"This past week saw the release of Rescape, a remix collection from local producer NSU and I've got a remix on there of his tune West Coast Dub (listen here). I've pulled together a collection of some of the remixes I've done as Dub Asylum, kinda like a demo tape, and a few of them are available as free downloads, including one that is previously unreleased.
The first remixes I did were for the Midnights and Kolab - I hit them up via Myspace, how old fashioned is that? Funny thing is, I did the Kolab remix without ever talking to the guys - did it all via email and IM. Even though they live in the same city as me. Devine No 5 - The Onleung remix was done for a proposed remix collection of Onelung's 2006 album Binary Pop Songs, but that never happened due to record company stuff. Have a listen and download it for free. Thanks to Onelung for letting me make it available.
Sideways - I did a remix for Kolab when their debut album, What Comes Next dropped in 2008. You can download it for free too. Thanks to Kolab for letting me make it available. They are also available for download from http://soundcloud.com/dubasylum
Outside looking in - The Midnights, a tune that appeared on their debut album, Outside (2010) This remix was done when this tune was knocking round student radio in 2007. I'm currently working on another remix for them.
Hiding - The Hollie Smith remix was for a remix competition she had in Oct 2010. Some cheesy House mix won. Sucky, that. Still like it, tho. Do more reggae, Hollie!
West coast dub - The remix of NSU is off the album Rescape, a remix collection of NSU, out April 25, 2011. That's the cover below."
Bastard Jazz returns to the basics for a spring fling with a beautiful & soulful 12” by recent signing Colm K - chock full of remixes and vibes from some of our favorite producers! Hailing from the town of Cork, Colm is one of Ireland’s most respected DJs and garnered a whole host of international attention from his track “Dancing Skulls” , released last year on a BSTRD Boots 10”. On his debut single for Bastard Jazz, Colm offers up “Basics”, a heavy, bumping down tempo cut. The low squelching synths, delayed guitar licks, dusty pianos and boom-bap drums compliment the lovely vocals of Elaine Dowling perfectly. Up next, Colm reworks the tune for the dancefloor with his “Uptown Dub”, taking things into a sexier, cosmic boogie direction with just a swirl of the original vocals intact. Toronto’s Alister Johnson aka DJ Catalist gives up a stripped down, darker version of “Basics” with a sparse drum break, icy synth work and a pulsing bassline that somehow manages to sound warm and isolated simultaneously. On the flip, Ross Wakefield of the UK’s Part Time Heros teams up with Alex Stevenson of Patchwork Pirates for an absolutely gorgeous & atmospheric drum’n’bass re-working of the tune – a total standout & must-listen. Up next, Bastard Jazz’s own Jugoe heads into familiar territory with a dub mix, giving basics a signature rub of uptempo crushing drums, arpeggiating synths, vocal manipulations and deep deep bass. Finishing off the 12” is a bonus cut, “Love Loving You” – a perfectly pined piece of instrumental hip-hop originally released on the “Hear No Evil vol. 2” digi-compilation.
Tracklist & Soundclips: A1. Basics A2. Basics - Colms Uptown Mix A3. Basics - Alister Johnson Remix B1. Basics - Part Time Heros Meets Patchwork Pirates Remix B2. Basics - Jugoe Dub B3. Love To Love You
Africa Hitech are Mark Pritchard (of Harmonic 313 / Global Communications / countless more psuedonyms' fame) and Steve Spacek (of Spacek fame and notable Dilla collaborator). They began bonding over their shared passion for the seemingly disparate spheres of bubbling Detroit techno, soul and fierce Jamaican digital dancehall. Africa Hitech is the moniker which represents both Steve and Mark’s love for all things progressive within music, whilst acknowledging that the roots of much of today’s popular music can be traced directly back to Africa. "93 Million Miles" is an unflinchingly ambitious product of international globe-trotting that carves a new faultline into the rapidly expanding terrain of bass music, or whatever it's being called this week. The first point of introduction for many will be the Ini Kamoze sampling behemoth "Out In The Streets", played across specialist Radio 1 with Zane, Gilles Peterson and Rob da Bank all loving it. A combination of the ghosts of 1980s Jamaica and the youth culture explosion of juke, it’s a track immediately championed by ModeSelector, Kode9, Seb Chew, Diplo, Tayo, Sinden, Laurent Garnier, Flying Lotus, Untold, Toddla T, Benji B and Scratcha, amongst others.
Track List & Sound Clips:
| 01 | 93 Million Miles | clip | ||||
| 02 | Future Moves | clip | ||||
| 03 | Light The Way | clip | ||||
| 04 | Glangslap | clip | ||||
| 05 | Our Luv | clip | ||||
| 06 | Do U Wanna Fight | clip | ||||
| 07 | Spirit | clip | ||||
| 08 | Don't Fight It | clip | ||||
| 09 | Cyclic Sun | clip | ||||
| 10 | Foot Step | clip | ||||
| 11 | Out In The Streets | clip |
Jamie Woon's debut album 'Mirrorwriting' has been three years in the making... and a lifetime in the writing. These are twelve pitch-perfect gems that combine forward-thinking production with beautifully crafted songs, a sonic support-system that frames and holds Woon's luminous voice in all the right places. It's intimate without being obvious, emotional without being syrupy and honest without being confessional, where the basic touchstones of human emotion get a fresh and soulful airing.
This, he says, is a calming record, made for himself and for other people. He's crafted a raft of dreamy, unsettled melancholy, pieces of music which try to shake off anxiety by finding a groove and songs that aim to evoke inscrutable things. Oh, and Woon claims there are at least four songs about going for a walk.
Jamie Woon has had a remarkable few months. Back in October he released Night Air, as dark, sweet and seductive as molasses, an irresistibly understated combination of Jamie’s uniquely supple voice, his subtly compulsive beats and a sky full of atmosphere. It was written with some additional production from Burial, and came with a remix from superlatively-talented producer Ramadanman (who sealed their friendship by naming one of his 2007 releases 'The Woon'). The next month he was featured in The Guardian's New Band Of The Day, and four weeks later found himself playlisted at Radio 1 and hovering at the top end of the BBC's Sounds of 2011 poll come the start of the year. He's since enjoyed a sell-out tour and announced a second for early summer including a date at London’s Sherpherds Bush Empire. Things are changing rapidly for the 28 year old Londoner.
It's been a long journey to get to this point since his first 12" Wayfaring Stranger came out in 2007. That record, now rated of one of the best 12"s of the last decade thanks to the Burial mix, came out on Live Recordings, an innovative project in Lewisham run by social enterprise Livity, where a group of young men from local estates ran their own label for a year. Woon was heavily into Burial's first album and acting on a passing comment from a mutual friend that the anonymous producer liked male vocals, contacted his record label.
‘Mirrorwriting’ took three years of work and reworking. Woon was sharing a house with fellow musicians Portico Quartet in Clapton, East London working on his MacBook and doing endless takes of each song, recording vocals at The Way studio in Hackney, and 2 months in a cottage in Trevone, Cornwall, where he recorded clicks and taps on the wicker furniture, and recorded the sounds of stones from the nearby stream to turn into snare drums. He admits to doing hundreds of takes in order to get exactly the right combination of mystery and technical polish. By the end he was down to 'only' six or seven takes. He might be a perfectionist, but he's also unpredictable: the night before mastering the record he reprised an old song, Blue Truth, which he released as a free download 2 days later.
‘Mirrorwriting’ is a debut that's ripe for that transition from niche to mainstream. It's a deeply personal record that draws from R'nB, folk, '80s and '90s soul and pop, UK bass culture and the blues. It digs into emotions we all feel and sends them spinning, just-recognisable, back to us. "It’s personal, almost therapeutic. I'm quite a private person and I don’t set out to talk about my business in public but when songs are done you can't get around it. They are like a code, and all you need is a mirror to read it."
For more information visit www.jamiewoon.com
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