January 2013 - Newyear Entry for Rob2Paul

Hey Folks,

Happy NewYear




Well went to Hardtimes, Music was outstanding, big thankyou to all the Hardtimes folks, Leeds was awesome, here is the moments I captured,





Robert Owens played a really good session on the decks and also smashed out an epic live PA session, great part about this for me was that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture a full 6 mins of the actual Live act, simply awesome,  Owens was really in the zone...





Next on for Hardtimes is a trip to London for the 3 Kings, not sure if I can make that one yet but never say never, found out last week that Danny Krivit will be at the Warehouse in Leeds in February, which has got me very excited indeed, well who knows what will happen before Saturday but this will be a good night for sure :-)

After Christmas and into the new-year then it started with a bang, a few new tunes from some of the early Sasha sets, deep house was all a wash and after watching the sets from Never Say Never Sasha was on the prowl again once more, getting ever closer to that release date for the Involv3r Album sometime in the new-year I had the pleasure of playing a gig with Lee Softley of Blue Amazon and Convert Recordings.
















Lots to look forward to already then, the Retro Scene is still booming up here in the North as ever and it was nice to See a local Lancs lad from up this way burst into the limelight after he became an internet sensation with his keyboard and piano classics, nice work there Davos, most people have seen the footage by now I guess but for those that have not here it is again, In addition there is another bit of footage I found on the tube, amazing what people power does...... :-)






This post below was put out by Davos when things started to gather pace and the media & sun newspaper got involved....

Davos - Makes it Big - Read More..............





The next Retro party  is already proper planned and looks very well organised tickets are about all sold! its  at the Musiquaruium a retro night with Brad Kells @Joy loads going on in Leeds, this is a smaller venue and I have heard great things.

As I attended some of these nights I was not a regular at these events and it will be a good opportunity to see this one in full flight, Looking forward to going over and support Brad the Joy night  February 23rd, and do a write up.





But until then, Paul & I decided to travel further out towards the coast and I got the call to play out in Scarborough for my birthday with Lee Softley (Blue Amazon) Nic & Toby from Method and it was a really good positive gig, nice to see so many new people and have a good old smashup in North Yorkshire :-)


















In Scarborough I was lucky to have access to the Funktion One at Vivaz, and it was lovely to meet up with various people from Leeds and locally in Scarborough, Ian Ossia is to play next month, should be a good night again and already a buzz about Renaissance when Ian Ossia is in town love it!!!  :-)


Lots to look forward to then already and its only January.

In other news both Paul & myself had some big discussions before Christmas with our music subscription to Soundcloud, and we have worked together on a project to consolidate and cut our losses, as personally we feel that it is an over-hyped, overpriced piece of crap which everyone seems to think is where its at, but after discussions about prices and what you are getting for your money, the hideous new layout and all the downtime it has, we are gonna pull the plug on Sound-cloud as our main music provider, no doubt we will have a basic account with about 3hrs or so, but in the main it will all be found here to listen & download, with track-listings and other stuff we might like to share, Fuck Em, we are gonna have a crack at doing it ourselves... :-)


Also it would appear from the Copyright issues we have been getting after posting a mix on Soundcloud even when all the tracks have been purchased, it suggests they don't want DJ's on there really which is a bit rubbish so another reason why we are kicking it in the bollocks and leaving it for dead....







Below  is an article about Soundcloud also which makes for interesting reading and set the ball rolling a few years back when we saw and first started experiencing this awful service, what is even more annoying is that people are actually selling likes and can for a fee get you so many thousand plays on soundcloud, well we don't need it, and deffo would not pay for it either, in a word absolutely shocking enjoy the article below... ;-).....


Why You should   NOT    Use Soundcloud



Well enough about the Sound Cloud negative aspects and on to other news, January sees the Launch this week of Nick Warrens Entry to the Renaissance Masters Series


I have already put out a Renaissance Masters Series Mix from the last batch of tracks by Hernan Cattaneo which were absolutely superb, Below is my entry which I managed to upload onto YouTube without too much Hassle over Copyright however it is blocked in some countries??? but here you go!






In Regard to the new Nick Warren mixes & tracks me and Paul have spoken briefly about this and I will keep giving it a listen, as the first part is very sound garden and down-tempo, this I would definitely say is a signature mix of Nick but got to give it some more ear time, I have now all the tracks and will do some mixes of my own soon enough and post


The other part of the Mix on CD 2 to which I have not checked out yet are some clips below, its more upbeat and a lot more like the Warren we know I guess if you did not know about his Sound-garden sessions,


for more on this latest release see here:



Well what do you know! I just found out this week that the Garage in Leeds have the pleasure of Andrew Wetherall and Leeds own Ralph Lawson, so I decided to buy a ticket, its been many years since I have seen Andy Wetherall & last saw Ralph Lawson Play with Sasha @Basck2Basics at Victoria Works in 2009 so it will be a fantastic night can't wait for this one :-)




Always loved some of Britain's finest DJ's and these two are amazing live, Wetherall has a new Album coming out early February too here is a cut from it...




I love all the eclectic taste of Andrew Wetherall, here is a recent mix that he did on the BBC live at 6 series....





Ralph Lawson over the years has delivered some quality productions and as a Leeds Back2Basics Resident he has played some really fantastic parties there and in London, here is a Mix I particularly liked from we love Space in Ibiza always plays great sets both in the UK and abroad....




well if that is still not enough for you I have just uploaded the Live Set I did in Scarborough for Method @Vivaz....





Well below is the Mix and there is also a link if you would like to download it also, track-listing is included for you to mull over Enjoy folks.


Tracklsting:

• 1.Good Love Sweet Love (Shadow Child Remix)
• 2.Her Song
• 3.Back to Basics (GR1N Remix)
• 4.Flashmob - NInety Five (Dirty Channels Remix) (D. Gudinin
• 5.Layo & Bushwacka! - Raw Defined (Aidan Lavelle Remix)
• 6.Calling Me [School]
• 7.Graffios (Wehbba Remix)
• 8.Everything feat. Meggy (Mark Fanciulli Remix)
• 9.Regrets We Have No Use For feat. Name One (Original Mix)
• 10.Lazer Beams (Original Mix)

DOWNLOAD LINK
So I might See you about somewhere Stay Safe Folks..... Enjoy the music
Rob 2013.......... :-)

A Night with Sasha at the Loft....

Well to say this was the most anticipated event of the year (for me anyway) when the event was posted way back in July is an understatement to say the least. 

After Bedrock 14 the other week,  I was all firing on all cylinders and eagerly awaiting what was going to be a monster  night with Sasha on the decks for a whole 8 hours from start to finish,  something that I don't think will be repeated for some time....!!!!

The day started way up north in Leeds when I met Rob at Leeds station Saturday afternoon and we set off shooting down the M1, full tilt  Mika Hakkonen style in a snappy Hyundai i30, we made great time getting to the end of the M1 in just 3 hours, but in true London style got clogged up in Saturday early evening traffic, queue one detour west and then  south-east on the A40 and we finally headed towards South East London.

  As we were picking up Jody, we had a pit stop in Vauxhall and I can say is, never try and pick someone up from Vauxhall bus station with that ever delightful  ring road and mad traffic coming from every angle.Rob got out to meet Jody, I continued on 30 metres or so and stopped at the lights,  next thing I saw was Rob hot footing it through 4 lanes of condensed traffic... Jody on his coat tails.... doors open chaotic scenes and they both jumped in,  utter madness!!!!! 

We  finally got to our destination an hour later in south east London (Tulse Hill),  after the odd misdirection and wrong turning, queue me going down a red bus route and going through a red (oh fuck it) light, but it would shape the night and day oh yes indeed!!!

      Once we unpacked  and I finally got a beer in my hand, we eased into the evening with Lee (Blue Amazon) and had some pre-Sasha warm up "festivities" to get the night started truly in the mood for the man like later on.

As the night warmed up we finally left and headed towards North West London, however once we got on the Victoria Line, it went all pear shaped, so stage exit Brixton station and we managed to commandeer a cab to North West London, for what would be the final leg... once we arrived in NW10, all I can say is that its somewhat industrial and doesn't feel like you're in London,  but I didn't and don't care.

We eventually found the Loft Studios, kudos to the taxi driver, but  honestly it looked like from the outside as if it was  someones house, with a monstrous Funktion One sound system pulsating out from the walls. Once we got in it was full steam ahead up through the courtyard and up some rather precarious metal stairs, what we met was  a rammed warehouse style  room, dark, dirty and full on with Sasha smashing it 2 hours in...

      
 After hot footing it to the bar (queue open heart wallet surgery£5.50 for a can of cider or £16 for two vodka and mixers with a  bottle of water!!!) we headed  back the front of the club almost we were met with this, Sasha smashing it up right from the word off, even if we were 2 hours late...as Sasha smashed the Funktion 1 sound system, the floor of this dark and dirty warehouse bounced and any second you felt like you were going to fall through the floor as it bounced the fuck up and down, certainly a good way to go if you have too. 

What I have noticed at the Loft and at Bedrock is that the crowd certainly know their music and it was awesome to have some many like minded people there, for one thing and one thing only.... getting twisted with Sasha smashing  it all night long, mind you as always you get the odd baseball,  facial haired twat walking round being an absolute tool, but thankfully they didn't last long to ruin anyone's night!!!


From the moment we settled into Sasha's blistering set at the less crowded part of the dance floor towards the back,  it was plain to see that we were going to have an immense night, with Sasha's twists and turn smashing everyone's mind, body and soul with each track he played. His set began for me (around 0030)

and it drifted into tech house with killer tracks sending the crowd crazy begging for more, each time slowing down the next track set before pushing the boundaries into Spooky/Charlie May esque  territory and killing everyone with that Funktion 1 sound system time  and time again,  it just sent the crowd and myself that bit more messy, deeper into oblivion!!!! :D

In true Sasha style he did play some of the supposedly Involv3r tracks, but as we all know it still remains a mystery,  however there was Hot Chip - Flutes (sasha remix) along with Benjamin Damage and Doc Deneeka -  Battleships,  Kolsch  featuring Troels Abrahams - All that matters and possibly Thermal Bear - U love (Sasha remix) if my hazy chemical mind set remembers!!!

Minutes slipped into hours and the night got better and better, musically and atmospherically with each twist and turn and honestly I didn't want it to end for numerous reasons  but it did.

As the end approached, we had the usual last track which was Moby - Wait for me (Paul Kalbremner remix) from 2010 if my memory serves me right, mind you I would of preffered some edgy tasty Charlie May smasher to end on a massive high, but it  did end for me and everyone else who was there at the end to finish off an amazing night from start to finish. All I can say is anyone who missed it, missed out and you missed a night never to forget!!!

 For for all you train spotters (myself included)

some of the tracks from the night have already been ID'd  and some featured in this blog, I have included all my 15 videos from the night in one handy playlist on youtube  so you can enjoy them all in one hit, but just for the record here is just a small selection of what was played and has been ID'd:- (Big thanks to Rob & Lee for the ID's)

Finally a big shout to Rob M, awesome to meet you mate and hopefully see you at Warehouse Project in Manchester in December once more for Sasha and too Sue Kend...(yes I remember your surname :D !!! ), top girl and had a great night, hope to cross paths again!!!

  A night with Sasha, it certainly was!!!! For anyone missing out, you can check out the official photos here!!!!!!!!!!

Something I found just the other day, a lovely tribute mix to those 8 hours of bliss....

Sasha @ Loft Studios, London, 10th November 2012 - Tribute Mix by DJ Jim Barker by Dj Jim Barker on Mixcloud

Cheers Paul  :D