My music homework – actually listening to all the things I dig out or get sent – gets done when I’m sat at my desk concentrating on something else. Entire mixes get lost unless they are sufficiently banging to stop me getting my proper work done (!)
So it was nice today when this, from 19-year-old LA-based Justin Jay snuck into my earlobes and gave me a little desk-rave break.
Out on Dirtybird now.
Catz n Dogz have come up TRUMPS with this little bad boy Justin Martin remix but it’s only a sample and you’ll have to wait for 3 October then buy the whole remix package, as it’s ace from start to finish.
Greg and Voitek from Catz n’ Dogz are the busiest men on the planet. They are prolific with their releases on all sorts of labels (Get Physical and Nurvous being the last two but of course they’re regulars on Dirtybird too), they find and release new talent on their own label Pets Recordings, they attend more or less every festival in the whole world; where they play about a million sets but still manage to attend five or six other parties a night to watch their friends, and now they’ve just completed their Body Language compilation for Get Physical, which I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on.
Here’s just how great they are:
It was announced last week that Hideout Festival has sold out, and it’s yet another year that we’ve desperately wanted to go and just not got our acts together in time. But, too many festivals, too many DJs, too many countries, too little time, you know? This one is exceptionally good though, on a beautiful Croatian island and with pool/beach/boat parties from the likes of Heidi‘s Jackathon, Wax:On, Crosstown Rebels and Dirtybird.
Our good friends Eskimo Twins are playing, and have been back in the studio working on some new material together. They’ve kindly agreed to give away a rework of Bruce Haack‘s 1970s Program Me from the album The Electric Lucifer, keeping some of the psychedelia and the Apocalypse Now style jungle-mystery and adding in a heavy dose of cowbell and metal-infused whispers.
You can also download their April mix, so whet your appetite with these:
We made a little stop-off after Miami WMC this year at Disney World and to spend some more time in the sun, so my apologies that this is already a bit tardy and there’s already been a lot of ‘this track that track’ chat.
Our schedule was pretty busy; we arrived on Friday 16th and headed straight to Electric Pickle for the WMC launch party with Catz n Dogz, then had a couple of sun days before DJ Mag‘s Recession Sessions at the Shelbourne and Culprit vs Leftroom at Treehouse Wednesday 21 March, then Thursday Dirtybird BBQ at Villa 221, Hypercolour with Groove Armada at The Delano and the Hot Creations party Shine at the Shelbourne. Friday we headed to the beautiful Standard for lunch before the Ed Banger poolside party to honour DJ Mehdi, which was gorgeous. Saturday we were up early for Haitian food at the amazing Tap Tap restaurant before the all-dayer Get Lost at Electric Pickle, then back to Treehouse for the Get Physical party in the evening. And finally the Sunday marathon; we went back and forth between Giant Throbbing Electric Pickle at Electric Pickle and Last Resort at Villa 221, catching a bit of Soul Clap vs Wolf + Lamb‘s marathon five hour set upstairs at the Pickle then back to Villa for a Hot Creations party and a trip to the suburbs for the sunrise.
New venues worth mentioning are new South Beach spot Treehouse (lovely garden) and the beautiful Villa 221, which hosted everyone’s favourite day parties; the Dirtybird BBQ (Justin Martin‘s Mum and Dad manning the barbeque!) and Last Resort. The lunch, the cocktails and the sunset at The Standard hotel, where all the DJs seemed to be staying, was also pretty stunning – especially when soundtracked by So-Me and Surkin playing Regulate and Snoop Doggy Dog’s What’s My Name in memory of Dj Mehdi.
Standout DJs were without doubt Maceo Plex, who made it hard for anyone to follow him (even the team of Seth Troxler and Damien Lazarus at Get Lost dropping classics like Pink Floyd‘s Another Brick in the Wall) and worked the crowd up to a ridiculously sweaty mess at both Electric Pickle and Last Resort at Villa 221, Catz n Dogz who we saw four or five times and still played us fresh goodies every set (including the track of Miami for me, It’s You by The White Lamp) Solomun, who carefully walked the line between plinky-plonky hazy Miami tracks and booty-shakers, playing the beautiful Angie Stone rework Same Old Story by Frankie J Dickens and Patrick Bodhi, and Maya Jane Coles; big beats from the tiny figure, particularly at the Hypercolour party at The Delano, which made us excited about her forthcoming DJ Kicks compilation.
So here are a few of the tracks that made it special for us this year.
There were a LOT of great hip-hop breakdowns and edits to bring the tempo down for a bit. I’m trying my hardest to find some of them, watch this space!
And just a little whinge from me: shame on you to the labels/organisers/venues who took ticket bookings weeks in advance then still kept ticket-holders queueing for hours at the door, often saying venues were at capacity and it was one-in-one-out. We waited outside the Hot Creations party on Thursday for an hour and a half despite paying more for that ticket in early February than any of our others, and in the end we gave up. The guest list queue was longer than the ticket holders queue and most of them had decided to call it a night at 3am when we left. Is it wrong to assume that buying a ticket means entry to the club?
Eats Everything stepped up to the plate this weekend for an Essential Mix live from In:Motion in Bristol, previously a skatepark. He was also spotted in the Barley Mow in Curtain Road by some spies of mine on Saturday night, before playing for Bugged Out! at XOYO.
Including some beefy edits and the excellent new Jon Bovi from Catz n’ Dogz (out on Dirtybird 14 December), have a listen.
Eats Everything, Essential Mix 26 November 2011
Tracklist
01. (00) Murk – Amame (Eats Everything QI Rebeef)
02. (06) Catz ‘N Dogz – Jon Bovi
03. (09) Waifs & Strays – Yeah Yeah (Eats Everything Rebeef)
04. (12) Shadow Child – String Thing
05. (16) Eats Everything & Worthy vs. Justin Martin & Ardalan – The Lost vs. Lezgo (Acapella)
06. (21) Viadrina – Luna (Coat Of Arms Rework)
07. (27) Clapz II Dogz – Ripgroove (Eats Everything Like The Original Rebeef)
08. (31) Freestyle – The Party Has Begun
09. (33) Freestylers – Don’t Stop
10. (35) Green Velvet feat. Russoul – Millie Vanillie
11. (37) Sono – Keep Control (Eats Everything Rework)
12. (43) Subjekt – Dunky Frummer (Eats Everything Rebeef)
13. (46) Riva Starr & Major Lazer – Jump (The Martin Brothers Remix)
14. (49) Eats Everything & Worthy vs. Switch feat. Andrea Martin – I Still Love Tric Trac
15. (54) Coat Of Arms – Is This Something (Eats Everything Crunky Rebeef)
16. (60) Eats Everything – The Size
17. (65) Krysko – Can’t Handle It
18. (68) Mosca – Bax
19. (71) Butch – Amelie (Format B Remix)
20. (77) Eats Everything – Entrance Song (Special Edit)
21. (82) Crazy P – Beatbox (Breach Remix)
22. (87) Coat Of Arms – What You Need
23. (92) French Fries – Yo Vogue
24. (94) Adam F – Circles (Eats Everything Rework)
25. (99) Switch – This Is Sick (Eats Everything Rework)
26. (110) Huxley – Let It Go (Eats Everything Reprise)
27. (116) Goldie – Kemistry (Justin Martin Remix)
Since Entrance Song (and the excellent B side Heard That) stormed every dancefloor over the summer, Eats Everything (and Coat of Arms, Eats Everything’s collaboration with Chris James) is pretty much cleaning up at the moment. There are so many amazing tracks from him they just can’t get released quick enough, with Tric Trac linking him to the mighty Dirtybird this week (apparently after Worthy tried to sign it to his Anabatic label too) and more releases on Catz n’ Dogz‘s Pets Recordings coming in the near future. You can see what I mean below – this should keep you going for a while…
Many of you are lucky enough to be on the South Coast this weekend to kick off the festival season with The Great Escape in Brighton, and we’ll have reports next week, but Audio and Digital alone will be seeing the likes of d/r/u/g/s, Actress, Little Dragon, Ghostpoet, Kill Em All, Caribou, TEED, Black Devil Disco Club… as well as the festival itself in various venues around the seafront.
Following on from last week I’m still thinking about new releases, mainly because Dirtybird 50 has just come out. New names to me, and all of them stompers. Listen here.
This all means that in London town, we’ve got launches galore, as 6th Borough Project & The Revenge play Warm at Plastic People to celebrate the new album One Night In the Borough (which is bloody good), Fabric are launching Jackmaster‘s Fabric 57 mix, with Hudson Mohawke and SBTRKT live, and The 2 Bears join Toddla T at The Nest to celebrate the Bear Hug EP.
Fittingly, The 2 Bears have remixed Toddla T’s Take It Back (we posted the Dillon Francis mix last week) so you can have a listen here:
Toddla T – Take It Back (The 2 Bears Remix) by The 2 Bears
Nice work all round.
Tomorrow Round Table Knights take over 7-9 Crucifix Lane (this was called Counter Culture for a while and is one of my all time favourite London venues. I cannot recommend it enough, the vibe is like naughty children having a house party while the parents are away) for the Say What? album launch party. Partypartyparty gogogo.
Afrojack – Pop On Acid
Slice & Soda – Year of the Dragon (Villa Mix)
Ghost Eyes – Phantom Mountain (Stopmakingme Remix) [via Planet Notion]
Mario & Vidis feat. Ernesto – Changed
Round Table Knights – Paparussi (L-Vis 1990 & The Neon Dreams Remix) [from the limited edition vinyl pressing of Round Table Knights Remixes]
Tiga – Sex O’Clock (Matias Aguayo remix)
Jargon – Disappoint you (High Rankin remix)
Woody 49.ZIP
The Vaults award for best newcomer 2010 has to go to our boys Homework. They’ve come a long way since we interviewed them at the beginning of the year, gracing the rosters of not only Exploited and Made to Play but out and about playing with the Dirtybird crew too. No matter who the DJ or their associated genre, a contribution from Homework sneaks its way in and manages to adapt itself to any dancefloor, and Tom and Zip have honed their sound from something that was always highly intellectual into being deep yet bouncy, culminating in the absolute bangers Fissa Tune and I Got One, which I’d say were pretty much the must-haves of 2010.
This little joy of a mix sums up the Homework sound nicely – play on repeat and it never gets old. It’s a precursor to their EP Hudson Square, out on Exploited in February 2011. Including my favourites In The City by Andre Crom, new album material from the Round Table Knights and Homework’s own Kadenza. Great for those snowy journeys home.
Homework – Cutting Against The Grain Mixtape
0. Introduction by Cornel West
1. Tornado Wallace – Whispering Twirl – Delusions Of Grandeur
2. Mass Prod – 72 Minutes Of Scrubs A Day – Bosconi
3. Nebraska – Arrondissement – Rush Hour
4. Andre Crom & Martin Dawson – In The City – Off
5. Huxley – Shapes – Neurotraxx Deluxe
6. Mr. G – Sunday Blues – Bass Culture
7. Mark Chambers & Cris Slater – Daze – Snubb8. Matthias Meyer – The Rear Window – Liebe*Detail9. Steve Bug – My Sweet Vital Angel – Ovum
10. Ian Pooley & Spencer Parker – Kinderteller – Ovum
11. Zappe – Larrys Exotic Blend (Remastered Version) – Bouq
12. Round Table Knights – Cat Power (Extended Version) – Made To Play
13. AFMB – Backup Days – Drumpoet Community
14. Makam – You Might Lose It (Kerri Chandler Kaoz 623 Remix) – Sushitech Purple
16. Leonel Castillo – Stone Peach (Delano Smith Remix) – Sushitech Purple
17. Fritz Zander – For Your Love – Suol
18. Homework – Kadenza – CDR