Mix?

I am the most unproductive person ever, especially when it comes to making a mix. I've had various mixes that have been partly finnished, purely for the fact that I am never fully happy with them. So, when asked to do a mix for a friend I was reluctant to get it sorted. Anyway, here it is, It's also way shorter than i wanted it to be for the same reasons:

Tribal / Tech

C'est La Vie

So I've been away for quite a while now, and with good reason. Along with a couple of visits to Manchester and gig's of my own, I have had to also cope with the intense amount of uni work I am being set (as if).

Both the visits to Manchester were for Warehouse project gig's, along with a visit to the infamous Sankey's Soap. The first of my warehouse project visits was for the Annie Mac Presents night which was very dissapointing considering the impressive line-up:

To start, two of the acts I was most excited to see didn't even show! A-trak (to which I missed a gig in Newcastle because I assumed I was seeing him on this night) and also Herve, who did not attend the 3volution after party. Sinden also took it upon himself to play the last 2 hrs, using a laptop with what i can assume was traktor. Not to knock the guy, because I love him.

The second visit to Manchester saw me starting my weekend at Sankey's for a Digitalism DJ set followed by the 50% North Walian Duo Shadow Dancer. I was upset that Digitalism cancelled their UK portion of their tour when Isi fell ill and I have always wanted to see how Shadow dancer would sound so i was overly excited. Over all, the Electronic sing along melodies of Digitalism complimented by the stereo typical sound of Boys Noize records did not disappoint.

The second of my visits to the warehouse project included Erol Alkan and his friends. This was by far the best of the two. Everyone of the line-up decided to attend! Which was a bonus, and the night wasn't even ruined by the special guests, who I wont mention.

As for the gigs I have been asked to play, I have been playing mostly fidget which I never seem to be getting tired of. I recently knocked up the following mix when I discovered I could download the opening track. I hope you enjoy my 'C'est La Vie' mix, you should recognise some of the tracks and even the first mix? Who knows, maybe you could sneak in to one of my gigs in Newcastle if you like what you hear? In future I will post dates up on here so you can get an advance warning (maybe to make other plans):

C'est La Vie Mix

Nadastrom - Pussy

Hk119 - C'est La Vie (Rusko Remix)

Underworld - Ring Road (Fake Blood Remix)

Lee Mortimer - Putto

Foamo - Everything Cool

Action Man & Jesse Rose - Take It To The Club

Lee Mortimer - Come On

Hervé's Party Bombs!

Even if you are not familiar with all of his alias's I'm sure you'll have heard Joshua Harvey's work at some point. From his remix work under the name of 'Hervé' to his collaboration and productions with Sinden under the guise of 'The Count of Monte Cristal'. Never mind what he's calling himself today, his work is getting big press and he's getting even bigger with the development of his label 'Cheap Thrills'. Hervé recently appeared on the Machines Don't Care album with an all star cast bringing 'fidget' house to a new level (be sure to look into that one).

This month's mixmag contains a free CD with the young artist mixing what he feels is hot from the genre along with some exclusives and even some tracks under some of his lesser known alter ego's, voodoo chili and action man. Tracks that have particularly interested me are his team ups' with A-trak and Kissy Sell Out, but all the tracks are typical bangers with the trade-mark wobbly bass and cut up vocals that 'fidget' house is renowned for. So here's the track list and a download link, for those who are too skint to splash out a couple of quid for the magazine, cheap thrills:

Hervé's Party Bombs!

Kidda - Under The Sun (Hervé’s Anit No Sunshine Mix)

Hervé & A-Trak Feat Cadence Weapon - Roll With The Winners

Beat Monkeys - How You Like Me Now? (Rico Tubb’s Bassline Mix)

The Kills - Cheap And Cheerful (Fake Blood Mix)

T2 - Butterflies (The Count Of Monte Cristal’s Sceptre Mix)

Estaw - Break It Down (Hervé’s Spitfire Mix)

Machines Don't Care - Spycatcher

His Majesty Andre - NRG 555 (Hervé’s Edit)

Voodoo Chilli - Big Byrd

Action Man & Jesse Rose - Take It To The Club

Dune - Bloodlines (Hervé’s Love Messed Up Mix)

Hervé - Cheap Thrills (Hervé’s Exclusive Bequia Dub)

Machines Don't Care - How Ya’ll Like Me Now

Action Man - Under Your Skin (Mixmag Edit)

Hervé & Kissy Sell Out - Rikkalicious (Mixmag Edit)

Say no to tweezers...

Boys Noize and A-Trak have teamed up to give some one-off versus gigs after realising they both had 'uni-brows'. This world tour will only be making one UK date, at Newcastle's Wax:on night at Digital. There hasn't been any news on either of the websites, however I managed to pick up this poster from the A-Trak myspace (www.myspace.com/djatrak) after getting a heads-up from a friend. This gig is definitely worth making a date in your diary.

To showcase the talents of both the young artists, here's a download, for those who haven't already got their hands on it. A bit of an old one now, but very appropriate:

Boys Noize - Oh! (A-Trak Remix)

Nightswimming

Ive been busy for the past week, but the time has come for me to move into the new house in Newcastle. So I thought I would check out Digital (http://www.yourfutureisdigital.com/) to see what lies in store for the time I'm up and the next couple of months.

Although Kissy has been DJ'ing since god knows when, he has just pulled together a full band to perform live gigs. Unfortunately, this will not be the set up when he visits Digital on the 15th of August. This date seems to be the only one of many where he is returning to the turntables. Kissy Sell Out appears to be one of the very few DJ's that constantly changes his sets keeping the crowd on their toes with an arsenal of unpredictable bangers from the past and present. I personally think that he will be fun to hear as most of his own music / remixes have a 'happy' vibe to them, never mind his airhorn! I think you should definitely attend this one if your about.

Kissy's remix work seems to have a bit of a marmite effect, i personally like most of the stuff I've heard, from the quirky high-pitched melodies from his remixes of 'Stop Me' by Mark Ronson and 'Wind It Up' by Gwen Stefani, to his reworking of the piano on the recent 'Nightswimming' by R.E.M. So I thought I would share this little number with you as it has grown on me and I think it's a perfect summer song, if it was actually sunny around here! I particularly like the cut-up vocal that also appears in Sinden's remix of 'Prettty Girls' by Stuffa. 'What? Brrrrat!':

R.E.M. - Nightswimming (Kissy Sell Out's Bmore Re-Edit)