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It occured to me it would be useful to start a list of choice music sites. Here's the first bit:

www.Wefunkradio.com
www.Blentwell.com
www.Betalounge.com
www.Collins303.co.uk
www.Odeo.com/audio
www.Earskills.net
www.boogieburg.com/
www.beatsinspace.net/
www.novaplanet.com/radio-nova
www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel/
www.totallyradio.com
www.mpiii.com/
www.konstantkontact.com
elbo.ws
www.boomkat.com

Come to think of it I think I did this a few months ago...

For those of you who have shared the fun of Stokefest with us over the last few years, especially those of you clustered up in the Stokey I have BIG NEWS!

This year we bring you Rampant Stokesfest on Sunday June 10th which is our killer after party for Stokefest. You probably already know it's a top day out - check www.stokefest.co.uk.

Our do starts at 6pm at the 'Londesborough' on Barbauld Road. For those that haven't been up there for a Sunday roast over the past couple of years, its a cool pub/bar with a beer garden, high ceilings, funky decor and decent drinks, it's is close to Clissold Park on Barbauld Road. Check out the location on Google maps.

I'll be DJing alongside other Rampant luminaries Jose & the Woo, Nick Rampant & Simon Nash playing a (more chilled than usual) mish mash of party hip-hop, 80's, breaks, bootlegs and a tinge of electro.

Come one, come all. Bring your truck, bring your trailer!

Just got this new one from Anticon mainstay Sole under his mansbestfriend psuedomyn.
I'm not always a fan of Anticon releases but this one juggles ambience and hip hop with some tasty results.
And after the DJ Krush set I witnessed at Koko the other night I'm definately in the mood for some more hip hop soundscapes.
If theres more on this vibe from Anticon in the future I'll be happy indeded.

Mansbestfriend - poly.sci.187

Top blog of raraties for download!
I suggest you get busy


Konstant Kontakt Blog
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This Thursday 8th March @ Big Chill House Kings X
Entry FREE. Just Music, will be hosting their own night at the The Big Chill House this Thursday 8th
March with a magnificant LIVE and FREE line-up....

with
Laroca (Live)
Digitonal (Live)
Echasketch (live)
Jon Hopkins (DJ set)
Honeyroot (DJ Set)

Kicks off 7.30pm

Check out www.rampantdecade.com

Club (entry level) - electro house, minimal techno & breaks:
Kata
Bahy (Sweden)
Nick Rampant
Pixel 82 (Portugal) - live set with visuals
Jose and The Woo

Cocktail Bar (next to shisha lounge, upstairs) - funk, 80's, hip hop and house
Little Red
Colin James
Al Shep
Pants & The Rebel (Stylefree b2b set)
DJ Aztek (Australia)

Rampant 10th Birthday Party @ 7 Middlesex St, E1, Saturday 3rd March, 8.30pm-3am. 5 min walk from Liverpool St tube.

This is a private party and entrance is strictly by guest list - our events are not-for-profit and organised by friends for friends, we simply ask for a £3 donation to cover the costs of the night (pay on the door).

March 3rd ... keep it free... more details to come.

If your familiar with the always impressive ATP festivals you'll know how luxurious it seems to go to a festival and have your own chalet to crash in even if it is slightly wierd to be mashin it up in a Pontins holiday centre.
well now some bright sparks have put one together on a more electronic and hip hop tip.
Theres some top acts down to play too. The mighty Autchre, Kool Keith, Kut Master Kurt, Bola to name a few.
The three days look top notch!
nice

Bloc Weekend

Big brass hip hop. Top new tune

New HYPNOTIC video for "WAR" on the website

www.hypnoticbrass.blogspot.com

single out January 2007.

...HIP HOP IS DEAD.

Listen if you don't believe me...

http://www.zshare.net/audio/james-brown-40th-anniversary-mix-by-salaam-remi-mp3.html

Rest in peace, James Brown.

Bashed out a little half hour hip hop mix last weekend. Right click and "Save as" on the link below:
Select a plate I'm.

Due to complaints from various people about half an hour being too short I am actually going to tack on another half hour over the coming weekend so stay tuned for the extended edition.

Went to check out AIM at Koko on Wednesday night.The show was kinda like AIM's music in general: moments of brilliance amongst a lot of derivative, pedestrian beats. There was nothing I didn't like about the show but there just wasn't enough that made me really sit up and listen. "Walking through the park", "Northwest" and "Coldwater Music" were wicked though and we got a pretty decent boogie on to those.

Koko is a superb venue but the sound system was a problem on the night. I know AIM's music is supposed to be warm, round and mid to bottom heavy but that doesn't mean the sound guy should just turn the top end off. Due to the massive mid-range bias of the sound system it was pretty hard to differentiate large chunks of the sound from each other which led to many of the tracks sounding quite soupy.

All in all, it was a decent enough gig but not amazing.

Some music reading links:

Boomkat - Reg put me onto this this weekend. The music he has been buying off it was all pretty hot so I have high hopes.
Soulstrut - For the crate diggers
Hype Machine - Music blog aggregator
Earplug - Bi-monthly music mailer for the electronic music community.
Cocaine blunts - Hip hop biz
Blissblog - Haven't quite figured this one out yet.
Pitchfork
Stylus Mag
Benn Loxo
Wefunkradio.com
Blentwell.com
Betalounge.com
Collins303.co.uk
Odeo.com/audio
Earskills.net

Now go do your fuggin research.
A

Been a rather eventful week or two musically. First J5 a couple of weeks back and then Bonobo up at Islington Academy last night which it was amazing, if a little on the short side. Simon played bass through-out alongside a full band. He had a guy on electronics, a dude on drums, another on various saxes, an electric guitarist, an accoustic guitarist, a singer, and a guy on a Nord Electro. They were way tight and at least as good as last time I saw them a couple of years back at some festival.

I am still absolutely loving "Days to Come" and recommend it to anyone who is into the likes of Aim, John Kennedy, Husky Rescue, TM Juke and all that lot. "Days to come" is Bonobo's best effort to date and has a more polished and mature feeling to it than previous albums which, while generally good with moments of excellence, were at times a bit pedestrian. There's a hell of a lot less filler here. I don't want to appear to be writing his old stuff off, though as I am still desperate to get my hands on a copy of the "Scuba EP" which contains Scuba & The Sicilian which are still freakin' amazing 6 years on. They played The Sicilian last night and it went off.

Along similar lines, I picked up AIM's Northwest on ATIC records which is fuggin ace (sample). Love the uplifting organ bass on this one and hope that this track is indicative of the quality of the rest of the album. Other recent vinyl purchases include some Quantic, Kinny and Horne, TM Juke, KRS Jon, Jon Kennedy, Paul Murphy, Public Enemy, De La and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember.

Started digging through the records I don't play at all any more and picked out a bunch to flog to the guys at Beats Working. Got about £30 worth of records in return. This is a major step for me as I have always had a policy of never getting rid of any vinyl which I have decided is retarded as it leads to quantity rather than quality and its quality that counts.

Got another nice chunk of sound from Joe up at Spitalfields the other day and once again he has come through with the goods. Instituto - National Collective is a shit-hot piece of Brazilero funk and hiphop straight outta Sao Paulo. There's some absolutely dope tracks on it and its a welcome addition to the ever growing latin section of my music collection.

OK so despite my complaints I went back up to Spitalfields yesterday and bought more stuff off the guy up there. I've revised my opinion, having had a bit of a chat with Joe, and decided that he's alright after all. He hooked me up with some pretty nice sounds too which always heightens my esteem of someone.

For some reason I've lost my usual aversion to buying CDs and picked up a few lately. This probably has something to do with driving around Spain and Portugal and playing all the CDs I have to death. So yesterdays purchases were in CD format and consisted of Bario Nuevo, a Soul Jazz compilation from 1999 that includes some old favourites from the likes of War, Mandrill and the Chakachas and some killer tracks that I haven't heard before. Along with that I also grabbed a copy of Percussion Maddness by Luisito Quintero, parts of which venture into smooth, loungey latin house territory that makes me a little uncomfortable (not surprising considering it's produced by Louie Vega).Despite this fact, the percussion work on the entire album is phenomenal and putting up with the housey bits is worth it for the stand-out tracks like Acid which couples a heavy Latin bass groove with intense, rock solid percussion and confident, searing horn lines. Niiiice.

Right, fuck this; I'm off to Carnival.