Red Lounge

Well, this Saturday Vancouver will get a dose of bass delivered by none other than Justin Martin at Electric Owl (http://www.intimateproductions.com/e/437) brought to you by Intimate Productions of course! The opening DJs Abasi and Ryan Wells have put together mixes for you to listen to and get warmed up for this party. This is also Abasi’s submission to the Basscoast Music Festival for 2013 (http://www.basscoast.ca/). Click away, crank it up, and enjoy, and see you on Saturday @ Electric Owl!

Abasi : What U Gonna Do (with Bass)

Ryan Wells : Spotted MixTape:

In general, I love discovering origins of where things come from, specially when it comes to music. When I first got my copy of Miss Kittin & The Hacker’s “The Beach” back about 6 years ago, and proceeded to fall in love, include it on my Nudisorder mix and play it over and over, I always thought they had either sampled or recreated parts of The Human League‘s “Don’t you want me“. Of course, right? Yesterday, Pig Radio was playing at my house (not Daft Punk), and I thought “The Beach” had come on. Then about a few seconds into it I realized the radio was playing something that had the same bits, but was not the same song. Yup, they were playing Gary Low’s 1983 song, “I want you“, and definitely not Human League’s “Don’t you want me”.

After hearing this, I thought “I want you” was probably the song that Human League also used for their hit, so I did some Googling. Well, not much turned up on the subject, so I am going to concluded that since “Don’t you want me” came out in 1981, and since Human League are in a totally different league that our beloved 80s Italo one-hit wonder, then Gary used “Don’t you want me” for his song, which in turn MK&TH sampled for “The Beach”.

“The sun is shining tonight, the sun, the moon, the city lights… I can’t remember where I am, it could be Cannes, St. Tropez or Tahiti… give me some oil, I like to be greasy and tanned, sand in my hair… I forgot my sunglasses. Oh, we should send a postcard to the label, it must be freezing in Munich right now… One more thing, my glass of Martini dry is empty; more ice next time. I hope there is new stuff from Detroit at the record shop when I’m back.” Yup, there you have it. Enjoy, happy new year, and all the best in 2012!

Friday, March 25.

The main plan for the Friday of our visit was to hit the Pete Tong pool party at the Surfcomber. For some reason, Pete Tong is not on the top of the “must see DJs” for a lot of Vancouverite’s I know, but personally, I have a lot of respect for this man. Having an early start to DJing in the mid-70s, he has been a key figure in electronic dance music since the 80s, started and hosts one of the most influential dance music radio programs: The Essential Selection (now renamed) since 1991, and is the founder of the legendary dance label FFRR who launched the careers of many, among them Salt’N’Peppa, with “Push It” as the first release. Yes, he may not be your super technical DJ who takes you on a slowly building journey with lots of knob tweaking, but he knows the music better than most, always has the best tracks and definitely knows how to throw and rock a party.

Each year, he hosts his Radio1 party in Miami, and this was on top of the list of events that Ceebas and I wanted to check out. I was extra excited because Ritchie Hawtin, Luciano, Joris Voorn, and Riva Starr were among the headliners. We arrived half an hour later than our ticket’s entry deadline, meaning we had to fork out an extra $30 on top of the $40 price we had already paid for the tickets. By this time we were used to paying through the nose for everything in The Magic City, or more appropriately The Plastic City as it should be called, by the number of scantily clad girls sporting boob jobs we observed everywhere.

By the time we got to the party, we had already missed Joris Voorn, but I was not sad about it, as we got to rock out quite hard to Ceebas’ new Man-crush on Thursday night. We walked in, and were greeted by the sounds of Kaskade who happened to be the surprise guest DJ, and a sea of shaved-chest steroid-enhanced guys accompanying the aforementioned girls. The stage was setup facing away from the pool and towards the ocean, with Go Go dancers setup on either set, providing added eye-candy. I can’t say I am a huge Kaskade fan myself, but the crowd loved what he was dishing out. Lucky for me, we caught the latter part of his set which ended shortly, and made way for the “DJ/nerd who isn’t trying to be cool”: James Zabiela. I must say, the extent of my knowledge about him was that he was another breaky-prog DJ, which is not particularly something that gets me too excited. After seeing him at this show however, I can now say I am a bit of a fan (and so are the dozens of girls who were admiring his smile and golden locks). He connected a bunch of additional gear he had brought for the set and started by playing a few minutes of various ambient style sounds to build things up, utilizing an iPad that he held in the air to add effects to the whole thing. His set continued with a mix of tech-house sounds, combined with his classic break and prog influences.

Next up was the Swiss-Chilean founder of Cadenza records, Luciano, whom we had met the previous day through Carl’s lovely wife, Hagi at the DJ Mag party. Not being very familiar with his work and only hearing him for the first time, Luciano blew me away with his blend of funky latin infused techno beats, reminding me of the set Ricardo Villalobos played when I saw him @ the Cocoon party in Ibiza back in 2008. I think he was hands down my new favourite DJ of this trip, especially with the set he delivered at the Sunday School party the following day.

After Luciano’s set, it was time for our fellow Canuck, Richie Hawtin. I did not recognize him at first, because it had been sometime since he came to Vancouver, and he had grown his hair quite a bit and was is no longer sporting the same ‘do, and also looked to have lost a bit of weight. Richie started with some groovier sounds to ease people into his set, and within a short time, he had the crowd going off to nothing but pure techno, only the way Richie can. I must say, it was awesome to see the aforementioned crowd rock out to techno!

Italian producer, Stefano Miele aka Riva Starr got on next, taking things to a more house influenced direction. My extent of familiarity with Riva Starr’s work was limited to his collaboration with Noze: “I was drunk”, which has been on my friend Dave Dirk’s DJ play list for the last year or so. I would compare his set to what I heard delivered by Joris Voorn the previous night, but Ceebas would beg to differ and one day, he is finally going to make me understand what this groovy bass-line is that differentiates Mr. Voorn. All in all, an enjoyable set, and a great finish to our day. We gathered everyone, including those who had licked the magic frog, and headed for a lovely dinner on the streets of South Beach! Day 4 = EPIC!

Ceebas and Abasi of DelayNoMore spent the first weekend of January in Whistler, skiing during the day and working on music at night. While working on track selection for their set at the 1st SiGNAL Niice! ™ party with Tom Middleton (UK) and DJ Pandemonium, they decided to make a mix-down of their own. The result can be heard below!

We have been keeping this track exclusive and playing it over the last couple of months with great feedback, so we thought it was time to share it online with you! Check it out and let us if you like it, and if you would like a copy for yourself to play! Send us an email to delaynomore /at/ redlounge.ca (replace the ‘/at/’ with the ‘@’ symbol before sending).

Enjoy!

-Abasi of DelayNoMore

Kaiserdisco – Amalfino (DelayNoMore Whistler Powder Mix)

They say, the older you get, the faster the time goes. Well, it’s true! I honestly can’t believe where the last four years have gone, and that our beloved SiGNAL Saturdays @ Lotus is now 4 years old! I am honoured to have been able to host/DJ at Vancouver’s underground dance club for all these years, and on a Saturday night for that matter.

This mix was specially created to mark this occasion. Each year for the anniversary, the resident DJs create special mixes that get put together on a double CD. We give out 200 copies of these as part of the celebrations, thanks to our sponsor: The Eatery.

My mix (below) is the second of the first CD, with our newest resident Joseph Martin, doing the first part. DJs Woodhead and Andy Clockwork created the first and second part of the 2nd CD respectively. Being the second part of CD1, my aim was to go for a slightly moodier sound, reflective of the latter part of an evening. As such, you will hear sounds of tech-house, acid-house, electro-tech, and electro-prog variety, by artists like Dave Pezzner, Hardfloor, Cirez D, M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade, Popof, and our very own Villi Manilli and their newest remake: “It’s a Sin” (see complete track listing below).

Anyhow, hope you enjoy this mix, and if you got feedback, it is always appreciate!

Track listing:

12. The Tracks Are Alive (Rozzo Remix) [Pezzner]
13. Jack Your Body (Hardfloor Remix) [Steve “Silk” Hurley]
14. On Off (Sebastien Leger Remix) [CirezD]
15. I Said (Sergio Fernandez Remix) [Deadmau5 + Chris Lake]
16. Shakedown [Audiojack]
17. Rose Rouge (Original Mix) [Analog People In A Digital World]
18. Donut (James Talk Remix) [M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade]
19. Invisible Light (Stuart Price US12) [Scissor Sisters]
29. Horse Power (Popof Remix) [Chemical Brothers]
21. It’s A Sin (Villi Manilli Remake) [Pet Shop Boys]