Ministry of Sound Blog

Today’s Anthem is one that virtually everybody has a fair few great club memories from hearing. I know I do! It’s just one of those tunes that gets you every time with the mix of pounding techno and “group hug” emotional bits. There was some stiff competition in the office to claim this one, but Jim from TV got in there first…

Jim Worsley – Motion Graphics Designer, MoS TV

Anthem: Underworld – Born Slippy

First heard it? The first time I heard this track was when I was a teenager and my sister brought the single home on tape and played it to me and I couldn’t get over it. Even better, the track mentions Romford, which is near to where I live, so it had an element of relating to a place close to home.

Club Memories? I can remember heading down to one of the first Homelands festivals with a group of mates and hearing it as I was stood in a field with thousands of people.
Who it reminds him of? My mates Richard, Duncan and Jerry from Essex who were with me when I heard it at Homelands.

Buy Ministry of Sound Anthems 1991-2008 3xCD set

Another absolute classic for you from the Anthems 1991-2008 CD. This one used a clever sample of an earlier anthem in the shape of Street Player by Chicago and has been an enduring dancefloor weapon for all house DJs ever since…

Tom Kihl - Managing Editor, Ministryofsound.com

Anthem: Kenny Dope presents The Bucketheads - The Bomb

First heard it? It was massive when the Mud Club had become a weekly party at Bagleys (now Canvas) in Kings’ Cross. The intro is so long you could probably fit in a trip to the bar while the tension was building up, but when it kicked in, it was a dancefloor devastator!

Club memories? We went to Bagleys most Saturday’s at that time as it had five rooms and was probably the biggest weekly event in London and it was right on our doorsteps. The Bomb defines a ‘main room anthem’ of that time. The whole club was usually packed even though it was huge and they kept people coming back by completely changing the theme regularly. One I remember was ‘Coronation Street’. The whole place looked like a row of terraced houses and there were people dressed as housewives up on podiums doing the hoovering, with washing lines of clothes hung up above the dancefloor. Odd, but good.

Who it reminds you of? I was clubbing with an extended group made up of old school friends (we had all recently converted to the joys of house music events after years of moody hip hop), plus some more flamboyant characters I worked with who soon got me into techno.

To celebrate the release of Ministry of Sound’s Anthems 1991-2008 CD this week, I’ve been going around the office asking people which of the tracks from the truly epic 3 CD compilation is their all-time biggest tune and why.

It’s got to be a track that reminds them of a special moment in their personal clubbing history, the friends they went wild to it with and the club or place in the world it takes them right back to.

We’ll be running this for the next couple of weeks and I’ve already found it really interesting to hear little snippets of my colleagues raving history(!), so look out for more posts coming up and feel free to add your own anthem memories too…

strong>Dave Vega – Producer, Ministry of Sound Radio

Anthem: X-Press 2 – Lazy

First heard it? When Mr C played it on his Kiss radio show. It was the first time a lot of people heard it.

Club memories? I remember going to this massive house party and hearing it played there, so I made it my first job on Monday morning to go out into Soho to find a promo copy. Once I had this I would play it at least three or four times in a set! I’m a massive fan of Ashley Beedle hence I like it so much and even now when I hear it, it’s just one of those tracks which brings back great memories.

Mates it reminds you of? I can recall one time I played it here at Ministry on a Wednesday night and I was there with Supermen, Andres and Aiesha who work on the bar and we were all having a great time.

The diva duo Booty Luv’s debut album, Boogie 2Nite has now gone silver, with sales surging over the 60,000 mark! This sets the seal on their massive success and confirms the duo’s reputation as one of the UK’s hottest dance/pop acts.

All of their singles, Boogie 2Nite,Shine, and Don’t Mess WIth My Man have been monster smashes in the pop and dance charts alike. But Cherise and Nadia, (who supply the vocals and visuals, along with plenty of Luv and some Booty), aren’t stopping there…

They’ve just finished an exciting video-shoot for their fourth single Some Kinda Rush. The final edits to the video are nearing completion, we’ve seen them here in the office and I can tell you the video is going to be wicked.

The eagerly-awaited sure-fire hit will be released later this month, so keep an eye out for it. Booty Luv have been busy cementing their reputation as one of the most exciting new acts around right now - did you see their takeover show on TMF recently?

We can’t wait to see the new single one roar up the charts, just like all their others have done!

There are plenty of remix competitions out there, but this is a particularly tasty one as both the track in question and the reward for winning are proper premier league stuff.

The Nightcrawlers Push The Feeling On is an absolute classic that first came out back in 1995 (and reached number 4 in the charts!) It’s been a staple of hands-in-the-airdom ever since and is now up for a timely return on our very own Data Records.

Our good friends over at DJdownload are offering aspiring producers the chance to remix it, and the winning mix will feature on Data’s upcoming digital release of the tune. A wicked chance to for some new studio talent to shine!

So download the remix parts (they come with the Belocca Cheeky Bootleg Mix for £3), and show us what you’ve got.

There’s more info/submission details on DJdownload, but I imagine anyone who knows this great tune is already going to be working out what they can do with it – they don’t need to know much more that that!

Sasha is notorious for taking his time producing tracks - his Airdrawndagger LP took years to finally surface, but when it did the reception was hugely enthusiastic. Now he’s back with his first release since then (a mere 5 years ago!) so there is plenty of excitement once more.

And Coma doesn’t dissapoint, being a suitably epic number that reminds us of his classic moments as a DJ, holding vast arenas in the palm of his hand with lush, atmospheric textures of sound.

Like busses, new Sasha tracks seem to take ages to arrive and then 3 come at once, and so it is now, as Coma is merely the first in a series that will see Put It In The Shade and Sparky come out in consecutive months.

Sasha’s been working with his favourite studio partners again (Charlies May, Duncan Forbes and Barry Jamieson) using the name Coma as a collective too, plus he’s started emFire, a label exclusively for his own music.

It sounds like he’s well and truly caught the studio bug again which is good news for his vast global fanbase. It really is impressive how he has managed to stay on top of his game for so long, still able to command the biggest crowds at the mere mention of his name.

He’s also going to be returning to play at the Ministry of Sound on December 15th for the first time in 10 years, guaranteeing a complete roadblock out the front of here. (Get advanced tickets here). We’re going to grab him for an interview around then too, so let us know if there are any particular quesations you’d like us to ask him…

Yes it’s here! The CD you’ve all been waiting for, the soundtrack to the dance-music year is released today (Monday 29th October).

This is a triple-CD packed to bursting point with the most massive tunes of 2007, and we’ve had some real crackers this year as you know!

Highlights include Booty Luv’s soulful anthems Some Kinda Rush, Don’t Mess With My Man, and Shine. Then there’s Get Down by Groove Amada with Stush’s amazing rap, Samim’s eccentric accordion-fired smash Heater, Roachford’s epic vocal bomb Ride the Storm, Mark Ronson getting the rave treatment on Stop Me and Robyn’s stellar UK number 1 With Every Heartbeat.

The third CD in this compliation package is an absolutely brilliant snapshot of the DJ mash-up craze that couples two tunes in a steamy studio tryst. Put together by the Cut Up Boys, they cheekily juxtapose current club anthems with dance classics from the past to create some truly amazing sounds.

With this hit-heavy party starter in your hands you’ll have all the biggest dance tunes of the moment. Get ready for take off - this is musical rocket fuel that’s igniting the dancefloors of the world!!

Buy the 3 x CD set of The Annual 2008

Download The Annual 2008 direct to your computer

Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay has mixed the 2nd of Harmless Recording’s new Watch The Ride series, which came out yesterday. And to promote the mix he’s giving away a free mp3 by his alternative band, Sugardaddy, the previously unreleased Chasing My Tail – download it here free now!

The new mix LP also includes tracks from Lindstrom, Claude Von Stroke, Greenskeepers and Kaos, as well as more from Sugardaddy, and remixes by The Glimmers, Joakim, Magik J and Riton, all adding up to a very tasty mix proposition.

Then next week the master of all forms of breakbeat, Zinc, is hot on Tom’s heels with the 3rd instalment of the Watch The Ride series, bringing a d&b, breaks and dubstep mix that should reflect his versatile sound as both a producer and a DJ. It’s reportedly packed with exclusives too, so sure to be hunted down by fans of the Bingo Beats head honcho.

With hip hop dons The Scratch Perverts behind the series debut, Harmless are really creating an exciting collection of sounds here, so we’ll be keeping an eye on who’s next…

Hey, big news for our team on Data Records this morning is that our new single has reached number 5 in the UK chart this week! Hot on the heels of winning an Ibiza DJ Award for Best Breakthrough, Fedde Le Grand’s massive new track with hot vocalist Ida Corr, Let Me Think About It, sees him notch up another major success.

The track made history last week, by reaching number 64 on the official chart from downloads by mobile phone alone! It’s mad to think that phones are becoming so important for getting songs into ther charts, but I suppose this is only the beginning. It’s really exciting.

Well done to Fedde and everyone behind the tune for making it such a smash!!

Not content with being the most talked about record of the summer, Samim’s massive Heater has already conquered Ibiza and been signed to Data Records for a big UK release which should see the already massive tune set the charts aflame this Autumn.

And now it’s been given its own blog, well sort of. The blog charts the current progress of two video directors (Bobbi and Fubbi) as they travel across nine major cities, from Berlin to Tokyo, in a quest to film the accompanying music video. And yes, the accordian will be flying with them.

The concept for the video is simple: unearth the locals - the weirder the better - and get them in front of the camera shaking their stuff to the irresistable riff that’s been destroying dancefloors across the board.

It looks like Heater’s campaign for world domination continues…

The single will be available to download on October 22nd, and is in record shops the following week.