So here it is (Apologies for the delay – mental weekend) – the winner of our third and final draw to win three complimentary tickets to this year’s Soul-Identity Summer Shakedown Boat Party with DJ Format and Wah Wah 45s‘ Dom Servini (and us of course!) is… JOSH SMITH (Well done Sir), who correctly named Simon James as the other member of The Simonsound alongside DJ Format. All that’s left is to  extend a big thank you to all that entered the three prize draws (especially those of you who entered all three) and a offer a big congratulations to all three winners.

So now with all the free passes out of the way, the best way to pick up the last remaining tickets for Saturday (if you haven’t already) is via WeGotTickets or Ticketweb.

In the meantime, a little guest mix from our friend Steve KIW dropped into our inbox this morning and we thought it best to share the love. Ever the understated, the mix in the man’s own words “Pulled this together last night… includes Stevie, Ramsey Lewis, Guilty Simpson, T-Coy, Michael Vogel, Escape from NY, Woody Herman, Q-Tip, Blvd Mosse, Harold Melvin, Buddy Rich…”. You can give it a listen below.

While DJ Format and Mr Servini take care of proceedings upstairs, Steve will be joining myself, the Cigarettes and Sunshine boys and Rad Dad (Beatfix) on the lower deck on Saturday for a mixed bag of disco, soul, house, boogie and anything else we fancy playing.

We’ve now also confirmed the after party literally five minutes from the boat in the heart of Blackfriars (sadly a different venue than last year but will still get the job done), which will be running from 6.30pm till 1am, and will be free to all boatgoers. More news on that nearer the time. All we need now is the weather to sort itself out for Saturday and I reckon we’re all onto a winner!

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So we’ve drawn the winner of our second prize draw for this year’s Soul-Identity Summer Shakedown Boat Party. Congratulations Mikey High Jinks, you’ve won three complimentary tickets to the event on the Saturday 28th August. Now all you need do is get in touch with those two people you’re giving the other tickets too!

And now for our last chance to win. Our third and FINAL prize draw which will be drawn this Friday at 6pm GMT*. To enter and stand the chance to win three complimentary tickets to this year’s boat party (worth, um £52.50!)simply send us an email to summershakedown2010@soul-identity.com and answer the following question.

The Simonsound ‘Reverse Engineering’ album is a collaboration between two individuals, one of which is DJ Format. Can you provide us with the full name of the second person in the group?

That’s it, simply get your response in before 6pm on Friday 20th to go into the final draw.

Good luck and have a great rest of week.

* Only one entry per valid email address. To be entered into the prize draw, your message must be received before 3pm GMT on Tuesday 17th August 2010. Entrants must be 18 years old or over.

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Just a very quick (and very late heads up) to let you know that I’ll be donning my jazz hat tonight and guesting at the Favourite Things Jazz Jam. If you’ve never been before then its well worth a look if you’re into live music, even more so now that its found a permanent home at one of our favourite East London venues, Favela Chic London. Each month, the core Favourite Things Quartet, consisting of Jessica Lauren (keys), Jake Telford (sax), Graham Silbiger (bass) and Francesco Mendolia (drums) are joined by a rotating ensmeble of London’s brightest musicians, as they hold court and improvise their own versions of jazz standards and beyond.

For a taster of what it’s all about band wise, check out the videos over at the Youtube site. Tonight I’ll be joining everyone’s favourite importer of Japanese vinyl and label boss of Mukatsuku Records, Nik Weston, behind the decks as we aim to keep the crowd entertained behind live sessions. The fun starts at 8pm. Hope to see you down there!

Just in case you’re nowhere near our capital this fine evening, I’ll attempt to capture some of the magic so you can catch it on demand, but in the meantime you can still enjoy the sounds of Favourite Things as Nik dropped a tasty little jazz and Brazilian inspired mix yesterday to get you in the mood.  It’s available to stream below via Mixcloud.

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Thanks to everyone who entered our first prize draw to win tickets to this year’s Soul-Identity Summer Shakedown Boat Party. And a massive big up to James Rodgers who is our first winner. Well done James, you got yourself three complimentary tickets to the event on the Saturday 28th August. See you on the boat. We’ll be in touch soon.

For all those that weren’t so lucky this time around, feel free to enter the second prize draw which will be drawn next Tuesday at 3pm GMT*. All you need do is send an email to summershakedown2010@soul-identity.com and answer the following question.

Name three artists currently recording on the Wah Wah 45s record label

Should be fairly easy if you do a bit of a quick search (Two of them are mentioned fairly heavily on the site). Don’t forget to get your answers into us before 3pm on Tuesday to go into the draw.

Good luck and have a great weekend. We’re off to do some digging.

* Only one entry per valid email address. To be entered into the prize draw, your message must be received before 3pm GMT on Tuesday 17th August 2010. Entrants must be 18 years old or over.

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If you’re on this blog, we would hope by now that you should be well aware of this year’s Summer Shakedown Boat Party, and if not, well I guess you do now, right? There’s just under three weeks to go now until Soul-Identity’s flagship Summer event and the signs are looking more than good that this is going to be as great, if not better, than 2009′s event.

It’s been almost ten years since I moved down to London and just under seven, since I attended my first boat party on the Thames. As anyone I’ve ever waxed lyrical to will attest, the London boat parties ran by the Whistlebump crew in the early noughties left a lasting impression on me, being as they were some of the best days out in London I’ve ever experienced, coupled with the fact they offered the opportunity to catch the likes of Francois K, Danny Krivit and DJ Spinna play awesome sets on the river (and that was just the main room, you had a young Benji B, Yam Who? and Ross Allen dropping tuneage in the back!). Since then Whistlebump (AKA Simon Haggis and Andy Crowther) have sadly gone their separate ways, the boat (The Silver Sturgeon) has been refurbished (and is now priced way beyond our means) and we’ve caught that same list of DJs live several times over.

After the fate of the Whistleboat parties was pretty much sealed, we sought out a few more boat parties, namely Sancho Panza and SoulBrew (at this point, I should probably just print “I Love Boats”), before getting the opportunity to put up the cash to throw one of our own last summer  on The Golden Jubilee with legendary Manchester DJ Greg Wilson, Fast forward twelve months (well it’s actually just over thirteen) and on Saturday 28th August 2010, we’re right back in the thick of it for a Pre-Notting Hill Carnival party with a difference. For this one, we’ve called upon the combined talents of Brighton’s own legendary DJ  Format and one of London’s finest selectors on the circuit, Dom Servini from Wah Wah 45s to rock the upper deck, whilst down below, I’ll again be joined by good friends Cigarettes and Sunshine, Steve KIW (Balearicv Assassins of Love) and Rob Wilkes (Beatfix). Musically, I think it’s fair too say this will stretch far beyond what we try and promote through this site, but equally with the quality of clientele on board, it will no doubt be a bit special. For all the info, make sure to check the boat party page on this here site or the Facebook Event page, over at eh… Facebook.

Anyways, now you’re up to speed, let’s get to the point of this post…

We like a bit of a giveaway on this site, so over the next three weeks, we’ve got three batches of three tickets to literally give away. To be in with a chance of winning the first 3 this Friday all you need do is hit us up on summershakedown2010@soul-identity.com before 12pm GMT* on Friday and request to be included in the draw. I’ll then pull a name out the hat at random and that person will receive a complimentary ticket for this year’s boat party plus two further free tickets for his or her friends.

That’s it. Simple. No question this time around, just drop us an email for your chance to win.

Should you prefer to just guarantee your tickets right now, you can purchase them from Ticketweb and WeGotTickets.

Good luck

* Only one entry per valid email address. To be entered into the prize draw, your message must be received before 12pm GMT on Friday 13th August 2010. Entrants must be 18 years old or over.

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TRACKLIST

Blood Hollins – How Have You Been – RCA
Vincent Montana & The Philly Sound Orchestra – That’s What Love Does – PSW
Linda Clifford – Shoot Your Best Shot – Curtom
Michael Wycoff – Still Got The Magic (Sweet Delight) – RCA
Breeze – Just In The Nick Of Time – Silver Dollar
Johnnie Taylor – She’s Killing Me – Columbia
Mandrill – Echoes In My Mind – A&M
The Sylvers – Clap Your Hands To The Music – Capitol
Stevie Woods – Can’t Keep It Lit – Cotillion
Teena Marie – You Make Love Like Springtime – Motown
Teena Marie – You Make Love Like Springtime (Reprise) – Motown

Stream via Mixcloud below:

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With an ever increasing repertoire of remixes and re-edits under his belt, Graham “Greymatter” Luckhurst dropped his debut album “Mind Over Matter” back in February.  Released through his own Unique Uncut imprint, the album is a immense collection of sounds fusing broken beat, soulful electronica and Latin with the tougher rhythms of dubstep, UK funky and bass music. Featuring collabs with one of our favourite (and since retired) beatsmiths Domu and Brazilian Baille Funk diva Deize Tigrona, the album hit hard and was well received within the UK beat fraternity.

Accompanying the release at the time was a set of equally accomplished remixes which came with some pretty impressive names attached, including Cosmin TRG, Illum Sphere, Karizma and Souled. Some five months later, the second batch of remixes from the project have finally emerged and are available from today to stream and download via Greymatter’s Bandcamp.

For Mind Over Matter Remixes Part 2, Graham scores another serious team of producers to reimagine his material, and this time the results are outstanding. Whereas its predescessor straddled both the house and dubstep camps, this second set of remixes firmly embraces the ever burgeoning bass scene. Broken beat don Danny Native AKA Altered Natives (fresh from turning his hands to Ikonika’s “Idiot” on Hyperdub, and releasing his own “Believe in Me”, a great broken house anthem) drops in to completely bruk out the already heavyweight track that was “Eu Fumo” and create a killer bass roller in his own image. With it’s carnival feel and syncopated drums, this remix is sure to devastate many a dancefloor. Next up, dubstep artist Mr Lager takes the break heavy “We Are One”, smoothes it out and remodels  it into just under six minutes of deep and atmospheric electronic lushness, before Milyoo steps up and delivers a completely unclassifiable take on “When I Was Lost”. Vocal snippets shimmer in and out of the mix, while the bassline sits somewhere between the beat driven sounds of LA, and the disparate soundscapes often found etched into London’s dubstep riddims. After supplying his own takes of “When I Was Lost” and “Too Much” for the first volume of remixes, Brighton’s Klic returns to revisit the originally skanking “Raw Root” and turns it into a deeper Detroit inspired house jam. Finally, rounding off the digital version of the remix package, hotly tipped Throwing Snow (Recently signed to the new Ho_Tep label fronted by Eglo’s Alex Nut) takes the title cut from the album and slowly transforms it into a glitchy dubstep hybrid.

You can listen to the release in full via Greymatter’s Bandcamp below, and grab a  free download of the Throwing Snow remix of “Mind Over Matter” over at XLR8R.

To promote this release further, Graham has decided to offer up digital copies of February’s debut “Mind Over Matter” album via his Bandcamp site for ONE WEEK ONLY, so if you haven’t copped it yet, now would be a good time to accquaint yourself with the album. You can also download the first batch of Mind Over Matter Remixes from the same site as well, all it costs is the price of an email address.

Greymatter – Mind Over Matter Remixes Part 2 – Unique Uncut (UUDIGI019)

1. Eu Fumo feat. Deize Tigrona (Altered Natives Remix)
2. When I Was Lost (Milyoo Remix)
3. We Are One feat. Domu (Mr Lager Remix)
4. Raw Root (Klic Remix)
5. Mind Over Matter (Throwing Snow Remix) – Digital EP only

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Back home in London, the weekend threw up a whole host of what look on paper ridiculous nights, including the first Summer terrace party in Brixton from the mighty Boglewaltz boys and the debut Creative Control Coalition event at Empowering Church. Was gutted to miss out on both as the lineups alone looked amazing, but the one which really got away was the Stac gig at Vibe Live on Saturday night. The lovely lady launched her debut album “Turn That Light Out” backed by her very talented band and choir and accompanied by great support from singer Jamie Woon and DJs Blue Daisy, LenAfroSaxon, Pause, and of course Wah Wah 45s head honcho Dom Servini. From the looks of some of the reactions posted across social media since Saturday, it seems like it turned out a bit special.

If you missed out on Saturday too, never fear as there’s another chance to catch her live in more initimate surroundings tonight. From 6.30pm onwards Wah Wah 45s are hosting a little Stac In-Store at Phonica Records to mark today’s offical release of “Turn That Light Out”, a date the label have dubbed “Stac-aday”.

And the album? well just like that album art, it’s ace and could follow in the footsteps of another of our recent Wah Wah 45 favourites, last year’s debut album “Along Came The Devil One Night” by Scrimshire. A perfect slice of acoustic soul, with distinct touches of folk, jazz and even a little reggae bounce, the album definitely has the same earthy feel as its predecessor, which is not a complete surprise as it is in fact produced in its entirety by Scrimshire and engineered by Mr Ben Lamdin of Nostalgia 77 fame. The perfect soundtrack to a warm summer’s night (assuming we get one soon).

From the  very first languid tones of Matthew Halsall‘s trumpet welcoming you to the album’s opening gambit “Same Old Thing”, it soon becomes clear that this collection of songs are actually something quite clearly out of the norm. Stac’s singing is, for the most part, both fragile and emotive, which may take you by suprise at first, but stick with it and there’s no denying that her style is deeply soulful, bringing a genuine warmth to all of the tracks on show. The live instrumentation used throughout also adds to the effervescent feel, with an impressive array of musicians on show, including the afore-mentionned Halsall on trumpet, strings on “Head on Me” courtesy of The Heritage Orchestra , plus Wah Wah family members Magnus Dearness, trombonist from the soon to be massive Hackney Colliery Band, Steven McCleery, pianist to the Part Time Heroes and of course Mr Scrimshire on guitar. Add into the mix some stellar songwriting from the lady herself and “Turn That Light Out” is a quite unique offering which fits quite comfortably into the already stellar Wah Wah 45s catalogue.

Stand out tracks, aside from the opening track, doing it at the moment include the minimalistic “Balls Bounce” (Make sure to seek out the equally lovely Bonobo mix that appeared sometime last year), the current single “All Or Nothing” and the uptempo “More”. But don’t just take my word for it. Peep the tracklist and stream the whole album via the Wah Wah 45s Soundcloud widget below, and if you like what you hear, head on over to Stac’s Bandcamp and make a purchase. It’s been confirmed that Stac and her band will also be performing at The Big Chill this year, so there’s never been a better time to acquaint yourself with her talent before the masses catch on.  Because the beauty of music is not just in the listening, it’s in the initial discovery as well isn’t it?

Stac – Turn That Light Out – Wah Wah 45s (WAHCD013)

1. Same Old Thing
2. Strainger
3. Balls Bounce
4. Head On Me
5. All Or Nothing
6. Whoops
7. More
8. Glory
9. Tip
10. Cry To Me

Turn That Light Out by WahWah45s

The good folk at Wah Wah 45s have also made available a little “Making Of” video documentary to accompany the album. Well worth a little bit of your time if interested. Check it out below….

Stac – Turn That Light Out // Documentary from WahWah45s on Vimeo.

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No big announcement, just a “yes, we’re  back”. Not gonna go too deep into the whereabouts of this blog for the past eight months but after a little hiatus and some downtime, we’re back up and running. The truth I guess  is I’ve been working on a new design for the site  and as such when the blog went down in late October after some freak tinkering on my part, I started work on pulling things together. Alas until I can get my head around PHP code properly and moreover find a spare month or two, the new website is shelved.  In the process though, I learnt  enough to fix the blog (although it still looks a little wonky)  and over the course of the coming months, you’ll see some minor adjustments and some new features added to the site as I gear up to finally sort isht out.

Is is this all down to our upcoming boat party? Well yeah in truth, partly, but moreover, real life has taken over in the past couple of months and I’m not ready to let this site slide into oblivion.  So aside from the boat party, expect some regular audio podcasts/mixes to start appearing (like the way we used to do it back in the day) , maybe some guest spots, and of course I’m hoping to get on top of this here again and do it properly, focusing on the artists, labels, events and music we love. I’m pretty sure though the world doesn’t need another music blog that rehashes press releases.  We’ll see how that one works out haha.

So now with that over with, let’s get involved…

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It is some seven years since the Detroit uber-producer’s initial collaboration with some of the Motor City’s finest jazz luminaries, including Tribe founder member Marcus Belgrave, a venture which bore the fruit of the highly regarded Ropeadope LP  “The Detroit Experiment“. In 2007, Craig and Belgrave reunited along with original Tribe musicians, Wendell Harrison, Phil Ranelin and Doug Hammond to record a new album entitled “Rebirth” for Carl Craig’s Planet E / Community Projects labels (More on that in a moment).

Now there had already been quite a bit of buzz around the album before last Thursday’s show at the  Cité de la Musique in Paris, so tuning in to the live feed was a necessity. Still rocking this restrictive internet setup at home, I wasn’t at all hopeful of copping any sort of viewing over the internet but as it happened, after I’d hopped over to the Grandcrew website, it worked like a dream (well with a bit of buffering here and there).  What transpired next was nothing short of inspiring. Over an approximate hour and forty minutes, the band set to work weaving together tracks from their back catalogue (both “The Detroit Experiment” and original Tribe compostions of the 1970′s), plus tracks from what I believe to be their new album. Drummer Doug Hammond even pulls a little solo skit, playing the thumb piano and singing a few tracks from his “A Real Deal” LP on Heavenly Sweetness. Thinking this was a once in a lifetime occurence, I pretty much stayed the distance, killing my monthly bandwidth allowance in the process and eventually leading me to be late to the club.

So imagine my surprise when an email dropped into my account this afternoon from the Grandcrew people with the full video available to stream.  Bit of a result. Below I’ve embedded the link, so you can catch all the fuss. It’s long but so very worth it. In an age where computers are used to synthesise instruments, its a timely reminder to what an impact a well versed band can make when this kind of show is put on. Enjoy at your leisure.

Produced in its entirety by Carl Craig, the street date for the physical “Rebirth” album is 06 October 2009 in the US, with, I’m hoping, a worldwide release soon after.  If you’re so inclined, you can head over to the iTunes store now and  get your hands on  a digital version of the album already, which has been released since August 24th.  In addition to starring the original Tribe quartet of Belgrave, Harrison, Ranelin and Hammond, the album also features playing by younger Detroit players including Amp Fiddler (keys), Karriem Riggins (drums), John Arnold (guitar) and Kelvin Sholar (rhodes). Tracklisting and album art follow, plus I’ve included a second video, a preview to how the whole concept was born, with insights from the original Tribe members and Craig himself. You even get some brief footage of the band at work.

Tribe “Rebirth”
Released on Community Projects / Planet E, Oct 2009
Produced by Carl Craig

Tracklisting
01. Living In A New Day
02. Glue Finger
03. Denekas Chant
04. Vibes From The Tribe
05. Son Of Tribe
06. Jazz On The Run
07. Ride
08. Lesli
09. 13th And Senate
10. Where Am I

Tribe "Rebirth" front cover

Tribe "Rebirth" back cover

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