Weekend Picks: London - Blackest Ever Black @ Basing House and fabric's 12th birthday

Looking at the flyer you be forgiven for thinking that's enough for a club night, but the guys over at BleeD thought otherwise. Going by their Facebook page it seems that the Secret Special Guest is no longer a secret. Turns out that, for the first time since 2006, Regis and Surgeon, aka the British Murder Boys, will be performing a special one off live set.

Basing House is the perfect setting for the party. Small, dark, intimate surroundings with an excellent Funktion 1 soundsystem. The venue plus the new development turns this from a great night out, into a phenomenal night out! Advanced tickets have now gone but there's spaces available on the door. Check out Resident Advisor for all the info.

Our second weekend pick is one of my favourite weekends of the year, fabric's birthday. 30 hours (and probably a few more) of partying in London's best club, listening to some of the worlds best DJs playing on London's best Soundsystem. I'm not going to go through all the names on the flyer, because I'd be here all day.

The techno stand outs are of course Ben Klock and Peter Van Hoesen. Both Ben and Peter have been in scintillating form in the last 12 months, and their most recent ventures to London have resulted in 2 of the best nights out we've had this year.

Tickets were sold out, but fabric have released some more. Head over to the fabric website to see what's still available.

Jonsson / Alter - Mod Album Preview [Kontra Musik 022]

We've featured a few releases on Kontra Musik and every time we hear something new, we get more and more impressed with this great label from Sweden. Focusing on Swedish producers to create music with personality, not just built for DJs and clubs, but music you can listen to at home.

As Jonsson / Alter, Henrik Jonsson and Joel Alter, blend together ambient, dub, atmospherics and plenty of soul to give 'Mod' an earthly touch. The album intro 'Dikt' almost mentally transports you to a Swedish mountain top surrounded by snow and endless evergreens. The album steadily picks up the pace with 'Acapellen' and 'Djup House' providing throw backs to early house sounds but in their own way. 'Dvärg' pulsates it's way into your brain whilst 'Kyrka 2.0' holds together the most solid of sub bass grooves. 'Hela Berget' is all about the club with heavy influences from US Techno with Jonsson / Alter's tell tale organ chords layered in and out of the mix. Finally 'Tre Ackord' closes out the album with dreamy chords patterns with solid 4/4 kicks underneath them to create and altogether relaxing, yet uplifting, last dance.

Check out the album preview from the soundcloud player below

Jonsson/Alter - Mod album preview by KONTRA-MUSIK

The album will be out in the shops and available digitally early next month. More info can be found on the Kontra Musik Website. Or for social networks you can like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter

fabric On with Ricardo Villalobos & Sandwell District (30th July 11)

We're getting excited about tomorrow as not only is it a fabric On party but our boys, Sandwell District, are coming to town. It's always big when Regis and Function stop in and it's made even bigger by them being backed up by one of London's brightest new stars, Sigha. It hasn't been long since the London last performed in the epic Room 2. Back in May he set the tones for Shed and Marcel Dettmann with an exquisite warm up set.

Room 1 isn't looking bad either. Headlined by the king of fabric, Ricardo Villalobos, who will be doing one of his monumental morning sets, no doubt he'll be joined by Craig Richards at some point. A live set from Perlon's San Proper would also be well worth experiencing.

As is always the case with fabric's 15 hour On parties there's guaranteed to be many special moments. Too much to all take in. Tickets are still available on the fabric site and there's some special deals in there for discount fabric cds, and it's not even xmas yet!

If you're looking for something to get yourself warmed up before heading down to the former meat store, then we highly recommend Void @ Public Life. Headlined by up and coming UK producer, Roberto and familiar face to SDD fans, Chris Stanford. Head over to the event page for more details

Jonsson / Alter - Olidan [Kontra Musik 019]

Kontra Musik have been on the most excellent form of late. We're still waiting the arrival of Mokira's 3rd and final installment from the 'Time Axis Manipulation' series, but there's no sign of slowing down from the Swedish Label.

KM019 is a joint effort from Henrik Jonsson and Joel Alter. All 3 tracks are beautifully produced. 'Olidan' is a dreamy affair, 'Orgelpunkten' is a musical improvisation inspired by Swedish Poet Gunnar Ekelöf while 'Jätten' is much deeper with it's groovy bassline that just allows your mind to drift off.

Check out the tracks below

KM019 A1 Jonsson/Alter - Olidan by KONTRA-MUSIK

KM019 A2 Jonsson/Alter - Orgelpunkten by KONTRA-MUSIK KM019 B1 Jonsson/Alter - Jätten by KONTRA-MUSIK

'Olidan' will be released on both vinyl and digital on the 25th May 11 and will no doubt be found in all the usual places. For more information on Kontra Musik check out their website

Ostgut Ton Label Showcase @ The Red Gallery (21st Apr 11)

It's time for the legendary Berlin label to bring their sound to London once more. Last November they packed out Corsica Studios and tomorrow night they plan to do exactly the same to The Red Gallery.

4 hour sets for everyone across the 2 rooms with Elif Bicer popping up here and there to add her vocal talents to the nights proceedings. This is definitely one not to miss. Those of you who caught Klock at fabric recently will know it's always a bit special when he comes to town. Klock is supported in room 1 by Fiedel and room 2 is a much housier affair with the Ostgut Ton Label top man, Nick Hoppner and Panoramabar maestro, Prosumer.

The last few tickets are available through Resident Advisor so there's still time to reserve your place on the dance floor.

Ostgut Ton release new compilation as they celebrate turning fünf

Over the past five years, Ostgut-Ton has risen steadily to become one of house and techno's most respected imprints, thanks in no small part to its association with the famed Berghain/Panorama Bar. The label was first conceived by Nick Hoppner in 2003, following the closure of Berghain's predecessor, Ostgut, which was torn down to make room for Berlin's o2 Arena. Hoppner had been a resident DJ at Ostgut, and when he heard about plans to open a new location, he offered to run the club's record label. Two years later, Ostgut Ton ("Ostgut Sound") released its first CD: Berghain 01mixed by Andre Galluzzi.

The relationship between Berghain and Ostgut Ton is brought to new heights onFünf, which uses field recordings from within the club as source material for new productions. Spanning two unmixed CDs, the compilation boasts 24 previously unreleased tracks by most of Berghain and Panorama Bar's residents, plus new tunes by Emika, recent signing Ryan Elliott and Murat Tepeli with Elif Bicer. Resident Advisor caught up with him at his office within Berghain itself, and Hoppner gave them the rest of the scoop on Funf:

What can you tell me about the concept behind the compilation?

Well, it wasn't really my idea. I was thinking about our five-year anniversary compilation already a year ago. I didn't like the thought of doing it like everyone else–maybe a mix through the back catalog and a few exclusive new tracks by some key artists... I wanted something more special. Then a while ago I met Ema Jolly, she’s making music herself on Ninja Tune, as Emika. We sat together one day last summer and she told me about her last visit to Berghain. It was a regular Sunday morning and she noticed how everything in the building was resonating and vibrating and swinging and humming–she realized that there were lot of sounds coming from the building itself. That led to the idea of doing field recordings within the building while it's not open to the public. She had access to everything, the cooling rooms, storage rooms, the PA rooms... Our in-house technicians helped her mic the lighting rigs, they recorded the strobelight flashing, the fridges humming... They recorded impulse responses in the space of Berghain and built a reverb plug-in from that. It took about two or three weeks, then she took home tons of rough field recordings and edited them down to a library which she organized into different groups: downstairs, cloakroom, toilets, water, glasses, swings... whatever she has recorded... It was a four gigabyte library.

How strictly did the artists stick to that sound-bank when they were producing their tracks?

Some more, some less. We’ve got a few tracks where you can hardly tell, but every track contains a sound from the club one way or another. The tracks by Marcel Dettmann and Magaret Dygas, for example, rely on the sounds to a very big extend and it really shows. Then you’ve got other tracks where they have just put some hums in the sampler and tuned it and pitched it and copied so it's kind of turned into a pad that sounds like a regular synthesizer. We didn’t place any restrictions on the use of it, we just said "take these sounds and do something with it."

Why was that concept important for the compilation?

People always talk about how the club influences the music, so it was interesting to see what kind of music you can actually make with sounds from the club, you know ? It’s kind of a play on the relationship between the architecture and the label and the really close relationship of the label and the club itself.

Berghain and Ostgut Ton have both become a lot more popular over the past two or three years. How has that affected the label?

I don't think it's really affected the content of the label. It's up to our artist completely. Whatever they wanna do, they do, I hardly ever intervene, I was never in a situation where I had to say "Sorry you can’t do that." Basically our concept is more of a social one than an aesthetic one. The idea was to set up the label as a platform for our resident artists, and that's what we’re still doing... Of course what has changed is that we are putting out a lot more music these days and there is a lot more work and responsibility and deadlines to meet. It has become more of a business. I would say that everyone is feeling some sort of pressure, but not in a negative way. It’s just there. We have to try to keep the good work and that’s basically it!

The label has been expanding out from the club a bit recently, for instance you've had label nights in Tokyo and at Space and the quarterly residency at the Bunker. Is that just an experiment something that you think will continue?

Part of it is an experiment I would say, but I’m not so familiar with the thought behind the booking policy. I don't think that we would expand to a huge extent. But the relationship with the Bunker for example is something that will go on. It’s a very nice working relationship with the people promoting it and everyone who has played there really really enjoyed it. So I don't see why this should stop any time soon. And the rest... yeah I don’t know. I’m sure people from the club and the label will continue to travel to Japan but I don’t know about regular residencies or label nights. At the moment it’s kind of a new phase where a lot of possibilities open up, but we’re aware of the traps of it.

So even though you're expanding, Berghain the resident DJs will always be the foundation of the label?

Oh totally. You know, I could have found so many great artists already because people give me amazing music all the time, but we have to turn it down because we have so many in-house artists and it’s hard to meet everyone’s needs. More of our residents are producing their own music now, like nd_Baumecker is about to release a collaboration with with Sam Barker, AKA Voltek, and he wants to continue to do music for us, so that's another artist we have in our family now. Tama Sumo is starting to do her own stuff--so far she only did music with Prosumer, but she has her first solo track on the compilation. Boris also has his first solo track on the compilation and I guess sooner or later they will do their own 12-inches for the label. So yeah, I think it will always stay within the family. And of course, I mean, even if everyone of us enjoys playing parties abroad in different cities I think all agree that playing here in Panorama Bar and Berghain is still one of the best thing that ever happened to us. There is no place like home (laughs). I don’t see what that should change.

A lot of clubs and labels have been suffering in the past few years, due partly to the economy and the state of the vinyl market. Have Berghain and Ostgut Ton felt any effects from this at all?

I’m not the right person to talk about the economics behind the club, but just from what I’m feeling I don’t think so to be honest. The place is full most of the time, but I'm not sure... Speaking for the label, I can say that vinyl sales for us are still a bit higher than for other labels I’m aware of, but it’s constantly going down. It’s not getting better. It’s slowly but surely getting worst, and the digital doesn’t really make up for it. We’re not losing money, but we’re not making a lot of money either.

Are there any other releases in the pipeline that you can reveal at this time?

Yes. We've got the debut of nd_Baumecker with Sam Barker coming up in three weeks. At the end of September there will be a new Marcel Fengler 12-inch, then in November it's a Ben Klock 12-inch. At the end of January, early February probably we’ll do Steffi's debut album. And new Panorama Bar mix by Prosumer next year, then a Marcel Fengler Berghain mix CD. Probably a new album with Luke Slater at the end of 2011 and the rest is still to be thought about.

Five years on, what are the label's long term ambitions?

I think the long term ambition is to stay interesting and relevant with the concept we are following. People are very picky and choosy and their music. Everyone has his tastes and a very high standard of quality. Just maintaining this level of quality is our ambition I guess. Keep it interesting, and whatever that might actually mean remains to be seen. I don't know where we'll actually be in 10 years. Of course I hope we will be here but whatever happens in between in the meantime… I don’t know. We’ll try our best, that’s for sure.

Fünf will also be available as a pack of seven 12-inches, though some tracks are exclusive to the CD release. Naturally, the compilation will be launched with a weekend-long bash at Berghain and Panorama Bar, featuring many of the label's core artists, including Shed, Marcel Dettmann, Steffi, Prosumer, Tama Sumo and more.

Tracklist
CD1
01. Emika - Cooling Room
02. Marcel Fengler - Shiraz
03. Prosumer - Daybreak
04. Substance - Gestalts
05. Ryan Elliott - Abatis
06. Nick Höppner - ISP
07. Marcel Dettmann - Shelter
08. Fiedel - Doors To Manual
09. Shed - Boom Room
10. Steffi - My Room
11. Dinky - Twelve To Four
12. Len Faki - Kraft Und Licht

CD2
01. Barker & Baumecker - Drin
02. Marcel Dettmann - Scourer
03. SCB – Down Moment
04. Tama Sumo – Iron Glance
05. Murat Tepeli feat. Elif Biçer – Hold On
06. Soundstream – Wenn Meine Mutti Wüsste
07. Cassy – Never Give Up On A Mood Swing
08. Ben Klock – Bear
09. Norman Nodge – Start Up
10. Luke Slater – Boom Tang Shwuck
11. Boris - Rem
12. Margaret Dygas – Qunitet

Fünf will be released on Ostgut Ton on the 25th October 2010. Keep up to date with Ostgut Ton via their Website and on their Myspace page

Seth Troxler @ Fabric On & On... & On (6th Mar 10)

The 2nd of fabric's 30 hour parties (the first being the legendary 10th Birthday) took place on the 6th March and included the likes of Ellen Allien, Dinky, Konrad Black, Onur Ozer, Radio Slave and of course Seth Troxler.

One of Seth's mixes throughout the weekend was recorded and has been released onto t'internet for your listening pleasure. And here it is.

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Length - 1hr 51mins

Bitrate - 128kbps

Maayan Nidam - Bodytonic Podcast 77 (14th Apr 10)

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Maayan Nidam aka Miss Fitz delivers the latest Bodytonic Mix. Check out her new track "Greatest Tits" out on Wolf and Lamb in May.

Maayan Nidam Myspace

Cassy - Higher Frequency Mix Show (3rd Jul 09)

Here's a recent live mix from one of my favourite djs / producers at the moment, Cassy. I saw her twice last month (Secretsundaze @ Village Underground, London & Cocoon 2 @ Kanna Beach Club, Barcelona) and her deep chugging Berghain techno sound really did the job.

This was recorded for the Higher Frequency Mix Show last weekend (3rd July) Download the sets from the following links

Part 1 - Uploaded.to

Part 1 - Depositfiles

Part 2 - Uploaded.to

Part 2 - Depositfiles

Cassy's Myspace page

Higher Frequency Website

Enjoy

Luciano's July Top 10 & Global Radio Mix

Here's Cadenza's head honco, Luciano with his new chart for July and a new mix he's just done for Ibiza Global Radio (9th July 09)

1) Cesar Merveille & Pablo Cahn-Speyer - Tribute Cadenza Records

2) Mirko Loko - Sidonia Cadenza Records

3) Luciano - Conspirer Cadenza Records

4) Unknown - Unknown (Reboot Remix) Mobilee

5) Anthony Collins - Prism Freak n' Chic

6) Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Night in Koge Cocoon Recordings

7) 2000 and One - Heritage 100% Pure

8) Mark Broom & Brothers Vibe - Mind Feeling Platzhirsh

9) DJ Madskillz - Unknown 100% Pure

10) Lumidee - Never Leave You (Luciano Edit) White

Luciano - Ibiza Global Radio Mix (9th July 2009)

Luciano's Myspace page

XI - Kempton Sessions Mix Vol 1 (Jul 09)

It's been a few months but i finally got round to recording a new mix last night and here it is

XI - Kempton Sessions Vol 1 (Jul 09)

Tracklisting

1) Ray Okpara - The You Of Cool Cecille Records

2) Masomenos Feat. Firetongue - Hehehe Welcome To Masomenos

3) Seuil - Musm Moon Harbour

4) Frankie Flowerz - It's Funk, It's House (Damian Schwartz Remix) Hypercolour

5) Affkt & Alberto Sola - Big Cake (2000 and One Remix) Barraca Music

6) Lauhaus - Soulshine Remote Area

7) Nima Gorji - I Got Something Love Letters From Oslo

8) Alex Cellar - La Palma Area Remote

9) Livio & Roby - Ban Ban Cecille Numbers

10) La Pena - La Pena 4 White

11) Francisco Allendes & Felipe Venegas - Espiritu (Alexi Delano Remix) Kling Klong

12) Dan Andrei - Balada Conducatorului Beee Records

Feel free to let me know any feedback you may have on the mix

Frankie Flowerz - The Black EP [Hypercolour]

Got sent this the other day from one of the UK's best underground labels, Hypercolour. Their 15th release and it's a good un. The Damian Schwartz remix especially sounded very good at East Village last Saturday

Tracklist

A1) It's Funk, It's House (Original Mix)

A2) I Am Not A...

B1) It's Funk, It's House (Damian Schwartz Remix)

B2) It's Funk, It's House (Zumo's Warped Warehouse Remix)

Can't find any online samples but keep an eye on Hypercolour's Beatport Label Page for it's release

Green & Blue 2009 @ Im Birkengrund (6th Sep 09)

Just found this little gem of an event. It's been all quiet on the Green & Blue front for months but the details have been announced and here they are

Full Line Up

Green Floor:
Sven Vath
Jacek Sienkiewicz (Live)
Radio Slave
Matt Tolfrey

Blue Floor:
Ricardo Villalobos
Reboot live
Marco Carola
Swayzak (Live)
Cassy

Third Floor:
Tobi Neumann & Onur Özer aka Sensitiva
SIS (Live)
Chris Tietjen
Motorcitysoul
Alex Azary

Green & Blue Myspace