Free Mix Friday

Worlds - Aybee's Forthcoming Album

Aybee is ready to release his next album, Worlds.

Aybee is Armon Bazile, an Oakland-based producer with a particularly cosmic take on deep house. Since he first appeared in 2001, his atmospheric productions have appeared on labels like Underground Quality and Seattle's Further Records (who released his last album, Ancient Tones), but his his most consistent home has always been Deepblak Recordings, the label he founded over a decade ago, and whose motto (”Styles always Avant-Garde, Forward, and Open with an emphasis on Future Dance-floor Soul") could describe his own music. Worlds will be available digitally and on vinyl, with two extra tracks on the digital version.

Tracklist
01. The Portal
02. VgR
03. Rays
04. Dawn
05. Moon’s Whisper
06. Landing
07. Solaris
08. What Is
09. Ascending
10. Siganls feat. Damon Bell
11. Uni Sun

Deepblak will release Worlds on October 23rd, 2012.

This Weekends Activites

Music IS ART (MIA) 1ST Birthday @ Club Hidden

Line Up

Gavin Peters (AphroDisiax)

Nick doe (Viva La House)

Jessica Rabbit (Sleep)

Micah Fish (Just Beats)

Prolific (Music is art)

Alvin Dee (Music is art)

Damian Nova (Volume)

Barry Bonds (Substance Of Sound)

Dezy B (percussion)

Time: 10:00pm - 6:00am
Venue: Club Hidden/ 100 Tinworth Street; Vauxhall; London SE11 5EQ; United Kingdom
Cost: £7



Found: Shoreditch Street Party @ Earl Street

Line Up

MK (Marc Kinchen)
Todd Edwards
Paul Woolford
Huxley
Rattus Rattus

Time: 1.00pm - 8.00pm

Venue: Earl Street  / Earl Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A

Cost: £20+

Independent Stereo EQs – ‘Did You Know?’

Maceo Plex: Sleazy Rider Interview

Success is a blessing and a curse. Just ask Eric Estornel. 2011 was his biggest year yet as a musician. But he got there under a name he wasn't expecting—Maceo Plex—and the speed with which it happened was almost too much to handle. "I was surprised," he says. "I couldn't believe it. But that's the power of Crosstown [Rebels]." Damian Lazarus' imprint released Estornel's debut Maceo Plex album, Life Index, to rave reviews last year. It came at a moment when slower, funkier house was just beginning to take over clubland, and deep and sexy tracks like "Vibe Your Love," "Your Style" and "Can't Leave You" became monster hits as a result.   

And now? Now is when things get interesting. Riding high on the new wave of interest in his work, Estornel started his own label—Ellum Audio—late in 2011, and is already six releases in. While its first record was yet another Maceo Plex monster hit, "Stay High Baby," Estornel says that he is slowly heading away from the sound that made him famous. "I think the biggest mistake would be to do too much of one thing," he explains. And Ellum Audio's latest release is by his harder, more techno-oriented project Maetrik... albeit with a Maceo Plex remix. "I don't want to veer off too fast," he says.   Ellum Audio, which was originally started to simply provide an outlet for the enormous amount of music that he was writing, has now become a more considered affair. "Now we're actually, like, let's think about where we want to go musically instead of just getting out what's been written now. We're actually trying to write things for it. Hopefully this time next year it's going to be ten times more serious than it is now—and much more of a force to be reckoned with."  

This is the curse of success. How to maintain it after it first comes. How to build upon it to make it something even bigger. Talking to Estornel, it's obvious that he wants to take it to the next level, but he wants to do so on his own terms. He wants to be able to bring all of his aliases along with him for the ride. "Pretty soon, I'll find the balance, I'll be able to satisfy that thirst to make good underground records as well as big dance records. If I don't, I'll go insane," he explains. "It's funny, because you make these records that people love, and it's nice to see that these big dance records have connections with so many people. You just wish they connected more with you. It's your records that don't sell and nobody cares about that are the ones that you connect most with personally, so you kind of have to find a balance."  Estornel knows a bit about records not working. At the start of his career, he admits, the stuff that he made was too experimental. He grew up in the surprisingly vital Dallas scene, learning to produce from Gerard Hanson, AKA Convextion and E.R.P. "He's one of my best friends. He was kind of the one that taught me how to produce. Him and Dan Kurzius were the ones that I met when I started buying gear. They sold me their gear. It's a little bit sad to think about all my friends who made really, really good music but never got any attention."   

Estornel was the same for a number of years, working part-time jobs to make ends meet while he made electro—his first love—IDM, glitch and "minimalist techno." The focus, however, was much more on the music. Not as much on the needs of the party. "In my early days we were pretty purist about the music we listened to. I eventually kind of put being a purist aside [to try] to make dance records. About five or six years ago, I started going to clubs more and realizing that my music didn't work. There was a pretty major paradigm shift around 2005 where I started making tech house that could actually be played and enjoyed in clubs... Some artists are fine with that, and some others start realizing well, I dowant to make people dance. I respect the purists that just don't care, because there is a side of me that is like that, but at the same time I was like, well I could put my technical skills to use and actually make some dance records."    

"In an underground purist  sense, I sold out."     

Looking over Estornel's voluminous discography you can see what he means. His electro/IDM alias Mariel Ito had a very short-lived history, apparently the result of his epiphany that occurred in clubs (many of them European) in which he saw his music falling flat. (Soon, he'll revive the alias with a track on Ellum Audio—backed by an E.R.P. remix.) "I was kind of weirding people out. I started realizing that I should stick around and watch [other people's] sets and I remember listening and thinking 'Oh my God, it's so easy. It's got a 4x4 beat, typical sounds and typical loops.' I was so into this sound design stuff. [But] then I realized it wasn't as easy as it looked to make people dance. It took a while to learn how to make dance records."  

By this time, Estornel had a decent following for his Maetrik alias—and plenty of labels eager to give him the room to figure things out. This resulted in plenty of chances to release his music throughout the latter half of the '00s on labels like Treibstoff, Dumb Unit and Dirtybird sub-label Mothership. It was here that things started to get simpler in some ways—and more complex in others.   

"Deep down inside I would rather become more [recognized] on the experimental side, but I'm not the best experimental person either so something is better than nothing," he says, now referring to his success as Maceo Plex. "I could have probably tried to be better and better in the experimental and techno and minimal techno scene, but it wasn't until I tried out the house thing that people actually cared."  So, where do we go from here now that people do? This is the question that Estornel is wrestling with. As mentioned, he's cautious not to veer too quickly into a different sound—lest he confuse his new hard-won fans. He's also cognizant that his old fans are probably a bit confused as to why he's seemingly made such a wholesale move to house music. "In an underground purist sense, I sold out, but the way I justify it is that I don't make as bad records as others, so at least I sold out halfway [but] not too far," he says. "Now it's a matter of trying to reincorporate the sound design and the actual things I care about and getting the attention again of some of my earlier supporters that are kind of missing the old days. I'm trying to find a balance now." 

Free Mix Friday

Mike Huckaby Video Tutorials: Drum Variations & Creating Automated VST Program Changes

Mike Huckaby is a renowned electronic music producer and DJ from Detroit, the founder and owner of the deep house and techno labels Deep Transportation and S Y N T H. Huckaby is also highly regarded for his remix work for Juan Atkins, Vladislav Delay, Pole, Loco Dice, and many other respected producers.

This Weekends Activities

Wolfstock presents... Fred P, Tim Green & Milton Jackson @ Plan B, Saturday 22nd.

Line Up

Fred P aka Black Jazz Consortium (Soul People Music)

Tim Green (Cocoon, Get Physical)

Milton Jackson (Freerange, Dark Energy)

Harry Wolfman (Purp & Soul)
Luke Wolfman (Wolfstock)
Maurice Strong (Pheonix)

Time: 10pm - 6am
Venue: Plan B/ 418 Brixton Road; Brixton; London SW9 7AY; United Kingdom
Cost: £10


House of Disco Day & Night Warehouse Party @ The Colourworks, Saturday 22nd.

Line Up

PBR streetgang,
Jay Shepheard (live),
Marcus Worgull,
Mario Basanov,
Ron Basejam,
Get Down Edits,
Magnier (The House of Disco)
Dave Maslen

Time: 2pm - 6am

Venue: The Colourworks, 117 Wallis Road, London, E9 5LN

Cost: £15

Out Now: Craig Loftis pres. Grand High Priest feat. Dajae - Mary, Mary (At One Remixes)

Craig Loftis pres. Grand High Priest feat. Dajae - Mary, Mary (At-One Remixes) - Traxsource.com - Download Underground House and Electronic Music in WAV and MP3 format

This Ain't Chicago: UK House According To The Artists Who Lived It

Out now on Strut Records, Richard Sen's This Ain't Chicago collection casts an eye on mid-80s England, when the sounds of house, techno and electronic dance music making their way over from the States gave way to a wave of original UK productions. We sat down for interviews with some of the major players, including Lesley Lawrence of Bang The Party, P-Mac (producer for May), Kiss FM DJ Colin Faver, and of course Richard Sen, to speak about the parties, drum machines, labels, and drugs that inspired the music.

This Ain't Chicago is available now:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/richard-sen-presents-this/id534556005
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/This-Aint-Chicago-Various-Artists/dp/B007QENZBO
Boomkat: http://boomkat.com/vinyl/545403-various-strut-this-ain-t-chicago-the-undergro...

Free Mix Friday

Video Lesson: Recording vocals with Robert Owens

One of the most prolific house vocalists of all time gives some advice.....

www.pointblanklondon.com/

This Weekends Activities *Updated*

Se7en 3rd Year Birthday Party @ The Peninsula (Inside Proud2 o2), Friday 14th.


Line Up

Teaser
Scholar T
Carlos Aries
Perempay
Majesty
Feva
Melo-D
Knowledge
+ more


Time: 10pm - late (last entry 2.30am)
Venue: Cc2 Club  / 1 Nine Elms Lane, Vauxhall, London SW8 5NQ
Cost: Limited £10 tickets available online.



Househuntin' @ Plan B, Saturday 15th.

Line Up

PAUL 'TROUBLE' ANDERSON

Sy Sez (AphroDisiax)

Linx & Ras T ( Househuntin )

Time: 9pm - 4am

Venue: Plan B/ 418 Brixton Road; Brixton; London SW9 7AY; United Kingdom

Cost: £10 ; £8 concessions

An Interview With Jacob Korn

last week jacob korn was the first of dresden’s uncanny valley crew to release a full length album. you & me is a wholly non-standard house record, with varying moods from deep and dark to bright and industrial. no doubt in park to thank for it being such an undulating ride is that fact each track was made with a collaborator, from chris rau to cuthead via san soda and many more. korn’s fingerprints are still all over it, though the gauzy house aesthetics he’s honed on labels like running back, dolly and of course uc here seem even more complete. not bad for someone who only turned his attention back to electronic music a few years ago, and who spends quite a lot of his time instructing the youth in his local city. find out more about the man in this interview and check thew stream at the end for a taster of what to expect from you & me.

how are you? what’s been keeping you busy?

good thanks. the album is done, some remixes finished, new remixes are in the pipeline as well as the liveset for the album-tour and different workshops.

am i right in thinking you only turned to electronic music in 2007-ish? what brought about the change in direction?

it’s not true, no. in 2007 i came back to the techno/house sound i was beginning in the mid 90´s while having different digressions into more leftfield electronica in the 00´s. the change was inspired by a lot of good house music around that time.

what were you doing/into before then? what music did you grow up around and does that still influence you now?

when a friend and me were starting back then after homework, we were doing hardcore techno which changed to more detroit inspired techno. we went to our first parties which were techno in the first place, but had often several floors with house, electro, drum´n´bass, chillout and even hip hop. later during my studies labels like warp, morr, fatcat, ninja tunes or musical styles like nujazz and broken beat were interesting for me. some are still influential to me.

so how did you enjoy the album writing process now you look back? was it fun, are you totally happy?

in general making music is fun, especially when you are jamming around with other people. so this is the fun part. later things need to be „finished“ which is 70% of the work for such an album. in this time you are quite isolated and things need to be done. barley nobody can help. except for the mixing part i always ask my friends at www.blockstudio.de for their opinion. now it sounds really good to me, especially after pole was mastering it and you listening to it with the little extra warmth on vinyl.

was there a plan for it from the start? did you know what you wanted to do?

not really a master plan from the beginning. i was just collecting works of the last 5 years and discovered that most tracks i liked best, had people collaborating with it. while i never missed the opportunity to jam with people in the studio once they are in town it did not take long to have the top candidates for the album together.

how hard was it working with so many collaborators to make sure the whole album fit together as a whole from start to finish, and wasn’t just a collection of tracks?

as i said before i really enjoy working with different people. so i needed to take care of the whole communication overhead which takes a while but i have had assistance from the label guys as well. to get together kind of a consistent album it needs a special sound-stamp that i was trying to put on top of all that jams. maybe i am not able to do it in a different way so that’s why it sounds kind of the same even when working together with a lot of different artists.

why do you favour collaborating so much? what do you like about it? think you’ll ever go solo on an album?

after several years having spent producing on my own i felt the wish to work with other musicians again. maybe because that’s what music is really about, to create it in interaction with other people? so, over time i started to work with different musicians and i often judged the results as more valuable than my solo work. the reason for that is probably the difference in the process of creation. there are compromises to be made, yes. but at the same time you try out things that you wouldn’t have tried on your own. it’s just so exciting when the result is more than the sum of its parts!

a solo album? possibly yes. probably not. laughs

and it seems to ebb and flow like a club set overall – was that the intention?

maybe. i think it is good to have different tempos and varied styles on an album. it makes the experience for listening more rich. thats what i like in club-sets as well.

was it made with the dancing floor in mind? do your dj sets inform your productions would you say?

i dont dj too much to be honest. i play my own music mostly for livesets. but sure this needs new music all the time and as i said the tracks were collected the past 5 years – it was also the time i was quite active doing livesets in clubs.

it seems an album influenced by lots outside dance music – almost a bit industrial and gritty – i wonder what music you listened to whilst making it and if i am in any way right?

i love dance music for 15 years now. it used to be rougher in the beginning. i still got this i mind when switching the machines on today. beside this you are not able to listen just to dance music all day. i listened a lot to electronica and it turned out from the love for hiphop that i discovered good music from the 60´s and 70´s era, mostly jazz and soul.

how much do you think your location in dresden is an influence on the music you make? its an industrial city i think?

the nickname „florence on the elbe“ would not imply that i quess:) here you are surrounded more by beautiful nature, baroque buildings, history all over, theatres, fine arts, classical music, jazz and some media arts. not really heavy industry, noise and smoking chimneys.

you’re going on tour now, right? what should people expect from you in live-mode?

as i said i am just able to play my own stuff so people would know some tunes but still be able to be surprised hopefully.

what else have you got coming up/are you looking forward to?

i am doing some workshops with school-kids which is really really challenging but also fun. working also with a dance-company on a piece. finishing an diy modular synth and of course more music music music:)

what do you like to do outside of music?

music is everywhere. to escape that i like cycling or hiking. spending time with people, you know. exhibitions, movies, soldering, the usual suspects:)

Video Interview with A1 Bassline

The young producer, fresh from the release of his most far-reaching 12-inch to date, speaks on camera about his drum & bass roots, new label and the importance of listening to Skrillex.

Free Mix Friday

Hot Waves Vol.3

Hot Waves, a digital offshoot of Hot Creations, will release its third compilation later this month.

Hot Waves Vol. 3 mostly features new additions to the Hot Creations family like Mark Jenkyns, Tom Ruijg and France's Julien Sandre. Some of the usual suspects make an appearance as well, though, including Alexis Raphael, label co-founder Lee Foss and Hot Creations staples Richy Ahmed and Miguel Campbell, who deliver a collaborative track, "Tell Me Why." Per usual, the compilation will be available digitally, preceded by a double 12-inch featuring six selections from the full 14.

In related news, Hot Natured, the key duo behind Hot Creations, just got twice as big: core members Lee Foss and Jamie Jones have welcomed Luca C and Ali Love into the lineup. The four artists have been busy recording an album together in LA, with the first single, Benediction, due out at the end of October.

Tracklist
01. Alexis Raphael - Warhorn
02. Julien Sandre & Dast - Wanna Be
03. Lee Webster - Spending All Her Money
04. Robert James - Body Movement
05. wAFF - Sunshine
06. Bartolomeo - Jean Is Not Death
07. Tboy & Wildkats - Denied
08. Tom Ruijg - Space Frase
09. Guilhem & Remi Mazet - Zohra
10. Lee Foss - Life On Mars
11. Mark Jenkyns - Moola
12. Richy Ahmed & Miguel Campbell - Tell Me Why
13. Digitaria - Crazy Life (Funky Fat Remix)
14. Dirty Channels - So Special

Hot Waves will release Hot Waves Vol. 3 on September 24th, 2012.

This Weekends Activities

Diamond @ El Peñol, Friday 7th.

Line Up

Kismet
Feva
Able
Mark Radford
Scholar Tee
Teaser
J'Rome
Tippa

Time: 11.30pm - 5.00am
Venue: El Peñol/ 382-384 Brixton Road; Stockwell; London SW9 7AW; United Kingdom
Cost: £10 Ladies without FREE Ticket / Gents £10 B4 1.30am - More Thereafter


Makin' Moves Terrace Party Prt 2 at Brixton Club House @ Brixton Clubhouse

Line Up

Resident DJ's   

Matt L-S & Jamesey  

Guest DJ’s for the All-Dayer include:  

Phil Asher (restless soul) 

Kristel Morin (Tribe) 

Matt Hughes & Neil Maclean (Soulfulbeats) 

Joe Hines (FOMP) 

+ T-Roy from Broadcite on the set.   

Also, playing soul, funk and disco in the ‘Funk Suite’ will be Martin Lodge and djsoulprovyder.

Time: 3pm - 12am

Venue: Brixton Clubhouse/ 467 Brixton Road; Coldharbour Lane; London SW9 8HH

Cost: £8 early bird tickets frm www.residentadvisor.net / £12 on the door

Steffi talks on the art of DJing

The Dutch DJ/producer/Panorama Bar resident appears in the latest AllSaints Basement Session video, discussing the finer points of her DJing among other topics.

Steffi interview - AllSaints Basement Sessions from AllSaints Spitalfields on Vimeo.

Video Interview: Erol Alkan Speaks On "Another Bugged Out Mix"

With the UK artist's new Bugged Out mix about to drop, he puts together a list (with notes) of his favourite 13 albums for The Quietus, and is interviewed by DJ History's Bill Brewster on a park bench.