We caught up with New York based underground techno DJ, Elon, ahead of his set next weekend at London night Select*Elect. After he picked his Top Ten Tracks for us back in December we though now we be an ideal time to have a more in-depth chat. Not only did he show a rather frightening cannibalistic side(!) but he also revealed there’s hidden backwards messages in his music! Luckily, he’s not really that scary so we we quizzed him on New York nightlife and his collaboration with Maceo Plex. He also recorded the first hour of his set last weekend at Watergate in Berlin, full of techno treats and unreleased tracks which you can listen to exclusively on We Are Not A Rockband and download for FREE… What a dude!
WELL DONE DURRR. We’re big fans of both Breakbot and Classixx here at We Are Not A Rockband. So putting them both on the same night is a big win in our books. Granted it’s a Thursday, but it’s also payday, and it’s also the first day of December which, as everyone knows, is the only month you can get away with being permanently drunk (or so my friends tell me).
PLUS there’s a secret live act. Who could it be?! Nobody knows! This is exciting, no?
And so because there’s never a good reason NOT to post either of these tracks, let’s pretend that you actually need convincing to come along this Thursday 1st December 2011 to Village Underground in Shoreditch but hey we both know you’re already scrolling down for the ticket link.
(scroll back up)
Breakbot – Baby I’m Yours feat Irfane
Yacht -Psychic City (Classixx remix)
DURRR PRESENTS // 1ST DEC // BREAKBOT // CLASSIXX // VILLAGE UNDERGROUND // 52 HOLLYWELL LANE // EC2A 3PQ
Wednesday afternoon saw Polish duo Catz N Dogz take to the decks at Beatport HQ and play an absolutely blinding set. Beginning at 5pm GMT, it was the type that you thought you could have on in the background whilst you finished up your work but it ended up totally distracting you because of how sick the tunes were, and lo and behold you’ve stayed at the office waaaaay too late just to hear that little bit more. Or maybe that was just me.
It’s a great 2 hour house set that will have you desperate to own nearly all the tracks played, and lucky for us they held up cards with the track names scrawled on to the camera. You don’t need to sit and watch intently for each time one flashes up as they subsequently posted a photo of all the cards on their Facebook and someone’s very kindly filled in any blanks in the comments section. [tracklisting after the jump]
Daytime or pre-party this works and will only make you want to see them live. (You should.)
Damian Lazarus’s record label, Crosstown Rebels, has experienced a meteoric rise in awareness and popularity over the course of 2011 and continues to conquer the international house music scene. Underground dance music has been firmly pushed to the forefront of clubbers’ consciousness, and with Crosstown Rebels being responsible for the majority of the summer’s stompers, it’s no wonder that Fabric, one of the capital’s remaining superclubs, has got them back in for the weekend after Ibiza’s closing parties.
This Saturday, 8th October, sees the main man himself taking to the decks, alongside jozif, Maceo Plex (live) *gasp* and Art Department *double-gasp*. With a killer line-up like this, the place is sure to be packed with discerning fans, people out to relive some summer-white-isle-memories and even some stubbornly ignoring their closing-party-comedown.
Room 2 is hosted by The Nothing Special and features Convextion (live), Anthony Rother (live) and Craig Richards, with Room 3 featuring Terry Francis and Jef K.
Check out the Facebook event or the Resident Advisor listing and then go buy a ticket over on the Fabric Website as a line-up like this is sure to renew any lagging enthusiasm for partying that mid-October normally brings.
French two-piece Logo describe themselves as a “what’s the point duo” but that seems a little harsh on their part. Paris boys Thomas and Hugues are actually making some pretty fresh, optimism-laden electro beats. Since the release of their first EP, La Vie Moderne, last year, they’ve been on the road with Swedish band Icona Pop and the Kitsuné Club Night. And this summer saw the release of new EP Merit, a bleepy, chirpy affair with nods to ’70s sci-fi theme tunes. They’ve hit the festival circuit to hone their skills and are playing Koko tomorrow night, supporting Ed Banger boss Busy P and the amazing Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi and Riton innit). We caught up with them ahead of their live performance to find out all about these young Parisian producers…..
The latest little mix from Hamburg-based Tensnake (aka Marco Niemerski), Travels, is pretty self-explanatory. It’s themed round the places and people he’s been around over the last few weeks. Glancing over the tracklist certainly tells a lot about the company he’s been keeping of late, with quite a few of the more obvious tracks doing the rounds of all your favourite current mixes. There are a few little surprises on there though, what he describes as “old favourites on repeat”. Listening to it, you get that familiar feel of a quick mix or playlist you may have made yourself full of your current faves bobbing along in a sea of classics that never let you down. A cute but ultimately disposable playlist. Tensnake’s Travels has this feel but benefits from beautiful mixing, great track choice and hopefully introducing you to some you’d not heard before. Check out his new vinyl boxset ‘Live+’ over at Oki-Ni as it comes with a pretty smart limited edition t-shirt featuring digital printed artwork from Dutch conceptual design agency Droog.
Here is a short list of things I like: Barcelona, birthdays and Canadian duo Art Department. Combining these three would be something quite super-special so that the fact I didn’t is fairly gutting. Barcelona’s annual Sónar Festival fell on my birthday this year and I so desperately wanted to go. Sadly I wasn’t able to. What you’re probably saying to yourself now is Oh well that’s a bit pants, but probably not so bad ‘cos they played Saturday Lovebox recently, riiiight? Well guess what. I didn’t go to that either because I was off busy attending someone else’s birthday across the other side of the country.
Listening to this live DJ set of them playing at Sónar kills me everytime (which is a lot as I’ve had it on repeat) when I think of how that’s twice I’ve missed out in as many months. With unreleased gems like new track All Mine, and Tanner Ross’s Untitled Bside sparkling amidst current stompers such as Benoit & Sergio’s Everybody to the lovely way last year’s Bakey USTL – Tender Places is weaved in, leading on to recent track Lucky Paul feat Milosh – Thought We Were Alone (Gadi Mazrahi & Eli Gold remix); this is a stunning mix that really captures Art Department’s downtempo aesthetic. And ending with a double-shot of Maceo Plex? Joy. Pure joy. I am head over heels for this mix and have only the slightest miff that over certain tracks is a vocal to prevent people from copying them. I get why it’s been done it’s just a bit annoying when I’m getting right into the vibes. So I guess there’s only one thing for it: GO SEE ART DEPARTMENT LIVE.
Art Department – DJ Set @ W Hotel, Barcelona, Off Sónar June 2011
It’s now my firm belief that there is no friendlier night in London than Trouble Vision. It’s so rare to go out and experience an evening where your drinks stay unspilled, your toes stay un-stomped and you don’t get barged past in the bogs. I chatted to people in the queue to get in, outside having cigarettes, at the bar and even inside the club bang next to the speaker. Literally everyone I spoke to was nice and welcoming and proper sound. The atmosphere the Trouble Vision crew create is something quite unique for London, and actually something special.
Combine this with their consistently good lineups and what you get is a loyal following of regular goers. Being a Trouble Vision virgin myself, I was totally unaware of this and, in all honesty, with it being at Corsica Studios, was expecting a pretty standard Elephant-And-Castle level of crazy attitude. So glad to be proved wrong.
The night is somewhat of a blur in all honesty. I know what I saw was really good, even if I can’t tell you exactly what tracks were played. What I can tell you about is that warm fuzzing feeling you get after a fantastic night out. What I can say is that it’s one of the best nights out I’ve had in a while. What I can do is recommend that you get down to Trouble Vision and find out for yourself how awesome it is.
If that glowing reference doesn’t satisfy you then I’d advise you to head over to Tensnake’s Official Website and signup to download his latest free mix. It’s really rather good. I’d also strongly suggest you give Lee Foss’ latest podcast a whirl. He claims it was delivered to him by “B6 the Backwards Motion Robot” and mixed by a future version of himself at a Hot Natured Party on Saturn in the year 2082. There are so many standout tunes on this mix, from Luca C & Brigante feat Ali Love – Morals (Clockwork remix), to Slowhands – Belle Of The Ball and to the superb moment that Agoria’s remix of Inner City’s Big Fun kicks in; you can see why he’s said it was an extra-terrestrial “classics set from the early 2000’s”. Download it now for instant lushness.
If you want us to blog about you, if you have any questions, requests, recommendations, or if you just want to say hi, feel free to drop us a line: info@wearenotarockband.com
