Warehouse Decay Sessions #3

Warehouse Decay Sessions #003 by Magnofon on Mixcloud

01  Dan Curtin - My Deep Love

02  Demarkus Lewis - Do You Really Know?

03  Casey Hogan - Update The System

04  Giles Smith Presents Two Armadillos - Butterfly Bee

05  Sakro - Hold Me Tight

06  Detroit Swindle - The Wrap Around

07  Tomska - Deep Inside

08  Jimpster - Get A Hold On Your Soul

09  Dan Berkson and James What - Onika

10  Patrick Turner - Skywalking

11  Chris Carrier - Junction

12  Brawther - Do It Yourself

13  Atjazz - Looking Glass

Warehouse Decay Session number 3 continues the vinyl-only airing via my Mixcloud account. After the last session's occasional trainwreck, I was keen to concentrate nailing the beatmatching this time round. I kicked things off with possibly my favourite House track of all time - an old Dan Curtin record I bought off a mate when he was skint. I think it cost me the price of a pint at the time, which was about £2.50 in those days! 'My Deep Love' is a fine deep cut with skipping beats, surely Curtin's best piece as far as I'm aware.

On from this, despite a slight mismatch of keys, I went for Demarkus Lewis's 'Do You Really Know?', another all time favourite of mine. I've a lot of Demarkus's records so they'll crop up regularly in the Warehouse Decay Sessions. Further into the mix, I opted to juxtapose deep vibes with a techy edge before airing a trio of recent purchases. First up is the bass heavy 'Hold Me Tight' by Sakro which moves into a superb dancefloor friendly moment by Detroit Swindlers - this is the piece I often skip straight to if listening when I'm pressed for time. Next up is a piece from Tomska's record on Vibes and Pepper Recordings, all of which are excellent.

I then drop in a big deep House tune from Jimpster, which I remember playing heavily at gigs just before I put DJing on the backburner. This record got a lot of support at the time and it's easy to hear why. I follow it with a hypnotic techno groove by Dan Berkson and James What - this is the flipside to their massive collaboration with Robert Owens - I'm sure I'll give that an airing some time in the future. I drop another personal classic after this, Patrick Turner's 'Skywalking' brings in a fine slab of electronic funk. I was considering packing the mix in at this point but I saw that I hadn't been mixing for that long and fancied carrying on for a few more records. I left it very late and just about brought in the minimal beats of Chris Carrier's 'Junction'. Since this noticeably depleted all of the energy that 'Skywalking' had built up, I decided to prat around with some strange scratching effects, that I still can't decide if it works or not. In hindsight, it really wasn't necessary but what the heck. The deep keys return with Brawther's excellent 'Do It Yourself', a piece with a strong old skool feel and hints of garage. I close it all off with Atjazz's 'Looking Glass'; another classic in my books. The needle started to gather dust from too much weight being applied on the tone arm...so the sound started to distort. A perfect reason for me to call it a day.

Magnofon April 2012 chart

Magnofon top ten for March 2012

After getting myself stuck into Juno's Deep House section for the first time in a few years, there was some serious catching up to do. I decided to go for some more recent records - particularly from this year and here are the ten I have enjoyed most.

I have taken full advantage of Juno's chart-making feature, available for anyone to use and shall be doing so again shortly, after I've amassed a few more pieces of vinyl

01 - James Johnston - After Everything EP [No Matter What] Jan 12

02 - Tomska - Mental Raw EP [Vibes and Pepper] Mar 12

03 - Sakro - Believe In House [Houseworx] Apr 12

04 - Dubbyman - Time and Sensibility EP [Ornate Music] Jan 12

05 - Zoo Look - People Let Me Down EP [Join The Dot] Mar 12

06 - Jaffa Surfa - Pimpin EP [Houseworx] Aug 11

07 - Detroit Swindle - The Wrap Around EP [Saints & Sonnets] Mar 12

08 - Four Walls - The First Floor EP [Lake Placid] Mar 12

09 - DJ Aakmael - Deepermotions [Unxpozd] Feb 12

10 - Noir & Chris Minus/Moodymanc/Aki Bergen & Pezzner/Huxley - Sampler Deluxe Vinyl Edition 1 [Neurotraxx Deluxe] Dec 11

Kastil - Lay Down [Saft]

Kastil - Lay Down (SAFT01 - VA - New Saft EP) by Kastil

I thought I ought to break up my mixes and their accompanying babble with a post about someone who actually knows what they're doing. I came across this piece earlier in Kastil's chart on Juno and I'm keeping some money back on the side for when it drops, as there's no way that I can be without it. I don't really need to say much more than this - just hit play above and unveil what is sure to be one of the finest slabs of House around at the moment

Warehouse Decay Sessions #2

Warehouse Decay Sessions #002 by Magnofon on Mixcloud

01  Rick Wade - Moving On

02  Dubbyman - Kirigi Is Coming

03  Four Walls - Untitled

04  Ray Valioso - Groove Memories

05  Alex Flitsch meets Audiofly - Conversations

06  Santorini - Out Of Bounds

07  Brawther - Spaceman Funk (Deep Club Mix)

08  Demarkus Lewis - Rise Above

09  Ray Okpara - The You Of Cool

10  Modi - Aputicat

11  Frank Leicher - Other Peace

12  MAW ft. Roy Ayers - Our Time Is Coming (Jazzanova The Guestlist Remix)

13  Hidenobu Ito - Beauty

14  My My - Going Going Gone

15  Bebel Gilberto - Aganju (Spiritual South Sub Rub Instrumental)

After a successful short mix a few days prior (WDS#1), I was keen to press on with a follow up and I decided to ring a few changes. This woud naturally throw down the gauntlet and see whether the first session was just a flash in the pan or whether I really should be on the front cover of Mixmag.

So, firstly I wanted to extend the airplay to around the hour mark to include more tracks. I wanted to go deeper, include a few harmonic transitions and throw in a good range of House sounds.

I decided this time not to mix on the fly and spent about two hours testing the transitions and building the tracklist. Well...I wish I'd never bothered, as I messed up a couple of mixes when I eventually hit record. The transition between tracks three and four is particularly unbearable but please don't let this put you off! The bulk of it works and there are some very nice moments to make up for it. One such is the harmonic mixing used between tracks seven and eight; just click and hear it for yourself! Oh, then there's Roy Ayers...we'll come back to him in a moment.

Musically, the tempo is set slower than the first mix and starts of deep with the dubbed out detroit-style sounds of Rick Wade, Dubbyman and Four Walls. Whilst these records aren't all recent, they are new purchases I have made. The mix eventually gets to techy and edgier territory which reaches a bit of an early crescendo in Santorini's Out Of Bounds, before heading deeper again with Brawther's Spaceman Funk. When this hits a breakdown, some percussion comes in and I fade in a real classic from Demarkus Lewis. There is a tribal element to this warm track which I built upon with Ray Okpala's The You Of Cool. The tribal element heightens here before it gets weirder on Modi's Aputicat. Things are broken back down with a Frank Leicher track before one of my favourite records comes in - the Jazzanova remix of a Master's At Work and Roy Ayers classic. 'Our Time Is Coming was given to me about 8 years ago when I got my first set of Technics and although I would regularly listen to it over the years, I would rarely ever mix it live. This was because I found the broken beats ridiculously difficult to mix - so I avoided it. I can't tell you how delighted I am to have included it here! Such a wonderful track. There's not much that can really follow this and I did intend on finishing the mix here originally. I decided to mix on the fly from here on and included three very different records. The straight up funky deepness of Hidenobu Ito, the electronic quirk of My My and then broken bass heavy beats that make for a Spiritual South remix of an old Bebel Gilberto record.

Warehouse Decay Sessions #1

Warehouse Decay Sessions #001 by Magnofon on Mixcloud

01  Carl Finlow - Islands

02  Tom Ellis - Bounce Point

03  Seuil - Musm

04  Slowhouse - Track 1

05  Baaz - Something

06  Peace Division - Get Over

07  Tomska - Let's Get It On

08  Ekkohaus - The Healer (Kreon's Linderman Remix)

09  Federico Molinari - Dos

Kicking things off with a short mix that clocks in at just over half an hour, this is my first proper attempt at recording a mix in about 3 years, so I was chuffed that it turned out okay. If anything, the fact it went so well is perhaps what got me back into this whole thing again!

I had bought a few new 12"s in the run up to this session and then went about setting aside a few piles of records. I set the recording levels and got right onto it in on-the-fly fashion.

Opening the mix is an old favourite deep electronic cut by Carl Finlow and then the mix chugs along at a steady pace through garagey moments by the likes of Tom Ellis and Tomska, via more stripped back/techy pieces by Seuil and Peace Division. I also managed to shoehorn in a coupe of favourites from Baaz an Slowhouse - I dare say I'll be flipping these EPs over to the B side for use in future mixes.

Introduction

My name's Harry and for as long as I can remember, I've spent my spare time trawling through different forms of experimental music. It all began when I got my first set of turntables as a teenager and spent much of my time and money in record shops. I eventually managed to build a respectable portolio of local bookings in the midlands, UK before scaling it all down to a halt for various reasons. One crucial factor was that my record collection and turntables were put away in storage due to a lack of space following a move.
Towards the end of my DJ 'career' I got into ambient music in a big way and began to write a blog called Audio Gourmet. It documented my various projects in music, at a time when I was also learning to make my own ambient tracks. It still featured the odd house mix or beat driven productions to begin with but gradually I focussed on ambient music more and more.
My work with sound has since seen limited edition commissioned CD and vinyl releases come out on small labels and I am an active member as part of a growing community of artists, listeners and labels.
In 2010, I used the Audio Gourmet blog as a name and foundation for starting my own label which has since grown to feature over 60 releases.

This brings us back to present day, in which a recent move has reunited me with my old turntables and records. Naturally, I have been putting together mixes of my records and adding new additions to my record collection and that's why I have set up this blog. I will be periodically posting mixes, which I've entitled Warehouse Decay Sessions to air my feelings of 'nightclub nostalgia' as I get re-acquainted with my records. It also springs back to mind some of the clapped out old warehouse parties that I played at, which have probaby now since been closed.
The posts here will not just be mixes from me, but they will also feature the work of other DJs too and any noteworthy House related discoveries. The Audio Gourmet blog will continue to offer my insights into the modern ambient scene whilst here I will cover my taste in House music, under the pseudonym Magnofon