I’ve seen the future and it works. . . .







Chart: May’06

Switch The Light/Pee On You – Fuckponydelic (INeedAFreak)
Now I’m Weak EP – Tolga Fidan (Vakant)
Sun & Ice - The Field (Kompakt)
Duckbeats 2 – Chris Duckenfield (Odori)
Elektronische Musik – Interkontinental 5 – Various Artists (Traum)
Superlongevity 4 – Various Artists (Perlon)
Interstellar Fugitives 2 – Underground Resistance (Submerge)
25 Bitches Pts 1 & 2 – Troy Pierce (Minus)
Stecker EP – Styro 2000 (Bruchstuecke)
Say It – House Of Black Dress (Fresh Meat)

I want more vocals, even snippets would be nice.

I’ve heard a few mix cds this month, none of which have really done it for me. “Bugnology 2” by Steve Bug (Poker Flat) is particularly disappointing. No. 1 was excellent.

Oldie of the month:

When The Funk Hits The Fan (Mood II Swing When The Dub Hits The Fan) – King Britt Presents Sylk 130 (Ovum)

Cambridge is the new Berlin!

A couple of days ago I was sitting in the window of Café Brazil on Mill Rd when who should walk in but Mark Henning. He had a heavily bandaged hand, and told me that he was just getting his life in order (probably a little dramatic, that) after having left his job. He was also looking forward to playing Jena tonight, for Freude-am Tanzen, and Watergate in Berlin tomorrow, which he described as probably “the biggest gig of my life.” Due to go on around 4am tomorrow, he should catch Berlin at it’s most lively. Hope it goes well for him.

A word about Legends at Cambridge City FC. Badger Attack was supposed to be on tonight, but was cancelled yesterday by Legends. No licence and a complete lack of organisation is the answer I’m afraid. Unfortunately there isn’t much else in Cambridge. The scene up to now has been building up a nice bit of momentum over the past year, but now it is in danger of gathering moss. I know that Jonny aka “Le Jockey,” is amongst a secret cabal charged with building a sound system for the place, so there is yet hope.

A chart will be posted over the next couple of days, as well as any other news deemed worth mentioning. Watch this space.

Oh, just to make sure there’s something cheerful to kick off with. Great Cup Final yesterday. The man above was the difference.

There is a terrible shortage of decent venues in Cambridge. A fact underlined by the cancellation, earlier this week, of The Priory’s May Ball. Originally scheduled for last night on Cambridge City Football pitch, the soiree, organised through the ubiquitous Legend’s Bar, had been flyered for a month and was due to take place under a marquee on the football pitch, not in the bar. Of course, the venue forgot to ask the groundsman until a few days before. When asked the groundsman probably said something like “a marquee on a football pitch that we almost certainly can’t afford to re turf filled with 400 or so sweaty ravers, are you mad?” And so I received a text on Wednesday telling me it was off. This is the turd on the cake, following on, as it does, from the first Obvious being double-booked, and the last Badger Attack having no bar and closing an hour early. We need another venue, and quickly.

Tonight we’ve got Josh Wink at Bottom Heavy. Following on from Derrick May two weeks ago, another heavyweight of the one’s and two’s makes his way to Cambridge to star in Jim Master’s and Largo’s Sunday night shebang. Mr Wink has, in my opinion, always been a better dj than producer, and has always maintained a high, twisted standard behind the decks. He’s in town to promote his contribution to the Ministry’s “Sessions” series. Should be good.

Some labels which are doing it for me at the moment: Einmaleins, Mobilee and Foundsound. Many more of course, but these three are ones that I check all the time and seem to have forged their own sound, each of which offers a subtle twist on the minimal blueprint. More label spots imminent.

Photos:
Dread at the controls

George and Sam. George, my mum always closes her eyes when she's having her photo taken.

Karl robot dancing and repairing hardware in the heat of the moment.

George, your foul-mouthed host, and Sam.

Holly and Phil from "The Scene."





Tourette’s Can Afflict Us All

Yesterday was the first full broadcast day for 209 Radio from our new premises, The Howard Mallett Centre in Cambridge. My guests were Sam, organiser and resident dj at the Priory, and Priory promoter George. We arrived around an hour before we were due to go on air. Phil and Holly were busy seamlessly presenting “The Scene,” so we relaxed and I took a few photos. Little did we know what carnage would soon erupt around us.

We took to the studio a little before 7 pm to get a feel for the place. The familiar surroundings of Karl’s living room had been replaced by the more pressurised, but ultimately more professional environment of the broadcasting studio. The show started well, and came together seamlessly for the most part. I made the competition questions as awkward-sounding as possible, (translations at the end of this article), but apart from that, and Sam’s sweaty palms, the show was going swimmingly.

Then all hell broke loose. I’d already loaded the cd containing James’ (The Fish, and Sam’s Priory djing partner) mix for the second hour of the show. However, on coming back to look at the cd display and to pfl (pre fade listen) the cd to check the levels, I saw that the display read “no disc.” Stress crept out from nowhere and myself, George and Sam began frantically looking for the missing cd, turning everything over in the studio in the process. The problem was that I’d absent-mindedly left the microphone channel open and anyone listening could hear me putting Gordon Ramsay to shame in the swearing steaks as we searched high and low for the missing medium.

Pete from Loop Soup had just come back from playing some gigs in Greece and switched on his computer. He phoned the station to tell us what was happening. Karl appeared at the studio door, ashen-faced, pointing at the mixing desk and open mic channel. Emmanuelle, my partner, was listening at home, and my kids were rolling around the floor laughing at my pain. Needless to say we quickly brought the whole episode to a hasty close, but were was the cd?

Well, the cd player, compressors, etc, are all set up on an angled rack at around 15 degrees. What had happened was the cd had actually slipped back over the sliding door and into the mechanism of the player. Luckily I had enough records to keep us sailing on an even keel, so while Karl opened up the player to extract the cd, I played on. Nero came to mind. You couldn’t make it up.

As soon as Karl got the disc and rebolted the cd player, he put the disc back in to play, and guess what happened? Yep, I went to open the cd tray again and nothing came out. It had slipped into the machine again. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Karl had to go through the whole sorry process again. I got to complete my impromptu mini-mix on the station’s new decks, which were fine, and that was that. Of such events are broadcasting history made, but I do feel a bit of a tit. To compound my evening, my bus didn’t turn up, I got soaked, and had to shell out £13 for a cab. I was seriously pissed off when I got home.

Competition questions. Reply to machines@209radio.co.uk, or by leaving a comment below. Please don’t forget to leave your contact details.

To win two copies of the new Ellen Allien and Apparat LP “Orchestra of Bubbles” (to read an excellent review of this album by Philip Sherburne, click here)answer this insultingly simple question.

What is the name Ellen Allien’s label?

To win two wristbands (winner and guest) for the Saturday part of London’s
Encompass festival, answer this even more insultingly simple question.

In which city is Soma Records based?

Good luck y’all.

Playlist for Machines Are Funky: 6/5/06

The Dance – Rhythim Is Rhythim (Transmat)
Ghostrider – Lars Wickinger (Traum)
Urban Wind – Matt John (Perlon)

Priory Interview Pt. 1

5.3 – Rekorder (Rekorder)
Ride (Der Schmeisserlovelysplinetmix) – Aswefall (Kill The DJ)
Noite de Carnaval (Matthew Herbert dub) – Cibelle (Crammed)
The Dance (Mr Negative remix) – Thugfucker (Was Not Was)

Priory Interview Pt 2

The Intergalactic Baptist Church – Underground Resistance (UR)
Intimacy Girl (Someone Else remix) – Heartz4 (HelloRepeat)

Hastily-arranged Minimix:

El Encuentro – Alex Under (Plus 8)
Silent Shout (Troy Pierce Barado en Locombia mix) – The Knife (Brille)
Frequentraeger (Pan-Pot remix) – Misc (Sender)
Finger Food – Phage & Daniel Dreier (Higrade)
Fancy (John Tejada remix) – Suxul Music (Suxul)
Cannon Shakedown – Lansley & Brockespeir (Substatic)
The Cat’s Pyjamas – Sweet n’ Candy (Einmaleins)
Rotums Kanoner – Steady Cam (K2)
Fueron Dos Y Volvio Uno – Damien Schwartz (CMYK)
25 Bitches – Troy Pierce (Minus)

The ramblings of a madman . . .


So, we left Cambridge at the ungodly hour of 8:30 am on our way to fair Londinium. As I type this, more than 24 hours after, I have just fragmentary memories of yesterdays shenanigans. Anyway, things looked momentous from the moment we left, with certain individuals not having slept the night before and being determined to carry on under the condition that sundry substances were shovelled down their respective gullets. I spoke to lots of complete strangers on the bus, which was nice. I also ate my last morsel of the day at around 11 am, a toasted chicken balti ciabatta with a mango, passion fruit and orange juice. The healthiest thing to pass my lips all day.

Once on the boat technical matters threatened to hold us up, but thankfully these were ironed out quite quickly and the tomfoolery commenced in earnest. I was determined to keep control, so I swore an oath to pace myself in order to feel fresh for Derrick May at the Soul Tree later on. And that’s it really. It was nice on the boat, good atmosphere, good tunes generally and a party atmosphere, which is how it should be. You’re not going to these events to chin stroke are you? I bumped into a lad I see most days getting on my bus to work, never spoken to him before, but we had a chat and of course I’ll be sure to ignore him when he gets on as usual tomorrow morning.

As the afternoon drew to a close, it clouded over on the river and started to get a bit breezy. We went all the way to the estuary, so everyone was keeping an eye out for a whale coming back upriver. By this time I was so wasted I was seriously calling into question the idea of going out later on, but I’d luckily made arrangements that I couldn’t back out of. Battered and bruised on the bus, I was an easy target for drug jabberers. I had my ears chewed off by two blokes in quick succession. One was a company director and epitomised reserved middle England. When he found out I was older than him he couldn’t believe it. I have that effect on people occasionally. The next guy was very friendly, a nice bloke, but I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying. He also started smoking on the bus, an unforgivable offence that, when reprimanded, turned him all childlike and contrite. It never occurred to me to stop him rolling up and I was nearly as surprised as him when he was told off for it. It wass around this time though, that I got my second wind.

Arriving in Cambridge at around 8:15, I was corralled into the Cow were Karl and the 209 Radio massive were all in attendance for his birthday bash, which would be finished off in fine style by Mr May about 7 hours later. Robert met me in the bar and I started hitting the Jack Daniels and cokes, as well as something else. Suddenly I started to feel extremely animated and was buzzing around chatting to everybody. We stayed in the bar foe a couple of hours, going into the Soul Tree around 10:30. It filled up steadily. Largo played a completely different, and better, set from what he’d played earlier on on the boat. Jim Masters took things up a notch, so by the time Derrick May appeared, we were at boiling point. Derrick then went on to slay us with a set of sonic mastery, exclusively vinyl-based, I didn’t see him use any cds. I tried to say hello, and he was more tolerant of my sorry state than I thought. He liked my t-shirt, with the portrait of Giorgio Moroder on it, but he thought it was Frank Zappa.

This was easily the best night out I’ve had in Cambridge. Admittedly, the standard hasn’t been particularly high, but activity over the past few months has been more intense than usual. I hope this is the beginning of some intense clubbing activity.

First off, we are now FM . . . at least from later on this year. OFCOM awarded 209 Radio a five-year FM licence, which means we are now a “proper” radio station, albeit within the confines of Cambridge. This is a big deal for everybody involved. I’m looking forward to establishing my show on the airwaves, while continuing to enhance its online presence. Happy and exciting times ahead I’m sure.

Back to Friday night. I arrived at Legends Bar, (Cambridge City FC in case you don’t know), to be told by the door staff that there was no bar. I soon learnt that the “club” was shutting an hour early. Consequently quite a few people stayed away. Well they shouldn’t have. It was a novel experience to have an international recording artist play Badger Attack, I was even more surprised when I found out a few months ago that Mark Henning actually lives in Cambridge . . . I must find out where and get another night organised because he was class. Playing off a traktor-enabled laptop and vinyl he proceeded to slay the small band of faithful groovers who had kept the faith. Pete Lever played a solid warm-up. I had a great time. Oh, I tried to take some photos but couldn’t. Technology pissed all over me. I remember an ad in the 80s for betamax video recorders with John Cleese saying that they were so simple to operate that “. . even a cat can use one . . “ I had a mental picture of that cat with my camera in my head all night.





The Dance (Mr Negative remix) – Thugfucker (Was Not Was): This is electro that just about errs on the right side of cheese. Uberteutonic-sounding vocals urge the listener to do line dance-like things on the dancefloor while the track pummels you into submission. Ignore the original and head straight for the remix.

Horizons – Sebo K (Mobilee): Strangely enough, this track instantly reminded me of LTJ Bukem’s drum and bass classic of the same name. It’s probably the symphonic foundation and lush syncopation.

Hoarding-Various EP – Silent Paul (Enemy): The track titles are almost worth the price alone. Varied three tracker that gives full value for money and has more than a hint of darkness about it. Having said that, “On A Date With A Woman We’ll Call “Julie” “ has more than a touch of uplifting atmospherics about it.

Audio Therapy EP – Shelter Boyz (Stripped): Linear deepness. Nothing too complicated, it’s all in the detail, or lack of.

To There – Shane Berry (Trapez Ltd): Very understated, atmospheric deep techno by Mr Berry, whose previous release on the same label was something of a minor classic in Cambridge. “To There” is a steady builder with Captain Nemo on the Nautilus’ organ. “For A Moment” and “Sigh” make up the b-side and keep it moody and generally at the low end of things.

Goosehound Presents The Unfound EP (Goosehound): Similar in many ways to the “Hoarding-Various EP” a four tracker showcasing various artists, in this case the ubiquitous Butane, Someone Else remixing Ezekiel Honig and the less currently well-exposed The Suffragettes and Barem. It’s well packaged in a cartoon comic-style sleeve.

El Encuentro (Plus 8) & El Dilivio Azul (Trapez) – Alex Under: Both excellent slabs, highlighting Under’s talent as, in my opinion, the most talented of the techno new school, (along with Luciano). He seems to like Robert Hood and makes good use of synthesised string stabs. Which is nice.

Dawning – Dettmann/Klock (Ostguton): This is a new label run by Berlin’s Berghain club. It’s the first single, the first release being the Andre Galluzzi mix cd a few months back. It’s good.

The Vietnamese EP – Italoboyz (Treibstoff): These boyz aren’t Italian, nor does their music sound “italo” in the slightest. It’s London-based minimalism; dirty, gritty, a few pregnant pauses here and there, some grunty vocal samples . . .this is grubby minimalism for sweaty freaks.


Knock-Kneed – Steadycam (K2): Fast becoming a must-buy label for me. K2 is starting to plough its own furrow of off-kilter electro minimal. This is Steadycam’s second release on K2. I don’t have the first one, but after this I may have to search for it. I played C.LA.U.D.I.A. by MUFO a couple of shows ago and had some very interesting feedback about it. This is another strong release from K2.




Mix CDs:

Sci-fi Hi-fi – Luciano (Soma): Luciano does the business. As already mentioned in an earlier post, a lot of these tracks have been around for a while now, so there’s nowt too fresh here. It’s well-programmed though. Having said that, he could have done better.

DE9 Lite – Richie Hawtin (Mixmag) : Given away with this months issue. I like it, but that’s really because of the tracks. Rumoured not to be Hawtin at the controls but one of his minions. Who cares. It was free.

I’d like to write a coherent review of what went on last Saturday night, but I can’t. Suffice to say I enjoyed myself, as did everyone else. If I have any complaints it’s a small one about the venue. A bit lacking in atmosphere is the Junction. I’d only visited it a couple of times before its refurbishment, so I was a little surprised when upon entering it after it had been done up I found virtually no changes had taken place; the proverbial lick of paint had been applied and that’s it. To get to the point, it could be, and has had the opportunity to be, so much better.

Terry Francis was fifteen minutes late, but rocked it once he got there. He was followed by Jim Masters, who did the big room techno thing well, after him it was Billy Nasty. Things got messy and I played the role of “club floater” bobbing from place to place saying things to people, some of whom I didn’t know. It was all very profound and meaningful at the time.

Anyway, The Priory are very busy now, supporting the Drumattic Twins this Saturday at Anglia Ruskin University, and playing the Labour of Love boat party on the 30/4. Then they’ve got their May Ball on the 15/5 on the Cambridge City Football club pitch. Before any of that though, we’ve got Badger Attack at Legends this Friday, 21/4, with CleverMusic’s/Multivitamins’ Mark Henning, with Pete Lever and Robin Howells. This is something I’ll defo be attending and posting photos for. I can say that with some certainty as it’ll be me who’ll be taking them. Unlike last Saturday. I’ll post a link to The Priory’s website, or elsewhere, when any surface.

The Easter Weekend is upon us, and in Cambridgeshireland there is a plethora of things to do. I shall be in attendance at The Priory’s big one at The Junction; the likes of Terry Francis, Jim Masters and Billy Nasty are playing.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Mr Francis for the first time in a few years. I was at Wiggle regularly from late 1997 to 2000. We’s just moved over from France, and the Wiggles at Happy Jacks, under an arch by London Bridge, were some of the most hedonistic, sweaty little shindigs in town. I last went to a Wiggle at the end of October last year. I was a little disappointed. Good party but no more surprises. Terribly formulaic. I would love to think its best days weren’t behind it but I fear they are. Even though he seems to be the headliner, Terry’s playing from 11-12:30, which is a pity because it’ll just be starting to warm up then. Fabric’s contractual obligations making themselves felt I reckon.

Billy Nasty should rock the spot though. Jim Masters is up from 12:30 to 1:30 with Mr Nasty following until 3am. Last time I saw him was under a marquee at Sonar ’04, were he was doing a showcase for his Electrix label. He treated the crowd to some hard-edged electro that never descended into booty bass territory, so fine by me. Priory residents Sam I Am and The Fish guide us to the dawn, well, until 4am.

Expect a full review and some photos next week.

From There To Here And Now . . .

is the name of the new double cd mix by Rolando on NRK and it’s ace. Two cds, (before you’ve even heard them you know they’re almost certainly going to represent
“two sides of Rolando’s personality,” “the contemplative and the bonkers,”), that do a lot to re-establish the soulful side of electronica in our current musical climate. I’m listening to cd 2 as I type and Derrick May’s mix of “Sueno Latino,” which never fails to get the hairs on the back of you neck grooving. Good work from The Aztec Mystic, now resident in Edinburgh.

CD1:
1. Sound Stream - Soul Train2. Trackheadz - My Love3. Da Sunlounge - Baby How Long (Johnny Fiasco Edit)4. Ame - Basic Track5. Theo Parrish - Falling Up (Carl Craig Mix)6. Nick Holder - No More Dating DJs (John Ciafone Dub Mix)7. Next Evidence - The Light (Rolando Mix)8. DJ Sneak - Bad Mutha9. Quentin Harris - Let's Be Young10. High Caliber - Tunnel Vision11. Floorplan - Funky Souls (Club 246 Mix)12. Hipp-e - Dazed 'n' Confused13. Ritzi Lee - Je Suis Ici (Orlando Voorn Mix)14. Trevor Rockliffe ft. Blake Baxter - Relax15. Tommie Nevada - Stargirl16. Kerri Chandler - Bar A Thym (Foremost Poets Vocal Remix)17. Andreas Saag - Release The Groove18. John Thomas - U Say Come On19. Rolando - In-Transit

CD2:
1. Malik Alston - Butterfly2. Trackheadz - Amor Por Ti3. Tokyo Black Star - Black Star4. Quinn - No More Drama5. David Alvarado - The Day6. Trackheadz - Jah Shall Come7. Tread - Opacity Omen8. Indigenous Space People - Across The Universe9. Sueno Latino - Sueno Latino (Derrick May Illusion Mix)10. Vince Watson - Cycles

DJs Who Make Mix Compilations But Don’t Like Them:

Mix comps in general that is. James Holden did it to us last month with “At The Controls,” (React) and Luciano’s about to with “Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Vol. II” (Soma). I’ve heard a few in my time, most recently “Boogybytes Vol. 01” (BPitch) by Kiki and “Fabric 27” by Mathew Dear as Audion, both of which were great. Of course there’s a plethora of them out there, and we all know the old chestnut about “not being able to condense a 24 hour set into 80 minutes, but surely good music is good music? Holden’s tracklisting was, to some, inventive, and it was certainly well-programmed, but the bottom line is that if you don’t like the tunes, then you’re not going to buy it. I anticipate a bit of a backlash for Luciano who, in my opinion, has missed an opportunity. He finished his mix at the beginning of this year. Look at the track listing and tell me what he’s produced isn’t radically different from the multitude of live sets he was playing during the last few months of ’05. Soma have sat on the release of this one for too long. I can’t see this selling as well as it could have. Hope it does though. If it’s half as good as Ewan Pearson’s launch for the series (which, along with Dominik Eulberg’s “Kreucht & Fleucht” (Mischwald) were mix cd highlights of last year. For an excellent review of the Eulberg cd, click here), it’ll be worth it.

Here’s a full tracklisting for last Saturdays show, which can be found here. Jonny hasn’t included the labels in his tracklisting and, although I know them, I’m much to lazy to fill them in.


Machines Are Funky: 1/4/06

Charlie’s House (Apparat remix) – Nathan Fake (Border Community)
Grace (Anxiety) – Troy Pierce (Underline)
Atrau – Me – Undo (Factor City)
First One – Shaka (Floppy Funk)
Unbreakable (Exercise One Fragile mix) – Sweet n’ Candy (Dumb Unit)
Warm Soul – The Architect (Karloff)
U Can’t Touch This – Jerome Plays The Bass (Be My Sheep)
La Demission du Coach – Sarah Goldfarb (Triebstoff)
Land of Confusion – Armando (Djax-Up Beats)

Jonny Davies aka Le Jockey In The Mix
1. Dextro-Do You Need-Holden Noise Tool2. Mandy Vs Bookashade- Body Language-Afrilounges Deep Reconstructed Mix3. Anja Schneider & Sebo K- Rancho Relaxo-Jennifer Cardini & Shonkys Eifel Tower Mix4. Trentmoller-Serenetti-Hemmann & Kaden Remix5. Ryan Crosson-Painters Day- N/a6. Matthias Tanzmann-Bulldozer-Robags Herbstmoosmutzel Remix7. Trentmoller-Polar Shift- N/a8. Anja Schneider & Sebo K-Side Leaps-Magda Remix9. Matthias Tanzmann-Bulldozer- N/a10. Shane Berry-Fillertet 2- N/a11. Elektrochemie-Pleasure Seeker- N/a12. Nathan Fake-The Sky Was Pink-Holden Remix12. Dextro-Do You Need-Holden Remix

This is my first post, and I doubt anyone’s reading it. Oh well . . .

Tomorrow night please tune in for the next exciting instalment of “Machines Are Funky” on
209 Radio. The show will feature a guest mix by Jonny Davies, aka “Le Jockey” who has just come back from a jaunt around Eastern Europe. Tune in from 7-9pm BST. Playlist will be up on this site, and on the radio forum in due course.

He’s spent his next month’s rent in Hardwax. Doubt we’ll see the fruits of his labours tomorrow, but I’ll get him to provide a mix for specifically for this site asap.