Reviewing in the Big Smoke

Sorry for the lack of blog action recently, we're both a little busy with work/study at the moment. As I've got a few minutes, i thought I'd post a couple of links to RA reviews Ed wrote following a recent outing to Londontown. First up, a review of Ben Klock, Steffi, Lee Curtiss, Jamie Jones @ Fabric, read it here. Following that almighty knees up, our intrepid reviewer dashed to Cable to catch Konrad Black, Geddes, Ali Kuru and Rossko play at Found afterhours- read about that here.

Oblique Mid-Winter

Oblique mid winter feb 10 by mj_oblique

A new deep and dark mix from Oblique- a mix of dubstep and techno I've been enjoying over the winter. I have to say, this is perhaps the darkest mix I've recorded- the bleakness of this one scared me a little when I listened to it!

As ever, feed back more than welcome, I'll post a tracklist in a few days.

From music to mosaic

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

Now for something a little different... a superb piece of traditional animation- found on the blog of clothing label Droneboy Laundry. I can't imagine how long this must have taken to plan!

A Friday Mix Up

I've not posted much in the way of mixes for a while, but there's some good stuff around at the moment that I feel it's my duty to share. I'm really enjoying much deeper sounds recently, and these mixes have been particularly suited to my recent trip to the snowy Alps. As usual, a mixed bag of genres and artists- several new mixes from OA favourites, and a few new faces as well:

Ryan Elliott Presents "Marking Measures" by user495866

This first mix by Ryan Elliot is a deep house and techno mix that gradually moves from the lovely Detroit house of Delano Smith's 'This Heart' through a trio of Rick Wade tracks into deep melodic techno with Technasia, Dettmann, DVS1 and Robert Hood. A superb mix that builds nicely.

Sigha Breezeblock mix by Sigha

Sigha apparently played a really dark early doors techno set at Colony's Christmas bash, and if it was anything like this mix it would have been fantastic. Properly moody, almost industrial techno that wouldn't sound out of place on the Berghain floor, combined with a dubstepper's swing.

COLONY_007: MB by COLONY

Running with the Colony theme, this is the seventh mix in their resident's series, mixed by MB who was recently featured in Random Circuits' Random Residency. The mix has a great sense of atmosphere and manages to combine dubstep, techno, drone and d&b into a flowing two hours. For me the first half hour is the standout with some of my recent favourites from Sigha, Scuba and Shackleton's superb Moderat remix. If anyone was looking for nights pushing the dubstep/techno boundaries right now, I'd highly recommend checking Colony out.

Thirdly, a new mix from OA favourite SMA. As usual, 'All the Time' is a finely tuned mix of deep house and techno. While some of SMA's mixes focus more on smooth deep house, this one starts really slowly, deep, deep in the groove, mixing some new cuts and some old from Larry Heard, Prosumer, Vladislav Delay and Tobias Freund. Flippin' gorgeous throughout- SMA proves he is a superb selector.

Finally I can't finish without mentioning Neel's Sunday Sounds mix for Mnml Ssgs- although I'm sure most people will be aware of this blog and this mix, It's such a fantastic set that I feel the need to point it out. A really warm, mellow mix, great selection and well mixed.

WAX Launches this week!

This Saturday sees the launch of Wax, a deep house night at the Cardiff Arts Institute. We'll be there alongside Kit Grill of the excellent Vessel Music (the Nick Hoppner mix on the site is fantastic) and the cream of the South Wales deep house community. I'm really looking forward to this, it's a chance to play a really deep set that's a bit different to the usual techno at Oblique.

To get people in the mood here's a couple of super deep offerings from those involved. First up a mix by Owain K that includes some nice deep vibes from Cheap and Deep, Soul Minority, Carl Craig, Levon Vincent and Owain himself:

Owain K - Club Wax Mix by owaink

Finally, Swansea's Hot Property has posted this promo mix on the Wax Facebook page, which sounds great, a real mix of deeper flavours from MCDE to Tensnake to Andy Vaz:

1. Mark E – Slave 1 (running back)
2. 6th borough project – Miss world (oof...t remix)
3. Ooft – Th...is sound (instruments of rapture)
4. Tensnake – Holding back (running back)
5. Motor city drum ensemble – Raw cuts 3 (mcde)
6. Sebo K & Metro – Saxtrack
7. Dicowboys – To the mountain top/ Two armadillos remix (dessous)
8. Andy Vaz – Hurry, hurry remix/ Rick Wade remix (yore)
9. Flora Cruz – Let the sunshine out (Ibadan)
10. Sound stream – Dance with me
11. Eddy meets Yannah – Solid ground/ Crazy P remix (compost)
12. April March – Attention Cherie/ Ashley Beedle’s heavy disco mix (out hear audio)
13. Marcello Giordani – Respect yourself/ dj naughty remix (mule musiq)
14. Hercules and love affair – Blind/ Frankie Knuckles dub (dfa)

That's all for now, hope to see you there!