This week I’m gonna drop a great mix from one of the producers featured on the upcoming Bluevibe studio EP, magOwl .

I actually hooked up with magOwl through myspace and asked him to remix one of the new tracks. He’s an amazing Swedish producer who has been in the game for a while and makes some real cutting edge tracks ranging from old skool hiphop to some nasty nasty dubstep bizness.

Make sure you head over to his blog, sowl.org to check out what he’s up to and also check his myspace to grab some of his remix albums including a killer wu-tang mashup.

The new Bluevibe studio EP – This life volume.1 is finally finished and I’ll be uploading some tracks for you all to check out next week so stay tuned for that. In the meantime this mix by magOwl is a killer blend of some classic tracks and unreleased remixes so check it out and let us know what you think.

It’s a blessing to have magOwl remix one of my tracks and I owe him a debt of gratitude. Look out for future collaborations between the Bluevibe studio and magOwl, keepin it deep.

Track list

01-Grantby-Grimble Bullrushes
02-Tommy McCook & The Aggrovators-The Night Rose Of Sherron
03-Rusko-Gone 2 Far
04-Kvartersakuten feat. Sunflake-Striking Distance
05-Masta Ace Inc.-Jeep Ass Niguh
06-Jean Grae-Hater’s Anthem
07-The Reavers-Empire
08-edIT-Ashtray
09-Yusef Lateef-Love Theme From The Robe
10-Phuture Assassins-Before Dawn (4 AM Mix)
11-DJ Zinc-Super Sharp Shooter
12-Ben & The Goodies-Manzara
13-Cimarons-Hear Talk Of Inflation
14-K’Naan-Smile (Live)
15-magOwl vs. Despot-Substance D
16-magOwl vs. Abdominal-Pedal Pusher
17-Qwel and Kip Killagain-Adam and Eve
18-Depth Affect-Junior International
19-Eddie Holman-Four Walls
20-The Chambers Brothers-So Tired
21-Wisp-Beadumægen
22-Hannu-Sumu
23-Venetian Snares-Szamár Madár
24-Johnny Bristol-Woman Woman

If you like the mix please forward it on to some of your friends and spread the magOwl goodness, collaborate and communicate people.

This week I wanted to feature my all time essential radio show which has been broadcasting for over 10 years and is available as a podcast from a huge number of websites, Soul searching, The Compost radio show hosted by Michael Ruetten.

An essential show for lovers of soul, funk, jazz, hiphop, house and pretty much any beat driven genre. The Compost radio show comes straight out of Frankfurt and is always an eclectic blend of genres with weekly special guest mixes. It’s also a great place to hear fresh NZ tracks getting the props they deserve and being beamed out to a worldwide audience. Head over to samuarai.fm to listen online or milk.audio to subscribe to the podcast. You can also grab some of the old shows too and I would strongly recommend grabbing show 500 with a special mix by Theo Parish. Nice.

Put together for New Zealand Music Month, Wellington’s Jewel School DJs dig deep to bring you the best of NZ’s homegrown underground music scene. Hosted on the fabulous straightup.com.au – part 1 of the podcast features the first track from the upcoming Bluevibe studio EP.

High Times – Bluevibe Studios Feat. LP and Lewis McCallum

Click here to jump over to straightup.com.au and checkout the goodness.

Just wanted to  give a huge shout to all the amazing local artists featured on both podcasts including:

• Electric Wire Hustle
• Opensouls
• Ota
• Julien Dyne
• Eru Dangerspiel
• Adi Dick
• Lisa Preston

Really want to give a special thanks to Adi Dick, LP and Kerry Adams for all their help and advice plus a shout to the Jewel School for playin the track and supporting an amazing local scene. Nice.

This week I’m spreading the word about the Soul Sides music blog, now some would say that everybody should already know about this amazing blog but it’s a wide wide web out there and I still talk to people who haven’t checked out Oliver Wang’s site.

Soul Sides is the first music blog I think I ever read on a regular basis and still enjoy because of it’s depth of knowledge and diverse approach to music blogging. The articles are always fresh and it’s been interesting and to see the blog develop over the years and still manage to keep one step ahead. Oliver has now started to write (amongst other things) more in depth articles based around a “box set“, the first focused on Aretha Franklin and the new one looks at Latin boogaloo, you can check it over at Uber.com.

Most of the musicians/producers/dj’s I know have an amazing level of knowledge around their style of music and don’t really think about how to maximise their opportunities for income generation (except being able to tell me which label my favourite artists released their first bootleg on and where I could buy it). Blogging can be a great way to move towards earning a living from your knowledge and passion and looking at how Oliver has done it could be a good start.

I’ll be posting a few articles in the future on music blogging and focusing on some of the bloggers who have used their blogs to start labels, release compilations and generally make more creative opportunities for themselves.

Just wanted to let you all know that The Shades have recently released their debut EP, it’s a deep slice of funk & soul and well worth picking up.

I did a remix for The Shades a while back and will be twistin “Liquid Situation” from the new EP as soon as I get the stems. They’re having their EP release up at Rising Sun on March 7th and will be heading down to Wellington for 2 shows on the 11th and 12th. Make sure you head along and support them, the EP’s totally self funded and it’s great to see them getting some respect for their efforts.

You can buy the EP from Conch in Auckland or jump online and get it from the Conch website or over at Amplifier.

This mix has been put together by my good friend Kerry Adams under his Bromide Dub moniker and features the first airing of the Bromide Dub remix of High Times featuring Lisa Preston from the upcoming “Bluevibe studio presents” EP. Kerry is an amazingly talented producer who releases music under many different production names including Tech and the Filter brats. He also runs a a great blog called The Proof where you can check out all his music and read production tutorials and gear reviews. Check it out and leave me a comment, it’s great to get some feedback on the tracks and make sure you head over to The Proof and get your heavy heavy bass fix womp womp womp booooooom tish.


Track listing

Vaccine – Side Effects
Skream – Make Me
Skream – Clock Watching
Bromide Dub – High Times
Djuna – Ites
Martin Buttrick – Well Done (Papa Ench Remix)
Tech – Snowflakes (Bromide Dubs Remix)
Telefon Tel Aviv – I lied
DZ – Strong on Ya
Excision – Warning
Ghilslain Poirier – Blazin (Modeselector Remix)
Bromide Dub – Call and Response

Raw DMX – Do it to the funk

taken from “Credit to the edit – compiled by Greg Wilson”

Looking back through my record collection has got me thinking about where these records come from and how I got in to all this in the first place. I’ll be doin a few posts about some of my influences, posting a few rare classics and generally diggin in to a bit of my musical up-bringing in the UK. I thought I’d start with the first electronic music I ever got into when I was 13 way back in 1983, some people called it “electro funk”.

I actually come from Bolton which is a huge, grim, working class town in the north west of England and one of it’s few redeeming features for me was that it’s about a 1hour bus ride to Manchester city center. From being 12 or 13 years old we would jump on the bus and go hang out in Manchester on a Saturday afternoon. We’d wander around the city center, go to the music shops and play guitars and also try and hang out in the record shops without getting thrown out, which we always did, too young and no money to spend.

it’s the sound of electro funk that always reminds me of the streets in the UK

It was outside these record shops that I first heard these weird tracks, they had normal instruments in them, vocals and guitars, but they also had all these weird drums, and bleeps and blips that I hadn’t really heard up close before. I used to listen to radio 1 and piccadilly radio so had heard some of these tracks before but it was in the city, in and outside the record shops that the music really hit me. It was in that environent on the street that for some reason the music just resonated. I’m a “big city” lover and it’s the sound of electro funk that always reminds me of the streets in the UK.

Then there was the break dancing!!! Now Manchester had quite a few crews who we’re in to break dancing and we used to just hang out and watch and listen to this amazing music. It’s something I was in to when I was a kid, break dancing, poppin and lockin, the clothes, the sneakers we couldn’t afford to buy then, but it was the music, the beats that got me hooked. I loved the record shops too, the vibe of the place, the freaky looking guys who hung out there, the nods and smiles when certain tracks were played. I didn’t start getting in to the club scene until I was 17 so missed out on much of this early scene in Manchester but electro funk has always played a part in most of the club experiences I’ve had in the city since then.

I loved the record shops too, the nods and smiles when certain tracks were played

Now I’m not going in to too much of the history of the whole scene and all the other scene’s that jumped off from there. For that you should go check out Greg Wilson’s site electrofunkroots.com Greg was one of the most influencial DJ’s of the time and his site is an amazing resource for anybody interested in music and music history. Check out some of his articles and play lists and especially the colab article with another Manchester legend “a guy called Gerald”.

Starting to work on this site has had me looking back at all the styles of music which have had an impact on my life. I’ve always felt that certain music is developed directly from the area and environment in which it is made. The north of England creates certain types of music just like New York or Wellington or Detroit or Tokyo create there own spin on certain styles and genre’s. Having only moved to New Zealand 7 years ago I’m still looking at the impact it has had on my music and the styles created by this country. It’s something I’ll be looking in to as part of this Blog so if you’ve got anything to add or share with me about your side of the world and how it shapes your style then just leave me a comment. Now go check out Greg’s site and get that electro funk fix.

K15 and LP – little love

the EP “A New Path” drops in early 2008

This is the first of the “Artist features” articles and who better to start with than an amazing vocalist from Welli, Lisa Preston better known as LP. We’ve been working together on a track which should be coming out of Bluevibe studio early next year as part of the first “Bluevibe studio presents” series. I’ve heard the EP and its killer, amazin beats with LP’s smooth vocal delivery. I’ll let LP give you the run down on the project and lets hope the EP makes it on to vinyl.

It all started back in 2006 with a hook up on myspace, one of those “I like your beats” and “I like your voice” interactions. The resulting first demo collaboration “LP sings” eventuated a couple of weeks later receiving accolades from like minded souls and alot of airplay through djs here and abroad.

K15 (aka Kieron Ifill) is based in the UK and has long been a lover of music. He started djing as a teenager and moved onto making beats a few years later when he discovered the the joys of computer software and later down the line, the mpc. He is currently working on other collaborations too, so keep an ear out in 2008 for these will be sure to please all discerning beatheads out there! LP (aka Lisa Preston) started writing beats on her mpc back in 2004 and has been singing since childhood. She recorded her first singles with The Cherished Collective back in 2002 , has added flavours on backing vocals for Trinity Roots and the Little Bushman albums, and is currently working on other collaborations with Bluevibe studio and Tim Scott. More recently heard live in Wellington, NZ, where she lives, performing out live with Adi Dick, Sons of Puha, and The Boil Up.

Expect to hear more from this collaboration when the EP “A New Path” drops in early 2008….enjoy the sneak preview !

Monotape Internet Radio is a great collection of freshly updated podcasts put together by Onur Engiin. Onur describes it as “join the dots between nu-jazz, broken beat, hip-hop, electro-funk, jazzy house,etc…”

Make sure you subscribe to the podcast, the recent Jay Scarlet mix is killer and the back catalogue available is well worth trawling through.

I’m always on the look out for fresh new podcasts site’s, drop me a comment if you can recommend anything in a similar style to Monotape.

magOwl vs The streets – Don’t mug yourself 2007 remix

Another cheeky little bootleg from magOwl, you can download it over here and check out his production skills on his myspace page. I’m a big big fan of bootlegs and love this version of the track, check out his other remix’s, this man’s got some skills. I’ll be posting more from magOwl including his killer remix of one the new Bluevibe studio track “Holdin on”.