All Entries Tagged With: "Fresh Beats"
Fresh Beats w/ BroKen DJs
I can’t say music is my life, but it’s certainly shaped much of it. My styles, my friends and my attitude have always been a reflection of the tunes I’m currently listening to. I was a baggy pant wearing, b-balling hip hopper as a teen, a plaid drunken grunger in university and an angry punk the couple years after.
It wasn’t until I found house music that I finally felt good, acted good and in the most humble sense, looked good. I contribute this to a scene where you’re allowed to be yourself, with nobody telling you how to act, what to wear or who to hang with. You just make peace with who you are and on the dance floor you can be whoever you want to be.
It’s in the club environment where I’ve made my deepest connections with the like-minded. When you’re in a room listening to a DJ you love, there’s a great chance the people around you are from the same kind of crew. So as you can imagine, listening to Luke Fair for so many years has introduced us to some of our coolest and closet friends.
The BroKen DJs, Jon Passey and Jamie Scott, are two such dudes. Some of our highlight memories from Miami’s past are with these guys and it all came together through our mutual love for what Luke Fair does. Extremely modest and incredibly fun, Jon and Jamie have transitioned their overwhelmingly positive energy into a disco deep, funky progressive house sound. Go figure, that’s exactly what we’re looking for.
The duo has found great success DJing in and around their home base in the UK. Their residency for Neustra Casa, one of London’s most revered house nights, has landed them in the booth at some of the city’s most renowned nightclubs including Ministry of Sound and the sorely missed Turnmills. They’ve also secured gigs in Norway and will be playing in Lithuania later this summer.
This Fresh Beats exclusive has been compiled with our warm weather in mind. Knowing we love the poolside vibes 24/7, 365 days a year, Jon and Jamie have provided a mix that is super groovy, expectedly smooth and absolutely guaranteed to put you in a great mood. So without further ado, we introduce to you introduce to you the BroKen DJs and their perfectly suited bringthebeats debut.
Fresh Beats w/ Royce Haven
You can’t have one great thing without the other. Hosting a Fresh Beats w/ Mike Haddad and not following it up with one from his Witty Tunes partner Royce Haven would be like scoring chocolate without the peanut butter. Alone they’re sweet, but together they’re delicious!
Add Dr. Kucho! to the mix and you have a potent production trio who sat in Beatport’s Top 10 downloads last week with their release ‘Lloraras‘ on Haiti Groove Recordings. Yes, things are looking pretty great for Royce Haven right now and it couldn’t be happening to a cooler guy.
Of course we’re completely bias. Royce and Mike were two guys that made an incredibly positive impression on us while meeting them for the first time at this year’s WMC. Royce is a zany dude, with phenomenal energy. You can’t stop the smile while in his zone. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun we had at the Witty Tunes / Add2Basket Rooftop Party and I contribute a lot of our good times to the amazing attitudes of the hosts.
But what really astonishes me about this guy is the versatility of his music. When reading over some of the supporters of his production, the likes of Roger Sanchez, Chus, Richard Dinsdale, Saeed Younan, Sandy Rivera, Kris Menace and Pablo Ceballos, you wouldn’t think his sound would have much cross over appeal to our preferred brand of progressive house. But it does and that is definitely reflected in the Fresh Beats mix Royce has made exclusively for us.
Royce has hit it right on the nose when it comes to the btb vibe. This is funky progressive house at its finest – with a heavy emphasis on ‘house’ – exactly how we love it. It begins with a smooth chug and a sweet female vocal sample, then transitions into some groovy horns and back to some sexy lady, booty shaking rhythms. Mid way he moves into some grittier, more driving selections and concludes back on the soulful tip, but with a little dirtier undertone.
As you can tell, this is a promo that has definitely caught my ear in a big way. I’ve honestly had it on repeat for days. What I utterly appreciate is that Royce catered the mix specifically to our crew. It’s a sign of a true professional when an artist takes notice of the crowd he’s playing for and in this case, he’s reached expert status through his keen observation. Fresh Beats w/ Royce Haven is a truly tasty treat for bringthebeats.
Fresh Beats w/ Mike Haddad
This site is pretty much made up of music from DJs we’d love to book if we lived in a perfect world. A world consisting of open minded, funk loving, house music junkies… a world filled with more Witty Tunes. Continuing on with our WMC inspired desire to explore our dreams, we present to you Washington DC’s Mike Haddad, a dude near the very top of our list of DJs we’d love to host in the very near future.
Let’s face it; North Americans haven’t taken to funky progressive like clubbers have in other parts of the world. We’re a small niche in this continent, so we need to stick together and support each other whenever we can.
This past year we’ve helped spread the word about the ‘Jody Wisternoff Remix Competition’ put on by Mike and Royce Haven’s super successful Witty Tunes label. And we supported and attended the ‘Witty Tunes / Add2Basket WMC Rooftop Party’ where we finally met the entire Witty crew in all their styles. It was definitely a highlight of our week; for sure the funkiest, coolest music we heard start to finish at any event. Now Mike’s returned the favour by compiling this spectacular club-ready promo exclusively for bringthebeats.
In the brief time we were able to talk shop in Miami, Mike and I realized we have a lot in common when it comes to our struggles pushing underground sounds in our respective cities. But it also became clear we don’t only feel each other’s pain, but we also share an identical love for proper progressive house. After listening to this mix I can confidently confirm we’re on the same page about this.
Mike my brother, thanks a lot for taking time out from your extremely busy schedule as a new pops to put together this phenomenal example of how pumping tunes are groovier, sexier and smoother on our side of the underground. Let’s hope we can get our dance floor rolling with these ultra Fresh Beats very, very soon.
Fresh Beats w/ Liluca
Music truly transcends borders; in electronic music more than any other style without a doubt. Nobody I know outside the scene has developed global connections like we have in the underground. It’s amazing that we’ve developed relations with people from all over the globe; most of whom we’ve never even spoken to face to face.
It’s the common ground of funky melody and deep bass that instantly makes an artist our friend. It’s listening to a set and realizing that the person who compiled it actually ‘gets it’. It’s when you know, that they know it should be heading somewhere and you have enough trust to allow this relative stranger take you there. That’s a bond as strong as I’ve ever known.
Gabriel Sordo was the one who formally introduced us to Luis Caparroso, one half of the legendary Columbian duo Liluca, alongside Farid Char Yidi. But it was through both Ricky Ryan and Luke Fair that we first heard of these genius music makers.
See I don’t know anything when it comes to production or individual tracks. I’m one of those guys that reference a tune by the twenty-fifth minute of the Summer Promo or the second track on the Balance. I most enjoy music in the flow of a compilation, so I’m left to pry info on the best producers from guys like Luke and Ricky and on multiple occasions the name Liluca has come up in conversation.
Thank God it has because I feel like we’ve hit the jackpot scoring a set from these two. In the game together since 1998, Luis and Faird are production heroes to many our favourite DJs including Tom Morgan, Desyn Masiello and Add2Basket. As live performers Liluca’s held residencies at clubs Gotica, Cha Cha and Cinema in their hometown of Bogota¡ and have appeared at the Summer Dance Festival and Ultra Music Festival in Cartagena.
They’ve traveled for gigs in Mexico and Guatemala and will be making their second appearance at the WMC in Miami aboard the Sunrise at The Bay cruise headlined by SOS, Paolo Mojo and Jody Wisternoff. It’s going to be amazing to strike Liluca’s name off the list of artists we love but have yet to meet in person. It’s one of the things we’re most looking forward to at this year’s conference.
The word that first comes to mind when describing this exclusive is crisp. The beats, the mixing and the programming are so tight they’re crisp. It moves from ambient techno to pure house to pure techno and mid way there are some massive floor-filling bombs. There’s hip hop influence and smooth groovy progressive house. It’s surely one of the most eclectic mixes we’ve hosted and absolutely one of the best. You’re in for a treat with Liluca’s debut on bringthebeats.
Fresh Beats w/ Leonardo Tou
I know we’re sounding like a dirty CD going on and on about these young South American upstarts spinning and producing unbelievably mature house sounds. But the world will never stop talking about the football skills and slick styles of the people of this region, so neither will we when it comes to the underground.
I was full on into the high school party scene when Leonardo Tou was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1989 (okay now I’ve seriously aged myself… ugh). At the incredibly raw age of eight, Leo was learning piano and guitar and being influenced by seminal acts of the ages including Pink Floyd, Joy Division and Brian Eno.
By 16 his electronic arousal was in full bloom through productions supported by Satoshi Tomiie, Jimmy Van M and Hernan Cattaneo… an absolute prodigy indeed. Over time other superstars of our scene including Eelke Kleijn, Demi and Chloe Harris have regularly played out Leonardo Tou tunes on highly respected labels such as Avangardia, Fat&Blind and In4mation Records.
As a DJ he’s travelled throughout Argentina, from Buenos Aires to Rosario and Cordoba, as well as international gigs in Uruguay and Chile. His promos have been heard all over the internet airwaves with features on Proton Radio, Digitally Imported, friskyRadio and Danceradio in Greece. All of these accomplishments before he’s even legally able to order a drink in the USA… it boggles my mind!
This exclusive mix is true to the style description in his bio, the first I’ve ever read with the aid of Google Translate I might add. It’s a dynamic groove meant to surprise with originality, absolutely without monotony. It’s a fusion of house and techno; I feel a little tribal influence as well. From start to finish its deep and soooo smooth. It’s a mix for the connoisseur, serious music from a seriously talented dude.
Fresh Beats w/ Pedro Bueno
It’s no coincidence that our favourite DJs end up being the ones that promote their music with the sole purpose of having it heard. There’s no strings attached in their messages, just beautiful house music coming from a like-minded ally. I guess as you get on in the scene, approach becomes as important as presentation.
From our initial introduction, till the moment he delivered this exclusive, Pedro Bueno has been a picture perfect portrait of our vibe. The initial discovery was made through the wonders of internet radio, as our good friend Lonnie Bynch, who’s currently hanging in the Far East, caught a segment of his Dirty Kitchen show on Proton Radio. She immediately heard the sound and knew he’d be ideal for our style. Lonnie chatted with Pedro, loved his spirit and passed on his deets to us. Before we could touch base, he sent some music, and then some more, and the relationship was born.
Not so oddly enough, Pedro hails from South America, where he’s one of the hottest talents in the Brazilian club scene. His debut original production “Timmy’s Song“ was signed to Ricky Ryan’s Avangardia and he’s recently founded his own label, Fat&Blind Records with his mates Bruno Conti and Junior Paiva. Pedro’s joined by the likes of the The Timewriter, Terry Lee Brown Jr., Sultan, Lucas Abadi, Hernan Cerbello and a host of other amazing artists on Up Front Sounds DJ Management roster and has scored a residency for the Audiochic Project at Wish Club in São Paulo.
His sound is self-proclaimed as deep, funky disco to progressive house, we couldn’t have wrote it up better ourselves; literally music for bringthebeats’ ears. So without further adieu, here’s Pedro Bueno’s btb debut…
