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2009 has been a vintage year for Transitions, with Diggers' weekly show going from strength to strength and gathering momentum as the year progressed.
Hopefully the write ups I've started doing give an extra dimension to things - if you love your electronic music (particularly EDM) then Transitions should now be your essential weekly listening
There's been a real depth to the studio shows in 2009 - plus it's been great to see the return of the more eclectic opening tracks, the type of music that takes you by completly surprise and gives you some listening that you'd never have come across in a month on Sundays .. I'm thinking Oasis – Falling Down (Monstrous Psychedelic Bubblemix), Chelxia Chan - By Chance (Martin Buttrich Remix), Peter Kruder - 25 West 38th St. or Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream (Ben Watt Remix) .... and that's just for starters !
Now for a bit of a rant
- yes we all love the live shows, and the 4 hours from Bedrock 10.5 @ Matter and 2 hours from Vagabond during this years WMC became instant classics. I know John gets bombarded with e-mails for live sets ... which is great and needs to continue (please mention the Space & fabric 2009 sets in your onslaught !) - but this isn't doing the shows their full justice, as (trust me) ... you will be overlooking some amazing music that you probably won't hear elsewhere. [ms] is rightly proud of hosting the Transitions shows, so get involved, download, duplicate and discuss !
Now for the good news - I definately think that elements of "progressive" are making a comeback in 2009 (Union Jack's"Papillon" being a case in point - great layers and proper drums and deeep bass) - another really great reason to check out what's being played each week .. but John has been giving us so much more and everything this year from deep house to house to tech house to techno to experimental to minimal (that's minimal in a good way ) and beyond. Maybe "Progno" © Chloe Harris or "Progimal" © Rowan Blades could become new genres ... but really its all relative and doesn't matter. Music shouldn't be constrained by tags, otherwise it may not evolve.
Transitions has been giving is the very best in forward thinking electronic music in 2009 regardless of genres, trends or boundaries and long may that continue into 2010 and beyond.
John Digweed - Transitions 278 (Kiss100) 27th December 2009
01. The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517 (Morgan Geist Remix) [Asound/Bubbles BUBBLES EP001]
02. Unknown [unknown]
03. Charlie May - Demon Amongst Us [La Tour Recordings LATOUR 003]
04. Manoo And François A - Today Is Tomorrow [Buzzin' Fly 044BUZZ)
05. Dj Hell - Hells Kitchen (Playgroup Remix) [International Deejay Gigolo Records GIGOLO 236]
06. Marc Marzenit - Unexpiritualized [Bedrock Bed11Vin1]
07. Cirez D - Raptor [Mouseville MOUSE010]
08. Bedrock - Emerald (Henry Saiz Remix) [Bedrock Digital BEDEMERALD]
09. Extrawelt - Dark Side Of My Room (Timo Maas Remix) [Cocoon Recordings CORDIG009]
10. Len Faki - Odyssee [Podium POD004]
11. Paul Ritch - Split The Line (Dubfire Megaremix) [Quartz Music QUARTZ 003]
12. Timo Maas - Bite The Dust [More Music TIMORE 001]
13. Guy J - Lamur (Henry Saiz Remix) [Bedrock Bed11Vin3)
14. Dustin Zahn - Stranger (To Stability) (Len Faki Podium Remix) [Rekids REKD001]
So onto the show - 2009 encapsulated musically in two great hours of music. We start with some tracks that were a key feature of the Sasha and Digweed UK Spring tour, with New Jersey's diverse producer/remixer Martin Geist giving us a very cool take on "1517" from Berlin's The Whitest Boy Alive who started as an electronic dance music project in 2003, slowly developing into a more of band with no programmed elements for their second album. John opened with 1517 at Cream and Leeds Warehouse and I love the way this track starts of innocently and then just builds as the drums and bass kick in.
We get a spaced out unknown track that leads seemlessly into a monster c/o a true legend, 50% of Spooky and the genius behind many of Sasha's best productions - Charlie May. "The Demon Amongst Us" is a real Jekyll & Hyde and very clever. Starting out as a real dark heads prog down track you're drawn in before Charlie turns things full circle as the lush warm melody enters and envelopes you. It's great to see Charlie back with his own label, his usual high end flawless productions and a live show. If you haven't checked out Charlie's amazing Transitions guest mix then what have you been listening to in 2009 ? The good news is that there's a 320kbs version floating round. Lets hope it's a big year for Mr May in 2010.
Buzzin' Fly hase been putting out consistently fine releases this year (from and label owner Ben Watt's "Guinea Pig" to Hell and Prommer's "Freak It") - Emmanuel Kossi & François Aymonier's "Today Is Tomorrow" is no exception and another great track to hear live, or turned up loud at home, because what follows is a real tour de force and one of my personal favourites from 2009 after John aired Playgroup's immense remix of "Hells Kitchen" on T254.
Helmut Josef Geier (better known to us as DJ Hell) has been a DJ since 1978, working in the german clubs Größenwahn (München), E-Werk (Berlin) and Tresor (Berlin) and putting out productions since 1992. Hell is ambassador for Smirnoff's "Be There" campaign, featured in Vogue, regularly features in GQ as "best dressed man" and designs his own underwear/sunglasses range . Plus he runs his own label International Deejay Gigolo Records ! Goodness knows how he finds the time to make great music but Brian Ferry & P Diddy even feature on his latest release - an artist album "Teufelswerk" (with studio support from Peter Kruder & Christian Prommer) that received 9/10 in NME. Although The original of"Hells Kitchen" features on the "Night" part of Teufelswerk, it is a 15 minute epic rework that interests us most with Playgroup on remixing duties (aka Trevor Jackson - who, working as "The Underdog" remixed Massive Attack, U2 and Unkle and more recently has worked with Doves and Franz Ferdinad). Epic
Barcelona's Marc Marzenit (owner of Paradigma Musik) has had a stormer of a year with 3 tracks appearing on Bedrock 11 and getting regularly plays out live by John. Here we get Unexpiritualized" which received fantastic feedback and praise/plays as well as featuring prominently in Beatports charts. Another name to watch in 2010.
Cirez D is one of the many guises that Eric Prydz produces under, with "Raptor" adding the the long list of dancefloor destroyers Mr Pryda has effortlessly produced.
Hour 2 continues the 2009 review starting with remixer of the year Henry Saiz and his contemporary update of Bedrock classic Emerald which twists and teases you, giving you just a glimpse of the classic melody - this was a real smash on the WHP and fabric dancefloors last weekend (there's also a Henry Saiz Psychedelic Tech Tool available if you head over to Beatport).
Extrawelt (aka Arne Schaffhausen & Wayan Raabe) have had releases on the likes of Border Community, Traum, Kompass and Cocoon and remixed the likes of Minilogue and put out some nice tracks in 2009 (check out Unter Tage) as well as a stonking remix of "Margot Meets The Melody Maker - Torch" for Diggers first Transitions compilation for Renaissance. Here was get a nice dark and techy, and as yet un-ID'd track.
Len Faki covers a multitude of genres (House, Techno, Dubstep, Tech House, Minimal), put out a compilation Berghain 03 for the uber cool Berlin Club where he's resident, managed acclaimed Techno labels (Monoid and Feis and sub labels Figure and Podium) allowing him to explore musical depths and artistic freedom. Odyssee is listed on Discogs as Podium 2007 EP release - so it's unclear whetherit's has a remix or been relicensed to Cocoon. Len's also no slouch as a remixer
Paul Ritch is the telented Paris based minimal techno producer whose tracks have featured on John Digweed’s Transitions (Vol. 3), Gui Boratto’s Addicted, (Vol. 2), Layo & Bushwacka!’s Global Underground: Rio, and M.A.N.D.Y.’s Ibiza ‘07. In 2008 Ritch performed at a number of electronic dance music festivals, including a live set at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF).
Timo Maas should need no introduction - here follows up his 2008 dancefloor smash Subtellite with Bite The Dust which received major plays by John throughout 2009 culminating in a remix by John and studio partner in crime Nick Muir.
2009 has been another big big year for Guy J with Lamur being track of the year in many peoples books - another example of the consistently high quality of Bedrock label releases. While the original is simply beautiful, once Lamur was placed in the hands of remix supremo Henrty Saiz new dimensions were added, giving us a track that blew away the danceloors from SW4 to Space in ibiza this summer. Guy J's Dj'ing is really taking off this year culminating in a great set at fabric ... so we'll be exoecting more great things next year.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k2eKWFbSiM[/YOUTUBE]
Finally we get THE track the John destroyed Space with in 2009 ... I'm suprised the Discoteca is actually still standing. Stranger (To Stability) was written by Dustin Zahn, who after being influenced by mix-tapes of artists such as Richie Hawtin, began writing music describes as moody, tribal, dark, and hypnotic. Stranger in one of these unexpected trans-genre anthems that come out of nowhere and devastate dancefloors wherever they are being played. The earthquaking "Podium" mix /o Len Faki's sharp and dark Berghain production gets back to that good old mid 90s anthemic techno feel and was one of the anthems of the year without question, but not for the faint-hearted.
Phew !
As ever the full 2 hours are available in the [ms] downloads section
Next week it's 2 hours live from Pacha in the Big Apple Bring on 2010 !!
Hopefully the write ups I've started doing give an extra dimension to things - if you love your electronic music (particularly EDM) then Transitions should now be your essential weekly listening
There's been a real depth to the studio shows in 2009 - plus it's been great to see the return of the more eclectic opening tracks, the type of music that takes you by completly surprise and gives you some listening that you'd never have come across in a month on Sundays .. I'm thinking Oasis – Falling Down (Monstrous Psychedelic Bubblemix), Chelxia Chan - By Chance (Martin Buttrich Remix), Peter Kruder - 25 West 38th St. or Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream (Ben Watt Remix) .... and that's just for starters !
Now for a bit of a rant
- yes we all love the live shows, and the 4 hours from Bedrock 10.5 @ Matter and 2 hours from Vagabond during this years WMC became instant classics. I know John gets bombarded with e-mails for live sets ... which is great and needs to continue (please mention the Space & fabric 2009 sets in your onslaught !) - but this isn't doing the shows their full justice, as (trust me) ... you will be overlooking some amazing music that you probably won't hear elsewhere. [ms] is rightly proud of hosting the Transitions shows, so get involved, download, duplicate and discuss !Now for the good news - I definately think that elements of "progressive" are making a comeback in 2009 (Union Jack's"Papillon" being a case in point - great layers and proper drums and deeep bass) - another really great reason to check out what's being played each week .. but John has been giving us so much more and everything this year from deep house to house to tech house to techno to experimental to minimal (that's minimal in a good way
) and beyond. Maybe "Progno" © Chloe Harris or "Progimal" © Rowan Blades could become new genres ... but really its all relative and doesn't matter. Music shouldn't be constrained by tags, otherwise it may not evolve.Transitions has been giving is the very best in forward thinking electronic music in 2009 regardless of genres, trends or boundaries and long may that continue into 2010 and beyond.
John Digweed - Transitions 278 (Kiss100) 27th December 2009
01. The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517 (Morgan Geist Remix) [Asound/Bubbles BUBBLES EP001]
02. Unknown [unknown]
03. Charlie May - Demon Amongst Us [La Tour Recordings LATOUR 003]
04. Manoo And François A - Today Is Tomorrow [Buzzin' Fly 044BUZZ)
05. Dj Hell - Hells Kitchen (Playgroup Remix) [International Deejay Gigolo Records GIGOLO 236]
06. Marc Marzenit - Unexpiritualized [Bedrock Bed11Vin1]
07. Cirez D - Raptor [Mouseville MOUSE010]
08. Bedrock - Emerald (Henry Saiz Remix) [Bedrock Digital BEDEMERALD]
09. Extrawelt - Dark Side Of My Room (Timo Maas Remix) [Cocoon Recordings CORDIG009]
10. Len Faki - Odyssee [Podium POD004]
11. Paul Ritch - Split The Line (Dubfire Megaremix) [Quartz Music QUARTZ 003]
12. Timo Maas - Bite The Dust [More Music TIMORE 001]
13. Guy J - Lamur (Henry Saiz Remix) [Bedrock Bed11Vin3)
14. Dustin Zahn - Stranger (To Stability) (Len Faki Podium Remix) [Rekids REKD001]
So onto the show - 2009 encapsulated musically in two great hours of music. We start with some tracks that were a key feature of the Sasha and Digweed UK Spring tour, with New Jersey's diverse producer/remixer Martin Geist giving us a very cool take on "1517" from Berlin's The Whitest Boy Alive who started as an electronic dance music project in 2003, slowly developing into a more of band with no programmed elements for their second album. John opened with 1517 at Cream and Leeds Warehouse and I love the way this track starts of innocently and then just builds as the drums and bass kick in.
We get a spaced out unknown track that leads seemlessly into a monster c/o a true legend, 50% of Spooky and the genius behind many of Sasha's best productions - Charlie May. "The Demon Amongst Us" is a real Jekyll & Hyde and very clever. Starting out as a real dark heads prog down track you're drawn in before Charlie turns things full circle as the lush warm melody enters and envelopes you. It's great to see Charlie back with his own label, his usual high end flawless productions and a live show. If you haven't checked out Charlie's amazing Transitions guest mix then what have you been listening to in 2009 ? The good news is that there's a 320kbs version floating round. Lets hope it's a big year for Mr May in 2010.
Buzzin' Fly hase been putting out consistently fine releases this year (from and label owner Ben Watt's "Guinea Pig" to Hell and Prommer's "Freak It") - Emmanuel Kossi & François Aymonier's "Today Is Tomorrow" is no exception and another great track to hear live, or turned up loud at home, because what follows is a real tour de force and one of my personal favourites from 2009 after John aired Playgroup's immense remix of "Hells Kitchen" on T254.
Helmut Josef Geier (better known to us as DJ Hell) has been a DJ since 1978, working in the german clubs Größenwahn (München), E-Werk (Berlin) and Tresor (Berlin) and putting out productions since 1992. Hell is ambassador for Smirnoff's "Be There" campaign, featured in Vogue, regularly features in GQ as "best dressed man" and designs his own underwear/sunglasses range . Plus he runs his own label International Deejay Gigolo Records ! Goodness knows how he finds the time to make great music but Brian Ferry & P Diddy even feature on his latest release - an artist album "Teufelswerk" (with studio support from Peter Kruder & Christian Prommer) that received 9/10 in NME. Although The original of"Hells Kitchen" features on the "Night" part of Teufelswerk, it is a 15 minute epic rework that interests us most with Playgroup on remixing duties (aka Trevor Jackson - who, working as "The Underdog" remixed Massive Attack, U2 and Unkle and more recently has worked with Doves and Franz Ferdinad). Epic
Barcelona's Marc Marzenit (owner of Paradigma Musik) has had a stormer of a year with 3 tracks appearing on Bedrock 11 and getting regularly plays out live by John. Here we get Unexpiritualized" which received fantastic feedback and praise/plays as well as featuring prominently in Beatports charts. Another name to watch in 2010.
Cirez D is one of the many guises that Eric Prydz produces under, with "Raptor" adding the the long list of dancefloor destroyers Mr Pryda has effortlessly produced.
Hour 2 continues the 2009 review starting with remixer of the year Henry Saiz and his contemporary update of Bedrock classic Emerald which twists and teases you, giving you just a glimpse of the classic melody - this was a real smash on the WHP and fabric dancefloors last weekend (there's also a Henry Saiz Psychedelic Tech Tool available if you head over to Beatport).
Extrawelt (aka Arne Schaffhausen & Wayan Raabe) have had releases on the likes of Border Community, Traum, Kompass and Cocoon and remixed the likes of Minilogue and put out some nice tracks in 2009 (check out Unter Tage) as well as a stonking remix of "Margot Meets The Melody Maker - Torch" for Diggers first Transitions compilation for Renaissance. Here was get a nice dark and techy, and as yet un-ID'd track.
Len Faki covers a multitude of genres (House, Techno, Dubstep, Tech House, Minimal), put out a compilation Berghain 03 for the uber cool Berlin Club where he's resident, managed acclaimed Techno labels (Monoid and Feis and sub labels Figure and Podium) allowing him to explore musical depths and artistic freedom. Odyssee is listed on Discogs as Podium 2007 EP release - so it's unclear whetherit's has a remix or been relicensed to Cocoon. Len's also no slouch as a remixer
Paul Ritch is the telented Paris based minimal techno producer whose tracks have featured on John Digweed’s Transitions (Vol. 3), Gui Boratto’s Addicted, (Vol. 2), Layo & Bushwacka!’s Global Underground: Rio, and M.A.N.D.Y.’s Ibiza ‘07. In 2008 Ritch performed at a number of electronic dance music festivals, including a live set at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF).
Timo Maas should need no introduction - here follows up his 2008 dancefloor smash Subtellite with Bite The Dust which received major plays by John throughout 2009 culminating in a remix by John and studio partner in crime Nick Muir.
2009 has been another big big year for Guy J with Lamur being track of the year in many peoples books - another example of the consistently high quality of Bedrock label releases. While the original is simply beautiful, once Lamur was placed in the hands of remix supremo Henrty Saiz new dimensions were added, giving us a track that blew away the danceloors from SW4 to Space in ibiza this summer. Guy J's Dj'ing is really taking off this year culminating in a great set at fabric ... so we'll be exoecting more great things next year.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k2eKWFbSiM[/YOUTUBE]
Finally we get THE track the John destroyed Space with in 2009 ... I'm suprised the Discoteca is actually still standing. Stranger (To Stability) was written by Dustin Zahn, who after being influenced by mix-tapes of artists such as Richie Hawtin, began writing music describes as moody, tribal, dark, and hypnotic. Stranger in one of these unexpected trans-genre anthems that come out of nowhere and devastate dancefloors wherever they are being played. The earthquaking "Podium" mix /o Len Faki's sharp and dark Berghain production gets back to that good old mid 90s anthemic techno feel and was one of the anthems of the year without question, but not for the faint-hearted.
Phew !
As ever the full 2 hours are available in the [ms] downloads section
Next week it's 2 hours live from Pacha in the Big Apple
Bring on 2010 !!
December 27th - Best of 2009
bring one the NY set 
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