Agent Smith: Psyfunkscratchbreaks

Whilst bouncing around by the Origin stage at Glade (see review below) I was made a very happy man when Dan aka. Agent Smith (above right) pressed a copy of his summer promo into my hands. Unfortunately the CD didn't survive the next three festivals in my bag, but at last I've got the mp3.

Why so happy? 'cos Agent Smith plays the funkiest badass breaks this side of London! The number of times I've been flagging at a party or after-party in London and found myself bouncing around at obscure times in the morning/afternoon to some upbeat choons pumping out the system... only to find it's Dan who has taken the reins. A lot of the time it's improv too!

Dan's receipe for breaks starts with plenty of funk, to which he adds a good portion of chunk, a sprinkling of scratch and an ample squeeze of psychedeliciousness. As this mix shows he certainly knows how to get your feet moving. If you like Far Too Loud you'll love it....

Agent Smith - Psyfunkscratchbreaks Summer 2009 (You Send It link)

Tracklisting to come when Dan gets his ass in gear *nudge nudge* ;)

Glade 2009: Review Summary and Podcasts

I've been very slack on here lately, which is partly due to the fact I've either been in a field or house-sitting somewhere with crap internet. Anyhow, I'm long overdue a review of Glade in July, which music-wise has been by far the best festie of the summer for me. This is epic, so I will break it down into three digestible days. So here goes...

SUMMARY

This year was first on a new site for Glade, Matterly Bowl in Hampshire, recongisable by some for hosting Homelands. For many, this led to some pre-festie anxiety over teething problems and whether it would really capture that Glade vibe that’s kept us going for the last 4 years. On the other hand though, the line up was sick and the organizers had secured a much later licence, so the usually excitement soon built up for what, for many, has consistently been the most important date in UK dance music’s annual calendar!


Thankfully our mate Charlie scored us a wicked pitch by the hedge on the path down to the mainstage, so with the new layout it felt like we had the whole festival at our fingertips. This was helped as well by the fact that everything was much closer together, bound by the nexus of the awesome outdoor Arcadia stage (more of that later).


So how about the music? Well, the line up was awesome and with Function 1 and Opus systems in abundance the sound quality was first class. I was a bit worried about the bleed between the closer tents but generally this wasn’t a problem, especially once you got yourself in a sweet spot!


Atmosphere? Incredible, helped by the new site, again the addition of the Arcadia stage, a later licence, half decent weather and the fact that for one weekend a year you can party with all your mates to the best dance music around! Our weekend was slightly spoilt by some c*nt slicing the side of our mate’s tent open to nick his wallet and shitting in our neighbours gazebo on the first night, but this was the only incident in what was otherwise a lovely weekend. And Joe did get his empty wallet back in the end thanks to some kind soul.


The full review will be in the next three post-dated posts. Don’t forget you can still download wicked Glade podcasts by all the headliners, including Freeland, Underworld, Booka Shade and Squarepusher here:

Glade Festival Podcasts
Podcast address: http://www.voidfilm.net/glade/glade.xml

You can also still buy an exclusive Glade festival compilation and mix featuring a lot of the major tunes from the weekend for only £ 5.99! Have a listen and download from here:

http://www.trackitdown.net/genre/breaks/track/1056620.html

Track Listing:
01. Underworld – Glam Bucket
02. Tom Real - Bang The Box
03. James Monro presents Quiet Storm - Curve
04. Perfect Stranger - Free Cloud
05. Mutant Clan - Kenesai
06. NAPT - Gotta Have More Cowbell
07. Krafty Kuts & A Skills - Happiness
08. Deekline & Wizard - Bounce and Rebound
09. Rennie Pilgrem - Rich Rule Us
10. Drop The Lime - Hear Me
11. Plump DJs - Beat Myself Up
12. Beat Assassins - We Run Tings
13. Far Too Loud - Play It Loud (Broken Robot Mix)
14. Plaza De Funk - Drop The Bomb
15. Disco of Doom - The Click (Zombie F*ckers Mix)
16. Chromatone - Smarty Pads
17. Tristan - If Only
18. High Rankin - Escape From The Hood
19. Shitmat - DJ Got Virus
20. Sub Focus – Timewarp

Glade 2009 Review: Friday

As always, we kicked the weekend off on the Origin stage. Peter Digital’s set looked like it might be marred by the heavy showers at the start but soon, spurned on by a committed hardcore, a decent number of us decided that we’d rather get soaked than miss the lush, floaty techno coming out of those gorgeous speakers. Rain? What rain? I’m more used to hearing the Digital Structures sound on Sunday afternoon, but having it ease us into the weekend was perfect.


Next up up, Liquid Ross looked a tad nervous as he took the reins, pulling some fantastic expressions of concentration during the first few mixes. Moving from some badass psychedelic breakbeats to full on funky psy-trance though, his face soon broke into a cheshire cat grin as he reaslied that he was nailing home the first proper Origin dancefloor set of 2009. As the basslines grooved their way out across the campsite (advantage of having Origin as the outdoor stage), late risers got their dancing shoes on and the crowd swelled.


Straight from Liquid Ross to see NAPT in the Breakdown tent. NAPT have been mopping up the breakbeat awards this year and this set showed why. Unfortunately the sound wasn’t as loud as it should’ve been but this didn’t stop them getting the whole tent bouncing to the N-Funk! There were some great mash up moments, but I can’t for the life of me remember the tunes now. An energetic onstage presence really made the set as well, the energy was infectious. Surprised these guys weren’t headlining later (perhaps due to the fact they had a better offer?). Gotta have more cowbell!


I took five after NAPT, regrouping with my crew in time to saunter down to Freeland on the Glade Stage. For some reason I felt this was the best year for the Glade Stage set up – it really felt like a showcase at the entrance to the festival with lots of space to spill out without noise bleed from other areas. By the time we got there, the sun had made an appearance and was bathing the crowd in golden light as the warm up DJ was laying down some proper funky breaks (anyone know who this was?).


We were right down the front so got a good view of the band when they came on. With a rockier sound and Alex Metric on board, Cope definitely translates well for the live Freeland band. They previewed a lot of tracks off the new album, Cope, which have been floating around on promo mixtapes for a while. Perhaps predictably, highlights included Do You, Strange Things, Bring It, Morning Sun and of course everyone went mad for We Want Your Soul. A perfect sound for the evening sunshine (complemented by a well timed balloon) and a welcome return after the wait from Now & Them!


In the last few years The Rabbit Hole has become one of my favourite places at Glade, and somehow this year it seemed cosier and fluffier than ever. I had a wicked poi spin to Droptear Modelmaker’s live liquid d’n’b sound, before shooting off with Tom Wobbler to bath in the lushness of Booka Shade. I’d been very excited about this, and for me they didn’t disappoint, even if it did feel like they kept building up to the end of the set like cock teasing bitches, leaving us wanting more and then re-delivering for what seemed like endless encores. It was lush while it lasted.



Things get a little hazy after Booka Shade but I do know I was drawn to the flames of the Arcadia stage like a moth to a candle (I’d actually planned to see Deekline and Wizard in the breakdown). This rig was awesome, 360 degree Function One with flame throwers, a DJ tower with a lighthouse like perspex screen, stages to dance on and strobes with enough light to burn your retinas off. Danielle had told me about it at Electric Picnic last year and I’d seen the video from Glasto, but still wans’t prepared for the full on Burning man meets mad max-esque craziness of it.



We arrived just in time to see Freeland’s DJ set, heavy dubstep remixes of his new tunes twisting into some proper filthy electro. Quite different from the live band, but ideal for the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.



Following Freeland were Liquid Records secret weapon, Atomic Drop. I’ve been going on about these boys since I saw them at Luminopolis last year. Their heavy electro breaks basslines are some of the crunchiest sounds this side of a demolition ball, and for Glade they were pulling out a turbo charged set with Djems swinging around the DJ tower like a ghetto biker monkey on heat. Beyond this I remember very little…

Glade 2009 Review: Sunday

Sunday has always been my favourite day at Glade. It’s when the sun usually comes out as we bounce to reggae, sway to dubstep and groove to progressive trance, high on the accumulation of a weekend’s dancing.


This year wasn’t quite the scorcher it has been in the past, but the sun did make an appearance. After a snooze in the sun and breakfast, I rushed down to the Origin to see Perfect Stranger and Freq. Perfect Stranger was good but I found the set quite floaty without ever really getting into the groove. Likewise Freq was good but didn’t blow me away.



It was down to Ans and Allaby, whose techno set last year was a definite highlight, to really get me going. Their pounding, minimal and melodic 3 hour set certainly didn’t disappoint, with plenty of ass shaking and the traditional smiley Sunday vibes on the Origin. Like Peter Digital their deep techno sound worked really well with the rig.


After hours of dancing I went back to the tent, embarked on a tent art trail, cooked dinner and then spent ages looking at the epic cloud formations as the sun set. Although the weather wasn't perfect this year, it did stay dry every night and those clouds were amazing!


It was a bit strange getting used to the fact that the music still went on after 8 so we spent most of the evening bumbling between things. Avalon was keeping the party going with some proper forest trance down on the Origin stage. Drawn back to Arcadia we had an amazing dance to something I could only describe as baille funk electro crunk. She told me her name was Ghettozoid.



The final Arcadia set from DJ Syn was also epic. He dropped the phatest dubstep remix of Dizee Rascal’s (otherwise overplayed) Bonkers and ended on Far Too Loud with the sample ‘This is your soundsystem speaking, I am now in control’. Very fitting.



The last Inspiralled set was Merv from Eat Static playing some lush downtempo dub and breaks, it’s just a shame it had to be so quiet. The party kept going for a while in the tiny tiny Psy Forum tent which had about 500 people trying to cram into space for about 5, and at an ice cream van hosting an old skool jungle rave. It was fun for a while but I finally went to bed after realising that I want’t 15 any more and didn’t much want to be…


And so ended another epic Glade. Better than 2008? Hard to say, but it was easily as good and certainly passed all expectations. Here’s to next year’s evolution!

Baobinga drops 7 fresh dub riddims

Manchester breaks bot Baobinbga has just dropped sample of seven new two-step dancehall fused riddims on his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/baobinga

Baobinga's set was one of my highlights of the Breakspoll afterparty this year. You can sample some recent mixes on Trash Menagerie:

A Duo of Baobinga Shorties on Trash Menagerie

Looking forward to his set with ID at Glade this year!

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.

Nano Records: Free Compilation

Another seasonal treat - Saffy/UK psytrance label Nano have started releasing an entire compilation of free MP3's on their website! Home to the Commercial Hippies, Protoculture, Hydrophonic, AMD, Headroom and Allaby, Nano are by far one of my favourite psy labels. As the peeps behind the Origin stage at Glade, their clean, chunky, funky sound should be familiar from days of outdoor stomping in the summer. Click here for the download store on their lushly designed website, which also has a treasure trove of older Nano gems to get your paws on! New tracks are:

* Fearsome Engine - Beyond Imagination (from the new project of Tristan and Laughing Buddha)
* Avalon - Out There (the Nano debut of new Nano act AVALON, from the UK)
* Tristan and Regan - PFA (The legendary Tristan and Nano boss-man Regan, collaborating on a deep snarling monster!)

On the purchase front, Headroom and AMD's albums will have your feet stomping in seconds and the Commercial Hippies 'If you can't stand the heat' and 'Origin 3' were two of my favourite releases of '06...

Excitingly they've also recently signed Fearsome Engine (Laughing Buddha and Tristan), Avalon(Brighton, previous releases on Wild Things), Chromatone (US) and Hopi (UK) so should be even chunkier funk coming this way soon!


My mate Lexie and I met the Commercial Hippies (Chesh and Regan) in the chill out village at Boom 2006 after they'd played a stonking set earlier in the day. Lexie tried to convert them to Strongbow and we all got properly trashed...