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Sunday 25 July 2010

Music Is The Answer - "Become A Beyond Believer" - Special Post
















“BECOME A BEYOND BELIEVER”
MUSIC IS THE ANSWER – SPECIAL POST
SUNDAY 25TH JULY


In the relatively short time that we have been reporting in a vibrant gay music scene boasting some truly amazing D.J.’s not just here in the capital, but across Europe & further a-filed, one club stands out head & shoulders above the rest when it comes to truly inspiring music, this coming as no surprise when you see the veritable feast of disc spinning meisters that graces the clubs decks over the years. So, with the latest incarnation of Beyond parties, B2B, gathering steam and having held its latest party last night & today (Sat/Sun 24th/25th July) we thought it only appropriate to devote a special post to this most prolific of club brands, focussing on two D.J.’s that centre pieced both parts of the 14 hour extravaganza, but we also give a shout to two Beyond inspired compilations and one by a Beyond resident D.J.

Right, without further a-do, our first focus goes to Rob Sykes, who made a welcome return to Beyond last night (Sat 24th July) at the first leg of the B2B party, taking to the main room decks at super club Colosseum in Vauxhall and proving a considerable draw, particularly given his D.J.’ing pedigree. In terms of Beyond, whilst Rob was never considered a resident, the odd guest appearance in the original days of the club at Colosseum saw him treat the masses to slices of the Sykes superb sound that became so sort after at the time. With the massive circuit style club Action being part of the clubbing revolution within Vauxhall, Rob was an intrinsic part of this club set up, headlining the D.J. line up at each party and most deservedly so, his style of funky, chunky, progressive & tech infused house very much hitting the mark with the huge audiences that Action attracted and this mega circuit styled event made Mr Sykes pretty much a household name across gAylist/land clubbing in the capital. But this was to lead onto Rob joining the exclusive band of D.J.’s that work & play for The Orange group and it is fair to say that, in Juicy, Rob continued the fairytale connection with Action’s Andrew Harris, this Saturday night outing at Fire enjoying four years in the spotlight, its sudden demise leaving a gaping hole in the clubbing calendar and also leaving Mr Sykes a little in the wilderness, thus his return to the fore with Beyond, very much a morale boosting move.

Rob’s career behind the decks stared back in the early 1990’s, he gaining residencies at clubs that included Quiet Storm, Billion Dollar Babes, Hollywood Babylon & the then iconic Studio 94, these appearances seeing Mr Sykes stretch his legs overseas, in Europe, The US Africa & Australia, notable highlights in his career being representations at aftershow parties for Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue and even for the great lady herself, Madonna, following her most recent concert at London’s Wembley Stadium. Mind you it doesn’t stop there, as Rob has played at the highly acclaimed & prestigious MTV Europe music awards in both Rome & Lisbon, playing to massive audiences both in & out of the music industry, so is no stranger to playing to huge crowds, although is just as comfortable in the small sophisticated bar set up, as the enormous circuit stage. Away from the limelight and Mr Sykes dives into the studio occasionally, laying down compilations that are very much reflective of his mood and moments in life, creative collections of beats that represent Rob’s diverse taste in house music genres floating between funky & electro, to more underground & tech infused sounds are loaded in his impressive repertoire, two great examples being his latest mix entitled “Lady Loca Vive En Berlin” & his “Beach Baby Babylon” compilation (a favourite of ours), both available at http://soundcloud.com/djrobsykes. However, naturally, it is his mix devoted to Beyond B2B that gets our biggest shout, just over 60 minutes of electro funk, tech & progressive beats, together with inviting vocals, all mixed up to provide an uplifting & enchanting string of sounds that have the Sykes stamp firmly on them and in the man’s own words is “...a taster of what you can expect to hear me playing...”, Rob’s centre stage performance for B2B at Colosseum already now in the bag. So, if like us, you were unfortunate to miss this spectacular Beyond outing & Rob’s performance, why not emulate the experience by checking out his mix at http://djrobsykes.podomatic.com/.

Our second focus goes to a man who needs no real introduction as, in terms of Beyond, he is very much a household name and one of the staple ingredients that makes the main room at Area on a Sunday morning the most popular place to be. Mike Dower, better known behind the decks as Mikey D, has been a major tore de force in the Beyond armoury since its re-birth back in 2008 and even if he isn’t part of the line up on any given Sunday (and that is a rarity), you will find him partying with the best of us and supporting what has become very much an institution for many. As we sit here focussing on the man, he is live behind Beyond’s decks, no doubt treating a packed main room to a scorching sequence of scintillating, uplifting, funky & chunky, house tunes that is so representative of his showings at this amazing afterhours club. Not only does Mikey more than compensate for the absence of close friend & D.J. partner in crime, Steve Pitron (who is currently on a well deserved holiday break), but we are occasionally treated to back-to-back sets from the duo that simply blow us away, the recent Pride event being a perfect example. However, whilst he may be best known for his slots at Beyond, Mikey has recently been asked to guest at the re-emerging Later parties at Fire and that very same pride weekend, we were treated to two doses of the Dower delirium, his solo set on the Sunday afternoon showing a tougher more tech infused side to his music that went down an absolute treat, as has all his performances we have witnessed there. Indeed, there are a mere handful of D.J.’s we know that can truly lift any lack lustre feeling we may become prone to on the dancefloor, Mikey being one of those and last week at Beyond did just that, banishing all thoughts of our injuries to the back of our mind and seeing us in a dancing dervish from 9 till 11 virtually nonstop.

To think that this man graduated from spinning discs in his bedroom to playing on the international stage at the blink of an eye is testament to his incredible talent and Mikey has hardly looked back since that pivotal & breakthrough moment in Sicily for Alternative Holiday’s Gay Summer weeklong event. Indeed, a whole string of residences & appearances followed back here in London, his residency at Crash the first time the Mikey magic behind the decks caught our eye, although, with clubs like A.M., Discotec, Heaven, Mr Dower’s reputation and demand was pretty much secured here in the capital, and who can forget his prolific performances for Matinee in its early London days at Area, magic days that will live in our memories for ever. Internationally, Mikey has played gigs as near as Paris & Rome and as far as Sydney & San Francisco, with many in between, all this while holding down a full time job for Ministry Of Sound, a demanding position that means the Dower diary tends to be pretty full, so appearances at Beyond & Lo-Profile, as well as guest slots across London & overseas are his own forms of release from the pressures of his full time job. So it doesn’t surprise that studio works are pretty limited, although a little birdie tells us the man is working on a new compilation at the moment, so as soon as it comes to fruition, we will share it with you. However, even though it stretches back to the first day of 2010, there is no better way to savour the talents of this amazing D.J. very much on peak performance, in one of those massive back-to-back sets with Mr Pitron, both parts taken straight from their three hour set and like the records within the two compilations, have become, as Mikey quite rightly says “...a journey through Beyond hits old and new, crammed with classics to celebrate its history...”, so a perfect choice to mark this latest incarnation of the club, B2B. If they are not in your collection yet, then go grab them now at http://mikeyd.podomatic.com/ and watch this space for his new mix, as we will be giving him a serious nudge when we see him on Dex’s terrace later today.

Right, we promised you some more compilations devoted to Beyond , although we cannot bring you the mini mix that Jamie Hammond laid down to mark his debut appearance for this mega club brand at Colosseum, as, sadly it has been deleted and is no longer available. But fear not as Area resident D.J. Alan K has just released his latest Beyond live set recording which you can grab now at http://djalank.podomatic.com/ and was lifted from his breathtaking set at Beyond’s Gay pride party on 4th July. Now, when it comes to multi mixing (that’s three sometimes four records blended into one) there is no-one better than Alan in our view and this compilation is riddled with brilliant examples and is a must for your collection.

Now, while the link is a little loose, one Beyond resident that always seems to hit the mark for us is D’Johnny, his appearances in The Terrace always drawing us away from the main room madness and while he has yet to lay down a special compilation for Beyond, his latest mix, which is included within the Logan Presents podcast series, is well worth a listen, being hot off the press at http://loganpresentspodcast.podomatic.com/ and just in time for the third UP private party at Dex in Brixton this afternoon. Like Mikey, if we get a chance, we will be prompting Mr Johnny for a Beyond devoted compilation, so watch to see if we are successful in our bid.

But firmly back on the Beyond music trail is a simply superb compilation for one of the clubs original residents, Alan X, who used to carry us cavourting right till the last seconds of our weekly homage’s to Beyond in the early days of Colosseum’s main room madcap antics, although in this latest mix, Alan treats us to the sounds more akin to his sets in the VIP lounge both at the first outing and last night (which we missed, blast!) but is also full of “...tunes guaranteed to get you moving, whether on the beach or at your local chillout...”. This latest mix marvel gets our complete thumbs up and is a must grab at http://djalanx.podomatic.com/, while you can, so don’t dilly dally, go get it now!

Right that’s about it for this Beyond inspired special post, although while we have hopefully given you plenty of brilliant beats to soak up for another week, why not check out Seen Queen’s music page, which has links to over 50 of the scene’s top D.J. talents, as well as a veritable feast of latest compilation releases, plus much more at http://seenqueen.com/music.

Our next post goes back to its usual format, although has a female feel with focuses on Sharon O Love & Lisa German, while we have news on a Matinee inspired mix from D.J. Michel Mizrahi, another new compilation from French fancy Leomeo, who will be in London for Lovechild’s “Tropicana” party, plus details of Pagano’s latest track release in advance of his appearance at Barcelona’s Circuit Festival, so keep watching & reading for all of that. In the meantime, all that’s left to say is “select those sounds, sit back, turn up the volume, become a Beyond believer and let the music play, as Music Is The Answer”. (DISCO MATT)

Saturday 17 July 2010

Music Is The Answer - "O Stands For Oliver"








Hey Folks,

Just as we thought our lives couldn’t be further enriched with masterful music following a magnificent Matinee party, when all six D.J.’s performing at MOS played a prolific part in making for the best party of 2010 so far (this news never tires!), terrific terrace tunes coming from Paul Heron, Taito Tikaro & Marco Da Silva, while indoors incredible's Alessandro Londra, Michel Mizrahi & Francesco Pagano pumped the main room with brilliant beats, this week has seen two outstandingly awesome new compilations, both which we simply can’t put down, but more on them in a bit.

However, pulling ourselves a little closer to terra firma from our cloud nine existence, two talents new to our music devotion reports and both who are very much involved in this weekend of “love”, get our full focus, then we shout for a couple of mixes that have “love” as their theme (or connections at least), while we bring you the detail on those colossal compilations that are filling our ears at the moment (indeed as we speak!).

First up is Oliver M, the M standing for Mohns, who lots of people will know from the last three years or so, more as a club promoter rather than a D.J., he having headed up the team that was responsible for hosting Matinee in London, Oliver’s involvement seeing the brand’s fortunes hit amazing highs with parties such as “Knockout” at Fabric, “Viva” at Colosseum & “The Next Chapter” at Cable, although the latter in some ways signalling a new chapter in Mr Mohn’s non-stop & energetic life, kind of drawing him back to his roots, D.J.’ing, which he clearly gets a huge amount of enjoyment & satisfaction from. Having said that, his insatiable desire to remain within the club promoting game has seen him dip his toe back into the market here in London following Matinee changing hands, with “Matador”, a club night held in Vauxhall’s Barcode, and this month will see the launch of another new venture “Impact”, intended to bring a little of the European clubbing circuit vibe to London, a scene that Oliver is more than familiar with, France, Belguim, Holland & Germany in particular being his main D.J.’ing stomping ground. Indeed it would be fair to say that his reputation & standing across mainland Europe is huge in comparison to here in the U.K., where his tough electro & tech fuelled house goes down extremely well & suits the more euro-style intention of his beats.

However, it all started for this enigmatic & effervescent German back in his homeland in 1987, when a young & fresh faced Oliver was asked to fill the shoes in a one-off gig in Hamburg for famous producer Boris Dlugosh, this leading to a residency at the city’s Front nightclub and getting him noticed in the fast emerging Berlin scene, where he made his mark, sprouting appearances & residencies across the new German capital and further a-field in Amsterdam & Zurich. But it was when he weighed his anchor in Spain that things really took off for Oliver, gigs for El Divino, Amnesia & Privilege in Ibiza, Space of Sound in Madrid and with Matinee during its early years in Barcelona, which was to forge a working relationship that remains to this day, Oliver being part of the core team of D.J.’s for their massive Circuit Festival & still very much in bed with the Matinee top brass. Naturally London was also going to be a draw for him and Oliver now considers the capital as his home, although in recent months more of a resting pad, as his exhaustive list of gigs & appearances across Europe & the world have seen him travel as far as Rio, New York & Tel Aviv, the latter for the mega international brand Salvation for whom Oliver has been a resident D.J. for well over 5 years.

Indeed, it is with this Salvation residency & having formed a close working relationship with Steve Elliot that has seen Oliver devote a slice of his very limited time away from the live D.J. decks to dive into the studio and complete a new compilation, which he has devoted to the brands appearance at this year’s massive Lovebox festival, where “Cirque Du Salvation” will play its part on Sunday (18th July). The mix is very typical of Oliver’s style, his music still drawing on lots of roots from his early techno days in Germany but much more of the tech kind, while Balearic beats & handfuls of vocals also present themselves across the 72 minutes of engaging & enthusiastic music, Mr M opting for sounds that are perhaps new & unfamiliar to audiences in the capital, yet make the mix fresh & inviting, as we are sure will his performance on Sunday for Salvation. To grab your slice of Oliver M and his “Salvation @ Lovebox 2010 Vol 1” go to http://djoliverm.podomatic.com/. As for the upcoming weeks, well naturally he will be in Victoria Park tomorrow, continues with other Salvation party commitments, will be at The Circuit Festival in Barcelona and also makes regular appearances at the huge La Demence in Brussels. Plus you will be able to catch him playing a rare London gig at new club Impact next week, all meaning that the new chapter in the life of Mr Mohns has D.J.’ing written all over it and impressively so.

Our other love devoted focus goes to D.J. The Oli (another Oliver), who has been entertaining audiences across the capital for close on ten years now, yet looks as fresh faced as he did when he started out, still drawing in the party people to his pulsating sets at clubs like, A.M., Gravity, Orange, Later & Beyond. Indeed, his opening set at Area a couple of weeks ago was an absolute corker, very much laying down the gauntlet for Messrs Dower & Pitron to follow, The Oli being held in very high regard by many of his peers and more than holding his own with the best on the scene across the clubbing playground of Vauxhall & beyond. However, for a university student back at the turn of the century, it was London’s Soho that started Oli’s love for the D.J.’ing game, residencies springing up all over the place, although it was an opening with legendary club Trade, playing at their summer 2002 party at Privilege in Ibiza, that saw him turn his back on the London scene for a while & re-locate to Barcelona. It was here that Oli began to rub shoulders with some of the big names in the business, he remarking that “...the experience of playing in Spain alongside some of the finest D.J.’s/producers in Europe is something I will never forget...” and the doors literally swung open on his career. A decision to soon return to London proved a mere base for his forays around the world, especially with club brand Salvation, which saw Oli visit & play to audiences across Europe, destinations including Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm & Zurich as well as Salvation favourite Malmo, although individually he has been called to gigs much further a-field, noting Australia, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, South Africa & The USA among the “...29 cities & 15 countries...” he has played in.

However, London is where The Oli has made his mark the most and whilst Fire in Vauxhall dominates his current D.J.’ing commitments, he is known across the capital and indeed was part of the team that ran the iconic & successful Trax (sadly missed) record store in Soho, where customers were often treated to some ad-hoc Oli sets, he continuing the Trax name & brand in a monthly residency at Heaven. But he is just as comfortable in the studio as behind the decks in clubs and often buries himself into compilation & track remix work, barely seeing the light of day in during some months, the results being impressive indeed. And that is very much the case with his latest mix entitled “Long Summer”, which is a two hour spectacular filled with bucket loads of sunshine through a veritable feast of both the newest tracks around, as well as the latest big anthems hitting the dancefloors of the best clubs. Oli’s keen ear for mixing in elements of tech, electro, vocal & progressive beats with amazing effect, gives not just this incredible 150 minutes of music mesmerism the kind of addictive quality that means you don’t want to stop playing it, but when you eventually do, all you then want to do is get onto the dancefloor & soak up one of his scintillating sets. So, to get your fill of The Oli summer sound, go now to http://theoli.podomatic.com/ as this is one hell of a mix & a must for your collection. As for catching him on the dancefloor, well we are pleased as punch that he is making his Lovechild debut this weekend (tonight, Saturday 17th July), so we know exactly where we are going to be, although he is a staple part of the fab vinyl room at A.M. & when he pops up at Beyond only great things happen, so now, you know where you need to be!

Right, kind of rounding off our Love theme (although not the post) we want to give a quick shout to two compilations, first by Pier Morrocco, who will be playing alongside Oliver M at “Cirque Du Salvation” and has recently issued a new mix which we think he should rename Lovebox, but is well worth a listen at http://events.piermorrocco.podomatic.com/, while South African Leroy Tayler makes a welcome return to the capital as international guest D.J. for Lovechild’s “Makin Hay” party alongside Oli and has dedicated a mix to the event which is out at http://events.leroytayler.podomatic.com/, the 117 minute mix very reflective of his afro percussive/electro style & sound and is an absolute gem.

Now onto those outstandingly awesome new compilations from two scene favourites, which you probably have guessed from many of our updates on Facebook, are Steve Pitron & Brent Nicholls, two D.J.’s that have been locking musical horns (in a friendly way of course) at clubs across the capital for over 10 years, but both who remain, for us, THE biggest draws on the dancefloor. Mind you they do it away from the clubs too, as they fill our playlists & ears whizzing around London’s roads as we do, although they even pound our ear drums at our writing desk and are doing that right now, we flicking between the two mixes & hardly able to choose between them.

So first to Steve Pitron’s much anticipated & awaited new compilation, entitled “Summer 2010”, and follows his “Ibiza Opening Fiestas” smash which is now over 2 months old but is as fresh as the day it was released. However as good as that is/was, it doesn’t get a look-in compared with this latest one, which is 2 hours of pure Pitron perfection, kicking off as it means to go on with the fab funky & uplifting remix of Robbie Rivera & Juan Magan’s “Oh Baby”, then dips in & out of hard hitting, rip roaring, pop-tastic, disco drenched & house heavenly tunes, each of the 23 tracks finding favour & combining to produce a compilation which, for us, is his best yet (yes better than “Addicted”) and could be Steve playing to a packed Beyond from 9 till 11 on a Sunday morning, just as much as composing in the studio, where this truly awesome mix was created. Other big highlights for us are Taito Tikaro’s remix of Albert Neve & David Olert’s “She Won’t’ Give Up” featuring vocals from Kaysee, Peter Brown's “I’ll House You” which has been given the Swanky Tunes remix treatment, Rossini Pain’s “I Will Be”, Kaysee back with yet more vivacious vocals, and the Pitron & Sanna masterpiece remix of Kelly Rowland’s “Commander”, Steve even including (how could he leave it out) Zoe Baldwin's epic "Release Me" which draws on his own 2010 twist before treating you to the pure hand's in the air hedonism of the original, magnificent! But in truth the whole mix is a marvel and a must for your collection, so go get it now at http://stevepitronsessions.podomatic.com/.

However, equally good yet in a delightfully different way, is Brent Nicholls's latest offering “Aural”, a compilation completely full of his now trademark latest music sound “Nu Funk”, but gathering elements of progressive, electro & latin inspired beats with huge chunks of funky house which has had us hooked from the brilliant opener, a re-work of the classic “Tom’s Diner”, cleverly crafted by The Bingo Players, right through to the finish over 120 minutes later with an updated version of Stefy De Cicco’s “Keep On Jumping”, a record that epitomises Brent’s love for the funky hip swaying & groin gyrating sound that you just can’t help but “keep on jumpin jumpin” to. Now, Mr Nicholls has been a busy boy in the studio this year, already laying down 10 compilations including two re-mastered versions of classics from his earlier days behind the decks, our favourite in amongst them being his devotion to the “Beyond Pervert” party back in March, although in “Aural” the mantle for top spot has been stolen from the former and, for us, is not just his best this year, but his best since “Get Busy” in 2008. Gems on this latest brilliance include the Funkagenda vs Mark Knight “Devil Walking” dream of a track, Stefano Azati’s “Fandago”, “So You” by Josh The Funky 1, Yolando Be Cool’s “We Speak No Americano” and the brilliant “Sweet Devil” by Pirupa Pigi, yet if we had to choose two stand-our track’s, it doesn’t get better than Dr Kucho’s breathtaking “The Bassline” and Denzel Park vs Karina Chavez’s amazing “World Go Round”, both which sum up this amazing compilation, the former, which in Brent’s words beg you to “...feel the rhythm and let the music take control...” and the latter screaming “...you really got to taste this vibe, so come on and get it...”. It has certainly taken control of us, we very much getting the vibe from the off and you will too when you get your copy by going to http://djbrentnicholls.com/music, clicking on the “Aural” album cover & following the download option. Mind you, easier access is available via Dropbox, an nifty piece of software (or is that hardware!?!), details of which are available from Brent on request

Well, that’s about it for another music session of ours, but just time to mention Seen Queen’s own music page, which includes over 10 new mixes for this month alone, combined with a comprehensive list of D.J. links, podcasts & even their own top ten choice of tracks, all which you can grab at http://seenqueen.com/music, some of our recommendations sitting proud on their pages, aren’t they darlings!

O.K., next week we mix up our focussing with more fresh faces to our posts, looking in-depth at Sharon O Love & the promised focus on Rob Sykes, while our report will also have a flavour of Beyond, with details of two new compilations from Alan K & Jamie Hammond. In the meantime, we hope you like our choices here (please do make sure you get your Pitron & Nicholls mixes as they are real peaches) and as we love to say “select your sounds, sit back, turn up the volume and let the music play”.

xDM

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Music Is The Answer - "Viva Espania" - Special Post











“VIVA ESPANIA”
MUSIC IS THE ANSWER - SPECIAL POST MONDAY 12TH JULY


Without question the weekend was a celebration of all things superbly Spanish for us, as not only did Spain triumph in football’s world cup, but we were in exciting espaniol ecstasy with the magnificence of Matinee London’s “Open Air Summer” party which, for us was best club showing of 2010 in the capital so far. So, in celebration and in a slight change to our planned post, we are devoting the whole of this, our latest Music Is The Answer report, to all things Spanish, focussing on two of its countrymen & shouting for Spain with the latest track & compilation news to hit our desks.

Our first focus goes to London based but the supremely Spanish Gonzalo Rivas, who is thoroughly deserving of his maiden inclusion in our reports, as he has played a massive part in so many clubbing events over the last few years, proving that he remains one of the scene’s biggest talents & very much in demand. To list the gAylist gatherings Gonzalo has been involved in across the capital reads like a never ending gold medal haul & a towering trophy cabinet of achievements, which started back in 1997 when he was touted for a one-off set at the legendary club Trade, having been spotted by promoter Laurence Malice. So good was his performance in the infamous Trade test lounge, that he was immediately signed to play in the main room, becoming one of the biggest stars in the latter years of this amazing afterhours club brand in its only true home, Turnmills, we losing count the amount of times he thrilled us with his tough turbocharged tech (well verging on techno) house. But the list of other residencies & club appearances is endless, Mr Rivas racking up & featuring in a bevy of brands over the years, including, A.M., Action, Beyond, Factor 25, Heaven, Horizon, Juicy, Orange, & Salvation, while the gAylisting bar circuit in the capital always strived for a slice of the Spanish superstar, Barcode, The Box, Escape Lo-Profile & Shadow Lounge fighting over his devotions, a committed to his craft Gonzalo always managing to satisfy their needs & draw in numbers a-plenty with his amazing ability to play to his audience, his music genre range spreading from light & fluffy to tough & chunky.

However, while Gonzalo remains one of the busiest D.J.’s on the scene here in London, a reserved & private Mr Rivas is also a proud & patriotic Spaniard, spending as much time as he can back home in Seville with family & friends and where his D.J.’ing career started back in 1992, trips home intermixed with tours around the globe, touching on virtually every continent & starring in some of the world’s biggest named clubs & largest festivals. Indeed, just this last month he was very much in demand across a selection of Pride events across Europe, fitting in an exhaustive run between London, Seville, & Amsterdam, has featured in Sydney’s Mardi Gras, Miami’s Winter Music Conference, & Barcelona’s Circuit Festival, as well as virtually every big park celebration here in London. But his connections with Trade have seen him tour countries such as Brazil, Japan, Russia & South Africa, while his excursions around the globe have also seen him play alongside the best in the business, including Paul Van Dyk, Sandy Rivera, Frankie Knuckles, Tall Paul & K-Klass to name just a few.

Away from the D.J. decks & Gonzalo is an accomplished producer, having been quite prolific around the turn of the century, with a string of Trade inspired compilations, as well as tracks in conjunction with well known’s such a Paul King, Baby Doc & Alan X, his collaboration with the latter seeing “Let’s Go” hit the big time. Having given his production work a rest, Gonzalo, aka Stereo Man, is back in the studio, his latest hot off the press track “Bootleg Revolution” being a masterpiece & trademark Rivas rapturous percussive, progressive & tech house, this remix piece of work being due for release on label Deviate Records, although a generous Gonzalo has put it up for advance download, which you can grab now at http://soundcloud.com/gonzalo-rivas and we love it. However, he continues to chalk up a collection of compilations, each one reflecting his dynamic & diverse music tastes and while we can’t really single any one particular mix out as they are all superb, we absolutely adore his “Pride 2010” composition, Gonzalo lamenting of his work “...It’s lots of big tunes & big names, happy music for happy people...” he quite rightly concluding that the mix is “...spreading the music, spreading the love...”. Sampling the string of smashing sounds, each one hit a sweet spot of ours, leaving us smiling like a Cheshire cat & only a select single figure of D.J.’s do that to us, so we cannot recommend this enough, which you can grab for yourselves at http://gonzalorivas.podomatic.com/, although check out the others too as they are Gonzalo gems. As for Mr Rivas back behind the decks, well you can catch him regularly at A.M., Barcode, Beyond & Lo-Profile, although if you want a real Gonzalo treat get down to Orange where is now legendary RAW room appearances are a delight, the even better news is the re-joining of the partnership with fellow Spaniard David Jimenez, magic!

Our other focus goes to Ivan Gomez, this Barcelona based bearded bloke having been featured here quite recently, as he was part of the massive international D.J. line up that graced the capital for promoter Alex Erfan’s weekend long London Global Dance Festival of events at the end of May, Mr Gomez featuring large at the LGDF Orange Afterhours outing at Area on the bank holiday Monday. Taking up the mantle of the main room madness from our man above, Gonzalo Rivas, Ivan certainly packed a punch with his progressive & tech tunes, igniting the atmosphere with a rousing rendition of masterful music that left us more than impressed, a rarity for us when it comes to certain Spanish imports who don’t always hit the mark at Matinee or scintillate at SuperMartXe. But it has to be said, Mr Gomez more than held his own that morning, so it was only a matter of time before we would feature his work again. However, not wanting to go over old ground, much of the background to Spaniard Ivan can be found in our “Two Peas In A Pod” LGDF special post at http://discomattmusic.blogspot.com/2010/06/music-is-answer-two-peas-in-pod-lgdf.html, a whistle-stop tour of his career also honing in on his considerable work in the recording studio.

And it is this production work that we want to concentrate on here, as Ivan’s truly exhaustible pace of work away from the live D.J. decks in recent weeks has left us spellbound and magnanimous in our admiration for his energy & enthusiasm for producing mountainous amounts of music. It is difficult to know where to start really, although a track that we had tipped for big things when it was released last September, received Ivan’s treatment recently, his version of “Strings Of Motion” tipping this dance drenched disc into a more tech/tribal fuelled direction which, in truth, we prefer to the original. Since this release about 5 months ago, Mr Gomez has produced no less than 18 tracks, some in collaboration with close working partners Nacho Chapado & Fran Ramirez, others sole productions, two standout pieces being “Work My Beats” which has been included on the official Matinee Summer 2010 compilation, and “SeX” which is literally hot off the press, having been released just three days ago. Add to that his two part full on completion mix volumes, entitled simply “July Promo” to add to his June gem and we reckon he has racked up well over 4 hours of music in as many months, making for one of the busiest producers we know, plus he has also devoted time to setting up tribal & progressive label Guareber Recordings, as well as holding gigs across Spain & Europe, including the full on Pride weekends in is home town Barcelona, as well as Madrid, leaving us wondering where he finds the time & energy to fit all this in. But he does, testament to that, very much reflective through http://soundcloud.com/ivangomezmusic, and http://soundcloud.com/guareber-recordings where you can access all our picks, plus plenty more, both sites well worth a thorough investigation.

Right, what other Espania entrapments are out there at the moment? Well, you may recall we focussed on one Javier Medina a couple of weeks ago and, following our review, the dust has not settled beneath his feet, or the exposure gone to his head, rather this charismatic Catalonian has been busy in the recording studio and his superlative tech/tribal re-work of Kobe vs Hugo Rizzo’s “Bring Back The Drums” has literally just been released on download chart Beatport, the track also out at http://soundcloud.com/javier-medina and is a corker of a track treatment. Add to that his latest project, which is his own remix of Guaraber recordings duo Ivan & Nacho (mentioned above) find Blind Angel’s “Self Delusion”, which Javier is working on as we speak, as well as Israeli D.J./Producer Guy Scheiman’s “My Life”, Mr Medina’s “Addicted To Devotion” remix due out next week, it goes without saying that our Barcelona bright boy is very busy indeed. Plus, on speaking with him a short while ago, he expressed his excitement at a forthcoming gig with Italian stallion, one Francesco Pagano, at Barcelona’s Devotion nightclub where Javier is a resident and will be playing alongside our man from Sicily during the city’s Circuit Festival week. We will be tracking Mr Medina’s progress and will keep you posted on further projects of his, although meanwhile mention goes to his mix crested especially for Barcelona’s pride partying, a camp (for Javier) call to Lady Ga Ga, which is still available direct at http://soundcloud.com/javier-medina/gagaalejandrojaviermedinamashup.

Now, we simply couldn’t complete our special shout to all things Spanish without including a shout for the star of SuperMartXe’s “Wizard of Oz” gay pride party a couple of Saturday’s ago, the hunky Hugo Sanchez (aka Huguito), who treated us to three hours of hypnotic house that saw us dancing delightfully on our privileged balcony spot. Now, the man’s exhaustive season as a SuperMartXe resident, means he rarely gets into the studio, a shame as his performances, certainly in London, have been the most prolific of any and we love his style of music. However, you can get a small slice of Mr Sanchez with samples of his music & video clips of his performances at http://myspace.com/hugosanchezhuguito and we are hoping he will be diving into the studio soon, so watch this space for news on that.

One person who has definitely been in the studio and has laid down two superlative compilations, is Matinee London resident Alessandro Londra, who fought the odds stacked against him this last Sunday at Ministry of Sound, when he drew the short straw of playing inside at Matinee’s massive “Open Air Summer” smash & the first set to boot. However, he really came up trumps with a stunning set, not far removed from the second of these duo of Matinee devotions, very much the soundtrack of this Ibiza inspired alfresco outing, which Mr Londra contributed to in making for, not just the best Matinee of 2010 so far, but probably the best for us since the days of Area three plus years ago. Now, if you missed out on this smash clubbing hit of the year, you can get a slice of the Spanish inspired sounds through Alessandro’s two compilations, part one being a nod towards the tougher side of Matinee’s music, while part two very much mirrors his set on Sunday, both worthy additions to your collection which you can grab at http://soundcloud.com/djalessandrolondra.

Our final mention goes to another Matinee mover, who put up an inspired performance inside at MOS on Sunday too, emerging talent Michel Mizrahi, who played out at the recent Lookbetternaked party at Fire, but was also part of Logan’s D.J. team for the Easter Party “Queen Of Clubs” at the Coronet, when he played an opening stormer of a set laying down the gauntlet for special guest Offer Nissam, definitely a tip for the future, with both ours & Mr Schmitz’s minds thinking alike in this respect. On speaking to Michel both on the day and subsequently, he will be giving us advanced exposure to forthcoming compilation works he has in planned for the near future & given his showing on Sunday, they will be well worth a listen.

Right, that’s virtually it for another week (or few days at least), although no report of ours would be complete without a mention for the music page of clubbing website Seen Queen, which continues to keep a step ahead of us with over 10 new releases already downloaded this month and a lengthy list of others from the scenes biggest D.J. names. With links to podcasts, websites & plenty more, http://seenqueen.com/music is a must visit for music lovers, plus they even have their own top ten dancefloor hits & tips, which includes our favourite track of the moment, the fabulously funky “ The Bassline” by Dr Kucho.

Next time, we throw the doors open on love, with focuses on two D.J.’s with the same first name, first Oliver Mohns, who will be starring on the Cirque Du Salvation stage at Lovebox this Sunday & then look into mystery man, The Oli, who guests for the first time at Lovechild’s “Makin Hay” party on Saturday night, plus we will be shouting for the much anticipated & overdue compilations from scene favourites Brent Nicholls & Steve Pitron.

In the meantime, we trust you enjoy all our splendid sun drenched Spanish inspired selections and in sitting back and succumbing to these superb sounds, like us, simply shout “Viva Espania!”. (DISCO MATT)

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Music Is The Answer - "Proud To Be Pride Prolific Players" - Pride 2010 Special








“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