The men:
DOM NAVARRA
Domenico Navarra, Anglo-Italian, born & raised on the sweet streets of Nottingham UK, has previously featured on numerous occasions here on the blog. Very opinionated but easy going, lazy but obsessive, technical yet emotional. “I like to think of myself as part of the new era in music, in which technology is key but musicality is core, spirit, soul, depth & feeling are paramount in my productions.”
Dom’s rise through the house music ranks has been rich in experience & learning, having remixed & produced for top labels including Stalwart, Camio, Easy Street, Go-Go, UK Basic, GKF, Stealth etc, though he remains humble, working from his own home studio set up. DJ first, his love for house music progressed into production, and after meeting with Alex Wheeler progressed into Sueno Soul, where the successful pair were signed to Roger Sanchez’s renowned Stealth label & remixed for an array of talented artists. Original Sueno Soul work was also released on a number of different labels. Since Sueno Soul, Dom has concentrated on solo work & remixing, where his smooth blend of deep, soulful Afro Latin beats have attracted the respect of his peers, being named “one of the new breed of top house music aficionados”.
Bookings & info contact: domnavarra@hotmail.co.uk
CAIRO
Cairo is one-third of new UK boy band Encore, who are ‘the next big thing’ (according to Mr Navarra, and a host of industry trend spotters that attended HMV’s ‘Next Big Thing’ event last week). Check out their website for more info, and remember you heard it here first! (They have a free mixtape available on their site, and a YouTube channel if you’re interested)
The music:
“Like Rain”, which features remixes from Alex Senna, DJ Umbi, Marco Finotello and GKF’s Mr Fuzz, is to be released on Gotta Keep Faith Records on 12/03/12, but promos are available now through Traxsource. The strong, soulful vocal is complemented by the aforementioned musicality of Dom Navarra’s production, and the track will likely only become more enjoyable as spring turns into summer.
Click here to download “Like Rain” via Traxsource.
Never been to this venue despite it’s proximity to my house, and unfortunately won’t be able to make this event, but Black Coffee and Zepherin Saint will be performing at The Ballroom in Dale End, Birmingham this Friday 17th February, in what looks to be a good night for deep house music in the 2nd city…
Click here for more information about the event.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Black Coffee, here are some links and a video for you:
SoundCloud / Facebook / Discogs / Twitter
(Let’s hope that Black Coffee doesn’t get into too much trouble for being here…)
Legendary record label Defected return to the Midlands for a spellbinding showcase in the newly launched Gibb St Warehouse, on Saturday 31st March 2012.
“A newly restored warehouse space, Gibb St Warehouse boasts state of the art sound and a beautifully relaxed and high tech club environment that balances intimacy with high end production values.”
Fittingly the talent on offer befits Defected’s peerless reputation, a sterling cast of names firmly encapsulated at the top of main room house music. Junior Jack and Kid Crème will join Copyright and up-and-coming Dutch talent Franky Rizardo (signed to Copyright, will be turning 24 in June) at the event, which marks the opening of the new venue.
Tickets are available here.
Here is a mix by Franky Rizardo, recorded at AIR in Amsterdam while playing for Defected in December:
PLUS! On Sunday 8th April, Renaissance will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary with an event at the same venue. Sasha will be headlining the event, which will “celebrate 20 years of the club night and label that helped push his career to the level of superstardom that he enjoys today”. More details here.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the venue at the time of publishing this entry, but if / when I do I’ll update appropriately.
Ahead of their appearance at FABRICLIVE this Friday, Greenmoney have shared a promotional mix of tracks to get you in the mood, featuring the likes of SBTRKT, Major Notes, El-B and Daz-I-Kue alongside their own productions and label releases.
Also performing on the night will be Caspa, Redlight, Artwork, Martelo and Smutlee, to name but a few!
Head over to the Fabric website for the download: click here.
Tickets here if you’re interested…
Short notice, I admit, but I just found out Heidi Vogel will be performing this weekend at Poppy Red in Birmingham, and of course in my recent spirit of supporting all good local music while it lasts, I shall hopefully be attending.
For those of you who may not be instantly familiar with the name, you will most likely have heard some of her work. Heidi Vogel (aka Heidi Levo) has been the lead singer for The Cinematic Orchestra, recorded and performed with the likes of Thundercat, IG Culture, Lil’ Louie Vega, Roots Manuva, The Brand New Heavies, Isaac Hayes, Ty, Cleveland Watkiss and Alice Russell, and has appeared at Jazz festivals around the world. Her debut solo album Lagrimas De Um Passaro (Tears Of A Bird) received critical acclaim in Jazz circles, and rightly so… (long time readers of my blog may remember that I’ve become a bit of a Jazz FM connoisseur over the last year or so..)
I promised the promoters I’d put a little something up on the blog about the event, hopefully a few of you can attend. Here are a couple of links and videos (something ain’t right) to get you in the mood:
MySpace / Facebook / SoundCloud /
I may update and add some more later…
Brought to you by the nice people behind Two Hungry Ghosts, here is a YouTube channel that you’ll actually want to subscribe to…
Bringing you the highlights from Domu’s career, with thoughtful introductions from the man himself at poignant steps along the way, The Rogue History should serve as an enjoyable trip down memory lane for those of you who, like me, are missing Domu’s musical input since his famous retirement from the industry in 2009. (>> see nutriot)
Currently only having videos for tracks from his early DNB days, I strongly recommend subscribing and keeping up with future uploads.
PLUS! If you are a Domu fan and you haven’t checked out the Two Hungry Ghosts blog or SoundCloud page yet, what are you waiting for? Listen to 90 (yes, ninety) UNRELEASED Domu tracks by clicking here immediately!
It’s been tough to narrow down my selections for this playlist. I normally try to restrain my mixes so that they are short enough to fit on to a CD. I know that if you are reading this you probably own an mp3 player or mobile phone and are not restricted in the length of mix that you are able to carry around with you, but most of my mates don’t have the right cables to connect their phones to their car stereos, or don’t know how to do such crazy things as ‘download’, so it’s usually easier for me to just burn a few CDs and give them out than bother asking for email addresses, and sending links, and explaining how to use iTunes… You get the picture. Plus I find that most people struggle to listen to mixes that are longer in one sitting – I know I certainly feel daunted when faced with a ‘live 3 hour recording’.
But I just couldn’t do it. So many good tracks release over the last couple of months. So many that I’ve collected and haven’t had chance to share. And you know how it’s like when you’re ‘in the zone’ and you get carried away… It’s shy of an hour and a half, though, so hopefully you’ll forgive me.
This mix nods back to my earlier ‘vocal sessions’ mixes that many of you still download today, so if you liked those I think you’ll enjoy this. I threw a couple of broken tracks in at the end for the heads planning to attend Bruk Up! next month (see last post). If you’d like to purchase any of the tracks included in the mix, you’ll find the links below:
01 Domu – Leaves Of Gold (Unreleased Demo)
0* Switch & Andrea Martin – I Still Love You (Acapella)
02 Switch & Andrea Martin – I Still Love You
03 MdCL ft. Tosin Tao – Everything I Need (Afronaut Remix)
04 Shaun Tee ft. Leo LeVox – Rescue Me (Danny J Lewis Vocal Mix)
05 Donae’o – I (Sean McCabe Remix)
06 Lamone – Your Eyes
07 DJ Man-X ft. Natasha Watts – Oh Yeah (DJ Man-X Sunset Night Vocal Mix)
08 Matthew Bandy & Toni Economides pres. Xakosa – Heaven Only Knows (Original Mix)
09 Danny J Lewis – Bump Tha’ Bounce (Original Mix)
10 Montana & Stewart ft. Kafele Bandele & Eliki – Love Is The Key (MdCL Vocal Mix)
11 Kloud 9 ft. Incognito – Everything Is Good 2Nite (Ski Oakenfull Dance Mix)
12 Simbad ft. Paul Randolph – Share Your Light (Original Mix)
13 Tarantulaz ft. Tiffany Loren – I Wasn’t Kidding (TLFRV Mix – Danny Krivit Edit)
14 Reel People ft. Darien – Sure (The Layabouts Future Retro Vocal Mix)
15 Stan Smith – Fix Your Face
16 Simbad ft. Melo – After The Dance (Bugz In The Attic Remix)
17 Colonel Red – Sanctify (Alex Phountzi Remix)
In other news…
Wanting to listen to some more Kloud 9 music, I hunted round and found this from Expansion Records: Soul Sauce 25. (It’s a little cheaper over on Amazon or iTunes).
Indaba Music are currently running a remix competition with Robert Glasper’s ‘Move Love’. Tall Black Guy has done a version that you just need to hear:
Opolopo has recorded an electro & funk mix for Italian site Thirty Thirsty, which throws back to the 80s electro sound which so influences his productions of late:
That said, Opolopo has recently diversified and created a new ‘four-four’ alter ego Actual Proof. Check out the Grit EP here.
Redlight’s shared this little mix for you to download, which is quite a refreshing change from the normal mixes I share:
In fact, all of my selections are a bit all over the place this month! I found this Celsius EP to my liking, out now on Beatport. More info and music on the Uno Mas site:
Ocha Records have shared this selection of love themed tracks, which might come in handy with Valentine’s just round the corner:
This Friday, Chew The Fat! meets Well Rounded at XOYO, and Maribou State will be appearing, who recently prepared this little Lauryn Hill remix to whet your appetites:
Martelo has mixed a selection of Roses Gabor tracks, which is doing the rounds this week. Like the page on Facebook to download it.
Finally, following my last post about Colonel Red coming to town for Bruk Up!, I was linked by Diane Patrick of A Music Listener’s Journal to her article about Colonel Red, which I think you might find an interesting read: click here.
Apologies for the randomness of my shares, perhaps it’s representative of how my mind has been the last few weeks? All good though. Thanks to those of you who have already listened to and favourited my mix on SoundCloud… Hope you enjoy it, feel free to get at me with comments or requests for tracks you’d like included in future selections. My arm is almost back to normal, so hopefully they’ll be a bit more frequent from here on in.
Catch you soon.
Just a quick post to let you know about this, if you ain’t seen the flyers already. Colonel Red and Daz-I-Kue will be gracing the stage of the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath on Sat 3rd March, at the inaugural Bruk Up! event promoted by Future Music at the venue. Join the Bruk Up! Facebook group for more info. I should be heading down there myself, so drop me an email / comment if you intend to come along and I’ll get you a drink!
If you want to get a taste of what you might expect to hear on the night, click here and listen to Colonel Red’s album ‘Keep Walkin’. Also, check out this classic Daz-I-Kue & Colonel Red collaboration from 2005:
Finally, in case you’ve been following, the results for the ‘Rain A Fall’ remix competition are now available for you to enjoy. Will any make an appearance on the night?
>> BONUS BEATS! <<
See you there!
Seems like the new ‘place to be’ in the Birmingham area isn’t in Birmingham city centre any more… Everyone I speak to lately seems to be running a night there, spending their weekend there, or planning to go there soon.
And who can blame them? The Bull’s Head in Moseley seems to be able to attract the cream of the region’s promoters and DJ talent. Look at the flyer above, for instance – members of the extended ‘Vocal Booth‘ family, formerly the powerhouses behind ‘Uber’ and ‘Days Like This’, coming ‘Together’ for a good old, friendly, fun, and – most importantly at this time of year – cheap night of quality house music. Residents Richie Barthez and Gary Ward, while being top DJs in their own right, have in the past been responsible for bringing the likes of Karizma, Alix Alvarez, Aaron Ross, Andy Ward and Groove Assassin to the second city, and no doubt some more of those well-known stars will be gracing the decks at the Bull’s Head in the not-so-distant future.
Or how about this, the following weekend? Another of the region’s hottest monthly house parties, hosted by Habit. Andy Price, Mat Jones & James Roberts (aka ‘The PJR Project’… see what they did there?) have established the Habit brand as a promotional force to be reckoned with, with no social media site being safe from their tactical advances, and the Birmingham house scene is reaping the benefits.
And it doesn’t end there. With promoters such as Leftfoot and Freestyle, and a vibrant local student community nearby, while inner-city bars and clubs seem to be struggling to compete and pricing themselves out of the market, the only way is up for the out-of-town ‘place to be’.
Want me to feature your music here on the blog or use it in my mixes? You can either email me, or send me your tracks using SoundCloud:
Just ‘cos I love it:
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