Tag: waffle

I still have a bunch of records!

A few years back I decided I needed to trim down my record collection, for both space and money reasons, so I ended up selling a lot of the tunes I had, across all kinds of different genres (and my Death Sentence mix was even inspired by the selling process).

Since I got it in my head that I needed to be ruthless, part of this process involved getting rid of entire genres’ worth of stuff …

Meaning no more hard house …

No more hard techno …

No more tech-house …

No more electro …

No more breaks …

Some of these decisions I’ve never really regretted (for instance, I’m not particularly bothered about having liquidated my hard house collection), but over time I’ve really come to wish that I hadn’t gotten rid of so many electro, grime, and breaks tunes. Dumb decision!

This is especially so because over the last year or two I’ve gotten quite into the nascent UK Bass scene which has emerged from the confluence of dubstep, UK Funky, grime, and other styles of music. I’ve been dabbling in buying a bit of the stuff (funds allowing, I’m a dad now after all!), which has made the regrets stronger, and I even got to play a set of it at my friend Al’s birthday party last week (grab his great Machines Ate My Vinyl mix if you’ve not got it yet!), which just made the regret stronger.

Having been moodily contemplating this stuff over the last few days, I thought I would chuck up a post on five records that I used to own, sold (often for pretty shitty amounts!), and now wish I still owned. Pheh.

If you love jungle, old skool hardcore, and/or drum n’ bass (and if not, what’s wrong with you?!?!), you simply have to check out Hardscore, DJ Extreme’s site. I heard a few of his mixes via Drum Trip (a good site, too), but had never got around to checking out his own site.

Oh.

My.

God.

It’s the motherfucking mix motherlode. I’ll be grabbing stuff off there for ages to come.

Run, not walk.

(ok, that statement makes no sense on the internet, but you get my drift)

I’ve finally got the decks set up again; between the baby, the new job, and the move back to London I’ve not had much opportunity for mixing recently. Fingers crossed that will be remedied soon!

In the meantime, I’ve got two very different but equally massive guest mixes coming up very soon. First up is another great hard house/hard trance tribute by Tyssen, and then I’ve got a proper head-nodding deep dubstep mix from Brummy dj Audio Addict. Keep your eyes peeled!

Firstly, big up the mighty M-Zone for posting this video. Wow! (That gun-finger guy probably felt super rough the next day!)

Anyways, I’m 30, right. Married, a father, good job. A proper grown-up (more or less).

You would think I would be pretty sensible by now, right? And generally I am. No more three day parties for me!

Even so, sometimes I do things that are just foolish, that betray a real lack of foresight.

Like reading YouTube comments.

I know what you’re thinking … why subject myself to that? Although it is a great service, and a world-changing site, for some reason, YouTube also seems to attract a huge number of sub-literate morons, so reading the comments below most videos is an exercise in masochism.

Anyways, I was reading the comments (because, as mentioned, I’m not always sensible), and I noticed several members of the younger generation complaining that the people in the video weren’t dressed up and weren’t doing cool dancing.

Seriously, kids. What. The. Fuck.

Talk about missing the point, about getting things hopelessly, hopelessly muddled.

Raving was never about dressing up whether in fancy clothes or in neon bollocks with bracelets up to your elbows. It was about going out, dancing, meeting people, and having fun – about not worrying about impressing people or being cool or anything like that.

It’s the same with the dancing – the point was that you didn’t have to be a good dancer, but that you went out, expressed yourself, and had fun. When I spent a couple years back in New York and went out to raves that was one of the things I always noticed – lots of people standing around watching other people dance. That’s not how you do it! Just have fun and enjoy yourself and who cares if you look silly?

Life is long enough that you have many years ahead of you to worry what other people think about you; when you’re young you might as well take advantage of it and go for it.

Kevin Energy, freeform hardcore legend, founder of the Nu Energy Collective, and general shit-hot dj, announced this week that after more than 15 years in the game, he’s going to be closing down his various labels and taking a break from dj-ing. If you’ve enjoyed any of my Rampage Turbo series of freeform hardcore mixes, then you’ll know that this is a sad day for lovers of the harder side of music.

If you’re into the Nu Energy sound, make sure to pre-order My Rave his farewell double mix compilation, on either cd or download. Featuring two mixes, one of new stuff and one of old, it looks frankly amazing.

There’s been a great response to Urban Takedown since I posted it, so I’d like to thank everyone who’s had a listen and left me a good comment on the various message boards I’ve posted it on. Thanks for your kind words, and I’m glad you like the mix! 😀

I’d also like to say a quick thank you to everyone else who has reposted it around the social web, with a very special thank you to Everyday Junglist and Tumblklaat. Cheers guys!