Happy New Years Electro Lovers !

Happy NYE everyone! Hope you all had a good one – Tramp was pretty good, a bit minimal at times but good vibes overall, with plenty of new and old tracks put together well. I also heard good things about the Wax:On night in Newcastle from my friends. Claude Von Stroke and Fake Blood were the nuts supposedly.

I’ve actually been running a few days late on this one, I lack any form of internet at my house and my neighbours have passworded their wireless signal – how dare they. I am basically here to put together a short list of my favourite 8 producers for the year and give examples as to why they are so awesome. The music scene in 2008 has been ridiculously awesome and has seen a big shift in not just electronic music, but the clubbing scene in general.

Pretty much gone are the days of ‘avin’ it’ electro in clubs, tunes from the likes of Justice and every other impersonator typified by huge distorted synths, legions of sweaty neon ravers and general madness. Thats not to say that style is not popular, or indeed won't come back. But right now, things have got a bit more cheeky, grimey and dubbier along the way with producers reinventing our favourite genres to satisfy our thirst for something new.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of a distorted banger in a mix but you wont be seeing any Boys Noize, Justice or MSTRKRFT in my top 8, times are a changin’ folks.

In no particular order i have loved:

Fake Blood:
The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (Fake Blood Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Crookers:
Azzido Da Bass - Dooms Night (Crookers Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Drop the Lime:
The Fugees - Ready or Not (Drop the Lime Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Jack Beats
AC Slater - Jack got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Boy 8-Bit:
DJ Touche - Girls a Freak (Boy 8-Bit Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Hostage:
Altern8 - Frequency (Hostage Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Proxy:
Autodidakt - Shit Your Rack (Proxy Remix) / (Y.S.I)

And last but not least: Foamo:
Mystery Jets - Half in Love With Elizabeth (Foamo Remix) / (Y.S.I)

Lets make '09 a good one!

x

Guess whos back

Some say hes half man half beast, some say hes Erol Alkan's Grandma... Others call him Fake Blood.

Having seen the guy at the Warehouse Project, i can without hesitation say he was one of the most fun electro DJs i've seen in a loooong time. Scratching (YES SCRATCHING!) and mixing seamlessly over bouncy, chunky electro bangers: he truly rocked the dancefloor.

Check his trademark style in a rework of Hotchip's 'Touch Too Much'.

Hot Chip - Touch Too Much (Fake Blood Remix) / (Y.S.I)

The Warehouse Project

The Manchester music scene is becoming very exciting for dance music again. There has been surge of interest in the Manchester club nights and some recent projects see a new intimate techno club Spektrum opening, run by the Sankeys lot, we get to see Santogold and Massive attack for free and only last weekend we saw the return of the mighty Warehouse Project. Since starting out in an abandoned Boddingtons Brewery in 06' the string of big-name club nights have steamrolled their way into being the biggest club night in the UK. The Manchester only event located in run-down city locations have provided some of the most memorable club nights for me in the last few years.

Boasting mammoth line ups from genres including DNB, Breaks, Hip hop, Electro, Minimal, Techno, Indie, Progressive.... there is definately something for everyone. My bag is definately more down the electro route. I have my name down for three nights in particular - notably:

- Annie Mac's night that includes Herve / A-Trak / Surkin / Drop the Lime and Toddla T on 25th oct

- Justice, Busy P, Mehdi and Fake blood / Yuksek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sold out)

- Erol Alkan and Switch / Diplo on 29th .

Its gonna be big guys - cya there ;-)

www.warehouseproject.com