Monday 26 April 2010

Free Rustie mix & Benga track


In anticipation of their massive night at Matter this Friday, FWD + Rinse are giving away a free 30-minute mix by the eternally youthful Rustie. To download it, click here.

They've also very kindly wangled a free old skool-style track by Benga, 'Who Remembers'. Get your hands on it here.

To support Rinse FM in its mission to gain a licence, follow this link

Friday 23 April 2010

Dem2 exclusive UK garage mix


Occasionally  I pack up my pride and joy, aka my garage vinyl, and head for Dalston to play at hilarious two-step party Days Like That and its sister act, 90s night Why So Serious? 

The next Days Like That is on Friday 30 April at The Russian Bar. Playing this month are classic garage headliners Dem2, Ray Hurley and the brilliantly wicked DJ Scott Garcia, who dropped a most megatronic set last time.

You like a blog, don't you? Good. Then go check out Days like That's new stomping ground, dayslikethatgarage.blogspot.com 

To celebrate the blog launch, they're giving away a sultry garage mix by Dem2. Download it now now now!  

Thursday 22 April 2010

Gordon Mac and Kiss 100

My mate-off-the-radio Ed Adoo just sent me this link to an interview with Gordon Mac.

Gordon is the dude who started up Kiss FM, London's famous radio station that operated from 1985 as a pirate before landing a legal licence in 1990. He is still big radio cheese. 

The history of the station is fascinating, including the fact that it was the launchpad for the careers of Norman Jay, Tim Westwood and Trevor Nelson.

I'm a big fan of Kiss. Ricky, Melvin and Charlie on the breakfast show are jokes - well worth listening to despite the fact they have an appalling playlist. The station is also home to David Rodigan, DJ Hype, Logan Sama, Sinden and the Loose Cannons. That's quite a bangin' lineup, I think you'll agree.

So ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome...

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Twitter


Right gang, I've finally joined the Twitter revolution. Bear with me while I figure out how the fuck it works though!

www.twitter.com/GravitySkank

WIN tickets to Together at the Coronet


The chaps from ex-Turnmills shindig Together are putting on a bunch of parties down at The Coronet in Elephant and Castle.

Together will run at the massive 2,600-capacity venue in south London every Friday until 25 June - and some of the parties look pretty sick.

My choice is the closer, which features an awesome lineup of Kode9, Joker, Roska and Hudson Mohawke.

7 May – Kelis, Tinchy Stryder, Afrika Bambaataa
14 May – Alex Metric, Joker, Friendly Fires, Joker, Deadly Rhythm Soundsystem,
21 May – Switch, Jack Beats, Popof and Aeroplane in room 2
28 May – tba
4 June – Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, DJ Yoda, Stereo MCs
11 June – Vitalic, Joe and Will Ask?, Mystery Jets (DJ set)
18 June – Fischerspooner, Steve Aoki

THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED:
25 June – The BIG Finale: Kode9, Joker, Hudson Mohawke.

www.together-club.co.uk

Wednesday 14 April 2010

High Rankin: the funny side of meow

There's no way you could have missed the recent hoo-hah over meow, the legal drug that's taken the dance music scene by storm, and which the government is frantically trying to ban.

Brighton producer High Rankin has taken the media panic with a pinch of, erm, salt, and produced a dubstep track called 'Meow Meow'. The accompanying video is pretty funny. Let's play 'name that seafront club', kids...

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Soundcrash: DJ Yoda at Kentish Town Forum


On Saturday night I toddled down to Kentish Town Forum for Soundcrash, a 3D audiovisual extravaganza which essentially was, to my delight, a comedy dance music night.

Soundcrash is behind a whole range of hip hop/dubstep/anything-goes events ranging from the Trojan Sound System party at Koko last week (I'll blog about that later) to the Soundwave Festival in Croatia this July (which looks wicked - check out www.soundwavecroatia.com). The promotion has only recently come on my radar but boy, it's a good'un.

All the DJs at this gig were performing an AV mashup on the big screens that were hoisted up around the venue, so they get maximum respect for the amount of effort - and YouTube hours - that must have gone into getting a set together.

The party kicked off with Solid Steel's DJ Cheeba, who gets my top marks for the night. Cheeba smashed it, mixing and scratching everything from jungle to dubstep to Flight of the Conchords. The most memorable part has to be this (literally) dope Alice in Wonderland remix...



Second best bit of Cheeba's set was when he played 'Akama' by Kaitain and Tom Central. I say that not just because the latter was my date for the night, but because it was a genuinely badass track. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Next up were the Addictive TV DJs, who looked like what I can only describe as the Three Stooges dancing on stage like my dad at a wedding. Unfortunately they took the joke a bit too far. Instead of striking that delicate balance of excellent music with a measured dose of humour, they went all out, culminating in a badly chosen track from Family Guy. The most excruciating fact was, they looked more excited than the punters. But let's not dwell.

DJ Yoda came on next, doing what Yoda does best. He's famous for his well-crafted AV shows and this Magic Cinema Set, as he calls it, was no disappointment. It must be hard for a DJ to retain their credibility while playing a Tom Jones track to a serious dance-music crowd, but somehow Yoda managed to pull it off (give or take a few missed cues).

He dropped enough quality raving tunes to keep me skanking, but every now and then pulled some hilarity out of the bag, too. I never thought I'd see the day Lonely Island's 'I'm on a Boat' was played at a rave. If you haven't seen it yet, you're going to LOVE this: