Muujun

Been neglecting this blog slightly for the past few weeks, but with more than good reason. At the moment most of my time and energy has been flowing in to the collective blog / magazine I’m also part of; Bass Ache, which I’ve mentioned before.

We’re making steady progress and seem to be garnering a fair bit of respect from various places, DJs, magazines, blogs, have got a decent night on the go as well @ Suju in Swindon. Website is looking great and the podcast is running now.

So if you’ve ever wondering what else I’m up to, that is definitely the first place to look…

Looks as though the BBC Trust have decided to keep 6 Music and close the Asian network instead…

From BBC News:

The BBC Trust has rejected the BBC’s plans to close the digital radio station 6 Music.
In his initial response to the BBC strategy review, BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said that the case for the closure of 6 Music had not been made.
He said the Trust – which represents the interests of licence fee payers – would consider closing 6 Music only as part of a wider strategy on the future of digital radio.
But the Trust accepted plans to close the Asian Network, cut 25% of the online budget and close teen service Blast!

To be honest, I’m surprised they even proposed to close it anyway, as I’m sure it has a listener base that rivals 1xtra, and there was never any mention of closure of that?
Both should stay anyway, wicked stations.

Coupled with Rinse going legal last month it seems to be an exciting time for radio…

I only got tipped off on Little Dragon a couple of months ago, not really sure how I missed them to be honest, but I haven’t been able to stop listening to them since, My Step is rapidly becoming one of my favourite tunes of the year I think… ‘tropical times, mmmm‘

Second favourite tune though has to be Never Never, so I’ve been salivating with anticipation ever since I heard SBTRKT had given it a going over, and my god does it not disappoint. Tredding along nicely with sweet homage to the original’s atmospheric synth lead and vocals before tredding into now almost sealed SBTRKT territories of bouncing basslines with funky / two step drums, tune is heavy. On fi dem gyal pon floor.

Can the man do no wrong? Well actually, no… because not content with selling tunes left, right and centre he’s now resorted to giving them away!

This one popped up on his Twitter last night, and is definitely not to be snubbed. A bit housier than the usual offerings but still the same vibe we’ve come to expect…

Definitely one for the late nights / early doors, can’t wait to drop both of these, believe me.

When I first read the pervertedly emphatic review of the new Actress LP on Boomkat I couldn’t help but smirk discreetly, wondering if the reviewer had just ingested a concentrated drop of acid and had somehow embedded themselves inside the music itself, which had in turn warped their entire perception into a world they may never be able to truly comprehend…

“…Showing a teflon resistance towards easy categorisation, ‘Get Ohn (Fairlight Mix)’ swerves down a side street into a footwurkin’ face-off by cyborgs sliding to a mutilated mix of Jon E Cash and Chez Damier played underwater. Next we hit the erogenous interzone of ‘Maze’ and that incapacitatingly lush bassline designed to lock into your central nervous system and send shockwaves of piloerection to every f*cking corner of your soul. After that, we’re cynically dumped, cold post-sex style into the Ferraro-esque Prince tribute ‘Purple Splazsh’, and on into the Detroit ghetto stalk of ‘Let’s Fly’…”

But after listening to it pretty much non stop for the past month it’s fairly easy to see where what they are suggesting, as I think this is in firm contention for my favourite album of the year so far.
Entering with the Orb like tones of Hubble, which despite it only being half as long at a mere 9 minutes you can’t help but draw comparison to ‘A Huge Ever Growing Brain…’ as it strolls through a repetitively hypnotic ambient rhythm which teases with vocal snippets and gravelly percussion…

His remix of Various Production‘s Lost is the next track, which for me is where it really gets started, introduced with a simple house groove and distorted bass that trickles into a deep melodic affair with a breakdown to die for around 2/3 of the way in before dropping back in to fuzzy house overlayed with fragmented vocals.

The real treat for me on this LP though is the filtered house cut of Always Human which sounds like the end product of a late night meeting between Jackson and Jamie Jones with it’s deep summery house feeling and chopped vocals, definitely one for the day parties

By no means is the rest of the album to be shirked on though, especially the romantic robot song Maze and the housier Senorita, basically not one track falters. After listening to those you can probably see why I’m touting it so highly, alongside that Boomkat review. Definitely one for the purchase.
Favourite album of the year? It could well be…

I always had a feeling that Pattern was going to be a fairly decent label out of the blocks, solely based on the fact that it’s an offshoot of Ramp, who just happen to have put out some of the most exciting records of the last year or two from the likes of SBTRKT, Zomby, FaltyDL, Shortstuff and the amazing Hot City Bass with Sweat (below) on the flip…

Far as I know, Pattern is going to be on a more house and funky tip and the first two releases are absolute gold. PTN001 is Doc Daneeka‘s Deadly Rhythm EP featuring the more than aptly named BumbleBeeRiddim, that I just can’t stop playing…

I should add that I keep hearing new stuff from Doc Daneeka and getting over excited at the groove and bass at what seems to be at a rate of about three tunes a week, this guy knows how to write tunes like most people could only dream, just pay attention to the drums on that tune above to get where I’m coming from. Well worth watching for big things.

Anyway, I thought little else of it until I checked out the new Hackman EP released this week and, wow. The title track More Than Ever rolls along discreetly with a steady house beat and swung garage percussion, but when that bassline kicks in the tune is just something else. Can’t find a clip to embed anywhere right now which is er, a bit shit, but you can check it out on Hackman’s SoundCloud till I find a clip anyway. The other three tunes are far from shabby either, especially feeling the slung out grooves of Dusk, can see this one doing damage in dem dancehall.

Pretty excited to see what tricks Ramp / Pattern have got up their sleeves next. Supposedly the next Ramp is the SBTRKT & Sampha EP this month, but it’s been put back so many times I’m beginning to wonder shall it ever see the light of day, alas I can dream…

Should’ve posted this earlier to give more of a heads up, but I’m pretty damn excited about Bass Ache tomorrow night.
Line up is just the Bass Ache crew this time around, so it should be party effect in full swing for sure…

Main Room: Deep/Funky/Bass/House
Alex Golesworthy
Jung
Pinot & Huw
Carlos & Alexi

Lounge: Smooth Grooves
The Chief

11pm-6am

facebook.com/event.php?eid=120440954635294

Also need to mention how I literally can not wait for this SBTRKT & Sampha tune to drop, taking tooooo long, but the bassline is amazing…

If I were to write about Girl Unit without posting a link to IRL and saying massive rave anthem, then it would probably seem like I had been in my Dad’s basement for the past 24 years…

Listening to tunes like this alongside Headhunter’s Addison Groove stuff, it seems to me like juke is going to big things this summer, if you don’t know what I mean check out Footcrab, listen to the 808 groove and then get silly…

Got a feeling it will be one of those things people slate for the first month or so, then everyone goes mental to the drumsonce they hear it on a big system.

So Girl Unit anyway, felt like I needed to post up this brilliant mix I stumbled across on Bruk Magazine and haven’t stopped listening to since.
It rolls perfectly through everything from house to grime, juke and some ghettotech near the end, and is well sticking on the iPod. Please pay close attention to Temple Keys right at the start, huge tune!

brukmagazine.wordpress.com/u-no-its-tru

1. GIRL UNIT – Temple Keys
2. Hardrive ft. Lynae – Never Forget When You Touch Me (Dubbel Dutch edit)
3. DJ Sdunkero – Choosing Love
4. Ikonika – Dckhdbtch
5. NGUZUNGUZU – Got U
6. Sekta ft. Spoek Mathambo – Peter Pan (Dubbel Dutch remix inst.)
7. Roulet – Kitamanda (GIRL UNIT remix)
8. Rishi Romero – African Forest
9. Marcus Price – Var E Naaken (Bok Bok remix)
10. Jay R. Revlon – The Godzilla Ha
11. Jam City – A/Arpjam
12. DJ Assault – Vandalism
13. K.G. – 808
14. GIRL UNIT – IRL
15. Jagged Edge ft. Trina & Gucci Mane – Tip Of My Tongue (Inst.)
16. GIRL UNIT – WUT
17. Terror Danjah ft. Swindle – Kiss Chase (Inst.)
18. Justin Timberlake – My Love (Inst.)
19. Asia Cruise – Boyfriend
20. Mike V. – Feelings
21. Leatherface – Requiem
22. DJ Solo – Juk3-tron
23. DJ Nehpets – GJM Trax 2
24. J.O.H – Goom
25. Kingdom – RedBaron Juke
26. Aaron-Carl – For The Money
27. DJ Spinn – Breezy
28. DJ Assault – Sometimes (Inst.)
29. Mister Ries – Sugar (Kill Frenzy remix)
30. DJ Rashad ft. DJ Gant-Man – U See Dem Hoes ’09
31. DJ Deeon – I Hope Its U (Juke Mix)

Literally can’t get enough of Floating Points right now, been following him for a while since the amazing J&W / K&G Beat on Planet Mu…

…but the new remix of Bonobo is just something else entirely, don’t really know how to describe it but every time I listen to it it sends me in to a daze, so anthemic yet mellow. It’s like hands in the air chillout, wait for the drop at 1:58!

More people need to be making music like this, proper feel good music with a dash of cool.

If you have any sense, then this week you be mostly listening to this mix from the excitingly anonymous Sbtrkt lifted straight from the Fact podcast. Yea alright so I’m a bit late and it’s two weeks old or something, but like almost every other, I only remember to check out the Fact podcast when someone reminds me, which is why I thought I should remind you.

Anyway, literally no idea who Sbtrkt is, but considering the relatively impressive amount of coverage he’s getting already, (Benji B is all over him, and he recently played Get Familiar @ Fabric) then I reckon it has got to be an alias of an already established artist, although I could be wrong and he’s just got lucky…

Yea check it out if you want a taste of some lush house and funky, the Jack Penate mix is insane good.
Very big things for Sbtrkt this year hopefully.

Sbtrkt – Fact Mix 66

01: FaltyDL – To London
02: Dimlite – Aurora Stay Close
03: F – Epilogue (Ramadanman Rerub)
04: Karizma – Necessary Madness
05: 2000 and One – Funk That
06: Nepa Allstars – The Way (Sbtrkt edit)
07: Jack Penate – Be The One (Sbtrkt remix)
08: Sbtrkt – Outbound
09: Menta – Sound Of Da Future
10: Sully – Duke St Dub
11: Goldie – Inner City Life (Sbtrkt edit)
12: Sbtrkt – Crashed Out
13: Silkie – Spark
14: Sampha – Summer
15: Little Dragon – Runabout
16: El-B – Express
17: Sbtrkt – Laika
18: Pangaea – Router
19: Ragga Twins – Spliffhead (Ramadanman refix)
20: RSD – Forward Youth
21: Sbtrkt – Soundboy shift
22: Outro

Right, well sorry about being slack last month, did a mix but wasn’t really happy with it so didn’t stick it up, admittedly I’m becoming ever so tight on quality control these days, which can be a harrowing experience when you find yourself tearing your hair out when just one tune doesn’t quite fit.
Luckily towards the back end of the month my good man the ever delectable James Fox appeared with the mix he’s been promising me since forever, luckily it’s been worth the wait.
I’ve listened to the mix just under seven thousand times, but I just couldn’t write any description that would do it justice, but luckily Rick has been a gent enough to do it for me, so here goes…

“hello. my name is rick, and i’m a friend/acquaintance of mr james fox. somewhere below this text you will be able to find and (presumably) ‘download’ his latest ‘mixtape’.
you will no doubt be delighted to know that i have done the hard work and listened to it already, my thought process being that if it was awful i could give you fine people plenty of warning to avoid it like the disgusting swine flu james himself is currently infested with. thankfully the ‘mix’ is not unlistenable, turgid dross, it is in fact an immaculately assembled voyage through the creative cranium of someone who probably has much better taste in music than you.
marvel as he gently squeezes your soft, moisturised hand and leads you through the twin peaks-inspired synth-heavy genius of instra:mental’s ‘futurist’, then on to the giddy chunk of swag’s classic ‘them drums’ before promptly and carefully tossing you to the proverbial lion that is zed bias’ epic saving of premium rate, blow job-haired prodigy hanger-on maxim’s frankly dreadful ‘scheming’. and all this before he’s so much as suggested a brief soujourn into the thunderdome of low-end pressure that is the ‘brilliantly-titled’ uk funky genre, squashing roska and rye rye together like a particularly delicious, particularly urban cake mix, then switching things up once more through the undiluted next level brilliance of musical oddball siriusmo, moniker supremo julio bashmore and all-round many-styles kings baobinga & id.
all that wordy toss aside, the glory of sir fox’s latest mix is thus: by day he may be an ambling, mild-mannered picture of northern gentility, but by night he mutates into a slathering, genre-devouring, still-ambling beast with a ‘mixtape’ that puts most every other offering i’ve heard all year to shame with it’s structure, focus and overall deluge of class. so please, download this mix – james doesn’t have long to live.”

Literally couldn’t have said it better myself. Download it instantly, if anything perhaps try and find a time machine and listen to it yesterday just so by today you could have listened to it five times rather than one.

Download Here

Running time 00:52:45

01: Instra:mental – Futurist [Naked Lunch]
02: Jason Fine – Puttin’ It Out (A Made Up Sound Remix) [Kontra Musik]
03: Shed – Another Wedged Chicken (Martyn Remix) [Ostgut]
04: Swag – Them Drums [Version]
05: Nova Lima – Yo Voy (Seiji Remix) [CDR]
06: Maxim – Scheming (Zed Bias Remix) [XL]
07: Karizma – Groove A Kordingly [r2]
08: NB Funky – Riddim Box [Urban Riddims]
09: Roska – Feeline VIP [Roska Kicks & Snares]
10: Blaqstarr – Shake It To The Ground (Acapella) [Mad Decent]
11: Modeselektor – Silikon (Sirius Mo Remix / James Fox Re-edit) [Bpitch Control]
12: Julio Bashmore – Um Bongo’s Revenge [CDR]
13: Bassbin Twins – 80808 Dub [distinctive]
14: Hot City – Setting Me Free [Infrasonics]
15: Jan Driver – Rat Alert (Dub) [Made To Play]
16: Ursula 1000 – iLove (Baobinga & ID Remix) [CDR]
17: Stacy Epps – Floatin’ [Brownswood]

For those of you who felt the wholesomeness of that mix, and need another fix of James’ pink salty crack, his most recent Problems Solve Themselves EP is out now on mmii records