Tag: New York
TBC Review – BBC Essential Mix of the Year 2014
Pete Tong announced the shortlist for the Essential Mix of the year 2014 last weekend (6th December) and TBC thought it best that we had our own review of the shortlist and select our favourite.
The shortlist:
- Bicep
- Caribou
- Jon Hopkins
- Joy Orbison
- Ten Walls
Over the last week at TBC we have been re-listening to the Essential Mix of the year shortlist and boy have we had a good time. Boogying at lunch time at work, while driving in the car, walking to the shops and, of course, loudly at TBC HQ, basically whenever we got a spare second we have had the essential mixes on. It has been incredibly enjoyable to review some mixes which we hadn’t given too much time to when they were aired; Caribou and Joy Orbison, as well as reviewing the other mixes which we had thoroughly enjoyed on multiple occasions this year. It has to be said that 2014 was a great year for the essential mix and some great mixes didn’t quite make it into the shortlist. Amine Edge and Dance introduced us to G-House. Marcel Dettmann delivered a monstrous techno mix for the Easter holidays while we were away in NYC and Green Velvet blended his signature techno and electro sounds during the Summer which got us very excited at TBC. We were also throughly entertained by a multitude of music genres and diversity from the likes of Finnebassen, Bonobo, Anja Schneider, Gaiser, Matador, Jimmy Edgar, Kink, Steffi, Subb-an, Heidi and Huxley to name a few. We must all say thanks to Pete Tong and his team at the BBC for again curating an amazing year of Essential Mixes. Roll on 2015!
We have reviewed each mix individually, reduced the list to a top 3 and then selected our favourite, so here it goes.
- Ten Walls
- Jon Hopkins
- Joy Orbison
The top 3 is summarised by Club vs Perfection vs Raw, respectively. Ten Walls provides the mix most representative of TBC clubbing in 2014 and in particular Melt Festival which was one our highlights of the year, Jon Hopkins delivers a perfectionist live performance that you would expect from a live performer (similar to John Talabot currently, Paul Kalkbrenner a few years ago or, for the older ones, Junkie XL) and Joy Orbison hits you with a devastating raw mix of techno and dub that makes selecting one of the three as a favourite very difficult. The decision was difficult and the countless hours spent listening to the mixes, some a multiple of times for the full 120 minutes and others in segments to identify those key tracks, mixes and transitions that make a mix excel. However, finally after a lot of consideration, we made our call and gave Essential Mix of the year 2014 to Joy Orbison. It wouldn’t have been our selection when we first saw the list announced and choosing this mix over Ten Walls and Jon Hopkins was difficult when there were so many good things to say about these mixes but Joy Orbison literally blew us away. The style of the mix, the fact that he rarely performs live or records mixes, the severity of some of the tracks on the scale of heavy techno and the fact that we had rarely heard a mix from this DJ/producer before created a package that is hard not to love.
We look forward to hearing from the Essential Mix team and Pete Tong himself on who they will vote for the Essential Mix of the year 2014.
Looking forward to next year when we hope the level of the mixes remains of this calibre. The artists we would like to see next year are listed below, we hope that some feature.
Promo Album Review – Mister Saturday Night pres. Weekends and Beginnings
Welcome back to another of our Promotional Album Reviews for TBC. This time we are announcing another of our amazing opportunities to review a great record label release; Mister Saturday Night. When we visited New York in April 2014 we got caught up in the hype that accompanies this amazing night as we planned our partying over the Easter Weekend and visited the local record shops in Brooklyn. Unfortunately there wasn’t a Mister Saturday Night party that weekend but we heard plenty about the label from local record shops owners and employees who were keen to promote the latest EP release. TBC feel an affinity with Mister Saturday Night (MSN) based on our experience of their nights, musical stance and dedication to a good party and their mission on their website:
“Mister Saturday Night strives to do a little more than a typical party. With a love of great music and a passion for bringing people together, we try to create an experience that’s truly fun and engaging for everyone involved – party people, DJs, bartenders and doormen alike.”
We were very excited when we were offered a chance to be added to their promotional mailing list and couldn’t wait to review their next big release in November which was to be a new compilation CD. We will also be reviewing the back catalogue including the amazing LP Brother and Sisters (released back in July 2014)
Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter, commonly know as the duo Mister Saturday Night, provide the DJ collaboration for their record label’s (which shares their duo name) latest release called Weekends & Beginnings. The mix CD was released on the 18th November and is available through on line retailers and iTunes. It was recorded live at an MSN party in August 2014 and from the outset you know this one is going to be special when the French vocal led track from Le Chanteur graces your speakers. This is followed by a great disco track from Terrence Jerome and then slips nicely into a groovy, piano infused, vocal house track from Alice Smith titled Love Endeavour. This track eases you into the mix and helps you to imagine the mood in the club with the musical flow developing a great party vibe. It doesn’t take long for the MSN duo to introduce some heavy drum beats and show off their eclecticism with a heavy percussive, tribally track from Nebraska and a new track from Cobblestone Jazz (Mathew Jonson lead trio) which pulses with an acid sounding baseline. The mix continues to develop and features some great artists and tracks; Mr.G, Anthony Parasole and Caribou. The mix really steps it up a notch at around the half an hour mark with a superb remix by Motor City Drum Ensemble of Caribou’s Leave House which builds on the haunting vocal to deliver a atmospheric progressive track that sits well within the mix and shows off the remixers signature sound. This is then followed by a great samba style track featuring trumpets and piano keys from Adessa Versions that makes you shake your ass. The proceeding tracks maintain the uplifting vibe of the mix CD with gospel style, funky and samba style percussive house that lead up to TBC’s favourite track Take That from Jurgen Paape which is a true TBC classic. Take That does exactly what is says on the tin and thrusts a bouncy, electro synth track right in your face, we couldn’t help but turn the mix up at this point, throw some shapes and even enjoy a cheeky ‘rewind’ moment as we had to listen to the track again. Next, Ike Release brings you down with a moody, hazy progressive track called Phazzled which then leads on to quirky, dubby, broken vocal track from Recloose and then to Bassclef’s dreamy soundscape. Finally ending the mix with an amazing track from Sam Orwell which features an awesome saxophone solo to provide you with a sublime yet eclectic finale.
Tracklisting:
01. Le Chanteur – La Passion des Collines**
02. Terrence Jerome – Believe**
03. Alice Smith – Love Endeavor (Maurice Fulton Remix)
04. Nebraska – Green Marimba
05. Cobblestone Jazz – Traffic Jam
06. Mr. G – Daily Prayer
07. Anthony Parasole/Elgato – Quickstrike/Zone
08. Caribou – Leave House (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix)
09. Adesse Versions – Modal
10. Jasper Street Company – Solid Ground (Tommy Musto Remix)
11. House of Gypsies – Another Worry
12. Lord Nelson – Shango (Daniel Haaksman and DJ Beware Remix)
13. DJ Duke – Sun Beats
14. Jurgen Paape – Take That
15. Ike Release – Phazzled
16. Recloose – Can’t Take It (Herbert’s Some Dumb Dub)
17. Bassclef – Ghost Kicks In The Spiral
18. Sam Orwell – Secret Nothings**
Weekends & Beginnings is top notch eclectic house party set that leaves you envious of not experiencing it live, the added crowd noise just adds to the jealousy. This style is exactly what TBC HQ love in a good mix CD and it will remain on our playlist for a while. Disco, ‘eclecticity’, techno and house all feature and yet at no point, despite the diverse tracklist, do you ever feel like the mix is disjointed, it flows so well that it highlights the Mister Saturday Night party formula creates the perfect party mix. We need to get our asses back to Brooklyn NYC, fast!
We hope you have enjoyed the review and we cannot recommend this mix high enough.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to the Mister Saturday Night team.
If you would like a sneak peak at the NYC loft party vibe then check out the great feature on Resident Advisor below:
TBC
Betty goes stateside…..
New Yaaaaaaaaawk! New Yaaaaaaaak! This is all I’ve been singing since I got back from the Big Apple for my Easter boogie transatlantic party jaunt! My base for my week of debauchery was an exquisite apartment slap bang in the middle of coolest of the cool areas in Brooklyn – Williamsburg! My hostess was a sensational Russian Sex Bomb with a love of prescription drugs and sexual experimentation. One word FANTANTRIC! I dined in the Spice Market and I sunk super strong cocktails on The Whyte Hotel’s delicious roof terrace taking in the views of the Manhattan skyline over the East River. After drinking my fill of Bloody Mary’s and waltzing around a plethora of Brooklyn’s über cool record shops in an extremely focused way, I focused my mind on what I had really come to NYC to do – P P P PARRRRRRTY!
Verboten, a long running New York night was the first stop on my New York party tour. Luckily this club had just opened in its new home right on the next street to my Russian friend’s party pad! Also luckily, my current house obsession – Lee Burridge was playing a 4 hour set! Hellllloooooooo perfect first New York night out! We got into the club and everything looked swell with beautiful decor and crazy lighting. Lee Burridge’s soul caressing sounds were made even more amazing by the sound system which made me feel like I was wrapped in a warm blanket of smooth house. However, ladies and gents that’s where the fun stopped and annoyance began. The club was full of teenagers who looked like they would be more at home at Embrace in Sheffield than the chic yet grimy dance floors I know and love! After seeing one too many jock/cheerleaders sucking face and being barged by one too many drunken buffoons I realised that I needed to leave. It costs money to touch this bitch don’t ya know (plus my arm might fall off!). From now on Verboten ist Verboten!
I realised that night 2 was gonna be far more my kind of thing when I saw the announcement for the event location. BLKmarket membership had only gone and taken over 88 Palace – a carpeted Chinese restaurant on the top of a Chinese shopping mall underneath Manhattan Bridge. Yes we saw rats on the way there, yes we saw an abundance of waving Chinese cats in every single shop window and yes the restaurant owner was there looking like he was about to have cardiac arrest! The restaurant had been transformed into the kind of back street, techno haven that I simply adore! Dark and dirty with only the scary visuals projected from behind the DJ booth and the wonderful sounds of Matt Dekay for me to lose myself in! Not a snogging kid in sight – thank fack! We boogied our asses off and hands down put those Americans with there terrible dancing to shame! Loosen up brothas and sistas!
The rest of the holiday was spent in a haze of bottles, techno and wigs. Heaven! NYC I had the most ridiculous amount of fun and I will be back but until then I really need to wake up after all this partying …………… better call Dr Schwartz!