Tourist

How to keep the hope machine running, or what socks have to do with self-actualization and belonging.

2011-12-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

What our New Years resolutions should be.

As a lover and maker of lists, I often agree with Umberto Eco that 'The list is the origin of culture.' But, more than that, it can also be a priceless map of personal aspiration, as is the case of the kinds of lists we make this time of year — resolution lists. Pepper yours, if you make one with humour and humanity.

1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
3. Wash teeth if any
4. Shave
5. Eat good — fruit — vegetables — milk
6. Drink very scant, if any
7. Write something every day
8. Look good - shine shoes
9. Read lots good books
10. Listen to radio a lot
11. Learn people better
12. Keep home tidy
13. Dont get lonely
14. Stay glad
15. Keep hoping
16. Keep positivity machine running
17. Dream good
18. Bank all extra money
19. Save dough
20. Have company but dont waste time
21. Play good
22. Dance better
23. Help win wars
24. Love Mum
25. Love family
26. Love everybody
27. Make up your mind
28. Wake up and fight

Here's a mix of off kilter oddities and space rock we did recently too, all playable and downloadable from our Soundcloud page.

Latest tracks by Tourist Mixes

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Everybody ends up dead.

2011-12-21T13:31:00.000-08:00

An Open Letter to Writers of Open Letters

by Godfrey Bumblesquat

To those who feel compelled to address the world from Facebook, Twitter, and email chains, here is a message: No one is listening, least of all Luther Vandross.
We need to have a talk, under the illusion of its taking place in private but actually for anyone to read. Also, the talk will be unilateral and you will never respond to it. Ready? It doesn’t matter, because I’m not listening to you!

The practice of writing open letters must stop. I agree, it was a creative form back in the days of the Bible, and was used effectively throughout history by such figures as Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, and Luther Vandross.

But now every John, Dick, and Luther with internet access can write an open letter for potentially everyone to read, and most of our discourse is already public (I actually originated that last phrase in 1996, which is no. 8 on my list of 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me, just after no. 7—“I murdered a man in Laos on 6/19/2002 and have never been apprehended.”) Writers of open letters, it’s time, for the following reasons, to retire the form, one as hackneyed as the enumeration of arguments through bullet points:

• First, there’s the arrogance of presuming that your letter will really be read by the public, not to mention the greater hubris of signing the letter with your location and date, as if the act of writing it is a historic event whose place and time we must note for the ages. Chances are, no fucker cares enough about the issue to read it, so people end up shamelessly larding their letters with search-engine-friendly phrases like, oh, I don’t know, 'Justin Bieber haircut', 'Angelina Jolie nude' and 'Did Luther Vandross ever really write an open letter? He didn’t, right? It was just a joke, like I thought at first wasn't it?'

• Intervention by letter is an emotionally unhealthy way to address something. If you’re upset about something, therapists often do recommend writing a letter to the person who has upset you — but not sending it. You reap all the benefits of self-expression without the interpersonal conflict. Is it really worth expressing your frustration over Virhin Money's takeover of Northern Rock to have an awkward encounter the next time you run into Richard Branson in Asda?

• Speaking of Branson, a few people or entities to whom there should be an immediate moratorium on writing open letters: Primeministers; the High Court; billionaires. They are too busy and important to ever read it, except for Nick Clegg, because he’s so insecure he has a Google alert set up for his name.

If you absolutely must write an open letter, at least conform to a few tropes of real letter-writing, such as mixing in breezy updates about your own life. For example, in an open letter to Nick Griffin, you might write, “In conclusion, sir, I, for one, am extremely grateful you and your party are doing a great job in showing what a bunch of absolute retards as I find morally reprehensible each and every one of your doctrines. P.S. By the way, last night, Sheila and I watched 'Shrek' . We both thought of you! P.P.S. I sincerely hope your own daughter is never raped and impregnated by one of your backwoods cousins."

I would also call for a ban on the short semi-open letter that’s taken root on Facebook and Twitter, such as 'Tuesday afternoons, why are you so interminable?' or 'Oh, Antiques Roadshow, how I love you,” or 'Dear Luther Vandross, did you ever write an open letter? Also I wonder what music you’d be making now if you hadn’t died in 2005.'

Writers of open letters, since you’ve read to the end of this letter and haven’t rebutted me, I assume you’re in agreement and, therefore, the matter can be considered officially closed.

Yours in meta-openness,

Godfrey Bumblesquat.
Newcastle.
21/12/2011

NO MUSIC. NO FUCKING ABOUT. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

2011-11-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

THIS WILL BE THE LAST EVER POST ON TOURIST BLOG AS YOU KNOW IT.
BIG CHANGES ARE COMING... THIS FRIDAY!!!

Dylan going Electric, Radiohead going Electronic, Paul Simon going ethnic, Phil Spector going mad, Snoop Dog going shit,.. modern history is full of controversial decisions, unusual evolutionary directions and the ever popular volte face.

Here at Tourist, we're not immune to the endless march of progress and, as we pass through the the 3 year mark, we've decided to fuck about with the site for no apparent reason, like an even shitter Facebook.

We're being flippant of course, the new look Tourist-Mag site promises a load of improvements for readers, a wealth of completely exclusive content, greater engagement, guest articles, merch and a fuck-load of more, er... stuff.

We're going live on Dec 2nd but till then we'll be offering this sneak preview of our new look

www.tourist-mag.com

Naturally, we're throwing a party to celebrate, and to this end we've invited down a duo that, between them, have possibly featured more heavily on Tourist-Mag than anyone else.

... Andrew Weatherall & Sean Johnston....

Who will be bringing us the unbridled, leftfield, slo-poke joy of...

...A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE ...

...for it's first ever UK outing outside of London.
(Also on hand will be the Tourist information board of Mark Algar & Geoff Leopard, but don't let that put you off)

What's more, in a mind boggling confluence of hitherto unheard of organisational prowess, we've managed to arrange it so entry will be ....

COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE!!!!

As it's ALFOS, a blingy club space would simply not do, with that in mind we're taking over the leftfield independent boozer that is, No28, for one night only.
We'll be packing the place full of sound, smoke and sin from 9pm till 3 in the am and sincerely we hope you can make it.

Bad Passion (This Saturday as a matter of fact)

2011-11-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

We've been quite slack on posting this up, so with that in mind we're going to do this arse over apex.

Bad Passion are throwing their last party of 2011 this Saturday with Tourist favourites Phoreski and Felix Dickinson.

Check the Facebook event page for more details.

It's at a secret London locale, so if you want to know where then buy a ticket via their paypal address, badpassionsecret@hotmail.co.uk, after which point you'll receive an email with the full address details.

In the unlikely event that there are any tickets remaining on Saturday (they had to turn a great many people away from their recent birthday party), then the remaining tickets will be available on the door.

Right, now that's out of the way... who the fuck are Bad Passion?

In all honesty, we imagine Bad Passion should be familiar to the majority of readers, but for those of you who haven't heard of them... all you need to know is that Andy Bainbridge & Chris Stoker are 2 Wearside waistrells who decided to leave the North East of England to turn their backs on the never ending succession of weekend afterparties, badly cut drugs and lost weekends, and move to London, attracted by it's never ending succession of weekend afterparties, badly cut drugs, lost weekends and better general standard of trouser.

3 years ago the two of them, along with Dan Mitchell (formerly of the Cosmic Truth) got off their collective tuchus's (tuchi?) and started throwing parties to let them play the music they wanted to hear and book the people they wanted to dance to.
Over the 3 years the guys have been joined by a host of great talent including Gatto Fritto, KZA, Phil South & Anton Esteban, Nick the Record and a roll call of many other intersting and unique artist(e)s.

The rest as they say (well as I say, because I'm lazy) is history.
In the last 3 years Bad Passion has managed to become one of a very select breed of London party's, in as much as they have a loyal following, they're based on no prevailing musical fashion and they don't pander to the latest trends (sadly, this is still not true in relation to Chris's trousers).

This has all been vouchsafed by such honours as being asked to host a boat party on "The Argonuaty" at Electric Elephant, or recording a mix for Tim Sweeney's "Beats in Space", or being asked to play Bestival, or playing the Art against Knives Van at Loveboxx.... we could go on, but you get the gist.

Anyway, they're good friends and good DJ's, so please do yourself a favour if you're in London Village and go to the party.

... and if you can't make it, then at least you can check out their latest mix here...

Bad passion Project - Dance Infidel Dance mix - November 2011 by BAD PASSION PROJECT

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

An appology.

2011-11-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

Of all the famous men who ever lived, the one I would most like to have met was Socrates. Not just because he was a great thinker, because I have been known to have some reasonably profound insights myself, although mine invariably revolve around a bunch of hot model chic, some handcuffs and a bin bag of cocaine. No, the great appeal for me of this wisest of all the Greeks was his courage in the face of death. His decision was not to abandon his principles, but rather to give his life to prove a point. I personally am not quite so fearless about dying and will, after any untoward noise like a car backfiring, lea, leap directly into the arms of the person I am conversing with. In the end, Socrates' brave death gave his life authentic meaning. Something my existence lacks totally, although it does possess a minimal relevance to Northumbria Police and the Inland Revenue. I must confess I have tried putting myself in this great philosopher's sandals many times and no matter how often I do, I immediately wind up dozing off and having the following dream.

(The scene is my/Socrates' prison cell. I am usually sitting alone, working out some deep problem of rational thought like: Can an object be called a work of art if it can also be used to clean the cooker? Presently I am visited by Agathon and Simmias.)

Agathon: Ah, my good friend and wise old sage. How go your days of confinement?
Me: What can one say of confinement, Agathon? Only the blood may be prisoned. My mind roams freely, unfettered by the four walls and therefore the truth I ask, does confinement exist?
Agathon: Well, what if you want to go for a walk?
Me: Good question. I can't.

(The three of us then sit in classical poses, not unlike a frieze. Then Agathon speaks again.)

Agathon: I'm afraid the word is bad. You have been condemned to death.

Me: Ah, it saddens me that I should cause debate in the senate.

Agathon: No debate. The decision was unanimous.

Me: Really!?

Agathon: First ballot.

Me: Hmmmm. I had counted on a little more support.

Simmaias: The senate is raging over your ideas for a Utopian state.

Me: I suppose I should never have suggested having a philosopher-king.

Simmias: Especially when you kept pointing to yourself and clearing your throat.

Me: And yet I do not regard my executioners as evil.

Agathon: Nor do I.

Me: What specifically did they say they had in mind for me?

Agathon: Hemlock.

Me: (Puzzeled) Hemlock?

Agathon: You remember that black stuff that ate through my marble table?

Me: Really?

Agathon: Just one cupful. Though they do have a back up chalice should you spill anything.

Me: I wonder if it's painful?

Agathon: They asked if you would try not to make a scene. It disturbs the other prisoners.

Me: Hmmmm,,,,

Agathon: I told everyone you would die bravely rather than renounce your principles.

Me: Right, right,,,, er, did the concept of 'exile' ever come up?

Agathon: They stopped exiling last year. Too much red tape. Oh, I ran into Isosceles earlier. He has a great idea for a new triangle.

Me: Right, right,,,, (suddenly dropping all pretense of courage) Look, I'm going to level with you - I don't want to die! I'm too young!

Agathon: But this is your chance to die for truth!

Me: Don't get me wrong. I'm all for truth. On the other hand I've got a second date with a super hot chic in Sparta next week and word is she's proper up for it! Plus it's my turn to buy. You know those Spartans, they kick off over anything.

Simmias: Is our wisest philosopher a coward?

Me: I'm not a coward, and I'm not a hero. I'm somewhere in the middle.

Simmias: A cringing vermin.

Me: That's approximately the spot.

Agathon: But it was you that proved that death does not exist! What was all the talk about death being the same as sleep?

Me: Yes, but the difference is that when you're dead and somebody shouts, "Rise and shine, it's morning," it's very hard to find your slippers.

(The executioner arrives with a cup of hemlock. He bears a close facial resemblance to Spike Milligan)

Executioner: Ah - here we go. Who gets the poison?

Agathon: (Pointing to me) He does.

Me: Wow, that's a big cup. Should it be smoking like that?

Executioner: Yes. And drink it all because sometimes the poison is at the bottom.

(Usually here my behaviour is totally different from Socrates' and I am told I scream in my sleep.)

Me: No - I won't! I don't want to die! Help! No! Please!

(He hands me the brew and all seems lost. Then because of some innate survival instinct the dream always takes an upturn and a messenger arrives)

Messenger: Hold everything! The senate has re-voted! the charges have been dropped, your value has been re-assessed and it is decided you should be honoured instead.

Me: At last! At last! They came to their senses! I'm a free man! Free! And to be honoured! Quick, grab my bags. I have to be going. Praxiteles will want to get an early start on my bust. But before I leave, I give a little parable.
A group of men live in a dark cave. They are unaware that outside the sun shines. The only light they know is the flickering flame of a few small candles which they use to move around.

Agathon: Where'd they get the candles?

Me: Well, lets just say they have them.

Agathon: They live in a cave and have candles? It doesn't ring true.

Me: Can you just go with it for now?

Agathon: OK, OK, but get to the point.

Me: And then one day, one of the cave dwellers walks out of the cave and see's the outside world.

Simmias: In all it's clarity.

Me: Precisely. In all it's clarity.

Agathon: When he tries to tell the others they don't believe him. Is that it?

Me: Well, no. He doesn't tell the others.

Agathon: He doesn't?

Me: No, he opens a butchers, he marries a dancer and dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at forty two.

(They grab me and force the hemlock down. Here I usually wake up in a sweat and only some eggs and bacon can calm me down again.)

Right then! Music time and it's another mix from me (but don't let that put you off!)

Tracklist:

1. Pink Skull * Bee Nose (Brassica Remix)
2. Space System * Master Of The Sky
3. Meanderthals * Andromeda (Prelude To The Future)
4. Free School * Ranting And Raving (Time And Space Machine Remix)
5. Mano Le Tough * Halve A Sun
6. 40 Thieves * Live IS Something Special (Yo Spaceship! Megamix)
7. Suzanne Kraft * Morning Come
8. Missing Lynx * Gotta Minute
9. Cos/Mes * Like A Virgin Point
10. Pional * In Another Room
11. Channel 7 * Aufgang (John Talabot's You And Me Remix)
12. O Children * Heels (Mugwump Remix)
13. Pastique De Reve * Lost In The City
14. Diegors * El Underworld
15. Bozwell * In My Cocoon
16. Kim Ann Foxman * Creature
17. KiNK & Neville Watson * Inside Out
18. Discreet Unit * Shake Your Body Down
19. Ferdi Blankena * Mothers Son
20. Adam Port * Stalker

Mix for the 'For Disco Play Only' podcast series. by Tourist Blog

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

'The smile doesn't always mean I'm happy' mix.

2011-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you all your life,
whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

A little mellow and reflective mix with a handfulof up tempo moments. Tracks from The Beatles, The Immortals, Can, Holger Cuzaky, Jimi Hendrix and more.

Download 'The smile doesn't always mean I'm happy' mix by Tourist here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Endless Race with Daniel Wang, Jack Archer, Face Your Fate & Slabs Of The Tabernacle.

2011-10-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Newcastle seems to be going through something of a musical resurgence of late, the last year or so with things becoming far more stripped back and dare I say it, underground, with the emphasis shifting to smaller events with far more interesting acts/DJ's in a far more focused manner. With this ethos in mind, the chaps behind Endless Race have pulled another blinder out of their bag. Following some brilliant nights with the likes of Bill Brewster, Gatto Fritto and Jamie Blanco they're wheeling out an indisputably, blisteringly hot genuine discoid icon in the shape of non other than Daniel Wang! The Balihu Records boss truely is a DJ of rare talent, a huge draw and in demand the world over for more than a decade and a half.
Born in California and raised in Taiwan, the well-traveled producer Daniel Wang has been among the most restless and classically minded members of the dance music community over the last decade. Wang made a name for himself in the mid '90s Chicago house scene with a series of playful, funky, sample-delic 12-inches on his own Balihu label, compiled on 1998's 'I Was a Disco Malcontent: The Best of Balihu Records'. Rooted in the pioneering disco and techno innovations of Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Francois K and Arthur Russell, the releases earned Wang a reputation for being something of a dance music purist, a notion underscored by his philosophy that the whole of house music can be summed up in 200 pieces of vinyl, while all the rest are merely variations. Later in the '90s, Wang relocated to New York City, where he forged a friendship with the similarly retro-minded Morgan Geist of Metro Area. By this point, Wang had given up on the samples which cluttered his early releases, taking his back-to-basics ethic one step further. He'd also become an avid theremin enthusiast. In 2001, Geist's Environ label put out Wang's soulful, '70s boogie-inspired album Idealism. Given Wang's love for all things disco, he was an appropriate choice to lead off Ghostly Internationals acclaimed 2002 nu-skool electro comp, Disco Nouveau. He does this in style with the thumping, funky, quite cinematic Moroder homage 'Pistol Oderso'.

If that's whetted your appetite sufficiently there's also a brilliant mix from Daniel on the equally brilliant 'Bodytonic' podcast series you can download by following this handy link.

As well as Daniel, there's a whole host of other musical luminaries from near and far on hand to get your night grooving.
On warm up duties in room 1 there's another special guest to get you in a dancing mood in the form of Glasgow’s Jack Archer, who co-runs Habibi and used to co-run Lovebug. Expect wonderful disco and italo-boogie vibes.

Across in room 2 we have local favourites 'Face your Fate DJs' (members of Road to Rimini in a previous life) and another Glasgow disco stalwart, Joel (Slabs of the Tabernacle/Tabernacle Records) who will be taking over in the cinema for the majority of the night. Not sure what they’ll be doing in there, but for sure they’ll be taking the chance to display the versatility of their tastes. You know they only play good stuff, so that’s quite a selection of brilliant music you have in both rooms.So, there you have it. No reason not to be there, unless you’re really not into dancing to great dance music.

Advance tickets for the night are still available by from 'We Got Tickets' by clicking the link here otherwise it's 8 earth pounds on the door or get along early as it's a mere £7 entry before 11pm!!
So just to recap, that's,

Endless Race present:
Daniel Wang and Jack Archer + Face Your Fate DJ's + Joel (Slabs Of The Tabernacle)
@ The Star And Shadow Cinema
Stepney Bank
Byker
Doors 10pm till 4am.
7 quid on the door before 11 and 8 quid after that.

Check the Facebook event page for more details.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist X.

Andrew Weatherall * 9 O'Clock Drop

2011-10-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

In the compilation-eat-compilation world of dance music in the late 90's, everyone claimed his or her collection was something special. But the truth was that 99 percent of those were nothing but the ghost of a memory by the time the next copy of Mixmag had hit the doorstep. Few comps/mixes had the longevity to hang around the CD tray for much more than a week or so never mind still stand out more than a decade after they were issued. First released in mid 2000 on Nuphonic, '9 O'Clock Drop' is a fucking great compilation of early eighties, largely British, post punk and leftfield electro. This is one of the comps that really helped fuel the wider interest in this music after the overblown pomp and misery of the God-awful Britpop era.

Utterly indespensible and essential listening.

Tracklist:

1. Nice Mover * Gina X Performance
2. Dominatrix Sleeps Tonite * Dominatrix
3. Coup * 23 Skidoo
4. My Spine (is the Bassline) * Shriekback
5. Genius * Quando Quango
6. Water Line * A Certain Ratio
7. Vegas El Bandito * 23 Skidoo
8. Black and White Mix Up * 400 Blows
9. P2E remix * Torch Song
10. Warm Leatherette * The Normal
11. October (love song)'86 version * Chris and Cosey
12. Looks Like We're Shy One Horse * Colourbox
13. Warrior Charge * Aswad

Download 'Andrew Weatherall * The 9 O'Clock Drop' here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Dada 2nd birthday party with Chris Duckenfield.

2011-09-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

So against all conceivable odds the Tourist in-house band Last Waltz have just about made it to their sophomore year of throwing some of the best parties (but we would say that) up here in Newcastle. Since the inception the likes of Smagghe, Magda, Phoreski, Felix Dickenson and Rahaan to name but a handful, have graced the dusty old 1200's in a variety of odd, unusual and down right brilliant venues round the city and incredibly people actually danced and had a good time! The old adage of 'a triumph of irresponsible organisation' has never seemed more apt. So naturally and especially in a scene where it's so difficult nowadays to maintain any degree of consistency, they've endeavoured to put on something even more special than usual to celebrate.
Not only have they managed to secure another dazzlingly original (and in my opinion their best yet) venue to party in, but they've also managed to secure the services of a special guest who I'm sure you'll all agree is probably the most perfect person they could book to play a Dada party, and somebody they've wanted to have play since day one...

DADA present The 2nd Birthday Party

featuring
CHRIS DUCKENFIELD
(Swag, Duck Beats, The PPF)
&
LAST WALTZ
(Dada, Object of Distraction)

Saturday 15th October
The Old Music Hall
Drury Lane
11PM - Late

We'll update you with more info on the secret venue address in due course (needless to say it has all of the ingredients for an absolute blinder, back lane access, mind blowing decor, berzerk architecture and a real uniqueness from everywhere else you may have been.)
All that's left to say for the moment, is thanks for the last 2 years chapsand long may it continue!

If you're really quick there should still be some early bird tickets available for now on Resident Advisor.

As a taster to whet the old musical appetite we've got a live mix recorded at the most recent Dada party back in August at the Jazz Cafe for you to download below as well as an exclusive mix Chris has done for the lads.

Enjoy. X

Chris Duckenfield - Live Mix - Dada Exclusive by We are Dada

Last Waltz @ Dada, The Jazz Cafe Aug 2011 by Last Waltz

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe, live at The Nest, 24/06/2011.

2011-09-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Bit of a treat here for you with a recent mix recorded at The Nest as two of Tourists favourite ever DJ's went back to back for the whole night. 3 hours of Weatherall and Smagghe for your download-delectation.
Enjoy.

Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe B2B at The Nest, 24/06/2011

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Music to fall in and out of love to.

2011-09-06T04:48:00.000-07:00

Blisteringly loud guitars. Dreamy gossamer, half heard songs of love. Distortion. Lots of distortion. And reverb. And phase. And flange. And delay. Basically, anything involving effects —by effects pedals, guitar re-wiring, amplifier manipulation, or studio experimentation— so all consuming that individual instruments blend into giant, glowing clouds of thick, foggy tonality. Like alt-rock smothered in fog, or ambiance rife with tension.

The term 'Shoegaze' was said to have been first coined by Andy Ross who ran 'Food Records' in the late 80's and early 90's when he described the band 'Moose' and dismissed the band "a bunch of shoegazers" in an interview. Doc Martin and salad enthusiast Steve Lamac picked up on this and soon after used it in an NME article and the rest as they say, is history. Initially a negative description, it was soon turned around into a more positive ideal and quickly, the pejorative 'Shoegazing' was embraced, and, through use, it was shortened to the two-syllable 'Shoegaze'. So now you know!
There was never any easy dictionary definition of what 'Shoegaze' actually is. There is no way of pinning it down as there are so many strands, electronica, indie, heavy rock can all said to share some of the base aesthetics of shoegaze, the obvious link is that they share a grander more ambitious make up. No angular, post-punk posturing, this is all big, curvaceous music in the grandest tradition!
The genre's founding forefathers were, in all likelihood, two bands who were not true shoegazers themselves. When Velvet Underground-influenced Scottish outfit the Jesus and Mary Chain released their legendary debut, Psychocandy, in 1985, they gave the world rock’n’roll songs swathed in reverb and distortion. Spacemen 3, a gospel-tinged garage-rock band founded on excessive drug-use, released their The Perfect Prescription set in 1987, furthering the cause of walls of sound built from guitar noise.
The other spiritual forebearer of the genre was the 4AD-centred ‘dream-pop’ scene (personified by bands like the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil). Shoegazers took the detached, ambient, effects-draped, cooing-vocal style of dream-poppers and amped up the volume.
Though the name really only refers to it's initial, self-contained era, the spirit of shoegaze is still summoned every few years when some young sonic scientists, usually at University, stumble across the sacred mathematical formula of 'effects pedals + melody {LOUD guitars} 9% audible vocals = Shoegaze'.
Kevin Shields of shoegaze pin-ups My Bloody Valentine, famously described his band as having a 'fluff on the needle' sound. And, sure enough, My Bloody Valentine used effects-pedals to build walls of opaque guitar sound, burying their songs under torrents of reverberated guitar noise. The effect was to make the noise the centre of it's musical universe, with vocals, bass, and drums all submerged under guitars nearly reduced to sine-waves.
Whilst you could get into pedantic, semantic discussions about the differences between dream-pop, space-rock, and shoegaze, there are very little misconceptions about shoegaze as a genre. True shoegaze bands are few, and they all hailed from pretty much the same time (1990) and place (Reading) and most of the bands, as well as the scene had died out, split up and called it a day by 1994.
Despite the tiny scale of the movement and the brevity of it the current ranks of shoegaze-influenced artists, (quite direly described in the press as 'nu-gaze') all appears to be alive and well in the modern world of the 'fluff on the needle' sound. My Bloody Valentine recently reformed, returning to the stage with new material in tow. Since they released Loveless in 1991, the Irish band have attained a legendary status — not least of all in Shields' inability to make a follow-up album — inspiring countless bands year in and year out.
The bands who drew from shoegaze are too numerous to mention, but some of the more notable staying-true-to-shoegaze acts like Seefeel, SchoolOf Seven Bells, Engineers, Bowery Electric, the Radio Dept, M83, Over the Atlantic, Asobi Seksu, Rumskib, and Sereena-Maneesh are all still making great music, the sale of 'Slowdive' t-shirts is at a 17 year high and peoples hair seems a lot messier than it's been for a while so I guess the whole thig is ticking along nicely thank you very much!

Download the 'Rob Da Bank & Friends Shoegaze Special' here.

Tracklist:

1. My Bloody Valentine * Only Shallow
2. Japan Cakes * Touched (Ricardo Tobar Mix)
3. Ulrich Schnauss * A Letter From Home
4. Dinosaur Junior * Freak Scene
5. Slowdive * Catch The Breeze
6. Manual * Blue Skied An' Clear
7. Cocteau Twins * Cherry Coloured Funk (Seefeel Mix)
8. Chapterhouse * Pearl
9. Nathan Fake * The Sky Was Pink
10. Maps * To The Sky (M83 Mix)
11. Ariel * Sugar Crystals
12. Ride * Vapour Trail
13. Jesus & The Mary Chain * Just The Honey
14. Velvet Underground * I Heard Her Call My Name
15. Boards Of Canada * Zoetrope
16. M83 * Teen Angst
17. Lush * Sweetness & Light (Orange Squash Mix)
18. Pale Saints * Sight Of You
19. Engineers * 3 Fact Fader
20. School Of Seven Bells * My Cabal (Robin Guthrie Mix)
21. Spiritualized * If I Were With Her Now

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

I love the smell of nepotism in the morning. (Pt II)

2011-08-31T06:41:00.000-07:00

PEOPLE GET REAL is the collective name for the DJ/production duo of Simon Lister and Peter Wilson. For almost a decade now they have been pushing their brand of dance-floor terrorism to parties up here in their native Newcastle, across the UK and beyond. As well as being a couple of our favourite DJ's, Peter and Simon have been friends of ours a for quite a while now so we've no qwarms about blatantly repping their productions old and new and seeing as they've got gone and got Tourist faves Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris, alongside a whole host of other luminaries of the electronic scene, to remix their latest offering 'The Unicorn E.P.' has just been released on the lads' very own 'Join Our Club' imprint, we thought it only right to give them a shout.
If you didn't already know, PGR have been the residents at Wax:On since it's inception in 2004, they were involved in compiling and mixing one of the two CDs commercially released to celebrate the 5th Birthday. The mix being a retrospective of tracks from the previous 5 years on the dancefloor at Wax:On, and a snapshot of the music and style that has made them a firm favorite with the crowd and visiting guest DJs. This has seen them DJ alongside some of the world's biggest hitters; Richie Hawtin, Erol Alkan, Sven Vath, Boys Noize, Tiga, Loco Dice, Ivan Smagghe, Matthew Dear, Simian Mobile Disco, Craig Richards and Andrew Weatherall to name just a few.
If you want to catch them playing out anytime soon, the PGR boys will be playing at 'Wire' in Leeds with the afore mentioned Mr Smagghe on Sept 23 and a week later on the 30th at Manchesters 'The Countach Club' alongside Daniel Avery.

You can check out all the tracks and remixes as well as the DJ feedback from their new 'Unicorn E.P.' on PGR's Soundcloud by clicking here, we'd also recommend you take a minute out to have a listen through the other tracks and edits on here!
Anyhow, if you wanna buy any of the tracks you can purchase from Beatport by clicking this handy link here. We'd encourage any financial help you can afford the lads, as Simon has got a wedding to pay for in a couple of weeks and it must cost him a fortune to keep that beard looking so well groomed. X

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

I suggest you kill them all and let God sort it out.

2011-08-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

A man who could not marry off his ugly daughter visited his priest for advice. "My heart is heavy," he told the priest, "Because God has given me an ugly daughter."
"How ugly?" the Padre asked.
"If she were lying on a plate with a herring, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."
The priest thought for a long time and finally asked, "What type of herring?"
The man taken aback by the query, thought quickly and said, "Er,- a Bismark."
"Too bad," the preist said. "If it was a Maatjes, she'd have a better chance.

Here is a tale that illustrates the tragedy of transient qualities such as beauty. Does a girl actually resemble a herring? Why not? Have you seen some of the things walking about these days, particularly on the coastal areas? And even if she does, are not all creatures beautiful in Gods eyes? Perhaps, but if a girl looks more at home in a jar of wine sauce than in an evening gown she's got big problems. Oddly enough, the wife of the priest from the tale was said to resemble a squid, but this was only in the face, and she more than made up for it by her hacking cough - the point of which escapes me.

Download 'The Horrors: Fact Mix' here.

Tracklist:

1. T.2. * No More White Horses
2. Tame Impala * Desire Be, Desire Go
3. David Essex * Rock On
4. Connan Mockasin * Unicorn In Uniform
5. Primal Scream * Inner Flight
6. US 69 * 2069 A Space Oddity
7. Gene Clark * Some Misunderstanding
8. Roxy Music * In Every Dream Home A Heartache
9. Bobak, Jons, Malone * On A Meadow-Lea
10. The Beach Boys * Caroline No
11. The Velvet Underground * The Ocean
12. The Beatles * Dear Prudence
13. Aphrodite’s Child * The Four Horsemen
14. Stereolab * Metronomic Underground

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Balearic Mike live @ Electric Elephant.

2011-08-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

"Slide through the back door
With your life strings attached
I can see the heavens
On my back."

Balearic Mike - Electric Elephant 2011, Saturday Beach Bar Set Opening Set.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Jamie Paton (Cage & Aviary) * Contort Yourself mix.

2011-08-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

Great mix that appeared on the Test Pressing blog recently from Jamie Paton.
“The mix takes in all sorts over a C90′s worth of running time, including Weatherall putting the Beat between Meat and Manifesto, one of Arthur Russell’s more abstract Funk Popping moments and a quite frankly awesome stratospheric excursion from Gigi Galaxy and his Disco 2000. It sums up a lot of what I’ve been playing this year, quite prototypical and stripped down, tough in places but with the odd musical flourish here and there. There are also a couple of Cage & Aviary productions on there, one from our forthcoming Migration LP which will finally drop in October.”
More news on that as it comes.

Download the Jamie Paton (Cage & Aviary) * Contort Yourself mix here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

It's our 'design a cover for a record competition' innit!

2011-08-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Every now and then the opportunity to get someone else to do all the work arises and here at Tourist we're not above sitting on our arses and dishing out empty platitudes to all sundry in order to get someone else to iron our smalls. So with this lethargic ethic being one of the cornerstones to our value system it's with no small amount of excitement that we look to 'outsourcing' some more ofour work to any of you lovely people interested.
As well as this fantastical bog you're currently reading Geoff and myself have a number of other duties to perform in the real world like families, jobs, playing records, I also like smoking, swearing and reading mucky books, Geoff occasionally sits down and messes about on a computer creating strange sonic arrangements. A few of these arrangements have been compiled by ace local record label Audio Parralax who will be releasing them to the public for sale very soon. So, being the workshy fops we are, we obviously want as little to do with the marketing, pressing and any other process' as possible once the tunes are completed. However, one thing the label have insisted on is that they are provided with some artwork for the CD's & records, (my idea of just bunging 'em in a load of plain white sleeves and giving them to the St. Johns ambulance people to distribute was dismissed, somewhat unfairly I think, out of hand) but that's where you cats come in! We're looking for any hot young graphic designers, artists or doodlers who feel like chucking their hats into the ring and designing the cover art for us! We'll feature all of the good ones on the blog and do a piece on the winner who'll also receive our glowing praise, 4 cans of Spesh, 10 Benson and 5 quids worth of sticky black! No there's a prize!! Details and a design brief can be received by emailing geoffbucket@hotmail.com and you can hear an early draft of one of the tracks from the E.P. here on Soundcloud if that'll help/inspire/procrastinate your working process too!
We look forward to any submissions whatever they may be, so god luck and be careful out there.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Piers Harrison (Soft Rocks) Mix.

2011-08-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

Piers Harrison of Soft Rocks (a loose collective of Brighton based djs and producers with a relaxed attitude to copyright law) flies the flag with a deep and delicious set originally recorded for the brilliant Noises In My Head blog. After 8 or 9 years of releasing some blinding edits the prolific combo are due to release their first full-length LP of original material 'Power Play' in September, which will see all members uniting for the project with remixes from Andrew Weatherall, Beautiful Swimmers, The Stallions, Tiago, Cos/Mes etc. If that lineup isn't a glowing endorsement then I don't know what is. The mix which contains a hefty dose of this aforementioned original SR material has pretty much been on constant rotation here at Tourist Towers for the last few weeks so we thought it only polite to spread the love.

Tracklist:

1. Soft Rocks * Midnight
2. Soft Rocks * Deeply Unfunky Looking Dudes
3. Soft Rocks * Wakibaki
4. Don Cherry * Tarot Will Teach You
5. Soft Rocks * Laguna
6. Soft Rocks *Lengthy Noodling
7. Soft Rocks * Spatial Reggae II
8. Ralph Lundsten * Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
9. Soft Rocks * Powerstation
10. Soft Rocks * 80s Assassin
11. John Carptenter * The End (Scratch Mix)
12. IMS * Nonline
13. Ralph * More Calypso (Dub)
14. Soft Rocks * Midtempo Mission
15. Rice And Beans Orchestra * Coconut Grove
16. Pied Piper Of Funkingham * Today Is The Day

Download 'Piers Harrison (Soft Rocks) Mix' here.
Mirror download from Megaupload.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

The KLF * 'Chill Out' & 'The White Room'.

2011-08-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

The seminal ambient album 'Chill Out' and the decidedly odd 'White Room' LP from The KLF,,,,,

'Chill Out' tracklist:

1. Brownsville Turnaround On The Tex-Mex Border
2. Pulling Out Of Ricardo And The Dusk Is Falling Fast
3. Six Hours To Louisiana, Black Coffee Going Cold
4. Dream Time In Lake Jackson
5. Madrugada Eterna
6. Justified And Ancient Seems A Long Time Ago
7. Elvis On The Radio, Steel Guitar In My Soul
8. 3 A.M. Somewhere Out Of Beaumont
9. Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard
10. Trancentral Lost In My Mind
11. The Lights Of Baton Rouge Pass By
12. A Melody From A Past Life Keeps Pulling Me Back
13. Rock Radio Into The Nineties And Beyond
14. Alone Again With The Dawn Coming Up

Download 'The KLF * Chill Out' here.

The White Room tracklist:

1. Kylie Said to Jason (Edit)
2. 3 a.m. Eternal
3. Go to Sleep
4. Make It Rain
5. Church of the KLF
6. No More Tears
7. Build a Fire
8. The Lovers' Side
9. The White Room
10. Born Free

Download 'The KLF * The White Room' Here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Andy Blake & Joe Hart * Live from 'World Unknown' (13/05/11)

2011-08-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here at Tourist we need very little excuse to indulge our obsession with anything Andy Blake shaped. Andy has been a big favourite with us over the last few years and his labels, recordings and DJ sets have been hugely influential to us so it's with no small amount of anticipation we await the forthcoming output from his new imprint. At the time when Blake actually shut Dissident down a couple of years back he said it was to focus on other projects, not least his Brixton party series with Joe Hart of Bodyhammer and Bloc named 'World Unknown'. The new label share's this moniker and will pick up where the mighty 'Dissident' left off with Blake describing it as "the cooler, smarter little brother... who has learned a lot from his elder sibling's trials and triumphs." With some heavyweight releases lined up from the likes of Optimo's Johhny Wilkes, Neville Watson and Apiento from the excellent Test Pressing blog it'd be wise for anyone with an interest in forward looking house and electronic music to keep their eye's peeled! Untill then though do yourself a favour and download this frankly outrageous live mix from one of the recent World Unknown parties, everything from cosmic/italo obscurities and Turkish psyche oddities to jackin' Chicago house and proper Detroit techno! You know it makes sense.

Andy Blake & Joe Hart - Live from World Unknown (13/05/11)
Mirror download from Megaupload.
Superfast download link!!

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

'A Love From Outer Space' boat party @ Electric Elephant.

2011-08-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

Since the launch of their monthly residency in the basement of The Three Crowns pub in Stoke Newington last may Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston have been ploughing a decidedly different musical furrow. Taking its title from the old A.R. Kane track of the same name, 'A Love From Outer Space' was basically an excuse for Weatherall and Johnston to helm the decks themselves for the entire night and play anything they bloody well wanted to. The smaller, 140 capacity basement lends itself ideally to a much more esoteric selection with the duo able to mine far more deeply into the veins of dub, post-punk, Krautrock, psyche-disco, rock'n'roll, oddities and the like. A couple of weeks ago Andrew and Sean upped sticks and dragged the travelling ALFOS circus across Europe and plonked it down on the shores of the Adriatic to entertain the patrons of the Electric Elephant festival.

This is is a recording of what happened at the A Love From Outer Space boat party. It is very good! (And the link works now!)

Download 'A Love From Outer Space' Electric Elephant boat party here.

Till next time.
Big love, Tourist. X

Cos/Mes * Opera City Mix.

2011-08-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

My goodness, what are you saying," Korotkov exclaimed in distress, sensing that here, too something strange was starting, just as it had everywhere else. He looked back as if he were being hunted, afraid that the shaven face and the bald shell would emerge from somewhere, and then he added in a clumsy way, "I'm very glad, yes, very . . ." A motley flush passed lightly over the marble man; raising Korotkov's hand delicately, he drew him toward a little table, reiterating, "I'm very glad, too. But here's the rub, imagine it - I don't even have a place where you can sit down. We're being kept in a pen in spite of our significance.

Cos/Mes, Opera City Mix. Tracklist:

Audio Create Series * Sound In 76'
I Gres * Moaning
Mark Egan * Hills
Harvey Mandel * Baby Batter
Francois Niombo * I'm Cool
Kjell Wallgren * Gentle Function
Frank W. Brecker * Spring
Godley And Creme * Group Life
Paris Angels * Too Easy
Hammer * One Day
Professor Genius * A Jean Giraud 2
Sebastien Tellieer * Killometer
Gina X * Homage A BB
China Crisis * Animalistic
Yukihiro Takahashi * Disposable Love
Manzanera * Gone Flying
Chas Jankle * Magic Of Music
L. Hall * Open The Door

Cos/Mes * Opera City Mix
Mirror Download From Megaupload

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

'Geoffs Diary' or 'rumours of our demise have been slightly exaggerated'.

2011-08-09T06:06:00.001-07:00

Seeing as we've been off-line for a while now, we thought it was the least we could do to explain our abscence here are some excerpts from Geoff's daily journal that should clear up any questions you have,,,,

29/06/11:
Hoorah! A new week has arrived. I awake at 5 a.m. to find that a flock of seven white doves of peace has flown in through the bedroom window and begun flying around the room in a kind of 'flight of harmony', casting a Disneylike sense of well-being about. Finally they roost on my bust of Caligula and in the dim 1/8th light I'm sure I saw one of them wink at me, in a sort of 'wink of peace'. I take this to be a sign of good fortune in the forthcoming year and fall back asleep.
I re-awake at 8 a.m. to find that the doves have flown off with my bust of Caligula. Obviously they have carried it off to their mountain eeire; a foreboding sense of dread now hangs over the home.

04/07/11:
I rise and decide to design a new type of hat. The place of work I choose this morning is under the sink unit in my kitchen, a safe place if any. My designs are at first sketchy, looking more like a fat young man than hat, but by 6 p.m. my design is complete and ready to be sent to Pappa & Co. for approval. I hope they like it. I think it would suit a more formal gentleman like a king or Harrison Ford.

17/07/11:
At 8 a.m. the sleepy antique-shop-filled seaside village of Wallsend is woken by the kazoos and snare drums of Britain's criminals as they march down the main street beating out the melody of felony. What a sight this is, with the petty thieves and shoplifters bringing up the rear, through to the arsonists and fraudsters filling the mid-ranks, right up to the leading gangsters heading this march of villainy.
Amongst the crooks I spot my housemate Lee 'Fingers' Forster, so called because he regularly fingers not only the various foods in our local delicatessen but the serving ladies as well, and when accused of his behaviour he blasts his way out of the shop using a 75 mm Howitzer. Also present are some of Scotlands most famous baddies like '2 Biscuits' McDouglas, the Grocer of Kilmarnock, and 'Westy' Hancock, who once farted in front of the Duke of Westminster at point blank range.
As the underworld parade vanishes into a hotel for their annual villains' breakfast of fried eggs, I too vanish back home for my breakfast of boiled eggs.
I spend the rest of the day looking at my feet.

23/07/11:
I have had some thoughts on the possibilities of opening new enterprises in the district, for example (i.e)

A) A combination asylum and poy-purri centre where the inmates create bags of pot-pourri to allow your cabinets toi smell sweetly, it shall be called 'Scenti Mental'.

B) A series of old peoples homes:
1) Yesterday's People
2) Forgotten Faces
3) Time's Up
4) Conclusions.
A feature within the homes would be a dating agency for old people called 'Expiry Dates.

C) Health Farms:
1) Bye Bye Bulk
2) Fit And Farty

I have sent off a number of ideas to the government in a bid to aid world peace. These products are presented in advertisement form to aid the politicians to understand them and realize their true potential for global and universal harmony.

29/07/11:
I awake to find thousand upon thousand of tiny hairlike baby snakes on my head, but on closer investigation find that it's mearly my own rapidly depleting hair, which disappoints me tremendously, although the thought of charming the baby snakes into exciting new hairstyles with a flute thrills me 'nuff! Never mind, I have recently discovered a new snake in my trousers which seems to react to kindness and, equally, threats!

31/07/08:
I realized mid-morning that my bones had emerged through my finger tips. The doctor tells me this is quite normal and I should in future refer to them as 'fingernails'.

02/08/11:
At dawn I ring the police and tell them that I have shot the rebellious Nashville singer Waylon Jennings and his undisturbed corpse is lying cold and motionless beneath the pear tree with robins circling overhead.
Twelve hours later the police strolled up to my door and asked to see the body. I led them through the house and down the garden past the ornament to the pear tree. JESUS CHRIST OF BETHLEHEM!! The carcass had gone. I explained that the robins must have devoured him and suggested they keep their eye's open for a flock of robins with more red on their chests than usual.
They left silently and I cooked some of my secret recipe Wild West Pork.

09/08/11:
Flies swarm round the pork in my attic, so I get rid of it. all 160 lbs of it, in a ditch near B & Q.

Well, I hope that clears up any questions anybody had about what we'd been up to and the lack of posts form us, to make up for our tardyness here's a bunch of records played one after another for you to listen to on a sunny day, Balearic innit.

Tracklist:
1. Ashra * Oasis
2. Space System * Petik
3. Wally Badarou * Mambo
4. Arthur Russell Vs Johanna Billing * This Is How We Walk On The Moon
5. Massive Attack And The Mad Proffessor * Radiation Ruling The Nation
6. Maxxi And Zeus * American Dreamer
7. Talk Talk * I Believe In You
8. Parsley Sound * Platonic Rate
9. Kammerflimmer KIollektief * Rotwelsch
10. Cults * Go Outside
11. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti * Round And Round
12. David Bowie * Somebody Up There Likes Me
13. Thin Lizzy * She Knows
14. Barry De Vorzon And Joe Walsh * In The City

Download Tourists"Thats some bad hat Harry!" mix here.
Mirror download from Megaupload.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Suono 7th Birthday this Saturday with Mark Seven, 4 Hands and Danno & Tony + Mark Seven mix to D/L.

2011-06-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

With the likes of Daniele Baldelli, Greg Wilson, Ashley Beedle, Kelvin Andrews, Idjut Boys, Moonboots, Phil Mison and all the other familiar names that have headlined the past 7 years of raucous shindigs organised by the Suono crew, it's easy to see why it's with teary eye and heavy heart we say a bitter sweet 'au revoir' as their final Suono fling is flung this Saturday.
Thankfully the lads will still be soundtracking balmy Summer afternoons and bank holidays at The Tanners and such like, but with the whole M.O. of organising the larger club events becoming a bit of a bore they've decided to bow out in non too shabby style by flying in the legendary DJ, producer, collector, dealer and all round encyclopedia of the obscure disco track Mark Seven!!
As well as his ongoing obligations as the Jus’wax head honcho and crate-digger extraordinaire, Mark has made a name for himself issuing impeccable releases including Pillow Talk and Travelogue as well as the flawless, ‘A Salute to the Men of Vauxhall’ and its follow up, 'Salute 2 – Reach Out and Touch Your Dream'. Mark’s is one of a small group of people who can truly be referred to as 'a DJ’s DJ', the mere mention of his name causing trainspotters to salivate wildly, talk in tongues and send Discogs working into overtime. However it would be a disservice to make him sound elitist, his focus on finding a groove in the music he plays appeals to a far broader audience than his reputation as a purveyor of obscurities would suggest, and his ability to fuse together music across a range of genres succeeds in keeping the dance floor sweaty and packed, what every party wants! No stranger to the underground scene, with his involvement dating back to the late 80s when he started promoting parties such as ‘Bizarre’ on the fledgling Balearic scene, in addition to being a regular at ‘Shoom’, 'Future', 'Spectrum' and the infamous 'Boys Own' parties, citing the likes of Andy Weatheral and Danny Rampling as early inspirations.
Mark now resides in Sweden where he's lived since the late 90s dealing vinyl online with his 'Jus Wax' store, DJing in Stockholm and playing occasional guest spots around the world,,,, and this Saturday 'round the world' reads as 'the top of Stepney Bank, opposite The Tanners', and we CANNOT WAIT!!

As well as Mark and the Suono chaps delving deep into their record collections, we'd be remiss in our duties if we didn't mention that Newcastle's own 'Four Hands' will be playing live. Steve, the man behind the Four Hands moniker has been making great music in a number of different guises for as long as most people can remember as well as releasing music on Paul 'Mudd' Murphy's Claremont 56 imprint. After a stellar turn at the last Suono party, Dano and Tony have invited him back! We'd HIGHLY recommend that you take a minute and pop across to the excellent 'Test Pressing' blog and check out the live recording of this performance that they've been hosting, in blunt terms, it's fucking amazing!!
We've also got some musical goodness for your ears in the shape of an uber rare Mark Seven mix from New Years Eve in 2007 for you to download. As you would expect, there is no tracklist for it but hey, why don't you do some disco-leg work and get diggin' for those ID's yaself?!

Mark Seven * NYE 07
Mirror Download from Megaupload

If you require any more info, just click on the Facebook event page here.

Suono 7th birthday with Mark Seven, Four Hands (live) Dano & Tony
Star & Shadow cinema
Saturday July the 2nd
11 pm till 4 am
Tickets £10 available from the Tanners & RPM
Warm up, rub down at the Tanners from 8pm, with Tadge.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Tell them I said something great...

2011-06-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

A few things to report, a bit of free music and a Mixtape.

Firstly, the annual ¡VAMOS! festival is coming back for another year and it's presenting 2 special events, featuring a Touristblog favourite... MATIAS AGUAYO
Formerly half of the sublime Closer Musik, Aguayo is more recently known for his releases on his own imprint 'Comeme' and the ever wonderful 'Kompakt'.
Musically, he's almost impossible to pin down, splicing together the Chilean rhythms of his new home of Beunos Aries alongside the Techno sensibilities of his earlier work with a real sense of mischief (and in some cases, blatant piss taking).

The first event is an absolute treat for Newcastle and frankly, anyone who doesn't attend aught to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

For the last few years, Aguayo and his Comeme cohorts have been throwing free street parties up and down the length and breadth of South america, and now Newcastle's NONAME collective have managed to tempt them to bring one of their 'BUMBUMBOX' parties to Greys monument!
The event takes place from 12 till 3 this Friday (17th) and features both Aguayo and North East artist CAPRACARA (DFA/London Soul Jazz) performing 'Selleccion Transatlantica', an all new musical commission between the 2 artists that promises to be pretty fucking good!
The following day NONAME present a special free outdoor party at the Tyne Bar, featuring Aguayo, the fabulous Ana Helder and other Comeme artists, as well as Vamanos and Antonio Morales (Tourist remembers him when he was just plain Tony!) If that wasn't enough, then there's a FREE after party with Aguayo, Capracara and Helder all DJing back in the city centre at the new No28 bar/club!
If you're from Newcastle, then we don't really need to big the Tyne Partys up, and if you're not from Newcastle, then ask someone who is as this post is getting far too long.

Also on Friday, Touristblogs very own shameful secret, Last Waltz, are playing at a very special charity gig which also features a proverbial shower of similar tossers from the Newcastle underground party scene (god I hate that term).

An evening with Sir Bobby has been organised by the ever so slightly unhinged folk behind CTRL and features (in no particular order)...

CTRL DJs
Last Waltz
Motion DJs
Jaunt DJs
Wella
Pauly Barton
Mick Lyndsey and Dan Hawkins
Prim
Vince V

The event is taking place at The Globe, the roof terrace of which has so far been home to 2 fantastic Dada events (don't know if that actually counts as a recommendation, but it's bloody good) and entry is measly £7, which goes straight to the Bobby Robson foundation!

Right, musics...

Here's a slice of what to expect at Monument on Friday.

http://soundcloud.com/capracara/the-final-episode-seleccion

We've mentioned Closer Musik which has made for an excellent excuse to post this...

Closer Musik - Maria

Also, here's a incredibly skitzy, but absolutely amazing Aguayo mix from 09 as well as his brilliant 'Fact Mix' from a little later.

Matias Aguayo - XLR8R Mix

Matias Aguayo - FACT MIX

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist X

'Noise In My Head' mix from Lexx (Claremont 56/Leng)

2011-05-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

A super mellow set from Lexx aka Alex Storrer now, all the way from Zurich, Switzerland.
Lexx's mixes are enough to make you melt and this is no exception. Great late night radio and perfect for the week's end. The bulk of his previous efforts are hosted at Test Pressing (of course!), and are available (along with a whole host of other great mixes) if you have a scroll round here.
Lexx's exquisite taste is also present in his own productions, remixes and edits. Highly active in this department, his output is sprawled across releases on uber trendy labels like Permanent Vacation, Claremont 56, Messalina, Leng etc. His productions and mixes have been a favourite of hours here at Tourist for some time and w'd recommend you looked into his lengthy back catologue when you get the chance. In the meantime though, find a relaxing spot and chill out with this little beauty,,,,,

(Sort of) Tracklist:

Somewhere I Belong
The Other Song
Give Me A Chance
Red Dress
Durango
Arthur’s Landing * Lucky Cloud
Black Man At The Shoulder
Experiments
Determined
Don’t Play Me
Detroit Leaning
Put Some Love In What You Do
Stone Cold Cat

Download Lexx's mix for Noise In My Head here.
Mirror download from Megaupload here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Endless Race with Gatto Fritto & Jamie Blanco.

2011-05-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

We at Tourist Towers are very excited about the return of Endless Race this weekend after the brilliant party they threw back in February with DJHistory main man Bill Brewster. We've emptied the bag of plaudits and complements over and over again in the direction of the guys behind the much missed Road To Rimini nights and the second, and much anticipated outing for their new venture looks like they've no intention of taking their foot off the accelerator!
The Star & Shadow Cinema is again the host venue and they'll be keeping the lights on till 5am with a special late license, the reason for this being that the chaps at Endless Race have upped the stakes with no less than 2 superb special guests in the shape of Gatto Fritto and Jamie Blanco!

"Gatto Fritto is Ben Williams and Ben Williams is Gatto Fritto. Everyone from Andrew Weatherall to Harvey have been championing his tracks. So do we, and we’ve been listening closely since hearing his inimitable ‘Invisible College’ track on Dissident Records back in 2007. He’s finally got an album out now on the prestigious International Feel recordings that you might be tempted to describe as a mixture of cosmic disco, Balearic or even synth pop but we’re not getting muddled up in that. The fact is, it’s utterly sublime and been well worth the wait – it’s an odyssey of brilliance.
Not only is Ben one of the most talented electronic music producers in the UK but a superb DJ to match. Bringing a selection of disco, house and other eighties oddities, electronic or otherwise to Endless Race, collected over the past 15 years or so whilst working for various second hand record shops around London (safe to say he knows a thing or two about DJing then), your dancing needs will be lavishly indulged at the next Endless Race. We’re certainly not alone in acknowledging the man’s plentiful talents, with a string of DJ dates across Europe and other fine nights in the UK such as Bad Passion and Lowlife he’s a bit busy. This is his first appearance in Newcastle, don’t miss out!

If that wasn’t enough, we’re equally excited to have a live performance from another extremely talented, if as yet under-acknowledged London based producer to get things kick started on the night. You’d be forgiven for not having heard of Jamie Blanco with only a limited single released to date on Russell Club records, but it’s that damn good, as are oodles of his unreleased tracks on soundcloud that we thought we’d ask if he did a live set. Luckily he said yes, and will be bringing his gloriously rich all-analogue house sound to Newcastle in May.So there you have it. A DJ set, a live set, and , of course, Endless Race’s resident DJs will be warming you up and winding you down in what promises to be another great party, at a brilliant and friendly venue, with a top notch sound system that’s clear as well as loud, and no posing."

For a taster of what to expect:

Download the Gatto Fritto mix for 'Deep Frequency' here, or his podcast for '20jazzfunkgreats' here.

check out Jamie Blanco's Soundcloud page here

,,,, and grab Endless Race resident Pat's excellent 'Burnin' & Yearnin' mix here.

So just to recap, thats,,,,
Endless Race with Gatto Fritto & Jamie Blanco plus residents.
Saturday 14 May
Doors 10pm - 5am
£8 on the door or tickets can be bought here.
(Or there's a £6 special discount entry before 11pm on the night)

We'll see you down the front (or at the bar!)
Big love. Tourist. X

Cooly G (Hyperdub) @ The Star & Shadow Cinema. Sat 7th May.

2011-05-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

Slight change of course for us here at Tourist Towers but a worthwhile diversion never the less. While we're not known for championing Dubstep and the like we're always interested in anything fresh and new so here's a word about an great looking event organised by some of the guys the behind the excellent 'Endless Race' night we had a brilliant time at with Bill Brewster a few weeks back. (They're also hosting Gatto Fritto & Jamie Blanco next weekend, but more on that here in a couple of days,,)

"We are thrilled to have something different for you at the Star & Shadow in the form of Cooly G, one of the finest female (or either gender, for that matter) leftfield Dubstep/UK Funky/ House producers around at the moment, offering an alternative to the usual Newcastle party scene.Cooly G, signed to Hyperdub (Burial, Kode9, Joker, Ikonika), the semi-pro female footballer, producer and DJ from Brixton, describes her sound as having a "deep house tribal dubstep vibe," and you can see why - Cooly G's productions exist in their own hinterland - abstract post-garage beats that slowly shuffle into life, dubbed out, with her own cut up vocal snippets singing painterly half phrases. Terms such as Dubstep and UK Funky immediately come to mind when trying to describe her, but there is an undeniable deep house element that gives her music a smooth edge and makes it all the more difficult to fit into genre clichés. Something of a child prodigy (she learned to DJ at the age of seven and was teaching music technology to men three times her age two months after leaving school), she’s the second female producer on Hyperdub alongside Ikonika. Her first single got people pretty excited, she was single of the week in the Guardian Newspaper, One to Watch in the Independent newspaper, has played with Kode9, got interviewed all over and was immediately snapped up for remixes by the majors as well as starting to get bookings all over the world."

Check out more mixes and info on the party at the Facebook event page here.
Saturday 7th of May at 10:00pm - Sunday at 4:00am
£8 on the door

If you want to check Cooly G's music and DJing style, there's a link to her very smart XLR8 mix from last year for your undoubted aural pleasure.

01 Cooly G "Intro"
02 Cooly G/DVA "Ol' Dirty"
03 DJ Gregory "Traffic"
04 T Williams "Hardcash"
05 Zander Hardy (exclusive)
06 Ben Westbeech & T. Williams (exclusive)
07 Martyn "Megadrive"
08 Artist Unknown "Glow"
09 O.B "ER"
10 Artist Unknown "Get Slapped Up"
11 Artist Unknown "Gain"
12 Artist Unknown "Dougsanna"
13 DJ Gregory "Work Me"
14 Sami Sanchez "Air Raid"
15 MA1 "Samurai Remix"
16 Wbeeza "Deep Underground"
17 Bowly (exclusive)
18 Major Notes "Friend of Mine Dub"

Download Cooly G's XLR8 Mix here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Andrew Weatherall * 6 Mix. 17/04/2010

2011-04-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Andrew Weatherall returns for the latest edition of his 6 Mix residency. One of Britain's best loved DJs, Andrew has just finished touring the UK with Primal Scream celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their seminal album Screamadelica. In his latest 6 Mix show, Andrew plays an eclectic selection of music, from folk to rockabilly, via dubby, leftfield beats as well as new work and remixes fresh from his Rotters Golf Club studio in East London. In the final 30 minutes of the show, Andrew throws opens the doors to his 'Sunday night disco' featuring a live 30 minute mix of upfront new dance music including the exclusive first play of the brand new Death In Vegas single 'Enforced Peace.'

Tracklist:
Maestro Ilaiyararaaja * Myakkama
K.X.P. * 18 Hours Of Love
Moon Duo * Scars
The Oscillation * See You Through
Moondog & His Honking Geese * Dog Trot
Pokey LeFarge * Chillin' Cookin' Time In Cheatham County
Higamos Hogamos * Transfusion
MirrorMirror * Love Is the Law
Black Roots * Tribal Roots
Chain And The Gang * Mirror Mirror
Tropic Of Cancer * Be Brave
Kranzo Roses Band * Berne Crematoire
Grimes * My Sister Says The Saddest Things
Siouxsie And The Banshees * Double Life
Davilla 666 * Yo Seria Otro
Timber Timbre * Woman
kurt Vile * Baby's Arms

Sunday Night Disco:

Death In Vegas * Enforced Peace
JR Seaton * Way Savvy (Gatto Fritto Remix)
Maurice & charles * Moroder In Milan
Cut Copy * Sun God (Weatherall Remix)

Download Andrew Weatherall * 6 Mix 17/04/2010 here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Wella: A Warning From History + Wella's 'Just Got Back From T'Caravan' mix.

2011-04-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

Wella: A Warning From History!

(The following is a sample of some of English mythology's more imaginative augmentations on the legendary beast 'The Wepps' that I am anthologising in a four-volume set that Random House plan to publish pending the outcome of the Bulgarian shepherds strike)

The Silkworm:
The Silkworm is an early incarnation of the Wepps that first appears in Chaucer's early cookery books. The Silkworm is not actually a worm of any type but a small bird of no more than 4 or 5 inches that was said to have the power of speech but constantly referred to itself in the third person, such as "He's a great little bird, isn't he?" Persian mythology holds that if the Silkworm appears on the window sill in the morning a relative will either come into money or break both legs at a tombola.

The Flying Goon:
The Flying goon is another early version of the modern day Wepps we all know and hate. Flying Goons were said to be magical creatures with four hundred and 4 four eyes. Two hundred for long distance, two hundred for reading and four independently moving eyes to 'keep toot for any loose change or fags on the floor'. According to legend, if a man gazed directly into the face of a Flying Goon he immediately lost his right to drive in Bensham. The Flying Goon was also known to be a harsh carrier of herpes.

The Prawn:
The Prawn see's an interesting spin on the legend of The Wepps as it is a sea monster! Tales see it located living just off the North Northumberland coast near Holy Island. Most scholars maintain that this was due to The Prawns fabled love of free mead that the Monks would pour into the surrounding waters to pacify The Prawn on it's stroppier days. Killing a Prawn was said to be bad luck: In a poem by Sir Herbert Figgles, a sailor shoots one and his boat suddenly founders in a storm, causing the crew to seize the captain and cut his hair into a fashionable Hitler-sweep in a futile attempt to appease the Prawn. There were no survivors.

The Great Weaponie:
The Great Weaponie is a Greek take on the Wepps legend, with the head of a turtle and the body of a turtle, although not the same turtle. The Great Weaponie is reputed to sleep for a thousand years and then suddenly awake in flames, particularly if it was smoking when it dozed off. The red headed Greek warrior Greggles was said to have awakened Weaponie after six hundred years but found it listless and grouchy, and it begged to remain in bed just another two hundred years. The appearance of The Great weaponie is considered unlucky and is usually preceded by a cigarette famine or news of debt.

The Modern Day Wepps:
The truth of the Modern Day Wepps is, as ever, far less interesting than it's numerous legendary incarnations, it is in fact a large magical white mouse with the words 'Touch Me' printed on it's nipples. The Modern Day Wepps is unique amongst rodents in that it can be picked up and played like a trombone. It is also an expert 'tromboner'. It is also said to know the mayor of Pelaw personally.

Reet then, after the history lesson on the man that is Wella, here's the business end of things. After months and months of asking Wella to cobble us a mix together for the blog he's finally managed to get off the couch and graft a skin of proper house over the raw sinue and bone of grown up techno that makes the spine of this really very, very good mix! It took what seems like an eon of foot up the arse type persuasion to finally get this but it seems it was worth all the kicking! Enjoy!

Download Wella's 'Just Got Back From T'Caravan Mix' here.

P.S. Cheers to Micky Hell for the pics of Wepps in the wild.
Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Shark Week revisited + Andrew Weatherall & Ewan Pearson live 'back 2 back' @ The Tunnel in Milan.

2011-04-06T14:09:00.001-07:00

More truths, rumours and the probable historical facts behind Englands oldest and favourite public holiday. Shark Week!! Shark Week is aways an exciting time in Newcastle, and an exciting time all around the world – but have you ever asked yourself how Shark Week began? As you and your loved ones celebrate Shark Week in your local parks, city centers, mosques, hobo jungles and shopping malls, and as you enjoy such traditional Shark Week food fare as gummi remoras and kosher chum, have you ever stopped to consider how long people have been celebrating the Shark, and for that matter, a whole week of sharks? Have you ever asked yourself where this fun family festival first originated? From what dark, insidious rituals did our celebrations arise? What terrifying forces have guided the hand – or dare I say 'fin' – of destiny, scrying a sinister tattoo across the canvas of humanity’s very fate? And where did the traditional jaunty Shark Week ceremonial dance, 'The Mako Knuckler' originate? Well, we don’t know, but what follows is much of what historians suggest is the history of what we know today as Shark Week!

Years Ago. There are not yet any sharks, and therefore no Shark Week.

4,540,000,000 Years Ago. NOW there are sharks, but not any weeks yet. Give it time.

420 Million Years BC. Predating by several hundred million years the arrival of so-called “dinosaurs” (which, translated from the Latin, means literally “Holy Shit, That Thing’s Going To Kill Us”), sharks populate every corner of the Earth and literally rule the oceans. Specifically, they rule with a mix of representative parliamentary democracy and Socialism, often called a 'Sharkocracy'. Truly, this is a golden age, when every week is shark week (by parliamentary Sharkocratic decree).

26,000 BC. Crude cave paintings dating back to this era have recently been discovered in central Europe. Depicting scenes of everyday life, the paintings show Neolithic hunters tracking and killing wild sharks, as well as taming them and riding them like ponies. This has led many paleontologists and historians to decry Neolithic Man as “A bunch of making things up liars.”

5,000 Years Ago. This is when God actually created the Earth (and thus all sharks, and weeks), so ignore everything that’s come before now.

0 AD. A shark is born in Jerusalem, Hosanna in the highest!

1560 AD. Pope Pius IV declares the first known festival which most closely resembles what we understand today as “Shark Week”, largely appropriating a pagan fertility celebration which ran at the same time of year. Protestant reformers decry the holiday for its heathen overtones, but are thankfully slaughtered by papal authorities well before they can harsh anyone’s buzz too bad.

1601 AD. In honor of Shark Week (“Ye Weeke Os The Sharketh”, in Elizabethan English), Shakespeare stages his controversial “Hamlet Versus the Megalodon”. The “Coelecanth Monologue” continues to be rated as one of the greatest pieces of stagecraft in the history of modern drama.

1879. Sharks are officially patented on this date by prolific inventor Thomas Alva Edison, following groundbreaking research conducted at his Menlo Park laboratories in which alternating sharks were successfully sent to a surprised household in Great Neck (There were no survivors). A curious side effect of this document is that, legally speaking, sharks are considered to never have existed before this date. In order to avoid a lawsuit, you should once again ignore everything that’s come before now.

1941. Shark Week is officially declared a federal holiday, largely owing to the popularity of the idea as generated by American novelist Sarah Josepha Hale, and as a stopgap measure to appease ravenous gangs of hungry sharks which had terrorized the expanse of the United States ever since Edison started making them pop out of telephone wires for a laugh.

1954. Following the landmark court case, Sharks vs The Board of Education (there were no survivors), The United States federal government steps in to eradicate segregation in its public school system. A program is instituted which busses sharks from outlying districts to schools which were traditionally attended solely by white and human students. The initiative meets fierce resistance from every branch of society. Strom Thurmond stages a legendary record-breaking filibuster on the Senate floor, stopping only to be violently consumed by a longfin mako which had been masquerading as a Senate page. The radical measure is met with mixed success; sharks are successfully integrated into human schools, but most of them suffocate. Only in an experimental, partially submerged high school in Cookeville, Tennessee did the sharks fare much better, but it goes without saying that the existing student body has paid a price of their own (There were no survivors). The long-standing cartilaginous fish/vertebrate primate barrier on television is shattered when William Shatner, as Starship Captain James T.Kirk, shares a passionate kiss with a tropical bullhead on an episode of Star Trek.

1978. Congressman Jim Walsh of New York recognizes the tireless efforts of Hermine B.Beckett Hanna of North Syracuse, by helping establishing on her behalf a national observance of “Grandparents Day”, joining the holiday ranks of “Fathers Day” and “Mothers Day”. When children inevitably ask their elders “When do SHARKS get a day of their own?”, they are told “Oh, sweetheart, every day is Shark Day … during Shark Week, anyway.”

Some Point Between 1996-2005. Your girlfriend dumps you right around Shark Week, leaving you to face all the happy couples celebrating Shark Week, and all the Shark Week decorations at your local department stores. Even when you decide to sulk at home, you can’t avoid the television commercials just shoving Shark Week in your face over and over again. You start bitching to your friends about how Shark Week is just an excuse made up by Hallmark to sell greeting cards. They humor you.

2007. Right-wing pundits draw attention to a so-called secular “War on Shark Week”. Particularly adamant in her defense of a return to Shark Week values is columnist Gary Bushell, which is understandable as she is, after all, one-quarter shark (on her mother’s side of the family). The Present Day. Shark Week is universally embraced as a choice time to kick some ass and hang loose. There are no survivors.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR SHARK WEEK?

2012. Shark Week’s popularity only continues to grow, and by this date is effectively the most popular holiday in the Western Hemisphere, unseating Christmas, the Fourth of July, and a bunch of bullshit holidays like Kwanzaa, Arbor Day and Rosh Hoshannah.

(This is an edited version of the original 'Shark Week' piece which was written specially by Adrien Childs & Steadman from '5 Star' for the 'Tourist' blog.)

Reet then, music time! A mix now thats been doing the rounds for a bit now and has pretty much been on repeat almost non-stop here at Tourist HQ for the last couple of months, two of our very favourite record jockeys, Andrew Weatherall and Ewan Pearson kick the fire exits in with a mammoth 4 hr + back to back set in Milan. Anyway, enough of our stanky patter and over to Ewan to give you a swift background check on the night in question. "We played two records each all night, Andrew first then me, until the last half an hour of part two where it’s one each. I travelled by train with a kidney infection and without a passport for 13 hours each-way to make this one and I’m glad I did. It was a fantastic night, so thanks to Andrew, Diego, Lele and everyone who was there dancing like a mad thing."

Weatherall & Pearson, live at Tunnel Club, Milan, Pt 1.

Weatherall & Pearson, live at Tunnel Club, Milan, Pt 2.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Chris Duckenfield * Sirup Club Podcast.

2011-03-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

There's been an enforced extended sabbatical for us at Tourist Towers of recent as far as posts are concerned, however this is in no way, shape or form due to us frittering our time away sunning ourselves on balmy far Eastern beaches filling our bulging Northern loins with gin and heroin while being 'massaged' by young Indonesian boys oh no.
Tourist HQ has till today, resembled the aftermath of some kind of nightmare Y2K scenario with multiple laptops, desktops, X-Boxes and other sundry electrical items going apeshit-bonkers! We've not been able to come up with any conclusive evidence for this electrical anomaly but the clever money however is on Fos up and his tin hatted mob of hippie conspiracy-clarrts down the road, generating a huge EMP caused by all of them trying to log onto David Ike's new Facebook page at the same time.
Anyhoo, enough of this chat and down to the meat and veg on show here. The main course being an absolute peach of a mix here from long time Tourist favourite Chris Duckenfield that he's put together for the good people at the 'Sirup Club' in Zagreb.

"Sirup is one of my favourite places to play, a musically open and totally up for anything vibe, which is always a joy. When their superhero resident Pytzek asked me about doing a Podcast for them, I immediately wanted to share something which wasn't a straightforward crash, bang, wallop club set, but something that can be played early in the morning, fuzzy-headed & still basking in the glow of the night before. Inspired by those magical summer days & nights on the Adriatic coast." CD.

Tracks from Sir John, Amadou Et Mariam, Alicia Keys (Don't worry, it's awesome!), Keyboard Masher, Laser Tom & Blast Crew, but really, with Chris' pedigree I really don't need to sell this at all.
Tune in, turn on...

Chris Duckenfield * Musica Adriaticus
Mirror download from Megaupload

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Nathan Gregory Wilkins (E.S.P./History Clock) Live @ The Visitation mix.

2011-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

In the last few years alongside International Feel, On The Prowl and History Clock has become one of the most reliable record labels around as far as we here at Tourist Towers are concerned. Originally set up by Jonny Burnip and Nathan Gregory Wilkins, they've release some of our favourite records of the last few years, everything from original tracks by Phoreski and The Hardway Bros to reworkings of forgotten disco tracks, (usually heavily doctored with fresh production) edited back into life by the likes of Ivan Smagghe & Tim Paris' 'It's A Fine Line' project and Canadian soft rock don Andrew Allsgood, who's 'Heart' sampling 'Macho Wizard' has already attained something of a classic status in some of the less 'having it' bars and clubs in the North East.
History Clock was also one of the first labels to signal a move away from the ever present German tech-house and whatever minimal techno is called these days that can be somewhat soul-destroying to listen to in a club for more than an hour. Nathans love of classic House music as well as their recent releases also signposts that History Clock may be moving towards an even more dancefloor sound, "I like the original wave of Chicago and New York house, and we're definitely influenced by that sort of thing," Wilkins says. "We're not going to be using fancy software and making it emotionless – it'll be raw and primitive like the original house." Either way, we'll be waiting with baited breath for their next raft of 12"s to drop.
Anyway, on to matters in hand. Last month Nathan dropped in to play some records at The Visitation, the wonderful space-disco night run by the chaps at the equally wonderful 'The Beat' blog, to lay down a set of slow groove rock and space music. Sadly, there are some omissions from the track list here as a handful are so new that we're unable to tell you what they but I'm sure this will in no way hinder your enjoyment of what is one of our very favourite mixes of recent months.

Here are the results of Nathans nefarious lunar exploits:

1. Intro
2. Roy Budd * Hallucinations
3. Unknown
4. Mmm * Love Parade
5. Five Or Six * Another Reason
6. Chantal * Dernier Volta
7. Fist Of Facts * Industrial Dub
8. Unknown
9. James Pants * Say Yes
10. Unknown
11. The Exploding Disco Inevitable
12. Le Corps Du Mince * Gandhi (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
13. DJ's Pareja * Psycho Rhythm
14. Nail / NGW * DNA
15. Trans Am * First Words (NGW Edit)
16. Drezciya * Neon Falls
17. Unknown
18. Unknown
19. YMO * Behind The Mask (Remix)

Nathan G. Wilkins live at The Beat! by The Beat!

Till next time,
Big love. Tourist X

Splash One present 'Savages Lost Mix'.

2011-02-27T18:37:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the release of the new remix EP from Newcastle based band 'Retriever' we've blagged a new mix from the boys at their record label 'Splash One'.
Similarly based in Newcastle 'Splash One' was set up recently when the lads had noticed that something was once again going on in and around the clubs in town, something that’s been missing for a few years but now seemed to be resurfacing, which is kids in bands coming out of the woodwork. There’s some fantastic new Tyneside bands coming dancing at the clubs at the moment, and after chatting to people they had seen drinking or dancing week after week and realising that not only were they in bands but that they were in ‘good’ bands, it just seemed like the right time to start using the Splash One club nights, 'Jukebox' and 'Dragnet' as platforms to show what people what they wanted to do.
The latest fruits born of endeavour from the Splash One stable is a remix EP from Retriever released in collaboration with Berlin's longstanding mutant disco and electronic funk label Relish Recordings. The 4 track's take in the original as well as remixes of the title track 'Murder' by Relish head honcho Robbi 'Headman' Isinna as well as Retrievers label mates Anti Tank and Naked Under Napalm and is well worth a listen.
Anyhow, the chaps thought they would share one of their recent mixtapes with us, and this was what they came up with! The origins of 'Savages Lost Mix' is around a year or so old but manages to sounds box-fresh due to the recent renewed in interest in artists like Nitzer Ebb and the like and makes a great companion piece to the excellent People Get Real 'Alternative New Year Hoedown' mix we posted recently. The mix cuts across dancefloor shaking post-punk, cold wave, EBM and bands more recent artists drawing from that vibe such as current media darlings Factory Floor and the consistently brilliant Battant.
Hope you enjoy,,,,

Tracklist:

1. Siouxsie and The Banshees - Christine (Demo)
2. Marie Moor - Pretty Day
3. Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
4. Nyam Nyam - Fate/Hate
5. Padded Cell - Word of mouth
6. The Stranglers - All Roads Lead to Rome
7. Depeche Mode - Never Let me Down
8. Nitzer Ebb - Fun To Be Had
9. Neon Judgement - The Fashion party
10. Grauzone - Film 2
11. Lassigue Bendthaus - Automotive
12. Factory Floor - Lying
13. Suicide - Dream Baby Dream

Splash One present 'Savages Lost Mix'
Mirror download from Megaupload.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

The Aloof * Sinking

2011-02-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

The Aloof we're somewhat of a lost supergroup, their various members and associates being involved in some of the best British records and bands of the last 20 years yet I'd be surprised if 1% of the people who'll read this ever got round to owning 'Sinking'. I know this as almost everyone I know loves this record, yet this is due not to slavish record collecting but to maybe 3 copies of it being constantly passed about, lent and borrowed between my friends during the summer of 96. In fact the copy I ripped this from was, I'm positive once the property of Mr John Arlo Lapworth from the wrong side of the river in sunny Ryton.
Anyhoo, enough misty eyed transgressing and back to the meat and bones of it. Unlike many bands who started out playing more or less straight-ahead rock but in the late '90s began to assimilate electronic elements, the Aloof was formed as a strictly dance squad and only later added a vocalist and employed tighter song structures. The band began in 1990 when DJ Dean Thatcher and producer Jagz Kooner (also a member of 'Sabres of Paradise' alongside Andrew Weatherall) issued the single 'Never Get out of the Boat' on a limited white-label pressing, then on a wider release 8 months later via the legendary 'Flying Records' label, but was only officially launched when 'ffrr Records' gave the single a proper release almost a year later. By then year, the duo added vocalist Ricky Barrow and programmer Gary Burns (also with the Sabres) and recorded several singles for Thatchers fledgling 'Cowboy Records' label.
While playing live PAs at nightclubs around Great Britain, the Aloof grew bored with the burnt-out house scene and had almost, without realising it, become a true live band. Adding drummer Richard Thair (later with Red Snapper) in 1993, the expanded quintet set up their own label, 'Flaw Records', and released their debut album 'Cover the Crime' in 1994.
The album became somewhat of a hit in the British indie charts, and earned the Aloof a contract with East West, which reissued the LP in 1995 and also released their second album, their magnum opus and our focus for today, 'Sinking' one year later. Recorded in a converted Hounslow council flat, and fuelled by Guinness, marijuana, and acid 'Sinking' is a brilliantly realised record of thick floating dub, with Barrows soulful, haunting vocals floating over the devious lines of thick beats with sultry ease, like a tormented postcard home to self-sanity. This, in my opinion is the record that typified the sound of the mid 90's more than any other. The record is sonically equal parts PiL, Studio 1, Massive Attack, The Stone Roses and Primal Scream, without ever really sounding like any (Sinking pre-dates 'Vanishing Point' by 2 years and 'Mezzanine' by 3) and lyrically touches on social consciousness, the mid 90's party drug hangover, weekend excesses, psychosis and political unrest. Uplifting, brooding, sometimes dark but always interesting and never more than right now does it sound like a retrofit for modern beggared Britain.
The group we on to play several festivals during the summer of 1996, opened for 'Leftfield' and had their single 'One Night Stand' reach the British Top 30 later that year. The album 'Seeking Pleasure' followed in 1998, though the group was dropped from East West after weak sales and a shake-up in the label's dance division. By now, almost any inertia had left the group, and Kooner jumped ship soon after, they battled on, moving to 'Screaming Target Records' for 1999's 'This Constant Chase for Thrills' which was at best a lackluster effort, and the group, bereft of most of the original players sadly failed to regain any of the epic drift, majesty and swagger of their sophomore effort.

1. One Night Stand
2. Bittersweet
3. Bitter Sweet
4. Stuck On The Shelf
5. Abuse
6. Wish You Were Here
7. Sinking
8. One Night Stand (2)
9. Hot Knives At Lunchtime
10. Space Dust
11. Losing It
12. Sunk
13. Last Stand

Download 'The Aloof * Sinking'

Mirror download from Megaupload

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

A bunch of Andy Blake (Dissident/Cave Paintings) mixes.

2011-02-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that there are 3 or 4 DJ's held in especially high esteem here at Tourist Towers and Andy Blake is one member of that much hallowed group. We always loved Andy's DJ sets and moreover the ethic behind his Dissident label, nearly all tracks sourced mainly from Blake’s circle of friends; the focus was idiosyncratic dance music that touched on house, disco, techno and the psychedelic outer reaches of the Balearic. Among those who contributed to the series were Gatto Fritto, Ali Renault (of Heartbreak), Mark Broom, The Off-Key Hat, Naum Gabo (Optimo’s JG Wilkes) and Blake himself. Following the dissolution of the much loved, and missed Dissident imprint, he has remained an hugely influential figure with his mindburstingly eclectic DJ sets as well as his new 'Cave Paintings' imprint, Blake currently choosing to spend more time in the studio, recording all-analogue, club friendly but uncompromising tracks live in one take, in the true spirit of Chicago house.
As a DJ, his pedigree and influence is considerable with only a handful of DJ's and collectors possessing anywhere near Blakes knowledge of music, as shown by the mixes we've posted. The sets cover almost every conceivable mutated variation of dance music, touching base with everything from uber hard German techno, classic Chicago House and original Disco via Balearic/Cosmic Rock and Turkish psychedelic soul to 60's freakbeat.
We've posted a few of Andys mixes in the past and had a great response to them so we hope you'll enjoy these ones as much as we did.
Also we have to give props to the excellent 'Test Pressing' blog and the ever reliable 'Feel My Bicep' where these ones were originally hosted.

Andy Blake * Strange Days
Mirror download from Megaupload

Andy Blake * Nuclear Ritual (Music For A World Unknown Volume 12)
Mirror download from Megaupload

Andy Blake * Mix (F.M.B.)
Mirror download from Megaupload

Till next time.
Big love, Tourist. X

Uber Alles

2011-02-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

North East record labels, to use a lazy journalistic idiom, are a lot like Buses.
We don't mean that they invlove carrying people and are prone to harmful emmisions, but they do definitely seem to all come at once.
We featured People Get Reals new project, Join Our Club, on a previous post, and we now feel obliged to point out 2 more labels which are not just in the category of 'good local labels', but are simply excellent and just happen to be from the region.

SIGNALS
First up is Signals, a project from some (not all) of the people behind one of Tourists favourite (and deeply missed) DJ/Promotion outfits... Road to Rimini.

Signals is only 2 releases old and already they've managed to showcase the diversity that we already associated with their previous projects, or as they describe it...
"House/Techno/Synth Pop/Afro/and most importantly... the Funk"

Their inaugral release 'The One - Lets Get It Straight' managed to impressively combine elements of Early Chicago, via the Hitman and Her and numerous early 80's Discotheques, while rising above it's own influences.
The addition of a remix by Dutch electro legend Legowelt makes this an essential purchase, although you'll be hard pushed to find a vinyl copy now that it's virtually sold out from everywhere that stocked it.

As they describe it, fusing and deconstructing "Hip Hop, Afrobeat, Techno, P-Funk and Dub" their second release 'The Otherside Feat Musa K - Headless Corpse' goes so far beyond a being a musical u-turn from their previous release that it actually seems to traverse dimensions and makes perfect sense as their next step.

It's also a phenomenal record...

[SIG.MMX.II] The Otherside ft Musa K - Headless Corpse/Roadblock by signalsmmx

There's a very long and interesting story regarding how the release came about, which we wont include here because it's theirs to tell, but it's highlights include the 90's, Maxell tapes, driving to Darlington and Nik Kershaw!

You can buy Signals releases from the following link (it's available elsewhere too, but we chose to link to Clone because we're trendy that way)...

Click here for the Clone Records site.

Audio Parallax
Coming from seemingly nowhere, Audio Parallax records have released a flurry of considered Hi Tek Soul releases, all of which sound quite brilliant.

Focusing on local talents and working as community/collective/hivemind/cult (we're not completely sure which is the most apt), people may not have currently heard of artists such as MannMadeMusic, NY*AK or Gareth Cheshire, but based on their musical offerings, they're set for big things (or at least they will be if there's any cosmic justice, which we suspect their isn't, but we're optimists).

APR002: NY*AK - The Vulture [Released 28/01/2011] by Parallax Music Group

We're ashamed to say, while it's just down the road, we've never been to Murton in County Durham, although now we know that it's were label boss David Kenney originates, we can't help but envision the place as being where Dick Jones nicked the idea for Delta City, his futuristic Detroit.

Check out all that's fit to print on their website here

Dave has also produced this mix, which predominantly features his imminent releases...

David Kenney - Eat, Sleep, Dance, Repeat [APR PROMO MIX 002] by Parallax Music Group

Finally, this wouldn't be a true Tourist post without some kind of self serving byline.
The Tourist house band, Last Waltz, will be also throwng their hat into the ring with the launch of their limited vinyl project 'Object of Distraction' in early April.
The first release is a cover of the little known song Criminal World (later covered by Bowie on Lets Dance), featuring a remix by Fat Fuk records Phoreski, as well as their own club interpretation.
1/3 of Last Waltz recently recorded a mix for Spontaneous Rhythm, ANOTHER local label, which time constraints preclude us from detailing too much in this already rediculously long post. Safe to say we'll be featuring info on Spontaneous Rhythm soon enough, but in the meantime...
You can Listen / Download the mix here...

Geoff Leopard - 45 Minutes for Spontaneous Rhythm by Geoff Leopard(Last Waltz)

And familiarise yourself with Spontaneous Rythm here and check them on 'Soundcloud' here people.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Andrew Weatherall * 6 Mix (13.02.11)

2011-02-16T06:52:00.000-08:00

The big man recently returned for his latest edition of his 6 Mix residency on his Sunday night BBC Radio 6 show. One of the country's best loved DJ's and producers Weatherall has been thrust back into the public eye as of last November by Primal Scream, when they announced that they'd be touring and performing their Weatherall produced magnum opus - Screamadelica - live for the first time in full. Since then Weatherall has been the subject of an internet fan campaign to get him a weekly radio show to pick up where the much loved, and missed John Peel left off after his untimely death back in 2004. He has confirmed he'll be the Primal's tour DJ when they take Screamadelica on the road over the UK in the spring, celebrating it's twentieth anniversary. As you would expect from Weatherall, in his latest 6 Mix show, he plays a huge variation of music, old and new, from folk to rockabilly, via dub and minimal techno as well as new work and remixes fresh from the Rotters Golf Club studio. In the last 30 minutes he also throws open the doors to the Sunday night disco which features a live 30 minute mix of all things beat-y and banger-y, if that makes any sense? If it doesn't, just have a listen innit folks!

Tracklist:

1. the Liminanas * Jes Suis Pas Tres Drogue
2. Wild Nothing * Take Me In
3. RD Burnham * Lekrham Diana Dil
4. The Black Angels * Black Grease
5. Sore Eros * Running Down
6. White Fence * That Mexican Thing/Life Is Too Short
7. Haunted George * The Tomb
8. Seefeel * Faultis
9. Pogo Ltd * Don't Pull Me Down
10. Blank Dogs Goes By
11. Wire Bad Worn Things
12. Pama International Meet Mad Professor * Justified Dub
13. The Two Bears * The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum
14. The Dirtbombs * Cosmic cars
15. Frente Cumniero * Pitchito
16. Gustav Temple And The Blades * Pudding And Pies
17. Secret Lives * Witches
18. Big Boi * Shutterbug
19. Tearist * Headless
20. Pink Industry * Don't Let go

Andrew's Sunday Night Disco:

1. Pablo * Stratus (Weatherall Remix)
2. Alice Gold * Runaway Love (Weatherall Remix)
3. Andrew Weatherall * A Love From Outer Space
4. Soft Metals * Another Goodbye
5. Margo * Vocci Giaga

Download from 'Andrew Weatherall * 6 Mix (13.02.11)

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

I love the smell of nepotism in the morning!

2011-02-12T06:27:00.000-08:00

We'd just like to take this quick opportunity to point out that our friends and fellow Newcastle residents 'People Get Real' have a rather excellent new EP out on Beatport for download (The deep-end, proto Tribal Records vibe of 'Let Nobody' being our personal highlight). It's already ruffled more than a few dancefloor feathers and is receiving heavy support from heavyweights like Matt Walsh, Stephan Bodzin, Terry Francis , Kiki, Pig & Dan, Phil Kiernan and X-Press 2!

We think you should buy it, if for no other reason than so the lads can afford new haircuts.

Click the link here to listen & buy on Beatport.

Till next time.

Big love, Tourist. X

Endless Race with Bill Brewster @ The Star & Shadow + mixes from Pat (Rimini/Endless Race) & Bill himself innit!

2011-01-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

With the sad demise of the Road To Rimini parties, Newcastle has since been left with a rather large gap to be filled as far as clubbing goes. After 5 years of great parties, bringing in the likes of Tourist faves Neville Watson, Andy Blake, Legowelt and Heartbreak to mention just a few and being one of the only truly regular alternatives to the usual big house/dance nights in the area the good people involved decided, with heavy hearts, that sadly it was time to lay the body of the Fratelli Di Rimini to rest for good.

But do not despair good reader, for the spirit of Rimini lives on in the shape of 'Endless Race'!

It's was obvious that after years of throwing such splendidly successful bashes the chaps behind 'Rimini' and 'A Little Lost' couldn't just leave it be, even with the plethora of new projects, labels, radio shows etc, it was always inevitable they'd dip their collective toes back into the meat and veg of clubbing, hence the tasty looking new night they've cooked up, the afore mentioned 'Endless Race!'

Obviously with them wanting to get things started on the right foot, they are extremely proud to bring the one and only Bill Brewster to their old home, 'The Star and Shadow' on Saturday February 19th. Co-writer of the acclaimed Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, co-founder of one of Tourists favourite websites, the essential DJhistory.com and responsible for the legendary 'Low Life' parties that have now been running for an incredible 15 years now, Bill is something of an encyclopaedia of dance music and hugely respected worldwide as a DJ.

Far from being a jack of all trades and master of none, Bill has a broad appreciation for dance and electronic music informs an eclectic and genre blending approach that is much more than the sum of its parts as well as a sensitivity and sense of occasion that few DJs possess. Bill Brewster knows how to work a crowd in the best possible sense! He began DJing in the 1980s, but came into his own in the early 1990s, particularly during a two-year stint in New York running DMC’s office, where nights at the Sound Factory and hanging out with Danny Tenaglia gave him the musical grounding you can still hear in his music today. Anyone hearing Bill today can hear the influence of years spent cutting his teeth as a DJ in New York. There are few still playing regularly today that have his dedication, eclecticism and far reaching knowledge of music that will be on display on February 19th. He has been working in the industry’s fringes for almost 30 years including the running of various labels from Twisted UK and Forensic in the ’90s to Disco Sucks and, lately, Anorak. Miss this rare opportunity to see him in the North East at your own peril.

This is only Bill's second ever performance in Newcastle so as you can see, it's truly rare occasion and one we're DEFINITLEY not going to miss! If you want a little taste of the mans credentials, then simply check these two mixes from the legendary Low Life party back in Feb last year. Great stuff!

Bill Brewster * Live at 'Low Life', Feb 2010 Part 1.

Bill Brewster * Live at 'Low Life', Feb 2010 Part 2.

As well as Bill himself, there’ll also be warm up sets from the resident DJs and as such we've included a brilliant mix from ex-Rimini and current Endless Race decksman Pat for you to download. this one comes highly recommended!!

Tracklist;

1. Holy Ghost * Walk On Air (Sun And Moon Mix)

2. Propaganda * Echoes Of Frozen Faces

3. Riccardo Cionni * Fog

4. Beautiful Swimmers * Big Coast

5. Sly And Robbie * Get To This, Get To that

6. Marcello Napoletano

7. Sapho * Train De Paris

8. Escape From NY * Save Our Love

9. Ram Band * Silent Smiles

10. Soft Rocks * Leave Your Earth Behind

11. Riz Ortolani * Il Corpi Di Linda

12. Full Five * For Good Measure

13. Clandestine * Radio Rhythm Dub (Arthur Russell)

14. Units * High Pressure Days

15. Mark Lane Who's Really Listening

Download Pat's '11% Balearic mix' from Zshare by clicking here.

,,,, or alternatively, you can download it from Megaupload by clicking here.

Soooo, the date for your diary is Saturday the 19th of February for Endless Race with Bill Brewster (Low Life/DJHistory.com) plus residents, the doors are 10pm – 4am and tickets are £9. You can buy them on the door, but we strongly recommend you buy them in advance by clicking on the link here and check out any other info on the Endless Race Facebook page here.

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. X

People Get Real * Alternative New Year Hoedown Mix.

2011-01-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

With the resurgence in all things Cold Wave and a renewed interest in the darker side of Synth-Pop and Post-Punk over the last 18 months or so, there was always going to be the danger that a host of half baked pretenders trying to hitch themselves to the bandwagon following the original bandwagon would pollute the internet with more and more watered down interpretations of what they considered to be Cold Wave or Post Punk and that is exactly what has happened, with a few notible exceptions. We've had some brilliant mixes from Richard Fearless, Weatherall and the Mutant Disco radio show, some great compilations from Stones Throw, Angular and New Yorks Wierd Records and a good degree of much overdue success for Factory Floor. With this in mind we're rightly excited here at Tourist to have a brand spanking new synth-flavoured mix from our good friends 'People Get Real' to share with you and a re-up on our sister blog 'Thoughts On Love And Smoking' of the excellent 'Cold Waves & Minimal Electronics' compilation album from last year. But first, get a lug full of this,,,,,

Tracklist:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross * Eventually We Find Our Way
Psyche * Misery (Extended Edit)
Tommi Stumpf * Alarm
Twilight Ritual * Closed Circuit
Soma Holiday * Shake Your Molecules (The Neutron Dance)
Peru * Oriental
British Murder Boys * Hate Is Such A Strong Word (Original Mix)
E-Gold feat. Alexis * Separate Our Hearts (Tom Furse The Horrors remix)
ISE8 Edits * It's The Bonobo Season
Anne Clark * Our Darkness (Sci-Fi Mortiz Dark Twist Rmx)
Chris & Cosey * Arcade
Tanit * Can An Actor Bleed
Trisomie 21 * Breaking Down
B52's * Mesopotamia (Mike Simonetti's version For Fred)

People Get Real * Alternative New Year Hoedown.

Check 'People Get Real' on Soundcloud.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

We're back! El.Dee (Last Waltz) * Return To Marley Potts Mix.

2011-01-03T08:50:00.001-08:00

Well, that was that, 2010 disappears into the rear view mirrors like a bag of unwanted Christmas puppies left in a lay by on the A19 and 2011 comes reeling round the fountain to slap you on the patio. We've been a tad lax in regards to our blogging duties over the festive period due to the usual yuletide over indigence's but thankfully all the turkey has now been scoffed and there's only a single can of warm scotch left in the pantry at Tourist Tours so we can revert back to our normal week in week out lives and leave off the goose fat till next Crimbo.
Anyhoo, we've stockpiled a load of new mixes and other stuff from the usual suspects as well as some new additions to the fold to post in the coming weeks and to kickstart the 2011 session we've got a tasty little number from Tourist alumni Lee Forster, probably better known to Newcastle residents as one third of the 'Last Waltz' mob. Anyway, whichever the numerous nom de guerre's he's currently answering to Lee Forster, El.Dee, Fat Lee, Rat Face, Pointy Headed Twat, The Child Catcher, is matterless, what is important is that he's managed, against all the odds to knock us together a brilliant selection of records for our listening pleasure, so kick back, pour yourself a glass of something cold, spark up and consider this, in my best 'Big Brother' voice,,,,, "Lee Forster, omni-talented musical genius or a fat, irksome old twat? You decide!"

Tracklist:

JJ Cale * Cherry
Soul Drummers * Lude # 7
Ananta * Casual Ocean
Michael Brook * Hybrid
Coyote * Mongolia
Quiet Village * Too High To Move
Naum Gabo * Black Lab (Black Lab Discosession Mix)
Bronski Beat * Memories
Edgar Froese * Pinnacles
Roland Sebastien Faber * Molecular

Download 'El.Dee * Return To Marley Potts' mix here.

Anyone having trouble with the Zshare link above, there's an alternative Download link here innit!

Till next time.
Big Love. Tourist. X

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Merry Christmas: Gwar Is Over.

2010-12-24T16:31:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from us at Tourist, we hope it's another good 'un for you all and in celebration of the anniversary of the day of Jesus' second marriage here's some good old rockin' Christmas tunes courtesy of DJ History head honcho Bill Brewster. The mix was originally posted out as a freebie from the DJ History shop but has been immortalised via the medium of technology by the good people at mixcloud. Big yule-log vibes in the area people innit!

Have a great Christmas & big love,

Geoff & Mark.

Bill Brewster's Christmas Chestnuts by Djhistory on Mixcloud

Jesse's Diets

2010-12-13T05:55:00.000-08:00

Friday December 3rd:
Geoff Leopard: Is playing Tokyo tonight with The birthday berk, El.Dee.
Join us to toast his eternal youth at 12 o'clock (while that portrait in the loft loses another layer of lustre).
We're playing records from the decade he was born, so expect Prussian Techno, Disco from New Amsterdam and possibly a dash of Ottoman Psyche.
Bad passion are in town also.
Lock up your medicine cabinets

Friday December 10th:
Lee Forster: TONIGHT, TOKYO TERR-ARSE with myself and Mewgar......
thawing-out balearic .. mild'ish disco .. not as cold hewse .. starting to melt techno
FREE ENTRY 8 - 1 am....
free 2 litre bottles of Frosty Jack to the first 2 people.

Friday December 10th:

Tamara Tourist: Playing rekkids on the terrace @ Tokyo tonight with Newcastles BEST Father Christmas look-a-like Elf.Dee. Haway along and have a sit on his lap!! Festive House, Yule Log Chuggers, Fireside Balearic & Mince Pie Techno from 8 - 1 AM. See you there yeah? X.

Matt Waites (G & S/Moscow) Mix.

2010-12-07T12:57:00.001-08:00

Seeing as the peak of festive season is on very much on it's way we've decided that we'll be spreading the musical fare rather heavily in the run up to Crimbo this year and we're starting off with a mix from Tourist favourite Matt Waites that has been on heavy rotation round here for some time now. The mix was originally hosted on the excellent Slutty Fringe blog as promo for Matt's appearance at their 4th birthday party back in August but we thought we'd give it the second outing it deserves. Mat's productions have long since been a standard with us at Tourist from his early incarnation as Nightmoves remixing the likes of Deteatchments, Shy Child, Foals, In Flagranti, Roisin Murphy, Klaxons, Shit Disco, Friendly Fires and Late Of the Pier or putting out spacey slo-mo discoiod with Nadia Ksabia as 'G & S' for Codek and the much missed 'Dissident' imprint. Their debut single 'Show Me The Good Time' for Andy Blakes label was one of Tourists standout tracks of 2009 and was heavily played by the likes of the Disco Bloodbath crew, Erol Alkan and Optimo.

The success of his remixes and his djing has taken Matt around the UK playing at Glastonbury, Lovebox, Cocadisco, and Ministry of Sound and countless gigs around Europe, Australia, and the West Coast of America. Matt's latest project 'Moscow' see's him in a new guise which has seen a return to his love of the deeper side of house music and given him the opportunity to experiment further sonically.

Matt's last residency was as DJ and promoter at Future Flash, a monthly night at one of Londons newest clubs 'Cable' set deep in the arches of London Bridge and has seen him bringing the likes of Rub n Tug, Optimo, Mock & Toof, Maurice Fulton, Andrew Weatherall and Toby Tobias to play alongside him.

You can also heck out more of Matt's mixes, remixes and his own tracks on Soundcloud here and on his most excellent website here.

1. Todd Rungren * Breathless

2. CFCF * Snake Charmer (Young Galaxy Remix)

3. Beautiful Swimmers * Big Coast

4. Blamma Blamma * Beyond 17 (Cage & Aviary Remix)

5. Matthew Dear * Soil To Seed

6. Space Dimension Controller * Journey To The Core Of The Unknown Sphere

7. Oneohtrix Point Never * Returnal

8. Monarchy * Love Get Out Of My Way (Tim Goldsworthy Dub)

9. Bryan Ferry * You Can Dance (Richard Sen Dub)

10. I:Cube * Grandes Orgues

11. Harkin & Rainy * Word To The Wise

12. Richardo Villalobos * What You Say Is More Than I Can Say (Isolee Remix)

13. Guilaume & The Coutu Dumonts * Can't Have Everything

14. Mugwump * The Congregation

15. Kool DJ Dust * Side A

16. JR Seaton * Azklementhyme

Download Matt Waites * 'Slutty Fringe' mix.

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. X

Matahari? Fail. Lol!

2010-12-07T01:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas is around the corner and we're skint.

Follow the links at the top of the page, buy some stuff from Juno and help make sure that Tiny Tim's ass doesn't have to hit the bricks this year.

Worth noting is the fact that Juno is giving away a free track every day up until Christmas, which you can access via the border on the top of the blog.

We've also stuck up links to the new charts by Tourist favourites Phoreski and Max Essa.

While you're on the Juno site try and buy something expensive, like a golden record box, or some diamond slipmats.
The commision we get on those has got to be like £3 or something.

Jesse's Diets

2010-11-29T02:40:00.000-08:00

Myself and Tamara, as well as a panoply of similarly wretched mendicants, regularly play alongside my fellow Last Waltz member, Lee Forster (AKA Foss, El.Dee, Fat Lee, BassHunter, Grandad, El Decrepit, Joey Boswell etc etc etc) on the terrace of Tokyo, one of Newcastle's finer hostelries.

Each week the Facebook notifications regarding the gig tend to get more interesting, so I've decided to document them (for at least a week) starting today.

This is a bumper edition, because I can remember the previous 2 weeks status' too.

Friday Nov 12th 2010

Lee Forster.

'I''ll be doing the decks with Geoffs Hair on TOKYO TERRACE.

Gusty Balearic. Breezey Disco. Chicago House (Windy City). Gale Force Techno.

Parp.'

Friday Nov 19th 2010

Geoff Leopard.

',,,,, is playing records on the terrace at Tokyo tonight, as is one of his polygamous life partners, FoZZ. Gay Disco, Macho Techno and Bi Curious House are on the menu.'

Friday Nov 26th 2010

Tamara Touristblog Knight.

'Tonight @ Tokyo, playing fingerless glove house, icey-techno, wrap up warm baleria and 'take ya coat off or you wont feel the benefit when you go outside' chuggers, with Newcastles favourite slush puppy, Lee Forster. Snowmen optional!'

Watch this space for more.

Or don't watch this space.

Either is good.

Final Road To Rimini + Mixes from Tony Daly & Justin Mills.

2010-11-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Well, sad times again people as another of the North Easts clubbing institutions 'Road To Rimini' pulls down the shutters and closes it's doors for the final time. After almost 5 years of musical boundary pushing and genre blending, Rimini is probably the only party in Newcastle over the last decade that can genuinely claim to have successfully taken the blueprint for traditional clubnights and tossed it straight into the file marked 'bin' and stamped their own identity on the city's nightlife. It will be sorely missed.

Over four years have passed since starting Road to Rimini in a small, smokey and cramped basement bar in Newcastle city centre and the Il Fratelli Di Rimini have decided that it's the end of the road for the Rimini nights.

We found a great home for our night in the Star & Shadow Cinema and for more than three years; through blood, sweat and toil we somehow managed to pull off some great parties.

We're so proud of what we've done with this night and made some great comrades along the way. We bridged a much needed gap between Italo Disco, House, Techno, Electro, Krautrock, EBM, Synth pop and Hi-Nrg.

But all things pass and it's time to call it a day. Wipe that tear from your eye though because we've planned a great finale!

It's only appropiate and perfectly fitting that we get Den Haag's finest back! Danny Wolfers aka Legowelt and Creme Organisation's TLR will be banging the box on Saturday 20th Nov for THE FINAL ROAD TO RIMINI with able support from Newcastle's finest DJs - Tony Daly & Justin Mills.

For those that missed Legowelt's Road to Rimini live debut, way back in 2007, don't miss out on this.

But let's not get nostalgic about halcyon days; his live sets and productions are now more relevant than ever. With recent releases on Creme Organisation (the outstanding Vatos Locos LP and Gardens of the Ghetto EP), his own label Strange Life, M>O>S Recordings, Clone and Minimal Rome, he'll be packing up his machines and flying over from the west coast of Holland with only one intention - to make you jackers scream!

It's with great pleasure that we also see the return of TLR; Creme Organisation label boss and for us one of the finest purveyors of genuine underground music. There is only one aim for TLR - make you dance.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~awolfe/
http://www.globaldarkness.com/
http://www.godspill.net/

With equal excitement we're also proud to present Tony (Suono) Daly & Justin Mills. For locals Tony & Justin need no introduction but for the uninitiated these two were residents at one of the finest techno/electro nights in Newcastle - Reverb - where they warmed up for the likes of Carl Craig, Baby Ford, DJ Bone.... the list goes on. It'll be a rare outing to hear these two together and worth the entrance fee alone. - they'll get this party started right.

It goes without saying that we need a roll call of all the live acts, producers and DJs that have helped us along the way, it's more than just a name check, it's a massive thank you. We've genuinely made some great friends and it's been a real honour.

Darkmode, Fiero Fuxx, Shemale, Guessmen, Heartbreak, Socco Chico, Syphus, Legowelt, DJ TLR, Rob & Zoopsie, Mysterymen, The Wee DJs, Bionix, Peter Mangalore, iamelectron, Tokyo Acid Cru, Starlight Boyz, J.error, Rick Hopkins, Video Dave, 586, Tadge, Sneak-Thief, Orgue Electronique, Meschi, Andy Blake, Casionova, Warm Digits, Kobol Electronics, Teslasonic, Onoma, The Cylon, Kristian Atkinson. Gesaffelstein, The Hacker, Emergency Librarian, Den Haan, The Knight Stalkers, Tommy Walker 3, Ali Renault, Oppenheimer Analysis, Rude 66, Andrew Ingram, MANASYt, Artwhore, Electrick Dragon, David Vunk, Neville Watson, Third Man, Slabs of the Tabernacle, The One, Gold Blood, Joe Hart.

The Star & Shadow venue has supported our night from the beginning and allowed us great freedom - all the volunteers that have helped us along the way we cannot thank you enough. You all know who you are.
A remarkable and truly unique space!

Special thanks also to Newcastle's finest drinking establishments; The Tanners, The Tyne and The Forth.
Big thanks also to local promoters for your support; Noname, Binni, Tony & Dano, Kristian, Foss, Geoff, Mick & Colin.

As a little taster we've got a couple of mixes from a couple of the guests for the night, Mr Peterlee 91/92 and the North Easts most militant vest wearer Mr Tony Daly and his partner in vibes, recognised as one of Newcastles alltime finest house and techno selectors Justin Mills. Both mixes being the absolute gems you'd expect!

Download Tony Dalys Mix for Rimini here:

Patrice Scott * Evolutions Pt 2

Furry Freaks * Lament For A Dead Computer Pt 1

Hakan Libdo * Walk Away (2020 Dub)

Deetron * I Cling (Aril Brikha Mix)

Scuba * Heavenly (Remix)

Crime * Unknown

Restless Soul * Skyodelic

Pezzner * The Big Roll

Maurizio * M5

Photek & Robert Owens * Mine To Give

Josh One * Contemplation (King Britt Remix)

And Justins mix here:

Jungle Wonz * Bird In A Gilded Cage (Dub)

Virgo * Free Yourself

Chicago Skyway * Heavens Angels

Railway Raver * My Lacoste

Jared Wilson * Bankok 4 Seasons (Osbourne Mix)

, Taqng * Throbbin'

Nexus 21 * Together

Grant * Danceappella

Tyree * Video Crash

Gherkin Jerks (Speedy J Mix)

X2 * Time Elevation

Jared Wilson * Paris Massacre

Legowelt And Traxx * Stranger In The Strangest Of Lands

So just to re-cap, thats,,,,,

Final Road To Rimini with Legowelt (Creme Organisation, Bunker, Clone, Strange Life) (Live.)

TLR (Creme Organisation) (DJ Set)

Justin Mills & Tony Daly. (Suono, Reverb, Bloated)

Saturday 20th Of November 2010

Star & Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Byker NE1 2NP

£7 advance or £8 on the door.

See you down the front!!

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. x

Theo Parrish Live @ Stereotonic, Dublin.

2010-10-29T10:09:00.001-07:00

We can't get enough of Theo at Tourist Towers! We've been checking out some of his old EQ twiddling mixes this week, revisiting some of his best, seductive, strange, infectious and down right brilliant old mixes and some of his more recent output and absolutely essential productions. I really could go on on forever praising this guy, but you'd do better slapping a needle on one of his tunes and rinsing out the volume, 'Walking Through The Sky', 'Sawale Sayale', 'I Can't Take It' or any one of his sometimes divisive 'Ugly Edits' series. (Personally I think his edit of Jill Scott's 'Slowly, Surely' is one of the greatest moments in electronic music of the last 20 years.) Firmly sticking two fingers up at all those naysayers who continually regurgitate the frankly ridiculous argument that dance music has no Soul. No I don't, I recommend everything he's done, even the stuff I haven't heard yet. But honestly, your life will be better for hearing him.

It's no exaggeration to say that Theo Parrish could easily be considered to be the future of what was formerly known as House Music, continually at the bleeding edge, coal facing at the coalface of experimentalism, he has again and again pushed music to new turning points, all the while doing it with patience and class, no sell out, true to his roots and his own sound and vision, the man is truly inspiring. Drawing on the rich heritage of classic Detroit House and it's grittyness, soulfulness, dirtyness, rawness and honestness. Truly, only and handful of people in the world make music like Theo and almost all of those cats are from the motor city. 

Possibly the most versatile and otherworldly DJ on the planet, able to play anything, bringing bleeding hard techno into soul records with no problems. As a producer, sometimes a bit too avant garde for some, but as a DJ, forget about the competiton. Deep, hypnotic, sublime music at it's best!

Enjoy,,,,,

Tracklist:

1. Hanna – Metropolitan
2. Theo Parrish – Shadow Dancing
3. Son Dexter – Sonrise Dance
4. Theo Parrish – Delwood II
5. Three Chairs – On The 3 Chairs
6. Theo Parrish – Ebonics
7. Franck Roger Etc – No More Believe
8. Chez N Trent – The Choice
9. Roy Ayers – Running Away
10. Positive Force – We Got The Funk
11. Theo Parrish – Lake Shore Drive
12. Lego – El Ritimo De Verdad
13. 1050 East Feat. Lady Alma – Count On Me
14. Piranhahead - Unreleased
15. Infinity Feat Malik – Back 2 Chicago
16 .Loletta Holloway – Love Sensation (Ugly Edit 5)
18. Love I Lost (Ugly Edit)
19. Mr Fingers – Sharing 909’s
20. First Choice – Love And Happiness
21. Gherkin Jerks – Acid Indigestion
21. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes
22. Da Posse – It’s My Life (Aluh Mix)
23. Sylvester – Over & Over
24. Loletta Holloway – Catch Me On The Rebound
25. Brainstorm – Hot For You
26. Phreek – Big Phreek
27. Kikrokos – Jungle Dj (Ron Hardy Edit)
28. Made In The Usa – Never Let You Go (Ugly Edit 1)
29. Sylvester – Down, Down, Down

30. Carolyn Crawford - Comin On Strong
31. Lenny Williams - Choosing You

Download: Theo Parrish Live @ Stereotonic, Dublin.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Andrew Weatherall * Live @ Electric Chair. Jan 07.

2010-10-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

Really don't have to sell this one AT ALL so I'll keep it brief. Unless you've been sprinkling industrial size tubs of Ketamine on your Corn Flakes for breakfast each morning you'll more than know what to expect when two of Englands finest old-(ish) institutions combined back in January 07. They produce a quite frankly outrageous 2 and a half hours of unbelievably good music.

One of my all time favourite mixes, I would happily punch a baby to be able to go back in time and have been at this night. Weatherall cutting loose in fine style and rinsing his record box right out. The mix boots off with Schoolly D and ends two and a half hours later with, well, you'll have to listen with a huge smile on your face to it to find out. ;)

Enjoy.

Andrew Weatherall * Live @ Electric Chair. Jan 07. Part 1.

Andrew Weatherall * Live @ Electric Chair. Jan 07. Part 2.

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. X.

Why I hate 'Man Du Jour' + A rare 'Straight Up House Mix from Underground Resistance!!

2010-10-13T04:26:00.001-07:00

'A cunt seen feeling smug here yesterday.'

Feeling particularly belgerent due to the recent Tory rape of our countrys coffers today so thought I'd post about another annoying bunch of directionless clowns,,,,, Mods.

Now the U.K. has had its fair share of fashion-led subcultures. Arguably, this tendency dates to the 18th Centuary dandies, who either revelled in the strictures of 'correct' attire, or plumped for flamboyant, decadent dress, with a hint of gender confusion chucked in for good measure.
By the latter half of the 20th Centuary, the sartorial descendants of Beau Brummel, Dorian Grey and their ilk came in waves. The 1950's Ted's resurrected the Edwardian drape coats that gave them their name, (a look revived in the 70's, albeit through Glam, or in it's original form).
The 1960's belonged to the 'Mods', the least adventurous and most contrived of all youth movements, with everything from their look to their music plundered, and stolen wholesale from other youth tribes, not a single original idea between the lot of the fuckers! And they have the audacity to be 'precious' as hell about what IS or ISN'T Mod! Who the fuck just died and made this bunch of arsey chancers king's of the soul patrol, eh? They haven't got a clue where they came from, is their look and music taste 60's Stax soul, Philly soul, Motown? Is it 50's British Ska, Reggae? Is it 70's urban skin? 80's casual? Ask one, next time you're unlucky enough to meet a 'Mod', I guarantee he'll ramble incoherently for hours mentioning everyone from Hewey Newton and the black panthers to Stevie Wonder, to Wigan Casino to New Order to The Clash and all the fucking way back again! Now I know about The Clash, and do you think a band with ideals so drenched in socio-political ethics would want to be associated with the shallowness of this bland bunch? I reckon Strummer would be spinning in his grave like a fuckin' dynamo if he heard that!! But I have had to put up with drip's in tight suits trying to tell me that they had 'a Mod edge', now next time this happens, I'm going to loosen some fuckers teeth! If you let a 'Mod' talk for too long he'll try and tell you everyone from 'Sparticus' to the 'Queen fucking mother' were 'Mods', "You know, coz it's a state of mind being a Mod man!" FUCK OFF! NO IT'S NOT!
Now I'm pretty sure that 'Mods' are all 'Modernist' by their very name and nature, so why the fuck are all their figure heads decades past their sell by dates, why is their look a soooo fucking 'retro?' In fact the MOST retro of all youth tribes! And as for 'Paul FUCKING Weller!' Fuck off! My Dads more edgy and street than that miserable old feather cut fucker!
Luckily though, from the 60's Mod, the look, politics and music morphed into Skin- and Sued-heads, and saw their tastes honed then perennially revived. Even punk, whatever the protagonists might say about DIY, post – winter of discontent rage and anarchy, was a fashion movement: Just ask Vivienne Westwood!
All these models share common traits, regardless of the aesthetic – the clothes HAD to be expensive, they HAD to be ostentatious, they HAD to be immaculate, and they HAD to be worn first by working class young men. Given the high rate of fashion churn between the 50's and the 70's, it's perhaps a surprise that the last great revolution in men's clothing was sparked sometime in 1977 and holds fast to this day – The Football Casual.
I think this is something to do with brand. Where the misguided Mod might wear any suit, as long as it adhered to the conventions of ancient Italian tailoring, an early day's casual couldn't wear any old tennis shirt: Only a Tacchini would do! (or Fila or Lacoste!)
At the risk of offending some of my home town (former) hooligans, Casual began on Merseyside. When scallies first merged elements of Punk style with bits of David Bowie's proto-glam, plus an odd attachment to drainpipe jeans and, of course, the wedge haircut!
Then a little later, these supporters of Liverpool found themselves at a loose end in French and Italian city centers, thanks to their clubs European success, and took the opportunity to acquire (or, more accurately, rob) sports and casual-wear they knew fellow and rival supporters back home had no chance of finding.
Despite shifts in popularity over time, the brands favored by the first casuals are those seen on every British high street today, whether it's the makes brought back from the European away matches by scousers – Kappa, Lacoste, Sergio Tacchini – or brands adopted in the late 80's – early 90's - Burberry Stone Island, Acuascutum – and they're not just on football fans. The seemingly permanent fetish for early model Adidas trainers that can be seen on the feet of everybody from floppy fringed indie kids to perfectly respectable middle aged men,, began with the early casual preference for Samba's, swiftly followed by Stan Smith's. That nice shower proof cagoule your Mum has in the wardrobe dates back to casual anoraks, originally worn over Pringle or Slazenger jumpers, often made by the likes of Kappa, sometimes by Patrick. Admittedly, you don't see many people sporting Tommy Nutter jeans, fiorruci or Lois courds these days, but they're the exception to the rule.
His sartorial longevity is down to the brands as much as it is to the enduring glamour of the well-turned-out football casual. No. To be a dandy, Punk, skin, or even a Mod, involves an attention to detail shared by the casual, but thanks to branding, that attention to detail can be reduced to a basic list of clothing manufacturer's, rather than, in the case of the Mod, making believe that you need an in depth knowledge of black politics, northern soul, and Italian tailoring, when it's actually even simpler than the casual, as you only need to know the proper number of cuff buttons and have an eye for the correct width of a tie! THAT'S AS HARD AS IT FUCKING GETS! End of.

Anyway, spleen vented and it's on to the music. Not really much to say on this one, Underground Resistance, rare as hens teeth house mix, huge vibes,,,,, nuff said!

Tracklist:

01. Niceguy Soulman * Feel It (Niceguy in Philly mix, mixed with Omar S.)

02. Nick Holder * Not Alone - DNH - 4:42

03. Houseconductor * Tonight I'm Going to Love You

04. Reese * Rock To The Beat (Hitman Mix)

05. The Latin Kings * Quiero Saber

06. Moodymann * Tribute! (To The Soul We Lost)

07. Aaron-Carl * Wallshaker (Stripped Remix)

08. Theo Parrish * Moonlite

09. Chez Damier & Stacey Pullen * Forever Monna

10. Strong Souls * Original Ground

11. Omar S. * Day

12. Johnny D & Nicky P (Tribute to Asley B.)

13. Seven Grand Housing Authority * Love Got Me High

14. Brian Harden * Matrix

15. Kerri Chandler * So Let The Wind Come

16. Chez Damier * Close

17. Gerald Mitchell * Hardlife

18. DJ Disciple * I'm So Grateful

19. Chez Damier * Untitled

20. Metro Area * Proton Candy

21. Moraes * Deep Inside Your Love

22. Kerri Chandler * Track 1 (Shelter Rec.)

23. Aaron-Carl * Sky (TP's Spiritual Offering)

Download: Santiago Salazar (UR) * Straight Up House Mix.

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. X.

The Tourist 'Needle Exchange 2 Mix: Repeat Prescriptions'.

2010-10-11T12:07:00.001-07:00

The second in the series of 'Needle Exchange' mixes I'm doing. Same M.O. as before kicking off nice n' slow and a wee bit dubby before booting off as we get towards the last third. If the first half is a bit like Jackie Chan who after taking offence to an embarrassing etiquette gaff by you would engage in two hours of showy elaborate pre-fight rituals before employing a glof club and a joiners stool in a comedy manner to win a brawl then the second is more like Chuck Norris who would just cut the shit and give you a fucking spin kick round the back of the neck and call your missus a cunt. I had the leave a bunch of tracks from the likes of Levon Vincent, Phoreski, Higamos Hogamos, Toby Tobias, John Carpenter, The Cure, Martin Buttrich, Snuff Crew, G & S, Red Rack'em, Tim Fairplay and Underground Resistance off, mainly for the fact that the mix would have ended up being almost 4 hours long, but they'll probably turn up on another mix if I knock one together any time soon. Anyhoo, hope you enjoy this one.

Regarde,,,,,

Tracklist:

1. Farah * Gay Boy (Italians Do It Better)

2. The Ying Yang Twins * Wait (The Whisper Song) (TVT Recs)

3. Leftfield * Original Jam (Hard Hands)

4. KZA * Open Up (Slow Version) (Mule Musique Japan)

5. Johnny Dynell * Jam Hot (40 Thieves Dub) (White)

6. I:Cube * Falling (Versatile France)

7. Rezkar * Above The Clouds (Running Back)

8. Moscow * Deep Heat (Dub) (Lo Recordings)

9. Coco, Steel & Lovebomb * Feel It (Warp)

10. Duckbeats * Music (Don't Stop) (Home Taping)

11. Ladyhawke * Back Of The Van (Mock N' Toof Remix) (CDr)

12. Franz Ferdinand * Ulyesses (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation) (Domino)

13. Dirt Crew * Deep Cover (Robert Rodriguez Remix) (Moodmusic)

14. Deepchild * Backroom (KinK Remix) (Trapez)

15. DJ T * Shine On (Get Physical)

16. Butch * Tease Me (Cecille)

17. Supermayer * Two Of Us (Kompact)

Download the Tourist Blog 'Needle Exchange Mix 2: Repeat Prescriptions'.

Soundcloud Download too for those having trouble with Zshare here innit hew!

'Needle Exchange 2: Repeat Prescriptions Mix' by Mark Algar. by Tourist Blog

Till next time.

Big love. Tourist. X

P.S. Follow us on 'Twitter' here.

Sean Johnston (Hardway Bros/Beard Science) mix.

2010-10-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Sean Johnston's mixes and productions have become somewhat of a favourite here at Tourist HQ of recent and as such it will comes as no suprise that we've this mix on the ol' iPod for quite a while now. After the universally positive response and huge number of downloads the unspeakably brilliant 'Hardway Bros Bathing Machine II' mix we hosted by Sean recieved, and with a couple of heavily anticipated new Hardway Bros productions about to drop we thought it would be the ideal time to lay this one on y'all. The mix was a warm-up set for Ivan Smagghe at the Prins Thomas/Full Pupp hosted 'Summer Ekstravaganza' party at Corsica Studios and as you'd expect, it's effin' leathal! Regarde,,,,,

Tracklist:

1. Tornado Wallace * Paddlin' (Linkwood remix)
2. Skatebard * Starwatcher II
3. Cole Medina * I Got My Mind Made Up (Cole's Remake)
4. Runaway * Dirty Cake
5. Rebolledo & Daniel Maloso * Colt Seavers
6. Mike Burns * Patterns
7. John Talabot * La Ninya (Afrodub Version)
8. Mungolian Jetset * Mush In The Bush
9. Williams * Confused Arp Disco
10. Spectacle * The Mask Of Sanity
11. Andrew Weatherall * Brother Johnston's Travelling Disco Consultancy
12. Junesex * Worst Than Love (Gilb'r Chateau Flight Remix)
13. Cage & Aviary * Beat-N-Path (Brennan Green's mix)
14. Von Spar * Troops (Rebolledo Remix)
15. Midnight Magic * Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)
16. Cole Medina * Red Hot (The Mole's MMD Mix)
17. Chopstick & Johnjon feat Fritz Kalkbrenner * Keep On Keepin' On!
18. T-Coy * Carino (Motor City Drum Ensemble mix)
19. Henrik Schwarz, Kuniyuki Takahashi * Once Again (Kuniyuki Version)
20. Wolfgang Voigt * Geduld (DJ Koze Mix)
21. Roxy Music * The Main Thing (Rub N Tug Remix)
22. Jamie Jones * Ruckus

23. Ichisan * Magnetic Field

24. TJ Kong & Nuno Dos Santos * Where Were You (Kirk Digiorgi Mix)

25. Betoko Lopaz * New Dimension

26. Neurotic Drum Band * We're Gonna Rock You

27. Tape To Tape * The Devil Made Me Do It

28. Harry Choo Choo Romero * Phuture (Joris Voorn Remix)

29. Joris Voorn * The Secret

30. LoSoul * Open Door

31. Visnadi * Racing Tracks

32. Brian Sanhaji * Higgs

33. Paperclip People * Throw

Click here to download 'Sean Johnston: Live @ Summer Ekstraveganza'.

Also, get more info on the extended run of Sean and Andrew Weatheralls 'A Love From Outer Space' night here and check out more 'Hardway Bros' gear on Coundcloud by clicking here innit!

Till next time, big love.
Tourist. X.

Keep off my wife Jonson

2010-10-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

October 22^nd sees the Last Waltz DJs (the Tourist house band and all-round wretched miscreants) take to the road again.

This time they’re returning to Leeds to play at THROWBACK alongside Tourist fave MARK E and resident DJ’s (and friends to the stars) DEATH ON THE BALCONY.

While his work has certainly been known to the cognoscenti for the last few years, it appears that as of late Mark E is rapidly making the transition to superstar status, thanks in no small part to some excellent releases and remixes on “Under The Shade” as well as his own “Merc” imprint.

Death on the Balcony also seem to be actively making a name for themselves, not only via their own parties (Throwback, Emanuelles Party Bucket) but through some great output through MagicBag (a label they’re heavily involved with), Airdrop and Ackbal Music.

SoulClap in particular seem smitten by the Leeds duo, not only releasing one of their tracks (a chugging take on Bananarama’s Long Hot Summer) on their latest FreEp Project, but also asking them to provide the latest mix for the SoulClap Podcast.

We’ve also heard tell that the Throwback parties have quickly turned into the hang out of choice for Leeds ever increasing roll-call of musical movers & shakers, so all in all, the party sounds like it’s going to be a good one.

Last Waltz remain to be bad haircuts with good records.

Fnd more details on the event by clicking here.

Download Mark E BiS Mix

Download Death on The Balcony Mix for SoulClap

Download Geoff Leopard (1/3 Last Waltz) edit of Dire Straights * Follow Me Home, here.
(Yes, we know this has already been on the OOFT! Blog. Jeeeeeeeez!)

The Countach * Back In 84 Mix.

2010-10-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

A smart new mix this week from Tourist favourite 'The Countach'. If the name isn't immiediately recognised now, then take note as we're sure that it'll be very familiar, very soon!
The Countach is a mysterious record player from Manchester and hes been putting vinyls on decks for the last 5 years all over the UK as well as established institutes like the Warehouse Project and Sankeys on home ground. Based in Manchester, he was one of the original members to set up the Micron with a group of like minded party people. Wanting to pursue his journey into the production ship he left Micron to go live in a cave for a few years to work on some unusual sounds. Influenced by the old Gigolo Records sound and a mixture of italo disco and weird techno, he has created some interesting music for himself, and hopefully other people too. His debut EP is out in Autumn on Matt Walsh's label Clouded Vision with a healthy set of remixes from another Tourist favourite Ivan Smagghe and partner Tim Paris, Clouded Vision and Rob Mello. The EP itself is a mixture of retro electro, future techno and neo rave so expect a barn stormer of a record. He is also part of the Jupiter Rooms night which runs in Manchester and London which is a monthly electronic boogaloo. If you get the chance while seeing him play, pop over and say hi or tell him and interesting story involving animals as he will most definitely enjoy them.

Tracklist:

1. Bagarre - For Your Pleasure
2. Maurice McGee - Do I Do
3. The Creatures - Believe In Yourself
4. Betty Miranda - Dance
5. Fred Ventura - I'm Not Ready
6. Methusalem - Time Machine
7. M & G - Boogie Tonight
8. Pink Project - Amama
9. K.I.D. - Don't Stop
10. Bizzy & Co. - Take A Chance
11. The Countach - Untitled Italo Track
12. Vivien Vee - Higher

Download The Countach: Back In 84 Mix here.

Catch more music from The Countach on 'Soundcloud' here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

People Get Real * Bits, Beats & Bobs Mix.

2010-09-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

New mix from a couple of Tourists favourite deck botherers, Wax:On residents and local chaps, Simon Lister & Peter Wilson aka 'People Get Real'. As we always attempt to bring you something a little different, this mix dances to a slightly more arch beat than the majority of the sets you may have heard from Simon & Peter across the years, ploughing a decidedly alternate musical field from their usual club dynamic and demonstrating a pleasing diversity and undoubted nous in their tastes without exibiting any of the chin stroking 'look at my records' smuggness that invariably polutes the majority of these types of mix selections.
Along it's running time the mix touches base with everyone from 80's Leeds-post-punk favourites Delta 5 and DJ Harveys awesome 'Map Of Africa' project to techno matriarch Ellen Allien as well as tossing in curveballs such as middle England prog rockers King Crimson (albeit in remixed form), that rarest of creatures, a 'good dubstep track' from Gemmy, not to mention a forgotton corker from Fleetwood Mac duo Lyndsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks.
Anyhoo, thats enough smoke blowing for anyones arse so I'll leave the last word to the lads themselves,,,,,

"Crack with the mix is basically we just wanted to do something a bit different to norm, its not about the mixes or the transitions its about the flow of the tracks and hopefully how the story comes together over the course of the mix."

Tracklist:

1. Marva Josie * He does it Better
2. Buckingham & Nicks * Frozen Love
3. Diana Ross * Now that you're Gone
4. Cheryl Lynn * All my Lovin'
5. Michael Jackson * Billy Jean 'Nico's rework'
6. Barrington Levy * Here I come
7. Gemmy * Grime Baby
8. Delta 5 * Mind your own Business
9. King Crimson * Sleepless 'Francois K remix'
10. Sudeten Creche * Asylums
11. Ellen Allien * You
12. Death Comet Crew * Exterior St. 'Protein version'
13. Digital Mystikz * Earth a Run Red
14. Map of Africa * Dirty Lovin'
15. Vonspar * Dog Machine
16. The Smiths * How soon is Now

Download 'People Get Real * Bits, Beats & Bobs Mix' here.

You can catch the lads playing their more conventional, yet no less interesting 'dancefloor' style in a couple of Fridays time (Oct 1st to be exact) as part of their Wax:On residency at Digital in Newcastle alongside Tourist favourite Ivan Smagghe and Simian Mobile Disco. Also, in a nice demonstration of symmetry my good lady wife Geoff Leopard and the Last Waltz boys will also be playing at Wax:On that night hosting room 2 so looks like it'll be a real corker!

People Get Real on Soundcloud.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Super Dragnet Launch News! First up, Robbi Insinna AKA Headman!!

2010-09-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

Yep, we at Tourist are rather excited about this new monthly special being undertaken by our good friends at Dragnet. Continuing with they're ethos of all things deep, dubby, discordant and disco they're kicking of their 'SuperDragnet' series of events off with the excellent 'Headman' aka Relish Records owner Robi Insinna at TheCut this Saturday!

Swiss born musical genius Headman runs the influential Relish record label and resides in Berlin making music that is a perfect blend of Old Skool Electro, Mutant Disco and Post Punk/New Wave suss with Acid House attitude, making him the perfect person to kick off the SuperDragnet sessions.
Headman, along with James Murphy and his DFA label lead the return to NY style punk funk in the early 00's along the way garnering a reputation as a serious new tastemaker. His music however always retains a sense of fun combined of course with a lethal dance floor dynamic, remixing the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Chromeo, Zombie Nation, Munk, Zongamin, The Invisibles, Doves, Tiga and Inflagranti, amongst many others while his most acclaimed Headman remix is his mindblowing mix of 'Roxy Musics' Virginia Plain.
Whilst recording for big hitting labels like Output, Gomma and Kitsune, Robbi has worked and recorded with members of Soulwax, The Rapture, Liquid Liquid and seminal Manchester punk funk band A Certain Ratio. Many of his tracks are mixed in Berlin's mythical HANSA studio (where Eno and Bowie changed the face of modern music).
He also makes Cosmic and Balearic Disco under the reversed name of Manhead, tracks in this style such as Special and Doop being longtime favourites of current space disco king Lindstrom.
An especially noteworthy inclusion to his body of work is early Manhead track 'Birth' School' Work' Death', an Italo-ish 80's synth homage that became a cult hit when released on the seminal Output label and found it's way onto the essential 'Output channel 4' compilation alongside the likes of MU, DK7, Yello and Black Strobe.
With his Relish label Robi has also overseen releases by (New Wave legends) Units, Don Cash, Riot in Belgium, Dennis Young (Liquid Liquid) , Yuksek, Franz & Shape and tape to tape and the latest Headman album '1923' contains the single 'Gimme' which features vocals by the one and only Dieter Meier of 80's electro giants Yello. Other guests on this fantastic collection include Steve Mason of Beta Band and King Biscuit Time.

Headman brings his exceptional record collection to The Cut on Sat 18th Sept but if you want a taster of what to expect we've posted Robbi's recent 'Headman Summer Mix' here to download, a brilliant introduction for those not familiar with his work and a timely reminder to old fans alike.
Just click on the link and gerramongst it!

Download the Headman 'Summer Mix' here.

Headman Website.

Headman on Facebook.

As part of the electrifying SUPERDRAGNET line up which over the next few months includes sets by Richard Sen (Padded Cell) Optimo (Optimo Espaciao), Trevor Jackson(Output/Playgroup), Shitrobot (DFA), Andrew Weatherall (Two lone Swordsmen/Rotters Golf Club), Matthew Waites (Thisisnotanexit/Dissident) and a host of other musical heavyweights. Keep 'em peeled for more info.

Till next time.
Big Love. Tourist. X.

Any excuse...

2010-08-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, Bill Brewster is a DJ, Author and is partly responsible for the infinitely superior website djhistory.com

Bill also wrote "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life", which is possibly the most comprehensive account of the history of the DJ available (as well as simply being a great read) and he's currently set to release his next book (penned alongside Frank Broughton) "The Record Players", which (to quote the man himself) "is a collection of some of the best interviews with DJs we've done over the years (nearly 50 in total), all bound together in a lovely book, with loads of charts, discographies and groovy shizzle".

Bill has kindly put together an offer for readers of this blog to get two quid off the price of the book if you buy it from http://www.djhistory.com/.

All you need to do is put WEATHERALL into the coupon box when you buy the book on their site (offer is valid till the end of Sept)

On top of this, Bill has also given us the opportunity to present one of the interviews from his new book, featuring Tourist Pin-Up ANDREW WEATHERALL.

and here it is...

Inspired as much by ’50s rockabilly legend Mac Curtis as the deep house of Mac Thornhill, Andrew Weatherall bequeathed us one of the finest albums of the modern era in Screamadelica. In a variety of subsequent guises he went on to produce everything from coruscating techno made for shirts-off German nutters to delicate ambient music perfect for Café Del Mar, and his DJ sets are as notoriously wide and eclectic as his productions. Weatherall started his DJing career as the bloke with weird records booked to play in second rooms or late on in the proceedings. After regular appearances at early acid club Shoom he found himself suddenly in demand, and at gigs where he was expected to actually make people dance. Working in a Windsor clothes shop by day, by night he’d be either DJing or venting his spleen in the pages of Boy’s Own, the fanzine he started with local chums Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes.

Tell me something about growing up and your musical interests as a kid.
I was brought up in the suburbs in Windsor and my grandparents lived in Slough. It was suburban but it wasn’t too far away, so I could go on raiding parties. I’d jump on a train and in an hour I’d be in London. The great thing about that is you don’t take it for granted. You may even have a couple of months to assimilate what you’ve seen and heard and done. Sometimes when you live in London, you get blasé, it washes over you a little bit. So living in suburbia you had chance to discuss the skirmishes you’d been involved with, which is what I really liked.

So what would a typical trip be then?
I’d save up and then I’d probably go to Kensington Market to a rockabilly shop. I’d go to World’s End. I’d do any number of jobs and save up so I could go into town and buy records from the Cage in Beaufort Market in the Kings Road which was the first shop that sold post-punk records, apart from Rough Trade. It was a pop culture thing: clothes, records, haircut, and tattoos!

What did you do for jobs when you left school?
First job I had was a furniture porter for an old school shop called Pyle Brothers. They had no lifts and they had a storeroom on the third floor and they’d buy up bankrupt stock and us four had to unload articulated lorries full of Chesterfields and take them up three flights of stairs. At this time I’d just discovered amphetamine sulphate as well so I was a tad wiry and more than willing to start some sort of fracas on a Friday night. Loads of jobs. My last job was a stagehand building film sets. It was around 1988. I’d work on a film set for a couple of weeks and I was beginning to DJ a bit and there was a bit of dilemma: do I start DJing properly? And I’d been offered a job abroad with this set company and in the end I didn’t go because they let me down at the last minute. So if I’d have gone on that trip I probably wouldn’t be sitting talking to you now.

Did you see music as an escape from what you’d been doing?
Not really. It was literally, here’s a chance to make some money. I like to have money to buy clothes. I thought I’d give the DJing a go. But even when ‘Loaded’ [by Primal Scream] came out I remember going for a job interview at London Records to be a record plugger or A&R man or something. I still thought it was the latest way to make some money. It felt like another stop-gap. It’s the same as the Rolling Stones reflecting on how they started, ‘Oh we thought it’d be over in 18 months!’ That’s how I felt. I’d plough on in my direction and things seem to turn out alright.

When did you first get interested in DJing, what made you want to become one?
It was only quite recently that I considered myself a DJ. I started collecting records when I was 12 or 13 years old and whenever there was a get-together I would be asked, ‘Bring your records,’ when everyone else was more interested in copping off and drinking party sevens. The next step was, ‘Get that bloke with the weird record collection to play some music.’ That was a couple of years before Shoom. The same happened at the birth of acid house: ‘Call that bloke with the weird records to play at six in the morning.’
I just had that sort of joy I had when I was 11 or 12. I’ve had the experience of hearing this for the first time and now it’s your turn. I was just playing records, I wasn’t skilled. I was playing such varied music you couldn’t mix it.
But then because my name started to get associated with Shoom, Spectrum and things like that, people would book me without really hearing what I did. They probably booked me so they could put ‘Shoom’ in brackets. So I was getting booked to play main spots and going down like the proverbial turd in the salad because I’d be playing weird music at six in the morning. So I had to incorporate more and more house and disco tracks and learn how to mix. My first pair of record decks were bought by a record company I did a mix for. I did the sleevenotes for some Italo-disco compilation and my payment was a set of decks. It was about 1990. So it was a gradual progression until about five or six years ago I kind of realised I was a DJ.
But the thing that probably attracts you is that evangelism of finding interesting stuff and playing it to people.
Yeah, but without straying into righteous zeal territory! You know what I mean? It’s almost as good a feeling looking in someone’s eyes and seeing their joy of discovery; it’s almost like re-living your own joy of discovery. In a way it’s a little bit selfish. Although you’re sharing stuff, a good part of it is for your own gratification. There’s a little bit of selfishness back ’cos you want that feeling back that you’ll never get again. It’s a bit desperate really! [laughs].

There’s also a certain amount of ego involved because it’s obviously quite exciting to play records to people. Was that an attractive thing?
Not to start with because a lot of times the DJ was only one step above bottle washer. It was only when people were so desperate for heroes that they thought DJs would be good ones. I’ll be honest with you, I did fall for it hook, line and sinker because being such a music fan and buying the NME and music magazines, and all of a sudden you find yourself in them, well it can turn a man’s head. I did go a bit silly for a number of years. Then you throw the obvious drug into the equation as well, which is super-duper ego-expanding powder and yeah, you do get sucked in. I don’t sympathise with people on that star trip but I can empathise with them. You’re living in lala-land and people are coming up to you every day and saying how great you are. Hold on a minute, are we so desperate for heroes that we’re going to have DJs for heroes? That’s not right, it should be something a bit more substantial than that.

How did it affect you personally?
Well without going into too much detail, it affected relationships on every level from friends to girlfriend. Just general everyday dealings with human beings. I was a bit arrogant. To be honest, some of that was a defence mechanism. I’d been told I was the best thing since sliced bread and in the back of my mind was this feeling that all these people would find me out. Someone’s gonna go, ‘Look he’s not wearing any clothes!’ So partly the arrogance was to put up a wall because of my insecurity. But it’s part of getting older, really. The artistic world is full if insecure people and I was just one of them. You get older and become more self-aware. It’s nice that people come up and say nice things about what you’ve done. But you know, sometimes I think I’d rather people think I had a shit back catalogue but thought I was a decent human being.

What were your first musical passions?
Fifties rock and roll and glam rock, without a doubt. It was about the time the film That’ll Be The Day came out. I would’ve been 11 or 12. They had these adverts on the cinema and there was ‘Poetry in Motion’ by Johnny Tillotson, ‘Runaway’ by Del Shanonn, ‘Johnny Remember Me’ [by John Leyton], all those kind of things. Look, I’m getting goose bumps talking about it! It sounded like music from another planet. Coupled with a film about blokes on bumper cars with leopard skin drape suits and David Bowie on Top Of The Pops.
It’s the classic kid in the suburbs. I had a nice upbringing but it was a bit dull. That was like a gateway to a parallel universe. Then a few years later punk came along, then post-punk business, rockabilly revival. Yeah, and I’ve been on every bandwagon since! [laughs].

How did you meet the Boy’s Own lot then?
Well I lived in Windsor and they lived in Slough and it was that classic suburban thing of people meeting at the one decent clothes shop. Can’t remember what it was called offhand but this guy Johnny Rocca worked there. I met Gary Haisman and Terry Farley there. We used to go to the same sort of discos. Cymon [Eckel] lived there as well. I was really hanging out a lot with Cymon and another guy called Phil Goss, who now lives in Italy. Every Friday, pre-acid house, we used to meet up at 9 o’clock and drop a tab of acid, which is where that post-punk compilation I did for Nuphonic got its name from [9 O’clock Drop]. Then we headed into town and went to Le Beat Route or Mud Club or something like that. I gradually got to know Terry over those years going to clubs.

When you started Boy’s Own, what was it? Was it a club or a magazine or what?
It was a magazine first. Terry was enthralled with The End. His words at the time, ‘If fuckin’ scousers can do it then I’m sure we can!’ or some such pep talk. And we did. It was Pritt sticks and cutting things out on my coffee table.

Were you aware of The End?
Yeah I’d seen it; I knew exactly what he was talking about. I wasn’t into football. [Steve] Mayesy and all that lot, they were into football and they’d get these things from football and I totally got what he was saying. So it was like, let’s give it a go.

What stuff were you reading at the time?Well I can’t remember exactly but it would probably involve Camus and Kafka and the usual kind of youthful follies. I was and still am a Joseph Conrad fan. I just saw it as a chance for expression and I’d be able to write about music. It’s a fanzine, so it doesn’t have to be particularly current, you’ve got nobody’s product to push so you can be quite abstract. I was the Outsider (his pseudonym in Boy’s Own)

Why did you call your column The Outsider?Because I was a bolshie little bastard! I always wanna be in a gang but then I don’t wanna be. I want the best of both of worlds. So I thought I’d be able to write a sarky piece deconstructing or taking the piss out of everything you’re about to read about. I wanted to have my cake and eat it I suppose.

Is that a theme that runs through your whole career?I’m totally like that. I wanna be accepted but get annoyed when I am. Groucho Marx said, ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that accepted me as a member.’

How did the ideas come about for Boy’s Own?It was literally what anyone had listened to that week or read or what had happened. After acid house kicked in it became the village paper for the acid house scene. There was only two or three clubs! There were pictures of parties where only 2-300 people had been. It was very insular. After a couple of years, John Brown Publishing offered us national distribution and we were like it’s pointless, cos people’ll just think, ‘Silly Cockney cunts.’ It would have appeared too cliquey. Obviously people from up north did buy it but they were people that came to the parties. It would have been like making a parochial local newspaper and then selling it throughout the British Isles. It wouldn’t work.

How do you feel about it now? It’s still revered and a lot of it is still funny.
Yeah, but I don’t actually own a copy. There was a certain point – on too many ecstasies – that I gave away most of my possessions, you know what I mean? Most of my test pressings, acetates and everything: ‘Yeah, go on, I love you!’ [laughs] I’ve seen bits of it and I think it’s alright but there are a bits that I find a bit embarrassing and a bit un self-aware but other people might think were really funny. If you looked back at some of the stuff you wrote 20 years ago you’d probably think the same.

Indeed.
And throw the vernacular of acid house into the equation as well!

And the drugs.Yeah. It’s a good, unpretentious document of those times I think. It would be pretty essential in years to come for people researching the birth of acid house. I’d say it was a jolly good read for historical purposes but for entertainment purposes it would be very dated.

What bound all of you lot together?
A common love of going out and all that that entailed. The music, the clothes, what happened afterwards when you discussed things like books, art, it was the whole social scene that generations before us had had. I just wanted my scene. I was a bit too young for punk. So it was kind of my thing. Again it’s that thing I wanted to part of a scene but didn’t want nobody to understand! It was that again.

What about places like the Mud Club.Well it was good, the dressing up was fun but there didn’t seem to be any kind of scene although I suppose there was: it was new romantic, what Robert Elms called ‘The Scene With No Name’. Actually what it was like is what’s it’s like round here now [Shoreditch], a weird mish mash of rockabilly and punk. No one’s quite sure. You’d go to a gig in the mid ’80s and there’d be rockabillies, goths and there’s that kind of feel now. While they’re looking for something new they’re pillaging what’s gone on in the past.

Is it less tribal now?
As I see it, I live in London’s fashionable Shoreditch so I’d go, ‘No, it’s like one great big village!’ But if I lived on some estate in the north of England where there’s a big divide between say, casuals and goths... Some goth kid was killed by kids off an estate recently so it’s all very well for me to say it’s all fine but you can’t get any more tribal than people killing each other.

What effect do you think acid house has had?
It helped push music technology forward. Everyone said it had a great social effect, I don’t really think it did. The biggest effect it had was the push and development of music hardware, firstly, and then software. Kids were going out and hearing these records and wanting to make them themselves. I would imagine those that went to those early clubs ended up, a good proportion of them, being involved in music technology. That lit the blue touchpaper for where we are now, where we can sit here and make tracks on our laptops. That’s what acid house did. It had a few momentary social consequences, like the poll tax riots and the club laws, but it was only made political by the press.

Do you not think, unconsciously at least, it was political: the idea of reclaiming and remaking communities?
To a certain extent, but a lot of that community was fuelled by ecstasy. It was there and I don’t want to downplay it, and I don’t want come across as a curmudgeon. It was the same with the ’60s; it was a bit of false dawn. It affected people’s lives but it didn’t usher in a new Age of Aquarius! [laughs]. It really didn’t. It depends on whether you want to see breaking into a building and dancing as a political act. It was just another strand, another part of London and Manchester discos.

What effect did punk have on you when it happened? How old were you?
I was 13 in 1976. I remember the day after the Sex Pistols were on Today [with Bill Grundy], I had shoulder length hair and I remember sitting in the barbers and pointing to a picture of them in the papers and saying, ‘Chop all me hair off!’ You can’t describe it to younger people. People thought it was the end of civilisation. It was like bomb going off, especially in suburban England. It frightened my parents to death. My dad was a bit of a reprobate himself, he wasn’t totally square, but this was just ridiculous. It really put the fear in people. Anything that scares the old folk is good. That’s why I’m covered in tattoos. When I was a kid my parents were so against them they thought they were evil, so I gravitated towards them. It’s the way youth culture works.

Did you see any parallels between punk and acid house?
Briefly, when it hit the papers, but that was more to do with the fact that it was so drug fuelled. It wasn’t the politics or nihilism or against society like punk was. It was the accoutrements that they were against.

For you personally did it have any resonance?
Not really, no. I was always a bit of a confused person. I liked punk but I liked disco music, so the two were always separate. So acid house was the development of my disco side, it wasn’t a development of the more political and more abstract musical side. It was a revolution in my disco world rather than my political world.

So did you have compartmentalised little worlds that you dipped in and out of.
Well yeah really! I never got that thing that disco sucked when punk was going on, because I knew all the originals were bored soulboys who used to go to Chaguarama’s. That’s where you got dressed up. You could go to weekenders dressed like Bryan Ferry or David Bowie and you wouldn’t be hassled. It’s like that early thing John Lydon said: punk was all about selling trousers! Sorry everybody, it was primarily a London fashion thing. It was bored soulboys and people going to gay discos and wearing mohair jumpers and plastic sandals. Sorry Conflict, GBH and Crass, it was a London trouser thing! [laughs]

Do you think the superstar DJ thing was a betrayal of the whole acid house ethos?
I’ve looked at certain DJs and thought, ‘Fuck, I’m gonna give this up.’ I’m not gonna say who but I’ve been to see some high end DJs and there’s times I’ve come out and I’ve been embarrassed to say that I’m a DJ. I could’ve been that person if I’d carried on a certain route. It’s probably part of myself I don’t like, rather than them. Anything I get angry with in the music industry is often because I don’t want to be reminded of the person I was.

Do you think the scene is in a better state now the superstar thing has deflated?
It’s still there.

Well it is but it’s more fluid than it was.
I think kids have got wise to the fact that you need better heroes than DJs. Even Pete Doherty’s a better hero than Judge Jules, let’s be honest, and Pete Doherty’s a bit ropey. DJs should be heard and not seen, really. That thing where you’re playing [indicates on high] and people are looking at you… it’s not what it’s about. I like Moodymann and playing behind a screen.
That actually accentuates everything!

Yeah you’re right. You still need that contact, but you don’t need to be bathed in light, you don’t need to be the centre of attention.
I think kids have got wise to the fact that you need better heroes than DJs. Even Pete Doherty’s a better hero than Judge Jules, let’s be honest, and Pete Doherty’s a bit ropey.

How important is mystique in music?
Very important. I was always drawn to the fact I’d never seen a picture of Martin Hannett or Adrian Sherwood. It was years before I saw a picture of either. That added a little bit more substance to things. When I first started I didn’t want to use my real first name and I refused to be photographed for years. The first photo shoot I did I wore a medicine hat and a big pair of glasses and a scarf. Anton LeVay was the head of the Church of Satan in San Francisco and he used to play organ in burlesque and strip shows in the 1940s and there’d be a room full of guys watching someone almost naked, but if a woman wearing a pencil skirt walked in every head in the place would turn because they want what’s hidden. I’m with Anton on that! [laughs]

What makes a good DJ?
It can be as simple as playing good music. Good music, well programmed. Even if you’re playing wildly different music, I try and make some sort of connection or some sort of flow. I don’t like to be jarred too much. There has to be a connection, where I can see there’s some sort of thought process and not, ‘Ooh haven’t I got an eclectic record collection?’ I want to listen to something in slightly open-mouthed wonder, doesn’t matter whether it ‘s a rockabilly track or techno. Doesn’t have to be dazzlingly new. I got hooked on the idea that everything has to be new and original for while. But nothing dates quicker than a new sound. Believe it or not I’m in the Billy Childish camp. Originality is not what is important, it’s authenticity.

How did the studio work happen?
Jeff Barrett was managing me and he did Primal Scream’s press. He gave me a copy of the album. He said it was getting slated left, right and centre and I came back to him and said I loved it. So he said, ‘Why don’t you write a review for the NME?’ He wangled that so I went down to Exeter to see them play and reviewed it – the headline was ‘Sex, Lies & Gaffer Tape.’ I got on really well with them. Then I’d see them in clubs like the Future. Andrew Innes was in Spectrum one night and he said, ‘We’ve got this track and you can do what ever the fuck you like with it.’ That was ‘Loaded’. I made one attempt where I reined back a bit because I didn’t want to upset them. I played it to them and Innes said, ‘No man, fuckin’ destroy it!’ So I went back into Bart’s Studios in Walthamstow with a very talented man called Brian O’Shaughnessy who’d actually produced and engineered the original.

So you never actually worked with the band?
No, and that was pretty much how Screamadelica was made as well. I think there was only one time I got it wrong. I did a version of ‘Shine Like The Stars’ they didn’t really like and I went back in and did it again, and I’m really glad I did because it’s one of my favourite tracks on there. Obviously they’d have to do overdubs or they’d drop in to see how it was going, but I didn’t have the joy of the drummer setting up his kit or the guitarists saying, ‘I’m a bit toppy.’ Which is a working method I’ve applied: have as few musicians in for as little time as possible! Otherwise it gets very tedious.

Were they immediately happy with the results?
They might have come in and suggested things. I don’t remember really, because it was a very hazy time. It was just people hanging out and making records.
How many things had you done in the studio before?
Not a lot. Happy Mondays, East India Company, maybe St Etienne. Apparently there’s a website dedicated to this information.

What was your role?
Well, when I got the demos I knew exactly what Bob [Gillespie] had been listening to to get that song. So I would inject my approximation of that. You know, it’s weird but I was listening to ‘I’m Coming Down’ and I spoke to Bob on the phone and said, ‘For some reason I’m getting Pharaoh Sanders, the sax player, don’t ask me why.’ And he said, ‘I’ve got a Pharaoh Sanders CD in my hand at the moment!’
It was like that. Whether it was a chord progression or a vocal line, I knew exactly what the ingredients were that went into that. So I’d go into the studio and say to the engineers this is why this sounds like it does and play them Big Star or whatever and we’d build it up from that. I was the conductor, basically. ‘This is what it should sound like, I’m not sure how to do it, that’s why you’re here.’ I was learning as I was going. I knew what it wanted.
On one track I knew we needed those plastic tubes that kids swing round their heads, it was the only sound I could hear. And we did indeed have five people swinging them round in the studio! But I couldn’t have done it without Hugo Nicholson, who would hear my suggestions and say, yes but what about this? So I was open to that. So it was my blueprint even if it did get smudged. Hugo did all my early stuff till about 1994, when Sabres of Paradise started when I worked with Jagz and co.

How did Sabres come about?
Can’t remember exactly. I was looking for new people to work with and I got introduced to Jagz and Gary at Full Circle probably. And they knew of a studio in Hounslow West in this really rough council estate. It was like a room inside a room above a newsagent, so you’d never know from the outside it was a studio. There was a pub at the end of the road and the landlord had recently been put away for murdering one of his clientele! It was pretty hardcore. If anyone had known it was a studio it would have been done over in minutes.

Listening back to the music you’ve done over the years which are the tracks you’re most pleased about?
Well there are things that I’ve done and been a bit embarrassed about over the years, but then you actually hear them still being played. Often the very things that made those records work are the things I don’t like: the mistakes and the simplicity and the obviousness of them. I didn’t think about them too much when I was making them, but over the years I’ve thought about structures and so on too much. Brevity? Don’t know the meaning of the word, sir! One kitchen sink? Let’s have two or three. It’s that naivety I like but it’s that naivety that makes me go, ‘Mmm shouldn’t have had that there.’ It’s like the drum loop on ‘Loaded’, it’s ridiculous. There’s a crash on every bar! It’s a mistake but it’s one of the things that makes it.
One of the things I’ve learned about the studio is if you think about things too much it’s time to stop. I’ve had some killer tracks that I’ve noodled out of existence because you always think it’s got to have more. Last week I was going through the computer and I found 10 new tracks, basically a whole new album, really good beginnings of songs that we’d got bored with. The stuff I’m doing at the moment has a sound that’s almost similar to the early stuff. It’s closer to my vision of what I was trying to do 15 years ago. I’ve got more technical knowledge. So now I’ve got the best of both worlds, my naive approach but with a bit more technical backup. I’ve gone backwards in sound a little bit but it’s that authenticity over originality! If you do something authentically it somehow ends up sounding more original anyway.

© DJhistory.com
Interviewed by Bill Brewster in London, 28.5.09

As an extra treat we've also managed to get our grubby paws on a very rare copy of one of the 50 promotional mix CD's (Nice sleeve artwork too) made by Andrew for his and Shaun Johnston's brilliant Psyche-Disco night 'A Love From Outer Space' at The Drop in Stoke Newington which continues this Thursday for it's 5th edition. Something a little bit different (as usuall) from Mr W with the mix split up into 5 different pieces. The firsty 4 being short with the 5th being almost an hour long. As ever, it's corking gear!

Download Andrew Weatheralls 'A Love From Outer Space Mix' here.

Alternative download link for Weatheralls 'ALFOS' mix here.

Remember to add us on 'Twitter' by clicking here to chuck abuse in our direction innit.

Mick Rolfe (Last Waltz) * Hot Under The Collar Mix.

2010-08-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

The next in a series of rather wonderful triumphs of irresponsible organisation fom the Dada/Last Waltz crew see's them return to Newcastles Jazz Cafe on Sunday August 29th (Bank Holiday Sunday) for The Last Waltz Lock In Pt 2.
Anyone in attendance at the last party there will confirm what a great night in a truly unique little venue it was and as such they're back for part two!
Dada residents Last Waltz DJ's will be taking care of the dancefloor upstairs while we'll be keeping things a little more laid back downstairs with some dub & reggae sounds courtesy of Ben Alpin.
Capacity is limited to 150 & the last one sold out weeks in advance so for tickets you can either follow the link here or or email them at lastwaltzdjs@hotmail.com to arrange physical collection.
They'll also be having a warm-up literally 7 yards away @ The Forth from around 3pm with everyones favourite jackin' mackems 'Ward 10' soundtracking Sunday dinners & beyond.

DADA present:
The Last Waltz Lock-In: Pt 2.
@ The Jazz Cafe, Pink Lane, Newcastle
11.30pm til very late...
£7 Advance tickets only.

As a pre curser/taster to the party we here at Tourist invite you to enjoy some more brilliant music from a man with more than his fair share of mental health problems and rather limited technical ability, Last Waltz resident Mr Mick Rolfe. Mick recently supplied us with one of Tourists favourite and most downloaded mixes with his fantastic 'Alreet Summer Boys!' collection a couple of months back and his follow up won't dissapoint if you're one of the many people who raved about his last one. A tad more uptempo than the 'ASB' mix but still with the unfaltering knack to lock into a flow to kill for and this is, as to be expected, another serious bit of kit!

Tracklist:

1. J-Walk * Following The Noughties (EastWest)
2. Axel Bauer * 24 Hours Cargo - Nico & Pierrot’s Solo-Less Redub (D-Classics)
3. Zazou Bikaye * M’Pasi Ya M’Pamba * Gilles Martin & Marc Hollander Remix (Crammed Discs)
4. Prince * Sign “O” The Times (Paisley Park)
5. Mathematiques Modernes * Jungle Hurt (Celluloid)
6. Ana Rago * You’re God - I:Cube Remix (Set)
7. Toby Tobias * The Feeling (Rekids)
8. Mark Seven * Europa (Twelve Inches Of Delight)
9. Hungry Ghost * Illuminations (International Feel)
10. 4 Hero * Hold It Down (Talkin’ Loud)
11. Space * Carry On, Turn Me On - AN2 Remix (Tirk)

Download 'Mick Rolf (Last Waltz) * Hot Under The Collar Mix.'

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

Sean Johnston (Hardway Bros) mix.

2010-08-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

One of my very favourite mixes of recent months and an absolute masterclass in cahnging records and probably chain smoking this week from one of the UK's most consistant and forward looking DJ's and producers.

Sean Johnston has been DJ'ing since his formative years in the frozen North. Acid House Veteran, Techno Survivor, Hardway Bros, Beard Scientist and Freelance Disco Consultant, as well as being immortalised on 'The Boardrooms' brilliant 'Brother Johnstons Travelling Disco Consultancy', he's played at some of London's landmark clubs including The Promised Land, Sabresonic, Club UK, Final Frontier and Disco Bloodbath. Sean has recently been firing out music at an alarming rate for uber-hip labels such as Beard Science, and Rotters Golf Club under the Hardway Bros moniker. His productions, alongside fellow Hardway Bros, Jake Davies and a mysterious South Londoner known only as Rico have graced Sabres of Paradise, Third Mind, his own erstwhile Flashcomm label and more recently Beard Science, Pointless Edits and cult Norwegian act Mungolian Jetset's label Luna Flicks. Sean's DJ'ing style described by FACT Magazine as 'Future Disco' is hard to pin down to one convenient genre, taking in house, disco, re-edits, techno and frankly anything else that takes his fancy. His recent gigs at East Village with Andrew Weatherall, a stellar set at Disco Bloodbath and a super freaky downtempo set on Tim Sweeny's 'Beats In Space' show helped him secure a founding residency at Londons 'Cable'.
Sean is currently working on new Hardway Bros productions and his new clubnight 'A Love From Outer Space' alongside Andrew Weatherall at intimate Stoke Newington venue, 'The Drop', where The duo bill it as' Psyche-Disco never exceeding 122bpm' - in reality an incendiary mix of Kraut-rock, post punk, proto-house, slo-mo techno, disco and downtempo electronics. The night attracts a boisterous mix of Stoke locals, disco beards, fashion refugees and music heads, tagged as 'An oasis of slowness in a world of increasing velocity'.
Here, the London representative of the Hardway Bros drops a truely stunning mix that was originally hosted on the highly recommended 'To The Bone' website.

"We are the Hardway Brothers. We like to muck around with sound. Once we were House, then we were Balearic, then we were Techno. We fought the Acid House Wars and lost. We made records. We rested. Now we work again. We have no respect for copyright. We work in the space between the ones and the zeros. We are your friends. We have no manifesto. We love music, we are not bound by genre fascism. We are in London, we are in Los Angeles, we are in the gaps of the web."

FACT Magazine interview with Sean Johnston and Andrew Weatherall.

Hardway Bros on Soundcloud

1. L.V with Errol Bellot * Globetrotting
2. Joker * Digidesign
3. Fontan * Early Morning (Studio Version)
4. Hedford Vachal Edit * Chicken Choke
5. Alcada Mendes * Coaster (Idjut Boys Version 1)
6. Gina X Performance * Nice Mover
7. Pollyester * You Are Amen
8. Chris & Cosey * This Is Me
9. G.Rizo * Je Me Mentis
10. The Cure * Pictures Of You (Extended Dub Mix)
11. Massive Attack * Protection (Quiet Village Mix)
12. Carl Craig * A Wonderful Life
13. Undisputed Truth * Undisputed Truth (Editions Disco)
14. Antena * Achilles (Phreek Plus One Typhoon Mix)
15. William Orbit * Via Caliente
16. One Dove * Jolene
17. Bee Gees * Love You Inside & Out (Cole Medina Edit)
18. Peter Bjorn & John * Nothing To Worry About (Alexa Mix)
19. DJ Krush * Skin Against Skin
20. Force Of Nature * Liberate
21. OG Balearic Bootie * C' Oute

Download Sean Johnstons: 'Hardway Bros Bathing Machine II' mix here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

P.S. Just click the links to follow us at Tourist and our good friends at Dada on that Twitter thingy. G'waaaan!

Sucking on the corporate teat.

2010-08-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is a shamelessly self motivated post, but who are you that can sit in judgment of Tourists need to buy nappies (even though we have no kids).

Juno are having an 80% sale.

follow the link to see what you can snaffle up!

http://www.juno.co.uk/promotions/The_Big_Summer_Sale_2010/?ref=tou

At home, you're a tourist! + Brennan Green mix.

2010-08-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

Time,,,,,,,, time, longevity and all things temporal. Those are the things that have been piquing my interest this week. Now the traditional mode of temporality is usually defined as 'a linear procession of past, present, future.' However, who is to say that this commonly acknowledged formula is the same for everyone? After all, we're told in school and church from the very youngest age that 'God created the heaven and the Earth and all things therein in 7 days,' and still had time to kick back and have a roast on the 7th day. Now by any measure that's some going! We all know that the lads got a good engine on him like a kind of celestial Michael Essien, an omnipotent midfield dynamo all full of hustle, box to box from the first to last whistle and all that, but 7 days? Whats to say that one of Gods days wasn't a hundred, a thousand or even a million of our years? Relatively speaking the increments of measuring time have been argued over by every sect and religion since the beginning of,,, er,, time. Which brings me untidily to my point. The particular facet of time and it's measurement I've suddenly found rammed in my face is that of geniality and heritage. The amount of websites and magazine advertising now taken up with people who profess to be able to trace back your ancestry. Why do they do it? And more importantly, why do so many people come to the North in search of their ancestors who are, to them, no more than names. It seems like the North East of England, in particular Northumberland is second only to Scotland for people tracing their humble working class routes, it's as though we were the master default switch on every genealogists computer. They come in droves, always middle class, dressed is brand new yellow cagoules and expensive walking boots to pour over all but illegible copper plate and parrish registers with scant regard for the damage inflicted on their eyes. They scrape the lichen from headstones in Alnwick. They walk beside tiny streams in Morpeth where someone with rickets who two century's ago happened to share 100% of their Mothers surname and 1.575 of their DNA may, just may have walked in inadequate foot ware. What is wrong with them? What is the current obsession with 'Roots'? You could say it's a lot to do with the Catalans and Basques. They, like Northerners have always been people who's main contribution has been human export. Brain, muscle and sinew for hire. From the Newcastle and Durham miners who selflessly went to fight Franco's annexing of Barcelona to Northern Women chucking themselves under the Queens horse's, spoiling Royal Ascot in search of the vote. There has always seemed to be a Northerner of some gender at the front of the mob to throw the first brick. Some may say that this is a classic example of Northern ignorance and belligerence but I'd rather mark it down as a steadfast commitment to the cause. There's always been a culture of strong left wing political identity in the North as well as the more publicised intolerance and racism we're so often accused of. But this strong identity and working ethic displayed in our grand parents and their parents has always been the main driving force for Northern people leave here in search of a bigger stage and of a living wage and the chance of material improvement. That's why we have these middle class, Sunday afternoon family tree enthusiasts bothering our beer gardens of a weekend. It's largely a matter of economical survival, their ancestors made a hard-nosed decision to leave and their descendants make the soft-nosed decision to come back and claim some Northern heritage by proxy. The stuff in their veins is blood group 'Wey-aye' and when they bleed they bleed a coal and Brown Ale mix. The internet has been a boom for both pornography and genealogists, unsurprisingly as the fundamental principle for both is the same, incremental. There must always be more. More participants, more contortion, more Grand Parents, more second cousins. It's not enough to trace back 2 or 3 generations. They need to find the rusty pick axe that their great grandfather 14 times removed used to cut the first lump of coal out of Durhams first coal face. All the while telling themselves the lie of the 'good old days'. Now as corrupt as the Northern vernacular has become, we have the good fortune to speak a form of the English language which, unlike Arabic or Sicilian, has a future tense. Why not concentrate on the regeneration in the area, of the quayside in Newcastle, the award winning Sage Buildings or the Millennium Bridge rather than the rose tinted-half remembered, tiresome tales of young northern scamps and the elaborate comic ruses created to prevent their angry mothers from discovering their chronic truancy. These to me are far less interesting. Yet still people insist on concentrating on coo-ing over scratchy-sepia toned pictures of kids in flat caps and tatty knee length trousers holding onto ropes attached to malnourished pit ponies. Remember, there is another North East, vital, living, untarnished places with energy and a greater delight. Places with no quasi Victorian-ancestral claim on us. Where the yolk of a ready made collective history is absent. One that we can talk of in the future perfect rather than the past historic. Places where we can choose to go towards rather than come from. Places with potential, where anything is possible, where everything is waiting to happen. That's all for now. But how long is now?

New York City DJ and producer Brennan Green has carved his own little niche in dance music's leftfield—between his genre-bending DJ sets and releases on Modal, DFA, Balihu, and his own Chinatown imprint, it's hard to predict exactly what kind of otherworldly sonic experience he's about to cook up. On the mix Green takes it to a whole other level, largely ditching the house and disco sounds he's often associated with in favor of a lengthy psychedelic journey through downtempo, prog, funk, Krautrock, and other sounds on the outer reaches of the aural spectrum. With a protracted moment of silence dedicated to Michael Jackson segueing into a Bruce Springsteen re-edit, it's pretty clear that this isn't the average DJ mix. It's an unusual journey, albeit one well worth taking.

1. Supersempfft * Pipe Dreams On A Lilypad
2. The Orb * A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld (Orbital Dance Mix)
3. Robert Quine/Fred Maher * Dark Place
4. Rolling Stones * Heaven
5. F.U.S.E. * Dimension Intrusion
6. Air * Modular Mix
7. Kenny Hawkes * Sex Propella
8. Skylab * Seashell
9. Simple Minds * Today I Died Again
10. Brian Briggs * AEO (Parts I & II)
11. Parliament * The Goose
12. Greek Buck * The Music Lover's Butt Is Love
13. John Lennon/Yoko Ono * Two Minutes Silence (dedicated to Michael Jackson)
14. Bruce Springsteen * State Trooper (Brennan Green Suicidal Edit)
15. Ippu Do "IN Side/OUT Side
16. 400 Blows * Perspective 5
17. Ippu Do "OUT Side/IN Side
18. Sons Of Aroa * Be Wise In The Way Of Plants
19. B2 Unit * Riot In Lagos
20. Nu Era * Cydonia
21. Koro Osanago * Mini-Klik
22. Berührt Verführt (Brennan Green/Yas Inoue edit)

Download the Brennan Green mix here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

'People Get Real' Mix + details on the re-arranged 'Suono/Those That Know' party.

2010-07-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

The news of the cancellation of Saturdays much anticipated Suono/Those That Know party at The Tyne has put a brief dampener on the coming weekend, (we must point out that this is in no way due to the fault of the promoters involved but down to Newcastle Council and some complaints about noise levels at recent gigs there), however all is not lost! The guys have moved swiftly to secure a last minute change of venue for the party, moving proceedings just along the road back to the spiritual home of Suono Sundays for the last 3 years, another of Newcastles premier boozers The Tanners Arms.
Things kick off at 7 PM and as per, keep your peepers on the 'Suono' group page on Facebook for any other breaking info.

Anyhoo, with that disaster well and truly averted we can turn our attention to a fantastic new mix from Wax:On residents and local bods 'People Get Real'.
A storming reminder of musical pedigree from the lads after not hearing them play for a while now with a mouth watering menu of dancefloor nibbles straight from the top table.
We would also recommend that you check out the PGR website here and join the PGR Facebook group here not forgetting to wrap your ears round their Soundcloud page for other PGR mixes and some brilliant free edits, remixes and original tracks from the lads.
Gwaaaan, get amongst it hew!

Tracklisting:

Detachments * Circles (Beg To Differ Mix)
Comite Central * Horny '08 feat. Fakemannequin
Quando Quango * Love Tempo (People Get Real Edit)
Moscow * Deep Heat (Moscow Dub)
Electric Man * Bubble Wrap
Armando * Don't Take It (Johnny Fiasco Remix)
Gadi Mizrahi * Can't Stop This Feeling (Sideshow Remix)
Le Le * Disco Monster (Mercury Remix )
Binni & Byron * Dance to the Acid
Pascal Vert * Strange Days (C-Rock Remix)
Martin Landsky * Reject (Jack Mix)
Michael Mayer * Heiden
Matt Walsh * Honeycomb (People Get Real Remix)
H2 * Come Together
John Napier * Breaker
Clement Meyer * Double Shots
Madonna * Justify my Dub (People Get Real Edit)

Download the 'People Get Real: Fox And Hounds Mix' here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

News on the 'Suono & Those That Know Party@The Tyne' + Balearic Mike mixes.

2010-07-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

For those of you out there who aren't already aware of it, two of the North East's most forward thinking groups of promoters and DJ's 'Suono' and their good friends, 'Those That Know', will be holding a Gentleman's Club meeting next Saturday (24th of July) at one of Tourist's favourite watering holes and legendary Newcastle juicer 'The Tyne'.
'Those That Know' are a North East collective of musically inspired friends, brought together by a mutual appreciation of universal sounds. Diggin’ deeper into the crates, knuckles dusty and minds open, always seeking and striving to unearth past, present and future sounds to share with like minded individuals.
Between them 'Those That Know' and 'Suono' have been responsible for some of the most jaw dropping line-up's seen this side of Scots gap. Brave enough to put their necks on the line and bring heavy hitters the likes of Moodymann, Kelvin Andrews, Domu, Danielle Baldelli, Omar S, Red Rack'em, Ashley Beedle, and Rahaan to the North East proving a pedigree of huge distinction. Representing the 'Those That Know' crew will be Joe Minns and Fat Dog, while flying the flag for the men of 'Suono' (while Dano is off sunning himself in suitably Balearic surrounding's) will be Newcastle's no. 1 vest wearer, Tina Turner impersonator and philanthropist Tony Daly.
With the talent on show this should be nothing less than an unmitigated blinder, or at least triumph of irresponsible organisation! Either way, our advice is to forget the current trend for austerity and pull up a chaise lounge, toss on an ocelot stole and luxuriate with the North Easts musical finest musical oligarch's.
Hedonistic, halcyon summer days are sooooo in vouge innit!

For further details on the event, you can check the prerequisite Facebook page here!

As a taster for what to expect from this we've rolled out the whole set from the Suono 6th birthday party held at Tokyo with Dano and special guest Balearic Mike on the 1's and 2's for your listening pleasure. As you would expect from the chaps it's an absolute tour de force in how dig deep in the crates for those ever elusive rareties and seriously rock a party and yet still manage put a huge smile on your face at the same time.
Enjoy.

Dano & Balearic Mike (Part 1)

Dano & Balearic Mike (Part 2)

Balearic Mike (Part 3)

We would also recommend that you check out Fat Dogs 'Those That Know Mix' that we blogged a while back. An absolutely stunning journey through more genres than you can shake a flip flop at! Click here to check it.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

Tourist: The Bad Taste Tour + Zleep promo mix.

2010-07-12T04:22:00.000-07:00

Reet then, seeing as it's the Summer, my good lady wife The Leopard has as expected left me couped up in 'Tourist Towers' with the buscuit snatchers and a messy kitchen while he's off galavanting round the midlands subjecting the locals to some sonic earache with his bag of tunes. He's off to Robin Hood country this Friday to play at one of my favourite clubs 'Stealth' at the highly regarded 'Zleep' night. As well as Geoff, there's a stellar line up including Polish duo Catz n' Dogz.
The duo, Grzegorz and Wojciech to their mothers also produce under the alias '3 Channels'. The partnership first formed when they were given their own show on Poland's ABC radio. After a succession of assured releases on Crosstown Rebels and Trapez they were spotted by Dirtybird honcho Claude Vonstroke and were asked to remix his biggest hit to date; 'Who's afraid of Detroit'. No small task, but they somehow managed to stamp their own unique mark on the dance floor bomb, quickly winning an audience all over the world and thrusting them into the limelight. No slouches in the studio the duo quickly had records signed to Pokerflat, Boxer, Get Physical and as well as on their own 'Channels' label. 2008 saw the release of their debut album 'Stars of Zoo' on Mothership, to great acclaim. Since then they've been busy playing their own special selection disco + house & techno at some of the coolest parties on the planet, as well as putting the finishing touches to their second LP, which saw them collaborate with dOP, Claude VonStroke and Jazzanova’s vocalist Paul Randolph. The release date is set for September, so we expect to hear some singles drop in the not too distant future + a remix by Detroit legend Carl Craig.
All in all, it looks to be quite a do innit!

You can check out the Facebook page for the event here and you can also download the Zleep podcast mixed by Geoff Leopard here or get it from Soundcloud here. Easy innit!

Tracklist:

1. Moment * Damien Lazarus (Get Physical)
2. Cold World * Martyn feat DoP (Watergate)
3. Vibrant Member * Lee Curtiss (CityFox)
4. Where is London * Italoboyz (Mothership)
5. Imagine * Ly Sander & Michael J Collins (Electric Minds)
6. Mushrooms (Meat vs Einzelkind Remix) * Marshall Jefferson (Soap Records)
7. Sheppard * Roska (Roska Kicks & Snares)
8. Lampetee * Robag Wruhme (Movida)
9. System * Linkwood (Prime Numbers)
10. A Night Like This (Richie Hawtin Remix) * Steve Bugg (Poker Flat)
11. Graphic * James Rustin (Ostgut Ton)
12. Control * Snuff Crew (Gigalo Records)
13. Masturjakor (Kink & Neville Watson Remix) * DJ Sprinkles (Mule Musiq)
14. The Bounce * Control Voltage (Dissident)
15. Forever * Myers Briggs (Sentient Sounds)

Till next time.
Big Love. Tourist. X

Transmit: Hold Box Flat.

2010-07-07T03:39:00.001-07:00

.......................INCOMING TRANSMISSION........................

Underground experimental sounds from bPm & D'Wala...
Conceptualized in London, gathered and broadcast from around the world... tunes taken from the darker, alternative side of the independent music world.

Expect moody sounds from Hiroshima to Harlem via Hackney.

Blog.
Soundcloud.
Facebook.

Moodymann * Its Too Late 4 U and Me // KDJ
Moodymann * Long Hot Sex Nights (featuring NJB)
Actress * Supreme Cunnilingus // Honest Jon's Records
Osunlade * Oxossi Da Focha Branca // Soul Jazz Records
Hedzoleh * Yei Baa Gbe Wo // Soundway
Dadawah * Seventy-Two Nations // Wild Flower
The Observers * Through The Fire I Come Part 2 // Vital Mix
Rasta Clean * Zig Zag (version) // Sprint Records
Fatman: Riddim Section * Togetherness Rock // Peace Music
Roy Brooks and The Artistic Truth * Eboness // Jazzman Records
HouseShoes * Newports // All City Records
Moodymann * The Hacker // Mahogani Music
A Backlodge Edit * Broughton // Honest Jons
Cameo * It's Serious // Chocolate City Records
Delray * Pure Funk (Part 2) // Jazzman Records
Saxon Lee & The Shadows Inferno * Mind Your Business
Owiney Sigoma Band * Jalako Onyoono Paka // Brownswood
Kyle Hall * Love Kontrol // Wild Oats
Swede:art * Embrace The Chill // TokyoDawn
Sepalcure * The Warning // HotFlush
Massimo Voci * Rhythm 23 (original mix)
Rick Wade Duke of Cologne * Moving On // Yore Records
Anibal Velasquez Y Su Conjunto * Carruseles
Joe * Claptrap // Hessle Audio
Roska & TimeStamp * Rinse
Ellen Allien * Flashy Flashy // BPitch Control
Brendon Moeller * Mainline // EchoChord
Pilooski * AAA // CD-R
Fragoso * Respirar (Paraphonic Basic 500 Model) // CD-R
Kuroisoul * Listen To Me // CD-R

Download: Transmit Hold Box Flat # 19.

..........................END TRANSMISSION..........................

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

Summer Skank

2010-07-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Another Local Mix, and this one involves a bit of a change-up.

We're not usually prone to posting Dubstep etc on the Tourist Blog, but we'll always make an exception for the exceptional.

I'm feeling lazy today, so for further info, please read this hastily copied and pasted biog...

"Known for his taste in the more twisted and deeper side of Dubstep music, Funk Ethics has recently been gaining support right from the main players such as Skream and N Type through to forward thinking taste makers Ramadanman and Untold

His debut release "Blues is Now" alongside Reso, Rusko and Caspa on pioneering Dubstep imprint Destructive Records and his forthcoming solo releases are currently receiving wide support and airplay across scene, recently even earning radio 1 airtime.

An essential part of the strong Newcastle Dubstep scene, Funk Ethics is a talented and innovative producer, definitely a man on the rise.

Off the back of another quality 12" on bristol's Reduction Records watchout for another E.P alongside RLD on Boka Records"

Check out the mix here (courtesy of the Take Flight Club Blog)...

http://takeflightclub.com/blog/?p=5738

Kristian Atkinson * 'Dragnet Popsicle Sidewalk' Mix.

2010-06-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Another week, another addition to our 'Local Mixes' series. Something a tad different this time as we again cast our musical net over the side of HMS Tourist into the dark and turbulent waters of the North Easts musical coastline and pull out a veritable squall of beats and basslines. So it is that after ten months of busy successful weekly Saturdays at The Cut, hosting guests the likes of JD Twitch from 'Optimo', local noise-nicks and hot property 'The Warm Digits' and not to mention my humble self, Newcastle's 'Team Dragnet' have finally got round to passing on their first mix. This one comes from Dragnet head honcho Kristian Atkinson and is a fast journey through some of the sounds you could expect to hear on a Saturday session touching on Mutant Disco, Euro Disco, Electro Pop and Post Punk Funk.'
"Quite a pop mix this one, there's a darker deeper mix to follow but this ones a pretty lurid affair upbeat and eclectic and represents some of the older stuff we've been playing at the club for a while."

Check out the Facebook page for 'Dragnet' at TheCUT every Saturday, here for more details as well as news on future guests!!

Tracklist:

Pow * Tussle
Hold On (Mock N Toof Remix) * Holy Ghost
Dancing On Silk * Canyons
Money Go Round * The Style Council
Gimme * Headman feat Dieter (Yello)
Triple X Syndrome * Padded Cell
Yearning (Emperor Machine remix) * Black Van
Let's Go Dancing * Sparque
Disco Sex * Al Kent
Disco Kicks * The Boys Town Gang
Overpowered By Funk (Dragnet Edit) * The Clash
Yamerarena-I * Pixletan
Dervish Delight * Dennis Young
Burning Up * Madonna
Sudden impact * Big Audio Dynamite

Download 'Dragnet: Popsicle Sidewalk' mix.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

Moving on, Growing up, Selling out...

2010-06-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

It happens to everything.

Dylan went electric, The Who got old and Grange Hill changed their theme tune.

Things change, eras end, people grow up, organisms evolve and... ah bugger it, and we're skint, so we're going to start allowing people to advertise on our blog!

If anyone is interested in whoring their wares on the Tourist Blog, then please get in touch on gk@oneninefourstudio.com
(dating sites, online gambling sites and porn barons need not apply).

We will of course make sure that any of the links on here remain interesting and enriching
(well, as intersting and enriching as any of the other tripe we post on here).

As well as the new "words from our sponsors" you can also expect to see some cosmetic and functional changes to the look, feel and navigation of the page.

We've been resolutely lo-fi up to now, but there always comes a point were you have to start wearing long trousers.

We're sure you'll love the new look Tourist blog
(and if you dont, well you can always just piss off).

Exciting times!

DC Hooker (Broken Hookers) Mix for 'Tourist'.

2010-06-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Reet then, another in our ongoing 'local zeros' series this week as we travel a tad further south of the Tyne than we usually would to a small town in Yorkshire by the name of Middlesbrough. Old friends of ours and former residents at the original 'Tourist' night, Darren and Jay have played together as The Broken Hookers for more than 5 years now and during that time they've had their mixtapes played on various Radio Shows, won a competition or two, held residencies for the likes of Club NME, Turnmills, Sugarshack and Polaroid whilst making noteworthy appearances at venues/nights such as Get Loaded In The Park/Together, Adventures In The Beetroot Field, Dirty Disco and have been guests at Radio 1's Big Weekend and the Modular Tour Parties. As well as being involved with festivals such as the 'Lake Of Stars' festival in Africa, 'Snowbombing' and 'Pangae' playing along side the likes of Joakim, Optimo, The Juan Maclean, Clor, Shit Robot, Matthew Dear, Ladytron, The Glimmers, Athur Baker, Headman and a load more.
As well as their live deck duties, the chaps also run the ever popular 'ArePeopleReal' series, their world renowned Podcast. It runs on bi-weekly Thursdays and opened it's doors to the public on February 1st 2007. Along with their own mixes (Broken Hookers) they invite the most exciting talent and acts around to take part in the show (in the form of guest mixes). The show also runs special features and interviews each week, along with a few little surprises thrown in for good measure! Past guests have included Pilooski, In Flagranti, Crazy P, Ali Renault, Skull Juice, Haedman and most recently the Ooft Records lads.
You can subscribe to the 'ArePeopleReal' podcast here and check out the Broken Hookers Website here.
Darren has been kind enough to take time out and provide us with this mix for our 'Local Mixes' series and no souch it is too. Chugging it's way through some party jams and house heavy weights it touches base with some recent fave's and welcome suprises. Hope you enjoy it!
(P.S. He's also got a 10" wang!)

1. Ron Basejam - No Jose (The Revenge Remix Part 1)
2. Toto - Georgie Porgy (Ooft Rework)
3. Robert Palmer - Work To Make It Work (The Revenge Edit)
4. The Isley Brothers - Between The Sheets
5. Gazeebo - Up Up & Away
6. Eddie C - The Show Is Over
7. Eddie C - Going Somewhere
8. Polygon Palace - Tokyo Getaway (Tornado Wallace Remix)
9. Hot Chocolate - Cadilliac (The Revenge Rework)
10. Wganda Kenya - Tifit Hayed (Cronk Family Enterprises Rework)
11. Willie Hutch - Brothers Gonna Work It Out (Remix)
12. Soulphiction - Underground Railroad
13. Q-Tip - Breathe, Don't Stop (The Revenge Red Edit)
14. Archie Bronson Outfit - Hoola (MCDE Remix)

Download 'Darren Clark (Broken Hookers) * Mix For Tourist.'

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

DJ History.com 'Chicken Lips Competition'.

2010-06-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

A special request this week from the good people across at one of 'Tourists' favourite websites, the brilliant DJHistory.com. Curated by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton (also co-authors of the classic and highly recommended book 'Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History of The Disc Jockey') DJHistory.com has been colefacing at the coleface of all things cool for over a decade now and as such we were happy to give some of the Tourist faithful the chance to flex their musical muscles in their general direction. Anyhoo, over to Bill,,,,,

"We're giving budding remixers the opportunity to rework a track by one of the UK's leading producers, Chicken Lips. The tune is 'Sweet Cow', taken from 2006's Making Faces album, and the winner of the competition will have their tune on sale in the new DJhistory download store, alongside all the other classic Lips' shizzle. Competition ends on August 31st 2010. Please submit your entry in MP3 320 format and email it to Bill:djhistory@gmail.com. Please put 'Chicken Lips Competition' in the subject box.
Thanks, Bill."

Just click here to get the link to the track parts for the remix or cut n' paste this into ya browser: http://www.sendspace.com/file/1hlel4

So there you have it, the chance to attain the kind of kudos and chops that money can't buy.

Good luck & as ever, big love.
Tourist. X.

Mick Rolf, "Alreet Summer Boys!" Mixtape.

2010-06-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

Well, another installment of our Local Mixes series kicks off the weekend in some style with a wonderous bag of tunes, crafted together in no slack fashion by Newcastles very own Mick Rolfe. Anyone who's been even fleetingly involved with the Newcastle club or music scene will undoubtably have stumbled across Mick in one capacity or another in the last 7 or 8 years or so. Weather it be his solo acoustic shows or with various bands or even manning the Technics in one of a dozen or so pubs and nightclubs round the city.
Mick has, after more months of nagging than I care to remember, managed to momentarilly pull his finger out and rustle up this brilliant bag of downtempo goodness to complement the fine weather we're enjoying. The perfect excuse to crack open a cold beer, fire up the bar-b and top up your Vitamin C.

Mick plays as part of The Last Waltz DJ's, you can check more info on them here on their Facebook profile and hear music made by them on their Myspace page here.
You can also catch the Last Waltz lads taking over our favourite Newcastle boozer The Forth all day this Sunday from 3 PM till midnight. Expect the unexpected.

Tracklist:

1. The San Sebastian Strings - The Gypsy Camp (Warner)
2. Talking Heads - Drugs (Sire)
3. Kate Bush - Watching You Without Me (EMI)
4. David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Bamboo Houses (Virgin)
5. JJ Cale - The Woman That Got Away (Shelter)
6. KM Editions - Feelings Of Ecstasy (KM)
7. Dennis Wilson - Dreamer (Caribou)
8. Mandre 4 - Fantasy (Rush Hour)
9. Peter Brown - Without Love (TK)
10. Neil Young - The Old Laughing Lady (Reprise)
11. Gregory Isaacs - Cool Down The Pace (Island)
12. John Martyn - Some People Are Crazy (Island)
13. The Beatles - Flying (Capitol/Parlophone)
14. Ruth Copeland - Play With Fire (Invictus)
15. Alessi - Seabird (A&M)

Download Mick Rolfe * "Alreet Summer Boys!" Mixtape.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X

The futures bright, but nobody know what colour it is.

2010-06-10T11:44:00.001-07:00

The truth behind Englands oldest public holiday.

Shark Week! An exciting time in Newcastle, and an exciting time all around the world – but have you ever asked yourself how Shark Week began? As you and your loved ones celebrate Shark Week in your local parks, city centers, mosques, hobo jungles and shopping malls, and as you enjoy such traditional Shark Week food fare as gummi remoras and kosher chum, have you ever stopped to consider how long people have been celebrating the Shark, and for that matter, a whole week of sharks?

Have you ever asked yourself where this fun family festival first originated? From what dark, insidious rituals did our celebrations arise? What terrifying forces have guided the hand – or dare I say 'fin' – of destiny, scrying a sinister tattoo across the canvas of humanity’s very fate? And where did the traditional jaunty Shark Week ceremonial dance, “The Mako Knuckler” originate?

Well, we don’t know, but what follows is much of what historians suggest is the history of what we know today as Shark Week!

Years Ago.
There are not yet any sharks, and therefore no Shark Week.

4,540,000,000 Years Ago.
NOW there are sharks, but not any weeks yet. Give it time.

420 Million Years BC.
Predating by several hundred million years the arrival of so-called “dinosaurs” (which, translated from the Latin, means literally “Holy Shit, That Thing’s Going To Kill Us”), sharks populate every corner of the Earth and literally rule the oceans. Specifically, they rule with a mix of representative parliamentary democracy and Socialism, often called a 'Sharkocracy'. Truly, this is a golden age, when every week is shark week (by parliamentary Sharkocratic decree).

26,000 BC.
Crude cave paintings dating back to this era have recently been discovered in central Europe. Depicting scenes of everyday life, the paintings show Neolithic hunters tracking and killing wild sharks, as well as taming them and riding them like ponies. This has led many paleontologists and historians to decry Neolithic Man as “A bunch of making things up liars.”

5,000 Years Ago.
This is when God actually created the Earth (and thus all sharks, and weeks), so ignore everything that’s come before now.

0 AD.
A shark is born in Jerusalem, Hosanna in the highest!

1560 AD.
Pope Pius IV declares the first known festival which most closely resembles what we understand today as “Shark Week”, largely appropriating a pagan fertility celebration which ran at the same time of year. Protestant reformers decry the holiday for its heathen overtones, but are thankfully slaughtered by papal authorities well before they can harsh anyone’s buzz too bad.

1601 AD.
In honor of Shark Week (“Ye Weeke Os The Sharketh”, in Elizabethan English), Shakespeare stages his controversial “Hamlet Versus the Megalodon”. The “Coelecanth Monologue” continues to be rated as one of the greatest pieces of stagecraft in the history of modern drama.

1879.
Sharks are officially patented on this date by prolific inventor Thomas Alva Edison, following groundbreaking research conducted at his Menlo Park laboratories in which alternating sharks were successfully sent to a surprised household in Great Neck (There were no survivors).
A curious side effect of this document is that, legally speaking, sharks are considered to never have existed before this date. In order to avoid a lawsuit, you should once again ignore everything that’s come before now.

1941.
Shark Week is officially declared a federal holiday, largely owing to the popularity of the idea as generated by American novelist Sarah Josepha Hale, and as a stopgap measure to appease ravenous gangs of hungry sharks which had terrorized the expanse of the United States ever since Edison started making them pop out of telephone wires for a laugh.

1954.
Following the landmark court case, Sharks vs The Board of Education (there were no survivors), The United States federal government steps in to eradicate segregation in its public school system. A program is instituted which busses sharks from outlying districts to schools which were traditionally attended solely by white and human students.
The initiative meets fierce resistance from every branch of society. Strom Thurmond stages a legendary record-breaking filibuster on the Senate floor, stopping only to be violently consumed by a longfin mako which had been masquerading as a Senate page.
The radical measure is met with mixed success; sharks are successfully integrated into human schools, but most of them suffocate. Only in an experimental, partially submerged high school in Cookeville, Tennessee did the sharks fare much better, but it goes without saying that the existing student body has paid a price of their own (There were no survivors).
The long-standing cartilaginous fish/vertebrate primate barrier on television is shattered when William Shatner, as Starship Captain James T.Kirk, shares a passionate kiss with a tropical bullhead on an episode of Star Trek.

1978.
Congressman Jim Walsh of New York recognizes the tireless efforts of Hermine B.Beckett Hanna of North Syracuse, by helping establishing on her behalf a national observance of “Grandparents Day”, joining the holiday ranks of “Fathers Day” and “Mothers Day”. When children inevitably ask their elders “When do SHARKS get a day of their own?”, they are told “Oh, sweetheart, every day is Shark Day … during Shark Week, anyway.”

Some Point Between 1996-2005.
Your girlfriend dumps you right around Shark Week, leaving you to face all the happy couples celebrating Shark Week, and all the Shark Week decorations at your local department stores. Even when you decide to sulk at home, you can’t avoid the television commercials just shoving Shark Week in your face over and over again. You start bitching to your friends about how Shark Week is just an excuse made up b Hallmark to sell greeting cards. They humor you.

2007.
Right-wing pundits draw attention to a so-called secular “War on Shark Week”. Particularly adamant in her defense of a return to Shark Week values is columnist Gary Bushell, which is understandable as she is, after all, one-quarter shark (on her mother’s side of the family).

The Present Day.
Shark Week is universally embraced as a choice time to kick some ass and hang loose. There are no survivors.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR SHARK WEEK?

2012.
Shark Week’s popularity only continues to grow, and by this date is effectively the most popular holiday in the Western Hemisphere, unseating Christmas, the Fourth of July, and a bunch of bullshit holidays like Kwanzaa, Arbor Day and Rosh Hoshannah.

Piece originally written by Adrien Childs & Steadman from '5 Star' for the 'Tourist' blog.

Music time now and an absolutely blinding set of mixes from a couple of Tourists favourite Dee Jays, Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe. First up is something of a 'Wrong Meeting' reunion, recorded a couple of months back @ Le Social Club Paris with messers Weatherall and Smagghe taking over the decks and positively rinsing the mixing desk to within an inch of it's life. There's just over 2 hours of their set to download which was originally hosted over on the excellent 'Get The Curse' blog. No setlist but there's tracks from Robodello, The Love Supreme,Jon Gurd & Dave Robertson, Clément Meyer, DAF, Tim Fairplay, etc, etc.
The second is a special treat, an absolute corker from Mr Weatherall, recorded 22 years ago at one of the 'Future' parties in 1988. There's a makeshift tracklist of sorts that I've managed to cobble together from various sources below too.

Download 'Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe: Live at Social Club Paris.'

Andrew Weatherall: Live at Future 9. Land Of Oz. 1988.

Electrica Salsa * Off
NT Gang * Wam Bam
Icarus * Stone Fox Chase
Mory Kante * Yeke Yeke
The Nightwriters * Let The Music Use You
Project Club * Dance With The Devil
Company B * Perfect Lover
Adonis * The Poke
Royal House * Can You Party
Gene & Jim Are Into Shakes * Shake
Black Riot * Day In The Life
The Residents * Kaw-Liga
The Cure * Hot Hot Hot (FK mix)
The Clash * Magnificent Dance
Orchestra JB * On A Love Groove
Jhalib * Mysteries Of The East
Code 61 * Drop The Deal
Acid Trax * Phuture
Nitzer Ebb * Join In The Chant
Organisation for fun) * Electrica Salsa
16 Bit * Where Are You (I've lost you).

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

P.S. Remember to add us at 'Tourist' on twitter as well as our friends from 'Dada' for more mixes and shite crack.

Kid Coda Sounds.

2010-06-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

In our continuing efforts to promote all things Newcastle we thought that seeing as they we're supporting 2Many DJ's at the O2 Academy that we should grab a word with a bunch of the North East's rising stars, Marcus, Nicky and Franki who make up the triple headed sonic behemoth that is 'Kid Coda Sounds.'

The band...

Marcus: "There’s me and Nicky, rhythm section from the old kid:coda, and singer Frankie, who was discovered singing in the ladies loos at cosmic ballroom by a certain Nadine Shah. After Nadine sang on a couple of tracks for us, we asked if she would be our permanent singer but she had too many other commitments, so suggested Frankie, who she’d only ever heard singing once in the toilets …probably very drunkenly, in the club style….turns out she was canny good after all. There's also Mickey C who works in the studio with us and looks after our live sound.

"Even as kid:coda we were always into the quite experimental side of music, albeit with a pop aesthetic such as the Beta Band, Super Furry's and Air, but always really had a craving to make music for the dance floor, so me and Nicky developed the rhythm section from the old band and concentrated on experimenting with drum loops and sequencing baseline's. After we had a couple of our tunes remixed by Mickey C (aka The Digital Monkey) and working along side him in his studio we decided that we were more than capable of making music of this style. Me and Nicky never wrote any of the songs really in the past, but now we’re confident in our writing and working with people like Mick in the dance music industry. Local legend Mickey C also works alongside, Retriever, Kinevil, Last Waltz DJ's and Mr P (Warren Pier)."

The gigs...
"Its unbelievable that we are gonna share the main stage with 2ManyDJ's. I mean we've done a few shows over the last couple of years ans as a promoter, whenever I brought a decent electronic band to Newcastle I grabbed the opportunity to support them. Bands such as ‘Midnight Juggernauts’ & Steve Mason of the Beta Band’s ‘Black Affair’ outfit. This allowed us to witness first hand and up close how these bands approach things live. Really to allow us to experiment with how to create a live experience so it’s not the same as on record. And ultimately to see if we could cut it as a LIVE band. Basically to make all our mistakes early on. But seriously, we wanted to craft the songs and have gradually built up an album of material, so that when we start our gigging we are ready, confident and don’t have to take any time out to record.
We’ve also gigged with Canadian disco-house band ‘Think About Life’, and with French indie-hip-hop-funk-rap-electro band ‘Naïve New Beaters’ who are amazing live and we’ve played and partied with before, and hopefully touring with soon. There’s also shows in the pipeline at Dragnet @ theCut which will see us as being one of the first live bands to play there, and also Generator have asked us to do one of a series of ‘Plugged In’ shows in July alongside esteemed bands such as'Trafik', which is nice to be asked."

The sound...
Marcus: "Electronic, pop, disco, house....."
Nicky: "As KCS we strive to make classic but innovative dance music & quirky pop. Bench marks being ‘Donna Summer's - I Feel Love,' ‘Michael Jackson - Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough’
Marcus: "We love the whole French electro and disco-house scene, I think our production style reflects that in some ways."
Nicky: A"ll our music is sequenced, but to ensure it doesn’t sound generic and too mechanical. We always incorporate a live element (other than vocals) this could be live guitar/bass/percussion or samples."
Marcus: "...and me and Nicky each play synths and percussion when playing live."

The inspiration...
Marcus: "Word association, I like to play with words, or play on words, word play, a bit like that ha…humour, tongue in cheek but also serious, writing poems, then adapting them into songs. About feelings rather than meanings, but at the same time I don’t wanna preach to anyone. We’re a fun band for dancing to, not preaching, its up to the audience to interpret what we’re saying, so I talk about what I know and feel, not try to solve or put anything on anyone. If you look at ‘Eyes Talk’ (“eyes talk…reveal all” one of our songs) you’ll see, its like 1 long game of 'Mallet's mallet' or something, the most obvious example of word association I’ve used. The whole Modular imprint as I don’t think the labels ever put a foot wrong
Anything that’s got a groove basically, if the grooves good, and the songs crap, you could edit the groove and loop it and there’s a dance song I’d happily dance too."

The releases...
Marcus : "We’ve recorded 10 songs which we’re touting to record companies at the minute, but it may be the case that we need or wanna try re-recording some tracks so its a bit up in the air as of now."

The future...
Franki: "Hopefully feature on Now 52 CD, a KCS sticker book, headlining Smash hits poll winners party, a deal with Pepsi max and VIP entry to a Hollyoaks cast party, then hang with Beyonce and Jay Z on Saturdays."
Nicky: "I’d be happy sitting at home, building up the studio, just making music and getting fatter."
Marc: "Motivating Nicky, trying to educate Franki about proper music, and getting the music out there. The songs are there, the interest is developing, and the live show is ready. So hopefully touring with 'Naïve New Beaters', and other bands. And just playing as much as possible."

Kid Coda Sounds support 2ManyDJ's tonight, Thursday 10th of June at the O2 Academy in Newcastle
You can listen to exclusive tracks from Kid Coda Sounds get info on the bands maneuvers and upcoming gigs on their Facebook page here.

Till next time,
Big love. Tourist X.

'Is It Italo?' Road To Rimini gear up for the Summer & Neville Watson Mix!!

2010-06-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

We start this week with a great little piece from the Road To Rimini chaps on the links between House music and Italo which also seuges nicely with their first outdoor party of the year this weekend at The Tyne with Ali Renault & Neville Watson which looks to be nothing short of an absolute stunner.

"Italo disco? House music? Eh? A quick history lesson might help. The genre “House” originally referred to the style of disco played at the Warehouse club in Chicago in the early to mid eighties by the DJ Frankie Knuckles. This gradually became a blanket term for the dance music played around the city in the coming years, in particular at the Muzik Box, home to the highly influential DJ Ron Hardy. With Ron Hardy at the helm a hedonistic and furiously energetic blend of dark-edged synth-pop, disco, and italo (basically a European electronic take on disco) inspired many of his faithful audience to go home and make disco tracks themselves, to sit alongside the ones they were hearing at the club. Instead of live string sections and drummers they had synths and drum machines, often the same ones used by italo and synth-pop musicians before them. So although a natural continuation of an electronic dance music tradition, the unique set of influences and stripped down sound of the eighties Chicago electronic musicians was to become known as house music beyond Chicago, and its original context and origins not always recognised."

On June 12th (4pm-11pm) Road to Rimini are celebrating this original and eclectic spirit of house music by throwing a free all-day party at the Tyne Pub in the Ouseburn with a true acid-house veteran, Neville Watson (Dissident, Clone, Rush Hour). As well as recently producing a string of fantastic tracks released on some of Europe’s most respected underground dance music labels, the former Checkpoint Charlie resident knows better than most how to play records to a dancefloor. His raw and jacking house style, which draws the dots between the influences on the genre, is sure to refresh and invigorate. Playing a live set in support will be the ever exciting Ali Renault (Heartbreak) and the Fratelli Di Rimini DJ-ing.The fire will be kept burning at an afterparty just up the road at the Star and Shadow (11pm-4am :: £6/£7 non-members) with more live acts and DJs including The Third Man (Ai and A.R.T. recordings) and the Slabs of The Tabernacle crew from Glasgow.

So just to recap, that is:

ROAD TO RIMINI (12/06/10)@TheTyne :: NEVILLE WATSON+ALI RENAULT – Free!! Then afterparty @ Star & Shadow:: THE THIRD MAN(LIVE) £6/£7 non-members.
See you down the front!!

If you're hungry for more info on the party simply click here for the Facebook link innit.

As a taster of what to excpect from the Rimini all-dayer at The Tyne this weekend we've also got a couple of blistering mixes from Pat Rimini and the days headliner Neville Watson for you to download. Hope you enjoy them.

Download 'Pat Rimini * Say Quoi Mix' here.

Tracklist:

1. Wally Badarou * Endless Race
2. Le Club * Un Fait Divers (Re-Remix)
3. DJ Look * Capita (Instr.)
4. Larry Paul Emmett * Evita
5. Peru * Oriental
6. Alden Tyrell * What Your Eyes Can Do
7. Kano * Another Life
8. Eddy Trauba And M.M. Greco * Maccaroni Radio (Instr)
9. Alex Valentini * Beautiful Life (Dalum Edit)
10. Gaz Nevada * Ticket To Los Angeles (Olympic Version)
11. N.O.I.A. * True Love
12. Cheaps * Moliendo Cafe
13. Bill Ambrose * Paranoia
14. Wet * Thats The Game (Instr.)
15. Purple Flash * Creme Souflee

Download 'Neville Watson * No More Pushin' Around Mix' here.

Tracklist:

1. Shyman & DJ LJK * Make Me Do Right (Digital Rights Mix)
2. Paul Bennett * Fifty One
3. Steve Summers * Waves
4. 326 * Falling (Armando's Dub Mixx)
5. Gladio * Slave Of Rome (Bunker)
6. Lighthouse Family * High (E-Dancer Dub)
7. JTC * Nothing's The Same
8. Denise Motto - IMNXTC (Jd Twitch's Optimo Acid Mix)
9. DJ Cole Medina * Buffalo Bill (C's B-Boy Mix)
10. Rahaan * Untitled
11. Depeche Mode * Behind The Wheel (Shep Pettibone Mix)
12. Marco Passarani * I House U
13. DJ Sprinkles * Masturjakor (KiNK & Neville Watson Mix)
14. Lil Louis & The Diamond Corp * 7 Days Of Peace (Hallelujah Vocal Mix)

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist X.

P.S. Remember to hit us up on the Twitter here folkies. We're hilarious, really!!

Andy Blake (Dissident/Cave Paintings) Mix

2010-05-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Just as the dust settles on Andy Blakes former imprint 'Dissident', his new label 'Cave Paintings', dicated to the rough as you like machine music that lives somewhere in techno, house and ebm territory, has begun to bear it's first fruits. All the tracks are done live in one take on old analogue boxes for a loose, organic and spontaneous feel that its impossible to capture when using computers. For the same kind of reason these, as like the Dissident releases, are only available on 12". The mastering and the vinyl itself are an integral part of the sound.The label will initially be an outlet for Andy's own productions, and on this first release he offers up a ten minute straight-up bass-heavy skeletal club groove with hints of a Latin vibe about it and (on side Y) a more grinding and pounding number, in a Nitzer Ebb on quaaludes fashion, relentlessly developing for a full fourteen minutes.
As one of the most forward looking men involved in British dance music his mixes are always a treat. We've already hosted a bunch of brilliant sets from him and this mix, recorded recently at Sao Paulo's 'Hot Hot Club' is definitely no exception. 2 hours or so of amazing tracks. Hope you enjoy it.

Andy Blake * Live at 'Hot Hot Club' Sao Paulo'.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

'Oh Yeti!' A Krautrock Mix by Mickey C.

2010-05-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a bluffers guide to Krautrock:
Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal – a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany’s gruesome past – but that didn’t stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.
Now with the rise of all things Kosmiche & Kraut in recent years and every minimal house producer and techno DJ professing a long standing love of the genre we thought it only fitting that we get a genuine expert on this gear to take us on a musical journey along the autobahn of all things Germanic. Enter local musician, producer, DJ and bon vivant Mr Michael Clark to step in and provide us the next installment of our 'Are You Local' mix series.

'Oh Yeti!' A Krautrock mix by Mickey C.

Tracklisting:

01). Amon Duul II _ Archangels Thunderbird
02). Ash Ra - Sunrain
03). Faust - So Far
04). Cluster - Caramel
05). Michael Hoenig - Hanging Garden Transfer
06). Tangerine Dream - Betrayal
07). Michael Rother - Karussell
08). Harmonia - Dino
09). Neu! - Isi
10). Eno Moebius Roedelius - Tzima N'arki
11). Can - Oh Yeah

Dowload link:

You can check out more of Mick's musings on music and beyond by checking out his blog here. As well as that, you can check out some of Mick's productions, edits and other work, including his work with fellow Newcastle bods The Last Waltz DJ's on his Soundcloud page by clicking here.

There's also a brilliant documentary screened recently on BBC 4 about Krautrock here for you to enjoy with your eyes here.

Till next time.
Big love. Tourist. X.

Tadge * New Wave Mix

2010-05-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Another in our series of 'Local Mixes' for you and this time it's a re-up for a mix we hosted here on 'Tourist' an absolute age ago in late 2008. It's a cracking 'New Wave mix' that I came across when I saw it posted by Tadge on the message board for local club night Habit. We popped it up to give it an airing and was immediately surprised by the large number of downloads for what I expected to be one of the more esoteric mixes we had hosted. I also had a whole bunch of e-mails from some unhappy punters who were trying to download it from the blog after the link had expired so I've re-loaded it for your further delectation. It's a great mix so fill ya boots with it while ye can y'all.

Tracklist:

Japan - All tomorrows parties
Gary Newman - Bombers (live)
Yazoo - In my room
A Flock Of Seagulls - European
The The - Giant
Lords of the New Church - Dance with me
Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria
The Units - High Pressure Days
Blamange - Side Two
Fad Gadget - Coitus Interruptus
Human League - The sound of the crowd
Soft Cell - Memorabilia

Download Tadges 'New Wave Mix', here.

Are you local? New Tourist 'Needle Exchange Mix'.

2010-04-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

Not going to run off at the mouth too much about this one but seeing as we're posting mixes by some of our favourite local North East DJ's at the mo' I thought it would be appropriate for little old moi to post the first real 'dancefloor' mix I've done for about a year or so. It kicks off with some chuggers and slo-mo gear before heading into some new school Chi-town jackin' techno and ploughing on with wreckless abandon into the dizzying realms and tempos of house music approaching 119 bpm,, GADZOOKS!!

Tracklist:

1. The Off Key Hat * Emergency Calling (Dissident)
2. The 6th Borough Project * Do It To The Max (Instruments Of Rapture)
3. G & S * Show Me The Good Time (Dissident)
4. Disk * Rumshack (40 Thieves Remix) (Fine Art)
5. Bomb The Bass * The Infinites (Mark E Remix) (CDr)
6. The Revenge * F.I.T.D. Pitched Down Mix (Home Taping Is Killing Music)
7. Red Rack'em * Picnic (Ooft Remix) (Deep Freeze)
8. San Soda * Maximum 150 Personen (Lany Recording Belgium)
9. Last Waltz * Criminal World (Phoreski Remix) (CDr)
10. Mock N' Toof * Farewell To Wendo (Kink & Neville Watson Remix) (Tiny Sticks)
11. Snuff Crew * The Name (Playhouse Germany)
12. Hard Ton * Flawless (Permanent Vacation)
13. Precious System * The Voice From Planet Love (Running Back)
14. Kemetic * Just For Your Love (Pepe Bradocks Tendre Piperade) (White)
15. 40 Thieves * Huffbochente (Permanent Vacation)

Download the Tourist 'Needle Exchange Mix'. (Zshare.)

Download the Tourist 'Needle Exchange Mix'. (Megaupload.)

Hope you like/enjoy/tolerate it.

Big love.
Tourist. X.

P.S. Remember to hit us up on 'Twitter' by clicking here innit blads.

Thoughts on Gloves & Snorkling

2010-04-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

Keeping with the spirit of Diary entries, please find enclosed the Diary of Mr Mark H C Algar aka Fapesta aka Tamara Knight aka MOOGAR.

Monday April 9th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Tuesday April 10th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Wednesday April 11th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Thursday April 12th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Friday April 13th
Knife Crime. Guardian Crossword

Saturday April 14th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Sunday April 15th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Monday April 16th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Tuesday April 17th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Wednesday April 13th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Thursday April 14th
Shopping List. Vim / Skipping Rope / Leather Wig / Cashew Nuts
Indulged in some light strumming.

Friday April 15th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Saturday April 16th
Ate Greggs. Googled self

Sunday 21 April 1667
(Lord’s day). Up, and John, a hackney coachman whom of late I have much used, as being formerly Sir W. Pen’s coachman, coming to me by my direction to see whether I would use him to-day or no, I took him to our backgate to look upon the ground which is to be let there, where I have a mind to buy enough to build a coach-house and stable; for I have had it much in my thoughts lately that it is not too much for me now, in degree or cost, to keep a coach, but contrarily, that I am almost ashamed to be seen in a hackney, and therefore if I can have the conveniency, I will secure the ground at least till peace comes, that I do receive encouragement to keep a coach, or else that I may part with the ground again. The place I like very well, being close to my owne house, and so resolve to go about it, and so home and with my wife to church, and then to dinner, Mercer with us, with design to go to Hackney to church in the afternoon. So after dinner she and I sung “Suo Moro,” which is one of the best pieces of musique to my thinking that ever I did hear in my life; then took coach and to Hackney church, where very full, and found much difficulty to get pews, I offering the sexton money, and he could not help me. So my wife and Mercer ventured into a pew, and I into another. A knight and his lady very civil to me when they come, and the like to my wife in hers, being Sir G. Viner and his lady — rich in jewells, but most in beauty — almost the finest woman that ever I saw. That which we went chiefly to see was the young ladies of the schools,1 whereof there is great store, very pretty; and also the organ, which is handsome, and tunes the psalm, and plays with the people; which is mighty pretty, and makes me mighty earnest to have a pair at our church, I having almost a mind to give them a pair, if they would settle a maintenance on them for it. I am mightily taken with them. So, church done, we to coach and away to Kingsland and Islington, and there eat and drank at the Old House, and so back, it raining a little, which is mighty welcome, it having not rained in many weeks, so that they say it makes the fields just now mighty sweet. So with great pleasure home by night. Set down Mercer, and I to my chamber, and there read a great deal in Rycaut’s Turkey book with great pleasure, and so eat and to bed. My sore throat still troubling me, but not so much. This night I do come to full resolution of diligence for a good while, and I hope God will give me the grace and wisdom to perform it.

Monday April 18th
Went back on pills for supposed Samuel Pepys identity "Issues".
Ate Greggs. Googled Self

Following on the Local flavour, here's a recent Disco/House/Party mix from Myself.
It just seems stupid to get someone else to post it i suppose.
Nothing clever on here whatsoever, but hopefully it's worth a listen...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/00v8on

and the tracklist is...

1)Guilt - Marianne Faithful
2)Tears - Linkwood feat Reggie Watts
3)Loced after Dark - AfroMan
4)Lifes a Beach - Studio (Todd Terje Edit)
5)Lapad - Matt Flores
6)Call Me Tonight - Ilija Rudman (The Revenge's Engaged Edit)
7)Jans Payback - Bicep
8)The Wall - Pink Floyd (DJ Agent 66 Re-Edit)
9)Macho City - Steve Miller Band (Geoff Leopard Minor Edit)
10)If You Want Me - Barbara Roy (Maelstrom Edit)
11)When Your Jones Comes Down - "Sugar Bear" Johnson
12)The Wanton Song - Led Zeppelin (Geoff Leopard Minor Edit)
13)Sultana - Titanic
14)Chico - Les Edits Du Golem
15)123 Cantyousee - Clap Rules
16)Neville Watson - Let Me Go
17)City Streets - Rhythm Talk
18)After Midnight - Ilija Rudman (L.S.B. Remix)
19)Criminal World - Last Waltz (Phoreski Remix)
20)Where Love Lives - Alison Limerick (Geoff Leopard Minor Edit)
21)Reckless With Your Love - Azzari & Ill
22)Can't Hold Back - Kano (LMR Remix)
23)Pow Pow - Capricorn
24)Thankyou - Eddie Kendricks (Lee Douglas Edit)
25)Falling Star - Smith & Hack
26)House of Jealous Lovers - The Rapture (Morgan Geist Remix)
27)My Time Your Time - Straight Shooter (Cosmo Vitelli Edit)
28)Two For Nero (Unreleased Demo) - Everything Everything