One last post through the old site. Yep, the yellow and brown version is gone, welcome to a simpler and more stylish one. Address is the same, www.ondasonora.be, but for all who is following us through the RSS-feed, please adjust your settings. The new feed addresses are:

Blog: http://www.ondasonora.be/?feed=rss2
Comments: http://www.ondasonora.be/?feed=comments-rss2

All who stumbled onto the old site by accident (it isn't completely offline yet), please go visit the new one.

Lately I've been raving about Joey Negro's Eclectic mix to some people and the reactions I usually get are "Joey Who?" or "That filtered House guy?". Both prove a terrible lack of knowledge about quality soulful music and deserve nothing less than several months of punishment in a North-Korean bootcamp. But let me enlighten you a bit to avoid that.

Dave Lee (that's his real name) is also known as Raven Maize, Sunburst Band, Doug Willis, Jakkata and a few other aliases. That might ring a bell or two. If not here's some more. He started Republic records at the end of the ‘80s introducing New Jersey House in Europe (first release was Phase II's "Reachin'", a proper Onda Sonora classic). For that alone he deserves a statue. Nowadays he's got Z-Factor to enlighten us with releases.

But there's more. He put together some outstanding, and for me essential lessons, compilations. My favourites being the "Disco Spectrum" series on BBE, "the Voyage - Excursions into early House music" and the "Soul Of Disco" mixes on Z-Factor.

But there's much more to dive into. On the production front there are the many Disco influenced cuts under the many monikers he has, there's the excellent output as Sunburst Band and the uncountable ace edits he did. There are compilation galore to get yourself introduced like both volumes of "The Many Facets of Joey Negro" or the "Can't Get High Without You" / "Back To The Scene Of The Crime" on Azuli.

Get studying and discover a universe of goodness. As an introduction here's volume 1 and volume 2 of his Eclectic mix. It's one of my favourite mixes ever and without doubt another important lesson for me teached by grandmaster Joey Negro. Enjoy.

After a couple of weeks of working around a certain theme we're back with a completely Freestyle show. Some fresh tunes, some should-be classics and some homegrown talent. Expect to hear more tracks from Ducap and Oddlaner of the UpHigh Collective in the weeks to come too. The EPs we got from them are of the finest quality. Oh, you'll notice we like All City's recent output a lot.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Flying Lotus - Galaxy In Janaki - Warp
Ducap - Optimistic - UpHigh Collective
Jordan Rockswell - The Groove - All City
Oddlaner - Uno Junk - UpHigh Collective
Samiyam - Fishsticks - All City
Houseshoes - Newports - All City
No Fakin DJs & Diesler - The Rumpshaker - 2Dogs
Crosstown Traffic - Love Your Family - BBE
Mahogany - Ride On The Rhythm - West End
Roy Ayers Ubiquity - You And Me My Love - Polydor
Whispers - Tonight - Solar
San Soda - Middelmatig in 1993 - We Play House
Kyle Hall - Ghosten - Third Ear
Theo Parrish - When I'm Gone - Rush Hour

Just when you have given hope on a concept there’s always something to restore the faith in it. I stopped checking Disco edits a while ago as most of them are lame tweaks of songs that should be left alone or they are imitations of The Revenge edits (which I rarely like when done by the man himself). But then comes Dimitri From Paris with “Get Down With The Philly Sound”. Released through BBE.

The concept is simple. BBE let Dimitri loose onto the Philadelphia International catalogue to re-edit. Resulting in 4 double vinyls. All worth the hard earned gold nuggets they go for. The edits are all done with great respect for the original tunes and definitely made from a DJ’s perspective. Making 12” edits where there wasn’t one before this, not redoing what Tom Moulton did better back in the days.

What I love about this release are the quality liner-notes explaining how and why the edits were done. In the meantime being a major lesson for all aspiring editors. I learnt a lot from liner-notes on BBE releases. I’m a big fan of this release and, going by the fact that nearly every DJ at Southport played tracks from it, I’m not the only one. Expect this to be stuck into our box for a very long time.

Be sure to check the documentary and the promo mix. All quality.

What was supposed to be a week of recovering from Southport Weekender turned out to be more fun than aimed for. Not that I'm complaining. Just feeling old today. Haha. It all started on Tuesday with a fun live radio show. We should do that more often. It's up to the radio station to make it happen. Wednesday Gil Scott-Heron pleasantly surprised me with an enjoyable and tight gig at Cirque Royal. He's a funny cat.

Thursday we were invited by the UpHigh Collective to play some tunes at their Teamworx event. Maybe not the biggest turnout ever but great fun nevertheless. Location was killer, sound system superb and bbq very nice. The new tracks Ducap and Oddlaner played were top quality joints. Expect to hear them in our show this week. It felt good to connect with this talented and motivated crew. It's things like this that keep us doing what we do. Let me clarify why.

I know some people see us as part of a scene but I myself don't feel part of anything like that. Even if there's something like a Brussels underground soulful music scene I feel in no way a member of it. Mainly because geography nor style alone are good reasons to connect with people. I rather connect with cats doing their own thing in a inspiring way and for the love of it all. In every scene there are too many just doing it for the fame, money, girls or motivations that are beyond me. I can't connect with these people. Even if they play the same style of music as me and live in the same city. That's why I often feel more related to people doing something that seems far away from our own thing. It's the pure aim to realise your dreams that's important to me. That's something I notice very clearly in what UpHigh is doing and why I respect them greatly.

Friday was another highlight in a week crammed with them. Playing at Bar Du Matin is always a pleasure but this time it was double fun. Although there was a lot to do that night we had a packed and wild dance floor from pretty early on until the end. It helped that there was a bunch of people celebrating somebody's birthday but even apart from that the vibe was pleasant. People dancing on the tables and everything. And we didn't betray the theme we chose for the night (the sound of L.A.). Always makes you feel proud if you can pull that off with a crowd going wild.

Saturday I went into town to check the Belgian Pride Parade and that made me smile quite a few times. The wild people you see, the Chinese wanting to take pictures with the drags, Moroccan families enjoying the parade. All pretty surreal. A bit disappointed there wasn't a big outdoor party at night in the gay area of the city centre. Partying in the centre is rarely a given. Brussels could use a decent club there. Although that Madame Moustache thing seems promising. Might need to check that out one of the weekends to come.

Back from a heavenly weekend of quality partying and digging crates we did a live show. The records we played were all freshly acquired in Manchester or Southport. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Fuse One – In Celebration Of The Human Spirit – CTI
Bobby Womack – How Could You Break My Heart - Arista
Howard Johnson – Keepin' Love New – A&M
Yasuko Agawa – L.A. Nights – Bluebird
Billy Griffin – Hold Me Tighter In The Rain – CBS
Mr “B” – Tight Fit – Jersey Connection
Loose Ends – Slow Down (Extended Version) - Virgin
The Invitations – We Don't Allow (No Sitting Down In Here) – Red Greg
Mystic Merlin – Just Can't Give You Up – Capitol
Aly-Us - Follow Me – Strictly Rhythm
Joe Smooth – Inside My Mind – DJ International

We're in the last week before Southport Weekender so we get you and ourselves in the mood with some tracks that express our feelings abut that 3-day party the best. Some of them from artists out of this year's line-up.

And we have a little chat with Emilie who is making a paper about the Afro-American roots of House music.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Sheree Brown - It's A Pleasure - Capitol
LeRoy Hutson - Lucky Fellow - Curtom
Cargo feat. D. Collins - Don't Stop Your Love - Cargogold
Inner Life - Moment Of My Life - Salsoul
B.T. Express - Do It ('Till You're Satisfied) - Scepter
Logg - I Know You Will - BBE
Deodato - Keep On Movin' - Warner Bros
Double Exposure - Everyman (Joe Claussell remix) - Salsoul
Ltd - Holding On (When Love Is Gone) - A&M
Jasper Street - A Feelin' - Basement Boys
Kerri Chandler - Track 1 - Shelter
Brian Keith - Touch Me (Love Me Tonight) - New Image

This was my best Southport Weekender in years. For many reasons. Mainly because it's been a while since I've not been let down by my own physique (or my own stupidity like last year when I decided that only drinking cosmopolitans was the way to go which resulted in heavy suffering from a painful stomach for the rest of the weekend). We had a nice chalet (number 28 which is ridiculously close to the entrance), cooked nice meals ourselves, avoided eating greasy and we took breaks to rest when the body asked for it. Took me 8 editions to realise that is how to do it. We we're so inspired by our new Southport Weekender lifestyle Yoeri and I have decided to write a book with recipes to make healthy meals with what you can find in the on site shop and the chalet's kitchen equipment. It's perfectly possible. You can even make it fancy as Yoeri proved with his pre-dinner toasts.

But this wasn't the only reason why I enjoyed it all so much. Meeting some of my absolute musical heroes and having a quick chat with them was nice. Hearing Joey Negro say 'SPW is probably the only place in the UK where I can pull off a (New Jersey / New York) Garage House set” and realising I've been mighty optimistic trying to do it in Brussels. Haha. Won't stop me trying though. Having had the opportunity to say both to him and Sean P that they are responsible for my Disco addiction was a big highlight. Not sure I phrased it all perfectly clear being a bit star-struck (yeah, I get that with bearded men who play 30-year old music rather than drunks who can play 3 chords on a distorted guitar and think they're god himself). The Disco Spectrum compilations they put together were seminal in my education as a DJ.

Sean P's set was my absolute highlight of the weekend music-wise. Almost 2 hours of obscure, top quality Boogie making me dance like I hadn't done in years. Was so exhausted after his set (it was 7:30 am by then) I almost fell asleep standing up even though Kerri Chandler pumped a banger from Kink & Neville through the main room's sound system. First time in 8 editions I've seen Kerri close the main room on Saturday by the way. Other sets I adored were Benji B's House excursion (I adore his 4 to the floor sets – always an education on how to play such music), Peanut Butter Wolf's 80s grooves, Ashley Beedle playing Disco, David Rodigan's Reggae (a guy looking like a 60 year old accountant turning a room full of pimped up guys and girls inside out – absolutely amazing), the few minutes of Mr Thing I saw, Shuya Okino's Jazzy House, DJ Spen's ace Disco set on Sunday, John Morales' edits, Phil Asher proving he's a don once again and the good times with Terry and Andy on Saturday afternoon. Was blown away by Jazztronik's live set. Proper Azymuth styled Jazz meets House. Jocelyn Brown singing 'Somebody's Else's Guy' was goosebumps galore. Even liked Christian Prommer's gig although I'm not a fan of the concept. Sounded tight. And Leroy Burgess can do no wrong for me. They should give the man a proper stage (and backing band) though. Still, shouting the words along to 'Barely Breaking Even' was heaven. Such an energetic guy. A shame he didn't stay for a chat.

But the music is only part of the experience. Meeting and hooking up with all those nice cats is what makes Southport Weekender really special. Nick's friends, my brother from another mother Phil Cooper, the Swiss crew, the Italian guy we met during Sean P's set, the lovely Glaswegian girls, Phil Asher who's not only one of our absolute musical heroes but definitely is family too, Jos and the Diephuis boys, Bjorn aka the other Belgian and the community grows with every edition. I had a superb time with my fellow chalet residents. Yoeri, Lieve and Jonathan. This was the best chalet ever and not only because it was a well-equipped one near the entrance. I had a fantastic time with our Belgian friends. Dieter, Maarten, Tom, Karl, Laurent, Tinne, Leen, Tomas, Thijs, Hanne, David, Jonas D., Jouri, Marijke, Kim, Jonas C., Steffen, Joris, Bertrand, Claudia and Gudule. Can't wait for the next one. Such a shame that's over a year.

Next to all this I had a fantastic time the few brief moments we spent in Manchester. Mainly digging the crates at Kingbee records and Vinyl Exchange. Scored some absolute killers for virtually nothing. Enjoying them as I write this. Other great thing we discovered was Teacup. That's Mr Scruff's tearoom / eating place. That was no doubt the ideal thing to go to on Monday. Healthy food, tea to revive us and quality music in the background. Even more of a fan of the man now. Really thinking about going to Manchester next November just to kick off the habit gently. Gonna miss the winter edition of Southport Weekender a lot.

Ras G & the Afrikan Space Program / Samiyam - Los Angeles 3/10 (All City Dublin)
Not always into what both of these artists do but this is certainly a winner. The ‘Fishsticks' track is the standout one for me but there's more tasty beat business to enjoy on this EP. Nice one.

Onra - Long Distance (All City Dublin)
We're massive 80s Soul / Boogie fans and this is right up our alley. Nothing revolutionary but simply quality music. All City on a roll lately.

Dimilte - Prismic Tops (Now Again)
Probably the most brilliant thing we've heard this year. So ahead of the competition it probably gets overlooked (like most of the man's work) but sublime to the point it makes you want to stop making music. In a league of its own. You need this album.

Daedelus - Righteous Fist Of Harmony (Brainfeeder)
Another sound wizard that doesn't get the props he deserves. Edgy, mood music to get lost in. Far from instant but that's a good thing. It means you won't be tired of it after 2 spins.

Funkineven - She's Acid / Must Move (Eglo)
We don't mind retro-sounding music but we love it if you can give your influences a twist. This is just that. Warped 80s synths making music of today. ‘Must Move' is an absolute banger.

Beta Hector feat. Dionne Charles - Payback (Tru-Thoughts)
Rarely feeling newly made vintage sounding Deep Funk records anymore. Not even all that thrilled about the latest Sharon Jones album. But this is the exception. So off the hook it's fresher than most music intended to sound like it's from the future. Absolute stormer of a tune. Another one you definetly need in your box.

Ty - Special Kind Of Fool (BBE)
Always excited when this artist releases an album. Always keeping it interesting, always moving forward. Combining skills as an MC with a nose for excellent backing beats. Great album. As were all his previous.

San Soda - Immers & Daarentegen EP (We Play House)
We're far from objective about this as we consider the WPH-crew as family but nevertheless we're pretty confident this will e appreciated by all true House music loving heads around. The titles are genius as ever. At least for the Dutch speaking among you.

Rick Wilhite presents Vibes New&Rare Music (Rush Hour)
Detroit. Chicago. Exclusive. Deep. Quality. These words alone should get you running to your record dealer to get this one. Top release from the very prolific Rush Hour crew. Expect 4 different 12"s.

Kink - Rachel EP (Ovum)
Bulgarian House music. How about that. Kink makes the freshest old school sounding House (sometimes together with Neville Watson). Lots of sounds that seem to come straight from late 80s Detroit or Chicago but put together with a twist. Always banging.

Raffa & Toro - The Muck EP (Devotion)
Digital only House ain't our cup of tea as that usually means it's not good enough to press onto vinyl but this one is an exception. Soulful instrumental peaktime House like this is rarely made this good these days. These things get to be overproduced but this keeps it on the right side of the line. Thanks to DJ Random for the tip.

Jackmate & Missing Linkx - DiscoDisco2 (Pampa)
Love the title track. Hypnotic and it reminds me of ESG in a way. Simple and mighty effective.

In the good old days releasing your music, spreading a mix you made, letting strangers know you like something was, to say it euphemistic, a tad more difficult. That was in the days before internet. Nowadays everyone who thinks something is a good idea lets it loose into the world seconds after that thought. Rarely a winner.

I get allergic reactions to people putting their Youtube discoveries onto their Facebook account as if they have discovered that tune themselves. Like they did the A&R of it. Only if you found some gems diggin' crates and putting it in a mix afterwards you'll get respect from me. Unearthing tunes on the net is easy and for pussies. Certainly if you haven't got it in your music collection. Then your beyond pussy.

Same goes for tunes and edits on Soundcloud and alike. The crap I hear on that makes you wonder people have ears or a brain. People editing perfectly good songs into something awful is more than common. Others releasing a new track every other day too. How on earth can you make a good track every single day ? Or are you all more talented than Tom Moulton, Dilla or Moodymann. I think not.

Rests mixes to rant about. Poor choice of tracks (going for the hipness to the point of just ripping them of Deviation including Benji's jingles), mixed without a soul using Ableton (takes you 20 minutes for a 80 minutes mix, something is clearly wrong with that, don't you think) and forgetting that having a flow, storytelling and coherence are basic and very important qualities for a mix. All rather the norm than exception.

Positive thing about all this that it makes you cherish the rare nuggets of gold even more. My man Jazz has clearly understood what less is more means. His ‘Kennis With Benefits' mix is a rare example of an enjoyable mix with quality and refreshing selection of tracks nicely put together. Check it out, cherish it and try to ignore the mediocrity around you. I recommend Klipsch earbuds. Not only for their far superior sound quality but also because they cancel out most of the noise around you.

Note: I'm not against the net. I like using Discogs to find out more about tunes I like, I love the wealth of info on the DJHistory forum, I love getting in contact with a few likeminded cats I wouldn't have met otherwise. But sometimes it makes me want to punch people in the nose.

Lots of fresh music and some slept on older cuts this week. Because that's what we do. Playing quality soulful music most people are oblivious of. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Semtek - Idiopolis (Mr. Beatnick Remix) - Don't Be Afraid
Leonard Dstroy - Inner Paths To Oute - CDR
Funkineven - Must Move - Eglo
Spoonie Gee - The Big Beat - Tuff City
Oddlaner - Uno Junk (360 Version) - CDR
Paul White - My Guitar Whales - Now Again
Jack Peñate - Pull My Heart Away (Bullion's Shymar Remix) - Young Turks
Zapp - Be Alright (Dunkin Springtime Edit) - CDR
KZRC feat. Kemi - Feeding (Andrès remix) - NDATL
Keia Weia - Just Another Game - Easy Street
Jackmate & Missing Linkx - Discodisco2 - Philpot
MAW - Hillbilly Song (Frankie Felliciano Remix) - MAW
Fourtet - Sing - Domino
Unknown - Impairment - Unknown

The thing that made me realise that we're onto something with Our Party isn't the incredible sound, the number of people showing up, certainly not if any hipsters were in the room or the fact we had an awful lot of very lovely ladies on our dance floor. Nope, it's the smiles that make me realise that people get our goal naturally, without us needing to explain anything. The people on the dance floor enjoying our music, dancing their ass off and sharing their joy with others. The people helping us out voluntarily and enjoying being part of Our Party, not taking it as a job but as a pleasure. That makes me happy. That gives me energy and motivation to make the next one even better.

Well, not that I mind getting compliments, people asking me about the music or getting suggestions for the next edition which we got plenty. Haha. That next one will happen on July 3rd, same venue, same concept but this time with guests. Our good friend Rainer Trüby behind the decks and the brilliant Vanessa Freeman singing. Plus a bbq and more summer activities. We'll announce the details soon enough.

And to all who thinks it makes sense to say ‘Sorry, but I couldn't make it for a reason (which can never sound convincing to me)'. You shouldn't feel sorry about your choices. If you do that means you made the wrong one. If you made your choice for good reasons I respect that. Saying you feel sorry just states ‘your party just didn't seem cool / good / attractive enough to attend so I went for something else but please don't be mad at me'. A bit silly and probably sending out a message you don't want to (or so I hope). Just wanted to make that clear because I got an awful lot of those. Just show up next time if your conscience is that troubled.

Rests me to give a special shout to everyone helping out and certainly to Jonathan for lending us his mixer. I could fall in love with that DJR400. Although I'll prefer a full rotary with isolators per channel if I can be really picky. That's for when we get the Bozak I guess. Being blasé about mixers is nice by the way. Haha. And last but certainly not least, big up to Nick and my Onda Sonora family for the nice job done.

Lots of video's on here lately. This time, for once, not even about music. Well, not directly that is. Gust Van den Berghe aka Gusto aka one of the producers behind MadeInJapan aka one of the funkiest dancers in Brussels has been selected for Cannes 2010. Not for the official competition but for the Quizaine des Réalisateurs. Which is just as nice. ‘Little Baby Jesus of Flandr' also goes for the Caméra d'Or award for best debut film. Big up Gust.

To Have & To Hold - Taster Tape from Jony Lyle on Vimeo.

As a big collector myself I can’t get enough of these. Spotlights on other collectors / collections. Seen many but not enough and rarely good ones. But the trailer for To Have and To Hold, a documentary by Jony Lyle seems to be something that can come close to what I’d love to see. I’ve seen people like Bobbito, ?uestlove, Amir, Mr. Scruff, … and talks about the why.

Only problem is neither the trailer nor the facebook group tell me anything about where I can see the full documentary.

Big up to the always excellent Grain Edit blog. 

While selecting records for Our Party I stumbled on a lot of half-forgotten Jazz / Funk / Soul records. Listening back to them I got reminded of how good they are and you can be sure many of them will be locked into my box to play from now on. Not really a well structured mix but rather me discovering great records and recoding the mix while doing it. Hope it gets you in the mood for Our Party on Saturday and Southport Weekender in a couple of weeks.

And I'm happy to get the less electronic side of my musical spectrum into the spotlight for a change. Enjoy.

Tracklist
Undisputed Truth - Sandman (Whitfield)
Edwin Starr - Get Up Whirlpool (20th Century)
Leo's Sunshipp - I'M Back For More (Lyons)
C.B. Overton - If I Can't Stop You (Shock)
Maze Feat. Frankie Beverly - Southern Girl (Capitol)
Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson - 1980 (Arista)
Sheree Brown - It's A Pleasure (Capitol)
Father's Children - Hollywood Dreaming (Mercury)
Roberta Gilliam - All I Want Is My Baby (WEA)
Caldera - Sky Islands (Capitol)
Creative SourceI'm Gonna Get There (Sussex)
The Counts - Why Not Start All Over Again (Westbound)

Our long time friend Karl has bought a quality camera and began filming at parties and events. Here’s the first result of that. Our 10^th anniversary party at JH Eenders with K’Bonus. He's still finding his groove but I like the result.

Miracles & Rooftops by CERTAIN SUBJECTS

I have been raving about this for a while now. Well, for almost a year since I first spotted this on Soundcloud (oh, the good old days when there wasn't so much half-assed efforts on it). Even put it in my predictions for 2009. And now it's in the shops. Almost feels like it's a classic by now.

I'm always happy when I can explore new territories as a DJ. This event will definitely be such an occasion. Not your average party but a BBQ with photo expo, live painting and plenty of music from the UpHigh Collective (i-Sa, Title, Sir-5, Oddlaner, Delvis, Sir-5, ...). With us providing the sound at the after party. It all happens at Alma De Moete in Leuven (Heverlee to be more precise) from noon on. As Thursday the 13th of May is a public holiday, there's nothing to worry about not being able to be their due to work. So come down, make reservations for the BBQ and invite all of your friends.

This week it's Disco Dalglish selecting tracks. Some old, some new.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Uphigh Collective - Blend - On Point Records
Onra - Long Distance feat. Olivier Daysoul - All City
The Pinch - Shot Out - Spider Mo
Plunky & Oneness Of Juju - Every Way But Loose - Blackfire
K.I.D. - You Don't Like My Music - Excaliber
Nick Jones Presents Dorothy Oliver - The Work Song - Downtown
K. Alexi - Don't Cha Want It - Underground
Serious Intention - We Know - Easy Street
Vincent Halliburton - Something I Feel - Rush Hour
Martyn - Seventy Four - 3024
Tammy Lucas - Hey Boy - Supertronic

Wrote most of my weekend report here. At least the part about RELEASE. Which was a big success. I'm really proud of what we've achieved.

Friday I celebrated record shop day, which was on Saturday, early. Which will result in a new edit I'll try to finish this week and put online for y'all to grab. About time we upload something new on our Soundcloud.

Saturday was lots of fun of course. Apart from all the joy from the event itself, meeting Niels ‘Shoe' Meulman, one of my heroes on the graphic art front, was a highlight. Will miss his book signing at Mac Fly next Saturday but because Alex will get me a signed copy and this I won't feel too bad about it.

Sunday, after too little sleep, with way too little food in my stomach but lots of pre-match excitement I headed to Anderlecht for a great afternoon. Good weather, killer atmosphere and lots of happy people, I being one of them. Needing sleep even more now but it's all good.

Up to next weekend and Our Party on Saturday.

Don't really know why I haven't put this online any sooner. My man Nick has been raving about it for weeks now and I know many of my friends are captivated by this style of dancing. None of us can do it, let that be clear, but we all would love to. And as DJs we would love to play for such quality dancers even if it will take a time before we would be good enough to do so. Anyway, enjoy it and be amazed.

Big up to Shottsman aka IG Culture for making this and Spine TV for putting it online.

This Saturday it's all about RELEASE, the event we organise together with Eckelwood, On Point and Laid Back promoting ‘bedroom artists'. It happens, like the first edition, at Beursschouwburg, and entrance is free. This year we have lined up this excellent selection of creative minds for you:

Live gigs by:
Title, Shepherd, SubReachers & 72 Soul

Dj-sets by;
Sensiloop & Lowdjo

VJ-sets by:
Brat P. Milk (with Shepherd), Narkoba (with SubReachers) & Visual Kitchen (with Title).

Artwork on our walls by:
Adèle Renault, François Tusseki, Fahar, Kenson & GHOZZA.

Apart from that we've got some extras. There will be a merchandise stand where you can buy goodies from current & past participants or other RELEASE related artists and labels.

Doors open at 19h30 and the gigs start around 22h.

Usually we do a RELEASE special with only Belgian bedroom artist production but because we've got quite a few mixes online already and the fact that we've been neglecting the fresh international music a bit due to all the attention we give our event, I thought it better to mix both. This way the quality of those local unsigned tracks will be tested. If they don't look bleak compared to Dimlite, Paul White, Funkineven or Roska production we're on the right path. Judge it yourself and let me know. I've marked the RELEASE tracks with an (*).

Apart from all that you'll hear also a track from Princess Freesia, newly made Soul music we like a lot. Give that a check and if you like it and have a label sign the lady. Been on constant repeat at the Onda Sonora HQ.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Dimlite - Elbow Flood - Now Again
Underwater Productions - Heardtek - CDR (*)
Mux Mool - Wolf Tone Symphony (Paul White Remix) - Ghostly Intl
Oddlaner - Uno Junk (360 version) - CDR (*)
Dean High feat Fata - Speciaal - Eigen Beheer
UpHigh Collective - Blend - On Point (*)
Leonard Dstroy feat Brother Of Moses & Reggie B - Hypnotized - Eigen Beheer
Fatima - Soul Glo - Eglo
Princess Freesia - Honey D, Bunny T - CDR
O For Odetta - Traffic - Caoutchou (*)
Eskmo feat Swan - Lands and Bones - Warp
Gyto feat Senz - Piano Omen - CDR (*)
Forensics - Untitled Rhythm (This One Remix) - CDR (*)
SubReachers - soOther - CDR (*)
DJ Naughty - Quicktime (Roska Remix) - Roska Kicks & Snares

I had only one thing in may agenda for last weekend but it was marked in deep red. Theo Parrish at Silo. One of my favourite DJs, together with J.Rocc and Mr. Scruff, one of the current music producers I rate the highest and most certainly the best if there would exist an award for the combination of those two arts. So it was off to Leuven on Saturday evening and although I'd been raving about it for weeks ridiculously little of my friends showed up. Not enough cats to witness the man's genius in general (enough to have a party but more people should recognise). Well, that's your loss. I warned y'all, you clearly didn't believe me and now you missed out on something big.

Because it was good. even though he started 45 minutes late. Rarely saw him so energetic (lack of weed ?). After an excellent warming up set by Red D he took over in style and showed instantly why I call him a don. Although mixing technique is important and certainly a big plus if you want to be killer it's not the main quality one has to have to become a master in the art of deejaying.

It's first and foremost the selection, the flow / sequencing and the interaction with the crowd that make you stand out. Every 12-year old with a bit of rhythm in his body can beatmatch 2 records. If that same kid has access to the net and is a bit handy with a computer he can acquire, illegally or legally if he's a spoiled brat with a way too big allowance, a decent sized collection. But what he won't have no matter his talent, financial backing or even mentors, is a feel for the dance floor and a personal way to work it.

Only through experience can you learn to understand a dance floor, only through exercise, the study of the art's greats & the music, and lots of doing it you become really good. Theo Parrish has clearly learned from his predecessors (the soul of Ron Hardy flows richly through him), knows what makes a crowd move and has paid his dues as a cratedigger. No obvious or easy tunes, lots of very repetitive edits that only work when you tweak the mixer like he does, an excellent flow, never monotonous but neither overdoing it on the changing of genres or moods and, let that be clear, with impeccable mixing skills.

What did he play. Well lots of House, Disco, Boogie, Funk, hints of Jazz and the hybrids you can make with those ingredients. Lots of edits. Some of his own tunes. He takes you on a trip, makes you dance, peaks, gives you time to sip your drink and tell the one standing next to you how good he is, calls you back into the groove and makes you throw your hands in the air. Relentlessly, effortlessly and without losing you. He doesn't need anything else than his records, a mixer and his enthusiasm.

Big up to Theo, Silo, Red D, Jonni Gratts (although I didn't see his set because Theo played until 6h45 and I wasn't completely recovered from being sick the week before - but it's always party when Tristan & Laurence are in the house :) ), Jo, Nick (hope you didn't catch a cold going back all sweaty on your Vespa), Jazz & girlfriend, Alex, Billy (didn't know there was a second Palmier, damn), Jayrome, Ann (didn't forget the invite), Midleft and actually all others who had the sense to not miss this.

Oh, and had a great Saturday even before that. Booked my flight to the Windy City, scored some killer Boogie at Veals & Geeks and enjoyed the sun. Was on such a high from all that goodness that I even enjoyed my Sunday and Monday. Otherwise 2 days I rather go for zombie status.

Our friend Bruno aka K'Bonus aka Boohgaloo Zoo has a new 12" out on Lovemonk. I like the original and dub, which are freaky funk like you can expect from the man, and I adore the utter deep twist JuJu & Jordash gave it. Seriously leftfield Hip House. Haha. Not too sure about what Seiji did with the track. Big one. Heard some other upcoming stuff which sounds killer too.

Love this. Bleepy boombap with a bounce. Heavy and for free. Mostly quality beats and dj-tools with a few real songs on it which are killer. Certainly the ‘Hypnotized' track. Check it and get the entire album for free.

More spaced out beats from Infinitskills / Laid Back member LuiGi. Using a Jocelyn Brown sample and building a monster on a synth-groove around it. Nice one.

As a warm up for our RELEASE event and the release of his first piece of wax Title played a laptop set i our radio show. Check it on the listen again function on the fm brussel website.

Subreachers - City Drive - CDR
Zomby - Digital Fauna
Eskmo - Let Them Sing
James Blake's Harmonix - A Milli
Ramadanman - Revenue (Untold rmx)
Kidkanevil - Mega Joy / J-Pop
James Blake's Harmonix - Bills, bills, bills
Dutty Dubz - Gameboy love
Eero Johannes - We could be skweeeroes
James Blake's Harmonix - Bills, bills, bills
Aux 88 - Alien Bounce
Alexander Robotnick - Senza Titolo
Andy Page - Porcelain Elvis (Chris Carter rmx)
Alexander Robotnick - Les grands voyages de l'amour
DJ Wonder - God's gift intro
Emalkay - Explicit
Alter Ego - Fuckingham Palace (mode selektor rmx)
Nine is a classic (acapella)
Luke Vibert - Belief file
Letherette - In july
Eliot Lipp - Sentinel
Mike Tibbert - Sky Blue
Fu-Schnickens - True Fuschnick
Baron Zen - Theme (Danny Breaks rmx)
Jurassic 5 - Gotta Understand
Title - Waiting for love
Title - Caravan
Floating Points - Love me like this - Eglo Rec.
UpHigh Collective - Blend
LuiGi - Hooked Up
Rostislav - Visbokaal

Sorry for the silence past few days. Hope the sun and medication the doctor prescribed finally kill that cold I've been having in various degrees of heaviness last few weeks or even months. Coughing yourself a sprain is far from enjoyable.

Anyway, the first celebration of our 10th anniversary was fun. Thanks to everyone who showed up and to Soul Rebel and K'Bonus for the quality dj-sets. It was fun to see some faces I hadn't seen in ages.

It might be a little silent around here but that's just because were very active on other fronts. Like the preparation of our RELEASE event. Go visit the site, follow them on Twitter or Facebook to get the lastest updates on what we're up to on April 17th. I feel very confident this edition will outdo the previous one. Among other things because this time we'll have a merchandising stand where you'll be able to buy music, t-shirts and other stuff by artists related to our project. Directly supporting them.

Talking about different social networks to follow our activities on. Don't forget we're also putting updates, news and thoughts about almost everything onto the Onda Sonora Twitter and Facebook accounts. Music mixed or edited by us you can find on our Mixcloud and Soundcloud pages.

Little reminder. This Sunday we're having the first celebration of our 10th anniversary. Together with Soul Rebel and K'Bonus we'll play the finest tunes at JH Eenders. You probably got Monday off so come party with us. Come early because we need to stop at 3am.

It's been a while since we've pointed you in the direction of given away music on the net. But some nice things popped up recently which made another post about it relevant. Not that evident as most free tunes are too expensive even when they cost you nothing. The main reason for free tracks is that they're too bad to ask money for.

As with everything there are exceptions. Like the Oscillations Part 1 compilation, a joint effort between Jus Like Music and Apple Juice Break. Not saying all on it is top but there are some gems to be spotted (T.Hemingway, Deception Bootleg Machine and Dipak Chand being my favourites).

Something we can't stop raving about is One-Handed Records. Because it's one of those labels with a vision and character. Resulting in quality releases. The new Tranqill EP is killer. One of the few MC-led Hip Hop releases we dug lately. Another is the new Paul White album that promises to be even better than the first. The first single blasts through our speakers every few minutes. Another nice feat of the label is the regular goodies they give away for nothing. Check the Tranqill bandcamp and One-Handed Souncloud for some.

Through our RELEASE project I've been getting into IDM (aka Intelligent Dance Music aka the worst name for a genre ever aka even happy hardcore or handbag house sound better) again. That's the genre where Aphex Twin and Autechre are revered as gods. Sometimes also an excuse for lazy journalists to categorise music in that's neither Techno, Drum'n Bass, Ambient nor Electro but in the meantime has elements of all of those genres. Nevertheless it seems that it's still big in Belgium. Which sound more retarded than it actually is. The hip forward thinking beatmakers are, maybe unknowing, coming close to it at times. Here Umbrellalika and Caoutchou records are 2 labels promoting it. The latter giving away 2 compilations with some nice little ditties on it on its site. Another cat we discovered this way is SkyFix. He puts tracks online at a crazy tempo (which isn't always a guarantee for constant quality) but among the many tunes on his Soundcould are some really good ones. Love that MonoWe one a lot (which is actually more House than any other genre).

Lots of killer new tracks, some RELEASE related (SkyFix, Infinitskills, Title), and some dusted off goodies.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Fata Morgana - Staande Ovatie (Klap Ze) - Eigen Beheer
Pursuit Grooves - Shabaps - Tectonic
Infinitskills - Symbiosis - CDR
Cyclist - Prime Cut - CDR
Matthew David - Know You're Not Alone - All City
Paul White - The Bright Future - One Handed / Now Again
First Love - Love Me Today - Rams Horn
Sky Fix - MonoWe - CDR
T. Hemingway - Dirty - Jus' Like Music
Title - Sidechainreaction - CDR
Boohgaloo Zoo - No Joke (Juju & Jordash Remix) - Love Monk
Linda Clifford - I'll Keep On Loving You - Capital
P'Zzazz - Heard It Through The Grapevine (Onda Sonora Edit) - CDR

Caught up with my lack of sleep this weekend. Not really by choice but rather because my body forced me to. Haha. But took the time to make some music, sample some bits and continue the non-stop rearranging of my collection.

It all started on Wednesday with a José James concert (where I appreciated being with many friends way more than the mediocre performance on stage) and a killer dj-gig on Thursday. The latter at the opening of an exhibition (Finding Cheri Samba). Hadn't done that before. Certainly not because it was in a day centre for people with mental problems. And some of the patients were present. Rarely had such a enthusiastic crowd. The art on the walls from some of them was quality. Had some nice talks with a lot of people, saw some old friends and had a good laugh. Got the crowd moving. In short, all good.

Friday I discovered a part of my town I didn't really knew. Jette. Seems a nice place and they've got a fritkot (which was closed on a Friday evening though). Something we miss dearly in Schaarbeek. One that changes it's oil and doesn't serve kebab that is.

Rest of the weekend was recuperating time. Slept an awful lot (but still don't feel in top form) and kept myself busy with music. There are worse things in life. Up to next weekend when we start celebrating Onda Sonora's 10th birthday ... .

I'm not the one to go wild on sharing the compliments we get. I don't do ego-tweets out of principle (*) and I keep most praises I get to myself. If I share them it's with friends & family not shouting them in the streets (because that's what your doing when you publicize it on the net).

But let's make an exception this time. I had noticed a renewed love for our ‘One Love' edit on Soundcloud and didn't find out why until a few days ago. The track has gotten love on the Music Selections site hosted by some cats from Italy who claim to be righteous and cool. Can't argue with that, haha. It's a well done post where you can also check the original we chopped up.

One little note. Our name is not necessarily Italian. It means in most Latin languages the same and we didn't really go for one in particular. Apparently it has a meaning in Turkish too as I've been told once in a bar. But I forgot what. I blame the surroundings of that moment.

And it's nice to see this edit gets love every few months. Here's some from a few months back. It's funny because I've done it years ago. It motivates me to put some effort in producing again. Due to computer problems and a very busy schedule I kind of put that part of my musical activities on hold. But I have reinstalled Ableton again (legally of course), sampled lots of tunes and started to play again with sounds.

Doing a few edits for personal use (tracks that need some treatment to fit them better into my sets) which won't be put online anywhere. Because I'm done with the whole edit movement. The basics of it still stand as there are a lot of songs that can use some cutting & pasting to be more DJ-friendly but the need to share them with others for personal gain just doesn't feel right to me. The scene also lacks creativity and it shows a lot of ignorance about the past (people editing tracks which have gotten a far better treatment by greats like Tom Moulton, François K or Danny Krivit proves a lack of knowledge and respect).

Rather be doing some productions of my own. Sampled based as I've gotten my musical education in the ‘90s when samples were omnipresent. I'm still a big fan of the Bomb Squad, Dilla, Moodymann, Daniel Wang & so many more. Can't dismiss that influence. Hope to finish some tracks in the weeks to come and if I think they're good enough I might put them online for y'all to hear. So that I'm not the one-hit (edit) wonder I'm turning out to be. Haha.

(*) Ego-Tweets (ET) are retweets (aka forwarding someone else's tweet to all your followers) of any mentioning anyone else did of your good self. This probably only makes sense to those on Twitter. People even retweet people just mention their name. Mainly boosts the ego, has little other sense.

You should know what the word RELEASE means to us by now. Haha. It's an event we co-organise and which aims to give bedroom artists we like some shine. Music, Video & Graphics presented on 1 evening at Beursschouwburg. The first edition was absolute bliss, this second one promises to be even better. Help us spread the word through these tools; the flyer and the facebook event page.

Lots of new tunes, lots of RELEASE related ones and some (should be) classics. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Panzer Kunst - Halo around The Sun Or Moon - CDR
Dub Pets - JahJah Is coming - CDR
SubReachers - Humphrey - CDR
Emanative - Space In Veda (Emanative Dub Ra Mix) - CDR
Pursuit Grooves - Whisper - Tectonic
Jose James - Warrior (Sbtrkt Remix) - Brownswood
Four Tet - Sing (Floating Points Remix) - Domino Records
Taravhonty - I Can Hide My Love - Big Beat
Deep 88 - Summer Just Can't Wave Goodbye - Zoma Recordings
FCL - Let 's Go Seven - We Play House
KZRC feat. Kemi - Feeding (Andrès Remix) - NDATL
Fudge Fingas - Mmm Hmm - Prime Numbers

Last weekend was a much needed calm one. All is relative of course because I did go to Ghent to enjoy and being baffled by Mr. Scruff. Very few DJs are truly freestyle and even less do it this fantastic. The baffled part was because he played for a packed Vooruit (concert hall, no less) a very deep set. Hardly knew any of the Reggae or Hip Hop he played, recognised some of the more electronic stuff. And he still got the crowd going wild. Maximum respect for that. Killer visuals too. The usual goofy Mr. Scruff humour. For the fans ... he left a nice mural at Music Mania. Go check that out.

But the other days were chill and kind of recharged the batteries. Big up to Democrazy, Jonathan, Alex, Nick & Claudia & the folks for all the niceness.

Up to the next series of days of music feasting. Which starts this Wednesday with the Jose James concert (if you can't get in there we advise you to go check JtotheC & the Bad Mothas at Tavernier). The day after we play at the opening of the ‘Finding Cheri Samba' exhibition at Den Teirling in Ixelles. Starts at 19h, I think it's free entrance and just as curious as you what it'll be.

Not sure what's up this weekend but I'll find out and let you know later this week if something nice turns up.

Last few days & weeks were hectic. As a result I hardly posted anything on this blog. Sorry about that but sometimes more important things go first. Let me make it up with one big ass post.

First up I need to tell you about the nice things happening this weekend. Although I'll probably keep it chill myself. Going to see one of my favourite DJs in Ghent tonight. Mr. Scruff is up there in my personal top 3 together with J.Rocc & Theo Parrish. Will have seen them all in 3 weeks time. Big up Belgium for that. Haha. Everybody who thinks ‘Nah, not cool enough for me' should go to Cheeba Cheeba and try to outdo Funky Bompa in the far our suit compartment of the nightlife runnings. Don't know if that last sentence makes any sense, haha. Anyway, if you're up for some heavy shakement of the booty Bazaar is the place to be because Vic ‘n Lloyd will play some funky beats together with the best dressed chicken in town.

On Saturday you need to go to the peniche Fulmar (aka one of the partyboats not too far from Sainctelette on the Citroën side of the canal) in Brussels. There a quality Brussels based label is organising a night called ‘Umbrelladelika Beukt!'. Guess which label I'm talking about. RELEASE artists Lowdjo & Shepherd (boss of that particular label) are on the bill among some other interesting names. Go check it out.

Now that I've got your attention lets recommend some good records. The Four Tet album ‘There Is Love In You' is a winner. While you're at it best buy all available 12"s too. Some killer remixes by Joy Orbison, Roska and certainly Floating Points on there. Ask in that same shop for the latest releases on Prime Numbers (Fudge Fingas EP), One-Handed (Tranqill EP) and Eglo (Fatima's Mind Travellin' EP with some killer Funkineven productions - ‘On The Go' is massive) too. You need those. To close this bit of making you spend your hard earned money ... my favourite re-issue label PPU has a new slice of vinyl in the shops and it's a banger. The Pinch is the name of the artist and it's a must check.

Ending I do with the announcement that I finally managed to retrieve my Ableton (crashed computer made me lose my code - doing it all legally you know) and got it working smoothly again. So expect some productions of my own to surface on Soundcloud in the near future. I'm inspired and motivated pour le moment. Decided to finish my year long re-organisation of my collection too. Finally understood you need to do that structured and well-considered if you've got thousands of those 12" sized vinyls. Nice thing about it is that you rediscover some forgotten gems. Expect to hear them in my sets and mixes the next few months. I'm re-appreciating the genius of Ashley Beedle for example. Man made some crazy tunes. ‘Future Juju'. Go find that album.

This week we have Brussels based DJ Lowdjo in our studio. He'll be playing at our RELEASE event and that's all the reason we need to invite him. He selects and mixes most of the tracks of this show and gets interviewed in between. If you want to catch the man at work somewhere we recommend you check out Umbrelladelika Beukt! at Peniche Fulmar next Saturday. There you'll also see Shepherd, another RELEASE act, doing his thing.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Morgan Caney / Kamal Joory - Darling - City Centre Offices
Illum Sphere - Medusa - Fat City Records
Dabrye - Walk - Fat City Records
Gonjasufi - Kowboyz and Indians - Warp
The Gaslamp Killer - Intro and Anything Worse - Brainfeeder
Xberg Dhirty6 Cru - Rapschreibreform - Sonig
Fulgeance - Haggis - Rush Hour
Monkeys Steak - Tigris Riddim - Steak House Records
Over Again - Young David - CDR (Onda Sonora selection)
Acidburp - Blargh - Caoutchou Records (Onda Sonora selection)
Débruit - Persian Funk - Civil Music
Dizz1 - Frazzled - Kindred Spirits
P.U.D.G.E. - Reign Dancing With The Stars - Rush Hour
Dimlite Remixes Of Carlos Nino - Hot Haevy Heat - Ish Records
Loops Haunt - Huarache - Fortified Audio
Slugabed - Ultra Heat Treated - Planet MU Records
Saul Williams - Niggy Tardust - Fader
Lil'Jon ft Fabo & Gucci Mane - I'm A J (Dev79 Remix) - Street Bass Athems
Matt Shadetek - Strenght In Numbers - The Agriculture
DVA feat. Durty Goods - I'm Pissed - DVA Music (Onda Sonora selection)

Every now and then Fact magazine publishes a killer article and quite often it is written by Mr. Beatnick. Loved his Madlib retrospective and really dig his ‘best of broken beat' overview. As the more attentive among you will have noticed I'm still very much into that music originated in West-London. Just check the mix I uploaded a couple of months ago on our Mixcloud with many of the tunes Nick mentions in it. Anyway, it's an essential read and perfect introduction to the genre.

More internet ear & eye-candy can be found on Pitchfork. That haven of all things alternative & fresh has a short movie on it made by the Dublab people called ‘Secondhand Sureshots' where they give J.Rocc, Nobody, Daedalus & Ras G 5 dollar, send them to a thrift store to buy 5 records with it and let them make a beat with that. The result they put back into the thrift shops. Nice movie, nicely filmed. The result can be acquired through the Stones Throw site.

Note: the video will only be viewable this week. So be quick.

This week we have a lot of fresh tunes and an interview with Martin the drummer from Jaga Jazzist. So you can expect lots of music from that band too. Enjoy.

Tranqill - Chips & Cheese - One Handed
Emanative - Wind, Sand And Stars (Jazz Chronicles Remix) - Futuristica
Billy Love - U Bring Me Up - Sound Signature
Joe Thomas - A Place In Space - TK Disco

>>> Jagga Jazzist Interview <<<
Jaga Jazzist - I Could Have Killed Him In The Sauna - Ninja Tune
Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit - Ninja Tune
Jaga Jazzist - Toccata - Ninja Tune
Jaga Jazzist - Book Of Glass - Ninja Tune
Jaga Jazzist - Bananfluer Overalt - Ninja Tune

Fatima - On The Go - Eglo
Teddy Pendergrass - If You Know Like I Know - Philadelphia International
Cro-Magnon - Midnight Magic feat. Roy Ayers- Jazzy Sport
Nufrequency feat. Ben Onono - Fallen Hero (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) - Rebirth
Gerd - Freedom - Royal Oak

The first edition was more than nice but we'll try to top it on April 24th. I'm talking about Our Party. Together with Nick Blow we try to throw the best party possible and we do that at a nice venue where we put a superb sound system, hire the nicest bouncer ever, hand out candy floss and lots more. It's an invite only thing because we want some involvement from the people who attend. It's not just another party. It's tries to be more than that. So we feel we can ask something in return. Certainly because it's very easy to get invited. Just subscribe to the mailing list exclusively used for this event.

And we'll have one more before the summer vacation and that will be a very special treat.

On Friday I visited the new Nijdrop for the first time. Killer new space. Ideal size, clever layout and top sound. One of the better concert venues I know. Was there for the FFWD night with Checkmatez, Nosaj Thing, Daedalus, The Brown Acid & Dyno. Loved the Nosaj Thing gig a lot. I'm a fan of his music and he brought it well live. The talk I had with him afterwards was interesting too. You'll see or hear the result of that soon.

On Saturday we headed north again for a set at Cafe Capital. They've changed their concept to nights with a certain year as main theme. So you can hear music from that particular year, see videos and stuff like that. Saturday it was all about 2010. Not the easiest as it is only 2 months old but we nailed it pretty nicely I think. Only a few late 2009 records and one from 2004 (whoever knows which one gets my 12" for free). Played lots of Eglo records and we managed to play 4 San Soda tracks in 1 set. Got the crowd moving and that's what counts. Even if it wasn't the biggest of crowds we ever played for.

Yoeri, the more silent half of Onda Sonora online, remarked that getting out of your own little community back home is a refreshing and enriching experience. It keeps you humble. The judgement of the people closest to you is never unbiased. Or they're friends who like all you do because they like you and tend big you up out of proportion, or they're people a bit jealous who do the opposite. Neither of them should be the base of your own judgement about what you are doing yourself. That's why playing for a crowd clueless of who you are is something healthy to do. If you get them locked into your groove without letting go your principles and personality, you're probably on the right path. Not saying we're good ourselves. I leave that to others to judge but I like to hone my skills this way. So I'll reach, one day, the same level as some of my big examples.

Rests me to say I really enjoyed Serge from Clone records his set. Proper House, all killer, no filler. I also enjoyed the smiles of the staff. Makes such a difference when people seem happy. Big up to Will & Bruno for letting us play & making us feel home. Really curious to hear Bruno's K'Bonus album out on Lovemonk soon. The remixes I've heard so far (Tom Trago, Seiji & Juju & Jordash) sound dope.

Only thing I regret this weekend was not being able to attend my man Phil's birthday party. They're always legendary and he knows a lot of smart & beautiful women. Haha.

Billy Love - Melloghettomental - Sound Signature
Theo Parrish rarely fails to amaze us. He's one of those guys. Lately he even goes beyond amazement acting on a level I wish more people would achieve but very few do. All tracks of this double 12" are of the kind of House music I could listen to all day, every day. Big release.

Virgo - Virgo - Rush Hour / Trax
It's crazy how much more complex and mature House sounded in the early days. Even though the equipment was ridiculously basic and the range of sounds vastly more limited. The ambition to make coherent, musical albums instead of the next big tune on the dance floor resulted in some fine masterpieces. Check the first Mr. Fingers' "Amnesia" or Virgo's "Virgo' both from 1989 and both mindblowing. The latter has now been rereleased by the boys from Rush Hour. Essential record.

Really like this song, the video and the girl playing the lead role. Haha. The Bamboos' 4th album has got some nice cuts on it. There's some fillers on it too but the bangers, like this one, are premium quality.

This week a special radio show to start the build up to our RELEASE event at Beursschouwburg on April 17th. Only Belgian bedroom producers. All the artists we've confirmed get played, some of the one's that played at the first edition get a rewind and lots of the music we got the last few weeks and months. And there's more to come because we couldn't fit in all the music we wanted to play. Expect lots more in the weeks to come.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Dub Pets - Jah Jah Is Coming - CDR
Uinxxx - Punky Uinxly Party - CDR
Shepherd - Ryhlkes - Acroplane
SKP - Singularity Is Here - CDR
JtotheC - Nono (Luigi Remix) - On Point
Infinitskills - Symbiosis - CDR
Weedy - Clouds In Head - 40Winks
SubReachers - sOother - CDR
San Soda - Let's Go - We Play House
Jay Mayer - Closing The Gaps - CDR
Nextmen - Break The Mould (Mr.Mungus Remix) - CDR
Pierre Citron (aka 72 Soul) - Tout Va Bien - CDR
JtotheC - The Stomper - On Point Records
The Submarines - Xavia (Title Remix) - CDR
Twisted - Funky Monkey (Max le Daron Funky Remix) - CDR
Forensics - Untitled Riddim (This One Remix) - CDR

We haven't got a super busy schedule DJ-wise but the gigs on it are killer. First up is our first stint at the new concept Café Capital is having every Saturday. Called ‘Where Were You?' and working with a year as theme for the night. We got 2010. Happy about it because I really like to play new music on the other hand realising it's not the easiest of years as it is just 2 months old. But we like a challenge and we'll make the best out of it. Come catch us, Will O'Brien and Serge from Rotterdam's Clone records this Saturday.

Other killer nights are our 10 year anniversary party (April 4th aka Easter Sunday with Soul Rebel and K'Bonus), RELEASE, Our next Party (April 24th) and a really exciting joint venture between Our Party and Rainer Trueby's Beats & öxle concept where the lovely Vanessa Freeman will do a PA (June 5th). Big things coming up.

The celebration of my favourite football team's fantastic game (please don't call it soccer) on Thursday made me begin the weekend more than a little tired. Didn't mind it but it made me go home pretty early twice. Maybe missing out on some fun. Anyway, had a good weekend.

On Friday we played a Chicago themed set at Bar Du Matin. Was it because of Kwak's benefit for Haiti or just bad luck but we seemed to have a clueless crowd for the first few hours. People asking us the silliest requests ever (‘something dreamy', ‘something kitsch', ‘something to dance' when you're pumping Common's ‘Funky For You', ...) and basically refusing to dance. They surrendered after a while and we got them shaking their booty but it was a struggle. This time we had troubles with having a theme (the sound of Chicago) and a crowd who didn't give a damn about it. But we're not the ones to give in, ignore the topic of the night and go for the easy route. We're stubborn fools. It was fun nevertheless. And big up to the ever fantastic and friendly bar staff. Most welcoming place to play in Brussels.

On Saturday we headed for Halle to our former home spot JH Eenders. In preparation of our 10 year birthday party (Easter Sunday, write that down) we had to check how things were at the place where we started. For the occasion our good friend Jonathan brought his shiny new DJR-400 mixer. It's the beauty people like Theo Parrish and Floating Points prefer to use. And after only fiddling with it for a good hour or so I totally understand why. This bad boy looks tiny and maybe even a bit silly but it's a monster. Sound quality is awesome and we very rarely say that about gear. Mixing is relatively natural for a rotary mixer (being used to fader mixers until lately). I struggled with the UREI but this baby felt much more comfortable. The bass / treble tuning per channel being the main reason for that. The isolator on the main out is quality too. Only thing that keeps me from buying it instantly is the price. Killer mixer and probably the best one I've ever worked with. Thanks to Jo for bringing it and letting me play with it.

Now it's up to a very busy week with lots of good concerts (FlyLo, Nosaj Thing, ...), a gig I look very much forward to at Café Capital on Saturday and some meetings about future projects and more. Bring it on.

This weekend you can catch us twice. Could have been 3 times if we would handle Friday's double booking the Jazzanova way and both play one gig. But we're not going out like that. Thierry Boulanger will go solo at the Soul Affair, we'll play at Bar Du Matin.

Sets at this lovely bar always have a theme. We go geographical. After NYC, Detroit, London & Philly we go for the windy City aka Chicago. A city you should know for it's blues (which we won't play apart from some funky Muddy Waters and alike), it's Soul (the mighty Chess label and more), House (usually called the birthplace of this genre) and Hiphop (Common, Kanye & Lupe Fiasco) of course.

But we're known to dig deeper. Expect an extensive Curtis Mayfield / Impressions selection, lots of Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Kahan / Rufus, Minnie Ripperton next to lesser known gems by Donny Hathaway and a firm Charles Stepney excursion (Rotary Connection, Terry Callier, ...). And you can slap me if I forget to play some Peven Everett, Ron Trent or Tevo Howard. Haha.

Entrance is free as always at Bar Du Matin. And the crowd has never failed to impress us. One of our favourite spots to play at.

On Saturday we will be at JH Eenders in our former hometown Halle. Us and friends all night. Our man Jonathan will bring his new DJR-400 mixer to test. To go all Theo Parrish on. Haha. Entrance is free too.

Although I wrote a weekend report yesterday I'd like to do a remix of it and post it again. An extended Tom Moulton mix. Haha. Because the last year or so I've come to realise what makes a good night out for me and last Saturday most of those elements were right. Let me give you a rundown of what is important for me when I go out.

First and foremost the music needs to be right. Not just one act but the whole night. I don't care for 1 DJ playing one hour of good music among a line-up of sonic rubbish. I see a night as a whole with a good warming up DJ getting you in the mood for the peak after which you enjoy the deeper end of the musical spectrum and get sent home again fulfilled. It takes a good DJ to do that. Good warming up DJs are as rare as Belgian medals at the winter Olympics, DJs able to handle a peak and the aftermath for a couple of hours long are just as exceptional. Making my point that there might be a hell of a lot of DJs these days, but very few decent and almost no excellent ones.

Another thing I really don't care for is hipness or hype. I need good music, preferably nothing obvious (although I prefer ‘easy but good' above ‘crap & unknown'). Don't care if it's the latest trend coming from London making everyone's pants wet because I've probably heard it before done better. I'm that old, I'm that into music, I know what's being recycled. Hypes therefore haven't got the same effect on me as on a 16 year old. I like to be surprised but I don't care if it's a 25 year old tune by Larry Heard or Roska's (*) latest track. Quality is the only thing that counts.

I like quality in every aspect of the night. One that's often been forgotten is that on the promoter side of things. Even throwing a bunch of good acts together doesn't necessarily result in a good night. Coherence, build up, harmony, flow, ... just like in a good DJ-set are needed to make a good line-up. Takes me back a bit to my first point about warming up DJs and stuff, but it's more than that. I see too much chaos and wrong people playing at the wrong moments the wrong music. Ending up in confusion and the feeling it could have been much better with a little effort and discipline. Something I experience a lot in Brussels.

The other elements that need to be quality are the sound system, the choice & price of the drinks, friendly and welcoming staff, layout of the club, ... too much to go in detail about. To be honest, no club or party in Belgium / Brussels gets all of these right. Even at Our Party, where we aim to do it how it should be done, we haven't gotten to a point we can claim this.(**) It actually doesn't really need to be all perfect to be enjoyable. I'm not that much of a purist but it's rare that even some of them are ok.

Last thing that's really important to me is something you can't control as an organiser / DJ. That's the people around me when I'm on the dance floor. A party is ten times better if it's enjoyed with people you like. If you're dancing with your best friends it makes you go soft on the other elements. Not saying I could party on bad music played through an awful system drinking Flügel all night but this Saturday I didn't mind the Heineken for instance. And if the people surrounding you, that you don't know, look like they should become friends you're all good. That's why I like Southport Weekender so much. It's partying with my best friends, together with lots of people that should be best friends. On the contrary people trying to be cool and going for that funeral vibe can be a real party pooper. Something underground events suffer from a lot.

FortyFive at Libertine got a lot of those elements right. Music was ace and well presented by the DJs, some of my best friends around me having a superb time, other people well into the vibe and this all night long. Resulting in a killer night out.

It all looked so simple. Good resident DJs (L-Fêtes) doing their job, a killer headliner (maestro Red D), a good venue and lots of friendly faces. But still it's so rare it gets me raving here. Setting standards for what's to come. (***)

(*) And I don't like to be blasé about things either. I know that Roska sounds a lot like mid to late 90s Masters At Work but I don't care. It's good (and far better than what MAW themselves produce these days).
(**)Not claiming to be killer DJs ourselves by the way. We do our best and seem to get people moving. The judgement of how good we are is up to others.
(***) I shouldn't say it but I'm doing it anyway. This is a personal take on things. It's my opinion. So it shouldn't be read as a diss to anyone. I know it's common on the net to do so but you just shouldn't. I'm not preaching the gospel here.

Although we're going to have to miss both events ourselves, we'd like to give some shine to them anyway. On Friday there's Kwak's second benefit for Haiti at Le Bodega with a sort of all star line-up of (Brussels) DJs and on Saturday there's the Supafly girls doing their second party at Le Tavernier. Check ‘em out.

On Friday there's also the Sankofa Soul Contest at the Soul Affair in Anderlecht. We'll miss that too. Thierry Boulanger will take care of DJ duties. Double bookings are a bitch.

And there's Mala (DMZ / Deep Medi Musik) playing at Drumderground, our friend Brekbit's joint, at Fuse too.

We'll play at Bar Du Matin on Friday and JH Eenders on Saturday. But more about that tomorrow.

This week lots of freshness. New tracks by Roska, Bonobo, Emanative & more. And some dug up deep from out of our vaults. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Shaunise - Kingdom - Eglo
Mayer Hawthorne - Green Eyed Love (Waajeed Remix) - Stones Throw
Milyoo - Big Up - CDR
Emanative - Space In Veda (Emanative Dub Ra Mix) - Futuristica
ESG - Talk It - Soul Jazz Records
Gonjasufi - Kowboyz & Indians - Warp
Lay-far - So Many Ways - CDR
Rainer Trueby feat. Vanessa Freeman - Livin' In The Music - Compost
Goldie Alexander - Show You My Love - Chaz Ro
Andrès - You Can't Hide - Mahogani
Roska - Time Stamp - Rinse
Marathon - Movin' (Lee's Crasy Dub) - Ten Records
Donna Montgomery - Comeback - Tell Street Records
Bonobo ft. Andreya Triana - Eyesdown (Warrior One Remix) - Ninja Tune

RELEASE, our joint effort project with Laid Back, On Point and Eckelwood, will happen at Beursschouwburg again soon. On Saturday April 17th to be precise. First confirmed names are Title, Shepherd, SubReachers and 72 Soul for the live gigs and Sensiloop and Lowdjo as djs. More will follow soon. Check the site for more info and ways to get involved.

Didn't go to Ghent this weekend because I wasn't feeling all that well. Went to Libertine / Supersport instead to see our friends L-Fêtes and Red D at work. I really like the club although I could think of a million reasons not to (Heineken and the rather silent sound system being the most obvious ones). Had a good time with my Ghent / Brussels family. Great night out.

My entire Saturday was nice by the way.

Some news on the Lefto front. He's giving away this killer Charles Earland edit and he invited J.Rocc at Le Tavernier on March 12th. Which is nice.

Some good albums and compilations have been released in 2010 so far. Gonjasufi's ‘A Sufi And A Killer' is one of them and maybe the strongest so far. Production by Flying Lotus, GLK & Mainframe and vocals by the man himself. Rarely a record manages to connect the dots between personal favourites like Nithin Sawney, Mudhoney and early Tricky. This one does it magnificently. All over the place genre-wise but very coherent at the same time. Big one.

I've read a raving review on the Apollo website about it (in Dutch).

This weekend we recommend these parties:

Thursday - Kultuurkaffee - JE M'EN FISH PRESENTS INHALE, BunzerO, 2000F & JACK SPARROW RELEASE PARTY
Lots of Dubstep in Brussels. With SubReachers on the bill. More info here.

Saturday - Minnemeers - Lefto Presents 2 with Floating Points, Alex Nut, Fatima, Funkineven & more.
The Eglo crew in full line-up together with some interesting Hiphop cats like Exile. More info here.

Saturday - Libertine / Supersport - FortyFive with Red D & L-Fêtes.
A friend of us playing at this concept organised by other friends of us at the hippest club in Brussels. More info here.

This week we have the friendly and talented boys from SubReachers in the studio. They're producing some fine House, Dubstep and beyond and are playing this Thursday at Kultuurkaffee together with among others 2000F. We let them select lots of tunes and interview them in the meantime.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Fatima - Soul Glo - Eglo
Sarah Williams White - Watch A World (Paul White Remix) - CDR
Linear Movement - Way Out Of Living - Stones Throw
Shafiq Husayn - Evil Man (Flying Lotus Remix) - K7

>>> SubReachers Selection <<<
Om Unit - Corridor
Hypno - Hubble Dub
Subreachers - Wild Rose
Jazzy Jazzy - Dark Blue
DFRNT - Short Bus
Subreachers - Future Blindness
Kontext - Aeromonarchs Attacks
Andro & Dimit - Imula
Luthor - Fox's Call
Antics - Dark Valley

If we can make people dance without compromising musically I'm happy. Very happy. Certainly when it's a crowd which hasn't got a clue who we are. That's when you need to prove you're a decent dj. Playing for your friends is relatively easy, entertaining people who haven't shown up because of you but because they are hoping for a fun night out is something else. On Friday that's what we had at Bazaar. I think there were not more than 10 people I had seen before in my life (including bar staff), many no Disco connoisseurs at all. And still we got them moving. At times almost everyone in the room on the dance floor. Felt great. Big up to David & all at Bazaar.

Quite a lot of really good House music getting released these days. Looks like a lot of cats are going back to the roots. Which is nice (been looking too much The Fast Show, I know) as long as it doesn't get a fad. Let me point you to a few killer releases by new kids on the block as well as by some seasoned cats.

Floating Points - People's Potential - Eglo
Almost defining what makes a track banging. Bouncy, bubbly track that should get hands in the air. If not pack your bag a go somewhere else because you're at the wrong party.

Omar S - Plesetsk Cosmodrome - FXHE
In general I'm a bit weary about the use of the word Cosmic but here it fits. Old school but with a serious now twist. Alex Omar Smith's on fire lately. Well, lately being last few years, haha.

DJ Sprinkles - Maturjakor (Kink & Neville remix) - Mule Musiq
Kink & Neville - Full Flight - Hour House Is Your Rush
I like DJ Sprinkle's releases. Not so much for the original tracks but because the remixes are always top notch. The MCDE one is still my favourite Danilo Plessow production and here the UK/Bulgaria combo Kink & Neville Watson create something very big. Check their releases on Rush Hour's offshoot HHYR for more dance floor genius.

Gerd / Alex Agore - Freedom - Royal Oak
The Gerd track might not be groundbreaking it doesn't make it any less good. Lots of old school sounds with some wobbly acid bits and everything. Raw the way we like it.

Henrik Schwarz / Ame / Dixon - A Critical Mass Live EP - Innervisions
The boys from Innervisions did a live tour last year under that name. These is some of the material they recorded during these sessions. Totally their sound but completely fitting into the vibe of everything else here. Bleepy, banging business.

Tevo Howard - Crystal Republic - Hour House Is Your Rush
My favourite producer of the last few months. Where Innervisions meets the raw Chicago sound. Music to enjoy with your eyes closed late at night on a dance floor.

Aybee - Underworld EP - Underground Quality
On Jus Ed's label. Doors & Elevators is big. Moody piece that makes laser lights on a dance floor acceptable and makes long for a good old warehouse rave somewhere in the country.

DVA - Natty / Ganja - Hyperdub
Don't be fooled by all the promo talk selling this as some next level UK Funky shit. Nope, this is proper House the way MAW haven't made it anymore for too long now. Again one to get the hands reaching for the sky. Hyperdub keeping it fresh as ever.

Once you've checked these go dig some deeper. Take the labels & artists as a starting point. I guarantee you hours of listening pleasure.

Uploaded a selection of photos taken at Our Party last Saturday. Don't forget the next edition is on April 24th, same venue. To get your invitation subscribe to the mailing list.

Lots of good compilation out in the shops. There's the killer Minimal Wave Volume 1 on Stones Throw we've told you about, of course, but there's more.

BBE follow up Spinna's ‘The Boogie Back', the John Morales mixes and ‘The Real Sound of Chicago' compilations with a ‘Disco Love' one selected by Al Kent. Wasn't impressed by the man's set at Southport Weekender last November where I felt he had edited all the energy and dynamic out of the Disco tunes he played but here he's back with a collection of obscure but killer music exploring the fine border between Disco, Funk & Soul.

More Disco (not Disco) on Strut, that other fine home of quality compilations. A retrospective on Bob Blank, one of the unsung producers of NYC Disco. Expect pure uncut Disco over Boogie to the sonic experiments of Arthur Russell, Sun Ra and Lydia Lunch and everything in between. Essential piece of vinyl for the Walter Gibbons remix of Gladys Knight alone. Well documented as always, it's a release in cooperation with the lovely boys from DJ History, which learns you that the man is an excellent ballroom dancer these days. Trust me, you wouldn't have guessed that after hearing this album.

Last compilation we recommend is one gathering the best from the last 12"s on Prime Numbers. Conveniently titled "Prime Numbers Volume 2'. It's a CD only release for all those who are a bit archaic and swear by that form of media. Haha. The people following the label closely on vinyl or digital probably have all the tacks on it (apart from the soon to drop Fudge Fingas 12"). Stand out tracks on it are, for me, the BE and Mr. Scruff & Kaidi Tatham songs. Both Mancunian deepness of the highest order.

This Saturday you've got, once again, the choice between 2 killer events. Seems like Belgium is getting more lively every day. You've got our good friends from Cheeba Cheeba playing at a party, organised by some other good friends, called Strictly Niceness. That's what I plan to attend. In Leuven the Menahan Street Band with Charles Bradley and Lee Fields & The Expressions are playing at Het Depot. On the new Deep Funk tip they won't come much finer than that. Combining both is an option, by the way.

I myself am invited at a restaurant with a star I the Guide Michelin which makes missing some of the goodness not too hard at all. Haha.

And on Thursday there's Levon Vincent at Charlatan. Going to skip that as I'm still suffering from last weekend and the ridiculously cold winter combined.

This Friday we play at Bazaar. Expect lots of Disco, Boogie and early House. All banging. Free entrance. More info here.

Lots of new music in this show. From the killer Gonjasufi album, the Minimal Wave compilation, Senz, the new Fudge Fingas EP on Prime Numbers, MdCL & Paul White plus lots of goodies from the past.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Gonjasufi - Sheep - Warp
Gyto feat. Senz - Piano Omen - CDR
Linear Movement - Way Out Of Living - Stones Throw
Yellow Man - Strong Me Strong - CBS
Kool Chip feat. Toni Smith - Jazz It Up (Dub Version) - 4th & Broadway
Mark de Clive-Lowe feat. Rahel - Hope - CDR
Pharoah Sanders - You 've Got To Have Freedom - Theresa
Sarah Williams White - Watch A World (Paul White Remix) - CDR
Mental Instrum feat. Windsor Goode & Leon Neal - Bott-ee Rider (Simp The Pimp Mix) - Easystreet
Colonel Abrams - Music Is The Answer - PRT
Fudge Fingas - Me&U - Prime Numbers
Freeez - Flying High - Beggars Banket

It started nicely in Ghent on Friday with Rick Wilhite playing an across the board set. Great to see the Ghent / Deinze family and some cats from Brussels.

Our Party on Saturday turned out to be better than I had hoped for. Good turnout & lots of people smiling. What do you need more ? I am satisfied with the sound, music, friendly bouncer and most other things we tried to achieve. Only the balloon thing wasn't a success. Need to ask David Mancuso how he keeps those up all night.

Big up to everyone who showed up and danced. Big up to Noah for the short PA. We need to work that out together. Big up to everyone who helped. We would be nowhere without the help of our friends. Big thanks. One last personal thanks to Nick, Yoeri, Lieve and Dieter for making this first one a success. In the days to come we'll see where we can improve, so you can expect an even better edition on April the 24th. Same place.

If you took pictures please hook us up with them.

There's a new printed music & film magazine out in Belgium called Apollo. A brave move. Printed, in Dutch & pretty niche. We love it when people take risks. It should be easy to find at a newspaper stand near you.

I, myself, am writing reviews for the website. Because my man Alex is involved and asked me nicely. This way I'm able to push the music I like a little bit more. Let it be an extra motivation to send CD's, haha.

All the best to everyone involved. We need something like this.

Almost forgot to put the track list of this week's radio show online. Been busy preparing Our Party happening this Saturday and the next edition of RELEASE. More about that shortly. We play lots of good music, fresh to old. The interview with Chris Vogado will be for later when we find room in everyone's agenda. Sorry about that.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

The Bamboos - On The Sly - Tru Thoughts
Maxmillion Dunbar - Wouldn't Matter - Ramp
The Impressions - We're A Winner - EMUS
The Jeff Lorber Fusion - Monster Man - Arista
Paul Hardcastle - Rain Forrest - Profile
Invisible Man's Band - All Night Thing - Mango
Bunny Sigler - Let Me Party With You - Salsoul
Crash Course In Science - Flying Turns - Stones Throw
Omar S - Up-feat-Don-Q - FXHE
Peace Orchestra - Henry (Zero dB Reconstruction) - Fluid Ounce
Dave Da Gato - El Diablo - Tru Thoughts
Levon Vincent - Late Night Jam - Ostgut Ton
Zero dB - A Pompa De Girou (Moonstarr Remix) - Tru Thought

This Friday my favourite Detroit House DJ after Theo Parrish is playing in our country. I've seen Rick Wilhite a couple of times and I was always impressed. Open-minded, swinging sets. Add Red D, San Soda and Just Nathan to that and you've got yourself a sureshot party. I'll be there handing out the last few invitations for our own party the day after.

More info here.

Due to not enough people showing up SPARK has ended. A shame really because to me it was the best thing - club-wise - that happened in Belgium since a very long time. Quality bookings, nice surrounding, the few times we've played there a nice crowd, ... . But I must also admit that I rarely made it to Antwerp when we weren't playing (Theo Parrish & Trus'me probably the only occasions) so I'm guilty too in a way. I guess the scene of clubbers liking the deeper end of things isn't that big in Belgium. A shame but life goes on.

Bruno and Will have started a new concept making room for a wider range of dj's, more local, to do their thing. It's built around particular years in time with next to music from the chosen periods support with visuals. A bit curious how this will work and I think it's quite difficult for the dj's. We do it sometimes at Bar Du Matin but that's a bar and even there people don't always get it. Anyway, we love it when it's not obvious and we'll certainly give it a try. We'll play at Café Capital on March the 6th. Don't know if it's confirmed who'll be the main act (still not got that main act status ourselves, haha ) but you'll hear it soon.

Give it a check. All info you need on the Café Capital website of course.

It has been a while since I've written a weekend report. Didn't really feel like it and we had a slow period gig-wise the first few weeks of 2010. But that's over now and we're back on track.

We started of the new year at our former heimat JH Eenders. When asked to participate in a benefit for Haiti we didn't have to think twice. Next to supporting a good cause it also felt nice to see a lot of familiar faces I hadn't seen in a long while. Good to catch up, good to see a lot of people are doing well. Also nice to notice is that the youth centre we've spent a fair share of our younger days in is thriving. And that we still can move the place. Final slice of goodness was hearing the party generated quite a lot of money to donate.

On Saturday we headed to St-Gilles and Maison Du Peuple. Didn't expect much people as it was a busy day in Brussels of the party-front but, as always, I was wrong. Good crowd, even people dancing, lots of friends came through the snow and ended the night at Emirdag for a killer Kefta. So it was all good. Got to hear very, very promising stuff from the Up High camp through Alex On-Point and played my JtotheC 7" for the first time at a gig. Great night. Big up to everyone at MDC in front and behind the bar. Even to the drunk girl nagging for Funk all night, haha.

Next weekend is all about Our Party of course. Can't wait to work that Urei / Funktion One combo.

This weekend you can catch us playing records twice. On Friday we play at the benefit for Haiti our former home JH Eenders is organising. Back to the roots. Back to Halle. We'll play between 2 and 3am. All the info you need here.

On Saturday we'll do an all-nighter at Maison Du Peuple. Free entrance and us playing banging tunes all night long.

We still got plenty of invitations for Our Party next Saturday at Belle-Vue. Come ask us one if you see us.

With Mixcloud and Soundcloud giving you a decent platform to put mixes online every fool who knows how to (mis)use Rapidshare and glue together tracks in Ableton or Garageband thinks it's a million dollar idea to add another one to the already vast amount of pointless mixes available on the net. Luckily there are exceptions. Sometimes a bit too well hidden, sometimes getting the shouts they deserve. Here's a selection of inspiring mixes I think you should check.

Mr. Peabody Records Podcast on BBE Part 1 & Part 2
As promotion for the excellent and essential compilation put together by the owners of the legendary Mr Peabody record store in Chicago.

Benny Blanco Mix on Soundcloud
From London-based Nonsense crew (party at Plastic People). Really good mix. Check it.

Bullion Fact Mix
Always love mixes by the man. Always something else.

Motor City Drum Ensemble Mix on XLR8R
Like the set he played at Nexx. Banging.

First part of our Zero dB special. Partly because I need to learn to read my mails better. Anyway, next week we talk to Chris Vogado, this week we play a couple of tracks of the upcoming compilation on Tru-Thoughts called ‘One Offs, Remixes and B Sides'. Next to that new tracks from Belgian (JtotheC, LuiGi, SubReachers) and other talent (MCDE, Bullion) we like. Plus some older tracks we like a lot.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

J to the C - Nono (LuiGi Remix) - On Point
Bullion - Say Goodbye To What - One-Handed
Clifton Dyson - Slow Your Body Down - Network
Mark Lane - Who's Really Listening - Stones Throw
Funk Deluxe - This Time (Dub Version) - Street Wave
J.R. Funk And The Love Machine - Feel Good Party Time (Instrumental) - Brass Records
Géraldine Hunt - It Doesn't Only Happen At Night - Carrere
Zero dB - Come Party - Tru Thoughts
Zero dB - Universe (Dave da Gato's 'F_ck-up The Festival Bounce') - Tru Thoughts
Grupo Batuque - E Ruim (Zero dB Reconstruction) - Tru Thoughts
John Kong & Moonstarr - Future Vision (Zero dB Reconstruction) - Tru Thoughts
Subreachers - sOother - CDR
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Got It - Prime Numbers
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo (Andreas Saag's House Perspective) - CDR

It's always nice to discover brilliant music you've never heard before. It's what makes diggin' in the crates so much fun. It's what keeps me falling in love with music over and over again. It's also why I'll never be a rich man money-wise.

My first discovery of 2010 is Minimal Wave. Thanks to Peanut Butter Wolf. Together with Veronica Vasicka from the label Minimal Wave label the ever surprising Stones Throw have compiled "The Minimal Wave Tapes Vol. 1". It might be useful to explain what is meant with those 2 words I've used three times in the previous two sentences. I quote the label:

The Minimal Wave musical genre was hallmarked by the use of the analog synths and drum machines manufactured in the 70s and 80s, and characterized by simple music structures made by musicians working in the early D.I.Y. asthetic: recording on tape in their home studios, creating their own album artwork, and often collaborating via postage mail. The fanzine CLEM (Contact List Of Electronic Musicians) was very influential in creating a worldwide community for this sort of music, before digital technology and the internet came into play.

It has hints of Nu Wave, not surprisingly, Early Electro and it's actually very Funky. Check the Minimal Wave site to discover this part of the musical universe. I particularly like the Lo-Fi aspect of it. Proof that you don't need an Abbey Road like studio to produce great music. The fact that it's obscure doesn't hurt either to get my approval. I quite like the less obvious things. So expect lots of this in my sets. Probably confusing people even more but that's a good thing in my world.

If you like all things Electronic, don't mind what's called, a bit uninspired, Disco Not Disco or love the early ‘80s NYC music scene, then you should definitely check this CD and the Minimal Wave label. If Defected is your label of choice you might want to stay far away from it. For me it's the first big winner of the year.

It shouldn't need much explanation why benefits are organised for Haiti, why we support them and why you should do the same. Just check the news. Here's two we have a close connection with.

The first is one organised by some friends from Halle, our former hometown, and which is held at JH Eenders, the place where it all started for Onda Sonora. So we didn't have to think twice to participate when asked. Together with an all-star Halle line-up (Jugglin' Discotheque, Boomblast, The Herbeez, Local Position Soundsystem & Vectra Elektra we'll be playing party music. So if you're in the neighbourhood on Friday January 29th feel free to pass by and support a good cause. See flyer and facebook event for more info.

Another one is organised by the only Haitiën we know and good friend Kwak from Strictly Niceness. To support his people in these hard times he has organised a benefit at Théâtre de Poche. Killer line-up, almost an who's who of Brussels Hiphop History. Happening the day after the one in Halle on Saturday January the 30th. All info on the flyer and facebook event. Another benefit is coming up at Le Bodega on February the 26th if I understood well.

Please visit these events and spent some money. People rarely needed you to have a good time more than now. Support, you most certainly have a few gold nuggets you can spare.

Just read this quote by Claude Debussy:

“Au fond, on devrait faire de l’Art pour cinq personnes au plus, et cinq personnes qu’on aimerait bien. Mais chercher à avoir la considération des boulevardiers, gens du monde, et autres légumes, mon Dieu que ce doit être ennuyeux !”

Translated this is:

"Basically, we should create art for no more than five persons, and five persons we like. But aiming for the appreciation of the hipsters, people in the street and other fools, my God, that must be annoying!"

That's the most on point, both in meaning as in tone, way to describe my thoughts about that I've ever seen. Big up to the man.

I could go on a start a rant about how badly executed the promo is for this party but I'm gonna keep myself from doing that. Instead I'm letting you know one of my favourite producers of the last couple of years is coming to Brussels. Danilo Plessow aka Motor City Drum Ensemble is coming to Nexx. So I'll be there too. And so should you. Together we can make this a killer party. The music will be fine, if we're there the crowd will be nice and you don't need that much more to enjoy it, no ?

Entrance is free by the way.

I'll probably inform the organisers of this one what I think about their effort in person. And add some more people to that list of cats that think I'm a pain in the ass. Haha.

Our good friends Alex, Jonas & Gunter have been cooking up lots of nice things. Alex started up On-Point Records to release a 7" with 2 original track of JtotheC and a LuiGi remix. Be sure to get one. You can also download the 3 track for free. Check it all out here.

There's also a new JtotheC website and more online business to promote the man's efforts. The release parties are held at De Kreun on Friday and at Cheeba Cheeba on Saturday. Be prepared to hear the word "Funky" a lot, haha.

We wish them all the best of course.

Let's make this one a banging party. We'll play our best Deep Disco, Boogie and Early House tracks all night long. That's a surefire recipe for dancing until you're soaked. Expect the most infectious dance music ever made, never obvious but impossible not to shake your booty on. Lots of unknown gems mixed with true classics. Belgium once was a competing with the best when it came to Disco & Boogie. Let's bring that back.

Entrance is free. More info about the venue here.

Tonight we play quite a lot of uptempo tracks. Some big Onda Sonora favourites of the moment by Funkineven, Rick Howard and Seiji & some Boogie cuts you won't find on compilations nor re-issues. We also play new tracks by Egon Fisk & The Bamboos. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Track List:
Julie Roberts - The Bed's Too Big Without You - Blue Inc
The Bamboos - You Ain't No Good - Tru-Thoughts
Egon Fisk - Raumzeit - Umbrelladelika
The Reddings - You're The Only One - Believe In A Dream
Terry Burrus and Transe - Love Rockin' (Long Version) - Arista
Family of Eve - I Wanna Be Loved By You (Extended Version) - BBE
Funkineven - You - Eglo
Rick (Poppa) Howard - About Thirteen - Granville Records
Seiji - Tumbledown - CDR
Mystic Touch - Get Yourself Together - Reflections
Jazzanova feat. Phonte - Look What You're Doin' To Me (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) - Verve
Feel - I'd Like To (Motion XL Re-edit) - CDR

Sometimes you just want to keep things to yourself. Because they're too good to share or because you know they will get spoiled once people know about it. The Soul Affair certainly is such a thing. These words should suffice to illustrate my experience.

On the other hand the next edition will be a contest for Soul singers. A qualifier for the Sankofa Soul Contest which mainly a French thing but, this time, with a Belgian slice. If you feel confident enough to compete with some very talented cats check the site and get involved. 26th of February is when they take it to the stage. The one at De Rinck in Anderlecht.

Big up to Nowane, François & crew, all the singers and musicians, Thierry and all the stylish & lovely people who came down.

And it's the little things that make something exceptional. People knowing my name and speaking Dutch to me. Appreciated.

And the little of Amir / Bluefunk District I saw was banging too. Great day for music in Brussels.

Always a bit of a shame when 2 great events happen on the same night but on the other hand a city like Brussels should be able to handle that. Next to The Soul Affair there's also Kon & Amir at Bluefunk District which will happen at le Tavernier this Friday. As an extra warm-up for this Alex from On-Point.be put online the video of the chat he had with Amir at the Waxpoetics office in New York City. Enjoy and try to combine both parties like I'll do.

This Friday we play at The Soul Affair in Anderlecht. Really excited about it. Because it's something completely different. It's a young (multicultural) crowd enjoying quality Soul music in a way I haven't seen often. There is always a theme, usually an icon of Soul music who's music is being performed by a band and singers of, if I may believe my equally difficult Onda Sonora colleague Yoeri, very high standard. This time the central figures are Jill Scott and Gil Scott-Heron. Ambitious and, which I like, not obvious. Halfway the performance there's a sort of open mic with the band accompanying vocalists out of the crowd. Unlike at many similar events these cats are actually really good.

So that's a way we haven't been able to enjoy quality Soul music much in this city / country. To relieve the band a bit from playing all night long they have asked us and our good friend Thierry Boulanger to play some records after the concert. Making us very happy to be part of such a great project.

This all happens at De Rinck on the Place de la Vaillance / Dapperheidsplein in Anderlecht. That's right in the centre of that part of Brussels. Most of the info you need is available on their Facebook group or event.

PS: I mention the "multicultural" thing not because I think the colour of skin is in any way important but because I like the fact the weird segregation between cultures and communities in Brussels is being trespassed here. That segregation is not a racist thing. It's just that communities tend to be very focused on themselves here. That goes for the African community but also for the Turkish, Latin, European Union and even French or Dutch speaking communities. I'm always happy if we can break through those barriers. I love that. 

Some concerts / dj-gigs I really rate. There's more of course (Mos Def, Doom, Jose James & more) but these are the ones I really love seeing happening in my little country. Kind of proves we're slowly recognising as a nation that there's more to music than alternative rock, electro & drum ‘n bass.

15/01 - Kon & Amir, Tavernier, Brussels
16/01 - Patrice Scott & Redshape, Fuse, Brussels
16/01 - Marc Passarani, Spark, Antwerp
23/01 - Pablo Valentino, Spark, Antwerp
05/02 - Rick Wilhite, Private Pressing, Ghent
11/02 - Levon Vincent, Charlatan, Ghent
12/02 - Cooly G & Ginz, Nijdrop, Opwijk
20/02 - Floating Points, Alex Nut, Shuanise, Fatima & Funkineven, Minnemeers, Ghent
27/02 - Scuba, Recyclart, Brussels
19/03 - Mr. Scruff, Minnemeers, Ghent
02/04 - Gaslamp Killer & Falty DL, AB, Brussel

I've uploaded the radio show with the Martyn interview on our Mixcloud for y'all to enjoy. Mind, the interview in entirely in Dutch. Look at the post underneath for all the info.

This week we have, thanks to On-Point.be, an exclusive interview with Dubstep meets Techno don Martyn. In Dutch. About his album and his philosophy as a dj. These are parts from the same interview Alex Deforce and Jazz Neversleeps did and from which they compiled this neat video. The parts you'll hear in our radio show are things we picked up from the cutting floor so you won't see them in that report. This all to let you know the man has a mixCD out in the reknown Fabric series. The 50th to be exact. Check that out. And enjoy the interview.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Play List
Mitsu The Beats - Danger - Jazzy Sport
Dynooo - Tranch - Digsville
Seiji - I Can't Let It Go - CDR
Charles Earland - Coming To You Live (Lefto Edit) - CDR
Black Truth Rhythm Band - Save D Musician - BBE Records

>>> Martyn Interview <<<
Martyn - Electric Purring - Aus Music
Martyn - Velvet - 3024
Martyn - Right?Star! - 3024
Martyn - Elden St / Sebo K Watergate Edit - 3024
>>> End Of Interview <<<

Omar S - Oasis - FXHE
San Soda & Just Nathan - Voor Mensen Met Lekkere Dorst - Lany
Norman Connors - Once I've Been There - Buddah
Basement Jaxx feat. Sam Sparro - Feelings Gone (Floating Points Remix) - XL

Interview with Chez Damier on the early days of House / Techno in Chicago & Detroit, KMS, Prescription, Ron Trent and importance of New York.

Interviews on Bodytonic with Levon Vincent and Tevo Howard.

An interview with Danilo Plessow aka Motor City Drum Ensemble.

A really refreshing, honest and open view on the confusing days in the music business / scene by electronic music legend Kirk Degiorgio.

The always amusing and brutally honest end of year review of Dope Jams Records. I don't agree with everything (love the FCL edit on that Reggie Dokes) but I wish more people would show some character like they do.

Thanks to Infinitestate Machine, Mr. Beatnick, Jonathan for hooking me up on these links.

Like the last 2 years Alex from On-Point asked me to list up some predictions of the new year. Apart from 2 artists I really hope will break through I didn't really go for name-dropping. Just listed a few hopes up rather than trying to be a musical Nostradamus. Read it here and help me make them happen. The world can only benefit by it.

Lately I’ve been falling in love with House Music again. Well, I’ve always been in love with it but I mean I adore the new output in the genre. Where current-day Hiphop has lost my attention completely, House grabbed it firmly again. The only boombap I really like these days are derivative forms far away from the original artform and more often than not purely instrumental or, at best, with singers instead of mc’s.

House music on the other hand has gone back to it’s Chicago, Detroit and NYC roots, mixed it with the evolution it has undergone through the years in cities as London, Berlin, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Ghent, Brussels, Paris and San Francisco and gave birth to something profoundly in touch with its origins but at the same time completely modern. Really excited about what I find in the shops these days. Certainly because many of those new kids on the block choose for vinyl first to escape the vast ocean of mediocrity that Beatport and Tracksource have become.

Let me give you three of the current producers I like a lot as an example of what I mean.

Levon Vincent
Restoring almost single-handedly my faith in NYC as a capital of House music. All the big names there are losing themselves in directionless dribble but this is fresh. Taking it back but with a firm modern twist. Championed by the likes of the German minimal djs to genre-crossing cats like Martyn. House must be moody I’ve come to realise through his music. It has to play with my feelings in a subtle way. Levon’s music does just that and does it good.

Tevo Howard
Hailing from Chicago and doing it the right way. Picked up by Rush Hour who are releasing lots of quality tunes by the man but he has his own Beautiful Granville label too. Check the Rick (Poppa) Howard tunes on that (it’s his dad singing) which are among the best vocal House tunes I’ve heard in a very long time. Proving it doesn’t need to be screaming diva’s to touch your Soul.

Oh, and big up to Trus’me for making me discover the song in the video above this post. In all honestly, I’ve slept on this producer but this track opened my eyes and ears. So good.

Hunee
German cat. Even from Berlin. Making bumping House not unlike what the Classic label was once known for. Knowing who paved the way before him, taking his inspiration from it but doing something fresh with that. His “Rare Silk” was one of the absolute bangers of 2009 (and which I forgot to mention in my list I noticed).

And don’t forget other Onda Sonora favourites like MCDE, San Soda, Theo Parrish, Omar S, Floating Points, Kyle Hall, Tom Trago, Juju & Jordash, Pepe Bradock, … also proving that House music these days is going through an upward fase.

PS: Don’t think all House music is good nowadays. Still more than a fair share of crap around. The easiness of making tunes on your laptop and releasing them digitally hasn’t done much good in the sense of separating the chaff from the wheat. Labels like Defected reissuing classics with third rate remixes from producers that have lost it (MAW, Spen, Bob Sinclar, …) don’t really help it either. They make assembly line quality House acceptable instead of supporting craftsmanship and thus inspiring kids to make over-polished tunes with prefab samples. I like rough around the edges music with fresh sounds and ideas over perfectly quantised, formulaic one any day.

I've been listing the nice Bandcamp sites I came across lately. Quite a few ones with quality music. Many of them with free tracks. Check them out.

Beats
Paul White
Bullion
Fulgeance
Dimlite
Daru
J.Boogie
Grillo
I.N.T.
Kidkanevil
Devonwho
Pursuitgrooves
Suzi Analogue

Hip Hop
Del The Funky Homosapien
Elzhi
Probe DMS
Akello & Coincidence
Damu The Fudgemunk
Devin The Dude

Jazzy
Scrimshire
Emanative
Jonny Miller
Sygaire

Belgium
SKP
Panzer Kunst
JtotheC
72Soul

Soulful
J*Davey
Erik Rico
Brittany Bosco
St-Liquor-ish
Goapele

House
Spiritual Life Music
Roomwav
Peter Van Hoesen

Other
Gosub
Sweat X
Dez Dickerson
The Battles

Time to let you know what our friends & family is up to on the net these days.

Alex from On-Point has been very prolific these first few days of 2010. Video interviews with Tony Allen and Martyn (love that last one) and his traditional predictions for the fresh year (with one of me soon up there too).

Lots of friends have discovered the wonders of Mixcloud. Azer, Lefto, Jazz Neversleeps, Sensiloop, Kwak, Lowdjo, Funky Bompa, Beyond Jazz, Orsi, 72Soul, 40Winks, Up High, Allphon and of course the Laid Back boys who've been on there for ages now.

Lots of friends releasing music the way it should be done. On vinyl. Absolutely adore the upcoming 12" from San Soda and Just Nathan on Lany Records. Deep. The soon to drop Gum Dragon EP by Dynooo is a winner and should earn him the respect he more than deserves. JtotheC will have a 7" out soon. You'll hear lots from the Infinitskills boys soon (LuiGi has remixes on the previous 2 pieces of wax to begin with) and you need the Egon Fisk EP out on Umbrelladelika Records not only because it's quality music-wise but also because the entire package is banging (artwork + extra CD are crazy). Buy all of that and support the people involved in doing so.

First show of 2010. Lots of fresh tunes and some classics. And a new Onda Sonora edit. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Bullion - Say Goodbye To What - One-Handed
Paul White - Trying To Tell You - One-Handed
Vangelis - The Dragon - Finders Keepers
DJ Mitsu The Beats - Promise In Love - Jazzy Sport
Infinitskills - Symbiosis - CDR
Arthur Russel - This Is How We Walk On The Moon (Bogdan Edit) - CDR
Guem et Zaka Percussion - Le Serpent - Le Chant Du Monde
The Winners - Get Ready For The Future - Ariola
Lipps Inc. - How Long (Onda Sonora Edit) - CDR
Rick Wilhite - What Do You See / Moodymann Mix - Rush Hour
Hunee - Rare Silk - WT Records
Don Ray - You Got To Have Loving - Malligator
Phlash And Friends - Puttin' It Down - Archive

It seems we'll be as active as the end of last year in 2010. Some nice things lined up.

First of we'll do a sort of residency at the Soul Affair parties. Together with our good friend Thierry Boulanger. The site won't make you much wiser but, as the name kinda gives it away, these are Soul music parties. And more particularly the slice of Soul we like the best. Anything from the '70s to the present day. With lots of live action, ridiculously good singers and us as djs. When Disco Dalglish last visited this party he was blown away by the talent and vibe of it all. Glad we can start something together with these lovely people. First dates are 15/01 and 26/02.

Then there's our regular date at Bar Du Matin. We'll do a Chicago session on 19/02. As a preparation to my trip to the windy city. Expect anything from Chess records to Ron Hardy to Common.

And we've been asked to play at Maison Du Peuple again. On 30/01. Won't make it myself so it will be a Disco Dalglish solo effort. I'll be celebrating Root Down's 14th birthday. Expect a soulful freestyle session.

And then of course there's our own party. To know about that just subscribe to the mailing list. Invitations will be sent soon.

check that first date. Yep, the boys will start their tour in Brussels. At Cris Prolific's Bluefunk District. At Le Tavernier. On 15/01/2010. Bip up and I'm certainly there.

Our set before and certainly after the Dâm-Funk gig there last year was one of my absolute personal highlights on 2009. Hope we can repeat that this year. 

Just another mix I did. Called Chapter Two. Starting something of a series without any goal. The common factor being that it's all House music to me. Tracks which I all like a lot. You'll notice that I've got something for Deep & Raw tunes. Enjoy.

Forget all other parties, this is the one you need to be at. Quality House music all night long. We kick off things in '09 and go on for the first few hours of the new year. Geoffroy takes over and Micanik closes off. Same fair conditions to get in as always. Nobody ripping you off just because it's NYE. Check the Cafe Capital website for more info.

I have been enjoying life away from the computer / net a tad too much and forgot to give you the play list of yesterdays radio show. My bad. But here it is anyway.

Listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Dillinger - Flat Foot Hustelin' - Observer
Claudja Barry - Love 4 the sake of Love (Crisko Dancing edit) - cdr
Stephanie Mills- Watch gonna do with my lovin' - 20th century
Andrès - New Jack City - Prime Numbers
War - The world is a getto (special US disco mix) - BBE
Nightlife Unlimited - Tell Me (that you loft me edit) - cdr
Rick Wilhite - Drum patterns and memories (moodymann mix) - Rush Hour
Julius Steinhoff - Something like wonderful - Smallville
Norm Talley - The Journey - Third Ear Recordings
Ronnie Dyson - All over your face - BBE
Visual - The music got me - Prelude

I thought it would be a good idea to compile a (somewhat) definitive list of tracks that were released (commercially or given away for free on the web) this year. Rarely do that but just felt like it this time. No exclusives, nothing so extremely rare you can't find it. All things I added to my own collection. Almost everything on vinyl except a few digital only's. I've put quite some work into this. Checking discogs, old playlists, my collection, ... . These are all tracks and albums I, Bart Sibiel, like a lot. Left out a lot of good but not fantastic ones. These are the ones I really, really love. Still ended up with a baffling amount of tracks. And I probably forgot some. But here you go. Check 'em and get 'em.

To be clear. I haven't put any compilations in it (not really '09 music), nor much of the RELEASE tracks we got (because they're not available to all). Otherwise this list would have been much, much longer.

Oh and they are in no particular order.

Martyn - Electric Purring - AUS Music
Martyn - Great Lenghts LP - 3024
Funkineven - You - Eglo
Fulgeance - Ann Arbor - One-Handed
Omar S - Sign & Drive - FXHE
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Theo Parrish Remix) - DFA
Theo Parrish - Space Station - Sound Signature
Pépé Bradock - Path Of Most Resistance - Atavism
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo - Hotflush
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts #6 - MCDE
Nufrequency feat. Ben Onono - Fallen Hero (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remix) - Rebirth
DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central, Pt. I / Deep Into The Bowel Of House (MCDE Bassline Dub) - Mule Musiq
Floating Points - Vacuum Boogie EP - Eglo
Floating Points - Love Me Like This - R2
Bei Bei & Shawn Lee - Make Me Stronger (Floating Points Ensemble Remix) - Ubiquity
Joker - Digidesign - Hyperdub
Joker & Ginz - Re-Up - Kapsize
Julien Dyne - Falling - BBE
The Clonious - Emora - Ubiquity
The Clonious - One At A Time - Ubiquity
Ame - Setsa - Innervisions
Culoe De Song - The Bright Forest - Innervisions
Darkstar - Aidy's Girl Is A Computer - Hyperdub
Mark Pritchard & Om'Mas Keith - Wind It Up - Hyperdub
Zomby - Tarantula - Hyperdub
FaltyDL - Party - Ramp
FaltyDL - To London - Ramp
Silkie - Purple Love - Deep Medi Musik
Hudson Mohawke - FUSE - Warp
Hudson Mohawke - Overnight - Warp
Hudson Mohawke - Polkadot Blues - Warp
Domu - 15 Sounds - CDR
Domu - Something New - Tru Thoughts
San Soda - Kaizen - WPH
San Soda - Evaluation Of House EP - WPH
Reggie Dokes - Dream Catcher (FCL Edit) - WPH
Dobie - Dumb Girl From Allen Road - Brownswood
Elan Mehler - New Breed (Dobie Remix) - CDR
Beautiful Swimmers - O Yea - Future Times
Trus'me - In The Red LP - Prime Numbers
Dâm-Funk - When80mprfeelslike20 - Stones Throw
Dâm-Funk - Toeachizown LP - Stones Throw
Wavelength - Funk Dreams - Glydezone
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson - Suite For Ma Dukes - Mochilla
Eskmo - Let Them Sing - Planet Mu
Linkwood - System LP - Prime Numbers
Linkwood - Who La La? (Linkwood Edit) - Firecracker
Natural Self - My Heart Beats Like A Drum LP - Tru Thoughts
Flevans - Hold On (Hint Remix) - Tru Thoughts
Stonephace - Stonephace LP - Tru Thoughts
Tom Trago - Lost In The Streets Of NYC - Rush Hour
Dorian Concept - The Fucking Formula - Rush Hour
Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience EP - Affine
Build An Ark - In Her Smile (Daedelus Remix) - Kindred Spirits
Roska - Elevated Levels - Roska Kicks & Snares
People Under The Stairs - Carried Away LP - Om
Fat Freddy's Drop - Big BW - The Drop
Edan - Echo Party LP - Five Day Weekend
Mr. Scruff & Kaidi Tatham - Fresh Noodles - Prime Numbers
Seiji - I Can't Let It Go - CDR
Paul White - Hustle (Bullion Remix) - One-Handed
Bullion - Young Heartache EP - One-Handed
Paul White - Everything He Released - One-Handed
Nosaj Thing - Drift LP - Alpha Pup
Jayson Brothers - All My Life - MCDE
Delano Smith - Nebula - Mixmode
Delano Smith - The Explanation - Third Ear
Norm Talley - The Journey - Third Ear
Juju & Jordash - Deep Blue Meanies - Dekmantel
Juju & Jordash - Jazzy Trance - Dekmantel
Mr Beatnick - Fallen Apples - Futuristica
Jungle Drums & Ahu - Walk (Mr. Beatnicks Concrete Remix) - We Ain't Music
Emanative - Space LP - Futuristica
Weedy - Beats & Pieces - 40 Winks Records
Shepherd - Kantknellt - Acroplane
Cro-Magnon - III LP - Jazzy Sport
The Louie Gee Ensemble - Scrabble - Jazzy Sport
Jeb Loy Nichols - Strange Faith And Practice LP - Impossible Ark
The Rhythmatic Orchestra - African Mailman - Impossible Ark
Andrès - II EP - Mahogani
Benga - Buzzin' - Tempa
dBridge - Wonder Where - Non Plus
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Love Czars - Ubiquity
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - The Bone Song - Ubiquity
Rainer Trüby - To Know You - White
Glass - Pyramid - Better By The Minute - People's Potential Unlimited
Checker Kabb - By My Side (Instrumental) - People's Potential Unlimited
Brassica - The Centre - Dissident
Doom - Rap Ambush - Lex
Lee Fields & The Expressions - My World LP - Truth & Soul
Mayer Hawthorne & The County - Green Eyed Love - Stones Throw
Aphrodisiax - Unfinished Business - Jus'House
Karizma - Annihilate - White
Altered Natives - Rass Out - Fresh Minute Music
Be - when You Left - Prime Numbers
Afta-1 - Nightlight - MPM
Bopstar feat. Zara McFarlane - Captured (Restless Soul Main Mix) - Soul Heaven

Second week we play some of our favourites of 2009 and talk a bit about them and what's to come.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) ion fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Build An Ark - Inner Smile (Daedelus Remix) - Kindred Spirits
Bioniq - Spirit Fu - CDR
Eskmo - Let Them Sing - Planet Mu
Dam Funk - Mirrors - Stones Throw
Bullion - Young Heartache - One Handed Music
JSquare - My Eyes Need You - CDR
Silkie - Purple Love - Deep Medi Musik
J To The C - Nono - CDR
People Under The Stairs - Beer - Om Records
Beautiful Swimmers - Swimmers Groove - Future Times
DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central (Deep Into The Bowl Of House / MCDE Bassline Dub) - Mule Musiq
Andrès - Step Pattern feat. Vernon Hill - Mahogani Music
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts # 6 - MCDE
Karizma - Necessary Madness - R2
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo - Hot Flush

On Friday we played the last in a series of weekly gigs that lasted for almost 2 months. A nice conclusion of many fine experiences. Love dj'ing so much when it's for people that are up for it. I don't compromise, I do my thing together with my Onda Sonora colleague without concessions, but we're open-minded enough to handle a wide variety of parties. We don't go soft just because the crowd wants it. We go deep. The sets you hear on our Mixcloud page, that's what we play. We're "What you hear is what you get". The fact that we've been able to do that with success this year at so many different parties and venues in a little country like Belgium with little tradition in our music makes me happy. It gives me hope most people aren't the soulless bunch of ignorant mainstream loving pop-addicts some dj's take them for. People can take a fair share of deepness. As long as it's not deepness just for the sake of it. It's got to be good and you've got to be playing for the dance floor. That's your craftsmanship as a DJ. That's what separates the chaff from the wheat in these times where everyone thinks he or she is a dj. Many thanks to all the people we met and connected with these last few months. Cats in Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, ... . Really appreciated all the nice words and certainly the dancing to our beat.

Last Friday at Bar Du Matin was no exception. Making people dance to UK Soul & Funk, ancient to future, was fun. Really love these themes. Makes you push your limits as a dj. Really appreciated the compliments from the staff about being the rare ones to stuck with the chosen theme. You know we're hardcore like that. Haha. Big up to all at BDM, our friends, Nick, Panzer Kunst and all who danced their ass off. It was a good one.

Now we take some time off dj-wise. Only got a gig on NYE at SPARK left this year and, for now, we keep it low just until early February after that. Time to do some other stuff and chill for a while. And to clean up the mess my record collection has become after all those gigs.

I'll also work on a few intentions for the new year. Need to rethink the management of my time. It's kind of frustrating I don't succeed in doing some things I really want to do. Miss being creative a lot. And might stop saying out loud what's wrong with this world. Not because I think it shouldn't be done but because I don't think I should be the only one doing it. If nobody does it I won't either. I see that people focus on that alone and rarely see that most of what I say is positive. Don't get it why everyone acts dumb about all the things that are wrong in the scene. I know it's because they don't want to offend anyone afraid of losing gigs or opportunities but I don't see why that should withhold them of voicing their opinion. If you claim to be independent and have something to say you shouldn't care about that. Sucking up to people doing lousy jobs or telling crap helps no one. I don't give much about all that but the fact that it clouds my positive message made me think. Even if I know I'm right more than often. I'll just try to ignore the bullshit. Won't be easy but I'll give it a try. Being silent about something might be the same as shouting in my case. :)

Anyway, actually looking forward to the end of year shenanigans. Osunlade on Friday, Horse Meat Disco on Saturday (there's also Marc Mac at SPARK by the way), seeing the family, ... . Slowly getting to like this time of year. Hated it profoundly for years, now I make the best out of it and succeed at it. 

I know I'm awfully late on this one but being late is not a crime, missing out is. 22 Tracks is a Dutch website where Amsterdam based dj's select 22 tracks in 22 genres. All streaming with links to iTunes if you want to acquire the music. Simple & good concept. Really love the Tom Trago selection. Could have been mine. Haha. Check also the contemporary choices. I know my man Dieter will love those.

San Soda, our favourite Belgian House producer and one of the nicest dudes around, has done an Omar S. Doing a mix with only tracks he made that is. Haha. We know he can pull that off. Lots of exclusives on there. Go check it out.

A flyer hasn't got to be much more than this. Love this one. Simple, beautiful and it spreads the message. Big up Will.

First time we went totally live and it was a lot of fun. Hope we'll do this more often. We played a selection of tracks from 2009 we like a lot. Might do one or even more of these shows. Because we couldn't fit in even the all most essential ones. Hope you enjoyed it and big up to everyone who reached out on Twitter and Facebook.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) ion fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Luigi – Callibration – CDR
The Clonious – Emora – Ubiquity
Nosaj Thing – IOIO – Alpha Pup Records
Hudson Mohawke – Fuse – Warp
Domu – 15 Sounds – CDR
Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience – Affine
Title – Caravan – CDR
LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 / Remix by Theo Parrish – DFA
Fulgeance – Ann Arbor – Sound Solution
Floating Points – Vacuum Boogie – Eglo
Funkineven – You – Eglo
Pepe Bradock – C U at Minna & Lafayette – Atavism
Alex Smith - Sign And Drive – FXHE
San Soda – Kaizen – We Play House

One of the best videos I've seen of the Mark de Clive-Lowe / Vanessa Freeman gig. Big up to my man 72Soul for it. Nice one.

Seems like I forgot to tell y'all how last weekend was. Pretty damn good, that's what it was. Had fun with some Businghe bad boys on Friday (been too long) and had a great set on Saturday at the always fun SPARK party at Café Capital. Big up to Bruno and Will for giving us the opportunity to play at this great spot. Big up to Wicked and Dice for the company and nice words about our set. And big up to Lieve for driving us home safely. Ended the weekend at the Slum Village gig at Le Tavernier. Which was nice. Enjoyed Lefto's set with appearances from Fatima and NAG. Big up to Cris for making this happen.

Next weekend I'll start on Thursday again (did that last week with a long chat with On-Point's Alex) by (hopefully) celebrating my football team's win and qualification for the next Europa League round. The day after that it's time for one of those lovely sets at Bar Du Matin, our favourite bar with dj's in town. Always great fun to play there. One of the few bars where people dance and enjoy your set the way it should be done. Always a welcoming crowd and bar staff. Come join us, entrance is of course free. We'll play a UK Soul & Funk set. Expect music from the ‘70s till now. You know our take on that will be very open. So there will be some Broken Beats, Housy vibes and even Hiphop to spot too. Got to play my Phlash & Friends vinyl. I'll show you, even if you don't want to, where we are on the cover of it. Haha. Much better visible on a vinyl album. Going to be big fun. Last time was.

One of our many musical heroes is Victor Simonelli. Might not be the most obvious name for many but he's no doubt a don. Been producing gems for over 20 years now, many of them fitting right into our own deep and soulful take on the genre as dj's. We often play tracks by Groove Committee or other monikers of the man. Often confusing people with their combination of age and freshness. Some of them could easily go as Motor City Drum Ensemble, or any other new school deep House cat, tracks but in the meantime being almost as old as those young producers themselves are. It's only fair to say that this man is a huge influence on us and the other purveyors of the real House sound.

Those wanting to catch up on the man's contribution to dance music need to check the excellent DJ History site. You'll find an extensive interview and a, digital only, compilation on there. Essential stuff.

And just to prove we're no bandwagon jumping fools. Together with one of the Belgian connoisseurs of the genre, Red D, we brought the man over for a set at one of our parties once. September 2005 to be exact. We don't follow the trends, they follow us. Haha. They really do at a certain point if you keep doing what you believe in. As things go in cycles (quoting Q-Tip here).

I've uploaded a slice from the warming up mix we did at SPARK yesterday. It's the part where we do the transition from deep, moody pieces to more banging stuff to get the crowd moving. There's more as we played a set of almost 4h. Maybe I'll upload some more later this week. Pretty pleased with this part. Deep, raw and with lots of feeling just as we like it. Always a pleasure to play at Cafe Capital. Enjoy.

We'll play at SPARK on NYE too together with Micanik and Geoffroy. Gonna be big.

The third Onda Sonora pick on LDBK radio is the Hint remix of Flevans' "Hold On". A track that'll be out soon on the mighty Tru Thoughts. A label that's been releasing quality music at an astonishing rate this year. You need the albums from Nostalgia 77 Sessions Featuring Keith & Julie Tippett, Stonephace, Quantic & His Combo Barbaro, Domu and Natural Self they's released in the last 12 months. All killer. But that's only the long players. On the singles front there's niceness out or to be expect from Kylie Auldist, Flevans, Kinny and Hint with great remixes by, among others, Ashley Beadle and mr. Beatnick.

2 upcoming releases I'm pretty excited about are the new single from the Bamboos with Kylie Auldist on vocals (absolute monster) and the Zero dB compilation which takes me back to the early days of Onda Sonora when we devastated many dance floor with their EPs.

For LDBK I chose an Hint mix because I really like all the stuff he does. His remixes are always the stand out tracks for me on the EPs Tru Thoughts sends me. Always executed with great respect for the originals but making them more dance floor friendly for dj's like myself.

Big up Tru Thoughts and their artists. It's nice to see a label doing a really good job like that. On all levels, by the way, not only music-wise but promotion-wise too.

Quite a busy schedule of dj-gigs coming up. Up until Christmas we've got at least one booking every weekend only interrupted by Southport Weekender. Something we like, let that be clear. Next weekend we play at Bar Du Matin. Of all the bars in Brussels we played at this one is definitely our favourite. Next to it's killer location, superb look and friendly personnel we love the fact they always ask us for a theme. This time we chose, a bit easy we know, the Sound of Detroit. If you know that we can make our selection out of, among many others, all Motown, George Clinton, Stooges / MC5, Dilla, Underground Resistance, Moodymann / Theo Parrish related productions you know this is going to be a top quality music night.

On top of that this Friday, the day of our set at BDM, it's my birthday. A good reason for me to treat my friends to free drinks. I'll be at the bar from 8pm on, feel free to join me. No need to bring anything else than your good self and maybe some lovely ladies. No need to wrap them up in fancy paper.

You'll find Bar Du Matin at Place Albert in Vorst / Forest. Entrance is free as always. The music starts around 10pm. This Friday, October 30th, that is.

And if you can't get enough of good music in a lovely surrounding, the day after us it's Krewcial behind the decks. Firmly recommended indeed.

After an extensive search for a venue we recently found one that fits our ambition, needs and wants. We're not going to complain too much about that long quest because it has been fruitful in some ways. It made us think about what we really wanted to do, much more than we would have if we had our pick straightaway. While looking for a home for our new party we also connected with fellow music-mad Brussels resident Nick Blow and decided to join our effort to bring something new to the nightlife of our city. Many enjoyable meetings where we agreed about almost everything at once later we finally have a fixed date, a venue and some very ambitious plans for a party.

From the start we decided that our party should be something special. Our frustrations with other parties / organisers not doing it the way we think it should be done led to a conclusion that ‘getting the elements we think make a good party right' should be our main aim. Above anything else. As veterans of the global soulful nightlife, interested in the history of dance music and seasoned organisers ourselves we kind of had a good idea of what these elements are. A welcoming atmosphere, a top quality sound system, a dj with an impeccable taste and a clue of how to lead the party, a dance floor that allows you to go wild, drinks that are tasty and not too expensive, ... . Maybe you will see many of the key elements that made David Mancuso's Loft such an experience. Rightfully so. There's no denying that has been a main influence (neither of us has been to the original Loft but we all had the chance to enjoy at one point the man and his concept) but we have got other inspirations. Body & Soul, Root Down, Southport Weekender, Inspiration Information, Deviation, the Shelter, Plastic People and many others have offered us insights we'll try it incorporate into our own party.

So you can expect an exceptional sound system, us (Nick and Onda Sonora) selecting and mixing the music all night long and a lot of things to get the atmosphere right (from a nice bouncer to the decoration to many other little things). At first we're not planning on bringing in any fancy guest dj's. We will concentrate on getting all the other thing right. But it's not because we don't invite them they won't show up unannounced. We made some friends over the years who might drop by. Haha.

Another thing we'll do somewhat differently is the promotion of the party. In short, we won't make much of a fuzz about it. We won't do flyers, we won't start a facebook event and we won't try any other pushy form of begging you to come to our party. In this spam infested times it feels only right that, if we want to make it a welcoming event, we skip those means. Instead we will go for the personal approach. With invitations and a sort of membership system (another Loft-inspired feat). We're not trying to be elitist or anything. We just don't want it to be without much engagement like most other parties. Everyone who's in for a ridiculously good party with the music you can expect from us is welcome. But because we want it to be something special we think we can ask that little bit of extra of you. We will provide you with a personal invitation if you want one. One way of being sure you'll get one is to subscribe to our mailing list. It's exclusively for this party so you won't get any other Onda Sonora related news. It's exclusively meant to invite those that want to be part of this experience.

I'm slowly getting more to the point. We'll do this party, if all works out the way we hope, 4 times a year. In Brussels of course. The first edition will be on Saturday February the 6th. So those in for it will receive their notice soon.

That's it for now. 

This Saturday we play at our favourite club in Belgium. The first of 2 gigs we do there this month. This time we play with Mark August, a Dutch House / Techno producer who has released music on labels like Clone and Innervisions. We do the warm-up. We love that. Going deep and delivering the dance floor ready for the main act. We're good at that. I know there's some other tasty nights out there but this one's going to be banging, believe me. Certainly if you know the venue is a killer and prices are more than reasonable. Come say hi to us if you're there.

Second stint at Café Capital / Spark this month is on NYE when we share the decks with Micanik and fellow Brusseleir Geoffroy Mugwump. Looking forward to that a lot.

This week we reminisce about the killer fm brussel tonight event and we play good music. Some new, some old, all quality.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) ion fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Next week we're joining the end of year nostalgia. And we want some interaction. Tell us which song is the most memorable of 2009 for you and why. We'll play it and we might call you to have a little chat about it. And we'll go full web 2.0 on you. Mail, Twitter, Facebook, ... all is good to get in touch with it. Here's the list of links:

Mail
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace

And keep it coming until the show airs. We'll put Lutgard Simoens and Terry Wogan to shame when it comes to interaction with our audience.

SOS Band - Tell Me If You Still Care - Tabu
Fat Freddy's Drop - Big BW - The Drop
Weedy - Lightened Tunnel - 40 Winks
François De Roubaix - Dernier Domicile Connu - Barclay
Shepherd - Kantknellt - Acroplane
Paul White - Dream State (Dam Tales) - One-Handed
Skipworth & Turner - Cash - Island Records
Uncle Louie - Full Tilt Boogie - T.K. Disco
Kreamcicle - Hold On - SAM
South Bronx - The Bottom Line - BBE
The Rah Band - Slide - DJM
Pure Filth / Ne-Grove - Should've Been You / Instrumental - People
Raoul Lambert - 3 Seconds - We Play House

Preparing last week's radio show, digging out the Mark de Clive-Lowe records, took me to a part of my record collection I hadn't visited in a while. The Broken Beat section. Back in the days I bought almost every release in that genre so it's pretty extensive and I rediscovered some absolute gems. Talking to LuiGi about it a few days later made me decide I should do a mix with those found again treasures. As an introduction for those who missed out 10 years ago.

Still buzzing and full of energy after last nights success of fm brussel tonight I picked out a few of the Broken Beat tracks I like best. Not all classics maybe but they all mean something special to me. It's a personal selection. Compiled without much other motives than being good. It's far from complete as an overview of the genre. I just pulled out records until I thought I had enough to make a cohesive and enjoyable mix. You'll notice I'm a big fan of Seiji, Orin Walters and Daz-I-Kue by the way. :)

Hope this makes some people discover a undervalued slice of music history.

Next weekend is a busy one once again. We play at Spark on Saturday but more about that later this week. The day before and after that Cris Prolific's Bluefunk District is bringing some tasty names to Brussels. Also need to use "once again" here. It's Ursula Rucker & band with 72 Soul dj'ing on Friday and the legendary Detroit Hiphop group Slum Village & Lefto on Sunday. Both happening at Le Tavernier. The first one will cost you 5€, the second 8€. Ridiculously cheap if you ask me.

Usually I try to keep my Sunday chill on crazy weekends but will need to make an exception here.

Time to big up One Handed Music and Paul White once again. Because the latter has a mini-album out on the first. A compilation of tracks from the many beattapes he sent to a selected few (how I wish I was one of them). Needless to say that it is, once again, a killer. Not too seriously meant psychedelic beats galore. You can download the entire EP through his Bandcamp site or, for maximum listening pleasure, get it on vinyl. My One Handed vinyl collection is still complete unless there are releases I don't know about. Pretty proud of that and not one that makes me regret I'm a collector who dislikes gaps in his digging-oeuvre. Rare feat.

If you're as big a fan of Paul White as I am you will enjoy reading the interview Mr. Beatnick did with the man about his 5 favourite records.

More on the musical trip front and probably the best one at that so far this year. Edan's "Echo Party" which will be released on he Five Day Weekend label (might want to give that a closer check as an excellent Mr. Chop covers Pete Rock album is coming out on that too). They've let the man loose on the Traffic backcatalogue and he reworked, re-edited, remixed it in his own particular style. Absolutely one of my favourite releases this year. To make it even more compelling there's a to 1000 copies limited vinyl all with different handmade artwork by Edan himself. Top this I would like to suggest to all label owners.

Last tip is another album on BBE. A new release this time. Julien Dyne's Pins & Digits. A musician from New Zealand (where Nathan Haines, Fat Freddy's Drop and also Marc de Clive-Lowe are from). Lovely deep Soul album. With an edge. Don't sleep on this. Has everything to go crossover and appeal to more than just the incrowd.

I wish every weekend would be like the last one. Experienced so much goodness. Plenty of quality music, great food, nice people, ... . Close to perfection.

It started on Friday with me catching the last songs of Erik Rico's set at Bar Du Matin. Sounded nice and was happy to see the place crowded. Big up Cris Prolific for making Brussels a little more soulful. After that I headed, with the Laid Back boys, to Bazaar for Cheeba Cheeba. JtotheC, Funky Bompa, Alex On-Point and Shimmy Timmy fueling a packed dance floor with funky grooves. Nice one. Heard nice things about the Tony Allen gig and the Soul Affair party too. Brussels is bubbling again as proven some more the day after.  

Didn't sleep much but had little time to notice the setbacks of that preparing our room at fm brussel tonight. Getting all the instruments there, soundchecking, being host for Mark de Clive-Lowe and Vanessa Freeman, ... . With easygoing people like them it's a pleasure doing that. Made a quick stop with MdCL at the fm brussel HQ for a few words on Kwak and 72Soul's Back To Niceness radio show. Met Illa J, Frank Nitt and J*Heart there and wished each other good luck for the parties to come (they were playing at Tavernier at Cris Prolific's Bluefunk District). Arrived at the library where fm brussel tonight was happening just in time to be before the rush and to hear Laid Back's set. Sounded nice, even the more Electro side of it. Nick Blow got the crowd in the mood for Mashi and Vanessa who took it to dimensions of hotness that Brussels didn't know about. They sounded heavier than most 10-piece bands. We took over and built our set on the foundations laid out by all who came before us. It was fun and I went home with a big smile on my face.

Big up to Nick Blow, Mark & Vanessa, Laid Back & Kwak for the great music and times together. Big up to Chantal & all at fm brussel who made this possible. All people who helped and had, no doubt, a stressful time as nobody expected that many people. The soundguys for doing a fine job and being so flexible, Natasha from Kick.be for the backline and great help, Billy and Kwak for lending us gear. All the dancers for making it happen on the dance floor. The other dj's I missed because it was too much fun in our room. And to all of our friends for the continuos support.

It's going to be hard to top this but we'll try anyway. Haha.

Picture above this post is by Beyond Jazz's Oemebamo and big up to Brarno for the vid. More videos here (Nick Blow dancing and filming). Had my camera with me but forgot to charge the batteries. Sorry about that.

It are very busy times. Lots of projects are in full preparation. In the days to come we'll announce what the RELEASE project we started with Laid Back and On Point has to offer for the first months of 2010. Some very, very, very exciting things lined up on that front. To ease the wait we're serving you some music online. We do a weekly pick on LDBK radio. We started last week with Title's "Caravan" and this week we serve you a new Dyno track called "Furbee". You'll hear me babbling before the track we select. Something much more difficult than I imagined. Writing in English is one thing but speaking is something completely else. Anyway, it'll grow. On top of that we've started a RELEASE Mixcloud. The first Cloudcast is compiled and selected by Onda Sonora's Disco Dalglish. All bedroom beats of the highest quality. You'll also notice that there's action again on the RELEASE website. In a week or two it should serve, on its own webspot, as the site for the project.

On top of that I can announce that after Go Bang! and Over & Over stopped happening, mainly because finding a home for your party that feels welcome is ridiculously hard in Brussels, we're back on that front. Yep, we'll be organising a party again. Together with our good friend / musical mentor / raconteur of stories from back in the days Nick Blow. It's going to be something special. A party the way it should be done according to us and if you know our absurdly high standards you know it's going to be something like you've never experienced in Brussels or even Belgium. We'll do this only a few times a year so don't miss it. More on that soon.

And we don't stop ... . Nope, there's more. The D3K festival will happen again in 2010 in Croatia. Same spot as the first edition. We'll announce the date soon so you can write it down in your fresh new agendas. Not to miss that one. And last but certainly not least Onda Sonora will celebrate its 10th birthday next year. Something we can let pass us by silently. Expect special parties and cakes with candles. And more.

Our radio show this week is, of course, dedicated to fm brussel tonight, the party our radio station is throwing this Saturday at the empty library at the Muntplein / Place de la Monnaie in Brussels. We've got our own room there together with our esteemed colleagues Laid Back and Back To Niceness (aka Kwak). Our guests are Nick Blow and Mark de Clive-Lowe (aka MdCL aka Mashibeats) together with Vanessa Freeman. In the other rooms more lovely colleagues and guests are playing to make it an event not to miss.

For all the details about this party check the fm brussel website.

To prepare you a bit we have a little chat with both Nick and Mark in the show and we play some tunes by Mashibeats and Vanessa Freeman.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) ion fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Track List:
Arthur Russell - Indian Ocean School Bell / Tree House (Sleeping Bag)
Martyn - Electric Purring (AUS Music)

>>> MdCL & Vanessa Freeman Mix <<<
Shirley Horn - Return To Paradise / Mark De Clive-Lowe Remix (Verve)
Mark De Clive-Lowe Feat. Abdul Shyllon - Relax...Unwind (2000Black)
Phlash & Friends feat. Alma Horton & MdCL - Jungle Orchidz (Archive)
Root Soul feat. Vanessa Freeman & Mike Patto Spirit Of Love (Especial)
Mark De Clive-Lowe - Move On Up / Bugz Opaque Remix (Bitasweet)
>>> End Of Mix <<<

Peven Everett - Special (Trippin')
Delano Smith - Nebula (Mixmode)
Darkstar - Aidy's Girl Is a Computer / Kyle Hall Remix (Hyperdub)
Mission Control - Outta Limits (Murk)

We play lots of fresh music this week and some with classic status in our world. And we mourn about Domu's retirement by playing some of our favourite tracks of him.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) ion fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Umod - Tromboline (Sonar Kollektiv)
Shepherd - Ryhlkes (Acroplane)
Tettory Bad feat. TY - Don't Push Me / The Clonious Remix (Sunshine)
Mr. Scruff & Kaidi Tatham - Fresh Noodles (Prime Numbers)
Emanative - Naima (Futuristica)
Phill & Friends Band - This Man (Rio)
Domu - Sail Away With Me feat. Valerie Ettiene (Diplù)
Domu - Something New (Tru Thoughts)
Groove Committee - Let's Groove (Nu Groove)
Dynasty - I Don't Want To Be A Freak, But Can't Help Myself (Solar)
Omar S. - Flying Blind (FXHE)
The Love Symphony Orchestra - Let Me Be Your Fantasy (Excalibur)

Although I haven't been to Chicago yet I feel like I've already got some family there. Looking forward to meeting Paula next year when I'm finally going to visit one of the best represented cities in my record collection. I first met her online when she sent me her nice interview with Benji B. Now she has put another chat with a UK don online. See this as a good introduction to our UK Soul & Funk special at Bar Du Matin on 18/12. Not playing some Bluey tracks that night would be missing the point completely. Incognito alone makes him an essential figure of that scene but he played in one of my favourite outfits, Light Of The World, too. Use this video as a starting point and start digging deeper from there on.

The sheer fun of getting a random crowd dancing on some of the deepest Disco and New Jersey House is what gets us going. That's when you feel alive as a dj. When you can match your somewhat deviant musical ambitions to those of a crowd simply looking for a good time. That's what we did at Bazaar last Friday. Nice club by the way. A dark cellar with an on point sound system and a dance floor that's made for bold moves. Really enjoyed it. Big up to David and the Bazaar crew. Big up to all our friends who showed up. Can't express enough how much we appreciate that. Big up to Alex and Funky Bompa who'll be behind the decks next week when it's Cheeba Cheeba time at that same venue. And big up to all the dancers. You were great.

Missed most of my Saturday because my body notified me in a less than subtle way I lacked sleep. Spent a ridiculous amount of time in bed. Which resulted in plenty of energy on Sunday. With record shops in Brussels always open on the last day of the week I did some cratedigging. I often hear people complain they can't find the goods in the shops unless for crazy amounts of cash. Can only say that's utter nonsense babbled by lazy bums afraid of getting dusty fingers. Scored some ace Boogie (TK Disco being my label of choice this month), Funk and Soundtracks (more François de Roubaix) for more than reasonable prices.

Ended my weekend at the recording of Club Central, a musical talk show that'll air on December 7th on tv brussel. Our radio host Dieter is one of the main forces behind this and I must say he and the crew did a mighty fine job. Enjoyed 1060, a Brussels based Soul band with potential, and Stef Kamil Carlens (which was a bit of a surprise I must admit). I'm proud of my Onda Sonora family member.

Up to next weekend with lots of good stuff lined up. Erik Rico, Cheeba Cheeba, Tony Allen, Illa J and, of course, the fm brussel tonight party with Mark de Clive-Lowe. Rare feat for Brussels, this wealth.

We probably got the upcoming end of year to blame but it's one of the few things I don't mind about that period. The amount of good compilations that you'll find in the shops. Quite a lot of Disco ones to be precise. BBE is back onto what built their reputation in the first place as is the revamped Strut label. Those 2 are almost on their own responsible for my addiction to the genre. I bought their compilations almost religiously when they came out (happy I did when I see the prices they go nowadays). It gave me a flying start into the genre and got me digging for more. Now that I've built a nice collection myself it's difficult to find compilations which surprise me and have more than a few tracks I miss. But that's where BBE and Strut come back into my life.

Various - Horse Meat Disco (Strut)
Horse Meat Disco is one of the world's leading Disco parties happening in London. One of the few that come close to the gay club open to open-minded hetero's ethos of the pioneers of the ‘70s NYC discotheque scene. Their selection is far from obvious but far from collectors showing off their priced possessions either. This is dance floor music and proof that the genre is still as relevant as back in the day. Big one. The Horse Meat Disco dj's play at Libertine Supersport in Brussel on December the 26th, by the way.

Various - ZE Records Story 1979 - 2009 (Strut)
This might be rather DiscoNotDisco than the undiluted version of the genre for purist but we're not known to see the limits between styles very good ourselves. ZE Records have released some bangers over the years, that's for sure. If you liked our all across the board NYC ‘82/'83 mix then you'll love this. Calypso, Electro, Italo, No Wave, ... influenced Disco. If you want to be complete you can also buy the re-edits of this but personally I don't really see the point of it. Cut and paste them yourself. That's more fun.

Various - DJ Spinna presents The Boogie Back (BBE)
The one which has got the biggest overlap with my own collection. I'm known as a big Boogie freak so that's no wonder. Nevertheless it still schools me. A killer selection but you don't expect anything else from Spinna. As all the compilations available on CD and, like the Horse Meat Disco one, containing a mixed and an unmixed version. Essential.

Various - John Morales / The M&M Mixes (BBE)
A compilation of the work of one of the fathers of the remix. Merely a start to go discover the man's work as he made 650 remixes or so and an essential lesson to all who pretends to be a re-editer / remixer himself. Every Disco or Dance music lover needs this. 

You'll see a SPARK banner twice on your right. That's not the result of a bugging site. Nope, we're actually playing twice there next month. Can't express in writing how excited I'm about that. The first gig is on December the 12th together with Mark August and Will O'Brien, the second one is the New Years Eve party together with fellow Brusseleir Geoffroy Mugwump and Micanik. A joyous woohoo is appropriate. Big up to Bruno and Will for this.

Check the Café Capital website for all the details.

And really want to go this Saturday but can't seem to find anyone who's going too. All my friends seem to have something to do. Gimme a shout if you'll be making the trip to see Antal and San Proper. I'm up for some beats from up north.

I've been uploading some mixes on our Mixcloud page last few days. Mostly old ones that have been or are available elsewhere. I did this to have a collection of mixes we feel good about gathered on one place. That way our Mixcloud page will become a reference for the sound we bring as dj's. The Sound Of Onda Sonora. Should make a t-shirt with that on it. In TSOP style.

Also because of the changed Soundcloud conditions, which are much more limited than before for free accounts, I'll be taking off the mixes that we've put online there. In contrast to before they've limited the amount of times somebody can download one of your song or mixes and you can upload only a certain amount of music (120 minutes to be exact). Our "One Love" edit for instance has become too popular for it's own good. I'll be deleting the mixes that are on there and replace them with new edits and productions. Mixcloud will be for the dj-side, Soundcloud for the producing-side of Onda Sonora from now on.

The old Podomatic page will live on until someone decides to take it offline. We don't use it anymore.

The only new mix I've uploaded on Mixcloud, by the way, is a live recording of our set (or at least a part of it) at Boogie Nights last Friday at Entrenous in Bruges. The sound isn't of the highest quality because we had to tweak the mixer to the max to get an ok sound on the dance floor. It's got that transferred from cassette grittiness. That along with the music gives it a feel like it's an old Chicago tape you downloaded from Deephousepage.com. Haha. It's a raw, Ron Hardy inspired, sort of mix. Exploring the fine line between Disco and House. I like it hope you do too.

This Friday we play at the revamped Bazaar club in Brussels which is situated in De Marollen / Les Marolles. One of the more characturful areas of our capital (and I don't mean that in the euphemistic way to say it's a ghetto unless having an overdose of antique dealers can make it count as that). It's us all night long so you can expect a wide range of music. About anything we like from 70bpm to 140bpm and back. All with a soulful twist. Entrance is free. Come say hi and shake your booty on our dance floor.

Feel free to invite all your friends. You can do this through this handy Facebook event page which also contains most of the additional info you might want.

Our good friends from Cheeba Cheeba have their next party lined up at the same venue the weekend after us. So better look up directions. You'll need it.

Lots of fresh new music. Lots of friends in the mix like Infinitskills, K'Bones (under his Booghaloo Zoo moniker) and San Soda. Lots of our usual favourites like MCDE, Falty DL, Wbeeza, Hudmo and Hint. Plus other nice music. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm (Brussels time) on fm brussel (98.8fm or online) or listen to the show through streaming all week after it has been aired.

Barry Biggs - Love Come Down (Ariola)
Infinitskills - Symbiosis (CDR)
1352 - Saint Louis (CDR)
Dutty Dubz - Gameboy Love (Aeclectrick)
Hudson Mohawke - FUSE (Warp)
Mr. Chop & CL Smooth - Straighten It Out (Five Day Weekend)
Azymuth - Dear Limmertz (Milestone)
Flevans - Hold On / Hint Remix (Tru Thoughts)
Slave - Steal Your Heart (Cotillion)
Nufrequency feat. Ben Onono - Fallen Hero / Motor City Drum Ensemble (Rebirth)
Above Smoke - The Damned (Fear Of Flying)
Los Amigos Invisibles - Plastic Woman / Boohgaloo Zoo Remix (Lovemonk)
San Soda - Kaizen (We Play House)
Wbeeza - A116 (Third Ear)
Falty DL - Party (Ramp)

Instead of compiling playlists for LDBK radio we'll select, every week from now on, a track and present it. We'll do that through adding some vocal comments to the song that'll be played on the radio and by posting an article about it on our blog. This new concept was introduced by our respected colleague Funky Bompa on LDBK last week and more people will get on board soon.

We'll select 2 tracks every week. A RELEASE related one and a proper Onda Sonora pick. The first will be from a bedroom producer we think deserves some attention. The latter will be an up tempo track you can expect in our party sets. Give us some time to get the vocal introduction right. Although it's only half a minute it's hard work for someone who's not a native speaker of the English language and not much of a speaker tout court. A true dj speaks with his hands, no ? Writing a big ass post about something all of a sudden didn't seem that much of a chore anymore. Anyway, I'm sure we'll grow into it. Give us some time and we'll start getting delusions of taking over a BBC radio show. Haha.

The first pick we do for Onda Sonora is a track by our good friend Trus'me. We've been fans of him since his first releases on Love4Music. We brought him over for a gig right after his first album dropped 2 years ago and shared several fun moments with him since that time. Last ones were in Petrcane, Croatia at the D3K festival he organised and where he asked us to play. Introducing us to a lot of likeminded heads from all over Europe.

His second album will be released on his own imprint Prime Numbers before the year ends. It's called "In The Red" and it's once again a solid one. This time he called in help from Dâm-Funk, Piranhahead, Paul Randolph and Amp Fiddler. If you loved "Working Nights" you'll adore this one. Check the snippets on the Fat City website or his Soundcloud page.

It'll be available on vinyl and CD soon and a limited 7" with the Dâm-Funk collaboration "Bail Me Out" is about to drop any moment now. Buy it because you'll need it.

If you like this you might want to check the other releases on Prime Numbers too. Certainly the Linkwood album "System' which is available on vinyl since this week. And watch out for upcoming goodies like a second CD compilation with tracks from the vinyl only EPs and a killer 12" with tracks by Motor City Drum Ensemble, Andres and Mr. Scruff together with Kaidi Tatham (which is nothing short of genius).

Mr. Peabody Records. Although there are many other reasons to go to Chicago this is the only one that will get me there. Yes, Mies van de Rohe's 860-880 Lake Shore Drive & their enormous dance music legacy should be enough for a House music loving architect to make the trip but Mark Grusane and Mike Cole's shop is the thing that'll get me there in the end. Heard too many good things about it.

The video above this post is a trailer for the upcoming compilation on BBE they've put together. Very curious about that. If their "Night Drive Vol. 1: A Journey Into..." is anything to go by with it looks very promising indeed. As is the "Time & Space" 12" the guys at Rush Hour have released. Both are still available at Amsterdam's finest record shop.

Good chance I'll check it out myself somewhere in 2010. It's been too long since I've last been in the US.

I rarely make noise about parties we don't organise ourselves this much upfront but for once there's more than reason enough to do so. Because we might not be putting it together ourselves but fm brussel is family and we've had our say about the program as you will notice.

We've got our own room together with our closest family members on our radio station. It's called the Coca-Cola Red Room. That's where it's at. Next to Laid Back, Kwak and ourselves you've got our favourite Englishman in Brussels Nick Blow dj'ing and Mark de Clive-Lowe and Vanessa Freeman doing a live gig. Needless to say we're pretty excited about this. Killer line-up if you like the music which is played on Laid Back, Back To Niceness and Onda Sonora. Check those radio shows every week by the way.

Expect an elaborate spotlight on Mark de Clive-Lowe in our show next week. And I'll post some links on this blog in the days to come.

And can't say it enough that "our" room is made possible by the generous help from Strategis Communications. A sponsor like there aren't many. One with taste in music.

The rest of fm brussel tonight is nice as well. It's the first of our December gigs with Geoffroy (we play NYE at Spark with him too), always nice to see The Glimmers on the same flyer as yourself, Kong & Cortez is family but play in another room and particularly curious about Charlie and Eddie F. Those last 2 are the boys making sure our show gets broadcasted every week. Lovely people. And there's lots more of course. It's going to be hard to leave our room anyway.

Here's the full line-up:
red bull elektropedia room
- the glimmers
- geoffroy
- the klaxx
- lady jane (catclub)
- marcus (weekendancer)

carlsberg green room
- sound of stereo (i love techno)
- turntable dubbers
- darko (statik dancin')
- charlie & eddie f
- kong & cortez (nijdrop)
- the jelly bellies

coca cola red room
- mark de clive-lowe (the politik/freesoul sessions) feat. vanessa freeman (uk)
- laidback crew
- nick blow
- onda sonora
- dj kwak (strictly niceness)

fm brussel bus
- benoït (e-motionz)
- rim k

jameson bus
- seriously playful
- surprice act

It's all happening on Saturday December 5th at the, by then, empty library of the Flemish community on the Muntplein / Place de la Monnaie smack-dab in the middle of Brussels. All info is available on the fm brussel site.

Get your tickets here: ticketnet.be & fnac.be

Check out the photo session they did with some of the dj's who'll play. Bart missed the shoot but you'll find Disco Dalglish among them.

Good to see Bandcamp getting used more and more. Certainly if it is a little because of the post on this blog. Panzer Kunst, a Belgian beatmaker we dig a lot, has put his first album on it and is giving it away for free. Something we like a lot.

One we don't claim any credit for as he's always up to date with the internet-game is Marc de Clive-Lowe's Freesoul Sessions. If haven't got the album yet you can buy it on Bandcamp. He's even giving a track away for free. Check it out.

Shouldn't have to remind you but on December 5th Marc de Clive-Lowe, together with Vanessa Freeman, is playing at the fm brussel tonight event. With us, Laid Back, Kwak and Nick Blow in support. Big one. Certainly because it's on an unique location. In the Flemish library at Muntplein / Place de la Monnaie. Come check that out.

Big, big, big up to Strategis Communications by the way for making this possible.

Sunday and I'm checking the many promo's that were dropped in my mailbox. A ritual I've learned to appreciate this last day of the week radio show preparations. Tea, chocolate and lovely music. Keeping it low energy too after a very busy weekend.

It started in Bruges on Friday at Entrenous, one of the loveliest venues I saw in a long time. Lovely to the eyes but not yet to the ear as the sound wasn't all that. If they fix that they have an absolute winner. Ideal capacity, perfect layout and stylish. Apparently the bad sound keeps some people away (or at least that's what the told us - maybe they were just being very nice to us). Venue was only half full but those that were there enjoyed themselves. Saw some heavy partying. Heard some quality music from the other dj's. Although the setbacks I mentioned before all the good things made it a great night out. Really enjoyed it. Lots of very friendly girls and boys there too. Big up to Dj Ricardo, Dreezer, David Foyh and everyone having fun.

Hardly slept between that and going to Paris. It was as a short trip with friends so I won't detail it too much. But there's 2 things I want to share nevertheless. The sad news that 12Inch records is closed. Permanently apparently. That's what the aged hooker who always waits for customers on the corner told us. Very sad news as is every closure but I really liked this shop and that makes it double bad. Hope all who were involved are well.

Second thing that shook me was hearing Domu featuring Yannah Valdevit's 'City Madness' in a French service station along the motorway. Right after the lamest muzak imaginable. Don't know how Tom, Chris and Mike from Development Music fixed that but it made me conclude my day on a high note.

Mr Scruff live DJ mix from Southport Weekender, Friday 6th November by Mr Scruff

Many have asked me what I enjoyed the most at Southport Weekender 45 and they all got this reply: Mr. Scruff. He's always on point and always knows to find harmony between deepness, skills, flow and sheer fun. We should officially make him a grandmaster or something.

I've been a fan of him ever since I saw him turn 10DaysOff upside down years ago in Ghent. I had heard good things about him and wanted to check his set although it was on the last day of the 10 day festival and I had gone all out on several of them. More dead than alive I stumbled into the room and got instantly revived by one of the most magical sets I had heard up until then. He got me dancing for 3 hours transcending my own physical limits and proving music is the best dope there is.

Ever since I'm a fan. In the true sense of the word. He's one of the only dj's I have merchandise from. My cherished big tea mug and t-shirt.

Anyway I was very happy to discover he put his Southport set online on his Soundcloud. With tracklist and everything proving once again he's a don.

Enjoy it. I did in the middle of the dance floor, hands in the air. And maybe a little drunk. Haha.

And this is what I mean with sharing what I think my friends might want to check. As a lot of them were standing next to me when expieriencing live and the others will be curious by now after all our euphoric babble about it.

Something has been bugging me. Been deeply questioning my trade lately. The fact I do that is not that surprising because putting things in doubt is my second nature. What worries me is that, more often than not, I conclude ‘this is not the way to do it'. My trade is music. More specifically it's bringing music to people who aren't in it as deep as I am. Through organising parties, dj'ing, making radio, blogging. Lately I'm convinced I'm not doing a decent job if ever I did one.

To take most of the drama away in advance; I'm not doing an awful one either. But something bothers me a lot. After lots of thinking I pinpointed that something to the volatility and superficiality of the net. Internet has become the major player in promoting music. Certainly in my country where, in my line of music, the written media are non-existent and the others are rarely shining some light on it. So it's almost the only way to spread your message.

Or that was what I thought.

Slowly realising something is just as important as you make it. In all my years as a living being I've swung between being an silent introvert guy to a more social one and back. After years of being an anal music-fanatic I'm loosening up and talking again about other topics than what's linked to my record collection. Quite refreshing I must say.

Although there shouldn't be a reason for it, there seems to be a rule that the more you focus, the more you forget what makes that what you focus on fun. Lately I've had some moments that I truly and deeply enjoyed music and realised it. Those moments happened when I was on the dance floor or in the dj-booth with lots of people going wild in front of me. In short I can say when I was dancing with my friends (I like to dance when dj'ing and if you dance to my beat you are my friend even if I've never seen you nor ever will see you again).

That made me wonder why I should bother trying to make a blip on the big internet radar. Even if I ever succeed in doing that what would it buy me ? That blip would most likely not be something I did but rather an accomplishment of someone else I was the first to shout out loud. Or at best a mix I could get enough people wild about so they would make it blip on that same radar. The qualities of such a mix wouldn't necessarily be it being good, well-mixed or a perfectly balanced selection of tracks. Nope, to make that blip it rather should be full of unreleased tunes by some next big things, re-edited to give it that personal touch, pieced together in Ableton in a way not even 3 J.Rocc clones could do live with shout outs on it from people I've never met but who are high on the hipness chart. To quote myself again; ‘What would this buy me?' If I'm honest nothing that would make me happy.

Other approach to this problem. I asked myself ‘Which artists do you really respect ?'. That being people like Theo Parrish, Pépé Bradock, Blaze, Kerri Chandler, Madlib, Flying Lotus, ... my point got proven again. None of these guy play the internet-game. Most of them hardly have a site, Myspace or Twitter-account. And still they've achieved something I think is great. This by doing what they do best. Making music, playing at parties or running a label.

That's why I've decided to step out of the rat-race the internet music scene is and to concentrate on what's important to me. Enjoying music with my friends. How I'm going to do that ? Not by doing a Domu, that's for sure. Not even by deleting most of my accounts. Most of the cats listed above here are deliberately chosen because of their lack of net-presence. There are some good examples of the in between way too (DJ Deep, Benji B, ... ). I will do this by focussing on the fun parts. That is organising parties, dj'ing, making mixes, sharing stuff I really think my friends would like to know and most of all partying myself. And making music (I promise I'll finally do some real effort on that). And writing out those rather inspiring chats I had in London and Amsterdam some months ago. It's a crime I still haven't given you the Dobie interview. That's still a big source of knowledge for me.

I think I should conclude with a big smiley or something. Another thing that bugs me about the net is that everything is read almost literally and interpreted as meant extremely serious. Well this shouldn't be done with this post. Or any post of mine. It's never meant as serious as you think it is. Even by those who know me and should know better. The art of reading between the lines has gone lost on internet. I came to realise that. That's why I've given up the battle against smileys. A sad day indeed.:)

And now I'm going to stop being the philosopher of music. Back to the fun of it.

Oh, and if you want an answer to the question 'What's up next?'. Well I don't know. We'll see won't we ?

This Friday we play at Boogie Nights at Entrenous in Bruges. One of the first things that we have to thank our trip to Croatia for. We met some lovely Belgian people on the D3K dance floor and one of them, dj Ricardo, loved our sound and booked us for this party. Nice indeed.

Really curious about it all. Looks like a cool venue and I kind of like the city.

And it's about time we rightfully claim to be one of Belgium's finest Disco dj's. Seems like all of a sudden the regular clubber / promoter has discovered the genre and now it's omnipresent everywhere (in Belgium, been big abroad for ages). Dj's that have been spinning mediocre House, Electro or other trendy genres are all of a sudden big Disco freaks. It's like they got their education at The Loft and Paradise Garage itself. You don't fool us that easily but my faith in mankind is not big enough to expect from everybody the same. So it's time we set some things straight.

We do not claim to be THE finest but we're among the select few that have been playing deep Disco for the last 10 years now. And we're good. We've always been playing music in the true spirit set by Mancuso and Levan. Disco, House and other stuff. The first has always been an integral part of our sets. We've been doing for years what seems to become hip now in our country. We deserve some credit and respect for that. And we'll claim it by playing the good stuff. We do have lightyears of advance on these newly converted cats (some, I know, will keep on loving it but many will switch by the first change of wind). We don't need compilations, we have the originals. And more.

Had to get this off my mind. Because I have very mixed feelings about this Disco boom. I love the new interest in a genre that's so dear to me but I wonder if it's always all that genuine. Many respect goes to originators that inspired us and kept doing their own thing last few years. People like The Glimmers, Spirit Catcher, Aeroplane, ... . I hope the new kids on the block have as many respect for the ones who came before them as we always tried to have.

In the meantime we'll keep doing our own thing. Even if it is recognised by more people. And that's playing real music that's good whatever period it's made in, whatever name it's called. But Disco, Funk and Soul will always be the root of it.

Been hearing Brussels is back in the game nightlife-wise. We've been through a few miserable years, that's true, but to say we're back on our feet is a bridge too far for me. Slowly it's buzzing again but we're far from where we should be. We miss the venues for that. Or at least the possibilities to organise something without going bankrupt after a few lesser events.

Anyway, just to check if my feeling was right I've listed up some of the parties / concerts I like in the month to come. Not bad but there are gaps and even if I could it's not that I will do them all. Might skip some if I feel tired. Particularly interested in the Horse Meat Disco gig. Want to check the venue / party and of course Disco's hippest of the moment. Might even go next Saturday as fellow D3K dj Jacques Renault is playing. Anyone know if it's still so difficult to get in as Dirty Dancing if you're not accompanied by an harem and look as uncool as me ? Or anyone that can get me on the guestlist so I'm sure to get in ?

4.12 - Cheeba Cheeba, Bazaar Club
4.12 - Erik Rico, Bar Du Matin
5.12 - Marc de Clive-Lowe + Vanessa Freeman, Bib / fm brussel tonight
5.12 - Illa J, Tavernier
11.12 - Ursula Rucker + Tim Motzer, Tavernier
12.12 - Strictly Niceness, Bodega
13.12 - Slum Village, Tavernier
18.12 - Exit 54, Paddestoel
26.12 - Horse Meat Disco, Libertine Supersport

I could have included all concerts and dj-sets at Bar Du Matin because it's by far the most consistently programming venue (in my line of music). And I have left out our own gigs as I miss the bragging qualities of your average Hiphop player.

40Winks are two of the most underrated Belgian beatmakers; Weedy and Padmo'. The first one has a killer beatCD out of which we played tunes in our radio show last few weeks. Really entertaining set of instrumental Hiphop. Check his Brazzaville remix which concludes the CD on his Soundcloud.

As this CD is a limited affair (only 100 available) you won't find it in the shops. Only through mail-order or hand-to-hand hustle you'll be able to secure one. And we definitely recommend you do that. The artwork is handmade and the music is quality. For only 8€ + shipping it's yours. Get in touch with him if you want one.

If you want to learn more about the man, Laid Back's item about his 2009 beatCD is a good point to start from.

I do love limited, hard to get Music like Weedy's beatCD but on the other hand I think quality Music should reach as many heads as possible. One of the good ways to present you homemade, self-released tracks is Bandcamp, a site that I think to few know. As I see it it's a good instrument to present your music to an audience and make it able for them to acquire it, free or for money. Myspace, Soundcloud and alike have their merits but for this particular goal it's the best. And it's nicely simple and does what many producers forget (like tagging their tracks).

Paul White has embraced it so why won't you. As another incentive here the bandcamp page of SKP or SjelleKijsProductions, a talented beatmaker from Aalst where you'll find the point I want to make with this post illustrated nicely and some tasty free music.

This week I'll write a report because I need to thank so many people.

As everybody who wants to know will know by now; the Dâm-Funk gig was great. The man was at his best (my favourite gig of the 3 I saw this year) and I enjoyed our own sets a lot. The warming up was a bit messy at times due to troubles with one of the turntables (if you play CDs please don't lay you map on the turntable's arm) but it felt all right nevertheless. The second part, after the D-F performance, was, in my opinion, one of our best in a long time. Deep, nice flow, people dancing, all over the pace stylewise, coherent. Makes you forget all the frustrations and bad things that go with the job and you're on a high for days. Getting props from Lefto, Jean Vanesse, Oemebamo, Jazz, Alex, San Soda, Sofie, Nathan, Kong, LuiGi, the Allphon boys, Cris Prolific and Dâm-Funk (aka a lot of music-people we respect a lot) feels mighty great. Seeing people dancing on Theo Parrish, Floating Points, Trouble Funk and lots of Boogie gems is an even bigger compliment. Big, big up to Cris, Jean, Dâm-Funk, all at Tavernier, Alex, Laid-Back, Lefto and all who helped make this a great evening. Up to the next one. Check some killer photos on Oemebamo's Flickr page.

Still buzzing on Saturday I decided it was time for some hometown digging. Only got to visit 1 shop as I stayed chilling at Veals & Geeks all afternoon. Picked up some gems (Love Symphony Orchestra, Firefly, Jimmy Ross, ...) and discovered some true genius (François De Roubaix). Love this like nothing else. It costs you more than hanging in bars but it's so much more rewarding. Discovering new music through the erudite shop-owner, meeting interesting vinyl-lovers and drinking wine with them is something that's very hard to do online. Ended my Saturday at Strictly Niceness and enjoyed it some more. Good party, full house and lots of lovely faces. Was way too tired to be very active but had a good time anyway. Big up to Stan, Kwak, Joel, Bernard and Laurent for keeping me on cloud 9.

To make it a superb weekend my Sunday was top too. Lovely.

Only bad note of the weekend was Domu announcing his retirement. It's an immense loss but I can only support his decision. You need to be a don to do this. I could feel his frustrations shining through in his blog and related to it very often. Choosing life above becoming a grumpy, unmotivated and uninspired cat who has lost all the ability to smile (did I hear anyone mention Kenny Dope ?) is the only way to go. Don't know if I could be strong enough to do the same when my time comes. But I haven't got a girlfriend / wife to tell me I'm becoming a monster (and maybe that's why I haven't got one). Anyway, heard lots of ignorant and stupid reactions to his words and some really inspiring ones (like MdCL's here). Hope he gets bitten by the bug once more when he has taken some distance from it. We need someone with a good ear, lots of humour and intelligence like him and he's one of the very few dj's I would feel very sorry about if I never would have shared the decks with him. In the meantime I can only wish him the best for what's to come and thank him for the music (and suddenly Abba's there).

We did a mix as promo for the gig with Dâm-Funk at Le Tavernier which is available on On-Point.be right now. For grabs with all the info you need.

The music it's made of is mostly 80s Funk, Soul, Boogie and other sounds made popular by the Californian don. Some rather obscure, some not but all of the highest quality. It's  called 'We Play The Funk Electric' for an obvious reason if you know the music of Dâm-Funk and the one he's a prime ambassador for. It's Funk with lots of electric instruments in it. But it's also electric in the less literal way, of course.

As we see it we always play 'Electric Funk'. Even if others call it Boogie, Disco, House or even Dubstep. In fact give it any name that fits you. We actually call it the music we like (a smiley here would be appropriate but I hope you're smart enough to not need one every single time I'm not that serious).

Anyway, enjoy and expect lots more of this at Le Tavernier. It's going to be hot. We'll make your hair get that Soul Glo the natural way (if this means zilch to you, use Google).

Back from Southport and already thinking about next weekend. Because it's all about the gig with Dâm-Funk on Friday for us. Scroll down to know more about that. Or listen to the show as organiser Cris Prolific explains it all and more. Music-wise you can expect lots of Dâm-Funk tunes and 80s Funk.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Weedy - Beat Goes On (40Winks)
Kylie Auldist - In A Week, In A Day / Ashley Beedle Streetsoul Edit (Tru Thoughts)
Expression - Release (PPU)
Dâm Funk - when80mprfeelslike20 (Stones Throw)
Dâm Funk - Mirrors (Stones Throw)
Dâm Funk - Burgundy City (Stones Throw)
Trus'me feat. Dâm-Funk - Bail Me Out (Prime Numbers)
Floating Points - Argonaute 11 (Eglo Records)
Roger - So Ruff, So Tuff (Warner Bros)
Bobby Nunn - Don't knock it (until you try it) (White)
Donna Allen - Satisfied / Dub Version (21 Records)
Larry Graham - Sooner Or Later (Warner)
Lakeside - It's All The Way Live / Long Version (Solar)
Melba Moore - Love's coming at ya (EMI)

For those of you expecting a Southport Weekender report ...  there isn't coming one. Just don't feel like it. You should have been there. Only thing I can say is that last few weekends I started to appreciate again the seldom equaled fun of partying with your best friends. Nothing beats that. And it makes you revalue the concept of friends. Other thing I discovered was the fact that Soul Rebel not only is a killer dj but probably an even a better cook. Never ate this well at SPW.

Last thing on the weekender tip. It goes yearly from next edition on. So only in May you'll be able to attend it. A shame but comprehensible. So now you're all warned you should begin booking your tickets for that. It has always been a rush but expect madness now. I've done my reservation, I warned y'all, so it's up to you now. I'm done with arranging it for others and all the inane fuss that goes with it and I think the same goes for a most of our SPW crew.

Some more not so joyful news. I always come back inspired from trips like last weekend's. Lately that doesn't mean anymore that I'm full of energy, new ideas and positivity. I rather realise things. The uselessness of hyping up half-baked tunes just because they're produced by the new hip producer on the block when there's so much good music around. The sorry cry for attention Twitter (or even Internet in general) actually is. People taking themselves so serious doing something that's not serious at all at it's core; enjoying yourself on good music. That's bothering me a lot lately. Certainly because I've been guilty of those vices myself. Might tone a lot of things down. Maybe even radically.

And, on the more positive note, invest the free time in what I really want to do. Like organising some killer parties.

You should know by now that on November 13th we play at Tavernier with the Californian Funk don Dâm-Funk. The official flyer is on top of this post. Feel free to invite friends through Facebook. I'm hyped about it, hope everyone else will be by then. It's going to be a legendary night if I've got something to say about it. And I do. Haha.

You can buy the man's album on CD or as digital download. In a decent shop near you or through the Stones Throw website. Believe us, it's a killer. If I had a car and it wouldn't be raining I would be driving through my hood banging this through the car sound system with the top off. Now it's just on the iPod while taking public transport to work. Less cool. I know. If you can wait for the vinyl (you can always buy the CD and the LP, of course) you'll be able to add a 5-piece box to the collection. Been seeing way to little of them lately. So nice one.

And expect to see a mix we've done as promo for this gig somewhere online soon. A little education in the art of 80s Funk.

Remember fm brussel Outside? The event we organised with them where we put dj's on their double-decker bus, hooked them up to a big ass Funktion One and tried to get people dancing at the skatepark Ursulinen (which apparently could be heard in half of Brussels, haha). Our lovely radio station recorded all the mixes and, due to the fact many people went on vacation last few weeks, this week I found them in my mailbox. I'm not particularly pleased with our own set. It has got many technical glitches (level goes up and down, one of the stereo-channels suddenly goes silent, ...) and the mix is a bit all over the place. Anyhow some people asked me about it and it's not that bad I don't want to share it with them. I'm just not gonna put it somewhere on Mix- or Soundcloud. I've uploaded it on Sendspace and it's there for you all to grab. If you like to.

And if you are wondering why it goes Dubstep and Reggae at the end. We just wanted to test out the bass of the Funktion One, haha. The very last song is a ribute to Norman Jay's Good Times sound system at Nottinghill Carnival which gave us the inspiration to organise all this.

Got to say that the constant stream of essential House music 12s is a bit overwhelming at the moment. Labels like Rush Hour, We Play House, Prime Numbers and some other favourites are delivering the goods like there are no hard times in the music biz. Let me list some of them up for you.

Juju & Jordash - Hired Guns EP ( Downbeat )
Same quality as their just released album. Limited this one so be quick. Might repeat myself on this but you should need to check the boys out at SPARK this Saturday. They're good.

Dynamodyse - Shelter EP ( We Play House Recordings )
On my favourite Belgian label. Got the pre-release vinyl since last week (fantastic concept). Same vibe, same quality as previous releases. Being consistent that is. Red D is a hero, let that be clear.

Rick Wilhite - Godson EP ( Rush Hour )
True heads will have this one in their collection already as it has been out on KDJ but an extra Moodymann remix and certainly the fact that it has been remastered should motivated you buy this one again. If it's a first then you most definitely need this one. This is what people mean when they say it's banging House.

Mark Grusane & Mike Cole - Time & Space ( Hour House is your Rush )
Mr. Peabody is one of the main reasons why I want to go to Chicago (their musical history is another, kinda big one). Heard lots of exciting things about this shop. The two gentlemen who made this track own that shop. Hearing this one makes me want to leave immediately for the Windy City. Raw House just the way I like it.

Darkstar - Aidy's Girl Is A Computer ( Hyperdub )
Purist will tell me this is not House. Well they're wrong. This is proper genius and to me it's House music. I'll play it in my sets of that genre. You shouldn't even need the Kyle Hall remix to note that. It helps and it makes the 12 only more essential. One of my tunes of 2009. Big. And I must say that my House box is being invaded by ever more Hyperdub vinyl. Love the latest output by Zomby, Kode9, Martyn, ... all proper House in my book.

Various - E11 ( Prime Numbers )
Another label that's being ridiculous. Linkwood album, Trus'me album and now this. All tasty music. This 12 is just what you expect if you see the artists involved are Motor City Drum Ensemble, Andres and Mr Scruff & Kaidi Tatham. Quailty.

Newworldaquarium - The Force / Ame Remixes ( Delsin )
Ame productions never fail. This one builds to a climax that only they an build. You need every release with their name on. It's that simple.

Ashley Thomas - Let It Bloom / Domu Remixes ( WhaWah45s)
This always gets me in the mood for Southport Weekender. Domu is a don and you should check every single release with his name on. Ideal to make the switch between deep Detroit ish and Soulful NYC stuff.

Go buy them at your favourite quality record store. Mine, for this sort of music, are Music Mania in Ghent where Red D is doing the selection every Wednesday and Rush Hour (which is kind of the same as they work together). But there's plenty of record stores around to get that good stuff. Support them.

Nothing but new music, the Paul White track probably being then oldest of the pack. All killers, no fillers. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Hudson Mohawke - Fuse ( Warp )
Shepherd - Weavy ( Acroplane )
Paul White - So Far Away ( One-Handed )
Dâm Funk - Come On Outside ( Stones Throw )
Julien Dyne feat. Parks - Fallin' Down ( BBE )
Red Fulka - Kumpo / Raihani & Salgado Mix ( Elevator People )
Ashley Thomas - Let It Bloom / Domu House Remix ( Wah Wah 45 )
Domu - Understand Why ( Swedish Brandy )
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Got It ( Prime Numbers )
Kai Alcé - Polyester Static ( Real Soon )
Dynamodyse - Gare Du Nord ( We Play House )
Delano Smith - The Explana ( Third Ear )
Dark Star - Aidy's Girl Is a Computer ( Hyper Dub )

We shouldn't need to repeat it and it should be common knowledge by now but SPARK is by far the most consistent and best quality House music night in Belgium. Almost every week they've got a killer guest on their bill. The venue is top too, the hosts among the most friendly and welcoming we've known and the entrance price is ridiculously cheap (10€ before 1am with 7,5€ booze included). And we are playing there quite frequently. Haha.

Not in November but that doesn't make their line-up any less hot. Feel bad I will miss Juju & Jordash (go see them they are superb, go buy their album it's fantastic) next weekend. But will try to catch as much as possible of the weekends that follow. Dixon, Nightmares On Wax and certainly Antal & San Proper are big in my book. All firmly recommended.

Go and support Bruno, Will and crew. They're doing a mighty fine job and that deserves support. I don't want to hear the excuses why you haven't been there yet because they are not valid. Simple as that. Drag your ass to Antwerp and shake it on the Café Capital dance floor. Or expect to be categorised as douchebag from now on.

Thanks to everyone who came to Bar Du Matin on Friday. I had a lovely time, hope you enjoyed it as well. Lots of good music, lots of friendly faces. Those who came especially for my birthday and ignored all the other things happening that night get an extra fat big up. A big hug to those who brought presents. Love all of them and didn't lose or break any on my way home. Haha. Kept it low profile the rest of the weekend because I was tired and next weekend I'll need all my energy. Southport Weekender is hard for someone with my physical condition (or better said with such a lack of it).

In the weeks to come you can expect some mixes of us to appear online. Will try to post our set at fm brussel outside (the event with the fm brussel double-decker and the Funktion One) and we've recorded some mixes for other websites. More about that soon.

Tonight we play music from the D at Bar Du Matin all night long. Expect this one somewhere in our set. It's probably my all time favourite tune ever. All genres. 

The Laid Back guys played big chunks of the live performances by I-Sa, Infinitskills, JtotheC & the Bad Mothas and San Soda in their fm brussel radio show. They’ve put it up on Mixcloud for all of you to enjoy. You’ll miss Dyno in there. We’ll make that up to you soon. He gave me a CD full of killer tunes at RELEASE that screams for some shine in our show. So expect a little Dyno moment soon in our fm brussel show.

Because not everyone follows us on all the social networks we're on let me give you a list of the gigs we're playing up until new year's eve.

Friday 2009.10.30 - Bar Du Matin, Brussels
This Friday. Theme of our set will be "The Sound Of Detroit - Past to Present". Plus it's my birthday. So entrance is free and you might even get some booze for free.

The weekend after that we're partying in the UK. Somewhere north, near Liverpool. Southport Weekender, you know.

Friday 2009.11.13 - Dâm-Funk, Cris Prolific & us - Tavernier, Brussels
You know we're all excited about this one. With the Cali Funk don himself. Thinking about wearing shades for this one. Haha.

Friday 2009.11.20 - Boogie Nights - Entrenous, Brugge
Way out west in our little country. First gig ever for us in that city so very curious about it.

Friday 2009.11.27 - Bazaar Club, Brussels
New / revamped club in town. We love new things. Entrance is free so we expect the lot of you.

Saturday 2009.12.05 - fm brussel tonight, Brussels
Party of our radio station. Don't know all the details yet but you can expect a soulful & funky room with us and some of our most esteemed colleagues on that same station. And with Marc de Clive-Lowe and Vanessa Freeman doing a live gig. Get out that airhorn.

Saturday 2009.12.12 - Spark, Antwerp
With Mark August at our favourite House club in the country. We'll warm up so no excuse to miss out.

Friday 2009.12.18 - Bar Du Matin, Brussels
Back at out favourite bar in town. With a UK Soul & Funk themed set.

We've got Christmas time off for now. Thinking about going to Paris, Manchester or, maybe, Antwerp (Marc Mac back at Spark).

Thursday 2009.12.31 - NYE - Spark, Antwerp
We'll open the festivities at this top spot. Only local heroes behind the decks so no fancy prices either. Come party with us.

This week's show is full of fresh new music. From the new albums of Dâm-Funk, Trus'me and The Clonious among other things. Like a new track on Brussels' based Citywurl by Bongholio Iglesias. Enjoy.

And the pic above this post hasn't got much to do with the show itself. It's one taken by Yiannis at our last gig at SPARK and we like it. So any reason to share it is fine, no ?

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Dâm-Funk - Mirrors ( Stones Throw )
Dâm-Funk - On your way to her pad ( Stones Throw )
Panzer Kunst - No Clean Processing ( CDR )
Low Limit - Turf Day ( Rush Hour )
I-Sa - Flora 2 ( CDR )
The Clonious - Emora ( Ubiquity )
Placebo - Balek ( CBS Records )
Bei Bei & Shawn Lee feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow - Make Me Stronger / Floating Points Ensemble Remix ( Ubiquity )
Fudge Fingas - Situation Diminished ( Firecracker )
Trus'me - Put It On Me ( Prime Numbers )
MXM - Jazzy Seduction ( Philpot )
Bongholio Iglesias - Groovin' ( Citywurl )
Cerrone - Give Me Love ( Malligator )
St Germain-en-Laye - Dub Experience ( F Communications )
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo ( Hotflush )

Made my re-entry into public life yesterday. By joining Disco Dalglish at SPARK. Out set was scheduled fo start around 4am (summertime) after Fabrice Lig's gig (which I liked a lot). So after some pre-emptive sleeping to be sure I would make it I decided to come outside again. Mainly because I was extremely bored and wanted to meet people and talk.

Glad I went because otherwise my colleague would have been alone (most others of our crew were already gone to bed (sick)) and I would have missed all the fun. I enjoyed every minute of it. Was a bit afraid it would die out soon after Fabrice's gig but we kept the floor going on some deep tunes until 6am (wintertime). Got to play stuff from San Proper, Martyn, Zomby next to more common stuff. Felt nice. Juju & Jordash's "Jazzy Trance" was one of my personal highlights of the night. Sounds mighty on a big sound.

Big up to Bruno and Will for bringing us over and making us feel welcome. Will try to catch one of the November gigs which are all things we want to see and hear. We'll be back behind the decks at Cafe Capital on December 12th. Warming up for Mark August. And big up to Fabrice Lig (great set) and Smos (always nice to see him enjoying himself).

This week's show is without me. Spending most of my days in bed recovering from a flue which has knocked me out in a fashion I haven't experienced in years (and I hope I'm good for another couple of ones after it). But Disco Dalglish doesn't necessarily needs me to put together a mighty fine selection. That's the handy part of being a duo.

No specials this week except a banging selection of fresh music. Ancient to future. And we keep playing unreleased Belgian productions, JtotheC and Panzer Kunst, of course. No reason not to do it if the quality is this good.

We close with a Fabrice Lig track to promote the gig we play with him at SPARK this Saturday. We take things over after he's done. SPARK is at Cafe Capital, as you should know by now, and that's in Antwerp (stadspark). Hope to see you there.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience ( Affine )
JToTheC - Nono ( CDR )
Panzer Kunst - No Clean Processing ( CDR )
Floating Points - For You / All Young Kings ( Eglo )
Magnum Force - A Touch Of Funk ( Chi Sound )
Joe Coleman - Get It Off The Ground ( Pana )
Linkwood & House Of Traps - Barely Eagle ( Firecracker )
Tim Toh - Seven ( Philpot )
Above Smoke - Burning ( Deep Explorer )
Culoe The Song - The Fallen Sirene ( Mule Musiq )
Delano Smith - Dees Gruv ( Third Ear )
Fabrice Lig - Innerblaster ( Union Match Music )

You know we're big fans of both Red D and his label We Play House Recordings. Back when we had a venue and did many parties he was near-resident. San Soda on the other hand has to be one of the most featured artists in our radio show. So this mix is double fun for us. Selected and mixed by the big man from Deinze and plenty of upcoming releases on his label (and tracks by other artists we like a lot like MCDE, Floating Points and Hunee). To make it near perfect he ends with one of my all-time favourites.

Check out the InfiniteStateMachine site. It's one of the better ones around.

As I've been sick most of the weekend there's not much use in writing a weekend report. Missed the Anattitude party and the Raphael Saadiq concert.

Loved the Dorian Concept gig on Friday though. Missed most of Lukid because we couldn't find the secret passage to Opwijk. Haha. Lefto's always on point. Met lots of nice people and had a great time. But shortly after that the flu got me. It will take a while until I'm in fine shape again.

I know now that if your body is hinting the arrival of sickness all week you should listen. Ignoring it is not an option.

Here's a neat video from our national broadcast corporation's archive. From the program "Tienerklanken" in 1979 about the Disco-phenomenom. It's mostly in Dutch but there's parts in English too.

Thanks to Blast Kid and Alex for finding this.

It has been a while since I gave you one of these. I've been running behind a bit due to being busy with lots of other projects.Some of these have been out for a while, others are of the freshest order.

People Under The Stairs - Trippin' At The Disco (Om Records)
So good even without the clip. The instrumental alone is worth buying this.

The Clonious - Between The Dots (Ubiquity)
So good. Beatsy stuff but more musical than usual. With a superb joint with Muhsinah (you might want to buy the 12" too, by the way) on it. But plenty of killers on this one. From Vienna and friend of that other beatwiz Dorian Concept.

Various - Beat Dimensions Vol. 2 (Rush Hour)
All beatheads need this. The first volume was one of the things that started this instrumental Hiphop craze.

Various - Firecracker EP 4 (Firecracker)
One of the few really essential series of vinyl. All 5 (yep there are 5 of them) are essential. Superb music and killer artwork. Big up to Linkwood and Family.

LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 / Theo Parrish Remix (DFA)
You haven't got that one yet ? Ok, we need to talk.

Been busy last few days. Too busy to write much. The preparations for the next few steps in our RELEASE adventure are being taken. The simplest which have already been executed are starting a twitter account and a Flickr-Pool. The latter to gather all pics taken at our events and to discover artwork for the upcoming ones. But there's much more to come. We'll announce some of that soon.

Other thing I've done in between all the kinds of work that keep me going is reworking our Myspace account. I thought about deleting that one altogether but I must admit I still like discovering music through it and that I've noticed a lot of people still use it. Only the ones running in front of everyone and not looking back or even around them in the digital revolution have completely given up on Myspace. So I took it back to basics. Gone are the fancy lay-out, blog, almost all widgets and most other things. What's left are the most essential things like the agenda (which is still clear and handy), a selection of friends that are relevant for what we do, some basic info & links and some tunes (uploaded the ones we're most proud of). Give it a peek.

We promised you to present some of the artists we discovered in the build-up to our RELEASE event. So here's the next one we like.

1352 is making the sort of bleepy Hiphop that's pretty hip at the moment. The success of Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawk, Dorian Concept and others has inspired many young beatmakers with Ableton or an MPC to have a take on that sound. Usually the result swings as much as a 100-year old grandparent with Parkinson and, just like that same family member, it gets lost 2 seconds after it chose a direction. 1352's beats on the other hand do swing and are focussed. His "Target = Space" is a big hit at the Onda Sonora HQ. Check out the music on his Myspace but we know he's got more goodies.

It was nice to hear he loved the moment we played his beat at RELEASE and people were dancing to it. Apparently things are moving for him since then. That's something we love to hear. He told us he'll perform some of his beats alongside DJ Hypercuts at Nijdrop this Friday (yep, at the Dorian Concept event). Making it even more essential to be there.

This weekend there's not only Dorian Concept and Lukid at Nijdrop. The day after that, on Saturday, a couple of female friends are organising a party for the release of Anattitude's 4th edition. Anattitude is a magazine representing the female side of Hiphop. Plenty of female Hiphop-artists on the bill like Yarah Bravo, Lizairo, Fatoosan (LeFtO's girlfriend behind the decks, curious about that) and Miki. Some male ones too because it may be a woman's world but it would be nothing without a men or a boy (or was it the other way around ?). Anyway expect Beatdrunx, LeFtO and Kool Koor too.

It's all happening at Le Tavernier, a place you should know how to find by now and if not you better memorise it because lots of good stuff happening there. Entrance is free. Come early because it starts early.

To support the girls you can buy t-shirts here. Big up to Joanna and friends for doing this. We'll be there with an extended Onda Sonora delegation.

Ow yes this is a big one. Playing together with one of my musical heroes of the moment. Hope he's got his finest tunes in his box because we're gonna test him. Rarely got a chance to go all out in a style I love so much. If you want to know what's the man all about check the interview we did with him a couple of months ago.

After weeks of playing RELEASE-related stuff we felt like selecting an all up-tempo show. Lots of new stuff from Philpot, Deeper Shades, Slapped Up Soul and Smallville, some classics, some edits and tune from 2 new promising Belgian House labels (Compuphonic's Union Match and Doctor Vinyl's Metaphone). Enjoy.

On top of that we give a away a duoticket for Dorian Concept, Lukid, Lefto and Hypercuts at Nijdrop this Friday. All answers to the question we ask in the show can be sent to ondasonora@fmbrussel.be.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Man Friday - Love Honey, Love Heartache - Vinyl Mania
Break SL - Weird Dancer - Philpot
Wardell Piper - How Long / Onda Sonora Edit - CDR
Jacky Beavers - Mr Bumpman / Liamski Re-edit - CDR
PDJ - It's Over Now - Def House int.
Soulscience Feat. Dennis Baker - Hypnotise You - Deeper Shades
Floetry - So Many Things - Restricted Access
Circle Of Funk - Organic House - Slapped Up Soul
Omar S - I Love You Alex - FXHE
Ante Perry & Kolombo - Baby - Union Match Music
Julius Steinhoff - Something Like Wonderful - Smallville
Boubastar - Space Vibration - Metaphone

I've recorded and uploaded a freshly made mix on our Mixcloud page. A House mix. Plain and simple House music of the finest order. Deep, Raw and Banging. To let you know you can expect some things on the Go Bang! front soon.

Shepherd aka Julien Itterbeek from Umbrelladelika Records, who we had in our radio studio last week, has en EP out on Acroplane Records and it's very good. And free. Check it out here. Check this, play this.Nice artwork too.

Not much to report about my weekend as I had, for once, an easy one with friends and family. Checked the Mocky gig at Beaursschouwburg on Friday and that kinda blew me away. Not much of a Mocky connoisseur but adored the performance. It was excellent music-wise, hilarious and entertaining. I need to check more concerts. His ‘Birds of a Feather' has been the soundtrack of my weekend. The soundtrack of my start of the week is this. Always been a big PUTS fan (thanks to Disse for sharing this one).

Now it's up to the weekend. Surely gonna check the Annatitude party at le Tavernier on Saturday. Got to make a choice between Dorian Concept at Nijdrop or Linkwood & Chez Damier in Amsterdam on Friday. It's a difficult one with more than just the music influencing my choice. We're giving away tickets for Dorian Concept in our radio show this week, by the way.

After that it's plenty of gigs up until I'm heading to Southport for my 6-monthly overdose of good music at the weekender over there. Will catch the legendary Thursday night pre-party at The Sands this year. Hide your women and daughters, cover everything with plastic and stock more beer. Haha. Got the red card from Paul Stuart last time for bumping into the dj-booth. Lovely people, ridiculously good music.

I've entered that period when Southport Weekender slowly takes over your mind and nothing else gets through anymore. But can you blame me if you see a line-up like that. Floating Points, Dâm-Funk, Kenny Dope, Kerri Chandler, Mr. Scruff, Zed Bias, Marcellus Pitman, Al Kent and one of the few dj's I really, really, really want to see before going deaf; Nicky Siano. Among many others of course.

Time to give you a selection of radio shows, podcasts and mixes.

Laid Back Radio are, as always, acting on an high level and using the newest ways to do so on the net. Check their Mixcloud page for lots of goodies. Especially the Jus' Like Music and Orsi's "Little Miss Sunshine" shows are interesting as they are the first shows to actually have a host and talking in between the music. Both are quality. Orsi's last show is a Belgian special inspired by our RELEASE event which she attended. It feels nice to know she loved it.

Another good friend from across the channel is Phil Cooper. His NuNorthern Soul mixes have been mentioned on this site before. That means we like ‘em. Same goes for the new edition he posted on his Soundcloud. An Soul Autumn Selection. Check it out.

Those who are going to visit the Global Local Festival happening around the canal in Brussels can prepare themselves on the Soundcloud pages of Umbrelladelika / Shepherd / Harry Poppins, Lowdjo and Phonetics. All three interesting and genre-wise all over the place dj's from Brussels. Firmly recommended listening.

Our man at tv brussel, Dieter, has found a little video about Umbrelladelika records in their archives, by the way. It's mostly in Dutch.

Knew this was coming but now that it's here I'm still as excited a a kid in a toy store. My D3K family is coming hard on the album front. 4 longplayers that bring the best House music you could wish for.

Linkwood - System (Prime Numbers)
Deep forward thinking House with its roots deep in the past. Brilliant album as you might have come to expect after the excellent stream of releases on Firecracker (the 5th slab of bliss on vinyl is in the shops right now) and Prime Numbers. Deep, raw and impossible not to dance to.

Juju & Jordash - Juju & Jordash LP (Dekmantel)

Again a collection of the deepest House music around. Been playing "Deep Blue Meanies" for what seems ages now. The rest is just as fine. If you got the chance to catch them live don't sleep on it. Big one.

V/A - And Suddenly It's Morning (Smallville Records)

Home to among others Move D. We met Julius Steinhoff in Croatia and he's like all our D3K friends friendly and funny. He's from Hamburg and his label puts out interesting House music of the finest quality. To prove this they've just released an ace compilation on CD. Cop that.

Trus'me - In The Red ( Prime Numbers)
Not yet out but soon enough in the shops (early November). For those who weren't all that much into his excursions into more Techno-oriented areas have no fear. This picks up where he left us with his first album. This is updated Disco (not nu-Disco but Disco made now) of the highest order. With fine names as Amp Fiddler, Dâm-Funk and Paul Randolph on board. Essential one.

Like everyone, I guess, I'm trying to separate the chaff from the wheat with every new "beat" release that's been hyped in my direction. Not an easy task for someone who's allergic to hypes but addicted to fresh quality music. It forces me to be Zen when listening. Having been a collector and a lover of quality music for more than 2 decades helps too.

One of my current favourites in densely populated land of MPC-owners with attitude is Fulgeance. The description he uses of his own sound online is "a perfect blend of huge, synth-laced French Electro and modern Instrumental Hip Hop". The utter sonic crap of most too hip for their own good Ed Banger releases in mind, that alone should get you running away screaming with your ears covered. Not in Fulgeance's case though. Although his words describe what he sounds like pretty accurate it resides on the right side of the thin line between bliss and piss.

We big him up not because he has just released a gem (if you haven't copped his One-Handed EP by now you should expect to be bitchslapped any time now) but because we discovered he's giving away a nice tune for free on his Soundcloud page. And because it's about time we put him into the spotlights.

Check out the links and discover the man's ace music if you don't know it yet. Track down all his releases and, if you can't wait until we find the chance to do so, book the man for gig in Brussels or nearby.

We've got plenty of good music for RELEASE and we wouldn't be ourselves if we kept it all for us. So we're going to give some shine to the cats we feel are on a level that makes it worth to big ‘em up. First up is Title. This beatmaker, coming from deep in Flanders, Mol to be exact, sent us more than a couple of quality tracks. We've been playing them in nearly every single show since we found them in our mailbox. I love the amazement on people's faces when they hear this is something we got and it is unreleased. Haha. A shame I haven't started a label myself yet.

He'll be the first on our list when asking people to participate to the next RELEASE. He was even ready to do something this time. Laptop and everything was on stand by. Next time for sure. Both we and Azer played his tracks and "Caravan" was one of the highlights of our set getting plenty of response. Witness that yourself on the video on top of this post. Check out more RELEASE vids on our newly created Onda Sonora TV channel, by the way.

Be sure to check out his other project, Midiot, which is equally as good.

This week we look back on the successful first edition of RELEASE with excerpts of all the gigs and some of the most popular tunes of the night. On top of that we've got Julien aka Harry Poppins aka Shepherd from Umbrelladelika Records in the studio.

We stumbled upon that mighty fine Brussels based label in our search for interesting music to play at RELEASE. The always ahead of the game Lefto pointed us in Shepherd's direction and we discovered there was much more to enjoy. Their first release is actually so fine I feel a bit ashamed I didn't discover this sooner. It's a compilation of edgy music that will appeal to all aficionados of off-centre Electronica, Indie sounds and leftfield Hiphop. Nicely packaged and everything. You can still order it on their website.

Apart from releasing music they also organise events. Like the Global Local festival happening this Saturday around the canal in Brussels. Check out the website because it's another feast for people who like forward thinking music and art.

The next release they'll be doing is an EP, on vinyl, by Egon Fisk. But there's much more to come. We had a nice chat with Julien about this all and more.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Track List:
Weedy - Beats And Pieces ( CDR )
Toma - That New York Feeling ( CDR )

>>> looking back on RELEASE <<<
I-sa feat. Oddlaner - Glider / Live at Release ( CDR )
Infinitskills - Unknown / Live at Release (CDR )
J To The C - Nono / Live at Release ( CDR )
Dyno - Unknown / Live at Release ( CDR )
San Soda - Unknown /Live at Release ( CDR )

Title - Caravan ( CDR )

>>> Umbrelladelika / interview with Julien <<<
Egon Fisk - Acip Lelien Hungmeister ( Umbrelladelika )
Tep - Titid ( Umbrelladelika )
O for Odetta - Horribly Exciting ( Umbrelladelika )
Tidy Kid - Angehüpft ( Umbrelladelika )

Bioniq - Spirit-Fu ( CDR )
Panzer Kunst - Decade ( CDR )
1352 - Target : Space ( CDR )
Strandmusic - Hiphop June 20092 ( CDR )

This week we do a RELEASE special. That's the event we organise this Saturday at Beursschouwburg. We do little interviews with Dyno and San Soda, both performing, and play only Music we got specially for the event. As a taster for what's to come.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Don't forget the Laid Back show on the same station the day after us where DJ Azer will do the same; play only tracks you won't have heard much before.

Senz - Pandora Hymn
Senz - Goodpersonscratchbacking
J To The C - Nono (NAG Remix)
Title - Chessboxin'
Bioniq - Junky's Last Move
Toma - Just Imagine
Dyno - Nfoor
1352 - Now Look At You
Dyno - UFOol u
Raydius 360 - Retro
Dr. Kwest - Magic Voyage
Rostislav - Visbokaal
I-sa - De Haan
Title - Caravan
Deacoy - Ooog
San Soda - Possible Release
Edrama - Saucerss
Jay Mayer - Cheap Emotions Piano

This weekend is full of difficult choices for the connoisseur of quality music. Let me give you a selection of what's up.

Friday
Mocky at Beursschouwburg, Brussels

Saturday
Dâm-Funk at Strange Fruit, Rotterdam
Red D, Henrik Schwarz & Ame at Club Silo, Leuven
Spark with Geoffroy Mugwump at Café Capital, Antwerp
General Elektriks & Funky Bompa at Atelier 210, Brussels

Some more news about Onda Sonora.

Wednesday October 9th we're on the German online radio station called Soul Sender. They've aired the same mix last Friday but that went past me in all the fuzz before the weekend. Second chance to catch it is in a few days at 11pm.

We've uploaded some pics from RELEASE taken by Dieter. More will follow. If you want to see pics and a report made by others than you need to be on the RELEASE site.

Next weekend I'm going to keep it low profile. Time to spend some moments with the family. Because after that it's back to the hectic schedule with plenty of interesting parties and dj-dates.

An extended big up list is due and I'm gonna do my utter best not to forget anybody. Because we, Onda Sonora, may have initiated things but what Saturday night a success is that it was joint effort by many. And a success it was.

Some people, like Alex Deforce, were pretty confident it would be a full house but experience and my ever present doubt when organising prevented me from falling too easily for that. So I was baffled by the turnout. By 22h30 the beurscafe was packed, slightly after that it was one out, one in at the door and that regime lasted for hours and only ended an hour or so before we stopped. I know a lot of people are in town for Nuit Blanche and that they switch from one place to another but many of those were discouraged by the fact they couldn't just walk in and out. People were there for the music and knew what to expect or at least were open for it. I saw girls dancing on DJ Azer's opening set and that made me very happy. Because he was playing unsigned Belgian music which was by far no easy listening. The track of our set that got the most response, for example, is the killer but yet unknown to most 'Caravan" by Title (who was in the room except for that moment when he went for a bite at McDonalds, haha - I'm sure he'll get plenty of chances to enjoy the response to his music, it's that good and he needs to do a live gig next RELEASE).

As an organiser and artist you can't wish for more than lots of people who are in for it. Got plenty of good reactions about every single artist who put stuff on our walls. The overall quality was very high. Something that goes for everything. The graphic art / photographs, music and vj's. It was all on an amazing level, even without considering the fact most of them were doing this for the first time.

Musically I enjoyed every single minute and I'm not saying that because I want to be nice to everyone. DJ Azer is one of the finest dj's in the genre and he proved that effortlessly, i-Sa showed they are finding their own spot in the musical spectrum. It might have been a bit rough around the edges sometimes but I heard plenty of brilliant tunes (need some of those to play on the radio). In a few gigs they'll be tight as hell and ready to take on the world. Something I've known about LuiGi and Eric since long. Still, they blew me away with their way too short set. They act on a level high enough to compete with the best. I really mean that. The presence they might lack a bit on stage was easily compensated by the killer visuals. Nicely in sync with the music. Big up to Mathieu.

JtotheC was his energetic self. Amazing how tight his gig was when you know this was his first ever. A bit nervous (forgot to wait for his vj's and almost didn't big them up at the end) but once started the stage and room was his. Charismatic, funky and funny. Bound to be big soon. The visuals were, once started, superb. Incorporating the vids they got and bringing a smile on many faces. Nice work Alex and Gunther. Dyno after that might have come as a bit of a shock to most. Haha. Loved the new tracks (which you'll hear in our radio show in the weeks to come). A bit of a shame we couldn't give him more bass but we'll try to fix that next time he's playing. He got the hands in the air a few time nevertheless.

San Soda added some 'In De Gloria" samples to his set and got his fare share of smiles and hands in the air. Absolutely love the new tracks I've heard. For a first this was tight as well. He got many booties moving. Big up to Leonard Facteur for the visuals during the last 2 gigs. I feel bad for not having had the time to talk to you. Nor to buy you some drinks. Will make it up the next time we meet. Hopefully soon.

Our set closing off things was nice. So mad to play all the music we got and seeing some reaction. Even the difficult ones got response. Big ones, as far as I can imagine, were the Title track I mentioned before, Uinxxx 'Punky Uinxly Party', Weedy's "Beats & Pieces" and lots of the ones we've played in our radio show last few weeks.

Ended with a big grin on my face. Met lots of nice people who we hope will keep sending us their beats, art and video's. We'll need them because as said before RELEASE will be back. Even more convinced this is something we all need. What it all will be we're not exactly sure. But we got big plans and with the success of last Saturday we're pretty sure we'll be able to get some things moving. When we've got the next one lined up you'll be the first to hear about it.

In short I loved every single minute of it. The creative minds at work, enthusiast and giving all they had in them to make their part perfect. The crowd which was big and openminded. The overall vibe of the night was great. One big family. I feel inspired and exceptionally energetic for a Sunday by it. Those who know me know how rare that is. Haha.

Rests me to big up a few people. First of all everyone involved. All the artists, musicmakers and vj's. You were great and fun to work with. We should do this again. Big up to the Onda Sonora, Laid Back and On-Point families to put their shoulders under this. Big up to everyone present for the nice atmosphere and the great response. Big up to everyone who made noise about this event (Lefto, Koen @ fm brussel, everyone on Twitter or Facebook talking about it, ... ). Big, big, big up to everyone at Beursschouwburg. You were a joy to work with, hope you think the same about us. Special mention for Koen, for making us feel welcome and all the help and the soundguy for letting things run so smoothly (everyone laughing with me when I didn't foresee time between the acts was silenced by your excellent work). Thanks to Nuit Blanche for being the leverage to make this happen. Big up to Johan (who works for Jean De Hertog, Schepen voor Vlaamse Aangelegenheden Stad Brussel), who hooked us up with Beursschouwburg and helped us through the sometimes confusing world of Brussels politics. And to all I forgot. Let me know if I did.

One last thing. Who lost a entire plastic bag of mint-leafs ? Weirdest thing to find when clearing the venue.

In all the fuss before RELEASE we would forget to do some proper posts concerning Onda Sonora outside of what's happening on Saturday.

But we still got some good news to share with y'all. Like ...

We've made our first list ever. Woohoo. And directly one where The Beatles are also part of. Talking about a big start. Haha. Thanks a lot Disco Outcasts.

Mixcloud has gone out of beta and is easy to reach for everybody. Some tasty mixes on our page.

On November the 27th we play at Bazaar. New owners I think so curious about that.

We've got some nice things coming up in our radio show. Umbrelladelika records in the studio, free tickets for Dorian Concept at Nijdrop, ... .

Speaking about mixes. DJ Azer's mix for RELEASE is a killer. Top selection, tight mixing. Glad he's aboard for our event.

More mixes on the Laid Back Mixcloud, on K'Bonus's Soundcloud and on Lefto's site. That last one's new show is nice, by the way. Love the freestyle direction he has taken last couple of years.

With shops disappearing in Brussels and beyond it's nice to see that new initiatives are being taken to provide the people with their much needed dose of vinyl. To point you in the right direction I've updated the ‘where to buy' post on this website. Check it out.

You'll notice Ghent has forced its way into the list. These 2 ‘new' shops certainly deserve a visit.

MacFly
Dyno's shop. The man collaborating to RELEASE has his own place where he sells new forward thinking music with an edge, clothes and artsy stuff. There aren't many of these around in Belgium. So go support the man by spending lots of money at MacFly.

Music Mania
What once was an institution for vinyl-collecting kids as myself died a few years ago. In Ghent it silently opened again but it's only now that Red D and Maxim Lany are organising a weekly evening of good old-fashioned hanging in a shop and buying the newest releases I'm motivated to drag my ass over there. Like MacFly this is a creative way of getting people back into the shop. With an argument that wins me over easily. Being together with other like-minded people while checking the newest releases. Always loved doing that. Their selection will be put together with the lovely boys at Rush Hour (which is good because otherwise I would have felt badly about buying less at their shop). From 14 October on between 11h30 and 20h.

i-Sa, the last live act we need to introduce will do something special. Combining sounds and vision as do some of our other participants but not by means of a VJ but by letting Up High Collective member SIR-5 do some live graphics / painting. We’re as curious about that as you are. An other Up High member will join them soundwise; Oddlaner aka Raydius360. They’ll be start the series of performances so be sure to be at Beursschouwburg before 11pm.

Here are the bios of all artists involved in the i-Sa gig:

i-Sa is a trio of musicians from different directions. The music is mostly inspired by and made from analog synthesizers, old records or whatever’s got ‘that’ sound! i-Sa will tweak, layer drums, add keys … ‘we make it ours’.

i-Sa first got together in 2007. A year later, the first demo ‘a lil some sOme’ on CDR made some buzz in the growing beat community. In 2008 i-Sa started to work on their live-shows and made an exclusive show with Kissey Asplund (SE) on vocals, Pieter van Voorten on drums and Jan van Poyer on bass. After this gig in Antwerp, the band was invited at various radio shows as ‘deHop’ on Studio Brussel by dj Lefto, ‘Future Vintage’ on Lijn5 by Melodee, Radna and Tom Trago, ‘Laid-Back’ on Brussel FM by Luigi, … .

Not to long after the airplay the ‘Wah Waah’ was released, another free demo hosted and recommended by Amsterdam's world famous blogger Nalden. 2009 has been a busy year for the i-Sa members so far. They moved their studio, started working together with Oddlaner, studied on new techniques for live-performing, and got a new live-show ready, … . The new show contains more live instruments, visual performances and a lot of powerful beats! Be sure to check it out if you can!

ps: the new demo is to be released soon, be on the lookout…

SIR-5 is in the first place a Illustrator / graphic designer that graduated as Illustrator at HONIM Brussels - where he had his first contact with street arts. After some years working in the graphic industry he realized that this sector did everything but motivate nor improve his skills as an artist. So he left this sector behind in a pursuit for a situation where he could enjoy the freedom of spending as much time as possible making artworks. Today Sir-5 lives in Leuven and mainly works on canvas, cardboard, wood and textile. As he left the illegal graf scene some years now he can be found on Graffiti jams or at legal walls, although this doesn't mean that he is totally off the streets.
With his creative roots in classic comics & street arts, his style can best be described as abstract action painting, freehand marker illustrations and complex stencil structures all mixed into one image. These stencils became one of his favourite techniques in the last couple of years and can be found in most of his recent work. The most important aspect of his work is the underlying moral and social criticism that dominates every part of his work, from: locations, colour combinations up to symbols, forms and letters. All are part of a picture that can be read like a big graffiti collage with a hidden message or just be enjoyed for its colours, action, ambiance n contrast

Emmanuel Oddlaner is a side project/alter-ego of the man behind Raydius360. This character is a funkateer, lost in space and time making next level space beats sounding way too electronical for the classic boombap lover. He's a product of the new beat generation, a bedroom studio rocker/laptop-headphone slinger, loving crazy arpeggiators, vintage synths, sick plug-ins and midi controllers. You can find him making odd beats on odd locations. Emmanuel is his first name and he found a home with the Up High Collective somewhere in 2009. Stay tuned for 2010 ...

Listen again to this week's Onda Sonora radio show. It's a RELEASE special recorded with only unsigned music we got for the event or music by artists performing at it. Enjoy.

We've been big fans of Infinitskills since the day we discovered them a couple of years ago. Always keeping it soulful, always keeping it fresh. Over the years they've unleashed many beat tapes, a compilation called Nine and recently a 7" on the Japanese übercool label Jazzy Sport into the world. With that last one slowly getting the recognition worldwide they deserve. They are also part of Laid Back, one of our partners, and have been pushing upcoming producers and other artists for ages now in their radio shows, websites and events such as Belgikolor.

Instead of giving you an extended bio we think it's better to hook you up with some of their musical outings:

Polarized Beat tape
Nine Compilation
Louie Gee Ensemble on Jazzy Sport

At RELEASE they'll do a set using a laptop, MPC's and keys to bring their trademark style to the stage. The visuals during the set will be provided by one of the many members of the extended Laid Back family; Matthieu Cadet.

San Soda is a true Bedroom producers becoming internationally known in a flash. In a period of time others need to figure out their MPC he has ignited the start of a record label, participated to the Red Bull Music Academy and has been praised by giants like Laurent Garnier, DJ Deep, Osunlade, Domu and more. In short, he's living most bedroom producers' livelong dream.

After handing out a CD with his music in the dressing room of their common football team to Belgium's finest House DJ Red D, the latter decided it was time to start the label he always wanted to. After a couple of releases We Play House Recordings has become renown all around the world as one of the finest Deep House labels around. Double nice if you know most of the releases so far are signed San Soda. And from what we've heard this is just the humble beginning.

But he's more than just banging 4 to the floor. His mid-tempo productions are just as nice and firm favourites in the Onda Sonora camp. He's one of these producers you want to squeeze to get out more, faster although he has a rate of delivering the goods that's already surprisingly high.

Next step will be bringing his act to the stage. We're glad we can offer him an occasion to try out a few things. I even think it'll be something of a first. Something we'll be sure to remind y'all when he makes it big time.

Check his music and buy all the releases on vinyl. You can because he and Red D are keeping it real on all levels.

Rob Fahey
Due to the overdose of edits floating around the tons of crap giving re-edit a bad name is enormous. But many bad ones are in a way also a guarantee for some good examples. That's statistics for you. Rob Fahey is, for me, making some of the finer ones. Love that Feel one.

Moto Productions - AWB / Pharrell Mash-up
Mash-ups. Leaving an even fouler taste in one's mouth than edits. Haha. But love this one. Average White Band mixed with Pharrell. Just sounds mighty good together.

UniDisco
More edits. More quality. If you want to gather a massive collection of edits, Soundcloud is the place for you. And now I'm going to stop with the free edits. Proper original music it is from now on. Do your own digital digging.

Seiji - I Can't Let It Go
Seiji is a grandmaster of dance beats. Been collecting his music for ages now. Still playing his Broken Beats quite often. Nowadays he gives away stuff for free on his website. This one is a banger outshining most of the commercially released tunes. Should make many producer / label think twice before making their mediocre music available on Traxsource or Beatport and spamming everyone about it (and probably selling nothing).

Ebokai
Amsterdam based producer making something between the bubbly beats that are omnipresent nowadays and more dance oriented electronica. For the lovers of Dorian Concept-esque chaotic madness. Be sure to check out the track he did with O.Boogie.Nice little burner that one.

Lets present you another of our musical performers at RELEASE. Dyno. Currently residing and keeping an excellent (even the best around in Belgium) shop called MacFly which sells forward thinking music, clothes and other stylish or artsy stuff. Making it a perfect match as a partner for our event.

Dyno himself may be one of the more out there beatmakers around but we never go for the easy way so that fits. Like all true Belgian music pioneers grossly overlooked in his own country but applauded abroad. He has released a few things but his best work has yet to find a way into the shops. With a track on the first Beat Dimensions compilation he has, nevertheless, a big reference on his CV. He'll be doing a laptop-set with some microphone action and be sure it's going to be an experience.

Here's his official bio:
An artist based in Belgium, Dyno's work can be described as challenging, innovative electronic music inspired by tribal drums, crunk, dubstep, 80's electro and indie folk. His crunchy, experimental sound is as appealing as it is unique, which lends itself well as to why he's often placed on the same roster with today's most talked-about eclectic beatmakers.

Dyno has a long list of releases to his name, but is most known for his track on Cinnaman and Jay Scarlett's world-renown Beat Dimensions compilation (Rush Hour). Having worked with artists such as Kissey Asplund, Comfort Fit and Cupp Cave, he has been asked to do guest mixes for Los Angeles-based tRue radio, Amp Soul Generation (Samurai FM), Laid Back (Brussel FM), De Hop (Studio Brussel) and Monotape (Turkey). His music has received play on Gilles Peterson's show (BBC 1), Andrew Meza's BTS Radio, Future Vintage and Soul Sociedad.

These days Dyno is finalizing his upcoming release, playing venues and launching his concept, creative family and Ghent-based store Mac Fly.

Here are some quotes about him by people who know what they are talkin gabout;

Vroeg of laat gaan we nog veel horen van deze producer/mc uit België. Dyno is iemand om goed in de gaten te houden, laat dat duidelijk zijn.
Nalden (Nalden.net)

Dyno has been doing it since 2004, with a alist of projects & collabs. At his young age he is not done wreckin ish...and this year he will shine.
tRue Radio

Silly dope.
LuckyMe (Hudson Mohawke / Rustie / Mike Slott)

Are you up for exchanging some beats? We really love your stuff.
1000 Names

Doing a new mix cd... Need 'Autumn Love' asap.
King Britt

I like it very much! All my friends do.
Soul Sociedad

Nice stuff man,any more comin our way?
Mike Slott (Heralds Of Change)

Dyno brings that new skool future funk with twisted percussive rythms and dusty beat music for the soul. With a snippet of rightly used Jimmy Walker to explain Dyno is Dynamite!
Jay Scarlett (Sound In Color / Spacek / Beat Dimensions)

Nice one. Love the music.
Noelle Scaggs (Quantic / The Rebirth / MED)

Hmmmmmm 'Koffie'!!!! HOT!!!
Onra (The Big Payback)

Dope sounds!!
Mono/Poly

Some of you may know about him, some may not. Either way his product is nothing less than dope.
Blind I Is For The Kids

Your stuff is the shit. We should be doing something together...
Soul:ID (ABB Soul)

Great product!!! And I love it.
T Hill (MocaFusion.com)

Overall, ' Dyno Is Sol Waters ' embodies the movements of experimentation and soul - Two of which will keep you moving, nodding, and definitely wanting more.
Porsche Smith (Underground Soul)

Laidback, left field hip hop doorspekt met sound snippets die hij meenam uit Afrika. Een man met potentieel.
The Ticket

Warme, soulvolle plaat die zo bol staat van de klasse dat we ze niet meer in ons cd-rek krijgen.
P-Magazine

It was announced when they put the "Man And His Funk" EP online and now it's available for all to watch and meet the man with the Funk aka JtotheC. Being his hyperkinetic self. Nice one from the boys at On Point. All perfectly timed for RELEASE where JtotheC will do his first performance of this music. We're looking forward to that a lot.

Expect some of his songs in the Onda Sonora radio show too next week. Which will be a RELEASE only one. Only music from the artists who will perform and the cats that hooked us with some of their tunes.

My man Alex once put a similar list on his blog a while ago and I just felt like doing it now. Hoping some positivism will drive my massive headache away. Haha. If your site isn't in the list this doesn't mean I don't like it. It means I probably like these a bit better or that I simply forgot to mention it.

Grain Edit
There's lots of similar sites on the net but I like this one the best. Because their choice is always very much in line with what I like. On top of that a site's layout and the fact that it's easy to read are very important to me and this one scores on both fronts.

On Point
Title says it all. Don't read everything thoroughly but love the fact there's always something fresh to discover. That and the fact it's well presented.

Laid Back
Because they inspire me and push me forward. Because I know the cats behind it and they're all lovely despite the fact they're doing something way ahead of most. I know a lot of people who would have ditched their modesty a long time ago if they were in their shoes. Like myself maybe.

Twitter
Because I love to watch the uninteresting chatter on there. Gets me to sites I would never have discovered otherwise.

Wikipedia
I love to click the links in topics and go from one interesting thing to another. Starting with the battle of Lepanto and ending up learning what an ancillary revenue is. I must say I only like the English version. The Dutch isn't elaborate enough to end up just anywhere.

The Sartorialist
I'm not claiming to be the most stylishly dressed cat around myself but I do have an eye for it and appreciate people who go all out to achieve a great look. If I ever get bored with my vinyl record obsession I might just become one of them. Haven't got the time (nor money to compensate the lack of it) now.

Soundcloud
Like Wikipedia I love the fact I can endlessly click from one lovely thing to another. In the process discovering an amazing amount of good music. It's also simple to hook up with the men or women behind the music. It's actually simple tout court. I hate sites that are visually too complicated. I'm a simple person.

54 Kolaktiv's Forum
I don't care much for these sort of sites. But this one, in contrary to every single other one I know, is gentle, funny and interesting. None of the typical dumb internet beefs. Just people sharing their love for good music in Brussels / Belgium. 54 Kolaktiv are the future of Brussels, by the way. Can't repeat that enough. Haha. Young cats with an open mind who restored my faith in youth after I saw all the generations after me in the youth centre where I grew up go for Milk Inc. and other incredibly obtuse music.

Rush Hour
Because it's where I get most of my records. I know I should support local dealers (and I do for second hand) but for my new stuff I go up north. It's got all I need; a good selection and friendly people to serve you.

Discogs
A classic among the record collectors. It's superbly handy for checking if something exist of 12" or album only for instance. Or to buy the missing pieces in your collection I guess (although the hardcore digger in me still thinks it's cheating). The main fact I love about it is that I discovered, more than once, through it that I already had the song I was looking for on a compilation. No reason to not keep searching for that particular record but handy if you really want to play it. I still don't like playing anything but vinyl even if I can't get around the CDR's nowadays. If ever I have the money to do so I'll burn my own dubplates from every digital promo I like.

Little change in plans. Motor City Drum Ensemble has cancelled and instead we'll be playing with Belgian techno don Fabrice Lig. A shame because I was looking forward to meeting the man of the moment, but, on the other hand, every bit as excited about sharing the decks with Fabrice. He's a legend in his own right with killer releases on some of my favourite labels like Versatile, Delsin, Third Ear and more. Haven't met him so thrilled I'll finally will. We'll be playing the late shift by the way.

Date is October 24th, place to be Cafe Capital.

The aftermath of the fm brussel outside event hasn't been particularly nice to me personally, spending most of the day sick in bed or on the toilet yesterday, but seeing the pics of it nevertheless gets me smiling. You can find ours (thanks to Karl) here and the fm brussel ones (thanks to Leen) here. Enjoy.

This week we play lots of tracks we got for RELEASE. Mixed with some classics and new ditties.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Toma - Easy Does It / Instrumental ( CDR )
Nicholas Kopernicus - The Southside ( Smash Enterprise )
Innervisions - Organised Crime ( Mo' Wax )
Raydius 360 - Retro ( CDR )
Dyno - Donny Drop ( CDR )
Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience ( Affine )
The Gaslamp Killer - A Little This ( Brainfeeder )
Pierre Citron - Tout Va Bien ( CDR )
Alton Ellis - It's A Shame ( Soul Jazz )
Maze - Southern Girl ( Capitol )
Herbie Hancock - Stars In Your Eyes ( Columbia )
Lay-Far - Re-Mystery ( CDR )
Christopher Rau - Childhood ( Smallville )
Elan Mehler - New Breed / Dobie Remix ( CDR )

I had planned a chill weekend but it wasn't meant to be. Went to fellow Schaarbeekois Gusto's party and managed to get home when I should have been waking up. I blame Billy Palmier aka Billy Bubbles. Heard Billy play a killer Disco / House set and emptied some bottles of cheap sparkling wine with him. Had a great time with lots of lovely people (big up to JayRome) but went to bed very late and forgot to set my alarm. Which almost made me miss the fm brussel Outside event. Still a bit ashamed about that.

Arrived at the Skatepark after 3pm. Way too late. Nice to hear the bass booming from the moment I got off the tram. Sound was amazing thanks to the killer Funktion One system, location was top (Skatepark with SozyOne and Bonom street art). Big up to Koen, Pauline, Koen, Tom, Jeroen and everyone at fm brussel. Big up to Waldo and everyone at Merlo. Big up to all dj's; Youri Dubfront, Uphill, Laid Back, Kwak and ourselves. Playing that LCD remix by Theo and the Buzzin' tune by Benga on a killer sound definitely made my day. Big, big up to my Onda Sonora partner Yoeri for making a dream of us get real. Big up to everyone who came down to enjoy the music (Dyno, Azer, Johan, Nick, ... ).

Next week it's wedding time. Probably one of the funkiest ever. Playing with Lefto and Red D. Curious about hearing them play slows. Haha.

Anyone who took photos yesterday please hook us up with them. Forgot to take my camera.

JtotheC gave us a good opportunity to make some noise about him by releasing an EP but he isn't the only one participating to our RELEASE event to do so.

The other man behind the decks playing tracks you won't have heard unless you're the producer himself or one of his or her closest friends is Azer. We've been following him through his Plastix and other mixes and his radio show on LDBK and liked what we heard. Always choosing a path left from where everyone walks but keeping it tasty at all times. When he asked us nicely if he could be part of RELEASE we gladly welcomed him aboard. He's preparing a special mix we'll put online for our event by the way. Looking forward to that.

Proof of that is his latest mix, one he did for the forward music pushing site Moovmt. Full of tracks we like a lot from Floating Points, LuiGi, Dizz1, Onra and more. Check it out.

And come check the man on October the 3rd.

Atjazz, Domu & Yannah Valdevit - City Madness / Info People EP ( Development Music )
Not only because I really like much of the people involved but mainly because the Domu track has been on constant repeat ever since I got it. The guys behind the label are doing a mighty fine job (the Zed Bias EP is still in our box), are great dj's and lovely people. If we ever find a venue to start with our Go Bang! parties again, they'll be surely brought over for a gig. The digital release has more remixes. A Boddhi Satva one for instance.

Floating Points - Vacuum Boogie EP ( Eglo )
Bei Bei & Shawn Lee - Beauty & The Beats EP ( Ubiquity )
Floating Points is a don. If you don't know that by now you need to let your ears be cleaned out. Vacuum Boogie is his best effort so far. Absolutely massive tune. The first time I heard it was on Deviation right after that crazy Theo Parrish mix of LCD Soundsystem and I was most impressed by the FPS track. Big one written in bold capital letter in a mad big fontsize. The remix he did for the Ubiquity release only solidifies that.

Cottam - Cottam 1 ( Cottam )
Been pushing this once since I discovered it on Soundcloud and got a promo copy by asking it nicely. A bit in the vain of The Revenge stuff but with a fresh twist. Love to play these slow burning grooves in my sets when warming up the room. One of my favourite sleazy House tracks of this year so far.

B.D.I. - City & Industry ( Rush Hour )
Know little to nothing about the artist involved except that I like the tracks a lot. Raw House.

Mark E - Get Yourself Together ( Merc )
With this artist it's hit or miss. No way in between. This one definitely is a hit. Raw hypnotic House with big chunks of Disco filtering through.

Some more ditties from D3K. A review on Resident Advisor. Feeling it except the fact that the reviewer missed both our sets apparently. She should learn to be on time.

And then the live set Move D did the Saturday evening which he has uploaded on his Soundcloud page.

Enjoy.

We gave you some excerpts of this in our radio show a few weeks back but here's the full video interview of Henrik Schwarz done by Alex from On Point. If you don't know this artist you haven't been paying attention during the ongoing education this blog tries to be. He's a beast making deep, hypnotic House grooves of the finest quality. Ever since I heard his "Marvin" track on GP Worldwide I've been hooked. Still play that one regularly. As most of his other tunes. Check it out.

Slowly getting into the usual post rhythm. And getting back to normal can't go without making some noise about One-Handed Music. One of our favourite current labels. When I put this online it might be that most 7"s are already sold out but there's always the online thing. It dropped in my mailbox while abroad and due to the lovely people at Rush Hour's pre-order system I never fail to get it myself. Plus Cris & co know me by now so I hardly have to do much myself except paying. Haha. One of the greatest shops online if you ask me.

But this post was about a new release from Alex Chase's label. A Paul White 7". Back to how they've built their reputation. By bringing out limited series of little tasty slabs of vinyl. This one again from the killer quality we're used to hear from both artist as label. Psych Rock samples reworked to Hiphop styled beats. The "Vs the BBC" track is one of my favourite Paul White tracks so far. The B-side is cool too and for grabs digitally.

Run to the trusted record shop around the corner or order online. Or acquire them through the bandcamp site.

About time we start to introduce some of the artists doing a live performance at our RELEASE event on October the 3rd. J to the C, the hi-energy funk beast who's part of Vic ‘n Lloyd / On Point, DJ Grazz's Big Band, the Cheeba Cheeba parties and so much more has given us a prime opportunity to do so. By releasing an EP. In true bedroom producer style. Giving it away for free on the net.

The EP called "The Man And His Funk" brings the Synth-led Funk you might come to expect after seeing him dj with his miniKorg. Not unlike what the Beastie Boys produce when in Funk-mode or what Belgium's finest outfit in the genre ever, Wizards of Ooze, did back in the day. A bit raw around the edges maybe but radiating energy. Got to be a blast live. Which you will be able to experience at RELEASE, like said before.

The EP with artwork, liner notes and everything is available on the always impeccable On Point site. Go check it out and enjoy. And expect a lot of J to the C in our radio shows in the coming weeks.

Check it out and support.

I've been following the Dekmantel boys for a while now. A bit with positive jealousy because it's ace what they're doing and I would love to do something similar myself (and I've tried and will keep doing so). But also with a good feeling about it. The latter because they prove there's a future for the music they promote and which I love endlessly. Deep, raw House music that is. The fact there are young is also something I like a lot. For a long time this music was hijacked by overcritical, past their prime clubbers with a taste for good music but little love for dancing nor uncut fun.

Finally seeing Thomas, Casper and Jan at work at D3K was refreshing. Hearing them playing ace sets full of killer cuts I love and setting the dance floor on fire was great. Will check them more. Will make more time for it. Although I'll miss the first chance I'll get. When they'll be playing almost on my doorstep at 54 Kolaktiv's Nuit Blanche event in Brussels. I'll be at RELEASE having a good time. They organise more than enough to get a new chance though.

Check their new site and watch them become bigger and better by the minute. They're on my to book list so with the first chance we get we'll bring them over ourselves. No doubt.

And keep an eye on their brand new record label which is bound to release the JuJu & Jordash album. Some other cats we met in Croatia and who gave us a promo copy of that. The "Deep Blue Meanies" track is already a big hit with us an other dj's. The rest of that release will be just as good. But more about that when it's in the shops.

Tonight we're doing something special with our radio show and the one that comes after it. That's Uphill Sound Station and we're both playing at the FM Brussel Outside event this Sunday. So to promote it and to introduce each other to one another's audience we thought we should give them 1/2h of our time and take the same amount of theirs. We start both shows after which they take over and deliver their trademark Jamaican vibe. If the fun we had yesterday recording this is anything to go by with the event itself is going to be banging.

Fm Brussel Outside is an event taking place when no cars are allowed to ride in Brussels. This happens twice a year and has become a true people's event with lots of things happening, lots of cats in the streets and happy faces everywhere. When we heard Fm Brussel had bought a double-decker bus, all the dreams that popped into our heads after having a wicked time at Norman Jay's Good Times Sound System at Nottinghill Carnival a couple of years ago, all of a sudden didn't seem so outlandish anymore. We managed to convince the übernice people in charge of our radio station to follow us into that and we got the bus and a Funktion One sound. As we are eager to share such a pleasure with others we asked some other dj's we like a lot who have a show on the station to join us. All bassheads pur sang. And they all happily agreed. Be sure to check out their radio shows because they are all killers in their genre.

Dubfront
Uphill Sound Station
Laid Back
Back To Niceness
Onda Sonora

The weather-forecasts are good for Sunday so it looks perfect. As it is outside rain would spoil the fun big time but if the weathermen are any good it's going to be dry and even warm. The bus will be parked next to the Skatepark Ursulinen which you can find near the Kappelekerk / Place de la Chapelle, on top of the entrance of the north-south railway tunnel (south entrance). It even got a funky and hip Bonom streetart masterpiece. Wicked location no doubt. Entrance is of course free. Drinks will be provided by our friends of Merlo (a lovely bar you can find on the Vismet square). The good times will be made by yourself. See you there from noon till 7pm.

Feel free to invite all your friends to this event through Facebook.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Onda Sonora - 10 to 11pm

>>> Onda Sonora Selection
Elektroorgel - Brainscape ( CDR )
Juju & Jordash - Deep Blue Meanies ( Dekmantel )
Inverse Cinematics - Detroit Jazzin' ( Pulver )
Alexander Hope - Share / Tommy Musto Remix ( HOTT )
Domu & Yannah Valdevit - City Madness ( Development )
Matoe & Matos - NY Style ( Spiritual life Music )
Liz Torres - Music ( Jive )

>>> Uphill Selection

Uphill Sound Station - 11 to 12pm

>>> Onda Sonora Selection
Digi Design - Joker ( Hyperdub )
Mark Pritchard & Om'Mas Keith - Wind It Up ( Hyperdub )
Jsquared - My Eyes Need You ( CDR )
LuiGi - Graditude ( CDR )
Boogie Down Productions - The Bridge Is Over ( B-Boy )
Samiyam - Moon Shoes ( Hyperdub )
LL Cool J - Booming System ( Def Jam )
Rashaan Patterson - Where You Are / Silk's Old Skool Mix ( MCA )
Gap Band - Outstanding ( Total Experience )

>>> Uphill Selection

Ain't No Love Lost - Onda Sonora Edit by Onda Sonora

Here's an edit my Onda Sonora colleague Disco Dalglish pieced together. I like it a lot. Let us know what you think.

Got to say it's hard to get back into the normal daily routine. So funny how easy you get used to enjoying the relax way of life. And to lots of sun. But back in rainy Brussels and making the best of it. Some very busy weeks ahead so there's little time to get moody. The many mails, shouts and social network messages we get from the D3K-people gets me smiling a lot too. Discovered some fine tunes from that family. Lookout for the Smallville compilation about to be released and check out Dollskabeat, some nice deepness from Edinburgh.

Coming home and being able to catch the start of the after summer party season in Brussels was good for the morale too. Saw an excellent Dimitri From Paris enjoying himself and the crowd. Good one after the couple of lesser gigs I saw from him (it's all about the venue). Nice one from the Strictly Niceness boys. Makes we want to restart with Go Bang! even more than before. We're working on it and we're very motivated but we've learned to do things not too hasty. When we'll be back it will be with a bang (stupid pun intended, haha). Some things are already getting shape.

Nice to get slowly noticed by the way. Can't shut up about how good SPARK is (when motivated people with taste and an eye for what's relevant do something it can't be but excellent) so it feels extra good when you get back appreciation from those behind it. In the form of some kick-ass bookings. Really means a lot to us. The Bar Du Matin gigs are great too. Again put together by someone who knows what he's doing making it all the nicer to be part of it. The bar staff too is a joy to work with. Gigs like that make dj'ing one of the greatest things to do. Some other sets about to be announced soon. Something is moving in the Brussels scene. Hope it's the start of a new exciting period in our city's nightlife.

On the edit front there's something bubbling too. We're slowly getting somewhere. Almost ready to finally start with some productions of our own. And maybe unleash some of the cut and paste jobs we did onto the world. Big up to Laurent for the nice words this weekend. Boosting my confidence.

Up to next Sunday and our / fm brussel's outside party. Lets hope it's sunny.

Where to start ? So much to tell y'all. So excited, even near euphoric, after what was my best holiday in years. Recharged my batteries and got inspired plenty of times. Had a blast with friends and made plenty of new ones. Discovered some new cites and experiences. It's going to take me a while to absorb it all.

The before and after of the D3K Festival are of little concern to this blog but nevertheless I want to big up both Zagreb and Ljubljana. Expected little of them (Eddy from Eddy meets Yannah announced his hometown as boring but I don't agree - sorry by the way for not calling you, we were too lazy to do much after the ride). Maybe they aren't cultural hotspots like London or Paris but I truly enjoyed hanging out in both of them. Hanging out abroad seems a new fad of myself after doing just that in London with Lefto and having a blast doing it last 2 weeks. All I need are decent bars, plenty of interesting people to watch and good company to talk nonsense to. Haha. Only bad things I can say about Zagreb is the ugly stadium Dinamo plays in, the fact nearly all waiters seem to be grumpy and that I would like to eat something else than grilled meat, fish or pizza's every now and then. Still wondering about what I didn't like about the Slovenian capital. Certainly nothing to do with waiters. Still getting dreamy about the cute blonde who served us Japanese food on our last evening.

Apart from that all I can say is it did me well to chill in the sun far away from everything with little to no distraction from home except a call to ask if I wanted to do a gig with MCDE.

But D3K was what this was going to be about. In short it was superb and you should feel very sorry about not being there. Haha. But I think you want to hear more than that. Telling you more might be in our own interest anyway as Trus'me is planning a follow up for next summer. Don't sleep on it when they announce it, just book those tickets. As this might be the only minor thing to say about it all; there should have been more people. We, ourselves, we're pretty proud about the 17 Belgians who were present. Big up to the crews from Lanaken and Brugge. Didn't see that coming and hope you had a good time.

As I arrived a day early at Petrcane (still not sure how to pronounce that) my first encounter with the fantastic venue was at a small informal pre-party with some of the guests and dj's already present. Met the guys from Innerzone, Jacques Renault from DFA, Move D and some others (me not remembering names will be recurrent feat in this post, sorry about that). From that moment on it was clear that the combination of a killer venue, a superb line-up of music-mad dj's, the fantastic weather and the fact that everyone who was present was there mainly for the music, was going to result in a memorable weekend.

Pointing out our highlights is a bit difficult. Our own sets off course. One in what has to be the nicest dj-booth ever (see photo above this post) with a view over the Petrcane bay / dance floor next to the sea, which served as lighthouse too, where we managed to get people dancing at a very early hour. The second one was our first on a big Funktion One sound and that felt good. Other highlights I can remember were Gilb:R's, Keith Worthy & Patrice Scott's and actually all other sets I heard. Not a single bad tune all weekend. About what weekender can you say that ? I can't even say that about Southport. The boat party was fantastic. A boat, a Funktion One and a stellar line-up of dj's, lots of beer, some Canadairs fighting a fire and gathering water right next to us, lots of happy people, ... . Make the math. Meeting so many lovely cats, the Dekmantel boys, the guys from Eindhoven, the Belgian crews, the great Scottish couple, Adam Scrimshire and girlfriend, Chris and Tom from Development and crew, the Innerzone boys, Nick Linkwood, Fudge Fingas, Dollskabeat and the army of Scots, Keith Worthy & Patrice Scott, Move D & Julien, the bearded guy from Hamburg, the Serbian cat with the killer UMM jacket, Jacques Renault, the DeephouseMaffia guys, JuJu & Jordash, Enrico from Neroli, Eddy from the Garden, the friendly breakdancing waitress, ... and I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty. Meeting all those nice cats and going back home with a feeling you've discovered a bit of family you didn't know you had was what I liked the most.

Still buzzing about it after a week. That's saying a lot. Hope to be part of it again next year when there will be much more people attracted by the enthusiasm of all who participated this time. And can't wait to go and visit my new family in Manchester, Edinburgh or Leicester. Rests me to give a massive shout and big up to David Trus'me, Nick Sinna and the guy who's name I forgot (I blame the booze sunburn combo) for organising it all. You did a mighty fine job and if you need some help for next year's edition be sure to contact us. We'll be back.

Go check the Disco 3000 website and check the participants websites. They're all good.

Check Enrico's reports here and here.

Check our collection of photos here.

Lots of news to spread but lets start with one we're very, very excited about. On October 24th we're playing at Cafe Capital again at the excellent Spark parties (how was Tom Trago, Marc Mac and all the other goodies we missed ?).

The thing we're most thrilled about is the main guest we're warming up for. Motor City Drum Ensemble aka Danilo Plessow that is. Without doubt one of the hottest producers of the moment. Other guest that night will be Pablo Valentino of Faces Records, which is the label releasing MCDE's Raw Cuts series. Killer party line-up we think.

Keep an eye on the Cafe Capital website for the other parties too. Tasty selection of names; Ame, Michael Reinboth, Aardvarck, ... .

Just back from the Disco 3000 Festival in Croatia and serving you some of the local flavours in our radio show. Expect a review of the festival when we're fully recovered. In the meantime, enjoy tonite's selection. We're taking it up and end chillin'.

Jayson Brothers - All My Life - Raw Cuts
Dâm Funk - Electric Breeze – Stones Throw         
Juju & Jordash - Time Slip Remix - CDR
Candido - Dancin' And Prancin'’ - Salsoul
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 / Theo Parish Mix - CDR
Reggie Dokes - Dream Catcher / FCL Edit - We Play House
Linkwood - Electricity - Prime Numbers
Masters At Work - Our Mute Horn - BBE
Bare Knuckle Soul - Just Right - Resist Music
The Voices Of Time - Solstice - Impossible Ark Records
Donald Byrd - Cristo Redentor - Blue Note

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

While Bart and Dieter are checking out the Croatian sun, food and cocktails, we are serving you a mix of new and old stuff to get you all prepared for the Disco 3000 festival. We can't wait to join them.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Trus'me - Browns - Prime Numbers
Linkwood - Tears - Prime  Numbers
Linkwood Family - Piece Of Mind - Firecracker Recordings
Skyy - First Time Around - Salsoul
Convertion - Sweet Thing - Vanguard
Tony Allen - Moyege / Mark's Mix - Honest Jons Records
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 /Theo Parish Mix - CDR
Melba Moore - Ain't no Love Lost / Onda Sonora Edit - CDR
Funky Chocolate - Deep Moods - Funky Chocolate Records
Serious Intention - You Don't Know - Precision Records
Pepe Bradock - CU @Minna & Lafayette - Atavisme
Timmy Regisford - Tension - Unrestricted Acces
Teena Marie - I'm A Sucker For Your Love - Motown Records

You know we're doing something great at Nuit Blanche, innit ? If not go visit this site. It's gonna be big.

Last one little report before I go. Bar Du Matin was a blast. Nice to see so many people dancing on Philly music. A bit niche I must admit but you were digging it full time. Big up to all the nice people at BDM, you are doing a mighty fine job, all hail to Joel DJ ReeDoo for booking us and challenging us with a theme. Keeps us on our toes. An big thanks to everyone who came out to dance. You know who you are. Special thanks to Tristan and his girls (it's a banging party if Tristan's there, that's a fact)., Valerie and company and Nick for the many funny stories and the Intruders sing-a-long. See you in a few weeks.

This Saturday I leave for Croatia. Exploring the country before and after the Disco 3000 festival. So I won't be doing any posts the next 2 weeks. Hope you miss me a lot. Haha.

If you want to see some action of me you need to come to the festival I mentioned before. I'll be playing there, together with my Onda Sonora partner in crime, some banging sets in the sun. You can still book tickets and it's well worth the trip. Lots of killer dj's and live-acts, beautiful surroundings and most certainly a great ambiance. For not that much money, by the way.

I'll be back for Dimitri From Paris at Strictly Niceness. I know it's going to be packed but I want to see the Disco don do a decent set for once. I asked Kwak and Bernard to tell him to go wild and not play the cheesy bagger I last heard him serve at a crammed Antwerp party with BCBG types. He played the theme from Grease while he has the illest cuts ever in his collection. If he does a Nightdubbin' set (his latest compilation on BBE which is top) I'll be on cloud 9.

Dyno, one of the artists doing a gig at our RELEASE event is releasing a CD with beats by, among others, LuiGi, Eric P, Cupp Cave, Mananas and himself. It will be for sale in his excellent Ghent based shop called MacFly. This Saturday there's a listening party at that same spot. Go check it out.

The first post with links to dope free tracks on the net was well liked by many so I might make this a recurrent item. If I find enough quality to share that is. Hope

Amede Unuabona
Beatmaker out of London who's sharing some nice beats on his Soundcloud page. My favourite, Break Of Dawn, isn't for grabs but the freebies are of little less quality. Well-structured (instrumental) Hiphop or Cinematic / Electric Soul as he calls it.

Pierre Citron - Tout Va Bien
Pierre Citron is a project from my friend 72Soul who has been dropping chilled Hiphop-influenced tunes for a while now. This French crooner styled ditty is really tasty and one of my favourite things he has done. The beat is by Akello Uchenna, another cat to watch. Got some very nice beats by him I need to fit in our radio show (we need 2h, or even 3h like Benji B, instead of just one to fit in all the quality music we receive).

Future Times
One of my favourite labels bringing a fresh take on Disco and beyond. Absolutely love every single release (3 so far) they've done. The Beautiful Swimmers' one has been in most of our sets since it's available. On their site they give away tons of edits and other little gems. I have told you all about this many moons ago but since I rediscovered them myself while cleaning up my iTunes library and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of them so I feel I need to remind you all of this. Many of the commercially available stuff isn't half as good as this.

D ‘N S - Do The Hustle
Daz-I-Kue giving away a lil' banger in the form of a nice Hiphop track. I like the instrumental much better than the rapped version but I'm difficult when it comes to MC's. Nice little thing for dj's.

This week we play lots of new stuff and a few classics. To celebrate the fact I ordered my massive collection of promo-mp3's and wav's. Managed to spill water on my laptop yesterday so I'm not sure how long I will enjoy all the work I've put in it. Hoping it'll get all dried up and working again before I start it up in a few days. I've got bad technical karma or something because I seem to have troubles with most things electric. Or I'm just clumsy. Also a possibility.

Anyway, we play some more tunes we got for RELEASE, tracks from the excellent new Linkwood and Natural Self albums and some other deep grooves we love.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

In the meantime I'll go and burn a candle in my local church. Not that I'm catholic but anything to get my computer fixed. Even considering joining my neighbours in their Ramadan. Anything to get my iBook working again.

Grace Jones - Ja Guys ( Island )
Natural Self - The Origin ( Tru-Thoughts )
Toma - Just Imagine ( CDR ) >>> RELEASE tune
Monkeymusician - Ekranizacija ( CDR ) >>> RELEASE tune
Title - Chessboxin' ( CDR ) >>> RELEASE tune
Funkineven - Mad Swing! ( Eglo )
Linkwood - Falling ( Prime Numbers )
Cottam 1 - Side A ( White )
Bill Withers - You Got The Stuff ( Columbia )
Elan Mehler - New Breed / Dobie Remix ( CDR )
Demetrio Giannice - Whatididwithmikeswavetone5 ( Third Ear )
Walrus - Roffle ( CDR ) >>> RELEASE tune

 
Here's 2 parts of the mix we did at SPARK yesterday. It's not our entire set but most of the parts we recorded. Forgetting the cable to hook up the recorder to the mixer and forgetting to wipe the previous recordings so that 45 minutes before the end my harddisk was full are the main reasons for that. Once I'll manage to record a set properly, I promise. Still, plenty of goodness to enjoy. Pretty pleased with the mixes and we enjoyed doing them a lot. Big up to Bruno, Will and all who's involved in SPARK.

Part 1
Tulio De Piscopo – Stop Bajon
Jayson Brothers – All My Life
Jackson Jones – Put Your Pants On
Cottam 1 – Side A
Omar feat. Stevie Wonder – Feeling You, Feeling Me ( Henrik Schwarz Remix )
LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 ( Theo Parrish Remix )
Cultural Vibe – Ma Foom Bey
Beautiful Swimmers - O Yea
Strafe – Set It Off
Floating Points - Love Me Like This ( Nonsense Dub )
Empress – Dyin' To Be Dancin'
Fatback Band - I Found Lovin' ( Remix )
Cheryl Lynn – Got To Be Real
Sharon Redd – Never Give You Up

Part 2
Mind Over Matter - Aah-ha (Club Ha-ha)
JM Silk – Let The Music Take Control ( Insaneapella )
Those Guys - Love, love, love
Earth People – Reach Up To Mars ( Martian Mix )
Kerri Chandler – Track 1
Alexander Hope – Brothers & Sisters ( Klubhead Dub )
Round One – I'm Your Brother
Norm Talley – The Journey
Quentin Harris - Travellin'
Rondenion – Wave Amplitude
Hardrive – Deep Inside
Kai Alce feat Azulu Phantom – Power Thru Pt. 3
Arnold Jarvis – Inspiration
Linkwood – Elektricity
Karizma – In Tha D.ee.p

This Friday we play our last set before heading to Croatia. At the excellent Bar Du Matin in Vorst / Forest, the highest part of Brussels, we'll play our best records from Philadelphia, a city with a massive musical history. The Sound Of Philadelphia is wellknown through artists like Teddy Pendergrass, MFSB and more Gamble and Huff-produced Soul legends but there's more. Before that there was already more than a few killer Soul and Funk acts getting a name for themselves. The Stylistics for instance but we'll show you more. After the heydays of TSOP it didn't stop. Hiphop (Jazzy Jeff, Schooly D, The Roots), current Soul (Jill Scott, Bilal, Jazmine Sullivan), House (King Britt, Josh Wink, Vikter Duplaix) & more kept Philly on the map.

If you want to hear it for yourself climb up to Place Albert (Metro Albert) and come check us. Entrance is free, the venue is amazing.

Next time we'll play there we'll explore the music of Detroit. On October the 30th that is.

Recovering from what was a superb but very tiring weekend. Friday I truly enjoyed my first wedding of this year. Good food, seeing lots of good old friends, playing music I rarely mix anymore and getting drunk. All the best to Peter and Ulrike.

Saturday I spent most of the day getting back on my feet. Not feeling half as good as I wanted I headed for Antwerp for Spark. Our very first set in Antwerp ever if I'm not mistaken. And I really enjoyed it a lot. Warming up is our business. Long sets building up to something is actually our thing but you only get to do that at your own parties or as opener. 4 hours of exploring the deeper end of Soulful dance music is enough to get us all exited but getting response doing so is even more fantastic. We got the floor moving and delivered it ready for Simbad who did a "Karizma" working the CDJs like I only saw the other half of Izmabad do before. Banging, deep set I could connect to and would have danced to a bit more if my feet would have cooperated. Left at the end of his set, tired and KO. Saw Nikolai arriving but needed some rest. Would have loved to check his set.

Spark is by far the best think happening to the Belgian nightlife scene, from my perspective, in years. Loved the Theo Parrish, Trus'me and Simbad parties I attended and feeling bad I have to miss next 2 editions with Tom Trago and Marc Mac because I'm abroad. We'll be back in front as well as behind the decks.

Big, big up to Bruno, Will and all who are behind this wonderful concept. You're doing a mighty fine job. Big up to Simbad for the nice words, great music and the tunes. Big up to our friends for being there early and starting the party. We love you all for that. Big up to Lefto for the animation in the car going and coming back (more nonsense than you think possible at an hour like that).

For those who missed it or those wanting to relive the night, check the post below ...

I'm preparing a big ass post about Tru Thoughts and Impossible Ark somewhere in October when they will be releasing quite a lot of killer albums. Trust me if I say you'll need the Jeb Loy Nichols album, Impossible Ark compilation and the new Natural Self album. To convince you about my prophetic words here's a minimix Natural Self did to promote his upcoming release. Giving me a reason to post about it. (I don't like to post about stuff you aren't able to check for months. Might make me look cool and ahead of everybody but it's a bit useless and showing of).

Anyway, the mix gives you a good idea about what to expect. Deep, moody songs I like a lot. Check our radio show too for more sounds of him and the other artists mentioned.

I thought it might be a good time to let you know where you can find us on the big web. You can find most of the links right from this row but I think not all of you look that way. So here is the list:

the Social ones
Twitter
Facebook

those with Sound
Myspace
Mixcloud (might need to register for that)
Souncloud
Last.fm

the Other one
Flickr

Came to the conclusion today that I must have English genes. I like the greasy breakfast, love the beer (a rare feat for a Belgian), love marmelade, love actually almost everything about the country except the overly made-up ladies which are a bit too common. Something I can live with, by the way. 

The point I'm trying to make is that although I have a great internet connection, my mail doesn't seem to work all that perfect. So you might have to wait a few days before getting news about your mail about participating to Release. Sorry about that but I'll get back to you from the moment I'm back in the land of waffles, sprouts and unwelcoming trainstations. Belgium that is.

After being away a week it takes me a while to work my way through the tracks I found in my inbox. Plenty of quality goodies (watch the Linkwood album on Prime Numbers, a hot one). But not all of them are relatively exclusive. Some are easy to get your hands on and even free. Let me point you to a few of those freebies, all of the highest quality.

Whitney Houston / Loleatta Holloway - Billion Dollar Bill (Scrimshire Edit)
Scrimshire is a producer who releases on Wah Wah 45s and who I'm looking forward to meet at the Disco 3000 festival in Croatia. He made a mash-up of Loleatta's "We're Getting Stronger" and Whitney's new single and it sounds very nice. Check out his other tracks too because they are lovely too. Some are even for grabs on his Soundcloud page.

Leftside Wobble - Various Edits
Discovered him through the mighty Soundcloud website and he makes dope edits which he gives away for nothing. Some very tasty ones (Safari Kiss and the Ashford & Simpson are my favourites). Check it out. And buy his vinyl when it drops.

Elan Mehler - New Breed (Dobie Remix)
Both Elan Mehler and Dobie are Brownswood artists so don't really know the story behind this. What I do know is that this is a killer House track. Moody and groovy. I've got a lengthy interview with the man they call Dobie I'm going to write out soon. Packed with knowledge about the British Black music scene of the past 20 years or so.

St-Liquor-Ish - The Lick EP
Got this sent by Bluevibe Studio. Quality songs (a rare treat in this beat-infested times) reminding me a bit of Plantlife. Which is a good thing. Always been a fan of their freaky funk. Grab the EP for free on their Bandcamp page. Firmly recommended.

Busy times. I can hardly manage the music I'm receiving. Something I've always dreamed about. I'm discovering plenty of homegrown stuff of the finest quality. Check our weekly radio show for that. So much excellence, so near to where I live. It only needs to be discovered. We'll do our best effort to help that in the weeks to come.

Slowly dj-dates are getting confirmed. One I'm particularly excited about is our gig at Bar Du Matin on October 30th. Because it's my birthday that day. 23 or something, lost count, haha. Theme of our set that night will be "The Sound Of Detroit". It'll be from Motown to Sound Signature and back. Without forgetting Rock, Funk and Techno. Next week we'll play our Philly themed gig there. Don't forget that. On Friday. But our agenda is far from full. Keep the booking requests coming. Would love to play more. We're cheap and professional. And above all good. As long as we can keep it deep & dirty.

About being professional. We finally took the step to structure the Onda Sonora biz. Or should I say Onda Sonora vzw / asbl. Sounds so much more reliable, isn't it ? It's the first small step to world domination, no doubt. Plenty of ideas getting shape to keep us busy en route to that.

And to close it off. The first set we played at Bar Du Matin in May will be broadcasted on the German Soulsender Radio. Tomorrow, Friday 21/08 from 21h on. Always nice to see our faces on that site. Big up to dj Eff for this.

This week Bart, aka myself, is back in the studio to select some tunes. Albeit not fully awake I must admit. Didn't have blank CD's to burn the new tracks I got for Release and forgot the ones I already burned. Still some vacation left in my head, I guess. So sorry to Walrus and others but your tracks will be played in the weeks to come. I had to slip in a SBTRKT remix to get the mix going. He's somewhat of a bedroom producer himself. A London one.

And a little tip for all who sends us beats. Tag your files. Not sure the Dyno tracks is correctly titled but it's not the original "Fuh Real" and I got it from a CD LuiGi gave me with no info whatsoever. So I deduced it's a Infinitskills remix. Might be wrong though.

The rest of the playlist consists out of dusted of (should be) classics and a Simbad track because we play with him next Saturday. Our hour was over far before we would have wanted it to be.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Desire - Busted ( SAM )
Ronny Jordan - Cool And ( Funky Antilles )
Donny Hathaway - Valdez In The Country ( Atco )
D'Angelo - Devils Pie / Simbad Remix ( Gamm )
Cameo - Back And Forth ( PolyGram )
Donald Banks - Status Quo ( 4th & Broadway )
Teena Marie - I'm A Sucker For You Love ( Motown )

>>> Release Selection <<<
San Soda - Ode Aan De Nacht ( We Play House )
Title - Caravan ( CDR )
Dyno - Fuh Real / InfinitSkills Remix ( CDR )
Dr Kwest - Le Sappeur ( CDR )
Goldie - Inner City Life / Sbtrkt Remix ( White )
Wickzzz - Indi Pendent ( CDR )

I have a little bit of trouble getting back into work-mode after my week off. My Saturday evening didn't really help. The Onda Sonora crew headed north to Antwerp to see Manchester's finest Trus'me when I should have chilled to recuperate. But it isn't every day we get to hear music this nice in a Belgian club so no excuses were valid to skip it. Enjoyed it big time. Dope music and plenty of people dancing. Plus nice chats with among others the legendary Smos and K'Bonus. Next time we meet the Prime Numbers' head honcho will be in Croatia.

This all making me confident for next Saturday when we'll be behind the decks at Café Capital. Together with Simbad and Nikolai we'll bring you the dopest sounds from the deeper end of Soulful music. Really looking forward to it as it has been a while since we played for a crowd. Expect us in fine form.

Meeting Simbad is also something to look forward to. One of the nicest cats around. Visited him, together with Lefto, last week in his London studio and heard more than a few top quality tunes. Some old, some new. We can recommend you this fine CD with some of the remixes he did as an introduction to his music. But be sure to search for his other work on labels like Raw Fusion. All good.

In short, you need to be at Spark this Saturday.

I'm back home after a little week in London. Although I love my own city like none other I think I've found a very close second. I love Manchester. NYC, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam and some other fine places a lot but none come close to London. It excels in little but overall it tops nearly all except the city I'm genetically bound to. The combination of ace record shops, cool bars and my ultimate breakfast kills all opposition. Haha. Nope, it's more than that. It clicks. A felt bad about leaving today and that says a lot. Spending a few days with a likeminded souls like Lefto made me long for more of the city.

Still. I'm back home. Enlightened. In a weird twist of fate I found out what I want to do with my life. Lets make that work. Strolling through town with my (almost) neighbour in Brussels Lefto, made me realise we're up for some niceness if we keep holding on (I found Intense's “ Holding on”, my favourite all time House record, for 1£ by the way). Anyway, I feel good about Brussels and all you can expect in the months to come.

All this babble just because I wanted to thank some people. First of all Jonathan for keeping up with me for 6 days. I'm far from the easiest person to be around so that's big. Enjoyed it. Big up to Lefto for the 2 days of 'hanging' in London. I need a fixed gear bike. You hooked me onto it. Haha. Big up to Orsii for the nice chaotic chat with our common friend hopped on sugar. Next time we eat Argentinian on me. Big up to Phil Cooper (next time we hook up, for sure), JusLikeMusic (next time I'll walk less so I have the energy to meet), Simbad (big thanks for all the records, looking forward to share the decks next weekend), the BPM, all the record store staff I met and all who crossed my path. It was nice meeting y'all (if I met you, that is).

I'll be back soon. Grrr. Whatever that means.

Meanwhile pumping NYC & Direct's "Move Like This". One of the best filtered House classics ever. 1£ that is. 

This weekend Spark at Cafe Capital starts with a series of 4 killer parties. First up is Trus'me, our favourite Mancunian next to Vincent Kompany. We booked this deep Disco & House cat more than a year ago and he delivered some quality sounds which set the dance floor on fire. So don't dare to miss it. If he's any bit like wine he will have gotten better.

And neither should you skip on Spark the week after that. Because that will be, no doubt, the best of them all. Haha. We'll be in control of the decks that day. Together with Simbad and Nikolai. Brap.

The week after that will be without me, I'll be on my way to Croatia, but that shouldn't be too much of a reason for you to not be there. Although I can understand our female followers' disapointment. Haha. Nevertheless, Tom Trago is made 100% of quality stuff and will make up big time for my absense. Check the man's album, it's gold. If not diamond.

The week after that Ill be enjoying lots of sun, cocktails, miss Croatia and some runners up near the Adriatic sea at the Disco 3000 festival. There are no excuses not to be there, of course, but if you can't make it there's always Marc Mac and Kwak playing at Cafe Capital to try to wash away the guilt of missing out. Martyn will do his thing there too the day before (as he will do at Nijdrop that weekend).

Might be the time to find a love in Antwerp so you don't have to go by car too much like us. Drinking and driving still doesn't mix all that well. Safe sex is a far better option. If you've still got the energy after dancing your ass off that is.

This week we play a couple of tracks we got through our call for music for Release and we have an interview Alex from On Point did with one of our musical heroes. German deep House maestro Henrik Schwarz that is. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Jeb Loy Nichols - This Morning ( Impossible Ark )

>>> Release Selection <<<
Rostislav - Visbokaal ( CDR )
Title - Sidechain Reaction ( CDR )
Wickzzz - Bellahip ( CDR )
1352 - Nasty Feelings CDR

The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - Darkest Light ( As The Record Turns )
Kwick - Night Life ( EMI )
Dâm Funk - LATrifying ( Stones Throw )
Mari Boine - Vuoi Vuoi Me / Henrik Schwarz Remix ( Universal Jazz Germany )
Mandril - Mango Meat / Henrik Schwarz Remix Live ( !K7 Records )
Henrik Schwarz - Imagination Limitation ( !K7 Records )
Henrik Schwarz, Ame & Dixon Feat. Derrick Carter - Where We At / Live ( !K7 Records )
Henrik Schwarz & Amampondo - I Exist Because Of You / Live Version ( Innervisions )

We've sort of pre-launched the mini-site we're building for the event we're doing on October the 3rd and which will be called Release. We did a call for beats a few days ago for it on this blog, which is still running, but we felt it would help if we explained a bit what we need them for.

You'll see that it's not just about music but about video and graphic art too. All aimed at people being creative in those fields who are far from established and haven't been discovered by much other people than their closest friends. Bedroom artists as we call them. We have started an effort to promote their work and give them a boost by motivating, inspiring and educating them. The first event on Nuit Blanche at Beursschouwburg is only the start of it all.

So if you're a bedroom artist please check the site and contact us. We're always ready to welcome your participation with open arms. We're looking for music, vj's & videos and graphic art.  The site will also give you a peep on what to expect on this first event. There will be gigs by San Soda, Dyno, Infinitskills, I-Sa and more for instance. You will also see the program is far from completed. A bit logical as we're still looking for input. The site itself will grow as things get confirmed. So it's far from complete.

Anyway check it out, get involved, and above all, spread the word.

I'm in London enjoying a much needed vacation and I'm not going to bore you with what I'm doing, Rarely find those 'Look where I am and you're not'-reports very interesting. Instead I'll keep on hooking you up with the quality internet stuff.   

First up this week is a mighty fine mix by my favourite (Belgian) House dj Red D who's also the We Play House Recordings' label boss. He did a mix for one of the blogs promoting House music and beyond I dig the most. Infinitestate Machine is my prime source with a strong opinion on all things deep in the genre who've, by the way, mentioned our site a few times regarding the Dâm Funk interview we did. Always a sign of quality, haha.

The mix Red D did is full of gems much of them unreleased tracks by San Soda, that other cat from Deinze we love, main artist on We Play House Recordings and one of the artists doing a gig at Release on the 3rd of October. That alone should make you start downloading it as soon as you clicked the link to it. That and the fact that Red D is a master at brewing solid mixes oozing the rare gift of combining technique, sequencing and flow.

Anyway, enough crap about something you should hear and enjoy without all the nonsense I'm typing here. Check it out and buy all the WPH-release you can find. They're all good and available on vinyl.

We've been fiddling with old Disco records for a while now. The thing which is commonly called Re-editing and is quite popular these days. We started doing it years ago as a first step to producing stuff of our own and to make some songs more suitable for our sets. And that's still why we do it. Not to become the new Tom Moulton, Larry Levan or Danny Krivit. We're not that good and our ambition lies elsewhere.  

Still, al lot of cats keep asking us when we're going to release them or press on vinyl. That might happen but if it won't I wouldn't shed a tear. It's not my music in the first place so I don't feel a burning need to have it released. Only if we think it would add something to the already vast amount of music on wax we'll do it. Simply looping an intro, cutting out some parts you don't like and calling it Onda Sonora edit doesn't justify a release to me. And that's what most edits are. And that's why I rather keep mine them to myself. They're tools for our sets not big creative pieces of art. On the other hand, some edits are great and add something to the original and are worth releasing.  They are rare but they exist. Not sure we've reached that point yet ourselves.

But to satisfy some of you, hungry for music with our stamp on, and because I think this particular one is quite nice I decided to give it away for free. Also because a lot of people already have it (even cats I never shared it with) but in a very bad sounding early version which makes my toes curl whenever I hear it.  So download, play and enjoy it. It's a remake of a Diana Ross track by the way.

A few months ago I met Mr. Beatnick in London. He showed me a bit of Stoke Newington and we had a very nice chat in his studio (still need to write out all the interviews I did in those days but had a few problems with the audio). He hooked me up with another local producer called Dobie to get an education in underground London black music. Those few hours still inspire me.

I once bigged up an effort of his before on our blog. Almost 2 years ago I did a post about SHHHH, giving y'all a first glimpse on what is now a much more renowned collection of beatmakers out of London. And providing you with some killer mixes. I could have used more of them but it all got a bit quiet on that front.

Until this week. He has mixes online on Simon Harrison's Basic Soul Show and Mary Ann Hobbs' Show on Radio One. Both, in any case, essential radio by the way. Check'em because they're both tasty.

Looking forward to meeting him and enjoying London some more next week. One of my favourite cities around, no doubt.

After a big hiatus we've finally taken some pictures of one of our gigs and put them online. Last weekend we played on the fm brussel double-decker and at Brussels Soul and that's where the photos are from. Check them out here. More pictures are to be found here.

Which reminds me I still have to upload an enormous amount of pics from back in the days. Will add a few new sets soon.

Our usual studio setup was still in the fm brussel bus and the replacements provided weren't of the same quality. So we had our fair share of technical difficulties like skipping cd's and a sound that wasn't up to what we like. We would have loved to play more of the tunes we got sent last week but that proved impossible. Our apologies for that.

Nevertheless, still plenty of quality music, old to new. Jazz, Beats, Hiphop, Disco and banging House.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

The Voices Of Time - Solstice ( Impossible Ark )
Jeb Loy Nichols - Sometime Somewhere ( Impossible Ark )
Nosaj Thing - Light #1 ( Alpha Pup )
Red, The Man Without Machine - I Should Tell Your Mama On You / Dâm Funk Remix ( Stones Throw )
Andrés - Physical Rush ( Mahogani Music )
Nadsroic - Room Mist ( Lucky Me )
Toma - Heaven ( CDR )
88 Keys feat Kanye West - Stay Up ! (Viagra) ( Decon )
Rhythm Based Lovers - Stargrove ( Touch Your Life )
Empress - Dying To Be Dancing ( Prelude )
Henrik Schwarz - Marvin ( Mood Music )
Nuyorican Soul ft George Benson - You Can Do It ( Talkin Loud )
Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts #5 ( MCDE )
Adeva - In And Out Of My Life ( Easy Street )

I need to sleep more. A truth I had to get confirmed again this weekend. Week's of 6h of sleep per night with frequent exceptions in the ‘less than that' form and none with more knocked me out cold on Saturday. Being sober but not being able to finish my drink, that's something that rarely happens.

It all started well though. For the first time since they exist, and that's 5 years now, I managed to go to Apéros Urbains. I must admit I have a tendency to make up my mind about things too fast and that leads to missing out on a lot. Even though my prejudices are usually not far from the truth it's a state of mind I'm starting to let go. Because there's good in everything. This might sound a bit too zen for it's own good, I agree, but I find it a lot more fun to see the positive instead of the negative in things. A change in philosophy, for my part, that might shock a few people that know me as a grumpy teddy bear. Haha.

Apéros Urbains, for instance, has a lot of things against it. The music was awful, the booze overpriced and undrinkable (worst Rosé wine I ever tasted) and the crowd was way too BCBG for me. But that shouldn't be a problem as it isn't about dancing nor enjoying music and you can bring your own drinks and friends, thus circumventing most of those remarks. I had a good time and am going back for sure. If you're taste in music and drinks is as outspoken as mine, you need to take things more lightly or you get sour and frustrated and that's no good for anybody.

Something I put in practice the day after. Not so much at Bruxelles-Les-Bains which was all nice except for the strange fluid they sold as beer. Fm brussel's double-decker bus is great to lounge and enjoy the weather. Maybe a bit less practical to record a radio show as it was hectic with people passing constantly. But we made the best of it. And if you get disturbed by cats bringing you bubbles, why should you complain. Big up to the Made In Japan boys for that. A killer way to get invited in the studio for a chat and some free promo opportunities.

Brussels Soul on the other hand had it's usual glitches. A venue-owner fiddling with the sound and a bar-staff that should learn the basics of their job (being friendly is quite essential). But the great crowd made up for it big time. Big up to Thierry, Falk, Atze, Miles, Lilo, David and all the others. Had a blast. Our first set went down nicely but it's the Sunday evening session I enjoyed the most. The vibe was excellent (getting applause for playing Bobby Womack's ‘How Could You Break My Heart' felt great), getting goosebumps several times is always a good indication of a quality time and, in contrary to the night before, I would have loved to stay longer. I don't like leaving just when some lovely girls enter. A problem I didn't have on Saturday when I was so exhausted I had to leave my gin tonic untouched. Fringale totale as cyclist call it.

Anyway, I had a good weekend. Will take it more easy next week. Leaving for London on Sunday. For a well-earned week off, if I say so myself.

Busy weekend Onda Sonora Sound System-wise. We have our live radio show from, hopefully if the weather permits, the roof of the fm brussel double-decker bus, stationed at the entrance of Brussel-Bad / Bruxelles-Les-Bains, on Saturday between 7 and 8pm. Before us the guys from Laid Back will do their thing, after us it's the funky filles from L-Fêtes again. Hopefully we'll get people dacing again like we did 2 weeks ago. Tune in on 98.8fm or through the fm brussel website. Or come pay us a visit and buy us some Appleton rum.

After that we head for the Bar En Face in the city center to meet lots of English Soul-lovers at the Brussels Soul weekender. We play around midnight after the always excellent dj Eff. Expect one hour of banging Soul tunes. Entrance is free and the list of dj's amazing. Going to be mighty fine, no doubt.

On Sunday it's day two of the weekender. We'll play in the early evening. Probably playing a more chilled set but still going for as much as possible people on our dance floor. All the info you need will be found if you click on the banner right of this post.

Back with another selection of tracks you can buy in the shops. Some of them have been bigged up already on this site but no harm in repeating. Their good and you need them.

Red The Man Without The Machine - I Should Tell Ya Momma On You ( Stones Throw )
Big one. Beatboxing G-Funk / 80's styled Cali Soul. With Dâm Funk and CHOP remixes (the latter only on the digital download). Been hooked to this all week.

Mark Pritchard & Om'Mas Keith - Wind It Up ( Hyperdub )
You should know this by know. We opened our last set at Bruksellive with it immediately driving some people wild. Heavy.

Silkie - city Limits Volume 1 ( Deep Medi Musik )
One of the most interesting Dubstep producers of the moment and by far my favourite label in that genre. So this is a no brainer. Deep and moody transcending the limits of the genre. This is as much rooted in Detroit as it is in South-London.

Fulgeance - Smartbanging EP ( One-Handed Music )
Paul White - The Punch Drummer EP ( One-Handed Music )
Repeating myself a bit but not minding it in any way. Our favourite underground label with 2 great EP's which are on our heavy rotation list.

Martyn / Sideshow feat. Cortney Tidwell - Purring / Televison ( Aus Music )
More excursions to the borders of Techno Music by Martyn. Nice moody 2step meets Detroit track. The flip is nice too. Like is most stuff on this label.

There's a new Paul White EP out and that's something we like a lot at the Onda Sonora HQ. We're big fans of the man and his label One-Handed Music. The EP is digital only but ridiculously good and essential anyway. As is the Fulgeance Smartbanging EP which is out on vinyl now. We've been playing the Ann Arbor track in nearly every set since we got it. It's that good.

This week we welcome back Disco Dalglish and Lieve in the studio after their well-earned vacation. Expect the usual mix of old and new, all fresh. Plus a new Onda Sonora edit.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

This Saturday we'll do an extra radio show which will go live from Bruxelles-Les-Bains between 19h and 20h. Come pay us a visit. It's going to be hot and the cocktails are mighty fine.

Nosaj Thing - Caves ( Alpha Pup )
Dam Funk - On & On ( Stones Throw )
George Duke - Reach For It ( Epic )
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - The Bone Song ( Ubiquity )
The Delphonics - Ready Or Not Here I Come ( Soul Jazz )
Orquesta Riverside - En Casa Del Trompo No Bailes ( Free Style )
Wajeed - Jeedo Suave ( Jazzy Sport )
Infinitskills - Spring Breeze Bossa ( CDR )
Expression - Release ( PPU )
Ned Doheny - To Prove My Love ( CBS )
Barbara Roy - Got To See You ( RCA )
Tom Browne - Bygones / Aaron Jerome Edit ( CDR )
Melba Moore - Ain't No Love Lost / Onda Sonora Edit ( CDR )
Andrés - Sing About it ( Mahogani Music )
AAH-HA - Mind Over Matter ( Easy Street )
DJ Sprinkles - Grand Central Pt. 1 / MCDE Raw Mix ( Mule Musiq )

On Saturday October 3rd, Onda Sonora in cooperation with, among others, de Beursschouwburg, Laid Back, On Point and MacFly, will be organising an event aimed at bedroom-producers, -graphic artists and -vj's called "RELEASE". It will be the start of a recurring effort to put this thriving but unknown scene of young creators on the map. Soon you'll hear a lot more of it. But before we start the promo-campaign we would like to gather some things.

As one of the ways to promote this night we'll record a mix with "bedroom beats" which will be handed out and published on the internet. For this we are looking for music, unsigned or unreleased, to select from. Any genre goes. We can't promise you a spot on the mixCD but if your track doesn't make that there's still a good chance it will be played in our or Laid Back's radio show on fm brussel or on the LDBK internet radio station. And if we like your work and appreciate the general quality of it we'll give it some shine on our blogs and will contact you to participate in our future events. If this all appeals to you then please send some music to info@ondasonora.be and include info about yourself like useful links or a little bio. You'll certainly get a response from us.

Next to that we are looking for people being creative with video. VJ's or otherwise. On the mixCD mentioned above we would like to include some video's and on the RELEASE event itself, early October, we would like to accompany the music with visuals. That's why we are looking for artists interested to participate. If interested just send us a mail to the same email as mentioned before.

The RELEASE event will be part of the official Nuit Blanche and Beursschouwburg program so it'll get quite some exposure. Don't sleep on it.

For those not enjoying a well earned holiday here are a couple of dope mixes to soften the pain of sitting behind a computer all day. All are hosted by members of our extended online family.

Ame - Washborough Soul
Mix by Belgian cratedigger extraordinaire Ame with lots of obscure Soul and Funk.

Laid Back Summer Mixes
Lots of different style mixes by the likes of Dr. Kwest, Bongholio Iglesias, Pat, Blast kid and more.

Julius - Waiting For Sade
A mix put together by Laid Back's Julien to get you warmed up for the upcoming Sade release. With lots of extra info.

Lefto - Summer Two
You know what to expect from Belgium's busiest dj.

Like I've said before on this blog my summer isn't going all well this year but if Saturday is anything to go by things are starting to improve. Had a blast at Bruksellive. As we opened and closed the festival we were there from start to finish and it felt good all day long. The only minor setback was the ever recurring technical troubles you face as an opening act. Even though it are only 2 decks, 2 cdj's and a mixer to get running at an hour everyone knew weeks in advance the tech dudes were still fiddling with cables minutes before we had to start. Once we were playing records it took us another 15 minutes to get the poor excuses for turntables to work properly. I short, my respect for sound guys sunk to an even deeper low than before. Something I thought hardly possible. The last 30 minutes of our set were nice though. And we were live on tv brussel apparently. A thing I only realised halfway through our set. Haha.

But that was the only thing I can be negative about. Absolutely everybody I met from the organisation was a pleasure to work with. From the guy at the artists entrance, to the girl at the children's area, to the people backstage, to the stage manager and crew. Big up yourselves. Food was great, drinks were fine and I managed to go easy on the free booze (so big up myself). Had a blast talking to people I hadn't met in a while, chilling with my godson & family and, in general and much in contrary to my own principles, avoiding to see the groups performing. Even missed Front 242 as I was enjoying the barbecue backstage. Only things I did see was a little bit of Beattorrent (not my cup of tea at all), Lady Linn (always good), Ben Westbeech (festival style) and Kastor & Dice (going UK Garage).

Our closing set was a little chaotic and jumping styles quickly but as we weren't sure how long we could play ("until the cops say it's enough" isn't really a fixed time). Still it was fun to see people go wild on, among other things, "Wind it up", Joker, Jodeci, Fulgeance and Beautiful Swimmers.

Up to Brussels Soul next weekend. Looking forward to that. Hope I'll be able to dance. My foot is getting better but it's far from healed and I'm getting pains in other places from limping and walking wrongly to avoid using my bad foot. Don't forget there's an extra radio show this week live from Bruxelles-Les-Bains on Saturday between 19h and 20h. Wear as little clothing as possible to get us in a beach-mood. I promise not to do the same. That'll be better for all. Haha.

No counter selection this week. Not too much being released these summer months so it would be a bit forced to give you one. If you buy that killer Mark Pritchard / Om'Mas track and the new Silkie album your weekly hunger for wax will be stilled just fine.

This site has been more quiet than usual. Summer is a time when keeping your computer company, alone at home, is a silly thing to do even if the weather isn't all that great. Not that it has been pure fun for me. A fare share of bad karma has been mine with a hairline fracture in my foot as biggest turd of them all. Perfectly timed just before my vacation. So my mind wasn't always as much on Onda Sonora as I hoped it would be.

Still there's plenty of niceness coming your way. I have updated the events on this site as you will have noticed by the collection of freshly added banners on the right of this text. Some killer gigs coming up. Don't forget to book your tickets for Croatia. It's going to be big no doubt and the Belgians who have confirmed us that they'll make the trip are first rate.

After all of that we have 2 special things lined up for you. Firstly we'll bring a little bit of the Nottinghill Carnival spirit to the "Autoloze Zondag" (Carefree Sunday, translated quite literally). When we saw that fm brussel bought a red double-decker bus we couldn't hold the Norman Jay in us any longer and we had to combine it with an open space somewhere in the city centre, a Funktion One sound system and killer dj's. Details will follow shortly when they are 100% confirmed but it's safe to say that on September 20th you need to be where we will be. Other event that will have our quality stamp all over it is something we'll do in the Beursschouwburg for the Nuit Blanche. Together with lots of lovely cats (Laid Back, Dyno / MacFly, ... ) we'll bring you something very nice, never seen before in Brussels. Date of that is October 3rd. More info about that once we've got it all written out / confirmed. It's going to be a blast and we'll need some participation. And, as ever, we're brooding on more plans which you'll know as we get them going.

Before all this we'll do our yearly gig at one of the nicest festival in Brussels. Bruksellive is situated in a amphitheatre hidden amongst the trees underneath the Atomium. As ugly as their website is, as beautiful is the real site. On top of that it's free, some nice names on the bill (Lady Linn, Ben Westbeech, Front 242, Kastor & Dice, ...) and the food backstage is stellar (which is probably not a reason for you to come, but anyway). This Saturday. Hope to see you there. We open it all at 15h and close it some 12h later. Hope they stocked enough food.

In a couple of weeks we play at the excellent Spark parties at Cafe Capital in Antwerp with the always friendly cat from Strasbourg living in London Simbad. It's the middle one in a series of 3 quality international guest dj's you won't see very often in our little country. Big up and be there.

This week a bit op Dubstep, a bit of old school R 'n B and some banging House. The usual mix of old and new. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Falty DL - Winter Sole ( Planet Mu )
Silkie vs Mizz Beats - Purple Love ( Deep Medi Musik )
Benga - Buzzin' ( Tempa )
Joker & Ginz - Purple City ( Kapsize )
Jodeci – Freek'N You ( Uptown )    
Bootsy's Rubber Band - What's A Telephone Bill? ( Warner Bros )
The Isley Brothers - Let's Make Love Tonight ( T-neck )
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Gemini's Rising ( Ubiquity )
Drizabone - Real Love ( Island )
Jody Watley - Real Love / Dub Version ( MCA )
Fulgeance - Ann Arbor ( One-Handed Music )
Theo Parrish – Ebonics ( Sound Signature )
Andrès - Sing About It ( Mahogani )
Nebraska - My Father ( Rush Hour )
Falty DL - Truth ( Planet Mu )

Yesterday's radio show, live from Bruxelles-Les-Bains, was pure fun. Big up to Koen (x2), Jeroen, Karl and the rest of the fm brussel massive. Big up to 72Soul, Kwak, Sofie & Candice, Lucas, Rim K & the rest. And major double big up to the couple dancing during our show. That's why live radio on location is so much fun.

For those wondering about the play list;
Andres – Physical Rush
Architeq – Sleeping Bear Lament
Onra feat. Häzel – Super Genesis
Dabrye – Smoking the Edge
Fulgeance – Tita Lima Esquizofrevo (Fulgeance Love 'n Hate Remix)
Beautiful Swimmers – O Yea
Trussel – I Love It
Juggy Murray Jones – Disco Extraordinaire
Donna Allen – Serious (Dub Mix)
Universal Robot Band – Barely Breaking Even
J.M. Silk – Let The Music Take Control (Insaneapella)
James Pants – Cosmic Rapp (Egyptian Lover Remix)
Falty DL – To London

Lots of deep, moody House in this weeks selection. And a killer one coming out of Drum and Bass camp. All in the shops right now.

Motor City Drum Ensemble - Raw Cuts #5 ( MCDE )
I'm a big Danilo Plessow fan, that should be clear by now, and the Raw Cuts series is the main reason why. Always deep & banging. Always glued in my box for months. Absolutely essential in my book. BIG ONE. In bold, capital letters that is

Tom Trago - Voyage Direct Remixes ( Rush Hour )
More MCDE. This time remixing a tune made by all around nice guy Tom Trago. Who's album you should have bought by now. All 3 tracks are gold on this one. Deep dance floor workouts.

Floating Points - J&W Beat ( Planet Mu )
Another guy who seems to do no wrong. This time bringing you nice deep 2step tracks not that far from what Falty DL dropped on the same label (the "Love Is Liability" album). And now he should stop teasing us and bring out that "Vacuum" track.

Atmosfear / KRL - Wolf EP 01 ( Wolf )
Not to say the other tracks aren't any good but it's all about KRL's ‘Recession beat' on this one. Cutting up Disco and transforming it into a stomping House groove. Nice.

D-Bridge / Instra Mental - Wonder Where / No Future ( Nonplus )
Moody piece from this Drum and Bass producers / brother of Steve Spacek. Reminding me of The Aloof at their best, if anyone still remembers those. The flip doesn't really do it for me.

As promised the Belgian special we aired last week in our radio show online ... Enjoy & spread the word.

Something nice just popped up. Due to someone cancelling we'll be doing a live radio show on location this Saturday. Dieter & Bart bringing you an extra hour of yummy vibes and grooves.

Between 7 & 9pm the fm brussel double-decker bus (the funky specimen in the photo above this post) will be standing at the entrance (near Sainctelette / Kaaitheater) of Bruxelles-Les-Bains / Brussel-Bad broadcasting live radio shows (Back To Niceness before us, L-Fêtes after us). We'll bring the usual chaotic, charming quality (or "professionalistische radio" as I called it, in perfect Dutch, yesterday). Come pay us a visit, send us messages, throw your underwear in our direction (we'll play some Tom Jones if you do, haha).

The 1st of August we'll be back. Same place, same time but with Yoeri & Lieve.

This week it's only Dieter & Bart in the studio as Lieve & Yoeri are enjoying the finer sides of Italy. Lots of freshness from Paul White, Andrés, Sa-Ra, Domu and more. And a little 1€ bin selection with classics from Atlantic Starr, Rare Essence and Mel Sheppard. Enjoy.

Listen live between 10 and 11pm CET on fm brussel (98.8fm) or through this link all week after it has been aired.

Paul White - Cheese Special & A Draw ( One-Handed Music )
Andrés - Physical Rush ( Mahogani )
GB - 208 Strings ( CDR )
Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Love Czars ( Ubiquity )
Philip Michael Thomas - She's A Liar / Randy Watson Experience remix) ( CDR )
Atlantic Starr - Gimme your loving ( A&M )
Rare Essence ft. Little Benny - Shoo-Be-Do-Wop ( London )
Glass Pyramid - Better By The Minute ( People's Potential Unlimited )
Mel Sheppard - Can I Take You Away ( The Sound Of Brooklyn )
Domu - Something New ( Tru Thoughts )
Rondenion - Carnival Time ( Rush Hour )
Reggie Dokes - Dream Catcher / FCL Edit ( WPH )
Pépé Bradock - Path Of Most Resistance ( Atavism )
Rainer Trüby - To Know You ( White )

Usually I'm a bit reserved about hypes but yesterday Theo Parrish confirmed all the good things you hear about the man. What a set. Seldom that someone can play 5h and keep me satisfied on all levels. Seldom that someone can play the music I like for so long without me knowing most of the songs. This was a big one. Inspirational.

Big up to Bruno and the Cafe Capital crew for making this happen. I'll be back at Spark for sure and not only to play. It was good to see so many cats on the floor. Lefto, Yiannis, Kwak, Nathan, Wax'x, San Soda, the extended Brussels / Halle family, ... . A bit surprised to see even Tom Trago at one point. With a big Dutch posse (The Opposites among others). Great evening out.

Although there are fewer releases in summer there's still enough new niceness to buy.

Reggie Dokes - Spectacle Of Deepness EP ( WPH )
San Soda - Evaluation Of The Evidence ( WPH )
Our favourite Belgian House label coming with 2 goodies. The Reggie Dokes one is pure deepness indeed. Banging deepness, that is. The San Soda EP is a limited vinyl only thing (no digital release, no repress). The title track is utter brilliance. Been my morning commute soundtrack for weeks now. 15 minutes of bliss. And it's on purple vinyl. Big one. If you ever wondered who's Red D's favourite football team, now you know, haha.

Cooly G - Narst / Love Dub ( Hyperdub )
Hyperdub are on fire lately. They have probably been that way since they started but with the Joker / 2000F & J Kamata and Kode 9 releases before this and the Mark Pritchard Om'mas Keith one coming up, they managed to get my attention big time. Love the UK Funky touches of Narst and the Balearic mood of Love Dub on this one. Not bringing you your average Dubstep but the odd things out. Something I can connect to a lot.

Rhythm Based Lovers - Calls Of Love ( Touch Your Life )
Absolutely adore their previous releases on Future Times and FrequenC and this one is just as good. 80s influenced synthesiser excursions. Proto-House era. But fresh nonetheless. Check this out.

Nadsroic & Hudson Mohawke - Room Mist EP ( Lucky Me )
HudMo beats so you know what to expect. The vocals are a bit indie / leftfield but fit rather well with the music. This should get your Hipster, Rock, Indie, IDM and Hiphop friends interested. Crossover written all over it but above all tasty.

Rainer Trüby - To Know You / Ayers Rock ( Promo )
Wax Poetic - Brasil / MCDE Remix ( Nublu )
Maybe not immediately obvious why I put those 2 releases together but my favourite House producers of the moment is involved in both. Danilo Plessow aka Motor City Drum Ensemble that is. Which is a guarantee for mesmerising, deep workouts. ‘To Know You' samples Stevie and does something really nice with it building up to a quality climax. Been following Danilo since his Inverse Cinematics days and love the steady maturing of his skills. If he keeps getting better he'll sure become of the truly greats.

It's probably only the next step to complete vinyl madness but I started collecting something new. I'm not even sure this is something universal but in Belgium it seemed to be common practise that record shops put little stickers on records. As a way to promote their business. It's mainly a '60s and '70s thing I guess but I have some '80s items too. I've been taking them off the sleeves and keeping them for a while now. Because some of them are really nice looking but mainly because they are a little bit of record history. In a time where shops seem to disappear quicker than one-hit wonders it reminds me of better times and it keeps the memory alive from a time when there were