Congratulations To Pablo Contraband (Digital- Set From Last Saturday Night In Brighton)

"This was a full on disco party that old Pablo was sound tracking to an array of dancers on the stages, podiums and of course the dance floor within Digital's four walls"

Just wanted to say a big well done to Pablo Contraband for his dj set at last weekends Release Party at Digital on Brighton Seafront.

Walking into Digital on a Saturday night can be a daunting prospect at the best of times if you're one of the people that are into groove based dance music in Brighton.

The club itself is a massive space that plays host to club nights and dj's that tend to veer away from the sounds of disco music as the norm, however Pablo's set that he played as the warm up for Norman Jay (MBE) last Saturday night was definitely firmly on the groove tip.

Walking onto the dance floor, the club downstairs was packed and to our surprise we weren't hearing any minimal, tech, funky or electro and neither were the crowd, this was a full on disco party that old Pablo was sound tracking to an array of dancers on the stages, podiums and of course the dance floor within Digital's four walls.

Not sure exactly what Pablo was playing, however the tempo's were the right side of 120 BPM, and the bass lines were very funky and groove led leading up to Norman's appearance at 1am.

Nice work Pablo and many thanks for asking some of the Brighton crew to host room two for the night which was the secret side room set up for the evening inconjuntion with Disco Deviant, Motional XL, Keeping It Wheel, Dedicated Player and of course yours truly.

Top night and yet another example of the current interest in groove based dance music making a timely return to our cities bigger club spaces again.

Club nights that may be of interest coming soon:

Fri 27th November-Audio has Todd Terje, Maxxi Sound System and Disco Bloodbath

Fri 31st December-Life NYE Party with The Idjut Boys and Guests (details soon)

Fri 5th February-Life with Horsemeat Disco DJs (first Brighton club appearance)

Fri 12th February-The Loft with Greg Wilson and Guests (details soon)

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE DETAILS!!!

Many thanks for coming to our basement party in November (event pics included this time)

"This was only our second monthly session in our new home and judging by the happy faces we reckon we've now got somewhere really special to bring the music, vibe and of course dj's to our city on a regular monthly basis"

Many thanks to all the people that braved the terrible weather last weekend and made it down to the basement on Middle Street in Brighton, we had a wonderful time and can't wait until the next one in December.

This was only our second monthly session in our new home and judging by the happy faces we reckon we've now got somewhere really special to bring the music, vibe and of course dj's to our city on a regular monthly basis.

Big shouts and thanks to our guest DJ Pablo Contraband from Disco Deviant who laid down a very cool set including plenty of pitched down house right through to boogie and disco with the odd nod towards some acid house classics including the massive rework of Voodoo Ray by A Guy Called Gerald that's out on Greg Wilson's second comp, needless to say it blew the basement apart, thanks Pablo.

Finally, many thanks to Gustav who took the pictures on the night, we reckon he's captured the spirit of the occasion perfectly.

The next session is on Saturday 12th December on Middle Street and we ain't moving to a bigger venue either.

Many thanks

Affy and Ali xx

Todd Terje @ Audio (Brighton) Friday 27th November 2009

"To be honest if you were to tell us around 18 months ago Todd and all the above mentioned would feature this far south of The Dartford Crossing in 2009 we would of pissed ourselves laughing"

It's been a good year all in all for us Brightonians, so far Greg Wilson, Severino (Horsemeat Disco), Pete Herbert and Crazy P have all come to pay us a visit with The Idjut Boys set to make a return on New Years Eve very soon.

We know that the blog has turned into a bit of a poster board for various club nights recently but to be honest if you were to tell us around 18 months ago Todd and all the above mentioned would feature this far south of The Dartford Crossing in 2009 we would of pissed ourselves laughing.

It's down to the hard work, vision and perseverance of all connected with the cities groove based dance scene that we can now expect dj's and producers such as Todd to become a regular part of a weekends dancing activity once again, all be it frequently but not to the point of over saturation hopefully.

There's even a full on Horsemeat Disco event planned for early 2010 (watch this space)

This time around Neal and Sam from Maxxi Sound System have sorted this session out, once again returning to the basement of Audio on Brighton seafront. There's only a couple of clubs in Brighton that suit such an occasion these days, Audio being just about right for our first helping of the Terje.

Support on the night comes from both Neal and Sam plus we have the added bonus of hearing Dan from London warehouse party instigators Disco Bloodbath also on the bill.

TODD TERJE
DAN BEAUMONT (Disco Bloodbath)
MAXXI SOUNDSYSTEM

11pm - 4am
AUDIO, 10 Marine Parade, Brighton
£6 (advanced tickets)
£8 on the door

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE:
TICKET WEB
ROUNDER: 01273 325440
RESIDENT: 01273 606312

Looking forward to this party, nice work all concerned.

Get Up and Boogie by Freddie James (Tim Rivers Edit)

"Tim strips out the vocals and goes for a more beat driven approach by extending the grooves on his first edit outing to date"

Man, everyone in Brighton is getting in on the re-edit action this month, this one has been done by non other than Mr Acid House himself and fellow Brighton based groove based survivor Tim Rivers.

Tim runs the fantastic blog site some of you may have come across called The Acid House where he champions the sounds of rave and club music from the glory days of going out dancing in fields and warehouses across this green and pleasant land of ours.

An accomplished crate digger in his own right, Tim extends his musical tastes far beyond that of his blog site which is approaching it's 10th anniversary by further establishing his musical credentials by dipping into a little groove based action from the disco end of the musical universe with this edit of Freddie James's Get Up and Boogie

Tim strips out the vocals and goes for a more beat driven approach by extending the grooves on his first edit outing to date.

Tim's words when asked about this new musical stand were.

Warm Sound is a project I started to channel some creative energy into experimenting with music manipulation and editing. I have always been an avid record collector and would often find myself buying a record even if it was for just for 30 seconds of a tune that I liked, or simply the urge to buy some black stuff meant I would take a punt on a record without any prior knowledge or listening to the tune and hoping it would sound alright when I got it back home on a deck. While the excitement of finding a gem was always the icing on the cake, more often than not 10 seconds in and I knew the Christmas turkey had arrived early. So I recently now set myself a new challenge to go eco and recycle the records I had bought that would have never made it into my record box before, and would be lurking at the back of the shelves somewhere. My first venture into this challenge was earlier this year re-editing the 1989 Remix of Wang Chung’s Dance Hall Days, and springing new life into an otherwise unwanted record. The most recent project is from a disco tune from the late 70’s by Freddie James called Get up and Boogie. I felt this tune had so much going for it, amazing percussion, pure energy and a peak time anthemic (I may have made that word up) quality to it. Personally I think the edit is quite sympathetic to the original, I avoid adding lots of effects, but kept the edit close to the orgins as possible, by removing certain elements, rearranging and extended parts for a more contemporary feel with for today’s dance floor in mind.

Being a personal friend and occasional dj at our parties, it's with great pleasure that we host his first re rub, even though he claims it to be a work still in progress.

Tim, when you read this please except our apologies for ripping this one for our collection mate, it would be rude not to Sir.

Buy the original Get Up and Boogie by Freddie James from 1979 on Warner Bros

Introducing Ras Tuft aka Neil Langman

Yet more Brighton beatsmith(ery) this time from our favorite local downtempo groove soldier Ras Tuft aka Neil Langman.

Ras Tuft's Sound Cloud Site

Neil hosts three separate tracks inc

Cloud Face Soup
Roots In Da Fuv Duv
Rolling Down Hill

As well as producing Neil can definitely hold it down as a dj too as he ups the tempo slightly on two solid disco mixes covering both the new end of the spectrum and more left field approach also.

Thumbs aloft Neil, 100% goodness all round.

Ras Tuft Nu Disco Mixdown

43 times around the sun by Ras-Tuft@graffiti.net

Ras Tuft Left Field Disco Mixdown

Heavy Shuffle by Ras-Tuft@graffiti.net

Introducing Rob Fahey-Motion XL/Black Lodge

"Influenced by artists such as Gwen Mcrae, Feel and The S.O.S Band, Rob has lent his skills to reworking their tracks, using experimental techniques, his beats have a heavy emphasis on groove and functionality"

Brighton DJ and producer Rob Fahey has a completely fresh perspective on structure, groove and texture. using experimental techniques his beats have a heavy emphasis on groove and functionality

You catch him down the Fishbowl Bowl in Brighton on the third Friday of the month every month playing an eclectic mix of soul, funk, disco, boogie, rare underground 60s/70s classics, the finest re-edits available, and some other stuff you won't be expecting. deliciously left of centre.

Influenced by artists such as Gwen Mcrea, Feel and The S.O.S Band, Rob has lent his skills to reworking their tracks which you can check for yourself on his sound cloud site right here.

Rob's Sound Cloud Site

Reworks inc

Gwen Mcrae-Poyson
Feel-I’d Like To
The S.O.S Band-It’s A Long Way To The Top
Nu Schooz-I Can’t Wait

Rob also hosts the weekly Sunday morning show on upfrontdance.net all across Brighton featuring a sure fire mix of boogie, disco and funk for anyone up early having their breakfast or still going from the previous night.

Archived show from 9th Oct 2009

Breakfast Boogie Show On Upfrontdance.net Oct 4th - Radio Part 2 by BlackLodge

Great stuff Rob, job well and truly done, looking forward to hearing more from you soon.

Guest Mix From Gav Smith

"The mix is a departure from the Pantone moniker, a retrospective of influences if you like. Diverse in range but firmly with a soulful influence, but whatever it is, its fantastic"

Pantone head honcho Gav Smith has given us a blistering escapade in to classic disco and funk for your aural pleasure.

Pantone Records, the brain child of Brighton based GAVIN SMITH, former Mr. Bongo Disorient head and DJ extraordinaire, was responsible for spearheading the burgeoning deep jazzy sounds developing out of Japan in the early “noughties” Pantone was like a deep soulful cultural exchange of the broken beat kind.

First to sign Jazztronik of Samurai fame over here for the “gai jin” audience, Gav’s grooves are testament of his soulful heritage and nose for a gorgeous track. Other stalwarts on the Pantone label are Jafrosax and Yukihiro Fukitomi, who have pushed the sound further in to deep nu jazz territories.

The mix is a departure from the Pantone moniker, a retrospective of influences if you like. Diverse in range but firmly with a soulful influence, but whatever it is, its fantastic, (tah Gav x)

Enjoy!!! xx

Track listing

Average White Band - Love You Live

Allen Toussaint - Night People

The Gap Band - Outstanding

Fat Larrys Band - Act Like You Know

Central Line - Walking Into Sunshine

Stex - Still Fell The Rain

Rey De Copas - Frontera Del Ensueno

The Earons - Land Of Hunger

Rockers Revenge - Walking On Sunshine (dub)

Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood

Metro Area - Caught Up

Meet Brighton's First Ever Soul Choir

"As our soulful brothers and sisters push the feel good experience alongside Brighton's ever present disco community as we head into 2010, somehow you can't help feeling that good times are back on the musical agenda again"

It was once said by the Spanish playwright Cervantes "He who sings frightens away his woes”

This theory still rings true today as Brighton sees it’s very own community soul choir – Souled Out.

Anyone who has joined a choir will know the feeling of elation experienced after singing in harmony with others. Your troubles are forgotten and you have a greater sense of wellbeing, but a recent study shows there are physical benefits too.

It’s an aerobic activity that improves the efficiency of your cardiovascular system and encourages you to take more oxygen into your body, leading to increased alertness. Singing also exercises major muscle groups in the upper body and all these things are linked to stress reduction, longevity and better overall health.

Add to the mix the joy of singing soul music (which in itself is meant to uplift the soul) and you have the perfect way to de-stress and exercise, without even contacting the NHS helpline!

Born from a seed of thought (“Is Brighton ready for a soul choir”) Souled Out is Brighton’s first community soul choir, founded by Neil Masey.

You’ve heard of soul music right? But what exactly is it? Well, its roots are in gospel and rhythm and blues and there are a number of things that define soul music.

Catchy rhythms, handclaps and groove based music are an important feature of soul music.

Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound.

Souled Out specialises in teaching soul music from the 1960s onwards by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire and Donny Hathaway to a diverse group of people.

The roots of the choir are firmly set in Brighton as Neil Masey points out. “Our choir, of almost 80, is made of up people from all corners of the adult community, some have experience of choirs but most have no experience at all”.

Neil continues, “A number of people think ‘I’d love to join but I really can’t sing’, but the truth is we can all sing, it’s about the beauty of the collective sound and the harmonies, not necessarily the individual”

Souled Out meets every Tuesday at St Luke’s Church, Queens Park Terrace at two workshops; 6.45pm and 8.30pm. Renowned music director David Lavale from London’s iGospel group leads the choir accompanied by a keyboardist and they are currently rehearsing for their Christmas concert at The Old Market on Friday Dec 4th.

As Neil puts it “it’s going to be a big night; a polished and professional choir accompanied by a funky live band with DJ’s supporting us and an after party.

Great to see our soulful brothers and sisters pushing the feel good experience alongside Brighton's ever present disco community as we head into 2010, somehow you can't help feeling that good times are back on the musical agenda again.

Boy is Brighton ready for a soul choir”!

www.souledoutbrighton.com

Neil Masey 07734 349476

November's Go Bang Brighton Party @ The Globe On Saturday 7th November With Guest Paul Budd aka Pablo Contraband (Disco Deviant)

photo by http://www.gingerdjrob.com

Saturday 7th November
The Globe (Basement)
Middle Street
Brighton
10pm-3am
Free Entry

We're back in the basement of The Globe in Brighton next Saturday for another underground session on Middle Street.

Our special guest this month is Paul Budd (Pablo Contraband) from Disco Deviant who is also celebrating his birthday with us.

Paul played for us last September at The Gladstone on Lewis Road and we're really chuffed to have him back for one of his trademark disco, electro funk and groove based house music sets.

Paul touches down at 11pm whilst residents Affy and Ali continue till closing time which has now been extended to 3am after last months launch party with AD from Tonka Hi-Fi.

As always we're adding those extra little touches to make the night something a little bit more than just a dj event including decor and additional PA to give the night a bit of audio and visual wallop down in our new basement home in Brighton.

Hope you can make it along at some point but please arrive early to avoid the potential disappointment of not getting in as The Globe fills up quickly from time to time if your not that quick off the mark for these nights.

See you there.

Swag-Drill Bit (Jimpster Remix)

"File this under very danceable house music with added funk and swagger"

House music find for November is Swag's Drill Bit from 2006 with Jimpster on the mix down.

File this under very danceable house music with added funk and swagger (please excuse the pun)

Buy this release at junodownload.com