DMC World DJ Championships 2008

The other night saw the finals of the DMC World DJ Championships 2008 at IndigO2 in London. I’ll cut straight to the chase…

BATTLE FOR WORLD SUPREMACY RESULTS

1st: Switch (UK)
2nd: DJ Nelson (France)

WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

1st: Kireek (Japan) – 37 points
2nd: Traumateam (France) – 27 points
3rd: Intellivision (Italy) – 11 points
4th: Bionic Stylus Crew (UK) – 9 points
5th: Goldfinger Crew (Spain) – 6 points
6th: Angry Exs (USA) – 5 points
7th: Interplay (Germany) – 4 points
8th: Supa (Portugal) – 3 points

WORLD DJ CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

1st: DJ Fly (France) – 41 points
2nd: DJ Slyce (USA) – 28 points
3rd: DJ Co-Ma (Japan) – 17 points
4th: DJ Skully (UK) – 8 points
5th: DJ Final (Norway) – 6 points
6th: DJ Shub (Canada) – 4 points

So big congrats goes out to the winners; Switch, Kireek and DJ Fly. France has provided team champions before, but was nice to see them cop the individual title and DJ Fly took it by a long shot in the end. More details are available at the DMC World website. Anyway, check some classic DMC action…

mp3: DJ Craze – 1998 World DMC Set

mp3: A-Trak – 1997 World DMC Set

DJ Vadim Diagnosed With Cancer

Yarah Bravo reports via her MySpace page that her husband, DJ Vadim, has been diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer known as Ocular Melanoma / Choroidal Melanoma. This is terrible news and my thoughts go out to both Yarah and Vadim.

There is no easy way of sharing this with you…
so i’ll just go ahead and do it.

Vadim has been diagnosed with Cancer!!!
(If you would like to know more about it, please google it.
As i do not want to delve into it here.
The name is: Ocular Melanoma / choroidal melanoma and
it is a very rare type of cancer)

This has obviously been a shock for all of us.

mp3: DJ Vadim – It’s On

So many times has he had my back and lifted me up when i was down!
And i wish now that we can all do the same for him!

All i am asking from you, is to create a proactive boomerang
….WORLD WIDE and please pray for him! Help him heal!!

Send him all your energy and love, and think intensely about him
surviving, recovering and coming back stronger!!!

Musically he has many more shows to rock, many more albums to finnish.
And so many more adventures to go on…the world needs him!!

Fuck….. i need him!!!

Please take your time out to light him a candle and think
about him in the most positive colorful light….starting NOW!!!
Shower him wit LOVE!!!! Telepathically, spiritually, verbally…in which ever way!!!

Cause we have the power to do so!!

Quotes taken from Yarah’s MySpace journal.

This is truly sad. I’m aware that he went in for surgery in London on Friday and I sincerely hope he recovers both fully and quickly. DJ Vadim was there when I first got into turntablism and he is still here now – the guy is an absolute legend and deserves to fight another day.

Get well soon Vad.

VIDEO: Flying Lotus – Parisian Goldfish

Most Definitely NSFW!

Brand new, pretty much pornographic, video for Flying Lotus‘ track Parisian Goldfish. Any regular readers of this blog will already know of my great love for Flying Lotus and his varied body of aural works, but now we get to enjoy a visual spectacular! The dudes’ face is just priceless! The video is banned from YouTube and pretty much everywhere else except for Dance Floor Dale, which is where the above has been embedded from.

mp3: Flying Lotus – Parisian Goldfish

The track, Parisian Goldfish, is from the recent Flying Lotus debut LP Los Angeles, out now everywhere on Warp Records. Definitely one of the albums of 2008, so don’t sleep on that.

Count Bass D – Robbed Without A Pistol

Dwight’s back, tell a friend! Out of the kindness of his heart Count Bass D has put a high quality (320kbps) instrumental LP on the net for free download. It’s called Robbed Without A Pistol and you can grab it straight from his blog. It’s 30 minutes of pure Count Bass D gold – blending that unique combination of soulful sounds and tight beats, it’ll be on repeat at JLM HQ for some time.

mp3: Count Bass D – Down To Get It

But the fun doesn’t end there, oh no… 14th October sees the release of Count Bass D’s new full LP on 1320 Records called L7 (Mid-Life Crisis). If it is anything remotely similar to pretty much anything Count Bass D has ever released, then it’ll be a winner already. Dwight is on a whole other level with the style of his productions and his lyrical flow – it’s the type of stuff that people (that perhaps missed it at the time) will stumble upon in five years time and say “damn, have you heard how sick this stuff is?”.

Upcoming Live Dates:

Sep 27 2008 – 10:00P – Danny’s Tavern W/ Josh Abrams (DJ) – Chicago, Illinois
Sep 28 2008 – 10:00P – The Hideout – Chicago, Illinois
Oct 25 2008 – 10:00P – Nocturnal – Memphis, Tennessee
Oct 30 2008 – 9:00P – Portland Oregon / TBA – Portland, Oregon
Oct 31 2008 – 7:00P – Stubb’s BBQ W/ STS9 – Austin, Texas
Nov 1 2008 – 7:00P – House Of Blues W/ STS9 – Dallas, Texas
Nov 2 2008 – 8:00P – House Of Blues W/ STS9 – New Orleans, Louisiana
Nov 5 2008 – 7:30P – Lyric Theatre W/ STS9 – Oxford, Mississippi
Nov 6 2008 – 7:30P – War Memorial – W/ STS9 – Nashville, Tennessee
Nov 7 2008 – 7:00P – Alabama Theatre W/ STS9 – Birmingham, Alabama
Nov 8 2008 – 7:00P – Tennessee Theatre W/ STS9 – Knoxville, Tennessee
Nov 9 2008 – 7:00P – Headliners Music Hall W/ STS9 – Louisville, Kentucky
Nov 12 2008 – 7:00P – Charleston Music Hall W/ STS9 – Charleston, South Carolina
Nov 13 2008 – 8:00P – Amos Southend W/ STS9 – Charlotte, North Carolina

Thes One Presents: Funner Than Leather

People Under The Stairs will be releasing Fun DMC, their sixth full LP, on 30th September though the !K7 imprint Gold Dust.

In preparation for the momentous occasion, Thes One – one half of People Under The Stairs – has released a free Fun DMC promo mixtape featuring themselves (obviously) and also artists like Shawn Jackson, Time Machine and Raashan Ahmad. It’s 60 minutes of top beats and freestyle raps, spanning the decades of classic hip-hop beats.

A pretty mean mixtape indeed and interlaced in there are sweet raps and beats from PUTS that have me near enough salivating at the prospect of Fun DMC! Bring on 30th September, but for now let the mixtape tie you over, oh and some classic PUTS…

mp3: People Under The Stairs – E Business

Dusty – Keep It Raw EP

Jazz&Milk label head Dusty has a brand new EP out now on vinyl, and then also out digitally on 1st October – it’s called Keep It Raw, and frankly, it’s immense.

Jazz music has influenced an unfathomable plethora of genres and artists over time, but in recent years – minus straight up contemporary jazz – the influences have been just that… influences, floating somewhere under the track playing second fiddle to a break-beat or hip-hop rhythm. I still haven’t fully consumed the notion, but Dusty has served up something quite intriguing with the Keep It Raw EP on his Jazz&Milk label from Germany. It appears that this EP is jazz, with a modern breakbeat/nu-jazz influence, rather than the (aforementioned) ‘other’ way round.

Tracklisting:

A1. Keep It Raw
A2. Voodoo
B1. Loco Para La Pista
B2. Tap Tap

The first, and title, track Keep It Raw starts with a mean double bass and then some sharp percussion featuring congas. The brass enters along with some vocal samples and then it is straight into the main break. This is infectious and perhaps how one might have liked a modern Miles to sound. A more contemporary sounding breakdown occurs with electronic elements, and then it is straight back into the classic sound. Both elements, contemporary and classic, have been executed in a flawless manner to create a smooth yet raw composition. There are no gimmicks present here whatsoever – this is wholesome stuff that goes far beyond a mere cap-doffing to the school of old. If jazz was ever forced, kicking and screaming, into the twenty first century, then this is how it should be done.

Voodoo is the second track on the EP and gets straight to it with a guitar and samba style beat. This is a builder and adds multiple levels of percussion through out as well as a few samples. The bassoon enters soon after and the beat becomes more frenetic – this could draw comparisons to work by Dr Rubberfunk and perhaps to a lesser extent Mr. Scruff.

mp3: Dusty – Voodoo

Next is Loco Para La Pista, a very upbeat latin affair that would be sure to drive the dance floor wild. This is carnival jazz – a pure culmination of raucous rhythms and hypnotic melodies, accompanied by a deep bassline and a high energy brass ensemble. If this doesn’t get those hips moving then perhaps you are paralysed or something. It’s very evident that this is an extremely well arranged track, all the right sounds are in all the right places – it’s highly energetic and deliberately busy, but no sound engulfs another at the expense of the total composition.

The final track on the EP is Tap Tap. A beautiful blend of keys and clarinet brings us to an electronic bassline and then a tight conga arrangement. This builds up to horn stabs accompanied by a wicked melody and frantic rhythm. The immense clarinet section orchestrates the initial break down before it is laid bare to just a mean drum break and some double bass. Then it is straight back into the full ensemble; congas, double bass, keys, brass, and our good friend the electro bassline. Like the other tracks on the EP, no instrument or sound appears to be out of place – it’s exquisite.

Wow, what an EP! It feels good to be able to confidently report that this will most definitely grab the ears of fans of both jazz-elements and also hardcore jazz afficiendos – and pretty much anyone that falls anywhere in between the two. It certainly bodes very well for the upcoming full LP of the same name, Keep It Raw, due out 25th October on Jazz&Milk.

Those Jazz&Milk dudes are really keeping themselves busy at the moment! Plus right now, for all you creative types, you can design a milk carton design over at the Jazz&Milk website and the best designs will be printed up for the Milk Carton Exhibition as part of the 3-year Jazz&Milk birthday celebrations to be held in Munich on 4th October. Anyway, I’m off to fetch my crayons!