Summer is coming to and end, its been a good one, kept me busy, got to do some traveling, made my way across the country and back a few times, ran into old friends, made some new ones, found myself at more day events and festivals than clubs, which was really great. Soon enough its going to be cold here in New York, and ill be taking shelter in a club and paying $8 for cocktails. Since i’ve been slacking in the post department, i’m going to try and make up for lost time with a “summery” of my 2008.

Santogold @ sound check for Radio 1 - Annie Mac show, WMC March 2008

Saw Santogold perform a few times, although unfortunately, I missed her dates with Coldplay. I did however see her just about everywhere else I went, on the side of buses, in the subway, in magazines, TV, on the wall of Terminal 5 when I went to see Brian Jonestown Massacre (Joel performed, it was great, nobody got in a fight, bummer.) Anyway, you get the idea, Santi is everywhere, repping in style for Converse Connectivity. I have to say, the campaign is pretty tight, they did good, no one is trying to shove blatant adverts your way, the micro site is crafty, there’s a lot going on, you can even design your own kicks, and sonically, the artists on board, I genuinely like and listen to. Someone in the marketing department did their homework.

Santogold - L.E.S Artistes - Switch Remix

Want more Santi? Here you go, Santogold - Creator - Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix And just about everyone I know won’t say no to more cookies - Danger “14H54″ Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix, exclusively on @ Itunes - get it HERE

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Terminal 5, New York July 25 08

Crowd gathering for Radiohead - Lollapalooza Chicago, Aug 1 08

Lollapalooza in Chicago was definitely one of the highlight’s of my summer, I traveled from NY with Spank Rock and crew - Amanda Blank, Devlin & Darko, and Natalie. Their schedule was as full as it could for the weekend, press, after parties, and of course, their Saturday performance on the Citi Stage. Everyone rolled in Friday night, and headed over to the festival site for Radiohead.

I ran into the Foals, which was a super unexpected and pleasant surprise. I grabbed a piece of lawn and had a few drinks with Yannis and Jack, caught up, talked about the past year, how things have changed since we had last had seen each other in New York, when they were recording their album. They’ve got the typical touring band schedule, traveling constantly, playing tons of great festivals, waking up and not knowing where they are. Yannis and I tried to recall what it was that we were debating a few months back in regard to minimal techno (we are both fans - Minitek!!! ), never did figure it out. Soon more Foals came to graze, a grass fight ensued, and it was truly an “Electric Bloom” moment when they started shoving chunks of earth down each others shirts, it was my “Warning Call” to make an exit, so I galloped away to wait in the mile long line for a Vodka and Vitamin water.

Foals - Electric Bloom - Postmortem -arQon remix

While I was waiting in line, Radiohead took to the stage, all day everyone I ran into was gushing in anticipation of their performance, I was no different. It had been almost 2 years to the day that I had seen them last, also in Chicago, but in a theater setting, this time, it was outside to a sold out crowd of well over 70k, I love festivals. When Radiohead went on, the masses were well into it as expected, I had a side view, so I wasn’t able to see much of the production, that being the massive LCD’s and light show, or even much of the band for that matter, but hearing was good enough. What I was able to see was the woman at the front of the stage signing Radiohead’s lyrics, dancing, and clearly having the time of her life. (Note to self - learn sign language, what a great gig to have.) During their performance I was filled in on the fact that Thom Yorke is in fact a big fan of Spank Rock, and listed the album, Yo, Yo, Yo, Yo, Yo, as one of his top 10 albums of 2007, my eyes bugged out of my head a bit. Really?

Spank Rock is also a big fan of Radiohead and Thom Yorke. For a slight second I wondered if there was anyway for the two of them to meet, considering they had this mutual artist respect thing going on. But I also realized it was probably next to impossible, i’m sure everyone and their mother was probably trying to have a chat with the band that night, plus, it was a massive show. I put to rest the idea trying to make the introduction, got back to reality. The band did a few encore’s everyone was blissed out, it was a very memorable evening. We took off right as they were doing their last song to avoid getting caught up in the mass exodus. 70k people all leaving at once is a bit much. After parties were popping off all over the city, Foals were DJ’ing, Bloc Party, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, all kinds of madness, but I was exhausted, and Saturday was going to be crazy so I called it a night.

Saturday, well, I ended up not hitting after parties, but went to a local bar and tied one on with some old friends. We made a late night run to Rockstar Dog’s, ordered a couple of “Los Lobos”, and “tots” and yeah, we felt like what we ingested. When we woke up the next day we asked ourselves what the hell were we thinking? Oh! We were not thinking, we were drunk.

No time to be hungover, there was stuff to do, no rest for the wicked. I headed over to the Hard Rock Hotel, to meet up with the Spank Rock crew for Spin & Metromix’s gifting suite. They threw down, excellent grub, fancy juices, energy drinks, spa services, and sweet schwag. This was good, I was starting to feel better. Then it was interview time, Ms. Amanda Blank was losing her voice, and was under Dr.’s orders not make a peep until the Lolla performance later that afternoon. She made a clever name tag and attached it to her shirt letting everyone know, hey, I can’t talk, and worked some sign language of her own. The girl is amazing, she still managed to convey what she wanted to say, and charmed everyone.

Spank Rock & Amanda Blank Interview for Metromix @ Lollapalooza, Aug 2 08

Interviews were over, the crew split up, Spank Rock (Naeem, solo) and I jetted off (actually crawled through major traffic) as he was DJ’ing at the Diesel store. It was his first gig outside of Philly, he’s been dj’ing regularly every Monday night at a party he started called The Jang House, it all goes down at the Barbary. I’ve been told by many this night is hot, and hella fun, so it’s on my “to do” in the very near future list. I’ve never heard Naeem DJ before, he plays an eclectic mix of retro, disco, mash-up’s, heard some Prince, said ‘oh yes, I love this too!”, when he threw on a remix of MGMT’s, “Electric Feel”, we both agreed the video was sexy as hell and wish we could have been in it.

It was nearing Spank Rock’s 5:00pm stage time, we high tailed it outta the Diesel store, jumped in a car, and headed to the Lolla site. The first thing that reached our ears when we got on site, MGMT, of course, go figure. We sighed, got over the fact we were missing their performance, and jumped on a golf cart that delivered us to the Citi Stage. Booka Shade was just wrapping up their set. For me, seeing them provided some solace for the MGMT loss, hey were amazing as always. Spank Rock took to the stage and performed to a charged up crowd, Amanda’s voice was in top form, the crew brought the party, Plastic Little jumped on stage and did a guest spot, everyone was caught up in their energy, the stage and the audience may have well been one.

MGMT - Kids - Skyve Reuters Bunkalifony Edit

The Lolla performance was over, but the day was is not, one more interview with Fuse TV, then back over to the Hard Rock for an after party performance with Mark Ronson and Spank Rock. We were starting to feel like we might be hitting the wall, festivals are fun, but they are hot, and have the ability to suck the energy out of you. Besides being tired, everyone was hungry, we had dinner reservations at the China Grill, which thank god, we didn’t have to go far for, as it was adjacent to the hotel. Dinner was excellent, but now we were really tired, time to rest. We made our way out the door mumbling about various things in our food comas, then everyone got really quiet. After we walked outside the door, we looked at each other, and all at once started talking - “hey that guy looked really familiar?”,”do you know that guy?”, “who was that?”, “was that Thom Yorke?”, “That WAS Thom Yorke.” We snapped out of our comas. Damn, It’s Thom Yorke.

All things considered, Thom being a fan of Spank Rock, and vice versa, we should go over and say hello, right? It was kinda too ironic that we were having dinner in the same place at the same time. But everyone agreed, interrupting him, or anyone for that matter, during dinner, who probably already has a hard time in the “peace & quiet” department, we didn’t want to go there. So we continued on to our rooms where we twiddled our thumbs. It was definitely one of those “what would Jesus do?’ moments.

We discussed the irony at hand. I thought Thom & Naeem should meet, it was kind of a no brainer. And I admit, I had my own selfish reasons, I also really wanted to chat with Thom first hand about music industry politics. I think i’ve easily done 20 + posts about Radiohead and/or Thom. When the band released In Rainbows, it was kind of a big deal.

Everyone I know carefully watched how the band’s, name your own price, self release, limited edition box set concept was going to unfold. For weeks it was the hottest topic of conversation. So the release day came, people got online and placed their order, and continued to watch the concept unfold. In my opinion, it was a beautiful. No, Radiohead didn’t fix everything that was wrong with the industry, and what they did, most bands can’t really afford to do. (I discussed this with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, read it here). They did kick open the door of the major labels, and sent a very strong message. They gave their fans a choice, they made room for both artists and others in the industry, to do even more inspired and creative things, perhaps even take risks they might not have before. They let people know, that yes, you can release music in a non-traditional way and it can work. Not only that, you can do it on your own, they exact way YOU want to do it, real freedom of expression. And isn’t that what everyone wants? Not only in art, but in life.

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I live for these kinds of moments, i’m all for pushing the envelope, DIY, thinking outside of the box, stick it to “the man”, all those common cliches. I feel i’ve fallen off course at this point, so let me get back to the story and how it all ends.

I lived in Chicago for 16 years, it just so happens that I know the manager of the China Grill, I figure I might as well take advantage of that, so I head back to the restaurant, tell him the story. He tells me that Thom and his friends were almost done with their meal, and adds that they are really pleasant, he offered to ask them if they would be so inclined to meet us. I agreed this would be appropriate, and so it goes, “Thom would love to meet Spank Rock”.

I made my way back up to our floor, and my heart fluttered a bit when I told Naeem, come on, we’re going to go and say hello to Thom, and so we did. I hung back as they spoke about music, production, the writing process, how it can be difficult and unnerving process. As an artist, you second guess yourself, wonder if what your writing is good enough, you feel pressure to create something and your not always sure where you’re going with it, or what it is you want to create. Thom shared that he most certainly felt like that, and felt most everyone does, its part of the process of creating, and if those moments where you question yourself didn’t happen, that would seem to be a bit odd, and that perhaps was when an artist should worry. So as it turns out, Thom’s just like the rest of us, word. We spoke about their performance the day before, I told him I really only got to see the woman signing, he said she was great, stole the show. I got my politics on, we discussed the interview he and David Byrne did with Wired Magazine, on the real value of music.

Thom said it was an interesting interview, rather quiet, not as much talking between the two of them as one might think. Which kind of surprised me, I would assume they would carry on for hours. However, I’ve seen a few live interviews with Byrne, he’s incredibly intelligent, insightful, (I closely follow his industry politics as well), but I could see why a bit of silence between the two, might be the case. There is a particular interview Byrne did that stands out, with Daniel Levitin (author of This Is Your Brain On Music), you can check it out at Seed Mag online. We also discussed the In Rainbows release, Thom was very humble, when I expressed how I felt about the release, he said the release was just a minor start toward rebuilding an ailing music industry, and that there is still a lot of work to be done, particularly when it comes to radio. We had been carrying on for some time now, espressos were to be had, they were off to a show the next day, and exhausted from a day of boating on Lake Michigan, we had our own show, call time was just an hour away, we said our goodbye’s and floated away.

Radiohead - Ceremony - Thumbs Down - Webcast

Spank Rock hit the stage for the Spin & Metromix after party, the room was packed, but the crowd was a bit lethargic, however, when these guys hit the stage, it doesn’t take long to get a room going. Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson were in attendance with their posse, so in honor of the occasion, Spank Rock finished the set with Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge. I think the posse was caught off guard, as they exited the room before the song was over. Funny stuff.

Amanda Blank & Natalie - Hard Rock After Party, Aug 2

Naeem - Hard Rock After Party, Aug 2

I also hit a few Rock The Bells shows - saw Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, Mos Def, Nas, even a stellar, surprise performance in Denver from Black Star.

Nas - Rock The Bells, Columbia, MD July 27 08

Black Star - Rock The Bells, Denver, Co Aug 23

All in all, great summer, and as this post is quickly becoming a novella, I shall end it here, and leave you with this entertaining video of what I can only assume are cheerleaders learning new dance routines at summer camp to “Bump”. The dude the runs out to lead them rocks.

Hailing from not one territory, rather spanning four, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, and London, the Sunny Day Sets Fire quintet are making our world a bit brighter with their latest full-length “Summer Palace” released 8th July on IAMSOUND. A collective pool of worldly influences, SDSF offer up a smattering of catchy pop riffs, shades of psychedelia and spacey bits, giving them a surreal sound.

Ever since their February remix EP release of “Stranger” (IAMSOUND), featuring CSS, XXXChange from Spank Rock, The Cool Kids and Diplo, we’ve been anticipating the delights “Summer Palace” would bring our way. This is the stuff that you hope to hear upon opening up that special music box or toasting your marshmallows at the bonfire. The latest remix of SDSF comes by way of Triobelisk who ignites “I Dream Along” with wandering synth rhythms. Read on as he clues us in on how it all came to be.

“IAMSOUND was looking for some new folks to make some promo mixes for the SUNNY DAY SETS FIRE upcoming album last year and I ended up on their radar, so the mix is kind of an “early” Triobelisk work as it is a tad more open and focuses on synth rhythms similar to my other material during this time.

I initially approached the track a little bit like a minimalist take on KAVINSKY as I’m a big fan of his 1986 EP so wanted to capture a similar “adventure” feel to the composition on the first half. I strayed rather far from the original song but I wanted to create something completely different with only the background chorus vocal to be the recognizable motif in order to make a “have I heard this before” feeling to club-goers/listeners. If I were to make keywords to the track I would write: adventure, 80s, driving, miami and flash gordon.” – Triobelisk

Stay tuned as Triobelisk is in the studio creating some spacey disco, cinematic-type tracks for your consumption!!

Watch Sunny Day Sets Fire videos from “Summer Palace”, at Sneak Attack Media
Read an interview with SDSF at Above The Fold
Make a purchase of SDSF’s “Summer Palace” here
Tune into the Sunny Day Sets Fire Myspace and their remix page!

Sunny Day Sets Fire - I Dream Along (Triobelisk Remix)

Many people have been endlessly asking me, “What about the Portishead remix album? What about the Portishead remix album? When is it going to be done?” Well it is finally done and ready for consumption. For those who dont know, The Noise/Floor Crew, started by Lady Foursquare, Angel Alanis (my partner in War Games) and myself, has been in the process of remixing the entirety of Portishead’s “Third” since about a month before it came out.

It began as one critically acclaimed remix of “Machine Gun” that was begging for more drums and snowballed into an all out reinterpretation of Portishead’s minimal masterpiece. Most are by NFC but we enlisted a couple of other producers, namely Flufftronix, 12th Planet, ASiH and A. Black, to round out the album. A few tracks were left in a somewhat recognizable state but most were torn to shreds and reassembled into an almost unrecognizable form. The individual tracks cover a broad range of styles from house to electro to minimal to maximal that all came together to make one hell of an album.

Is it better than the original? Am I allowed to ask that given my involvement? I guess it depends what you’re into, but our take certainly brings it out of the lofty art-rock realm and without dumbing it down. Anyways, I’ll quit talking it up and let you be the judge. As this is not a sanctioned remix album, I’m curious to see what Portishead will say about this since, in the past, they’ve been so staunchly against remixes of their own music. Below is a link to the entire album in a tidy .zip along with a lengthy (tl;dr) description of who Noise/Floor Crew really is. I thought I’d also give it to you track by track as well but I’d recommend listening to it as a whole album. And be sure to go to somewhere besides itunes (damn the man) and buy Portishead’s album as well.

Third Floor - Portishead’s “Third” Reimagined by The Noise/Floor Crew (ALBUM ZIP)

1. Portishead - We Carry On (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

2. Portishead - Nylon Smile (War Games Rmx)

3. Portishead - Magic Doors (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

4. Portishead - Threads (Guest Mix By Flufftronix)

5. Portishead - Machine Gun (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

6. Portishead - Plastic (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

7. Portishead - Silence (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

8. Portishead - Small (Guest Mix By ASiH + A. Black)

9. Portishead - Hunter (12th Planet of N.F.C. Remix)

10. Portishead - The Rip (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

11. Portishead - Deep Water (Noise/Floor Crew Rmx)

There’s no denying that the latest MIXES have been keeping our ears extremely happy and have caused some serious dance fever action! Each mix is sure to bring out the inner wild side of you! If you’ve missed any of the recent 6 listed below, do yourself a favor and work your way up from the bottom to the top and have a listen. Before you know it, they’ll be over far too quickly and you’ll be begging for more! With the exception of the smooth, minimal Acid Girls mix, these are the bass heavy sounds of the summer season! Peep the MIXES section to the upper right for more JUNE MIXES and keep checking back for more!!

Drop The Lime at Fabric
Foamo’s Summer Mix
Crookers Radio 1 essential Mix
A1 Bassline
Acid Girls - NLLR Mix
Tomb Crew - NLLR Mix

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered the impressive MIT, out of Deutschland. The Cologne based three piece has been around for three years and recently released their debut album, ‘Coda‘, 17th of March on Half Machine Records.

MIT consists of three bright players (Edi Winarni, vocals, Felix Römer, drums and programming, Tamer Özgönenc, additional drums) producing a wide range of beats. Their music is hard to encapsulate, as it encompasses a noisy post-punk, electro-tinged, minimalistic, futuristic sound that is simply fucking good. So good that it doesn’t matter that you won’t understand what the hell they’re singing about (unless you sprechen zie Deutsch).

The gates of opportunity for the young group appeared not far from their hometown, in the United Kingdom. With the usual progressive attitude, the UK have welcomed MIT with open arms and heightened their visibility, playing more frequently in and around London vs their own city. The guys have toured alongside several groups including the short-lived UK band Test Icicles, Jeans Team out of Berlin and recently wrapped up touring with UK favorites, Hadouken.

MIT’s music commands you to go beyond the lyrics and cross the language barrier. You’ll end up on the other side – right where they want you. Have a listen to more from MIT at their MySpace and pick up their excellent debut LP, ‘Coda‘!

MIT - Park

An older video of their track “deine eltern”, when their music was a bit ‘harder’. Taken from their 2007 7 inch ‘goodbook‘ (Japan only), via Rallye/Klee.

Radioactive Man’s second album GROWL was released on Monday, much to the patient anticipation from long-term fans. Already there’s a good buzz about it here in the UK. The album was released on his own label, Control Tower, in association with Fabric Records.

Keith Tenniswood dishes out a lot of squelchy electro in GROWL to satisfy even the most jaded raver, with healthy heaps of dubby bass to kick your teeth in for good measure. GROWL is electronic music for those times when you’ve had too much party and need to sit in the shade for a while and regain your sanity.

From the bouncy minimalist “Kristiina” to the ethereal “Up in the Air”, there’s a lot of depth and complexity to get into with GROWL. Old school electro lovers are really in for a treat. I won’t explain, just have a listen. Musical partner Andrew Weatherall sings on “Double Dealings”, while Dot Allison provides the St Etienne-esque vocals for “Nothing At All”, providing the largely electronica album with light relief, although I would have been perfectly happy without as well. It’s clear that the four-year period of gestation made this album a well-thought out, finely crafted piece of electro goodness. Nice one.

Tenniswood explained the reason for the 7 year gap from his debut album: “I’ve been so busy with Two Lone Swordsmen stuff and DJing, that I haven’t had the time to put it out, so this is a real culmination of a long period of time for me. I wanted it to be pretty dancefloor, but still the kind of album you can pop on at home and enjoy on headphones.”

Word of advice: skip the headphones, just piss off your neighbours!

ALSO: If you fancy catching Radioactive Man this summer, he’s on at Glade Festival’s main stage in July. He played at the recent 3-day neo-rave armageddon Bangface Festival in Camber, which I went to - his set fit in quite nicely amongst the INSANITY of Squarepusher, Alterego, Ragga Twins, Model 500, Venetian Snares, and co -MORE ON THAT SOON!

Here’s a selection of my favorite tracks - have a listen. Apparently, if you buy the album, you’ll get 2 free tracks via myspace.

It’s on sale pretty much everywhere - grab it!

Radioactive Man - Pieces of Eight - Growl

Radioactive Man - Double Dealings - Growl

Radioactive Man - Up In The Air - Growl

Radioactive Man - Growl - Growl

Radioactive Man - State Of That - Growl

Radioactive Man - Lungful of Bass - Growl

Photography by Holger Rogge

MARAL SALMASSI is one striking femme. She exudes talent and beauty, combined with a hint of masculinity, giving her a distinct edge in the music she creates and the way she styles herself. Founder of notable techno label, Konsequent Records in ‘97 and new media label, Art of Perception in ‘99, Maral’s past explorations in music have paved the way for what is her most exciting and diverse label to date, Television Rocks.

Born to Maral Salmassi and partner Fabian Stall, Television Rocks, is a platform for both artists solo projects. Maral has created a sound that she describes as, “funky, playful glamour tech which is more a combination of New York wave disco, old school hip hop and electro and french cut-up hop than Cologne Post-Minimal sounds and styles”.

The momentum for Maral’s sound has been building. Highlighted on notable blogs, Missingtoof, Discodust, iheartcomix, la decadanse and a slew of others, she is giving us a whole lotta reason to be intrigued. Read on as Maral gives us a peek into her collaborations, thoughts on music, inspirations, fashion, Cologne and my absolute favorite place to be, Spain. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for what’s ahead!! Cheers Maral! x

“I’m a DJ, musician and singer currently running the label Television Rocks together with Fabian Stall aka Zero Cash. We started our label in the beginning of 2007 as a result of our lives crossing their paths in many intense ways thinkable. Zero Cash and I live together and have our studios in the same building. We produced a lot together and are currently working on my album. Zero Cash has a long history as a producer for many different bands and projects. He started doing club music as we started with Television Rocks. His style is a blend of techno and electro, more straight and instrumental, but with a rock attitude. My style is more a mash up of all the music I love to dance to, mostly inspired by rocking electro and hip-hop.

I like anything, which has power and attitude: Music like old-school hip-hop and Electro, rock, metal, classic, good pop music, old blues, pompous new US hip-hop productions or traditional music like Magrebian, Gipsy, or Indian music, Also fashion, art, TV and internet are my inspirations. I don’t want to transfer any message with my lyrics, it’s all about fun, my actual mood with a touch of sarcasm in good fun.

I live in Cologne but except the Dom and the Carnival there is nothing spectacular going on in this city. The nightlife in Cologne can be described as a monoculture. Since ages they play the same old boring minimal bullshit in the clubs. Everybody is complaining but they all keep going to these parties, moving like sloths on the dancefloor. The DJ’s keep playing their lullaby and the German press keeps reviewing this stuff as the hottest shit. It’s hopeless! Well but there is one good thing about living in such a boring city: It’s the best place to work!

My favorite places to play are the clubs Stardust and Goa in Madrid at the moment. The Spanish crowd is the craziest and very stylish! Fashion is very important to me. It’s like music, a tool to express yourself individually. A club full of stylish people is a nice place to play, to look at and to hang around…”

This filthy banger remixed by Fukkk Offf swept the blogosphere and left us yearning for more from this collaboration.

Maral Salmassi - Fire Gem (Fukkk Offf Remix)

Maral Salmassi - Back Up Your Ass

Be sure to have a listen to Maral’s mix, 11th in the series off the No Love Lost Records Mixtape Project!!

Maral Salmassi Official Biography
Maral Salmassi, born on 24th July 1975 in Teheran, first grew up in Persia and later in Jordan. With the fall of the Shah’s regime in 1979, the family was forced to return to Persia and after seven years under the Islamic regime, they managed to escape from a country subverted by the war between Iran and Iraq and settled in Germany in 1986.

Among the many characteristically uncharacteristic Techno protagonists in Cologne, Maral Salmassi is the most uncharacteristic one: nothing in her work refers to the specific Cologne style or can be defined as “made-in-Cologne”. On her early label Konsequent Records for example, there were mainly straight Tool Techno releases in style of Berlin-based Tresor label sounds. Today, Maral produces funky, (more…)

Yes that is me in the hoodie on the beach…yeah I know. And yes that is Blaqstarr wearing an Ed Hardy sleeve tatoo shirt. Killin it. Here we are at the Scion party in Miami, watching Calvin Harris sing his adorable little heart out.

Miami is like summer camp for DJs. You all wind up on eachother’s flights, excited to see each other even though you see each other all the time. “Where are you staying?” is asked over and over again. You make new BFFs and bond with new people that live in other places. You room with your best buds. You make out with your peers. You get absolutely no sleep at all even though you have to be somewhere early in the morning. HA! Good luck with that! I was usually still awake while the real world was getting up. 4AM Jess in full effect.

I am no newbie to WMC in Miami for it is my hometown. I remember being 16 years old and thinking “Wow there are so many parties this week!” I am never one to miss a good party. Every year I do my best to go to events that I am not able to go to in NYC. I find that a lot of people just stick to where there friends are, what guestlists they are on, and where they are comfortable. But I do not go to Miami to do things I can do at home. This year I probably went harder than I have ever gone because there was SO much great stuff going on. I couldn’t say no to any of it and I took every opportunity that I could to see DJs, even if it was at the Apple Store for an hour. Here is my full recap.

Me and the girls arrived early on a Tuesday so we could lay in the sun but it was cloudy and cold, go figure. We got some rest before the party, kicked off our night with a DJ set by Ewan Pearson at the Apple Store. You know the music is great when you are dancing in a retail store.

Then went to see Trash’s own Local Hero, and Drop the Lime play at the JAKUL8/Dust Traxx party. I have known Local Hero since last WMC and I have never seen him DJ before. It was quite a treat. He is great DJ with great taste in music. I don’t need to tell you that Drop the Lime killed it because you already know that. Then we headed to the DFA party at Rok Bar to catch Rub n Tug and JDH throw down! The night was pretty full for a Tuesday. Usually it is really empty but there were definitely a decent amount of people.

Wednesday I woke up early (noon) to catch DJ Craze at FYE. I needed a Miami Bass fix and I needed it quick. I wound up shopping around and buying an old Lords Of Acid CD. Then I went through so much old Florida dance music….oh memories…I am so glad I live in NYC now. That night I went to the Dubsided party, caught Drop the Lime and Annie Mac, then headed over to Bass Sessions. Here are Local Hero and I at Studio A. I’m still wearing a hoodie.

Drop the Lime giving some love to the camera.

When I got to Bass Sessions Mr. Mixx was playing and it was awesome. The most Miami Booty Bass you will ever hear. I really thought I had never heard of him but then I was informed that he was the DJ from 2 Live Crew. DUH! Sooooooo fun, I am so glad I rushed up to the rooftop to catch him when I did because he made my entire week. Then there was Craze. We all know I love Craze.

We left Bass Sessions and somehow wound up at a strip club across the street with several other DJs and tastemakers (I will protect the innocent by not revealing names). Did you know that strippers dance to blog house? We watched some girls take their clothes off and then headed over to the Early Bird party where Justin Martin absolutely destroyed Miami. I am telling you this man is a beast. He played one of the best DJ sets I have ever heard and the dancefloor was packed at 630AM. We had so much fun and didn’t get home until about 10:30.

Thursday I was an absolute genius because I woke up and immediately started drinking champagne (my head loved me later). I walked to the Scion party. Got there right as Boys Noize was going on. Another pleasant surprise. He played only a little bit of the obvious including that Michael Jackson song that goes on for about an hour, but he also played whatever the F*&% he wanted including some crazy gabber and bassline-ish tunes and everyone was really impressed. I kept hearing “Is this still Boys Noize?”. I have always been a fan of his Dj sets but this one definitely made him a favorite.

Thursday night I passed out from the champagne, woke up at 3AM and since I am 4AM Jess….I went out. I went to the Minus party to see Richie Hawtin but it was so packed that they weren’t letting anybody up on the roof. I was so bummed so I went next door to the Get Physical party. M.A.N.D.Y. was top notch. I am glad the night worked out the way it did. We were just about to go back to the hotel and then I realized it was 8AM. Hmmm maybe the rooftop of Nocturnal wasn’t so packed anymore? So I went back to Nocturnal, walked up the stairs only to find I was able to go up on the roof and it was full of German techno fans rocking mullets and streetwear. Magda was just getting on and everyone was wild. It was the craziest part of my trip and of course I did not have my camera. Go figure. There is nothing more awesome than a good minimal techno party at 8AM…outdoors.

Friday I was so dead that I missed my appointment at the gifting suite but I somehow managed to make it back to the Scion party at the Raleigh again. Calvin Harris is so awesome. No one seemed to know who he was when he and his band were on. I had a bunch of randoms ask me “Is this a band?” “Whats this guy’s deal?” “Is he British?” “I like this”.

Friday night I headed over to the Fools Gold party which was absolutely insane. Check the pictures here. Some ultra epic moments and several surprise guests. The place was packed and the crowd was wild. I was able to catch Nacho Lovers and LA Riots before I headed over to the Mad Decent Vs. Turntablelab warehouse party. That party was in the hood. I grew up around. When I was little my mom used to tell me that if I was ever driving around there at night I should run the red lights. And there we were dancing around with a cowbell to House Music.

When I got there Cosmo Baker was bringing it, as per usual, but I have to say the highlight of my night was when Eli Escobar unexpectedy jumped on the decks and brought the party to a whole new level, with Blaqstarr on the mic.

It was cool to see Bart Bmore DJ and Spank Rock performed really late at night. Then around 4AM Drop the Lime and Star Eyes showed up to DJ. I am kind of sad that I missed Sabo. I heard his set was unreal.

And for Saturday. I woke up, checked out of my hotel and basically had to sneak into the Beatport party to see this guy.

It was my mission of the week after that Minus party got all messed up. Once again a bunch of techno heads going nuts during the day. I couldn’t ask for anything better than that. At this point I was also exhausted and danced out. I had to go to the Stones Throw party for a bit to escape the rave.

I have to admit I am pretty dumb for not going to the Fixed party. It was too much of a mission and we were on an hour of sleep. We kept it local by going to Purdy Lounge for yet another Scion party and another epic DJ set from Drop the Lime, who tag teamed with Jokers of the Scene. So fun.

But the ending to my trip could not have been more perfect. The Rub really made my entire WMC. Here is Cosmo Baker and DJ Ayres. Dj Eleven is not pictured. And yes Ayres is wearing an airbrushed shirt that says “Tiesto 2008″.

This was what the crowd was doing at 5AM

I am going to leave out my airport experience and make you think that was the ending of my night. I also would like to add that on top of the pictures I received from the lovely Susan Holland I also stole some pictures from Ian Meyer at Crewcial.org,Oxycottontail.com and Fools Gold.

Got my hands on the new release (17th March 2008) from a local favorite, the Brighton Breaks label, for which Northern breaks/electro recluse Sam Hell teamed up with the ever-so-young, but wise-beyond-his-years breaks head Rektchordz, and boy are you in for a treat!

I’ve written about SH plenty on these pages, but Rektchordz is definitely one to get cozy with. The boy’s credited with a hefty stockpile of tracks and remixes – he’s out on BreaksFM, BombTraxx, Unstable, Trans:Verse, to name a few – and they’re all belters.

Blipvertz - Sam Hell & Rektchordz [Brighton Breaks]

“Blipvertz” starts with Sam Hell’s signature big chunky breaks, followed by a casual assault of bleeps. The track has a one-minute intro before it all totally kicks off. Turn up your speakers and get ready for it.

Subliminal? Quite possibly. For those who were born before 1980, the reference might not be lost on you; “blipverts” were the lightning-fast tv commercials that overloaded viewers’ nervous systems and killed them on ’80s Reaganomics-inspired tv show Max Headroom.

Boolash - Rektchordz [Brighton Breaks]

“Boolash” (Rektchordz works alone on this one) is a super-catchy, quite minimal tune with a funky bass groove throughout. I like it a lot and I’m sure you will too. I will be very surprised if I don’t hear this one played out incessantly this spring. Very surprised.

Love ‘em and buy ‘em is the new catchphrase. I expect a sensory overload when I hear both tunes on speakers better than my shit ones, that’s for sure.

Buy on Beatport
Buy on Streetwise

This was initially going to be my Monday post, but the day got away from me, because Monday’s suck.

So, this playlist is now dedicated to Tuesday’s. Which, in my opinion, is as good as any other day to get trashed. So go for it!

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Link: Crystal Castles Myspace

Crystal Castles - Courtship Date

Crystal Castles - Vanished

They were supposed to be on tour, but apparently, Alice broke her ribs. I swear, there is always something going on with these guys, is it part of thier “schtick”? (I never use the word, felt like being weird.) I’ve seen them walk off stage, cancel tours, etc. Does Alice just need to practice more? The album is quite good, more than I expected, I quite like “Vanished” and “Courtship” date. Some of their early tunes, were, while really cool and experimental, a bit raw, these 2 tracks are less “Atari” and more musical, cheers CC! And Alice - get better soon. You know James from Simian Mobile Disco broke his ribs playing football with The Arctic Monkeys while on tour? He just took a lot of vicodin to get through it.

Cut Copy - Lights & Music
Link: Cut Copy Myspace

Cut Copy - Lights & Music - Superdiscount Remix

Cut Copy - Lights & Music - Boys Noize Happy Birthday Remix
Modular is always the hotness, as is Cut Copy. Throw in remixes from Superdiscount (French house pioneer/god Etienne de Crecy), and Berlin’s white hot producer Alexander Ridha aka Boys Noize and you’re on fire.

The Teenagers - The Tricolore Collection
Link: The Teenagers Myspace

The Teenagers - Love No - Soko Cover

The Teenagers - Homecoming - Gentleman Drivers Rave Mix

This Soko cover of “Love No”, fucking rocks. If feel it’s way more appropriate coming from a female, and this stripped down version, clearly gets the point across. I can totally relate to this track, and I can make a kitchen list of boys I would like to dedicate it to. I missed The Teenagers when they played here in NYC when touring with Hot Chip. I did see them at the after party, they looked wasted, but actually, everyone did, because everyone was. Owen spilled his bottle of Grey Goose at least 4 times, and he also kicked over my drink. I had to include “Homecoming” - Gentleman Drivers Rave Mix (off Reality Check), as it totally reminded me of that night, just seemed appropriate.

Mystery Jets - 21
Link: Mystery Jets Myspace

Mystery Jets - Uber Liebe Gold - Flakes Dictaphone Demo

Uber Liebe Gold - Flakes Dictaphone Demo is cool because it’s raw, and it remind me of one of my new favorite bands - Molly Shannon, Molly Shannon. MJ - yeah, who hasn’t had a relationship with someone that was a secret and you couldn’t tell anyone about it? It’s fun to be undercover and naughty. Count me in. BUT, the question is, once it’s not a secret anymore, is it still as good? And, is it me, or does they sound kinda like early Police here?

The Cribs - I’m A Realist
Link: The Cribs Myspace

The Cribs - Men’s Needs (CSS Remix)

The Cribs - Kind Words From The Broken Hearted

In 2007, The Cribs let us know about “Men’s Needs”, well, in 2008, they’ve declared their “realists”, and are offering up kind words to all the broken hearted. They’ve had a good year reflecting it seems, right on boys!

Le Le - Existence
Link: Le Le

Le Le - Breakfast

Le Le, aka Antoine DuFour, want to let all the ladies know, their plans for us - we’re “Breakfast”, all “meaty and fat”, the “cheese on their baguette”, “oatmeal, granola”, YEAH bitch!- um, cheeky, eh? I supposed they expect us to cook it up as well? I’ll give you a skillet, get yer ass over here. Its a fun song, reminds me of Detroit Grand Puba’s - “We Can Make Sandwiches”. That was quite the jam. Anything involving food and music, i’m there. Joakim’s - “Come into my Kitchen”, Dinky’s - “Acid in My Fridge” - sounds like a fab dinner party.

Foals - Cassius
Link: Foals Myspace

Cassius (Kieran Hebden Version)

I hung out with these boys over the summer while they were recording their album in Brooklyn. We enjoyed drinking and smoking on a rooftop overlooking the city, we hit a few (er, was it many?) neighborhood pubs, and they would pop by every so often to see what was new and exciting and to give us mini updates on their studio session. It was a good week, good times all around. Really happy to see they are doing so well, and its a big plus that I love their music. Their label - Transgressive, top notch. Tim and Toby, you guys rock. The door is always open - my NY is your NY!

Artist: Baltic Fleet - Baltic Fleet
Link: Baltic Fleet Myspace