It goes without saying that Alan Hostage brings enough rave energy to steam up crowded club rooms spanning Scotland, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and beyond. You could probably even draw a smiley face on a mirror somewhere in any of the rooms with your finger if you really wanted. In recent days, Hostage has played out with the likes of Dolby Anol, Eat Disco, Mylo, Jo Jo De Freq and more. This past summer, he threw down at DJ Donna Summer’s “Birthday Party Berlin“, which was the start of big things. Hostage’s talents have landed him on the hot new record label, Nightshifters. The entire Nightshifters lot is a heady crew consisting of: label head DJ Donna Summer (Berlin), Hostage (Edinburgh), AC Slater (NYC), Rob Threezy (Chicago), Proper Villains (NYC), Rampage (Chicago), and our very own 4AM Jess (NYC)!!
The first EP release off the Nightshifters label is centered around our dear Scottish friend Hostage! The new EP, entitled ‘Shake It,’ is out on 2nd December and includes 4 original tracks - “Shake It”, “The Slave”, ‘Leathered’ and ‘Roll On’. Some of which you may have caught on Hostage’s October mixtape, “Does My Bass Look Big In This”. Get it off his Myspace. But that’s not all, there are remixes of “Shake It” that come in the form of Acid Jacks (Jackmaster remix) and AC Slater. If it all wasn’t good enough for one man, 7 of Hostage’s previous tracks were released on Beatport last week in a wee package called ‘Nightshifters Classics Volume 4′. Get ready for it!!
Forthcoming gigs sees Hostage heading over to Vienna and England in December, topping off the year with a New Years Eve Special at ‘Beats of Rage‘ in Preston and “BRINGING IN THE BELLS SCOTTISH HOGMANY STYLE SOUTH OF THE BORDER!” he exclaims. Hostage is putting the finishing touches to an Australian mini-tour on 9th January and he says, “a US tour along side everyone’s favourite white boy sweater wearing homie - Oh Snap!!” Enjoy 2 of Hostage’s finest off the Nightshifter’s back catalogue and head over to our mixes section for a taste of Hostage in November!!!!
“While the majority of the music currently coming out of Berlin remains painfully grey and deep, there’s a small culture of electro freaks bubbling away in the city. Shir Khan’s Exploited label is the most obvious source, but Moston’s close behind with his Freakz label. A wonky, tripped out number, the main hook is just one word ‘jack’ and a beautiful bassline which rumbles and tickles in all the best ways. For a little more swing to your set flip for Daniel Dexter and Nhan Solo’s rub - meaty beats all the way. peeps!”
When Moston was asked about the review, he admitted he’d not heard about it. “Did I?” he asked surprised. “What for?” He was chuffed -although he pointed out that, unfortunately, Freakz Me Out is not his label. He could be forgiven for not keeping up.
Moston’s latest remix of Human Resources‘ 1991 old school classic “Dominator” has been getting loads of props. It’s released on house music veteran Bryan Cox’s label, Crux records - others on the fidget house label include Chamillionaire, Trash Fashion, The Bulgarian, 3 Is A Crowd, Gaetan, Chew Fu, Pette Vaydex, Shax, Bryan Cox, Mightyfools, Hostage and so many more I’ll get tired writing them out.
Gigging wise, Lars is doing his normal Germany rounds (below), but is also planning to be in the UK this autumn, which I eagerly await!
5 Jul 2008 - Parkhaus, Lübeck
11 Jul 2008 - Dusted Decks, Grimma
20 Sep 2008 - Taste @ Muffathalle (with Daniel Dexter & Nhan Solo), München
10 Oct 2008 - Suite 15, Regensburg
11 Oct 2008 - Bauhaus, Landshut
15 Nov 2008 - Famous Breaks (Moston & Malente), Gdansk (PL)
I’m featuring “Jack It!” again and also throwing out a track that’s getting a lot of playtime on my i-Pod, “Ever Since I Heard The Sound”, which was released last May (2007) on Plastique Base Records, and is just a perfect electro house tune.
Alan Hostage is a man that truly captures that DIY spirit! Along with all of the music he produces, he also has a knack at whipping up homemade graphics that accompany said music. Some of this art happens to be of food, but usually the visual is a play along to the track title.
If you’ve ever browsed through the graphics on Hostage’s page, perhaps you’ve seen some of these images – A man yacking for “Sick”, toilet paper for “Rip Shit Up”, a pile of knives for “Stab Up”, a large stadium filled with people for “Stadium”, a snake charmer for “Snake Charmer” and the one that just had me snarking was his remix for “Make it Clap” with an image of a dog wearing a jheri curl wig. Okay, maybe I’m just a bit mad or have an odd sense of humor, but it’s these little things in life that people do that make me grin. Head over to Alan’s page and humor yourself too.
So in other exciting news, a little bit o’ sunshine shining down on Hostage (which can be heard on his latest mix that I hope to be posting soon) as well as his latest tune “The Next Level” created with the Roccodisco Crew. Yayyyyy Hostage!!!!!
Title: Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Tocadisco/Nic Sarno/Hostage Remixes) (Alphabet City)
Artist: Tommie Sunshine
Label: Alphabet City
“On one of his many trips to Germany playing alongside Marc Romboy, Tommie Sunshine dropped by the studio of 45 Rocks and heard this tune they had been working on. 20 minutes later he had the lyrics and 30 minutes more they were put to tape sending him and Marc out the door in less than an hours. The track first saw the light of day in its original form on Tommie’s Ultra Rock Remixed in America and has now been transformed into a powerhouse package for every possible taste. On vinyl one, besides the original Tocadisco was chosen to send this track into outer space after he and Sunshine collaborated on ‘Chaos In The Streets’ on his last album. He has delivered both a remix and a dub that is destined to receive both massive worldwide club play and constant island rotation throughout the season. On vinyl two, Sunshine has been given the A&R reigns and has groomed this package for the fringe and beyond. First up is Alan Hostage from Edinburgh, Scotland who has a stranglehold on the blogosphere and delivers his Ravemix to delightful results. This is serious pumping madness and not for the faint at heart. Next up is Milano, Italy’s Nic Sarno (ESP/Tirk Records)! This is Fidget madness done proper and no less than fellow Milano man, Bot from world renowned Crookers to master his remake to assure full-on dance-floor destruction. This is peak-hour done right and takes your set in a whole other direction in all the best ways. Crookers featured Nic’s mix both on their 25000 strong downloaded may 2008 mix tape and their upcoming Essential Mix for Pete Tong’s show on Radio One. The flip is Tommie as his own Brooklyn Fire moniker delivering the secret weapon of the package in the form of a spaced-out exercise in acid-house restraint. This Odyssey pt. 1&2 is both a vocal and dub stretched over 9 minutes of madness.
Tracklist:
1. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Original) (Alphabet City)
2. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Tocadiscos Beach Club Mix) (Alphabet City)
3. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Tocadiscos Beach Club Dub) (Alphabet City)
4. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Nic Sarno Remix) (Alphabet City) 5. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Hostage Remix) (Alphabet City)
6. Tommie Sunshine - Limit Of Your Mind (Brooklyn Fire Odyssey) (Alphabet City)
Coming soon to all good record shops and online music shops yeahhhh!!!!”
“Please spread the joy of kick ass music” – iheartcomix
We agree. What is sacred on the vast internet of music blogs? Anything? Or nothing. What is the most important thing for any and all artists of today? GETTING THEIR MUSIC EXPOSED through as many channels as possible!!!!! So to those that deem ‘EXCLUSIVE’ the ultimate, end all be all, it’s a hyped up word. Who wants to be ‘exclusive?’ For exclusive means nothing when there is a world of music fiends spanning this globe for music to saturate their brains with!!!! Those that have the attention span of a rat that may skip or miss a blog with the ‘exclusive’, just might catch it on another!! And for that alone my dear trashy faced friends (had to nab that Hostage) is why EXPOSURE for all music is the NEW BLACK and ‘EXCLUSIVE’ is on a fast pace to death!
With that, we welcome “Poker Face” by one of our favs, The Toxic Avenger, remixed by Dylan (Le Castle Vania) and Blake Miller (Moving Units/Weird Science) of Lies in Disguise. A fantastic track that has become decked out with this rework. Harder? YES. Dirtier? YES. Faster? YES. “We really went for a nice dirty vibe on this one with a hard crunchy bass line, some nice builds, hard drops and then of course i threw in some nice tweaky acid synths for good measure” – Le Castle Vania
What’s ahead? Toxic has a new EP coming out on Boxon Records on 26 of May and his full length will be out on iheartcomix in November. Thx for sharing with the world, boys! xx
Trash Menagerie is mixing it up!
Be sure you keep updated with all the mixes we’ve got time to post via our new MIXES page – here’s a March and early April recap, MUCH more goodness to follow. If you’ve got something to share, send it over via our CONTACT page, or post your own link up in our newly launched FORUM.
I feel it is of high importance to let you all know that it has taken a long fucking time to compile all 65 features that the entire TRASH clan has worked up during the month of MARCH. MARCH marks an entire year of madness for TRASH MENAGERIE and we haven’t stopped to breathe just yet. We’ve swooped into your lives to take over and give you something to do whilst passing the time. Beyond the amount of content that is growing, TRASH is now armed with a few more contributors. This just means more top-shelf features from a few more music lovers. We’ll strive to continue to bring you loads of MUSIC that we each love for whatever reasons and also find the time to pick the brains of the talent behind said MUSIC (time permitting). We’ve got 2 new sections to your right, MIXES and LISTINGS. Get to know each for all the right reasons. Lastly, the TRASH TALKFORUM has sprung a new life and will be back in FULL FORCE. We’ll also try our very best to not BOLD every word like I just did to emphasize what is important in life: TRASH and MUSIC (until it’s ingrained in your heads).
* This post will remain above all other newer posts for a few days. See below for the latest!
There is nothing more persuasive to me than nicely packaged goods and striking visuals. As a child of consumerism, image is so important in creating a look, brand or simply a way to define ones self. The music industry has always had a symbiotic relationship with artists and designers, influencing each other throughout time. When music and design are showcased together, the two combined, can cause quite an impact.
Enter the hell raising design/Dj duo, “Team Skull” and “Team Dead” of EatDisco and European Animal, whose roaring all out party fun and fantastic flyer designs are luring the kids in like Willy Wonka did with his chocolate factory. Although they may not have an ‘Inventing Room’, or special effect bubblegum like the kind Violet Beauregarde got her hands on, you are sure to find a plethora of reasons why you should attend one of their parties, OR art showings. Read on as they tell us a bit about their unique projects and what’s ahead!
After kick starting something pretty special in the summer of 2007, EatDisco continues to bring some of the most exciting DJ’s and producers to that little dot on the map, Newcastle upon Tyne UK. Working closely with the European Animal design team, EatDisco (also known as promoters and DJ’s Team Skull and Team Dead) have forged the perfect blend of cutting edge electronic music and high end illustration. This has resulted in a much needed injection of enthusiasm and originality into an almost static club scene.
“All in all we’re trying to bring not just our favourite DJ’s from around the world to Newcastle, but we’re still pushing to really open up the city’s weekend offerings. We’re trying to keep as many of our parties free or charging next to nothing to ensure maximum levels of fun and enjoyment.” Previous guests have included Hostage, Liars Club and Machine Drum. EatDisco have also just teamed up with friends, Paris Is Burning to raise the bar even higher, throwing even bigger parties which will feature Tronik Youth, Strip Steve, Kap10Kurt and some big surprises!
European Animal, outside of working on promotional material, have also been enjoying similar levels of success at a pretty speedy rate, having had two big shows in the last year. The first took place at Paris’s En-Marge gallery, the second as part of a paste up exhibition at Common in Manchester, UK. Photos of both shows, along with a selection of their other work, can be seen on the website. Next in line is a collaborative project working with the Stiff Couture clothing label, ran by Kitsune’s Punks Jump Up, launching later this year.
EatDisco have quite a lot lined up over the next few months both in their home town and further a field, seeing them at nights in Scotland, London, Berlin and New York!
“We hope things are going to continue to grow at the rate they have been recently. We want to attract more people and open up their eyes to the fact that things are finally changing in Newcastle.”
Check out EatDisco’s gig dates on their myspace calendar and be ready for some fine action as they take over Fake! Club in Edinburgh on the 12 of April along side Hostage – who graces our presence with some updates and a brand new track!
So what has Mr. Alan Parley, known to most as ‘Hostage’, been up to these days?? He is kinda like a machine, cranking out tune after tune, playing loads of gigs and rioting into the wee hours!! He’s been spotted in Sweden supporting Hijack at Drama, London and Preston alongside the ‘Ibiza Rocks’ GASH DJs and this month he’ll be supporting Duke Dumont for 2 nights on the 28th in Doncaster and the 29th in Glasgow. Rest assured, he has been doing lots of raving and because of it, he’s in bed sick as a dog. If you’re in his area, bring the man some hot soup!!!!
One of Hostage’s latest tunes, “Oh Snap!! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix)”, has been blowing up all over the land (here it is below in case you haven’t heard) and he says it all came about whilst chattin to a U.S. rapper out of Maryland called Oh Snap!! who sent over an accapella. He took that and created “this wonky hard fidget tune round the rap – rap-attack!!!” and says, “it has been goin down real nice”. He has a lot to grin about, with yet another of his tunes, “Stab Up” which has had proper plays off Radio 1!! My-oh-my and we’ve got yet another – “Big Wheeze”.
Mr. Hostage has lots in store for those that are lucky to catch him at various gigs (check his myspace for that), playing a roccodisco showcase in Rome come April and an Australian tour sometime in June. Rave on.
No Love Lost Records and Trash are developing quite a healthy relationship. Give us a proper mix and we’ll be more than pleased – I’d say elated if it ends up being as good as this one RAFFERTIE has created for The Mixtape Project and given to Trash to post as an exclusive.
I have to say that I absolutely luuuurrrvvve what the Brits are doing these days with their mixes. The last I listened to over and over was from ME ME ME – MeMeMe is a Fine Piece of Ass. All this OLD JUMP UP BASSLINE is really causing quite a stir inside!!!! Kicking if off with a William Shatner intro right into an excellent mashup of “So Solid Crew vs. Hostage - 21 Seconds (Raffertie’s Mashup).” Within this superb mix lies “Solid Groove - This Is Sick (Yeah! Woho! Remix) (Raffertie’s Wideboy Edit)” which is just killing it every time – The Yeah! Woho! Remix and now Raffertie’s “Wideboy Edit” of it which is beyond perfect. Shit, listen to what happens with DJ V and Rolla - “Miracle”. I don’t recall hearing that track sound so good, IF EVER, until NOW. Toss in some garagey bassline and BOOM, MAGIC.
Another highlight is “OH SNAP!! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix)”, which I love, especially when blended right into “Chaka Kahn - Ain’t Nobody (Raffertie’s Remix)”!!!!! If this style can cross over to the states, IMMEDIATELY and infiltrate itself into the clubs, then we’re sure to have a right BANGIN party!!!! DJ’s of the planet are you listening?? This is the stuff that make panties moist, now please, without further ado, GET ON THIS MIX!!!!!!!!!!!! (and a few words from NLLR, cheers Lee!!)
01. William Shatner (Intro)
02. So Solid Crew vs. Hostage - 21 Seconds (Raffertie’s Mashup)
03. Oxide & Neutrino - Shoot to Kill
04. C&C Music Factory - Gonna Make You Sweat
05. Urban Hype - A Trip to Trumpton (12 inch Club Version)
06. Oxide & Neutrino - Bound 4 Da Reload
07. Benga & Coki - Night
08. Doolally - Straight From the Heart (Bump & Flex Vocal Mix)
09. So Solid Crew - Haters
10. Solid Groove - This Is Sick (Yeah! Woo! Remix) (Raffertie’s Wideboy Edit)
11. DJ V and Rolla - Miracle
12. Missy Elliot - Work It
13. Faithless - Insomnia (Raffertie’s !WRONG! Bass Dub)
14. Jackson 5 - Want You Back (Acapella)
15. Live O Productions vs. The Peaches - Parental Fucking (Raffertie’s Mashup)
16. OH SNAP!! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix)
17. Chaka Kahn - Ain’t Nobody (Raffertie’s Remix)
18. The B15 Project - Feels So Good (Raffertie’s Flying High Remix)
19. Cut & Run - Out Of Space (Buda Edit)
20. Niche - Gun Shot
21. Kanji Kinetic - Passionista (Ft. DeaD PersoN)
22. Kanji Kinetic - Trick Wobbler
23. M-Beat Ft. General Levy - Incredible
24. Wildchild - Renegade Master (Urban Takeover Mix)
25. Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom
26. Bryan Cox - Where You At (Gaetan Remix) (Raffertie’s Tempo Edit)
27. Coolio - Gangster’s Paradise (Raffertie’s Jungle P.I.M.P. Remix)
“To help spread the RAFFERTIE gospel, The Mixtape Project has hooked-up with the ever sexy TRASH MENAGERIE. Be sure to stop by TRASH to say, what’s-up! Oh and as a bonus, you’ll find a link to the mix RAFFERTIE sent TRASH in January, the aptly titled “Baaaaaaaaassline!” mix – RAFFERTIE’s “Baaaaaaaaassline!” for TRASH MENAGERIE.
Do you like Bassline? Niche? Speed Garage? Old Skool Rave? We here at The Mixtape Project absolutely love them, so does DJ/producer RAFFERTIE, hence our inevitable request for the man to whip-up one of his brain liquefying, breakneck sets for us. Fidgeting, reversing, retrofitting and wonkifying (yes, I just made that last one up!) his way through twenty-seven tracks (appropriate since this is our twenty-seventh exclusive mix) RAFFERTIE once again proves himself to be one of the most innovative and hands down (more…)
Cosmo is back with a load of goods! He has teamed up with Mister Ed (up and coming DJ/promoter from Montreal), from Nu Ravers on the Block, with a remix of “Ce Jeu”, by the French group, Yelle. Lots of sidechain action on this and a great one for those on the dancefloor!!
He has also sent us two other tracks including a remix of “Armageddon”, by the early 90’s breakbeat hardcore duo, Altern-8, that played gigs in “chemical warfare suits” and “gas masks” filled with Vic’s Vapo Rub – A classic back when he was a young lad at the tender age of 17. (Hostage has also remixed an Altern-8 track, “Frequency”) Check the old skool video below, it’s a real pleaser! “Teaser”, is another great track that will definitely wind things up at your next session. I love it, and think you will too.
Some more exciting projects finalizing soon, that include a 5 song EP with Cosmo’s group, The Junkies, which is about to be released sometime this January on Petrol/emi. His remix of Shiny Toy Guns’, “Rainy Monday”, was picked by Universal/Motown Records for immediate release as both hard press and digital. Nice one.
If you’re not getting into the holiday spirits then you may as well consider yourself Scrooge! HA There is plenty of joy and excitement to be had by all!! Get yourself ready for a quick meal and some Christmas cheer, provided to you by our dear friend, Alan Hostage, who is always keeping busy in the kitchen!! enjoy. And if you are near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the U.K., be sure to check out Hostage at the “Eat Disco” Christmas blowout!!!!!!
1. Hungry? Totally! It’s winter: always hungry. Made too much chilli last night? OF COURSE YOU HAVE YOU PIG FACED GLUTTON; on purpose of course, nice one – get the chilli & mushroom toasties on the go, eh!? Get the chilli down on some bread, decent stuff though, I go for a specialist seeded effort. I’m finding that a perfect musical accompaniment for this stage is the Jori Hulkkonen Remix of Chromeo’s “Bonafide Lovin”. When I first heard this I though it was a bit wishy-washy, not like this here chilli, but, it’s perfect, it’s beautiful and soaring (the track). oh girl, wouldn’t that feel right, a little dinner with the candlelight - ummmm..well, this dish isn’t really the kinda’ thing you’d want to serve up in a romantic scenario, this is standard Tuesday night stodge, however if she’s hungry, always oblige. And really when it comes down to it, pick a man that’s down to fight. I missed the boxing at the weekend. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, Teacher!!!!! RUN! Check the (cheese flavoured, like this dish) orig of Chromeo’s old-man-love-ballad. and lyrics here: Chromeo Bonafide Lovin
2. Cheese on, chopped mushrooms on. Awwww…the little wee, white chopped mushrooms, all cute, like wee Christmas decorations, aw I’m all full of the Christmas cheer. Seriously. Except it got me into a moral dilemma, I was in Tesco’s (Which I already feel bad about but I’m a weak willed lazybones), and I bought some totally pointless Christmas lights, they were cheap, I don’t know what got into me, I think I may have been still a bit full of the weekend cheer or something but I bought them, and took them home and put them on some trees I have in my house, but they are not a festive tree, more like a, um…I don’t know, a Yukka? Did I just make that up? Anyway, I then started to freak out about the pretty glowing lights thinking that’s 1. A waste of money, 2. It’s bad for the environment 3. Damn, Look at this packaging 4. This is pointless, 5. Awwwhhhhh, they are pretty. and shit and bad, I said it, I’m a weak willed lazybones AND feeling festive. I am thinking about wearing the Christmas tree lights to a gig. Or would that make me a tree? Or worse. No.
3. In the Oven/Grill combo, full power, preheated, take your eyebrows off. I like to find when I’m putting tasty yet obviously unromantic snacks in a furnace I like to be accompanied by the sounds of the new Burial album “Untrue”. Aye, I know, everyone’s bangin’ on about it. All the tunes sound the same, you’ve heard it all before, but as ANOTHER PERSON, now you can’t fail to fall into this deep, warm vortex of soul, it’s atmospherically and kinetically very tasty, like…..
4. these delicious tea-time treats. Ideal with a cold imported wee lager. See, I told you it wasn’t romantic. Depends on what romance is I suppose, can be many different things to many different people. and why I’m doing this; I suppose I could use this flimsy scapegoat for a barely believable laugh: BBC One tonight - 7:00 pm The One Show, 7:30 pm EastEnders, 8:00 pm Holby City. Don’t pay anyway. Eat up.
November re-cap in case you missed anything. We covered a lot of ground. It’s all about making those connections, so we’ve been suckered into joining he following “social networking sites”. (I really do HATE that phrase.) $500 to the person who comes up with something better. So anyway, we’re out there, you can find, us, so if you wanna get a little closer, it is getting chilly and all, might as well snuggle up!
Our favorite Scotch, ginger, banger maker, Hostage, has sent us yet another delectable bit for mass consumption. This time he has strayed a smidgen from his signature style of overdriven skull crushers and given a nice housey, bouncy, bassliney gem of a tune. It seems, to quote Hostage himself, “I think the noisy synth electro thing is reaching saturation point. It’s all becoming a bit BOYISH if you know what i mean.” I hasten to agree with him on that, too many people doing the same thing, and I think the shift in sound is already taking place as I write this. My favorite thing about writing this blog and being a DJ is watching the ebb and flow of the popularity of the varying sounds in the scene that surrounds me. But I digress. If you like this tune be sure to check out our past posts on Mr. Hostage here and here.
