Check out exclusive interviews and mixes with our favourite labels, dj's, producers and promoters, along with event previews and articles about the things we love!
With less than a month until East Project are back on the London dancefloors with our 5th October event featuring Russ Yallop, George Smeddles and Matt Fear, we thought we would share another promo mix from one of our local guest DJs, this time in the form of London due ESEE FREE...
Having featured on our EP Friends Vol6 EP with tech house monster "Yo Body", we thought why not invite them along to show us what they are made of behind the decks and in order to get us in the mood, they kindly offered to record a 75 minute mix of underground house and tech house gems and answer a few questions... Enjoy!!
Tell us who you are and what you are up?
We are Esee Free a DJ/production duo from South East London. Currently working on lots of bits at the moment. Most recently we had tracks out with Dope Coded Tech, Lefty Shades and have a track out at the end of August on our label Noise Vandals as part of the Summer VA 2018.
Who is the present DJ who you are looking up to at present?
Shane: Eli Brown – he is just consistently making good music
with rumbling basslines!
Alfie: For me, if I’m honest there are too many to just name
one but I really like what Brett Gould is doing at the moment.
Are you looking forward to East Project, what can we expect
from an Esse Free set?
Buzzing to be joining such a sick line-up! We have some
wicked new unreleased bits and of course we will be bringing down some naughty
tech house rollers with some catchy vocals for good measure.
You have recently had a release on the label, what have you
got scheduled for the rest of the year?
We have just finished a remix for Konvic which will be out
on Deep Down Dirty later in the year and loads of bits in the pipeline so keep
your eyes and ears open.
Finally… Name a guilty pleasure CD you own?
Alfie: I love a bit of Queen in particular Bohemian Rhapsody
Shane: Alanis Morissette, the jagged little pill album
Tell us who you are and what you are up to at the moment…
My name is Scott page, I go by PAGIEYOURBOY when DJing. I’ve
been DJing for 10 months, started off as a hobby and then got asked to play a
night in my home town of Southend called STRUT and now I’m one of their
residents and I’m trying my hand at producing as well.
If you pick one DJ to go b2b with, who would it be and why?
If I could go B2B with one DJ it would have to be Jamie
Jones… my reason for this is because I saw him a paradise in Brixton and his
mixing blew me away. The energy that he
gives off and the way he plays the music he loves, knowing that it’s going to
the crowd on a wicked musical journey.
Any club in the world to play at and why?
The one club I would love to play in the world would be
DC-10 on the terrace, it gives the most amazing feeling and energy the minute u
walk in and it is massively known throughout the world for having the sickest
DJs and 2 of the best nights in Ibiza.
Are you looking forward to East Project?What have you got in store for us?
I am buzzing about playing for East Project on the 5th ofOctober and hope to impress them so much that they have me at more of their
events. I’m hoping to bring some absolute bangers that no one has heard and
blow the roof off the place with my craziness and energy throughout my set.
If you were stranded on a dessert island and could only take
one album, what would it be and why?
I don’t have a specific album but it would have to be most
of Kerri Chandler’s tunes, as he hits nearly all genres of music from house to
jazz. The man is a wizard in the studio, producing banger after banger.
You can catch PAGIEYOURBOY playing for East Project on Friday 5th October in London:
Hi, we are Arkane, a production & DJ duo from
Birmingham, UK!
You're up-and-coming on the Birmingham scene...What are the best clubs and events to get
your underground house and techno fix?
Being up & coming we’ve been really lucky... we’ve been
asked to play some real nice parties in Birmingham. We actually formed as a duo
when we were put as a B2B at our residency party ‘District’. This event is one of the best brands to be involved in if you’re up &
coming or even established. It’s gone from strength to strength. There’s no
rules... as long as the BPMs rising & the dance floors popping, everyone
involved is happy.
Another event is ‘The Acid Experiment’. A good mate of ours
Ben Price actually got featured on Dance Trippin TV with a set at this event.
‘The Acid Experiment’ was born in Birmingham & is now a major part in the
rave scene here.
An after party called ‘Afta Dark’, started up by the
best promoters & events organisers in 0121 has taken the city by storm.
Again, we’ve been lucky enough to play this. 3:30am - 9:00am, Brum turns into
Ibiza, seeing the sun rise up through the green house ceiling.
All of these
events are held at the HUB of Birmingham’s rave scene... Lab 11, our favourite
venue.
Who have been your biggest influences production wise?
It’s hard to point out biggest influences because there’s
literally that many! If we had to pick we would say, Micheal Bibi, Hector
Couto, Archie Hamilton, Klangkuenstler. The vibe these guys' tracks create when you drop one is
insane & that’s exactly what kind of effect we wanted to have on people.
What do you have lined up for 2018?
It’s been a good year so far for us being up & coming.
We’ve played some mad parties & we’ve got some more coming up! 12th May
we were involved in a DJ soundclash at Starworks in Wolverhampton. This was fun, all the local DJs battling it out to see who’s the champion
underground selector.
19th May we took over Lab11 with District once again,
then into June. And on the 15th June we play Basement 77, an underground house
& techno night at Suki 10c Birmingham. Then the big one... we’re playing a
7 day tour of Gran Canaria with Dimensions. Playing 5 bars & 2 clubs.
If you were stranded on a dessert island and could only take
one album with you. What would this be?
Tom – I’d take 50 Cent ‘Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. I love my
house & tech but I love my hip hop just as much & when it comes to finding
a go to album to whack on without skipping any tunes, it’s got to be this!
Arron - For my album. Chase & Status - Brand New
Machine. There’s something about this album that just makes me realise how
great it is to be alive. My go to album would make me wana live for the moment
& that’s what it’s all about!
Are you boys heading to any festivals or Ibiza over the
summer. Who are you looking forward to seeing?
We’re actually off to Music On in Amsterdam in a couple of
weeks time, we’re buzzing for that! Hector Couto, Marco Carola, The Martinez
Brothers, Claude VonStroke, Loco Dice. they’re just a few that we’re buzzing to
see!
The "Filthy French & This.Is.Sally - Haze" EP is out now on Beatport, so we thought we would have a little catch up with our French buddies FILTHY FRENCH! Give us a bit of history behind this collaboration with This.Is.Sally…
We met This.Is.Sally randomly chatting online back in 2015. We seemed to have a lot in common so one day he flew from Stockholm to meet up and work on some music. We ended up spending the whole weekend in lock down mode in the studio and what came out of it was the title track of our Haze EP. We thought that collaboration was so special that we should each give it our own personal interpretation, hence the final package coming with “auto remixes” so to speak.
Last year you had a track called “Chirp”
released on Dirtybird…How did that come
about?
That's a pretty funny story actually… at
the beginning of last year, we started going through all the unreleased demos
that accumulated in the back end of our SoundCloud account that we’d forgotten
about. When playing Chirp, we realised that track had Dirtybird written all
over it so we sent it as a demo to the label.
A few weeks later we received an
email saying that Claude Vonstroke wanted to play it in his Birdhouse podcast,
and asked about a better quality version. Right at that moment, the computer
where the project was stored started playing up horribly and it was almost
impossible to make any changes to the track without it crashing...we were
nervous about missing our shot but Claude played the demo version anyways,
thinking it was signed elsewhere (he even says in the podcast it’s released on
“Funky”, not sure where this came from…). We were determined to sign this track
to Dirtybird so we hustled with the computer for a few weeks until the track
was finally ready. We sent the track back to the label and they replied asking
for a second track for a release on the Birdfeed channel. We made the second
track “Dirty Disco Bitch” in less than a week and the 2-track EP was released a
few weeks later.
What other releases do you have lined up
for 2018?
We have 2 EPs coming out in June. The first
one will be out on Lame Digital, alongside a banging Nick Olivetti remix, and
the second one will be released as a single on Canadian imprint BADLQQK.
Tell us about your new podcast… “Filthcast”
The Filthcast is basically a place where we
throw all the jams we're feeling at the moment, as well as unreleased from us
and forthcoming records. We meant to do that for a long time but laziness got
the better part of us...
Finally, feel free to plug anything else
you are up to this year or any DJ/production buddies we should be looking out
for…
In terms of DJing, we'll be playing a
showcase for a HiFi speaker brand called Dali in May in Paris. We will also
throw some beats at the Fête de la Musique in June in Paris. It's basically a
day in the year where all musicians and performers are free to play in the
streets, pretty good fun! Finally, we're pinning down a date to come and play
in Italy with the Ciao Recs family in September.
With only a few weeks until we start up our East Project parties again in London, we thought we would introduce to the world a new up-and-coming DJ, who we think has got what it takes to make it in this crazy underground dance music industry of ours... Introducing Josh Ramadan!!
Please introduce yourself...
Hi Josh Ramadan here from Essex.
Tell us about your mix for the DEEP:TECH and East Project Radio show and how you
decided to approach it? What was the
aim?
I decided to go a bit slower and deeper
with this latest mix. I wanted to keep it deep tech/tech house and the aim was
to take the listener on a journey.
That’s correct can’t wait for it! I have a
few bangers lined up that I’ve wanted to play for a while all of which will
help get the party off to a flying start.
Are you into producing as well as
DJing? If not, is it an area you would
like to get into?
I am producing also I would say currently
I’m in the learning phase at the moment. My aim for 2018 is to have a number of
tracks completed with the potential of releasing them on a label.
Who are your big influences musically?
My biggest influences would have to be the
likes of Carl cox, Adam beyer and Richy Ahmed as all of them worked their way
up from nothing to where they are today. This encourages me to do the same in
the future.
Hi Sam. We featured you on the blog last
summer when you recorded a mix for our EP Podcast series and just after you
joined the team as A&R…How has the
past 9 months or so been for you working with us?
It is crazy that it has been that long
because it feels nowhere near that. It has been an absolute blast I feel I have
really broadened my horizons with joining the label team, especially when East
Project was where it all began for me in terms of my first gig so it’s great to
be working more closely in growing the label.
There has been a real buzz about the label
lately and so many great upcoming talent releasing with us. The likes of Ben
Sterling, K&K and Louis Robinson all happy to release on label has really
helped and happy to say I was able to get them on board! A special mention to
Tom Laidlaw as well who got in contact with me and released his first EP with
us.
The biggest thing for me was helping
artists that are trying to break through in this industry because I have been
there myself and it is seriously the most rewarding feeling I have had by
helping someone else.
With a really successful first release for
2018, there is a real sense that this could be a big year for the label, why do
you think that is?
I think it is a combination of things. As a
team me, Ben and Adam always work hard to brainstorm releases and who we can
bring onto the label to help grow it. We always post a lot on socials as well.
Another thing is our attitude with no egos, it is always about the quality of
the music not the stature of the artist. If a producer has 0 followers on Soundcloud
but their music is spot on for the label we will release it. Same goes if an
artist has 10,000 followers but music doesn’t suit our sound then we won’t.
We also don’t have a fixed kind of sound,
we release what we think sounds good, whether that’s minimal, deep house, tech
house, techno etc if we like it we will release it. Then to round it off we
have had so much support from Lindsey Matthews, Billy Rath, Ying Yang, Jo
Poole, Matt Fear…. The list goes on. Without support there wouldn’t be so much
hype around the label.
When you are out looking for new music or
if anyone sends you a promo, what do they need to do to catch your attention?
I feel that approaching me in a kind
genuine way is the best way. I don’t need anything specific, just you know a
simple hello and little intro goes a long and a polite please and thank you.
Manners go a long way for me. In terms of what I want to hear is always
something different for example with Tom Laidlaw’s Jungle Move EP he had
samples from a rainforest, which I thought was so cool and the groove of the
track was perfect.
Are you looking for anything specific from
a track/artists?
It has to sound clean. I feel a lot of
artists sound clips that haven’t mixed down their tracks properly are
presenting themselves in a bad way. A master isn’t crucial but a clean sounding
well layered track is!
Looking at this upcoming EP from Billy Rath
and specifically your remix of lead track “Cuerno”, what were you hoping to
achieve with your version of the original?
When I got the parts, the vocal was a big
factor for me. So when writing the track I based it around that and made a hook.
I wanted to make something that had groove and energy with progression with a
deep bass and that’s how it ended. Did it come out as planned? Yeah, I was
really happy with how it turned out always want my productions to be as perfect
as possible!
Finally, feel free to use this question as
your chance to promote the DJs, producers, events that you are really feeling
at the moment!
Ok! I feel Jacky deserves a mention! I have
known him for some time now and he is taking his Jacky & Friends brand to
Fabric! Which is huge for him. From being a part time DJ when I met him to
where he is now is a perfect testament to hard work and dedication. Also,
George Privatti for me is an unsung hero from Elrow. His productions have been
solid lately and his December 2017 set over on Soundcloud is full of so many
heavy tracks that make you wanna dance.
We've had a quick catch up with Rough Cut and Tebah to talk about their remix of Matt Fear's "Absolute Terrace"...
You’ve worked together previously, so how
did you work on this remix for Absolute Terrace?
ROUGH CUT– Tebah (Max) is a good friend of
ours and he has been doing our mastering for the label since we started. We’ve always like working with Max, in fact we
just had another release with him before Christmas on Dog Records under his
other Alias NoShame. For this remix I
sent to Max an idea and we just played around with it and got it done.
TEBAH – Yeah, I’ve worked with Adam for a
few years, mastering and we’ve done some songs in partnership. I was very happy with the invitation to work
on this particular song because I’ve always liked Matt Fear's releases. It was very satisfying!
Did you always plan for the remix to come
out sounding uplifting?
RC – Yes this was the idea, we just played
with that and went for it. Very happy with the end result…
TEBAH – Yes, I really love make music in
this way!
What benefits do you find of working with
others on productions?
RC – It’s always good doing collabs with
other artists. You think you have a
sound in mind and once you both have worked on the track, it will normally go
off in a completely different direction. Working with people with different sounds has
this effect and pushes you as an artist.
TEBAH – For each new song, it raises new
ideas and learnings.It’s always a good
idea to unite the best qualities of each one.
Do you have anything else planned together
coming up in the future and what else can we expect from you separately in
2018?
RC – Not currently, but it’s always fun
working with Tebah or on his other project NoShame. But no doubt there will be something new
started very soon.At moment myself and Bren
are both dads and this does not give us as much time as we are used to in the
studio.
We’re finishing up an EP for Runnin Wild –
Bubba’s label. So really can’t wait for
this, been following this label from the beginning, so really excited now to be
working on an EP for them.
TEBAH – Every year we release something
together, so there will certainly be more musical collaboration between us. This year I reactivated my project called
"Tebah" that was stopped in 2017, next to that, I will become a
father and certainly new energies will bring a lot of inspiration to new songs
and I intend to make this year one of the best I have ever had in all aspects.
Finally, where are your absolute best
terrace venues for partying or DJing?
RC – Well DC10 sticks out, but always love
partying in Amnesia!
