FMB MIXTAPE 103 | SALLY C

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Feel My Bicep

FMB MIXTAPE 103 | SALLY C

FMB MIXTAPE 103 | SALLY C (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 103 | SALLY C (320 DOWNLOAD)

FMB MIXTAPE 103 | SALLY C (MIXCLOUD)

It’s time for mixtape #103, & this week we invited Irish-born Berlin-based Sally C to take the reigns. First up, we asked a bit about the mix & what she’s been up to…

2018 has been pretty sweet so far, things are starting to kick off a bit which I’m super happy about.. I’m based in Berlin but this year I’ve been playing more outside of the city in the UK and Europe which is what I aimed to achieve when I moved there 3 years ago. It was a tough move from Scotland where I lived for 5 years, in terms of finding gigs and developing my sound but I’ve chipped away at the scene here and now running nights with pals and playing at different clubs around the city. Its a class place to live, absolutely spoiled for record shops – I spend a lot of time digging for weird records I fucking love it. 

I started the summer off at Denis Sulta’s FLY Festival in Edinburgh which was class craic and debuted at AVA Festival on the main stage which meant a lot to me to be a part of it was such a special atmosphere everything from the production to the lineup to the crowd was phenomenal. I just played at the DABJ night in Berlin at Else which was great, played after Alden Tyrell so definitely played a lot harder than I usually play but really liked that as I got to show my darker side.

Recorded in my flat in Berlin. Two technics, DJM 350 mixer (the one where you can just pop your USB in to record mixes which is so handy) and two CDJ 2000 Nexus 2’s which are actually my pal hectors which he asked me to look after so thank you hector b :) I have other cdjs but they’re shite. I try to use mostly records when I’m recording mixes but its very convenient having the CDJs for pals tunes and new music I’ve been sent etc. 

I actually never plan my mixes too much – They have to be raw and in the moment and I only ever record a mix once. Of course I will have a general concept but I can’t re-record, it just doesn’t work for me, this is a one time recording and I liked it so didn’t have to record a whole new one which was sweet. I will always include unreleased or new stuff from friends. Its important to me to promote their music in whatever way I can. 

I had some time to think about the mix and I’m honoured to have been asked to join this mix series. I really wanted it to be a reflection of how my style has developed. I used to play a lot of disco but Im definitely playing a lot harder at the minute which I’ve tried to convey in this mix. All of the tunes mean something to me, make me feel something, make me think and I hope its some what of a journey to listen to with a focus on weird vocals and heavy grooves which is what I look for when digging. 

Its also kind of a homage to Bikini Waxx Records in Berlin as 90% of the records in the mix are from there. Its my favourite record store, all of my second hand gems are from there, I have a lot to thank them for to be honest. 

Up next…

I’ve spent the last 6 years fine tuning my mixing – especially with vinyl, I used to watch videos on youtube of people mixing records and thinking I would never be able to do that, ever. But especially since moving to Berlin Ive really focused on trying to perfect my mixing which Ive put all of my energy into. Now I’m pretty comfortable with that I want to focus more on production – I know how to make tunes and I have some nice gear which I know I need to use more. I haven’t put pressure on myself to rush into production as I know its a slow and personal process but I know the tunes are coming and I feel good about it, Ive cultivated so many ideas over the past years so Im excited to execute them. 

Gigs wise Im playing in Sheffield this weekend, Netherlands at the end of the month and some really exciting shows in September which I can’t wait for. 

Instagram // Soundcloud // Facebook

Posted in FMB MIXTAPE SERIES | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

FMB MIXTAPE 102 | ANTONI MAIOVVI

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Feel My Bicep

FMB MIXTAPE 102 | ANTONI MAIOVVI

FMB MIXTAPE 102 | ANTONI MAIOVVI (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 102 | ANTONI MAIOVVI (320 DOWNLOAD)

FMB MIXTAPE 102 | ANTONI MAIOVVI (MIXCLOUD)

This week, we’ve invited the producer/DJ/composer/label-owner Antoni Maiovvi to take the reigns for the 102nd episode of our mixtape series. As usual, we asked a bit about the mix & what he’s been up to lately…

I’ve just had a 12” and an album released for my collaborative project Acid Vatican with Gianni Vercetti, who I also run Giallo Disco Records with. Last year after SXSW I composed the score for Can Evrenol’s film ‘Housewife’ whilst in New York so I have been attending the film festival screenings. Continuing Giallo Disco and Royal Athlete Records and trying to save Driftmusic from the ashes. Making cocktails by the beach in The Hague and looking at animals who I call “Buddies”. So if I say “Hey! Look at that fluffy buddy!” 90% of the time I’ve just seen a fluffy dog. The other 10% we’re most likely being… intimate.

Like most of my mix tapes these days, this was assembled (rather than recorded) from my own vinyl rip archive. Quite a lot of my records have increased in value over the years, especially from my own label, so I decided to rip them and start playing digitally. Though I sometimes miss the tactile pleasure of playing vinyl, my back thanks me though as I’m getting old now.

I’m trying to find a little trip to take you on and keep things eclectic. I have no idea if I actually achieved that. 

Tracklist is here:

Makeup & Vanity Set – Arpa

Beck Nash Reyenga – Metaclaw (Gordon Pohl Remix)

Lost Years – Pressure

Job Sifre – Zodiak

Cut Hands – Damballah 58

Consolidated – Brutal Equation (12” Mix)

Timothy J Fairplay – Pure Hex

Ortrotasce – Eye Movements

Knickknack – Freudlos (M.W. Cut)

Human Performance Lab – Venal

Legowelt – Evaporate With Me 2 Infinity

Don Chrelli – Caramel (Pin Up Club Remix)

TV. Out – Moon

Cardopusher – Blast Cut

Holiday Inn – Feel Free (feat. D.a.P)

As a final note, I almost took Tim Fairplay’s track out, (I made this mix on the 10th of May) because it’s been picked up by Sven Vath and that EP is going to be heard everywhere all summer (if it hasn’t already, when is this coming out? July? Old news mate…) it is however a total banger and it’s so cool for Tim to be finally recognised as the amazing producer he is and always has been.

Up next…

I have a 12” for Omnidisc coming out of quite heavy stuff. There’s a new project in the works to be released, but who knows when exactly. My collaborative project with Bristolian Prog-Rock group ANTA is finished awaiting release. Homoagent, my collaborative industrial techno project has their 2nd 12” coming out soon on Instruments Of Discipline. I’m working on another movie soundtrack currently the details of which I can’t talk about just yet. Keep on producing, keep on touring, more film festivals, more label stuff. Keep on keeping on, I can’t really do anything else at this point I don’t think.

Posted in FMB MIXTAPE SERIES | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

FMB MIXTAPE 101 | NEW JACKSON

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Feel My Bicep

FMB MIXTAPE 101 | NEW JACKSON

FMB MIXTAPE 101 | NEW JACKSON (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 101 | NEW JACKSON (320 DOWNLOAD)

FMB MIXTAPE 101 | NEW JACKSON (MIXCLOUD)

This week, we invited Dublin based producer New Jackson, aka David Kitt, to take the reigns for mixtape number 101. With releases on All City, Permanant Vacation and Major Problems to name a few, we’ve been looking forward to getting our ears around this. First up, we asked a bit about the mix & what he’s been up to recently:

I’ve been busy with non New Jackson pay the bills work and I just finished a double e.p. for Major Problems with Lumigraph. We’re called Garies and it’s our first release. Very excited about that coming out in September. We’ve been working on our debut album as well as a live show, which we performed for the first time last month on a small island called Inis Oirr off the west coast of Ireland. I’ve just finished another New Jackson e.p. for Perm Vac which is out soon hopefully. 

The mix was recorded on two 1210s and two XDJ 1000s, a DJR 400 mixer with a send and return to a Meris Polymoon going into an OTO BAM reverb for a wee bit of dubbing up. I just made the move to USB and this is my first mix using the XDJ’s so I’m still getting the hang of them. I recorded it into Pro Tools, one take with a medicinal beer or two. 

When I used to make actual mixtapes they generally had two arcs; the keep building and building and maybe have a ballad or hip hop tune or something at the end to round it off and then the slow build and slowly back down to where you started. This one is more the latter, normally better suited to a C90 cassette but I think I just about got there in 60 minutes. I have a habit of bookending mixes with a sound or artist or label and this is one of those. I wanted to make something I thought Andy and Matt would dig too obviously and keep it loose which it most certainly is!

Up next…

Working on a new New Jackson live show which I’m debuting at Closer in Kiev in a few weeks and getting back to the second New Jackson album which will out next year on All City. I’m also taking part in the PEOPLE event at the Funkhaus in Berlin in August. Hopefully some time off too at some point. Badly need a break!

Posted in FMB MIXTAPE SERIES | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

FMB MIXTAPE 100 | JG WILKES (OPTIMO)

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Feel My Bicep

FMB MIXTAPE 100 | JG WILKES (OPTIMO) 

FMB MIXTAPE 100 | JG WILKES (OPTIMO) (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 100 | JG WILKES (OPTIMO) (320 DOWNLOAD)

FMB MIXTAPE 100 | JG WILKES (OPTIMO) (MIXCLOUD)

It’s with great pleasure that we have one of our all time favourite selectors and good friend Jonnie Wilkes (one half of Optimo) step up to take number 100 in our podcast series. Jonnie (alongside Keith and Optimo as a whole) was one of our first real inspirations for the blog and FMB in general. Whilst we got a good introduction to techno and IDM in Belfast when we were kids, it was really only when we started getting the train up to Glasgow whilst at uni that we really had our eyes opened to a proper broad club experience and the stitching together of genres we’d never expect. We remember the excitement of some of the insane, adventurous transitions and just feeling we were watching real djing for the first time. Jonnie, as a fellow Belfast lad felt like a very obvious choice for the ole ton’ milestone. As always we caught up with him below to find out a bit more about what he’s been up to and the idea behind the mix:

I have been pretty flat out with our gig schedule and just had a baby girl, Jezebel Mary with my partner Esther so I’m mucking in, looking after her and the other children too of course. I get a few hours here and there at the studio when I can manage it and I’m obsessively restoring our old house which was previously used as offices back to a home. There’s plenty of general work that goes along with running Optimo of course with Keith that keeps us busy and we just opened a small coffee shop and bar called Bananamoon in Glasgow with a couple of friends. So aye, getting that off the ground as well which is fun. Never a dull moment. Thinking about swimming lessons, I always wanted to swim really well or even like those older swimmers at the baths who can do lengths all day, up and down the pool with hardly a ripple. My technique is a mile out. I look like I’m having a fit.

I have a small office / studio at home too where I can do mixes and rough out studio ideas so I put the mix together there over a few nights once the kids were in bed. It’s recorded off turntables and a CDJ through my old Rane 2016 Rotary Mixer then into a couple of tracks in Protools. This way, once it’s in, I can balance levels a bit better, EQ if it’s needed and chop bits out if I want to. The track selections, the running order, arrangement, tempo range and changes is something I’ll give a good bit of thought too prior to recording but really once I’m up and running with the mix, the tracks go in how they go in and that’s that – I don’t change it. On a mix like this which isn’t too tightly concept or theme based, it’s a way of getting some “DJ-ing energy” and surprise into something recorded at home and not in a club. Sometimes the quite hasty moves, ill-thought out mixes, quick cuts, brainwaves even, or insane digressions are the best bits. 

With the Bicep 100 Mix I pulled out a load of tracks that I thought Matt and Andy would maybe relate to somehow, on some level – old stuff and new stuff. I pulled tracks I thought would give the mix a sound that I would bring to a DJ set say if I was playing along with the Bicep lads – something we’ve done a few times. That’s as close as I got to making a plan… maybe I was thinking “What does Bicep say to me? Listen to this, it’s my way of describing something about them and something about me and putting it in one place”.

When Simon asked me to do the 100th Podcast I didn’t bother looking at the series online to see who’s on there and what kind of mixes the other artists had done. Don’t really care. There’s nothing particularly rare or difficult on the mix but I hope it conveys my energy and enthusiasm for DJ-ing and talks a little to Matt and Andy about any common ground we might share. Speaking of which – it ends with Orbital’s “Belfast” as I know we all share a great fondest for the place. This track seemed very relevant somehow.

Up next…

See Question above :-) And festivals, loads of festivals… After the summer we’re doing our first Optimo Tour in India which I’m really excited about. Maybe those swimming lessons too.

Posted in FMB MIXTAPE SERIES | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

FMB MIXTAPE 99 | DUNCAN MACDONALD

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Feel My Bicep

FMB MIXTAPE 99 | DUNCAN MACDONALD 

FMB MIXTAPE 99 | DUNCAN MACDONALD (iTUNES)

FMB MIXTAPE 99 | DUNCAN MACDONALD (320 DOWNLOAD)

FMB MIXTAPE 99 | DUNCAN MACDONALD (MIXCLOUD)

This week’s mix comes from Duncan MacDonald, resident of The Villa in Oslo. As usual, we asked a bit about the mix and what he’s been up to lately.

So recently I’ve just been trying to get as many tunes made as possible and running a night at The Villa Oslo, also trying to play as many gigs as I can!

The mix was recorded in the basement at Jaeger here in Oslo on 2 technics and 2 cdjs. Massive thanks to Jaeger for giving me the opportunity to record down there!

It started of with me just trying to get some spotlight on my original tunes but it warped into something a bit more reflective, in particular relation to a night in November last year, and I’d like to dedicated this mix to Henry McDermott and the McDermott family in Roscommon.

Up next…

Next up I’m warming up for Fiedel at the Villa here in Oslo on June 29, before heading to Berlin where I’ll be playing at Golden Gate on July 13 then to Somewhere In The Distance festival on the 15th!

Posted in FMB MIXTAPE SERIES | Tagged , , | Leave a comment