Alex Clare - Treading Water (Lenzman Remix)

Really lovely Dutch remix business from Lenzman. Reminds me of the Summer.

Nymfo - Under Fire

Storming track from Nympho's new(ish) Album Characters. My inner geek digs the samples on there, sounds like CS or something (if anyone knows, hit me up).

Check the rest of Characters, out on Commercial Suicide for more heavy tracks, including the BSE collab Battlefish.

After Action Report: Bloc 2012

So Bloc 2012 crashed and burned.

It's still not really clear what went wrong, although from our vantage point on the ground, the failure seemed to come from a perfect storm of poor organisation, technical problems and issues with the venue. There's still a load of conjecture and rumours running about, and it's not clear whether the full truth will ever come out.

Over the past six years, Bloc has become an increasingly important part of the year for us, and whilst it was a shame to see it move location away from the holiday camps of old, we remained optimistic that it would survive the change in venue and an attempt to break into the UK festival mainstream, especially with such a strong lineup on offer. The disappointment of Friday's fail was crushing because we all had such high hopes for the weekend.

It would be a shame if the Bloc omnishambles were to sink Baselogic, although it is unclear how they will recover from this. Even if they survive the financial cost of refunding the punters and paying off the artists, venue and other huge costs associated with putting on a festival in the UK, the Bloc name will forever be associated with Friday's massacre. It seems that the five years of trust and goodwill generated by Bloc's amazing parties are pretty easily forgotten, although a lot of the internet rage on Facebook and the like appears to be coming from people who had no experience of Bloc before Friday. Whilst a degree of anger is understandable in the light of Friday's events, it is depressing to see the accusations of greed on behalf of the promoters. They've always come across as motivated by the music rather than the bottom line, and it seems that this time they bit off more than they could chew, rather than overselling to make a quick buck. You don't make money from electronic music anyway. Much like D&B, most people would pay £55 not to have to listen to the majority of the Bloc lineup.

Bloc had come to fill a niche in the UK scene that no other festival really met, and it's death is a huge loss for electronic and alternative music in the UK in general. Maybe it'll return, but I'm not holding my breath.

Having said that, before things went south, Amon Tobin's ISAM show was spectacular as ever, and Ray Keith on the Acid Waltzers killed it...

EDIT: Baselogic goes into administration [FACT MAGAZINE]
Refunds aren't looking too likely then.

Also, POSH PEOPLE COMPLAINING! Never would have had this sort of nonsense at Hemsby...

Fanu - Coffee Crazy EP

Finnish producer Fanu has just launched his new Coffee Crazy EP as a pay-what-you-want social networking style deal. If you didn't gather it from the title, this one's all about the hot drinks. Considering most of the posts I've written on this website are the product of a first wave caffeine high colliding with some sort of hangover, I can certainly go with the pro-coffee message.

Anyway, grab the EP and show Fanu some love (whilst sticking it to the BPI or whichever bunch of old people is currently trying to shut down the internet).

State of Mind & Subsonik (Feat. 3PM) - Somebody Stop Me

If you haven't already nabbed State Of Mind's Live album, recorded at Homegrown in Wellington last February, then sort it out now. Check that remix of Sunking!

Also on a Kiwi tip, Concord Dawn have a new album out. Video for These Prison Walls is pretty nifty too.

DJ Shadow - Scale It Back (Calyx & TeeBee Remix)

Lovely Calyx and TeeBee remix business. Check their mix for Friction's Radio 1 D&B show here.

Fifteen Things MCs Say

Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to stand near me on a night out will no doubt have had to put up with one of my rambling diatribes against MCs. Back in the day, I've been restrained whilst attempting to launch a shoe at Wrec and escaped a shanking from some scary blokes after asking a blathering track-suited idiot to shut the hell up and get off the mic during a Sub Focus set (after which he fist-bumped me and gave me a shoutout. I think he rather missed the point of what I was saying).

However, in recent years, I've found myself taking a softer line against the MC and even find some of them almost enjoyable, provided they keep their mouths shut for most of the set and keep the mic turned way down. I can appreciate that some people really quite enjoy the impact of MCs on live D&B and it's gotta be said that some of those lyrical MCs "got mad skillz", but at best they are an acceptable distraction, bigging up the DJs and keeping the crowd going, at worst they can ruin a set.



Anyway, like them or loathe them, MCs are as much a part of drum and bass as swinging is to caravan ownership. The only real qualities required to become an MC are the ability to count up to four and a complete disregard for the mood and enjoyment of your audience. You certainly don't need any real creative skills as MCs have been spouting the same nonsense for the past twenty years. As a result of this, there's a wealth of clichéd rubbish out there in the public domain, free for the taking for those who wish to ply their trade as a master of ceremonies.

Let's have a quick run down of the most common MC lines. I'd imagine you could create some sort of bingo-style drinking game around these, although what with the price of booze in clubs these days and the frequency MCs run out the same tired old lyrics, it could rapidly become quite an expensive evening.

1. "WATCH THE DROP!"
Yeah mate, way to ruin the impact by yelling all over it.

See also:
"Watch the mix!"

2. "This one's for the ladies!"
Any track with female vocals, from Jenna G's wailing to Riya singing about her Amazon delivery failing to arrive, is automatically "One for the ladies" apparently. Seems a little sexist if you ask me. Everyone knows that Netsky is the go to producer for girly D&B these days anyway.

3. "Where's my weed smokers at?!"
Well since the smoking ban came in to force five years ago, they definitely aren't on the dancefloor. Try outside?

4. "OH MY DAYZ!"
Yeah yeah, we all just heard the double drop, no need to go on about it.

5. "If you got two hands lemme see two hands"
Bit discriminatory towards those in the crowd who have lost hands or arms in farming accidents or whilst serving their country eh?

6. "Lemme hear ya Cable\Fabric\Daventry!"
No. Shush.

See also:
"MAKE SOME NOISE!"
"Somebody say bo!"

7. "When I say drums, you say bass..."
"Drums!" "SHUT".
"Bass!" "UP".

See also:
"When I say High, you say Contrast"
When I say Renegade, you say Hardware"
"When I say jobseekers, you say allowance"

8. "INSIDE THE PLACE"
I literally don't know what this even means.

9. "OI OI OI OI!"
Yep, that's generally how drum and bass works, thanks for pointing that out.

See also: "ONE TWO THREE FOUR."

10. "Buddah buddah buddah buddah buddah buddah bo check me one time when you check my flow..."
Jesus wept just shut up!

11. "Who knows this one?!"
EVERYONE knows Racing Green. Please stop ruining it.

See also:
"This one's for the heads that know..."

12. "Ya know we never stop dancing dancing dancing dancing"
Well I'm going outside for a smoke unless you stop singing singing singing singing.

13. "REWIND!"
MCs always seem to shout for a rewind on the worst tracks. Or maybe they're just covering cos the DJ fluffed it. Either way, nothing is more tedious than an MC who's too trigger happy with the rewinds.

See also:
"RELOAD!"

14. "...it's all about the music..."
Then stop rambling over the top of it yeah?

15. "Who's still with me?!"
Nobody, SOD OFF!

MCs aren't all bad news though, sometimes they can be just about bearable (check Conrad and Lowqui) and SP:MC has his moments, provided he's not performing live. The only real way to deal with them is just to go with the flow and try not to get too wound up. Who knows, maybe you'll even end up enjoying yourself?

Logistics - Winter Blues VIP

It's sunny outside! Time for an inappropriately titled Logistics track.

Whilst on the subject of Logistics, where the hell did Fibreglass come from? Seem to remember it popping up in mixes over the past year, but why wasn't it on Fear Not? Biggest oversight since Toy Town was left off Crash Bang Wallop!

Anyone else got this abomination stuck in their head by the way? Mixes frighteningly into Murderation :(

Mefjus - Double Tap

Logistics has been bigging Mefjus up a lot recently, and rightly so. Proper ERD vibes on Double Tap.

Culture Shock - I Remember

Straight up chemistry from Culture Shock.
I Remember is dropping on July 2nd. Check Troglodyte on the flipside. It'll kick your cat out the window.

Luke Vibert - Breakbeat Metal Music

Saw Luke Vibert on Saturday (backed up by 808 State and AGT Rave Cru).

Bit of acid house made a change from the regular D&B business. Always a good night when Vibert is in charge.

Breaking Into The World Of Work

One of the best things about being unemployed and looking for a new job is filling out endless application forms, writing cover letters and emailing CVs towards disinterested HR departments. When first starting out on the road to re-employment, I was filled with optimism. Surely people will see that I am perfect for these jobs and hire me immediately without even needing an interview? However, after sending out my 300th application and receiving no acknowledgement whatsoever, I sort of began to lose faith slightly. After the 500th, it seems like things are taking the piss somewhat.

A while back I came to the conclusion that I must be doing something wrong here. Obviously, if I'm not getting anywhere, my methodology must be broken, right?

Let's take a look at the standard cover letter:

Dear Sir or Madam,


I am writing to submit my application for the role of dispensary optician/head of promotions/lyrical MC/chimney sweep/whatever for Microsoft/Burger King/The British National Party/Alton Towers/whoever as advertised on jobseekers.direct.gov.uk/Gardeners World Magazine/railings on a roundabout at junction 5 of the M4/during a lucid dream/etc.


I would be awesome for this job because I can lift four times my own bodyweight/I've never seen any of the Godfather movies/I own and operate my own hovercraft/I went to uni once/something else. I also full fill all of the criteria outlined in the advert/person specification/the lyrics to There She Goes by Manfred Man as a result of my time in prison/the RAF/France/other places. Blah Blah Blah.


Please find my CV attached.
Yours sincerely
Jobless and desperate.


Pretty standard eh? Well apparently that isn't getting results, so I've begun to experiment with the cover letter and application formula to see if I can get some better results. Listed below are a few of the different approaches I've tried in the past round of applications. I'll get back to you over the following weeks to update you on my success (or lack thereof).

1. Attaching a picture of my cat Huxley along with the CV and application form.

My thinking behind this is, not only will it make my application stand out more, but also, who can resist that cute kitten? Although I make no reference to Huxley in the rest of the application (it's for a job managing hedgerow replanting), I'm thinking that the lack of cat pictures in applications may be what is currently holding me back.

2. Peppering the cover letter with swearwords in order to make it sound more like The Wire.

Although one of the things that people tell you never to do in a job interview is swear, I've never been advised against this when writing a cover letter. David Simon's incredible drama series The Wire has long been praised for its fantastic writing and is regarded by many to be one of the best drama series of recent years. I hope to build on the success of The Wire in my quest for employment. Let's see how things work out when I Wireify the cover letter:

Dear Sir or motherfucking Madam,

I am writing to submit my fucking application for the role of motherfucking communications officer as advertised up on the reed.co.uk website yo.

I am a fucking environmental science graduate, and love bees and sheep and shit. During my fucking degree course I specialised in renewable fucking low carbon bullshit and am looking to gain skills in marketing and sales and get my ass paid yo. I run fucking report writing and database management skills deep and gots like five fucking years experience in communications and shit. I am fucking detailed and efficient in my work and will seriously fuck your shit up. If it ain't like I'm not highly motivated by a sense of fucking environmental responsibility and a desire to get this shit up in other people's grills then step the fuck off.

Please find my fucking CV and motherfucking Equal Opportunities form attached.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit,

Jobless and desperate

Wonder how that one will play out?

3. Messing around with the equal opportunities form.

Not all applications require these things, but increasingly you have to fill out an additional form in order to state how religious or gay you are and to describe any disabilities that you might have. Charities, local government and the civil service seem to love these forms for some reason. Apparently it's something to do with making sure everyone gets a fair bash at employment, so I guess they're a good thing. Usually I just tick the "White British" box, because that's probably the category that most closely describes me. Increasingly though, I've been thinking outside the box and have listed myself in recent times as "White, Inuit", "Gender confused" and suffering from "extreme tinnitus" (actually that last one is partially true). Although I am slightly concerned about the potential legal ramifications of answering these forms with gibberish, I have a sneaking suspicion that no one reads them anyway.

4. MS Paint person specification shenanigans.


Some other advice that employed people are always keen to tell you is that it's important to make sure that you provide examples for every section of the person specification in order to illustrate how exactly it is that you meet the criteria outlined in the job advert. In order to do this, I thought it might be a good idea to get creative with everybody's favourite graphic design program; MS Paint. Here are a few of the drawings I sent out for a recent application and the outline given in the person spec.

Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills.

Regular access to a computer and the ability to use spreadsheet and database packages.

Able to think on ones feet and able to handle unexpected and challenging situations.

Make sure you save your illustrations as .JPG files and not .BMPs. My first attempt to send this application got bounced by their email server because it was over 50 mb in size.

5. Haiku cover letter


Who doesn't like a good haiku eh? They're beautiful and certainly one of the highest art forms ever created by mankind.

Dear Sir or Madam,


I seek employment.
Check out my awesome CV
A job must follow.


Yours sincerely
Jobless and desperate

Hell yeah! Out of all of these, I reckon this one has the most chance of succeeding.

Anyway, tune in over the coming weeks when hopefully this more unconventional approach to job seeking will begin to bear fruit.

Calyx & TeeBee Summer Mix for Mixmag

Great summer mix from Calyx and TeeBee, switching it back and forth between the light and the dark. Plenty of big tracks in there, but Scavenger still smashes your jaw off.

1 Calyx & TeeBee - Stepping Stones - Ram Records
2 Submotion Orchestra - It's Not Me It's You Alix Perez RMX - Whitelabel
3 Emalkay - TheWorld TeeBee RMX - Dub Police
4 Dubphizics Feat.FOX - Never Been - Critical Music
5 Jubei. Feat Flowdan - Say Nothing - Metalheadz
6 Spectrasoul - Away With Me - Calibre RMX - Shogun Audio
7 Chris Su - Higher - Subtitles UK
8 Little Dragon - Little Man Calyx & TeeBee RMX - PeaceFrog
9 Hybris - Occult - Subtitles UK
10 Culture Shock - I Remember - Ram Records
11 Ulterior Motive & Hybris - Bring Out - Subtitles UK
12 Matt Lange & Andrew Beyer feat. Kerry Leva - In & Out Of Phase - Calyx & TeeBee RMX - Anjunabeats
13 State of Mind - Roulette - Gridlok RMX - SOM Music
14 Noisia - Try Hard - Vision
15 Major Lazer - Get Free Andy C RMX
16 The Upbeats - Undertaker - Vision
17 Calyx & TeeBee - Scavenger - Ram Records

Emeli Sande - Heaven (Nu:Tone Remix)

Aight, so this one is older than Tony Colman's dad, but it's nice and summery out so let's have a bit of hands in the air remix loveliness from Nu:Tone.

Logistics - Neon

More secretive download only wonderment from Logistics. Why did he save all the best stuff for digital release?!

InsideInfo - Didgeridoo

Straight up horrible slab of tech from InsideInfo's new Grow EP. One of the best tech producers out there, InsideInfo seems to have been running under the radar for years. Check the rest of the Grow EP here:

Grab some mixes here and here (with Blu Mar Ten!)

Calyx & TeeBee - Scavenger/Stepping Stones

Bloody hell! New Calyx and TeeBee business dropping June 11th on Ram.

Top notch production, but does anyone else get Dire Straits vibes off that Scavenger intro?

Just me then...

Logistics - Falling

Disclaimer: I'm completely incapable of saying anything negative about any of Logistics' music, so you can pretty much disregard this post as pointless.

Massive tune from Matt Gresham. Apparently this one was a bonus for people buying the digital release of Fear Not, rather than the CD, so I hadn't actually heard it until yesterday. Now I'm gonna have to buy the bloody download version too. Ah well, one for the car, one for the phone. No worries.

As for the rest of Fear Not? Well, it's certainly broader than both Reality Checkpoint and Crash Bang Wallop, but for me that has always been Logistics' appeal; Big stupid dancefloor liquid slotted right next to dark 'n' moody rollers. It definitely fits in a lot more with Hospital's late '00s catalogue than their current output, although Logistics does seem to be keeping one eye on the Annie Mac crowd (and who can blame him?).

Anyway, 2999 (Where Ever You Go) does the wobbly dubstep thing just right by tempering it with enough D&B to keep things interesting and ensuring that people can actually dance to the thing. Is anyone else reminded of The Humans Are Dead by the robo-voiceover?

We Are One sets off on a housey-liquid rave offensive that actually works really well (much like Raygun on CBW) and really just proves that Logistics can turn his hand to anything. Having said that, the much stronger Nu:Logic remix puts things right back into D&B territory with some insane amen business and is also much more fun.

Tucked away towards the end, Destination Unknown is an interesting diversion that takes the album down a Bonobo-esque path and, although the track never really goes anywhere, it does add a nice bit of variation between Over And Out and Watching The World Go By.

There's plenty of more traditional Logistics business on Fear Not, with tracks like Timelapse, Running Late, Over And Out and Letting Go, but without a doubt the strongest track has to be Sendai Song. It's beautiful, atmospheric and rolling with echoes of Repetition and City Life. This really is Logistics at his best.

All in all, Fear Not is a great album, and whilst some people might knock it because it covers a range of musical styles rather than just being strictly D&B, these people should shut up because it's Logistics.

Hamilton vs. Wilkinson: SOUND CLAAAASH!

Both are signed to Ram, both look grumpy in all their promotional material and both have names consisting of three syllables and ending in "on". In addition to this, both Wilkinson and Hamilton have been putting out some really big tracks over the past year. But out of the two, which is best?!  

Round One!
First up, Wilkinson (the one with hair) mixing things up for Fabric:


Nice... Next up, Hamilton's Fabric promo:

 
Hurm, pretty close call, but I guess it's gotta go to Hamilton because his mix is longer and apparently that's what counts(?)

Round Two!
It's signature tunes time! Wilkinson first really started turning heads with Moonwalker, certainly one of the biggest tunes doing the rounds towards the tail end of 2010.



For me, Hamilton's stand out track has to be Echoes. It kinda sounds like High Contrast's Tread Softly , but after it had spent plenty of time at Burger King cultivating mass.



Tough choice this one, but I think it's has to be Moonwalker. Still remember the first time I heard this go off on a proper system. Incredible.

Round Three!
So we enter the final round; Current Releases!

Last single to drop from Wilkinson was the tremendous dancefloor roller Tonight. Bouncy enough to throw yourself about to but not so stupid as to become unlistenable. Awesome stuff. Don't forget to check Pistol Whip on the otherside for a bit of stampy GnB.



Hamilton's most recent release, Deep In My Heart, manages to keep things both deep and uplifting, but for my money the single's best track has to be Rich Kids on the B side. Give it a spin, it's fucking mental! Everything happens at once and yet still slots into the right place. What a shambles! I love the way that drop threatens some sort of Hard Style nightmare before pulling you right back out again. It's like bungee jumping over a piranah filled volcano.



To be honest, Round Three is too close to call, so let's just bail on the whole thing and declare them both winners.

I wonder if they ever get confused when they're both on the same bill and forget who is who...

Jubei - Say Nothin [Feat. Flowdan]

Fresh bit of moody nonsense from Jubei. I really quite like the idea of Flowdan wearing mittens.

Did I just see Rockwell?

Sub Focus, Howtek & Brookes Brothers - Verano

Can't decide what to make of Sub Focus' new track Out The Blue. It's not very good, but I really like listening to it. I'm so confused. No doubt it'll get plenty of Radio 1 airplay and Sub Focus will be able to add another eight thousand lights to the rig for his live shows.

Anyway, who the hell cares? Nick Douwma could start putting out J-Pop and I'd still give the man a kidney. After all, this is the dude who carved Airplane out of a single 17,000 KG lump of granite with his bare hands.

Let's just forget all about it with some old(ish) school collab business, bringing in Howtek and the Brookes Brothers for a bit of snarly jump up.

Much better.

That Last Jungle intro still gives me goosebumps.

Hazard - Food Fight VIP

Say what you like about the rest of DJ Hazard's body of work, but Food Fight is certainly a deadly track. It seems that the first release wasn't even the original version, (which you can hear above) and if anything, the unreleased mix kinda sounds better. All the parts from Food Fight are recognisable, but now with added screechy vocals. It's a whole different track!

 Fingers crossed the VIP will get a release anyway...

Hybrid Minds - Lost

 Back up in the UK, time for a bit of miserable liquid D&B from Hybrid Minds to go with the grey skies and expensive beer.

No posting for a year, there's a lot of cobwebs and stuff on this thing...