Onto the tunes, and there’s been a crapload of tunes doing it for me. Enjoying the chance to dj a little bit more of late. Too many to categorise or rank, here’s just a few favourites.

Brackles and Shortstuff’s ‘Blunted Robots’ label is always worthy of a listen, and I really like Dj Dom’s recent EP for them. Deep but bouncy UK Funky.

Sticking in the UK, and LuckyMe have another big tune in the form of Jacques Greene’s ‘Another Girl’. The original is a big, rnb based record, but my favourite from the release is Mark Flash UR’s Detroit based reworking of ‘The Look’

One more Uk based, RnB influenced tune, this time coming from Deadboy who’s been mining the rnb and uk bass sound for sometime, this time coming with an uplifting bassline which will no doubt sound massive at the various festivals over the northern summer.

Moving into more traditional house and techno territory, and Move D is on his usual fine form, recently remixing leif in a very laid back deep style with some lovely jazzy touches.

His EP from a few months back is also essential deep listening, I can’t get enough of ‘Your Personal Healer’ – lush piano chords, muted vocals and snips of acid.

Also dusting off the piano keys is Reggie Dokes. I really like his new EP on Clones’ excellent ‘Royal Oak’ sub label. ‘Haiti’ brings spritely keys and a great remix from promising new producers ‘Morning Factory’ who are named after my favourite Ron Trent track, which is a cool thing to take a name from.

Time to Express is a must check label for me since Dozzy and Cio D’ors hypnotising ‘Menta’, and their compilation has yielded some new gems including new (to me) tracks from Dozzy and Van Hoesen.

Sascha Rydell comes through with some deep heaviness on the equally awesome Fachwerk label.

Perc is another consistently strong producer, his great new track on his label features (amazingly) a remix from Chris Carter of throbbing gristle. That’s not on youtube though, so check out the equally smashing Ancient Methods mix;

Finally, Andy Stott emerges again on Modern Love with some amazing music. I really like this release, each track has something unique to it, and most of it is slowed, skewed, and dark. Great stuff.

Related posts:

1. New records
2. Mixes I’m digging
3. Beautiful Swimmers & Future Times

Kicking off in house territories, little white earbuds has an interesting interview and mix from Tin Man. I’d heard a little of Tin Man’s stuff, being aware of him from the start of Tama Sumo’s Panorama Bar Cd from a few years back. He has an interesting production style, and this is an enjoyable wee mix. Check it out.
Tin Man-LWE78

Moving into somewhat heavier realms, new producer Blawan has been making some waves. Recommended by Mick, I’m digging on this one.
FACT Mix 230 – Blawan (Mar ’11) by factmag

The labyrinth aside, the best gig I went to in Japan last year was Kode 9 and Martyn. I was looking forward more to Martyn’s set but was surprised by how much I enjoyed Kode 9′s mix of dubstep, grime, and loads of Uk funky, all mixed up in between blasts on the vuvuzela (it was during the world cup). He recently did the essential mix, your enjoyment of which probably will correlate with your enjoyment of uk funky. I quite like it.
Kode 9 Essential Mix

Finally, a couple of things from further leftfield. I like eclectic mixes, they’re a great way to discover new artists you may not normally check.

Don’t know much about Roll The Dice, but here’s an interesting eclectic mix I found – the tracklisting should give you some idea of whether it’ll be your cup of tea or not.
This Is How We Roll by Roll the Dice

Blackest Ever Black venture into the darkness with their mix “she died with her eyes open”. It’s dark and different, and as we move into autumn I look forward to more from them.
She Died With Her Eyes Open

Related posts:

1. New records
2. A jazz mix!
3. Function @ About Blank

Jazz is one of my favourite musical genres but I don’t post a lot about it on here. Jazz has such a long history and such a large amount of writing has been done on it, it feels a bit intimidating for me to talk about it. No such qualms about playing it though, and a few weeks ago I finally took advantage of the recording setup at my new home to pull out some of my favourites for a mix which has been up on my soundcloud and now here.

Wednesday Jazz by Bn1

As you’ll hear, my taste in Jazz is reasonably broad and generally stays on the more melodic, structured side of things. This mix actually starts off with some ghana funk and instrumental hiphop before things finally hit the Jazz side about 30 minutes in, with ‘Oregon’ a b-side from Cinematic Orchestra which has always been a favourite of mine. Further absolute favourites from David Axelrod, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and Donald Byrd follow. The final section heads off to south america, with some samba and bossa nova. Tito Puente who I’m a big fan of features, as well as Brazilian weirdos Os Mutantes. Lonnie Liston Smith finishes up with a Jazz funk message of peace.

Hopefully I’ll delve back into my collection again, possibly with some dub and reggae next time.

Related posts:

1. Laneway and Splore City Highlights
2. New records
3. LCD Muppetsystem

Some musical enthusiasms of recent times:

This summer has been the summer of Dam Funk!

Untold brings yet another piece of awesome:

Beautiful work as usual from wax (who apparently has now pretty much been revealed to be shed):

Listening to James Blake really loud is a necessary pleasure but I think it made me hurt my neck:

Joy Orbison, best name twisting since Jichael Mackson, and some great music too!:

Lil Silva – ‘Different’ – its heavy!:

Michel Cleis – ‘Dark Glasses’ – lots of drums happening:

I’m pretty much consistently excited about music and I really miss mixing records

And that’s all for today.

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I generally can’t stand Elton John but I am also naturally a big fan of this song.

Benny And The Jets (Mike Simonetti’s dub version)

Found on the Italians Do It Better blog

Been a bit slack on the posting here – I’ve been trying to learn Japanese, and it is hard work. I have sorted out temporary use of a turntable for my apartment which could be dangerous! Last vinyl purchases were some Jus-Ed, the mental new Ame innervisions, and a promo copy I found of Simon Flower’s ‘Phosphenes’ because Simon is ace and deserves the support (not that me picking up a cheap promo is going to help him out but anyway).

The summer is well underway and that (for me) means reggae and fun house records, hopefully my next update will contain some of those.

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A lot can change in 2 years!  At the start of 2007, I was living in an old house near a vaguely dodgy part of Auckland’s CBD.  The BMP was an as yet unacquainted and unincorporated group of disparate figures who had not yet discovered a mutual enjoyment for the triplicate vices of Beer, MUSIC, and Pizza.  My friend Mike, (aka Mick ‘the kid’) was living in Mt Albert near what I personally consider one of Auckland’s best cafes, so most weekends would see me grabbing a pile of records and heading out to his flat to piss about mixing records (usually two for two), drinking beer and eating pizza (notice a pattern?).

Pop’n'tuck emerged from around that time and is one of the rare occasions where one (or both) of us didn’t fuck up the mix too badly.  We were both happy with the mix and it garnered some pretty positive comments so we’ve brought it back to give it a good home as a stinkfinger podcast.

The tracks themselves are kinda reflective of the times, with nothing that has dated too badly (yet) in my opinion, and a nice mix of minimal with housier influenced tracks.  Mick kicks the mix off smoothly with ‘Born Again’ hitting into some Jazzanova touched percussion.  The euro influence continues with some early Mountain People and Matthias Kaden works, followed by a triple hit of fairly minimal business from Guido Schneider, M.I.A, and Alejandro Vivanco.  Milton Jackson leads into possibly my favourite track on the mix, Jennifer Cardini and Shonky’s heavy and deep ‘lies’.  Things take a housier turn, and I don’t apologise for the inclusion of Dj Fame’s ‘Name it X’, it is a fun track!   Mick keeps it funky with Dj Sneak and Jesse Rose tracks, before Basic Channel’s ur-minimal classic ‘phylyps track II’ rounds things out.

Time passed by, the BMP formed, stink-finger was created, Mick now lives in London, and I moved to Japan, but I think this mix is still a good reflection of where our musical attitudes continue to lie – house and techno. 
Enjoy.

Tracklist:

1. Ricky L feat M:ck – Born Again
2. Outlines – Listen to the drums (Jazzanova Remix)
3. Serafin – Berlin Has No Cows
4. Hemmann and Kaden – People
5. Guido Schnieder – Transmission
6. M.I.A – Happy
7. Alejandro Vivanco – Fugazz
8. Milton Jackson – Rogue Element (Milton’s Dream remix)
9. Jennifer Cardini & Shonky – Lies
10. Slope – Runnin’
11. Dj Fame – Name It X
12. Iz and Diz – Mouth (Greenskeepers remix)
13. DJ Sneak – How I Feel
14. 2020 Soundsystem – Can’t Stop the Crew (Jesse Rose Dub)
15. Basic Channel – Phylps Track II
16. Steve Bug – Loverboy (Guido Schneider remix)

Download link (right click, save as):  http://www.stink-finger.com/audio/popntuckBN1Micarl060107.mp3
Duration: 1:20:55
Size: 74Mb

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So Benny has left us, again, for Kobe,  Japan this time.
It seems that the lure of beef is just tooo much for him.

We will miss our Benny and his excellent stories, his ability to knock over beers, hit long shots at rubbish basketball and his great taste in music.

A massive loss for the bmp, our tallest, youngest and funniest member has flown the coop!

edit/ sorry folks. I know i wasn’t the only one that picture was giving an ill feeling in the stomach to. Seeing it everytime i looked at S-F was too much to bare. Those were rough and fragile times. Now we can watch Nick eat a sausage instead..Mick

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As I mentioned before Johnny D and Guido Schneider were to play, and I was pretty excited about the night. Daniel and I warmed up with some (actually pretty decent) burgers and wandered into the flashing lights and general chaos of Shibuya. Like many parts of Tokyo I was surprised how that by wandering just a few blocks back from the main areas that are teeming with people you can find very quiet residential areas. The interesting parts of Shibuya all seem to be down tiny side streets and winding alleyways – I have been there during the day before and discovered some good record stores. At night all the bars take precedence – ranging from large and crowded theme bars full of gaijin, through to tiny standing bars with a majority of Japanese patrons.

Daniel and I are more keen for the latter than the former, so a couple of hours pass in the memorably named ’2 sweet ass’ bar, a tiny standing bar that feels kind of like drinking in a cave (albiet a cave stocked with many interesting and delicious beverages). We met an interesting selection of Japanese people, unfortunately my role in much of the conversation is mostly limited to nodding and smiling. 1am rolls around and we are still in the bar playing Jenga with some girls – as fun as this is it is time to go. I lose the game, down a tequila shot as penance, and we head out to womb.

The club itself is an unobtrusive 3 or 4 story building – the only giveaway to its possible function is the fact it has no windows (and tonight, the queue stretching over the road and into a neighbouring carpark). In the queue the first indication that tonight won’t be all that I had hoped – a sign informs that Johnny D is not playing (for personal reasons). Damn! I am disappointed but hope nothing major is wrong with Johnny. Inside, things remind me a little of fabric – it is crowded, with a few different areas to check out – a smaller bar area near the entrance, then the massive main room and a staircase leading up to different levels that overlook the main floor.

As you can see – the main area is fairly impressive and after gathering some drinks we head in to check out Glimpse.. I didn’t know much about Glimpse beforehand and didn’t really garner much from his set (Discogs tells me it is 2 people but looked like only one made the trip). Fairly run of the mill minimal/tech house business – I jumped along but couldn’t say it was anything other than mundane. The lighting rig (which raises and lowers throughout the night)/lasers/and projections at Womb are great though, and it was enjoyable enough.

Guido jumped on but I struggled to find the bouncy groove in his set that is often present in his productions – I trainspotted a Johnny D track early on, and some pitched down m_nus vocal work, but somehow, something was missing from his set for me, and by 4am I was ready to head home.

Overall a somewhat disappointing night – I enjoyed Womb and will check it again but I think I will make more of an effort to find smaller clubs with a more eclectic music selection in future. It was expensive (by nz standards) as well – so not expecting to do much more clubbing here until the mighty Moritz Von Oswald (with Vadislav Delay) plays in a few weeks. Already looking forward to that one.

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Just to keep things poppin along here is what I wrote about last Sunday with a few amendments.

We missed Cassy Got there in time for last hour of luciano in the sun – lots of ‘his’ set records, freaks come out, god made me funky, the thrill me thing he played at Fabric (which I missed) again. Maybe 1000 people getting into it. Wink played next but about 20 min in massive rain came down and everyone hid under umbrellas apart from mentallists up the front. I didn’t really get into it, seemed like the wrong kind of music for that part of the day.. The sun came back out and he started playing vocal samples of the blaze ‘lovelee dae’ tune.. Then Matthew Dear’s big band played, I am ashamed to say I actually skipped out on this and checked out Karotte who Matt said was like Germany’s Sam Hill, but for whatever reason I had a lot of fun for his set. Came back outside and Hawtin was playing, he was a bit better than in Detroit, by this point had met up w/ simon and all his mates so there were a lot of us having fun.. Couldn’t tell you any of the records he played apart from finishing his set with re-edit of Michael Jacksons’ ‘Don’t stop till you get enough’ and ‘billie jean’..
Things started to get pretty confusing by now, the main area shut down after Hawtin and we all moved inside to see Guido Schneider and Steve Bug.. But it looked like Bug didn’t play and Josh Wink played again! Much more housey this time, with Marshall Jefferson -’move your body’ (crucial ‘key tech’ track paul!) and Dave Clark (i think it was red 2??) coming through!.. Then Loco Dice who seemed to be playing btb with Luciano(!) although i was somewhere else by this point and couldn’t say for sure what was happening.

About 3.30 things hit a complete wall with the twin Bore-o-thons of Heartthrob live and troy pierce (Who sounded like being stuck in a satanic washing machine, but less awesome than that description seems). I was done. we’d been there 14 hours by this point. Pacou Osuna in the other room was actually sounding cool but I was finished, Mike had lost his coat, Silke was tired, and Justin was looking for red wine to get him to sleep! so we left. 5 min before leaving we actually found a third room but I didn’t see anything there.

Overall, awesome times, and now I want to come back to Berlin again for longer. Thanks to Simon, Nat, Matt and the friendly adventurers of Berlin.

I am in Tokyo now and have been introduced to a Jamaican resturant that does jerk chicken and has Jamaican dancehall radio live off the net coming through the soundsystem. Haven’t done any musical stuff yet but next weekend Guido Schneider and Johnny D play Womb.. it would be remiss of me not to pop along.

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My name is Benny and at the moment along with my friend Mick I am representing the overseas section of the BMP.

Hopefully in the next few days I will post about our experiences here in Berlin.
I was going to do a big intro post all about myself but it is just us reading at the moment right(?) so maybe there is no point in that yet. Over time my distinct writing style will separate me from the other BMP members anyhow, think PG Wodehouse on crack.. or maybe not.

Today we hit the record shops and second hand stores of east berlin, should be fun. Chuuus!

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