The TO DO list. (In OCD format for your viewing pleasure)

So in true disorganised fashion I decided to have a brainstorm (I am aware this word is now un-pc). I sat in a room today at work away from everyone else on a rare internal lunch break and made this list of things I need to do.

Parts are what I need to do to get others involved but that's a whole different story.

Whilst it was good for getting all these ideas down, it wasn't all that great for productivity in the day job. I hear girls suffer from email fatigue more than guys. I suffer from 'answer/fix/tell me/will you/can you/is it possible to/do/this/that' fatigue.

June 23rd - 11am Flight departs from Heathrow...

(I dont have OCD by the way, maybe a lil... perhaps..)

That Was...11th March 2010 Run down

Just getting round to doing this write up, has been a busy week-ish in the world of brokenhomes.

That Was... took place last Thursday at one of the best styled venues in NW London, The Gallery, Hendon. Location is probably lacking but you cannot fault the interior. Anyway, due to some unfortunate circumstances, Lazy Eye from the Black Vinyl Crew had to pull out. (we with you brother). I called the venue and let them know that I would like to start the event at 8pm. I got the all clear so got everything set.

On reaching the venue, I wrote out the guest list for the evening downstairs whilst having a cup of tea and going through the texts and emails from the week with names.

After all that was done, I popped upstairs to check the system. Technology seems to have something against me at the moment. The left deck had no slip mat and then on further examination, it was only pumping out the left channel. So to remedy this I made both decks play one channel and pumped the volume up. DJ Leisure brought a spare slip mat which was lucky and we sorted out the CD decks whilst no one was in the venue.

As it stared early it stayed empty for a while. My brother, Greedykid/Louis/brokenhomes v2.0 turned up. He wanted to have a quick clang/mix so I decided to let him take over. Turns out that he did the first set up until 9pm. His first ever play out. I stepped up from 9 and luckily as Louis and I were working from the same bag, he didn't play all the A-Sides. From the DJ box I could see the venue slowly filling up. It wasn't going to be a road block affair as I hardly promoted it. It was a Facebook and word of mouth thing only. By the end of my set, just after 10, we had hit maximum which was 60 people. Pretty good for a venue which is normally closed on a Thursday and just a local word of mouth promotion. I was told by the head doorman that a promoter came in and brought 3 people the last week. #epicfail.

Next DJ was Grumpy aka Steve James aka Solo G. He provided the soundtrack up until 11pm. DJ Leisure stepped up after going home to get more CDs! As he was playing CDs, he played last as he was going to be the loudest DJ of the night. After some unplugging and plugging back in we got the CDs working again. I don't know how they stopped working. It was a good plan as by 12 we had some people on the dance floor.

Feedback from the evening was it was a real good get together and people were asking me if I would do another one. I probably would but I think for that venue to be a success, there would have to be a compromise in my music integrity and I'm not sure if I could do that. We shall see, its a big moral question.

Big thanks to everyone who came through.

Brainfeeder March 10th 2010 Run down

As we got into the trilogy of Brainfeeder events, the location had moved from the Hearne Street car park to the old abattoir, Fabric nightclub. The line up (as you can see from the flyer) was pretty nuts. During the week I got an email telling me that the event had been fully sold out and with that they furnished me with the set times.



NOSAJ THING (LIVE)
21.00-21.30
TOKIMONSTA (LIVE)
21.30-22.00
DIMLITE (LIVE)
22.00-22.30
GASLAMP KILLER
22.30-23.15
DAEDELUS (LIVE)
23.15-00.00
FLYING LOTUS (LIVE)
00.00-01.00
J ROCC
01.00-02.00
DORIAN CONCEPT (LIVE)
02.00-02.30
MARTYN B2B KODE 9
02.30-CLOSE

There was a change up in set times as Tokimonsta was up first. We walked into the venue shouting, DRAPPPPPPPESSS and CLEAAAAARRRRRRRR from Tempa T's new track Next Hype. Toki was laying the beats down pretty thick. She grabbed the mic and asked everyone to come closer which was really sweet. Tokimonsta is less animated than the other live beat performers that I have seen but the power was all in the beats. Her set finished and the next live show was coming from Nosaj Thing on the other side of the stage. Now I am aware of this guys work but only through previews from Boomkat so I was pretty interested in hearing this guy get down. We were not disappointed. He moved from banger to banger with the fluid Flying Lotus esq body snap that comes with these type of digtal sludge music. His set was unfortunately interrupted buy a technical failure. Checking out his twitter, looks like his MPD had failed him. It was a brief rest bite and kicks and snares were banging through the meaty Fabric sound system in a matter of seconds. A lot of NEXT HYPESSS and CLEARRRRS were being let off from the BROKENHOMES boys.

Next up was the shy beat smith who goes by the name of Dimlite. He approached his equipment hooded up but not in an aggressive way. More to shield himself from the eyes of the crowd. He picked up headphones which is not normal for anyone from this scene and then sang on his first track. Dimlite's music isnt as hype as some of the other beat makers. The tempo is reduced but the bass... increased! This stuff can make you feel drunk. Its so wooozy but I really got into it. Gaslamp touched mic to heat up the set and Dimlite moved into his final tracks. It was only due to an incorrect button push that Dimlite's set ended. I think he had another few minutes left in him. He shied away from the crowd and thanked us.

Up on the Serato was The Mother Fucking Gas Lamp Killer! We were waiting on this set because he always brings the heat to the dance. We also wondered if he would play Unicron's Toothache and what our reaction would be. It was agreed that some girls would get punched in the face if it came on! He started off with some incidental music to clear our heads and slowly moved into the wobble-fest. I had never seen him so animated, he was running up and down the stage and doing some serious moshing. It was nuts, that energy just transferred into the crowd! He hit us with a VIP version of Chase and Status' Eastern Jam and some tune with Take me higher sample. It was madness. After the wobble fest he brought us into the rock and roll side of the set and then showcased his track with Warp records latest signing, Gonjasufi. He hit us with Cowboys and Indians of the album which is out now. The set came to a close after he went back to playing the beats, probably one of the most memorable DJ sets I will ever see.

Deadalus was ready to start on his custom light box playing all sorts of beats. Now its pretty hard to follow on from The GLK and for us boys it showed. Not that we didn't enjoy it but we knew what we wanted to hear and the constant teasing of tracks and multiple layers was a bit too much for our ears. He did sneak in a little bit of Red and Yellow toys and some other things I noticed but they never got a full play out.

This was all a pre cursor to the main man behind Brainfeeder, The Flying Lotus. Now the last time I saw him, I wasn't that interested. He played a lot of dubstepy stuff that I wasn't feeling and I had that 'play something we know' head on. FlyLo has made some certified classics in this scene. Tea Leaf Dancer, Orbit Brazil and Massage Situation to name but a few. BUT, we had to give him a chance tonight to unleash the new stuff and most of the crowd were here to see him. He didn't disappoint, most of the tunes we didn't know but they all banged. We did hear the faint synth sound of Mono/Polys - Red and Yellow Toys but he didn't let it fly. We just went nuts at the hint of it. He drew for a massage situation edit and everyone raised their hands for that.

Overall it was a great Brainfeeder. We only stayed for 30 mins of J.Rocc's set where he did the whole Sample/Dilla beat that he did when he was over with Madlib.

It would never touch the car park vibes but lets see if they all pop over again in the summer

SHANGOOLI

That Was... @ The Gallery, Hendon 11th March 2010

So the day has arrived and the first event in the Brokenhomes self promotion calender has arrived.

I am nervous/excited about this one tonight because I really want a good turn out so I con potentially do more things there. The venue is overly plush and the management have been really helpful with everything.

It all kicks off at 8 and Ill be playing some hidden UK garage gems

Here is the set list for the night

RAY JUSS - 8-9
LEISURE - 9-10
SOLO G - (DJ GRUMMMMMMMMMMMPY) 10-11
BVC (LAZY EYE AND DJ KNOWLEDGE) 11-12
12-2 WHO KNOWS

HOST FOR THE EVENING - MC LYRICAL DEEEEE

Went to Brainfeeder last night so I am kinda dazed by the whole experince. Blog/review will follow after tonight. Double bubble on the reviews.

Anyway, hopefully see you there. £1.95 a wine girls... cant go wrong!

HI5

Genre @ Wax Jambu 6th March 2010

So after much emailings and harassing of people, I got put on to play some tracks. Wont go into how it all came about but will thank Bensamba and the people of Wax Jambu for having me. Was really good to be able to play music I liked.

The day didn't start to well as we lost at football 2-1, I took a nasty tackle which left my ankle quite purple but didn't really feel it until after the game. Because of football and my timing skills I was a tad late to get to the venue. Was greeted by Louis and Nathan and then shown the booth. (I have no camera on my old skool blackberry so it will have to be words for this report). This was going to be the first time I had ever used Serato outside of my house and I was pretty nervous about it. Technology has a habit of failing. I <3 computers but sometimes, you know..
Didn't help realising that my Serato laptop only has 256mb of Ram, Serato needs 1GB min. I went with the 'its worked before so why shouldn't it now?' ideal.

After much wire swapping and moving things around, I was ready to pick my first track. Some ladies in front of the booth were already dropping in requests. The first one of Candi Staton - You've got the love got batted away. Then in a weird coincidence or my skill of selecting, she asked for Last night a DJ saved my life... I had already lined it up on the deck. (ROOOOD BOY, TOP SELECTAAAAA). The laptop was on the other deck at this time, when I switched off in house music to go with my stuff it all stared going weird. As the track was playing it was dropping out and changing speed. I crapped it and drew for the emergency CDs from the bag, once the laptop was seated on the shelf, it all kinda levelled out. There was one other drop out and a loop that I set went crazzzy but its all teething problems with a new system.

Once all was up and running, I went in with the tracks. Was picking anything and everything from the 90-110 bpm range and just getting drunk with the crowd. One guy asked for some names of tracks so I helped him out. Also met some big Dilla fans and had a great chat about hip hop and beats. I also witnessed some of the craziest dancing I had ever seen.

My set finished just after 11 and Bensamba took over, first track - Bullion. The roof got a good slap when that dropped. He picked up the pace and took us through house, tropical vibes and even the garage staple God Made me Funky. By this time I was full of grape and doing some crazy shapes with the girls (shower rangers).

So hopefully I will be down at that venue again. And for those that are interested, below is the track listing from last night.

Ray Juss - Live @Genre
Wax Jambu - Angel, London
6th March 2010

Artist - Title
Indeep - Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (12" Mix)
Evelyn "Champagne" King - Love Come Down
Edwin Birdsong - Cola Bottle Baby
Phoenix - Listomania (Album Version)
Hall & Oates - Maneater
Ayah - Pusha Man (Original/ No Rap) - Ayah
Karriem Riggins - "12's in 8" - Karriem Riggins
Baron Zen - Burn Rubber (Dam Funk Remix)
Morgan feat. Steve Spacek - iiiiiii
Flying Lotus - Massage Situation
Dam Funk - Mirrors
DJ Spinna - Speed
Beem - Ducker
Bullion - You Still Believe In Dee
Bullion - Caroline, No
Heralds of Change feat. Olivier Daysoul - Bopgunn - Heralds of Change feat. Olivier Daysoul
Nino Moschella - Better Off
Tom Brock - There's Nothing In This World That Can Stop Me From Loving You
Jay-Z - Girls, Girls, Girls
El Michels Affair - Shimmy Shimmy Ya
DJ Spinna - Galactic Soul
Hudson Mohawke - Rising 5
Herlads of Change - Asswank
NUMBERS - Slugabed/La Roux - Numbers. #018 - LaRoux - In for the kill (Slugabed rekindle)
Roots Manuva - Witness Dub
Dam Funk - Killdat aka Killdatmuthafu*ka
Dizz1 - Here we go again
Dorian Concept - The Fucking Formula
Gum Drops, The - Coming Up For Air
Michael Jackson - Burn This Disco Out
Royksopp - Remind Me
Elmore Judd - You Said You Were Different
Ray Juss - Human Nature - Ray Juss Refix
Dorian Concept - Sandwich Terror - Dorian Concept
Ayro - Moving on - Ayro
4Hero - Hold It Down (Bugz In The Attics's Co-Operative Mix)
Amy Winehouse - In My Bed (Bugz In The Attic Vocal Mix)
Louis - Brokenhomes.co.uk - Colour
Bugz In The Attic - Happy Days
Jesse Rose - Pop Yer Porn
The Rapture - Whoo, Alright Yeah...Uh-Huh (People Don't Dance No More) - Claude Vonstroke Pantydropper Vocal Mix
Ben Westbeech - Hang Around (Karizma's Kaytronic Dub Mix)
Osunlade - Casablanca Soul
Shaun Escoffery - Space Rider
Mj Cole - Never Say Never (Original)
donaeo - party hard
Tuff Jam Todd Edwards - Xavier - Tumblin' Down (Tuff Jam)
Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity of huge
Marc Mac - Takes Over Me - Marc Mac
Basement Jaxx - Oh My Gosh (Bugz In The Attic Remix) - Basement Jaxx

Dates For The Little Black Book (or blackberry/iphone)

February being a short month and all, not much really happened. But much good news to bring from now!! Here are the details of a booking and a potential regular night in my old area, Hendon.

First up is


Ray Juss - @Genre - Wax Jambu, 144-145 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 1QY

Ill be playing the 8-11pm slot so warming you up and making sure you hit the bar allot and not mess with your senses to much!

Ill be playing some serious beats, nothing to hard but ill be aiming to make someone pull a grime face when I play some 8-bit induced space funk. Expect a good time, full Brokenhomes team will be in attendance so we will see you there!

Next up is...


The return of the local DJs to the best looking venue around. THAT WAS... @The Gallery, Hendon - 407 - 411 Hendon Way, London, NW4 3LH.

I have tried to reassemble some of my mates/djs to come down and play some records of the UK Garage variety. I really hope this does well so that it can be potentially moved to a weekend or we can get a nice vibe going on a Thursday once a month. The word has been put out and there are 10 DAYS TILL THE DAY!!!

Drinks are at ASDA price so come down and listen to some Anthill Mob and Steve Gurley!

That pretty much wraps up whats going on at the moment, you can find us on facebook now, Brokenhomes has a page so become a fan and stay in the loop.

I have this tea to drink so hopefully see you at one of the event, if not....... BRAINFEEDER ;)

Toodle pip