Leftroom

May Day! May Day! Long Weekend!! – Eastern Electrics, Minus, Secretsundaze, Fabric and more…..

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 | Event Preview | No Comments

Well we’re on the verge of another momentous bank holiday weekend where the usual rule book goes out the window and things are pushed that extra mile. Once again, Friday and Saturday are looking alright, but those promoters have decided to pack in all the exciting stuff on the Sunday… Here are our picks…

Friday › Continue reading

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Subb-An & Shelton – Musik EP | Single Review

Monday, November 30th, 2009 | Single Review | No Comments

Subb-anSubb-An and Shelton are the residents of Below – Birmingham’s only decent answer to house and techno. They’ve taken the typical UK dance music route – learn to DJ, start a night, make a few records, start a label. Subb-An has already put a few tracks out on Leftroom and Immigrant so its time for the duo to start a label. One Records is the new venture and its first release is by the duo themselves.

The inspiringly named title track ‘The Musik’ is roaring tech house with acid spat in its face. Industrial clinks and a round kick driven bassline open the track before short bursts of acid squelches wriggle in between the beats. Standard issue string sighs and a “Musik” vocal sample punctuate the track to add some contrast between heavy and light. It’s punchy with an infectious groove and will definitely play on the basic emotions of any techno dancefloor in the UK.

For the name of the B-side, it’s clear to see Subb-Ann and Shelton have clearly spent some time talking about the “concept” of the label to give their tracks these edgey clean cut names – ‘The Musik’ and now ‘The Vision’. Anyway, names don’t win prizes, it’s the music. ‘The Vision’ doesn’t really win any though. Deep basslines, clinkering percussion and spooky synth snippets create a warm and hypnotic house track which is well rehearsed for 2009. It’s produced well but it can so easily blend into the background with all the other deep house tracks of 2009. Not what you need if you want your label to make a splash on its opening.

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Simon Baker – Moonblock / Mamaia Highway | Single Review

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | Single Review | No Comments

simon bakerI do enjoy a Simon Baker release. Plastik released on Playhouse was everywhere in 2008 whilst X Y and Z was a fantastic follow up on Leftroom. Other than a release for 20:20 Vision in July we haven’t heard much from Simon Baker, until now. His latest release on MurMur is probably just to keep the “look at all the great labels I’ve released on” list ticking over. Fair enough.  MurMur is a good label and Simon’s Moonblock is a great release.

Title track Moonblock is a pumped up houser with an incredibly contagious wiggling bassline. It doesn’t really let up for breath, it just grooves away blissfully unaware only occasionally breaking down with a splash of bossa nova. It’s catchy and very danceable, very much like Mamaia Highway the track on the other side. It’s got another great wiggling bassline that sounds like a computer crunching numbers on an old sci fi show; there are the staple bossa nova/carnival samples which bring a party vibe; and like Moonblock it just doesn’t let up. It’s these tracks which are becoming a staple on the London scene – continual rolling house come techno tracks which swish and release in such a way that they’re perfect for the club and a crowd up for some straight up dancing.

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Something For The Weekend…. Go!Zilla|Mulletover|Fabric

Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | Event Preview, Music | No Comments

mulletoverSurely it’s time to shake of the January blues? There is definitely a fair few options if you do.

Firstly, Cargo on Saturday plays host to Go!Zilla with Joey Negro’s legendary Sunburst Band. In support is Switzlerland’s Agnes doing a live performance and deck duties being done by Benji B and James Priestly of 1Xtra and Secretsundaze fame respectively. Expect fun, soulful house music.

Since Cargo closes so early you can extend the night and head over to Mulletover. The warehouse floor isn’t even cold from New Years Eve yet, but they’re straight back in there with their winter warmer. Anja Schneider the Berlinette of Mobilee fame and Nottingham legend with Matt “Leftroom” Tolfrey are brought in to blow away the January cob webs alongside Geddes. Over in the second room disco reviver Todd Terje heads things up with the Future Boogie folks. House, Tech-House, Techno and everything in between and if that doesn’t keep you entertained there is the cosmic rays of disco in room two. This has sold out, so get there early.

Finally, since we’re getting back into things proper… we might as well power through till the early hours. Fabric seems to think so. Original Detroit techno minimaliser Robert Hood is in town with Arne Weinberg and Convextion, not to mention the rock like Craig Richards. That still Room 2 goes all Français with Jennifer Cardini along with Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris making their return.

What a Saturday of things to do! Get involved!

To warm you up a little, the kind folks at Fabric sent over a Tim Paris mix… :o )

Listen below or download from here.

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Tracklist:
Skinnerbox ‘Binaer-Sedenaer’
Jaxson ‘Miami Flys’
Chateau Flight ‘La Roquette’
Instant Boys ‘Nya Farger’
Koze ‘Abudinga’
Johnny White ‘Musique Noire’ (Jamie Jones edit)
Lexy ‘Get Down’
Marc Houle ‘Selection’
Remain ‘Dependance’

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Silverclub – Crash This Car | Single Review

Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | Music, Single Review | No Comments

Silverclub is the joining of techno/electronica producers Duncan Jones (formerly DNCN), Tommy Walker III and Leftroom’s MarcAshken. They’ve put their heads together and the result is a kind of synth-pop band between Beck and Depeche Mode.

Crash This Car is their debut single, backed by Matt Tolfrey’s Leftroom means this is a slight divergence from their usual sound. I don’t really have an opinion on the title track it’s more the TASH and Jimmy Edgar remixes which interest me. First of all Jimmy Edgar slows the pace down, cutting and looping snippets of the vocal over simple beats and synth lines. If you listen carefully I’m pretty sure you can hear Super Mario samples in there. However that doesn’t really save a relatively flat and lacklustre track.

On the other hand TASH aka Matt Tolfrey and Marc Ashken take us in a Detroit-esque direction. They use the light patter of muted kick drums whilst bourgeoning warbled synths phase in and out. Approaching the breakdown snippets of the original vocals are looped in a hypnotic way before fluttering strings intensify to abruptly drop back to the rhythm. In three words, hypnotic and effective.

Tracklist (Click for MP3):
1.Silverclub – Crash This Car (Original Mix)
2.Silverclub – Crash This Car (TASH Mix)
3.Silverclub – Crash This Car (Jimmy Edgar Mix)

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