Some fresh new Goodies

Manmade Science - Akiele EP

Manmade Science keert terug naar Philpot en dat juist wanneer ze bij het label hun 30ste verjaardag vieren. Het lijk wel hét verjaardagsgeschenk bij uitstek: de EP is simpelweg een wonderbaarlijk stukje disco-house. De hoofdtitel Akiele kenmerkt zich door een ongelooflijke diepe en hypnotiserende deephouse groove. They like to wath en Meandyou zijn respectievelijk twee stunnin' vocaltracks. De soulphiction dub mix van Get your head up rondt deze voortreffelijke EP uiteindelijk af.

Daso - Numb

Het label Connaisseur Supérieur is weer een track van jewelste rijker en dit maal prijkt hij op het conto van Daso. De Duitser met de übercoole moustache smijt met Numb alle registers open en levert een resolute dansvloerkiller af. Waar z'n zeemzoete track Meine Idee nog zachtjes nazindert, is met Numb regelrecht de toon gezet en geeft Daso er een stevige lap op. Bij Connaisseur Supérieur kunnen ze er moeilijk een stijl opkleven en manen ze aan Numb te bewaren voor special occasions. Een ding staat alvast als een paal boven water: this one will cause damage on the dancefloor.

Oleg Poliakov - House moujik

Nadat Rusland op het EK heel wat furore heeft gemaakt - en mij dermate heeft weten te bekoren -, ben ik op zoek gegaan naar de Guus Hiddink van het Russische muzieklandschap. Ik botste uitendelijk op volgende mysterieuze producer Skat aka Oleg Poliakov. Na zijn meer dan geslaagde release op Circus Company in 2007, komt hij weer op de proppen met twee uitermate groovy tracks met Chicago en Detroit invloeden. Midnight Vultures profileert zich met zijn jacking drums en stevige baslijn. De b-kant, On The Edge Of The Wood, is een warme en diepe deephouser that makes you wanna dance!

We can do it - Llamame

Afsluiten doe ik met een plaat die wel eens dé voorbode van de zwoele zomeravonden zou kunnen zijn. Het eerder onbekende Berlijnse label We can do it heeft nog maar enkele releases op haar palmares prijken, maar dit maal is het wel een schot in de roos met de track Llamame. Llamame ontpopt zich tot een minimal-house monster en het label doet haar reputatie van catchy vocals opnieuw alle eer aan. De Engelse equivalent "Call me", die bijna onophoudelijk over de beats rolt, zorgt ervoor dat deze track ideaal is om iedere party op gepaste wijze af te sluiten. Of juist ook niet...

Cait Loves Turbo

Turbo Recordings celebrates it’s 10 year anniversary, so wave those motherfuckers like you just don’t care! For those who missed it: the Turbo Label Night at Blast Your Ghetto was a bomb!

As far as party reviews go, I’ll keep things short: Fanklub DJ’s rocked, Thomas von Party was amazing and The Proxy’s live set was pretty much a re-run of how God created the universe. Best I’ve heard in years! (he refused to take my word for it at the time, but Zhenya, if you read this: I wasn’t drunk and I was totally serious).

On another note: Fraulein got wasted, Goldfox did not. Der Schmetterling scored poontang, Cait did.. an interview with Mr Turbo Recordings, Tiga’s younger brother and the whitest guy ever to wear an afro: Thomas von Party. James Brown is dead, meet the new hardest working man in showbizz:



10 years Turbo, congrats! Antwerp was amazing.. what more can we expect from Turbo this year?
We have a lot planned to celebrate: a really cool compilation CD with a book featuring all of Tiga's amazing infosheets, albums from Proxy and Jori Hulkkonen, 8 terrific 12"s, more than 30 tour dates and a very ambitious new website. Oh, and lots of T-shirts.

Where do you fit exactly at the label?
It's a very small operation, so I do a bit of everything, really... I deal with the artists, production, promo, work with the online stores, listen to demos, run the podcast, organize events... basically just answer emails all day :)

I’m pretty sure Proxy is gonna be thé name of 2008. You discovered him through myspace. An inspirational story for young producers all over the world..
Totally... it's a great vibe. Before we signed him he didn't even have a passport!! He's a wonderful guy and extremely talented. Not that many young producers have as distinctive and powerful a 'sound' as Proxy... and he's really hitting his stride now with amazing new remixes for Moby and Digitalism. It's also inspiring because he's not coming from New York or London or Berlin... he's coming from a little suburb outside of Moscow, relatively speaking it's a cultural vacuum... and I'm glad that I found him on myspace because it partly justifies all the time I've wasted on that site!

When can we expect a Thomas von EP? Not interested at all to go there?
I just did a remix of Moby actually with a friend of mine, Brad Lamborghini. It'll be on the upcoming Moby remixes - Turbo 054. It's just a rough acid track, but I'm happy to have put something out to get the ball rolling. I'm a total beginner in the studio but I feel confident that I'll be releasing some more stuff this year... remixes are probably more likely at this stage, a bit less daunting when you have some structure and some sounds to start with.

How do you get your fro so perfect? All natural?
No, it's a wig.

Introducing...

Just a quickie to say that another blogger has been added to the team. Since our Raveslave clubhouse was dominated by testosterone-fueled alpha males, we decided to 'employ' someone who could steady the balance - if only a little...


Some say it's her ambition to be the first blogster on the moon; others claim Amy Winehouse has hired her to stand in while she finally goes to rehab. We simply believe her name is Annelore. In the future, she'll be reporting on her party experiences, donc attendez-vous aux histoires sur des fêtards plein d'hormones et des DJs avec des looks moitié nerd, moitié electro; aux histoires sur des kilos de cocaïne et des endroits où il est impossible de bouger; et, je l'avais presque oublié, des histoires sur la musique...

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait some time before you get to see her in action because it's that time of the year again. Hell is going to be hot indeed.

wondering while wandering 3

I've always had a particular fondness of DJ compilations. Often this format is the closest you'll ever get to getting to know a DJ because it's consists of tracks that the DJ loves. And unlike when spinning a DJ set, he doesn't have to care about the semi-drunken party-goers' mood or the requirements put forward by shady clubnight organisers. A DJ mix allows the DJ to include whatever tracks he damn well pleases, which is what makes it so interesting...


Liss' trademark preference for funky, and thus very danceable tracks is already well established in these regions. His WWW-mix offers a bunch of tracks which are to be expected from someone with acclaimed taste: the classic Frank Knuckles take on Kasso's "One More Round", the mandatory In Flagranti track, the funky nü-disco action in the shape of Telespazio's "Galileo" and Baby Oliver's "Feelings 2", the devastating Riton remix of Sonny J's "Enfant Terrible".

All in all, this is a very coherent, fluently mixed compilation of exquisite tracks, just the way we like 'em.

You can download Liss' WWW-mixtape here.

Tracklist
01. Kasso – One more round (Frankie Knuckles rmx)
02. In Flagranti – Coquine (Sanctuary mix)
03. Telespazio – Galileo (Rodion rmx)
04. Baby Oliver - Feelings 2
05. Chef – Toccating (Tomboy rmx)
06. Headman – Running into time (Le le edit)
07. Lottergirls – Love is dope (Diskokaine rmx)
08. Sonny J – Enfant terrible (Riton rmx)
09. Adonis – We're rocking down the house
10. Systeme Imaginique – The sublime moment

There's something about Theo Parrish

Detroit-based DJ/producer Theo Parrish has made a movie for Adidas which completely slipped my attention until today. The 'story line' of this short movie is just as simple as it is beautiful: a camera crew follows Theo Parrish while he walks through the streets of Detroit, collecting everyday sounds to use in a track. As you'll see, there's nothing hip to this movie. We don't see images of skyscrapers and monuments and what not. We get to see the suburbs of the city and the people living in it. At first, it seems nothing special at all but to me, this movie is a piece of art.

Adidas gave Theo a chance to show what his hometown means to him. He loves it so much that he uses sounds from his city to use in his tracks so that other people get to hear a little bit of Detroit. It appears that Theo Parrish wants to give something back to Detroit in his own way. Adidas presented him that opportunity and he grabbed it with both hands.

We don't only get to see what Detroit means for Theo, but he also presents the viewer his ideas on music: "Certain sounds, depending on how they're ranged, take certain shapes. They take up a certain space in my mind. And the influences come everytime I wake up or go out, there's always a certain influx of music that I'm collecting, so those always have an influence. If your records aren't grabbing people emotionally, then you're really not doing anything." He also introduces his views on laptop DJ'ing and today's society wherein "honesty is at an all time low".

The song you hear in the movie, 'There's something about Detroit', is produced by Theo Parrish. It hasn't been released yet but it might this summer. You can read more on Theo Parrish and his point of views in this interview with Resident Advisor.

Russian menace

At the end of 2006, Turbo released a 12" of a - according to Tiga at that point - promising new maximalist, who originated from Russia and went by the name Proxy. His track 'Destroy' become an absolute banger that every himself respecting, maximalist-spinning DJ just had to drop in his sets.

This kid has an illustrious aura around him which he owes to his extremely dark and menacing trademark sound. I'm inclined to compare his tracks to horror movies, or maybe horror musicals - a genre which I've just invented. Whatever it is, it can't be bad, since this original sound makes him stand out in the crowd, kind of like Booka Shade, but a, err, Grim Reaper version of Merziger and Kammermeier.

Anyway, I bring you kids joyful news, because Proxy is working on an album, which is due to be released this fall. And no, I haven't stolen a copy out of his studio. What I did find is a piece of the first single, named 'Raven'(what a cheerful name...), of this yet unfinished album on YouTube.

Not bad, ey? It seems to me though, as if those kids on the front row are on a thousand drugs. Maybe it was mandatory to buy speed in order to take a leak...

Wondering-While-Wandering mixtape 02

Our carrier pigeon has brought in the second mixtape of the Wondering While Wandering series. This time the racket is coming from Naomi //, an up-and-coming London based DJ-ette. She already has quite the references though:

1. Recently she did a mix for the highly acclaimed Are People Real mixtape series.
2. She played at Bugged out! and Blogger’s Delight amongst others.
3. She shared the billings with Boys Noize, Erol, Herve, Crookers, Surkin and almost every British DJ worth taking a photograph of.

Her mixtape for Get Raveslaved is as promising as her CV. There are no real surprises in the tracklisting, but it’s extremely essential. It’s a combo of well-known tracks (Ready for the floor, The best revenge, Shadows) and fresh stuff. Naomi is not delivering a peak time mix here (which isn’t a bad thing at all, au contraire), actually it’s got more of a “Let’s-dance-the-night-away-(after-the-main-act)” feeling to it. And it seems like that’s exactly what she had in mind: the stress is on the melody and the vocals, and as the mix continues, she lets the tracks play slightly longer. Girl Power!


You can download Naomi's WWW mix here

Tracklisting:

1. Ready For The Floor (Jesse Rose Remix) - Hot Chip
2. Shadows (Knightlife Remix) - Midnight Juggernauts
3. You Belong (Riton Remix) - Hercules and Love Affair
4. Beat Generation (Tocadisco Jaegermeister Remix) - Amo and Navas
5. Disco Sirens (Boy 8 Bit Vocal Remix) - Midfield General
6. Day 'N' Nite (Crookers Remix) - Kid Cudi
7. The Best Revenge (Oliver Koletzki Remix) - Fischerspooner
8. This Boy's In Love (Lifelike Remix) - The Presets
9. Catch Me If U Can (Bag Raiders Remix) - Headman
10. Humanoidz - Tom de Neef & Laidback Luke