Deadboy

Every now and again an artist or producer seems to come from nowhere and absolutely knock you senseless, coming with a sound that is like heaven for your earlobes, evoking senses in your musical taste that you may have never knwon you had. Towards the end of 2009 a producer came to my attention who's sound is both strikingly original and yet carries a huge sense of familiarity.

Not much is known about Deadboy other than he's young, he's from South East London, and that he's making some of the most heart wrenchingly beautiful music thrown under the Dubstep/Garage/UK Funky banner since the master of sadness Burial.

His debut release on Well Rounded contained one of the most hyped up tunes of the year, the stunning 'U Cheated', as well as my personal favourite track of his, the unbelievably haunting 'Heartbreaker'. The most striking thing to me about the whole release is that it doesn't sound exceptionally well mixed down, which only seems to add to the warmness and the atmosphere of the tracks.

Deadboys next output is the stunning 'If U Want Me', a track which sounds like Old Skool Rave, Garage, House, Broken Beat and Pop all having a sleepover at Dubsteps place, and which is soon to be released on a special one sided 12" on the new look Numbers imprint, having been a staple track on a huge amount of mixes over the last few months for those DJ's lucky to have an advanced copy, including being the opening track on one of THE mixes of 2009, Modeselektor's amazing Resident Advisor podcast.

The quite frankly brilliant Fact Magazine podcasts started 2010 with a mix from Deadboy, and unsurprisingly, its nothing less than stupidly breath taking, and is a real tour de force through a slew of genres, featuring tracks from Martyn, Julio Bashmore, El-B, Joy Orbison, a stone cold Garage classic from Scott Garcia and even Theo Parrish, as well as all the productions from Deadboy himself that have catapulted him into the spotlight. Do not sleep on this, its just absolutely fucking glorious.

Deadboy - Fact Mix (Mediafire)

Tracklist:

1. Three Chairs – No Drum Machine Pt.2 (Three Chairs)
2. Deadboy – Brock Lee Riddim (Well Rounded)
3. Deadboy – Heartbreaker (Well Rounded)
4. Theo Parrish – Soul Control (Sound Signature)
5. Martyn – For Lost Relatives (Aus Music)
6. Julio Bashmore – Footsteppin (Unreleased)
7. Scott Garcia – It’s a London Thing (Underground Connection)
8. Deadboy – Lingua (Unreleased)
9. El-B – Assassin (Ghost)
10. Cassie – Official Girl (Deadboy 'Unofficial Girl' Remix)
11. Smokin’ Beats – Dreams (Smokin Beats)
12. Joy Orbison – J.Doe (Forthcoming DLDRMS)
13. D-Malice – My Joy refix (White)
14. Deadboy – U Cheated (Well Rounded)
15. Burgaboy – You and Me (Strickly Bangorz)
16. Deadboy – If U Want Me (Forthcoming Numbers)

Bonus Beat:-

Delphic - Halcyon (Deadboy Remix)

Splittercore

I have no shame whatsoever in admitting that I used to be a fully fledged Hardcore Techno & Gabber head, in fact I am proud that I have contributed to, enjoyed and fully understood just what the Hardcore Techno scene is all about, and some of the classic tunes and the nights out I had back in the late 90's/early 00's will remain in my memory for as long as I live.

To be honest, I still make sure I have my head blasted at least once a year (usually at Glade) as there is still nothing to compare to the sight of over 1000 people going apeshit to really fast music (the last time I had my ears raped was in fact only last Christmas when I watched Hellfish @ Bangface in London).

The reason I left Hardcore Techno behind was down to me growing bored of the sound, because I believed it was stagnated and that there was nowhere else to take the music beyond where it was (you have to remember its been a fully fledged genre for nearly 20 years now). How could it get harder? How could it get faster? How could it surprise me anymore?

I last properly DJ'ed at a Hardcore Techno night in early 2007 at a night called Rigormortis in Nottingham playing some classic tunes in a 2nd room, and it was that night I was first introduced to the mind boggling genre apparently known as Splittercore. Yes, thats right. Splittercore.

Speedcore was probably the most exciting thing my ears had ever heard when I was 16 and used to listen to HMS (RIP) & Loftgroover tapes from Helter Skelter, but when I listen back nowadays its pretty embarrassing, as all the (to be fair, legendary) DJ's were doing was playing normal Hardcore Techno tunes on 45rpm rather than 33. 

That is not me dissing HMS or Lofty in any was, as things were much different back then, but listening back it seems silly that all that a lot of people wanted was to see how hard or fast the music could be taken, when in fact listening back you realise it wasn't very hard at all, just stupidly fast. I instead much preferred intricately and meticulously produced tracks by people such as Micropoint and Hellfish & Producer, who could switch Bpm with ease yet always retain a fierceness like no one else.

Which brings me to Splittercore. Maybe if I was 16 again, it would be the best thing I have ever heard. Instead, it serves to be quite possibly THE SHITTEST MUSIC ON EARTH. I am often asked if there is any music I don't like, and here is your answer. Yes. This.

Its basically, fucking stupid. I have learnt over the years that my ears love melodies, scales, chords, key changes and rhythm, and Splittercore, provides absolutely none of them. It is in my opinion, and this may get me in trouble but I don't really care, music for outcast morons. No subtlety, no imagination, just noise.

If people want to play this shit, and 'dance' to it (I have seen people attempting to dance to it, its horrific), then let them be of course, they have as much right to dance to what they want just like the Donk heads have and just as much as I have. I just hope I never have to be in the same club where it is being played again.

And even after saying all that, I still find it strangely endearing. I think that it sometimes reassures me to know that there are absolute fucking lunatics out there listening to the maddest music imaginable. I wrote this post after telling a friend of mine about Splittercore last week and him not believing it existed, so here's a couple of the most extreme examples below to prove that unfortunately, it does!

Hot City

Another producer to rant on about this post, and yet another one who's sound is difficult to lump into one specific category, fusing a whole host of influences from a plethora of scenes to create something that sounds incredibly fresh.

Hot City is another producer to have emerged from the huge melting pot that is London 2010, and in what seems to be becoming a more popular trait, is a producer with a sense of mystery around him. In theory, Hot City essentially makes House Music, but there is so much more going on with his sound its difficult to tie him down in that genre.

One immediately noticeable production trait of Hot City is the exquisiteness of his vocal cut's that he uses, at times employing them along with his incredibly catchy synth lines to create what sounds like the perfect merging of jackin Chicago House, skippy 2-Step & Garage and mad as you like Old Skool Rave, whilst keeping a close tie to the post Dubstep movement, all done with a sprinkling of that most vital ingredient, fun (there's even a track which has what sounds suspiciously like a Donk in it!).

Its a really hard sound to explain without sounding too much like a rambling tit, so your best off just listening to the stunning mix Hot City did recently for the XLR8R Podcast, packed full of fresh exclusives. Be careful listening to it in public though, it took all my strength to stop myself jumping up and dancing like a tit whilst listening to it on the bus the other day.

Hot City - XLR8R Podcast(Mediafire)

01. Hot City “What Am I Doin”
02. Terrence Parker “Why After All This” (Seventh Sign)
03. Karizma “Neccessarry Maddness” (R2)
04. Justin Martin “Beat That Bird With a Bat (Donk Boys Remix)” (Dirtybird)
05. DJ Zinc “Because” (Bingo)
06. Mike Dehnert “Umlaut2 (Levon Vincent NY Basement Mix)” (Clone)
07. Shams “Watch You Foam at the Mouth and Try to Swim Today” (Vicious Pop)
08. Cubic Zirconia “Josephine (Egyptrixx Remix)” (Don’t Cry)
09. Grevious Angel “Move Down Low (VIP Mix)” (Soul Jazz)
10. Hot City “Another Girl”
11. Tolfrey/Ramirez “Bounce To Me (Lauhaus Remix)” (Phonica)
12. DJ Assault “In The Club”
13. Black Box “Ride On Time (Zombie Disco Squad Remix)” (AATW)
14. Jay Robinson & Screama “Down (Original Mix)” (Monkey Beats)
15. The 2 Bears “Be Strong” (Southern Fried)
16. Nochexxx “Sandspur”
17. Jodey Kendrick “Dirt Devil” (Rephlex)
18. Jimmy Edgar “B There” (Hypercolour)
19. SBTRKT “Laika” (Brainmath)
20. Harmonimix “A Milli” (Harmonimix)

Bonus Beat:-

Monarchy - The Phoenix Alive (Hot City Remix)

DJ Fails

It has happened to me a lot over the years, mainly down to my high levels of intoxication, but nothing can still ever prepare a DJ for those moments where it all goes hideously wrong.

Instantly wanting a hole to open up in the ground so that you can escape the eyes of disgust looking back at you all around the room, you adopt a confused look and use the awkward flapping of your arms and hands to try and distract the baying mob (its never really that bad of course, but it sure does feel like it), and try and determine what the problem is whilst your mind slowly cries out 'whyyyy!?'.

Its reassuring to know then that even 'the best DJ's in the world' (snigger, chuckle, arf arf) are prone to making horrendous mistakes themselves. Take a look for yourselves at two of the most well paid and famous DJ's in the world having bad days at the office, with the Guetta one being especially painful. Note his angry little French face on the particularly harsh second fail!

Seiji

A producer and DJ up now, who rather ashamedly I had never heard of up until a couple of weeks back, this fact made worse when I found out his history and past projects and realised that he's a bit of a legend and one hell of a prolific producer.

Ove the years Seiji has sprinkled his production magic on everything from RnB to Dancehall with his own unique style and was a major purveyor and pioneer of the Broken Beat scene, a scene which had undoubtedly had a huge influence on some of the fresh new sounds to be pouring out of the capital right now.

Seiji is also a driving force behind the much adored Bugz In The Attic crew, and was key to the the formation of the project, enjoying phenomenal success over the years with the project thanks to tracks like this:-

The reason why Seiji has finally come to my attention is thanks yet again to the wonderful Fact Magazine podcasts which he was in control of a couple of weeks back, plucking out a set which did that rare but lovely thing of absolutely blowing me away upon the very first listen.

Seiji seems to be able to skip effortlessly through a whole range of genres such as House, Dubstep, Garage, UK Funky and Hip Hop with a seam and flow that is deadly, moving between tempos constantly, at one point in this mix even employing an Old Skool release on Moving Shadow recordings from 1993 to devastating effect.

Seiji - Fact Mag Podcast(Mediafire)

01. New Sector Movements – Digital Age [Virgin]
02. Greenmoney feat. Mz. Bratt – Who’s Greenmoney [dub]
03. Gorillaz – Stylo (Seiji remix) [Parlophone]
04. Seiji – Elevator [Seijimusic]
05. Seiji – Yesman [Seijimusic]
06. Todd Edwards – Rite Now [Grassroots]
07. Erykah Badu – Honey (Seiji remix) [Motown]
08. Basement Jaxx – Scars (Seiji remix) [XL]
09. Kaotic Chemistry – LSD [Moving Shadow]
10. Donaeo – Riot Music (Skream remix) [Digital Soundboy]
11. Mark Pritchard – Elephant Dub [Deep Medi]
12. Bugg Kann & The Plastic Jam – Made in Two Minutes [Labello Blanco]
13. Seiji – Hohoho [Seijigoodies]
14. Blapps Posse – Don’t Hold Back (Blappstramental) [Tribal Bass]
15. Tinie Tempah – Pass Out (Sbtrkt remix) [Parlophone]
16. Greenmoney feat. Lady Chann – Political Hype Dub [Fool’s Gold]
17. DJ Gregory & Sidney Samson feat. Dama S. – Dama S Salon [Defected]
18. DJ Joe T. Vannelli feat. Csilla – Play with the Voice (MAW remix) [Nervous]
19. DJ Champion – Motherboard [white label]
20. Mr Mageeka – Different Lekstrix [Numbers]
21. Seiji – Loose Lips (instrumental) [Bitasweet]
22. Lady Sovereign – Random (IG Culture remix) [dub]
23. DJ Beware & Motorpitch – El Toro (Seiji remix) [Man Recordings]
24. Seiji – It’s You [dub]
25. Tim Green – Kitsch In [Dirty Bird]
26. Florence and the Machine – Drumming Song (Seiji’s Squelchy Rub) [seiji.co.uk]
27. Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir – Sunrise [Seventh City]
28. Extra Ts – E.T. Boogie [Sunnyview]
29. Seiji – I Can’t Let It Go [Seijigoodies]

The mix has been on constant rotation on my Ipod and a few of the tracks I just had to have, and going over the tracklist it became apparent that some of the best tunes in the mix were by Seiji himself. So imagine how happy I was after a bit of investigation and a visit to his website that a few of these tunes he had already given away for free, in fact there's a pretty obscene amount of free tracks on his site when you consider the quality of them.

I have posted my favorite tune I downloaded from there (although its the remix of Gorillaz that is my favorite track by him, its just not up on the site), and I recommend you go have a peek over there yourself as its definitely a site worth your attention - www.seiji.co.uk

Basement Jaxx - Scars (Seiji Remix)(Mediafire)

Donk

Surely one of the most talked about and discussed genres in Dance Music in recent years is the highly paced frantic mix of Happy Hardcore and Scouse House music known as Donk, which is frighteningly popular in the North of the UK yet mostly unheard of South of the border, except by those involved in other scenes who may have been chain mailed the link for a now infamous video of a group of young Bolton heroes known as The Blackout Crew, with their track 'Put A Donk On It'.

Recently the team from Vice magazines website came to visit Northern Donk hotspots like Bolton and Burnley to record a documentary on some of the people involved in the scene, the scenes fans, and to visit the church of Donk, Wigan Pier.

Its a fascinating documentary to be fair, and a highly reccomended watch to anyone from other more respected Dance Music scenes who have heard of that much maligned word, or actually heard some of the music and thought, 'who the hell would listen to that shit'. You can watch the half hour documentary below.



Whilst watching this, I couldn't help but feel a bit wrong with myself for the some of the thoughts I was having about some of the people the film focused on and I cant lie, often the thought popping into my head was 'he's horrible him'.

I read a few message boards on various forums from other dance music scenes and saw that a lot of people had a similar attitude, and started to think about whether it may be a common misconception and rather harshly insulting to instantly think that about Donks audience in such a way.

Can we honestly say from watching a half hour documentary that the grimacing sweaty messes on the last few scenes in Wigan Pier are lower than ourselves? I think its a bit unfair to assume that just because they bounce round in tracksuits and listen to Donk that they are chav scum and beneath us, and this train of thought that I had myself and that I had read on the message boards disturbed me a little.

I don't and I am sure many of the people making the comments on these boards don't go round judging people on the colour of their skin or their religion etc, so why the do we make assumptions on these people based on what they're wearing and the fact they listen to a harmless form of music?

Like the documentary maker says when he visits Wigan Pier, it can't be denied that these people are probably just as much into their music as DnB heads and Dubstep heads are into their respective scenes, and by the looks of this documentary it can't be denied that these people are bang up for a party.

The thing about this documentary is that Donk isn't even a new thing and I remember my Scouse House loving mate Trevor playing tunes back in 1999/2000 that had that Donk sound , and I might get ripped on for this, but some of those tunes were really fucking pleasing to the ears when aged 16/17, and above everything else just sounded insanely fun.

The music however has obviously mutated the past decade and got unbearably harder and faster, and has had the most poisonous of ingredients added to it in the form of MC's, competing to see who can spit out the most incomprehensible lyrics the fastest, and nowadays I don't think I could bare more than 5 minutes of it before my brain melted into mush.

If this is what a huge majority of kids are into nowadays though then I say leave them be, and if it steers some kids off a beaten track and helps them to focus on doing something positive and being creative then great stuff, because its nothing actually new for kids to like silly dance music when they are aged 13-18, and its no different nowadays from what it was like in the mid 90's, only then it was Happy Hardcore that was the dominant force in silly cheesy teen music.

Fuck, I myself once donned white gloves, a whistle and glowsticks and raved like a tit to DJ Sy and Mc Storm at Helter Skelter aged 16, and do you know what, I will never deny they were probably the best days of my entire life!

I'll finish by saying that in my opinion, the actual Donk sound itself can be used to deadly effect when put in the right hands, take for example the quirky way that Hot City recently used what sounds suspiciously like a Donk on his incredible off the rails track entitled 'Another Girl'.

Daniel Steinberg

Having only really started a love affair with House Music properly in the past 3/4 years, and with having a mountain of new music to catch up with from various other genres, it can sometimes be hard for me to keep up with all that is going on in what is probably the most popular Dance Music genre on the planet.

I do try my best to keep up to date with things and now and again find a producer or artist that reaffirms my disappointment in not starting my love affair with the genre earlier, producers like Daniel Steinberg.

I can't really give too much information on Steinberg's history or biography as he seems to be one of those producers who is much more well known on the continent and seems to play his trade on European shores. I can however share the music that has brought me to his attention and incited me to do this post.

Its safe to say that Steinberg's productions have a very unusual quirkyness about them, one production trait of his being his undoubted talent to incorporate strange and wonderful samples and loops from old and obscure records alongside his tight as you like percussion. For an example of what I mean take a listen to his quite simply BRILLIANT track 'Rush Me', sort of a per cursor to the Gramophonedzie style tracks which have become so popular of late.



Again, information on Steinberg is quite hard to find with him being a virtual unknown to most House music heads in the UK who aren't devout trainspotters of the genre, and mixes by him are apparently hard to come by as well, although I did manage to find a set recorded live in January at somewhere named Funkwerk (what country Footwerk is in I couldn't tell you!), which I have made available to download below, be sure to check him out!

Daniel Steinberg Live @ Funkwerk [30.01.10] (Mediafire)

Shortstuff

If there's one thing you will have to get used to on this blog, its me ranting on about how in love I am with a producer or DJ, and this post is going to take the gushing to a whole new level.

I first became aware of Shortstuff's name in the middle of last year after a couple of collaboration releases with Planet Mu's mad Garage purveyor Brackles, liked what I heard, and set about delving into finding some other releases by him, and it soon pretty much become apparent that Shortstuff is pretty much both producing and DJ'ing some of THE MOST EXCITING SHIT ON THE PLANET.

Seriously, this guy is on a completely different level to stuff out there at the moment, and the last few months has seen a flurry of releases on numerous labels, highlights being the Run DMC sampling mental synthstep collaboration 'Dont Sleep' with Hyetal on Punch Drunk, 'Pipey D' again made with Brackles released on Blunted Robots (the other side to Bok Boks frighteningly mental 'Citizens Dub'), and then there's the release a while back on Ramp Recordings of what has now become one of my favourite tracks in the past 10 years, the astonishing 'A Rustling', which staggers and stutters along sounding strangely out of time yet maintains a compellingly raucous rhythm.

Like his productions, Shortstuff's DJ sets are apparently a wonder to behold in a club setting (something I am sadly yet to see but will be doing my upmost best to rectify), and again like his productions can prove very difficult to lump into a category, bounding effortlessly through Techno, Dubstep, 2-Step, Wonkyness, Grime and beyond. In short, exactly what I want to hear.

There's been a few Shortstuff sets appear around the net the last few months, and, stand by for the gushing, they are breathtakingly good and structured fantastically, and are packed full of some major major freshness, as well as forays into classic Techno, overlooked Dizzee Rascal classics and so much more. I have posted the 2 sets that have been on non stop repeat for me the past 2 month or so below. Listen, be amazed, get an oxygen tank on standby.

First up is the 'What You Call It' mix he did for the Lucky Me podcast:-

Shortstuff - Lucky Me Podcast (Mediafire)

Hard House Banton – Reign (Roska VIP mix)
>> Martin Kemp – No Charisma
Geiom & Shortstuff – Wardenclyffe
Mos Wanted Mega – Different Lextrix
Martin Kemp – Wot U Got
Martyn - Friedrichstrasse
D Malice & Rebecca Knight – Poison (Roska mix)
Martin Kemp – After The Night
TRG – Discotek 79
Joey Beltram – Back Porch
Deadboy – If You Want Me
Mosca – Square One (Greena mix)
Brackles – Bad Sandwich
>> Youngstar – Bongo
Untold – Bad Girls
Geiom feat. Marita – Sugar Coated Lover (Brackles & Shortstuff mix)
Shortstuff – Tweaked
Ramadanman – A Couple More Years
Untold – Flexible
Brackles & Shortstuff – Ipkiss Riddim
Shortstuff – Galaxy
>> Aardvark – Nosestep
Sully – In Some Pattern
Clouds – Napalm
Pangaea – Dead Living
James Blake – Pembroke

And then next up is his mix put up last month for the bang on form XLR8R podcast:-

Shortstuff - XLR8R Podcast(Mediafire)

Joey Beltram - Upper
Scratcha DVA - Natty
Martin Kemp - Wot U Got
Shortstuff - Swine Time
Hem feat. Terrible Shock - On a Mission (Shortstuff Remix)
TRG - Tribal Flex
Deadboy - If U Want Me (Brackles & Shortstuff Remix)
Brackles - 6am El Gordos
Shortstuff - Galaxy
Steve Poindexter - Work That Muthafucker
Mosca - Square One (Roska Remix)
Brackles & Shortstuff - Roots & Berries
Doc Daneeka - Drums in the Deep
Shortstuff & Hyetal - Crayola
Bok Bok feat. Bubbz - Citizens Dub
Dizzee Rascal - Live O
Untold - Bad Girls
Geiom - Spiral Weave
Lauren Pritchard - Stuck (Guido Remix)

Be sure to check these out, and rest assured I will be keeping a close eye on and updating with any future Shortstuff mixes and releases.