Dr Rob and his always on point Ban Ban Ton Ton blog pulled together some really great book and movie recommendations from various DJ’s, Producers and Label People. I recommended ‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St John Mandel which you can read about here and 28 Days Later for the Movie list.
It feels like a strange moment to share new works & i appreciate buying music may not exactly be a priority right now. The release was put into production some weeks ago so is in the system to be released in May, titled ‘With You’ its another 6 track EP / Mini LP following last year’s ‘Monster Skies’. Like the last EP the idea is to bring together the melting pot of influences that also inspire the label. The A side has a Balearic vibe with a distinct dub influence, and a lifetime of house music influences emerge on the B side with some hypnotic basslines & mesmerising melodies (hopefully! 🤠) set to classic Roland drum programming. Mastering By Matt Colton. Sleeve Design By Bradley Pinkerton. Pre-Order Here.
Test Pressing ran a ‘Day In The Life’ feature, if you want to know what i eat for breakfast read on! There’s also some more interesting insights into my digging process and the prospect of making a living from music during the Coronavirus crisis.
New Juno chart for March is here packed full of the good stuff.
My favourite music site Test Pressing gave the ‘Transmission Two’ LP the thumbs up:
“One of those compilations that slides between dimensions, opens stargates, and suggest wormholes well worth heading down. You’ll find pathways and connections here and anyone who can do that and keep us dancing or reflecting is doing good work in my books”.
You can read the full review here.
The third and concluding part of my Skylab residency is now up on their site (sure i’ll be back though!). This one is aimed purely at the dancefloor and the kind of set you’d hear me play in a club. Expect Proto House, Chicago Trax, House, Techno & Disco spanning the past 4 decades. Tracklisting:
Joe Church ‘Don’t You Wanna Be Mine’ / Supereal ‘Body Medusa’ (DIY Mix) / Ruf Dug ‘Down 2 It’ / Optimo Caste Out ‘Four Point One’ / Rockers Revenge ‘Dubbing in sunshine’ / Jules Etienne ‘Dude’s Den’ / Wuf Ticket ‘The Key’ (Instrumental) / Dance Reaction ‘Disco Train’ / Don Laka ‘Stages Of love’ (Prins Thomas edit) / Alice Myers (Kon Dub) / Chaplin Band ‘Nami Simada’ (Sun shower Larry Levan Mix) / Mike Perras ‘Beginning of life’ / John Rocca ‘Zulu Dub’ / Daniele Pattuchini ‘People Come In’ / Kerrier District / Ginger Thing / Conga Dub / Burrell Bros ‘Say a Prayer’ / Flashback 86 ‘Orange’ / Omar S ‘Percussions’ / Norm Talley ‘Starz’
Transmission Two will be released on 13th March. Following the long sold out first Volume, the second instalment once again focuses on music never before released on Vinyl alongside some rare and out of print titles. Variety is the spice so and the compilation covers a few genres, fluidly moving through Ambient, Electro, Disco, Library music and finishing off with some Esoteric star gazing cuts. The album is bookended by Carl Craig and Jeff Bridges and in between you’ll find Aphex Twin protege Bochum Welt, John Rocca of Freeez and Pink Rhythm, Library music aficionado’s Daniele Patucchi and David Arch, an special edit of Sapho, Hitman from the Phily World music stable, Hirini Melbourne and a beautiful previously unreleased song by Zann.
The licensing was long and arduous (no change there!), but i’m really happy with the end result which works well as a listening experience from start to finish and should also please DJs, cut loud on a Double LP.
Pre-Order now on Bandcamp shipping 13th March.
Radio Raheem did a 1 hour Isle Of Jura Special including an interview with yours truly covering the reissue process, background to the label and some picks from a selection of tracks from the catalogue.
The next release on Isle Of Jura is the first official reissue of Yvonne Archer’s ‘Ain’t Nobody’ 12″, a reggae disco cover of the Chaka Khan classic. Its the first time the 12″ club mix has been available since the original release in 1983 (unless you want to part with £100 for a copy on Discogs) . I play a lot of Reggae and Dub at my weekly gigs so doing some reissues has been something i’ve wanted to do since starting the label back in 2016. Its really a question of the stars aligning when it comes to licensing and through a mutual connection was fortunately able to link up with producer John Rubie and license a number of songs, the first of which to see the light of day is ‘Ain’t Nobody’.
I did two edits, a main edit pulling back on the electric guitar in the original and a Dub using some subtle delays and sparse use of the vocal to let the killer groove work its magic.
New chart now up for Juno featuring the latest Isle Of Jura reissue from Zann, an eclectic leftfield gem originally released as a private press in 1990. Having tracked down Udo Winkler the main producer behind the project over a year ago its a pleasure to finally see the record out along with new artwork from Bradley Pinkerton.
