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