Tuesday 30 March 2010

6th Borough Project

Craig Smith & Graeme Clark (The Revenge) have worked together in the studio for almost a decade, producing deep, underground house music and exploring long forgotten funk and dusty disco dubs. Recent studio output has featured on the much sought after L.E.S.S. Productions label as well as Jisco Music, Instruments Of Rapture, Soul Heaven and Delusions Of Grandeur.

With a debut album due in 2010 and their highly anticipated DJ mixes receiving widespread appreciation, the duo are stepping out for a few special appearances in the coming months.
This is the duo's great new "Blend II "mix. Enjoy the music. Click On Right Hand Arrow To Download.

6th Borough Project - Blend II (Full Mix) by warmhq

Optimo - The End Is Nigh

JG Wilkes and JD Twitch have announced that on April 25 they will put an end to their legendary and long-running weekly clubnight, Optimo (Espacio)

They had this to say in a statement on the Optimo forum

“The end is nigh….

“After 12 and a half years (or around 650 Optimos), we have, after a huge amount of consideration and many sleepless nights decided that Sunday April 25th will be the LAST EVER night of Optimo (Espacio) at The Sub Club.

“We have loved doing Optimo with all our hearts, but our hearts are also telling us it is time to call a halt to it. Playing at, organising and promoting a weekly night takes up an enormous amount of energy and there are so many other things we want to do that some of that energy is needed for other projects. We also need to get our lives and weeks back a little bit and take on new challenges and opportunities (we have to turn down an awful lot of opportunities by being committed to being in Glasgow every Sunday and being wiped out every Monday).

“We will continue to tour, promote and release music as Optimo but it will no longer be possible to hear JD Twitch and JG Wilkes dj at The Sub Club every Sunday night.

“However, it is not completely over. Twitch played at the Sub Club on Sunday nights for two years before Optimo started and was involved in a Sunday evening club for a few years before that, so it is hard to let go of Sunday night events in Glasgow completely. Twitch and Wilkes will continue to promote Sunday nights at The Sub Club under an as yet to be announced name. The new night will give a platform to the plethora of great djs in Glasgow, bring djs we love to Glasgow and bring live acts nobody else would bring to this city. Sometimes Twitch or Wilkes may play alongside them and sometimes Twitch and Wilkes will play together on a Sunday night but, without Twitch and Wilkes playing together weekly, it won’t and can’t be Optimo.

“Who know what this new venture will morph into but whatever, we hope that the anarchic spirit we brought to the Sub Club in 1997 will continue to prevail on Sunday nights.

“So, there are 7 Optimos left. Hopefully we will see some of you before the end. We absolutely intend to go out with a bang.”

Optimo is, or was, one of the most distinctive and iconic British clubnights of the past twenty years, and it played an instrumental role in breaking down perceived boundaries and oppositions between different musical genres, thanks largely to the selection skills of DJs Twitch and Wilkes but also their open-minded booking policy with regard to live acts. Over the past decade all of the following, to name but a tiny fraction of the whole, have played the club: Whitehouse, Four Tet, Felix Kubin, Michael Mayer, Annie, Richie Hawtin, Grace Jones, I-f, Throbbing Gristle, Delia & Gavin, Shackleton, Marshall Jefferson and LCD Soundsystem. The club’s remaining weeks promise sets from Jackmaster, Nurse With Wound and Matias Aguayo, among others.

Optimo the club will be sorely missed, but its cultural impact will reverberate for years to come.

Danny Krivit

Melting Pot are very excited to finally have Danny Krivit guesting with them again, 7 years after giving him his Glasgow debut!

Danny’s biog is lengthy to say the least! Coming up to 39 years as a DJ, resident and guest at some of the biggest New York clubs over that period: from The Paradise Garage, to The Loft, Roxy, Body and Soul, and latterly his own monthly 718 Sessions, to over 200 production credits, and a record collection pushing 70,000! Danny is steeped in New York clubbing history, and so obviously is the perfect Melting Pot guest!

Danny started out DJing in 1971 at his father’s club, The Ninth Circle, in Greenwich Village, where he would play the latest white labels given personally to him by James Brown himself! He built up his DJing career throughout the ‘70’s, immersing himself in the scene, establishing close friendships with the likes of Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian through David Mancuso’s Loft record pool, and becoming resident at the seminal Roxy club in 1979 for the next four years. It was The Roxy that broke the nascent hip-hop scene in New York, with Grandmaster Flash, Africa Bambaata, and D.S.T. playing alongside the renamed Danny Rock!

During the 1980’s Danny started to make a name for himself as a re-editor of note, with several of his edits became the “standard” versions: MFSB’s Love is the Message being the most obvious. Others included: James Brown’s Funky Drummer, Give it up or Turn it Loose and Brenda and The Tabulations Let’s Go All The Way. Since then his production/mixer/editor credits tally over 200! Earning himself the title “King of the Re-Edits”! With a serious of fantastic compilations over the years on Strut, and latterly the In The House series on Defected.

After holding down residencies all over New York in the 80’s and 90’s, it was in 1996 when he joined forces with Francois K and Joe Claussell to form the weekly Sunday party, Body and Soul, which became a defining moment in his career. Over the 7 of so years that the party ran weekly it became an international institution, with clubbers jetting into New York especially. Body and Soul was thought of as the closest New York had to the Paradise Garage since its closure in 1987, with its forward thinking musical policy of pushing new sounds, but respecting the rich heritage of disco, funk and soul that built the New York club scene. International dates exploded at this point, and Danny continues to play all over the world to this day. Body and Soul carries on as a special event, around 3 times a year in New York, with an annual weekend tour to Japan, and dates from as far afield as Brazil, to London, to Singapore. Since 2002 his 718 Sessions monthly night has gone from strength to strength in New York, and they can’t wait to have him back in Glasgow!

Danny Krivit plays Melting Pot's special Easter party on Sunday the 4th April alongside Melting Pot residents Andrew Pirie and Simon Cordiner at the Admiral in Glasgow. Not to be missed...

Friday 5 March 2010

Darkstarr

DarkStarr is the new project from Dj Cosmo and Ashley Beedle. This is surely going to be their year with parties, productions - including remixes of Ashley's new venture Mavis on !K7, and Salvador Santana, plus a compilation album DarkStarr Psychedelic Disco-Tech: They Live by the Night due for release in April on Music Response Records.

Mavis is Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris' new project. Their debut album on K7 features Candi Staton, Edwyn Collins, Ed Harcourt, Kurt Wagner and more. As all of the songs are lovely and mellow, Cosmo and Ashley decided it was time to mix it up and give Candi's song "Revolution" a new spin. Their DarkStarr Mix is the result.

Mavis ft. Candi Staton "Revolution" (DarkStarr Mix) and (DarkStarr Dub) will be released on Bitches Brew at the end of March. It will be released as part of the Bitches Brew limited edition 10-inch series with hand silk screened jackets and hand stamped labels. This is a follow up to the debut release of the series, Horace Andy & Ashley Beedle's "When The Rain" (Cosmodelica Mix) which was a huge success. Subsequent releases on the limited edition 10-inch series will include DarkStarr Mix of Salvador Santana and a Cosmodelica Mix of The Phenomenal Handclap Band.

For those of you near Glasgow this weekend, come join Ashley and Cosmo for a real knees up night of music at one of our Glasgow's favourite disco parties Melting Pot for there 9th birthday celebrations. This one is not to be missed. Enjoy the music...

Mavis Ft. Candi Staton - "Revolution" [DarkStarr Radio Edit] by Colleen Cosmo Murphy

Cosmodelica

Since moving from New York to London around 2000 Dj Cosmo has continued to build a reputation as a Dj of some note – with the all encompassing New York mindset of Djing with no limits, playing good music, no matter the style or genre, as long as it works on the floor and not being a slave to the beat.

Cosmo is also part of the promotion team that has established the quarterly London Loft parties with David Mancuso – in her days back in New York she was one of a very few people ever to have the privilege to play regularly at The Loft, she was also one of the few guests to play at the seminal Body & Soul nights alongside Joe Claussell, Francois K, and Danny Krivit. Indeed, she in held in such high regard by Francois K that she is one of the few DJs he trusts to play the entire night at his weekly Deep Space residency in New York.

Not content with promoting, DJing and hosting radio shows that are syndicated across the globe, Cosmo also runs her own record label Bitches Brew and has been producing some superb records under the Wild Rumpus alias, which have also featured mixes from Rub n Tug and Prins Thomas.

Last weekend Cosmo was asked to play at the ICA for an Arthur Russell Tribute which included the launch of Tim's Arthur Russell biography and a performance by the Arthur cover band Arthur's Landing (album coming out on Strut / K7). She did the early set and instead of featuring Arthur's disco records, Cosmo played a selection of other types of music which She presumed Arthur would like. From Olatunji to Satie, Jonathan Richman to Joe Gibbs, Richard Hell to Joni Mitchell and The Silver Apples too of course. This is what Cosmo would have played for Arthur had she known him and invited him to dinner. Enjoy The Music....

Dinner With Arthur (0Selection by Cosmo) by Colleen Cosmo Murphy

Thursday 4 March 2010

Solardisco

Solardisco returns for an other installment at Basura Blanca,Brunswick Hotel Glasgow On Saturday 13th March for a residents special. Previous guests at Solardisco have included Pete Herbert (Reverso 68),Dicky Trisco (Disco Deviance),Rune Lindbaek (Noid/Paper),Richard Sen (Padded Cell) and The Revenge & Ali Herron (Ooft Music).

Residents Maelstrom (Eskimo Recordings/Mindless Boogie),Craig Moog (Electrofunkdiscotek) and Kev Stevens (Soba) shall be providing the soundtrack of cosmic electronic disco,future classics and some secret weapons. Pre club in the bar from 9pm. Get down early to ensure entry. Not to be missed....

DC Reworks

Pyramid Disco return with number two in the DC Reworks series features a top class edit match up between those tricksters of cut up and pastedness The Popular People’s Front and northern electro-funkateers BC (Disco Deviance / Redux). The mysterious collective known only as The Popular People’s Front is responsible for numerous high quality DJ cut ups and reworks covering funk, hip hop, disco and house. Top notch DJ tools are the name of their game. And on this release they rework DC La Rue’s "Indiscreet" track (highly influential on the US hip hop scene back in the day) and push it into disco hyperspace. Guaranteed dancefloor joy!

Meanwhile on the flip, electro-funk disciples BC (the people behind big cuts like "Konked Out" on Redux and "NY Jump" / "Magnificent Disco" on Disco Deviance) put the blade to yet another DC classic. This time it is the epic "Overture" that gets transformed into a more bass heavy groove that oozes the funk and works the body. More top tributes to the disco legend that is DC La Rue.

Pete Herbert

Native Londoner ,Pete,has been blowing up discerning dance floors all over the globe with his djing and productions as Reverso 68, Frontera, LSB, Optimo And Solo stuff on renowned labels like Eskimo Recording, Rekids, Redux, Music For Dreams and many more.He is co-owner of the Maxidiscs label Alongside Friend And Partner Dicky Trisco(Disco Deviance/Deep Freeze).

Pete has been doing some great mixes lately for artist such as Chambouche (Under The Shade) with "Ipso Factor", Zodiac's (Mellophonia) "Pacific", Dirty Jesus (Juno) and his new release on Disco Deviance "Disco Rocket" all great records that should be purchased. This is his podcast for"audioFAMILIES". Enjoy the music. Click On Right Hand Arrow To Download..

Pete Herbert podcast - Nov 09 by audioFAMILIES