fijiama.net – more f*ing house music

Desolat – DESOLATCD001

While you have been biting your nails waiting for the next post, I have been enjoying myself in the darker parts of London. Saturday saw me visiting Mulletover, an underground party that feeds the hype by keeping its locations secret and publishing it through viral channels only a couple of days before the event. The highlight there was Dixon, who unfortunately entertained the carnival-masked crowd only two hours until 2AM, which is when Sebo K took over. His set was quite a disappointment, simply because of the mostly dull music. He had a couple of moments though, to give him justice. Dixon played out a couple of records that are quite certainly going to be big once they get released, such as the new Laurent Garnier on Innervisions or the Henrik Schwarz remix of Bill Withers or a track from the new Loco Dice album.

The album altogether is brilliant and quite house-y. Which gives me confidence in saying that House is making a small comeback and conquering back territory from his skinny weird-hairstyle brother Minimal. Another indicator of that have been the recent Radio Slave records, which I have liked quite a lot. And I don’t recall a minimal record from the recent months that would have moved me very much.

But just go ahead and listen to the sweaty beat of “Tight Laces”. It’s really something, isn’t it?

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Planet E – PE 65296

It must be pretty easy for a well-known producer to get some publicity for his new tracks. Then again the downside is the lack of forgiveness shown when the production doesn’t deliver as expected. He gets labeled as being old or selling out or doing it for the money. So whenever I see a new release from a producer of Martin Buttrich’s statue, I tend to get a bit nervous. What if this is the downfall? What if it’s got Capitol A on the lyrics? I think I tend to bring myself in a pessimistic state like that just to increase the chances of a positive surprise.

I’m relieved to say that “Stoned Autopilot” is indeed a positive surprise. I don’t care much for the flipside – “Cruise Control” – although it will probably get played by many DJs. The necessary tension is missing, and that’s luckily there on “Stoned Autopilot”. Starting with a punctuated single note bass line, it evolves to a harmony that reminds me to a more techno-ish Henrik Schwarz. And then there’s the breakdown. All in all, it’s not an obvious sort of a hit, but I feel it can do massive damage to the dance floor if played at the right moment.

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A: Stoned Autopilot
B: Cruise Control

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!K7 – K7 218

So yesterday I played at Who Wouldn’t Like Johnny Depp?. Apparently, they’re closing it down by the end of this year to make room for a Nepali restaurant. I hope the food is good. Anyway, when I was told that besides myself a high school rock band would appear on the stage to perform, I kind of lost the faith in the event. Still, I had to do my best to entertain. And what do you know…

At one point, this guy in his 30s wearing an ugly necktie popped on stage and placed himself at the booth, staring at the mixer and at the same time trying to catch my sight to make conversation. I tried the usual balance-between-rude-yet-pleasant-keep-headphones-on-look-busy approach, but he seemed quite immune to that. At one point or another I had to remove my headphones to search for the next record, and during these moments he managed to tell me 1) he was going to sponsor the band that was going to perform; 2) he is an artist himself and has designed the plastic bags for Dancemix, a local record store; 3) it would be cool if I surprised him with a little Led Zeppelin OR Lenny Kravitz.

Also, a move that I had not seen before – he kept rolling up bank notes in little tubes and sticking the money into various places on the booth. At first I thought he was passing me a joint and when I found out it was money I was surprised enough to keep it. Anyway, he seemed pleased enough with some Villalobos instead of good ol’ Lenny, since he was especially happy at the booth when I made the mix between two Villa records. He gave me a thumbs-up and went on to harass some blonde glued to a Mojito straw.

Later that night, when I was waiting for the club manager, a security guard at the club approached me, saying he really liked the music and asking what style it actually was. So it seems I had made at least some difference which made the evening worthwhile…

I played Henrik Schwarz’s remix of “Bloodstream” by Stateless 3 times during the night (the crowd was changing a lot anyway). I think the last time I played something 3 times was with Henrik’s remix of Mari Boine. So, let’s wrap this post up with a great piece of emo-house that it is.

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A1: Bloodstream (Henrik Schwarz club mix)
A2: Bloodstream (original version)
B1: Bloodstream (Pilooski edit)
B2: Bloodstream (Henrik Schwarz dub)

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Get Physical – GPMCD 012 / GPMLP 018

Get Physical‘s DJ-mixes keep getting better and better. I barely got over Dixon‘s staggering selection on Body Language vol 4. Now the two crazy frog-eaters, Gilb’R and I:Cube (great f***ing names I say…) aka Chateau Flight have launched their own madness of a DJ-mix. I got a chance to catch the guys on Sonar 2007 in Barcelona where they gave a sexy laptop live to a gorgeous stoned-out crowd. One of the hits of their Sonar set is also featured on this mix-CD, namely “Baltringue”. This was in fact introduced on Dixon’s Body Language, mixed/edited by Dixon and Henrik Schwarz. Anyway, it has got to be one of the stand-out tunes for me on this CD as well.

Body Language vol 5 features a lot of Chateau Flight’s own productions, mixed with strange balearic sounds and leftside techno. The 2xLP is a blessing for those idle DJs like me who don’t have enough time to do their own crate-digging (shame on you…). If you’re into the Chateau Flight sound (and being on this page, you probably are), be sure to dig into this one.

This is the CD tracklist for you, with (*) asterisks behind the cuts featured on the 2xLP.

01. Bogdan Irkuk: The Distant Message – Arken Remix (*)
02. Château Flight: Baltringue – The Body Language Remix (*)
03. Château Flight: 116 BPM Beat
04. Ceramic Hello: Sampling The Blast Furnace
05. I:Cube: Prophetization – Demo Mix
06. Fox N’Wolf: Claws Against Knives – Todd Terje Remix / BL Edit (*)
07. I:Cube: Pazuzu
08. Brifo: Mi Piano Rojo (*)
09. Syncom Data: Beyond The Stars (*)
10. Westbam: Monkey Say, Monkey Do
11. Smith N Hack: Space Warrior
12. Riz Ortolani: Il Corpo Di Linda (*)
13. Poni Hoax: Antibodies – Château Flight Remix
14. Henrik Schwarz: Jimis 2006 Mix 3 (*)
15. Punto: 3Tempo3 (*)

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