:: Moby Magic ::

Some great feedback as always for the tunes I push out on the FIRE evening session. This week, the 9pm mash-up featured electro versions of Timbaland, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera and Eurythmics! The guest mix came from fellow baldy-man Moby. Nice!

Here's my playlist:

Guru Josh Project 'Infinity 2008'

Stockholm Syndrome 'Make You Whole'

Liquid Nation ft. Andrea Britton 'Breathe Life'

Eric Prydz 'Pjanoo' (Alex Astero & Evan Sax Mix)

Marc Evans 'Reach Out'

Jon Cutler 'It's Yours'

Damian Wilson 'Take Me Away'

Hybrid 'Finished Symphony' (Deadmau5 Remix)

Energy 52 'Cafe Del Mar 08' (Dar Bruck & Klein Mix)

Timbaland 'Feel Electro' (Bootleg)

Coldplay 'Viva La Vida' (Bootleg)

Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' (Bootleg)

Christina Aguilera 'Dirty' (Bootleg)

Snap 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' (Tom Novy Remix)

Deadmau5 'Bye Friend'

Daft Punk 'Harder Better Faster Stronger' (Deadmau5 Mix)

Herve 'Cheap Thrills' (Armand Van Helden Remix)

Fake Blood 'Mars'

Point A. vs. Luke Dubyah 'Floordance'

Simian Mobile Disco 'Hustler'

+ Moby Guest Mix

Got to get up early on Sunday to cover the weekend breakfast show for Daniel 'BH' Baker. Eeek!

Catchyalata.

:: Tunes On Tuesday ::

Last night was a cracker of a show with masses of texts and calls to the studio. Thanks for getting involved. Lots of newbies last night and quite a few 'freshers' arriving in Bournemouth for their new University studies. Welcome!

Gonna be DJ'ing the big 'freshers' house night Espionage at The Old Firestation next Monday 29th Sept. Paul Wilkins (Hed Kandi) will be headlining and it's set to be another superb night of quality house tunes, a cool crowd, in a superb venue. Find me upstairs playing twisted house, so come and say hello.

As promised, here's last night's playlist. Catchya next week.

Guru Josh Project 'Infinity 2008' (Klass Vocal Remix) (Maelstrom)
Buzz Junkies ft. Alison Limerick 'Where Love Lives 08' (Buzz Junkies Club Mix) (AATW)
Anastacia 'I Can Feel You' (Max Sanna & Steve Pitron Remix) (Mercury)
Liquid Nation ft. Andrea Britton 'Breathe Life' (Chris Ortega & Thomas Gold Remix) (Hit!)
Moby 'Disco Lies' (Freemasons Remix) (Mute)
Louie Vega & Jay Sinister Sealee ft. Julie McKnight 'Diamond Life' (Defected)
Marc Evans 'Reach Out For Love' (ATFC Remix) (Defected)
ATFC 'Juss A Beat' (Defected)
Denis The Menace & Big World pres. Phillip Van Het Veld 'Show Me A Reason' (Tuna)
Greg Stainer 'Long Verb' (Kinky Malinki)
Delerium ft. Sarah McLachlan 'Silence o8' (Thomas Gold Remix) (Nettwerk)
Energy 52 'Cafe Del Mar' (Dah Bruck & Klein Remix) (AATW)
Picotto vs. Papini 'Gonna Get Ya (Big In Ibiza)
Fake Blood 'Mars' (Original) (Southern Fried)
Phonat 'Learn To Recycle' (On The Floor Remix) (MoFo HiFi)
Stockholm Syndrome 'Make You Whole' (Club Mix) (Super-Superb)
The Drill 'Piano Man' (Destined)
Richard Grey 'Warped Bass' (SS Remix) (Tiger)
Blendbrank 'Synthetic Symphony' (Global Underground)
UHM 'Our House' (SS Mash Up) (Secure)
Bart Claussen 'First Light' (White Label)
DJ Kit & Alex Nevsky 'Zombie Nation' (White Label)

:: iPhone baby! ::

I wonder if you can help me? I'm looking for a country in the world where it would be legal for me to marry my new iPhone!? I lurv it! Apple you are amazing!

I've been using Mac stuff since the IIci and continue to be amazed at the genius devices, interfaces and cool ideas that continually eminate from Apple HQ in Cupertino, California, USA. Johnny Ive should be knighted by the Queen. Nuff said.

As far as tunage goes, lots of 'Back for 08' material on the show next week, so join me on FIRE 107.6FM from 8pm, Tuesday night for your weekly dose of house, electro, beats, bleeps and tasty remixes. Listen online at: fireradio.co.uk

:: Herd it on the grapevine ::

This week's show featured a mix of new tunes, a modern classic, a couple of remixes and a brilliant special guest!

I was joined last night by Jason Herd, who is probably best known for being one-half of Herd & Fitz. However, it was clear from chattting to him that his future collaborations and signings on his own label 'J-Funk', mean that he's progressed far beyond his J-Soul days and earlier releases. The latest release 'The Right Way' sees him teaming up with Wawa and the superb vocal talents of Amanda Wilson.


This was only surpassed on the show last night by Jason giving us a sneaky listen to his 21st release 'Greenlight', which he's created with Pure Fire favourite Ben Macklin, and vocalist Steve Edwards. Quite a line up of tunes and quite a guest. We topped this off as usual by letting Jason loose on the FIRE airwaves for an hours guest mix. Pure quality for Tuesday night.

The playlist was a follows:
Guru Josh Project 'Infinity 08' (Klass Edit) ( Maelstrom)
Axwell & Bob Sinclar 'What A Wonderful World' (EDX Vocal Mix) (Defected)
Greg Stainer 'Long Verb' (Kinky Malinki)
Buzz Junkies ft. Alison Limerick 'Where Love Lives 08' (AATW)
Liquid Nation ft. Andrea Britton 'Breathe Life' (Chris Ortega & Thomas Gold Remix) (Hit!)
Damian Wilson ft. Anne Bailey 'Take Me Away' (DONS vs. DBN Remix) (Cr2)
Energy 52 'Cafe Del Mar 08' (Da Bruck & Klein Remix) (AATW)
Prok & Fitch 'New Wave' (Pure Fire Radio Edit) (Stealth)
The Drill 'Piano Man' (Destined)
Herd & Fitz ft. Abigail Bailey 'Just Can't Get Enough' (J-Funk)
Wawa & Herd ft. Amanda Wilson 'The Right Way' (Chris Ortega Remix) (J-Funk)
Jason Herd & Ben Macklin ft. Steve Edwards 'Greenlight' (J-Funk)
Moby 'Disco Lies' (Freemasons Remix) (Mute)
Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk 'Love Can't Turn Around 08' (Backyard)
Fake Blood 'Mars' (Southern Fried)
Phonat 'Learn To Recycle' (On The Floor Mix) (MoFo HiFi)
Stockholm Syndrome 'Make You Whole' (2008 Remix) (Super-Superb)
Picotto vs. Papini 'Gonna Get Ya (Chris MiMo Mix) (Big In Ibiza)
+
Guest Mix by Jason Herd.

Back next week for some more house, electro, beats, bleeps and remixes. Bye.

:: Breathe Life ::

I've been playing this for a while now, but have decided to blog about it in time for the weekend because it's been released for public consumption today. Liquid Nation (aka the Bassmonkeys) have come out with a real commercial dance tune, with a catchy vocal from Andrea Britton and a superb remix from Chris Ortega & Thomas Gold. Already sounding good on my radio shows and getting great reaction on the dancefloor it's available for download here.

Have a great weekend peeps.

:: Pure Fire / Mark Knight Guest Mix ::

Once again a stack of new tunes for you on my show last night, plus a great guest mix from Toolroom boss and tune wizard Mark Knight. Here's last night's playlist:

Soul Buddha ft. Lisa Millett 'Realize' (Vision Factory Remix) (Just For Fun)
Moby 'Disco Lies' (Freemasons Mix) (Mute)
Montanas & Roland Clark 'Music Talking' (Defected)
The Young Punx 'Fire' (Solitaire Remix) (MoFoHiFi)
The Drill 'Piano Man' (Destined)
Fake Blood 'Mars' (Cheap Thrills)
The Presets 'Talk Like That' (Dave Spoon Mix) (Modular)
Greg Stainer 'Long Verb' (Original Mix) (Kinky Malinki)
Energy 52 'Cafe Del Mar' (Out Of Office Remix) (AATW)
Phunk Investigation 'Your Love' (Absolutely)
Fanatix 'Call On Me' (Hed Kandi)
Ron Geffer 'Your Beat Sounds Like' (Hed Kandi)
Steve Mac 'Paddy's Revenge' (12" Club Mix) (3 Beat Blue)
Laidback Luke vs. The Korgis 'Need Your Lovin' (White Label)
Mason 'Quarter' (Original Mix) (Vendetta)
Erika Jayne 'Rollercoaster' (Mark Knight Remix) (Toolroom)
Blendbrank - Synthetic Symphony (Deadmau5 Remix) (Stealth)
Delerium ft. Sarah McLachlan 'Silence 08' (Niels van Gogh vs. Thomas Gold Remix) (Nettwerk)
Mike Di Scala & Colin Airey 'Space & Time' (Deadmau5 Vocal Remix) (3 Beat Blue)
LRD vs. Ce Ce Peniston 'Finally Jacques Your Body' (Mashed by The Mixbuster) (http://www.mixbuster.com/)

The very talented James Herkes is covering my show whilst I'm covering the Drive Time slot on FIRE. Count the number of Laidback Luke tunes he drops. I bet you he hits double figures! Ha!

:: Dave Spoon on FIRE ::

We keep smacking you around the head with the big name DJ's and producers on FIRE 107.6FM! This week's hard-hitting house hero was local-ish lad Dave Spoon. His current mix CD for Toolroom is fantastic and we managed a signed copy giveaway on my show last night, as well as broadcasting a 1 hour guest mix.

www.myspace.com/davespoon

Toolroom Knights - www.toolroomrecords.com - is a double mix CD by Dave, featuring quality tunes, brilliantly put together, showcasing some of his own tracks and remixes (88/Baditude/Liability) and other monsters from Toolroom Records (plus some partner labels). Considered to be one of the UK's most exciting new DJ/producers, the guest mix featuerd many of the same tracks and I personally felt it was one of the best we've ever broadcast.

The trouble is keeping this momentum going. I mean who can we get to top the last few guests on my show!? Well you'll just have to wait and see...

:: Prok & Fitch on FIRE ::

This week I hooked up with Prok & Fitch to talk about their new tunes, remixes and label. The boys were hard at work in a studio in Ibiza whilst everyone else was on the beach, but no complaints from Ben or James, as they're clearly both loving the opportunities that they've got going. Plenty of gigs, top quality productions, plus a genuine passion for the music, makes them a popular pair of very talented guys - just ask Roger Sanchez!

Prok & Fitch: Main Room @ The Honey Club, Brighton, UK.

I kicked off Prok & Fitch night on FIRE with their brilliant tune 'Camping' (Stealth). After the interview we featured their new tune 'New Wave' (Stealth), before broadcasting their brilliant guest mix at the end of the evening. It was great to catch up with Ben & James and it was clear that the FIRE audience were thrilled to hear from this dynamic duo. Thanks for your texts and calls.

Check out their label Floorplay and their MySpace page.

:: Laidback Luke on FIRE107.6FM ::

If you missed my radio show last night then shame on you! The extremely talented "thriller from Manila", Laidback Luke, joined me on the phone to discuss his current projects and play some of his latest tunes. He let us into some secrets of his production methods and told us how he originally hooked up with Daft Punk and Steve Angello. He also expalined how he gained his inspiration to create some of the spell-binding remixes we all love so much.

Luke van Scheppingen: aka Laidback Luke

It seems everyone who's into their dance tunes love Luke's work and the phone calls and texts to the studio last night proved what a popular guest for the show he was. Thanks for your feedback. All we need to do now is to get him to Bournemouth to 'Break The House Down'!

Luke's new tune: Laidback Luke & Tom Stephan ft. Romanthony 'Show' is a cracker! Go and buy it now! And look out for his new mix for Steve Angello due to surface any day!

My thanks to Luke for taking the time out to chat and for sharing so much with us.

:: illin' & chillin' ::

The Mixbuster massive went down to sunny Spain for a week of illin' & chillin'. I could show you the delights of Alicante (!) and the beautiful beaches of Calpe and the striking Altea hills, but instead I'm going to show you another in my series of airport terminals (see previous blog entries). You see, the life of a superstar DJ always seem to include ridiculous amounts of time waiting in airport terminals!

Aeropuerto-de-Alicante

Our Spanish break was great, apart from the bad weather (2 half days of sunshine), a lifetime of searching for the villa when we arrived and the freezing cold swimming pool! All the same, I now have a strong desire to turn my back on the UK, buy a villa in Spain and have my recording studio looking out over the mediterranean!

:: Ten out of Ten Velden ::

Previously on the blog I shouted about the great re-working of the Orbital's classic 'Chime' by The Shapeshifters.  Yesterday, those lovely record people at Defected chucked the tasty Martin Ten Velden remix my way.  First rotation was on last night's Pure Fire, before letting rip with it over the weekend.  First UK airplay?  Quite possibly.

Defected have also put together this great video for the original tune.

Enjoy it you Acid House monkeys!

:: 50,000 people used to live here... ::

If you have geek tendencies, or are clued up on your popular culture references, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about if I say:

"Fifty thousand people used to live here - now it's just a ghost town!"

Yes, I have finally succumbed to the 13 year old boy stuck inside my bald head and bought a Playstation 3. Being a complete petrolhead, I've mainly bought the PS3 to race cars (Grid/GT5 Prologue), but I have unsurprisingly been sucked into the world of online gaming and in particular, the awesome 'Call Of Duty 4:Modern Warfare'.

"Oi, have you seen Soap?" "No mate, try the shower!"

A visually stunning first person shoot'em up, that takes you on an intense ride of missions and challenges. The graphics, gameplay, action and plot are all highly convincing and the speed with which the action takes place makes your heart race.

As a complete novice I'm absolutely rubbish, but it doesn't seem to matter in this parallel world of Special Ops and covert missions abroad.  Just sign up as a new recruit, get battling online with your mates, or at home on your own, and blow sh#t up!

:: Shifting Shapes ::

I've now got two new quality productions from The Shapeshifters on heavy rotation. They've brilliantly re-worked the seminal 'Chime' by Orbital, as part of their Treadstone E.P.  I know lots of people may not like the idea of Orbital being tampered with, but I'd rather hear a quality remix of this tune, by quality producers, rather than a half-arsed bootleg of the original 12" matched to a naff drum loop.

The Shapeshifters have also come out with a fantastic remix of Todd Terry's 'Get Down'. I've consistently used the original Kenny Dope mix to warm up an audience, but now Simon & Max breathe a jacking bassline and lots of space into this cracking tune.

Top work fellas.

:: 4 Minutes To Save Pjanoo ::

As featured on tonight's radio show, my latest mash-up is now online for you to grab. Go to the downloads section and help yourself.

Madonna vs. Pryda '4 Minutes To Save Pjanoo' by THE MIXBUSTER.

The brilliant pop partnership of Madonna and Justin Timberlake '4 Minutes To Save The World' meets the epic club anthem 'Pjanoo' from Eric 'Pryda' Prydz. This bootie is already getting a great response from DJ mates and a fantastic dancefloor reaction, so thank you. Download, turn it up, and enjoy!

:: Rickrollerz ::

The Rickrollerz 'Never Gonna Give You Up' (Strangers2Love)

There's an amzing buzz surrounding this remix of the 80's classic 'Never Gonna Give You Up' by ex-tea boy Rick Astley. This was and still is a massive party tune and was undoubtedly ripe for a noughties remix. The whole project apparently came from the internet craze of 'Rick-Rollering', where spam email links take visitors to the original video. The producers apparently got caught up in this craze and decided to re-work this wedding disco favourite. Personally, I don't believe a word of it!

I can't help but think that it's been a genius piece of viral marketing from the record company right from the beginning. PWL (Pete Waterman Limited), created hits for Rick Astley, Mel & Kim, Kylie, Jason, Bananarama, Dear Or Alive etc... and were masters of marketing in their hey-day. For example, in 1987 there was a white label 12" import that was being passed around DJ's and dance music fans of a supposed cool underground track from the USA called 'Roadblock'. It turned out to be the clever little scamps at PWL. Many, many, many people fell for the campaign before the track hit the shops under the group name of SAW (Stock, Aitken and Waterman) and 'Roadblock' became a massive hit for them, just like everything else they touched.

Welcome back Mr. Astley and perhaps I should say welcome back Pete and the PWL hit factory! ;¬)

:: Plastic Bag vs. Paper Bag ::

Charging the public for carrier bags is another example of ill-thought out and ill-advised decision making. Whilst shopping the other day for a lunchtime snack I was charged 10 pence for requiring two small plastic carrier bags to transport my purchases. Being a bloke, I don’t tend to walk about carrying a handbag, or any spare plastic carrier bags! So, chances are I will always have to purchase one when suddenly deciding to buy a snack, or a new shirt! Unless of course I:

a) Keep a plastic bag in my pants for emergency use.
b) Acquire a man-bag/bum-bag/fannypack....
c) Stop shopping completely and survive by eating my own waste.

Whilst I am happy to help attack the huge problem of non-biodegradable plastic carrier bags littering the planet, I fail to see how charging punters is a solution. Surely it would be better to use paper bags!? Paper is bio-degradeable and the bags can be made from already re-cycled paper waste.

John Lennon's inspiration for his 'Plastic Oh No Ban'!

Incensed by this thought and feeling the pain again in my wallet as Gordon Brown (yes, he gets the blame) and the corporate suits steal more of my hard-earned wedge, I went home and hit the web for some answers. It seems that the paper bag manufacturers are quite angry too. See here.

However, it seems that the plastic bag is not really the true villain and that they are more eco-friendly than first thought. See here.

It did occur to me whilst I was in the queue to buy my limp over-priced sandwich, a packet of crisps, a fruit smoothie, a 3 pack of socks and a slice of the most amazing chocolate flapjack in the world, that the packaging enclosing my purchases was far more harmful to the environment than the sodding bags I was about to be charged for!

My whole experience was brilliantly punctuated by a very lad-di-da lady in front of me in the queue, who loaded her shopping into hessian re-useable bags and walked purposefully out of the shop with an air of eco-authority. I followed her with my purchases swinging in my 10 pence plastic bags, thinking about how this whole issue was perfect material for my blog. I then watched as the posh-eco-woman clambered into her Porsche Cayenne (4.8 litre, V8 petrol, averaging 14mpg) and booted it up the high street! Shall I explain it to her, or will you?

:: Intro-Inspection ::

If only you could have seen the huge smile on my face when I played out the brilliant 'Intro-Inspection' by Osymyso on my radio show last night on FIRE 107.6FM. I've wanted to give this incredible production some exposure from when I first picked it up in 2002. Last night, the time was right. The FIRE audience were ready, and wow they really enjoyed it! I was inundated with texts and emails, so thank you if you got in touch.

~

Mark 'Osymyso' Nicholson's creation, 'Intro-Inspection' features 101 intros to popular songs, blended together into the biggest pop quiz challenge you'll ever face! Even though this mix has been around for years, it has really only been DJ's and mix fans that have had the pleasure of enjoying this mind-melting 12 minutes of madness! Being able to share it with the FIRE audience last night was great and made me very happy indeed, as that's what the PURE FIRE slot (from 8pm Mon > Fri) is about and is what makes FIRE unique amongst the blandness of UK radio.

Check out Osymyso's other work on his website. Quirky is probably the best word to describe Mark's work, with his Eastenders creation 'Pat'n'Peg' still one of my all time favourite Osymyso productions. Long may he reign as one of the kings of the pop culture/mash-up scene.

The full tracklisting for Intro-Inspection is here.

:: P...p...p...pick up a penguin ::

I'm not a fan of April Fools gags. Mainly because they're normally rubbish aren't they!? A classic from years ago was when the BBC's Panorama programme duped viewers into believing that spaghetti was harvested from trees. See the clip here. (It really isn't if you're having to think about that.)

This year, the BBC surpassed themselves with the following news bulletin.

I saw this first thing yesterday morning on the BBC News 24 breakfast show and thoroughly enjoyed watching Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams only just managing to maintain their poker faces! The production took weeks of filming, 3d modelling and green-screen wizadry, with the icing on the cake being the cameo role by Terry 'Python' Jones. As spoofs go, it's a classic! See how it was made here.

:: Simon Says ::

Click to Play!

Let's go back to the 80's with this great online version of SIMON. When the original game came out, my school friends at the time enjoyed taking the mickey out of me for having the same name as this bleeping copycat toy. Kids are weird aren't they?

Kid: Err you've got the same name as this game!
Me: So what!
Kid: Yeah but your name is the same!
Me: (Sigh)
Kid: That means you're a 'SIMON'!
Me: (Double Sigh)

Well I guess that's why that individual is digging holes for a living and I'm sat in my luxury beachside apartment, blogging about retro-games, whilst waiting for the limo to take me to the airport, so I can fly to the Miami Winter Music Conference.

Dream on.

I never had a 'SIMON' myself, but I vividly remember playing with one at a party as a kid and completely nailing it. I'd love one now in my studio that I could use to trigger samples. If you're a techy-geek capabable of re-wiring a 'SIMON' to trigger 'midi' signals then drop me a line. I wouldn't mind a Speak 'n' Spell re-wired to say nothing but expletives as well. Ta.

:: Operation Nomenclature ::

Have you ever wondered who dreams up the silly names for Police investigations? You know, like Operation Ramsbottom, Operation Dangleberry or Operation Biffin-Bridge? No I haven't either, but I was very intrigued to find out that the coppers don't all sit in a room and think up the names themselves. Which is a real shame isn't it!?

Bobby 1: Right let's call it 'Operation We Are Gonna Nick You'.
Bobby 2: Nah mate, 'Operation Druggy Scumbag'!
Bobby 3: What about 'Operation Anyone Fancy A Pint'?

Instead, all of the titles come from a pre-approved list.

The list includes names of exotic birds and towns on the South Coast of the UK. Operation Boscombe anyone?


"You pick one off the list," said Bob Cox, the retired head of press with the Metropolitan Police, in a recent interview for the BBC. "The aim is to choose names that are completely neutral so they will hopefully be totally unrelated to the case."

This guy here has bizzarely compiled a list of the names and what that particular operation covered. A very strange thing to create, but quite an intersting read.