Run Hide Survive

I cant think of a good reason why these guys arent bigger than they are. Maybe because they are busy with their clubnight, Club Pony. The Run Hide Survive Dj's consist of Mike and Luke, and base their succesful club night in DQ's in sheffield (ive been to see Brodinski there - it was ace).

Mike from RHS played at Sex with Robots a good year or so ago, and this was the first time i'd heard his up front production style. With their killer track Dyson officially up for release on 12" on the 29th Sep, expect a huge jump in popularity for the Sheffield duo. The track does what it says on the tin.. It's like an electro fuelled dyson, with a swooshing, huge bassline that has been knocking around the blogs for a good few months now.

The RHS boys even had a primetime set down at The End, Londons supremo electro club - things are looking up. Check out their top remix of pop gimps the Kaiser Chiefs - 'Never miss a beat' - Its fucking mahooosive!

Kaiser Chiefs - Never miss a beat (Run Hide Survive Remix) / zShare

Crookin' Awesome

Seeing as my last crookers post magically disappeared - either by my own retardedness or some greater force out of my control, i must post again.

I went with my girlfriend to see the kings of wonk last friday at Hannah Hollands 'Trailer Trash' night, and they were as per usual.. wicked. The location was great, in a car park with one floor for bar / toilets and a second slightly raised car park area for the dancefloor. It had a really good atmos, although the soundsystem was a touch quiet.

I was pleasantly suprised to hear a much more varied set than most of their Crookers remix heavy sets... I think they played for just over an hour and a half, and although we were dancing amidst a sea of trannies and weird androgenous scenesters, the London gig had a real buzz.

Some notable tunes being of course Proxy's blinder Raven, and A-traks remix of boys noize's Oh! They even played Mujava's - Township Funk ;-)

David Guetta ft Thailand - Joan of arc (Crookers Remix) (YSI) / zShare

Sex with Robots Freshers Do!

Freshers week is definately not about going to the local scream pub and licking naive freshers faces... Maybe it was, but you've grown out of that now ... right? Anyways Manchesters freshers week will be kicking off in full force tonight, so expect awkward groups of people standing in circles, plenty of snakebites, puking and possible fornication.

The whole point of freshers is to get to know people, and get pissed. BUT.. this doesnt mean you have to go to some shitty pop night, theres plenty of good stuff happening in Manchester, so get exploring.

Sex with Robots is going off on Tuesday... With our warm up party at the Drop Inn in fallowfield from 8pm-11pm followed by our pals the Prostitutes and Policemen DJs.

11pm - 3am is the crazy madness at the Roadhouse in Picaddilly - Free entry so dont miss it! Last week was one in one out, so get there early.

Oh and a little snippet of whats in store:

Yuksek - Deladeu2 (YSI) - zShare

Mujava - Township Funk

Have you heard of S. African Techno or Kwaito? Nah, neither have i..

Released today on "This Is Music/Warp", Mujava's - Township Funk has been a huge club track and is finally getting public release today. Originating from South Africa, Elvis Maswanganyi aka Mujava has become an overnight success with his stripped down meandering techno track. Popular with Hot Chip and Erol to name a few, this is a good warmer or late night 'trip-them-out' track.

The synth is really infectious, i think you'll agree :

DJ Mujava - Township Funk / zShare

Also try L-Vis 1990's darker Dubby effort:

DJ Mujava - Township Funk (L-Vis 1990 Kwaito Dub) / zShare

Becks get it right in Manchester

On the 6th September i was lucky enough to go and see Massive Attack and Santogold for free. Yup zilch...

It was part of the two-day festival / self promotion brainchild of Becks beer, who dubbed the event Becks Fusions. The friday laid host to a fairly indie line-up of The Presets, Midnight Juggernaughts and Hercules and Love Affair.

The saturday though rain soaked, had a bright combination of belgian indie group Das Pop, New York's coolest export, Santogold and homegrown electronica legends Massive Attack.

Plied with multple beers (Only Becks was available) i had a great time listening to Santogold with my friends, she was exactly how i expected her to be. Cool, a good stage presence and on note with pretty much everything she sang. The only distraction being her DJ and keyboard players who didnt seem to fit in with their white shirt/trouser combo and bow-tie? Maybe my eye was distracted by her awesome, neon all-in-one jumpsuit. Track of the set - Creator.. awesome warbly bassline and i love the screechy intro.

Massive Attack to me, were one of those bands that you wish you could see before you get too old to care. After having actually seen them play for around 2 hours, i found them to be very 'atmospheric', but they didnt really grip me or keep me interested. This may have been because i loved Mezzanine, but didnt really have an interest in much else of their work. Their rendition of Unfinished Sympathy was amazing. They are obviously a talented band, and combined with the visuals of the UVA, it was quite breath-taking. The music, however seemed a bit repetitive and dare i say it boring at times.

The Festival went down really well, there was plenty of room, not much of a beer queue and plenty of decent music. Not bad for free eh? When im out, quite drunk and listening to music at 10.30 at night i want it a bit more uptempto. Id probably save Massive Attack for a day time slot at a festival, and keep the night time for raving.

Santogold - Say Aha (Tepr Remix) / zShare

Dubstep Jams

When it comes to Dubstep, im verging on the unknown. It makes me uneasy / excited when i hear music that reverberate my insides like dubstep can. Its slightly frustrating when i listen to dubstep, i cant pinpoint a track name or artist - I guess that's just experience. But for now - im happy to go with the flow and get my dub-on. Dubstep tracks are becoming more and more common in a variety of club sets, and i can only see that as a good thing.

Dubstep is hitting the world on a big scale, with pioneers like Caspa & Rusko spearheading the Dubby onslaught around the world. Right now, London is the place to be for this new bass heavy genre. With a strong influence from a mish-mash of music styles - reggae, DNB, hip hop and grime to name a few, their are some serious talents to be heard.

Chase & Status are no exception, they have been succesfully producing Hip-Hop and DNB, recently signing to Andy C's Ram Records. With an album expected for next year, their track 'Eastern Jam' has wet my appetite. In this bangra style track, C & S have turned their hands to filthy Dubstep, creating a huge juddering bassline cheekily minlged with 'bollywood' style vocals to a devastating effect. If this is my starting point, expect alot more Dubstep posts in the near future.

Chase & Status - Eastern Jam (Indian Dub) / zShare

Swedish Electro Mafia - Exclusive Blende Track & Mix

When you listen to a Blende track, a few words come to mind - filthy, banging, dirty, violating. I like the way he makes the most outrageous sounds, and is so unassuming, calm and friendly - a stereotypical Scandi! Hailing from Sweden, Johan Klereby a.k.a Blende has established himself as a prolific remixer and producer of awesome bangers. With his huge remix of Seduction's 'Ironie' being the first track to perforate my ear drums - ive been keeping a close eye on his tracks. You can buy alot of his music at Juno - Also check his myspace here.

I managed to get my hands on an exclusive remix of Swedish Techno/house producer Adrian Lux's track Strawberry. The indie vocals twist niceley over crisp drum hits, growling guitar synths and a wonky rolling layer underneath the drums. Very tasty!

Those Dancing Days & Adrian Lux - Strawberry (Blende remix)

Also check Blendes heavy summer mix, with brilliant opener from The Who remixed by SebastiAn, followed by the usual in-your-face synths we all know and love:

Blende Summer 08 Mix - Tracklisting :

The Who - Baba O'Riley (SebastiAn Edit)
M83 - Graveyard girl (Yuksek remix)
Martin solveig - C'est la vie (Goose remix)
Dilemn - Brazen boogie (Blende remix)
Don Rimini - Ohow
Grum - Go back (Le Caste Vania remix)
Blende - Breaking Bones
Busy P - Protect & entertain (Crookers remix)
Grum - Love disco
30Hz - Me crazy
Mike Movement - Ebf (Blende remix)
Joakim Garraud - Rock the choice (Sebastian ingrosso remix)
ACDC - Back in black (Fisk Remix)

Expect big things... Already being played by the likes of D.I.M, MSTRKRFT, Kissy Sell Out and more - Blendes dirty remixes are real primetime dancefloor killers.

Friendly Fires

Im a bit behind with the whole Indie scene at the moment. The closest i get is hearing a remix. After hearing Klaxons "Atlantis to Interzone" remixed by 100 different producers im not that fussed about listening to the original. The same goes for a lot of the indie bands out there.

There are some exceptions that are hard to ignore. I like the twinkly-ness of the Foals, Late of the Piers weirdness (Just watch the "Bears are coming" video...) and the retro fun of the Mystery Jets.

You may have spotted a trend here... anyways - relative new-comers Friendly Fires from St. Albans seem to fit this niche style that i like. They have quite a dark, melodic sound - check out the bleepy, floating "On board" which reminds me of a certain Hot Chip. My favourite track however, has to be "Jump in the Pool" which has a much 'spacier' sound that just hits the spot. Cant wait for the remixes....

Friendly Fires - Jump into the Pool

A1 Bassline Bangers

Its weird. When i think bassline, i think craig david style garage or chavs on the back of the buss belting out chipmunk music through their nicked mobile phones. Maybe im just out the loop?

"Justice" esque - big distortion electro is all good and well when i want to work up a sweat... But I like something a little different every now and again - who was it that said variety is the spice of life? I like producers that do something a little cheeky, weird or intriguing - I first heard Switch, and i was like "what the fuck!?" Its a good feeling to hear something unique.

I never thought Bassline-y electro would work in a club.. but its a great bit of wobble to play after some dirty electro. Wideboys and A1 Bassline tunes seems to be on constant rotation, and it gets people dancing! A1 Bassline remixes are my favourite, being mainly jittery, garagey fueled bangers. A1 Bassline is the brainchild of one half of ravey group Partyshank.

Here A1 remixes house producer Andy George's "Big Dipper" to devastating effect:

Andy George - Big Dipper (A1 Bassline Refix)

There is also a great mix on Trash Menagerie which is definately worth a listen!

Les Petit Pilous - Not suitable for kids?

Don't mistake them for a delicious, child sized fruit yoghurt - Les Petit Pilous are a french technoduo, and are seriously full on.. I mean face-melting stuff.  I found them through the boys noize myspace, to which they are a part of the succesful label owned by Alex Ridha. They did a few remixes which caught my eye, including an attempt at Cold light by the Yeah yeah yeahs. I was hooked, and subsequently found Puzique and D.I.M - what a treat.

My favourite track has to be Jolie Fille, which is a nuclear war of noise, energy and squealing synths. It seemed to be a favourite of Erol's for a good while in 07', getting regular plays in his often distorted techno-ey sets. 

Check out their myspace, theres a track called Paris naked that is just fuckin mental - definately 

a prime time club banger. I like LPP for their utter dark, twisted style - often I stick to tracks that are more acceptable or popular - when i have a burning urge to drop Nice bird.... Maybe i should just go with my gut instincts!

Les Petit Pilous - Wake Up 

Les Petit Pilous - Nice Bird 

Les Petit Pilous - Housi (just a preview)

Bruce Willis is dead

We all know Mr. Oizo, the bearded Ed Banger legend, who has been immortalised for his 90's levi ad soundtrack "Flat beat". Not only is that an absolute banger still, i keep forgetting that it got to number one in the UK charts... haha.

I saw Oizo a while back in manchester, and his DJing style is, shall we say "unique". Never before have i seen some mix beyonce into psytrance into SebastiAn and get away with it. People were moshing about like madmen.

Oizo seems to ooze cool, he doesnt really try to be in the limelight - hes just awesome. Creating glitchy weird bangers like transexual and the saxophone spazzyness of patrick122 makes me happy.

This newish tune, which seemed to do the rounds a little at some of the summer festivals is a bit harder, with almost a panicky - siren fueled beat. I like it, although i dont know if i could pull it off in a mix with the pizazz of the man himself.

Mr. Oizo - Bruce Willis is dead