Brisbane DJ and promoter Adam Swain has launched a brand new independent digital label, Buxton Records, which aims to bring all the passion, panache and verve of Australia’s deeper house underground to a broader global audience. With a sound steeped in the deep and hypnotic, Buxton Records will "bring a versatile blend of cutting-edge electronic grooves from forward thinking local and international producers".

The label unveiled its debut EP 'Evidence' last week from a one James Hunter; a languid deep house cut featuring the remixing talents of Munich’s SHOW-B. You can have a listen to a preview of the title track below.

Swiftly following in the coming months are Dersu Uzala’s debut LP 'Tempus Fugit', the floor ready 'Divided EP' from CJM in February and last but not least, James Hunter and label boss Adam Swain’s collaborative three track offering, 'A Path Within' - set to drop in March.

You can listen to more previews from upcoming Buxton Records releases on their Soundcloud.

Listen to Pulse Radio

Return to The Future, ahem, return to he capital's clubbing consensus as they revealed plans to celebrate their first birthday, with Matthias Tanzmann and Rebel Agency femme fatale Francesca Lombardo confirmed to play the party promoters milestone anniversary this Friday, 25th January, Pulse have got a competition to bag some tickets and merchandise in the run up to the discerning clubbing event.

It''s been a little while since we heard from the gang, but that's always been part of the plan. Focusing on quality line-ups for their parties rather than the regularity of them, previous guests to their East London bashes have included Art Department, Seth Troxler, Fur Coat and Maceo Plex. Circoloco man Tanzmann is also joined by Davide Squillace, and further support coming from Seb Zito, rising Italian star Silvi Lotto, Death On The Balcony and Lee Brinx. That's a chock full line up if we ever did see one!

In celebration of this jam packed birthday celebration, Pulse can offer two lucky readers a double pass to the event, plus some finished copies of ‘Get Lost V' mixed by Acid Pauli. All you have to do is send an email sporting the subject line "Future" to contact@pulseradio.net for your chance to bag the bounty. The successful entrants shall be contacted on Thursday 23rd. Good luck y'all!

Return to the Future 1st Birthday Party
TBA
Friday, 25 January 2013
10:00pm - 06:00am

Line Up
MATHIAS TANZMANN
DAVIDE SQUILLACE
FRANCESCA LOMBARDO
SEB ZITO
DEATH ON THE BALCONY
LEE BRINX

Tickets

Listen to Matthias Tanzmann& Francesca Lombardo on Pulse Radio.

You may recognise the club styled music of Danny Berman's Red Rack 'em alias, lacing together the best from bass music and genral club culture via hip hop house and techno. But Danny's also receiving some huge props for his latest concept and moniker Hot Coins. Billed as an "estranged homage to late '70s NYC anti-culture", his album "The Damage Is Done" - some four years in the making - is defined by its focus on the Big Apple's fruitful 78-82 period, where possibilities seemed endless as punk and disco combined. Hot Coins relives the highs, joys and inevitable comedown of the period on his detailed new album for Sonar Kollektiv. Danny talks to pulse further about his own fascination with this musical period and mixes this week's exclusive Pulse Loves set... over to you sir.

Pulse loves... Red Rack 'em. Tell us about your full time alias... Red Rack’em has been my day job since 2004 when I started making hip hop bootlegs inspired by Yam Who, Blackbeard and Red Astaire. I had to think of a piratey name and as a longtime fan of Tintin, Red Rack’em seemed like the perfect name. I pretty much stopped making hip hop in 2006 and since then Red Rack’em has evolved through deep house, beatdown, techno and garagey flavours. I have released and remixed for quite a few nice labels including Innervisions/Philomena, Sonar Kollektiv, Third Ear, Ramp Recordings and Rebirth.

Hot Coins has always been my disco alias and I began releasing under that name in 2008 with an EP on Society and then on Tirk. My remix of ‘Stand On The Word’ by the Joubert Singers was hammered on Radio 1 by Gilles Peterson and he invited me to perform at the Worldwide Awards in 2009 pretty much on the basis of that one track which was an amazing experience. My DJ set was recorded and played on Radio 1 a few weeks later which was even more mindblowing. Red Rack’em kind of took over from 2009 but I was writing the Hot Coins album in the background all the time.

I run 2 record labels, Bergerac and Smugglers Inn. I started Bergerac in 2010 so I could release the more raw stuff I was making which I didn’t think any other labels would release. The first record was called ‘How I Program’ and it did really well with DJ support from people like MCDE, Move D, Mike Huckaby and Four Tet who put it on his Fabric mix. Since then Bergerac has released one Red Rack’em album called ‘The Early Years’, 2 more Red Rack’em singles and the latest release is a techno monster from Seetheroad called ‘Starpatch’. I did a world tour in 2010/11 to promote the Early Years album which was an amazing experience as I played in places like Russia, Australia and Japan and got to sample so many different cultures and meet some great people along the way.

I have produced and presented my own radio show and podcast called the ‘Smugglers Inn’ for over 5 years now with the focus on cutting edge music from new artists regardless of genre. The show is broadcasted live every second Wednesday 7-9pm UK time @ http://myhouseyourhouse.net and the podcast is available from http://www.redrackem.com and my soundcloud. The Smugglers Inn label is a platform for artists who I regularly play on my show. The first release was really well received and the second one is out in March with tracks from Roman Rauch, Ajukaja, Dragon and Bartellow.

Pulse loves... the album format. Did you approach the making of the hot coins album as a solid body of work? I wrote all the tracks separately but I guess from about 2009 I had the idea of making them all into one album. I didn’t really feel part of the disco scene from 2009 onwards as I was more excited by dark house, garage techno and edgier stuff like new wave and punk funk. So I didn’t want to release any more Hot Coins singles. I did a Hot Coins remix for Ron Basejams track ‘Voices’ and also one for The Wave Machines but apart from that I was totally focused on writing the album and only releasing music as Red Rack’em. I wanted the style of each track to be a different facet of what I love in the various types of music that have influenced the album. Most of the tracks were started around 2008/09 I think. I can barely remember anything from that time as I had a very chaotic lifestyle juggling part time teaching at 2 colleges in Nottingham with being a DJ and all the stuff that comes with that. So I don’t really know when the tracks appeared – they generally were written on Monday nights when I was falling asleep on the keyboard and dreading my early start at college the next day.

I wrote all of the music in my attic studio in my friend Harry Rackhams house in Sneinton in Nottingham. Recorded most of the vocals alone with an sm58 and I played pretty much everything on the album apart from guitars which were by Chris Todd and Paul Johnston and saxophone which was by Pippa Marland. I mixed it on the original SSL 4000 B Series desk that was in the Townhouse studios in London during the eighties. This was the desk that PiL used to record their Metal Box Album, which is credited as the start of punk disco so it’s amazing that my album was mixed on the same desk. Phil Collins recorded ‘In The Air Tonight’ on it and Peter Gabriel discovered gated reverb on it when he heard Phil playing drums loud through the talkback mic and the desk massively compressed the sound. My friend Werner Freistaetter found the desk years later in a cupboard and bought it to strip down and sell spares for other SSL desks. Thankfully he ended up fully restoring it as it’s a totally priceless piece of musical history. I wouldn’t have finished the album had it not been for that desk.

I met Werner by chance when I was playing at the Garden Festival in Croatia in 2010 and then visited him in 2011 and saw the desk in action. He said ‘if there’s anything you want to work on with the desk please let me know’. On the plane back to Berlin I had the brainwave ‘oh yeah… there’s that live music based album which I can’t finish. Maybe I should mix it with Werner….’ The rest as they say is history.

Pulse loves ... Sonar Kollektiv. Tell us about your affiliation with them... I have been a massive fan of Sonar Kollektiv for years and I was highly influenced by the diversity of their output at a very formative stage of my DJing and producing. They have released so many dope records. Detriot by Moonstarr – I saw Gilles Peterson destroy the Electric Souls party at Frodsham in 2004 with that record. Dixons Off Limits series. The Forss stuff. The Umod album. The Broadcasting series. The Trickski stuff was totally ahead of it’s time in my book. Don’t forget Innervisions began life as a series on Sonar Kollektiv and look where they are now. Jazzanova were another really early influence on my production in the early noughties so it’s been great to work closely with them on releasing the Hot Coins album. Of course it all happened kind of accidentally as these things do. Daniel Best invited me to a Sonar Kollektiv party at Gretchen during Berlin Music week in 2011 and I spoke to Oli Glage from the label about doing a remix for Micatone. I ended up doing one for Jazzanova instead for their I Human single and during the meeting about that I mentioned the Hot Coins album but I didn’t think it would be the sort of thing they would want to release. I thought it would be too dark and emo for them. Alex Barck got in touch saying he loved the album towards the end of 2011 and we had the album signing meeting on the 3rd of January 2012 which seemed like a good idea when I made the arrangement but I underestimated my own stamina on my first ever Berlin new years eve so it was an ‘interesting’ meeting put it that way. The best bit was when Claas was smoking out of the window because I told him I had lost my voice because of all the smoking in the Berlin clubs. In the end I admitted there were ‘other factors’.

I am really glad with the way the album has come out. I had full input on the artwork, mastering, remixers and tracklisting. Sonar Kollektiv trusted me to know what I was doing and it all turned out really well. I wanted the artwork to present the rock n roll cliché in a different light and I think we succeeded. It’s not meant to say ‘hey look at me with all these girls’. It’s meant to say ‘hey look how I am STILL miserable with all these girls’. It’s definitely representative of my glass half empty mentality, which I am working on. The album is called ‘The Damage Is Done’ because in certain situations I have found myself in, there really is no going back. You have to run with things and trust they will work themselves out in the end. There’s been many times when I thought I wasn’t going to make it back but I am still here. 2012 was a very full on year for me. Good training for the rock n roll ahead but also a warning of what lies ahead if I don’t make the right choices.

Pulse loves... multiple monikers. What does producing under different names enable you to do? It means I can make diverse music which appeals to different people. I have tried to be diverse as Red Rack’em as well with the different types of club music I have produced and I am pretty sure that ‘Chirpsin’ on Ramp doesn’t appeal to the same type of people that ‘Kalimba’ (on Dixons Philomena label) appeals to. I don’t think it makes sense for me to release the dark garage techno Red Rack’em stuff under the same name as the Goth electro stuff that Hot Coins is making. I would love to get to the stage where I can make what I like under one name but I think sadly to get anywhere these days you have to streamline your creativity and I don’t want to do that so that’s why I have multiple artist names. If I was smart I would just do one style of music as Red Rack’em and forget all the other stuff but then my discography would be an increasingly mediocre repetition of itself. How boring that would be.

Pulse loves... NYC's musical golden age. What is it about this period that inspired your hot coins album? Where to start. It’s the unique melting pot that appeals to me most. The fact that there was hot music being produced by people from totally different backgrounds, in different areas of the city and presenting it to totally different audiences. I love the idea of punks dancing to hip hop, futurists dancing to Kraftwerk and MCs freestyling over 2 copies of ‘Was Dog A Doughnut’ by Cat Stevens. Chris Stein from Blondie wrote and produced the Wildstyle Soundtrack. How did that happen? A Certain Ratio were living in New York in the early 80s because they were so inspired by the musical scene there. This is totally reflected in their output. I have so many musical heroes who created their best works in New York. Francois Kevorkian became the hottest remixer there after he emigrated from Paris. All the no wave post punk people like Lydia Lunch, James White, Suicide etc were only able to develop their music through the lack of pressure to earn money due to the junkie squalor of Lower East Side in the late 70s.

I love the idea that you could move to New York in 1979, start wearing a lampshade as a dress and form a band with zero musical talent and end up written into musical history by approaching it from an artistic aesthetic rather than your musical prowess. ESG will always be hotter than Steve Vai, which says it all really. It’s all about attitude.

My early musical background was pretty much exclusively New York hip hop, so my later discovery and love of no wave, disco and house music which mainly derived from New York makes total sense to me. Black Moon are far more authentic to me than Dre. I love the authenticity of NYC stuff. I grew up obsessed with hip hop culture and I have a romanticized halcyon view of the ghetto lifestyle that sewed those creative seeds. I loved films like Desperately Seeking Susan when I was a kid as it presented this romanticized view of NYC nightlife in the early 80s. I love the tawdry backdrop of the Coney Island boardwalk, The Warriors is one of my all time favourite films. I love the tacky sleaze of Taxi Driver. The ferocity of Goodfellas. It all adds to my voyeuristic love of cultures that I have never experienced first hand. It’s the same with disco, post punk, goth electro, boogie, house etc. I have created my own imaginary mental film about all the scenes referenced in the mix and album solely from the music, voices, lyrics, photos and peoples anecdotes. Sadly I have never even been to America yet but it’s going to happen soon I hope.

Pulse loves... live shows. Can you tell us what to expect from your live shows? Whats the set up? Hot Coins live is quite a traditional set up. Vocals, guitar, bass, drums and synths. But we’re using quite a lot of technology to recreate the clubby feel of the album live. A lot of the drums are electronic and the heavy synth basses on the album are pushed loud in the mix. We’re a 4 piece and have been rehearsing for the last 3 months at the historic Funkhaus Studios in East Berlin to perform the album live. The rest of the band are all German and we’re rehearsing in the former GDR national radio centre so it’s been incredibly atmospheric for me. I feel like Bowie doing ‘Low’ with slightly less decadence. It’s been a real learning curve for me as I have had to recruit musicians, start working with them, learn the material myself and become a rock front man. I don’t write my music in the studio with any aim of performing it live and seldom listen to my own stuff once it’s been released but with the live style of the Hot Coins album it makes total sense to perform it in a band situation. I am incredibly lucky to be working with really high quality musicians and it’s sounding amazing.

We took the basic template of the album tracks, learned them and now we’re tweaking them for live performance. We’re improvising more with them now and getting more confident in how we deliver them. The band set up is Daniel Berman (yes me) on vocals and keyboards – I just got a Kaoss pad which is dope for live delay and reverb so expect some disco claps. David Benjamin on guitar, keyboards and percussion – David has been crucial in the whole thing coming together as he helped recruit the other musicians and his dance music background really helped in picking the right people to play in the band. Jens Dohle on drums is a total legend. He’s a highly skilled jazz player who ran a great label called Vinyl Vibes a few years ago releasing early works by Inverse Cinematics (Motor City Drum Ensemble) so his dance music pedigree without question. I bought several Vinyl Vibes records when I lived in Nottingham so to be in a band with Jens feels quite apt. Steffen Illner is ridiculously talented on the bass. He plays with Jens in Ye:Solar which is their live jazz/house project so to have a rhythm section who are already familiar with each other is really good. My remit was quality musicians who understand club culture and I certainly got what I asked for. Our debut live performance is at the Berlin album launch party which is at Wilde Renate on 16/02/13. We’re taking festival bookings now so really looking forward to the summer already!

Pulse loves.... your mix. How have you approached it? I didn’t want to do a mix of contemporary disco influenced music as I am much more inspired by the musicianship and production value of the early 80s stuff. So I tried to cover all the bases of the music that influenced the Hot Coins album. I tried to tell the story of the Hot Coins album through this mix. You might look at the artists and be shocked at some of the names but all of the music in the mix was either at the cutting edge at that time or they were at least taking regular exploratory trips to the cutting edge during their downtime. Pop music in the early 80s was built for clubs. It didn’t have to be only available on 300 records bought by men with beards to rock a club and I think that’s an aesthetic sadly missing from todays charts. Even in the 90s we had ‘King Of My Castle’ by Wamdue Project but where are tracks like that now? I guess the marginalization of ‘quality’ dance music is part of how it’s sold these days. It’s got to be ‘cool’ s that people aspire to be a part of it. I love the fact that Warm Leatherette by The Normal was a pop hit. Imagine something like that being big now. Less than zero chance. I recorded the mix live in my apartment using vinyl only and it’s the original versions of all of the tracks. No edits. With the Hot Coins album being fairly sample free I wanted to reference that within the mix and use music which was made by real musicians in it’s original form. God I sound really purist now eh..

Pulse loves... underground music. What's been a career highlight for you so far? That’s a tough question. I would say the DJ performances mainly. It’s nice to actually witness a reaction to your music in real life and I find the buzz I get from DJing is pretty similar to good sex where you just disappear and become a conduit for the music. I am not praying to the god of house music or anything like that but I definitely get a couple of days of increased energy and a much sunnier outlook from a good 4 hour DJ set with a decent crowd. Particular highlights so far have been DJing on top of a mountain in Austria for Snowbombing while people were skiing – that was unreal. Both my gigs at Mad Racket in Sydney have been career highlights – to go somewhere so far away and find such a cool bunch of people and get to play for 4 hours on a great system is heaven for me. Djing on the Basement Boogaloo boat party at the Garden Festival in 2010 while the sun was setting over the Adriatic sea was pretty special. Playing at the Worldwide Awards for Gilles Peterson in 2009 was like a dream come true when I had hardly released any records. Closing the Big Chill Festival with a set at the radio station in 2010 was another amazing highlight. After a long hard weekend of playing and partying I was rewarded with a huge crowd outside the radio caravan on a Monday morning and thank god the set was recorded as it was one of the best I ever played. You can hear it here.

Tracklisting
1 - Eurythmics - Regrets (RCA)
2 - Yello - You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess (Vertigo)
3 - Zinno - Zinnos March (Magic)
4 - Nitzer Ebb - Control I'm Here (Mute)
5 - DAF - Verlier Nicht Den Kopf (Virgin)
6 - Cabaret Voltaire - Seconds Too Late (Mute)
7 - Futura 2000 + The Clash - The Escapades Of Futura 2000 (Celluloid)
8 - GeeGee & Gym Band - Majik-Kaboola (Jumbo)
9 - Change - The Glow Of Love (Warners)
10 - Heaven 17 - Play (Virgin)
11 - Robert Goerl - I Love Me (Mute)
12 - Jackie Genova - Arms (Island)
13 - Holger Czukay - Cool In The Pool (EMI)
14 - Fats Comet + Bim Sherman - Rockchester (World)
15 - Methusalem - Robotism (Ariola)
16 - The Assembly - Never Never (Mute)
17 - A Certain Ratio - Shack Up (Factory)
18 - ESG - Party Music (Popular)
19 - New Musik - 24 Hour From Culture (GTO)
20 - Duran Duran - Girls On Film (Night Version) (EMI)

The Damage Is Done is out on 28th January 2013 through Sonar Kollektiv"

Listen to Red Rack 'Em / Hot Coins on Pulse Radio.

FARR Festival have raced out the blocks this morning by confirming the first line up announcements for its 2013 edition. Maintaining its place as one of the coolest, unique boutique festivals in the capital, the woodland based event have confirmed Nmbrs man Jackmaster and multi-talented house man Maxxi Soundsystem besides many more to the natural surroundings of unspoiled countryside, a stones throw away from Central London.

Just a 30 minute train journey out of London set in Bygrave Woods, Newham, FARR go deep into the current electronic landscape, confirming an eclectic range of artists such as D- Bridge, Oneman, Waifs & Strays, Ben Pearce, Spectrasoul, Alix Perez, Ejeca, Spencer, Terry Farley, Dan Beaumont, Hannah Holland, Redinho, Sophie, South London Ordinance, Christophe and lots more to stick on your proverbial campfire. 

Running from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st July, the festival continues it s remit of delivering cutting edge programming and a stunning location to be involved in. The capacity is also kept to a lo rate, packing in about 2000 people on site and offering a brand ne outdoor stage, secret cinema and much more to come over the next couple of months. Partners Future Boogie, Numbers, Flux and Pardon My French all join Ransom Note, Troupe and SOCIETY as club brands helping to bring the stunning line up to the fore.

Grab information from FARR's official site here.

Listen to Jackmaster& Maxxi Soundsystem on Pulse Radio.

Mighty Mouse love a bit of cheese, but not too much - just enough to bring a smile to the faces of those that listen to their often superbly compiled Disco Circus compilation series or those that check out their original, disco loving productions. But Mighty Mouse is teaming up alongside Matt Van Schie of Van She for side project Du Tonc, as they prepare to release their debut single 'Darkness', a blend of driving bass rhythms and crisp disco melodies and beats. Being a fine lover of all things dancefloor, Pulse asked the beat-munching rodent to pick his favourite disco cuts of all time, the ones that are essential for sampling and the tracks that he reguarly re-visits for inspiration. Over to you, Mr Mouse...

1. Cloud One - Disco Juice

What's not to like about this track, it's also sample heaven. The riff at the beginning is so uplifting, you can loop it and loop it and loop it (as I do in DJ sets). It's got a wonkey vocal and some sections in the middle where it drops down a bit. Perfect.

2. Paul Parker - Right On Target

This has got a great beat at the intro that you can lift on it's own, then various parts layer up, bass then some cool synth lines, so many sections in this track. I play the whole thing in some sets sometimes, but I chop it up loads. I love the vocal too. Camp as hell, which I love.

3. Sister Sledge - You Fooled Around

The chord change in this is infectious. You can chop this up to create a different and interesting chord progression though, and drop the vocal hooks in when you like. But you can re tune the chords which makes it a hole new track. Massive opportunity in this track.

4. Patrice Rushen - Haven't You Heard

I seem to remember a house version of this from the 90's. This needs to be sampled more, it's in the vein of Cloud One that I mentioned about in it's joyous hypnotic melody line that kicks in at the beggining. Then the chorus, well, HUGE. Great individual sections to sample too.

5. Shriekback - My Spine Is The Bassline

You've got funky ass drums to sample at the start, then a hypntoic shoulder shuffling bassline all the way through. I love this song, and there's great little hook you can grab too throughout the track.

6. Aural Exciters - Spooks In Space

We need more of this kind of music, fun bubbly disco, slightly insane vocal and song, but carried along by an infectious groove. Listen carefully and you'll spot a multitude of sections you can sample. I've sampled quite a few parts of this for a track to play in my DJ sets.

7. Gepy & Gepy - African Love Song

I put this on Disco Circus (Volume 3). It's pretty mental, which I love. But it's got an incredibly funky bassline that sits on it's own with the drums, then some excellent african drums you can steal at the intro with some cool Jungle noises. I love African disco. The song is so out there, and I love the way it's sung with such seriousness, it's silly, yet, it's not. I wish I made this, I'd retire a happy man. You wouldn't get away with a song like this now, but it's one of my favourite disco records and ripe for sampling.

8. Skyy - First Time Around

There's so many sections to sample in this it's like a DJ set in itself. I love the intro, some crazy drum fills and spaced out disco lazer zapping madness. Then this sensual vocal kicks in, seriously you could make several tracks out of this one song.

9. Shirley & Company - Shame Shame Shame

Less obvious maybe, but after a few listens you get in the groove and will notice there's some great vocal sampling action to be had. I played with this in the studio this morning, sampling re pitching with and without sections of vocals. Be interesting to know who's sampled this track, I reckon it will be more than you think.

10. Rick James - Superfreak

Well MC Hammer sampled this, it's still awesome for sampling though (great snare at the beginning too, sat on it's own waiting to be lifted). But you can cut up the bassline riff and re order to interesting effects. There's also some fantastic vocal snippets to grab in this and synth lines popping in and out.

Listen to Mighty Mouse on Pulse Radio.

Brazil is a prime destination for global dance music. Especially today, as the country's economy surges forward, we're seeing an approach to nightlife that is more progressive and international than ever before. UGroove.TV, an outfit that creates exceptional short films centered on the underground dance scene, has created one of its best for two of Brazil's biggest clubs, D-Edge and Warung.

D-Edge is more than a nightclub. Situated in the heart of Sao Paolo, it represents the future. From design to programming, the venue has played host to some of the world's best DJs, and scores of their faithful followers. Renato Ratier is the man behind the club - founder, owner, and resident DJ. He conceived the club first in another location, Campo Grande, but the real D-Edge in Sao Paolo was born in 2003. Since then, it has been one of the biggest draws for underground music in South America. The club has played host to Wolf + Lamb, Solomun, Heidi, and many of the other top names in the industry. Its sound and lighting system is powerful and unique, with the entire inside of the club designed to feel like a machine.On February 10th, the Rio Music Conference will come to D-Edge for one of its largest parties - Richie Hawtin's Minus showcase, alongside Matador, Kings of Swingers (Mau Mau + Renato Ratier), and Mauricio Lopes. 

Warung Beach Club has been famous for over a decade now, since the progressive masters of the early 2000's put it on the map. Described by some as a "temple," the combined indoor/outdoor club has played host to Art Department, Seth Troxler, and many others in recent months. The club celebrated its ten year anniversary in November of 2012, cementing its place as a home, and place of pilgrimage, for electronic music lovers in South America. Circoloco Brazil will be hosting a massive event on February 11th at Warung, with DJ W!ld, Sneak, and Matthias Tanzmann don't miss it!

Listen to Renato Ratier on Pulse Radio 

Ultra Music Festival, Miami's largest electronic music event, is taking its show on the road in February, making two stops in New Orleans. The first show, on Friday, February 1st, features a lineup of EDM heavy hitters, including Steve Aoki and the Nervo girls. What's more interesting is their Saturday show, featuring Afrojack and Doc Martin. Anyone who has heard both of these artists would be rightfully surprised. Afrojack's high energy, breakdown infused strain of commercial house music seems at odds with Doc's groovy, deep house.

Is this going to be another case of mistaken booking, with the headline DJ kicked off the decks? Or will Ultra manage this right, perhaps with each artist in a separate room? In recent years, Ultra has expanded its reach beyond commercial EDM, with artists like Seth Troxler and Damian Lazarus gracing its stages, so it will likely be well curated. 

New Orleans has played host to Voodoo Festival amongst other EDM events, and seems to be increasing its presence in US clubbing culture. Clubs like The Metropolitan and Ampersand are part of the force behind this expansion. As EDM builds its following in the US, look for more events in this musical city.

Listen to Seth Troxler on Pulse Radio

BPM is still on the tips of many tongues. The magic of Playa Del Carmen seems to have cast its spell on all those lucky enough to attend the 10 day affair. Running from Jan 4th - 13th, the festival saw record numbers of fans flock to its events. Media presence was high and thorough, so expect to see some excellent productions over the next few weeks. First up is BE-AT TV's "BPM After Movie," a short film that provides a taste of what the festival was like. In two minutes, you'll see some beautiful shots of Mexico, massive panoramic party shots, and snippets of DJ booth footage with the likes of Carl Cox, Dubfire, Eats Everything, Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap and more. You will also see several fairly attractive people wearing not that much clothing. 

Naturally, the video cannot cover the entirety of the festival. Playa Del Carmen's mystique extends beyond and influences the clubs where much of the movie is shot. For example, 5th avenue, the central street in downtown Playa, is a tourist's dream, filled with interesting shops, bars, and restaurants. Also some of the more intimate gatherings at BPM, like rooftop parties, need be experienced first-hand. All in all, this is a fun video that will remind many of their amazing experiences at clubs like Mamitas, Blue Parrot, Coco Maya, and more. And for the rest of you, your FOMO will get worse. 

Listen to Carl Cox on Pulse Radio

dirtybird, the San Francisco record label known for bass driven, party-ready house music, has released their “dirtybird Players" sampler today. What's this "Players" thing all about, you ask? Here’s what they want you to know:

“Flip up your collars and wipe the barf off your ascot; you’re in the players club now. Let’s unscrew a bottle of King Cobra and squeeze in a round on the back nine before dinner. Remember to tip your caddy who duck-taped the ghetto blaster to the back of your cart. And don’t trip over your boat shoes on the way to the toilet.”

Yeah, it's like that. The Players sampler serves as a showcase of all the key artists and upcoming talent on the label. It is an “up front taste” of the full length compilation and world tour slated for this Spring. They're all solid cuts, but my pick is the last, Justin Jay's "Altitude." It's a deep and melodic groover with a heavy side of floor-shake. Resistance is futile...

Claude Vonstroke, co-founder of label along with Justin Martin, talks about each track:

“’Don't Like To Do That’ was an unmarked demo that came through to me and every time I dropped it at least two DJs came over to ask me what it was. It took me 3 weeks to figure out who actually made the track and finally we hunted down the awesome duo called Cause & Affect from Birmingham and snagged this unusually funky groove."

"Worthy's "Dip" I've been playing for 6 months to great success. This is one of those bass heavy dirtybird jams you can bet will get the asses moving every time. Worthy has been appearing on db for almost 8 years now and has developed his sound quite dramatically via his own label Anabatic."

"Lastly, the young up and comer Justin Jay makes his 2nd official appearance with "Altitude" a track championed by Justin Martin this year. This is a deep moody affair and a great prelude into Justin Jay's full Static EP due out this April. And take note, hes only 19 years old! (A very wise 19 I have to say).”

For those who don’t know about the label, here’s some brief info from their team “dirtybird is an independent record label from San Francisco. Back in the day, good friends Claude VonStroke & Justin Martin spearheaded a raw bastardized version of house music that placed the emphasis on BBQ fun and booty bass instead of smooth beats and shiny vocals. Nine years later the label is still cranking out some of the most forward thinking party music out there. Shout out to Bjorn Borg & Thurston Howells.”

You can buy the release here.

Listen to Claude Von Stroke on Pulse Radio

Last week Boiler Room Berlin hosted a huge party with a roster of Boys Noize, Modeselektor, Hercules & Love Affair, Brodinski and Gesaffelstein. The whole event was broadcast live on the site, and now the recordings from Boys Noize, Modeselektor - who played a special DJ set which included everything from Skudge to CJ Bolland to their own material - and Gesaffelstein have been posted.

You can watch the videos in full below. Plus if you're down Melbourne way, don't forget that the last Boiler Room Australian tour show is going ahead on Sunday 27th January at The Bottom End.

Tracklist:

01. Charles & Eddie - Would I Lie To You.
02. ID
03. L-Vis 1990 - Video Drone.
04. Erol Alkan & Boys Noize - Roland Rat (LFO Remix).
05. Modeselektor - Art & Cash (SBTRKT Remix).
06. Bambounou - Pixel.
07. TWR72 - Future Tool.
08. ID
09. Skudge - Ursa Major (Cosmin TRG Remix).
10. Teeth - Percolator Meme.
11. Moderat - Rusty Nails .
12. CJ Bolland - Sugar Is Sweeter (Armand's Drum And Bass Mix).
13. Daniel Bell - Phreak Yo Body.
14. Siriusmo - Femuscle.
15. Modeselektor - Evil Twin.
16. Bok Bok - Reminder (L-Vis 1990 CC Mix).

Listen to Modeselektor on Pulse Radio
Listen to Boys Noize on Pulse Radio

According to Triple J, a contractor employed by the Big Day Out festival has been fired after allegedly asking female punters to flash their breasts via messages on the jumbo screen.

A festival goer by the name of Sophie Wright posted on the Big Day Out's facebook page, asking why messages like "get em out" were showing up on the jumbo screen on the main stage during Vampire Weekend's Gold Coast set.

"I have to say the highlight of yesterday was when your lovely technicians encouraged girls to publicly expose themselves to a few thousand people on the big screen with 'get em out'. What a fantastic display of respect for young women and Vampire Weekend and a true example to set to your male punters. Glad to see you hold the live music industry with such regard."

The post received almost 1000 likes before being taken down. Big Day Out has since responded to the post via a statement which indicates that said contractor has been identified and replaced.

"Big Day Out deplores the actions of the rogue contract technician who took over the running of the messaging on the main stage screen. The individual was employed by an external supplier. The content on this screen was not endorsed by Big Day Out. Big Day Out does not support the sexualisation of any of our audience, whether male or female... We expect respectful behaviour at our festivals."

The Big Day Out tour is set to hit Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide this weekend with the likes of The Bloody Beetroots Live, Animal Collective, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Crystal Castles, Sampology and plenty more. Check out the full lineup here.

Listen to Pulse Radio

The legend, the lady of LCD Soundsystem, THE Nancy Whang has landed! She’s here in Australia to spin her tunes and maybe sing some melodies, and get some booties poppin and we at YOLO are very excited to present her tour with Leibowitz and Weinberg.

While she’s here, we’ll be sure to tell her where to eat, drink and party, but what we want to know is, where does she do it on a perfect day situation in her hometown Brooklyn, New York? After having a look, we totally agree. Nancy Whang, take it away!

My perfect day in NYC starts off with me waking up to a bright, brisk spring or fall morning that’s warm enough to make you want to be outside but cool enough for a jean jacket. I’d hop on my trusty vintage Dutch bike (which I got in Ferrara, Italy while on tour with lcd soundsystem) and ride over to Oslo for a cold-brewed iced coffee. There are 2 in my neighborhood of williamsburg and i usually go to the one on Bedford Ave as it gets better morning sunlight, but they recently had a massive fire that destroyed the whole shop! luckily, they still have their location on Roebling Street to pick up the slack. (Best of luck to Oslo as they recover from the fire!)

If I need something more substantial than just a coffee to start my day, i’ll go to Whirlybird on South 2nd Street where they serve Oslo coffee and breakfast tacos! every couple months, Whirlybird displays the complete recorded output of a selected record label of note on its walls, and also hosts a pop-up restaurant called Chez Jose where the former sous and pastry chefs of Isa serve vegetable-forward dinners for 20 people on Tuesday nights.

After soaking up some sun and caffeine, I would ride over to Academy Records on North 6th Street and flip through the new arrivals and work my way back to the Disco 12″s and Freestyle sections. Despite how many record geeks must plow through that shop, there are still always classic gems to be found.

Record shopping can be some back-breaking work so I’d reward myself with oysters and a bloody mary at my local canteen, (and YOLO favourite!) Marlow & Sons. When the weather is nice, it’s best to sit in front outside and greet just about everyone you know in the neighborhood as they walk in and out.

With my midday oyster and bloody mary buzz, I’d head over to Nitehawk Cinemas which perfectly satisfies my love of eating and drinking in a movie theater. You’ve got the option of sticking to dolled up versions of typical movie theater concessions (popcorn with truffle butter) or getting a full-course meal. Although they did recently take my favorite menu item off the menu (where are the mini corn dogs??), they also do movie-themed food and drink specials.

It’s difficult to resist pigging out and getting wasted at the Nitehawk, but I would do my best to exercise restraint so that afterwards, I could hit the Commodore and get either their burger that’s so perfect it’s like eating a cartoon. Try the hot fish. They don’t mess around when it comes to the spiciness of the hot fish, so I pair it with a hurricane glass full of frozen mojito. I can never decide between the burger or the hot fish so it’s best to go there with a partner, go half-sies, and make it a surf and turf.

In a perfect world, my perfect day would have me eating all day and never getting full. Because then after the commodore, I’d still want to head to the Pines in carroll gardens, where the chef, Angelo Romano, makes beautifully delicious and adventurous dishes. I miss his former station at the now-closed Masten Lake for its proximity to my apartment, but the food at the Pines is worth the journey.

Having spent the day in brooklyn, I’d venture into the city for the night. I’d swing by Home Alone Gallery, the 24-hour project space curated by Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden, and Leo Fitzpatrick, and then head over to Broome Street and settle into a bottle (or magnum) or two at the Ten Bells.

Hours later but before stumbling home, I’d make one last stop for late-night chinese to soak up all that natural wine. If i manage to get out of the bells before midnight, I’d head straight to Mission Chinese Food for take-out (I could never bother with the line) and order the spice trifecta of Ma Po Tofu, Kung Pao Pastrami and Mongolian Long Beans.

But if it’s “one of those” nights, there’s no place like Great NY Noodletown. Don’t ask me what I would order there because I barely ever remember!

Fin, what a great day to be in New York City.

Nancy Whang 2013 Australian Tour Dates:

25.01.13  – TRINITY BAR, CANBERRA
26.01.13  – THE BOTTOM END, MELBOURNE
27.01.13  – IVY POOL, SYDNEY
01.02.13 – THE BAKERY, PERTH
02.02.13 – SECRET SHOW

Head over to YOLO - Your daily guide to the good life.

Listen to Pulse Radio
 

Bristol star Julio Bashmore is on his way to Australia to appear at Victoria's Golden Plains this March and has now added a show at Sydney's Oxofrd Arts Factory, set to play alongside fellow Englishman T. Williams. The party - thanks to the always reliable Niche Productions and Fuzzy - is taking place on Saturday 26th March with local lads Lancelot (producer of the infamous Bondi Hipsters theme tune) and Slow Blow.

Bashmore is one of the new leading names in house music, purveying a sound that sits in a compelling area between house and bass music through his DJing and orginal productions on labels like Futureboogie, Soul Motive and his own Broadwalk Records.

Tickets go on sale Thursday 31st January over at Moshtix.

Listen to Julio Bashmore on Pulse Radio

REBELRAVE Sydney is only weeks away. An event worthy of one of the world's top labels, 10 Year Anniversary Tour will presents the strongest of line ups. Here we'd like to introduce you to the ten talented Sydney stars hand picked to take the stages for REBELRAVE supporting Crosstown Rebels boss Damian Lazarus along with label members Subb-an, Shaun Reeves, Francesca Lombardo and Brohn. 



GABBY



GABBY's the lady of choice for techno and house for a number of the best club nights around. She's no stranger to the techno stage at Australia's leading festivals, warming up for the greats in her field – Claude Von Stroke, Jamie Jones and Guy Gerber are just a few of the peers GABBY's supported at Stereosonic and Future Music Festival in the past year. Now a key member of Finely Tuned's agency roster she's warming up the decks for Heidi this Saturday in Agwa Yacht Club's Afterparty and lined up to join Guy Gerber, Dixon and Emerson Todd aboard Agwa Yacht Club 016. A worthy addition to the REBELRAVE spectacle. 



MIA LUCCI

With 7 years of DJ'ing behind her, and in her second season as a resident at Salina's beach in Ibiza, Mia is taking the inevitable next steps. She has a weekly radio show on Ibiza Global, "Signing In," where each week, audiences from around the world can sign in to 60 minutes of Mia's favourite new and old tunes, from deep and moody house to bouncy techno. She is also hitting the studio hard, with her first single featuring Stee Downes, due out soon. Add this to her growing number of Berlin, Sydney and Ibiza gigs (she recently played at the Mother Recordings party at Katerholzig) and her growing list of international supports, including Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Art Department, and her Circoloco Australia residency, it is fair to say that Mia Lucci has only just 'signed in' for what is already and what will no doubt be - a journey not to be missed. Mia was also the one to warm up the main stage for Australia's first RebelRave last year that saw her join Damian Lazarus, Russ Yallop, Art Department, Danny Daze, Brohn and Amirali. 

LITTLE FRITTER

Pulse Radio Podcast 039 star from a while back, Little Fritter showed a natural creative talent for music from a young age, playing the drums and singing. By the age of 17 his interest turned to DJing at parties and events but he soon felt his real passion lay in the area of music production. Landing his first release on Jacob London's Label, Music Situation, for a remix of their tune 'Return to Squirrel Mountain' and since then he has released on labels such as Affin, Illusion and close friend and REBELRAVE headliner; Subb-an's One Records label. 

CO OP

Co Op is James Scott and Neil Terry and came together as first a promotion duo due to a meeting of several not altogether proficient minds who decided, in their sometimes questionable but generally well informed wisdom, that what Sydney really needs right now is a good old-fashioned, rough around the edges party. Since then the CO OP party brand is still going strong and James and Neil as the CO OP DJ duo play regularly on Agwa Yacht Club's Top Deck, Circoloco and now REBELRAVE for Finely Tuned. 



SAM ROBERTS

Founder of the now legendary Bare Essentials rooftop parties and long-time resident at Spice, Sam Roberts has established a reputation as one of Sydney's foremost proponents of the new wave of deep. Outside of his roles as resident at these two leading parties, Sam has been invited to share the stage with some of dance music's most celebrated artists - warming up for Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, and recently Wolf + Lamb on their debut Australian Tour. 



BEN ASHTON

Currently residing in Sydney, Australia, UK import and vinyl enthusiast Ben is running his own nights Bad Apple & Just:WAX Vinyl Only night and has taken up a monthly residency for Musik Matters. Since landing in Australia with not much more than a backpack he has played at some of the best underground nights in Sydney such as SASH, Transitions, Switch, Musik Matters, Circoloco, Nautical Adventures, NYE Opener, Hunky Dorys, and his biggest to date BEDROCK. The most recent addition to the Finely Tuned Agency roster you'll be seeing alot more of him. 



T-BOY

With a DJ career that spans over 15 years and both hemispheres, T-Boy has DJed at some of the most famous and well respected club nights in the World. Spinning an infectious mix of tunes from the deeper side of house and techno, T-Boy has rocked the educated UK dancefloors of places such as Sankeys, Chibuku, Turnmills and The Bomb, as well as DJing regularly in Australia on the infamous AGWA Boat Parties and at Circoloco Sydney.





RICKY COOPER

DJ Tricky was behind one of the first ever online radio stations – Gaia Live in the UK. He also had regular slots on Freak FM one of London’s favourite pirate stations and hosted his own popular show for many years on Bondi FM. A regular on the scene, performing around Australia for parties varying from Circoloco to Fashion Week. His most recent highlight, was his set with Lee Foss, Lee Burridge and Soul Clap at Burning Man.



MORGAN




Morgan has made a huge impact on the Sydney club scene in the past year with recent shows at SPACE Ibiza on NYD and supporting Danny Daze. Morgan holds a residency at SPICE as well as teaming up with Cassette, playing as Fivers. With gigs at One Night Only, Bad Apple, Midtown, S.A.S.H and Dust. Morgan will be sure to show REBELRAVE how it's done. Check out her recent mix Apathy below for a taste. 




ALAN THOMAS
 
Alan's style of deep, dark and melodic dubby sounds has scored him gigs at Sydney's sought after Finely Tuned events Circoloco, Hot Creations Pool Party, AGWA Yacht Club after parties as well as what we're talking about now their upcoming Rebel Rave 10th Anniversary Showcase which is his biggest booking to date. Chosen because his music foresight, high enthusiasm, and love for great music meaning he never fails to deliver the goods and continues to exceed expectations whereever he plays.

To catch all of the above with RebelRave's touring artists Damian Lazarus, Shaun Reeves, Subb-an, Francesca Lombardo and Brohn follow the ticket link below. Bring on the RAVE! 

 

Just when you thought this weekend couldn't get any more dirty, Chinese Laundry has announced that directly after it's massive Garden Party at ivy courtyard with the Dirtybird crew, all three headliners - Claude Vonstroke, Justin Martin and J. Phlip - will be playing back on home turf at the Chinese Laundry club for an after party of truly epic proportions.

Doors will open at 8pm sharp and all punters coming from the Garden Party will receive discounted entry. So, no hanging around at ivy with your fingers in ya bums - it's straight to Laundry to keep on boogieing!

Dirtybird After Party Full Line-up:

Claude Von Stroke
Justin Martin
J Phlip
Spenda C
Fingers
U-Khan
King Lee & Mr Belvedere
Cheap Lettus
Dance Club Djs
Eldred
Front 2 Back
Mike Hyper

Listen to Claude Vonstroke on Pulse Radio
Listen to Justin Martin on Pulse Radio

A brand new festival has emerged in another rapidly expanding hotspot for musical culture; introducing Horizons Festival, set among the Pirin mountains of Bulgaria and featuring some of the coolest names in electronic music, including the likes of Crazy P, KiNK and Icicle besides many more.

Tipped to be a hedonistic affair, the festival seeks to transform the Bankso sports resort into a hub for the best and coolest names in contemporary electronic music, running from 23rd - 29th March (that's a full week, don't you know). Across the 6 nights of partying, all music is expected from house and techno to garage and bass - for those wishing to clear those inevitable hangovers, there's over 70 kilometers of slopes and powder snow to frolic in. Check out this rather brave boarder making full use of the surroundings below. 

Take a deep breath - the line up is most enviable: Jackmaster, Mark E, Loefah, Ben Pearce, Phaeleh, Dark Sky, Alex Arnout, Maribou State, Icicle, Wookie, Route 94, Throwing Snow, No Artificial Colours, Eliphino and tonnes more top draw acts and DJs. The full line up can be found here -see below for tickets, available right here on Pulse. See you at the top of the mountain!

Horizons Festival 2013
Bansko Ski Resort
Saturday, 23 March 2013 - 29th March

Listen to Crazy P and KiNK on Pulse Radio

Andrew Weatherall is a happy man, and rightly so. His new album, with Timothy J. Fairplay as The Asphodells, has been well received, he’s got a full diary of exciting DJ dates and his studio has become a magnet for musical talent. That’s not to say that he’s bouncing back from any great period of woe – although he does admit that he’s less overtly misanthropic than in days gone by – rather he’s finally able to survey his career with a sense of satisfaction and take on new projects with renewed vigour. “I’m just a much happier chap,” Weatherall gives as the reason his vocals on the new LP sound so full-bodied. “It’s like if you’re playing an instrument; the sound gets better the more confident you are.”

Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust essentially began a couple of years ago, when he started working on a follow-up to 2009’s A Pox on the Pioneers. Getting bogged down in the intricacies of proper song structures, Fairplay convinced him to stop worrying about perfecting the middle eight and just enjoy working on developing new tracks. “He’s the much better musician out of the two of us, so for him to say that was quite an inspirational thing, especially when you’re in the studio and conscious of the fact people are better than you. I sometimes think I should be more rigorous in my construction, but he said ‘we’re wasting our time here; let’s just make some tracks’”.

The duo first met when Fairplay was a fresh-faced fan “usually the first to arrive and last to leave at a gig I did called Haywire”, then through mutual friends and similar tastes, the Battant guitarist ended up renting some studio time from Weatherall and eventually engineering some of his tracks. “We were constantly recording our own stuff and remixes, so after a few months you get a collection of tracks together, and some you’ll put in one file that sound like a body of work, then accidentally out of that Petri dish comes something that grows into an album,” he says. The finished article has elements of previous production peaks as Sabres of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen, but is also informed by the new music he’s been discovering and playing at his collaboration club night with Sean Johnston, A Love From Outer Space.

Of course Weatherall has been playing records since the days of Danny Rampling’s embryonic night Shoom in the late eighties, building a reputation that has meant he’s never short of bookings. “Every year for the past five or six years I’ve thought I’d slow down a bit, but it’s the old showbiz chestnut of I’ll stop working when the phone stops ringing,” he confides. “It inspires me, where I’ve got the records is next to the room I record in, so I can step literally a couple of feet and use that inspiration for my own devices.” The Major still buys enough vinyl to fill that particular studio to the brim, but these days he records them to CD via an analogue line in order to avoid lugging heavy luggage around the world. “When I’m playing in a small club you can see people coming up and then being disappointed that I’m not playing vinyl, there have been times where I’ve tried to lean over an explain myself, but then I’ve thought I should probably be concentrating on the job in hand. It depends on what I’m playing though, if it’s a rockabilly set then it’s got to be vinyl and preferably the original seven inch, but then when I’m playing an obscure rockabilly track from a compilation and some eager fan comes up to look at the original seven, I’ll get the same look I get at techno clubs when they see I’m playing off CDs.”

The five room Basement studio in East London that Weatherall calls his office has developed into a fertile breeding ground for a particular style of retro-futuristic analogue techno in recent years. With former Bios producer and now Crimes of the Future promoter Scott Fraser in one room, Andy Baxter’s vintage bass guitar emporium taking up another, and 35 years worth of accumulated books, publications, records and old bits of musical equipment cluttering up the rest of the place; it’s no wonder he enjoys his day job at the moment. “When we’re not recording, then someone else is, or Andy’s got someone in playing or buying a bass. We had Norman Watt-Roy, the bass player with the Blockheads down here buying a guitar, he liked the general cut of our jib, the gentlemanly amateur feel to the place, and suggested we do a track; so that’s a pretty nice day at the office when the man who played bass on Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick wants to work with you.”

While he says those who work in the studio are very serious about what they do, they don’t take themselves seriously. “Most great art is made from strife and turmoil, but the actual process can be fun, and I don’t think that goes for just music, it’s writing and painting and art in general.” One fruitful relationship fostered in the studio was with 2012’s breakthrough producer Daniel Avery, who co-opted Fairplay to engineer many of his tracks and in the process garnered the approval of his mentor. “I didn’t realise I was someone that influenced him until after he’d been working down here, I suppose everyone needs a little bit of validation now and again; that’s why Twitter’s so popular.”

Alongside the elder statesman like Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe, DJs and producers in the mould of Avery have been the antithesis of what Caribou’s Dan Snaith termed last year’s ‘EDM barfsplosion’; producing original electronic music using classic bits of kit. “We’re all drawing on the same sort of influences, I think originality comes by accident when you start doing approximations of things, so for instance The Cramps are totally original because they were doing approximations of garage punk and rockabilly. Nothing dates quicker than a new sound and it’s probably taken me and Ivan longer to not get hung up on originality than Dan. I don’t think he’s set out to be original, but he has by defaultbecause he’s channelling the music he loves using the equipment that was used to make it,” opines Weatherall.

2012 also saw Weatherall’s most mainstream move yet, in the form of a Masterpiece compilation for Ministry of Sound. He says that while he did have reservations about the criticism he would receive from purists, “I thought ‘what the hell, there’s no point sitting in your indie ghetto moaning that no-one gets the music and why are people listening to that crap’, if you get the chance to do something different, then why not take it.” He also regarded it as an opportunity to expose a wider audience to some great music on smaller labels. “If nothing else it’s a promotional tool for those little guys, so maybe this means that they’ll sell a few more; I say if they’re using you then why not use them to a certain extent.”

As for 2013, the new album will be released at the start of February on Rotters Golf Club, while there are also plans in the next couple of months for another release on his smaller Bird Scarer label from Craig Bratley. Plus, while his touring schedule may be booked up until September, Weatherall won’t rule out some form of live show for The Asphrodells come the end of the year or prompted by another album. “Other than that, I’m in the middle of a remix for Daniele Baldelli, because I’m doing a remix version of Ruled By Passion, and basically I’ve asked lots of people I like ‘if you remix a track I’ll do one for you’. Then the next couple of months will be more remix slots; we’re doing one for the new Primal Scream album.”

Listen to Andrew Weatherall on Pulse Radio.

Huge and exciting news has just been released - Damian Lazarus' ever-impressive Crosstown Rebels label have announced a five month world tour, covering Europe, America and Australia in the process and featuring the burgeoning agency and label roster, featuring the man himself and a raft of the most exciting and trusted names in contempoary dance music.

Kick starting on January 25th in Puerto Rico and finishing on May 11th in Mexico City, the Rebels shall be visiting every major city in the world. Crosstown Rebels staples such as Subb-an, Damian Lazarus, Art Department, Maceo Plex, Fur Coat, Droog and Deniz Kurtel all feature on the tour, but there's also some suprising additions in the form of UK funky lynchpin Roska, Bristolian house man Eats Everything, Turbo boss Tiga (the creator of the Rebels' 100th EP release) and dance music queen Maya Jane Coles, besdies over another 30 artists from across the scene all joining the good ship Rebel over the coming months.

Also known for their Rebel Rave TV series, documenting the antics of the gang since 2009 and providing a constant source of creative and cultural inspiration. Check the latest video from David Terranova below, the man responsible for the high quality video series, documenting this tasty looking initiative. 

Aside from hitting the likes of London, Leeds, NYC, no tour of the globe is complete without a visit to our antipodean cousins in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the extensive tour. More information to follow on this soon here on Pulse - for those of you who can't wait, grab tickets for the Sydney instalment here. Stay tuned to Pulse for more information - check below for a full list of artists and locations.

CROSSTOWN REBELS 10 YEAR TOUR DATES
JAN 25 SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO
JAN 26 EL ROSARIO LIMA
FEB 16 SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
FEB 17 MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA
FEB 22 TOKYO JAPAN
FEB 23 HONG KONG CHINA
MAR 01 CHICAGO US
MAR 02 NEW YORK US
MAR 08 MONTREAL CANADA
MAR 09 TORONTO CANADA
MAR 14 SAN FRANCISCO US
MAR 16 LOS ANGELES US
MAR 23 MIAMI US
MAR 30 AMSTERDAM HOLLAND
MAR 31 BASEL SWITZERLAND
APR 07 BARCELONA SPAIN
APR 12 BRUSSELS BELGIUM
APR 13 MUNICH GERMANY
APR 19 ROME ITALY
APR 20 BOLOGNA ITALY
APR 21 MANTOVA ITALY
APR 26 LEEDS UK
APR 27 LONDON UK
APR 28 MOSCOW RUSSIA
MAY 04 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
MAY 07 PARIS FRANCE
MAY 08 BERLIN GERMANY
MAY 11 MEXICO CITY MEXICO

Artists Included:
ALEX ARNOUT
ALI LOVE
APOLLONIA
ART DEPARTMENT
AMIRALI
BILL PATRICK
BROHN
BURNSKI
CLIVE HENRY
CARL CRAIG
CRAIG RICHARDS
CASSY
DAMIAN LAZARUS
DENIZ KURTEL
DINKY
DJ THREE
DROOG
EATS EVERYTHING
FRANCESCA LOMBARDO
FUR COAT
HEIDI
INFINITY INK
JAMIE JONES
JOZIF
JUST BE
KIKI & SILVERSURFER
LEE CURTISS
LEE FOSS
MAAYAN NIDAM
MACEO PLEX
MARK JENKYNS
MAYA JANE COLES
MATTHEW STYLES
PIER BUCCI
RICHY AHMED
ROB JAMES
ROB MELLO
ROSKA
RUSS YALLOP
SHAUN REEVES
SNEAK
SUBB AN
TIG
TINI

Listen to Crosstown Rebels on Pulse Radio.

It's no secret that Eastern Europe has become one of the hottest locations for the emerging drum and bass scene. Fade is stepping forth and stamping his own mark on the drum and bass scene. After releasing on Renegade Hardware, Voodoo Music and most recently IM:Ltd, Kiev's very own exponent of syncopated beats introduces himself further to Pulse by turning in a current selection of drum funk tracks in an exclusive mix. He also likes a nice furry hat too...

You come from Kiev- what is the scene like out there? Not just in terms of d'n'b but also other music and culture? Actually there is no any “scene”. There is some really good new wave producers like Detail, Abiotic, Teddy Killers, Against… there's no platform where we can play our music. Our parties are aimed more at a younger kind of crowd. Brostep and some really hard “gabba” drum and bass is leading the scene here. Hopefully in the next few years the situation will change for the better.

Did you start producing or DJing first? What got you into it? I become a DJ about seven years ago. After couple years of playing I realized that it's not enough for me. People tried to give me the push to create my own music - and after a year of studio work I started releasing my music.

Can you remember the first song you ever bought? Actually no, but I am pretty sure that it something that's hip-hop music related.

What was the last tune you bought? I think that was RAM 126 - Wilkinson 'Need to Know / Direction'. Great track!

What do equipment do you use to produce? Do you have a certain way of going about making tunes or is it different each time? I am using just my computer and studio monitors. Next in my list  of “need to buy” stuff is a Virus TI Polar synth. Yes I have some algorithm of work but sometimes it doesn’t work so I am trying do as much experimenting as I can.

Who inspires you generally? The very first person who is always inspiring and supporting me is my wife Julia. She always pushes me up during times when I get lazy or just have no mood.

What are your 3 top tunes at the moment?

Wilkinson feat Iman – Need to Know

Fade – Subject 9

Rene La Vice – They Way You Love Me (inside mix)

Finally what releases have you got coming up in the not too distant future? This year is promising be very busy for me. In February finally coming out my track “Guerilla Radio” on NC-17’s label Grindhou5e.Next ina spring my single on 117 – brand new label by DJ Trace. Also I get lined up 12” singles on IM:Ltd and Program, track’s on Symmetry, Demand and Avantgarde. Also couple digital releases on Flexout and Free Love digi coming. Also I launched own label Faded Music where I'm releasing own music… keep locked about updates on my pages.

Tracklisting
01.Cern - Micromega - (Renegade Hardware dub)
02.Fade, Detail & Abiotic - PVM - (Faded Music dub)
03.Future Signal - Origin - IM:Ltd
04.Es.tereo - Junction 12 - IM:Ltd
05.Kuantum - Lost & Found - IM:Ltd
06.Fade - Acoustica - Faded Music dub
07.Hibea - White Owl - IM:Ltd
08.Nitri - Concentration - Program dub
09.Atmospherix & S-vb - Modular Revenge - IM:Ltd
10.Andy Pain & Z-Connection,Full Casual & nScape - The Seed - IM:Ltd
11.Quartz - Amour King - IM:Ltd
12.Fade - Subject 9 - IM:Ltd
13.Chroma - Machine - Renegade Hardware dub
14.Fade - Collage - IM:Ltd
15.Wilkinson feat Iman - Need to Know - RAM

Listen to Fade on Pulse Radio.