With all the hype building for this years Breakspoll 2010 awards ceremony, things are starting to heat up!
Last year Apply the Breaks won Best Breakthrough DJ at Breakspoll and they have now have dropped a fresh mix on our laps. This mix features some heavy beats as well as a sneaky taster of an up and coming release; Bassline Skanker by group member Rob Focuz and Secure Unit.
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01. Si Begg – The Bleeps (Shades Of Rhythm Remix) / Mutate Records
02. DJ Defkline & Red Polo – Gimmie (A Piece Of That Booty) / Booty Breaks
03. DJ Icey – This Is For The DJs / CDR
04. Drumattic Twins – Crazy Love (Peo De Pitte Remix) / Finger Lickin’
05. Amanda Blank – Might Like You Better (Dekoy Remix) / CDR
06. Elite Force & Meat Katie – Dark & Deep / U&A Recordings
07. Rusko – Mr Muscle / Sub Soldiers
08. Lazy Rich – FunkJet (Jay Robinson & Supabeatz Mix) / Music Response Records
09. Beat Assassins – Put Em Up / Mofo Recordings
10. Flat Beat / Dub & Run
11. Secure Unit & Rob Focuz – Bassline Skanker / CDR
12. Posthuman – Lander (Secure Unit & Rob Focuz Remix) / CDR
Voting for this year’s Breakspoll awards ends on the 12th Feb 2010, so if you want to vote for your favourite, then check out Breakspoll.com. If you’re going to go, I’d recommend buying tickets as soon as possible, because this is gonna sell out!
Breakspoll 2010 Tickets
£20 Joint ticket to both events in advance
Breakspoll £13.50 in advance
Stanton Sessions Presents Breakspoll After Party tickets in advance £15
Tickets
£20 Joint ticket to both events in advance
Breakspoll £13.50 in advance
Stanton Sessions Presents Breakspoll After Party tickets in advance £15
The Breakspoll 2010 line-up has been announced, and there are some heavy names involved this year, with a lot of back to back and vs performances! You’d never see this line-up at a festival, so make sure you buy tickets as it’s gonna be a roadblock (as all the kids are saying these days)!
With a 4500 capacity, that will be a lot of bald headed goatee beard sporting parka wearing DJs dancing around 12 girls! Yep Breakspoll can be a sausage fest, but with a line up like this, I don’t mind a sweaty cuddle from someone into the scene like me – especially with a line up like this!
I’m shortlisted for two awards this year, Best Radio Show and Best Podcast so if you fancy showing your support, then head over to Breakspoll.com and vote for me!
Breakspoll 2010 Stats
Two massive events with a huge line up to be held in two of London’s most prestigious venues, Fabric and Matter. Both have killer sound systems and a huge, huge line up!
4500 people
70 artists and
18 awards
2 nights
Breakspoll 2010 at fabric Line-Up (25th Feb 2010)
The Breakspoll Awards – presented by Janette Slack & Ken Mac
Afghan Headspin vs Pixel Fist ft Stapleton MC
Apply The Breaks
Ben & Lex
Bombstrikes pres. Mooqee & Pimpsoul
BSD
Cut La Roc vs Peo De Pitte
Deekline vs Keith Mackenzie ft Sporty O
Elite Force
Eshericks
Farace
Featurecast
Flore ft Rodney P & MC Chickaboo
Freestylers vs Ctrl-Z
Future Funk Squad
High Rankin vs Gella
Left/Right
Karl Sav
Krafty Kuts vs A-Skillz (4 decks)
NAPT vs Beat Assassins
Quadrat Beat
Shut Up and Dance
Smash Hifi (ft Martin Hoerger & Leeroy Thornhill)
Specimen A vs Pyramid ft Miss Trouble & MC Incyte
Swifty B & LockUp ft C.A.$.H MC
Vent
9B0
Stanton Sessions presents Breakspoll Aftershow at matter, London (Friday 26th February)
Working closely alongside the Stanton Warriors, Breakspoll delivers a line-up of the Worlds freshest producers spanning breaks, dubstep, hip-hop, and house, combined with the powerhouse system at matter providing an all encompassing musical assault.
Breakspoll Afterparty @ matter (Room 1)
Stanton Warriors
KOOL KEITH (Ultramagnetic MCs / The Black Elvis / the one who done Diesel Power w/ Prodigy)
Of all the people I’ve been surprised to learn have gone to Burning Man Festival, it’s got to be techno/tech house DJ and Lot49 label owner Meat Katie, who’s hard-edged sets that include breaks, broken beat and minimalist I only imagined stayed within the cold walls of stripped down clubs.
It turns out that the legendary far out art and music festival-event-circus-lifestyle that takes place every year out in Nevada’s inhospitable desert made a deep impression on the DJ. One could even call it a soft spot.
I talked to Meat Katie (Mark Pember) about why, how and again why a club DJ would ever find himself at a glorified love-in with a bunch of hippies. He tells me about the the miracle of consumer-free living, porn, eggs, and why this is one festival the loo roll comes provided. PLUS check out his live mix from Rockbottom.
Meat Katie having it at Rockbottom, Burning Man 2009
Amy Riley: Hi there, how are you?
Mark Pemberton: Okay. I was supposed to be playing in Greece, but instead I’m sitting on my sofa, sick. Where we work, we have a block of studios that I share with other DJs like Alec Metric – so now we all have the flu and having to cancel our gigs.
AR: So the question I’ve got to ask: what’s a DJ doing at Burning Man? Wasn’t it just a hippy fest?
MP: I had the same reservations about Burning Man. The thing is, I’ve got a really good association with some promoters in San Francisco called Opal. I’ve been doing their parties for the last 8 years. They got involved in Burning Man right when it got started, about 12 years ago, and then it just grew. The weird thing is they kept saying, ‘You got to come, you’d love it’ and I thought ‘hippies, no way’.
Slowly but surely, other djs were playing for them – they went there and said it was amazing. I fought it for six years – ‘you’re lying to me, it’s going to be crusties with no clothes on’. Well, it’s kinda true. There’s a lot of crusties and a lot of people naked, but it’s more than that’ (laughs).
This year I decided to go and the promoter gave all our DJs – the Saturday night. I took on the daytime shows. That video clip you see is at Rockbottom, which was on at 4 in the afternoon. Because of time, Elite Force and I did back to back sets, which was good since our music is quite similar. Doing the day time parties, it meant I arrived early. I didn’t know what to expect. People said ‘it’s not what you think it is.’ It’s not hippyfied. The art side of things is not tie-dyed – it’s amazing sculptures and fire . They have fire orchestras, half the size of a football pitch.
AR: How is the music organised?
MP: All the soundsystems have their own vibe. There’s no sponsorship – Burning man don’t give them any money. It cost 70k to put one on.
AR: Why do they do it?
MP: People put on stuff because they want to do it. We got there Monday (early) and there was forklift trucks to put soundsystems up. There’s nothing like it here.
AR: Is it like the rave scene used to be here?
MP: It’s like early raves, but it’s organized so they’re set back from each other.
AR: What soundsystem are there?
MP: It’s crews of people based around cities. A lot of people from San Francisco because that’s where it started. Denver. Crews from Florida have started coming out. They have all their own sounds.
AR: What kind of music were they playing?
MP: A lot of dubstep and glitchhop – which suited heavy electronic and desert and Mad Max anarchy. It was a nice backdrop for that. I didn’t hear a lot of trance, which I was expecting. There was a lot of minimal and techno, which I like.
When I wandered around, I discovered there was an amazing number of international DJs who made the pilgrimage to be there. Armand Van Helden was there -he played a really underground set, not the euphoric hands in the air set he normally does and he’s not being paid 50k to be there either. He did himself lots of favors by playing there. I met Carl Cox when were were both DJing out there. We bought our own tickets and paid our own way.
AR: So is Burning Man in your top ten festivals?
MP: It’s my number 1 event – nothing even comes close. I walked out of there with my jaw on the floor. Coming back to UK and hooking up with people who had been there, everyone said the same thing. It’s such a harsh envionrment you’re in, the way people brave this terrain to be there and do this, you get something from it. I don’t want to sound like a hippy, but I gained something from it and the benchmark was lifted to unrealistic level for anywhere else.
AR: What do you like most about Burning Man?
MP: That you can’t spend any money. When you go to normal festivals, you don’t even realize how caught up you get in spending money and you don’t realize how branded and corporate it is. At Burning Man, you’re not being sold anything. All they do is provide a a perimeter fence around the site and you have to make your own fun. It’s a totally different type of experience to any other festival, where you go based on the lineup so you make a decision based on what you’re going to get – at Burning Man, there’s no lineup so you go. I’d be happy to go even if I wasn’t playing.
They supply toilets as well, and not once where there was no toilet paper and they were always clean, which is quite an achievement.
Punters at Burning Man 2009. Photo from Crave Online.
AR: Any advice you’d give to punters?
MP: Prepare properly. If you want to go, don’t just turn up with your camping gear. Its important where you stay, but people are so friendly. Goggles, face masks.
AR: Oh what, people need to dress like that? I thought they were just trying to look cool with those stupid vests.
MP: I know you look stupid, but the sand is everywhere, it’s unbelievable. And then you get the sand storms, the white outs where you can’t see your hand. I was walking to our camp and there was a white out and it was like being sandblasted and there’s some people having sex and we just walked around them. You couldn’t see them until you were right up close.
You have to queue to get on the site – it’s not like Glastonbury where you can stay in Bath or Bristol – you’re there for the duration – seven days – it swells out on Thursday and Friday. Some people say there for two weeks.
AR: Where there a lot of drug casualties?
MP: I got a sore throat half way through, just from dust. I went to the medical centre there – it was all run by volunteers, it was like M.A.S.H – and I didn’t see anyone there freaking out on drugs. It was mainly people who fell off vans. When the doctor saw me, I gave him ten dollars, and they went to Reno and picked up my prescription for me. They say Black Rock City is the only place in America where you get free medical care (laughs).
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Lot49 are running a competition to discover a new producer for a lucky 3 EP deal as part of their New Lot competition, which closes on 1 December. For more details, check out our post on the competition or go to the Lot49 site.
Are you a dance music producer who wouldn’t mind a plummy record deal? Lot 49, UK dance music label, are looking for the next big thing.
The label, which covers techno, electro, tech-house and breakbeat, already boasts artists such as Dubfire, Lutzenkirchen, AudioJack, Lee Coombs, Robbie Rivera, Marco Bailey, Vandal, Audiofly, Miles Dyson, D.Ramirez, Evil 9, Infusion, Bassbin Twins & Elite Force – you could be next!
One lucky winner wins a three EP deal on Lot 49, mastered at London’s Wired Masters studios with Kev Grainger (Steve Angello, Bjork, Gilles Peterson) plus a heap of software prizes.
14 finalists will have their track featured on Lot49 Recordings “New Lot Compilation”, due out in early 2010.
I talked to label boss Meat Katie more about where the idea for the competition came from:
We were just looking for new artists. In music, there’s been so many breakthroughs in technology, so the problem now is getting it heard.
I’d say 99.9% of what I get sent is what I’m not looking for. The thing is you get all these emails and they all blend into one another. We’re getting nowhere with it. Also make it clear to people exactly what we’re about. And hopefully people will listen toe our back catalogue to understand where we’re at creatively.
We’re all checking out and emailing each other – some artist in Venezuela will have a chance to have their track listened to by people who’ve produced before. It’s not just a demo drive – we have prizes as well. It’d be great if someone from the ass end of nowhere got their stuff produced.
As a special bonus, Meat Katie has given us a brand spanking new mix, the Dirty Stop Out mix (November 2009).
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The West Country’s breakbeat mafia, Ben and Lex are back after a 7 month break… and they’ve come back with the goods this time with a fresh release; Tha Bizniz! This is the 12th release on Ape Music, and it features a wide range of remixes, from breakbeat to dubstep to bassline wonk and techno. I am loving every version, particularly the 2 Bit Thugs gangster-esque take on it.
If you’ve not heard of Ben and Lex, these two award winning DJs and producers, you need to seriously get involved! Ben and Lex have played alongside the likes of Rennie Pilgrem, The Freestylers, Wu Tang, Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Flash and James Lavelle (UNKLE).
Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz Minimix
This release is huge, with five tracks… each one a banger. Don’t believe me? Then you best take a listen to the mini mix showcasing this fine, fine release.
01. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz [Original]
02. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz [Benjamin Vial Remix]
03. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz [Metro Boy Remix]
04. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz [2 Bit Thugs Remix]
05. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz [Mskr-nt Remix]
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Not only have Ben and Lex put together a minimix, they have also furnished us with a stonking 65 minute mix featuring some of the fattest tunes to grace the dancefloor this year. The tracklisting for which includes:
01. Baobinga and ID – No Bright Lights
02. Audiofly – I Cant Remember (Eric Prydz Remix)
03. Aquasky ft Tee Ski – Back To The Top (Vandal Remix)
04. The Loops Of Fury – Flick A Switch
05. Disco Of Doom – Warpig
06. Zodiac Cartel – We Don’t Play That
07. Rack N Ruin – Skitzo VIP
08. Hyper vs Vandal – Fugazi (Vandal Remix)
09. Future Funk Squad – RaveULator
10. Plump DJs – Soul Vibrates (Enough Weapons Bootleg Mix)
11. Beat Assassins ft Sweetie Irie – Boom Style (AC Slater Remix)
12. Ben and Lex – Tha Bizniz (Mskr-nt Remix)
13. Freerange DJs – Gotta Get High (=AVE= Mix)
14. Audio Bullys – We Don’t Care (2 Bit Thugs ReRub)
15. Rico Tubbs – Lumberjack
16. Enough Weapons – Super Sonic
17. The Proxy – Dance In Dark
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Scott Reeder, one half of Nottingham breaks act Hexadecimal, quietly landed this uber-relevant bombshell on me last week, and I’ve been melting under pressure ever since: a new mix based on his Glade set, which is all about the dancefloor and dispels every myth about the stagnant inflexibility (or supposed death) of breaks.
Scott’s just the guy to do it.
In 2007 he took Breakspoll by storm as Best Breakthrough DJ; in 2008 the Hexadecimal mix compilation graced the covers of iDJ November issue. A flurry of world-wide gigs later, will 2009 see the release of debut album Base 16? Let’s hope so.
Scott comes up trumps with this hot-off-the-festival mix, which starts with his own blend of straight up breaks with “I’m not insane”, shifts to the electro house-ness of Jaksaw’s “Duck Up” and an easy seque sees in old school-sounding, hands in the air Hybrid Heights‘ “Old Skool New (Bass 2 Sted–E mix) before taking the mix into a sharp left-turn techno twist with Michael Morph’s Manabad (Hex remix) and keeps moving in new and unexpected ways.
Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the faux David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz or Depeche Mode insertions (rock makes me cringe), but the mix on the whole is a mover, featuring loads of gems from Hexadecimal’s upcoming debut album.
I dare you not to get into the heaviness of the tunes. Extra level of last minute perfection added by Ed Whiteley doesn’t hurt either.
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