Pint-sized Leeds native Laura Jones has been going from strength to strength over the last 10 months, culminating in the upcoming release of her Leftroom Presents… Laura Jones compilation featuring the likes of Kate Simko, Guy Gerber, dOP and My Favourite Robot. As she prepares to join Matt Tolfrey and Sam Russo in Chelmsford this weekend for Gist’s Leftroom Special, we caught up with the lovely lady in question to quiz her on cocktails, creativity and clubbing…
Mexican producer Louie Fresco burst onto the scene late last year with his Donna Summer sampling track So Good released on Art Department’s Jonny White’s label No.19 Music. The subsequently (and exquisite) remix by Russ Yallop cemented him as one to watch in 2012.
Now, as he’s set to put out the second release from his new label, Mexa Records, a joint venture with his fellow countryman Jay Blakk (of Climbers), we caught up with him to chat Latin influences, Kenny G, Twinkies and more in what might be the funniest interview we’ve ever had the pleasure of conducting…
[Editor's note: this interview took place before the death of Donna Summer. We'd like to take this moment to say big love and respect to the Queen Of Disco... you will be missed.]
Justin Martin’s new album is out on Dirtybird at the end of May and it has been causing quite a stir amongst the online community. So far, 5 songs have been made available to the general public; Lezgo, Ghettos and Gardens, Hood Rich and most recently – Don’t Go and Ruff Stuff.
The latest release sees Justin showing off his badass sound design abilities and his knack for producing unique sounding house music. In terms of mood, both tracks differ significantly from each other; Don’t Go is an mellow track with layered bass and vocals that sound distinctly like Lykke Li and Ruff Stuff leans towards the darker side of the spectrum, and is laced with the kind of quirkiness that has brought fame to Dirtybird over the years.
What strikes me the most though, is how finely produced both of these tracks are. Not since Mr. Oizo’s ‘Lambs Anger‘ album have I been so stunned by a producers’ sound design abilities. Hats off to Mr Martin.
Don’t Go / Ruff Stuff is out now, and you and buy it here.
Justin Martin – Don’t Go
Justin Martin – Ruff Stuff
Montagano
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The man on everyone’s after-party playlist, Daniel Bortz, returns to London town this weekend as part of a much hyped showcase for his current label Suol. WANARB favourites Tief, have brought key members of the label over to coincide with the end of the Suol World Series that saw Bortz in Brazil, Fritz Kalkbrenner in China, Tricksi in Mexico and Chopstick & Johnjon in Europe. We caught up with him ahead of his set at Corsica Studios this weekend to find out about the scene in his hometown of Ausberg in Germany, how he goes about creating his tracks and what he’d save in a fire…
So I’m currently taking a well deserved break in America right now (Denver to be precise), and I thought I’d knock up a cheeky top 10 of some of the house / deep house tracks I’m digging at the moment. These are in no particular order:
The latest track from Waifs and Strays was released yesterday (10th Apr) in the form of a remix of Sean Roman’s ‘Moan’. It’s part of the debut release from London-based label Feast Records, and also includes a tasty remix from MANIK. The full EP preview is below (the Waifs and Strays track is the 3rd song along). If you like it, you can buy it on Beatport here.
Sean Roman – The Moan EP
I was lucky enough to be on the same line-up as Waifs and Strays at Potty Mouth last Thurs, and they totally blew me away. Their DJ sets are very much like their productions; forward thinking. They tend not to replicate house sounds from the nineties, and they don’t lean too heavily on the melancholic style of deep house that is so popular right now. Instead they showcase intelligent, futuristic house music that’s filled with clean basslines, cheeky hooks and clear, crisp beats.
Below are a couple of their recent releases. We also interviewed them last week – have a read of that here.
Waifs and Strays - Back Down
Audiojack - Bad Influence (Waifs & Strays ‘Keep On’ Remix)
Montagano
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Yikes – what a stonker of an EP this is! I was perusing through SoundCloud last week when I chanced upon it, and it’s been on repeat ever since. I’m not too sure when it’s out, but it’ll be released on Dogmatik at some point and I will most certainly be purchasing a copy.
Dusky are London based musicians Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman. Their influences are everything from classical and avant-garde electronica, to UK garage and underground house – and you can really hear those influences in this EP.
Opening track Flo Jam has a playful breakdown, yet kicks in with an off-key hook that packs some real attitude. The same applies for Every Day; a nice, clean breakdown drops into a cheeky, layered-bass garage-style stomper. Both Mystics and Numerical nod more towards the darker side of deep house, yet each carry influences of UK garage and contain enough energy to put Red Bull out of business.
This combination of deep house and UK garage is a sound that is becoming more and more present on the scene here in the UK, and we’ll be following it in great detail.
If you want to hear more, here’s a podcast they made for DJ Mag last month (track list after the jump below).
Montagano
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We had the honour of meeting legendary American house producer Barclay Crenshaw AKA ‘Claude VonStroke’ ahead of his appearance at Gist in Chelmsford, 5th April. The dirtybird label boss talked about his weakness for being a perfectionist, how dubstep taught him a thing or two, and also what track he’d play to distract zombies from eating his brains.
Still riding high on the months-long hype-wave, Fur Coat’s monster track You And I finally gets a digital release today on Crosstown Rebels. We first broke the news about who the track was actually by back in January, leading to Crosstown boss Damian Lazarus admitting we’d let the “kat out of the bag”.
Fast-forward two long months of waiting and now everyone else (ie. non Crosstown persona and those not vinyl-junkies) can get their dirty mitts on the track and the accompanying Amirali remix.
And the really big news to match this release is that Fur Coat will be hitting up London town for Return To The Future during the upcoming May Bank Holiday with a ridiculous lineup encompassing headliner Seth Troxler AND Tale Of Us AND Luca C of Infinity Ink! Get a ticket now from The Ransom Note before they all disappear.
Fur Coat feat Cari Golden - You And I
Rachael Williams
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We’re hoping to see a lot more of the name Debukas this year. This young Glasweigan first stood out as a talented, interesting producer with his self-titled debut release on 2020 Vision last summer. The track ‘Pointers’ is an immediate attention-grabber that manages to combine hard and soft elements really well. It starts with quite a warm, fuzzy disco-house feel and gradually evolves a sharper, peak time feel before sliding back into a melody-driven groove.
Debukas – Pointers
The 3rd track on the EP, ‘Some Days’, is a darker, slower number, but still definitely tickles your stomp gland. The underlying synth line sounds kinda like Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ meets Detroit techno.
Debukas – Some Days
But proving exactly why this guy could and should be big, his recent remix of on Crazy P’s last EP, ‘Beatbox’, does exactly what a great remix should – outshines the original. A down tempo groove underpins a thoughtful and well-crafted disco soundscape, with some creative re-working of the original vocals. Definitely a nice after party tune to drop. Check it out HERE. And his latest collaboration with another 2020 artist, Simon Baker (following their last collaboration last summer, NO PRESSURE), is another step towards him being a big name on the deep house scene.
Simon Baker ft Debukas – Let Me In
His live sets are supposed to be pretty amazing as well, taking in heavy synth action, late night slo-mo discoid chuggers and the ghosts of techno past. Go check him out supporting Crazy P alongside Horse Meat Disco, it’ll be a belter.
Crazy P live
Debukas live
Horse Meat Disco
March 17th, Koko
More info here
Red Ben
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