Back in the Game!

So I've finally finished uni. And what a fab time I had there! However, now I'm ready to keep those close friends, move back to London properly and jump into the 'real world' everyone's been telling me about with a splash.

I've updated my events and portfolio sections, and am back in London for the next few days before returning back up 'north' to party and say goodbye to that chapter of my life. Then I'll be doing a bit of jetting about before settling back down in L-town in the next few weeks.

Have been doing a bit of work for KMag and Data Transmission and have a lot of things in the pipelines for the next few weeks ; )

But until then, here are some things that kept me alive during the dreadful 24hr sessions in the library and things that I have been looks oh-SO-forward to going to:

I've been getting excited about Krakota's new video for 'Be Myself' ahead of the Ingredients Album Launch at Club 1001 in Brick lane.

I'll be hitting the launch for my first return to 1001 since I was 17! Back in THOSE days, that was one of the only clubs that accepted my poor excuse of a fake ID, but it did bring some brilliant times!

Especially looking forward to DJ Trex who I interviewed for his guest mix for KMag (you can check it out HERE).

Also, some new stuff out on NeoSignal, which includes some Phace and Misanthrop pieces that have been ALL OVER the raves recently. I'm particularly feeling 'Y' by Misanthrop which you can listen to below:

Misanthrop - Y - NSGNL008 by nΞosignal™

Here's a track by Oxide and Tania Foster called 'The One', which I have a feeling will end up being a pretty big dance floor hit. Maybe for the more 'commercial raves', but nevertheless, pretty damn good!
 

So tonight to celebrate the end of exams, I will be hitting up:

I can't actually wait!

Until next time,

OX

Detonate Indoor Festival Review 01/05

Detonate’s yearly Indoor Festival is as big as New Years Eve for Nottingham. With a line up that boasted over 50 of the biggest DJs across 4 arenas all within walking distance, the night was not something to be missed. The 5^th

instalment included rooms hosted by Cult, Rinse vs FWD, Digital Soundboy and Basslaced, to name a few.

We entered the basement of Rock City to be greeted with the sounds of Critical Music label owner, Kasra, dropping the filthy rumbling beats of Icicle’s ‘Dreadnaught’. SP:MC’s “If you focus, you can see the speaker pulsate” lyric seemed highly appropriate as the towering stack of speakers ground the bass right through my muscles. The predatory bassline of Vicious Circle and Jubei’s ‘Cloak and Dagger’ echoed through the truly excited crowd. Towards the end of the set, the bouncing rhythm of Enei’s forthcoming ‘Stonehead’ filtered trough the room as everyone who knew what it was had the “Trust me” refrain on their lips.

Exit Records boss, D-Bridge, was up next and brought a spectrum of tunes that packed the room out, including the VIP of Alix Perez and Spectrasoul’s classic ‘Forsaken’ and D-Bridge’s own jingly ‘True Romance’. The whole room, including the DJs who were due to play that room for the rest of the night, visibly appreciated his selection. The whole atmosphere was pretty alight as the dark swirls of Fierce and Vicious Circle’s ‘Section’ dropped, before the veteran immersed the audience in his soulful, chromatic masterpiece, ‘Inner Disbelief’. 

Collateral collaborators, Die and Break, took over the next hour in a back-to-back set that they were clearly enjoying as much as the crowd. The duo took it in turns to spin their impressive collection of vinyl that included Die’s own ‘Ghet’to Bizness’ and their fresh VIP of ‘Slow Down’, which had Ruthless MC demanding a rewind for before the room erupted again.

I took a “brief” trip upstairs to see what chaos Andy C was causing, which kept me skanking for quite a while. Callide’s disgusting annihilator ‘Supreme’ had the huge Rock City room pulling bassfaces and stomping in unison as he mixed it into Hazard’s mighty ‘Killers Don’t Die’. The uproar was ridiculous as Andy double dropped tracks including Fresh’s ‘Cylon’ and new ‘Gatekeeper’ into the early hours of the morning. The whole swarm of people were almost hanging off the walls as he flaunted his majestic skills. The lights were quite intense in the room, causing quite a reaction from the crowd.

S.P.Y was up next in the basement and had ravers pouring into the room to sing along to Calibre and MC Fat’s ‘Drop it down’. One of the highlights of the night was witnessing S.P.Y dropping his mesmerising ‘By Your Side’ followed by the notorious ‘Gangsta VIP’. Truly Incredible. S.P.Y played a strong eclectic set that kept a loyal crowd there for the whole hour.

Over in the Rig, hosted by UKF, DC Breaks played a robust set littered with dance floor anthems and thread-tight mixes. The Funcktion One soundsystem washed a wave of Spor’s ‘Aztec’ into DC Breaks’ own ‘Mankind VIP’ over the crowd, which was joining in dancing with Script MC. Definitely one of the best sets of the night, DC Breaks just dropped tune after tune, whilst Script found the fine balance of letting the music breathe, but hyping the crowd nicely. Sub Zero’s cheeky, recently released ‘Poon’ signalled the last couple of tracks as we headed back to catch Icicle.

Having just released the marvellous ‘Under the Ice’ EP, Icicle was set to be something special indeed. Armed with huge tracks including his new re-rub of Friction and K-Tee’s ‘Set it off’, the room was proving difficult to navigate through the army of excited ravers. More Shogun classics reverberated through the speakers; accompanied by the legendary DRS. Icicle’s new ‘Redemption’ went down a treat as he brought the set to a great close.

Rockwell had the last hour and dropped plenty of treats for those who had the energy to stay, including Phace’s ‘Strange Science.’ The peak of his set had to be his mixing of Phace and his tune ‘No’, into Misanthrop’s ‘Sidereel’ and then into Rob F and Impulse’s ‘Ultraviolet’. Stamina MC kept the flow going until the lights came on, and everyone either went home or filtered upstairs into the main room, where Icicle had taken over from Friction, who had broken down and was unable to play.

Indoor Festival was an excellent night that summed up the whole spectrum of d&b, catering for everyone. Having attended Detonate’s Indoor Festival for three years running, I can honestly say it is worth of a yearly tradition, though it’ll be pretty damn hard to beat this year’s!

Pictures: www.detonate1.co.uk

OX

Interview with Brookes Brothers

Dan and Phil Brookes, aka the Brookes Brothers, have been responsible for dance floor smashers including 'Tear You Down' and 'Last Night.' Now weeks away from launching their debut album, out 13th June, Liv caught up to see what the response for their album has been, who they would most love to collaborate with and if they have any more remixes in the pipelines...

·    You launched your new album at Fabric on 18^th Feb, how was that?

BB: Yeah it was a real success, was great to see so many people come down and represent and make it such a special night. Cheers to Adam and Fresh for the champagne!

·    Working as brothers must get stressful at times; how do you manage to keep the peace and not squabble like most people would with their siblings?

BB: We both have our own separate studios so that helps...although occasionally things overheat and I have to give Dan a good old-fashioned beating!

·    How did you manage to go from bedroom DJs to your exclusive signing on Breakbeat Koas in 2007 and what were you doing before?

BB: We were never actually bedroom DJ's, didn’t buy decks until we had our first tunes out! Before we got signed we were just writing tunes like maniacs. Dan had just come out of uni and I was working 9-5 at the sun newspaper selling advertising space to filthy chat line companies…

·    What influences your music?

BB: Music we love most of all I think...

·    You’ve been producing since the 2002.  How would you say the scene has developed and evolved?

BB: The scene is barely recognizable from those days to be honest, not necessarily in a bad way. The game has changed! There was great music coming out of dnb back then and there’s still great music being made today, that’s what matters most I think

·    You’ve had a lot of big remixes over the last few years including ‘Star Guitar’, ‘Let You Go’ and ‘Crazy World’, can we expect to see any more remixes this year?

BB: Definitely. We're always up for remixing tunes we really like but at the moment we're concentrating on writing original material

·    Who would you most love to collaborate with – alive or dead?

BB: For me it would be someone like George Gershwin, Stevie Wonder or Burt Bacharach, masters of melody and composition

·    Who is your favourite producer at the moment and who should we be looking out for this year?

BB: Got loads of favourite producers at the mo, couldn’t name just one. Furlonge is dnb’s best-kept secret right now in my opinion!

·    Where do you see yourselves in 10yrs time?

BB: Hopefully still making music that other people enjoy!

·    What would you have been doing now if you had not been answering these questions?

BB: Getting some tunes together for my set tonight in Leeds

Quick fire:

    ·   Coffee or tea?

   Tea. No self respecting Englishman would answer differently

    ·   Fabio or Grooverider?

   Both legends

   ·   Vinyl or CDJs?

   CDs 

   ·   Last thing you brought?

   Last thing I bought was a ginsters cornish pasty. Mmmm

    ·   If you could have access to any DJ/Producer’s music collection who’s would it be?

   Hmm, good question! Maybe someone like Premier or Pete Rock, sure they've
   got loads of interesting shit knocking around

    ·   What was your new year’s resolution this year?

   I didn’t actually have one, is that bad luck or something?

Pre-order the debut album from Brookes Brothers on iTunes HERE.

OX