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

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

Lately Australian (mainly Sydney) based producers have been killing it lately, names such as Cassian, Flight Facilities, Aston Shuffle are names that immediately spring to mind, with most of these artists dominating various genre’s beatport charts. There is one track that stands above all however, and that is Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP’s We Speak No Americano, it is currently sitting number 2 on the Beatport top download list.

The thing that makes the original track so special is the fact that YBC & DCUP both have different styles of music, on one hand we have a tropical party tech flavour and on the other hand we have one of the kings of Australian Nu Disco.

Spank Records and Sweat It out have just announced that the second annual Spank! Records remix competition and the track that has been chosen this year is non other than We Speak No Americano and on offer is a swag of prizes worth more than $5000.

Full details with how to enter, as well as the list of prizes up for grabs, sponsors and partners will be released at http://www.spankrecords.com.au/sweat-it-out-comp/ on Friday the 23rd of April. The competition will begin the same day.

As a little treat for you today I have a Spenda C edit of the track to give you a little taste of what people are doing with it. He keeps the quirky hooks and main themes of the original and has edited it by chopping up various drops making it a more Bmore/Dutch House/ Uk Funky vibe on the track

♪ Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – We No Speak Americano (Spenda C Edit)

After a series of cheeky mash ups and killer mixtapes, Elmo Is Dead has finally finished his first remix and its pretty special! He chose to remix The Party Squad’s debut release CrazyFunky Style which was released in 2007 through Mad Decent. For a while this fun track flew under the radar and wasn’t noticed by many Australians, but recently many deejays have been using this as a kind of secret weapon to keep their crowds moving. The main man who has been promoting this track heavily is the king of cool Ajax, who even included it in his April chart of favorite tracks for the month.

Anyway back to the remix by Emoh, he has made it even more of party anthem adding additional horns drums and sirens to turn it into a “Ghetto Glam” (his words) remix. Let’s hope that this is the first of many remixes by the man.

♪ The Party Squad – Crazy Funky Style (Elmo is Dead Remix)

Jax

Today’s post is focusing on two of my favorite rappers of the modern generation, these being Mos Def & Talib Kweli. In the late 90s & early 200s these artists helped develop socially aware rap music and helped in the movement away from the harder gangster rap which was popular in the early 90s. They used their reputation and popularity to rap about issues of the time and be a good roll model to the kids who loved and worshipped their music.

Socially aware hip hop focused on various topics such as religion, anti violence, the struggles of people who love in the projects or ghetto, and the advancement of African American culture. Mos Def has used his reputation and popularity to become very active on social and policital issues throughout the past decade and was rather vocal after Hurrican Katrina in 2005.

One of the earliest examples of socially aware/conscious hip hop is Grandmaster Flash’s The Message which comments on the poverty, violence, and the lifestyles of kids of the time.

♪ Grand Master Flash – The Message

Mos Def and Talib Kweli first started to gain respect in hip hop circles thanks to the formation of the duo Black Star. Their debut self titled release achieved little commercial success, however they were one of the pioneers of hip hop in the late 90s and bring it into the mainstream eye, mainly as a result of the movement away from gangster rap. Defiantly would have to agree with them that they are one of the “best alliances in hip hop”.

♪ Black Star – Definition

After the fall of Rawkus Records both artists decided to use their new found success to launch what would prove to be very successful solo careers.

Mos Def first found commercial success through his debut solo album Black on Both Sides which was released in October 1999, as well as focusing on socially conscious lyrics, the album helped pave the way for a combination live instrumentation and studio made beats. Mathematics (funnily enough was produced by DJ Premier) to this day is still one of my favorite Mos Def tracks and it was featured on his debut album. The song combines Mos Def’s amazing lyrics and the production work of premier and the use of his famous scratch samples.

♪ Mos Def – Mathematics

Talib Kweli took a few more years for his solo project to take off, he first found some success with his 2004 album The Beautiful Struggle. The idea behind this was to combined more mainstream beats and production work (thanks to Kanye West) and stay true to his roots with socially conscious lyrics, the album received mix reviews from the mainstream media. Production on the album includes Kanye West, The Neptunes, Just Blaze and Hi-Tek who worked on the Black Star project.

♪ Talib Kweli – Never Been In Love

Jax

A few weeks ago I found out some pretty amazing news, it was that The Mane Thing remix of Peep Thong was being featured on Herve’s Ghetto Bass 2 CD. Well the mix has finally been released digitally and is ready to pre order if you want a hardcore copy of the CD.The mix contains a number of Herve’s very own remixes and original works as well as some of the biggest names in ghetto bass, tropical, dubstep and bangers today including tracks and remixes by Fake Blood, Jack Beats, Sinden, Douster, Joy Division, fellow Aussie’s Yolanda Be Cool plus a ton of others.

The mix is a showcase of well known heavy tracks that are known and loved by all as well as some predictions of tracks that will be huge in 2010, it is dominated by artists signed to Cheap Thrillz as well as other producers who are making waves at the moment.

Ghetto Bass 2 (The Sound of Hervé) magnificently mixes 34 tracks over 2 CD’s and includes five brand new Hervé tracks. Other highlights are Passion Pit’s “Little Secrets” (Jack Beats remix), Joy Orbisons’s “Hyph Mngo”, Four Tet’s “Love Cry” (Joy Orbison remix) and Orbital’s Lush (Hervé remix). It is an exhilarating collection of the most exciting tunes around and refreshingly shows them in a new light.

Usually I am not a fan of heavier bass, but without being biased this cd rocks! The balance of all the different bass sub genres works really well, the popular songs compliment the less known tracks to help build people’s appreciation of the genre as a whole. Both CDs flow really well, it is a musical journey into bass music and they individually shocase the various sounds that are dominating the world at the moment and the second CD showcases how the music has developed from the early days into what it is today.

The first cd starts with a bang which builds into a more party type groove, after this it builds towards a disco funk sound and then works into the tropical sounds that are taking the world by storm and finishes with some hectic wobbles. The second CD is much more experimental and harder, it explores more the evolution of the dubstep genre. With a mixture of garage and how this has evolved into future garage which is a bit heavier, which then turns into some heavy dubstep a mixture of commercial and underground sounds. The cd then moves into one of the pioneering genres of heavy bass music, Drum & Bass, this is the perfect way to finish the cd the tunes are so uplifting and inspiring which will keep you dancing til the early hours of the morning.

It is a perfectly structured compilation and does an amazing job at showcasing some amazing bass music and the popular sub genres at the moment. This CD is a must for any fan of heavy bass, wobbles and lovers of bass music! Once you get it pump it on some kick ass speakers because its no place to listen to on a laptop or on a desktop. Ghetto Bass is out digitally on Itunes & Beatport but if you want a hard copy of the CD you can pre order it from Amazon.

♪ Hervé’ – Hot! Drum Attack

♪ Yolanda Be Cool – Afro Nuts (Douster Remix)

My other favorite track on the CD is the Ghetto Bass 2 Edit of Voodoo Chilli’s Check Out Our Groove, it cuts it up nicely so it more appropriate for the cd (and it comes right after The Mane Thing). Voodoo Chilli is Herve’s latest side project, he focuses on making modern day disco jams by sampling and remaking its older cousins, so far there has been three amazing tracks in Check Out Our Groove, Get On Down and Love Songs!

Watch out Duck Sauce, Voodoo Chilli is coming!

♪ Voodoo Chilli – Check Out Our Groove (Ghetto Bass 2 Remix)

Jax

Top Billin are a dj / production crew from Helsinki, besides producing some monster hits they also have a highly successful record label with some amazingly diverse releases and one of the most informative blogs around. Two of the members Flipper & Koobra have recently started a new side project entitled Helsinki 78-82, their style is much more melodic, with a dreamy feelgood sound that I cannot get enough of, truly beautiful music. Today I have their latest remix of Kid Sisters Daydreaming track;

“Daydreaming had Helsinki 78-82 written all over it, but it was impossible to pull off any clean samples from the original so we ended up using only the intro part and building a whole new track behind it (that was the original Dub mix so don’t get confused)”

♪ Kid Sister – Daydreaming (Helsinki 78-82 Remix)

Bonus: I have a track from their debut EP to show you how good their original works are, the song is entitled So Lifelike which is a remake of Lifelike’s So Electric track with additional vocals by Villa Nah. The song is a synth inspired masterpiece, which will uplift your mood and I highly recommend you hunt down the full release on Juno or Beatport as there are two other quality tracks.

♪ Helsinki 78-82 – So Lifelike

Jax

Caution, this post is going to contain a lot of name dropping of various blogs and artists.

Today I have some tunes from UK based babe Florrie, she started out as the drummer in UK drummer with the house band at Xenomania and now she is releasing tracks as a solo singer and has been creating some serious hype in the blogosphere.

Her debut single 911 was remixed by the king of cool Fred Falke with the remix being featured at the LG Toronto Fashion week. Ever since the original was released the hype for her has been building, some of the raddest blogs around have already featured her including Discodust, StoneyRoads and TooManySebastians have already fallen in love with this new queen of the pop world. Discodust have gone so far and labelled her as “one of the most promising upcoming female pop artists”.

Her latest single is called Panic Attack and comes with free remixes by Justin Faust, Bit Funk and of course Fred Falke, which you can get over at Discodust. South Australian boys Def Starr have also been charged with doing remix work for her and they have come up with a funky remix and a pretty cool dub version. Def Starr might not be the one of the biggest names in Australian dance music, but based on their recent production, 2010 could just be the year that they start to build a name and reputation for themselves and the tiny town of Radelaide. The boys have been doing some pretty big parties of late having already hosted Classixxx at their Def Starr & Friends party, and soon will be hosting Breakbot at their second installment and djing all over the trap in Radelaide.

*Note: its actually called Adelaide, and it isn’t that small

♪ Florrie – Panic Attack (Def Starr Remix)

♪ Florrie – Panic Attack (Def Starr Dub)

Props to Stoneyroads & Toomanysebastians for jumping on the bandwagon first with these two fantastic remixes.

Jax