Roska Roska Roska....

This week saw the release of one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year, as Roska, one of the most talked about and hyped up producers of the past 12 months released his debut album on Rinse.

Make no mistake, Roska is one of the most exciting talents in the UK Dance Music scene at present, and is seen as somewhat of a godfather of the UK Funky scene whilst also retaining close links with both Dubstep and straight up House, and after a bombardment of incredible releases and remixes the past few months has seen his star rise and rise, culminating in the release of his debut self titled album.

I have to be totally honest and admit that some of the vocal tracks on the album I am not a major fan of, although this is down to personal preference as I am never really a fan of tracks with 'smooth' female vocals. The production value on these tracks however are still very high and I can see the tracks working on the dance floor, especially with the females.

For me, its Roska's instrumentals which excite me the most, and I think that he is in a different league when it comes to the percussion elements of his tracks, and I can't express in words how much I love the track below entitled 'Squark'.

With the release of the album and all the subsequent press he is receiving Roska's schedule is manic at the moment with US tours, festival appearances, his weekly radio show on Rinse and much more all keeping him remarkably busy, and his rise to fame shows no sign of slowing down.

To introduce you to Roska's sound and what he is all about there is a mix below to download taken from the Disko 404 podcast, packed full of his own productions, remixes and more.

Roska - Disko 404 Podcast (Mediafire)

1. D-Malice - Visions - Roska Special
2. Roska - In Your Handbag - Fingaprint Remix
3. Deadboy - If You Want Me
4. Roska - Feeline VIP
5. Zinc - Music Makers
6. Roska ft Nikki - Energy
7. Altered Natives - Rass Out
8. Sticky & Paleface - Open Your Eyes (Roska Loves Congos Mix)
9. Roska - Time Stamp
10. DVA - Nasty Nasty Nasty (Roska Remix)
11. L-Vis 1990 - Zahonda
12. Untold - Just For You (Roska Remix)

Plus as a little bonus treat, here's a Roska remix of Naughty - Quicktime which was recently given away in the build up to the massive FWD + Rinse night taking place at Matter at the end of April.

Naughty - Quicktime (Roska Remix) (Mediafire)

Goli & Ashburner

One city that seems to be incredibly lively at the moment is Nottingham, with a plethora of nights taking place every weekend including the ludricous Detonate, and there seems to have been a big emergence of local Nottingham producers the past year or so too, 2 of whom have stood out for me, namely a couple of producers called Goli & Ashburner.

I have been a long time supporter of Ashburner's tracks over the past couple of years and have been lucky enough to have received most of his unreleased work, and all his tunes have proved to be absolutely deadly in the clubs, and at one point towards the end of 2009 after he sent me around 14 tracks in 2 months, I found a huge chunk of my sets were ending up 50% his tunes!

A great thing about Goli & Ashburner is their ability to seemingly be able to switch from style to style, so whereas one tune may be a face melting wobbler of epic proportions, their next track may be that little bit deeper and much more subtle, make comparisons yourself from the tracks below.

Goli & Ashburner - One by Goli & Ashburner
Goli & Ashburner - i9 by Goli & Ashburner

Their obvious production talents have brought them a whole lot of attention the past few months, and with a wildly hectic gig schedule they are now racing up and down the country most weekends tearing it up wherever they go, and with a huge pile of unreleased tracks still yet to see the light of day except amongst a lucky few, I reckon these two have a blindingly bright future ahead of them.

I am going to be speaking to the young reprobates very soon about doing this blog an exclusive mix, so in the meantime enjoy the very special treat below, Ashburner's remix of the massive Tempa T anthem 'Next Hype', probably the biggest tune I played in any club ANYWHERE last year and one of the most sought after tunes of 2009.

Tempa T - Next Hype (Ashburner Remix)

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)

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)

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)