Cromwell Road Dayzzzz...

Eight years ago I moved into a flat for the third year of my uni life with three lovely girls (Katie, Natalie and Sammy) – who, to be honest, I didn’t know very well before we moved in together.

We all became good friends within days and it was probably one of my best years at uni.

Throughout the year, music played a massive part in our lives - and we would often be blasting out tunes: Tim Westwood's Radio 1 show, garage, RnB, drum n bass or whatever. Usually before a night out, but sometimes just during the day as well.

Our neighbours downstairs hated us - they were a couple of crazed young Christians who would complain about the dropping of a pin.

Natalie and Katie had their selection, I had mine - I also got my mum to record MTV Base and we'd watch all the latest hip-hop videos on the telly too.

Anyway, I still reminisce about the Crizzomwell Road days as we had our fair share of anthems in those days... they were good good times. I miss them.

Here are a few of the tunes we used to listen to way back when.

Wu-Tang Clan - Uzi (Pinky Ring)



Memphis Bleek (feat. Jay-Z and Missy Elliot) - Is That Your Chick



Mobb Deep (feat. Big Noyd and Vita) - Burn



Dizzee Rascal - I Luv You



Clipse (feat. Pharrell Williams) - Grindin



Wiley - Heartless Crew diss dubplate



G-Dep - Special Delivery



Iconz - Get Crunked Up

Take Me Back...

I was only a kid in the 80s, but I wish I could go back to when music like this was getting released.

Tears For Fears - Shout

I Bring You The Phuture...

I love Phuture/DJ Pierre - the epitome of acid house.

Just a couple of sentences and vids today as I'm too busy to go full on.

Get your ears round these.

Phuture - Inside Out



Phuture - Your Only Friend (Cocaine)



And the all-time classic...

Phuture - Acid Tracks

Golden...

Anyone who ever says anything bad about Goldie and his reality TV appearances has obviously never heard any of his music or seen his artwork.

Away from the celebrity status he has attained, the man is a total genius and the architect of a monumental movement within drum n bass - helping to carve out a sound that is still prevalent within the scene now. The Metalheadz sessions at the Blue Note in Hoxton are, for me, now folklore. I never got to go (was too young) but I know that place was legendary.

On top of that, he has consistently put his heart and soul out there, in his music and on film (in two separate documentaries)... Mother is an absolute beauty of a tune, dedicated to his mum and lasting an hour.

Everybody who's anybody knows Inner City Life - a standout moment in the mid-90s, the soundtrack to that era.

Word has it that he's working on a drum n bass symphony, and his latest TV project involves putting together a group of disadvantaged kids together in a band (which I hear is amazing).

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT GOLDIE'S BAND

Hardworking and super talented, Goldie is one of very few people in the limelight who I really have an unwavering admiration for.

I could post his entire back catalog, and I would love to, but I decided a few choice gems that I hold dear to my heart would suffice.

The first is a song based on the words from a suicide letter he wrote as a troubled youth.

Emotional, this cuts deep - amazing.

Letter Of Fate - Goldie



Sensual - Goldie



Mother (VIP mix) - Goldie



Angel - Goldie



Menace - Rufige Cru

Go To Work On A Beat...

My commute into work is only short, so it's not usually worth my while chucking on some journey music for the trip.

Sometimes I'll put a mix on and listen to some on the way and some on the way back home, but most of the time I flit from one single tune to another.

It's always a varied selection, here are a few from today's unusually pleasant bus - tube - DLR ride to the office.

Phuture - Rise From Your Grave (Wild Pitch Mix)



Kozzie - Destruction (Spartan Vocal)



Misfits - Last Caress



Magnetic Man ft. Katy B - Perfect Stranger (Live at Maida Vale)

Update For The Week...

This week has been another good one music-wise, I've had time to post up a couple of things on here, cracked on with work and managed to get out and visit a couple of really, really good nights.

First of all though, I tipped American singer Mike Posner to make an impression on the charts here after I saw him at the Notting Hill Arts Club last month... and he has, hitting the top 10 five weeks before his single is officially released.

Cooler Than Me isn't out until next month, but it's already in the top 10 and radio stations are itching to whack it on their playlists. Cher Lloyd even sang it on X Factor...Big things will be happening for this guy over the coming year.



My first night out this week was at I Luv Live in The Queen Of Hoxton. I only went for one reason, to see Mr Random Impulse do his thing live. He smashed it, even though he was getting over a bout of the flu...

READ MY STORY HERE

Later in the week I hit the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash 2010 - the second soundclash. And what a night it was... after hearing last year's and seeing the footage on YouTube I was really looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. Absolutely one of my best night's out this year, and that's saying a lot, because (not meaning to boast) I've been to a lot of music events in 2010.

Here's Skream dropping Coki's sick Movado remix while Sgt Pokes and Benga go mad on stage.... (although whoever uploaded it labelled it Channel One).



Skream & Benga ripped the place to shreds, Metalheadz came with the fire and dropped some naughty dubplates, Channel One kept it strictly irie and Soul Jazz mixed it up but never really found their way.

This was one of the highlights for me - Shy FX drops a special Metalheadz version of Katy On A Mission for Skream & Benga.



Funnily enough after the Headz dropped that Katy On A Mission dubplate I was convinced they'd won... and I think a lot of people were too.

Channel One emerged victorious and, even though I really wanted Skream & Ben to take it, I have to say my heart was with Channel One. They went about everything the right way and proved you don't need to shout your mouth off and disrespect other people to win the support of the crowd - the other sounds got taught a lesson by a proper old school sound system.


Good, solid output prevailed and, ultimately, I couldn't be anything but happy for them. Well deserved.

Tonight I'm off to KISStory at the O2 to see DJ Luck and MC Neat and tomorrow Ed Sheeran records his DVD live at the Bedford in Balham.

Music Really Is The Answer...

Journey Music...

There's a phrase I use for the stuff I listen to during long journeys - it's simple, like me, and straight to the point...Journey music. (I KNOW I'm definitely not the only one who uses this term).

Journey music has played an integral part in my travels. It's standard - no one wants to be sitting on a train, tired and probably irritable, fiddling around with their playlist. You want to get on, find your seat, plonk your arse down and whack something on that's going to carry you through the long trek to your destination feeling content and relaxed - whether you're awake or sleeping.

Some of the best memories that I relate to journey music involve leaving London on a high-speed train, watching the grey buildings disappear and the green countryside pop up... knowing that you're on the way to the airport and off to somewhere hot and chilled.

I'd say my all-time favourite DJs for these special moments in life would be Fabio, Heny G and the Anti Social Entertainment crew... and probably loads more that I can't think of right now...

Heny G - FABRICLIVE Promo Mix

This pairing are definitely going to be another firm favourite of mine. I only discovered them recently thanks to a recommendation from an associate.

Ame & Dixon were mentioned to me as peeps I might like and, lo and behold, I do. (Because I'm a glutton for good music... call me a music whore).

This is a mix they did live at the Awakenings Festival in Holland last year.

It's right up my street, I can't wait to chuck it on for my next journey out of London.

Ame & Dixon - Awakenings Festival Holland - 27.06.2009

Me, Myself And Me...

This is a little bit of ME.

Nothing more to add.

Just listen.

Sven Väth - Face It

Love Is A Battlefield...

The Amity Affliction feature on my blog for a second time.

This Aussie "screamo" group are a firm favourite of mine. This cover of Pat Benatar's 80s classic is brilliant, in fact I think it's better than the original...and that's saying a lot, because I LOVE the original.

I've chucked in both versions below. Kicking off with Amity's excellent cover.

Love Is A Battlefield - Amity Affliction



Love Is A Battlefield - Pat Benatar

I Dream Of Plastic...

Space, Ibiza. The 29th September saw the closing party for their Wednesday night extravanganza.. a night that houses one of the more 'edgy' (for want of a better word) and underground nights in Ibiza.

Kehakuma was sick. Our flight was 10am on the morning after, I think the event went on to 7 or 8 in the morning... We left at around 5.30, but boy did I want to stay - regardless of whether I missed my flight and despite the fact I had literally no money left and would have in a very, very bad situation had I missed that EasyJet plane back to gloomy London.

At 5am Seth Troxler and Guy Gerber got behind the decks. And they were the main reason I didn't want to leave.

As soon as they stepped up I was hooked, but when they played this... I was glued to the dancefloor - well, dancing, but unable to leave.

It's another track that I've always been able to recognise as one that I liked a lot but, again, never knew the name of.

Fortunately I do now and my life is a little better for it.

Jaydee - Plastic Dreams



And here are the guys themselves playing the track that very same night I was there. Memories that I hope will never ever leave me.

Guy Gerber & Seth Troxler: Kehakuma Closing Party@Space, Ibiza - 29/09/2010

Shoulda Stayed At Home Yesterday...

Aside from being a great, great piece of music this 80s gem is about a very emotive subject.

Funny because, as a lot of people comment, it's a happy, bubbly song about something so shockingly evil and tragic.

Odd combination, but I love it to bits.

If you don't know what the subject matter is - Click here for Wikipedia's background on the song and its meaning.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Enola Gay

Rub A Dub Step...

I know Dubstep is a multi-faceted, multi-influenced genre of music that encompasses many different styles and sounds.

BUT...when I think of the term DUBstep - in its original sense - this is what appears in my mind (not this specific track obviously, but this style of music).

Real electronic/digital dub.

Appleblim and Geiom - Shreds

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

ANGRY MUSIC can sooth the mind.

This tune right here is straight up tear out music, designed purely to destroy dancefloors.

Shimon took Capone's Tudor Rose and created a fuckin' beast. It's like throwing an evil genius into a vat of radioactive material.

VICIOUS. Great for that rush hour commute.

Shimon - Tudor Rose (Remix)

Bax Star...

This guy makes some genuinely spine-tingling techno music.

I can't emphasise enough how deeply his music touches me. It's crazy... so minimal, yet so deep.

I guess that's the real beauty of minimal music - it can work in a similar way to horror thrillers that don't actually show everything that happens and leave it to your imagination to work it out, often making it worse.

Minimal music allows you to lose yourself in the spaces that have been left in the sounds.

Blake Baxter, I salute you. 1991...what a year.

Blake Baxter - When A Thought Becomes You



Blake Baxter - Where Is The Love



Blake Baxter - Does Not Compute



Blake Baxter - Get Layed

It's Been A Long Time...

...I shouldn't have left you. But I had to - Ibiza was calling!

What a place, I've wanted to go there for years and I finally made it. It was everything I dreamed of and more.

Now it's back to the gloom of London city.

Here's a classic anthem to brighten up the grey autumn days.

Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way