Saturday, December 19th @ Danser (Image Bassment, Sacramento) Solar (Sunset, Bang the Box, Bionic SF)
Solar’s Bang The Box Top 10:
Conor (Rong, Danser SF) Tony Futique (Advance Romance) –mix below.
[audio:http://www.visaomedia.com/audio/FUTIQUESYMMYL.mp3] Adam Perkins (Down Sundays)
Get there early because the music will be solid all night long! Lots of extra sound so that means MORE BASS! Remember this party is potentially FREE. All you have to do is send full names of you and anyone else you want in before 6pm on the day of the event to: [email protected]
Midnight Society is comprised of the New York based production team, Curtis Atchison and Erik Elias. Their sound is an exact fit to the name “Drum Nation”. The tribal sound in house music has been a favorite of ours over the years. Midnight Society’s productions truly represent the sound of the New York club scene, fashionable elite body movers and shakers. Enjoy!
MS: “Together, we have been a DJ/Producer team for nearly 10 years with over 20 years in DJ experience. In the studio, Erik and I have produced more than 80 different releases that stretch over 30 record labels across the globe. These records include appearances on nearly 150 original tracks & remixes currently on Beatport, several Billboard charting records and/or remixes, including a number one, two top fives and many other top 10 & 20 singles, plus numerous appearances on commercially released CD compilations mixed by DJs such as:
• Carl Cox (F.A.C.T. Australia II, DJ Face Off w/ DJ Simi – DJ Magazine Compilation UK)
• Peter Rauhofer (This Is Roxy Vol. 3)
• Tom Stephan (Warming Up, Firin’ Off – Ministry CD Compilation UK)
• DJ Escape (The Circuit Party Volume 8.)
• Jesse Garcia (Best of Stealth 2007)
• Chus & Ceballos, Joubin (Blended Sound 002)
We also own and operate our own record label called SoundGroove Records which represents close to 100 different national & international dance music acts (DJs, Producers, Remixers, Vocalists, etc). As DJs, we have played in various bars & clubs all over the world, including a number of high profile events in Montréal (Divers/Cite and Black & Blue), Brazil (New Year’s Eve – 2008 / Rio De Janeiro, Gay Pride – 2008 / Florianopolis) and Mexico City (Gay Pride). We currently hold a quarterly residency in Miami Beach for our own label sponsored event called Drum Nation, and have held weekly residencies in New York at G Lounge and Alibi. Our sound focuses primarily on House Music and can accommodate any style party or dance floor, from more deeper after-hour grooves, to big room anthem and everything in between.”
MS: Inspirations – We both get our initial inspirations from the same places and same eras of House music. We were both major fans of the old Twilo, Sound Factory & Factory Bar eras. You had Frankie Knuckles bringing you a lush and soulful sound that wasn’t afraid to get a little rough on the edges. Then you had Junior Vasquez working the futuristic Wild Pitch sound from DJ Pierre, old school Armand Van Helden tracks, as well as big room vocals with his definitive Sound Factory remixes. Then there was Danny Tenaglia with his seemingly magical way to blend classics and future sounds together. He could go from a beautiful deep house vocal to a club shaking techno groove and somehow have it make sense. Many of the big New York, Chicago & UK producers in the early to mid 90s helped us build a foundation or our own production styles.
We’re probably most known more for our tribal sound. I love percussion and basslines more than anything on a record, and Erik really gets into the grooves as well. But we also like to branch out into tech house, deep and progressive house as well. On a production level, Erik tends to go harder and dubby while I tend to get a little dreamy & proggy. In the end, we manage to fuse our ideas together for one final project that works.
Five favorite Releases / Remixes: 1. DJ Duke – Blow Your Whistle (The 2009 Remixes) – SoundGroove Records
This was one of my favorite records when I first started going out to clubs and was a big hit in New York when it first dropped. I managed to find DJ Duke through a network website, asked him about doing some remixes and he agreed. I wanted to make sure the single had its signature grooves, such as the recognizable bassline and vocal samples, and update it just enough to make it sound more modern. It’s almost impossible to improve on a classic like this, but I think we did a pretty good job. Junior Vasquez helped me get the buzz started by playing our mix at his birthday party at Pacha. Then, Tom Stephan really kicked it up with his A+ remix, as well as Manny Ward & Lorant who also took the track into deeper, darker territories.
2. In-Grid – Shock (Loop 128 Records)
This record almost didn’t make it to the public! This remix was originally done for a label in New York, but they dropped it. I gave this out to a few friends, including DJ Petzi from Portugal who just did a record with us on Magna Recordings and was starting his own label. He went through the process to get the licensing and released this mix as an exclusive along with one of our other unreleased singles. The original was more on the trance tip, but the vocal could literally go in so many different directions. We managed to take the vocal and really strip it down to a minimal, tribal groove with just enough synth to pick the track up when necessary.
3. Cybernatrikx – Dirty Pleasures (SFP)
This one goes back to my earliest days in producing when I was living in New Jersey. I think every producer needs to have at least one gratuitous moaning track, and this became ours. A slow, but steady beat & bassline full with a lot of pitched up (or down) spoken word samples from various films that we will not discuss right now. The studio sessions were as crazy and as silly as the record, which eventually lead us to the belief that every record could be that much better with a dirty girl in the background.
4. D-Lav, Shlavens & Craig Mitchell – Noises (SoundGroove / Bimotor DJ)
This needs to be said before I even go further about this song… Craig Mitchell is a genius! When he played me this record the first time, I literally begged him to remix it. Under his alias of Oliver Twisted, he does some of the most amazing spoken word stuff for house records and I was psyched when we were able to pick this one up for our label. Craig, along with his partners delivered a hot package of teched-out house mixes, and we went to town with a well deserved big room tribal version. The remix cast was a basic who’s who of some of the hottest underground talent at that time. Cytric, DJ Petzi, Evolved, Rick Corbo, Holosound… And we recently had new remixes done earlier this year from Edson Pride, DJ PirrA and Andy Notalez. Plus we have two bootleg versions that will never see the light of day. One was created by DJ Paulo that I still like to blend in with our own mix, and a version we will simply called the “Dancefloor Techno Bootleg”. Everyone who was at the WMC that year when we dropped it knows what we’re talking about. Just like the record says… You can’t stop the noises!
5. Brain Candy – Midnight Society presents The Tone Depth EP (Nervous Dog)
To limit myself to just 5 records is hard, because there’s so many others I leave out. I have so many stories I can tell with almost every record we ever did. We could easily talk about “Space Jam” with Alan T, which is one of our most successful records to date, or talk about “Party People” by Altar & Jeanie Tracy which got us our first number one single on Billboard. Dawn Tallman, Tracy Young & Ceevox, the list goes on and on. But I think this is the most important one to me because it’s my very first official song on wax. It also ties back to when I met Erik the first time since it was at his DJ competition where I met Kevin Williams of Nervous Records and gave him the demo. This was one of the first records I ever produced nearly 10 years ago; a straight up tribal banger of a tune, full of drum samples and peak hour energy, and your usual sci-fi sample slammed right in the middle. I created it right before a gig I had in Boston at the now defunct Axis in ‘99 just so I could have something of mine to play for the first time in a big room. I think every producer remembers the first time they get signed. When I got the call about this being picked up for print on Nervous Dog I was literally speechless. Then to see the record on print with the names on it.
And to top it off, it was the first time I ever heard Danny Tenaglia play one of our records. I think Erik and I were on the dance floor screaming at the top of our lungs for throughout the duration of the song… Or at least I was mentally. Alan T bounced by us with his megaphone grooving to it, and then to have Danny announce who did it after it was done! It’s something I’ll never forget as long as I live.
Adnan Sharif Live @ Forward Nov 21 2009 – San Francisco by djadnan
Great set from SF’s Adnan. “Palestinian, Brazilian-born, Adnan Sharif immigrated to the USA in 1987 and found a new home in the city of San Francisco. DJ Adnan is one of the rising stars of the San Francisco House music scene with releases on major underground labels.”
Live at Pygmalion Club, Dublin by Soul Clap Soulclap is the alter ego of two Boston based DJ/producers. “They locked themselves in a basement until their mixing was flawless and traveled the universe observing the most advanced programmers (Josh Wink, Carl Craig, Francois K).” This set has some really thick basslines and dope Prince, Janet & Fleetwood Mac remixes.
This Friday November 20th, Alex-T will be playing a special 3 hour house set. Selections will be based on a long year traveling, warm/lush sounds, nectar for your ears. Alex runs, Visao, the net label and has been busy developing the next phase of audio/visual arts with collaborative groups.
Location: Sacramento’s Lounge On 20. ****NO ENTRY FEE****
We want to say THANK YOU to Will Johnston, the man behind DancetrippnTv videos, he works hard to bring us what most us may never experience, the white island of Ibiza! Thanks buddy.
We Love…
We Love..Remixed Compilation By Jem Hayes… exclusive by We Love.
“Jem Haynes is first and foremost a definitive DJ as well as a fervent producer of music who has the ability to lift the crowd with his energetic beats when they least expect it.”
[audio:http://visaomedia.com/audio/JEM_HAYNES_WE_LOVE_REMIX_IBIZA_2009_192.mp3]
Also, thanks to everyone that was part of the TBB Crew for an awesome time and last not but def not least, Kevin, always taking care of me. Till next year, ciao’…… Sacramento House Music.
J.Phlip, known to most as Jess or Jessica Rose Phillippe. J Phlip is part of the Dirtybird crew and securing residency at San Francisco’s infamous Endup. Her releases and remixes include Claude VonStroke, Luca Lozano, Wasted Chicago Youth, on Dirtybird Recs, Dotbleep, Airdrop, Nightlight. She’s been one of our favorite DJs hailing from Chicago to San Francisco, this explains her unique musical finesse. She’ll be bringn the Hyrbid Booty Tek to Sacramento’s Lounge On 20 on October 22, 2009. Featuring DJs, Alex-T and Sukh.
Growing UP, you put your best foot forward into this world, over the years you come full circle. Only a couple people manage to live a young fast paced life, keeping to their guns, fighting through it all and then finding themselves in a great place still progressing at what you love. Meet Robert Ferguson aka Fergie, the man behind a slammin’ hard hitting label known as Excentric Musik. DJing at age 14, Fergie became a well-known driving force in the UK scene in 2000 with a 5-year slot on BBC’s Radio 1. With numerous charted tracks, countless press, great GLOBAL DJ support and an off-shoot label ‘Rekluse’, Fergie and friends are bringing an onslaught of new + RAW energetic sound.
Visao: You have been getting a lot of support and requests to work on tracks for some of the industries heaviest hitters. Can you explain your process doing a remix vs. your original tracks?
Fergie: Yes, it’s been wicked that the music has been getting the support from everyone, so I’m very happy. I was never into the production side before, I was always DJing and I really enjoyed that side. When I left djing for BBC’s Radio 1, I wanted to take a step back and look at the way I was doing things. I wanted a change, so I decided to enroll in music production courses at the SAE college in Glasgow, where I got the opportunity to look at Reason and Ableton, it was good to get a bit more of an insight into the technology side of things. I have been working with Dave Robertson(Reset Robot) for the past 3 or 4 years, and he uses Reason, so it was good for me to get a bit of a knowledge of what was going on. Going into the studio has been the best. I feel the music I had been playing for the past 6 or 7 years, excited me to jump into the studio and get things started. It was the next natural step for me, to get in there and put some of my ideas down.
With remixes, I always like to keep as much as possible of the original parts, as I feel it is important to keep the original artists work visible. I see a remix as my interpretation of what I would do with all their parts to give it my particular twist. With regards to original music, we go into the studio and go through different sounds and pull it together. We don’t use pre-made loops, we just sort of jam away and see what happens. I always keep it to the harder end of things, as that’s were I’m at right now. If something isn’t really working after 20 or 30 mins I scrap it and just get something else going.
Visao: Speaking of remixes, you remixed the monumental classic track, Positive Education by Slam released in 1993. Pretty young for you, what’s your thought on the classic and what it meant for music at that time in the UK?
FERGIE: Yes, this was one of the first records I stole. I was about 12 or 13. I remember it well. I always found it hard to mix, that was probably because it didn’t go with the other music I was buying. Even though it didn’t go with my other music, it was a MUST play record, it just had every thing and was different at the same time. The remix, came about when Slam asked me to play at their Club Nite in Glasgow (Pressure). I asked the Slam, if I could have the parts to do a special one off mix just for my set at Pressure, when I finished the mix and sent it to them they got back to me and decided they wanted to release it. So, it was an unbelievable moment for me really. I think it would have been much more difficult to do the remix if they had asked me for a remix. I was making something just for my set, just for me, there was no pressure. I made a record that I thought would work well in my set, so of course, getting it then released was a big thing for me indeed!
Visao: What’s you current setup for gigs?
Fergie: Well, for the past 3 odd years, I have been using Serato, then Traktor Scratch then Traktor Scratch Pro with two midi controllers (Faderfox), but for the past few months I have gone back to CDs. I just wanted to go away from it for a while, and I have to say that I’ve been enjoying just taking my CDs to the clubs and getting straight on there with no messing about in the DJ booth setting this and that up. Traktor, is an amazing piece of kit, I’m not saying I wont go back there but for now I’m back, DJing like the cavemen used to, it seems! How times have changed, when I first started my first decks were Cloud 9, all in one, DJ console with 2 belt driven decks and the only pitch control you had was 33 & 45. I used to jam a bit of my cigarette packet in-between the pitch in-order to get a slight variation, not that it made much difference as my mixing, well to be honest there probably wasn’t much mixing then, Ha!
Visao: Looks like you guys have some stuff cooking at Excentric & Rekluse. Reset Robot, Mr. Henry Von and you, what are you guys up to?
Fergie: Well, yes. I’m very happy the way Excentric has been received through the music, the club nites and the agency. We have a few new guys on there from Erphun (LA), Laura Heath (Nottingham), Hans Bouffmyhre (Scotland) and Psycatron (Belfast) everything is going well, these guys are releasing some awesome music, so yeah, all is good on that front. Check out myspace.com/excentricartists
With regards to Henry Von, I have started Rekluse with him so yeah we do it between us really got some exciting ne stuff coming up there and also Henry is about to mix the 1st anniversary comp so keep an eye out for that he has also got some new remixes coming out on Excentric in a few weeks. Dave ( Reset Robot ) is a genius he has had some great music out over the past while and next up on Excentric its a colab he has done with Christian Smith its called Elixer it comes with remixes from Henry Von and Gary Beck its quite a big club banger… I’ve been hammering it out for the past few months.
Visao: What are the biggest obstacles and rewards with managing labels and releases?
FERGIE: In this day and age, it’s quite easy to get a label sorted to be honest, there are so many outlets for it and it’s very easy once you’re in the swing of things to get every thing uploaded and do the promo, we use FATT DROP to get it out to the djs. We still do vinyl also, which I’m happy about as I just think its important to give people the option how long that will last, I don’t know as the demand isn’t what it used to be but we will press on with it any way.
Visao: How is your current night going, The Pod?
FERGIE: The Pod ( tripod ) is in Dublin, we will be doing “Shine” in Belfast and events in Matter in London next year, so there will be lots going on. It’s great to get everyone from the agency on board and also some bigger guests, it’s just a good party with all your friends and great chance to hook up with everyone.
Visao: What are you thoughts on Soundcloud? Beatport? Future of digital distribution?
FERGIE: I think these are all great and yes we get lots of music sent from people from Soundcloud, unsigned stuff for Excentric and Rekluse so yeah I think its very important to have all these sites. I think were going through the best time with all the new software whether you want to use it or not its exciting to see that things are being pushed to the max and that the possibilities are endless…. the way people from all over the world can get access to great music no matter where you are is just mind-blowing!
Visao: We first heard your “Reset Robot – Softie remix” in King Unique’s Transitions mix, early this year and has become, like many for us, one of our favorite tracks. What are your thoughts about a remix, should it retain certain % of the original or be open to go anywhere?
FERGIE: Yeah as I said earlier I think its important to keep a certain part of the original in there but also to put your twist on it. With the Softie remix we used all the original parts but added an arpeggiated sound through it just to twist it up a bit and we also changed the bpm a little
Visao: Can you give us a production tip of the month?
FERGIE: Production tip.. um for me, we have been rinsing the Thor in Reason its a semi modular synth we get some crazy stuff out of that.
Visao: Any artist(s) that has consistently inspired you with either their works or what they stand for?
FERGIE: I think like many of djs and producers the Leftfield album Leftisam is a true classic and never seems dated, or you never get tired of listening to it, its true perfection from the first trak to the last.
In terms of new djs/producers, as I said before Reset Robot is the nuts and has some awesome music nearly ready to drop on sci + tec. I think Alan Fitzpatrick has been making some incredible music check out his new EP on Drumcode, and of course Mr. H.
Some more Sacramento House Music with Barry Weaver (Funky Tekno Tribe, EDC, GIANT), playing at The Park Ultra Lounge. Barry has played alongside Richie Hawtin, Danny Tenaglia, Carl Cox, Dave Clarke, Felix Da Housecat, Tiga, Boys Noize, Claude VonStroke, and Radio Slave. Barry is currently part of LA’s Saturday Night Sessions / Go Ventures team and plays most of their massive events. Barry’s been working in the studio with LA legend DJ Thee-O. This show will be follow the Hair Wars on August 27, 2009.
Legendary DJ, Behrouz will be playing at Lounge On 20 in Sacramento, California. It will be Lounge On 20’s One year Anniversary, Pink Party. August 29, 2009 – 8pm-2am. “In a class of his own and an undefined style to pin him to, he travels the world astounding dance fans all over.” Sacramento House Music.
In case you missed our interview with him check it out.
I was about 12 or 13. I remember it well. I always found it hard to mix, that was probably because it didn’t go with the other music I was buying. Even though it didn’t go with my other music, it was a MUST play record, it just had every thing and was different at the same time. The remix, came about when Slam asked me to play at their Club Nite in Glasgow (Pressure). I asked the Slam, if I could have the parts to do a special one off mix just for my set at Pressure, when I finished the mix and sent it to them they got back to me and decided they wanted to release it. So, it was an unbelievable moment for me really. I think it would have been much more difficult to do the remix if they had asked me for a remix. I was making something just for my set, just for me, there was no pressure. I made a record that I thought would work well in my set, so of course, getting it then released was a big thing for me indeed!
