The Night Mail by New Jackson is one serious kick ass tune, these guys from Dublin have totally nailed this track for me. Credit must also go to Fergal Brennan, for the striking video that accompanies the track. To say that both complement each other is a serious understatement, as you will see for yourself below.

This track just oozes class for me, visually the video total pulled me in, I literally found myself drifting off while watching it.

I will advise a nice set of headphones for this…

Lovemaker is the result of my first solo studio session, under my Fredérick Fringe alais. It’s a remix of an old Wham track by Jim Burgess. This is not to be confused with the 80′s pop sensation of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

I’v always enjoyed playing this track, depending on the crowds vibe I find it has a very broad appeal. It’s perfect for both warmup sets, sun drenched sets by the pool or the more disco orientated partys. Fonder memories of it for myself, include playing this in the white isle while the sun rises; after a long party, you need solid grooving tracks like this, to ease back to reality.

For my re-edit I wanted to try and give the track a bit more groove and use the bongo breakdown as a big kick midway through the track. There is no traditional breakdown as such, It just didnt feel right with regards to the flow and tempo of the re-edit.

Below is a snippet of the track, I hope you enjoy.

Rayko is easily one of my favorite DJs/ Producers and has been for some time. His soundcloud page contains a wealth of productions and mixes, which is more than enough to rock any club or party. The mix below, which is spread over two parts, is a great snapshot of what this guy does.

Check it out…

With summer seemingly coming to an end; though I’m personally unsure when it even started. It seems an appropriate time to release this little cheeky summer bootleg. Mr Hooks and myself, where inspired to do remix a track aimed directly at the “hands in the air” summer crowd.

Emeli Sande is a name that we had never really heard mention off before. A singer, songwriter from Scotland, she hits all the right notes in this well produced track “Heaven”, that did very well in the summer of 2011. The track reminded us of the masterpiece that is Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Sympathy” a track that we both love every second off.

This bootleg is available to download for free here.

Below is the artwork, designed by myself for this Ubblahkan production.

Freshly finished in the studio and available to buy now, is the Ubblahkan remix of Dale Hooks “Degrader” on Limbo Records.

Below is the cover that I produced for this remix. The official cover, as designed by Limbo Records is different (they have their own look and feel). That said, I still want to continue with designing a separate look, for each track produced under the Ubblahkan name.

Finally decided to up my game and move into the studio with my long term DJ pal, Mr Dale Hooks. All outcomes of this new collaboration will fall under the name of Ubblahkan. My goal this year was to finally start producing some material, that would reflect the various genres that I enjoy.

The Ubblahkan project has also givin me another avenue to output some designs. This will allow me to craft a brand based around our productions. For this to happen I wanted to create a look that could be produced many times, yet look very different.

My early work on this consisted of slight variations of the graphic below. The aim is to change the background for each release, giving the tracks an individual, yet consistent appearance.

You can follow Ubblahkan productions and adventures on twitter here.

Purchase this track through Beatport here.

Well here it is, summer 2011 and another season in Ibiza has well and truly kicked off. I can’t seem to stay away from this place, it’s just to much fun and is by far the big social event each and every year. With that in mind, I’ve been sitting on this track for a while, a little belter that I will certainly be dropping in Ibiza 2011 Der Tanz der Gluehwuermchen by Dominik Eulberg is simply Ibiza material at its finest.

Soundcloud has by far become my first stop when sourcing new tracks and mixes. It is very similar in a way to what my major project was, back while I was at university. The work that has gone into it over the last few years has pushed it in such a positive direction. Most mornings I land in and just hit play on all my new received tracks. It has taken a while for me to follow people that I believe have similar music interests to me, this is soundclouds true strength.

As I approach near capacity on my free account I am certainly going to upgrade my account. Originally I had a beta access to soundcloud when it first launched, it still impresses me to this day. I believe that the days of going to a DJ or bands site to hear new tracks/ mixes is all but over. A soundcloud page can provide so much more from comments to purchase links.

Anyways, I came across this track today  Mountaineer – Golden Chalk (Version Idjut) on Lang records. Its pretty much hard to describe what genre this goes into, seems to have a wee bit of everything. Its right up my street and the type of track that could easily be listened to a few times in a row.

Enjoy…

While running around the madness that was Bestival 2010, I came across a band called Skinny Lister in a certain cider area. Spin on an hour or so of various songs, mixed in with crazy dancing and lots of cider, I left this performance in a blaze of happyness. Along with my friend we had this down as one of the best moments of our festival experience.

The reason that I am talking about Skinny lister now, is that i recentlydiscovered that they are recording an album. This has got my very excited as there is a real lack of their material online. A few videos here and there on YouTube and 3 tracks on itunes.

I keep hearing people saying the folk sound is getting bigger, i consider this to be a strange statement. When was it ever not big? Maybe the mainstream has just had their ears covered by the huge volume of rubbish that we are subjected to on a daily basis. There is always something hugely refreshing about seeing a band live and playing an actual instrument.

Skinny Lister sounded great, they even looked great, the audience was so involved and encourage to join in, the performance contained everything. Including a big swag jug of some cider passing through the crowd, if I remember correctly.

I literally cannot express how much I enjoyed this band live, so keep an eye out for them and the album. Worth checking out is “Plough & Orion” Perfect sunny times music.

Plough And Orion

Facebook Page
Myspace Page
Last FM Page

Following on from my most recent post about the much loved Technics turntable, I feel the need top share my thoughts on vinyl. I have many views and opinions on vinyl and this will mostly be a viewpoint of my own thoughts and experiences.

When I started really getting into music properly around 1992, turntables and vinyl where a must. All the proper DJ’s worked there trade this way, in fact at that time it was the only way. Buying records became a weekly occurrence, the day long trips alone or with friends on a Saturday (Often hungover from Fridays antics) to the records shops was always enjoyable. I was usually armed with my own needle and a small book i used to have full of vinyl that I was after. We would spend ages going through records old and new, looking for that killer track. The one that you knew would go off, also rare enough that you would be the only that had, thus becoming the envy of friends and DJ’s alike.

I used to pride myself on having songs that nobody else did, as do many DJ’s, its what gave each DJ that unique sound. You could travel to the next city and all the DJ’s would be playing completely different vinyl, this gave every DJ, city, town, country etc its own unique fresh sound. We moaned about how heavy the record bag was usually a 90 bag would be more than enough for a gig, sometimes i might grab the record box or bag if it was an extended party or gig. Carrying the bag or box around (It was a good few years before I got my first trolley bag) was quite noticeable and I suppose earned you some respect. I think this respect is an interesting point and something I want to look at more.

As a DJ people knew we would spend long hours looking for tunes, practicing and doing all things to produce excellent sets. They knew it took skill and not everybody was cut out for the job, it required a dedication on more than one level. Vinyl was also expensive so the DJ would often have made many sacrifices, something that may never have openly been discussed but was secretly respected. A respect that was earned via a combination of things including playing for everybody and handing out mix tapes.

When the internet really started to take off, vinyl was available online, I could by records from all over the world. This for myself was the tipping point, I was buying records from America, Finland, France, Holland all from the comfort of my house. I still went record hunting, but by now the shops in Belfast where stocking less on no vinyl. In most cases the record shop had closed down completely, this was indeed a big low point for the vinyl hunter in Belfast at the time. With that said I was finding amazing tracks online and of to the post office I went to get my postal order; at least until I got a proper bank card. Sometimes they arrived in a few days, others weeks, often it felt like an eternity. My parents knew the drill by now, don’t bend the vinyl, they also went and picked it up for me sometimes from the post office, as vinyl will not fit in a letter box. Something I’m very grateful for, I must have been like a kid every day looking to see if my vinyl had arrived.

Then the mighty CDJ came out, I’m not to sure what my thoughts at the time where, probably speechless. It wasn’t until the summer of 2004 I think before I got a proper use of them in Ibiza. I had burned about 10 CD’s worth of tracks, this was my chance to see what these things could do. At the time I also had two big bags of vinyl as did Mr Hooks as we aimed to wreck havoc on the island of Ibiza. At first they felt strange, after a few mixes my beats where getting tighter, within days I was mixing just as good as I could on vinyl. I stepped further into the CDJ’s world, looping beats and samples, it was heaven. Little at the time did I realize the affect that this would have on everything, I don’t think anybody would, it seemed beyond perfect.

This technology brought about a whole new revolution is DJ’ing. Record bags made way for CD bags, which made way to laptops and then portable drives. This for me was and still is a disaster from start to finish. I loved everything about vinyl, the look, feel, packaging design it had an aesthetic quality that made it special. The main thing was that it was actually worth something, it had a resale value. Are the piles of burnt CD’s or MP3′s I have actually worth anything? who would buy them off me?

With the modern DJ having literally thousands of songs on demand, I believe it can dilute there thought process. You can only take so many records to a gig, this encourage good preparation for any set. While it could be argued that having the ability to be versatile is good, what do we lose by having that? We lose a DJ who has a sound in his head that he wants to showcase, this is the unique sound that a DJ should have. Iv heard people saying things about a DJ playing to the crowd, something that is always a hot topic.

When the crowd seems to know every song on the Beatport top 100, surely the DJ is just a jukebox, mixing his way through this easily available list. The individualism is being pushed out, this isn’t the case with all DJ’s, if you are respected you can basically play what you wish. I travel here and there and there and I’m hearing the same songs all the time. This may be OK in a small city but how about when you start going to different countries. Is the whole world currently DJ’ing with Beatport’s top 100 Tracks? A young wanna be DJ could easily go down this road, why should they spend time thinking of a set, or wasting time and money searching for tunes. This is easily and freely available and beyond tempting.

I think with the absence of vinyl, many up and coming DJ’s are losing the education that it used to bring. This is where the true impact of technology can be seen or heard. For me personally I have no problem with a DJ using a laptop, judgment should be based on the sound and not the format. I have on more than one occasion seen a laptop crash mid set but I have also seen a CDJ freeze and vinyl skip, so nothing is perfect. A laptop crash however takes considerable more time to get going again. Technology also allows a DJ to push new areas and try new things, there is only so much you can do with a standard mixer and vinyl. Though the Technics DMC finals take that to a whole new area.

I’m sure I’m not alone in what this is all saying, its basically just my observations, What do the rest of you think?