not go broke. I started putting out stuff on a label I created called Ruff Disco Records, I took them to Charley at Vinylmania and he loved the stuff which meant a lot to me because the man's a legend. Also got a lot of love from a guy I used to buy stock from called Frank Mendez, who owned Nu-Groove. He introduced me to Felix Ortiz who was running one of the hottest new labels at the time, E-Legal Records, and he put out an album of stuff. All in all, I was very surprised by the interest in my product because it was extremely rough on the production side.

How would you describe the Nature production sound? If I had to try to describe it to someone who had never heard one of your records, I might say it is one part Prescription, one part Nu-Groove, one part Moodymann, and one part something else I can’t quite put my finger on!

Back when I started it, I just wanted to put out really rough sounding material that stood out from the other stuff vibe wise. That was it basically just a rugged texture to nice up the dance. Kind of what Wu Tang did later in the hip hop industry to a much bigger effect. It wasn't like I woke up one morning and said that's what I wanted to do ,it was more like a natural inclination. I don’t really get involved with who it sounds like and comparisons, because I pretty much pre-date anyone that's around right now doing what they have just picked up. I am honoured to be mentioned along with the likes of Nu-Groove because of obvious reason's , but I'm pretty much in the dark about what's happening on the modern front . My influences are no one doing stuff in this field right now, but artists that gripped me when I was young.

Was Nature a conscious change of direction or do you see it as a natural evolution?

Actually I wouldn't say it was an evolution in the progression sense, because it was a lot nastier than what I had done previously. But it was just another vibe I was always into that I needed to get off my chest. Was it a conscious change of direction ? Well I had had tracks sitting around since my second trip to Japan around ‘86 or ‘87 that were incredibly rough draft, but had the foundation of what you hear today.

The current Nature sound, will still retaining a certain rawness, is a lot more polished, is that experience or just where you want to take it?

More the latter really! Different equipment changes your sound also. Back when I started I had pretty basic stuff, which is pretty obvious by the production quality. But some tracks worked sounding that rough and some didn't so they were put to the side. I like it raw because it gives the dancefloor balance in a general sense. All the equipment I used back in the first phase of what I did I don't use today, but I am thinking about dusting some of it off and incorporating it into my new set up.

Talking changes in direction, you’re from Bristol originally but now live in New York. How long ago did you move there and why?

I moved here in 1989 after growing up in Bristol and spending the last 7 years in London. I had recently gotten married, and my wife and I planned to set up a small exporting company in NY. At the same point in time the fact that what I wanted to do musically around then didn't fit into what was happening in the UK, so it just made sense on two fronts. Typically, as soon as I left the UK it became the hotbed of what I was doing, ha ha ha!

New York was a very different place to what it is now , I remember staying in the depths of Queens and visiting Alphabet City in 1992 and being scared shitless – was it a shock to the system moving a city of such extremes?

Mate, I lived in Alphabet city back then it was rough as hell. nothing but crack heads and dealers and rats like I never seen in my life. I remember going to see Levan down the next block at "Choice" and there were so many rats all over the street - and they didn't even move when they saw you, that shit was scary. Other than that the only thing I had to get used to was the cold. Absolutely disgusting how cold NYC gets! But back then it was just incredibly exciting I really felt at home in many ways. People just thought differently down there back then.

I’m a bit of a fan of the Sound Factory (pre-clichéd sound) and Zanzibar era Tony Humphries, were you hanging out in clubs like that back then and what were they like?

I used to go to Zanzibar with Frank from Nu-Groove ,that was a sketchy place outside that club, but once inside it was killer. Humphries as always been my favourite DJ in this genre and to hear him playing my joints on his radio show was incredible, actually soon after he played my stuff I pretty much stopped the Natureboy/Ruff Disco stuff. Sound Factory I used to go to also sometimes, as well as Red Zone, Better Days and Shelter. I stopped going to clubs on the regular around '95 or so.

Who was playing at Better Days back then, Bruce Forest? And you mentioned Levan at Choice too. These guys are pretty much legends, was is it exciting to catch them in their home town? And how did they match up to the DJs you left behind in the UK?

To be honest I really don't remember who was playing at Better Days, the first time I went there it was the wrong night. I went with the missus and I thought to myself , "Damn! There is absolutely no women in this club” and it was a hip hop night. We hung around for a bit then noticed these hard core looking hip hop guys kissing… each other! Culture shock to the fullest! We went back on the ‘right’ night and it was cool, just good music house and some classic disco joints. Choice I enjoyed because I could walk there in about 4 minutes from my flat. It was obviously a great chance to see the legend that is Larry Levan do his thing, and like myself he wasn't the most gifted technically, but the selection was fantastic! I still have a lot of love for the DJs I first encountered after leaving school, they had a massive impact on me so they will always be the best for me personally and they were playing a lot of the same stuff. But what you have to love about Levan is that he played some left field stuff that just made every party incredibly enjoyable.

How do you think New York influenced your sound?

I don't know, I have always liked a particular vibe in my music but as opposed to the UK back then NY enabled you to go into it, in a productivity sense, without fear. You can just submerge yourself into it more profoundly, and the music was just around all day every day. I'm not knocking the UK at all, because it's grown to be the creative music capital of the world without question.

More generally, what are your influences? You have a bit of a hip hop/sound system background, do you draw on that in your production?

If I do it's not intentional, it's just a natural progression as a vibe. Without question what I grew up with for 20 odd years in Bristol is a massive part of my musical DNA today, more so than any New York influence in terms of sound, excluding stuff like Chic or Patrick Adams. I draw on influences from all genres because that's what I listen to, everything.

What about when you DJ? Hip hop and house are now seen as quite different DJing styles, although maybe not so much in the past, do you feel there they are distinct?

Funny you say that, because my sons listen to rap more than I do and the new stuff sucks ass to be honest! But a lot of them guys are rapping on house beats at the moment which I find surprising, as I think the down tempo house stuff would make a more sensible link between the two. I haven't played hip hop for a while, but I bought stuff that I felt was good like Tip and Dilla stuff. I like the Neptunes production and Dre but I pinch those songs of the kids!

Are you on something like Serato yet or are you still rocking vinyl?

Overseas I was rocking vinyl up until a couple of years ago. I was doing some gigs in the UK and the air line lost my records. From that day I said never again and I bought Traktor Scratch Pro. I still play vinyl if planes are not in the travel arrangements, but my records won't see a plane again if I have anything to do with it.

As someone who really mastered vinyl DJing, do you think the advent of digital DJ technology, and how it easy it can make DJing detracts from the 'art', or does it open up a world of new creative possibilities?

It kind of does both really. I understand why a lot of people are kind of anti digital because lets face it, it makes it so much easier to beat match. But to me I don't really worry about that, because you can give me and another DJ the same records but only a few DJs really have soul, they can't work a track the same way . The artistry is not only making two tracks rock on beat, there are other dynamics which gives a DJ his identity. That's why DJs like Humphries and Kenny Carpenter will never be touched by anyone who comes up in my opinion, they are just different.

On the subject of DJing, you originally made your mark as a DJ and now your work as a producer is really coming to the fore. Do you see yourself primarily as one or the other, and if so, why?

Both! I never see myself stopping DJing, I was raised from a youth watching sound men in their 70's running shebeens and I want to be like that.

There was a big break between the original Nature Boy releases and the your more recent work – what have you been up to?

This and that! I kind of mentioned earlier that when Humphries played my stuff on Kiss and I was hearing it on the WBLS live dance parties, I pretty much stopped making stuff. I think the last things I did was something Carl Craig wanted me to do for him Naomi Daniel ‘Feel the Fire’ and a dodgy re edit here and there, under another name. I did some mix CDs for my homey's store in London called Hideout in Soho (Food vol 1 &2), some mixes for Soph in Tokyo (‘Real Players’ and ‘Surface Tension‘) and Steppers Records also in Tokyo (‘Live 2 Peachtree's 1979‘). I also put a mix out myself called ‘Live at the Cat Club 1979’.

Jazzy Sport is a bit of an obscure label (well, to me with my London blinkers on anyway), how did you get involved with them? Do you have a bit of a following in Japan?

I know Taro through a mutual friend at another label that I was involved with in the 80's. I don't think I have a following in Japan or anywhere else to be honest, as I don't think I was consistent enough releasing stuff to gain one with Natureboy/DJ Nature.

What’s it like playing over there?

I like playing in Japan for the most part because people have more open minds in general musically, you don't have to run obvious tunes to get people dancing. I will say this though pound for pound, no city on earth has more banging sound systems in their clubs than Osaka. That place is ridiculous , I think it's primarily because they are really into reggae down there and that they are really a bit rougher on the attitude side than the Tokyo lot.

Do you DJ much in New York these days?

Once in a while ,did some parties with Phil from Golf Channel early in the 00's and with some other people also here and there. At the moment though I am really concentrating on production and building as big a catalogue of stuff possible, because once I get into a flow I don't to break it for gigs unless it makes complete sense. At some point I want to try and get a regular spot and build a base for people who want to listen to this, but for me it has to be right technically.

What’s the scene like there now? We’ve read a bit about the Brooklyn scene, do you get along to some of those parties?

I am the epitome of a hermit and I rarely venture out of Harlem on the casual! The only gig I went to recently was in Brooklyn and that was only because it was a DJ/producer that I rate highly from Germany. It's really quite strange, because it's not the same vibe as say Body And Soul when it was at Shelter or Zanzibar back in the 90's, those people have been replaced by something different today.

Do you still like a bit of a dance?!

I did that night, but don't make a habit of it. Only at home to give the kids a laugh!

You mentioned you did some gigs with Phil South, is that how you hooked up with Golf Channel?

Yes. When he was starting his label he asked to hear some stiff when I started doing stuff again.

Why the double 12" releases? Do you simply have a lot of material you want to get out there?

That was down to the label really and sound quality.

Golf Channel put a lot of effort into the quality of the sound and their product, like cutting straight to lacquer when mastering - is that attention to detail important to you when you're putting music out there?

No doubt! I wasn't to hip to that process, but it soon became something that I noticed a bit later.

Are you keeping busy in the studio? What should Nature fans look out for in the near future release wise?

Well the "fwd evr" stuff came out last, I just sent some material to jazzy sport called "Suntoucher remixes". That will be out on double 12"s also, I have a mix CD that I will try to get out also and a CD album with Jazzy Sport after that.

You mentioned edits earlier and your mixes often contain a edit or two of your own. The market is full of edits at the moment, some good, some bad, do you plan to get involved put any out or do you just see them as a DJ tool?

I see them primarily as a DJ tool, I think it's the one thing that gives DJs an edge like white label promos did back in the day! I really like doing them ,but I'm not great at it like some of the guys, but a few of the things I've done got some nice responses. I don't see myself releasing any of the ones I have done so far, but down the road there are a few things that I am working on that are quite good that may work.

You were (fairly) recently over in the UK playing at Plastic People, how did you find that?

Fantastic. The sound was like old days in Bristol and the people were really good , that was with Andy Newcombe and Discobox crew, impeccable jam. I hear the local constabulary have this unjustified quest to try and close that club at the moment. I think it's important for anyone reading this who are into listening to good music on a fantastic system need to really support that club, because when it's gone you will wish you did. Clubs like that are impossible to find in London I hear, so don’t take it for granted.

Checking out a few of your mixes online, you drop stuff like Lawrence, Bookashade and Villalobos, do you keep up with the European house scene?

I at least try to, that shit is forward. Some of that stuff is incredibly motivating, but there is so much of it. Love Lawrence, Portable, Koze, early Cadenza stuff some much music out there right now it's outrageous. I'm not as deep in it as I would like to be just can't afford that, but I try to keep up with those doing interesting stuff. My set is always changing nowadays and becoming more polished selection wise. I really got into that minimal thing for a moment and kind of ignored a lot of other good stuff I had. What I found hard was being able to DJ after having long spells out of it, because back in the UK I was just playing tunes all the time at the Camp where we kept our equipment, so my set and technique was a lot smoother back then. Now I’m trying to get back at least to that level.

Do you think it is important to keep looking forward then and wallow in the past? You could easily rest on your laurels given past glories, but you seem to be constantly striving to do something different?

You know what, it's incredibly hard escaping your past. You can give people distinct instructions not to do certain shit and they say yeah okay, and do something completely different. It's incredibly frustrating and a pretty good reason to scrap DJ Nature and do something else, so I don't know how much longer I'll continue under that. I have never really tried to be different, I just play what I like and completely ignore everyone else . That's not to say I don't hear stuff people play and think, “I like that song but I can't play because he has”, I don't think like that. I think I’m just lucky to have a good outlook on music and what I think is good to play out. I think I'll always be doing something creative in one way or another i just like making stuff too much to quit contrary to what has been written about ‘retirement’ and all that crap.

Are you coming back play over here soon?

Not sure.

Well, thanks for taking the time to talk, it's been an absolute pleasure.

The pleasure's all mine mate. Peace!

More DJ Nature stuff:

You can follow DJ Nature on his >>Soundcloud<<

You should also check his cool podcast online >>here<< too and his hot '93 house mix for Feelmybicep >>here<<

The two ‘fwd evr’ EPs are out now on Golf Channel Records and can be purchased via Juno >>here<< and >>here<<

The Suntoucher remixes are out in November on Jazzy Sport and will also be available via Juno >>here<< and >>here<<

And you can check out the Necessary Rufness EP just by hitting play below:

DJ Nature - Necessary Rufness EP Snips by jazzysport

Legendary Children - New Kids On The Block

2010-09-29T22:00:00.002+01:00

Legendary Children first came to my attention through the fantastic blog of the same name. The enthusiastic writing about all things house was an obvious draw for someone like me. But after a little bit of digging, it transpires that unlike many other house music blogs, Legendary Children isn’t the work of a fat, balding middle age bloke obsessing about Nu-Groove catalogue numbers on the internet, but spritely young DJs Prince Pac, Elles McFierce'em and Best Edward.

As well as writing the aforementioned blog, which embraces the golden age of House music, predominantly Balearic, Chicago, Acid House and Detroit Techno, the Children also throw London based parties in the same theme. Not content with playing music heavily rooted in simpler times alone, the Legendary Children party ethos is also reflective of an era where an inclusive crowd policy and love of the music takes precedent.

I caught up with Best Edward and asked him a few questions about Legendary Children.

So why are whippersnappers like yourselves into this authentic house sound rather than minimal-dub-tech-step or whatever the walls of Phonica are covered in these days?

“I used to play techno and house for Pac's ‘Last One In's A Rotten Egg’ night and we'd both started to despair at the throwaway culture of trying to keep up with always having the biggest, newest records that the juno/beatport culture creates and the sense of musical apathy that seems so prevalent amongst today's club goers”.

So you didn’t just wake up one day with an irresistible urge to seek out L.B. Bad records, did you?

“We had kind of all arrived at the point we're at now in very similar ways and it kind of made sense to form and kind of collective. For example, my older brothers were big into House during the late 80, so that sound has always kind of been on my radar”.

How it going then, are the kids into it?

“It's working out really well because over the last 8 months or so we've formed alliances with Andy Blake's ‘World Unknown’ night and ‘The Beat’! and started to generate a scene, and it's invigorated all of us as DJs to feel like you are part of something that people genuinely care about and enjoy”.

So there you have it, genuinely enthusiastic but neither clichéd nor throwbacky in their delivery of an old school aesthetic, Legendary Children demonstrate you really can know your stuff and have a good time doing it.

And if you fancy a slice of the action, check out the three 30mins mixes in their killer 'Hot Mix' series the gang have kindly shared with Beyond the Stars, which you can stream or download before.

You migth also like to check their lovingly wriiten and hugely informative website: http://www.legendarychildren.co.uk/

Or even better, get yo’ ass, down to their next party with London’s answer to Adonis, the truly amazing Neville Watson at the Horse and Groom this Friday 1st October.

Hot Mix Vol. 1 by LEGENDARY CHILDREN

Hot Mix Vol. 2 by LEGENDARY CHILDREN

Legendary Children Hot Mix Vol. 3 by Prince Pac

Mix - Tony Humphries, KISS NYC, Jan 1992

2010-09-20T00:29:00.012+01:00

This is the story behind my my favourite ever mix tape. In 1991 one of my best friends moved to New York. It was a bit of bummer as New York is quite far away. But it did have its upsides, like holidays to New York, shopping in New York, clubbing in New York… and mix tapes from New York.

One of those mix tapes made an indelible mark on my musical psyche . I’m not quite sure why, because it wasn’t one of those carefully planned set-piece mixes all your mates go on about, it was simply a recording of a reguar Saturday night show, the Mastermix Dance Party, show on New York’s KISS, but there was something about how this mix was put together. By a certain Tony Humphries.

I imagine that as Mr Humphries was doing these every week, with new records, they must have been off the cuff. And some of the mixing would suggest that is right, because it’s not always in key, sometimes the vocal overlap, some mixes are forced and stuff like that, but, and it’s a BIG but, it works because he makes it works it!

He kicks off with the sublime Mr Fingers ‘Closer’, before wheeling through a few English tracks like the Joey Negro mix of Brand New Heavies ‘Dream Come True’ and Slam ‘Eterna’, then it just builds and builds and by the time he’s working two copies of Adeva’s ‘Independent Woman’ mixed up with Musto and Bones, he’s just firing! But the best is yet to come, with the mix he drops of Gypseymen ‘Hear The Music’ and C-Bounce ‘Keep The Faith’. The mix is not perfect, in fact technically it’s a bit rough, but working both records in and out, pretty much sums up that Humphries x-factor. There is something about his style which injects pure energy into the music. It is organic, instinctive, raw even, rather than clinical precision of some DJs, especially in today’s world of laptops and CDJs. And that is why I love it.

Mix wise, I don’t think anything I have heard ever has had this impact. I was 22 when I first heard it and used to English DJs boring on with prog house and Italian screamers. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is but there is a difference.

I rinsed this tape to death. Walking to work with my Sony Walkman, after clubs, in the car, in fact, it’s amazing it’s survived at all. It did though and I’ve stuck it up on Soundcloud for your listening pleasure.

Tony Humphries - KISS FM NYC - Mastermix Dance Party - 12 Jan 1992 by Humphries Kiss NYC Tape

Tracklist

Mr Fingers – Closer
Brand New Heavies – Dream Come True (Joey Negro mix)
Endangered Species - Endangered Species
Red Light – Who needs Enemies?
Slam – Eterna
Sounds of Blackness – Testify (CJ Macintosh dub)
Anambi - Our Love Climbs Higher
Love Root II - Funky Emotions
Chic – Chic Mystique
Sax – House Is A Feeling
Adeva – Independent Woman (Tony Humphries mix)
Adeva – Independent Woman (Tony Humphries dub)
Musto & Bones – The Music Is Right (R&B Dub)
Gypseymen – Hear The Music
C-Bounce – Keep The Faith
Latour – Cold
Black Traxx - Pump It
Monica Deluxe – Love On My Mind
Desiya – Coming On Strong
What It Is - Do You Believe
4th Measure Men – Just A Dream
James Howard – Wake Up
Lifeforce – Feel Your Body
Syndicate 305 - I Promise
Hardrive - Sindae

Better To Have Loved and Lost...

2010-09-15T23:35:00.005+01:00

There was recently a discussion over on DJ History (.com) about record shops that people used to frequent in their formative record purchasing years. This, I thought, is right up my street – banging on about records AND old stuff.

I actually associate records shops with actual records. Even though I’ve owned thousands of records that I have know recollection of buying (in fact, I own a fair few that I have no recollection of owning – bet they’re crackers though), certain records stick in my mind. I can remember the conversation with the shop assistant, the excitement of hearing and the journey home with my shiny, new, shrink wrapped wonders.

This is a very personal account of some of the record shops (and records) that I knew and loved in my teens and early twenties. Most are just rapidly fading memories, others are still around but barely resemble the establishments I used to know.

Record and Tape Exchange (Camden Town) - I grew up in North London, so this was local. First got dragged down there Dad on a Sunday (he bought a Bad Company LP), I bought my first 12” there and have spent/wasted many hours digging through piles of crap in the basement, normally whilst being subjected to some form of avant garde rock or white noise by the staff. Sold things like the Weatherall mix of Skunk Funk and the first Sabres of Paradise (the one with the flick knife on) down there when everyone loved Weatherall the second time round, plus loads of junk too. Also bought my first £10 record in there (Project XYZ), picked a first pressing of ‘Nude Photo/The Dance’ for £2, and last time I was there (a while ago) I got copies of Blunted Dummies ‘House For All’ and Eddie Grant ‘My Turn To Love You’ for 10p each. A happy hunting ground but you’ve got to be in the right frame of mind because there is soooo much rubbish to sift through to find anything decent.

Harum Records (Muswell Hill/Crouch End/Archway) - A small North London chain. It was one of those shops where the assistant would play a record for the customer and it all smelt kind of anti-static. Bought my first record ever when I was 10 in the Muswell Hill branch (Kings of the Wild Frontier) and my first house record (Big Fun). Always good for 99p new major label releases but also stocked independent stuff. Bought things like ‘Your Love’ and ‘Who Is The Badman’ in there for pennies. I used to drive for a builders and I managed to snap the key of in the van’s ignition after visiting the Crouch End branch when I should have been somewhere else. That went down well with my boss. They’re all long gone now but Archway was the first go - which, fact fans, is where Nick Hornby used to work and the shop on which his book Hi-Fidelity is based.

Pure Groove (Archway) - My local decent record shop. Hard to imagine that the it used to be pure house in there. Ziad was cool but Roots (of KCC) was cooler and knew exactly what I liked, cos it seemed to be pretty much the same as what he liked. Happy memories of sitting on the number 263 back up the Archway Road with sealed copies of things like Gypseymen ’Hear the Music’ and Ralph Falcon ’Every Now and Then’, examining the labels in detail and all excited about opening them. Stopped going in there when it went all hard house and I moved to NW London. When I came back North, it turned all indie rock but it had a good £1 sale box, in which got a whole bunch of copies of that Incogdo bootlegs and sold them on Discogs for a fiver each. Was absolutely gutted when in moved to Farringdon.

Trax (Soho) - As covered else where in the blog, this is my all time favourite record shop. It used to have charts on the whiteboards up on the walls, including all the tracks off a ’Short Film About Chilling’ when that was hot information. I was going out pretty much twice a week, every week at the start of the 90s and this where you’d find that latest Italian screamer you’d heard out at those parties. None of this listening post nonsense, every Saturday there was a massive five person deep scrum round the counter while Craig and Oscar played the latest arrivals and people fought over copies. Fortunately, as I was in there every week, they used to sort me out. I remember not wanting to go on holiday in case I missed something new, I was obsessed - I got paid cash on Thursday, was in there on Saturday and more than once I left with quite literally not enough money to eat the next week. Sadly, I think most of those ‘must have’ records that left me hungry, ended up at Record and Tape, where I probably got 5p each for them. Fashion is a fickle thing.

Zoom (Camden) - Firstly above the shoe shop with Rob and Zaki, then in the basement place, with Billy Nasty and Roots (again, yay!). Great shop, bought Jam and Spoon ‘Stella’ in there, along with things like Acorn Arts, Liberty City ‘Get Some Loving’ and, err, Felix ‘Don‘t You Want Me‘. It’s also where I first heard ‘Drum Attack’ and became a Wonka fan, whiling away many a minute discussing what an ace label it was and how cool a Wonka t-shirt would be with Billy. Think I bought all my Wonkas in Zoom, when I think of one, I think of the other.

Groove (Soho) - Legendary and a bit of a Mecca in Hip Hop circles, this was just a little bit before my time and I never felt that comfortable in there. I did, however, buy my first two imports in there - Jungle Crew ‘Elektric Dance’ (which I managed to wear out and ad to replace) and Rhythim Is Rhythim ‘Beyond the Dance’ (which still gets regular spins) so thank you for that Groove.

Discount Records (Shepherds Bush) - Worked opposite for most of 1989 and basically bought half of Centre Force’s play list in there - ‘French Kiss’, ‘Strings of Life’, ‘Quadrastate’, ’£10 to Get In’, ’Meltdown‘, ‘Afro-Dizzi-Act’, etc. They also ID’ed Dee Dee Bridewater ‘Lonely Disco Dancer’ off tape for me, although it caused a bit of a storm when it was played and half the shop (ok, two people) rushed to grab a copy, only to be disappointed. Can’t remember when it closed, might have been 1989, might have been a couple of years later, but they had a great sale in which I picked up a load of Cameo stuff on Casablanca and Chocolate City (I was a Cameo fan, you see). I can only imagine what I could have picked up if I had known my onions back then.

Record and Tape (Goldhawk Road) - The best 50p basement ever because they really didn’t have a clue. The builders I worked for had a big job in Chiswick so I went pretty much every day for months. They always had new stuff (and I really mean new, like not out in the shops yet) down there. Guerrilla promo central! Also got things like La Banderita ‘Mediterranea’ and Fidelfatti ‘Groovin’ when they were out on import, so someone with a short attention span must have been dropping records in there. Best of all, I got an unplayed promo copy of ‘Promised Land’ down there, when you just couldn’t find a copy anywhere (post-advent of the internet record shoppers will struggle with this concept) and sold it in Vinyl Exchange in Manchester for £25. Also got the Boys Town Gang (on 12” and LP) in there after seeing Mark Moore chart it Mixmag. Still love that LP, woo-woo-woo!

Vinyl Exchange (Manchester) - One of my best friends (who, as it happens, is now my wife) went to Uni up there and we used to fund trips to see her (and all her new female mates) by selling records we found easily in London up there. The aforementioned ‘Promised Land’, The Adventures ‘Broken Land‘, Scarlett Fantastic ‘No Memories‘, and 3 copies of Geneside II ‘Naramine’ for £20 each. Then found a copy of Dee Dee Bridgewater ‘Lonley Disco Dancer’ in the sale bins on the floor for a quid. It’s a funny old world.

Body Music (Seven Sisters) - Ostensibly a reggae shop but good for a bargain bin find or two. It’s where the 3 copies of Geneside II ‘Naramine’ came from.

Quaff (Soho) - My second fav record shop ever. The staff were great, with Breeze (rip) being one of the nicest, most charming, not mention pretty damned handsome, blokes you could ever meet. Used to see him out and about all the time (I was a regular at Deluxe and the Diorama), he always friendly and just cool. Guest listed us at MoS and stuff like that. And to put that into context, I was the archetypal spotty 21 year old ‘kid’ the older faces on the scene used to look down there nose at. Also, much as I like to rib him, Dom Moir was also ace and good for a chat. I remember getting him to order an import for me because I couldn’t find it anywhere else and no one even knew it. When I went to pick it up, he’d had a listen and told me it was a nothing record. Sagat ‘Fuk Dat’ on Maxi. Think it went top 10 in the end… They also had a great sale in which they had all those Salsoul Mastercut 12s for a quid or something. Manna from heaven for a budding disco enthusiast on a limited budget.

Black Market (Soho) - Not much to say but I preferred it when they had the foam sound proofing on the walls, no listening post and the echo FX thing on the mixer. That is the way record shops should be, the staff engaged, playing music and punters keeping their grubby little paws off the vinyl. I bought so many records in there, it’s untrue. I think fav though is Ocatve One ‘I Believe’, Still gets rinsed. Ashley Beedle was good in there, as was Rob Mello and more recently, Ben Chapman. Bit too pricey these days, to be honest. Can’t see it lasting in it’s current format but let’s hope they do.

Red (Soho) - Rubbish. Full of teds and that counter 8 foot in the air was a joke. I did, however, get R-Tyme ‘Use Me’ in there, which is one of the best records ever made.

Caroline Radio Records (Highgate) - A short lived venture in the early 90s but they had a load of disco bits like ‘Body Music’, ‘What I’ve Got (is what you need)’, ‘Magnificent Dance’ and ‘Mr Right’ which was a god send at the time.

Bluebird (Soho) - Also shit and I thought Lewis was a patronising dick (sorry to any mates of Lewis). Did a party one Christmas Day, maybe 1991, and dropped flyers in. It started a discussion about the merits of such a venture during which I said it was that or watching ‘The Great Escape’, to which replied with a sneer, he’d watch the film. He slunk away when Danny Rampling, who was in there at the time, piled in my side though. Oh and the party was mobbed… but a word to the wise, you can’t get a taxi at 2am on Boxing Day morning, so I had to walk from Grays Inn Road to Highgate.

Hitman (Soho) - On the site of Contempo, great slip mats but shit stock by the time I started going there and thus, always empty. Shut down not long after.

The Record Stall on Rupert St (Soho) - I was there almost every lunch when I worked in Soho in 1990 and it was amazing for promos for pennies (well, £1.50). The bloke who ran it was one of us, you’d see him out and about, so he was cool and good for a lunchtime chat about clubs and stuff, which was pretty much all I could think about at the time. Bought half my Creation records there, Hypnotone ‘Dreambeam’, Sheer Taft ‘Cascades’ and stuff like that. He used to get older stuff sometimes too. I remember him gloated about getting a copy of ‘Someday’ with the acappella on (the git wouldn’t sell it) and I also got John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’ on ZYX there, which was a bit of an odd one but a tune I had taped on the VHS when I was 15. The prices of all the records were also written inside the sleeves, so I still seem them now and I get a little warm feeling inside. Think all the stock was knock off though.

Sister Ray (Soho) - The original little one, again while I was working round the corner it was great for cheap big label releases like ’Where Love Lives’ (before I hated it) and the place for indie dance in central London. The Farm, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, and, err, the Soup Dragons, all came from there. Turned into a decent techno shop in the end too, then moved up the raod and expanded on the site of Select-a-Disc.

Fat Cat (Covent Garden) - Another shop I never felt entirely comfortable in but did get some great records in there, including ‘Acid Effiel’, which I recommended to Ralph Lawson who I bumped into on the way out that day.

Wyld Pytch (Soho) - Used to sell house actually and had a great bargain bin. Got the ‘Classic EP’ on Serious Grooves, and Jus Friends ‘As One’ in that bin.

Choci’s Choons (Soho) - Started life out the back of a novelty shop in Carnaby St, which was very strange. Only thing I remember getting in there was a Cling Club white label I hadn’t been able find anywhere else (label done by hand with glue and glitter!), but used it more when he was under BOY. Like Roots, he really knew what I was into and it made shopping there very easy. I went in once and he was said “I’ve got two new records you’ll love”, dug them out an passed them over. They were ‘That Nervous Track’, the MK mixes of ‘I Can’t Get No Sleep’ and he was right, I loved them. Didn’t try to sell me anything else, just those two. Wasn’t sure about the last version of the shop, too banging. Lovely bloke though.

Flying (Kensington) - Never was a great fan, mainly because it was such a hike from North London, although I visited in both it’s basement (Barbara Dixon ‘I Got Over You’) and ground floor (Hardrive ‘Deep Inside’) incarnations. Preferred the Soho version, in which Andy Baker introduced me to Morgan Geist (not literally, I mean he played me a record).

TAG Records (Piccadilly/China Town) - Initially in the weirdest location for house music record shop - the fledgling Trocadero Centre in Piccadilly, where I remember paying over the odds for records (maybe the rents in the fledgling Trocadero Centre had something to do with that), before moving to Rupert Court in China Town. I can remember asking for a copy of S.A.I.N. 2 and being told they didn’t have one. Explaining I wanted it for a gig that night and them popping downstairs to return with a promo double (slack but then ace). True to my word I played it out twice that night and it smashed it. They didn’t seem to do as much business in US house though, so their bargains were always worth a root – the Kerri Chandler mix of KCC ‘Heaven’ being a stand out find. Still one of favourite Kerri Chandler mixes.

Uptown (Soho) - I think this is still there. I haven’t used it for years, as it became the domain of UK Garridgers and then funky-housers. I think. I don’t really know to be fair but that is the impression I got. It wasn’t always that way, when it opened it always seemed to be on point with the latest Victor Simonelli stuff, Zak Toms, 95 North, Bassline Records and all that other crisp, US vocal house that, err, went on to form the basis for UK Garage and funky house. Oh, I see what happened there now.

And that, my friends, is it. I might well explore some of these shops in more detail in the future, if I can track down the right people with the inside track.

Mix - Boys Own Book Launch (re-up!)

2010-08-05T00:41:00.008+01:00

Due to a hug, dare I say unprecidented campaign (well, two emails) for me to make this mix available to download again, I, err... have. Five hours of fairly decent music, avaiable in it's full form for a couple more weeks and then gone forever.

Fill your boots.
Boys Own Book Launch Party - Me, Terry Farley, Pete Heller, Rocky, Stripey & Plug by Miles Simpson

Greatest British Acid House Record Ever

2010-04-20T21:00:00.003+01:00

No need to carry out any polls, count any votes or list any top tens for this, because there can only be one.

Sung by one 80s pop legend and produced by a group of different 80s pop legends,who were thrown togther at Shoom, this record still evokes memories of dancing in sweaty Dickensian basements, ponchos, strawberry flavoured smoke, strobe lights, thinking we could change the world, hot Sundays on Clapham Common, bringing down the walls, Chipie t-shirts and dungarees, dancing with the devil, lucozade, making friends with people you would have never spoken to, calling people ‘matey’, the sun rising, the second summer of love and not being able to believe it could ever end... even if you were never actually there.

Ask any DJ in the world and pretty much anyone who attended a party in the late ‘80s, and to a man (or woman) they will tell you that ex-Frankie Goes to Hollywood member, Paul Rutherford’s, A.B.C produced, acid house masterpiece has never and will never be surpassed.

Are U Happy? Get Real.

Warehouse Top Tunes – Are HOUSE!

2010-04-20T11:31:00.007+01:00

From the DJ Mag ‘History of House’ supplement in 1993, this top 100 from Chicago’s legendary Warehouse still looks pretty solid, despite the numerous listing, re-listing, dissection and reinvention of the history of those formative days of house music. Some of the more obscure selections also tally with play lists I’ve seen recounted by Warehouse goers since, like Persia for instance, so I think it’s a bit more accurate than Norman Cook’s Garage effort.

But like the New York club’s list, this proved invaluable to me back in the early 90s – in fact, I remember being chuffed to find ‘Put Your Body In It’, ‘Do You Want to Get Funky with Me’ and ‘In the Bush’ in Cash Convertor in Edmonton shortly after the list was published, and thinking I was THE disco don...

Paradise Garage Top 93 (DJ Mag 1993)

2010-04-19T22:51:00.006+01:00

Published in DJ Mag way back when, in the spring of 1993. This was time both before the internet and books chronicling the history of the New York disco scene, so whilst there have been many lists and charts of Paradise Garage tune published since, to a spotty bedroom DJ finding his was gold dust - and a gateway into a world of music I had only ever heard in samples previously.

Complied by the Fatboy himself, Norman Cook, with hindsight, much of it seems obvious but it all looked bewilderingly difficult to find array of exotic sounds back then. I’m not sure about No1 though, I think Mr Slim might have been pulling our legs...

Mix - An Old Mixtape from 1994

2010-04-19T22:29:00.010+01:00

This is one side of a tape I did over 16 years ago, which I found when I recently moved house. The A side was influenced by trips to New York and the sound coming out of that city in 1993/94.

The B side owed more nights to Philip Salon's 'Mudd Club' which by then had moved to Bagleys and was full of council estate kids from the surrounding area. They never advertised the DJ and you got a flyer in the post if you were on the mailing list. Great production as well, almost like film sets.

The mix is a bit dodgy in places, I was still learning the ropes but I still thought I was Junior Vasquez - although I didn’t even have proper turntables, so this was done on puny belt driven hi-hi decks and some crappy 2 channel mixer, no EQ, not even gains… which led to some, erm, amusing mixing. Still, it’s a moment in time, so I thought I’d share.

You can listen to Side A by clicking play below:
Miles Mixx - 1994 tape, side A (Wild Pitch Stylee) by Miles Simpson

And if you're interested in Side B, you can find and stream it on my Mixcloud page here.

The Best Record of the Noughties?

2010-01-01T17:23:00.000Z

It only seems like yesterday, but 10 years ago we were gearing up for the turn of millennium. Our excitement about what felt like an historic event was tempered slightly by fears of millennium bugs, planes falling out of the sky, nuclear powers plants melting down and a possible computer triggered holocaust. As it transpired, our fears were completely unfounded and all we actually got was crap weather and to witness promoters wringing the last vestige of life out of the golden goose of 90s club culture.

And now here we are, 10 years on, at the end of another decade, surveying all that the noughties brought us - DC10, the last decent days of the terrace of Space, Cocoon, the infamous Blue Marlin beach party, the last decent days anywhere in Ibiza, Faith on the internet, mnml, shminimal, nu-disco, nu-teds, nu-clones, electro clash, electro punk, DFA, Germany, house tranquilizers, Eastern European DJs, silly sunglasses, re-birth of Balearic… for beardy blokes from Oldham who have never been to Ibiza, the death of Jockey Slut, the death of Muzik, the birth of Strobelight Honey, raves in toilets, raves in sheds, raves in woods, The Lodge (RIP), East Village, new mates, Acid House’s 20th birthday (bloody hell), reunion parties, middle age, clubland closures - The End, The Key, Bagleys, the original T-Bar and Turnmills, all RIP, the rise of Shoreditch, Horse Meat Disco, Norwegian DJs, CDJs, laptop DJs, roidy Polish builders noncing up your missus, beards, lumberjack shirts, Mum and Dad punch, moody garys, Combat 88, Secret Sundaze, Innervisions, Get Physical, bloody re-edits, DJs packing it all in, Rampling’s (non) retirement party, the return of Boys Own, blogs, Berlin, Croatian festivals, skinny jeans, plimsolls, Cable Club, internet warriors, grime, dubstep, funky house, electro house, minimal house, fidget house, afro house, deep house (again), HOUSE, HOUSE and MORE F**KING HOUSE.

It was a good decade for music, but was it vintage? Last year on Faithfanzine.com we carried out a poll of the greatest house records of all time and only a single record post 2000 made the cut. Was the music not that good in the last 10 years or were people looking back to their youth through rose tinted spectacles? Surely there were some truly great records released in the noughties? We felt a retrospective of the decade was required, so we dusted off the Faith polling booth for yet another round of voting. And here are the results - THE GREATEST RECORD OF THE NOUGHTIES.

15 - Larry Heard presents Mr White ‘The Sun Can't Compare’ Released in 2006 on Heard’s own Alleviated label, it combined a strong vocal performance with acid house. Played by minimal and house DJs alike, it was a real underground crossover tune.

I really can’t understand why anyone wouldn't like this track; I absolutely love it. When this came out we were sharing an office with quite a few others on Curtain Road, and the music played could be a real source of contention. This track, however, was on heavy rotation and no-one ever moaned about it. This is a great example of a vocal adding something to the music rather than it distracting you and reducing it. [Yvonne Duffield, Sedition]

14 - Dubtribe Sound System ‘Do It Now’ Originally released in 2000 on US label Imperial Dub, with its laidback groove, ‘Do It Now’ was already reaching anthem status when Defected licensed it in late 2001 and propelled it to greater things. Still receiving regular airings from Stuart Patterson.

One of those records that reminds me of a whole bunch of things from the turn of the century – going to New York loads for Body & Soul and Bang The Party; the early Faith parties and regular Sundays at the Notting Hill Arts club for Sundaysonic and Lazy Dog. [Along with] Star Suite, Jaguar and Equitoreal were both 1999 (I think), for myself and quite probably a few others, it was parties and records like this that reminded us why we loved House in the first place. [Tim Murray]

13 - Ame ‘Rej’ Released in 2005 Innervisions/Sonar Kollekiv, with a slight whiff of ‘Beau Mot Plage’ about it, ‘Rej’ cemented Ame’s burgeoning reputation as one of the hottest production teams of the decade.

Massive tune, ushered in a whole new wave of music/producers/followers I reckon. Over played? maybe, but that was its impact, reaching out across many strands of house and techno music, definitely a record that was a hit with many, many people [Nick Harris, NRK]

Massively popular with everyone I know, regardless of how their taste might usually differ. It was the track I heard everywhere on one of my favourite trips to Ibiza, which I spent with some of my favourite people. Whenever I hear it now it evokes such good memories that I think I’ll always love it. Apart from the memories, I really like the slow build and sense of anticipation in the track. [Yvonne Duffield, Sedition]

12 - Stefan Goldmann ‘Sleepy Hollow’ This was the first record released on Innervisons after they split with Sonar Kollekiv in 2006 and some may argue the most perfectly formed example of the Innervsions sound.

A stone cold anthem of one of the best summers in recent memory. Played everywhere and never failed to make everyone lose it [Will Webster, Secret Order]

Knew it was a classic the moment I heard it, then an old mate who I played it to described it as 'a stroke of genius' he's wasn't wrong. Like all the best ideas it's simple and has a lightness of touch but is executed to devastating effect. For me it captures perfectly what's been so exciting about (good) noughties house, it's modern and forward thinking but sounds as warm and as druggy as the best of 80's Chicago acid house. As my young colleague at work said during his house music conversion, this is sick b! [Luke-1989]

11 - M.A.N.D.Y Vs Booka Shade ‘Body Language’ Germany’s Get Physical was undoubtedly one of the most successful house imprints of the noughties and whilst their output was relatively varied in style, this is the record most associate with the label.

A record that captures a time like no others. The days of Faith trips to DC10 and early(ish) secretsundaze. A lot of the music around at the time was (although amazing) forgettable but this is a standout. Catchy but deeply underground (on first release anyway) it's just a pity that they (or Get Physical) never hit this high again. [Jimmy P, Faith/Strobelight Honey]

I-fucking-biza! Proper electronic funk that you just heard everywhere and never tired of. Walking from Figueretas to Ibiza Town in the afternoon, trying to shift a hangover and you'd hear it coming out the bloody launderette and still think "Yes". Even just last year I sat through a presentation from some wanky branding agency and they'd used this as a soundtrack. Switched off to all the ROI blah blah blah crap and thought that is a tune even you muppets cannot spoil. [Ross, Dubai]

10 - Iz and Diz ‘Mouth’ (Pepe Bradock Mix) Originally released in 2002 on Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon’s now sadly defunct Classic label, Pepe Bradock masterfully reworked Chicago due Iz and Diz’s effort into a quirky deep house masterpiece.

The choir-in-a-can vocals, the glottal stop bassline and that beautiful fuzzed-up electric organ - it's too unconventional to epitomise good house music. And thank fuck for that. I can't think of another house record I've listened to more times over the last decade, but it still makes me feel every bit as sad, happy and stupid as it did the first time I heard it. [Charlie Bennett, To The Bone]

The Martini record. Guaranteed to make me dance any time any place, happy memories of me and a mate dancing to it on a totally empty dancefloor at Kindergarten in Manchester. There’s something about the melody that’s’ uplifting and also, weirdly, slightly depressing at the same time. And that groove is just a killer. Twenty thumbs up. [Alex 'thegreenbee' Withers]

9 – Josh One ‘Contemplation’ (King Britt mix) Legend has it King Britt remixed this in a couple of hours on a flight to a gig somewhere, released in 2001 on obscure US label Electromatrix before being licensed all over the world.

This, to me, is about rooting through my (at the time) new missus's vinyl and discovering that she had some ace tunes and a head for tracks that I sadly lacked. I can still recall the post Cross carry on when found this and it reminds me what a great summer 2003 was for re-discovering London partying. [filthy punk]

Just a great simple house track that reminds me of Sundaysonic in Notting hill, and tons of other parties. [Joseph Apted, diskomatik]

From the first time I heard it to the last, never fails to get me [Sean Clare, De La Techa]

8 - Hercules & Love Affair ‘Blind’ (Frankie Knuckles mixes) New York’s DFA ripped up the rule bit a in the 00s, so it was a bit of a surprise when they got bona fide old school house legend Frankie Knuckles in to remix this in 2007, but boy, did he show ‘em how it’s done.

Out of the DFA records Losing My Edge probably made more of a difference & Someone Great is my favourite LCD song whilst House of Jealous Lovers sound tracked a certain area of London like nothing else but this is just such a beautiful record. No1. [Ben Pistor, Disco Bloodbath]

[The dub is] for me the best thing the great man has done in the last 15 years. Absolutely perfect record that makes you feel like you've had a couple of doves even if you're standing on Peckham Rye station on a Monday morning. In the rain. [Will Macc]

7 - Detroit Experiment ‘Think Twice’ Originally an LP track on the The Detroit Experiment, album, released on Carl Craig’s Planet-E in 2003, the Unabombers then released it on an Electric Souls album sampler and then finally Juno picked up in 2009 and commissioned host of decent remixes.

It properly crosses the divide between the 'heads' at PP and a regular Saturday night house crowd. It's a classic cover version because Carl Craig doesn't unnecessarily change the song too much - it sounds very natural, like he produced the original Donald Byrd version. [Dan Harrington, Modernista Records]

One of those deep, jazzy tunes that just grabs you with the opening chords. I had heard it regularly before figuring out what it is. Still in the box and gets an airing quite regularly. [Matt Ralph, Monkey Tennis]

Absolutely massive tune round our way and everywhere else, deep and brooding and then joyous all with out the help of any words. The bass is unmistakable, everyone seems to know what to do when it’s coming in. Getting goosey from remembering the many times I’ve heard it. The Mark E dub from this year was also boss. [Matthew, some middle class Manc suburb]

6 - Dennis Ferrer ‘Son of Raw’ Raw is indeed the word for this stripped down house track, released on New York’s Ibadan Records in 2005 before getting a second lease of life via a Loco Dice remix on Objekitivty in 2007.

Crazy, uplifting pointy fingered dance music - that keyboard freak out always gets me and then there's "You don't know... You don't know"(at least I think that's what he says). Faith connection - First heard it out at Faith at Turnmills, Quentin played it in the back room and it knocked my socks off. Absolutely timeless. [Lawrence Brooks, Monkey Tennis]

Best pure house track of the decade no question. [Frank Tope, Wild Geese]

5 - Ferrer and Sydenham Inc. ‘Sandcastles’ It’s that Ferrer and Ibadan combination again, this time in conjunction with label boss, Jerome Sydenham. Originally released as limited Ibadan 10” in 2003 before getting a re-rub from Pete Heller in 2004, then being picked up by Defected in 2005, and getting the obligatory hoard of remixes.

The classic example of house 2k style. Sandcastles fuses perfectly the best element of classic deep house with the sound of soulful Detroit techno. This is the noughties answer to a "Strings Of Life" if I may, a timeless instrumental that sinks in your skin and stays there forever. Massive in cooler clubs like DC10 in its first Ibadan (Jerome Sydenham's label) guise, it was then signed by UK super label Defected and infiltrated every club the world over. It also launched the career of arguably one of the best US producers of the decade, Dennis Ferrer. [Yuri ‘thestunt’ Lia]

Somewhere between hands in the air and head down just going for it.
HOUSE as fuck. [Adam R]

4 - Octave One ‘Blackwater’ Ostensibly a Detroit techno record when released as ‘Untold’ on 430 West in 2000, with vocals provided by Kevin Saunderson’s wife Ann, this synth driven beast went on to cross over from the techno scene in the way only ‘Jaguar’ had since the heady days of the late 80s.

Miami 2001, I absolutely hammered it at Tenaglia and hated it. Next night dragged myself to the Crow Bar for the Magic Sessions and despite me being massively fragile and pretty straight Louie Vega took me away. Last record of the night was the Full String version of Blackwater. First time I'd heard it and I thought I'd died on gone to heaven. [Will Macc]

Either you've got the vocal house stormer that works both for the serious types that will bear it content that the wives are being catered for, to the bumble rookies questioning the stress on the daily grind of their 9-5 when 'hey, jus open your heart, open your mind and let your love flow like the sunshine' - ain't no big thang. [Ted Striker]

I remember the first time I heard it. I was at Opium Garden in Miami and Danny Howells played the instrumental and the vocal mix back to back off some acetate. He played it a twice in the same night. Remember that’s how we knew a tune was gonna be big?! I then heard Octave One perform it live at the first Detroit Music Festival I went to and it gave me goose bumps,. still does to this day. [Ramon Crespo, Miami]

3 - Quentin Harris ‘Let’s Be Young’ The first release on Shelter spin-off label Un-Restricted Access in 200, the distinctive brass work in this track is lifted from the default settings of Apple's GarageBand software package - but goddamit, they are used here to devastating effect! This record propelled the up and coming Quentin Harris into the house music spot light and was one of those tunes that literally stopped you in your tracks when you first heard it. Picked by Bristol label NRK in the UK and remixed well by Ashley Beedle and Julian Jabre.

Like 'In The Trees' and 'Deep Burnt' before it this is one of those records that uses strings to perfection. It's not often you get a non-vocal house record that can unite the masses (S'Norm played it at carnival that year and everyone went bonkers) but this one ticks all the boxes. Is one of those records I'll forever associate with Faith as well - standout memory being when someone (Stu? Terry?) played it at the Ministry when we'd all had a skinful of 'that' punch. [Kerry Power, Feel up]

THE record that got me back into house after a few years away noodling. Relentless from beginning to end. [Grant Berry, Enjoy]

Beautiful, emotive, intense, inspirational and thoroughly wonderful house record. Works on heads and converts the non-believers. [Frazer]

The simpler the better for my ears. The connection between Detroit and New York lives with Quentin. Simply Divine. [Roual Galloway, Timbre Pitch Records]

2 - Kerri Chandler ‘Bar-a-Thyme’ First seeing light of day on US imprint Nite Grooves in 2005 and apparently taking its name from bar used as an afters venue at a house music festival in Toulon, this track was all about THAT cowbell! The ever perceptive NRK licensed it the UK and as ever, they turned in a couple of decent remixes too.

For some reason this and ‘Back to the Raw’ remind me of getting back into buying Kerri regular again. Don’t recall picking much up by him for the previous couple of years or so. Don’t require much chat on the actual track here, its massive and it still makes me pull a funny face in the breakdown. H.O.U.S.E has never been more apt. [Nick Yuill, Devil Disco Club]

Gave house the kick up the backside it needed, a perfectly executed track from Chandler, solid rhythm, almost ravey, and oh those cowbells.....Tom Middleton did a great job remixing too I thought [Nick Harris, NRK]

Just a great jacker from Mr Chandler that was a stone cold Faith classic in 05 - got overplayed to buggery, but if you dig it out now and listen it's a classic piece of house. [Chris Howell-Jones]

Mega cow bell irresistible groover - loved hearing it out at faith , but also remember the rush of owning a copy and playing it over and over got it and played out at a party and everyone loved it even on first listen , and then my mate Danny mixing it in and put with old face Voodoo Ray - room all experienced a moment [Chris S]

The 1st 'Proper' House record I'd bought in ages, simple, catchy, hammered by everybody all over, brilliant. [Sean ‘lazyboy’ Kay]

1 - King of Tomorrow ‘Finally’ The one and only noughties record to make it into the Faith All Time Top Ten House Records, it’s only fitting that it comes in top here. First released on French label Distance in 2000, with great Louie Vega mixes including the absolutely sublime ‘String Reprise’, then going on to be signed by Defected in 2001 and being given a second lease of life by the hand of Danny Tenaglia. An anthem in the truest sense.

A classic house record in the true sense of the word , could easily have been made during the golden period of House , lyrically it touches the spot for those of us who have lost people dear to us while still making your soul and spirit soar . Cosmo played this at a early Faith party off Acetate (remember those ) and the whole room had a shared 'moment' , beautiful record. [Terry Farley, Boys Own]

I wasn’t to bothered about the Krivit edit cos I loved the original so much. Then after I finished playing in the end room at the Cross one night I wandered into the middle room to catch the last hour of Angel Moraes and he played this (after dropping a vocal from American Pie , where the father has a father/son chat to his offspring about masturbation ) ...and I 'finally' got it. The extended intro with subtle re-arrangement of the bass-line, leading you into the vocal just works so much. Absolute house music. [Ian Do-It-Fluid]

Just a great song with loads of clubbing memories. I first heard at Body and Soul with Julie McKnight doing an acapella PA. Ariel turned all the lights off leaving just the glow of that light sabre, lights on as the tune finally kicks in, collective spine tingle. [Andy McLean]

Hearing that on the old Vinyl system was something else. Tenaglia working it for what seemed like 30 minutes – glorious. [Roual Galloway, Timbre Pitch Records]

Sandy Rivera drops perhaps the ultimate take me to heaven tunes.
Reminds me of playing it at Bora Bora during the summer of 2001...
Bliss [Dave Cooper, Six Million Steps]

The last great house vocal [Chris Woodward, Buzzin’ Fly]

Honourable Mentions:

Blaze – How Deep is Your Love (T.Regisford mix) // Cesaria Evora – Angola //
Jill Scott – Not Like Crazy (Quentin Harris mix) // LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge // Metro Area – Miura // Mondo Grosso – Star Suite (Blaze mix) // Still Going – Still Going Theme // Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom – Revelee // Matthew Jonson – Decompression // Roy Ayers – Tarzan (Ame mix) // Silicone Soul – Chico-La-La (H-Foundation mix) // Beyonce – Crazy in Love // Julian Jabre – War // Justin Matin – Sad Piano (Charles Webster mix) // Leela James – My Joy // Loco Dice – Menina Brazilera // Luciano & Quenum – Orange Mistake // Mark E – Scared // Osulade – Pride // Shaun Escoffrey – Days Like These (Spinna mix) // Soul Central - Strings of Life // Todd Terje – Eurodans // Afro Medusa – Pasilda // Argy – Love Dose // Aril Brikha – Winter // Bill Withers – Who is He… (Henrik Schwarz mix) // Block 16 – Electrokution // Bobby Peru – Jack 2 the Future // Cajmere – I Need U // Carl Craig – Sandstorms // Chicken Lips – He Not In // Cobblestone Jazz – Dump Truck // DJ Gregory - Elle // DJ Oji& Una – We Lift Our Hands in the Sanctuary // DJ Rolando – Jaguar (mixes) // Henrik Schwarz – Marvin // House of 909 – Blandford Superfly // James Holden – Break in the Clouds // Laurent Garnier – Man with the Red Face // Luomo – Tessio // Marie Bone – Voui Voui Me // Matthew Jonson – Marionette // Metro Area – The Art of Hot // Morgan Geist – 24k // Mountain People – 003 // Omar S – Psychotic Photosynthesis // Onerio – Shhh! // Oracy – Family Day // Outkast – Hey Ya // Pepe Bradock – Life // Peven Everett – Can’t Do Without // Photek – Mine to Give // Raphael Saadiq – Skyy Can You Feel Me // Recloose – Cardiology (Isolee mix) // Roach Motel – This Beat is Mine // Scott Grooves – The Journey // Sebastian Teller – La Ritournelle // Stereotyp – Keepin’ Me (Fauna Flash mix) // The Streets – Weak Become Heroes // Theo Parrish – Falling Up (Carl Craig mix) // Todd Terje – Italian Stallion // Tracy Thorn – It’s All True // Underground Culture Tourist – Jackin’ the Jazz // Alan Braxe & Fred Flake – Running (Intro) // Alice Smith – Endeavour // Alton Miller Clouds Are Gone (Henrik Schwarz mix) // Ame – Shiro // Beanfield – Tides (Carl Craig mix) // Cajmere – Midnight // Carl Craig – Darkness // Chez Damier & the Cru – Warfare // Delano Smith – Metropolis // Der Zyklus – Formenrerwandler // DJ Buck – Release the Tension // DJ Gregory – Attend // DJ Sid le Roc n DJ Kose – Nulsed // Faze Action – In the Trees (Carl Craig mix) // Ferrer and Sydenham – Timbuktu // Gomma – It Rough // Henrik Schwarz – I Exist because of You // Lindstrom – Another Station // Lindstrom – I Feel Space // Lindstrom & Christabelle // Loco Dice – Tight Laces // Lordy – Watchtower // Love Birds – Gentle // Magnus International – Kosemtisk // Martin Buttrich – Programmer // Mateo & Matos – The Real Thing // Matt o’Brien – Sertone // Max Sedgley – Happy // Mile Claro & Frank Garcia – Dead Souls // Mr Scruff – Chicken in a Box // Mr V – Da Bump // Omar S – Grandson of Detroit Techno // Ricardo Villalobos – Waiworinao // Seal – Violet (Shelter mix) // Slam – Azure // Slam – Lifetimes // Sly Mongoose – Snakes and Ladders (Rub’n’Tug mix) // The Street – Has it Come to This // Thomas Anderson – Washing Up // Trentmoller – Polar Shift // TRG – Broken Heart // Twisted Pair – Horny Hustle // Underground Resistance – Transition // Victor Duplaix – Looking for Love // Akabu – Phuturebound (Ame mix) // Ane Brun – Headphone Silence (Dixon mix) // Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You (Pound Boys mix) // At Jazz – Put It On // Blaze – I Think of You // Booka Shade – Mandarine Girl // BRS – Loving Me // Chelonis R Jones – Deer in the Headlights // Daft Punk – Too Long // Fenrec – Yes, Sir I Can Hardcore // Florence & the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Leo Zero mix) // Gabriel Ananda – Dopplewhipper // Green Velvet - La La Land // Harry Romero – I Go Back // Joakim – Basically // Joi Cardwell – What it Feels Like // Kids on the Streets – Keep on Turning // Kings of Tomorrow – Another day // LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends // LCD Soundsystem – Yeah // Marcos Valle – Besteiras // Matthew Jonson – Typerope // Michel Cleis – La Mezcla // Mixed Up Little Annie and then Legally Jammin’ – Bleach // Mr G – G’s String // Phonique – Red Dress // Piranha Head – Poem 4 a Lost One // Plasmik – Eight to Nine // Primal Scream – Uptown (Weatherall mix) // Ricardo Villalobos – Dexter // Roland Appell – Dark Soldier // Shakedown – At Night // Shik Styko – Minion // Sir Piers – She’s Gone Away // Sunshine Anderson – Heard It All Before (Ben Watt mix) // Timeline – Time Sensitive // Tracy Thorn – Raise the Roof // Underworld – 2 Months Off

Mix - The Wedding Disco

2009-12-12T23:57:00.004Z

I got married in the summer. It was a lovely day and great party with a bunch of mates playing records, everyone dancing on a flashing disco dancefloor. Before they went on though I did a mix to be played as a warm up so everyone could have a drink and chat, even the DJs. Unfortunately, I was enjoying myself so much I forgot to put it on...

Seemed a shame to let it go to waste, so here it is! Has stufff like Dee Bridewater, Claudja Barry, Logg, Minnie Riperton, D-Train, Change, Jimmy Ruffin and loads more.

The Wedding Disco by Miles Simpson on Mixcloud

Hot Newness! Modernista Records

2009-11-20T02:00:00.001Z

In the last week or two Paul Bennett’s Modone EP has been making a bit of an impression on music fans of the housey persuasion. With its old school Chicago sensibilities and new school production values, pressed up loud as hell and in lovely packaging too, clearly a lot of effort had gone into producing what it is very polished release - one that new label Modernista are making their bow with.

Modernista is the brain child Paul Bennett, Dan Harrington and Chris Blaik. All three have musical backgrounds, with Paul’s possibly being the most enigmatic. The boys are playing there cards close their chest but apparently he has a shadowy past as an incognito disco re-editor, possibly of a horse related nature, and these tracks on Modernista debut are his first original released productions.

London record shoppers will probably remember Dan ‘Steely’ Harrington from his time behind the jump at Vinyl Junkies, trying to bring some order to the chaos. And Chris, who has been being collecting records since he was knee-high to a grass hopper, was apparently renowned during the 90s as one of the great unheard house singers of his generation. Dan says, “Like an out of tune Robert Owens!” Whether this is true or not remains to be seen!

Dan and Chris met Paul in the mid 90s and clicked immediately through their shared love of music. After Paul moved to Greece, they hatched the idea of creating the record label during a visit to Athens in the summer of 2007. Despite all the doom and gloom in the record industry, dwindling record sales, crumbling distribution networks and a splintered dance music scene, they decided the time was now right to pitch in with their own imprint and their own style.

They say it was a simple plan - to make music that sits outside the slipstream of the latest hyped style or micro-genre and release it in lovingly constructed, high quality packaging.

But simple as it may seem, getting noticed in the hectic dance music market place these days requires a strong vision for the label. Dan outlined what Modernista is trying to achieve, “I know everyone says this but... we would like to work with all types of music, as we've all got varied tastes. 'Dance music' in the absolute widest sense. The first release has a real Chicago influence, but the next one is moving on from the windy city. We're just taking baby steps at the moment really, we'll see which way the wind takes us. The vision we have is grand but too grandiose for me to say now or we'll end up with egg on our faces!”

The quality of every physical aspect of the release has also helped it get noticed, with it being mastered at Dubplates in Berlin and the records themselves being pressed up at MPO in France. It seemed like a lot of effort to knock out a 12”, but the boys explained “We decided to use Dubplates very early on for just a couple of reasons - its association to Maurizio and Basic Channel, and the sound of so many productions that come out of there. They have an incredible depth and space in the sound that bring out. Ultimately, we love records. Vinyl is the best sounding medium for music reproduction, in our opinion, but it has to be manufactured to a certain level of quality to get the best out of it. If the mastering process is done by experts like Dubplates and Mastering then you're giving the music the chance to really shine and so we wanted to make sure we got the release to be as spot on as possible... Paul's effort in creating a lot of his own sounds, rather than using sample sounds, has helped as well. When we got the masters back from Dubplates it sounded like they'd sprinkled magic dust on the tracks!”

So none of the music contains samples then? “There are no samples. All the sounds and song parts are created on modern synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, then recorded and mixed in a studio alongside an engineer.”

The packaging is also top notch. Great design, well made sleeves, something with tangible quality in these disposable times of ours and a world away from the white labels in paper sleeves that seem so prolific in our record shops these days. I asked Dan why they bothered, “Cover art is really important to us. I absolutely love the aesthetic of a label like Factory who allowed Peter Saville's designs to become a fundamental part of the labels output. [My wife] Finnie designed this cover - its quite obviously (and purposefully) modernist in style - which is something that influences us a lot, hence the name of the label. But, like the music, we'll be putting the effort in to do something different for each release.”

The debut single has been getting support from the likes of Dixon, Ame, Henrik Schwarz, Tama Sumo, Rocky & Diesel, James Priestley, Giles Smith, Prosumer, Terry Farley and, err, me. Terry Farley glowing described it as sounding like it was 22 years old but with modern day production levels. Dan said “That’s a great compliment to Paul's hard work. Terry put it in a nutshell, that's exactly what we were aiming for. Trax / DJ International etc, those tracks are incredible and truly ground-breaking. And though their rawness is part of the appeal some of them could have benefited from some of modern electronic music's production levels. Of course the pressings were hit and miss in that era. Some classics like Virgo 4 will for ever be heard through a veil of crackles and hiss. I think Paul has managed to tease out a bit of a modern edge to that early Chicago house sound.”

You can make your own mind up by checking the sound clips below.

I don’t think Dan and Co need to worry too much about ending up with egg on their faces at all. And having set such high standards, with a second release lined up for early next year, Modernista really does prove what the team behind it believe - the death of the independent dance music label hasn’t happened just yet.

Paul Bennett - Modone EP
1. Backbreaker
2. Royce Road to Peter Street
3. Fifty One
4. Last Dance of the Galaxian

Mix - You Belong To Me (for To The Bone)

2009-11-14T18:02:00.016Z

I've gone done a house mix for the To The Bone crew. The boys, Steve Believe, Charlie Bennnett, and Rik Moran, have been putting on parties around London for a good few years now, bringing the likes of Rick Wilhite, Sven Weismann, Marc Scheider and the awesome Prosumer to these shores, not mention giving Mark E his London DJing debut.

More recently they have found critical acclaim via their podcasts on To The Bone Radio, in they meld a heady and eclectic mix of electronic music from across the ages with semi-coherent and often drunken rambling to great effect!

It’s a unique style that has won them fans across the country and even led to them being featured as ‘Podcast of the Week’ in The Times. The boys can be found DJing around town most weekends and much as it pains me to say it, are actually quite a talented bunch, so when they asked me to do a mix for their website, I was honoured to obilge.

The mix takes in Chicago, New York, Hamburg, old stuff, new stuff, rare stuff, obscure stuff, and stuff you probably know. Here's the tracklist:

M.T.S. - Time Warp
Rio.D - I Got to Make It (I Got to Acid)
The Get Down Gang - You Belong to Me
Pierre's Fantasy Club - Dream Girl
Project Democracy - Is This Dream For Real? (Psychedub)
Phuture Scope - What Is House Muzik?
Nate Williams - Club Patrol
Damian Schwartz - Plastico
Vincent Floyd - Technology
Mood II Swing - Call Me (Mood Remix)
Kenlou III - Sensational Beats
Total Maddness - Lawanda Big Bottom
Kenlou III - Sensational Beats
Watanabe - Odoru
Ferrer & Sydenham Inc. - Timbuktu
Armando - Don't Take It (Thomos Edit)
Sten - Way To The Stars
Rythim Is Rythim - The Dance
S.L.Y. - I Need A Freak

You can check it out on the To The Bone Mixes Page here or you can stream it by clicking play below:
Miles Mixx - You Belong Me by Miles Simpson

Mix - Boys Own Book Launch Party, 5 hours of Music!

2009-10-19T00:48:00.023+01:00

Way back when, 1986, a bunch of suburban lads from somewhere down the M4 corridor hit upon the idea of knocking together a fanzine. Covering the sort of stuff they were into - music, fashion, politics, London nightlife, football and all the tales that can be told about the last too, they called it Boys Own.

Running from 1986 to 1992 the fanzine became a bit of a phenomenon, despite the fact only 12 issues ever made it to print, spawning t-shirts, stickers, courier bags, at least two record labels, and paving the way for the likes of Gear, Herb Garden, Chortlers, etc, to have a go too.

I’m not sure of the secret of their success but maybe the fanzines tapped an almost virgin market, young people, young men in particular, who weren't catered for by mainstream publishing, were drawn to the irreverent humour, lists of records they hadn’t heard of, dodgy night club incidents alluded too, nicknames of geezers in cliques they knew nothing of but probably wouldn’t have minded being part of, piss takes, and even poetry, all of which was pitched at a level they could relate too, unlike, for example, The Face. A lifestyle for little herberts done on a photocopier.

All of the protagonists went onto bigger and better things, like producing Primal Scream LPs, managing Underworld stadium tours, running record labels, owning big old rave boozers, eventually earning about squillion quid and retiring back to the ‘burbs to chat Chelsea on the internet... but in between logging onto chat rooms and watching Loose Women, they’ve also managed to collate all 12 original issues of the fanzine in one hefty hardback tome, so whether you were a top boy or a massive ted at the time, it's an essential slice of acid house culture and a tip top read.

And to launch literary masterpiece, the boys held a little party over in Smithfields last Friday. Terry Farley, of Terry Farley fame, was kind enough to ask me to spin a few platters that matter (well that mattered about 20 years ago anyway), and as it can never be said that I would readily spurn the opportunity to dust off some, erm, dusty old records, I was more than happy to oblige.

I had a ball, warming up for about an hour and hour, before handing over to young Mr Farley, who was followed by one of the original Boys Own crowd, Plug, then Rocky out of the popular music combo X-Press 2, then Stripey, erstwhile resident (and ace) DJ at Yellowbook, and finally Terry’s old partner in crime, Pete Heller.

The party went with a bang and anyone who didn’t wake up with a stinking hangover the next day probably wasn’t there. Fortunately for those too drunk to remember, I recorded the whole night and here it is for your streaming/downloading pleasure.
Boys Own Book Launch Party - Me, Terry Farley, Pete Heller, Rocky, Stripey & Plug by Miles Simpson

If you like the sound of the book, you can download a free 44 page sampler as a PDF >>here<<

And if you really like the sound of it and just want to get your hands on a copy of it in its full hard back glory, you can purchase one via DJHistory >>here<<

Sabrynaah Pope - Love and Light

2009-09-24T00:01:00.007+01:00

4 years ago today, 24th September, Sabrynaah Pope, one of my favourite female house vocalists, sadly passed away at a criminally young age, in her home town of New York City.

Sabrynaah made her name her singing for some of the cream of 90s US house producers, with her debut single ‘It Works for Me’ on the legendary King Street label, being pretty much the perfect example of what was then a fresh, soulful brand of house with crisp beats and plenty of punch, a sound that became synonymous with producers like Victor Simonelli and DJs like Paul ’Trouble’ Anderson.

There was also reoccurring themes to Sabrynaah’s work. First and uppermost was overwhelming positivity, but she also sang of a desire to be free to express one’s self and live without fear of judgement - which as a slightly obnoxious and occasionally spikey young man, resonated with me at the time!

Sabrynaah was born in Brooklyn to a very religious but musical family. Her mother was a gospel singer and of her two aunts on her mother's side, one was a backing singer for Ray Charles (a Raylette!) and the other was in the popular 1960’s group “The Cookies”. Sabrynaah was a regular church goer and admits that she was only allowed to listen to Christian music at home as a child, so unsurprisingly she ended up singing regularly at her church. As she grew older, Sabrynaah progressed into professional gospel singing and signing in musicals on the National Black Touring Circuit, something she continued to enjoy doing up until shortly before her death,

Through her work as a professional gospel backing singer, she came into contact with Kevin Hedge of Blaze fame and they hit upon the idea of making a record together. Kevin wrote the music, Sabrynaah wrote the vocals, they got in the studio and produced her debut single, the aforementioned ‘It Works for Me’, which King Street snapped up readily and Victor Simonelli went on to remix.

This opened the door of the world of house for Sabrynaah and she went onto to perform with Smack Productions, Louie Vega, DJ Pierre and Kings of Tomorrow, amongst others. She was already a regular on the dance floors of the New York and spoke of warm affection about the first time she performed at the Sound Factory Bar, and the positive reaction she got from her fellow dancers when they saw her up on stage.

In 1995 Sabrynaah collaborated with Washington DC’s 95 North to produce what is undoubtedly my favourite record she worked on. Similar in style to her debut, it was a request for people to be allowed to be themselves and not to waste their time trying to please others - a plea for acceptance and respect. Moreover, it’s absolutely SLAMMIN’!

Round about the time this came out, I remember DJing at a party in a massive old house over Haggerston way. Back then Haggerston wasn’t about design students and pavement cafes, like it is now - it was rough as hell and you genuinely took your life into your own hands if you walked down the wrong side street at night.

The DJ ‘booth’ in this place was set up in the kitchen and by 4am, it was just me and about a dozen 30 something (seemed well old at the time) local rude boys. Big, burly blokes, all gold teeth, missing teeth and scars, smoking lots of potent smelling weed and drinking brandy.

I felt like I was in my groove and ‘My Life’ was the stand out record. Rather then feeling uncomfortable, I was getting slapped on the back, drinks passed to me and in between hollering, big ups. It was one of those times when you think you’ve really found ‘your’ sound and Sabrynaah Pope will always be a part of that memory for me.

However, unlike me, Sabrynaah didn’t want to live in the past and in 1999 she moved to Europe, living in Munich for some time, and recording with numerous European producers including Milk and Sugar, who she had a No1 club hit with in the form of funky houser ‘Higher and Higher’. Sabrynaah returned to America to work and shortly before her death sang backing vocals on Blaze’s ‘Most Precious Love’. A true modern soulful house classic, it would prove to be her last recording and her only Billboard Dance No1.

But for me Sabrynaah will always be about that early 90s sound, tumpin’ beats, soaring vocals, kitchens thick with dope smoke and drinking neat brandy with complete strangers in the wee hours of the morning.

So as the boys in the kitchen might have said, BIG UP MY GIRL SABRYNAAH!

*get's bit of grit or something stuck in eye*

Sunday Morning Music

2009-09-07T09:00:00.002+01:00

Over at Beyond the Stars Towers we’re quite the fans of a bit of potter about on a Sunday morning. Up with the larks, like all good cleaning living folks, whack on the kettle, fire up the toaster, and get some Sunday morning music on the record player. Many final day of the weekend has started this way round ours, with numerous cups of tea, old LPs, and a read of the papers, a decent magazine or even a music fanzine, like the ever excellent Faith/Strobelight Honey (great article in the most recent edition about supporting your local record shop...), as we gently ease into the day.

Getting up to change LPs is a bit of a bugger though, especially if you are even half as lazy I am… so I did a little mix to capture the mood of those mornings and ensure extended sofa time.

It’s a bit of a hotch potch including artists like Bill Withers, Art of Noise, Marvin Gaye, Taana Gardner, Thompson Twins, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Judie Tzuke, the Korgis, Outkast, The Grid, Primal Scream and Madonna.

You can stream or download using the player below - but only if you’re eating toast at the time...

Miles Mixx - Sunday Morning Music by Miles Simpson

Support Your Local Record Shop

2009-08-20T21:00:00.000+01:00

Every time a record shop closes its doors for the final time, internet forums are alive with people moaning about how mp3 downloads and internet shopping are killing music. These gripes are normally interspersed with tales of great shopping trips to the now ex-record shop, reminiscing of the time “that Captain Sensible dub was in the bargain bin for 50p” and the like. It’s a mixture of outrage, disappointment but there is also an acceptance of the inevitability of these closures - the shops concerned didn’t move with the times, they didn’t have online shopping, and of course, the kids can’t play a dusty Canadian import 12 on their mobile phone at the back of a bus.

Many of these moaners can also be regularly found on the same forums talking about Badelli play lists, the latest batch of Black Cock re-re-presses, or the same 5 new disco edits/house records everyone else likes this week, before with a click of mouse, they are off to Juno, Discogs or eBay to try to buy records the being discussed.

Well the news just in is it isn’t technology or a disinterested youth that are killing specialist record shops - it’s dicks like these.

There are more than enough vinyl and CD buyers and collectors out there to sustain real life record shops, it’s just many of them are too bloody lazy to go out on a rainy a Saturday and spend the afternoon sifting through piles of dusty old discs in search of a bargain or something original. They’d rather drop 50 sheets online on a tune someone else has popularised and made a safe bet.

If the internet was around at the time, do you think Ron Hardy and Larry Levan would be on it all the time checking what other people play, making a list and buying those records off Discogs? Do you think that is what Harvey and the Idjuts do that now? Would Alfredo have been poring over internet forums checking out what some bar DJ from Slough had bought from Phonica that week? And do you think Mark Seven paid a £150 for a his copy of Javaroo after hearing it on someone else’s internet mix?

Of course they didn’t and of course they don’t. These people put in the leg work required to own an original record collection. They made their own signature tunes. They took risks. And they forged their own path rather than following the well trodden track.

The internet is a wonderful tool, if used wisely, but it can also make people lazy and lead to homogenous record collections. Great record collections aren’t necessarily expensive record collections, they’re original and interesting record collections. And you’re only going to have original and interesting records than to get down to some record shops, dig through some crates, and listen to some music you’ve never heard before.

Okay, maybe your local shop doesn’t stock what you normally listen too, so get out of your comfort zone and listen to the stuff they sell. In my local shop I’ve seen the Idjuts buying world music, Rahaan’s been in buying UK pop 12s and Ashley Beedle buys reggae there. Maybe not that surprising but a lot more interesting than the latest edit everyone else has.

Maybe your local shop doesn’t have a listening post? Well buy a portable record player. In short, just get out there. The excitement of finding a pristine copy a tune you’ve been after for years at the back of a rack is a thousand times better than it turning up on a eBay search. Equally, picking up something fresh straight off the import van before any of your mates is a right buzz too. As is actually meeting and chatting to real life like minded souls, in real life situations.

And that stuff ain’t ever going to happen on the internet, so turn your laptop off and go and do something less boring instead..

Feel Up Podcast Mix

2009-08-06T00:26:00.007+01:00

Kerry Jean Power and Billie Jean DeVoil, the lovely young ladies that run Feel Up, were kind enough to ask me to do a mix for their podcast, and I was only too happy to oblige.

Feel Up in a monthly party that takes places in East London, most recently at 3 Blind Mice (formerly Ravey Street, soon to be Kingsland Road). Kerry and Billie regularly invite their friends down to play and your likely to hear sounds from a fairly broad pallet - disco, boogie, afrobeat, deep house, acid, techno, blue eyed soul, funk, pop, jazz, reggae and loads of other stuff too. As the girls says, "If you can dance to it - it'll get played!!"

As well as the parties, there is also the Feel Up pod cast, which has exactly the same ethos - mates playing a wide range of music. Previous contributors have included Joey Negro, Mudd, Greg Wilson, The Hardway Brothers, the late, great Simon 'Freaked' Brant, along with Feel Up stalwarts, Jim Lister, Dayo and of course, Kerry herself.

So I feel like I'm in fairly esteemed company!

My mix, 'All Moths Must Die', is one of deep, modern house music. I have a tendency to bang on about old house and disco records (see this blog for evidence) and I thought it would be nice to play a few of the newer records that have been floating my boat in recent months. I actually think house music is as exciting as it's been for years and I think this is born out by the amount bright, trendy young things you see out in house clubs and house records shops these days! Well, maybe.

You can listen to the mix here:

All Moths Must Die - Feel Up Podcast Mix by Miles Simpson on Mixcloud

Those Obscure Objects of Desire (pt.2) – The Legendary Adventures of a Filter King

2009-08-03T23:46:00.006+01:00

This is the second instalment in the occasional series of rambles about stuff I want and in all likelihood, can't afford. And quelle surprise, it's another box set of records!

Hitting the shops later this month, the 26th August to be precise, is 'The Legendary Adventures of a Filter King', a collection of Carl Craig's releases under his '69' moniker, which include what is widely regarded as some of his best material.

The box set contains all of the original 69 EPs: Sound on Sound; Lite Music; Pungtang; and 4 Jazz Funk Classics , the first ever release on Planet E records. In addition to this there is also a bonus Disc with two previously unreleased versions of "If Mojo Was A.M." and "Poi Et Pas."

What’s all the fuss about then? 4 EPs you already own and a single bonus disc?

Well, apart from the lovely packaging, each track has been re-mastered at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering studios, there are only 500 copies in total, and 100 of those come with a limited edition tee-shirt by San Francisco designers Nice Collective (whoever they are).

The down side and why this package on my ‘unobtainable’ list, is it costs £150 with tee and £130 without. Re-mastered in a nice box or not, that is a lot of dough.

But they ARE re-mastered…

And it IS a nice box…

ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Well, if like me, you might not be able to resist the allure of this package and fancy investing in one of the 500 copies (and it will be an investment…unless you trash them doing drunken spin backs) , rather than wait for the 26th to come round, you can pre-order now from Phonica and Rub-a-Dub, amongst other places.

To whet your appetite, here's awesome 'Ladies and Gentlemen', which quite simply one of the greatest techno records of all time.

Summer House Chart

2009-08-02T14:34:00.011+01:00

I’ve been kind of busy recently and I’ve been neglecting the blog. I thought it needed a quick update and a chart or two seemed to fit the bill, kicking off with this one full of housey its that I have found appealing over the summer.

1 - Pepe Bradock ‘Route of Most Resistance’ (Atavisme) - One of my favoutrist producers ever (but don’t mention bloody Deep Burnt, for Pete‘s sake) and quite simply has to the record of the year so far. Really upbeat, it skips along with a sense of urgency and real energy, as the fresh keyboard hook and nagging vocal snippets carry you deep into its heart. When it finishes you instinctively reach to put the needle back to the start, it’s a hard record to follow and you’ll still be playing it in 10 years time.

>>listen to clip<<

2 - Leif ‘Designed with that in Mind’ (Fear of Flying) - The original mix of this is pretty dull but when Giles Smith (Secret Sundaze) and Martin Dawson get hold of it in the guise of Two Armadillo’s, they really bring home the bacon with their ‘Tribute To Trax Remix’. I’m not sure it sounds like any Trax record I’ve ever heard but that is a mere aside, as they ditch the boring bits of the original track (i.e. all of it) and construction something completely new. A deep bass line is complemented by a piano that has a dream like quality you might associate with the memory hazy summer evenings or even hazier early morning dance floors. It’s a wonderfully crafted, subtle and intelligent house track that I can only hope is around for some time to come.

>>listen to clip<<

3 - RNDM ‘Third Hand Smoke’ (Dial) - To be honest, the artist name doesn’t bode well and suggests the listener will be subjected to some sort of MNML dirge. But that could not be further from the truth, as this so deep you’ll need an aqua lung to listen to it. This is Efdemin collaborator, Oliver Kargl’s debut solo release on Dial’s new vinyl only off shoot Laid, and it’s cracker. Coming on like a cross between ‘Morning Factory’ and a Schmoov record, but still sounding fresh and totally relevant.

>>listen to clip<<

4 - Patrice Scott ‘Excursions’ (Sistrum) - One of Detroit’s men of the moment, along with Omar S and Keith Worthy (looks like Keith lucked out in the cool techno name stakes though), Patrice is back with a bang after a couple of less spectacular efforts. Evoking memories of early Fade II Black and Octave One records, this is a wonderfully emotive electronic masterpiece. And like Fade II Black’s ‘In Sync’ it’s got a corking reprise too.

>>listen to clip<<

5 - Isolee ‘Albacares/Les Andalouses’ (Mule) - Ha! Another one of favouritist buy-on-sight producers ever! ‘Albacares’ is real skanking dub feel to it, if you like the Isolee mix of ‘Africa/Brasil’ on Vega from a fewrs ago, you’ll like this. I prefer the more clubby ‘Les Andalouses’ which seems to be built around train horn noises. Not as bonkers as it sounds but typically Isolee. Fantastic.

>>listen to clip<<

6 - Cabin Fever ‘Work It/Let’s Play House’ (RKDS) - This is the sixth release in the Matt Edward’s (of Radio Slave fame) Cabin Fever series. I think most of them use other tracks as their basis, hence the ‘unofficial’ nature of their release. ‘Work It’ is just plain fierce, has plane noises, someone saying ’work it’ a lot and that heavy percussion you've come to associate with Radio Slave. ‘Let’s Play House’ is an altogether different proposition, with hissing hi-hats and Victor Simonelli-esque drums complimenting the looped up piano line, it really could be a dub mix of a US house record from around 1994. And that’s a good thing in my eyes!

>>listen to clip<<

7 - Sven Weismann ‘Shove’ (Artless) - Whilst this is on a Mojuba sub label, this is a bit of a departure from Sven’s output on that label. Rather than 2 long sides of US influenced deep house, we get 6 tracks of almost ambient soundscapes and straight-up techno. A truly wonderful record, especially the ambient bits, and probably my favourite thing Sven has done to date.

>>listen to clip<<

8 - Reggie Dokes ‘I Wear The Mask’ (Clone Loft Supreme Series) - Two sides of goodness from the Chi-Town nu-skool on this new Clone Records sub-label. ‘Chicago Pimp’ has got people talking with its deep late night loopy groove, which I think sounds a LOT like a Scott Grooves record. But for me, the stand out is the flip ‘I Wear the Mask’. Much more going on and very dramatic, with all sorts of strings and pianos flying around. Really infectious and I can’t see how this would fail to make people move, although, thinking about it, this track sounds like a Scott Grooves record too…

>>listen to clip<<

9 - STL ‘Silent State’ (Smallville) - Anthea from JC Freaks put me onto this. Well when I say ‘put me onto this’ I mean she played it to me Phonica and then I bought it. If you’re regular reader of this blog, you may remember that JC Freaks debut release, ‘The Rock’ made it into my chart last summer, and in a way this track is reminiscent of Oracy’s mix of ‘The Rock’. Not that they sound the same but they creep up on you. If you were to skip through ‘Silent State’ you might think it a tad boring but it listen to the whole thing and you are slowly enveloped in the hypnotic groove. Just beautiful sparse, deep, dubby house for serious house heads.

>>listen to clip<<

10 - Steinhoff & Hammouda ‘Touch’ (Smallville) - Also on Smallville, I picked this to listen to the Jus-Ed ‘Euphoric’ mix of ‘You Are’. Much as I’m a Jus-Ed fan, I’m not sure what he thought was euphoric unless he thinks euphoria is triggered by fairly pedestrian plodding deep house by numbers? Anyway, I digress, because as luck would have it ‘Touch’ on the other side of this record is great. Snippets of laidback jazz piano, ever so overlay driving percussion and then you find moody synths slowly sneaking up. I’m thinking if Moodymann was German he might sound like this, but this doesn’t sound like yet another Moodymann off. If that makes sense?

>>listen to clip<<

11 - Tony Lionni - Found a Place (Osgut Ton) - There’s a lot of fuss around old Tony at the moment. He’s the hot new kid on the block, although Liverpudlian DJ ain’t no kid and had probably been round the block a few times first. ‘Found a Place’ has been around for a while now, I heard it few times online and everything, and didn’t feel it at all. Then I went out to Sonar and at the Rekids party at about 6am Spencer Parker dropped it and all of a sudden, soaked in sweat, surrounded Spanish clud kids, models and early morning freaks, it made perfect sense. A record made by a DJ clearly knows his stuff, for the dancefloor, I suppose it’s only right it makes sense on the dancefloor. 21st century piano house the way it should sound.

>>listen to clip<<

12 - Theo Parrish ‘Space Station’ (Sound Signature) - Theo teams up with one of Detroit’s other men of the moment, Omar S, who maybe repays the favour for 'The Grand Son Of Detroit Techno' by helping to deliver a sublime modern day acid classic. Starting off all floaty, with delicate keys, the clam before the storm is broken as the huge acid b-line comes thundering over the hill, interwoven with melancholic synths, weird high pitch noises, and WALLOP, it’s time to your rave on. It reminds me somewhat of Gherkin Jerk records, in that it has a quite experimental feel to it. Don’t expect to hear this on a Hed Kandi comp anytime soon.

>>listen to clip<<

Golf Channel Records

2009-04-02T09:00:00.010+01:00

The summer before last a New York based friend was kind enough to send me a copy of the first release on his new label. When the package arrived from the States, I was pleased to find it contained a lush, quality pressed, heavy vinyl 12”, individually numbered and with hand stamped artwork. Now as regular readers of Beyond the Stars will know, I’m partial to a limited edition 12” and if the music is good, hey, that’s even better!

And the music was good indeed. A tracky, looped up Mark E edit of Janet Jackson’s ‘R&B Junkie‘, that reworked it into what is essentially a killer house track. I took it out with me a weekend or two later and dropped it a party I was playing at Notting Hill Carnival. The reaction was instant, as the people the room hit the dance floor and teenage boys that looked like they should be extra in Skins were even taking pictures of it with their phones. One year later, ‘R+B Drunkie’ was still getting played, as the last record at the Secretsundaze bank holiday ending mega-rave, demonstrating both its unusual longevity in this age disposable digital music and the undoubted arrival of Golf Channel Records.

The baby of New York based Brit, Phil South, Golf Channel acts as a vehicle for Phil to put out a wide range of music made by people he has hooked up with directly or indirectly through the successful No Ordinary Monkey parties he runs in the city that never sleeps with a couple of close friends, Anton and Carlos.

Things really kicked off when Rob J, of the now late but utterly fabulous Bam Bam parties in Birmingham, sent him fellow Brummie Mark E’s edit of the aforementioned Janet Jackson song. Simple but hugely effective, Phil knew it would make a great debut release and despite serious interest from the likes of Prins Thomas and Running Back Records, Mark stuck to his word, gave it to Phil and Golf Channel was born.

Initially, Phil just pressing up 100 copies, embracing the old school concept of vinyl promo copies rather digital files regardless of expense, hand stamping and numbering them himself, and then distributed them to friends and people he thought would appreciate them rather than the usual DJ suspects. It proved to be a winning formula, tapping into people’s desire to own something tangible and even collectable rather than another mp3 on the hard drive, and combined with the quality of the track, the hype inevitably built.

This initial pressing was eventually followed up by a full thousand record run and when they hit the shops, BOOM! ‘R+B Drunkie’ blew up, crossing over between teenage hoodies, house heads, disco beards, and eventually proving to be popular enough to require a repress.

One place it didn’t end up readily though was people’s ipods, because in keeping with the traditional ethic of the label, no Golf Channel releases are currently available digitally. In fact, they don’t even exist in digital form. Phil cuts straight to lacquer when mastering for better quality and a warm analogue sound, so there‘s not even a digital master file. Why? Well Phil feels he is putting his money where his mouth is, by supporting a format he holds dear and doesn’t want to die out just yet - which is great news for vinyl luddites like me!

So how to follow this up? Another obvious edit? A catchy floor filler? Nope. The next release was anything but. Produced Phil’s No Ordinary Monkey partner, Anton Esteban and his friend Alex Posell, better known as drum’n’bass DJ Abstract, under the name Ghost Note, ’Holy Jungle’ is kind of spooky. In fact it has been rather neatly described as Juju disco, and if a Hammer Horror film about a country gent who returns to his secluded manor house from travelling the dark continent with a ghoulish man servant who it transpires is now his partner is some sort of voodoo cult before a giant moth eats everyone, could be turned into a disco record, then this would be it.

Anton and Alex wanted to produce something more substantial than yet-another-edit, so they made sure pretty much every sound was played and original - banging radiators and bottles for percussion, getting friends to play bass and guitar, and possibly hanging out at the Bronx Zoo with a tape recorder…

The finished product sounds unlike pretty much anything you’ll hear elsewhere but for the 4/4 fans out there, Mark E is back on the flipside, this time on remix duty, turning in a fantastic yet floor friendly remix that is more akin to sub-aquatic techno than the disco sound he is renowned for.

Hot the heals of Ghost Note followed ‘Try to Find Me Vol.1’ a slightly more trad edit two sider from an anonymous artist, whose identity Phil is not prepared to reveal . Apparently he is an established musician who normally edits for his own use only but following a bit of arm twisting, a bottle of bourbon or two and a few compromising Polaroid snaps (maybe), Phil convinced our mystery man to share them with the world.

As the run-out groove legend ‘Trash to Treasure’ suggests, the only records this man will touch are ones he thinks are rubbish and would really benefit from a rework, eschewing the safe bet route oh-so-many aspiring editors choose to take. First up is down tempo moody rework of Chic. Hold on, what was all that about no safe bets, I hear you say? The track in question is ‘Flashback’, which it is fair to say most people don’t know. For good reason.

Then on the flip is the clincher. A proper one-buck-in-a-thrift-store-ash-in-waiting, reworked so it sounds like, in Phil’s words, P&P meets King Tubby in 2008 New York. Very New York in fact - and very, very good.

So with these first three releases under the belt, what’s next? More of the same for now but, in time, Phil wants to expand the label to take on fully formed bands and put out albums. He has eclectic taste in music and he wants the label to always reflect that. This is born out by the next scheduled release (due out round about the time you read this) which is a collaboration between Australian DJ duo Hey Convict! and krautrock hero Dominik Von Senger, who was part of the Phantom Band, Dunkelziffer and The Unknown Cases.

This slightly bizarre partnership came about after Hey Convict! played an obscure track called ‘No Name’ from Dominik’s only solo LP on the Beats in Space radio show, Dominik heard about it and got in touch to say thanks. The boys suggested a remix, to which Dominik readily agreed, only to find the master tape had been wiped of the original recordings. Refusing to let a little thing like not having any music to work with hold him back, Dominik has remade the track from scratch, Hey Convict! are providing one remix and Justin Vandervolgen of !!! and Outhud fame the other, with Rosko Gee, formerly of Can and Traffic, roped in to play bass.

A little bit more imaginative than another Sylvester re-edit, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Interview - Mark E

2009-03-27T18:40:00.016Z

Given that it’s the second largest city in the country, from Londoner’s point of view, Birmingham’s contribution to acid house culture feels a little light. Whereas Manchester has given us the Hacienda, Leeds Back to Basics and Glasgow the Sub Club, Brum is more commonly associated with fancy dress clubbing at Chuff Chuff and the trance nightmare that is God’s Kitchen.

However, unbeknownst to the casual observer, over the last 10 years or so, a small but perfectly formed underground scene has developed in this otherwise barren land. Taking over the back rooms of pubs, dinghy basements and tiny club spaces, nights like Leftfoot, Jigsaw and Bam Bam have carved a musical foothold for lovers of deep house, disco and Balearic sounds.

And from this scene has emerged producer and DJ, editor and producer Mark E, who came to prominence when Gilles Peterson started to champion his edit of Womack and Womack’s ‘Baby I’m Scared of You’. The distinctive low slung, looped up style fast became his signature sound, as more releases followed on Gerd Jansen’s Running Back and then notably, on New York imprint Golf Channel, where Mark announced he is here to stay with his Janet Jackson edit ‘R+B Drunkie’.

Beyond the Stars caught up with Mark when he recently played the Warm party at London’s Plastic People. It had been a busy day, so we didn’t get to talk until Mark had a 2 hour break from the decks in the middle of the night, by which time a few beers had been drunk... This is what was said.

Starting at the beginning, how did you get into DJing?
How I got into it all, into the music, was my brother was 4 years older than me and he was going off to all these parties, well not parties but club nights in Birmingham - I’m from Wolverhampton originally, I think a lot of people think I’m from Birmingham - he would have been 18 and I would have been 14, and he’d going off to clubs nights like Love Revolution, at the Institute, and Snobs, and he’d be coming back and telling me about the amazing nights he’d had listening to people like Sasha, Tony Humphries and Frankie Knuckles. And they were all on at the same night, you know nowadays you get nights where there are a certain type of DJs, now you wouldn’t have Sasha on the same bill as Frankie Knuckles or at the same club week after week, but then it was just house music and they all fell into the same category, there was no different genres of house music. So that was when it all kicked off, it would have been 1990, he was going off to all these nights and I was too young to go, I couldn’t get into the places and I was just into the music, I just had all these mix tapes like everyone used to have then - Graham Park, Frankie Knuckles, Sasha, Jon DaSilva, Mike Pickering and all that. And I bought a single belt drive deck and my brother had one as well, and we were living in this house, both in our rooms with a belt drive deck, no pitch control, just a standard record player, and the first record I bought was ‘Playing with Knives’ by Bizarre Inc. I remember watching that on Dance Energy with Normski and seeing all that Dance Squad and all that, and that is where it all started for me.

Bizarre Inc are Chicken Lips now, aren’t they?
Yeah, they are and The Emperor Machine is one of them too, so they’re still going. And then we put our two decks together, my brother came home work one day with this sort of £5 mixer, which was absolute crap, which buzzed and everything, and then we put them together and we were mixing tunes together and we thought we were it! We were like proper DJs, in our bedrooms playing, couldn’t mix two records together, it was just fun, having a go. And that was it really, that’s how I got into it. I went through the whole Bizarre Inc thing, then Italian piano house stuff, like Last Rhythm and all that, that was my basis for getting into house music, listening to tapes by people like John Kelly – I used to worship John Kelly!… By that time I be 18 and I would be out and I was old enough to get into the clubs and could listen to the tunes, and religiously I’d try to find out what John Kelly was playing and I’d buy all those tunes. And you listen back to those tunes and he was playing some wicked proper old disco - he was playing disco tunes!

It’s hard to believe that John Kelly was alright!

Yeah, it is!

Have you heard that mix of G-Love he did for 8 Records? It’s wicked.
Yeah! I can’t believe the way he’s gone now. But we’d travel the country, me and my mates, we’d get together and go to this night in Stafford a lot, we’d go to Liverpool, we’d go to Nottingham, that was where it all go started. People might think that I’m some sort of disco ‘don’ but my thing is house music and that’s what got me into it, that’s my background.

So how did you make the progression from being a bedroom DJ with your brother on rubbish old mixer, to being a proper DJ on the scene?

I was pushing myself, I was doing mix tapes and stuff with a couple of mates, and I was quite lucky because one of my good friends Danny, his brother owned a club in Wolverhampton and he put us on, so I was getting experience at 18, playing out in clubs.

What club was that?

It was called Slam. It was this tiny little place, it had a wicked basement, it was one of those you remember from your youth and it was just great - all your friends would be there and it was just perfect, I wish I could go back to those days - playing all old piano roarers, you know what I mean?! Big piano tunes and everything, and just going for it… So yeah, that was how I got a bit of experience playing out in front of people. I always had this sort of bug, I just wanted to play my records, that I was buying, spending my hard earned money on, out to people. Wolverhampton was this place where there was a small alternative dance scene and I tried to play out there a bit, at various night clubs, pubs, parties we’d put on, we’d try to do our own thing. There was me, Dave and Rod, there was a trio of us DJing, we’d put parties on for our friends and but it never made it into anything big, never made any money, it was just a laugh really, playing out to people - we’d hire a place, get our friends in, fill it full of a hundred of our mates and their friends and it was great, good little parties… and then you get a bit older, into your 20s and people go their separate way. I was always buying music, just constantly buying music. I went to Ibiza in ‘94 with my mates, it was really before it really blew up, Radio 1 didn’t go there until ‘95, so we just caught it when it was just good and that opened my eyes. John Kelly was there, we went to see him! But it was really, really, really different. That was when I was 18. Then in 1995 I went to University in Birmingham, that’s why I’m in Birmingham now, I did a furniture design course. And I couldn’t find what I was into, because you’ve got all these different influences, you’re away from home and you meet new people. There were night clubs on in Birmingham playing big beat and all that sort of stuff, and it just wasn’t for me but that was the only good thing that was on. Then the whole deep house thing happened as I left university, in ’97/’98. There were various nights in Wolverhampton, like BFG, that were really good - they would get people like DIY, Charles Webster and Paper Records, and it was just perfect, that was the music that linked what I was buying early on to what I was really looking for - that whole deep house sound, it was spot on, it was just a great time. Wolverhampton had a little scene that was really good, and Birmingham had a little scene with nights like Flotation and nights on at the Medicine bar that Leftfoot were doing, and I thought that’s the sound, that’s it, that’s the house music which I like. And then I guess that was where it just went into the disco thing - deep house, disco.

So you didn’t cut your teeth as a DJ in Birmingham?
No, it wasn’t Birmingham, I didn’t really play out in Birmingham. Birmingham hasn’t really done it for me at all, really. It is now! But it wasn’t then. I was just one of the many people that was buying records from Massive Records, Tempest, Hard to Find and whatever, and just into that sound, I never made a name for myself DJng there. At this time, I had a computer at home and I was just into the music. And I was thinking I can do my own thing and have a go at this myself.

You’ve now got a name as a Birmingham DJ, playing at places like Bam Bam and Jigsaw quite a lot, so how did that happen?
Playing at those places only happened after ‘Scared’ came out. I was just friends of people who were doing the parties at the time. I was banging these tunes out and Jigsaw were these people I sort of knew, I was a face there, I’d go to all their parties. The thing is, backtracking a little bit, Leftfoot was the only alternative dance music night in Birmingham, and everyone would go there but there was nothing else. Then Jigsaw started and all of sudden there were these young guys, younger than me, who were doing something I was really into. And we’d go to their little nights, these little parties and it was like, man, this is really good, where did these people come from? I thought me and my mates and a few people that went to Leftfoot, were the only people into this music! Woody, Dave and Rich came from nowhere from my point of view but they were putting on these wicked parties and putting on DJs that Leftfoot weren’t. Leftfoot were doing DJs like Jazzanova, Gilles Peterson, Kruder and Dorfmeister, that sort of house, nu-jazz, whatever you want to call it. Whereas these guys were putting on people like Domu and the Idjut Boys - it wasn’t heard of in Birmingham. And they were doing it, it was small little party, they were doing it small scale. Leftfoot was larger scale, about 500 people, whereas Jigsaw was a hundred people and it was really good. So I started going to their nights, getting to know them.

So moving into production was the turning point for you?

Oh definitely. I was always doing stuff at home on my computer, I got software together, just learning shitty programs, trying to work them out, and putting loops together, sampling disco records and adding my own elements. At this time I was going onto the Jigsaw forum and they were going to start a new label, and I was like “Fucking hell, I want to do that. I’m gonna do that!”. And I’m really putting music together and sending it off to Dave and Woody. They were like “yeah, it’s good” and they never really took hold of it. I thought it was good enough - I did the Womack and Womack edit and I remember thinking “That’s really good“. I put it on the DJ History forum and people came back to me saying that it was wicked. So that spurred me on to send it to Gilles Peterson. You know, who else do you send it to? I you want to get some coverage, if you want to get it on the radio, send it to him. So I sent it to him and about a week later, I’m sat at work, the phone rings and it’s Gilles Peterson saying I’ve got your music and it’s really good, I’m going to play it on the radio. And I was just blown away! Made day, made my month, made my year! It was just totally out of the blue.

This is before it came out on Jisco?

Yeah, yeah!

So they didn’t know what they had?

Yeah, they didn’t know what they had! They thought it was good, but they had some Al Kent edits being pressed at the time. But as soon as Gilles played it on the radio, they were like, right, we’ve got to get this out as soon as possible. That was how it happened. It was mad because I gave Gilles Peterson a CD of about 10 tracks and Scared must have been about number 6, so whoever listens to his stuff, all credit to them, they listened each one all the way through, because you know how long that tune is, it goes on forever and only really hits it at the end. So that person listened all the way through and picked it out. And all thanks to him, he sort of broke me, in way, he said “I’m going to play this” and that was it. It was played on the radio, it was summer 2005 and it was class!

It came out on Jisco that summer, didn‘t it?
They wanted to get it out as soon as it had been played on Gilles’ show, it took about 2 or 3 weeks, maybe a month, but it was out there and he was hammering it. I went to the Big Chill and he played it on the main stage, I was there with my missus, it was the first time and only time I’ve been to the Big Chill, so that weekend was wicked - the weather was great and Gilles Peterson played my music! I remember he was just there, the sun was going down, he was doing his thing, he had his guy there with him, Earl Zinger, is it? MCing all over it, totally ruined it, haha, but he played the tune. I remember thinking he might play it, he’s bigged it up on Radio 1, so he could play it - and he played it!

So that first production was a key moment for you and you went on to play at places like Jigsaw and Bam Bam quite a bit, so what is the Birmingham scene like?

At that time it was really good, Jigsaw would be on once a month, Bam Bam would be on once a month, two weeks separation between the two, and then you’ve got Leftfoot happening at the Medicine Bar, and it was great, for a period it was absolutely fantastic. Now it’s not so good. I don’t know why, lot’s of people have left? Jigsaw was really good, it was like the best party in Birmingham I thought, it just edged Bam Bam. Bam Bam was great, great venue. The venue helped Bam Bam, because the Rainbow was good, especially in the summer out the back [Venue Ed: a sort of alfresco semi-warehouse space]. With Jigsaw, they started out in small little basement that would about hundred people, then they went to another venue, it was bigger venue and it didn’t quite happen. The thing is with Birmingham, it’s all down to the venue, people get into the venue for a while and then they lose interest. It’s a shame but looking back it’s probably a good thing that it finished when it did because we had some great times. Now you’ve got Adam Reagan still doing his Leftfoot thing, he’s really holding it together, he’s really good at promoting and he has his following. It’s small but he’s still got it going. Rob J (Bam Bam promoter and DJ) and I do our thing at Adam’s pub.

Is that a new residency then for you then?
It is, yeah. We’ve our first birthday in March. Called Drop Out Boogie, Rob came up with that one! It’s getting going, we’re getting people in and I think the second year is going to be the good one for us. We need to push it more but I find it hard to get the time to do it.

What’s the venue like?

It’s a small upstairs room in an old boozer - and it’s perfect!

So are there any other good clubs or promoters coming through in Birmingham?
Yeah, there’s stuff going on, you’ve got Below at the Rainbow, they do some good stuff. They made their name doing the minimal thing. Birmingham is based on minimal techno and bands. House music is very much niche and you’re lucky to get a hundred people out every other month to listen to it. It’s an older generation thing. We play disco, we play house music, funk, soul, what and we can fill a hundred and fifty capacity place doing it, but that’s it, there’s nothing more than that. You’ve got lots of smaller, younger promoters coming through the minimal, electro house thing, but that’s it really. Adam fills a 200 capacity place with Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Ashley Beadle, get’s bands on, does a live thing, but he’s got a following, he’s got a good reputation. So there is something ticking along, there is something to go to, but that’s it. For a city that size, the second city, the alternative dance, leftfield, house music [scene], it’s very minor, it’s very small.

You’ve got a bit of a reputation for playing ‘Slo-Mo’, how did that come about - where there any particular influences that led to you DJing that way, because it‘s quite a distinctive style?
I think my productions are like that but my DJing isn’t necessarily. I can DJ like that but when I play out, it’s more four to the floor house music, with some disco.

Do you think you pitch down the tempo a bit more than your run of the mill house DJ?
I do like to do that. It makes you stand out a bit more if you can take the tempo down and change things a little bit, so I do like to do that. Production wise, I don’t know why I did that? I got well into what the 3 Chairs, Moodymann, Theo Parish were doing, I don’t want to say that is my main influence in doing that but I guess it is! All the Sound Signature early stuff is this sort of monotonous, slow, dirty, deep house music, and I guess I took a bit of influence from that. And also the choice of stuff I’ve chosen to edit or remix has always been at that tempo. It’s not a conscious decision I’ve made, like right, I’m going to make a slow track. It’s just the way it’s happened.

Listening to some of your mixes, I was wondering if you were a bit of Luther Vandross and Loose Ends fan as a young teenager, as it feels like there is almost a bit of that 80s soul influence?
It hasn’t come from anything I was into as a youngster or a teenager. Not at all. That’s come later, I got into that whole neo-jazz thing for a while, I got into the whole soul thing, Erykah Badu, Common, Platinum Pied Pipers, and all that Ubiquity stuff. I went through a period of being into that and there was soul music there that which was slow house music. People over look it but there was a track on the Erykah Badu album Worldwide Underground and it’s just the best house tune ever, but slow and it’s soul music. It just goes on and on, taking that soul mentality and making a bit more techno-y.

How do you think that slo-mo style translates to the dance floor, do you need to educate people into it?
I was playing in Hamburg a few weeks ago and I played this set, it went really well, disco, house, probably about 115-116bpm or something like that, and at the end I just slowed it right down, and everyone went for it. I think it’s the context you play it in, if you’ve built it up and you got the crowd, they’re all with you, they’ll go with you. Or you come on after someone and you think I’m going to educate these people, I’m going to slow it right down, and they’re not with you an you’ve read it wrong and then you’ve fucked it up!

Do you think that slo-mo style travels well then, or do you feel more comfortable playing it on your home turf in Birmingham?
No, not at all. My typical DJ set is not slow. I think people have got this perception me - looped up, slow disco and stuff. Whereas if you hear me play out and some of the mixes I’ve done, it would be quite different to that, although I do play a lot of looped up house tunes. I guess my sound could be likened to what’s happening with Philpott’s, they do a lot of these disco-y, very deep sounds.

Actually I was listening to an old record by The Mole on Philpott the other night and thought that the style must be right up your street.

All that Mole stuff is class. Funnily enough I got in contact with The Mole - Colin his name is, Colin the Mole! And we were going to do something together , we were both up for doing stuff. He liked my stuff, I’d been buying his for years but it never happened, it just never came about.

Given your recent success in the studio do you now see yourself as primarily a producer rather than a DJ?

No, it’s both - one feeds the other. You get more DJ work when you’ve got your music out, that’s how it works. Once your name’s out there and people are buying your stuff, you get DJ work, so I have to do music to feed the DJing. And that’s how it is, sadly, because everyone’s a DJ now, you can’t make your name just being a DJ. I have to stress I need to thank the whole edit thing for putting me where I am now - although at the time, when I did the first tune, I didn’t set out to do an edit, I was sampling music, which people like DJ Sneak have done for the last 15 years, but he’s not called an editor, he’s making music. And that’s what I set out to do, make some tunes, sampling a little bit and make track out of it. I did that first track and I didn’t know how to end it, so I just put the original track in. And I was totally oblivious to this edit thing that was going on. I wasn’t part of it, but when ‘Scared’ came out, I don’t think that the edit thing was as big as where it is now? I had finished that track, I had a really good beginning but I didn’t know how to end it, and the only way I could do it was to put the original tune in and it just worked! It was by mistake really, and then I’ve been thrown into this whole re-edit culture thing.

I’ve read that you think edits should primarily be DJ tools, how do you feel about the glut of basic edits - looped up the intro, looped up the outro - of obvious tracks that seem to have flooded the market over the last year or two? And do you think they are legitimate stepping stone for DJ/Producers trying to make their name?

I don’t want to start slagging off people who are editing stuff because that’s how I’ve done it.

At least with your edits you do something different with the track, take a snippet, loop it up and turn it into something different, whereas a lot of edits are really good disco tune to start with anyway, with a bit stuck on the start, another bit on the end, and they’ve lost the cheesy bit in the middle!

I couldn’t put my name to anything like that and say that’s my work. I think when I did it, subconsciously, I had to add elements of my own to it, so I could put my name to it - it’s by me, it says Mark E, and called something different to what the original track is. Most of the track, the Mark E tune, is totally new to what the original is. You might get a couple of minutes at the end of the original track, and it just sort of makes sense. I couldn’t release anything, I couldn’t put my name to anything if I hadn’t done anything to it. I couldn’t put my name to it if I’d just looped it, I could do that on a CDJ in a club. It’s a form of bootlegging. I think with what I’ve done, I’ve made new music out of old music. A new interpretation of something - and that’s good. And that’s why I’ll put my name to it because I think it justifies it.

Do you think the ease of access to cheap technology has dumbed down the creative process of making music or has it created opportunities for talented people to get involved who would never have done so in the past?
It’s a great thing, it’s fantastic. It’s meant that people who otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to do anything with music, they go along and do a boring job for the rest of their lives, whereas technology has come along and it’s easy to do. I think it’s a good thing technology gives people access to make music - if it’s not good music, then people won’t buy it!

So you think there is more creativity coming into music because of this?
Yeah, of course, definitely. It’s got to be good that people can get access to software and computers and have ago. It might open their whole lives up to something that otherwise wouldn’t happen. It’s got to be good. There a lot of untapped talent out there that would go unrecognised if it wasn’t for that. And that’s exactly what happened with me! If I wasn’t messing around on my computer, and because of technology I can sample something without buying an Akai sampler or something, I wouldn’t be sat here talking to you now. It’s good! It’s just ideas and how people interpret them - people have got ideas about music. I think of myself, that it’s luck. It’s nothing new what I’m doing, it’s just a different interpretation, anyone can do it, anyone can learn what I’ve learnt. I don’t think I’m special, I don’t think I’m especially talented. It’s just having an idea, having some experience in buying music and listening to lots of music and thinking I could do this but like this. It’s just those ideas - it doesn’t matter who knows what to do with what equipment and what the equipment is - it’s having the ideas and knowing what to do with them. I’m not going to say I’m some sort of wiz kid on technology and computers, because I’m not, it’s just having an idea and knowing how to use a bit of software.

What software do you use?
I’m not going to go into details, but I use a basic wave editor and a sequencer, that’s all I use. There’s a lot of snobbery in what you use, I don’t care what people say, it’s how you use the equipment you’ve got. If you’ve can use a Mac and you’ve got Logic, then good for you, use it, it’s a massive program, I haven’t got time to learn how to use it, I’ve got a family, I haven’t got time to sit behind Mac all day and learn how to use Logic. I use what I use and I use it to the best of my ability. It’s the idea that counts not the equipment.

Is there a particular process you go through when identifying and creating an edit?

I don’t think to myself I’m going to find a tune to edit tonight, it’s not like that. A label doesn’t come to me an say, “Mark, I want an edit, can you get it done really quick”, it doesn’t happen like that. I’m not going to do anything that is going to compromise me in quality of music, it has to be something where I find something in a track which I really like anyway and I think could be good. A tiny little snippet, it doesn’t have to be a major part of a track. The first Running Back release I did, Beat Down, must have been 3 or 4 seconds worth of one track at the beginning, the rest of the track doesn’t bear any resemblance to it. It’s got that “It hurts so much now” and the little bit before that - that’s the track, there’s no other bits to it, the rest of the track doesn’t bear any resemblance to what I made, and it’s just finding that little bit. I’ll listen to something, it could be anything, and I’ll think that could be really good, I’ll sample that, I’ll manipulate the sample, I’ll take the bass out, I’ll isolate the bass on its own, then loop them up together in a different way. So it’s not as if I’m looking for a track to edit, it’s just I’ll hear something and I’ll think that could work on a different level, totally.
You’re now getting quite a bit of remix work, things the Detroit Experiment where you retained many elements of the original, but also stuff like Holy Jungle where didn‘t. So, do you approach remixes in a different way to edits?
The difference with remixes is you get all the parts separated on their own, so you’ve got total control over what you do, you can create something totally new. With the Holy Jungle mix, the original track was great, totally weird ju-ju disco or whatever people liken it to! But there was the bass line [sings bom-ba-boom-ba…], it had these sort of up and downs, and I thought it could be something really special, it had this Carl Craig feel.

I’ve actually described it as a techno record - it wasn’t like anything else I’ve heard to do.

Totally. I just saw something, you could do something really good with that and I think it really worked in the end. And with the Think Twice thing, to be asked to remix that track, a track which I played and played and played out… you can’t better it, you can’t better the original tune, and people will probably think why even bother trying to remix it. I was worried that I would do something poor and get really slated for it. I shouldn’t worry about what other people think but I did with that track because it was such a big tune. And it was really hard, but I think did something good with it. I think I did something which was deeper, I wasn’t trying to make it better than the original, because you can’t, I did something that was a different take on it, more strings and along drawn out groove rather than an instant, modern day, disco-y house track. And I’m really pleased with the way it came out. I added elements to it, people might listen to a snippet of it off a website and think it sounds exactly the same, but if you listen to it all the way through, you’ll get a different feel for it. I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.

I’ve heard that you now want to concentrate on original music rather than edits, do you have anything in the pipeline?

Yeah, I want to do my own label. Hopefully that’s going to happen this year, I’ve got distribution set up for it and I’ve got music ready for it. I’ve got to thank people for wanting to put my music out, it’s brilliant, I still can’t believe it now. But I just want to have a bit more control over it - when it’s released, the artistic content. I could do it myself, I haven’t got time at the moment because I’m up to my eyes in it all over the place, but ultimately I want to do it myself and have total control over everything. I’ll do the artwork myself, I’ll do the music myself. It’ll be an outlet for my own music and if it leads to it, then other people - if it’s good enough, great! That’s what I want to do.

Do you have anything coming out soon our readers could look out for?!

I’ve done a track on Mule from Japan, something on their compilation. Another Jisco, another Running Back. The Running Back will be original and Jisco will be an edit. The Jisco is imminent, it’s going to be the edit of Grace Jones ‘La Vie En Rose’ I did that’s on my Resident Advisor mix. And maybe another Golf Channel, who knows?! I haven’t spoken to Phil [South, Golf Channel head honcho] for while but I’m going to New York in May.

That take us nicely to R+B Drunkie on Golf Channel Records. It really had a wide appeal, from the DJHistory lot through to being played as the last record of the night at Secretsundaze. I remember playing it at a Carnival party and had teenagers that looked like extras from Skins taking pictures of it on the decks - were you surprised by its success?

Yeah. It was quite different for me that tune. I don’t think I’ve ever played it out myself. It was totally different for me, it was a totally different type of track, some people got it, some people totally didn’t, so I’m quite amazed it had the cross over appeal. Although it isn’t really attributable to me, it’s by someone else, someone called M.E…

I hear there was lot interest in it from the likes of Running Back, why did you decide to put it out on a fledgling New York based label?

Well he was the first one who said he wanted to release it. Rob J (Bam Bam) sent it to Phil, Phil emailed me and said he wanted to release it, and then phoned me up, told me what wanted to do, how he really wanted to do it and that it was great, so I was like yeah, go on, do it! I didn’t see the potential in it, so if someone wanted to release it, great, have it! If we make some money and make something out of it, then even better!

So you didn’t see it as a little gem you should hold back for the best offer?

No, I don’t think so. Actually, I did play it out and everyone was going mad over it. Gerd (Janson, of Running Back) wanted to release it and I said I’d promised it someone else and he was like “Ahhh, man!”, then Prins Thomas was interested in it - I went to a Faith party, a couple of years ago, Rahaan was on with Prins Thomas, Karizma, Idjut Boys, and I remember going down into the basement to listen to Rahaan, and Prins Thomas came on. His first tune was this track, and I recognised it, it was my tune, R+B Drunkie, and went up to him and asked him how he got it, and said Rob J sent it to him - the bastard! So he was interested in it too, which was unreal.

So do you see R+B Drunkie and Scared being big the two big pivotal moments in your recording career?

I don’t see R+B Drunkie as. It didn’t really get any radio play like ‘Scared’ did. It sold quite a lot but I see that as a separate thing really, I don’t see it as my main musical body of work, I see it as separate. I called it something separate, it was under a different pseudonym. It was just to create a little bit of hype, it was more a party tune really.

Finally, is there anywhere our readers can catch you playing in the near future?

The Garden Festival in Croatia, Faith are there the first week and I’m there second week. Then Fabric in London on 18 April and Cut Loose in Manchester the night before.

Thank you Mark.

With thanks, as ever, to Nick Ensing for the pictures

London House Tree, 1987 - 2008

2009-01-13T10:46:00.014Z

(click on image to enlarge)

This map is my attempt to chart the history of house clubs in London. It starts with the earliest house clubs like Delirium (after it moved to Heaven) where the Watson brothers plied their trade and the returning Amnesiacs haven, The Project which was born in a grubby little dive in Streatham called Ziggy’s, and follows the logical progression through to the acid house explosion of ‘88, the orbital scene of ‘89, onto the move back into West End clubs with the likes of Rampling’s Pure Sexy, through to the super club phenomenon and finally ending up at modern day East End clubs like Secret Sundaze and Buzzin’ Fly, taking in Balearic house, progressive house, techno, leather trousers, long hair, feather boas, handbags, metro sexual clubbing and acid teds along the way.

I'd like to say I knocked it together in a hour down the boozer one lunch time but it was actually given a little more consideration than that - and I am indebted to Alan Arscott and Grant Berry (who runs Enjoy) for their efforts in getting the map right, and Alan again for his superb design work making my rough drawing look so lovely. I also owe a pint or two to Dan Beaumont (who runs Disco Bloodbath) for helping get the gay clubs right, and Rick Hopkins (who runs Dream Machine) for his input on the techno side of things (love you all x).

A printed version of the map appeared in Faith Fanzine, which can still be picked up from cooler shops around London or by going on the forum >>here<<

Daniel Wang - Disco Marmite

2008-12-05T09:00:00.004Z

Let’s get straight to the point - I think Daniel Wang is one of THE best DJs in the world. But the Berlin based American is not everyone’s cup tea. In fact, whereas I love his DJing, some other people can’t stand it. And I don’t mean dubstep ruffnecks and indie kids don’t get him, I mean there’s plenty of dyed in the wool house heads and beardy nu-disco fans who aren’t feeling the Wang.

On the face of it, this may seem strange, given that house is essentially a continuation of disco and nu-disco is, err, disco. But I can actually understand why some people don’t like Daniel Wang.

These days disco has been kinda sanitised for the house generation. Not only are simple to programme tracks like Gino Soccio ‘Dancer’ are ubiquitous but edits are abound and remove the ‘cheesy bits’ like camp vocals (Cellophane ‘Super Queen’), guitar solos (Chilly ‘For Your Love’) and operatic breakdowns (Sylvester 'Band of Gold'), leaving the elements that have become the basis of so many sample laden house tracks and as such, the elements to which today’s clubbers’ ears are attuned. And all of this is played by DJs in a house context. If a DJ plays Chicago ‘Street Player’ people will love it because they all know the Bucketheads tracks that liberally sampled it. If a DJ plays Boystown Gang 'Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You' then 99% of dance floors shit themselves.

Wang takes it back to its roots, playing what was essentially gay dance music for gay men to dance to. The song and the melody are the primary focus rather than the incessant 4/4 beat, beat mixing takes a back seat, often used but not ruling his sets, and all those bits that are often filtered out for modern ears are left in, maybe even emphasised, along with that sense of drama that once lit up the floors of The Saint, the Garage, Better Days, etc.

In fact, he has a natural penchant for drama. I heard him play at massive Faith/Secret Sundaze party at the tail end of 2007, with people like Chateau Flight and Timmy Regisford spinning in the other rooms, on huge sounds systems, with giant lighting rigs, to literally thousands of people. Daniel was downstairs in a relatively small room on the way to the cloakroom, with maybe a hundred dancers. At one point he plunged the room into virtual darkness, the only light being a small table lamp wrapped in red plastic, which he started to switch on and off strobe style, before dropping Amanda Lear ‘New York’, a haunting, dark disco ballad at clocks in at about 3bpm. It sounds a bit shit but it wasn’t. It was the most amazingly house moment of the night, blowing away all the big rig, big room stuff going on upstairs - and he had the room in the palm of his hand for the rest of the night. That set was actually the DJ highlight of the year for me. A proper disco DJ playing proper disco the way it was made to be played.

More power to the Wang!

With thanks to Nick Ensing for the pictures

Progressive - a dirty word?

2008-12-05T09:00:00.002Z

First coined by Dominic Philips to pigeon hole an emerging genre during his days reviewing for Mixmag Update in the very early 90s, progressive has gone on to become a byword for boring, convoluted house music. And yes, even if you put aside Sasha, Digweed and Lawler’s mind numbing take on the genre later in the decade, it’s still easy to knock the first wave of progressive house now as it quickly became a parody of itself – music for long haired blokes on drugs made by long haired blokes on drugs. BUT it’s also easy to forget there was actually some very exciting music being made at the beginning.

It was a reaction to the times. Cooler London clubs were playing slickly produced house and garage sounds of New York, New Jersey, Rome and Rimini, movement 98 was just a recent memory, and the harder edged sounds we had grown used to the early days of acid house had been become the property of rave DJs and ravers. Early progressive house producers, like D.O.P, started to reclaim these rawer sounds, set them in a house context the right side of rave and forge a distinctive English sound, that wasn’t just a rip off of what the Americans or Italians were doing.

And in most clubs you’d be unlucky to be subjected to night of Fabi Paras b-sides, because this music was getting mixed up with early Wild Pitch, Instinct and Murk stuff from the States and new sounds from northern Europe like early Jam and Spoon, R&S, early Eye Q and Harthouse stuff (anyone remember intelligent techno?!) and things like SIL and Wonka Beats.

Hard as may be to imagine now, it was fresh and it was exciting. I remember being at an early Puscha, when it was still good (the Salvidor Dali one by the Tate and Lyle refinery), and hearing Smokin’ Jo drop Acorn Arts and Gat Décor alongside Weatherall dropping Wonka classic The Traveller ‘Father and Son Shine’. It felt like the future.

The reason Leftfield were so popular was because what they were doing sounded so original and many artists you don’t think of as being progressive were part of it all – Andrew Weatherall and early Sabres releases like Secret Knowledge and SYT (Shave Your Tongue), Slam/Soma, Junior Boys Own acts like Underworld/Lemon Interrupt, Outrage, and even X-Press 2.

It was an exciting and musically creative time, the influence of which reached across the Atlantic, where Junior Vasquez was hugely influenced by the X-Press 2 sound and even used to play Guerrilla releases like Two Shiny Heads ‘Dub Disco House’ at the Sound Factory.

Unfortunately, back on this side of the pond, people with little or no musical talent quickly got to grip with the basic elements of the sound and there we were soon buried under a deluge of really boring bongo/timbale records - Cowboy Records, in particular, were terrible for putting out this crap.

I think there are actually a number of parallels to be drawn with the recent surge in minimal house – a few pioneering, innovative producers, making groundbreaking music and quickly followed by a load of talentless imitators out to make a fast euro. They do say we can learn lessons from history, don’t they?!

Anyway, I liked the early days of progressive house. I liked it a lot. And so did many other people who may deny it now. I recently read that Dom Philips has said of his coining of the genre, “It was meant to refer to progressive rock in that it would all become overlong and sound the same and be pretentious... which is just what happened."

I think that Dom is either talking with the benefit of hindsight, using a touch of journalistic license or is a great big fibber. I'm pretty sure the review in question would have been around about 1991/1992 during the very early days of the sound, and it didn’t become overlong and pretentious until the Digweed/Sasha era years later, when it had become pretty much a completely different genre of music.

If Mr Philips really did know that in its second incarnation it really would turn the prog rock of house, can some one give me his telephone number? I need to know what next weekend's racing results are!

Progressive Not Progressive 10

1- Jambo ‘Drum Attack’ (Wonka)
2 - SIL ‘Windows’ (Work)
3 - Original Rockers ‘Push Push’ (Cake)
4 - Secret Knowledge ‘Ohh Baby’ (Sabres of Paradise)
5 - Future Sound of London ‘Papa New Guinea’ (Jumpin’ & Pumpin’)
6 - The Traveller ‘Father & Son Shine’ (Wonka)
7 - Slam ‘Eterna’ (Soma)
8 - Techno Grooves Mach 5 ‘You Got Me Running’ (Stealth)
9 - Age of Love ‘Age of Love’ (React)
10 - C.J. Bolland ‘Camargue’ (R&S)

Progressive ‘You Probably Had to be There’ 10

1 - Tonto’s Drum ‘Eagles Prey’ (White)
2 - Lemon Interupt ‘Dirty’ (Junior Boys Own)
3 - Acorn Arts ‘Silence’ (X-Gate)
4 - Spooky ‘Don’t Panic’ (Guerrilla)
5 - Djum Djum ’Difference’ (Outer Rhythm)
6 - The Disco Evangelists ‘De Nero’ (Black Sunshine)
7 - React 2 Rhythm ‘I Know You Like It’ (Guerrilla)
8 - Sound Clash Republic ‘Sack the Drummer’ (Junk Rock)
9 - Alabama 3 ‘I Shall Be Released’ (Strictly4Groovers)
10 - Megatonk ‘Belgium’ (Kai Tonk)

The Greatest House Record of ALL TIME?

2008-11-23T23:00:00.016Z

Earlier this year, the good folk at Radio 2 ran a poll to decide the GREATEST DANCE RECORD of all time. 20 records were nominated by a panel of ‘expert’ DJs and then the masses had an opportunity to vote for the nominated record they thought was the greatest tune to ever rock the dance floor.

In the end, rather predictably, Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’ came out on top, even though it isn’t the greatest record Jacko ever made (everyone knows that was ‘Ben‘) let alone the greatest dance record of all time. Radio 2 announced it, Zoe Ball trotted out a tired anecdote about how it took the roof off rubbish Brighton big beat club, the Boutique (which isn’t a surprise seeing as it must have been welcome relief for all the dancers not to have to listen to watered down hip hop made by white students for a few minutes), and everybody went about their business.

Whilst the result didn’t cause that much of a stir, the nominations had internet forums across the land buzzing with discussions about whether they merited inclusion on the short list or not. Over on faithfanzine.com, being a house music forum, we were particularly interested in the house records that made the cut and given that house luminaries Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Mike Pickering and Trevor Fung were on the nominating panel, we all expected some choice selections.

But a lot of people were not happy about all the records they picked.

Some argued Alison Limerick’s ‘Where Love Lives’ was more annoying than great or that Inner City’s ‘Big Fun’ wasn’t even the best Inner City record, let alone Kevin Saunderson production. Others felt that Rhythim Is Rhythim’s ‘Strings of Life’ was a populist choice or that it was impossible to pick one track from the body of work produced by Larry Heard. While others still, said that 'Pump up the Volume' and 'The Theme from S-Express' were just no very good records. And of course there was almost endless debate about the artists and tracks that had been omitted.

So, I decided to try and put these arguments to bed once and for all, by organising a poll to find the GREATEST HOUSE RECORD OF ALL TIME.

A few weeks later, after more than 50 pages of debate, during which almost 150 forum members nominated 226 records, we finally whittled it down to what we believe are the top 10 house records of all time and then from those, voted for the GREATEST HOUSE RECORD OF ALL TIME. Here are the results (in reverse order):

10 - Kings of Tomorrow – Finally (Distance, 2001) Bit of a funny one to start with because, if we’re honest, it shouldn’t be in the top 10. Yes, it’s a great record, yes there were some great mixes, notably on the original French double pack and then later from Danny Tenaglia, but do they make it one of the greatest of all time? Probably not. But maybe that's a little unfair, because this is also the youngest record in the chart, and most accurate measure of the greatness of a record is how it stands the test of time. Maybe 10 years from now, if it still stands up, I’ll have to revise my opinion.
>>listen - youtube<<

9 - X-press 2 - London Xpress (Junior Boys Own, 1993) It’s easy to forget the impact the early Xpress 2 records had at the time they came out, not just in Britain where they were understandably big club a records, but also across the Atlantic in New York. Sometimes people talk about Xpress 2 aping American house but at the time, it felt more like they took elements from the US and fused them with tougher British sounds, then imported it back to the States, where they ruled on the dance floor at places like the Sound Factory. In fact, Xpress 2 records were getting played there before the Sound Factory sound (Tribal, Sex mania, Wildpitch, etc) actually came into being. So were Xpress 2 influenced or did they influence? Draw your own conclusions. Oh and ‘London Xpress’ is the best record they ever made!
>>listen - youtube<<

7 = Lil Louis - French Kiss (Diamond, 1989) Lil Louis is the frikkin’ daddy. Maybe not a lauded as Ron Hardy or Frankie Knuckles over here but in Chicago his Bismark Hotel parties are legendary. That said, he did have more individual records nominated in the poll then any other artist, so we must like him a bit! ‘French Kiss’ is slightly overplayed and not as completely out there as something like ’Video Clash’, but it is definitely a great record. It originally appeared on Louis’ own Diamond Records, before being licensed to FFRR, who despite commissioning the worst video in the history of music (wind up toys?!!) managed to take it number 2 in the British charts. Which for what is essentially a tracky underground house tune from Chicago, is amazing. And to this day, that hand clap still does me in.
>>listen - youtube<<

7 = Rhythim is Rhythim - Nude Photo (Transmat, 1987) During the poll, I’m not sure any records gave rise to more debate then Derrick May’s, mainly because quite a lot of people thought they were techno records and shouldn’t be in the poll at all. Well Derrick himself said that the Belleville 3 were just trying to make house records in the beginning and this record is from the beginning. Maybe not as well known as ‘String of Life’ but this is perfect machine music and as raw an acid house record as you could ever hope to imagine. Even the artwork by Alan Oldham is spot on. And more than 20 years on, it still sounds like music from another planet. On the flipside of this record you will find the almost as good 'The Dance', so how it ended up as low at #7 in this list, I will never know!
>>listen - youtube<<

6 - Frankie Knuckles pres. Satoshi Tomie – Tears (FFRR, 1989) I love Frankie Knuckles, I love Satoshi Tomie and I really, really love Robert Owens, who provided the vocal on this record, but I have a confession to make - I can’t stand this record. This may single me out as the equivalent of a witch in houseland, but I really can’t bear it. I’m not quite sure why, but it might have something to do with the “I’m dripping ’n’ dropping ‘n‘ dripping ’n’ dropping” vocals, which, let’s face it, are bloody dreadful. And to think this got in ahead of ‘I’ll Be Your Friend’, HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?! This is the only record in the 10 I don’t own. In fact, I even passed on a two quid copy a few weeks ago and gave the money to a Big Issue seller instead… but pretty much everyone else I know loves it though, so maybe I have got cloth ears after all. Oh and there are some questions about how much Knuckles had to do with the production, but more of that later.
>>listen - youtube<<

5 - Ten City - That's The Way Love Is (Atlantic, 1989) Now this is a house record. The vocal talents of Byron Stingly teamed with the production talents of Marshell Jefferson, what more could you ask for? Well I tell you what more, a remix from Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley that absolutely kills it. Just the right side of tough, it’s one of those ‘go to’ records you have in your bag when all else fails, because it never does. Still getting plays all over the shop, my favourite memory of this is hearing Laurent Garnier drop it at a tiny private party in Ibiza, and the 100 hundred mainly Spanish dancers in the room going mad. That acidic bassline is the sound of 1989 to me, yet it still sounds as relevant as ever today. An awesome record.
>>listen - youtube<<

4 - Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Rham, 1988) This is the highest polling British produced house record in the list, and I think that’s right, because it probably is the greatest British acid house record ever. Again, this is an ever popular internet debate, but inevitably the consensus is always that Gerald Simpson’s timeless masterpiece is indeed the best house record ever produced on these isles. Like most of the other records in this list, despite being 20 years old it has stood the test of time well and sits comfortably within the context of a modern house set. Personally, it reminds me of driving around the deserted parts of south London in the early hours of a 1989 morning, in search of the rave. It seemed a fitting sound track to the lamp lit grey urban landscape of concrete council blocks, disused industrial spaces and derelict buildings that seemed to make up that part of London at the end of Thatcher‘s 80s, and few pieces of music epitomise feeling of that time more than ‘Voodoo Ray’. A bona fide house classic. And it didn’t even make the Radio 2 short list. Go figure.
>>listen - youtube<<

3 - Jamie Principle/Frankie Knuckles - Your Love (Trax, 1987) Not a controversial entry in this list, as this one of the most recognisable house records of all time, but this record most definitely has a controversial history. Originally released by Jamie Principle on the small Chicago independent label, Persona, the basis of this track is actually appropriated from the Italo disco classic, ‘Feels Good’ by Electra. Trax records re-released it a year later, cashing in on Frankie Knuckles' name by crediting at ‘Frankie Knuckles Presents’, although they failed to mention that it was Jamie Principle he was presenting. They also failed to credit Jamie’s vocals, although they were kind enough to give him a writing credit. By the time it hit these shores, Frankie wasn’t even presenting anymore, it was just credited as his tune, so unsurprisingly, most people know this a Knuckles production rather than one of Principle’s. Well, maybe. The truth is most people probably recognise it more readily as the backing track to Candi Staton’s ‘You Got the Love’ mash-up, that originally appeared in 1990 and has charted several times since. From the Chicago underground to the soundtrack of a million wedding receptions in a few short years! That, however, should not detract from the power of the original, which was truly astounding record - Jamie’s haunting vocals, superbly complimented by moody, atmospheric, yet uplifting melody. Truly great house music in its purist form.
>>listen - youtube<<

2 - The Nightwriters - Let the Music Use You (Danica, 1987) Now we’re at the business end of the list and for me, this entry is the biggest bone of contention, because IT SHOULD BE NUMBER 1! Originally released on Chicago label Danica Records (named after the owner’s daughter, and home to Gallifre’s first release and Knuckles mix of Hypnotic Tango, fact fans) before being signed to Jack Trax in the UK, it’s the third Frankie Knuckles production in the top ten (possibly the only one he actually did!), and a masterpiece of understated house music. Rather than smashing you in the face with a big piano line or something, it slowly builds, hypnotically, working the cow bell, that killer bassline, the swirling synths and piano hook, all held together by the glue of Ricky Dillard’s stunning vocal performance, and then just when you think you’ve heard all you’re going to get, it rises and takes you to another euphoric level, as Ricky implores you to let “Music take control, of mind body and soul, everybody, get on your feet and use your body to the beat” literally just before the record ends. Listening to it still sends electric shivers through my body, gooseflesh, hairs standing up all over, and I’ve heard it a thousand times before. It was played at Rampling’s (non)retirement party and was the record of the night, 20 years after it’s release. It’s music you can never tire of. It’s music that made us think we could change the world. As Ricky’s sings, “this song is from my heart”, and it will always have special place in mine. House music perfection.
>>listen - youtube<<

1 - Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It (Trax, 1986) So here we have it, the GREATEST HOUSE RECORD OF ALL TIME . Produced by Larry Heard and released on Trax under his Mr Fingers moniker in 1986, I think this was his second ever release, so a fairly decent way to get your career off the ground! The whole EP was really strong, with the other tracks being ‘Beyond the Clouds’ and the acid classic ‘Washing Machine’. ’Can You Feel It’ is a wonderfully emotive piece of music - simple yet enthralling. Much as I have deep feelings for The Nightwriters, I guess this is still a pretty worthy winner. Unfortunately, by the time a UK record company got hold of it, they decided to stick a vocal on top of it and you are probably familiar with all "In the beginning, there was Jack, Jack had a Groove, Jack gives you the key to the wriggly worm” nonsense that vocal contained. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time but unlike the backing track, it sounds horribly dated now. Minus 10 house points. And good as ‘Can You Feel It’ is, the other slight problem I have with it being at number one, is I believe Larry Heard produced better records that just aren’t as well known. ‘Distant Planet’ for a start, along with the more experimental sounds of his Gherkin Jerks releases, and pretty much all of his Alleviated output. The man is undoubtedly a genius, and I really mean IS, because he is one of the few original Chicago legends who is still making fantastic house music today, as his massive club hit from 2007/08, ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’ and his recent ‘25 Years From Alpha’ release bear testament. Going back to ‘Can You Feel It’ for a moment, as well as being our number 1, it’s also the only track from our top 10 to also feature in the Radio 2 top 10, where it reached the giddy heights of number 7, just behind… wait for it… Alison Limerick! Which kind of proves what we knew all along - Radio 2 listeners need their ears syringing.
>>listen - youtube<<

The 12 runners-up:

- Adonis - No Way Back (Trax)
- Aztec Mystic - Knights Of The Jaguar (Underground Resistance)
- Bobby Konders - The Poem/ Nervous Acid (Nu-Groove)
- Ce Ce Rogers – Someday (Atlantic)
- Choice - Acid Eiffel (FNAC)
- Don Carlos – Alone (Calypso)
- Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea (Jumpin’ & Pumpin’)
- Photon Inc - Generate Power (Strictly Rhythm)
- Phuture - Acid Trax (Trax)
- Robert Owens - I’ll Be Your Friend (RCA)
- Ron Trent - Altered States (Warehouse)
- Round Two - New Day (Main Street)

And 200+ honourable mentions…

51 Days-Paper Moon/808 State-Pacific State/Age Of Love-The Age Of Love/Alison Limerick -Where Love Lives/Andre Harris-I Can't Take It/Angel Moraes-Welcome to the Factory/Angel Moraes-The Cure/Armando-Land of Confusion/Arnold Jarvis-Take Some Time Out/Arnold Jarvis & Kerri Chandler-Inspiration/Baaba Maal-Gorel/Bang the Party-Bang Bang You’re Mine/Bang the Party-Release Your Body/Basic Channel-Phlyps Trak/Beth Orton-Central Reservation (Joe Clausell mix)/Black Science Orchestra-New Jersey Deep/Black Science Orchestra-Where Were You/Blaze -Breathe/Blaze-Fantasy/Blaze-How deep Is Your Love (Shelter vocal)/Blaze-Wishing You Were Here/Braxton Holmes & Ron Trent-12 Inches of pleasure/Cajmere feat. Dajae-Brighter Days (mixes)/Carl Craig -Sandstorms/Cassio Ware -Makin’ Love/Cesaria Evora-Angola (c2 Mix)/Charles B-Lack of Love/Chez Damier-Can You Feel It/Chris Cuevez-Hip Hop (MAW Dub)/Coco Steel and Lovebomb-Feel It/Corporation of One-Real Life/Dannell Dixon-Dance Dance/Danny Tenaglia-Bottom Heavy/Davina-Don’t You Want It/Dionne-Come get My Lovin'/DJ Gregory-Attend 1/DJ Gregory-Elle/DJ Oji and Una-We Lift Our Hands In The Sanctuary/Dr Mouthquake-Love on Love/DSK-What Would We Do (Steve Silk Hurley mix)/DSK-What Would We Do (8 Minutes of Madness mix)/Dubtribe Sound System-Equitoreal/Dubtribe Soundsystem -Do It Now/Earth People-Reach Up to Mars/Elastic Reality-Cassa De X/ESP -It’s You/Fast Eddie-Let's Go/Ferrer and Sydenham Inc-Sandcastles/Fingers Inc-Never No More Lonely/Fingers Inc-Bring Down The Walls/Fingers Inc-Mystery of Love/FPI project-Rich in Paradise/Francois K -Hypnodelic/Frankie Knuckles-Only The Strong Survive/Future Sound Of London-1 in 8/Galaxy 2 Galaxy -Hi Tech Jazz/Galaxy 2 Galaxy-Journey Of The Dragons/Global Communications-The Way The Deep/Happyhead -Digital Love Thing (MK mix)/Hardfloor-Hardtrance Acperience/Hardrive-Deep Inside/Herbert-Thinking of You/Ian Pooley-Chord Memory (daft punk mix)/Inner City-Good Life/Inner City-Pennies from Heaven/Iz and Diz-Mouth/Jack Frost-Shout/Jamie Principle-Baby Wants to Ride/Jaydee-Plastic Dreams/Jeff Mills-Now Is The Time/Jimi Polo-Better Days/Joe Clausell-Je Ka Jo/Joe Smooth-Promised Land/Joey Beltram-Energy Flash/Josh One-Contemplation/K Hand-Come on Now Baby/Kariya-Let Me Love You For Tonight/KC Flight-Voices/Kechia Jenkins-I Need Somebody/Kem-Love calls/Kerri Chandler-Atmosphere/Kevin Irving-Ride the Rhythm/Kim English-Learn To Luv (Mood II Swing)/Land of Plenty-Kids Aura/Laurent Garnier-The Man With The Red Face/Laurent X-Machines/LB Bad-New Age House/Leftfield-Song For Life/Lil Louis-Video Clash/Lil Louis-Blackout/Lil Louis-How I Feel/Lil Louis & The World-Do U Luv Me/Lil Louis & The World-I Called You/Loni Clark-Searchin (Mood II Swing Dub)/Luna Project-I Wanna Be Free/Maritian, The-Search Your Feelings/Marshall Jefferson-House Music Anthem/Marshall Jefferson-Open Your Eyes/Martian, The-Sex in Zero Gravity/Masters at Work-Odyssey/Masters at Work-The Bounce/MD X-Spress-God Made Me Phunky/Me'Shell NdegeOcello-Who Is He And What Is He To You? (DT's NYDC Mix)/Michael Proctor-Deliver Me/Michael Watford -Holdin On/Mike Dunn-Magic Feet/Mindreaders-Living My Life Underground/Mixmasters-In the Mix/Mondo Grosso -Star Suite (Shelter Mix)/Mood II Swing-Do it Your Way/Mood II Swing-When the Funk Hits the Fan/Moody Man-Shades of Jae/Mr Fingers-What About This Love/Mr Fingers-Stars/Mr Fingers-Washing Machine/Mr Lee-I Can’t Forget/New Blakk Society-Just Another Lonely Day/New Order-Fine Time (Steve Hurley Mix)/Noni-Be My/Nu Colors-Desire (MAW mix)/Nu Yorican Soul-Nervous Track/Octave One-Blackwater/On The House-Pleasure Control/Osunlade-Beloved/Osunlade-Pride/Outta Limits-Mission Control/Paperclip People-Throw/Paul Rutherford-Get Real/Pepe Braddock-Deep Burnt/Pepe Braddock-Life/Phase II-Reachin’/Phortune-String Free/Phuture-Rise From Your Grave/Phuture-We Are Phuture/Phuturescope-What is House Muzik/Pierres Phantasy Club-Phantasy Girl/PM Dawn-A Watchers Point Of View (Todd Terry Mix)/Presence-Better Day/Primal Scream-Don’t fight it, Feel it (Scat mix)/Quentin Harris-Let’s Be Young/R-Tyme -R-Theme/R-Tyme-Use Me (c2 R Tyme Groove)/Ragtyme-I Can’t Stay Away/Raze-Break for Love/Rhythim is Rhythim-It Is What It Is/Rhythim is Rhythim-The Dance/Rhythim Is Rhythim-Icon/Rhythim is Rhythim-Strings of Life/Richie Rich-Salsa House/Rickster-Night Moves/Risque III-Essence Of A Dream/Roberta Flack-Uh-Oh Ooh-Ooh Look Out/Romanthony-Let Me Show You Love/Round One -I'm your Brother/Round Three-Acting Crazy/Roy Davis Jnr-House Inferno/Roy Davis Jnr -People from Mars (Original Earth Mix)/Royal House-Can You Party?/Sabres Of Paradise-Smokebelch II/Safire -Taste The Bass/Saint Germain-What’s New/Scott Grooves-The Journey/Seduction-True Love/Sha-lor -I’m in Love/Shirley Murdock-Let There Be Love (Frankie Knuckles remix)/Simon-Free at Last/Slow Supreme-Granada/South Street Players-Who Keeps Changing Your Mind?/St Etienne-Only Love Can Break Your Heart (MAW Dub)/Stardust-Music Sounds Better with You/Sterling Void-It’s Alright/Steve Poindexter-Computer Madness/Steve Silk Hurley-Jack Your Body/Steve Silk Hurley-The Word is Love/Subculture feat Marcus-The Voyage E.P./Sueno Latino-Sueno Latino (original & Derrick May mix)/T-Coy-Carino/Tammy Banks-My Life/Ten City-My Piece of Heaven/Ten City-Right Back to You/The Believers-Who Dares To Believe In Me/The Fog-Been a Long Time/The Source feat Candi Staton-You Got the Love (Eren’s bootleg mix)/Theo Parrish-Capritarious No.7/Todd Terry Project-Bango/Trent/Josua/Abacus/Damier-Abacus EP/Turntable Orchestra-You’re Gonna Miss Me/Two Lone Swordsmen-Glide By ShootingUBQ Project-When I Fell in Love/Umoja-Unity/Underground Inc-Black Magic/Urban Soul-Alright/Urban Soul-He’s Always/Victor Romero -Love Will Find a Way/Virgo-R U Hot Enough/Virgo-In a Vision/Virgo 4-Do You Know Who You Are/Virgo 4-Take Me Higher/West Bam-Hold Me Back/X-press 2-Muzik Express/Yellow Sox-Flim Flam.

Controllata @ Horse Meat Disco

2008-11-15T09:00:00.023Z

As some of you will already know, aside from my sporadic blog writing, I do occasionally play a few records as part of the DJ trio, Controllata, with my good friends Scottie Johnson and Jimmy P. We have been fortunate enough to DJ at loads of great places all over London and beyond, but our absolute favourite party to play ever, ever, ever, is the now legendary, Horse Meat Disco.

Horse Meat started life in the basement of a Soho pub in 2003 and now takes place every single Sunday of the year in deepest, darkest Vauxhall in a blacked out pub-come-club. Whilst being most definitely a gay party, it's not overly cruisey, and is straight friendly without diluting its homosexual identity. And as the name suggests, it's also very much a disco club with residents Jim Stanton, James Hillard, Severino and Luke Moore a consistent musical standard, assisted by a multitude of stella guests from Danielle Badelli to Derrick Carter to Maruice Fulton to I-F to Lady Miss Kier to Daniel Wang to just about any DJ of a disco persuasion worth their salt. It's a music policy that has become more and more common across London Town, but Horse Meat really blazed a trail in re-establishing disco on the dance floors of the city.

As well as regularly booking the likes of Rug’n’Tug, Prins Thomas, the Idjuts and various Italian Cosmic legends, the Horse Meat crew have been kind enough to ask little ol' us to DJ for them twice - and they have both been amazing experiences. A really responsive dance floor that love not just the disco anthems we all know and love but also obscure music from the dark and freakier corners of disco's history. A proper music crowd that really want to party.

Highlights included… getting our picture in the gay press… turning the music off to let The Ones do a PA… spontaneous vogue offs on the dance floor… arms being held aloft through the smoke to the strains of Disco Dream and the Androids 'Disco Dream'… a little drama as the floor plunged into (semi) darkness to the opening moments of Frances Joli 'Come to Me', then the cheers as the drums and lazer kicked in… the lazer generally… getting told off for caning the lazer… Jimmy and Scottie owning the stage… Joan Dairy Queen getting all militant and demanded some Amanda Lear… appeasing her with Queen Samantha… the dance floor rocking at 3am on a Monday morning…

These are a few of the records I played down there: C.J.& Co 'Devil's Gun' // Sinnamon 'Thanks to You' // Strafe 'Set of Off' // Martin Brew 'Galatico' (Greg Wilson mix) // Luv You Madly Orchestra ' Moon Maiden' // Vaughan Mason and Butch Dayo 'You Can Do It' (dub) // B.W.H. 'Livin' Up' // Chilly 'For Your Love' // Tempest Trio 'Do You Like the Way That it Feels' // Daddy Dewdrop 'Nanu, Nanu' // Slick 'Sexy Cream' // R.V. Cock 'Get A Head' // Boystown Gang ' Can't Take my Eyes off of You' (Reprise) // Sylvester 'Band of Gold' (dub) // Kryptonite 'Baby I Don't Know' // Class Action 'Weekend' // Geraldine Hunt 'Can't Fake the Feeling' // Carol Jiani 'Hit N Run Lover' // Kat Mandu 'The Break' // In Flangranti 'It's all Rubbish' // Tantra 'Hills of Katmandu' (P.Cowley mix) // Sylvester 'I Need You' // Kano 'It's a War' (Santiago edit) // Patrick Cowley 'Menergy' // Machine 'There but for the Grace of God' // Evelyn 'Champagne' King 'Shame' // Fever 'Beat of the Night' // Boystown Gang 'Disco Kicks' // Jackie Moore ‘This Time Baby’ //Disco Dream and the Androids ‘Disco Dream’ // Debbie Jacobs 'High on Your Love' // France Joli ‘Come to Me’ // Kasso ‘I Love the Piano’ // First Choice ‘Doctor Love’ (Pettibone Dub) // Lime ‘On the Grid’ (M&M remix) // Shirley Lites ‘Melt Down’ // Queen Samantha ‘Take a Chance’

Here are some pics of our time down there, courtesy of Nick Ensing (check out his work at: www.flickr.com/photos/nickensing1138/sets/ )

Horse Meat Disco takes place every Sunday 8pm-3am, at The Eagle, 349 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall. It’s guaranteed to be rocking and the boys have always got loads of ace stuff lined up - you can find out more here: www.myspace.com/horsemeatdiscolondon

Autumn Chart

2008-11-14T00:14:00.013Z

1 - Lowtec ‘Workshop 06’ (Workshop) – Lowtec were responsible for the debut single on Workshop, another one of those lovely German deep-house Hardwax related labels with hand stamped artwork. Almost 2 years later they are back with the labels sixth release and deliver superbly atmospheric, moody deep tech bomb, that sounds a lot like it was recorded in a submarine. It’s one of those records that makes just stick the needles back to the beginning every time ends – everything house music should be about 2008. Listen to a clip >>here<<

2 - D-Flex ‘Waltz’ (Tiny Sticks) – Man of the moment Dave Aju turns in a remix on one side of this 12, which is nice enough but for me it’s all about Alex Storrer’s Kawabata remix on the flip. Hypnotic deep house laden with beautiful but subtle pianos. Sounds a bit like a lost track from the Grand Lodge of Luxor (Thebes) EP on Prescription – it’s that good. >>clip<<

3 - Dan Curtin ‘Interstellar Perception’ (Metamorphic) - Dusted this one off recently and was really pleasantly surprised at how fresh it feels. From Dan Curtin’s debut EP ‘Space’ it sounds a bit like a cross between a R-Tyme and a Red Planet record, frantic beats, quick fire snares, spacey synths and legions of androids on strings. This is the sort of shit that would have made Philip K.Dick dream of electric sheep and Alvin Toffler mess his pants - a gtheme tune for the Third Wave. Unfortunately, the Third Wave neglected to put a sound clip on the web, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

4 - Ray Okpara ‘Loving Moonbuah’ (Drumpoet Commuity) - This is the latest offering from the ever reliable Drumpoet Community label out of Switzerland. The original mix is okay but nothing to write home about unlike the absolutely stonking Nekes remix on the other side. Don’t really know who Nekes is but this mix kills it, throbbing yet bouncy with looped up vocal snippets, this is the sound of being lost in the music at 5am. >>clip<<

5 - Ron Trent ‘It’s Hot’ (Future Vision) - Ron Trent has be one of the greatest house producers of all time. He is just so good and whereas some other producers fade with time, run out of ideas or get stuck in a rut, Ron gets stucjk in the groove and just keeps on giving. This track has so many layers but doesn’t disappear up its own arse. A sophisticated sound that still retains an element of rawness, it would work in pretty much any house set you could imagine. A master class. Oh and the A-side’s not too shabby either! >>clip<<

6 - Mandolay ‘La Flavour’ (Sweet City) - This record probably slightly incongruous with the rest of this chart because it’s so bloody different. I think the best way to describe it is freestyle disco, kinda latin but not latin but outta Cleveland Ohio, rather than somewhere like Miami. The production is really choppy and make sit sound a bit like an edit but the best thing about this record, other than the sleeve which is pure disco, are the drums, which I’m fairly sure SWAG nicked for their re-rub of BSO ’New Jersey Deep’. Check out the full track on >>youtube<<

7 - Reggie Dokes ‘Love’ (Philpott) – Tune alert! The whole Rain Redemptive Love EP is really strong but the A side ‘Love’ is a mad jackin’ mash up of sounds – rough drums, strings, pianos, but all slightly off kilter. The modern house sound of Detroit via Germany. The sound of now!>>clip<<

8 - K.A.Posse ‘Our Love Stops and Goes’ (Pheerce Citi) - A relatively obscure K Alexi production on a relatively obscure KMS sub label, this is hidden little acid gem from 1989. Rough as fuck, 303s, and backward strings it came out just as acid was passing from fashion, so maybe isn’t remembered with the fondness it really should be. Play it now though and it you WILL separate the men from the boys. Makes you want to turn on a smoke machine for an hour. Check it >>on youtube<< And ‘Tell Alexi’ on the flip is pretty solid too >>youtube<<

9 - Prosumer ‘Brownstone’ (Running Back) – This record is actually a year old now. Whilst I’ve been aware of Panorama Bar resident abilities as DJ for a while now I hadn’t paid too much attention to his production until recently. My friend, Dave Stenton, recently interviewed the man for Faith Fanzine and in the article he recommended this record as one of the essential Prosumer productions. And who I am I to disagree, it’s a corker – a powerful sound that I can only imagine destroying dance floors at disused power stations across East Germany. Schlagende techno Musik, ja?! >>clip<<

10 - Koxo ‘Step by Step’ (Zafiro) - Brilliant old Italo tune (although I’ve got Spanish pressing), catchy as fuck with an absolutely cracking piano break, cheesy vocals and a woman oo-eh-oo-eh. What more do you want, eh? Also was recently picked up on one of them Disco Spectrum comps, which was disappointing for me but great for you CD lovers out there, you lucky, lucky bastards. >>youtube<<

11 - Move-D ‘Heidelberg Gals’ (Running) - Move-D is one of the hottest producers of the last couple of years and this show why everyone loves him, simple yet effective hooky house music. When you can listen to music this good who the hell needs Babs Tucker nobwash?! >>clip<<

12 - Watanabe ‘Odoru‘ (Clubhouse) - Another one pulled form the vaults at Beyond the Stars Towers (aka the shelves n my bedroom) this is pure mentalist. On Clubhouse, which has to be THE most underrated Chicago house label of all time, this is one of those tracks that makes you want to go out and get on it every time you hear it. I just looked on Discogs and it is 4.1 out of 5, which is madness! This is a 6 out of 5 record. SLAMMIN! >>youtube<<