More March Mixing Madness

Ok, here’s the latest one.

I really wanted to get in Scarlet Fantastic (one of the best 80s tracks remixed), Beyoncé & Shakira (boring radio mix, superb Freemasons version), Mika’s new one and Calvin Harris. Anyway, there’s a slightly shit transition between Death Cab For Cutie and Ben Macklin, but it gets back on track. I just couldn’t resist a Death Cab For Cutie trance remix (”Who could?”, The Blogosphere).

I notice that there is a very American “chonk chonk chonk” track in there (The Bird And The Bee). I remember dancing in Alegria in NYC a couple of years ago and it was all “chonk chonk chonk”. Very masculine gay; very crystal. As opposed to the funky house a la Hed Kandi favoured this side of the pond which is more “wheeee!”, more ‘E’. Howsandever…..

Feck it, let’s boogie!

Tracklist;

1. Guilty (Eddie Thoneick Remix) * De Souza Feat. Shena
2. Lollipop (Club Mix) * Dada Feat. Sandy Rivera & Trix
3. No Memory (Dennis Christopher Vocal Mix) * Scarlet Fantastic
4. Beautiful Liar (Freemasons Club Vox) * Beyoncé & Shakira
5. Follow Me * Jonathan Peters
6. Marching Bands of Manhattan (Blake Jarrell’s Pacha NYC Remix) * Death Cab For Cutie
7. Feel Together * Ben Macklin Feat. Tiger Lily
8. Love Today (Moto Blanco Club Mix) * Mika
9. Fucking Boyfriend (Ralphi Rosario & Jody DB Vox Mix) The Bird And The Bee (thanks to afterhours for this!)
10. I Love Music (Yer Man Remix) * Fonzerelli
11. Acceptable in the 80s (Tom Neville Remix) * Calvin Harris

Download the full hour-long extravanganza (Remastered mp3, 66MB) [mediafire link].

YouTube’s raison d’être

This is why YouTube exists. It works on so many levels…..

Terrible Twosome

Terrible Twosome, originally uploaded by Enda P.

Just wanted to show the man to the world; Isn’t he cute? Am I slushy?

(”Barf!”, says blogosphere…)

Siobhan Donaghy in Rather Good Record Shock!

Former Sugababe about to release ‘Kate Bush meets Goldfrapp being spied upon by (hey!) Sugababes’ track. Good video too. I hope the remixes keep that stunning synth-driven chorus.

Em…..

Em….., originally uploaded by Enda P.

You just can’t let me out. This is me going a bit mad at my little sister’s wedding last Friday.

Good fun overall and don’t they make a cute couple?

That Birthday Night In Full (not really)

I nominated last Saturday for my birthday celebrations; here are some lowlights. Arf.

1. Things began sensibly enough in Saba, a ‘hot’ new Asian restaurant in Dublin, which was very good indeed with stupendously gorgeous staff and fab service. There were eight of us including the lovely Donal, who I don’t normally see much of.

2. We progressed across the road to the Clarendon bar. This is me lurching over husband & wife Enda (another one) and Catherine. Odd ‘night time’ setting on camera not that good, obviously.

3. Garvan took this pic in the bar of old painting duffer avec my balloon. Ho ho!

4. To The Dragon, gay dancing & beverage emporium, and along came Simon to compare blue eyes and pale skin.

5. Then I told Kevin & Hafiz a very funny story.

6. I got to know some new people on the dancefloor while….

7. …we then went to a houseparty somewhere before returning to the hotel to sip some champagne and nibble cucumber sandwiches (or something) with Kev & Garv until 8am. Eeeps.

All in all, utterly good fun, but, really, I am getting a bit too old for this shit. Roll on next weekend (Fri = wedding in west of Ireland, Sat = wedding in London.) Make it STOP!

Bad.Good.Bad.Good.

Ok, tomorrow is my lil’ sis’ mother-in-law-to-be’s funeral. Not good.

But lil sis is getting married to the man she loves tomorrow week. That’s good.

I’m 34 on Monday. Aaargh.

But I’ll be celebrating with my man and friends in Dublin on Saturday. Thats hella good.

Life is, in the main, pretty bloody good. Kev and I were talking about this recently; when we are old and on the way out, won’t we have fucking fabulous memories to look back on? We love, we dance our arses off, we contribute, we travel, we flirt, we laugh, we get high, we cry, we smile and make people smile, we try to make sense of some of it and throw our hands up and laugh at the absurdities of the rest of it. What friggin’ more do you want?

Oh, some music? Ok…

Wanna wallow? Ryan Adams’ Harder Now That Its Over. This track helped me get through all sorts of crap like the last break-up, and continues to be inspirational. (He seems to be a bit of a mess though)

Or more joyous stuff? Howzabout the most joyous track ever made? Bent’s Comin’ Back. Bliss.

Life’s a cnut sometimes…

So, in just over a week my little baby sister gets married to her handsome fiancé. They’ve been together a few years and they’ve worked very hard to get jobs, build a house (nearly finished) and generally get on with things. They certainly haven’t frivolously flitted about the globe hedonistically like certain other people (don’t judge me!), and by and large they are decent citizens.

They had originally planned to get married later this year. Nothing big or fancy as they’d prefer to use their money wisely on debt repayment and mortgages and all that jazz that I get scared about when confronted, but they had wanted a celebration nonetheless.

Then my future brother-in-law’s mother was diagnosed with cancer last November and given a couple of months to live. Poor woman. She really wanted to see them married, so they pulled out all the stops and managed to bring forward the date by several months. No mean feat with work, life and an ailing parent to look after. But it would be worth it to give a dying woman some happiness.

Alas, the woman died peacefully last night, just 9 days before the wedding. At least she knew that the Big Day was going to happen, and her family were all with her when she died.

Rest well, Mrs Clarke.

Arf!

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: Let’s Dance!

Still trying to shake off a nasty cold, so am stuck at home. I treated myself to a new piece of software called Mixed in Key, which allows one to identify what key tracks are in and consequently making mixing more harmonious. On Friday night, I tried it out with lots of older tracks and it was horrid, which made me realise that mixing is not just about putting similar tracks beside each other; it’s also about all sorts of other things like beatmatching and context and so on.

Anyway, I abandoned that project for the moment and decided to do a mix with current tracks instead. And I’m impressed! Matching the keys means I could mix tracks into each other much earlier without the overlap sounding a bit off. I’m terribly pleased! (Apart from the bloody too loud bits that are a bit squelchy).

Product promotion over! Here are the fruits of my labours; the usual euphoric funky housey shit that makes loads of sense when you’re out of your head. (Ignore the transition between 6 and 7 when it all went a bit tits up, but I did all sorts of things to it to make it sound OK-ish -how on earth do DJs do this sort of stuff live? They are musical geniuses!).

Download the mix as one track Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: Spring 07 (Remastered mp3 62MB) [mediafire link]

1. Dare Me (Stupidisco) (Warren Clarke Club Mix) * Junior Jack
2. Want Love (Hoxton Whores Remix) * Hysteric Ego Vs. Hoxton Whores
3. So In Love With You (Haji & Emanuel Mix) * Duke
4. Ocean Drums (Mischa Daniels Higher Mode Mix) * Jerry Ropero & Michael Simon feat. Kathy Brown
5. Head Over Heels (Alex Gaudino Remix) * Blu Lipstick
6. Hard To Beat (Axwell Mix) * Hard-Fi
7. Smaller (Dave Aude Remix) * Suite 117
8. Ring The Alarm (Freemasons Mix) * Beyoncé
9. Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (Stonebridge Mix) * Seamus Haji feat. KayJay
10. Destination Calabria (Club Mix) * Alex Gaudino feat. Crystal Waters