Sunday 22 November 2009

TrickyDiscoVideo: Kelpe LIVE at I Feel Space

On Saturday 21st November, DC Recordings' highly regarded Kelpe came to Bristol to play a live set at the I Feel Space party at LAB Club. The set they played was superb - lively, energetic, tight and above all heavy. It had the LAB crowd going crazy.

Tricky Disco was there and filmed some of the set for posterity. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Thursday 23 July 2009

TrickyDiscoMix: Sell By Dave - Fourth Bass: I Feel Space v UFO

Last Saturday night I guested at a fantastic party put on my friends from I FEEL SPACE and UFO, two of Bristol's best club nights. Boxcutter headlined with a fantastic set, and after a particularly heavy bass mix-up from local Bristol leg end ThinKing I got to finish the night off with some late night faves.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, got some great feedback from punters and really mixed it up in energetic fashion. So, on Monday night, I decided to have a go at laying down a spontaneous mix inspired by Saturday night's shenanigans. And here it is.

Called 'Fourth Bass' (it's a kind of follow up to Third Bass, posted here earlier this year), it's a mix of tracks I played that night with a few additions. It's not exactly the same set, but it has a similar flow and vibe - lots of energetic mixing, records overlapping, punching tunes in and out of the mix quite quite quick. Hopefully you'll enjoy it. It was recorded in one go with no overdubs or edits using two turntables, a mixer and a CDJ.

The tracks are a mix of classics, remixes, my own edits and some new stuff. Think Mujave, the Black Dog, Salt City Orchestra, Brooks, Derrick Carter, Fast Eddie, Ladycop, DJ T, Paul Woolford, the Juan MacLean, the Electric Press, EMVEE, Falty DL and Lee Douglas. Full tracklist to come.

Wednesday 15 July 2009

The Green Jersey Dub


As usual, we've been a bit slack in updating Tricky Disco lately. The good news is that we've got plenty of material to excite your senses with ready to whack up in the next few weeks.

Look out for extended pieces on 15 years of 2020 Vision, the story of Bleep (20 years on), some fresh mixes and, of course, a bunch of random edits and remixes for your pleasure.

Speaking of which, in honour of the Tour de France, which is currently keeping us captivated, we were inspired to cut up an old skool electro classic by a well-known collective of cycling-obsessed German robots. Perhaps the original shouldn't have been touched, but we were quite keen on making a more beatsy version that gets rid of some of the frillier melodic elements. It's only a short little sprint through the track, so we've named our version after the Green Jersey - the silly outfit given to the top sprinter (currently the Norwegian chap on the right, but previously Britain's own sprint king Mark Cavendish).

So here it is:


On another note, those in Bristol should head down to LAB (what was formerly the Arc Bar) on Saturday 18th July for I FEEL SPACE & UFO. This collaboration between two of the city's most open-minded quality party crews sees a heavyweight double-header of headliners: Boxcutter and Various Production. Tricky Disco will be in attendance, with Sell By Dave playing acid/bleep/warehouse related fodder downstairs alongside the superb Placid and Joe Hart. Seven quid on the door, or a fiver in advance. Get involved - i should be an amazing party.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

TrickyDiscoMix: Sean Kelly & Sell By Dave - Redfield Sessions Vol 2

Ey up! It's been a while since we've posted any new music (or articles, for that matter). Praise be, then, for this new mix offering from yours truly and Sean Kelly.

A couple of years ago, when Sean and I shared a house, we recorded an 'off the cuff' mix which we called 'The Redfield Sessions'. It featured a mixture of wonky, dubbed-out disco, house, acid, techno, old skool electro and nu-disco. It was a little rough round the edges (it was recorded live, with no post production) but great fun. Last week Sean suggested we get together and lay down another mix. The results can be downloaded below.

We set the recording going and then just mixed, until, nearly 2 hours later, we decided to stop. Since we've given it a listen and reckon it's worth sharing, so it's presented below in it's original state, cut into two palatable chunks. Part 1 is just over 50 minutes, and eases us in with a variety of largely downtempo/beatsy flavours – aqua-crunk, wonk-hop, slo-mo space funk, electro, mutant disco, deep house and the like. Part 2 goes more uptempo, boasting italo, nu-disco, acid house, classic rave-isms, garage, stupidly wonlt beats, dub house and even a bit of Kelley Polar Quartet. Enjoy!

Part 1 (51 mins)

1. Chilled By Nature - Otherness [Black Mustang's Frozen Moon Jam]/Outkast - Playaz Ball
2. Harmonic 313 - Quadrant 3
3. Atlantic Conveyor - You Got Me
4. Floating Points - Love Me Like This [Radio]
5. Severed Heads - The Ant Can Legs
6. Osborne - Out Of Sight [Luke Vibert Remix]
7. Arcadion - Fly Vision
8. Her Bad Habit - My Bad Habit
9. Truffle Club - She Made Me
10. X-Rabit & DSG - Thundercat
11. MV v RM - Witness Heads
12. Vagabond - Sweat [Toddla T Instrumental]
13. Paul White - (unknown)

Part 2 (58 mins) ** new download link added 14/7/09 **

14. 40 Thieves - Click Naif
15. Syclops - Where's Jason's K?
16. M-D-M - Get Acidic
17. Pierre's Fantasy Club - Fantasy Girl
18. Blackfinger - VMF
19. M.I.A - Tactic Boyz
20. Slugabed - Let's Go Swimming
21. Falty DL - Human Meadow [Luke Vibert Remix]
22. MJ Cole - Wondering Why [Dub]
23. Housemeister - Vakum
24. Dorian Concept - Vertical Output
25. Alden Tyrell - Another Explosion
26. Modeslsektor - Sucker Pin [Feadz Mix]
27. Richard Sen & Cazbee - 2 Up, 2 Down
28. Keley Polar Quartet - Maurizio




Tuesday 12 May 2009

Laurent Garnier: A Kleptomaniac Speaks

Just a quick heads up for you. Recently I traveled to London to meet up with a genuine electronic music legend… one Laurent Garnier.

You can read my interview with Monsieur Garnier at Resident Advisor >>

Expect more updates soon, including new mixes, edits and other random shizzle.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Fresh from the scalpel…

Last Friday the curtain fell on our long-running best before: night with a blow-out party and a limited edition CD giveaway. That, 'The Final Version' featured a bunch of unreleased reworks and re-edits. Since only 50 lucky people got a CD, we thought we'd share some of those edits here. We've also included a couple of cuts that weren't on the CD.

So, without further ado, here's a selection on scalpel jobs… Click on the track titles to go directly to the applicable download page.

Barnstorming early 90s Warp moment given a bit of a going over. Hey hey!

The end of night best before: anthem, reworked, extended and played around with. Getting some great feedback from DJs so far…

Our first Pointless Edits release from 2007, re-cut for the '09 (and those with short memories)

The original is too long. So we made it shorter and punchier. I wanna rock!

Monday 16 March 2009

The Final Version



When we decided to call time on our long running best before: party, we thought it would be good to mark the occasion with something extra-special. First, we decided that a bit of a farewell bash was in order, and secured the services of our old pal and regular guest Chris Duckenfield for the occasion. Then we started thinking about doing something special to giveaway - a mix CD or limited artwork. Then we had a brain wave: we'd put together a disc featuring exclusive unreleased re-edits, reworks and remixes from DJs in the best before: family and give it away at the 'Final Curtain' party. Except there's a twist - we'd press up just 50 CDs.

So, here it is: 'The Final Version'.

To say that we're a bit chuffed with it is an understatement. We asked Chris Duckenfield if he fancied offering up some unreleased Popular Peoples Front fodder for the disc, and to our surprise he agreed, sending over a number of belters for the CD. We also asked some of our regular DJs and friends in Bristol for contributions. The response was impressive, and 'The Final Version' boasts gems from Al Dare (resident at BYTE and Socialism) and Vast & Bulbous, whose 'I Love You Too Much' edit is a doozy. The disc also features a couple of classics we released on Pointless Edits - from Hardway Brothers and Thumbs Aloft respectively - and a clutch of edits done specially for 'The Final Curtain' party from yours truly.

There's only one way to get the CD, and that's to head down to Native in Bristol on Friday 20th March for our farewell bash. Come down and claim a piece of history… and enjoy our last hurrah!

More info, including tracklisting, very soon!

Wednesday 4 March 2009

The Last Chance To Dance!

We've gone multimedia! Our promo video for the forthcoming best before: party at Native. Incidentally, the music is a special re-edit of a classic.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

TrickyDiscoMix: Sell By Dave - Sunshine Love


We continue our TrickyDiscoMix series with another selection from yours truly, this time in a more downtempo style. I initially put this mix together as a valentines' pressie to my girlfriend Kate, but she liked it and said I should share it with the world at large. So here it is.

It was initially inspired by the old mixtapes I used to make as a student DJ, where I'd mix some tracks together and drop in the others - the idea being that the music is more important than precise beatmatching. So, in true 'old skool' fashion, some of it is beatmatched and some of it isn't. Musically, it's a mixed bag, starting off on a luscious instrumental hip-hop/street soul tip and finishing off with a bit of loved-up disco and boogie. Along the way, there are some great tracks I've not played in yonks, notably the Marvin Gaye Project's brilliant 'Turn On Some Music' bootleg, 'Music Feel Soul', which was a huge record at Lights Down Low in Sheffield and best before: in Bristol five years ago. There's also a couple of Grand Central bits, some classic Coldcut, a DJ Mitsu The Beats remix, some Love Unlimited Orchcestra (it wouldn't be a valentines tape without a bit of Barry White!), a dash of King Britt and some choice slick disco and boogie. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Turn the lights down low and enjoy…


1. J-Walk - Following The Noughties (Grand Central)
2. Gripper - Jazz Cop (Grand Central)
3. Coldcut - Autumn Leaves (Arista/Ninja Tune)
4. Alex Attias presents Mustang - Help Me [DJ Mitsu The Beats Remix] (Compost Records)
5. Marvin Gaye Project - Music Feel Soul (Choonz Inc)
6. Love Unlimited Orchestra - Midnight Groove (Philips)
7. Basement Soul - Boi Girl You Knock Me Out (Kat)
8. Skyy - High [Kenny Dope Classic Remix] (Playa)
9. King Britt presents SYLK 130 - Happiness (feat Alma Horton) (Six Degrees)
10. Starshine - All I Need Is You [Vocal Version] (Prelude)
11. Surface - Falling In Love [Danny Krivit Re-Edit] (Salsoul)
12. Matsubara - S.O.S [Prins Thomas Re-Edit] (Rong Music)
13. Tata Vega - Get It Up For Love (Motown)
14. Gwen Guthrie - Getting Hot (Island)

Hey you, get on my SoundCloud

Ever the upfront, tech-savvy types that we are, we've recently discovered the goodness that is SoundCloud.com. For the uninitiated, it's a Berlin-based music sharing website that aims to give music listeners (and, specifically, DJs/producers/labels) an easy one-stop place to share music. Think of it as a kind of MySpace/Facebook for music, but with 'private' functions that allow you to promo/share tracks directly with friends, other producers and DJs and so on. As you'd expect, you get your own public profile page where you can showcase tracks, as well as a Drop Box (where anyone can deposit tracks for you to check out - very handy). Just like other 'social networking' sites, you can become 'follow' the producers/DJs/labels you're interested in, which means you get alerted when they upload some new music for public consumption. There are also forums and opportunities to comment on tracks (including 'timed comments', where you can say something about a specific bit of a track or mix).  You can also upload music to share 'privately' with just the people you want to hear it. Simple to use and a top idea, we reckon.


If you want to send us tracks, mixes etc, you can dump them in our SoundCloud DropBox here >>

Tuesday 17 February 2009

TrickyDiscoMix: Sell By Dave - Third Bass



The other night I was playing around with some reckuds and decided to record a mix ‘on the fly’. This is what I came up with – 80 minutes of bassline-heavy garage, house, proto-house and bleep techno.

 It kicks off with one of my favourite ever British garage records, the brilliantly wobbly BB Boogie version of Roy Ayers’ ‘Tell Him’, moving onto a classic record I’ve neglected lately – Todd Edwards’ hugely influential dub of St Germain. Then it’s off for a stroll through bumpin’ house pastures, with Solid Groove, Trevor Loveys and DJ Sneak at the helm. It was nice to revisit Paul Woolford’s always ace tech-house banger ‘For My Bleeps’ (2020 Vision meets early Warp via hip-house) and some heavyweight acid jack from Armando and Swag (under their bootleg ½ Inch Jack guise). The mix then takes a rather odd turn, going from early piano house (West Philips’ 1987 dub of ‘Tell Me’) and party anthem territory (M/A/R/R/S) to The KLF via some very heavy bleep techno vibes (Tricky Disco’s ‘Flyspray’). The whole shebang culminates in some dubby warehouse tackle (Francisco, a very early Todd Terje remix and Serious Intention’s legendary proto-house classic ‘You Don’t Know’). As always, it’s mixed straight from vinyl with no computer trickery, so look out for the crackles and mix adjustments!


1. BB Boogie - Tell Him [Booty Bounce Part 1] (Laws Of Motion)
2. St Germain - Alabama Blues [Todd Edwards Dub Mix] (F Communications)
3. Roy Davis Jnr - About Love [Solid Groove Remix] (Classic)
4. Trevor Loveys - Bouce To This [Trevor's Willsden Rub] (Freerange)
5. Freaks - Washing Machine [DJ Sneak's Longspin] (Music For Freaks)
6. Paul Woolford presents Bobby Peru - For My Bleeps (2020 Vision)
7. 1/2 Inch Jack - Red Dragon (1/2 Inch Jack)
8. Armando - Don't Take It [Johnny Fiasco Remix[ (Let's Pet Puppies)
9. West Philips - Tell me [Dub Mix] (Kool Kat)
10. M/A/R/R/S - Pump Up The Volume [Remix] (4AD)
11. Tricky Disco - Flyspray (Warp)
12. The KLF - What Time Is Love [1988 Pure Trance Original] (KLF Communications)
13. Francisco - Fregna (The Age) (Pigna Records)
14. Snuten - Wild & Free (Claws Against Knives) [Todd Terje Night Version] (C&C Records)
15. Serious Intention - You Don't Know [Special Remix] (Easy Street Records)

Monday 9 February 2009

best before: faces The Final Curtain

Those of you in Bristol - and perhaps beyond - will be familiar with Tricky Disco's regular shindig, best before:. For nearly five and a half years we've been putting on parties in a variety of venues across the city, inspired by a love of great music - both new and old - and the sorts of 'anything goes' club nights that thrill, inspire, surprise and entertain in equal measure. It's been something of a rollercoaster, if truth be told, with plenty of memorable nights along the way. We've been lucky to host some of our favourite DJs, who have without fail smashed up the dance alongside some of our friends from the world of dance music - and, of course, our little group of forward-thinking, party-minded residents.

Good things don't last forever, though, and after taking time out to decide the best way forward we've decided to call time on our little party once and for all. Of course, we couldn't go out without a final blow-out, so on March 20th we're taking over one of our favourite spaces in Bristol, Native, for one last hurrah. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you…


best before:
 presents 
THE FINAL CURTAIN

A magical evening of disco dancing and  dancefloor debauchery

F•E•A•T•U•R•I•N•G

CHRIS DUCKENFIELD
[Swag/Popular People's Front - special party selection!]

THUMBS ALOFT live feat MC COHERENT
[best of best before: mash-up!]

THE best before: ALL-STARS
Feat LEGENDARY TONE, PUFFIN JACK, THE KELLY TWINS, RICHARD CARNAGE, JAMES SMALL & PAUL WALKER

10pm-4am. £5 on the door, £3 with fancy dress/best before: Facebook Group members! Fancy dress theme: 'theatrical'. 

Friday 23 January 2009

Thumbs Aloft 'Hail To The Edits' Download

Myself and Five-Stylez have been holed up in the Bedmo Disco bunker a lot lately, working on some new Thumbs Aloft material - remixes, edits, original tracks and, of course, our long promised first mixtape. That, 'The Sound Of Bedmo', should be ready by February - our old pal MC Coherent is working on his parts, which we'll overdub and then master the whole thing.

While we were faffing about in the studio last night we came across an old edit we'd done for our shows at Bloom, but never used. It's one of those "gets played occasionally" type numbers that sits on our portable hard drive waiting for the right occasion. With this week's inauguration of President Obama over in the US, it seemed the right time to unleash some presidential disco!

So here, for your entertainment, is a vintage, unreleased Thumbs Aloft edit… 'Hail To The Edits'. Enjoy!