Hey Folks,
Having devoted a fair amount of time to some special music posts, “Hustlaball’s” out last week and the second “Beyond” devotion due out a little later, we thought we would squeeze in a focus on two D.J.’s & their works that caught our eyes a while back & deserve more than a mention. Plus we will give a nod to a latest track release by one of our favourite Scandinavian’s, who continues to be very busy in the recording studio.
First up is a man who manages to squeeze in his D.J’ing between a hectic social & work life, although with music pretty central to his life, he truly loves his vocation behind the decks. D.J. Saki may well be better know to you as the magnificent Manager of Barcode Vauxhall, and hardly a visit of ours goes by without seeing him at the helm of this most popular venue south of the river. However, Saki has also, during his time both at Barcode and previous positions at Rupert Street in Soho, slowly developed his skills for spinning discs, although his penchant for the art stretches much further back, having dabbled at the tender age of 14 when he entered a competition, which gave him the push he needed to pursue his passion. And this hard work, particularly in recent years, has borne considerable fruit, not only in securing gigs in his own backyard, Barcode, but has seen him spread his wings, becoming a feature of many Matinee parties, both at Colloseeum and at Cable, carding some truly prolific performances over in London Bridge, where his funky electro and tech tainted sounds worked extremely well in the very popular middle space. But it doesn’t just stop at Barcode & Matinee, as Saki is now also part of the residents team for Lovechild, featuring at most of their recent parties in Fire and has also played his part at the massive success of 2010, “As One”, while yet another residency in the Saki portfolio of places is Suzi Krueger’s sporting sexual sidekick to Hard On!, “Sweat”, which takes place monthly at the uber swish Sweatbox up in central London, Saki being the stable force of the musical madness along with scene favourite Brent Nicholls. But it is fair to say that Barcode takes up a sizeable chunk of his devotions and Saki is really proud to be part of what has to be one of THE success stories of Vauxhall and as a measure of his pride in the place, is his commitment to promoting the venue, not least with his very own night, aptly named “Sunday’s At Barcode”, which has slowly re-captured the kind of fabulous feeling of the first weeks & months of its opening, when the space was packed out with people not wanting their weekends to end. Saki has built up a solid team of resident D.J.’s that include Steven Artis, Paul Coals, Gonzalo Rivas, & Danny MacDonald, but he has made recent additions that include Paul Heron, Mattias & Pagano, with, we are told more to come, plus with special signage & production, the night is really going places under his steership. Away from his hectic life you would think all that he would want to do is relax, however Saki also dives into the recording studio and his recent compilation is a typical example of his musical style & direction, progressive & funky with a tech/trance edge which he has dedicated to his own night at Barcode and is entitled “London House”, which you can grab for yourselves at http://djsaki.podomatic.com/ and is a worthy addition to any collection. As for the Greek born Mr Lidianos’s upcoming plans, well Barcode clearly remains a big part of his life, but he has plans to undertake a music production course soon, he continues to forage into other D.J.’ing projects/gigs that have included trips to Manchester, his residencies will see him playing at both “Sweat” & Lovechild’s “Loveball” next weekend and with much more to come, life in Saki land is just as busy as ever.
Our other talent focus goes to the fury friendly Paul Coals, who has been carving a career behind the decks for many years, playing his part in the very diverse scene in London, but also performing at a whole host of parties, both across Britain & internationally. Paul’s roots are firmly based in London and it is in the capital where he devotes most of his time behind the decks, playing at Barcode in both Vauxhall & Soho, for their regular nights as well as specialist clubs like “The Cave” & “Bearcode”, Paul also having links with various parties at Union (formerly Crash), for other club & specialist nights including “Scandal” at the Shadow Lounge and “Tonker” at the Eagle, as well as being involved in many of the big annual outdoor events, he being part of the massive “Milk In The Park” party last August. However it doesn’t just stop at London, as Paul often nips around the U.K., down to Bristol & up to Manchester & Birmingham, playing at various events for bear brand “Come To Daddy”, but it is the international gigs that Paul tends to get most excited about and for good reason, as he has been involved in some pretty big events that have included Antwerp’s massive Gay pride, encapsulating clubs like Navigation & fetish leather gathering “Falcomfair”, Paul also having played at The European Gay Ski week on behalf of giant international club brand Salvation, with whom he has significant connections. Indeed he has played at recent parties for the group, both in Germany & Sweden and will be a centre-piece of the team when it returns to London later this year, not to mention further tours planned for Europe & further afield. Describing Paul’s musical style is fairly tricky, as he has a great skill for judging his audience and then selecting his sounds appropriate to the feel & atmosphere, but overriding elements include deep funky and tech infused house, a direction that is best reflected through his podcast release at http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/paul-coals-podcast/id32090735o, although his ability to mix it up with more accessible vocal tinged & uplifting notes was superbly displayed when he played back-to-back with Industri resident Brent Nicholls at the Minty’s Easter social soiree this year. Over three hours of the duo’s live set was laid down for posterity in two volumes which can be streamed at http://djbrentnicholls.com/music and we challenge you to pick out Paul’s half hour slots within the mixes as the twosome really pulled off a something special that night, which was summed up superbly when Brent commented that “...the direction of the set could have gone anywhere...” but concluding that its resulted in “...two unique styles merging to create a new sound...the end result being an uplifting, funky and pumping house set...”. Paul’s year has continued in the vein of many before it, busy, busy, busy and just this weekend has seen him hold down six separate gigs, including stints at Barcode as well as playing for ladz club, “Rudeboiz” and with plenty of bookings ahead, not least being involved in the summer season in Ibiza, life is definitely looking good for this enigmatic & sociable D.J. talent.
Now, we promised to bring you news on a latest release from a favourite Swede of ours and who else could it be but the fantabulous Per Q.X., who tirelessly works in the studio to produce superb track mixes & remixes. His latest project entitled “The Groove”, which he worked on with fellow artist Rustem Rustem, has been selected by none other than Roger Sanchez as his “...essential tune...” on his weekly “Release Yourself” radio show and is well worth a listen at http://soundcloud.com/rustemrustem/the-groove-rogers-sanchezs-exclusive-tune-of-the-week and whilst the record is yet unsigned, with an endorsement like that, it is sure to be swooped up very soon.
Right, that’s about it for this post, but coming right up is a special look at the D.J’s & music of “Beyond”, focuses going to Terry Bryan, Steve Pitron & Nick Tcherniak, all who have new compilation mixes out there, we also nodding towards other brilliant beyond mixes which are must additions to your collection. Then for the rest of May, we are devoting our music posts to the crème of International talent that will be swooping in on the capital for the massive “London Global Dance Festival”, giving you the most comprehensive insight to their careers & providing links their music compilations and/or track releases.
But, in the meantime, we hope you like our choices here and all that’s left to say is, “kick back, select those tunes, turn up the volume and let the music play”.
xDM
Having devoted a fair amount of time to some special music posts, “Hustlaball’s” out last week and the second “Beyond” devotion due out a little later, we thought we would squeeze in a focus on two D.J.’s & their works that caught our eyes a while back & deserve more than a mention. Plus we will give a nod to a latest track release by one of our favourite Scandinavian’s, who continues to be very busy in the recording studio.
First up is a man who manages to squeeze in his D.J’ing between a hectic social & work life, although with music pretty central to his life, he truly loves his vocation behind the decks. D.J. Saki may well be better know to you as the magnificent Manager of Barcode Vauxhall, and hardly a visit of ours goes by without seeing him at the helm of this most popular venue south of the river. However, Saki has also, during his time both at Barcode and previous positions at Rupert Street in Soho, slowly developed his skills for spinning discs, although his penchant for the art stretches much further back, having dabbled at the tender age of 14 when he entered a competition, which gave him the push he needed to pursue his passion. And this hard work, particularly in recent years, has borne considerable fruit, not only in securing gigs in his own backyard, Barcode, but has seen him spread his wings, becoming a feature of many Matinee parties, both at Colloseeum and at Cable, carding some truly prolific performances over in London Bridge, where his funky electro and tech tainted sounds worked extremely well in the very popular middle space. But it doesn’t just stop at Barcode & Matinee, as Saki is now also part of the residents team for Lovechild, featuring at most of their recent parties in Fire and has also played his part at the massive success of 2010, “As One”, while yet another residency in the Saki portfolio of places is Suzi Krueger’s sporting sexual sidekick to Hard On!, “Sweat”, which takes place monthly at the uber swish Sweatbox up in central London, Saki being the stable force of the musical madness along with scene favourite Brent Nicholls. But it is fair to say that Barcode takes up a sizeable chunk of his devotions and Saki is really proud to be part of what has to be one of THE success stories of Vauxhall and as a measure of his pride in the place, is his commitment to promoting the venue, not least with his very own night, aptly named “Sunday’s At Barcode”, which has slowly re-captured the kind of fabulous feeling of the first weeks & months of its opening, when the space was packed out with people not wanting their weekends to end. Saki has built up a solid team of resident D.J.’s that include Steven Artis, Paul Coals, Gonzalo Rivas, & Danny MacDonald, but he has made recent additions that include Paul Heron, Mattias & Pagano, with, we are told more to come, plus with special signage & production, the night is really going places under his steership. Away from his hectic life you would think all that he would want to do is relax, however Saki also dives into the recording studio and his recent compilation is a typical example of his musical style & direction, progressive & funky with a tech/trance edge which he has dedicated to his own night at Barcode and is entitled “London House”, which you can grab for yourselves at http://djsaki.podomatic.com/ and is a worthy addition to any collection. As for the Greek born Mr Lidianos’s upcoming plans, well Barcode clearly remains a big part of his life, but he has plans to undertake a music production course soon, he continues to forage into other D.J.’ing projects/gigs that have included trips to Manchester, his residencies will see him playing at both “Sweat” & Lovechild’s “Loveball” next weekend and with much more to come, life in Saki land is just as busy as ever.
Our other talent focus goes to the fury friendly Paul Coals, who has been carving a career behind the decks for many years, playing his part in the very diverse scene in London, but also performing at a whole host of parties, both across Britain & internationally. Paul’s roots are firmly based in London and it is in the capital where he devotes most of his time behind the decks, playing at Barcode in both Vauxhall & Soho, for their regular nights as well as specialist clubs like “The Cave” & “Bearcode”, Paul also having links with various parties at Union (formerly Crash), for other club & specialist nights including “Scandal” at the Shadow Lounge and “Tonker” at the Eagle, as well as being involved in many of the big annual outdoor events, he being part of the massive “Milk In The Park” party last August. However it doesn’t just stop at London, as Paul often nips around the U.K., down to Bristol & up to Manchester & Birmingham, playing at various events for bear brand “Come To Daddy”, but it is the international gigs that Paul tends to get most excited about and for good reason, as he has been involved in some pretty big events that have included Antwerp’s massive Gay pride, encapsulating clubs like Navigation & fetish leather gathering “Falcomfair”, Paul also having played at The European Gay Ski week on behalf of giant international club brand Salvation, with whom he has significant connections. Indeed he has played at recent parties for the group, both in Germany & Sweden and will be a centre-piece of the team when it returns to London later this year, not to mention further tours planned for Europe & further afield. Describing Paul’s musical style is fairly tricky, as he has a great skill for judging his audience and then selecting his sounds appropriate to the feel & atmosphere, but overriding elements include deep funky and tech infused house, a direction that is best reflected through his podcast release at http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/paul-coals-podcast/id32090735o, although his ability to mix it up with more accessible vocal tinged & uplifting notes was superbly displayed when he played back-to-back with Industri resident Brent Nicholls at the Minty’s Easter social soiree this year. Over three hours of the duo’s live set was laid down for posterity in two volumes which can be streamed at http://djbrentnicholls.com/music and we challenge you to pick out Paul’s half hour slots within the mixes as the twosome really pulled off a something special that night, which was summed up superbly when Brent commented that “...the direction of the set could have gone anywhere...” but concluding that its resulted in “...two unique styles merging to create a new sound...the end result being an uplifting, funky and pumping house set...”. Paul’s year has continued in the vein of many before it, busy, busy, busy and just this weekend has seen him hold down six separate gigs, including stints at Barcode as well as playing for ladz club, “Rudeboiz” and with plenty of bookings ahead, not least being involved in the summer season in Ibiza, life is definitely looking good for this enigmatic & sociable D.J. talent.
Now, we promised to bring you news on a latest release from a favourite Swede of ours and who else could it be but the fantabulous Per Q.X., who tirelessly works in the studio to produce superb track mixes & remixes. His latest project entitled “The Groove”, which he worked on with fellow artist Rustem Rustem, has been selected by none other than Roger Sanchez as his “...essential tune...” on his weekly “Release Yourself” radio show and is well worth a listen at http://soundcloud.com/rustemrustem/the-groove-rogers-sanchezs-exclusive-tune-of-the-week and whilst the record is yet unsigned, with an endorsement like that, it is sure to be swooped up very soon.
Right, that’s about it for this post, but coming right up is a special look at the D.J’s & music of “Beyond”, focuses going to Terry Bryan, Steve Pitron & Nick Tcherniak, all who have new compilation mixes out there, we also nodding towards other brilliant beyond mixes which are must additions to your collection. Then for the rest of May, we are devoting our music posts to the crème of International talent that will be swooping in on the capital for the massive “London Global Dance Festival”, giving you the most comprehensive insight to their careers & providing links their music compilations and/or track releases.
But, in the meantime, we hope you like our choices here and all that’s left to say is, “kick back, select those tunes, turn up the volume and let the music play”.
xDM
No comments:
Post a Comment