Over the years (and it has been more than a few!) we have been very fortunate to have met & be-friended a whole host of D.J.’s, some encounters stretching back to the early days of Trade, when we first hit the clubbing capital, others nurtured during the magical years when Crash ruled the underground club scene, but many more in recent times, predominately through our journalist duties, not least from D.J. focuses & music posts, but also our reviews & previews, as D.J.’s are very much the proverbial meat on the bone of clubbing & the scene in general. Yet, whilst we can count ourselves lucky in knowing a D.J. cast that extends into treble figures, we can count on just one hand, those that have the incredible skill of making us smile (and I mean really smile) on the dancefloor through their music, where their billing will guarantee our appearance & their absence not, where their mixing skills & record choices on studio works leave us breathless in admiration (again attracting those huge smiles) and, more than anything else, have carved an extra special place in our musical minds & souls, having been a constant in our now lengthy musical clubbing journey, while continuing to float our musical boat.
Brent Nicholls is one such individual on that hand count, a talent that first caught our eye at the infamous Salvation afterparty PSP, although at that stage very much a distant one, more close quarter encounters being a feature of our regular weekly homage’s to Wayne Shires’ amazing creation, Crash, which was the founder of the clubbing movement & scene we now know simply as Vauxhall. However, it would be fair to say that Mr Nicholls has very much been hot property since he arrived in London from his native Sydney, his good looks & impressive physique certainly an attraction for some, although it was his skills as a D.J. that got him quickly noticed by many and not a week went by without him being in the thick of the action at clubs like (yes), Action, Beyond, Crash (already mentioned), Heaven, and plenty more besides (the list is endless actually).
But it would be fair to say the Brent has been busy for the last umpteen years now, chalking up club brands over & above those already mentioned, that include Matinee, Lovechild, Hard On!, Trade, Juicy & Hustlaball, while he is a regular feature at hip hop hangouts Barcode, Rupert Street & Profile/Lo-Profile in Soho, he also holding down a regular monthly gig at Soho Gyms in Camden, and plays out at the sports fetish club (wonder why!) “Sweat”, all examples of his broad talent & still very much in demand D.J’ing. His services are called upon beyond London too and his career has seen him jet around the globe, touching on South Africa, Canada, Brazil & most parts of Europe, as well as returning to his native Australia. In fact Brent is still very well known & respected back home and has been a regular feature of the massive Sydney Mardi Gras festival, while festivals generally have attracted his services, London’s Pride events, Soho’s outdoor parties & the recent London Global Dance gathering craving for his talent, just three of a whole collection where he has featured.
Away from the live D.J.’ing, this intelligent & articulate man is busy 24/7, with his own, “Brent Nicholls” work, recording regular compilations of which there were a staggering twenty two in 2010 alone, as well as writing his own blogs, but also designing & developing a whole host of websites under the label “Unique Cliques”. However, Brent’s unrivalled attention is towards the administration of one of the most successful clubbing websites we know, SeenQueen (http://seenqueen.com/), a pioneering site that was launched ten or so years ago as a hobby and has now become a full time occupation, not a day going by when updates are required & posts issues. Plus, we were reliably informed that it recently broke into the top million websites in the world, no mean feat when you consider that the worldwide web figures run into the 10’s of millions (probably more), indeed, this is a very busy time for our engaging Aussie, as the final few days of the SQ “Your Disco Needs You” poll is upon the SeenQueen team, and when you consider what attention & importance the poll attracts, Brent has a heavy weight on his shoulders, as all eyes will be on the results, club promoters & owners biting their nails in anticipation as we speak.
However, for us Brent is an individual that has very much influenced our lives, particularly in the last four/five years, from those special Sunday’s at Barcode Vauxhall, through to the launch of the life changing social soiree Industri, life changing as it was at this club Disco Matt was born, so has pretty much transformed us as a person & a persona. Having said that, our magical memories of Mr Nicholls & his music stretch back much further, not least to those halcyon days at Beyond in Colosseum, when he ruled the VIP room waves with partner in D.J.’ing crime, Paul Heron, a partnership which, along with social scenestress Minty, survives to this day. So, pretty much from the off, we have connected with Brent’s style of music, funky, latin infused, disco tinged, hard edged & tech toned, the variety of genres he plays & is comfortable with, reflecting in the variety of clubs that he still D.J.’s in. Indeed, Mr Nicholls has a knack of being able to spot a trend in advance of most, cut a stride in a new style and mix in all these genres with brilliant & breathtaking results, whether it be packing out a dancefloor or pinning it down in a podcast, meaning that he well & truly deserves his place on that hand of ours, plus, in truth, there is probably only one other that matches him on all those stakes, that’s how highly we rate him among even his equals, let alone the rest of our treble figured talents.
So, when he kindly offered to compile a special compilation to mark the completion of our year end music review and the selection of our top 40 tracks within that review, we were not just honoured, but filled with gratitude with this amazing offer. Yet, given our similarities in musical tastes, it was very much a die-cast disco duo in the making, or as Brent aptly put it, “…a collaboration made in disco heaven…”, although, from the off, this most skilful of mixers was faced with the tricky task of tailoring a compilation that flowed, given the occasional chalk & cheese choices that made it to our top 40. Indeed he explained to us that “…what started as a top 40 turned into a top 30 which is now a top 20…” stating that “…These aren’t his top 20 of the year, but are tracks extracted from his original top 40…” also adding that “…some tracks, after all, just don’t go together no matter how hard you scrunch, munch, filter and glue…”. But glue he did, and to amazing effect, in fact we cannot wait to get our right hand hearing back, so we can listen to this special 152 minute mix in full stereo glory.
Simply called “Disco Matt’s Dance-tastic Top 20” mix, Brent’s brilliant piece of work combines all our favourite tunes of the year 2010, ones that have special meaning, others that rocked us in clubs & elsewhere, although what it is not, is a reflection of the big dancefloor sounds (there are a couple in there), rather as our man from Oz puts it “…Matt’s eclectic taste is reflected…creating some interesting but succesful moments by the fusing of different genres….” he also admitting that “..it quite obvious that many of Matt’s favourites were also my favourites, which I guess defines the word popularity…but this mix could easily be considered MMX volume 3…The Disco Matt Mix..”, Brent, of course, having rounded up his musical year with a double volume of tracks titled “MMX”, which are both available at http://djbrentnicholls.com/music, and are, may we add, very worthy additions to your collection.
As for our special mix, well you can listen or download it in a number of ways. First & foremost, you can visit Brent’s website (as above), where you will (currently) find it at the top of his home page, or within the “music” section together with download options & a full playlist. Secondly, you can go to the link at the foot of this post, a link that will also appear on our website in a separate short report, but is obviously here too, while lastly, we have added it to our soundcloud site (http://soundcloud.com/discomatt) & our podcast page (http://discomattlondon.podomatic.com/). So for a slice of collaborative disco heaven & a dollop of this die-cast disco duo, go grab this exclusive mix and immerse yourselves into a dance-tastic dream, as there can only be one way to round off this special report, and that’s by saying, “Music, Brent Nicholls style, is definitely the answer”. (DISCO MATT)
To download & listen, plus post to your Facebook wall, share the link or even tweet about it, CLICK HERE