Thursday 23 July 2009

The Chef's Special for Week Ending 27/07/09

Top of the morning to you people and a very happy Friday as well. Can I just take this opportunity to say thanks for all the really positive feedback i've been recieving about The Chef's Specials. It seems that there are a lot of people out there reading this blog and most of you seem to really enjoy it. Its always great to hear from people who share my interests and appreciate my efforts so a big heartfelt thanks going out to all of you.

This weekend is shaping up to be another cracker with plenty good stuff happening both here in Edinburgh as well as over in my-soon-to-be-new-home, Glasgow. Yes folks the Chef is getting ready to leave the scottish capital for good and is heading out West to soak up the culture and the passions of Glasgow. After 11 years of living here i've decided its time for a change of scenery so in the next few weeks myself and the missus will be uppin sticks for pasture new. Exciting times ahead me thinks.

Anyway on with this weekends Specials which include some more elctronica and techno from those pioneering lads at Leith FM plus news about a new Leith based soul party, Club For Heroes last ever party at The Wee Red Bar plus another new clubnight launching in Glasgow on Saturday night. I'll also be throwing in another batch of wicked new mixes for you to treat yer lug holes as well cos i know you guys love dat sheet!

FRIDAY 24th JULY

The Vinyl Club and R.S.I Radio live and direct to your front room from 9pm - 1am via Leith 98.8 FM


This week on The Vinyl Club host Gerry kicks things of with a set of tech-house and electronica before passing the headphones to special guest Robert Babicz aka Rob Acid. Polish born but Germany based Robert has been a key figure in the european tech house scene for over a decade having released 5 albums and a crateful of 12"s on labels such as Force Inc, BPitch and DJ Rush's Knee Deep. Robert is very excited to be playing for The Vinyl Club and we can't wait to hear him in action.

Robert Babicz Myspace


R.S.I Radio this week features a half hour mash up of the wonkiest bassline and dubstep and breaks from one of the most forward thinking DJs in the country. Martin Sweeney aka Absolute Chancer aka Beads has been blowing minds and tearing up dancefloors for years with his outrageously energetic dj sets. Always at least 2 years ahead of the pack this guy need s to be seen to believed never mind heard. With a truck load of the most intense, brainmelting dance music around and some ridiculous turntablism he's looking forward to blowing up your stereo tomorrow night.
If there's anything left of your wireless by the end of his set please stay tuned for another belting guest mix from Glasgow's Jace Syntax. Jace has been heavily involved in Glasgow's tech-house and techno scenes for nearly two decades now and has been a key player for most of that time.His night Syntax ran for almost a decade in Glasgow and featured sets from such luminaries as Blake Baxter, Justin Berkovi and Pure Science. With a handful of his own releases as well as some excellent remix work under his belt Jace's future is looking brighter than ever.


Jace Syntax Myspace



 Jumpin' A GoGo with Yogi Haughton and friends
@ Bond No 9, 84 Commercial Street, Leith. 9pm - Late.

Jumpin' A GoGo is a brand new project put together by "Scotland's most important DJ," Yogi Haughton. The project was set up to bring some well needed soul and boogie music back to the heart of Leith. Situated in a newly refurbished bar on Commercial Quay Yogi plans to run the night as a fortnightly excursion showcasing some of the best in old school soul, funk, boogie and rare grooves as well as some of the freshest soul sounds around. Yogi is widely regarded as a true pioneer of black music and owns one of the largest collections of black music in the UK. He's a regular spinner at the legendary Southport Weekenders where he often jams alongside friend Norman Jay OBE. He's been credited with bringing the whole acid house sound to Scotland back in the 80s and is still one of the best loved DJs in the country. Entry is completely free. No tax to hear the trax!

Club For Heroes presents Dollskabeat live
plus Firecracker/Prime Numbers Recordings Allstars
@The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh College Of Art, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh. 10.30pm - 3am

This month sees the end of an era for "Edinburgh's loveliest disco" as this will be the last ever Club For Heroes at The Wee Red Bar. Yes Jetlad and co are abandoning their monthly friday slot for a weekly Thursday one at their new home at The GRV from August. So in true Heroes style they're gonna go out with a bang!

This will be a closing party of almighty proportions as acompanying the "Moustachioed Marvel" on the ones and twos this evening will be no less than 4 of the most super-talented dj/producers this city has ever spawned. Firecracker/Prime Numbers Recordings allstars House Of Traps, Linkwood, Fudge Fingas and Discreet Unit have been wowing heads all over the world with their exquisitely packaged and impeccably produced tracks of late and if you're a regular reader of The Chef's Specials you'll know that dj teams don't come much higher recommended than these chaps. Their soul heavy grooves straddle the realm of deep techno with quirky, jazzy melodies and a good pinch of humour. With notoriously hard to please djs such as Kenny Dixon Junior giving them high praise you know there vibes are gonna be of the highest callibre. I was fortunate enough to witness the jawdropping damage that two of these guys unleashed upon the Jam The Box dancefloor a couple of months back so i'm proper shaking with anticipation of this event.

As if all of that wasn't enough the incredible Dollskabeat will also be popping in with her full live Dollskaband to showcase some of that electro-pop-a-disco sound with which she's creating waves of fascination and admiration in equal measure. Her debut single "Zodiac Rising" released on the Optimo label has been described as " a sumptuous dancefloor anthem in the making with traces of Italo-electro and early eighties no-wave crafted with a heightened pop awareness." Dollskabeat loves to dance and play vintage synths and drum machines. She plays with her fourpiece Dollskaband and the result is an extrovert show of sound shapes and colours.

Entry to this veritable smorgasboard of crazily good music and entertainment is a very wallet friendly £5.00 all night with a concession for students. Drinks are also very cheap so you'll be very hard pushed indeed to find better value for money clubwise this evening.

SATURDAY 25th JULY 2009

Metro Soul Launch Party @ Pivo Pivo, 15 Waterloo Street, Glasgow

If you're looking for some funky, jackin house beats to shake your tail feather to this Saturday night, look no further than Metro Soul launching at Pivo Pivo. Chicago House FM.com's Craig Hamilton and Ryan "Soulfunkcity" have teamed up to create a lively party for heads and feet in this excellent venue situated not 5 mins from Central Station. Craig runs the infamous Flatpack Traxx record label renowned for its high quality jackin', swingin house beats favoured by the chicago house djs such as Dj Sneak, Phil Weeks, Jason Hodges and Hector Moralez. He is also one of the hosts of the Flatpack Show which can be heard every Monday night from 9pm on Chicago House Fm. Ryan is the host of the Soulfunkcity Show on the station which precedes the Flatpack show on Mondays from 7-9pm. Both of these lads are conneuiseurs of dope house beats so this is a launch party sure to go off. Doors open from 10.30 and tax is just a fiver so no excuses.

For a wee taster of Craig Hamilton in the mix see this weeks Ear Candy section below.

SUNDAY 26th JULY 2009

The Marina Dalglish All Dayer & BBQ Classic House Special
@ The Gate Bar, 62 Trongate, Glasgow

This monthth's Marina Dalglish All Dayer is a Back to the Future style time warp of sorts with 7 djs plus Live percussionist going back to the old school with a selection of some of the finest house tracks from 1988 to 2004. Some of Glasgow's finest old school djs are getting together for a musical nostagia trip to raise money for The Marina Dalglish Cancer Foundation which helps to give support to victims of breast cancer and their families. This month's line up includes Davie Gilmour, AJ (Liquid Cool), Paul Rea, (Common), Scot Granger, Sean Roberts (TLC), Woody and Deejay Fiona as well as live percussion from the very talented Iain Thomson. The Gate promises plenty of drinks promos for the thirsty and some tasty BBQd disco burgers for the hungry. Donations will be taken for the charity at the door so please give generously.

Ear Candy

Here's another bunch of the mixes that have kept me dancing the streets of the nations capital whilst on poster patrol this month.

Dimitri Max - Celestial Funk - Guesthouse
Lil mark - Guess Wot - Frequency Spectrum
D-t3ch - Brain Funk (Hector Moralez Remix) - Maracuja
Allen Craig - Yeah (Phil Weeks Remix) - YBD
TBF - Moonshine - The Factory
Dj Sneak - Funky Rhythm (Hector Moralez Mix) - Magnetic
Brett Johnson - Two Cents (Massi DL 1000 Remix) -
TBF - Express Yourself - Sampled
Wattie Green - Newclear - Flapjack
D-t3ch - Swingin for fences - Blockhead
Anhanguera - Time To Jack - Flatpack Traxx
TBF - Jazzy Mood - Sampled
Min + Ynk featuring Bastien Schuster - New orleans (Dj W!ld Mix) - OFF
Studio 45 pres Le Pamp Playhouse - I Like the sounds - Azuli
Troublemen - Do It - Kif


Run DMC-Run's House
Tom Tom Club-Genius of Love
Whistle-Just Buggin
Nightmares on Wax-Groove Street
Neneh Cherry-Buffalo Stance-Sukka mix
Alen Touissaint-Going Down
Derek B-Get Down
Minnie-Loop
Oui 3-Oui Love You
Oui 3-Great Expectations
Rodney P feat Benjamin Zephenia-Rong Radio
Big Daddy Kane-Ain't no stoppin us now
St Ettienne-Only Love...
Beastie Boys-Hey Ladies
LL Cool J-Rock the Bells
Sampleloop-Breakin Beatz
Rokotto-6 Million Dollar Baby
Pop Levi-Dita Damone
Eric B and Rakim-Let THe Rhythm Hit Em
Klymax-The men all pause
The Jackson's-Hum along and dance
The Meter's-Hand Clapping Song
Fern Kinney-Groove me
Michael Viner-Apache
Eddie Kendricks-Keep on Truckin
Serious Intention-Don't you know
Stezo-To the max
Rocker's Revenge-Walking on Sunshine
LoopSample-Cut n Paste 1
Hot Chocolate-So damn Funky
Ghet-to-funk-Duralcha
Hashim-Al Naaflysh



01. Bear Who ? "Fuzzys on the Block" DUST TRAXX
02. Special Interests "Don't need it" GUESTHOUSE
03. Mr Patron "Happy Endings" GUESS WHO ?
04. Biboulakis "All you can eat" GUESS WHO ?
05. dj Bang "St James 1" (Derrick Carter remix) GREENSKEEPERS
06. Mike Dixon "Looking 4 Company" G SWING
07. Pointfive "Like that" GUESTHOUSE
08. KB Swing "Some like it hot" GUESS WHO ?
09. Natural Rhythm "Saturdays" (Dan X remix) GUESTHOUSE
10. Sound Republic "Get Loose" SPATULA CITY
11. KB Swing "Ritz" GUESS WHO ?
12. Stacy Kidd "Jazzy Midnight" DUST TRAXX
13. KB Swing "Swing aint That" GUESS WHO ?
14. Byron Foxx "Everybody loves the Bongo" GUESTHOUSE
15. James Curd "Dra Gan" G SWING
16. Mike Dixon "You aint Shit" G SWING
17. James Curd "Keep Quiet" G SWING
18. dj Sneak "Come back Johnny" HOUSEGUEST
19. No Assembly Firm "Influence in Numbers" DOTBLEEP


Laurent Garnier - Mix for Beats In Space Radio Show

1.White label
2. Black Pocket – Boungie – Exit
3. Freestyleman
4. David Duriez – Red Tool (Scream Bitch)
5. Luc Ringeisen – Operative System Malediction – Vinyl Club
6. Will Saul – Mbira
7.White Label
8. Jet Project
9. Radioactiveman
10. Octogen – Morpheusised – Sima
11. Suicide Commando – Suicide Commando
12. Taxi Girl – Cher Cher Le Garcon
13. Babylon Breaks
14. Tempa Allstars Vol. 3 – Tempa
15. Chain of Command
16. Break & Hydro
17. Ghostface Killer
18. High Contrast
19. Radio City – The Hop

Darren M - IDJ Magazine Raw Talent winner

No Tracklist but solid deep - jackin house mix from local hero Darren M

Right That Little lot should keep you going till i get back next week.
Thanks once again for taking the time to read
The Chef's Specials,
brought to you as always, in assossciation with

No comments:

Thursday 16 July 2009

The Chef's Specials for Week Ending 19/07/09

Hi folks and welcome back to The Chef's Specials. I feel i must apologise for the lack of updates on here over the past couple of weeks but i have simply been too busy with other work of late and have not had time to write the blog. I'm hoping that today's crop of musical highlights can get me right back on track though so please bare with me.

FRIDAY 17th JULY 2009

The Vinyl Club and R.S.I Radio on Leith 98.8fm. 9pm - 1am in your front room.

This week The Vinyl Club will be kicking off with a guest mix from Club For Heroes' resident Disco Jockey, Jetlad aka Simon Eilbeck. Jetlad's intoxicating blend of deep techno, soulful house and raw 70s funk and disco has been blowing minds and blistering feet for some time now and his set for Leith fm will demonstrate exactly why the guy's reputation is growing at an almost alarming rate around Edinburgh. This weekend Jetlad will be hosting Edinburgh's deep house and techno institution, Ultragroove's back room at Cabaret Voltaire so if you like his set on the show go check out how he throws it down with a proper dancefloor in front of him!

Also on the show this week, Bayern, Germany's favourite exponent of deep, techy minimalism, Rainer Weichold drops by for a particularly sweet guest slot to disprove the theory that all minimal techno is boring. Indeed nobody can breathe excitement and melody into minimal quite like those pesky Germans.

Following The Vinyl Club, R.S.I Radio show kicks of with a drum n bass special this week. Regular host Kenny Breaks is off this week so warm up duties fall into the capable hands of Steven Calvert aka Retrend who'll be dropping an exciting, sweet and soulful liquid funk D'n'B set before Glasgow based, Nerve Records boss, Paul Reset steps up with a crate of incendiary deep rollers.

Paul is resident at Scotland's biggest Drum n Bass institution Xplicit and used to promote Glasgow's LiveEvil night as well. He's been Djing for over 12 years now and has always been a figurehead in the Scottish drum n bass scene having played guest slots at most of the most prominent nights on the scene.

Nerve Recordings Myspace


Telefunken presents Mark Farina (Mushroom Jazz, Om Recordings, San Francisco)
@ The Electric Circus, 36-39 Market Street, Edinburgh. Doors 10.30pm - 3am

Edinburgh's other house music heavyweight Telefunken is back this weekend with another of their one off parties this time at The Electric Circus near Waverly Station. This stunning new club space in the site of the old Massa/Club Mercado has only been open a few weeks and is fast becoming a proper jewel in Edinburgh's clubbing crown. After a suitably expensive refurb from the old dive that was Massa, this shiny new establishment is a breath of fresh air. With an interior staright out of a Baz Luhrman movie with beautiful artwork adorning the walls and some lush comfortable booth seating areas and a cracking soundsystem the venue has become famous more for live gigs than clubs.

However, Telefunken hope to change all that and this month they've hired the help of possibly the biggest name on the house music circuit for the past 6 years. Yes Chicago raised but San Francisco based, Mushroom Jazz pioneer, Mark Farina will be dropping in for his Telefunken debut and his first gig in Edinburgh for nearly ten years. Mark is widely regarded by some of the worlds best House djs such as Sneak and Derrick Carter, as the daddy and for the first time in a long time Edinburgh is gonna find out why.

This particular event has been a long time in the making and was originally supposed to take place at Studio 24 but after the Studios had it's licence suspended the Telefunken boys had just 3 weeks to find a new venue. Against all the odds they've managed it though and probably got the best possible venue in the city in the process so this will be an absolutely massive celebration for them and with a 3 hour set from Farina i don't think there are words which can even begin to describe the excitement they're feeling already.

Alan Gray and Nick Wilson will be supporting in room 1 while Lel and Carina stir the soup du soul, fry up the funk and bake the disco cookies in room 2

Tickets for this event are still on sale at Tickets Scotland, Ripping Records and Underground Solu'shun on Cockburn Street priced £12 plus booking fee but they're selling fast and limited to only 350 due to the intimacy of The Electric Circus so please get yours sharpish if you don't want to miss out. Myself , Frazer Devine and Lady Jaya will be playing some rekkids at The Wash Bar on The Mound before hand so if you're lookin for some preclub drinks and some crackin tunes pop in and say hi.

Mark Farina Myspace
Mark Farina Home Page
Telefunken Home Page
Telefunken Facebook


Saturday 18th JULY 2009

Ultragroove with Gareth Sommerville, Stephen Rodgers (Elements Of Soul) and Jet Lad (Club For Heroes)
@ Cabaret Voltaire, 36 Blair Street Edinburgh

Cabaret Voltaire is the place to be this Saturday night for yet more proper house music. Resident Gareth Somerville will be rolling out the disco, techno and everything inbetween in his usual style supported by Elements Of Soul's Stephen Rodgers who's making his Ultragroove debut this weekend and as i mentioned earlier Club For Heroes moustachioed marvel Jet Lad will be carefully blending the soul, disco and raw funk that is eaning him great respect among the city's musical connieusseurs through in room two. Entry costs just a fiver before midnight or £7 after.
Doors 11pm - 3am.


SUNDAY 19th JULY 2009

Soul Pigeon featuring the Digigals DJ Display Team @ The Granary, The Shore, Leith
5pm till late and free entry all evening.

Sundays for me are all about soul, funk, old school hiphop and chill out and it would appear that the mysterious Digigals Crew agree. They've recently started up a summer evening sunday session at The Granary on Leith's Shore. Kicking off at 5pm and running till late, the Digigals blend of all of the above styles is proving to be a refreshing soundtrack to summer sunday drinking.

For a wee taster of their awesome dj skills please check out their stuff on Soundcloud.


Free Ear Candy Selections.

This week as a way of apologising for my lack of updates over the previous two weeks i have dug out some rather delicious mixes from some damn fine djs. Starting with 2 from one of my absolute favourite Scottish DJs of the moment Graeme Clark aka The Revenge.

This first one is his set for Beats In Space Radio show which is broadcast live from New York every Tuesday evening from

  1. 6th Borough Project - Do It To The Max - Instruments Of Rapture
  2. The Revenge - Funk On A Whole Nu Level - CDR
  3. Madonna - Justify My Love (The Revenge Edit) - CDR
  4. Gang - Love To Fly (Edit) - Lotus Records
  5. The Popular People's Front - Showtime - The Popular People's Front
  6. 6th Borough Project - Nights Over Memphis (The Revenge Dub) - Instruments Of Rapture
  7. Deep Space Orchestra - City Streets - Five20East
  8. Harmonic 313 - Flaash - Warp
  9. Sweet Exorcist - Testone (Winston & Ross Remix) - Warp
  10. The Pointer Sisters - Be There (Accapella) - MCA
  11. Mark E - Fighter - Sonar Kollektiv
  12. Andy Ash - Goin' Down - Universal Vibes
  13. The Revenge - Hotz 4 U - CDR
  14. Who's Who - Hypnodance (The Revenge Edit) - CDR
  15. B.W.H. - Stop (Edit) - House Of Music
  16. Lionel Richie - Serves You Right (Edit) - Motown
  17. Tony Lionni - Better Change - Mule Electronic
  18. Craig Smith & The Revenge - Jacques Cousteau (Beat) - CDR
  19. John Daly - Lonely Beat - Drumpoet Community
  20. Red Rack Em' - Picnic (The Revenge Remix) - Deep Freeze Recordings
  21. Model 500 - The Chase (Riff) - Metroplex
  22. Todd Terry - Bring It Back - TNT
  23. Brother's Vibe - The Reaping (SOW Mix) - Mixx Records
  24. Barbara York - Tonight (The Revenge Edit) - CDR
  25. Network - Back In America - Warner
The Revenge - Hang On In There

1. Rare Earth - Celebrate (The Revenge Edit) - CDR
2. Eddie C - Let Your Mind Be Free - Jiscomusic
3. BT Express - Keep It Up (BB Edit) (Recut) - CDR
4. Change - Hard Times / It's Gonna Be Alright (The Revenge Edit) - CDR
5. Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight (DJ Harri Edit) - CDR
6. Q Tip - Breathe & Stop (The Revenge Redd Version) - L.E.S.S.
7. The Revenge - Nightflight - Jiscomusic
8. The Mole - Still In My Corner (Adam Beyer Remix) - Wagon Repair
9. Body 2 Body - Let's Get Intimate (DJ Harri Edit) - CDR
10. 6th Borough Project - Closer - Instruments Of Rapture
11. Jay Shepherd - Last Days (Of Cou Cou D) - Compost Black
12. BB - Do It (Recut) - CDR
13. Pilooski - Double Dub Edit - Diamond Traxx
14. The Revenge - Kiss U 2nite - CDR
15. Larry Heard - 25 Years From Alpha - Black Market
16. Jeff Mills - Glen21 - Axis
17. Phuture - Phuture Jacks - Trax
18. The Revenge - Cadillac - Jiscomusic

This next one is by Nottingham's Red Rack'em and is a deep excursion into detroit beatdown featuring some crackin tunes from Edinburgh's very own Firecracker label

Red Rack'em's Muthafuckin D mix

1 – Soulphiction – Dark Berry
2 – Fudge Fingas – Gettin’ Togetha
3 – Inverse Cinematics – Passin’ Through
4 – Andres feat Negue Hernandez – About Time
5 – Mark E – Touch
6 – Oblique – Love Town
7 – Theo Parrish – First Floor Metaphor
8 – Soul 223 – In Search Of Slowly
9 – Mark E – Slave 1
10 – Red Rack’em – You Can’t Pray For Your Soul
11 – San Proper – Twiff Twaff
12 – Theo Parrish – Twin Cities
13 – Linkwood Family – Miles Away
14 – Iken – Minds Eye
15 – Theo Parish – That Day
16 – The Godson – Magic Water
17 – Moodymann – Don’t Be Misled

This little beauty is by Disco Deviance boss Dicky Trisco and was recorded as a Podcast for
Cool In The Pool website.

Dicky Trisco's Cool In The Pool

  1. Chacona & Anthony Mansfield - Oh Snap! (GW version) – Hector Works
  2. (Wade Nichols edit) Mindless Boogie
  3. O2 (Dclas Mixture) – D Classics
  4. Q – The Voice of Q
  5. Disco Deviance 04 – Don’t Let Go (PH Edit)
  6. Phreek Plus One – Phreek Party – Compost Black Label
  7. Ignition – Secret Sunday Lover (GW Version) – Love is War Music
  8. West Phillips – (I’m Just a) Sucker for a Pretty Face – Quality
  9. Atlantic Conveyor – We Are – Untracked
  10. Cultural Vibe - Ma Foom Bay – Crossover
  11. Peoples Front - Get Down Shep
  12. Aeroplane – Caramellas – Eskimo Recordings
  13. Two Sides of Sympathy (GW Version) – Edit The Edit

This last one is an absolute belter of relentless bumpin beats from the rdiculously talented mid west house maestro Scrubfish.
Jackin House like as ought to be played

Scrubfish live @ Uptown Lounge

Hopefully something in that little lot will help to soundtrack your weekend folks.
Thanks once again for taking the time to read The Chef's Specials
Brought to you in association with

No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)