Deckhead 2.0

Haven’t written a blog post in agesssss, scusa. I think for now, I’ll only post things that I think really deserve it.

Food photography. Never really thought about it before, just seems like a load of photos of good looking food…until I came across Anna Williams’ work. Her photography of food is seemingly unorthodox, gone is the perfectly presented food, like it was sculpted by Da Vinci himself, replaced with charming culinary portions, presenting the humanising touch of the hand that crafted them. The photography is beautiful, at times rustic, at others, lush. Anna’s photography spreads hold as much visual interest as a high-budget fashion shoot; her work has really opened up my eyes to the possibilities of food photography.

For more visit: Anna Williams Photography

After United Colours huge Easter Saturday bash with Italian sensation SOLO Sydney’s hype new house party crew returns with another international guest to blow your mind – KINGDOM. Fresh outta NYC Kingdom is blowing up the global bass scene with the monster jams ‘Mindreader’ and ‘You’ on A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold label. Remixes for the likes of Kid Sister, L-Vis 1990, Blackbox(!) and Telepathe plus award winning DJ mixes on Fabric and Discobelle blogs confirm Kingdom as a force to be reckoned with in dance music’s new school and United Colours are proud to bring him to Sydney for an exclusive and intimate show on Saturday 1st May.

Joining Kingdom are the full United Colours crew featuring Bad Ezzy (Hoops), Kato, Wax Motif (Sweat It Out), Act Yo Age (Sweat It Out / Southern Fried), Chux (Disco Punx) and young upstarts from the ghettos of the shire Wedding Ring Fingers bringing you all the tropical, house, bass, dubstep and hip hop jams you need.

Plus we have a brand new venue THE BLACK BOATER, 16 Wentworth Ave (just around the corner from our beloved Oxford St). The newly renovated club makes it debut with United Colours. Based on a stripped back old school factory / warehouse but with a new attitude, staff, management, drinks menu and most importantly a heavy new sound system. Enjoy your first taste (and some special United Colours Tropical Punch) on the 1st of May.

Here are some tunes that Kingdom sent over to get you in the mood

♪ Kid Sister – Right Hand Hi (Kingdom Remix)

♪ Ricky Blaze – I Feel Free ft. Ron Browz (Kingdom Remix)

♪ L-VIS 1990 – United Groove (Kingdom Remix)

All your relevant links:

Moshtix

Facebook Event

Tickets for this exclusive Sydney show will not hang around, so get on board and ill see you there!

Jax

I think its pretty obvious as to the topic of todays Hip Hop Friday post, it is my personal tribute to the legendary MC Guru from Gang Starr who died on Monday the 19th of April at age 48.

In the 90s Guru (Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal), was one of the pioneering forces behind the movement away from Gangster rap . During his career he helped pioneer the New York hip hop sound, with the help of Dj Premier he focused on combining hip hop elements with New York swing jazz. His 1993 solo album Jazzmatazz used a combination of a live jazz band with hip hop production and raping and was one of the first established rappers to do so. As a lyricist, Guru was often a weary moralist weighed down by the tragedy surrounding him, though the group’s music was almost always life-affirming, never curmudgeonly.

Together, Guru and DJ Premier made classic East Coast rap, sharp-edged but not aggressive, full of clear-eyed storytelling and sample-driven production. In the early 1990s, as hip-hop was developing into a significant commercial force, Gang Starr remained committed to not being pretentious or overly aggressive.

Guru found most success in the duo Gang Starr with Dj Premier, they released 6 albums from 1989 til 2003 before the group ended a few months after the Ownerz was released. After the group ended it seems that Primo & Guru had a few problems and just before Guru died he wrote a letter to his friends and family ,in it he said that he didn’t want to be associated with Primo after he die.

Rather than dwelling on this Primo responded by saying;

“Our time together was beautiful, we built a Hip Hop legacy together, and no one can rewrite history or take away my love for him… It was a sad day for me to get confirmation on the death of man who I will continue to call my brother.”

Guru shouldn’t be remembered for this beef or falling out with Premier, he should be remembered as one of the greatest MCs of all time and a pioneering force in the 90s. Guru’s music bridged generations in part thanks to his love of jazz, even after the hip-hop  scene ended its experimentation with it in the early 1990s.

♪ Gang Starr – Jazz Thing

♪ Gang Starr – You Know My Steez

♪ Guru – Loungin’

♪ Guru – Trust Me

Bonus: Here is a DJ Wonder tribute mix which is 30 minutes of Guru’s solo work and some Gang Starr tracks

Dj Wonder Mix

Jax

A few weeks ago I did a post about a Moombahton which was created by Dave Nada. It is basically popular Dutch House tracks edited and slowed down to around 100BPM and took the recent WMC in Miami by storm.

My favorite boys south of the border, the Scatterblog collective are so enchanted by this craze that they have just leaked their own edits of some of their favorite tracks. The Scatterblog, based out of Melbourne, Australia it runs as a music label (Scattermusic), a series of parties & events and of course, as a music blog. Everyone who writes at the Scatterblog DJs and Produces original music.

A few days ago Mu Gen had an idea to put together a Moombahton mixtape for the second installment of the Scattermusic Radio. On this mix he showcases some of the best edits around and also got fellow scatterbloggers Mat Cant, Lewis Cancut, Scattermish and Slap & Dash (himself and Scattermish) to make some exclusive edits for the mixtape.

I always like to see an insight into what goes through the mind of various artists, this is what Mu-Gen had to say about the genre;

“…after digging deeper into the tunes and bumping them on dance floors I have fallen in love. Before my life as a club music dj I was pretty hard out into hip hop and turntableism which makes moombahton feel just right for me. Lewis once said to me after hearing some of this shit “its as if we were playing hip hop all this time, just sped the fuck up”, and he is so right! It just feels like such a relief to be jamming tunes at slightly over 100bpm to a club crowd again. You can do so much more as a dj in terms of manipulating the music at this speed.”

Here is the mega mix by Mu Gen:

Scattermusic Radio #2 – Mu-Gen (Mu-gehton Moombathon)

As a bonus I also have a selection of Moombahton edit by each of the boys

♪ Afrojack – Mongoloid (Mat Cant Tells Moombahton Where To Go Edit)

♪ Mu-Gen – Turn That Shit Up (Moombahton Edit)

♪ Playmode – One Track Mind (Scattermish Moombahton Mix)

♪ Slap & Dash – Fried Toy Moombahton (Afrojack, French Fries)

♪ Solo - Congoloid (Lewis Cancut Moombahton Rub)

In a few weeks ill showcase some of my very own Moombahton edits, so stay tuned. Already started working on an edit of a Nadastrom track and ideas are flowing for some other ones.

Overtime Bonus: Earlier this year Slap & Dash (Mu Gen & Scattermish) did an exclusive mix for Discobelle which blew my mind away. It is four deck collaboration where they showcase some of the sounds they are digging at the moment as well as various scattermusic releases.

*WARNING* This mix will blow your mind, it will make you want to stop making mixtapes, djing and retire from anything music related.

Here is the original Discobelle post with the boys talking about the mix

Jax

The busiest men on Sweat It Out are back again! Act Yo Age have just dropped their fourth EP since the labels inception. Besides their own EPs that have been released they have also remixed such names as Malente, Larry Tee & Top Billin and have been featured on a shitload of various compilation CDs. Since the early days the guys style has evolved from the early baltimore inspired party jams, to a more tropical / party styles tech that has been taking the world by storm.

Not resting on their laurels the boys have already started working on two new tracks for a brand spanking new ep. Pablo Calamari (one half) has already released two individual EPs through Sweat It Out his debut I Bought My Wife On The Black Market and more recently the amazing disco house inspired Think About You EP.

Here is what Sweat It Out’s head honcho Ajax said about AYA’s latest release;

Act Yo Ages’ Song For Nona has been the most difficult track to blurb! Its like some molecular gastronomy fine dining thing, you know it tastes great but you are not really sure of the ingredients, nor which way to eat it. In a way its like a newly (de) constructed prawn cocktail, vaguely reminiscent of the 50s, 60’s but with a whole new flavour. Sure its deepish, but its swamped up conga – funk gone mad slicked down in brill creme in a tux! Smooth and creamy it can really only be described as crooner tech! Yes its been getting props from Renaissance Man and Sinden, who know how to do the ocean liner boogaloo! We are brilled up in the pants too, with Savage Skulls, The Bulgarian and Franki Chan getting in on the remix action!

So there it is, Act Yo Age’s fourth Studio EP! Today I have the original track for you plus a Savage Skulls remix, you should go support the release on Beatport and stay tuned for more Sweat It Out release’s.

If you are a Sydneysider you can catch the boys supporting Kingdom at United Colours on May 1st at THE BLACK BOATER (16 Wentworth Ave). [I will be doing a post on Saturday to talk about this party more]

If your a fan of this emerging genre or want to explore it more I highly recommend it, head over to moshtix to reserve your place.

♪ Act Yo Age – Song For Nona

♪ Act Yo Age – Song For Nona (Savage Skulls Remix)

Jax

RIP GURU, my thoughts are here for your friends and family. You changed the hip hop game and helped make some quality tracks to move away from the whole gangster rap phenomenon. True legend of the game

Mat Cant is one of those clever boys from Melbourne who form the Scatterblog crew. He is a co-owner on the amazing scattermusic record label, a writer on the infamous ScatterBlog, a superstar DJ and hotshot producer, so basically he is a very busy boy. Before he made it in the bright lights of Melbourne he was slowly working away in Shepparton, Geelong and the rest of regional Victoria, so he has paid his dues and it is finally paying off. In his production work he has already collaborated with big hitters such as Nick Thayer & AC Slater as well as releasing his debut Hornbo EP with Scattermish on Scattermusic which included remixes by The Hump Day Project, Sticky K, Paz & Yacht Club DJs.

His style has matured and developed over the past 12 months and this has been proven with the various mixtapes and the couple of different DJ sets that I have witnessed, he can bust anything from a Baltimore set, to Hip Hop, some bangers and even some up beat party tech styles.

He has just released his latest latest mixtape and once again he has showed how diverse his musically knowledge is by focusing on some of his favorite UK club tunes whether they are some of the new sounds that are dominating at the moment or the pioneering older jams. The mix contains some vocal drops from Serocee, Lady Chann, Smutlee and Fraksha who are some pretty big names in the UK sound scene.

Mat Cant – The Mix That Can by MatCant

Bonus: Here is Mat Can’t latest remix, it is a UK Funky remix that he did for Paz, who is one of the godfathers of the Melbourne scene. The remix contains vocals from Fraksha, it is a bit different from his recent production but once again he delivers another strong piece of production.

♪ Paz – Raw Raw (Mat Cant Vocal Mix feat Fraksha)

Jax