right-click on the title and save as to download
Click to go to the I Love Hard Beats 2 interview!
Mixed in London, June 2012
(58:37, 134 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Large cover
Cue file
Zip pack (split into separate tracks)
Style: Classic freeform hardcore
The one and only Girdler Synthetic is back with another awesome hard trance tribute mix, this time to the amazing Pendragon and Escape From Samsara club nights that were such a big part of the London scene back in the day. Check it out!
Yes, it’s that time again!
I’m back on Freeformaniacs this Thursday, where I will be very proudly premiering Rampage Turbo 12, which I whacked together in one frenzied hour of high BPM mania over the weekend (of course, being over thirty and a middle-class family man, I made sure to do so while my wife was out with my daughter at Gymboree, natch). The mix goes from M-Zone’s magical trancer Subsonic Mass to DJ Eclipse’s gabbatastic Energize in just under an hour … reach for the lasers territory, for real.
If you’re interested in my mix from the last round of Freeformaniacs, go grab Rampage Turbo 11, and you can grab the rest of the Round 3 mixes from the Freeform Forum here. To grab the Round 4 downloads (or at least some of them), go here. I’m going to try to have Rampage Turbo 12 up for download here by the end of the weekend, but no promises!
As ever, the show will be kicking off on Krafty Radio at 10am on Thursday morning.
In other Freeformaniacs news, the Freeformaniacs album Freeformatted is now available for free download from the Ruff Beatz site – check it out here.
Enjoy!
The first incarnation of Elite Records … Jay Burgess at the far right
I love vinyl, always have, and I’ve always been a fan of record shops. In my teens and early 20’s I whiled away many happy hours in record shops digging through crates, listening to new tunes, and chatting with the guys behind the counter (see my discussion of record-buying memories here for more on that topic). Sadly, over time I have had less time and less disposable income to devote to record shopping, so to the extent that I still buy vinyl it is mostly online, and predominantly through Discogs.
One of my favorite record stores back in the day was Elite Records in Victoria, which I used to frequent for its excellent selection of new and back catalogue freeform hardcore, hard house, and hard trance, as well as for the laid-back vibe that was fostered by the two guys who ran the shop, Mike and Jay. Elite was open from 1996 to 2002, and was set up by Jason Burgess (aka Equinox) from Bromley, South-East London. As someone who spent many a pleasant afternoon at Elite (as well as a very healthy sum of money!), I thought it might be interesting to catch up with Jay about what it was like to run a specialist dance record store in the 90’s/00’s, back in the days when vinyl ruled the roost, way before digital downloads became the de facto standard for club dj’s. Happily, Jay has agreed to answer my questions, so read on for a fascinating insight into the ways of the old skool record shop:
(Obligatory internal marketing pitch! Check out some of Equinox’s tracks on my mixes Dreadnaut, Twist & Shake, and The One Last One, as well as on Tyssen’s Pendragon Tribute and Girdler Synthetic’s Frantic Classics … ok, you can carry on now)
Pearsall: To start with, when did Elite Records open, and where did the idea to open a record store come from?
Jay Burgess: I opened Elite Records in February 1996, a couple of years after I’d started casually running over the idea. I was a keen record buyer for many years, and, like many, I would do the rounds of various record shops in London and the South each week. I couldn’t walk past a record shop without going in – I’m sure others can relate to that!
Haha, I definitely can!
In essence, I thought having my own shop would be perfect.
Was there any significance to your opening in Pimlico/Victoria, or is that just where you found a space?
Absolutely. I had worked in Victoria for about six years managing a relative’s video rental business when a large chain store opened on the same street. While it wasn’t too damaging, it did make us question the long-term viability with such a rival close by and of course the changing media format at that time. It was decided that the video store was to close which then enabled me to take on the lease of the existing premises. It definitely made the transition more fluid in terms of having to search for the right premises. As much as it was an exciting prospect it was in equal measures a very real and daunting commitment at 21.
(Forgive me the cheesy Lord of the Rings reference, my wife and I spent last weekend re-watching all three movies)
So, as it turns out, I need to clear some room on my server in order to continue serving you up with fresh chunks of delicious, delicious electronic music. Given the huge number of mixes this site now hosts, I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but, well, I was surprised.
Obviously I don’t want to delete any mixes completely, so what I have decided to do is to delete some of the mixes in zip pack form, leaving only the single mp3. I’ve talked before about my preference for listening to split mixes, but a recent Facebook poll I conducted showed that I was pretty much alone on this one. This being the case, I’ve therefore decided to clear out some space by deleting the zip packs that accompany my old Rampage series of mixes. To give those of you who haven’t yet grabbed them a chance to download them, I’m going to keep them up for another two weeks, deleting them at around lunchtime on Sunday the 17th of June. Can’t say fairer than that, right?
Of course, you’ll still be able to get them as individual mp3’s.
Anyways, here are the mixes that I will be removing the zip files from:
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed in London, May 2012
(118:58, 272 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Style: Hard House
Attention budding producers!
Hard house production hero Dom Sweeten (subject of my One True Dominator tribute mix) has just started a production blog called 404 Studio Blog, which will feature tips and tricks for getting the best out of your digital music productions. Worth a look if you’re interested (I’ve always been more interested in being a dj, but I did dabble a bit when I was younger, although it was mostly not very good haha).
In other news, I’ve got some exciting new bits of content to come soon, including a new hard house mix by Girdler Synthetic, and an interview with Jay Equinox, who ran the excellent Elite Records in Victoria for a number of years. Plus I have a bunch of new mixes, and some other exciting news I can’t yet unwrap and share with you all yet until everything is totally confirmed.
Finally, I’m holding a vote for my next acid mix on Facebook. Vote here if you’ve not already done so.
There are three options:
Get voting!
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed on two Technics 1210’s and a Pioneer DJM-600 in London, April 2012
(51:05, 120 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: Dubstep
A few bits of freeform news for you …
First up, those of you who enjoyed Beezee’s recent guest mix, The Canticle of the Monomyth, as reviewed so well on Thank You For The Horse, will be very pleased to know that he has recently posted a new mix, Kali, his contribution to the Freeformaniacs show. Go check it out!
Secondly, the line-up for the second I Love Hard Beats event has been announced. Sadly, I’m not playing, like I had tentatively announced before – in any case, it looks pretty immense – go here to see the line up.
Finally, the man like Shanty has unveiled his newest freeform project – Electrode, which has debuted with a free album called Freeform Exposed. Freeform Exposed is a downloadable three cd set, including two unmixed discs of new and exclusive tracks, as well as a dj mix by Shanty. Each disc will be available in both wav and 320 kbs mp3, and you can head over to the Electronica Exposed site right now to get the dj mix (the unmixed sets are forthcoming). Although free, Shanty has asked for donations to cover the cost of professionally mastering the tunes, so it’s worth sending him some money as a thank you for the album (as well as, more broadly, all the work he has done for the freeform scene over the years). I did!
right-click on the title and save as to download
Mixed on two Technics 1210’s and a Pioneer DJM-600 in London, March 2012
(60:36, 139 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)
Zip pack (cut into individual tracks)
Large cover
Cue file
Style: Freeform Hardcore
