Disco of Doom: Rising up from the gurgling belly of the underworld

Disco of Doom's dawn set on the Arcadia stage at Glade this year is going to go down as one of my musical highlights of 2009. There was just something perfect about the marriage of their awesome sonic barrage in the grey morning light and this flame-throwing post-apocaylptic setting, with Tom Real hanging the top half of his body out of the DJ tower and gesturing at the dancing masses like a man possed.

Disco of Doom is a collaboration between Tom Real and The Rogue Element, longtime respected electro breaks producers, who are pushing new buttons with a sound that can't quite be described as techno, electro bass or fidget house. It's more like twisting, writhing, grinding house and techno - laced with electro poison and acid 303 - that winds you round it's little finger, pounds you into submission, then spits you out the other side.

The initially came together for a Samurai Fm radio show through their 'shared appetite for destruction and a love of loose women'. I first noticed their crunchy electro breaks collaborations on Passenger in about 2007 and they put out their first release as Disco of Doom in 2008. Since then they've released a number of tunes and remixes over the summer, most notably their already classic remix of Chemical Brothers 'Do It Again' (click for free download) and the filthy 'Warpig' (check the Foamo remix below!). The duo are currently 'locked in the studio working towards delivering their debut artist album'.



One thing these boys have done well is tap the new electro bass sound being championed by the likes of Andy George and Jaymo on radio one, and make it something much dirtier. For a full flavour, click the link below to download their November 09 Promo Mix featuring cuts from Vitalic, Boys Noize, Passion Pit, Doorly, Claude Von Stroke + new and exclusive new Disco of Doom tracks:

Disco of Doom - November 09 Promo Mix

If you're in London, catch Disco of Doom and their How's My Raving Sound System at their monthly Out The Box night at The White House in Clapham. There's one tonight - see details below.

MaryMissFairy: Wonk This Way

It's quite a statement, but... MaryMissFairy (Mary Reilly) is probably my favourite DJ of 2009. Not including her vocal duties on Nagual Sound Experiment's 2007 psychedelic dubstep track Hexorcism,I first heard her quaking the top room at Alpha Omega in April, first met her in May and was last blown away by her set in tiny room at Wonkay Records' Turned Toon in October.

Why does she qualify for this staus? Well, she seems to be mining a stream of sound that I've been slowly gravitating towards for the last year or so. A crunchy, techy blend of techno,progressive house, electro and breaks being led by Tom Real and Rouge Element (Disco of Doom), Atomic Drop, Meat Katie, Elite Force and some releases on Tribal Vision. She's also introduced me to the amazing dirtyloud and Felguk.... all of whom are present and correct in her fresh Wonk This Way mix below.

Mary's just set up her Soundcloud page, so you can also grab Miss Scarlet in the Library with the lead pipe and keep up to date with future mixes. She has also recently been made a label DJ for Wonkay Records, in charge of the A&R for electro and techno, and will be compiling a compilation due for release 2010 - can't wait!

Wonk this way by MaryMissFairy

MaryMissFairy - Wonk this way - Oct 09 (Right click, save as)
Electro mix of varying levels of wonkery ;)

1)Its the music - Josh the Funky1 ( MIles dyson remix)
2)Do it again - Chemical Brothers ( Disco of Doom remix )
3)Panic Attacks - Rogue Element( Arrow remix )
4)Burn out - Seductions ( Aaren San remix )
5)What you gonna do - Atomic drop vs Neurodriver
6)What... you think - DirtyLoud
7)Wunderbar - Gustavo Assis and Thiago Sian
8)Non believer - Elite force and Meat Katie
9)Buzz me( Rework ) - Felguk
10)Flick a switch - Loops of Fury
11)Gustavo Assis - Move on
12) Trash house music - DirtyLoud



If you like that, then make sure you catch MaryMissFairy at Wonkay Records Crunch Bunch party in London on 4 December. Details below:

Glade 2009 Review: Saturday

Saturday started off pretty wet. D-raa and I had a very lazy start to the day, spending most of it snuggled up in bed. We started the day proper with Far Too Loud in the Liquid tent, by far the beast breaks I heard all weekend. These guys are awesome. Chunky, funky and powerful, you just can’t help but shake it all out. 'Play it loud' has to be one of the iconic tunes of the festival.


After Far Too Loud we headed over to the Interstellar Circus on our way to the Glade Stage. A very welcome expansion of the cabaret, there were some incredible hula and aerial acts on throughout the weekend (props to Merlin, Loz, Chanti and Em!).


Reaching the Glade Stage we somehow managed to get almost everyone together for Squarepusher’s bass playing madness. I’ve seen him once before at Glasto with a really small crowd (incredible) and this was a perfect time to see him on a larger scale (Glade Stage pays off again). With a live drummer it turned out to be very rock for the fiorst half and more of the usual d'n'b electronica style for the second.


Squarepusher Live

From Squarepusher we charged over to Venetian Snares for some proper mental junglist breakcore. I’ve been trying to see him for ages (anyone remember last time at Glade?) and there really is no better way than straight after Squarepusher. Really.



By the time we were done having our head pulverized we ran up to see the Wobbly Squadron rock the Rabbit Hole. The wobblers were made for this venue full of colouful characters bumbling around, and their funky psychedelic rock wobble is the perfect antidote to having your ears put through an electric blender to be fed through your nose. Amazing upbeat party atmosphere and great tunes to dance around to… wobble on!




After the wobblers we staggered around to some of Flying Rhino’s psytrance on Arcadia, which by now seemed to have been discovered by more people. The party was in full swing, heaving with grooving bodies silhouetted by fire light and frozen in the shutter flashes of the strobes.



We’d already had our brains fried a fair bit though so retired to the ever beautiful sanctuary of Inspiralled’s LED light, glowing, flowing, smooth stretched shapes and shelters. We arrived to the bouncy sounds of Ed Solo and Skool of Thought’s ‘We Play the Music’ which soon mixed through to some lush dubstep. Another perfect moment. It could only be Liquid Djems, whose down-tempo breaks and dub sets are often the high points of my night (and the source of many new tunes!). I actually find out for sure until I saw him on Sunday morning but I was more with it by then anyway. We bimbled around chatting and met a doctor handing out flying saucers.


We’d agreed to met our mates Joe and Hannah in the Vapour tent for Juan Atkins and Adam Beyer. By this time, the idea of grooving around to techno in a half empty cavern seemed very dull next to the prospect of an Arcadian dawn, so we soon left and headed back to the junkyard to find the most banging minimal techno and electro house.

At this point I experienced the best balloon of my life (no kidding) to Disco of Doom’s remix of the Chemical Brothers ‘Do it Again’. Having downloaded this tune the week before, it wasn’t till I climbed up to join the grooving masses on the platform, and bumped into Djems, that he told me that it was in fact Disco of Doom playing, and that the madman leaning out of the tower and swinging his arms at us was Tom Real. Epic.


Once the set ended we hung around like lost sheep before heading back over to Inspiralled to see the morning in.