Hi all! I feel battered and bruised from a bit of a hefty schedule these last couple of weeks, but normal service has resumed, so it is with pleasure that I bring you Woody’s Roundup.
Thanks to everyone that came down to Bungalow 8 last night for Meredith O’s monthly Private Parlour Party. What a dirty little sweat-fest! And so, on to the weekend…
Tomorrow afternoon get yourselves down to the Queen of Hoxton for the Music & Makers Market, where DJs Pyschemagik, Stevie Kotey, Soft Rocks and Cherrystones bring their old records to play and sell. On the roof Knickerbocker Glory hosts a market and village fete, so play some games, get drunk, eat cake and buy records. Whoop!
Then Sunday our local The Lock Tavern hosts the last ever Blogger’s Delight (sob!) with Lone playing upstairs and all their friends from the last five years taking a turn. I mean, Monday mornings are never exactly fun anyway, so why not have a good Sunday to show for it? Not to be missed.
Well pinch-punch-first-of-the-month, which as usual means that there are way too many good nights and not enough time. And as for you with the birthdays, there are DJs to see!
So, tonight, go old school with Marshall Jefferson at Fairchild (car park rave), or go see Waifs & Strays for free at That Mixmag Thing #15 at Queen of Hoxton. Oooh and I’ve just noticed Sishi Rösch is playing at the Horse and Groom for Coconut Ritz. Miguel Puente drew my attention to him and together they’re pretty unstoppable (more dates for both of them in London please!). To give you an example, here’s a little video from one of their Sonar appearances. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to post this as it sounds sweeeeeeet, and I’d pretty much kill to see either and both of them play anywhere at the moment.
I always tell myself I’m going to get out of the city in July as much as possible, and it never happens, simply because the July line ups are ridiculous for the whole month every single year. 2011 is heading that way too, with Nicolas Jaar coming live two days in a row at Fabric at the end of the month, Lovebox bringing everyone I love into Victoria Park, and The Nest continuing a fantastic booking job, with Julio Bashmore and Riton next weekend. Bloody good work London.
I’m not a fan of retrospectives: it’s not very inclusive to harp on about a brilliant night/festival/set for too long, unless there’s some sort of constructive end to it. Go and see so-and-so here, etc.
BUT festivals like Sonar and Miami WMC are tastemakers and fixers for the rest of the year’s musical delights, and a precursor for the Summer’s selection in Ibiza, so I thought I’d let you know what tracks we heard out and about in Barcelona. Plus, it allows me to re-live it a little bit, so indulge me.
Particular highlights were the RA by Day party on Thursday, poolside on the roof of Hotel Diagonal, which started chilled in the sun, was moved up a level to fun old skool hip-hop and disco by Space Dimenson Controller, then brought to a sundown sweat-fest frenzy by Claude VonStroke. So many new tracks and highlights which we managed to ask him about later, but he warned us we’d have quite a wait, in particular for the release of Justin Martin and Ardalan’s epic follow-up to Mr Spock; LEZGO. I found a very small taster here – only 21 seconds but thank you to ‘Rainingcaps‘ and his dancing-while-filming brother.
A few other greats which you can get hold of now are Claude’s Take a Trip mix of Chilly Gonzales - I Am Europe, and J Phlip‘s new track with Claude under his Grizzl moniker for his vinyl imprint Krush Groov, BkupGrl, and of course my favourite, (another one I’ve been waiting patiently for) J Phlip’s OMG Remix of Russ Yallop‘s Rock Me, which is a bootleg and sadly not due for release (I think)… but you can hear it 12 minutes into this mix from March this year: Claude VonStroke – March 2011 Tour Mix by Rainbow Venues
Fun fun fun was the Jackmode party on Thursday night in a tennis club high in the hills overlooking the city (complete with a slide and see-saw) and it was nice to see Oliver $ drop his own Doin’ Ya Thang to a crowd very happy to try to sing/shout along. Oliver $_Doin´ Ya Thang by oliverdollar
All the beautiful people were at Ghoa Beach Club for the Hot Natured party all day on Friday. Dancing bodies filled the pool while we danced on ledges to the stealthy bass of Thugfucker’sDisco Gnome (Tale of Us Remix). Download here.
A-Trak at Sonar Night on Friday was ridiculous. His hands were moving so fast on the decks he looked like a smartly-dressed robot. He gave us a little taster of his new ‘mystery’ track Big Bad Wolf, which when it comes out on Fool’s Gold is going to be immense.
We rounded the week off in fitting style with the Sunday parties, and a massive thanks to Culprit vs Leftroom for good sunny times on the roof at Hotel Catalonia in the day, then Get Physical for putting on a beach party at Mac Arena Mar through to 3am. Just enough time to pack and get to the airport for a Monday morning flight home (those crazy enough to go to work on Monday). So for now, we put Sonar to bed for another year, and content ourselves with hastily booking some flights to Ibiza, stalking producers until we get our grubby mitts on the tunes we heard, and re-living some of the joy at 5 Years of Leftroom (with Room 2 hosted by Hot Natured) at Fabric on 2 July. See you there.
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.
I was really doubly extra pleased to see Shadow Dancer on the lineup for the next Kill Em All at Fabric on 20 May. I’ve been meaning to write something about them since the title track from their Murder Room EP exploded across dancefloors, then Tiga reminded me to buy the whole EP by dropping Parallax at the beginning of his 6 Music show.
Brothers Paul and Alan Farrier have also remixed a couple of my all-time favourites, including Chromeo‘s Needy Girl and Chilly Gonzales‘ You Can Dance, both of which add just enough dirty-dirty to funk them up further without ruining a great. After album Golden Traxe came out on Boys Noize Records in 2009 (very fitting as they so encapsulate the Boys Noize sound) they kept things ticking over until a resurgence of new material this year, with the forthcoming Macid EP also on BNR, and track Silver on the Boys Noize Presents Super Acid compilation.
AND in a perfect link-up to last week’s Beyond The Wizards Sleeve post, they start this vintage podcast for XLR8R with the BTWS remix of Franz Ferdinand‘s Ulysses, which is effing great. There are newer mixes a-plenty on their Soundcloud page, I just really like this one.
Friday hangover part III (apparently it was my idea to start adding Jaeger into the mix in the early hours of this morning), and it’s all thanks to our good friends Lunar, who brought the mighty Blawan to The Nest (Moby‘s playing there on Saturday) last night with Goulcher and Waylayers. This is going to be a monthly night so we’ll post the details for the next one and you can come and join us.
Tomorrow there’s an ultra trendy Love Fever party at Shoreditch Studios, and Fake Blood, Boy 8-Bit and Bowski play at XOYO for Bugged Out, which, needless to say, is going to be BIIIIIIG. Mulletover celebrate their 7th birthday by doing what they do best; a great big dirty rave at the Great Suffolk Street warehouse. Get Physical take over Fabric, with their all-stars Catz n Dogz, Heidi and M.A.N.D.Y. BUT what excites me the most, is the re-launch of Steve Lawler‘s Harlem Nights, moved of course from it’s old home The End to 7 – 9 Crucifix Lane (what was the excellent Counter Culture, great venue). Whoop!
Put on your dancing shoes we’re going to the disco.
Summer’s in the air, and for those of us not joining the non-stop five-day party that is Miami Ultra Festival week (as with anything uber-cool, no-one goes to the main festival, just the plethora of events surrounding it), there are some London treats to keep us going.
Proud 2 (the club formerly known as Matter) hosts Spectrum and The Stanton Sessions for the launch of the Stanton Warriors‘ first artist album The Warriors. Strange to think this is their first, having been an avid follower of them and their Stanton Sessions compilations for years.
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.
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
Stopmakingme’s given us a little reminder of how good his set was, in the form of this mix for Boris Dlugosch‘s radio show: Stopmakingme – Mix for Boris Dlugosch’s Radio Show (Feb 2011)
Tracklist
The White Stripes – Good To Me [XL Recordings]
Jennifer Delano – Amsterdam (Logo Remix) [Kitsune]
Jimmy Edgar – New Touch (Jimmy Edgar’s Hard Makeover Mix) [K7 Records]
Stopmakingme – Big Finish [Kill Em All]
Detachments – Audio/Video (Stopmakingme Remix) [Thisisnotanexit]
Tense – Belle II [Desire Germany]
Midnight Savari – Rimshots [Death Strobe Records]
Remute – Meow (Remute Remix) [RemuteD]
Cocknbullkid – Asthma Attack (Stopmakingme Remix) [Moshi Moshi]
Say Yes To Another Excess – Say Yes To Another Success (demo) [Bang Gang]
Annie – Better (Justin Robertson’s Unreleased Dub) [CD-R]
Motorcitysoul – Ushuaia Night [Simple Records]
Volga Select – Transe [Kitsune]
DJ Harvey presents Locussolus – I Want It [International Feel]
In Fields – Silverback [Kill Em All]
Naum Gabo – Theme For Great Cities [Optimo Music]
