Konrad Black


KONRAD BLACK & GHOSTMAN : Medusa Smile
WAGON REPAIR

Konrad Black has been involved in DJing, producing and performing music for the past ten years. A constant throughout his career is the signature mix of dirty bass threads with atmospheric sounds, emerging from his roots in drum’n’bass and hip hop. After his first release on Formation Records in the UK, influences such as Maurizio and Klang inspired more minimal sounds, and in 1998, a meeting with Swayzak in Vancouver led to ‘Greycale’ for Slow Building in 1999. From there Konrad went on to record a number of tracks on 240 volts, including the ‘Nails’ or alternatively titled ‘Heavy Metal Withdrawal’ EP as well as the ‘Busting Down the Door with a Shotgun’ EP.After moving to London and working with Ed Rush and Optical's prestigious D&B label Virus Recordings, Konrad recorded the track ‘White Cigarettes’ for Swayzak’s 240 Volts Compilation released that year. Concurrently Konrad worked with March 21st of Circlesquare on the ‘Headgear Project’, releasing ‘Believers Goodbye’. This project culminated in collaboration with Swayzak for the track ‘In the Car Crash’ on the seminal album ‘Dirty Dancing’, released in 2002. From there he went on to work on Circlesquare’s album ‘Pre-Earthquake Anthems’ for London based Output Recordings. Likewise, Headgear's final joint production then was the Unkle remix of ‘In a State’. In 2004 Konrad then formed Wagon Repair Recordings with Mathew Jonson, Graham Boothby and Jesse Fisk. He continued his wide panorama of sound on his first release on the label: ‘Draconia’, which enjoyed critical success internationally, followed by club hit 'Medusa Smile'.

R A N E






...esta é o "Porsche" das mesas de mistura para dj´s , só que agora levou um ligeiro melhoramento que a torna imbatível : a pré-escuta independente para cada canal (o que significa que podemos ouvir dois canais simultaneamente em modo pré-escuta), e ainda um botão rotativo (no lugar do antigo seleccionador de canais) que permite ajustar o balanço entre o "cue" e o "pgm" (programa de canal activo). Perfeito !

12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12" 12"


























aqui vão 8 discos presentes na minha mala em julho de 2006 :

BUTANE how long can you go (dumb unit )

ROBAG WRUHME worktabular _tobi neumann rmx (musik krause)
RADIOSLAVE my bleep _roman flüegel rmx (rekids001)
AUTOMAN monkey star (automan 16)
DANDOLO dragon _Shit Robot fire breathing mix (tiny sticks)
ADD NOISE the cha cha machine (earsugar beatbox)
MATHEW JONSON ultraviolet dream (minus)
CLARO INTELECTO "warehouse sessions vol.3" only yesterday (modern love)

PLAYLIST and FORTHCOMING


















As some of you might noticed we are going through a very rich period in music…It’s a true challenge to choose what you will buy as there’s too many good records around to listen. I leave here some of the latest purchases and some forthcoming ones:

1. SHIT ROBOT "wrong galaxy" (dfa)
2. THE EMPEROR MACHINE "vertical tones and horizontal noises part. 4" (dc recordings)
3. MARK E "Smiling/for love" (jiscomusic)
4. RHYTHM & SOUND "remixes #4" (burial mix Germany)
5. LINDSTROM & PRINS THOMAS "Ballerina" (Cottage)
6. CAMEO-NET "who was that/mantus rock" (white)
7. THE FLYING SQUAD "RVNG of the NRDS" (RVNG)
8. WILL POWERS "adventures in success" (island re-issue)
9. PRODUCT OF SOCIETY "can you rock" (society)
10. DELIA GONZALES & GAVIN RUSSOM "Relevee (remixes)" (dfa)
11. REVERSO 68 "Tokyo disco" (Eskimo)
12. TOBY TOBIAS "a closer shave" (rekids)
13. BRENNAN GREEN "cool ranch" (modal)
14. CHEMISE "she can’t love you" (Emergency re-issue)

On the pipeline and forthcoming, we have the Dj Harvey “Map Of Africa” album on Whatever We Want Records, and his new project coming out on Tirk…needless to say that all should be as good as it can get from this living legend. Still on Tirk and forthcoming are Sugar Daddy album, Syclops album, Sean P ep and Pablo Psychonaut ep. Noid Recordings is coming back with another Lp full of disco madness from Cottage’s Phantom Hand Band. In the same disco edits tip, comes the new “signing” for Big Bear records, "Edizioni Civitella – I templari dell’apocalisse” with some serious cuts here, from disco to techno related tracks. New Lindstrom track is already doing the rounds on cd-r. It samples the “Chaplin Band – Il veliero” and turns the already great bass line from the original version into a irresistible disco boogie. His partner, Prins Thomas, has a new great track called “fehrara” doing the “discomiks” rounds in cd-r as well, and should be out one day on the O’tits label (cant really confirm this label). A new Kathy Diamond track called “all woman” (cant confirm the track name as well) is causing some anxiety to the people that listened it on the Maurice Fulton’s live mixes...it’s just another amazing production from him that will be out, and I quote the author “when I’m tired of playing it”. Lexx should release his ep on Bear Funk soon enough and it will be a good journey into some laid back disco tunes.
Well, that’s all I can remember at moment. Plenty of good music will come out until the end of the year so, don’t sleep.

Alexander Robotnick

Alexander Robotnick

Where do you come from, musicaly speaking ?
As a musician :
I started studying music very late, when I was 27. I studied guitar at a Jazz school in Florence for three years. During that time I played "Jazz Standards" with a students' quintet. Then in the early 80s I started getting focused on electronics with "cheap" instruments such as TB303 and TR 606. Now I work exclusively on my PC.

As a listener :
In the late 70s I listened to a lot of Jazz from the 60s (Coltrane and Davis), Fusion (Weather Report, Don Cherry) as well as Disco music. Then in the 80s I was really impressed by the New Wave and turned my attention to bands like Police, Joy Division, The Cure, Yello, Contortions, Tuxedo Moon, Residents etc.
In the early 80s my favourite artists were Kraftwerk, Suicide and Yello. Later I appreciated the Depeche Mode, Eurythmics and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. All along the years I've always loved Grace Jones, the divine.

why did you choose this name ?
Because I wanted to stress the irony in my music.It's also a futuristic name (in Russian robotnick means worker) and tharefore it was perfect for that kind of music.

you are italian, why are you singing in french ?
Because when I was a kid I loved French music very much (Gilbert Becaud, Françoise Hardie, Edith Piaf etc). I imagine Robotnick as the typical Russian artist who migrated to Paris.

why did you choose to use synthetizers instead of traditional instruments ?
You should turn the question to those who did that first….When Robotnick came out there had already been the Tangerine Dreams, Kraftwerk e John Foxx.

you are from the sixties... how do you see the evolution of popular music
since this era ?
In the 60s and 70s there were no music genres but the fundamental ones such as Jazz, Rock, Classical and Easy listening. Each band or artist was a different thing. Then there were those who imitated them. Today if you imitate an artist you're not considered an imitator but someone who belongs to that music genre. This "collectivisation" of artistic expressions kills individual ingeniousness and depresses the quality level. Now there are thousands of artists who all sound alike and can only be distinguished by the music genre they make. The audience is confused and no longer interested in artists and ends up relying on DJs who therefore become the real bosses of the music system.

you are well known for a track called "problemes d'amour" who was quite inspirationnal for the chicagoan scene... how did you make this track ?
I made that track as an attempt of making Disco music and possibly some money. But as I was Robotnick, what came out was no disco at all and had a limited success, a kind of "underground" success which (as you say) was inspirational for the birth of house-music. I produced Problèmes d'Amour in a studio near Florence (Studio M), with the assistance of Marzio Benelli, the owner of the place, who also did the recording and mixing and played some synt lines on the instrumental B side of P d'A. I composed the track, I programmed the sequenzers and played guitar as well as singing, of course. The female vocals were by Martine Michellod, a Swiss friend who also helped me translating parts of the lyrics. No one else took part in the production. The instruments played were: an 808 Roland, 2 TB303 (Roland BassLine), 1 Synt Korg MonoPoly e una Gibson guitar + an Arp Quadra by Marzio Benelli. We recorded on a 16track TEAC.

what do you thin of this eighties revival ?
It's a sort of automatism: everything comes back into fashion 20 years later. It would be exciting to see the development of certain trends which, despite their limited success in the 80s , were artistically very interesting .

you've done video art and various soundtracks... what did it bring new to your vision of music ?
I learnt that all music tends to become ambient music and art, music and pictures become some sort of interior decoration for physical and emotional spaces. As Eric Satie had already understood at the beginning of the last century and as Brian Eno did in the late 70s.

do you live rom your music ? do you have another job appart from music making ?
I earn a modest living from my music. I never joined the mainstream and therefore my means are limited.

what does your music sounds like now ?
I make several kinds of music: The Third Planet , Masala, E.A.S.Y., L.Pinsky & A.Robotnick, Alkemya. I have specific feelings, sounds and approaches in composition and production for each one of them. As to Alexander Robotnick, I 'm finishing his come-back album. I created (virtually) the same equipment I had in '83 to find back that sound. 20 years have not been there for nothing so you'll also find some drops of the other music experiences I made blended in the tracks.

ISOLEE

lost - and found



isolee - lost (mp3)

there are some things that just radiate quality once they have a nationality attatched to them. english fish & chips. swiss watches. brazilian women. and german techno. nobody (bar the detroit masters) do it like the germans. epic lengths, subtle changes and intricate layers of melody are staple characteristics. rajko müller knows this, knows how high the bar is set, and still manages to clear it quite confidently everytime he steps into the studio. whilst the scene has morphed through guises such as intelligent dance music, click-house and, more recently, minimal, isolee has managed to stay at the forefront of any movement and craft his own unique and immediately noticeable style. last year's we are monster was a rare treat - an album by a dance artist but not for dancing, with no claims of "this one's for the clubs", just 10 perfect tracks lovingly crafted into a headphone masterpiece.

but it's good to know that when he makes a track for the dancefloors, it doesn't dissapoint. this is from western store, a compilation of tracks released on 12" through playhouse inbetween rajko's two albums. there are so many gems on there, but I had to pick this just for it's jaw dropping conclusion, where the track seems to end only to pick back up again in spectacular fashion. pick it up from here.

"lost" is a quite apt title for a first post in four weeks. i've just moved into my first home, and completed what must be one of the most stressful events in anyone's life. thank's for the kind "where are you" requests whilst we've been away, it's nice to know people pay attention to this thing of ours!

Todd Terje (Full Pupp) Interview

















Todd Terje is responsible for some of the best music being produced at moment. From his original 12"s on Full Pupp records, remixes of artists such as Lindstrom, Felix Laband, etc.. to his re-edits works under the name of Tangoterje on labels such as Supreme records or G.A.M.M. , you cant go wrong with this man.
1. So where did the name Todd Terje come from ?

I've never been any good with coming up with names or titles...Todd Terry of course. Norwegian humour is a bit different than english humour, irony isstill the thing here, hehe.

2. So how did you come to be on Full Pupp and recording with Prins Thomas?

It was very convenient, both live in Oslo, neither of us had any contactsabroad. The plan was always to make something for his Tamburin label, but I didn't actually finish anything until it went down and Full Pupp appeared.

3. Hows the world of studying and jugglin' making records ?

Works out fine, I never study in the weekends anyway. I would love to stayfor longer periods when playing abroad, but I can't miss the lectures at theuniversity.

4. Whats the big thing in the world of Astro Pyhsics at the moment ?

Haven't got a clue, I just switched to general physics, hehe. Mars I guess.

5. Whats been your highlight so far of being the next norwegian superstarproducer + dj?

Being introduced as "the next norwegian superstar producer + dj" in aninterview... Don't know actually, maybe a few days ago, when I got an email from August Darnell? I fell off my chair!

6. If you could put together your own balearic super group who would be init ?...as you would be producing the record!

Gwen Guthrie on vocals, Kurt Hauenstein and Robbie Shakespeare on Bass, Sly Dunbar on drums, Wally Badarou, Giorgio Moroder and Arthur Russell on keyboards, Nile Rodgers, Pat Metheny and Manuel Göettsching on guitars, August Darnell & his Coconuts on coconuts and Andy Hernandez (Coati Mundi) on vibes or something. Wonder how THAT would sound...

7. if you could remix any artist past/present/future who would it be and why?

Hmm, don't know. If I respect an artist/song deeply enough, then it probably won't need remixing anway. Would love to lay my hands on the multitracks on Downtown Samba by Yello though, it deserves an extension.

8. Whats your dreams for 2006 and whats coming next from the productionstudio of Mr Todd Terje ?

I would like to be more productive and maybe do an album + some moresingles. After that, I would love to do something strange. Something outside the tiny world of vinyls/djs.Next out is a couple of remixes, "Another Station" by Lindstrom and"Whistling In Tongues" by Felix Laband + a bunch of edits as usual. I'm just about to start a remix of Dr.Buzzard's "Sunshower", that should be good! The track is pure brilliance as it is, only not for the dancefloors. Yet.

9. Whats your favourite record in your box at the moment & why ?

Madonna - La Isla Bonita, because it gives me a feeling of doing somethingillegal when I'm playing it, hehe.

Diggers

















Rare grooves Vinyl junkies don't just buy music: they rescue it from obscurity in discount bins or car-boot sales. Dorian Lynskey delves into the dusty underground world of the 'diggers'.
In his east London flat, Gareth Goddard is communing with his record collection. Actually, it's a mere sliver of his total hoard; he has selected 50 of his strangest, rarest acquisitions for our meeting. He holds up a sleeve depicting a grinning, bespectacled hippie lounging under a tree. All the writing is in Hebrew. "This is one of my ultimate discoveries," he beams. "Israeli acid-folk-psych. It's bananas. I saw it in a charity shop and thought, there's no way I'm leaving something like that." Next up is an album by a forgotten glam-rock band. "One of the guys emailed me out of the blue saying the last time he saw the lead singer he'd written 'I can't take anymore' in blood on the hotel mirror and just disappeared." He shakes his head in amazement.
Under the name Cherrystones, Goddard curates compilations for official release - but it is not so much a job as a calling. He's been collecting since he was eight. Watching him leaf through his records, I feel like I'm being shown around the vaults of a museum.
We music lovers live in a time of plenty that has made us lazy. Anybody with a credit card and a broadband connection can accumulate a dizzying array of once-exotic music without leaving the house: cut-price reissues from Amazon, downloads from iTunes and out-of-print vinyl from eBay. Because we can obtain music more easily than ever before, we value it less. In January, researchers at the University of Leicester found that music-buyers were becoming apathetic. "The accessibility of music has meant it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation," said study coordinator Dr Adrian North.
In the face of this depressing trend stand a small band of devotees who put vast amounts of time and effort into rediscovering those unrecognised records that aren't just a mouse-click away. Some call themselves diggers. An abbreviation of crate digger, the hip-hop term for a vinyl hunter, it has apt associations. Some have made a profession of their hobby. Many of the best British compilations and reissues of recent years are the work of just a few people, including Goddard, Bob Stanley, Andy Votel, Jonny Trunk, John Stapleton, soundtrack composer David Holmes and journalists Jon Savage and Daryl Easlea. The first example of a digger compilation was 1972's Nuggets, on which Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye marshalled 27 examples of garage rock and psychedelia, ranging from top 20 hits to previously ignored one-offs found in discount bins. Around the same time, British journalist and DJ Dave Godin was championing unsung soul gems, which he divided into "deep soul" and "northern soul" and compiled for the Kent label. In both cases, knowledgeable enthusiasts retrospectively defined whole genres.
When hip-hop embraced sampling in the late 1980s, it prompted a slew of so-called "breaks and beats" bootleg albums that featured the original records appropriated by hip-hop producers. Jean-Jacques Perrey's 1960s Moog oddity EVA took this path out of oblivion: sampled on a Gang Starr track, widely bootlegged, officially compiled and eventually employed to flog Lucozade. Now that hip-hop relies less on samples, the job of introducing obscurities back into pop's bloodstream falls to a new wave of diggers.
Some do it purely for pleasure. The online home of amateur diggers is Vinyl Vulture. Founded six years ago by two chemistry PhDs called Simon Watson and Chris Malins, it brings together some of the most passionate and well-informed music aficionados in the country; Andy Votel and John Stapleton are among the forum's regular contributors. A year ago, Vinyl Vulture instituted a regular CD swap. Each of the 60 people currently signed up has to burn a compilation of rare tracks that, to the best of their knowledge, have neither been reissued nor officially compiled. They then make 60 copies and mail them to Watson before the deadline; a few days later 60 different CDs of lovingly collated music arrive in the post. It's an extension of making compilation tapes for your friends; the whole point is to introduce people to music they have never heard before. "The rule is basically this: no secret squirrels," says Watson. "If you put something on that CD you're giving it up for the love of the music."
Diggers firmly distance themselves from the kind of collector who hoards rare vinyl. "It can become pretty much stocks and shares, and that element annoys me," says Goddard. "It annoys me that things I know are good are stashed away like little eggs waiting to hatch and not given circulation. Are you collecting music or collecting money?"
The cash-rich, time-poor music fan who regularly buys a batch of CDs has been dubbed Fifty Quid Man. The digger, conversely, might be termed Fifty Pee Man. He (it is invariably he) will spend hundreds of hours a year scouring charity shops, second-hand record stores and car-boot fairs to find records that have languished, unappreciated, for years.
Every digger I speak to regards eBay as a guilty pleasure at best, fostering greed among sellers and laziness among buyers. For over a decade, Simon Watson has been hunting for an original copy of Moody's Gentle Rain, an absurdly rare easy listening record from 1973. He doggedly refuses to spend £200 to buy one online. "I want to find it in the wild," he says. "It's become such a rat race buying online. All the mystery's gone."
He thinks digital music is even less fulfilling. "It's really important for music to have mystique. It's great that everyone can download things but you have memories and attachments to music. It's like the way you make tea. I never make a cup of tea with a teabag; it drives me nuts. I love the idea of making tea with leaves and a strainer. It's related in some way."
Vinyl collecting on this level is a celebration of the clunky and tactile as opposed to the sleek and ephemeral. Chris Malins, who won't even have CDs in the house, sees it as part of a wider response to modern life. "The binary digits that compose the music in its iPod form don't have any value. It's the disposable world of today versus the manufacturing world of yesterday. The analogue culture is very warm and the digital world is very cold and throwaway." The motto of Jonny Trunk's website is: "Retro culture in the information age."
Rescuing records from the bargain bin of history can have heartwarming consequences. Goddard found a record by French funk-rockers Dynastie Crisis in a second-hand shop and included the track Faust 72 on his Hidden Charms compilation. David Holmes then chose it for his soundtrack to Ocean's Twelve and received an email from a member of Dynastie Crisis, astonished and delighted that anyone was interested in something he did over 30 years ago.
But there can be ambivalence too. Only a decade ago, folk singer Vashti Bunyan was a lost enigma whose much-loved sole release, 1970's Just Another Diamond Day, circulated on either third-generation copies or eye-poppingly expensive original vinyl. Now that she has resurfaced and recorded a follow-up, she is finally getting her dues. Unfortunately for her long-time admirers, Just Another Diamond Day's title track can currently be heard advertising T-Mobile.
"When you're putting these things out into the world and the end result is that Vashti Bunyan's on a T-Mobile advert you think, I wish I hadn't done that now," says Stanley. "You do want people to think the album's fantastic but . . ." He trails off, his face a muddle of mixed feelings.
Thus are the borders of obscurity constantly redrawn. Take Nick Drake: a once-arcane cult figure who is now so established in the canon that even James Blunt names him as an influence. With every rediscovery, the diggers have to delve deeper. But the reserves of great, unexplored music seem inexhaustible and that awareness can weigh heavily on a digger. When your enthusiasm and knowledge is this broad, even a lifetime isn't long enough to listen to everything. Chris Malins keeps a list of records he wants to hear and it never gets any shorter. "It's sheer compulsive obsession," he laughs. "Why do we do this? It has to be mental illness of some shape or form. It doesn't lend well to living an ordinary life because it's not the sort of thing you can discuss with ordinary people."
"I dread the day that I die," Gareth Goddard says solemnly, "because I think, 'What the hell's going to happen to my collection?'"

RUB N TUG interview



Thomas and Eric together are Rub N Tug. They throw a party called Disco Theatre of Manhattan as well as the Camp Fire nights. They have been doing some interesting remixes for projects like !!!, Sly Mongoose or Lcd Soundsystem and re-edits of old cuts by Chicago, the Beastie Boys, etc... In conjunction with his old Tonka Sound System partner from the UK, DJ Harvey, Thomas has also been producing original material for a very limited imprint called "Map of Africa" on the Whatever We Want Records.

01:How Was DJing In Japan At The Last Time You Toured? What Did You Feel About Japanese Clubs And People?What Do You Feel Comparing Japanese With New Yorkers?
Thomas: We Felt Free To Go Anywhere With The Music And That's The Best Way To Feel When It's Time To Play. The Clubs Were Nice And Felt Real Loose Like a Free Vibe Again. People From Japan Seemed To Be More Courteous And Positive Like There Is a Tiny Amount Of Lsd In The Water.
Eric: Good Fun!!! We Played 3Different Cities.. Each City Had Different Vibrations.. But All Were Open Minded And Up For A Good Time. Thats Hard To Compare Because Nyc And Japan Are Soo Far Away.
02: What Do You Expect And What Would You Want To Do In Japan In This Time?
Thomas: I Don't Know And I Don't Mind.
Eric: I Expect The Same As Always.. Super Cool People ,Good Food, Hanging With All My Old Friends... Nice.
03: Can You Tell Us About Your Party, "Camp Fire"? When Did You Start It? How Long You Guys Doing The Party?
Thomas: It's So Small. It's Like Being Drunk On a Fishing Boat In a Tropical Storm And Being Happy About It. Everybody Cheers When There's Thunder And Lightning
Eric: Campfire Has Been Going Almost 2 Years Now.. It'S A Place Where Us And All Our Friends Can Get Together Once A Week And See How Much We Can Drink.
04: Tell Us About The Recent Club Scene In New York?
Thomas: I'm More Of a House Party,Old Time Bar Kind Of Person Myself And Campfire Is Quite Enough For One Whole Week.
Eric: Don'T Know.. Mostly Just Go To Bars.
05: How Would You Describe Your Dj Style?
Thomas: Jake And Elwood
Jake And Elwood
Eric: It Would Probably Be Easier For Someone Else To Answer That Question.
06: Where Do You Mostly Get New Or Old Records When You Are In New York City (Or In Upstate For Thomas)? Is There Any Record Store In New York You Could Recommend?
Thomas: A1 In The City And Junk Stores And Stuff Upstate. Sometimes In The Post With The Bills Which Is Nice.
Eric: I Would Have To Say A1 Records Is Still On Top For The Old Stuff.. These Days The New Stuff Is Harder To Come Across... In New York.
07: Tell Us Your Favorite Artist And DJs?
Thomas: The Glimmers Too. And The Idjuts. Foolish Felix
Eric: Paul T. Is For Techno From Sarcastic, M.O.A., Thomas, Harvey.
08: Is There Any Perosn Like a Mentor For Your Musical Knowledge Of You?
Thomas: Jason Hinds, Cheese Expert, Neals' Yard Dairy, Covent Garden, London; Taught Me Everything I Needed To Know By The Time I Was 14.
Eric:
I Don'T Know If I Have A Musical Mentor.. But Over The Years I Have Made Friends With People That Have Turned Me In Different Directions... See Quest. #7.
09: Your Picture Disc From The Compilation "Camp Fire" Included Daniel Wang's Unreleased Song. Can You Tell Us How Is The Relationship With Daniel Wang?
Thomas: The Wang Man Rules
Eric: That Danny Wang Tune Is From The Never Released Balihu # 2 From Like 1995.. I Have A Test Pressing.. The Only One I Think. Danny Is A Great Friend Who Makes Awesome Music... He'S Raving To The Techno In Berlin Now..
10: Could Do Tell Us About Your Remixes Of Beasties Boys?
Thomas: I Like That Mix
Eric: That Was Pretty Random.. I Have Been Friends With Those Guys For A Long Time... And One Day Ad-Rock Called Me And Asked If We Wanted To Do A Remix Of One Of There Tunes.. So We Did It And They Loved It.. But The Sample Clearence Was A Little Tricky... Lucky For Us Someone Bootlegged It. Rnt Records!!
11: Is There Any Artist Or Song You Want To Remix?
Thomas: The Blues Brothers Soundtrack.
12: Tell Us Your Future Releases, Remixes Plan And Recent Activities?
Thomas: We Just Finished a Mix We Like a Lot For Sly Mongoose, Track's Called Snakes And Ladders Yeah. Original Rub n Tug Material Is Coming Out In The Fall. Stay Tuned !
Eric: Lcd Soundsystem Should Be Out Soon.. And Just About To Begin Remixing A Track For Coldplay.... But When That Is Finished Get Ready For *** Rnt Records*** Our Original Stylin' Comin Soon.

whatever we want records

What made you start WeWW?

I was tired of being inspired. + if Richard branson can do it!

weww

Personally, how did you guys get into music? And specifically this side of it?
I just read in the science journal that a good dancer makes for a good mate. Something to do with symmetry. Hence the reason all the guys on the label have hot girls. This covers all sides.

weww
Starting a record label must be a very daunting thing to do, and could cost a lot of money…where did the drive come from?

Saturday night binging with thomas and harv. I like whiskey, a McCallen 18 can motivate you to move buildings.

weww
As an independent label, would I be right in thinking that the majority of your signings have come from past relationships so far?

Yes, somehow it feels we’ve all known each other before. sort of like buddism or Hinduism, or one of those ideologies.

weww

Does WeWW belong to a specific genre of music that you could pinpoint?

Sure, my genre, 40 is the new 20, if you know what I mean.

weww
New York based and influenced, WeWW already has a large following in Europe, why do you think that is?

I guess they have taste?

weww
Map of Africa, is probably your best known artist… can you tell us more about them?

Yes, I guess Harvey is a legendary dj, it sounds weird to me, since he’s still alive and all. Him and Thomas both are talented, handsome and insightful. And they both don’t mind sleeping on the floor if they had to.

What can we expect from WeWW in 2006, 2005 was a huge year, can it get any bigger?
I used to think that when I was 13. I was wrong then…

What are you working on right now?

This crazy interview.

»»» NUPHONIC «««

TIRK Records - Scott McCready

Niall speaks to Scott McCready, MD of Tirk records, the new label from Nuphonic Productions


Whatever happened to Nuphonic records? For a certain breed of records buyer, from the mid-nineties up until the turn of the last decade, Nuphonic was the essential label to check. With it’s distinctive logo, simple design, and focus on quality music, it grew quite a cult following, the British equivalent of, say, Strictly Rhythm in New York. T-shirts, slipmatts and record bags emblazoned with the legend “nu” were a way of punters and deejays making a statement about their taste, and an important factor in British (and by extension European) house music in forging it’s own unique identity, separate from American styles. The unique, disco tinged, tripped out deep house of acts like Faze Action, the Idjut Boys, Laj/Raj/RayMang, Fuzz Against Junk and Street Corner Symphony kept the bar incredibly high and helped broaden the horizons of the average house-head: indeed it was records by acts from this stable that helped many of us to delve into musical history and re-discover the previously maligned sound of disco. I would hazard a guess that in years to come Nuphonic will be looked on as being the defining British record label of it’s age (in a second hand shop in NY recently I noticed a large section of Nuphonic records that was getting eagerly checked. They were going for far more than they do over here). But all good things come to an end, and about 2 years ago there just stopped being Nuphonic records on the shelves. A news piece in Jockey Slut confirmed it: Nuphonic Records was no more.

Then late last year arrived a promo CD of two re-edits (one by the Idjuts, the other by Sean P) on a funnily named new label called TIRK. This, apparently, was the new label venture by the people behind Nuphonic. It sure sounded like it: “A Place Called Tarot” by Tantra, as diced up by the Idjuts, was an epic slice of floor-rocking Italo, and “Hungry” by Sandy’s Gang a sweet soul peak-timer (thanks to Sean P). More releases followed, particularly a very impressive 12” by Syclops. Through Radio Magnetic I was able to track down the label head Scott McCready, who, coincidentally, turned out to be Scottish, and who I discovered used to work on the Fopp store on Byers Road in Glasgow’s West End. After moving to London from working at the first English Fopp in Sheffield, Scott went into label management, first with the End, and then as a freelancer, before hearing that Sav from Nuphonic Promotions was interested in starting a new label…

“Sav just wanted to get back into making records again. It’s pretty simple really. He had a couple of things and people had been mentioning it to him and he missed it. There’s always been two strands to Nuphonic; there was the events and the production side and there was the label side. Sav ran the events and production side (as he came from doing the Blue Note). Sav’s side of that business continued, he continued doing events and productions, like he’s just done a big fashion show for Fashion Week, and also he’s doing the programming for this 1500 capacity club in Camden called Coco. He had been vaguely involved in the label but it was more to do with the guy Dave Hill, so I think Sav kind of missed it, and then he thought he needed to get somebody in to manage it. That’s when he approached me.”
So why start up a new label with a new name and packaging? Why not simply re-launch Nuphonic?
“I think Nuphonic was Sav and Dave together, and this is Sav on his own. Plus also it’s been three years since Nuphonic ended and a lot has changed since then. I don’t think Nuphonic as it was could stand on its own now. Nuphonic was very much of a sound, in terms of deep house and stuff, I don’t think you can purely do that on 12” sales anymore. Also, like, you don’t really hear that sound out much anymore, and to be honest I don’t think any of us are really listening to it as much as we were then. So the idea with Tirk is that it’s gonna be a bit more freeform. It’s still going to be of that style, but a bit more open. So we’ve had a 7” by punk-funk/electronicy act New Young Pony Club and we’re looking into putting out another thing that sounds a bit like Can/Neu! kind of stuff, as well as doing some of the house stuff. We’re still doing stuff like Idjut Boys, but again they’ve moved on as well, they’re not doing what they were doing three years ago, Maurice Fulton, he’s not doing what he was doing three years ago. Everything moves on, you can’t listen to the same things all the time!”
So what happened to the original Nuphonic? Why did it shut down?
“It was a combination of things. I’m surmising because I wasn’t there, I’ve only started working here in the last 6 months, so from the outside looking in and knowing the market… One thing: there was the label itself in terms of the general downturn in dance musics. So there would have been older productions and stock coming back, and paying for things like racking and stuff world wide, it’s quite easy to sink into debt quite quickly if the sales don’t match up. So there was that tailing off of dance music album sales about 3 years ago and Nuphonic were quite big on albums. I think that’s where the downturn in the label came. Hand in hand with that was the fact that they bought a pub called Bridge and Tunnel in Shoreditch, it’s quite a big pub. It had lots of good stuff on at it, they had Weatherhall playing on a Thursday night. It was a really the sort of epicenter of the Shoreditch thing. But then they lost the license for it, so the money they had invested in this pub drained the rest of it. It was kind of like Factory and the Hacienda, but very very small!”
What is on the release schedule for the rest of the year?
“We’ve got an album by the Idjut Boys ["Press Play"], it’s the first big thing that’s come out. It’s a re-edits album, it’s really good. There’s quite a lot of varied stuff on there, there’s up to the minute stuff like Lindstrom and Jackson and stuff like that, but then there’s also old stuff like Harry Thumann, some Chaz Jenkel stuff, stuff like that. Again it’s quite Idjut Boys-y, but it’s what they’re listening to now. Then after that we have album by Greg Wilson, This is gonna be a Loft-style collection, he’s done an album of 12 exclusive re-edits for us. It all ranges from electro stuff like Mike T through to Roxy Music and Talking Heads and Scritti Politi and things like that. Again it’s taking in a wide spectrum of things, ‘cos I think the music scene’s kind of gone back to that. There’s the whole thing of the early 80’s; a lot of it is just a reflection that things are a lot more open now, you can be into rock music, and electro and house and techno and whatever… It’s a lot less regimented than it’s been.”
You’ve also put out a 7”, something Nuphonic didn’t do. How has that been going?
“It did really well, we felt that we had to do that really early because if we put out four twelves straight away, it we become “Oh, this is the label from Nuphonic and it sounds like Nuphonic”, you know what I mean? But the NY Pony Club thing [“Tight Fit”/”Ice Cream”], I really liked it and it did really well, it got playlisted on X FM, which is the first time either label ever had a playlist. Which is a bit of a result! We’re looking to get another single and then towards getting an album either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.”
Have you got any Tirk parties lined up?
“Again it goes back to there’s always been two sides to the business, Sav runs the Nuphonic Productions, and that. They’re launching the Camden Palace thing, they’re looking to do a lot of parties in there. We don’t have anything lined up for the immediate two months. We still do London Express parties, all around London, we’re going in regular at Fabric and also Brighton and do things at Festivals, like we’ve got a tent at the V festivals in the summer. So that side of things will be ramping up again, but I think it will be primarily around the Camden Palace/Coco thing.”
Who would be DJing?
“We’d obviously like to get people we’re putting records out by, so the best thing will be putting nights on with Greg, and whenever Maurice [Fulton] is available, we’ll get Maurice to DJ. The Idjut Boys are already doing stuff for us anyway. Just a continuation of the label and the events, everything so it will all be like stuff we like.”
And finally, what about any readers who have demos they’d like to send?

“Yeah, that’s not a problem. The easiest thing to do is just to get in touch with me.

Darshan Jesrani

Darshan Jesrani interview




A feature on Metro Area would not be complete, of course, without taking to the more enigmatic half of the duo, Darshan Jesrani, whose press profile up to this point has been practically non-existent. I rang him at his home in Brooklyn on Thursday the 3rd of March 2005 to get the low down on one half of the best disco act on the planet.

How did you meet Morgan Geist? How did Metro Area come together as an act?

We met because we both finished school in around 1995, and we were both from around the New York area. We were both studying in rural areas but we were both really into music, so we were subscribed to these internet music mailing lists where people would discuss records and stuff like that. I began to notice Morgan’s posts and I thought maybe he was kind of aligned with where I was coming from musically. I just kind of remembered him around, and we would write back and forth to each other. Then a good friend of mine had Morgan’s first EP that he produced on Metamorphic, and I really liked it, so that was another reason to get in touch... We just started hanging out and talking and buying records and stuff like that. Even at the time we were still really into even the older records and older production styles and things that were missing in the records of the day.

Had you put out any stuff on your own before became part of Metro Area?

Yeah I did a few projects under a few different names, with another partner of mine, Maneesh. We grew up in the same area and I did a project under the name SS3 for a little bit, like two records, and then I did a project called Acronym City for two records. But I was just feeling around in different styles. We did a track, kind of New York sounding house, but with a bit of atmospherics, for a Strictly Rhythm comp at one point. Just little things, you know?

And what brought you round to getting into disco and that whole sound?

Well this is kind of like wanting for a lot of the stuff I used to hear on the radio as a kid, like D-Train and Evelyn King. It was sort of like R&B, but it had kind of a spacey, funky edge to it because they were using electronics at the time. So really the interest in a lot of these old styles is kind of like 80’s R&B and y’know, radio dance music. Then from there, there was a whole other underground world of club music which was pre-house. People like Shep Pettibone were playing that kind of stuff so that’s what initially drew me to going back, and it’s kind of re-exploring that stuff. Disco was cool but I only knew the radio disco stuff like Donna Summer and things that got popular. But then I began to really understand and discover a lot of underground disco records when I started to dig back and see that the mood was different and more along the lines of today’s mentality of partying and, like, really rhythmic underground sounds, not so much songs, you know what I mean?

Indeed. Was there a conscious decision when you made the music to sound different ands to sound disco?

Yeah yeah, we wanted to do something that sounded like it could have been an instrumental or a dub track that people unearthed that could have been made in the early eighties or late seventies. We wanted to make something that kind of flipped people out a little bit because the sounds were decidedly taken form an older style. But yet no vocal, so…..

Were you surprised by the success of it? In Europe, anyway?

I don’t know man. I mean, yeah, I think we were both surprised, but it took a little while to catch on. We started putting out Metro Area records in 1999 and then I think that by 2002 people were really into this kind of sound and it’s offshoots. I don't know. In clubland, where time and trends are really compressed, I feel like that maybe, but it’s [taken] a little while. We just kept putting out records, where it was one EP and then another EP and another EP… I guess I am surprised that people took elements of this style and really blew it up into a trend. Almost all new records that you hear have, like, some kinda electro 80’s bassline, or something. That is a little bit surprising to me. Like, people pretty much dropped deep house! At least in Europe, which is strange to me. Dropped it like a hot potato!

When I was speaking to Morgan he was saying he doesn’t really keep abreast of much new music, he leaves that to you…

Even I just kind of pick and choose and stuff, like I used to follow labels. I’m really just a fan of the classic shit like Prescription Underground and deep house from Chicago and shit like that, so I used to follow a lot of those kinds of labels, but now I just check for maybe some of the same producers but [on] different labels, and I try and check for different acts. Things have exploded a little bit and become a bit more fragmented. They are not as set geographically, or as in terms of camps anymore ‘cos in the mid 90’s it was very defined. Like you had Chicago, New York [had] people like Masters at Work and Power Records and DJ Duke and people. Every city had a sound you know, but now it’s a little different.

What new stuff is there that floats your boat?

Lets see, what did I get recently? Well I really like Raiders of the Lost Arp, I think it’s wonderful, really moody and musical and nice. I like Lindstrum’s stuff, that’s pretty cool. I like Brennan Green, I like some of his records. I like some of Danny [Wang] and some of his friends, like Ilya Santana. I dunno, there’s little things here and there. Stuff that’s being made with a little more of an open mentality, that’s not as formatted as a lot of club records are.

How has playing out been going?

It’s cool. It’s really fun and I really enjoy it because I pretty much play the same sound, which is like our influences and styles. Wherever I go I try and present it differently depending on what the vibe is like. Like sometimes I’ll have to play stuff a little bit faster, or work into classics and disco a little bit later in my set. Or sometimes people really prefer if I start off on a slower more organic note, so it’s really interesting to see how different audiences respond, depending on what kind of music the dj residents are cultivating there. But it’s cool, I like it.

How do you find New York, clubwise?

That’s funny that you ask, I was just posting a message about this, but I dunno, in NY I don’t think we have enough venues. All the new venues, because of the really high price of real estate, and because of the licensing we have in the city now, new venues that are opening have advantages like lots of cash, more of a business mentality rather than as a music venue. So it tends to offer people more of the entertainment-nightlife-illusion experience, rather than a place where you can hear music on a really good soundsystem and have some drinks and stuff. Music is not really the focus, so I’ve been sort of whining about that for a little while and hopefully things will change. We might be at that point in a cycle, but if you like it’s at rock bottom. We have a few places you can go; Shelter is one of ‘em, it’s running as a club, but there should be others. It’s almost become really polarized; on one end you have this kind of empty expensive experience which is more commercial, but on the other hand you have this earnest, niche, but really almost lack luster other scene which is existing in venues which are a little bit run down, so it’s like, "couldn’t there be something in the middle?"

And you have been DJing a lot in Europe. Any places in particular that you like?

Yeah, lots of places. There’s a club in Malmo in Sweden, right across from Copenhagen, it’s a party rather, called Art for Pleasure. This guy Matthias runs it, I don’t know the name of the venue. There’s another club in Berlin called Weekend which is great, it’s a new place, I think the owner opened it with a really good mentality, like he’s got really nice soundsystem, a beautiful mixer, a really nicely laid out booth. There’s Plastic People in London, there’s the Robert Johnson in Frankfurt. There’s these guys in Dublin who do really good parties, 52 Funk and Downtown Sounds. I mean I was happy to be a guest for them but the other DJs they bring in are good too, Like Danny [Wang] and Nicky Sciano and stuff like that. They have their eye and their mind on more of a musical thing. A lot of time people don’t even take the chance, you know? And the crowd really likes it and their parties really go off! In Gothenburg also is this really nice club called Nefretiti (part of them do this group Swell Session on Compost, they were doing a party there), that was really good too. I guess anywhere where the DJs are building a crowd on more soulful music. Or more musical stuff. Electric Chair in Manchester, that’s great. [in terms of the States] we’ve played in some of the major cities, but the States is a huge country. Most of my gigs are out of town, and out of the country!

You mentioned that you are currently working on the new Metro Area single. How’s that going?

It’s good, it’s gonna be two tracks and a bonus beats thing and it’s like, one track is more up tempo, kind of dancey and kind of weird, and the other one is slower and a little more thoughtful sounding. I dunno, it’s gonna be a different sound for us, I’m really curious to see how people react to it. It was fun making it, and half the fun about it is feeling ambiguous about it when you put it out, just putting it out and seeing what happens, ‘cos that’s how we felt about our first single. We were like “Ah, are people really gonna like this or get it?” But we didn’t really think too much about it, we just put it out and it was fun.

How did you find the reaction to Metro Area 5?

It was good, I mean DJs checked for it and bought it, and charted it, but in terms of a release it came out with pretty little fanfare. I was wondering if people really caught it. I mean I think people got it. That was another record that was fun making. I’m happy to have all this stuff in my catalogue, you know, whether people really catch it or not. You always hope to connect with people, but it’s also nice to build a good catalogue of stuff you’re happy with and you can say “OK, we were experimenting at the time but it’s all good!”

discopia

check it out :

the world of BETTY BOTOX

BETTY BOTOX - The World Of Betty Botox
Label: Botox
Cat.No. botoxlp1
Price: € 19.15
Format: 2LP

Re-edits from Betty Botox - actually by Keith McIvor (JD Twitch from Optimo). All the tracks on this LP have been re-edited so that they are 100% DJ mixable from start to finish, includes an eclectic selection of tracks, from a wide ranging selection of artists, including Crass, Slick, Rose Royce, Richie Havens, Divine, Dennis Coffey, Dr Feelgood and The Leather Nun.. [disco-edits]
space base
back to the piano magic
is it s'ex yr after
began to spank
fist and shout

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LCD Soundsystem - Too Much Love (Rub'n'Tug remix)

a. Too Much Love (Rub'n'Tug remix)
b. DFA logo etching


*Limited vinyl only pressing of 200 with the DFA lightning bolt laser etched on the b-side. Available exclusively at the DFA webstore.


12" $6.99

GREG WILSON *Dj

Greg Wilson [Liverpool,UK]

Biography

MANCHESTER DJ GURUS - THE FACE 1990
"Greg Wilson is an honorary Manc born in Liverpool who is generally acknowledged as the godfather of the early eighties Manc electro scene. He is one of the first British DJ's to have used three turntables. Remembered for his nights at Legend and the Hacienda".
FROM SLEAZE NATION MAGAZINE (AMANDA CAZA) 1998
"By 1982 he was established at Wigan Pier, thrilling all and sundry with his brew of electronica and soul. He was given a dying Wednesday at Legend, Manchester's most influential black music venue, and blew enough life into it to spread queues round the block and gain punters countrywide. Forget the Hacienda, where Wilson began the first full-on dance night - Legend was the start of it all. His secret? The dastardly mixing techniques he'd picked up in Europe plus this weird and wonderful new form of music sweeping across from New York".
FROM THE BOOK 'THE NINETIES - WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT ALL ABOUT' (JOHN ROBB) 1999
"Greg Wilson was entranced by the stripped down electronic sounds that were coming out of New York where, in one of the weirdest quirks in rock history, black kids in the ghetto started to get hip to Kraftwerk. Taking the atmospheric synth music of the German outfit, they re-invented it as a dance music of their own. The computer age was dawning and here was a music that matched the nu digital times...Electro is one of the key forebears of nineties pop culture".
FROM THE BOOK 'MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - THE POP CULT CITY' (DAVE HASLAM) 1999
"Wilson's work on the decks every Wednesday (at Legend) drew the attention of Mike Shaft, who was then fronting a black music show on Piccadilly Radio. Although not a big fan of the new dancefloor sounds, he invited Wilson to do mixes for the radio show. These were probably some of the most taped programmes in Manchester radio history"
FROM REVIEW OF 'CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS' - BLUES & SOUL (BOB KILLBOURN) 1994
"Compiled by famed deejay Greg Wilson who was one of the chief protagonists in the early development of electro in the UK. Greg helped pioneer the early stages as resident deejay at the legendary Wigan Pier and Manchester Legends venues. Greg was one of the first British deejays to consider seriously the art of deejaying and mixing was beyond the simple act of sticking a platter on a turntable before swilling ale and checking out the available talent (although I'm pretty sure Greg did his fair share of these activities too!). Greg's mixes on Manchester Piccadilly Radio were significant interludes and he was also the first British deejay to mix live on TV when appearing on the now defunct The Tube show".
FROM THE BOOK 'AND GOD CREATED MANCHESTER' (SARAH CHAMPION) 1990
"'The whole black side of Manchester has been completely ignored' says Greg Wilson, Manchester's first electro DJ, on the wheels of steel at Wigan Pier and Legends in '82. A disco-chemist, he experimented with mixing and NY's new styles...Legends stepped out a whole 18 months before The Face's cover feature caught up...By the start of '83, white hipsters were changing channels, switching from doom-rock to dance beats. ACR, New Order, Swamp Children and the like tuned into Legends...'In all things that have been written about Manchester, the thing that led the way hasn't even been mentioned! The black-white mix! Even when the students arrived (on the scene) the black side kept its identity and everyone began bouncing ideas around' argues Greg".
FROM THE BOOK 'SHAUN RYDER, HAPPY MONDAYS, BLACK GRAPE & OTHER TRAUMAS' (MICK MIDDLES) 1997
"Kermit was here there and everywhere. Everyone knew Kermit. Everyone knew Kermit stories. Everyone knew that one day this man would turn into something important. The story begins way back in the early eighties, at Manchester's Legends nightspot. On Wednesday night Manchester grandmaster of Electro, Greg Wilson, held hardcore funk sessions sussed enough to educate even the hippest of dudes from old Hulme. All the while, down the road, the Hacienda remained a vast, cold, empty shell, full of echoey indie sounds and a few straggly raincoated students. Greg Wilson was where it began and Kermit would soak in his influences".
FROM THE SLEEVENOTES OF 'CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS' (IAN DEWHIRST) 1994
"Before retiring from deejaying in 1984, Greg had kicked off the first weekly dance night at The Hacienda and was managing Britain's best known breakdance crew, Manchester's Broken Glass. In '84 he produced Street Sounds' experimental 'UK Electro' album, and has since produced the Ruthless Rap Assassins".

Pequenos grandes discos




















12 discos (7 polegadas) essenciais que vão do funk ao Reggae, da Pop inspirada nos anos 70 ao Latin Jazz:

1. JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH "it's just begun/such a lady" (octopus breaks)
2. THE OTIS AND CARLA BAND/LOUISE MCCORD "tramp/better get a move on" (bgp)
3. MARVA WHITNEY "unwind yourself/what do i have to do" (45-king)
4. DELORES EALY "honeydripper/it's about time i made a change" (unknown)
5. A-KO "soul '69/untitled" (melting pot music)
6. VARIOUS "bay area funk" (luv n' haight)
7. FUNKY NASSAU "bahama soul stew/look what you can get" (tramp)
8. AARON NEVILLE/CYRIL NEVILLE "hercules/gossip" (jazzman)
9. SUPSONIC/PYRAHNA SOUND "match 2-2/la turbie pyrahnanienne" (indestructible)
10. MARK MURPHY/EDDIE JEFFERSON "why don't you do right/psychedelic sally" (jazzman)
11. THE MOHAWKS "the champ/give me some" (sir j.j.)
12. THE SUPERIMPOSERS "would it be impossible" (little league)