Two Turntables, No Microphone (Craze Interview)

Jens Lekman's self-released seven inch doesn't help if Nina drops the cardboard, and The New Pornographers are useless when Cecilia wants to blow speakers. Let's face it - you can't even pop and lock to Aesop Rock.

Your music collection (and game) needs more raw booty house. Old-school electro. Baltimore/Miami bass ghettotech. Deep nods to Tuff Crew, Coldcut and Magic Mike; fresh beats from Bangers and Cash, Cool Kids and Blaqstarr. But where could you get two decades' worth of street in one mix? And can it be here by Friday?

As the only DJ to hold down the DMC World Championships three times in a row, Craze is quite literally one of the best scratch DJs in the world. The world son! So when London's top club commissioned Craze to put up something serious for their FabricLive Series, good things ensued. We sat down with the Miami-based (ha) DJ to discuss the Fabric mix, Baltimore/Miami cartel connections, leaving the DnB scene, and why grape nuts are neither grapes nor nuts.

Listen to the interview here

Tracklist below with a few of the original mp3s (not the mix version). Spoon yourself a hefty serving of Dulcolax before listening, this ish is real tight.

01. Craze – Intro Ft. Armanni Reign - Craze
02. N.O.R.E. – Set It Off Ft. Swizz Beatz and J. Ru$$ - Babygrande
03. Cool Kids – I Rock – Chocolate Industries
04. Cool Kids – Black Mags – Chocolate Industries
05. Bangers and Cash - Loose – Downtown (not appropriate for anyone)
06. Tuff Crew – My Part Of Town - Warlock
07. Jan Hammer – Miami Vice Theme - Universal
08. Miami Jam Crew – Pretty Girls – Midtown
**. DJ Blaqstarr – Shake It To The Ground Ft. Rye Rye (Acapella) – Mad Decent
09. Lushus – Ho Fo Sho - Craze
10. The Beat Club – Security - Warners
11. Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ (Eli Escobar Remix Ft. Pase Rock) – Back Yard
12. Treasure Fingers – Cross The Dancefloor – Treasure Fingers
13. DJ Blaqstarr – Supastarr – Mad Decent
14. Coldcut – True Skool Ft. Roots Manuva (Switch Remix) – Ninja Tune
15. Earth, Wind and Fire – Brazilian Rhyme - Sony
16. Armand Van Helden – I Want Your Soul – Ministry Of Sound
17. Debbie Deb - When I Hear Music – Pandisc
18. Magic Mike – Magic Mike Cutz The Record – Cheetah
19. Quadrant Six – Body Mechanic - Atlantic
20. DJ Laz – Red Alert – Pandisc
21. Fresh Celeste and M4 Sers – Give It All To Me – JR Records
22. Bangers And Cash – Shake That - Downtown
23. The Pase Rock – Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge (Klever Remix) – Fully Fitted
24. Kazey & Bulldog – Big Truck – Dress-2-Sweat
25. The Chemical Brothers – Get Yourself High (Switches Rely On Rub) – EMI
26. Kid Sister – Pro Nails Remix feat. Kanye West – Fools Gold
27. DJ Assault – Pushin’ (Deekline, Wizard & Freq Nasty Mix) - Rat

FabricLive.38 is available via UK retail next Monday and stateside in March - and as always, you can sample every song online before buying (great idea). Big ups to Craze and James/Clare from the Fabric Press crew for making the time.

Bmore folks - Craze will be at Sonar with Treasure Fingers and Klever for a little Fabric release party on 2/29. And it's a Friday, so.

Keep reading...

Collapse post

Soon There Will Be Justice In Baltimore (+ Fabric Update)

Like around March 9th at Sonar. And less of the socioeconomic sort, more industrial French house with special guest DJ Mehdi.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (live)
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Benny Blanco mix Feat. Mos Def and Spank Rock)
DJ Mehdi - I Am Somebody (feat. Chromeo)
DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Thomas Bangalter edit)

Last month Justice also told a Norwegian newspaper that their proposed Fabriclive mix had been rejected by the Fabric team...adding "We didn't want to do just another boring mix, so we put together a selection of tunes we absolutely love, mainly weird disco tracks and French novelty acts. But Fabric turned it down. They weren't ready for something like this. Maybe we'll put the mix out ourselves. People should really hear it, they'd be surprised."

You can hear the mix for yourself here courtesy of Gorilla vs. Bear.

Tracklist:
01 Sparks: "Tryouts for the Human Race"
02 Rondo Veneziano: "La Serenissima"
03 Goblin: "Tenebrae"
04 Daft Punk: "Ouverture"
05 Surkin: "Next of Kin"
06 Symbolone: "Love Juice"
07 Korgis: "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes"
08 Midnight Juggernauts: "Ending of an Era"
09 The Paradise: "In Love With You [ft. Romauld]"
10 Justice: "TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY (Acapella)"
11 Chic: "Everybody Dance"
12 Frankie Valli: "Who Loves You"
13 Das Pop: "Underground"
14 Julien Clerc: "Quand Je Joue"
15 Daniel Balavoine: "Vivre Ou Survivre"
16 Richard Sanderson: "Reality"
17 Zoot Woman: "Grey Day"
18 Fucking Champs: "Thor Is Like Immortal"
19 The Rave: "Mother"
20 Fancy: "You Never Know"
21 Frank Stallone: "Far From Over"
22 Sheila: "Misery"
23 Todd Rundgren: "International Feel"

Seems like more of a lazy faves tape than anything you'd hear from the top-gear Fabric series - most of it's just unmixed obscure radio rock, hipster nods and weak tot action. What do you think?

Don't forget the Cut Copy and Spank Rock FabricLive mixes - easily two of the best recent DJ sets around (and you can sample every song before buying). We also had a chance to hear two recent additions to the series, Fabric 38: M.A.N.D.Y. and FabricLive 38: Craze which should both be released in the states around Feb/March (thanks James). From smart, understated Berlin house to shark-your-Mom club bangers there's something for everyone on this pair.

Back to DJ Mehdi, Romain Gavras' video for Signatune is a muscle car decibel battle classic.

Keep reading...

Collapse post

FabricLive 36 Cracks Hipster Dance Code

Breaking news for the scientific strobe light community - James Murphy and Pat Mahoney may have finally isolated the hipster genome that dictates social dancefloor movement. We'll spare you the suspense - the secret is disco! It's so obvious now that you know.

After years of spinning plates and twiddling waxy lab knobs across the globe, the LCD Soundsystem crewmates emerge with FABRICLIVE 36, a sweat n' spandex blend of seminal disco, deep rare grooves and edgy tech-infused funk. The result is unashamed hand-clapping fun, upfront rhythms, heartwarming guilty pleasures, and a glimpse of the robot-dominated future late 70s funkmasters were sure we were doomed for.

Butter team sat down with LCD Soundsystem drummer Pat Mahoney today to get the scoop. Listen to a really quick snippet of the interview here or see a few quotes below:

On the secret to breaking the hipster's double helix of crossed arms:
"I think it's disco. You gotta trick 'em into it though. You can't come right out of the gate with the deep stuff or they get shy." (Pat's recommended warm-on-contact lubricants include Arthur Russell and ESG)

On making mixtapes:
“We find doing mix CDs horrifying to a certain degree because there’s nobody there, so it’s just like, ‘What are we doing?!’ It’s like you’re just yelling into the air. We bought an old Bozak for this – the first DJ mixer ever built, hand-built [off Craig's List]. It sounds incredible. Everything sounds nicer and bigger and smoother and beautiful. The mix itself will have a little bit of stuff that isn’t necessarily what we’d play in a club. But we’d like it to be fun. So we’ll just do it a bunch of times live. Do it until you like it, that’s actually our motto.”

You can review every song on FabricLive 36 here, which will be released on October 2nd to Fabric First members, November 11th in the US and October 15th elsewhere. We highly recommend grabbing it before your friends do and copping all the beats for your own super smooth late night. Maybe rename the playlist "a few crate digs from last week" and don't look back.

In the meantime, here's one of our favorite originals featured in the mix (Junior Byron), a classic LCD Soundsystem jam that first appeared as a b-side to Losing My Edge, Loose Joints from Arthur Russell and some Gil! Scott! Heron!

Junior Byron - Dance To The Music (very, very dope)
LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection (edit)
Arthur Russell - Pop Your Funk
Gil Scott-Heron - The Bottle

Buy LCD Soundsystem, Junior Byron, Arthur Russell, Gil Scott-Heron

Keep reading...

Collapse post