Ministry of Sound Blog

Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay aren’t exactly two names on the tips of everyone’s tongues but chances are their presence on people’s iPod playlists will be increasing sooner rather than later.

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After growing weary of festival déjà vu ravers are seeking shows and events outside of Blighty and turning the whole thing into a jolly holiday while they’re at it, according to one guru.

Ross Purdie, editor of Virtual Festivals, claims veterans have had their fill as far as home-based shows and are travelling further afield for something different and a holiday at the same time.

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With Jay Z’s presence at Glastonbury ruffling a few rock ‘n’ roll and folk feathers, Dizzee Rascal has risked the ire of said group by claiming Glastonbury should get with the times and pencil in more ‘urban’ acts.

The Boy in Da Corner reckons the Jigga man’s set should be the beginning of a new era in the festival’s somewhat predictable mantra and to get on board with where music is going.

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Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands, aka the Chemical Brothers, those veteran Block Rockin’ Beat makers, are taking a trip back to the old skool and returning to Space, the Ibiza nightspot where they last played 14 years ago.

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The term product of my environment was hijacked and brutalised for many when hip-hopper Jim Jones took the title and slapped it on an album that epitomised the downfall of US hip-hop.

However it seems it would be a fitting name for the new Nitin Sawnhey album, which will be his eighth offering and will drop in mid-October and feature collaborations with Natty, Ojos de Bruja and more.

In an interview with Data Transmission, the man who seems to effortlessly mix Asian influences with drum n bass and jazz sounds reveals the driving force behind his latest work, entitled London Undersound, is the product of a profound change in consciousness that has swept the capital.

He believes the terrorist attacks on July 7th 2005 and the tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell tube station have transformed London.

"London’s heartbeat has changed. Within that heartbeat there lies a feeling, a collective consciousness, the uniting hum of disparate voices wanting to be heard … this is an album of collaboration …. to capture the London I know," he told the website.

Inspirational words for what will hopefully be an inspirational collection of music.

In terms of originality very few people in the music biz can touch Mr Scruff’s blend of broken beats, jazzy loops and fishy samples thrown in a melting pot of hip-hop, reggae and soul-derived influences.

So it’s no real surprise that at one of the scruffy one’s gigs revellers who are partial to an alcoholic drink can lay their hands on a good old cup of English tea.

Not the usual fare admittedly, but typical of someone who has brought new meaning to the word unique.

Speaking to the Independent the man behind Keep it Unreal and Trouser Jazz reveals his love of a good cuppa cha and that he’s actually quite good at it.

When asked what he was good at, he said: "Making records and making good tea." He then revealed he is the proud owner of his own tea company and has a tea tent at his gigs just in case anybody else is as partial to a brew as he is.

The tea may not be of great interest to everybody but the news that he is working on a new album after a three-year hiatus will please many.

He also went on to reveal how he got in the business in the first place, saying the most surprising thing to happen to him was: "Getting asked to make a record for the first time in 1994, after a mate sent a demo to a label."

Bedroom DJs can turn their passion for spinning tunes into a money spinner if they mix the above ingredients together.

That’s according to Phatboy Tim, who after many years of toil has landed himself a residency as well as spots in different venues across the West Midlands.

In an interview with the Independent Tim breaks it down for wannabe club stars on what they need to do to turn a hobby into a money-spinning career.

Numero uno on Phatty’s list is probably the easiest - love the music you play: “You need to be passionate about music, and experience of club culture helps.”

He added one couldn’t be picky about the tunes you play, as somewhere along the journey to being the next big thing you’ll have to play some cheese along the way.

Following on from that is to get experience wherever possible, even if that includes a cousin’s wedding or somebody’s birthday party - which is probably where the cheese will come in.

“You need to be prepared to cover a wide range of styles. When you get established, then you can specialise,” he told the newspaper.

Spreading the word is another key point so networking with other DJs as well as promoters will let the music world know you exist and Tim advises fresh fish to work as a roadie for someone with proper experience, to learn the ropes as it were.

For those who want to go about it in a more formal stylee you can always attend a DJ school and pay for the privilege.

As if Tiesto wasn’t big enough the people at Ibiza’s Privilege club have gone and thrown in the Electrik Playground to host room two, or La Vaca for those in the know, to partner the Dutch destroyer throughout the summer.

The Leeds-based underground club night will make its debut on the Spanish island on July 7th and join Tiesto’s In Search of Sunrise events which are whopping nights in their own right.

In an interview with Ibiza-spotlight.com, residents and Galaxy FM hosts Riley and Durrant said their sound won’t step on the techno king’s toes at the world’s biggest nightclub, which can pack in 10,000 people at any one time.

“We’ll be bringing more of a deeper, more funked-up sound to the Music Box … We’re going to make the Electrik Playground somewhere to slip off to at 3am for a really wide-range of electronic music - from the deep dark down and dirty to bleeps blips and basslines,” Durrant told the site.

Providing this banquet of choons will be Kate Lawler, Nick ‘Bodyrox’ Bridges, Hauswerks and D and G among others.

With all the hoo-ha surrounding Jay-Z ’s appearance as the headline act at that annual mud-fest we call Glastonbury anybody could be forgiven for thinking it’s not worth turning up.

However, whether Jay-Z gets booed by the traditionally indie-loving crowd is not the concern of dance-heads because the people who lined up the acts for the Dance Village definitely knew what they were doing. Read the rest of this entry »

If people ever needed an excuse to dance then mobile phone company Orange seem to have come up with a pretty good one.

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