dc house grooves

finally got round to doing a new mix…it’s been ages since the last one, but I do have a bunch of valid excuses….the main one being that my beloved vestax pmc-250r mixer stopped working about a year ago, forcing me to rescue my old intimidation don mkii mixer from the basement. while the don ii was good in its day, it has no eq and no rotary faders, and the headphone control on my one would only work on full volume, which is not great given that my ears are screwed from too many years of listening to music way too loud! anyway, a couple of weeks ago I found another vestax pmc-250r on ebay, put in a bid and won it. problem is the seller said he hadn’t tested it, and couldn’t guarantee it worked. since they are so hard to find i figured i’d roll the dice. mixer arrived on friday, i plugged it in and fired it up…..of course, it didn’t work. phono 1 channel only in mono. great. next morning i figured i’d get my broken one up from the basement and see if i could work something out. i pulled both mixers apart, and with a bit of trial and error managed to construct a fully working pmc-250r from the good components of both mixers. win! had a word with the ebay seller…he listened to my story and gave me a healthy refund. end result – i’m back in business with my mixer of choice….henceforth to be known as “frankenmixer”.

..but the thing that really persuaded me to get back on the decks was that i went out for the first time in ages last friday. i went down to a night hosted by stranger than paradise down on u street in dc to hear the always fantastic jus-ed on the decks, with support from navbox and rosario (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=272288390289&ref=share).  a fun night in a great space with a decent sound system and a jumping crowd. supposed to be a monthly event, so you could do worse than check it out if you’re in dc. was great to jump around to some quality house tunes, and it inspired me to get my act together and throw down some tunes.

here’s the result…..just over two hours of quality house beats. enjoy.

andy grant – moon bounce (288MB / 127 minutes / 320kbps)

as always, mixed proper old school style with vinyl records (remember them?), 2 x technics 1210 mkii’s, an effects box and a mixer.

track list:

intro: black cock – luna party (excerpt) (black cock)
code 416 – maze (dnh)
mood ii swing – move me (white)
the revenge – night flight (jiscomusic)
ooft! – this sound (instruments of rapture)
cassioware feat. sajaeda – fantasy (herbert’s reality dub) (playhouse)
george t – bass chase (under the counter)
mateo & matos – philly anthem (sozzi edit) (henry street music)
tr – movement (restricted tracks)
kenny hawkes – jet sex (original sex, love + motion mix) (luxury service)
brothers’ vibe feat. krystine walker – natural evolution (experience recordings)
discocaine – house da crowd (movin’) (club dub) (zoom records)
b. mccarthy – .the phantom (original mix) (moody records)
kings of tomorrow – liquid interlude #1 (deep vision records)
bear who? – my thank (fuzzys out the door mix) (camouflage recordings)
frs – love is the message (global cuts)
h foundation – jus dance (hipp-e- quark mix) (camouflage recordings)
tjr – log jamming (catalyst)
braxton holmes & mark grant – the revival (cajual records)
andy Roberts – big daddy beats (kult records)
jark / prongo – shake it (jp records)
david duriez – the banger (under the counter)
heller & farley project – ultra flava (pete’s dub) (UMD)
unknown – deep beats vol. 1 (deep beats)

dude….i’m on a roll today. ok – so not the most imaginatively titled mix, but i was found this one buried deep in my ipod’s file system on a recent plane trip, and it blew me away. definitely one of those mixes for listening to with the lights down low with the headphones on. i can’t remember when i did this one, but i think it was before my move stateside in 2004, on a sunday no doubt. this one gets off too a real slow start with some wonderfully laid back tracks from ymc, justin harris (with a little help from timothy leary), the vogado projects then picks things up and takes you on a jouney. there’s tracks from some quality labels like svek, luxury service, moods & grooves, nrk, 20:20 visi0n…the list goes on. i wish i still had the time to put together mixes like this! you know…maybe i’ll just have to make some time

andy grant – sunday session (103 minutes / 234mb / 320kbps)

lonely satellite – ymc (nite grooves)
justin harris – part of dream (tom bone v.music)
the vogado projects – mas fuerte que el sol (a.t.f.c. summer smoothie mix) (fluid ounce)
chris j. – ritmo (svek)
allen & manoo – the good reason (alternative mix) (basenotic records)
local – deep introspection (luxury service)
ricky suarez – just a groove (nice’n'ripe)
kings of tomorrow – the sway (nrk sound division)
plastic avengers – all i want (nrk sound division)
johnny fiasco & dizzy – bottom’s up (doubledown recordings)
hakan lidbo – orgazmo (moody recordings)
thomas sahs – crunchtime (doubledown recordings)
black music – lost of love (moods & grooves)
the script kiddies – mist (backup records)
dano – do what you want (honchos music)
hakan lidbo – walkaway (20:20 vision unreleased dub two) (estereo)
riviera traxx – you better believe (antima records)
david duriez – re-born (your guide) (gourmet recordings)
h-foundation – new funk theory (soma)

i might as well kick things off with a photo from today’s day out with my son jackson and my parents, who are over visiting from the uk. i took them down to roosevelt island for a walk, and we found a cool path that took us under roosevelt bridge. here’s jackson under roosevelt bridge…looking for treasure apparently.