Who is he and what is he to you?

Germany's Henrik Schwarz is one of those highly acclaimed, exquisite producers who commands serious respect. A top produced of techno and house, he's often lauded (incorrectly) as one of the few, or at least biggest, deep house producers of electronic music's booming capital, Berlin.

You may have already heard this one, a staple of many house sets this summer. Bill Withers' funky vocals goes straight for the soul, while Schwarz's remix brings a breezy, rising house vibe that capitalises on the uplifting vocals. I can't recommend this enough:

Bill Withers - Who Is He (Henrik Schwarz Edit) [pelski highly recommends]

Henrik Shwarz brings some tasty stripped back deep house to the sax and scat of Omar and Stevie Wonder. Screeching synths seer and soar behind a deep house groove. I managed to get my hands on the full version, not the shortened set rip that's been floating about. A beautiful piece of music:

Omar ft. Stevie Wonder - I'm Feelin' You (Henrik Schwarz Remix) [pelski highly recommends]

An even older one here: Henrik Schwarz provides some slightly more punchy, emotive house backing to the rockier exclamations of Boundzone:

Boundzone - Louder (Henrik Schwarz Vox Remix)

More recently, Henrik Schwarz has produced an excellent remix for Visti & Meyland's excellent 'Yes Maam' EP, but the whole thing here.

Exclusive Banana mix from Zombie Disco Squad

Zombie Disco Squad's chirpy tribal-infused house tunes soundtracked my summer. And in preparation for their gig on the 12th Nov at Jabez Clegg, Manchester, they've put together this lovely mix. In the same fortnight ZDS'll be playing Fabric, Warehouse Project, New York, Paris Social Club and Miami.

They're also handing out this re-edit of Idiotproof's excellent 'Gorilla', filled to the brim with chunky, pent-up slabs of bass:

Idiotproof - Gorilla (Zombie Disco Squad Add Acapella Here Edit)

They've also leant their hands to Drop The Lime's latest release 'Set Me Free', ZDS bring their now trademark jumpy and jungly house beats:

Drop The Lime - Set Me Free (Zombie Disco Squad Remix)

Echoing congas and chirpy jingles permeate their Hess Is More Rework:

Hess Is More - Ssshhhh (Zombie Disco Squad Remix)

Zombie Disco Squad - Banana Mix [pelski highly recommends]

1 Dj Deeon - Where The Hoes At
2 Dj Chernobyl - Empina A Pipa Feat Mc Gi Cabal (Samims Crashroots Remix)

3 Norman Soakes - Cirque De Sol (Dj Madskillz Remix)

4 Dj Madskillz - Surface (Original Mix)
5 Dj Deeon - Who You With 5
6 Ramon Tapeia - Sunka Sanka (Coyu & Edu Imbernon Remix)
7 Tigerskin - Boomshankar 7
8 Macaro - Confusion In My Mind (London Fm Remix)

Thursday 12th November

Zombie Disco Squad w/ Urchins @ Jabez Clegg
Entry - £6.50 adv.
10pm - 3am

Tickets available now from here or:

Gaffs (Fallowfield)
Piccadilly Records (Manchester City Centre)
07590894133
Tkttxt.net
Skiddle.com

Expect to see plenty more superb lineups from Banana Management, including Mowgli and Joe And Will Ask? in coming months.

Shuffles...

I notice when Fred Astaire lays his tap and shuffle of loose limbed 2-Steps across the floor, it’s a combination of effortless glides and nimble footed strides, something that I have failed to grasp in the discothèque so far. In order to maintain a decent shuffle, apparently you need to maintain a sense of variety. And although I fail to score when it surmounts to a twist and turn of significant proportions, I can assure you this shuffle of tunes was selected by a renowned shuffler. One that has been responsible for crafting many worldly moods On the Go. I am referring to the iTunes Party Shuffle. A piece of software that has the ability to ruin a party let alone start one. But on this particular occasion the tunes came out trumps, and it transformed my high-street shuffle into a fully-fledged swagger. A nice transition. So here’s what was dealt from the deck…

EQ-Lazer – Beat of the Feet

Really don’t know much about these guys apart from that they were making really heavy rave tunes around the early 90’s, somewhere in Holland I think. The glitchy, acidic stabs and bleeps keep this one pulsing round the racetrack. The kid on the vocal sample sounds pretty loco though, he must be having a severe sugar rush whilst blasting rave and eating cheescake, you'll see what I mean.

Proxy – Who Are You? (Bloody Beetroots Remix)

The Bloody Beetroots remix of Proxy’s latest heavy weight banger has been blogged and bludgeoned to death on our faithful blogosphere. However it seems the avid dance fan likes ceaseless repetition, so here it is one more time. Check out the Turbo Recordings crew charts on their website, they keep you packed and posted with all their latest club-land picks.

Dub Kult – Brave and Afraid

It’s really quite hard to pin point Dub Kult’s sound, the only safe thing to say is that he loiters within the realms of Techno and House, and has been producing records that date back to the 90’s. The build to the 'Brave and Afraid' drop is sparse and spooky, and seems to drag, but I implore you to wait for the downfall. As you soon become immersed in a pulse of earth quaking dubby bass, and sinister cracked out smokey mo-town vocals. Crank the sub now.

Point B – Guilty Pleasures

More deep cuts from the solid regions of bass driven electro step, with skippity 2-step garage vibes up in the mix. Taken from Point B’s debut album, the likes of ‘Guilty Pleasures’ is surrounded by a warm craft of menacing electronica and dirty stabs. Point B has received critical acclaim from the likes of Ivan Smagghe and Damien Lazarus on compilations. Definitely one to keep watching.

Darkly

Crackin' house

By now I'm sure you're all aware that DJ Zinc's ditched d'n'b for his new 'crack house' sound.

Well, Zinc's 'Bingo Beats' just sent over his highly anticipated 10 track EP for review and has granted a couple of low bit-rate downloads too.

Now, I've never really been a fan of drum 'n bass, but Zinc's was of the junglist, low-slung, dusty beats variety. And 'Super Sharp Shooter' remains a classic to this day, with its piping bassline and gentle rattling of d'n'b beats.

The Crack House EP is a showcase of Zinc's new 4X4 sound - a refreshing blend that fuses elements of house, jungle, grime, breaks, dubstep and electro without ever coming off as gimmicky or over-ambitious. He draws on the current sounds of Sinden and Switch (Zinc says house always bored him until the bloggy, fidget bunch came along). What with all the different influences, you would have thought the EP would lapse into a messy meld of convoluted, maximal sillyness. It doesn't.

Junglist drums, it turns out, go rather well with bass-orientated house (discovered by Zinc when in Japan he played a strange set of two halves - 4X4 sounds and d'n'b). Airy hoover bass, plenty of wobble and generous servings of crashing, fervent percussion percolate this EP, its clearly directed squarely at the dancefloor. The EP contains a couple of tasty guest appearances from Benga, Sweetie Irie, Angela Hunte and No Lay. I highly recommends you pick up this EP - all ten tracks are worth your money - from Beatport or Itunes.

Zinc's come up with a winning formula by combining the clamorous energy of jump-up with the pumping beats of house. Here's a couple of tasters from the EP - reduced in quality to encourage you to buy the whole release:

Blunt Edge has recently received attention from the likes of Annie Mac, Brodinski and Fake Blood. Lazy synths and a drowsy melody plod alongside an old-school house vibe. This grows with every listen:

Zinc - Blunt Edge [pelski highly recommends]

Nu Sound wields a deep, growling bassline, whilst tribal congas gently tap over the top:

Zinc - Nu Sound [pelski highly recommends]

You may remember Zinc's seminal 1999 '138 trek', with its pioneering 2-step garage beats, it was later followed by a d'n'b rework '178 trek'. Zinc's now pulled the BPM back to his crack house four-to-the-floor tempo in '128 trek':

Zinc - 128 Trek

Wobbly bass and rattling drum patterns back female MC No Lay's (from grime collective Unorthodox Crew) boisterous vocals in Killa Sound:

Zinc - Killa Sound feat. No Lay

What with Clipz's reinvention as Redlight and Beni's as Jack Beats, I welcome this new influx of d'n'b artists translating their abilities to exciting new strands of house. And I'd also like to take this opportunity, with a cheeky smirk, to say to them: I told you so. House rules.

subs 'n snares

It's been a while since I've posted any dubstep. It is unsurprisingly much harder finding blog-clearer dubstep - or at least good dubstep to post. Of course, there's an abundance of that Cheap Thrills-endorsed brand of clubstep wonkery readily available for blogging, but the deeper, more 'serious' dubstep is kept a lid on. Hyperdub, for instance, are particularly stringent about even low-bit-rate posts of their releases. But Pelski's pulled together a number of top-notch free dubstep tunes.

First, I found Skyence's 'Precious Time' on Echodub's free handout of the Loves compilation series. An eerie hum builds for a minute and a half before dropping into some punchy 2-step percussion:

Skyence - Precious Time [pelski highly recommends]

Emalkay's original exemplifies the emerging mainstream sound of dubstep. Fortunately Sduk has sent through his remix, cutting up that big whirring hook. Keep an eye on Sduk who also co-writes the excellent dubstep/funky/grime-orientated Pipedown blog, also written by Pelski's Idioteque resident Simon Says:

Emalkay - When I Look At You (Sduk Remix)

Bat For Lashes gets the one over from Skream. He brings more of the skippy percussive vibe, energetic snares coupled with those crooning vocals make for a wonderful, dreamy remix:

Bat For Lashes - Pearls Dream (Skream's Pour Another Glass of Champers Remix)

Not so much dubstep, as garage-tinged wobble, I picked this up from Pipedown too. Echoing synths and vocal snippets punctuate some serious john wonkery:

TJR - Just Gets Better (Sbtrkt Gutter Mix)

I was a little disappointed with Martyn's set at Bestival, but his productions remain flawless offerings in the blurring of the boundaries between dubstep and techno. Here we have his dark tribal beats underlying Fever Ray's strained cries:

Fever Ray - Seven (Martyn's Seventh Mix)

Bonus: Finally we've got a similar vocal remix from a pioneer of the sound, Burial. I also highly recommend you check out Burial's latest track found on Hyperdub's 5 year compilation CD. Buy it here.

Jamie Woon - Wayfaring Stranger (Burial Mix)

Mr Dutch is back...

Apologies for the lack of posts of late, but all work is done and dusted, so the posts should now come thick and fast. I'd like to thank all those who've been sending their tracks, remixes and mixes toYCCMP. Unfortunately I can't post them all and I'm currently wading through a huge inbox build up, so don't be offended if I don't reply.

A remix I refrained from posting a couple of months back has now been given the blog go-ahead by Palms Out. Pelski favourites Round Table Knights have produced another sublime and genre-busting remix, this time for Dubbel Dutch's huge Trollsta EP. Bouncy tech-house, pattered congas and wobbly pulses of bass make this a big one:

Dubbel Dutch - Trollsta (Round Table Knights Remix) [pelski highly recommends]

Besides the excellent Trollsta EP, Dubbel Dutch has been keeping busy with a number of tasty bootlegs. Judging from his charts, his taste has slightly shifted from a penchant for wonky closer to UK Funky and minimalist tech-house sounds, and it's discernable in his neat, understated remixes:

The techy clicks and clacks of the his Starship remix intro dropw into some ominous, wavering bass:

Robot Koch - Starship (Dubbel Dutch Remix)

The Kid Conga remix competition has spawned many inventive takes on that familiar child-like vocal chant. The tribal percussive vibe of Dubbel Dutch's remix makes it one of my favourites:

Daniel Haaksman - Kid Conga feat. MC Miltinho (Dubbel Dutch Remix)

Bongo does exactly what it says on the tin, but with some dipping low-wave house beats to boot:

Youngsta - Bongo (Dubbel Dutch Edit)

Too Much Work. Not Enough Beats.

Jan Driver is in need of no introduction to the Techno community. Sporting some truly destructive tunes such as the well-received ‘Rat Alert’ on Made to Play Recordings, he has become one of the many Berlin based Techno triumphs of late. The b-side here on Malente & Dex’s Lions E.P, is reworked with atmospheric wildlife documentary echoes on the intro, gently surmounting to a whistling resonating electro pulse. Jan drops the tempo into a subtle wavering minimal build, and climaxes in a whir of foreign growls and disgruntled gangster chopped vocals. Deceptively smooth, yet very hectic.

Malente & Dex - Lions feat. New Kidz (Jan Driver Remix)


Congorock take their slippery, slidey theme park fun synth lines, into the mad-house scene once more. Fall off the edge and go Wild West, all for the price of a cheap head fuck on this one. Innovative forward thinking production on what could be another sterile release on the fidget scene. Find ‘Hybro’ on their ‘Runark’ E.P on Beatport.

Congorock - Hybro


Dorian Concept is an A class producer, with crunch bopping constructions that are pioneering an amass of leftfield electronic offbeat tomfoolery. ‘Vertical Ouput’ is taken from the ‘Maximised Minimilization’ E.P. Check out Dorian’s amusing blog posts on his myspace page.

Dorian Concept - Vertical Output




This one’s an old one by Rustie but it’s still fresh off his Glaswegian block, as the title of his E.P ‘Café de Phresh’ so succinctly suggests. Having seen him at Warehouse Project just a few nights ago, at the much anticipated and sold out Thrasher night. It’s safe to say that the hype around Rustie’s mesmerizing skippity, trippy hip-hop sets are something to be rivaled with.

Rustie - Just 4 Kicks

I know the posts have been coming at a sluggish pace of late, but unfortunately university sometimes dictates that you have to work every now and then. So here's a random selection, but I hope you enjoy.

Darkly

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Up and Coming and in the Running…

So we like to plug our friends here, and that’s because we’re lucky enough to be surrounded by people who truly have some skills worth plugging. So rewire your circuits for these boys and have a listen to something a little different, they might just lead you down a different path of digital delight.

This first one is by ‘David Freddie Lee’ and I’ve been meaning to whack it on the player for some time now. He plays under the guise of the ‘Ricochet Toys’, who have an array of discotronic indie house productions on their myspace, find them here at www.myspace.com/boasfang. Dave’s evocative tongue and cheek vocals are reminiscent of David Byrne's, minus the strangulated screeches, allowing room for his voice to flow fluently over his sleek sub level electro synth lines. Pure disco twinges, tailored three piece suits, and snide smiles for the French Kitsune girls all come to mind on this one.

Ricochet Toys – Tears Don't Cry

Our next socket with a faulty fuse, rewired through a harmonic generator is ‘Cellma’, find them on myspace at www.myspace.com/cellma. Blissed out low-fi electronica is a first here on YCCMP, and it’s a pleasure to put such a soothing vocal into the open air of the blogosphere. Shinjuku Zulu produced the original track, ‘Sweetness Likes the Reverb’ on his best of album with K.I.A, find his inverted electronic productions at www.myspace.com/shinjukuzulu.

For those of you who do live in the open air of the countryside, where the grass is debatably greener, and the meadows ever rolling. Put on your wellies and wander with your headphones, fall back on the crop circles, and breathe in the reverb. It tastes pretty sweet on this one. ‘Thom Griffiths’ a Dorset school friend, and fellow villager is responsible for the tweaking here. Let nothing that is golder than the county green, be a continuing inspiration to you Thom.

Cellma – Sweetness Likes the Reverb (remix)


Darkly

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October: Pelski Highly Recommends Chart

A little late in the month, but it's here and you needn't look further than Pelski's chart for the hottest house, techno and dubstep releases. Some are brand-spankers, others have been around for a couple of months. Buy all listed tracks from beatport.

1. Popof - Faces 'Uch

2. Malente & Dex - Gipsy Kings feat. Analogik

3. Riva Starr - I Was Drunk (feat.Noze)

4. Visti & Meyland - Yes Maam (All Nite Long) (Trentemoller Remix)

5. Bill Withers - Who Is He (Henrik Schwarz Edit)

6. Camel - Dada

7. Skyence - Precious Time

8. Dan M & James Braun - Lessons Part 1

9. Round Table Knights - Belly Dance (Mowgli Remix)

10. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Theo Parrish's Space Cadet Remix)

11. Si Begg - The Bleeps (Shades of Rhythm Remix)

12. Boys Noize - Jeffer (Modeselektor Remix)

13. Mowgli - Nu Skool

14. Noob & Brodinski - Peanuts Club (Renaissance Man Ph 7 Remix)

15. Alex Niggemann - El Hechizo

Western jammin with Tomb Crew

It's been a while since Chase & Status got all hot and bothered about Tomb Crew's cheeky bmore bootleg of 'Eastern Jam'. Subsequently Tomb Crew kept the lid on their 'Western Jam' for a while, and now they've handed it out exclusively to You Can Call Me Pelski.

Tomb Crew cut up that familiar eastern wailing and the filthy mid-range dubstep wobble, to inject some serious baltimore bounce. Simple but effective:

Tomb Crew - Western Jam [pelski highly recommends]

Keep your eyes peeled for Tomb Crew's forthcoming remixes of OH Snap!! and Drop The Lime.

(sorry for the lack posts - once all the work lets up I'll be back on fine posting form)

Trouble Vision Turns 1

TV's 1st birthday is here- on 16 October - with a brilliant line-up of underground UK acts.

Hot City is Pelski's top tip - his productions take all the early dubstep influences and meld them (UK garage/2step) with classic house, harking back to old school ravey sounds, with elements of his tracks reminiscent of chicago house and detroit techno.

Here we have two blog-cleared Hot City tunes. The first is a brand-spanking new remix, that only gets better with each play. Hot City cut the originals vocals down to glitchy snippets, leaving just the chorus, a higher tempo and that satisfying whiplashed beat:

Funktuary - Wip Electric (Hot City Remix) [pelski highly recommends]

Skippy drums, piano house samples and a slowed down 4/4 structure come together to make a strangely original production on 'Setting Me Free'. For the full quality copy, and the equally excellent flipside of 'No More', buy the whole release here.

Hot City - Setting Me Free

One underrated Hot City release from earlier this year was the low-key Hot City Bass / Sweat EP, melding UK funky sounds with old school piano stabs. Buy it from beatport here.

Boy 8-bit hardly needs an introduction on this blog. Here Greenmoney brings some of that funky house percussion to the original's winding melody:

Boy 8-bit - Baltic Pine (GreenMoney Baltic Porn Bootleg)

Another highlight is Idiotproof - the formidable collaboration of Jamie Anderson and Deepgroove, or so far as I'm aware. I read an interview in DJ mag recently, in which they proclaimed to be a couple of artists who wished to remain anonymous (sighh...), behind their horse masks (another sigh...). No matter, their big main-room tech-house productions speak for themselves. Check out their superb remix of Cevin Fisher's 'The Freaks Come Out'. Below is their Cagedbaby rejigg, filled with slow builds and techy bass surges:

Cagedbaby - Forced (Idiotproof Remix)

Head to Room 2 to hear one of Solo's tastemaking mixes. And For your dubstep fix, hit up Plastician or Boog-A-Loo Crew in the main room.

Boog-A-Loo Crew are on the up with a number of brilliant productions - and you can buy each one for a mere 70p here. Or all you northern monkeys can catch Boog-A-Loo crew later in the month at my electro/techno/house night in York, idioteque, supported by our buddy Park Ranger. In the meantime check out a Trouble Vision promo mix from the Crew themselves (tracklist in comments):

The Boog-A-Loo Crew - Trouble Vision Mixtape No.001

Early bird tickets have sold out, but you can still get advance tickets here and check the facebook event.

Dusty Plates

Been routing through the vinyl’s and re-discovering the old school sounds of late. To ignore the pioneers that have changed the landscape of the sounds in clubs today just seems rather insulting, and as the scene gets older and the pioneers become forgotten, it’s worth paying tribute before the backlash of badly remixed best of compilations are on the shelves. One thing I can’t help but notice in these few tracks is the stripped back element to the production. Sometimes we don’t need heavy-duty mastering and overly touched up samples, which can often take away the soul of the track itself.

I guess it’s just comforting to know when I was still knocking about on all fours, blaring out Bonnie Tyler, and tapping to the beat on the Fisher Price synthesizer. There must have been a lot of people dancing as ridiculously as I do now, in an overly packed sweaty room, listening to future skanking unstable rhythms for their first time. Here’s to the classics, and hail to the
pioneers.


Jeff Mills – You Can’t Deny the Bass

Not much need be said for Mills, he pioneered Detroit Techno and amassed an array of legendary productions. Here's an early one from his catalog.

808 State - In Yer Face

Formed in the late 80's by some of Manchester's finest, they were then propelled into the public eye raising awareness for the budding acid house scene. Chunky stomping synth lines on this one.

Depth Charge - Han Do Jin

Really don't know much about these guys except that Jonathon Saul Kane pioneered a lot of the tripped out big beat sounds of the late 80's. Amusing kung fu samples and underwater bleeps are trademarks on Kane's low pressure production.

Livin Joy - Dreamer (Slomushun Mix)

To some this track is a cringe worthy blip on the house scene in the 90's. For me 'Dreamer' is reminiscent of a time when I danced round my bedroom with my cassette player in one hand, unaware that my shapes could be pulled in a much bigger room with a very loud sound system. The remix here that was originally on the vinyl release, has been given a slightly more tribal rhythm.

LFO - Brainstorm pt. 2

A timeless piece of melodic techno from yet another legendary British act. The slightly out dated sample really gives the track a sense of futuristic nostalgia, as at the time, heavy bass techno was still in it's early days. The production on this track could have easily come out the studio yesterday. Epic.

Isle Natividad - Lonely

A chilled breaks tune that kicked off the early 2000's, it's not so much a classic however it maintains the classic vibes of melodic house vocals that came before. Don't be upset if you can't stop "ooh la ladde la-ing" all day, you'll see what I mean...

Darkly

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Deadfish's Camel

Mowgli's Deadfish label has just signed a new and exciting artist, Camel, to their formidable team of weird and wonderful purveyors of minimal house. Hailing from Italy, Camel has just released his first EP on Deadfish, 'Dada', a must-have. And it's four storming tracks of chipper tech-house tinged with catchy African rhythms - a sort of stripped back Worthy. The title track and Cohiba are the favourites for me. Buy the whole darn thing here.

Here we have a buoyant mix of tech-house from Camel, showcasing some of the best tunes of the summer from the likes of Zombie Disco Squad, Daniel Steinberg, Solo, Ray Okpara and of course Camel. Highly recommended:

Camel - Deadfish Mix

Tracklist:

01 Rene Bourgeois - 4 my records
02 Worthy - Surdo
03 Zombie disco squad - Vie
04 Camel - Cohiba
05 Minimow - Bollyhouse
06 Renaissance Man - What is Guru
07 Camel - Lleba (Clark able rmx)
08 Daniel Steinberg - Cry all night
09 Mihalis Safras - Chicas latinas
10 Ray Okpara - A belover
11 Camel - Lakota
12 Camel - Dada
13 La pena - Kenya
14 Miguel Toro - Sissteray
15 Solo - Joga Bola
16 Radioclit - Secousse (Round table knights rmx)
17 Basti Grub - Mal wasss Andre's

Keep an eye on Camel. And look out for his remix of Mowgli's 'Nu Skool'.

Chew The Fat's 12th Birthday

Chew The Fat's 12th Birthday Party is here with three rooms of eclectic sounds, all rather on the banging side: With Herve, Trevor Loveys, Riva Starr and Doorly in the main room and Marcus Nasty, Spyro and the Urban Nerds crew in room 2. Pelski's pick of the bunch would be Riva Starr, who smashed Bestival's Bollywood Tent to pieces.

Get your tickets now:

10pm - 5am
£10 advance & students / £13 on the door
The Arches, 51-53 , Southwark Street, London Bridge

Tel number: Venue: 020 7403 9643 Ticketweb: 08444 77 1000

www.wefearsilence.com

www.thefatclub.com

Djemba

Julius Sylvest - an 18 year old from Copenhagen, with a penchant for drums - sent me this exclusive track last week: a subtle and elegant slice of minimal tech-house. A rising pattering of conga-like percussive beats lead into some humming subs and gargling bass. 'Djemba' has a lovely jungly house vibe neatly combined with smooth, rolling techno beats:

Julius Sylvest - Djemba [pelski highly recommends]

I thought I'd throw in a track a couple of months older - running along the same minimal tech line - that I picked up from what's fast becoming one of my favourite blogs: Louis Louis. Softmal's a Brazilian artist with a handful of productions under his belt. In Micro Freaks - the third track from the EP - a deep bassline murmurs beneath more of that enticing plinky plonky synth work. Simple but effective stuff. Buy the whole stunning EP here

Softmal - Micro Freaks