I'm an Ed Rec Edit Addict

Bonjour Mes Enfants et Bienvenue to the Midfield General Blogsite.

The reason for the bad French is that you have probably be directed here by those lovely people at Ed Banger who have kindly put me on their mail-out.

For those of you who don't know, my connections with Ed Banger started back in 2004 when I licensed Theme From Vicarious Bliss for Skint, then in 2005 I chose Paris for my sabbatical, where I was supposed to start work on my album General Disarray. I was very kindly adopted by the Ed Rec crew, so for 8 glorious months went to their parties, took pictures and tried, unsuccessfully, to explain the theory behind a 'round of drinks'.

So, to explain the title of this entry... For some reason I just can't stop re-editing/remixing their tracks. My first was a remix of Krazy Baldheads 'Crazy Motherfuckers', and then I recently did one for the amazing Positif by Mr Oizo which has been doing the rounds in blog-world. And here is another which is being sent out into the wide world for the first time. It is my re-working of the So-Me remix of Busy P's track To Protect & Entertain. Click on the red writing for a 320 mp3.

I suppose while I've got you hear I should let you know about stuff I have coming up. Next week I'll be releasing some mixes of tracks off my album, there will be one a month available through Beatport and we kick of with Error, with my own disco-ish reworking (which is now on my myspace music player, and the original Rough Dub. Then there will be mixes of other tracks by Fukkk Off, Arveene & Misk, Tronik Youth, OrtzRoka, Broken Hookers, Si Begg, Stenchman and many more. I bet you just can't wait can you?

So, I always try and illustrate each post with a few pictures, so it's only right that I include a few from my time in Gay Paris. 

Enchantee

Mix for November for BLAH BLAH BLAH

Evening all...

So, November, dear dear November...

Why so gushing about November eh? I hear you ponder..

Well for a start I get to final wear my big coat, but more importantly it's my birthday on the 4th, and this year it was extra special as I asked for a new American president. And hey ho.. i got one.

I'd been following the election very intently and spent way to much time watching Fox News and their blatant attempts to derail the Obama campaign... As the election loomed I actually started to wonder if I wanted Barack to win to finally put an end to the divisive politics of the Neo Cons, to usher in a new era of hope and optimism, to finally have an America you can like again... OR, just to really piss off Sean Hannity, the hateful piece of shit 'political commentator'.

So it's with great joy that my November mix starts with the moment that Fox, through gritted teeth project Obama to win... glorious.

The mix was done in association with the very nice people from Blah, Blah, Blah. A Brighton based bunch who put on clubs and stuff... click on the red letters for a link to their site where you will find it along with my September mix and the tracklistings.

The pictures are from a recent trip to New Yoik, the first is fairly self explanatory and the 2nd is a friend getting a tattoo whilst out there.. feel the pain.

I Rock With Tourettes at the Discotheque...

Hello loyal readers,

So those frustrating days you've spent hitting refresh every 5 minutes on my blog for my next post are finally over... hallelujah I hear you both cry..

So what do I have for you this time.. Well it's a remix I did for Kid Acne,  my favourite MC in the world. Sliding Doors is taken off his excellent 3rd album Romance Ain't Dead which came out in 2007. This remix never saw the light of day because, er, well I didn't get it finished in time.. I should have blamed some lack of A&R vision.. but no, it's me own fault..

Anyway, I still really like it so here it is..

It's a kinda dirty 112 BPM type thing..

click on the red type to download a 320 mp3.

This isn't my first remix of Kid Acne, hell no... I also did a track from his 2nd album called Squirrel Hunters and it's on his myspace page which lives here...

www.myspace.com/kidacne123

The picture is Kid Acne rocking the discotheque at YoYo in April 2007, it was the 12th around 9:45 if my memory serves me correctly..

New mix for September..

Here's a new DJ mix what I've just done. It's a 50 minute collection of what I've playing right about now.. Click on the red type to download it.. Hope you like it..

I also thought I should repost some of my older mixes as they're getting lost in the depths of my furious posting. And well, I must admit to an alterior motive, my new DJ agent has asked me to put up some mixes so people can get an idea of what I'm playing... so there. 

http://www.skint.net/tracks/bigroommix.mp3

http://www.skint.net/tracks/backroommix.mp3

http://www.zshare.net/audio/105284679559eb04/

http://www.zshare.net/audio/11287790400eed88/

RUBBISH

Yes indeed... I've been rubbish at updating this blog.. sorry about that.. 

Part of my weak defence is that I've been very busy in the studio, and DJing and had a holiday, and been consumed by The Wire, and the American election campaign, and the book Shantaram.. So there.

I've been doing quite a few remixes of late.. for Bloc Party, Grinderman, X-Press 2, Nelson, Tronik Youth, quite a few tracks off my own album. They should be seeing the light of day very soon...

I also have a new mix which i'll be posting in a minute too..

So that's my excuse done..

Suppose i should explain the pictures to illustrate my summer..

The first was taken in Mykonos in Greece, this beautiful couple were doing a photo shoot to show there joy at being alive and well, just being beautiful i suppose..

The second is Lenin, taken in Moscow during my recent trip there to DJ with the lovely Mr Shit Robot. Twas an excellent night. The mural was in a Moscow subway.. don't ask me which one because quite frankly I didn't have a clue which one i was in.. it's beautiful down there but it's also very confusing if you don't speak Russian.

Number 3 is from the Boosh Fest, where I was honoured to share a dressing room with Jarvis Cocker.. and so i'm just showing off there really.. 

and finally a picture from my home town, Whitstable. This is just next to my families restaurant/pub The Sportsman, where myself and Mrs General where enjoying a sunset... ahh

Booshstock

I am very happy to announce that I'll be DJing at The Mighty Boosh Festival. It's being held at The Hop Farm in Kent on the 5th July. All the information is on the poster.. 

Now, I have to come clean, just in case the Advertising Standards people have nothing better to do... I'm not actually the 2nd headline act.. but I am guilty of some photoshop sneakery and some mild delusions of grandeur.. oh well. See if you can guess where I really belong on the bill.

For those who don't know.. my Boosh connections come from having worked with Noel Fielding a couple of times on my albums, Midfielding on my first album and Seed Distribution on the current one, General Disarray. There's also a version we recorded for a Steve Lamacq session called Barry The Moth. Basically he tells one of his stories, I put it over some music and bingo! Who said music and comedy shouldn't mix... Just look at The Barron Knights and Weird Al Yankovic and try and tell me it doesn't work.

Back in 1999 I saw Noel on a very early TV appearance and thought... Y'know he's going to be big, if I'm nice to him now I'll be able to grab on to his famous coattails in 8 years time when he's a megastar and I'm scrabbling around for meaning, some fans and a bit of attention in the Post Digital Apocalypse of the Music Industry..  uncanny how things work out eh??

So, to illustrate this post I've gone for 2 pictures.. One is backstage at one of their shows at The Brighton Centre, where they pose with some washed up old has been popstar from a bygone era... and Gary Numan.

The other is Dave Brown/Bollo eating a sandwich on a very small chair at a friends wedding. Not particular relevant to anything but I've always loved this picture..

I Must Gush About Kevin

I was very happy to be asked by the lovely Erol Alkan to write a piece on my musical hero for his website. So I dusted off my quill of truth and wisdom and began to spew enthusiastically about Kevin Saunderson. I did ponder a few other names, Mantronix, J Saul Kane, Andy Weatherall, Harvey.. but Kevin just edged it.. and if you read the piece (click on the red title for the link) you'll see why. 

I've already spotted a couple of grammatical errors but I did finish it at 5 o'clock this morning and I don't think Miss Lewis, my English teacher will be reading it.. so, like, y'know, whatevah, yeah LOL!!!?

I should really illustrate this post with a picture of Mr Saunderson, but I don't have a picture quite as good as this one of Erol with an award he won for Muzik magazine back in 2002. I think it was for DJ Most In Need of Some Conditioner...

Oh yes, I'm also playing at Durrr tonight, which i'm incredibly excited about..

Mixmag 25th Anniversary Party

T'other week I was asked to DJ at Mixmags 25th Anniversary party. The plan was that a number of DJs each play their 5 favourite records from the last 25 years.. 

Other DJs included Rocky from X-Press 2, New Young Pony Club, Annie Mac, Herve & Sinden, Jon Carter, a man like Goldie, Westwood! and Judge Jules... See who I roll with? fuck yeah!

The lovely picture above is of Ralph Moore, Mixmag's editor.. I think he's the editor, well if he isn't he should be..

So anyway, what records did you play I hear you yawn... well they where..

Let's Get Brutal  - Nitro Deluxe

Al-Naafiysh - Hashim

Da Funk - Daft Punk

Darn (Cold Way O'Lovin) - Super_Collider

Losing My Edge - LCD Soundsystem..

Apparently a lot of people picked Super_Collider.. which is nice of them but then it is an amazing record. And trivia fans, the video for it was filmed in my house... 

Yes indeed, but I wasn't quite so happy and proud  at the time. You see, the keys for the house became available while I was on holiday, Irish John, Skints Video Commissioner and my housemate asked if they could use the empty house for a small bit of shooting.. reluctantly I agreed as long as they kept quiet and only allowed the bare minimum of people in the house.. (Well I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the neighbours..)

But as you will see from the video, half of fucking Brighton turned up and my house turned into one of those parties the Daily Mail write about to illustrate the depths to which this country has sunk... they even took some pictures of me and Mrs General looking forlornly at our wrecked dream home, but then some Asylum Seekers raped a Corgi and we were bumped..

Oh well, still, great video..

Are People Real Podcast

I was very happy to be asked to do a mix for the lovely Broken Hooker DJs and there excellent ArePeopleReal podcasts.... Click on the bright shiny red letters to subscribe to the show.. Once you've marveled at my bit (apart from the mix out of Pennie's From Heaven, which is a touch shoddy I have to admit) it's really worth checking out the past shows...

Here's the tracklist for my bit... I'd been going through and digitizing a lot of my old records that week, which explains the lack of much new stuff on it, but after digging out tracks like Charlies Concept and the Dirt Crew mix of Sasse, well I thought they needed to be heard again. There is the first ever airing of Dennis Dub, which funnily enough is a dub version of Dennis & My Sister off the album. The track contains commentary from Jack Van Gelder, the Dutch John Motson, who gets rather over excited when Dennis Bergkamp scores one of the best goals ever to win the World Cup Quarter final for Holland against Argentina. Todays' picture is my visual interpretation of that fine moment... hope you like it..

International Pony - Our House
Midfield General - Dennis Dub
Sasse - Soul Sounds (Dirt Crew Remix) 
Funk 198 - Charlies Concept
The Subs - Unknown
Midfield General - Faster 
Sirisumo - All The Girls (Tomboy Mix)
Inner City - Pennies From Heaven 
Herve - Hi Jackin
Boys Noize - Lava Lava (Feadz Remix)
Michael Jackson - Thriller (Souls Get Down Re Edit)

6 Music Roundtable

Last Thursday I was a guest on the Steve Lamacq Roundtable show on 6 Music. The idea is that 3 guests listen to a handful of new records, give their opinion on them and mark them out of 10 and the winner is the one with most points.. just in case you hadn't worked that out for yourself. Some of the records we reviewed were; the new Coldplay single (not as bad as i'd thought it would be) the new CSS track (bit disappointing sadly) and the excellent new Mystery Jets single '2 Doors Down' which everyone loved and was crowned the runaway winner.. Hoorah. If you have nothing better to do you can listen again to the show by clicking on the red title...

My fellow guests where the lovely Huw Stephens from Radio 1 and Sam Sparro. Now, this sounds terrible and I hate myself for even thinking it... but whenever you're about to meet someone very talented and good looking, you kinda hope they're going to be a bit of a pratt. It just seems unfair for someone to be all those things and a thoroughly decent human being too... but he is, damn him. 

As you can see from the lovely picture of myself and Sam, (kindly reproduced from Huw Stephens blogsite) I got a bit confused as to what face to pull in those crucial seconds before the shutter clicked. Realising it was futile to try and look anything close to 'chiselled' next to him  I went for my grinning idiot face... Hence,  he looks like a proper pop star and I look like a competition winner... I need to work on that.

Soulwax

Soulwax played down in Brighton last week. They played their live Nite Versions of their Remixes. I think that makes sense.. Anyway, more importantly, they were brilliant. Their version of LCDs Get Innocuous was a particular highlight, when they're locked into the groove there are few better, certainly from Belgium anyway.. (Sorry, it was getting a bit sycophantic so I had to get a bit Belgianist to counter all the fawning)

Unfortunately I missed the screening of the film their Rave-umentary "Part Of The Weekend Never Dies." Which was annoying, so I've decided to put my own together... This teaser is from  a show they did in Tokyo in 2004. Including a rare-ish guest appearance from Nancy Whang and featuring Little Dave from Goose on 3rd keyboard.  Aside from this clip and one of the brothers humiliating a poor Japanese DJ in an interview most of the footage I have of them is when they've played the Dave Clarke remix of Coatnoise in various locations. I'm thinking of calling it "Part Of My Coatnoise Never Dies" but then again maybe not...

The picture is from the same trip, but this time at the Electraglide Festival in Osaka..

Another Mix

So here is another mix...

I know, I know, I just can't stop giving..

This was done for my good friend Johnny Reggae and his Friday night show, The Hook Up on Brightons  Juice 107.2 FM.

I've been doing quite a few mixes for radio of late. I've been trying to get a balance of new bits, some older but still good bits and a bit of self promotion with tracks from the album. And yes, I've used the Vaughan Mason with the Disco Sirens accapella into Nitro Deluxe trick again.. sorry.

I figured it being a mix for a Brighton radio show I should show you a picture of Brighton. 

I took ages waiting for the seagull to fly past, so please pay it due attention... It's funny how they can look almost beautiful in flight and when you can't hear the fucking things screeching whilst they have sex on a rooftop just by your bedroom window.

Kidda  Feels So Good (Midfield General Rx) Skint
Sisqo Thong Song Erol Alkan Re-Edit CDR
Duoteque  Drug Queen Boxer
Surkin  White Knight Institubes
Crookers Brookah Big Sur
Idiotproof The Deacon (Duke Dumont Rx)
Midfield General  Teddy Bear Accapella Skint
Justice Stress (Auto Remix) Ed Banger
Midfield General Error Skint
France Copland Pute Et Mac Copland
Brandon Cooke feat Roxanne Shante Sharp As A Knife Mercury
Dave Clarke The Wiggle Skint
Ian Pooley Chord Memory (Daft Punk Remix) Force Inc
Midnight Juggernauts Shadows Modular
Vaughan Mason Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll Vanguard
Midfield General Disco Sirens Skint
Nitro Deluxe Lets Get Brutal Cutting Records
Midfield General Dennis & My Sister (Acappela) Skint

Interview with Jonty Skruff

Click on the title for a recent interview I did with Jonty Skruff, and well, I was quite pleased with it, so here it is...

Jonty does, amongst many other things, a weekly newsletter, if you've not seen it is really worth subscribing to. Lots of interesting stories and interviews from Dancemusicland and beyond... you can join at www.skrufff.com. 

The picture is of my studio, for no other reason that I like nosing at pictures of other peoples studios... I like to say it's creatively messy..

Soccer AM

This Saturday (26th April) I'm going to be a guest on Soccer AM, the irreverent Saturday morning football show. They've been playing Disco Sirens over the top of their 'showboating' section, which is basically clips of fancy footwork and outrageous skills, and they very kindly asked me on to the show. I will be the one telling the self-deprecating anecdotes and breathing in a lot.

Seeing as I like to illustrate each post with a picture I though I'd include this gem from a game of football played at Sonar 2005. I captained a side of good, honest British players against Tiga's group of International mercenaries & assorted Eurotrash on the beach. Here James Murphy (goalkeeper) and I (midfield, of course) are just about to smash into each other. If you've ever heard a record cringingly described as "Like the sound of Big Beat & Punk Funk colliding" This is probably the closet you'll ever get to a visual interpretation of it... 

It was 1 all by the way..

DISCO SIRENS - RAVE DISCO BEASTIES DEMO VERSION

So this week finally sees the release of my single Disco Sirens... 

For a long time the working title was Rave Disco and the unrevolutionary idea was to make  a mid-tempo, hip hop, disco track in homage to some of my all time favourite tracks by the Sugarhill Gang, Funky plus 1 and Spoonie Gee, but with some Rave noises in it... see what i did there??

The track features the brilliant Vila from The Bumblebeez on vocals, I was always a fan of her work and was very happy when she agreed to collaborate. Getting vocals back from people is always a bit nervewracking and so I was hugely relieved when I got them back and she had come up with the line 'I'm in love with the Disco Sirens'. 

I played an early version to Xavier from Justice who really liked it but felt that my bassline was a bit ploddy and lacked funk and replayed the bassline and simplified the drums for me, adding that certain 'je ne sais quoi'. Soulwax very kindly helped with the final mix.

So I thought I'd put up an early demo version of it.. to show you just how ploddy it was. I'd put an accapella of Check It Out by  The Beastie Boys over the top just to, y'know, check the flow...

If there's anyone who hasn't taken it off a blog site yet you can buy it at DJ Download, Beatport, HMV or here..