“PROUD TO BE PRIDE PROLIFIC PLAYERS"
MUSIC IS THE ANSWER SPECIAL
PRIDE 2010
Whist Pride in London for many was an opportunity to shout that they are out & proud, we instead looked to music to do our shouting during this year’s celebrations, thus making the decision to devote a special post to Pride an easy one. But with so many protagonists to the pride mantle, we decided to focus on two talents that both played out on dancefloors & venues across London during the weekend, both also being new to our posts. Then we thought it only fair to share the works of D.J.’s that, like these two, played a part in our weekend, or laid down compilation mixes with pride as the central theme, all very much being our “proud to be pride prolific players”.
Our first focus goes to social & club kid turned dynamic D.J. & producer Kris Di Angelis who has really stamped a mark on both the alternative end & the upmarket gAylist come metrosexual circuit in recent years, although this vivacious & energy packed individual has been known to us for many years now, a young & impressionable Mr Di Angelis being part of the mad cap Rupert St posse of Ratch (that’s us), Neil, & Gary, creating hilarious havoc together week in week out, like the carefree social butterflies we were then. But inevitably, Kris would lay down some firm foundations and his lifelong desire to be involved in the music industry saw this charming & good looking man devote himself to a career behind the decks, not just spinning sounds to live audiences, but developing his own productions in the recording studio. Whilst the road to success was a tough one for Kris, drawing on many of the contacts he developed during those wild Soho days, saw him land two solid residencies in his old social backyard, The Shadow Lounge & Barcode, giving him the break he was looking for, both venues still part of the Di Angelis portfolio of play houses today. His latest project with The Shadow Lounge sees Kris headlining their new Tuesday nighter “OMFG”, while he is still recognised for his involvement with popular Friday frolic “Therapy” playing alongside the mighty Paul Heron and in terms of Barcode, Wednesday’s virtually belong to Kris, where is vibrant disco/electro beats go down an absolute treat.
However, the biggest door opening came when Jodie Harsh spotted Mr Di Angelis in alternative Shoreditch scene, securing him a residency with her hip & trendy club brand “Circus”, which has seen him spin the sounds with the likes of Basement Jaxx, William Orbit, Rosin Murphy, Larry Tee & Peaches to mention just a few, the rounded sounds of Kris’s music fitting in perfectly Jodie’s ability to attract the cream of the fashion media & club crowd. But, his love of playing the alternative scene still runs strongly through his veins and a weekly residency at the cool club Caligula in Bishopsgate on Friday’s is one of his favourite, while further up into Shoreditch, The Dalston Superstore & Shoreditch House, host for the prolific & packed “Pooldisco” rooftop parties, are regular slots in the hectic Di Angelis D.J.’ing roster. Saying that, he is never shy to take on bigger challenges, an invite last summer seeing Kris playing out at Space Of Sound’s Ibiza opening fiesta terrace party, the white isle being the inspiration for many of his own musical productions, his “Making Love (Move Closer)” track born out of a beach visit & was quoted recently as being “absolutely massive out there”. And talking of his studio productions, Kris’s collaborations with fellow producer Ben Dobe has seen over eight terrific tunes including that Ibiza smash, not to mention sole Di Angelis remixes of singles by artists such as Kylie Minogue, Beyonce & Rosin Murphy, as well as combo works with Ben on tracks by Groove Armada, Alphabeat, Lilly Allen (“Circus” inspired) & Maria Carey (“Pooldisco” devoted). Compilation mixes include those direct from live sets, having racked up 15 in the series, while his “Pooldisco” mixes are real gems, all available direct at http://soundcloud.com/krisdiangelis. As for Pride, Mr Di Angelis played an intrinsic part in proceedings, spinning the sounds for “Circus”, both in their pre-party at The Bloomsbury Ballrooms then at SuperMartXe’s wonderful “Wizard of Oz” outing, but was also in the thick of the Saturday afternoon activity at Barcode, we adoring our catch up with him in both Soho & Elephant & Castle that day/night, so was definitely one of our “prolific players” over the weekend.
Our other focus goes to Phil Marriot, who like us has been suffering dreadfully from a back injury, although this did not stop him from making a huge contribution to Pride in London this last weekend, playing out to packed audiences at “Onyx” on Friday and the special pride party “Best Of British” on Saturday. Pride apart, Phil’s nonstop schedule includes his weekday evening shows on GaydarRadio which go out live each Monday through Thursday, as well as producing the station’s “Club Nation” mix show each Friday, which he has recently been transmitting direct from London’s swish Profile Bar on Wardour Street, a venue that is part of the massive Gaydar worldwide empire. Indeed, Phil has been an intrinsic part of GaydarRadio since January 2008, first producing the popular drivetime show live from Profile’s previous home on Fifth St, then, after a short break, was offered the prestigious position of head of music for station, although presenting radio shows has always been Phil’s forte, chalking up slots with Virgin Megastores Radio & Q Radio, this charismatic Cornish born & bred boy always dreamed of radio presenting from as far back as his childhood, having revealed in a recent interview “...I spent many hours doing mock radio interviews and broadcasts, and I was always curious about how the industry worked...” adding that “...my first break in radio came in the mid 90s for Radio Victory in Portsmouth, where I used to do a weekly phone-in’s on their Breakfast show to run through the releases that were out that week and predict which singles were likely to chart...”.
And this passion for music as well as predicting forthcoming hits, runs deep in his live sets at “Onyx” as well as on “Club Nation” where Phil’s penchant for dancefloor anthems and vocal house shines bright in his performances, although he loves to drop in slightly tougher & more minimal tunes every now & then, to ensure he maintains plenty of energy & vitality levels for the audiences both dancing & listening to his music, he remarking that “...I do like to shake it up slightly and throw in a darker, more aggressive and dubby sounds to keep it edgy...”. However, as much as he loves his tech pretentions, his pulsating performance at the “Onyx Afterhours” party on 2nd Jan this year testament to this, his D.J.’ing skills diversity sees Phil dipping in & out of pop, previous appearances at Brighton’s Revenge, Charles Street, Funky Budda, as well as London’s Popstarz, & XXL demanding a more mainstream & uplifting sound, as does his residency at Portsmouth’s “Gorgeous” parties which allows him to exercise that “...poppier, more commercial...” slant to his musical direction. So, given all these work commitments, there is no surprise he finds little time to dive into the recording studio & lay down compilation mixes celebrating his depth of talent, although two such recordings are available at http://djphilmarriott.podomatic.com/, both evoking his love for vocal house intermixed with progressive, tech & electro beats and are worthy additions to your collections. Plus, a little birdie tells us that he plans to add episode 3 pretty soon, so watch this space for that.
Right, it’s time to run through some of those pride inspired mixes we talked about, our first shout going to Jamie Hammond, another “Onyx” resident, that had the Blackbox room at Area pumping at the club’s Pride pre-party on Friday and marked the occasion by releasing his latest compilation. Jamie has really found favour both at “Onyx” and Heaven’s “Popcorn” in recent months & thrives on the reactions from his enthusiastic audiences that lap up his uplifting & energetic sets, so if you haven’t sampled Mr Hammond in full flow, grab his latest mix, recorded live at “Onyx”, which is out now at http://d-jamie.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-03T10_53_49-07_00.
Next up is another Area protagonist, although not at “Onyx”, but the Sunday morning phenomenon that is “Beyond”, where he regularly rips up both the Blackbox & the Terrace with his tough tech tunes, but was sadly missing this last weekend, as his pride devotions were out in Madrid, so we can forgive Hifi Sean for missing out on London this year. However, in true Hifi style, before he left on his travels, he produced the second in his series of “new style Psychedelic House mixes” reflecting his love for playing some of his own productions, edits & bootlegs, although it is his two volume “Madrid Pride” compilation that gets our big shout, each volume full of the deep grooves in true Hifi style. So, go get these pride inspired 157 minutes of music now at http://tinyurl.com/hifiseanpodcasts.
Continuing the pride theme, although again away from London, is adorable French fancy Leomeo, who rounded off his fun filled pride weekend in New York 0n 26th June, with a gig at the city’s Hudson Terrace “Rooftop Pride” party and laid down a mix in celebration. Now it would be fair to say that we have been hooked to this charming Parisian’s music style for well over two years now, he even being part of our exclusive protégé list, so this latest compilation, which is classic Leomeo energetic vocal & tribal house, not surprisingly had us well & truly hooked from start to finish and very much back in Leomeo mode. Therefore this “Rooftop Pride” mix gets our total thumbs up and is available at http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo, while yet more Leomeo New York pride magic is hot off the press at http://leomeo.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-06T08_01_48-07_00?a, this being so new we haven’t yet listened to it, are sure it will hook us just like the other.
Our last Pride devotion goes to Pagano, who played out not just in London for “Onyx’s” pre-party, but created plenty of drama on the dancefloor at SuperMartXe’s “The Wizard Of Oz” spectacular the following night, then jetted over to Madrid for the “WE Are Heroes” pride closing party at La Riviera, so very much made a dramatic pride splash, as did his latest track “Drama On The Dancefloor”, produced together with Gavin Nicholls and was definitely a massive highlight of his set at The Coronet on Saturday night and surely had a similar reaction in Madrid. We are loving this track, which has already been given the remix treatment by Rosabel & Supernova, as well as by the man himself, who has laid down tribalistic versions of the original, all these available via http://beatport.com/s/t5naqf.
Now we just have time to wish D.J. pal Nick Tcherniak happy birthday and as a sort of pressie want to squeeze in a mention for his latest compilation mix, lifted straight from his set at Logan Schmitz’s exclusive rooftop party “Up”, a couple of Sunday’s ago. The mix includes the first airplay of Nick & Steve Thomas’s "The Answer" feat Lizzie France, Alan X's new mix of their "My People" smash, plus loads of special edits, new tracks and a few classics for good measure, this being another Tcherniak triumph, which you can catch & download now via direct link http://nicktcherniak.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-01T05_19_58-07_00. Now, admittedly it’s not pride inspired, but surely you can forgive us an indulgence in celebration of Nick’s special day, yes?
Right, that’s it for this special “Proud To be Pride Prolific Players” post, next week seeing us return to normality with focuses on Rob Sykes & Gonzalo Rivas, also including news on the latest works coming out of Ivan Gomez’s & Nacho Chapado’s “Guareber Recordings” label, as well as Ivan’s latest mix compilation. Then the following week, we go a little “Lovebox” on you, with devotions to Sharon O Love & Oliver M, together with a shout for Danny Verde’s new studio release. In the meantime, we hope you like our choices here and as we love to say...”sit back, turn up the volume & let the music play”.
xDM
MUSIC IS THE ANSWER SPECIAL
PRIDE 2010
Whist Pride in London for many was an opportunity to shout that they are out & proud, we instead looked to music to do our shouting during this year’s celebrations, thus making the decision to devote a special post to Pride an easy one. But with so many protagonists to the pride mantle, we decided to focus on two talents that both played out on dancefloors & venues across London during the weekend, both also being new to our posts. Then we thought it only fair to share the works of D.J.’s that, like these two, played a part in our weekend, or laid down compilation mixes with pride as the central theme, all very much being our “proud to be pride prolific players”.
Our first focus goes to social & club kid turned dynamic D.J. & producer Kris Di Angelis who has really stamped a mark on both the alternative end & the upmarket gAylist come metrosexual circuit in recent years, although this vivacious & energy packed individual has been known to us for many years now, a young & impressionable Mr Di Angelis being part of the mad cap Rupert St posse of Ratch (that’s us), Neil, & Gary, creating hilarious havoc together week in week out, like the carefree social butterflies we were then. But inevitably, Kris would lay down some firm foundations and his lifelong desire to be involved in the music industry saw this charming & good looking man devote himself to a career behind the decks, not just spinning sounds to live audiences, but developing his own productions in the recording studio. Whilst the road to success was a tough one for Kris, drawing on many of the contacts he developed during those wild Soho days, saw him land two solid residencies in his old social backyard, The Shadow Lounge & Barcode, giving him the break he was looking for, both venues still part of the Di Angelis portfolio of play houses today. His latest project with The Shadow Lounge sees Kris headlining their new Tuesday nighter “OMFG”, while he is still recognised for his involvement with popular Friday frolic “Therapy” playing alongside the mighty Paul Heron and in terms of Barcode, Wednesday’s virtually belong to Kris, where is vibrant disco/electro beats go down an absolute treat.
However, the biggest door opening came when Jodie Harsh spotted Mr Di Angelis in alternative Shoreditch scene, securing him a residency with her hip & trendy club brand “Circus”, which has seen him spin the sounds with the likes of Basement Jaxx, William Orbit, Rosin Murphy, Larry Tee & Peaches to mention just a few, the rounded sounds of Kris’s music fitting in perfectly Jodie’s ability to attract the cream of the fashion media & club crowd. But, his love of playing the alternative scene still runs strongly through his veins and a weekly residency at the cool club Caligula in Bishopsgate on Friday’s is one of his favourite, while further up into Shoreditch, The Dalston Superstore & Shoreditch House, host for the prolific & packed “Pooldisco” rooftop parties, are regular slots in the hectic Di Angelis D.J.’ing roster. Saying that, he is never shy to take on bigger challenges, an invite last summer seeing Kris playing out at Space Of Sound’s Ibiza opening fiesta terrace party, the white isle being the inspiration for many of his own musical productions, his “Making Love (Move Closer)” track born out of a beach visit & was quoted recently as being “absolutely massive out there”. And talking of his studio productions, Kris’s collaborations with fellow producer Ben Dobe has seen over eight terrific tunes including that Ibiza smash, not to mention sole Di Angelis remixes of singles by artists such as Kylie Minogue, Beyonce & Rosin Murphy, as well as combo works with Ben on tracks by Groove Armada, Alphabeat, Lilly Allen (“Circus” inspired) & Maria Carey (“Pooldisco” devoted). Compilation mixes include those direct from live sets, having racked up 15 in the series, while his “Pooldisco” mixes are real gems, all available direct at http://soundcloud.com/krisdiangelis. As for Pride, Mr Di Angelis played an intrinsic part in proceedings, spinning the sounds for “Circus”, both in their pre-party at The Bloomsbury Ballrooms then at SuperMartXe’s wonderful “Wizard of Oz” outing, but was also in the thick of the Saturday afternoon activity at Barcode, we adoring our catch up with him in both Soho & Elephant & Castle that day/night, so was definitely one of our “prolific players” over the weekend.
Our other focus goes to Phil Marriot, who like us has been suffering dreadfully from a back injury, although this did not stop him from making a huge contribution to Pride in London this last weekend, playing out to packed audiences at “Onyx” on Friday and the special pride party “Best Of British” on Saturday. Pride apart, Phil’s nonstop schedule includes his weekday evening shows on GaydarRadio which go out live each Monday through Thursday, as well as producing the station’s “Club Nation” mix show each Friday, which he has recently been transmitting direct from London’s swish Profile Bar on Wardour Street, a venue that is part of the massive Gaydar worldwide empire. Indeed, Phil has been an intrinsic part of GaydarRadio since January 2008, first producing the popular drivetime show live from Profile’s previous home on Fifth St, then, after a short break, was offered the prestigious position of head of music for station, although presenting radio shows has always been Phil’s forte, chalking up slots with Virgin Megastores Radio & Q Radio, this charismatic Cornish born & bred boy always dreamed of radio presenting from as far back as his childhood, having revealed in a recent interview “...I spent many hours doing mock radio interviews and broadcasts, and I was always curious about how the industry worked...” adding that “...my first break in radio came in the mid 90s for Radio Victory in Portsmouth, where I used to do a weekly phone-in’s on their Breakfast show to run through the releases that were out that week and predict which singles were likely to chart...”.
And this passion for music as well as predicting forthcoming hits, runs deep in his live sets at “Onyx” as well as on “Club Nation” where Phil’s penchant for dancefloor anthems and vocal house shines bright in his performances, although he loves to drop in slightly tougher & more minimal tunes every now & then, to ensure he maintains plenty of energy & vitality levels for the audiences both dancing & listening to his music, he remarking that “...I do like to shake it up slightly and throw in a darker, more aggressive and dubby sounds to keep it edgy...”. However, as much as he loves his tech pretentions, his pulsating performance at the “Onyx Afterhours” party on 2nd Jan this year testament to this, his D.J.’ing skills diversity sees Phil dipping in & out of pop, previous appearances at Brighton’s Revenge, Charles Street, Funky Budda, as well as London’s Popstarz, & XXL demanding a more mainstream & uplifting sound, as does his residency at Portsmouth’s “Gorgeous” parties which allows him to exercise that “...poppier, more commercial...” slant to his musical direction. So, given all these work commitments, there is no surprise he finds little time to dive into the recording studio & lay down compilation mixes celebrating his depth of talent, although two such recordings are available at http://djphilmarriott.podomatic.com/, both evoking his love for vocal house intermixed with progressive, tech & electro beats and are worthy additions to your collections. Plus, a little birdie tells us that he plans to add episode 3 pretty soon, so watch this space for that.
Right, it’s time to run through some of those pride inspired mixes we talked about, our first shout going to Jamie Hammond, another “Onyx” resident, that had the Blackbox room at Area pumping at the club’s Pride pre-party on Friday and marked the occasion by releasing his latest compilation. Jamie has really found favour both at “Onyx” and Heaven’s “Popcorn” in recent months & thrives on the reactions from his enthusiastic audiences that lap up his uplifting & energetic sets, so if you haven’t sampled Mr Hammond in full flow, grab his latest mix, recorded live at “Onyx”, which is out now at http://d-jamie.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-03T10_53_49-07_00.
Next up is another Area protagonist, although not at “Onyx”, but the Sunday morning phenomenon that is “Beyond”, where he regularly rips up both the Blackbox & the Terrace with his tough tech tunes, but was sadly missing this last weekend, as his pride devotions were out in Madrid, so we can forgive Hifi Sean for missing out on London this year. However, in true Hifi style, before he left on his travels, he produced the second in his series of “new style Psychedelic House mixes” reflecting his love for playing some of his own productions, edits & bootlegs, although it is his two volume “Madrid Pride” compilation that gets our big shout, each volume full of the deep grooves in true Hifi style. So, go get these pride inspired 157 minutes of music now at http://tinyurl.com/hifiseanpodcasts.
Continuing the pride theme, although again away from London, is adorable French fancy Leomeo, who rounded off his fun filled pride weekend in New York 0n 26th June, with a gig at the city’s Hudson Terrace “Rooftop Pride” party and laid down a mix in celebration. Now it would be fair to say that we have been hooked to this charming Parisian’s music style for well over two years now, he even being part of our exclusive protégé list, so this latest compilation, which is classic Leomeo energetic vocal & tribal house, not surprisingly had us well & truly hooked from start to finish and very much back in Leomeo mode. Therefore this “Rooftop Pride” mix gets our total thumbs up and is available at http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo, while yet more Leomeo New York pride magic is hot off the press at http://leomeo.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-06T08_01_48-07_00?a, this being so new we haven’t yet listened to it, are sure it will hook us just like the other.
Our last Pride devotion goes to Pagano, who played out not just in London for “Onyx’s” pre-party, but created plenty of drama on the dancefloor at SuperMartXe’s “The Wizard Of Oz” spectacular the following night, then jetted over to Madrid for the “WE Are Heroes” pride closing party at La Riviera, so very much made a dramatic pride splash, as did his latest track “Drama On The Dancefloor”, produced together with Gavin Nicholls and was definitely a massive highlight of his set at The Coronet on Saturday night and surely had a similar reaction in Madrid. We are loving this track, which has already been given the remix treatment by Rosabel & Supernova, as well as by the man himself, who has laid down tribalistic versions of the original, all these available via http://beatport.com/s/t5naqf.
Now we just have time to wish D.J. pal Nick Tcherniak happy birthday and as a sort of pressie want to squeeze in a mention for his latest compilation mix, lifted straight from his set at Logan Schmitz’s exclusive rooftop party “Up”, a couple of Sunday’s ago. The mix includes the first airplay of Nick & Steve Thomas’s "The Answer" feat Lizzie France, Alan X's new mix of their "My People" smash, plus loads of special edits, new tracks and a few classics for good measure, this being another Tcherniak triumph, which you can catch & download now via direct link http://nicktcherniak.podomatic.com/entry/2010-07-01T05_19_58-07_00. Now, admittedly it’s not pride inspired, but surely you can forgive us an indulgence in celebration of Nick’s special day, yes?
Right, that’s it for this special “Proud To be Pride Prolific Players” post, next week seeing us return to normality with focuses on Rob Sykes & Gonzalo Rivas, also including news on the latest works coming out of Ivan Gomez’s & Nacho Chapado’s “Guareber Recordings” label, as well as Ivan’s latest mix compilation. Then the following week, we go a little “Lovebox” on you, with devotions to Sharon O Love & Oliver M, together with a shout for Danny Verde’s new studio release. In the meantime, we hope you like our choices here and as we love to say...”sit back, turn up the volume & let the music play”.
xDM
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