dc house grooves

Stranger Than Paradise at Jimmy Valentine's

If you’re looking for some house music in Washington DC this coming Saturday night, DC House Grooves recommends that you get yourself down to Jimmy Valentine’s for night of quality tunes from the Stranger Than Paradise crew. I’ve not checked out this venue, but I’ve heard good things about it. I went to the last Stranger Than Paradise in October with DJ Jus-Ed supported by Navbox and Rosario, and had a great time. Quality tunes and a fun crowd.  This coming Saturday they’ve got DJ Leks Vargas (aka Leks The Imposter ) on the decks, with Elisa from New York, and I’m sure it’s going to be a fun night all round. If you make it down there, you may even find me throwing some shapes on the dancefloor, JD and Coke in hand

Stranger Than Paradise Facebook Page

Stranger Than Paradise Web Site

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)

here’s a mix I did back in 2004, originally broadcast live on the planetsoul network. two solid house of qualitydeep house grooves.

andy grant – redshift (115mb / 126 mins / 128kbps)

Tracklist:

porks watch – millions toes interlude (sylvester over’s marion cobra remix) (q-tape records)
plej – blue (a different shade of blue remix by akufen) (exceptional records)
tripmastaz feat. kapa – do u pheel it (grab recordings)
b’n’g – in the distance (greens keepers music)
spirit catcher – hold your tight (missive)
kerrier district – let’s dance and freak (rephlex)
franck roger – there was a child (versatile)
julius papp feat. d’layna – dame mas (harley & muscle deep ride mix) (neodisco music)
rhythm slaves – let your love shine on (rhythm slaves original) (odds and ends music)
natural rhythm – uh oh (amenti music)
panyard – broken heart (halo & jay-j remix) (blüem recordings)
yo yo honey – groove on (m & s epic klub) (worx)
powder productions – chilli sauce (glasgow underground)
unknown artist – oops daisy a (bootleg)
nick holder feat. jemini – no more dating dj’s (john ciafone vocal mix) (nrk sound division)
members only – rubber horn (greens keepers music)
the rhythm slaves – got to get back to you (chocoflash)
jerome sydenham – kryptic beats (ibadan)
hipp-e – rastaman (detour)
roy davis jr. feat. terry dexter – if you wanna (p’taah vocal mix) (ubiquity)
unknown artist – oops daisy (bootleg)
halo & jay-j – like jazz (large)

Enjoy!

Another mix from the DC House Grooves archive….. I am noodling some new mixes right now, but the wheels of creativity move slowly these days. I’ll get there eventually!

In the meantime, here’s a mix from 2004 just before I moved to the US: Moving House.

Here’s what I wrote about the mix when it was originally posted on Deeprhythms.com:

“In May I’ll be moving permanently to my wife’s home town Washington DC from Edinburgh. Its a big move to make, and a lot of planning has been going into it. A major consideration is shipping the record collection across the Atlantic, and over the last few weeks I’ve been starting to pack up records into boxes, trying to decide what I can live without for the next few months, and what I need to have close at hand!

It was while packing up records that I started working on this mix. I just couldn’t make up my mind what kind of mix to do….then I came across a Columba Corina 2 x 12″ on Defender records from 1997 as I was packing some old records away – an amazing collection of tunes that I’d never used on a mix before, or even heard played by anyone else. I used a couple of tracks from that record as the basis for this mix, and built it up from there, trying to include as wide a variety of styles as possible, while still keeping it deep. Those Columba Corina tracks really stand out for me in this mix, but my favourite track of the bunch in Hot Chix by Mister J. Simply beautiful. Moving house is taking up a lot of my time just now, and I hope that’s what I’ve managed to capture in this mix – truly moving house.”

Andy Grant – Moving House (161 MB / 71 mins / 320kbps)

Tracklist:

00.00 Nubian Mindz feat. KJ – Dreaming (IRMA Records / 2003)
04.48 Patchworks – Millions Toes Interlude (Q-Tape Records / 2004)
06.18 Todd Terry- The Music (Dub Mix) (TNT Records / 1994?)
09.52 Columba Carina – Sun-Flowerz (Defender / 1997)
14.26 Andy Roberts- Around the Corner (Penetrate Records / 1999?)
19.48 The Rurals – Messages (Peng / 2002)
27.30 Columba Carina – Silver City (Defender / 1997)
33.05 Solid Gold Playaz – Shhh (Quiet) (Silver Network / 2003)
37.23 Alex Kid with Lissette Alea – Come with Me (F Communications 2003)
42.23 Mister J – Hot Chix (Missive / 2003)
47.00 Peaches – Passin Me Byte (Guided Methods Remix) (Peaches Music / 2003)
52.52 Glenn Underground – Trust (Underground Vocal) (Large / 2004)
62.10 Dirty Jesus- Cut a Rug (Jazz Dat Ride Mix) (Paper Recordings / 1996)

Watch this space for Moving House II, which I’ll post later in the weekend.