Wiping the seventh month slate clean, we signal a new dawn in our music newsletters, the first in a continuous volume series that, each week, promotes the podcast picks & tracks in the mix, including those promoted our website and other movers & shakers that have been rocking our weekly world, all that along with our podcast & track of the week choices, direct download/stream links & video clips included, meaning its “music is the answer” all the way.
In a week that has proved our most musically momentous & emotionally enthralling ever, it seemed wholly appropriate to re-engage in one of the most prolific passions in our life and wax lyrically about this majestic medium. However, with our last newsletter now over seven months old, there is much music making we have missed in that time, although we are not planning or proposing a comprehensive catch up, rather to wipe that slate clean but with an eye to sharing some of the bigger pieces of podcast & tracks news now we are back in the music newsletter driving seat. Plus, to keep the momentum going, we are sticking to a simple & straight forward new volume series, which we are calling “Podcast Picks & Tracks In The Mix” which will gather up some of those momentous music moments of the year as well as the more recent production picks from both our website & those that have been rocking our weekly world.
So let’s get to it and start with the most momentous musical masterpiece of 2012 so far and one released just seven days ago, Steve Pitron’s “WE Formula 2 Part 1” podcast having completely consumed us, like no other before it, this marking his fifth release of 2012, a year which in many respects we would rather forget. But true to form throughout this tough twelfth 21st century annual, Mr Pitron has come up trumps in making our bad times good through his magnificent music making and if there was the most phenomenal positive we can draw from our troubled toils, it is exactly this. Plus, in this latest podcast, phenomenal is exactly the word to describe this Pitron production, the terrific twists & turns between full on tech and vocal injections, perhaps challenging the tastes of some of his following faithful, does for us display Steve’s dynamic dexterity in all aspects of track spotting, selecting, moulding & mixing that make him a master of his art in our books. And over 9000 downloads, plus the number one spot in the Podomatic chart, speak spectacular volumes, while given the indelible impression this podcast has made on us, we naturally devoted a special review feature, “Pole Position Production” which tells you the story of how this colossal compilation has consumed us, one worth reading at http://discomatt.com/web/?p=6033, while we can say no more than we have there apart from, get this stunning Steve set of sounds into your collection by pressing the “WE Formula 2 Part 1” download button at http://stevepitronsessions.podomatic.com, while it enters its eighth day as our “Podcast Of The Week” for a second seven day term in a row.
Now we go into the podcast mix, as we head to the other picks on our website, a more appropriate position in this newsletter for the next marvellous music maker we couldn’t think of, as coming second only to Steve Pitron is an accolade we can easily award to a young man that pretty much instantaneously impressed us to the extent that we propelled him as our so called “premier protégé player”, a position Zach Burns continues to hold. And with a developing vocation behind the decks that has grown in both stature & size, regular residencies here in London including with club nights Gigolo, PLAY>TIME & Popcorn, he holds down a Saturday slot with The Edge and, on top of that has been part of playing proceedings at CasaLatina, Matinee, D.J’s At Work & The Hoxton Pony. But our brilliant Mr Burns has also played over on the continent, representing Gigolo in Germany & starring for Paris club Scream, all this hinting to even greater gigs to come as we close in on 2013. However it’s his podcast productions we hone in on here, Zach as adept in compiling a compilation as selecting sounds for a set, his series of “House Sessions” podcasts the prolific proof of this particular pudding, while like many of his contemporary D.J. compatriots, he also releases recordings of his live sets which are also testament to this terrific man’s talents. So, having made our “Podcast of The Week” slot on a few occasions while we have been off newsletter air, it comes easy to catapult his compositions here, a simple click on http://djburns.podomatic.com/ bringing you straight to his latest monthly release, while a visit to http://soundcloud.com/djzachburns taps you into those live recordings, his last PLAY>TIME set one not to be missed.
Keeping to the “in the mix” philosophy of this new newsletter series, we head out internationally now but not that far, landing on Belgium and an impressive individual for whom 2012 could not have been more polar than ours, the year one that Elof de Neve will remember for a long time to come, as his D.J’ing career has gone stratospheric. From the solid base of one of his home country’s biggest club brands, Red & Blue, Elof has spring boarded across Europe throughout 2012, Matinee appearances in Amsterdam, Barcelona & Paris adding to guest slots at Milan’s The Farm, Super Heroes in Cologne & Propaganda in Berlin to mention a few, while he was in the thick of the ES Collection “Get It One” world tour, played at pride events including Antwerp, Lisbon & Sitges, all this while cementing that base back home in Belgium. And it is back home where Elof will be next weekend when Red & Blue mark their 15th anniversary, we crossing fingers that he will lay down a new podcast to mark the occasion, no doubt filled with all the uplifting & euphoric vocal house that benchmarks the beats in his bag and score the sounds selections in his sets, these sounds often comparing him to our first newsletter inclusion, this comparison quantified in the quality of Mr de Neve’s compilations, the latest of which was devoted to club brand Propaganda and is tanked with terrific tracks, while there are plenty more to pleasure your play button by heading to http://soundcloud.com/elofdeneve where the wonderful musical mixing world of this genial gent from Gent is your oyster.
Right, time for a track mention, although with so many towering tunes to choose from in the last few months we head for a heavenly highlight from Spanish star of the international stage that will quite possibly be our producer of the year, as Taito Tikaro has scored successive sweet spot goals on us throughout 2012, “Lady Luck” the first, “Lift Me Up” another, more recently, indeed as recent as the last few weeks, his interpretations Florence & the Machine’s “Spectrum” and as recent as the last three weeks, Albert Neve’s “She Loves”, while there are plenty of other tremendous track treats in Taito’s trunk of tunes. However it is his own production that we pluck out from his prolific pack to focus on here, “My World”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zDWsLhA-lM [/youtube]
featuring the vocals of Vanessa Klein, the lyrics of the song still erupting our emotions & tumbling those trademark tears some four/five months after first tuning into this towering track on Steve Pitron’s “Summer 2012 Part One” podcast and one that has been trading 2012 track of the year top spot with “Take Me Higher” since, Taito’s talent for the swooning & zooming sounds to stir our senses peppering all his productions but impressively indented on this incredible incarnation of his. Will it make it to the treasured top slot?, well it has stiff competition not least from another which we will be including a little later, along with that Rony Seilkaly stunner we have already mentioned, but Mr Tikaro has every chance of lifting not one, but two DM trophies this year.
Back to podcast productions, back to London and back to a website inclusion that has, like all the former three in this newsletter, scooped our “podcast of the week”, but not just that, achieving the as yet unprecedented accolade of staying at our effective number one slot for three weeks in a row. And this was not only richly deserved by the quality of the production but the resplendent return to music making by one Mikey D, his podcast production absence of over fourteen months, “Heavy Baby” somehow sending this scene favourite star into semi retirement, although with a demanding day job taking up most if not all of his spare time, the previous regular resident inclusions at Beyond become nothing short of barren, while the heavier direction of his music marked just the occasional appearance for sister brand Later. Yet while, if we are honest, the former Dower compilation delivery failed to float our boat anywhere near as much as “Lose Control” did, in “House Music All Night Long”, Mikey has struck gold, neatly bridging the gap between his two other podcasts, a delightful dollop of classics remixed balancing tech & vocal infusions, while floor filler favourites “Let The Sunshine In” & “Naturally” are heavenly highlights. Plus with returns to gigs behind the decks of Beyond, Later & PLAY>TIME, we felt his inclusion here, on top of devoting a special feature to him, “Delectable Dower Delivery” a worthy read at http://discomatt.com/web/?p=6000 , very much deserved, as is this marvellous mix into your collection by pointing yourselves at his podcast page, http://mikeyd.podomatic.com or selecting his soundcloud site at http://souncloud.com/mikedower and, like the compilation title, play Mikey’s house music all night long.
Jumping back internationally we only have to take a short trip across the channel to the French capital to find a D.J/Producer that, while he resides in Paris, is quite often jet setting around the globe to star in all sorts of club events & happenings, destinations Leomeo Carandang has touched extending to all five continents, just these last handful of weeks he back not too far from his birthplace of the Philippines, only yesterday playing at Singapore club Taboo, while a vacation in Vietnam has been a much needed & welcome break from what is always a hectic schedule in the life of Leomeo. Indeed, of the fifty two weekends in a year, he is away from home for a good 80 % of those, his gig tours & travels as close as Marseille & St Tropez to as far as Montreal & Sydney, the latter marked with one of his most recent mixes from his short tour there which including a gig at the city’s Extra Dirty club and is the one we currently feature on our website. However, the Leomeo production story extends much further than that, a sizeable chunk of his time during the week being spent in the recording studio, his most prominent production since the superb track “The Sound Of C”, one which was remixed by a number of others including Superchumbo, is “Do U Feel It”, while a simultaneous production “Give Me Luv” is nipping at the former’s heels, these two releases on top of what is probably our favourite of his tracks, that being “The Bomb” which within a very short space of time has been remixed no less than six times. But with over 70 podcasts & tracks to choose from, Leoemo literally spoils you at his soundcloud site, well worth a visit by clicking on http://soundcloud.com/djleomeo/.
Now it’s time to mop up the rest of our website podcast picks, Brent Nicholls having turned to twitter to market his mixes, a visit to http://djbrentnicholls.com/web/2012/11/19/follow-me-on-twitter-download-exclusive-podcasts/ telling you more, while The Oli takes us back to 2004 for his “A Moment Of Orange History” podcast which proves a superbly sentimental step back in time, so worth grabbing at http://theoli.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-18T15_03_13-08_00 so as to sink into what is an exceptional example of Mr Bell’s brilliant beats. Then we come to what we call our “movers & shakers”, those latest podcast productions that have pricked up our ears, London based Tim Jones doing just that with his intriguingly titled “D.J’ing For Dummies” compilation, he summarising it as “…an hour of house music tracks from my box…”, a click on http://riseandshine.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-22T07_23_03-08_00 proving that he has, as he stated on his podcast page, mixed for your pleasure, while our other mover & shaker from the capital this week is Jamie Hammond & his spontaneous set piece experiment which came out of a sleepless night, that finding resonance with us as we too have been suffering from sleep shortage and this affinity made us listen to & be impressed by his effort at http://d-jamie.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-21T22_11_29-08_00. Internationally we have two “movers & shakers” too, the first one we have been wanting to include for a long time, Ludoladiva posting on our Facebook each & every time he makes a mix, his upcoming gigs for Matinee warranting our promotion, Ludo inviting you to join his session by going to http://facebook.com/events/450106361703958/ while the actual podcast promo is up at http://soundcloud.com/ludoladiva/ludoladiva-matinee-promo-part1-december-2012. And last, but by no means least, is Greek guy GSP, another who regularly shares his productions through our social networking connections, his relatively new “Energy” series very much on our favourites list, he having been one of our “movers & shakers” for a rolling few weeks, his latest “Vol 3” a surefire fabulous addition to your collection by hitting on http://djgsp.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-20T10_23_06-08_00.
So with our podcast picks done for this time, it’s down to that other track mention we hinted to earlier to finish off this first volume in our own new series of music newsletters and fulfils our promise to include our “track of the week” which, in one of the most momentous musical weeks we have endured & enjoyed, could have gone to any one of a dozen or so choices. But while many trademark tears & emotional eruptions came from all the tracks in our selection pool, it was “Beautiful Mind” which spilled more sentiment than any other, actually stopping us in our working tracks when we first heard it on Tuesday. Indeed, with a compelling connection to our “podcast of the week” choice in that Steve Pitron’s “WE Formula 2 Part 1” production was the introductory source, after sinking into this terrifically moving track masterpiece, we sought out the exact version from Mr Pitron’s podcast, first falling on the Chucky, Ortzy & Nico Hamuy remix
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP59JsUmQw4[/youtube]
which while not the version we were hunting for, sourced the official video which began the equally moving story of this marvellous few minutes of music, the filming of the artist, Keemo, on his bike the first emotional erupter, the Catalonian film location connection anther catalyst the lyrics, as they played out on the video, completing the tear tumbling picture. Then came the story of why Steve included the track on his podcast, which gave it even more providence to make it to our “track of the week” pick, it having also made it into both his & Max Sanna’s sets during their ClubNation back-to-back performance at Lo-Profile last night, all meaning that, like our other track focus here, “My World”, “Beautiful Lie” looks destined for year-end greatness, while with a host of remixes out there, plus that illusive inclusion on the Pitron podcast still to come our way (hang on a second, here it is)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaQIss9iGqs[/youtube]
watch this space for a special feature on this & a handful of others that will be vying for that top track of 2012 trophy spot.
Well that’s just about it for our first music newsletter in months, but we promise it won’t be even weeks before the second volume in this new series, the emphasis switching from podcasts to tracks and to those producers on our website, the likes of which are Danny Verde, Ivan Gomez, Guy Scheiman, Javier Medina and, naturally, Taito Tikaro, while a couple of podcast “movers & shakers” will get a look in too. However with all that to come, in the meantime we hope you connect with our above choices, all which, for us, go to prove that “Music Is The Answer” (DISCO MATT)
