Back 2 The Old Skool

This Friday just gone I found myself at the Big Beat Reunion in London's lovely but shady Jammm in Brixton, one of my old stomping grounds. I'm always slight wrong-footed by South London ... even though I know it so well, it has an intensity about it that you seldom find North of the river with layer on layer of humanity battling for survival space. As an example, the cab ride back to the hotel afterwards was full of banter & was strangely worth the £22 I was knowingly being *fleeced* for a four mile ride.

To say the gig was an unusual one for me to take would be understatement. I've never before agreed to do an old skool / big beat set, and despite the huge time-drain of 3 full days of preparation, it was actually a great - re-education sifting through the piles of old vinyl. Each banger I unearthed was greeted like a long lost friend, even to the point of 'knowing smiles' accompanying the recall of each bit of vinyl's unique quirks. Trying to mix these rough & ready slices of history together was a whole new ballgame & my plan to journey from 107 - 137 bpm seemed like a good idea in principal, but in practice it was a wild beast of a ride, and one that was hard to tame for much of the time.

I didn't get a chance to record the set, but for the tracklist fiends and the mildly interested, this is what I played in my hour & a half. Perhaps I'll find time to do a similar mix for the archives at some point soon ... we will see!

Midfield General - Devil In Sports Casual                           
Ceasefire - Trickshot                                
Eddie Scratch & DC - Dusty's Sermon                           
Dave Clarke - No One's Driving (Chemical Brothers Mix)
Cut & Paste - Cut It Nice - Original Mix                       
Freestylers - Breaker Beats Part One                    
Head Lamp - Petrol Salt Lick                                 
Wax Assassins - Feel The Funk Baby                               
The Chemical Brothers - The Loops of Fury                        
Roxy Breaks - Apache Rock                                      
The Wiseguys - Start the Commotion (Put the Body in Motion)     
CHARLATANS, The - Nine Acre Dust (Chemical Brothers remix)         
Basco  - Rock The Funky Beat                              
Sol Brothers - That Elvis Track                                 
Fathead, 2 Fat Buddahs  - Cut The Music - Original Mix                     
Fatboy Slim Vs Bassbin Twins - 2 Aaaw Shut Up                                   
Bassbin Twins & Doom Selector - Between The Fro                                            
Laidback  - Cold Rock
Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness     
Laidback  - Cold Rock (Reprise)                                  
Elite Force  - EF001 Go Rockin' Beats                           
The Treble Spankers  - Samira (The Eboman's Bakkuf Beats - Mix)         
Lunatic Calm - Leave You Far Behind -  Lunatics Rollercoaster Mix                       
Definition of Sound  - Outsider (Lunatic Calm Mix)                      
Messiah  - There Is No Law                                  
Curve - Chinese Burn (Lunatic Calm Remix)                
Fatboy Slim - Going Out of my Head                             
SCHUMACHER, Timmy - Bring Back Big Beat  
Chemical Brothers - Psychedelic Reel (Elite Force Edit)                  

Breakspoll Blur

It's been quite a weekend. 

I was thrilled this year to find myself short-listed for no fewer than six awards at the annual Breakspoll bash, and unlike last year when I played the graveyard shift to an exhausted dancefloor, I was blessed with a peaktime slot at this year's party. I'd barely arrived at Cable (great club - go check it out) before being summonsed to the stage for the awards, & was fortunate enough to pick up the awards for BEST PRODUCER and BEST LABEL for U&A Recordings amongst some serious competition.

I wasn't sure how winning something would make me feel, given that awards ceremonies have never been too high up the chain in life's rich list of priorities for me, but now I know, and I can safely say "thrilled to bits" is the answer. If anything, moments like that give you a punctuation in life, a brief chance to reflect on a year gone by and your achievements, as well as being a small reward for a huge amount of hard work.

It's been a year when Breaks has bounced back. There have been far too many people bashing it as a genre and deriding it, but last year it was strong, and this year it will be stronger as more new talent is nurtured and they hone their skills, and as more of the old guard of refuseniks return to the fold. I'm by no means a 'purist' when it comes to Breaks, or to any music come to that - I'm just not a fan of people boxing off certain tribal sub-genres at the exclusion of open-mindedness and other quality sounds - but I'm thrilled to see many tempos and experiments happening in the world of bass-driven warehouse-music (as I'd prefer to describe my own output at the moment!).

Needless to say everyone who cared enough to vote for me deserves my heartfelt thanks, & I will of course endeavour to turn it up one louder in the coming months & hopefully find myself once again in the mix at the end of the year.