Bloc

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Minnie

Bloc have come a LONG way since the two guys who hosted a party in an attic above a club by the river in Norwich, but the ethos has remained the same; search out the best and most unusual venues (they once held Bloc in a fully-functional coastal windmill). So it is only fitting that they should commandeer London’s Pleasure Gardens on only its second weekend in existence, utilising not only the structures already in place but some temporary new ones; the Carhartt Dome, the Ceephas Acid Waltzers, and all the way from The German Democratic Republic, the Motor Ship Stubnitz.

The team behind the venue are responsible for Shangri-La at Glastonbury, so expect audio-visual installations, projections that make use of the derelict dockside warehouse buildings, and the Hub from Glastonbury. All to a soundtrack from DOOM, Art Department, Jackmaster back-to-back with Joy Orbison, Flying Lotus, Four Tet, Battles and Orbital (among a LOT of others). It’s shaping up to be a pretty spectacular weekend.

Friday tickets are now sold out but you can buy Saturday tickets here.

Social Experiment

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Minnie

You know those parties when no matter how long the journey has been, how tired you are or what you’re feeling when you walk in, as soon as you step inside the doors some kind of warmth envelops you and the beats make your feet start moving and the bass shakes and all of a sudden you’re throwing some crazy shapes with a silly grin on your face and you can’t stop all night? No. 19 presents Social Experiment at Sonar was like that.

Ali Love‘s voice, Deniz Kurtel‘s sexy basslines, and the strange-yet-winning combination of Art Department then the secret guest Dubfire worked like a charm; impeccably interweaving hard and fast tech beats with moody deep-house melodies that had a dancefloor going absolutely crazy; just one look at the people’s faces on the podium was enough, and absolutely no-one was leaving or slowing down in any way as it carried on through to 7am.

I missed the No.19 showcase at Miami and this was their first journey to Sonar, facilitated by Barcelona events agency WIP. They’d organised five days of Sonar parties starting with the Suol label night on Wednesday 13 June, then we went to Heidi’s Jackathon with Catz n Dogz and Richy Ahmed joining the lady herself on the Thursday, Wetyourself with Cormac and Martin Dawson on the Friday; Cassy, Rampa and Tiefschwarz for Souvenir and Friends on the Saturday, and ending with Social Experiment on the Sunday, which sold out almost instantly.

WIP started as a one-year Barcelona venue in a disused early 1900s warehouse in 2009, and since then have gone on to host screenings, art exhibitions, fashion shows, start a record label and organise events worldwide (they’re heading to London soon so watch this space). The parties this year were held at the newly renovated Wolf Club; Almogavers 86, which hosts their weekly WERK IT parties (no recovery time for them as they’ve got Amirali and Dia on Friday 29 June), and they’re remodeling their new venue to open October this year.

If this is what we can expect from the team whose events in 2010 set an all-time record for attendance at an off-Sonar event then I’m booking some October flights now.

Russ Yallop Pulse Radio Podcast

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Minnie

The Hot Natured New Year’s Day party at new superclub Pulse in Blackfriars was everything we’d come to expect – a sunny sunny vibe (complete with rainbow lasers and plastic palm trees) despite the January chill outside and a line up to blow your socks off. Miguel Campbell, Maceo Plex, Richy Ahmed, Art Department, Robert James and ending with Lee Foss and Jamie Jones as Hot Natured with Ali Love on vocals.

One of the standout sets was an early one by Russ Yallop, and this podcast has been helping me to re-live some of the highlights of the night, complete with heavy basslines and some storming edits of the likes of Donna Summer (Yallop’s remix of Louie Fresco‘s So Good, forthcoming on the excellent No.19 music). Guaranteed to blow the cobwebs away.
Russ Yallop Pulse Radio Podcast by Russ Yallop
Tracklist
1. Adeline Supreme – What You Got (Russ Yallop Mix)
2. Donovan – Not My lady
3. David August – True Romance (Acapella Edit)
4. Ashley Wild – Laced
5. Wildkats – All My Loving
6. Cozzy D – Aphrodite
7. Clinton Houlker – Party 2nite
8. Alexis Raphael – Beverly Hills
9. Eats Everything – Lo To Hi
10. Jamie Jones – Anytime At All
11. Whiff n Pop
12. Oskar Offerman – Fluffer (Russ Yallop Edit)
13. Coat Of Arms – Tone Music
14. Jenkyns – Moola
15. Jamie Jones – Stop Her
16. Louie Fresco – Owl Night
17. Louie Fresco – So Good (Russ Yallop Mix)
18. Clinton Houlker – The Ride
19. Calor & Mikey Gill – Furious
20. Richy Ahmed & Pete Santos – Downtown
21. Rebel – Goose
22. Jenkyns – Marx
23. Flo & Zeo – I Used To Say
24. Adeline Supreme – Under The Moon

Woody’s Roundup

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Minnie

So tomorrow One From The Vaults makes its last trip to the ever-epic Warehouse Project in Manchester, before they finally close the doors on Piccadilly car park on 1 January. We started going in 2008 and it’s been an absolutely amazing four years. It has completely dominated our winters – from buying a million tickets in September, to knocking off work early on a Friday to get drunk on the train on the way up, drinks in the Northern Quarter and popping to the Christmas markets beforehand (and our new love, the North Pole bar – a temporary MDF igloo serving hot boozy apple-juice-and-cinnamon cocktails, which you sip under a rug on a sofa next to a ten foot tall polar bear), checking in huge rucksacks of warm clothing for the morning (sorry door staff), then finally huddling in Manchester station from 5am – 8am for the first train to take us back home again.

Such a huge amount of effort and our friends might think we’re a bit crazy, but there are no words to describe the feeling when you walk in and you can see a flash of light and hear the bass thud from behind an archway, or exploring for the first half hour as there are so many rooms with different vibes, or how many friends we’ve made there, or how emotional it feels when someone drops an epic bassline and those lights in the main room light up everyone’s faces. All the Essential Mixes (complete with our screams embarrassingly immortalised), all the new tracks we’d never heard before, all the ridiculous conversations in the smoking area, all the after-parties including the first year where we microwaved socks and set a kitchen on fire. Of all the places we travel to for clubbing (Miami, Ibiza, Berlin) this club is by far my favourite, and I’ll be very sorry to say goodbye. Keep up the good work WHP, it’s been a pleasure.

So anyway, we’re going up there tomorrow for Rebel Rave with Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Art Department, Robert James, Damian Lazarus and TEED live, but down here there are some big ol’ knees-ups worth getting your little bums down to. Tonight The Future Now continues its strong line-ups at Egg, with Hannah Holland, Dexter Kane and Warboy, and tomorrow Warm at Bussey Warehouse is soundtracked by Pearson Sound and Ben Ufo for Hessle Audio. XOYO tomorrow has Mylo, Villa and Joakim take to the decks, and You Are We has Laura Jones and Adam Shelton at Village Underground.

Some very nice free downloads as Christmas offerings from our favourite DJs this week. Thanks in particular to Jozif and WildKats, who have been giving away an entire series of edits from their DJ sets:
Little Dragon – Crystalfilm (Close Remix)
Wolfgang – Stay And Defend (The Magician Remix)
Leftfield – Not Forgotten (Eats Everything Rework)
Jozif – Thrill Her
Josif – Rollin’
WildKats – Signs (Prince Edit)
WildKats – Whats Goin On (Daft Punk Edit)

You Can’t Buy Love?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Emily

There have been a fair few moments this summer where we’ve found ourselves feeling inquisitive about the unique & intriguing sound waves gracing our ears. Aquarius Heaven has been one of them. After hooking up with the boys of DoP in 2005 in Paris, barely touched by the traditional 4/4 of dance music, Brian Brewster honed his hip hop and dancehall roots into something a little bit more distinctive. Something he recently described as wanting “to break all musical rules on this F*****G planet and make electronic music exciting like back in the Detroit days”.

From this meeting a musical partnership with DoP was born. Sometime later, DoP mixed the Watergate 06 album in June 2010. The mix included a collaboration between the two acts in Before You Go and simultaneously landed Aquarius Heaven on Berlin’s bursting roster of underground electronic talent.

May this year saw the Circus Company label, already aligned with the likes of DoP, release his first EP 7 Days as a 12”. Later this summer So Low, a track from the 7 Days EP, featured on Damian Lazarus‘ devastatingly dark, yet superbly captivating, Get Lost 4 compilation and really set alarm bells ringing in all the right places.

His latest EP, Can’t Buy Love, dropped on Wolf + Lamb in September; a label that, on many different levels over the past couple of years, have never shied away from challenging the existing boundaries of electronic music, in fact they’ve helped push them that little bit more…

As the spoken vocal of Can’t Buy Love hypnotises us to the sound of ‘…you can pay for sex, but you can’t buy love’, you can’t help but wonder whether Aquarius Heaven can achieve the same success as the weird and wonderful ramblings of Seth Troxler‘s curious mind.

After Can’t Buy Love appeared on Radio 1′s Essential Mix courtesy of Crosstown Rebel‘s Art Department recently, it would appear he could. Aquarius Heaven is well on his way to being part of the furniture on the darker side of house.

Conveniently, this mix appeared yesterday serving as a little taster of what we’ve been talking about:
Aquarius Heaven – Electronic Groove Podcast by Aquarius Heaven

Woody’s Roundup

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Minnie

Party season’s started, and this weekend there’s a veritable banquet of club nights to choose from. Tonight our favourite Kill Em All returns to Fabric, with Filthy Dukes, Stopmakingme, Jack Beats, Crookers and Style of Eye. Miguel Campbell is playing at the Horse and Groom for Coconut Ritz, and Lovebox are putting on a Bang The Box night at the Kentish Town Forum, with Modeselektor, Boy 8 Bit and Siriusmo.

Tomorrow Fabric comes up trumps again with Rebel Rave, with Damien Lazarus, Maceo Plex live, jozif and Art Department. VERY nice. Julio Bashmore‘s at Plastic People for Warm, and Mylo, Breakbot, Monarchy and Maxxi Soundsystem are at XOYO for Scandalism.

Then on Sunday keep yourself going with Creche‘s The Big One, with a 3 hour set from Jamie Jones on the Ministry of Sound terrace, and a 4 hour set from Kerri Chandler inside.

Here are a few freebies from this week:
Clubfeet – Last Words (The C90s mix)
Toro y Moi – All Alone (MANIK edit)
Tyson – After You’re Gone (Joe Goddard Remix)
Convaire – The New You
Simone Fedi – Bitter Devotion (Ewan Pearson BandAPella)
Hannulelauri: Europa (Dub)
Cadillac – Make you feel (Marcos Cabral Remix)

The Pleasure Principle

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Minnie

DJ T‘s much awaited third album The Pleasure Principle was sent from Get Physical last week and hit us like a giant house meteor. The success of the first track Burning, featuring Nick Maurer (one quarter of Greenskeepers with James Curd) and its Art Department remix was phenomenal (seemingly everything they touch turns to gold), and the album is a collaborative affair, featuring the likes of Jaw (dOP), and Dave Aju, which gives it the quirky Circus Company essence, coupled with the depth of a Get Physical release. Intense and deeply melodic, it traverses the boundary between club and afterparty.

Alongside the release, Thomas Koch (also previously editing German magazine Groove as well as co-managing Get Physical and being responsible for the opening of Frankfurt superclub Monza) is on a world tour all the way from April to December, starting with Miami and Berlin for album release parties and concentrating on Europe for the summer. Catch him at Fabric Saturday 2 April alongside Catz n Dogz, Heidi and M.A.N.D.Y.

In the mean time, here’s a little preview of The Pleasure Principle, which you can buy here.

DJ T – The Pleasure Principle Album Preview

DJ T Welcome 2011 – Big Room Mix

Album Tracklist
01. Same Plane feat. Jaw & Ginger
02. Opera Buffa
03. Unconditional Love
04. Burning feat. Nick Maurer
05. Yesterday, Tomorrow feat. Dave Aju
06. Nothing Even Comes Close
07. City Life feat. Cari Golden
08. Sense feat. James Teej
09. Pattern Exit Drama
10. Leavin Me feat. Khan
11. Remember the Future feat. Jaw

Art Department

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Emily

Art Department have been a very welcome addition to my world over the last month. Having been almost accidentally formed by Damian Lazarus when he asked Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White to get in the studio together to remix Riz MC’s Don’t Sleep for Crosstown Rebels, they set upon creating a live DJ/vocal show which debuted in a very big way at this year’s Winter Music Conference. Lazarus, aware of the extraordinarily weird and wonderful sound machine he had created, immediately snapped them up for a couple of singles and a 2011 album release. The Canadian pairing are not short of experience on the scene, with Kenny Glasgow’s discography dating back well over a decade and Jonny White heading up his very own No. 19 Music.

In the same week that I was looking a little bit closer at who Art Department actually were, I was also satisfying my insatiable summer appetite for low BPM house with Zev Eisenberg’s latest release Don’t Break It [Wolf + Lamb]. As is often the case these days, things all seemed to link together as I realised it was Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White who had provided Zev with the stunning remix of his already impressive new single.

Don’t Break It (Kenny Glasgow & Jonny White Remix) – Zev by EmilyG

You may notice Google-ing Art Department gives you an endless list of American scholarships and design businesses, but once you’ve waded through the rubbish you’ll probably find out the good news too. They’re due to front Room 2 of the LED Festival After Party at The Egg in London on Friday 27 August.

So, here’s your homework:
CRM064 Art Department – Without You (Extended 12 Mix) by Crosstown Rebels

Art Department_Promo Mix by JazzMostWanted

Without You is due to be released on Crosstown Rebels pretty soon & Don’t Break It (Kenny Glasgow and Jonny White mix) hit Beatport on 30th July [Wolf + Lamb].