Thursday 28 May 2009

Wez G - Angels & Demons



Wez G - Angels & Demons


This mix spans from laidback tribal grooves through to slamming Laurent Garnier techno. It starts off with a hot off the press forthcoming single from Shuffle Music's very own Tricia Lee Kelshall in her awesome collaberation with up and coming producer, Adam Sheridan. Thanks to Enzo at http://www.plastic-music.co.uk for the Italian promos, part of the Plastic Fantastic Label Management project. Check out the revamped Wez G website at http://www.wezg.org.uk

1. Adam Sheridan feat. Tricia Lee Kelshall - State of Calm (Chillout Mix) [White]
2. Presslaboys - Angel (Neverdogs & Davide Ruberto Mix) [Presslab Records]
3. Sergio Fernandez - Sarkis (Saeed Younan Remix) [Baroque]
4. Crystal Waters vs Alex Celler - Under Gypsy Woman (Sebastian Leger remix) [White]
5. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls (Jon Disco Reversion) [Domino Recording co]
6. Dirty Knight - Black Spot on the Sun [White]
7. Djuma Soundsystem - Bipolar (Original Mix) [Rebirth Records]
8. Cristiano Vinci & Massimo Licari - Vision (Superjuno Mix) [Presslab Electro]
9. Dean Coleman - I Want You (Sultan & Ned Shepard Mix) [White]
10. Daft Funk - Around The World [White]
11. Glenn Morrison - Orange Glow EP (Charlie May Remix) [Therapy Music]
12. Worst Case Scenario - Hot Beef [Rekids]
13. Laurent Garnier - Gnanmankoudji (Horny Monster Mix) [PIAS Recordings]







Thursday 21 May 2009

Punta Del Este


Ibiza has for long been engrained on the roadmap for travelling clubbers across the globe. In Privelege it has the largest nightclub on the planet. All the top DJs fare their way on the White Isle every summer and the closing parties have become part of nightlife’s folklore. Goa, on the west coast of India, experienced a massive rise in club tourism during the nineties. Its full moon beach parties with flowing melodic trance earned it the accolade of those slightly more adventurous beatniks. There is a war among the travelling clubber cognoscenti to find the best place on the globe for their holiday partying. Oneupmanship is a a reality… In the chillout room of Ministry of Sound or Spundae, nothing sounds better than casually dropping into the conversation about how you ‘discovered’ the latest craze in the dance music world. In this article I aim to explore one of the more exciting emerging resorts in the world which isn’t particularly familiar to European or North American clubbers. Punta Del Este is ‘the St Tropez of South America.’

On the southern tip of Uruguay this small town of about 10000 inhabitants, has long been the destination of wealthy South American playboys. Whether you are an Argentinian cattle rancher or a Colombian drug baron, the chances are your summer hols involve a nice trip to the Punta Del Este. During the southern hemisphere summer months, from December through to February, the population of this ‘village’ swells to a million holidaymakers…

The population is mainly European in heritage which gives this coast an Ibizan feel. About ninety percent of people proudly trace their European ancestry, mainly to Italy and Spain. However, unlike other resort towns on the continent which cater to predominantly Europeans and North Americans, Punta del Este maintains its Latin American character. Yachts dot the harbour and glitzy bars and restaurants compliment the luxury hotels. The comfortable surroundings all pave the way for the most hedonistic nightlife in the Western hemisphere.

British superclub Cream started doing events in the Punta Del Este a few years ago. Indeed, when their main club in Liverpool closed its doors, Cream still continued in Uruguay, drawing in the crème de la crème of international DJs. It is a regular tour spot and a lot of DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto, enjoy catching some winter sun while laying down the party beats in some truly fabulous nightclubs…

Maybe, Uruguay, doesn’t automatically feature highly on your to-do list of holiday vacations. Outside of their archaic multiple world cup winning football teams, Uruguayans remain very much an unknown quantity in the eyes of much of the world. Don’t let that dissuade you though. Surely a destination that you don’t read about in the red-top gutter press must have an appeal. Drunken yobbish behaviour symbolises much of Ibiza, Goa is subject to corrupt law enforcement and is full of tales of traveller woe. Try something different. Cheap Spanish carriers can take you across the Atlantic for about a few hundred pounds. Exotic and stylish, with quality music. Punta del Este is the clubbing destination for the distinguished aficionado.

Thursday 7 May 2009

Swine Flesh


Wez G - Swine Flesh - DJ Mix Download





http://wezg.podomatic.com/entry/2009-05-07T13_03_27-07_00
http://www.mediafire.com/?eitneamdtzh

Ooh dear... We're all going to die from Pig Flu... While we wait for the disease to engulf the planet, you can get prepared by listening to the Wez G podcast. House music is like a disease and this dirty, dark, melodic, progressive number will have you rolling around in your sty's muck... Some old classics thrown in to meet some upfront cutting edge vinyl slices. Corking, Porking House Music, to make your ears bleed...

1. Perfecto Allstarz - Reach Up [Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag] (Indian Summer Remix) [Perfecto]
2. Apparat - Arcadia (Sasha Invol2ver Mix) [White]
3. Charlie May - Demons Among Us [5ThirtyWest]
4. Undisputed Truth - Let the Drums Speak (Ground Earth Mix) [Plastica]
5. Bedrock - Beautiful Strange (John Digweed & Nick Muir's Even Stranger Remix) [Bedrock Records]
6. Sunscreem - Love You More (Band of Gypsies) [S12]
7. Deadmau5 - Cat on a Leash [Mau5trap]
8. The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (Stereo Mono Remix) [White]
9. Da Hool - Meet Her at the Love Parade (Nalin & Kane Mix) [Manifesto]
10. Kraftwerk - Tour De France (2009 Kraft mix) [White]
11. André Sobota - Self Constructive (Original) [Spectrum]
12. Lexicon Avenue - Psycho Killer [White]
13. Rone - Flesh (Sasha Invol2ver Mix) [White]


Is the DJ an artist?



DJing is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, DJs have existed on the radio for some time, playing song selections on the radio, or providing the soundtrack to weddings and fortieth birthday parties. However, mixing as an art form emerged in the late seventies, early eighties, when DJs such as Frankie Knuckles in America, started doing live edits to underground disco music, seaming tracks together to enhance the flow of the music and boost their party-hard audiences. This was initially done using tape machines. A pair of scissors and some cellotape and your wannabee jock could splice together songs. It was a rudimentary art form but it worked. Modern DJing was born out of this tape splicing when someone realised that the highend Technics 1200 turntable which had been around since the early seventies, had a pitch control unit which enabled DJs to manipulate songs further, and begin to actually beat match and mix them together. DJing was alive and disco and early house music provided the new soundtrack of a generation. Hip Hop jumped quickly on board and the workability of the Technics turntable meant a whole new form of skilled DJs cutting and scratching tracks. Bodypopping and breakdancing was all to the beat of the Technics turntable. I need not continue with the evolution of dance music. Suffice it to say, it has run hand in hand with innovation and technology.

DJing became a career option. The problem is, as is very often the case with emerging sciences, how do you categorise a DJ? Are they musicians, artists, skilled, unskilled? Are they on the same level of employment in a nightclub as a barman or cloakroom attendant? Surely they are not creative as they just use other people’s artistic skills… Are they artists in their own right? Is a DJ on a par with a violinist or a concert pianist?

When you are in the company of musicians and mention that you are a DJ, scorn is usually poured upon you. You aren’t fit to lace their boots – they are skilled, you are just an operator…. I beg to differ. DJs may use other people’s music for their art (though self-produced DJ tracks are becoming more common during a mixset). Using other people’s creative material is not a new phenomenon in the field of music. Take for example a concert pianist or violinist. Surely they often play symphonies by Beethoven or Mozart compositions. They didn’t necessarily create the material. They add part of their own character to a rendition of an already written piece of music, but they are not being completely original. A DJ may play a record but by manipulating the pitch, by choosing when to cut it with another record, the DJ changes the song and adds part of his personality to the show. It takes skill to pluck a Cello’s strings, or stick to a complex rhythm pattern on a set of drums, but DJing has its own set of skills. Scratching, beat matching, cutting and chopping, pitch blending all form part of a successful DJ’s repertoire. To me the most skilful part of being a DJ isn’t the ’manual skills’ as I refer to them but the ‘mental skills’. A good DJ is not averse to a bit of brainwork and to me set programming is fundamental. A skilled DJ programs his set, his tune selection, with the utmost precision. Each track should follow musically into the next, the music program should be interesting, challenging, entertaining, seamless. It should take the listener on an auditory journey. The difference between a good and bad DJ set very often lies in the set programming. The set of technical skills varies very little between performance DJs. The wheat is separated from the chaff by the occult skills of planning and sequencing tracks.

Consider another form of art. Photography is a relatively new phenomenon in the field of visual art. It involves a new technology. However, photographers are similar to painters. It involves a different set of technical skills to use a camera successfully. But in using his tools a photographer chooses a maybe otherwise dull scene to shoot, capturing the art he sees in that image in the camera lense. He presents the image in a way to portray his feelings, his emotions, his perception of the world. Nowadays, photography is widely accepted as a professional art form and indeed a prosperous career.

I think that DJing is certainly more acceptable these days. Musicians recognise the need for good DJ talent to perhaps compliment their work. DJs such as Paul Oakenfold were touring with U2 and the Happy Mondays back in the early Nineties. We are seeing today independent DJ artists like Mark Ronson or Sasha emerge in their own right as pop stars / music performers.
DJing is the photography of the music world. It is an art form. Often misunderstood it is part of a DJ’s role to define what it is to be a DJ, to be an artist, to be a musician. We should revel in our new science. Our artistic legacy inspires tomorrow’s musicians. New technologies make DJing one of the most evolving forms of music. It has never been a more exciting time to be a DJ. We are tomorrow’s musical artists.