The first of November falls like an iron curtain across Europe. OK, that's enough of the cold war similes, but it's true. It's bloody freezing getting up for work at the moment. Anyway, I should have enough to keep me company during the long British winter. I've just invested in a pair of CDJ200s. I can't afford the more expensive CDJ1000s or even the 800s. The others may look better on paper, but I'm confident mine will look great once they're up and running. What do I want to be able to do with them? Mix and play back mp3s. The auxiliary bollocks is all embellishment as far as I'm concerned. They should be arriving tomorrow. Christmas has come early.

I had to get them now because I'm going to become a father again in February and the egg chamber will have to be constantly replenished with fresh nutrients.

Musically things have never looked better. I'm definitely one for living in the present while cocking a reverential snoop to the past. But the music keeps on surprising me and filling me with childlike wonder and excitement. That Detroit's influence is as strong as ever has been recently noted in these columns, labels like Delsin, Rush Hour and Styrax Leaves keeping the (european) home fires burning. What's also not gone unnoticed is the morphology inherent in a lot of current techno to stretch to infonity and beyond. Check Philip Sherburne's "The Month in Techno" (October installment) for more on this. He puts it more eloquently than I can. I just think that it's more evidence of the survival of "real" electronic trance and its teutonic heritage. Trance as an adjective, not as a disturbing plastic genre nurtured by the likes of Perfecto, etc . . . Anyway, as he says in his article "it's easier to understand . . . . if you can listen along. . . ."

Radioslave aks Matt Edwards is a more than ubiquitous presence these days, which could be tiresome where it not for the fact that practically everything he turns his hand to is excellent. Along with Ewan Pearson Edwards seems to be becoming the remixer's remixer, showing a depth of understanding across genres that you don't encounter every year, no matter every day. I bought his new mix on Eskimo "Creature of the Night" yesterday which, along with the forthcoming "Fabriclive 31 The Glimmers" nicely provides the mashup heads amongst us with some organised chaos for mid-autumn. Personally I like to make my own sushi while listening to this stuff as the collision of genres is nicely reflected by what's on my plate, an absolute fucking mess. My mum bought me a sushi making kit for my birthday last year (no, she's not upper-middle class and lives in Knutsford) and I ended up using it for the first time over a year later, last Saturday. You need a sharp knife to cut that stuff to stop rice ejaculation from nori. I don't keep Japanese style cutlery in the home though. I', a father with a strong sense of fear and foreboding and I don't want to be pinioned to my bed by Lilliputians demanding "hotwheels or death" on pocket money days. The sins of the father shall not be revisited on the father by the sons ta very much.

XPress 2 are playing the Fez for The Priory on the 16/11, which should be a good night out for all. Apparently they've insisted on two 1210s each and two CDJ100s each, which will make a grand total of six turntables and the same of CDJs. They'd better be good because they don't come cheap either. Sam from the Priory will be guesting on my next show, so his mental state will be interesting to assess. Will he have sweaty palms and be prone to speaking like Gareth Davies on crack? Only time will tell.

Also, with absolutely no promotion whatsoever and, therefore guaranteed to be poorly supported by native residents, The Junction are putting on a new night two days after The Priory, featuring Mr C and Audiofly. I sincerely hope it's packed to the rafters but looking at the amount of promotion the Priory have to do to get their crowd in gives me serious cause for concern. If any of the parties concerned are reading this blog, bring a few coach loads up with you, you're going to need them.

I'm still not online at home, which is limiting my output. I hope to have this sorted
very soon.



Playlist for "Machines Are Funky" 4/11/06:

People are People (Underground Resistance mix) - Depeche Mode (Capitol)
Ghouls (Claude Von Stroke's Beats from the Grave mix) - Luke Solomon (Rekids)
5am Little Surprise - Pheek (Archipel)
Web of Deceit - Primary Colours (Fair Park)
Ode to DS - Mark Henning (Multivitamins)
Refine the Warrior - The Model (Underline)
White Noise - Audiojack (20/20 Vision)
24-24 - Cabaret Voltaire (Some Bizarre/Virgin)
Flip Flop - Repeat, Repeat (Soma)
What's Wrong My Friends? - Ricardo Villalobos (Perlon)
School - Robert Hood (Music Man)
Da Funk (10 Minutes of Funk mix) - Daft Punk (Virgin)
Smoke on a Plane - Copacabbanark (Persona)

Marco Carola Fabric Radio Mix:

Red 20 - JPLS (Minus)
Offprint 1.2 - Gaiser (Minus)
Minidiscoslicker - Jay la Forge (Deepinrhythm)
Mitica - Pedron (Unknown)
The Tracks - Luciano (Cadenza)
Traitors of Africa - Femi Kuti (Restricted Access)
Entr'acte Music - Andromat 3000 & Jan (Cadenza)
Simply Driving Gold - Daze Maxim (Hello)
No Fit State - Audion (Spectral)

(Check the link above from 7/11/06)

Chart: 11/06

The chart is only ever an indication of what I am playing at the time of writing, not necessarily of new releases:


Prelude to Foundation EP - The Model (Underline)
Squints LP - Repeat, Repeat (Soma)
My Friend is a Sea Horse (Radioslave remix) - Kissogram (DefDrive)
The Tussincussion (original mix) - Justin Maxwell (Pallette)
Bird Flu - Jens Bond (Highgrade)
Sleepy Hollow - Ame & Stefan Goldmann (Innervisions)
What's Wrong My Friends? (Perlon) & Fizheuer Zieheuer (Playhouse) - Ricardo Villalobos (for not giving a shit)
The Line In Between - Jussi Pekka (Frozen North)
Ghouls (Claude von Stroke's Beats from the Grave mix) - Luke Solomon (Rekids)

Mix cd of the month:

Immer 2 - Michael Mayer (Kompakt)

Others worthy of a mention:

Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Vol. 3 - Alex Smoke (Soma)
FabricLive 31 - The Glimmers (Fabric)
Creature of the Night - Radioslave (Eskimo)