It’s been a while. Moving back to the ‘Mecca of Cool’ that is Dalston has meant we’ve been out of touch for a min but that’s all sorted now. The Live365 radio stream is now being constantly updated with newness, a new radio show/podcast should be joining the already crowded market that is onine streaming audio (fingers crossed, even if we have to host it ourselves) and work has started on a brand new website (expect that sometime in 2012!)

In the meantime, here’s some of our recommended Londoncentric sessions for people that like the music that we do. There are still some of you out there right? Or have you all started listening to Kings of Leon?

First up… Ladybugz Heavyweights birthday Party @ East Village

Absolutely heavyweight lineup if you like your beats somewhat left of centre and your house underground. Featuring the the likes of Mr Phil Asher, DJ Cosmo, Afronaught, Seiji, Rap Saunders and the Ladybugz (Katie Barber, Marcia Carr, T Maronie and Miss Callie) in the East Village basement and Andy Bird, Johnny Reckless, Toni Rosanno, Bopstar, Souled and DJ Bones upstairs in the Deco Lounge, this has the potential to be a huge night. 9pm until 4am. Its £6 before 11pm and £8 thereafter.

Saturday, sees the return of Nonsense to the little club with the BIG system, Plastic People, for a ladies special. Alongside residents Judah, Benny Blanco and Mr Wonderful, you also get the talents of Hyperdub’s Cooly G (Download her recent MTV Brazil Tranquera Mixtape here…  some serious proto-dubstep-house goodness) plus Josey Rebelle and Katie Skills. Expect big things in a afrosouljazzhiphopdubstepdetroitboogiedisco kind of way. 10.30pm-4.30am. £6 all night. Bargain.

Sunday is all about The Soul Power Party, a collaboration between supreme Put Me On It blog, Eric Lau‘s Sunday residency Pause and independent magazine Shook to bring you a special event centred around last Summer’s “Soul Power” film. If you haven’t caught the film yet you’re in luck as there’s a limited number of discount tickets for a screening of the film at The Electric Cinema on Portobello Road at 3pm Sunday.Tickets are on sale now. Drop a line to info@putmeonit.com to cop the discount (if there’s any left).

The film itself is an amazing documentary about the three day festival which took place in Zaire in ’74 prior to the infamous Ali/ Foreman “Rumble in The Jungle” fight, and featured performances from James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers, Miriam Makeba, Celia Cruz, the Fania Allstars and more. Loving a bit of Latin and afro funk ourselves, we really should get on it, and probably will.

To complete the weekend, and make Monday a chore, there’ll be a free after party for the film at Market Place Sunday evening featuring DJs Charlie Dark (Blacktronica), Eric Soul (Afrogroov), Bemi (Amplified), Eric Lau, Juven and H!ts (Pause). In line with the film’s themes, you can expect a soundtrack of afro/funk/soul music from ’74 to ’09 plus there’ll also be an Afroboutique and in-house stylist for all your beauty needs(!). You’ll also be able to pick up the latest issue of Shook #6 which came out last week plus some free isht namely t-shirts and DVDs, which  should be floating about along with a few more surprises.

Whatever you end up doing, have a good one. It’s looking like a monster weekend for us.

We’ve already mentioned this little baby on the blog before but with a week to go before it fully drops, we thought it would be a nice time to refresh your memories on probably one of this summer’s most solid albums.

People who’ve stumbled across this site before will no doubt know that the artist otherwise known as Domu (or Dominic Stanton to his mum) has been a major favourite of ours for some time (for a full blow-by-blow lovefest of how much we rate him check here). The fact that under his many aliases he’s gone and produced some pretty fine records of the soulful persuasion (plus some down right bangers too), has meant that we never leave the house without packing at least one or two of his tracks into the record box (You know, for when you need to up that ante a bit)

Well now, looking over his immense, genre-defying back catalogue of material, it seems the good folks over at Tru Thoughts agree and have seen fit to round up a double disc set of his previous tracks for a timely revisit. So after initially pulling a similar stunt for original Tru Thoughts artist Bonobo, and then following it up with comps from Quantic and Nostalgia 77, the fourth in the “One Offs, Remixes & B Sides” series sees the label cast the net a little wider to pull in Domu and the work he’s produced for numerous labels over the past nine years, including his own Trebleo label.

Over the two CDs (split between original productions and remixes) and the 27 tracks, you get just about every conceivable angle of the Domu sound, whether it be the broken beats and low slung futuristic soul he’s become primarily known for, or rather the off kilter hip hop or underground house/proto disco sound he sometimes veers into. For instance on the first disc, the soulful “Message To Omar”, a 12″ released on Archive back in 2000, and the sublime ballad “Last Time” from his debut album Up + Down featuring Nicola Kramer, rub shoulders with the devastating bruk anthems “Worldwide” and “Save It”, plus new track “Springbreak” (included here for the first time and worth the price of admission alone). Over on the Remixes disc, you get a multitude of Domu’s essential reworks including his takes on The Rebirth, Maddslinky, Jazzanova and my personal favourites, his remixes of “Man With The Movie Camera” for The Cinematic Orchestra and “Take It Low” for UK hip hop outfit Broke ‘n’ English. And with much of the music featured taken from many of the labels which made up a significant part of the sadly now defunct Goya distribution stable, it is the first time some of these tracks have even been made available on CD (namely because many came out as strictly vinyl-only releases).

With its far reaching emphasis on Domu’s various production styles, the collection is pretty effective in showcasing the man’s talents and influences, and is a perfect introduction into the minds of one of the UK’s most skilful producers, DJs and remixers. Sure, there’s some other tracks that could of been added (I’d have pretty much liked either “Arrival” or “Unfazed” from his Return of The Rogue album to be sneaked in there), but you know it is really pretty comprehensive as it is.

To get a taster of the whole album, check the tracklists for both CDs and listen to the edited MP3s below to find out what you’re missing. Then hop on over to Tru Thoughts’ EtchShop to order yourself a copy next Monday. While your on that voyage of discovery, you might like to pass by Domu’s blog to catch the man in his own words. It’s normally a pretty entertaining read.

Streams & Tracklist

Domu – One Offs, Remixes and B-Sides – Tru Thoughts (TRUCD196)

CD1

1 Domu – Collecting Dust

2 Domu – Message To Omar

3 Domu – Last Time (feat Nicola Kramer)

4 Chaka Domu & Lady Yolanda – Mash Up [The Dancehall Mix]

5 Nicola Kramer – Best in Me

6 Jinadu – Turning the Tide [Original Mix]

7 Domu – Springbreak

8 Domu – Something New

9 Domu – Quarantine

10 Domu – Dangerous Times

11 Domu – Worldwide [Original Mix]

12 Domu – Taking Flight

13 Domu – Snake Eyes [Edit]

14 Domu – Save It (feat Face)

CD2

1 The Rebirth – Talking Me Down [Domu Slow Remix]

2 Spanky Wilson & The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Waiting For Your Touch [Domu Remix]

3 Bukola – Hypnotised [Domu UMOD Mix]

4 AC Lewis feat Ndidi Cascade – Tickles [Domu Remix]

5 Daedelus – Impending Doom [Domu Remix]

6 Small Arms Fiya feat Ayah – Gotta Decide [Domu Remix]

7 Maddslinky feat Jenna G – Somethin’ Extra [Domu Mix]

8 Nathan Haines – Tell Me [Domu Vocal Mix]

9 Unforscene feat Alice Russell – Don’t You Worry [Domu Remix]

10 Simon Grey – The Galáctica Suite

11 Jazzanova – Soon [Domu Vocal Mix]

12 The Cinematic Orchestra – Man With The Movie Camera [Domu Slow Mo Mix]

13 Broke ‘n’ English – Take It Low [Domu Remix]

A cheeky extra (not on the album)

AC Lewis feat Ndidi Cascade – Tickles [Domu Dub]

In celebration of the album launch next week, Domu will be playing two UK dates this weekend which you really should try and reach if you’re in town (he really is a sick DJ) . On Friday he’ll be guesting at Moog in Nottingham with two of our favourite Midland’s DJs, Beane (check his latest radio show for a deeply dug Domu special) and Mark A from Soul-Buggin. On Saturday, its the turn of the Market Place where he’ll be joining the legendary Mr Bongo soundsystem and the brothers Kev and Graham Luckhurst for the official launch party. Word is the vocal talents of the UK’s Vanessa Freeman will be in the building, there’ll be copies of the album on sale and they’ll be plenty of freebies in the house as well. Well recommended I reckon. For full details, check the flyers below.