DJs Alter egos

Nope, not the German duo...  There are a shameful lack of DJs out there that are truly diverse, either reluctant to play what they really like because they've become known for a sound or they've got the blinkers on to the rest of the music world.

Thats a bold statement but I reckon its true, I can only think of Damian Lazarus with his legendary Lazpod series playing everything under the sun, Fourtet who is well known for mixing up his production and DJing styles and the Andrew Weatherall/Ivan Smagghe lot.  There are so many more out there that must be influenced by older music but just don't show it through their sets, with centuries of music out there to play it is fustrating to hear DJs only play tracks that were released last week despite being mediocre! Arrrrgh!

Another fustration comes out of mix cds, an obvious example is the Fabric line - these are really the pinicle of dance music, being asked to join a very limited group of people, being considered good enough to join the group should be enough cause to sit down and consider the mix VERY carefully... And yet there are some extremely disappointing cds in the series - mostly from the DJs who have only used recent music, to me they've pissed a massive opportunity up the wall.  Now i'm not ask them to play the entire Atlantic records back catalogue, but at least consider where you have come from and what has influenced you.  This applies to all DJs playing dnb, house, techno, hip hop whatever....

I'd like to see more surprising sets from DJs - hell, stop the music and play the Only Fools And Horses theme tune if you want, anything to make me stop in my tracks and think WTF!!!  Maybe not that far... But I can probably link it to risk takers, all these DJs are probably in the cautious brackets when they put money into investments, its probably why I haven't got any gigs coming up (and I'm lazy)...

Heres the link to the Lazpod and if anyone has any more recommendations post them here!

http://www.lazpod.com/

ADE 2011 review

Hi all, its been a while since the last post!  Just got back from Amsterdam for ADE so here is a little report while I remember...

Saturday:

Up at 6am and down to Dover with Roberto from Kai Zen (www.facebook.com/RobertoUK), then over to Amsterdam, the drive wasn't bad at all and the music was full blast all the way!  There weren't too many complaints from him when Blondie came on so I reckon hes been hiding a secret passion... Anyway...

Arrived at the hostel - the St Christophers on Warmostraat, well recommended and off to Outland to meet Jerome Krom, Dave Johnnys, Chris Page and Jamie Anderson of Artform records.  After a good pizza at Jerome's place - thanks to him!  I headed to Toko MC - note to self and anyone else, take a map, I walked for ages until I found it.  The Objectivity Vs. Theo Parrish night was superb, I stayed mostly in the 2nd room for Theo, Juju & Jordash, Tom Trago, Awanto 3 and Kyle Hall.  Tom and Awanto playing as Alfabet was awesome, no kick drums for the first 5 minutes meant there was something special coming up and it didn't support, harder and faster than Tom's regular stuff it was genuinely surprising and refreshing stuff.  Theo followed the live set and after a minute's silence the hip hop started, his whole set was based around presenting the music in a unique way, there was not much mixing going on but that suited the vibe... Excellent all round!

Trouble with a lock meant I couldn't get any fresh clothes at 6am so instead of going to Secretsundaze sleep was in  order!  Got up to watch the rugby with the NZers so supported France.  After discovering there was no reentry to Ostgut Ton at Toko MC the money went on beer instead which lead back to the Artform Records party at The Sun, a superb way to start the night with quality music coming from Roberto, Jamie Anderson, Jerome Krom and Will Long.  Then it was onto Trouw for the Visionquest closing with Ben Gomori, walking into Trouw is a real experience, having never been I was extremely impressed, the size was something to behold!  Unfortunately Seth's set didn't really match the impressiveness of the venue - it was a bit bland and generic.  Fortuntely though I discovered Tom Trago playing downstairs and again the sleazy acid really made my night!  We tried to get into Ostgut later on but weren't allowed in which was annoying...

The conference only runs from Weds to Sat but having an extra night in the city couldn't be wasted, so after a few drinks it was onto Supperclub for some guys that were playing soulful and funky house.  It was a good relaxing way to end a hectic weekend with a lie down on one of the beds...

Overall a superb weekend and very easy to get to, superb clubs and nights on and excellent options for places to stay meant that we will definitely be going back next year...

Mentions for:

Roberto
Chris Page
Dave Johnnys
Jerome Krom
Jamie Anderson
Will Long
The guy from Manchester
Ben Gomori
Eli from Soul Clap
Tom Trago for the music
Mark Kitchell + gf
Raiz
Olivier 'Ghini-b' Palazzoli
Roy Davis Jr
Toby and Claire

Afterparties

Hi all, apologies I haven't written anything in a while, its been a busy few weeks recently!

I want to talk about afterparties, I was in Amsterdam recently and attended this event:

It was a superb event (the pub crawl wasn't good beforehand but thats another story!), it took us a while to find the venue as we kept on walking past it, Elliot played some great tracks, and I even forgave him for an edit of 'Needin' you'.

The event finished at 5am and there was an afterparty afterwards going on until 11am or so at Cue Bar - after more walking around we finally found this place and preceeded to queue up outside to try and get in.  This was probably the most entertaining part of the night -not the music - but actually trying to get in to the venue, it was actually FUN!  What I'm getting at is that the afterparty scene seems to be almost too easy to find in London - with venues and parties such as The Egg and Cable hosting Jaded advertising on RA and places like that.  You queue up, pay your money and you get in, when you're in it just feels like another party - it could be anytime... I miss the challenge of actually finding and having to work to get into venues - this makes the party much more special to me knowing there are people outside still trying to get in, envying you!  

So back to the Amsterdam one, we both still had our Studio 80 bands on and were hauled off to one side of the door and told to wait there whilst some people, probably locals/friends of the bouncer went straight in.  It was quite gratifying to see a much longer queue on the other side of the door who didn't have bands on but were holding notes waving them at the bouncer like he was a stripper.  After 10 minutes of patient waiting he gave us 'the nod' and we were let in.  The wall of heat and sweat in that dark room impervious to the growing sunlight outside felt all the more special... 

Sankeys Mix competition

Yep, been sucked into another one... d'oh! lol Well it doesn't hurt to try!

Mix is above at the top of the page... Need all the listens I can get really... 50 would be awesome for the shortlist... :-)  Tracklisting is below:


Welcome aboard
Main Stem - Electric fan
Daft Punk - Funk AD
Archie Bronson Outfit - Chunk (6th Borough Project remix)
Main Stem - Bomma jack-it
Lauer - Delta NRG (Mock & Toof remix)
Brandt Brauer Frick - Bop
Yello - Bostich
Main Stem - Get redeemed
Jay Haze - I'm riding high
Bocca Grande - Bremen Orchestra re-edit remade
Roberto - Logical progression (Jamie Anderson remix)
Jay Haze feat. Ricardo Villalobos - The dark disco

Cheers all!

House Logger Likes... #2

See you there...

Summer evenings mix inc Lone, The Cardigans, Valentin Stip etc

You may have noticed a new mix go up at the top of the page...  Heres the tracklisting...


Valentin Stip - Anytime will do
Liv Lykke - Notes fall
Lone - Sungrazer cascade
The Cardigans - Erase & rewind
Sergy Fresh, Andras Fox & Tutu Sweene - Told me
The Orb - Fluffy little clouds (Dance Mix mkII)
Bocca Grande - Procedure
Arandel - #1
Burial - Stolen dog
Marvin Belton - Bleed to be free
Cavalier - Umadoshi (Break my heart)
Kaytronik - Love rethought
Trus'me - In the red
Valentin Stip - Gravels I&II
Burial - Street halo
Robag Wrhume - Pnom gobal
Murk - Reach for me (Paul Woolford re-edit)
Bocca Grande - Bremen orchestra (Re-edited remake)
Jesper Ryom - Luna
Kerri Chandler - Halleuyah (Kaoz club mix)
Kerri Chandler - The invaders
Burial - NYC

I'd be curious to see what people think, its not the easiest mix to listen to but I think it flows fairly well...

Event Review #5 - Nico Jaar @ Fabric

Writing this while I remember it...

I've seen Nico Jaar before, in CAMP, and to be honest, hes a challenging person to get into (no pun intended), even more so live...  Which is why I was especially surprised to see 2 nights of him playing live at Fabric, looking at the line ups and the times it was no contest which day to go for, the 4am finish winning out over the Wednesday...

So I arrive, at 10.10pm ish and the queue for the very limited on the door tickets is insane, makes me glad I bought mine in advance, I get in and contrary to the line up poster for this night Soul Clap are opening (it was meant to be Gadi Mizrahi), they do their thing nicely mixing up old and new funk eg

At which I went mental - I am actually quite annoyed they played this because this was my secret weapon, never mind...  Tracks from Barry White and Jamie Foxx went with it before Gadi finally arrived and took people down into a deeper rabbit hole.

Valentin Stip was on first on the stage at midnight and he did his thing, I was very irritated by the people at the front of the stage almost booing him for starting too slow, you can never rush a live artist.  Tried to show my support by clapping a lot (was quite drunk by this time), so not sure if that got through, he did seem very nervous though...  Anyway he played some great dubsteppy tracks, very deep and mournful even, but with lots of energy...

Nico Jaar was up next on the larger part of the stage of Rm 1 and this was when I made my escape to the bar, I've seen Jaar before, and I know what to expect.  I also know what to expect of a crowd that is not expecting what they are hearing from a Jaar show = crush.  He was typically Bohemic in his track selection with the sax player particularly prominent in several tracks, unfortunately so because he wasn't particularly good...

Soul Clap then finished the night off and this is where the review ends because I don't remember much past 2am....

Cheers and good night

8/10