The Sights and Sounds Of 1980s Downtown New York City On The Big Screen
Friday 18th July
11.30pm
Latitude Festival
(Cinema Arena)
Henham Park
Southwold
Suffolk
In a few months time here in The UK our festival season will be in full swing as people head outdoors for their musical and dancing fix once again. Always an exciting time of year and also a busy time for djs, producers and record labels all competing for space on various line ups up and down the country
Not so long ago we (Matt, Affy and Myself) all sat down and decided to put a plan in place that would hopefully secure a couple of festival gigs this year as previous years hadn't thrown much our way
Very quickly we all realised that to keep things fresh and interesting we needed something a little different from the normal dj or dj/vj route and bearing in mind Matt is already a regular vj at Latitude Festival we hit on the idea of combining the visuals and music with the view to presenting ourselves in the festivals cinema area late at night
After further consideration, House Of New York was put in place as something that had a strong theme whilst also playing to our strengths . Subsequently our premier is now booked in for the Friday night at Latitude. You could say we got lucky with this one !!!
In a quirly turn of fate, we aren't actually billed on the online site for Latitude but that's kind of OK as it makes everything slightly less overground, for which the whole era in New York in the 1980s represented to me when I was younger discovering it's sights and sounds across The Atlantic
Sadly Affy is elsewhere partying in Croatia in July however the concept is now established that fuses Matt's skills on visuals and our appreciation of certain musical developments that have shaped our love of dance music from a very early age. House Of New York being pre house in the most part as the focus is firmly on The New York City Downtown Music Experience of the 1980s
Once Affy is back we'll be working on more "House Of" ideas that will pull in his extensive knowledge around disco to combine a visual and musical element in equal parts but for now it's all go with House Of New York leading up to July
So what is House Of New York ? Well it's a combination of specially re-engineered visuals played on a huge cinema screen to a backdrop of music associated with the time and spaces from where the visuals are sourced, namely the period of the 1980's in Downtown New York. There's also an excuse to have a dance as well if anyone is so inclined however by any means we don't expect to see anyone pulling any backspins in real life other than on the big screens
For me, this is the most enthused in years I've been about anything outside of the standard clubbing/ party environment where a theme is involved as I get to focus back on the music that inspired me to get into djing from the early 1980's living way out west in Somerset. In a nutshell, this is a dream concept to work on and I feel blessed to be able to bring it to life with my two friends
Actually and believe it or not, My home town of Burnham On Sea actually has a history stretching back to the 1980's associated with the New York Music Scene in relation to the BBoy culture that was displayed at clubs like The Roxy, The Funhouse and it's Electrofunk Soundtrack and on the streets of The Bronx
Many of my school friends all grew up watching The Fresh Rock Crew breakdancing (local celebreties that could throw a few choice moves) whilst also getting our hands on many of the Streetsounds Electro Compilations at the time which were bringing in the sounds of The New York Electrofunk / HipHop Scene into this country
I hope that the first half of the mix I've posted below will give you an indication of that and especially if you're anywhere near familar with the work of Arthur Baker and Harry Belafonte (Beat Street)
Fast forwarding 20 or so years I did some work with Greg Wilson The Godfather Of UK Electrofunk in my home town of Brighton as the whole disco/edit thing was gaining notoriety, so this feels the perfect time to get back in touch with both occasions under a new concept and one that I hope adds someting extra whilst also paying a firm and healthy homage to what was for me the greatest musical period pre House Music
The tracks on the mix all have a very personal meaning, are attributed to some great moments in the development of dance music and also I've managed to include a couple of remixes and edits to bring things slightly forward to help add some context to how it's just more than myself that has been influenced by the sounds of Downtown New York City over the years
If you are going to Latitude we'll be presenting the show on Friday Night at 11.30pm before Phil Hartnol from Orbital takes over, that being something altogether mindblowing for a music enthusiast such as myself
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