Breakspoll Afterparty rewind: Deekline & Wizard + Baobinga

Massive congratulations to all who won awards at Breakspoll on Thursday, especially Musical Mana favourites NAPT who cleaned up with best track, best producer and best remix! Gotta have more cowbell. You can find links to NAPT mixes here.

Breakpoll Afterparty was incredible last night - living proof that breaks is 100% live and kicking in 2009! Big up to Hexdecimal, Freestylers, Baobinga, Deekilne & Wizard, Zinc and the mighty Scratch Perverts. My highlights were Baobinga's filthy dubstep tinged set and Deeline & Wizard's live set. You can gab a set from the former and some classic tracks from that later below:

Baobinga @ Break Land - 10.1.09 Direct link (Right click & save as)

Tittsworth feat. Kid Sister and Pase Rock - WTF (Deekline & Ed Solo Breaks Remix)

Deekline and Wizard vs Fresh feat. Spyda and MC Ivory - Steam

Check em both out on Beatport

Glade Festival podcast: Fiord

The Glade Festival 2009 website is now up and running. As the best dance music festival in the UK it's always a highlight of my year, with an amazing spread of breaks, trance, techno, interesting house, ambient dub and Overkill wrongness. 2009 will be the first year at a new location, rumoured to be the Matterly Bowl in Hampshire, otherwise known as the Homelands site. I've heard mixed reports but at least the music should stay on till the sun comes up!

You can sign up for a Glade podcast. I recommend that when you do you dig out the track by Fiord, the new minimal project from progressive trance leg-ends Antix. They melted the Origin stage as the last act on Sunday last year.

Bassnectar: Bass heavy, omni-tempo maximism

Perhaps the most established US West Coast bass head has yet to grace these pages... but it's time to drop some Bassnectar, with this wicked mix from the Jay Cunning show on Kiss FM. He mashes up dubstep, breaks, jungle, psydub, hip-hop and dancehall to create something truly flavoursome. I've been meaning to post this for ages but Bassnectar himsef has beaten me to it and posted it as a podcast on his own website! Make sure you check out his podcast page for more free remixes and more podcasts...

Bassnectar @ Kiss 100FM Breakbeat Show w Jay Cunning - 10.2.09 (Direct link - right click, save as)

1. Flagrantly Long & Indulgent Live-Mash Intro
2. Bassnectar - Supastylin [SuperCharged]
3. Bassnectar - Art Of Revolution (instrumental) [Amorphous Music]
4. Bassnectar - Kingston Town [bootleg]
5. Product 01- Ready 2 Rage (Bassnectar & Jantsen Remix) [Amorphous]
6. Sleaze Beatz [Amorphous Music]
7. Bassnectar - Heads Up (California Style) [Amorphous Music]
8. Me & You - Last Night (Bassnectar Remix) [Tru Throughts]
9. Noisia & Mayhem - Exodus (Bassnectarz live re-edit)
10. American Beauty Live Amorphous Mash Segue
11. Mr No Hands - Button Down (Groove Diggers VS Bassnectar RMX)
12. Si Begg - Can't Take it (Bassnectar Loves Si Begg Remix)
13. Frank Sin Atcha - Black Magic
14. Bassment Jaxx Speaker Junk Remix Beat Moment
15. Bassnectar - Beasties, Solid Groove & Sinden Masher
16. You've Gotta Fight For Your Rights.

I'm loving the 'Last Night' remix! Thanks to Sugarpill and Breakzlinkz for the headz up...

Ella's guide to Brazilian Ballie Funk

My mate Ella's just complied a pretty sweet guide to Brazilian Baille Funk or Funk Carioca. Her DJ sets are full of wicked tunes. If you like MIA, CSS, Diplo and that kinda sound, this will be right up your street. Just check the sample above and go to her webpage for more tunes... some of the videos are proper comedy as well!

Nano Records: chunky trance unleashed

Nano Records have added the next instalment to their free online compilation of chunk trance. Compiled by Nano label boss, Regan, he previews "an army of new artists and digital releases for your listening pleasure in 2009".

# EverBlast - Shiva Chillum The new project from Chromatone & Earthling
# Strike Twice - Strike 1 The new project from Atomic Pulse & Echotek
# The Commercial Hippies - Like I Do From their forthcoming 2nd Album due for release very soon!

Chromatone is one of my favourite US trance producer and the 2007 Commercial Hippies album was immense so things are looking good for Nano in 2009. You'll be able to see a lot of the acts on the Origin Stage at this year's Glade Festival. Also checkout their downloads page for more tracks.

NAPT: XFM Breakspoll mini-mix

Just bought my tickets for Breakspoll Afterparty at Matter on Friday. Unfortunately I can't make the bash itself but NAPT have just dropped this awesome official mix for Xfm. Somehow they've managed to squeeze 84 tracks into just over an hour - they really deserve to win something this year! Vote here

NAPT - XFM Breakspoll Mini Mix - 20.2.09 (Direct link - right click save as)
Runtime - 11min 14secs
The tracklist is far too long - be staggered by it at their website here

Minimal Firefly: Max Cooper

When I used to live in Nottingham I used to love Max Cooper's scratch breaks sets at Firefly. Nowadays he's making minimal techno, as well as making up one half of party rave leg-ends of the East Midlands, Thrash Jelly (Jeet being the other half). If you ever get a chance to go to a Firefly party make sure you do. The atmosphere is incredible, especially when Thrash Jelly Play the closing set. Big up the Notts massive!

Glitch Mob: Crush Mode mixtape

Another West Coast update:

I've been going round in circles trying to find a full mixtape from the Glitch Mob (made up of edIT, Boreta, Kraddy and Ooah), only to find it on full view on their own website all along. What a muppet...

Download: The Glitch Mob - Crush Mode (right click and Save File As)

Download: The Glitch Mob - Crush Mode Wallpapers by EPROM

You can find some fresh Boreta tracks on his myspace and Ooah's Twitter stream tells me he's been in the studio the last few days. Looking forward to seeing what comes out...

XLR8R Mary Anne Hobbs podcast

Linked in with her LA Rocks video, Mary Anne Hobbs recently posted her first podcast with XLR8R magazine. It's full of proper fresh UK dubstep (I'm loving the Planet Mu tracks). Shame we can't get her show in podcast every week!

XLR8R Podcast: Mary Anne Hobbs Live in S.F., January 29

01 Durrty Goodz vs Taz Buckfaster - "Destruction" (Dubplate)
02 Joker & Ginz - "Purple City" (Dubplate)
03 Martyn - "Elden St" (3024)
04 LD and Benga - "Yes Yes" (Dubplate)
05 Reso - "Octacon" (Dubplate)
06 Kryptic Minds & Leon Switch - "Six Degrees" (Swamp81)
07 2000F and JKamata - "You Don"t Know What Love Is" (Hyperdub)
08 DJ Pinch - "Teleport" (Planet Mu)
09 Kode 9 & LD - "2 Bad" (Dubplate)
10 Zed Bias feat. Ghost 1 & Jay Electronica - "The Cauldron" (Sidestepper)
11 Boxcutter - "Sidetrak" from the upcoming "Arecibo Message" (Planet Mu)
12 Pangaea - "Memories" (Dubplate)
13 Joker - "Digidesign" (Hyperdub)
14 RSD - "Forward Youth" (Tectonic)
15 Goth Trad - "Cut End" (Deep Medi)
16 Gatekeeper feat. Grilza & Dread MC - "Ignite" (Dubplate)

Aphex Twin: free download to celebrate return of R&S Records

This is such a rare giveaway I just had to nab it straight off Noiseporn (who, by the way, are one of the best dance music blogs out there):

"Arguably one of electronic music’s best known record labels, R&S released recordings from Aphex Twin, Derrick May, Joey Beltram, 69 (Carl Craig), and Model 500 amongst many others, in the process defining a whole era of dance music."

"This is beautifully haunting. Contemplate everything you have going on, in the next five minutes of pure sound bliss.

Aphex Twin - Xtal.mp3 (Direct link - Right click save as)

We are live: Dreadzone, Subsource and Broken Robot

As the flyer from my pocket the other night tells me, Dreadzone have got a new album on the way and you can grab a sample track by joining the mailing list here:

Dreadzone - For a reason

Another tells me that the full live band will be playing at the end of March at La Scala, supported by The Young Punx and Subsource, with Meat Katie headlining a room showcasing Far Too Loud's new Broken Robot label. It's a new event run by Tweak & Bleep called, funnily enough, We Are Live - perfect for anyone who gets bored of seeing DJ's in clubs. Can't wait!


Tweak&Bleep Present:
We Are Live

@ SCALA - Kings Cross - London

Friday 27th March 2009

A Live Music Bonanza for Festival Lovers, Starring the finest Bands & Electronica Heavyweights.

Live Bands on stage:
Check out their pages for a sample!

Dreadzone
http://www.myspace.com/gregdread
The Young Punxs
http://www.myspace.com/theyoungpunx
Subsource
http://www.myspace.com/subsource
Trash Fashion
http://www.myspace.com/trashfashion
The RGB’s
http://www.myspace.com/thergbs
E-Disco
http://www.myspace.com/eskimodisco

Headline DJS:

Cagedbaby
Meat Katie
Far Too Loud
Tweak&Bleep
Crystal Fighters
Leatherhead
Rex


Event Info:

Friday 27th March 2009
@ Scala – 275 Pentonville Road – N1 9N
Time : 22:00 – 06:00
Tube: Kings Cross

Tickets:
£15 – www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08444 771 000 or Scala’s Box Office (no booking fee)

GET TICKETS HERE

Mary Anne Hobbs & Flying Lotus: LA Rocks

Mary Anne Hobbs has done it again and dropped another scene defining video. This time she's traded the streets of Bristol for the all the more glamorous location of Los Angeles where she's been hanging with local bass addict Flying Lotus and San Franciso's Glitch Mob. They played the Low End Theory together on 28 January - in the video it looks like a really small venue but they're totally blowing it up!

You can read a spine tingling review of the night on Dance Fever 5000 - "I feel like I just returned from the epicenter of the future of music and came out alive."

I've featured the Glitch Mob on here before. To fulfill your fresh bass lust though, I've found a recent essential mix by Flying Lotus below. This guy is hot shit right now. He's somehow related to Jazz leg-end John Coltrane and described as CA's answer to Aphex Twin. See for yourself here:

Flying Lotus - Essential Mix 20-11-2008


Or you can listen to Mary Ann Hobbs every week on Radio 1 - "not only a killer DJ but also one of biggest proponents of the bass slut sound in the world" (dancefever5000):

Mary Anne Hobbs - Radio 1's experimental music show

Kanio: Beatport and Firefly

Remember Kanio and his tumbling techno beats? Apparently he's been nominated for best minimal artist at the Beatport music awards. Click here to vote!

You can check out Kanio's latest promo mix here:

Kanio - Feb 09 mix (Speedyshare link)

He's also playing the next Firefly at the Marcus Garvey Ballroom in my old stomping ground of Nottingham. If you've never been to one of these nights before, it's basically a one room rave in a ballroom that looks like a school hall with amazing atmosphere and great people. The music builds through the night into a full on sweaty stompfest by the end - highly recommended if you like your house, techno and breaks.


Other upcoming UK dates are:

20 Feb 2009 10:00 Redlight Afterhours @ Aquarium (Saturday Morning) London
20 Feb 2009 20:00 Pacha London
6 Mar 2009 20:00 54 Label Launch @ 54 Comercial Street London
14 Mar 2009 20:00 Chemikal @ TBC Liverpool
15 Mar 2009 8:00 Just Because @ Platinum London
20 Mar 2009 20:00 Firefly @ Ballroom Nottingham
21 Mar 2009 20:00 Optik @ Club 69 Glasgow
3 Apr 2009 20:00 Ketoloco @ Kerbcrawler Leeds

.. in between which he's off to Brazil and back a few times!

Vote for Breaks! + Stereo:Type on Kiss FM

Voting is now open and the full line ups are out for Breakspoll 2009. Both the awards night at Fabric and the afterparty at matter have awesome line ups - check the Breakspoll website for more details and don't forget to vote for the best acts of 2008! (my votes have gone to Far Too Loud, NAPT and Ed Solo & Skool of Thought)



Playing the Thursday night ScrewFace & CTRL-Z Present Stereo:Type LIVE Ft Beardyman, Spyda, Tali, Foreign Beggars. What a vocalist line up! You can catch their guest mix on Jay Cunnings Breakbeat Show on Kiss FM here:

Stereo:Type's - Jay Cunnings Breakbeat Show - Kiss FM 270109 (direct link - save as)

Tracklist
Stereo:Type - Balls To The Wall - Hardcore Beats
The Prodigy - Poison - Xl Records
Boreta - Bubblin The Cut - Glitch Mob
Stereo:Type Ft Foreign Beggars - Bangers And Mash - Hardcore Beats
Stereo:Type - The Wildstyle - Hardcore Beats
Stereo:Type - Go Away - Hardcore Beats
Stereo:Type - Sewer Gash (Far Too Loud Remix) - Hardcore Beats
30hz - Innocent (Farr Too Loud Remix) - Lot49
Dilemn - Flying Guitar - Future Perfect
Stereo:Type Ft Vent & Bex Riley - Burnout - Hardcore Beats
Dj Fresh Vs Deekline And Wizard Ft $Pyda And Ivory - Steam - Cdr
Stereo:Type - Under My Skin - Hardcore Beats
Leftfield - Phat Planet - Hards Hands
Deekline And Wizard - All Your Love - Cdr
Stereo:Type - Dusk Til Dawn - Hardcore Beats
Stereo:Type - Sickening - Hardcore Beats
Freestylers - The Slammer (Affinity Remix) - Against The Grain
The Prodigy - Firestarter - Xl Records
Stereo:Type - Balls To The Wall - Hardcore Beats

Thanks to hardcorebeats.co.uk and Breakzlinkz

Glitch Mob dropping bass bombs on the streets on of San Fransisco

XLR8R TV Episode 83: Glitch Mob Street Warfare from XLR8RTV on Vimeo.

I've been going on about glitch-hop to everyone I speak to lately. The artist collective Glitch Mob are IT... and Ooah is one of my absolute favourite producers at the moment. Check out the Glitch Mob website for more info and free mp3's including this one:

Ooah - Heat up the Night (direct link)

They've also recently remixed Evil 9...

Crunk Pioneers: Lazer Sword

Can't remember who pointed me in their direction, but I'm just enjoying a one hour exclusive podcast mix by Lazer Sword for XLR8R magazine:

Future Blappin' - Lazer Sword - Jan 2009

More bass heavy hip-hop tinged sounds from San Francisco. Described as "digital crunk pioneers" they blend hip-hop, future-bass and electro. It took me a few tracks to get into the mix but now I'm there I'm digging it. They're currently on an EU tour:

20 Feb 2009 THUGS AND HUGS LONDON
21 Feb 2009 Nottingham
28 Feb 2009 APPLETREE NIGHTS @ BITTERZOET Amsterdam
28 Feb 2009 DUM DUM @ TIVOLI Utrecht, Utrecht
21 Mar 2009 LANDO KAL LIVE... VENLO, NETHERLANDS

Babylon breaks: Dreadzone Soundsystem and Skool of Thought

So for our Valentines we couldn't resist bouncing around to the originators of dubwise breaks, Dreadzone Soundsystem at the inSpiral Lounge in Camden. Greg Dread was on the controls with MC Spee toasting to classic breaks, dubstep and old skool remixes with the occasional Dreadzone classic thrown in. Perfect lover's rock!

If you missed it, check out this set from Breaksday at Glade last year. Bring on the summer festies again!

Dreadzone + MC Spee + Earl 16 Live @ Glade Breaksday - 2008

Supporting Dreadzone was Liquid Djems, co-founder of Liquid Records and one third of the electro breaks phatness that is Atomic Drop. As well as some Brother Culture, dubstep and tunes from Liquid's latest down-tempo compilation Soul Vibrations 2, he picked up the pace with some tunes from Ed Solo & Skool of Thought. Their Random Acts of Kindness album was one of my favourites from last year - buy it here if you haven't got it!


Skool of Thought have just dropped a new promo mix:

Skool of Thought - Promo Mix February 2009

1. Freestylers ‘Slammer’ (Entity Remix)
2. Plump DJs ‘London Street Music’
3. Splitloop ‘Method One’ (VIP mix)
4. Tim Healey ‘Ghetto Blaster’ (Krafty Kuts Remix)
5. Fort Knox Five ‘Insight’ (A-Skillz Remix)
6. Wolfgang ‘Hook Shot’ (Adsorb edit)
7. Skool Of Thought ‘Heart Of The Hood’
8. Drumattic Twins ‘Cant Give You Up”
9. Deekline & Wizard ‘Back Up’ (Krafty Kuts Remix)
10. Matt U ‘Black Lodge’
11. Specimen A ‘Hard Times’

Get the tunes from beatport.

Thanks to Breakzlinkz for bet sets!

Party funk: Fort Knox Five

I'm very much missing the weekend at the moment. This funkin feelgood breaks mix from Fort Knox Five is perfect to bring it all back though - just check out the edits and remixes from FLC and LL Cool J to Black Sabbath and the Stones! I picked their album up in Oxfam the other day but didn't have the cash and it was gone when I got back... this goes some way to make up for it.

Fort Knox Five @ Triple J Mixup - 24.1.09

1. FUNK 4 PEACE featuring Mustafa Akbar (Nick Thayer Remix) by the Fort Knox Five
2 . SCOOBY SNAX (A Skillz & Nick Thayer Remix) by Fun Loving Criminals
3. CALLIN' OUT A WINNER - Fort Knox Five Edit
4. FIFTH OF COOL J - Fort Knox Five Edit
5. DAZZ IN THE HOUSE - Fort Knox Five Edit
6. GOOD THING - Fort Knox Five Edit
7. BOJANGLIN' AUSTIN - Nick Thayer Edit
8. THE BALANCE (Fort Knox Five Remix) by Sub Swara
9. REVOLUTION - Fort Knox Five Edit
10. KING OF THE BOOTS (Jon Ohms Edit) by Mantronix
11. INSIGHT featuring Asheru (A Skillz Remix) by the Fort Knox Five
12. PARTY PUSHERS featuring Mustafa Akbar (Smalltown Romeo Remix) by the Fort Knox Five
13. BABAOREILLY (Sebastien Edit) by the Who
14. OZZZY - Drums of Death Edit
15. UPTOWN TRICKS featuring Mustafa Akbar (Shimon Remix) by the Fort Knox Five
16. YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET (Soulwax Remix) by the Rolling Stones

Singing in the Rain

Inspired by all this wet weather, last night I dug out this classic advert with the Mint Royale remix of Singing in the Rain and Gene Kelly body popping along (all done with the aide of top b-boy David Elsewhere and some face overlaying). I'd never seen the original music video before but I reckon it's easily as good as the advert. Unfortunatley Mint Royale have disabled embeding but you can watch it if you follow the link below:

Original video for Mint Royale's remix of Singing in the Rain

Wonky Disco this Friday!

Wicked psytance and psybreaks night coming up from Wonky Disco this Friday. You can find links to tracks and mixes from some of the Nano Records artists and Far Too Loud elsewhere on this blog. The video below should give you a taster of what to expect...

Luke Porter tasting fleshy

Just found this mix by Luke Porter, whose Flesh Taste remix on Tribal Vision made it onto quite a few progressive trance playlists last year. He's coming from the progressive house end of things, so I don't recognise half the names below. Sounds lush though!

Luke Porter - February 2009 Promo Mix (direct link - save as)

1. Wahi - More Soul Please (Robert Babicz mix) [Curbed Recordings]
2. Bradler - Solo [Presslab Records]
3. Thomas Langner - System 103 (Jacek Janicki mix) [Unikat Records] **unr
4. Egostereo - Oxyde [Aenaria Music]
5. Komytea - 7 [Anjunadeep]
6. Vibrasphere - 102 Miles From here (Solead mix) [Tribal Vision]
7. Hatfield & Beckers - Youre Not Me (Fiord mix) [Sprout]
8. Alaa - Rhea [Nellie Recordings] **unr
9. Jaytech - Nemesis [Anjunadeep]
10. Rino Cabrera - All Of A Sudden (Daniel Portman mix) [Enormous Tunes]
11. Joshy Rotten - Slumber Party (Human8 mix) [Morphosis Records]
12. Kosmas Epsilon & Evans T - 8 Hours (Cid Inc & Luke Porter mix) [Dyami] **unr
13. RPO & David Weed - Industry Part 2 [Tribal Vision]

Later this month Luke's headlining a night at Inspiral Cafe in Camden, hosted by Liquid Records' new progressive offshoot OmLiquid. I'm told their launch night at Scala was incredible, which is entirely in keeping with the rest of Liquid's output so far!

Techno mixtapes on Crackbook

Just had a go at searching bookFace for mixtapes and stumbled straight into THE FACEBOOK MIXTAPE group. It's an archive of techno, electronica, electro and a few dnb mixes, mostly live. You'll find something by most big names in techno up there but the files vary in quality of both recording and mix. Hasn't been updated for a while but people post their own mixtapes up in the chat box.


I was specifically looking for something by Spanish minimal supremo Alex Under, who ripped it up on a UK tour last summer, and found this:

Alex Under @ Awakenings Festival 2008