Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mega Mega Moda: Tom Staar Interview

Posted on by
1

We’re half way through a four-day week and we all know the Easter bank holiday is set to be big. Kicking things off on Thursday here in London is Mega Mega Moda; the marriage of two of the capital’s most banging week night parties Mega Mega Mega (formally at Plastic People) and Moda at The Macbeth. The line up is undoubtedly too big for the small venue, but that’s what its all about isn’t it? With this spectacle of London’s finest fast approaching, we spoke to Tom Staar who, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, is becoming critical to this Thursday night scene. We asked him a little bit about Moda and his own ever-expanding music production line. This is what he had to say…

We’ve been keeping a keen eye on Moda and love the sounds coming out of it. Can you briefly tell us how you got involved with Moda and your history with the label?
I originally set up Moda with Jaymo & Andy George three years ago as a club night in our home town of Lincoln. Since then we have expanded to doing events across the UK and Europe. We now hold regular events at the 1600 capacity Engine Shed in Lincoln and they are always a sell-out. We are also just about to embark on regular parties at a huge venue in London, and we’ll be doing weekly parties throughout the summer in Ibiza. Moda has since become more than just a club night and last year we decided to set up Moda Music to showcase fresh new music from ourselves and others that we feel are really making an impact in the scene.

Can you give us a clue as to what’s coming up on Moda? There must be some stuff brewing for the summer season…
As far as the label goes we have my EP which is next out, it should be dropping around the end of March. It has already had massive support from Annie Mac and others on Radio 1 and has been licensed out to four or five compilations already! After that we have the jewel in the crown of Moda Music, Fenech-Soler, with a new single. This too has had big support on Radio1 and even daytime plays already. This band are absolutely awesome and really are destined for great things this year. Also in the pipe line we have an EP from Jaymo & Andy George that I have been working on with them for what seems like ages, just can’t rush perfection though!

The Mega Mega Moda line-up was released the other week – how did all that come about? That must be your biggest London Moda yet?
We’ve had three sell-out parties already at The Macbeth and we wanted to do something special for the last one. Jaymo & Andy have been good friends with Hervé & Sinden for a while and I’ve just started work on some collaborations with them both in the studio. We felt the time was right to team up on an event as theirs are always huge too. It will be our biggest London event to date.

Apart from the obvious difference in size, how do you think The Engine Shed compares with The Macbeth nights?
Obviously there are a lot of differences between the two parties as the venues are totally different. The Macbeth being a small almost pub-like 400 capacity venue and The Engine Shed, on the other hand, being a huge warehouse type affair. One thing that always is the same though is the atmosphere, it’s great playing at the Moda events because the crowd are always so up for it, it’s just constantly going off which is great!

We’ve seen that you’ve got some very exciting collaborations coming up – Doorly, Style of Eye, Hervé, your Moda boys Andy and Jaymo – when can we hear some of this? What sort of productions are you working on with them?
I have one collaboration already done with Hervé. It’s turned out how you’d expect- a good half way point between his stuff and mine. We plan on doing a few over the next few months, at least two of which will be released on Moda Music. The Style of Eye collaboration is almost done too. It’s a track from his forthcoming album that he started, sent to me, and I’ve finished off. Sinden is spending a few days in the studio with me at the end of this month with a view to doing an EP for Moda Music and I also have one other MASSIVE collaboration in the pipeline but can’t really say anything else about it for now – it’s a big step up for me and am really excited about it.

As well as the collaborations and original Tom Staar material I spend most of my time producing/engineering for other artists. I’ve been producing Doorly’s and Jaymo & Andy George’s stuff for ages now, the majority of the stuff they have had out has been co-produced by me. I also produce for H2 who have just had an EP out on Popof’s Form label and loads of other more housey acts like Prok & Fitch, Filthy Rich and Darren Emerson.

We love the big basslines coming out of the Tom Staar camp at the moment. Do you always go for a heavy bass vibe?
The stuff I’ve had out so far has definitely been very bass-orientated, it’s what’s working in the clubs right now though and I think it’s obviously a massive part of my current sound. When I’m DJing I play a lot more techno influenced stuff along with my own productions, I think you’ll see this coming through in a lot of my future productions.

Have you got any mixes coming up for people to listen to?
I’m currently working on a new mix tape that will be available exclusively through our Moda website next month. On the DJing front we have the Mega Mega Moda party at the Macbeth on Thursday 1st April and another huge event at The Engine Shed at the start of May. If you can’t make either of them we have our new Moda London event starting at the end of May which really will be something special, insane line up and totally mind blowing production.

Do you get much time to go raving yourself? Where have you been able to get to recently?
To be honest, I’ve not really been out that much recently. I did go to the Ed Banger party at the Coronet a few weeks back which was wicked; great venue and totally rammed in there. Normally when I go out I tend to go to more techno-based nights to see people like Dubfire, Adam Beyer etc., it takes me back to my days living out in Ibiza where I have done three summers!

We’re fast approaching the summer season now (finally!), what are you looking forward to in 2010?
I’m looking forward massively to the continued rise of Moda this year and also getting myself out DJing a lot more. I’ll be out in Ibiza a lot for the Moda parties, which I’m really looking forward to as I do miss being out there over the summer…

Tickets are only available on the door for Mega Mega Moda so get down there early and see Tom for yourself. Their predictions of total road block are bound to be pretty accurate!

Mega Mega Moda have released a brand new Tom Staar Mixtape ahead of Thursday’s event. Here’s a link to the mix and below is the tracklist:
Voodoo Chilli – Love Songs
Riva Starr – Dance Me
Fenech-Soler – Stop & Stare (Jaymo & Andy George Rmx)
Groove Armada – Look Me In The Eyes (Urchins Rmx)
Cassette Jam – Just To Be Near You (Tom Staar Rmx)
Laidback Luke & A-Trak – Shake It
Basement Jaxx – My Turn (Tom Staar Rmx)
Style Of Eye – Other Planets
Cirez D – On Off (Sebastien Leger Rmx)
Tom Staar – Two Tone Simms
Vitalic – Flashmob (Popof Rmx)

Woody’s Roundup Goes West

Posted on by
1

Howdy partner, we’re having a rootin’ tootin’ time in Miami, so we’re going to keep this short (there are about 100 DJs playing in different venues around this city right NOW so naturally we don’t want to miss out).

We wondered how Busy P and the Ed Banger crew would fare over here in the land of the free, but they’ve kept it banging and sprinkled it with hip hop and the locals have gone absolutely crazy. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing them in a dark and dirty club night as well as poolside in the shimmering sun, and both scenes have been equally epic.

Busy’s been starting his sets with this little gem to add a bit of humour to the occasion.
High Rankin – Meow

Busy P, High Rankin – Meow, Cameo Miami 24 March 2010 from Naomi Richmond-Swift on Vimeo.

Special commendation has to go to the wonderful Aeroplane, who played the sunset yesterday in a beautiful resort overlooking the beach, and got us up after 8 hours dancing when we thought we could do no more. Full of floaty disco, including delights such as Tensnake’s Coma Cat, and our favourite:
Crave You ft. Giselle (The C90s Remix)

One Hundred Words for Snow

Posted on by
1

© Photo by Jon Stanley Austin

According to the Kemistry Klassroom, the elements that make up Eskimo Twins are: disco, acid, techno, then purification by a process of elecro refining.

The compound has two constituent elements, Tim and Nathan, was formed in 2008, and can be found in abundance in the coming months. They have a monthly residency at Wax:On and fortnighly residency at Bad Robot, they’re playing at Bugged Out! over the Summer, as well as a fortnightly residency in Ibiza. We asked them a few questions about snow, sun and sounds.


So you have 2 EPs coming out very soon: when, what, where?
We have two on the way, yes, the first we are just finishing up this week. It’s a two track EP, one a kind of techno / disco odyssey and the other a pretty straight down the line heavy techno-electro club tune. We’re quite pleased with how they’ve turned out, they represent where we are at musically at the moment.

The second will be a bit more of a traditional song-based affair, backed with a harder techno remix. There is a guest vocalist on it so you can expect a bit of melody.

Do you have plans to make an album?
Yes at some point we’d love to. It’s going to be a long process so we’re not really thinking about it in terms of a date yet to be honest, but it’s certainly on the list of things to do. When we do it we want it to be a coherent piece rather than just an arbitrary collection of songs. We want to take a more song-based approach to it and we’re going to get some live instruments and vocals in there too. At the moment we’re mainly making straight-up club tracks, which we love, but it will be good to get back to our roots.

What’s your favourite sound in a track?
It depends from song to song I guess. We like different things about different tunes… We’re both pretty big on analogue synthsisers so if a track has a nice synth in it we’ll definitely appreciate it. We were both super impressed by A-Trak’s Yeah Yeah Yeah’s remix – that main stab sound in the chorus: what is that?! It’s like a 90’s rave piano sound but metallic-y like steel drums with loads of spring reverb on or something?! Whatever it is, it’s ace.

What’s the clubbing in the North of England like compared to London?
The difference is becoming more apparent I think. When we were really into clubbing a few years ago we’d go to Wax:On in Leeds and travel down to Fabric in London quite a lot. Apart from the obviously massive change in venue size, I never really felt there was much difference in the general ‘ethos’. Being on the other side of the decks these days though, perhaps we notice a bit more. The further North you go, definitely the wilder the crowds get! That’s why we love playing Newcastle & Leeds, however, Scotland is going to take some beating. Edinburgh was absolutely mad, that was a DJ’ing highlight for us. We love Edinburgh.

Is this your first time at Snowbombing? But I think I heard you’re not boarders, do you think you’ll find time amid the music to learn?
Yes it’s our first time! We’ve been wanting to go for ages and now we’re playing! No, we are certainly not boarders. In fact, we just saying the other day what rubbish boarders we both are. However, skis are the easy way forward and we shall be doing our best to learn while we’re there. When in Rome.

What are you looking forward to most?
I guess what we’re looking forward to is playing with Brodinski and Fake Blood, those guys absolutely smash it every time and we’re quite excited to see Vitalic, 2 Many DJ’s, Crookers etc. That and getting some serious time in on the piste. Expect to see Team Eskimo Twins at the next winter Olympics.

And this summer you have a residency in Ibiza, is that correct? What do you do on the island during your time off?
Yes we’ll be in Ibiza every fortnight from 23rd June at Reclaim The Dancefloor at Eden. It’s the official Ibiza Rocks after party and the line-ups are looking astounding, we feel really privileged to be playing alongside some of these guys. I don’t think we’ll be having much free time on the island to be honest, it’s going to be a ‘fly out, play set, go to bed, fly back’ type scenario. Although we are DJ’ing at our friend’s wedding there in June so will be around for those celebrations and we’ll definitely take a couple of long weekends off to explore. We hear there are some nice parts of the island. We want to find them.

Your sets take elements of different genres like techno, electro and even metal, what do you think about this year’s disco trend – have you changed your style when you play out?
Yeah we try to fit in as many different things we can get away with when we DJ – within reason. It wouldn’t really work playing an hour and a half of after-hours techno in a Wax:On warm up set but we try and keep things interesting. Depending on what time we’re on and who we’re on with, our DJ sets could sound like any number of things.

In terms of changing what we play; if it’s good and we like it and we can fit it in a set, it’ll probably get a spin. So the new disco trend has been making an appearance in our sets, yes, because there’s a lot of it around at the moment. We’re all for it too, we like a bit of progressive disco.

Download the goodies below.
Black Strobe – Italian Fireflies (Eskimo Twins Remix)

Cassette Jam – Never Going Home (Eskimo Twins Remix)

Eskimo Twins Klassroom Mix for Radio 1, 12th March 2010

I love Bang Gang

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s Monday Mix is brought to you by Jamie Doom, one half of The Bang Gang Deejays, and the tracklist speaks for itself. As well as being extensive (with a lot of skillful layering to fit all of these tracks into a wee hour) it’s a selection of delicacies fit to fill you up all week, and provides a great taster of the irreverently brilliant Bang Gang style.

Watch out for the Bang Gang release of the sublime Crave You by Flight Facilities featuring Giselle, out on 26th March, and remixed by all our favourite people – James Curd and The C90s to name-drop a couple.

Doom’s Dancetarium Mix

Tracklist
1. Intro
2. Strip Steve – Dancin
3. Zombie Nation – Seas of Grease
4. Light Year – Sex Education
5. DSL – Stupid Bitches (Ryancologist Remix)
6. Riton Vs Primary One – Radiates (Riton Rerub)
7. Computer Juice – Computer Juice (DIM vs Tai Remix)
8. Bobmo – Back From The Grave
9. Fake Blood – Fix Your Accent
10. The Beatmaniac & Robophil – Bright Lite
11. DJ Sneak – Artisticus
12. Riva Starr – Trompe D’ amour
13. Nouveau Yorican – Boriqua
14. Rebolledo – Pitaya Frenesi
15. Dangerous Dan – The Ritz
16. Paul Johnson – Feel my MF Bass
17. Boris Dluglosh – Bangkok
18. Solo – Rawmania
19. Carte Blanche – Carte Blanche
20. Kerowack – A (FC Kahuna Remix)
21. Sinden & The Count – Mega (Harvard Bass Remix)
22. Bitcode – Grosso Morosso
23. Depuis91 – Erothiq (VNNR Remix)
24. Marc Houle – Blunderstorm
25. Strip Steve – Breakin
26. Bart BMore – Romane (Para One Remix)
27. Style of Eye – Road Rage
28. Traxmen – Fuckin Suckin
29. Riton – Oh Super
30. SonicC – Stickin
31. Abba – Voulez Vous (Steve Angello Edit)
32. Hey Today – Talk To Me (Busy P Remix)
33. Stakker Humanoid – Stakker Humanoid
34. Remute – Lampuca
35. Boys Noize – Sweet Light (Boris Dluglosh Remix)
36. Hatiras – Work Your Body
37. Harry Axt – Crazy
38. Basti Grub – Nation Sun
39. Miike Snow – Black & Blue (Tiga Remix)
40. Hey Today – Wonderman (Bobmo Remix)
41. Ducksauce – You’ re Nasty
42. Joris Voorn – Chase The Mouse
43. Michel Cleis – La Mezcla
44. Matias Aguayo – Rollerskate

Woody’s Roundup

Posted on by
Reply

It’s friiidaaay and I’ve put together some tracks which sum up my musical mood this week. It’s a bit of a mash up of chilled, fun and filth, and sometimes even hands in the air, so hopefully something for the whole weekend. We’re off to The Coronet Theatre tonight to catch Hervé, Kissy Sell Out, Mowgli and The Bloody Beetroots for the new Together Club series. So, in tribute to that, I’ve also included The Squatters demo single On Fire from San City High…

If you’re in London too don’t forget the mighty Villalobos tearing up Fabric tomorrow, and Sunday brings Simian Mobile Disco to The Lock Tavern’s Small Disco. Lots on, so get involved and have a good weekend!

Divisive (Carl Craig Remix) – We Have Band
Get Low (Original Mix) – Justin Martin
Running Backwards (Original Mix) – Beltek
Try to Understand – DJ T.
Yearning (Original Mix) – Black Van
L’amour Et La Violence (Floating Points Mix: sample) – Sebastien Tellier
On Fire – The Squatters

Tape to Tape: IN THE MIX

Posted on by
Reply

London duo Tape to Tape caught our eye with their The Devil Made Me Do It EP last year (released January 2010 on Headman’s Relish Recordings). I mean, the title alone is enough to make one’s ears prick up, and the four-track distilled-disco stormer including a remix from label-mates The C90s doesn’t disappoint. The next project is two remixes of the eagerly awaited Headman’s Private Show, on the EP released on Relish on 19th April. Clicks and bleeps in all the right places, and a fresh, twisted analogue sound running all the way through. Check it at 20mins into this mix, as well as an exclusive version II at 44mins. Very nice to see Mock & Toof made the list. So very good.

Watch this space for the next single in May as they’re at the drawing board with it now…

Tape to Tape – In The Mix

1.jacques renault : norma’s fire
2.inflagranti : ex ex ex ( hercules and love affair mix )
3.sana doris : pseudo wind
4.who made who : i lost my voice ( golden bug remix )
5.the juan maclean : the future will come ( canyons mix )
6.black van : yearning
7.headman: private show ( tape to tape remix I )
8.simian mobile disco : cruel intentions ( dj pierre remix )
9.reese and santonio : rock to the beat
10.hard ton : flawless ( snuff crew remix )
11.mock n toof : farewell to wendall ( kink and neville watson remix )
12.headman : private show ( tape to tape remix II )
13.shadow dancer : biscayne
14. harvey presents locossolus : gunship

Wolf + Lamb: Ready For Love

Posted on by
1

Wolf + Lamb are New York based DJ duo Zev Eisenberg and Gadi Mizrahi, who have been together for almost a decade. Priding themselves on engaging with music from all over the world, they started their record label Wolf + Lamb Music in 2005.

It was also in 2005 that they also began the famous Marcy Hotel parties, describing the philosophy behind them as “a special place where we share our passion with discriminating music lovers from around the world. Though it seems like chaos to the untrained eye, everything about our space is carefully calibrated; the music, staff, artists, the sound, and you, our guests…” The Marcy Hotel itself acts as not only their party venue of choice, but their studio too; perhaps more surprising is that it is actually a five-star hotel!


Love or hate the concept, the parties were no doubt an exciting addition to the New York underground dance scene. When they first began the entrance fee set out not to make money, but to cover overheads and to filter out anyone not ‘in the know’. The message to their guests is as follows, “…while most of our guests are part of the wonderful New York dance community, some are there simply because it’s a good party that’s open real late with cheap drinks; we’re pretty sure they don’t know or care who Damian Lazaraus or Jamie Jones are. For those people, there are plenty of other incredible parties to go to, but with the limited space at the Marcy, they are taking up precious space that we’d rather have for more of you…” It’s controversial dialogue which presumably does just enough to intimidate those who aren’t considering it for the ‘right’ reasons…

Last month played host to a huge warehouse party in Brooklyn (reviewed here), which showcased label DJs No Regular Play, Soul Clap, Nicholas Jaar and Gadi Mizrahi himself, accompanied by a backdrop of performance art. Wolf + Lamb are also set to take on the Miami Winter Music Conference next week with a party at Electric Pickle in downtown Miami on the Friday, which is being hyped as the ‘most versatile Winter Music Conference party this year’.

Wolf + Lamb as a label have a fair few strings to their bow; initially starting out as a digital label in 2005, and in the spirit doing things against the grain, they have since moved into vinyl distribution (in 2008) to satisfy a diversifying, and somewhat retrospective, music market. The boys also keep it light-hearted with a further label Wolf + Lamb Black which pulls together a collection of edits and bootlegs including fresh takes on greats like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

There are a number of tracks available via the Wolf + Lamb Music site which give you a taste of the eclectic medley of artists they select, as well as huge history of Wolf + Lamb podcasts. Below are my favourites of the free downloads up for grabs (most notable being Gadi Mizrahi’s remix of Seth Troxler’s Love Never Sleeps), as well as Nicholas Jaar’s incredibly different interpretation of Billy Jean (probably not one for die-hard MJ fans)…

Seth Troxler - Love Never Sleeps (Gadi Mizrahi remix)
Gadi Mizrahi – I’ll Hold Your Hand (Bodycode Remix)
Nicolas Jaar – Billie Jean (Nico Rework)

… and two stunning new tracks which prompted me to look more closely at Wolf + Lamb in the first place: Gadi Mizrahi - I Can Never Get Enough (Spectral Sound) [buy] and the BPM defying Nicholas Jaar – A Time for Us (Wolf + Lamb) [buy].

For a sneaky look inside the Marcy Hotel parties check out this video by RebelRave featured on the Wolf + Lamb website.

Hot on The Heels

Posted on by
Reply

The Heels of Love are Michele Tessadri & Luca Saponaro from Milan, and they use their beautiful vintage drum machines to make disco records. I’ve been hearing about them a lot recently in connection with the excellent Ajello, whose Come Back has been delighting us, and Hard Ton, whose Flawless has been doing the same.

Their first release was a remix for Mad On The Moon of Club Silencio’s Painted Boxes. It gave the original a shake, set it on the dancefloor where it belonged, made Tim Sweeney’s Best of 2009, and earnt them a reputation for producing bangers. This they quickly affirmed with their first single, the Tom Sinder EP, released on Under the Shade in September 2009. Watch that slap bass at 2min 55.

Tom Sinder by The Heels Of Love

They are serving both record labels well, with their fantastic remix of Ajello’s Come Back due for release on Mad On The Moon on 30th March (Ajello also remixed their last single Quiet Please, which became MOM’s fourth 12″ in December), and featuring Hard Ton on their next single Crazy coming up on Under the Shade in April this year. They haven’t forgotten their remix roots, with their take on Motorcycle Boy’s next 12″ on Slow Motion Records out in March, AND after all that they’ve still found time to work on a side project, RAMPI, whose debut EP will be out on Under the Shade in April. Phew!

Beats in Space #510 beginning with The Heels of Love feat Hard Ton – Crazy

The Heels of Love – Quiet Please (128kps)

Track for the day

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been having a little headphone-dance in the office for a couple of weeks to the Camel remix of this track, without really knowing much about it. Imagine my joy when I find the video (albeit a little later than everyone else in blogland) and learn that the track is out today!

Yankee Zulu, Toma! Out on Anabatic Records, 16th March.

Yankee Zulu – Toma (CAMEL rmx) – Anabatic (Preview) by Camel_