Check out J-Boogie’s Night Fever mix recorded live at the Scoot Inn in Austin, TX for the Wax Poetics Issue 42 release party. Jam out with J-Boogie as he explores the soul classics from Curtis Mayfield, Skull Snaps, Bill Withers, Al Green, Shalamar, The J.B.s and more. Big ups to Brooklyn Radio, J-Boogie and Beatsauce crew for sending this through.

Beatsauce: J-Boogie
Night Fever: The R&B edition

Curtis Mayfield – Give Me Your Love
Barry White & Love Unlimited Orchestra – Playing Your Game, Baby
Teddy Pendergrass – Close the Door
Shalamar – This Is For The Lover In You
Erykah Badu – Turn Me Away (Get Munny)
War – Night People
Parliament – Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication
Undisputed Truth – Undisputed (How & Why Disco Edit)
The J.B.‘s – (It’s Not The Express) It’s The J.B.‘s Monaurail
Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythmn Band – Express Yourself
Skull Snaps – It’s a New Day
Bill Withers – Lovely Day (DJ Eleven do-over)
Al Green – Let’s Stay Together Remix
Stevie Wonder – cheri amore remix
Gwen McCrae – Funky Sensation rmx
Zhane – Hey Mr. D.J. [Remix]
Leela James – Good Time
Faith Evans – Love Like This
Chic – Chic Cheer
Roy Ayers – Love Will Bring Us Back Together Again


Click here to stream.
Click here to download.

For more info on Beatsauce Radio please visit Brooklyn Radio.

In order to be this prolific I’m learning how to let go fast.

After a total meltdown on Saturday afternoon, I faced the very real possibility of releasing something on Monday that I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about.

This goes against every fibre of my being. But to follow through on what I’ve very publicly set out to do, I sat there attempting to finish something I wasn’t sure about. This is in stark contrast to my experience so far.

I didn’t even know whether this lack of enthusiasm was due to the music being pants or my state of mind/level or tiredness at the time, as (to coin a phrase) “my mind was telling me no but my body was telling me yes”. So I went and had a freak out on the ever sympathetic Mrs. Monday before pulling myself together and attempting to get back to it.

When I sat down I indulged in a little procrastination and followed a tweet to this article on how to be prolific. While the tone of the post irritated me, the underlying thrust of it changed the way I thought about what I was doing. For the better.

This project as a whole is more important than the sum of its parts. If I end up writing something that I’m not 100% happy with, then so what? I’ve another chance to write my masterpiece the following week. Its more important to get something out, anything, than nothing at all.

And with this new understanding I promptly nailed this weeks track “Crush” within 24 hours, and ended up loving it. Its one of my favourites so far. Isn’t it amazing what a little targeted procrastination can do?

Click here to download “Crush” for free.

From Fred Everything: This is the first part of my humble tribute to my favorite record store in the world who, sadly, closed its door 2 weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to be a part if this store as a salesman in the mid/late 90s and continued as a customer until they closed. This mix focuses on the 96-99 sound, one of my favorite time for House Music. Thx to Christian Pronovost for the years of dedication and to my good friend Phil Larochelle for helping down memory lane with the tracklisting of this mix. This was all done Live, 2 turntables and a mixer. Recorded on a friday afternoon, our weekly Record store day in Montreal. Enjoy!

1.Romanthony-The Wanderer-Prescription
2.Nuyorican Soul-Mind Fluid-Nervous
3.Faze Action-In The Trees-Nuphonic
4.Salt City Orchestra-Issue One-Paper
5.Mateo & Matos-NYC Style-Spiritual Life
6.Idjut Boys-Beatin’ On Dave-UStar
7.Mutabaruka-Dis Poem (Reel Houze)-Guidance
8.Black Science Orchestra-Save Us-JBO
9.Chez Damier-Untitled-KMS
10.Jedi Knights-One 4 Maw-Global Communication
11.Moodymann-I Can’t Kick This Feeling-KDJ
12.Mood || Swing-Do It Your Way-Groove On
13.Todd Edwards-Save My Life-I
14.Pepe Bradock-4-Kif
15.Atmosfear-Dancing In Outter Space (MAW)-Disorient

Listen & Download: Fred Everything Tribute Mix To Inbeat (Download via Soundcloud.com)

I’m told that if you’re on the right path in life you won’t procrastinate.

But I’ve never believed it until now. Before I could start on this weeks track I had to complete some other studio work (the increasingly rare kind that pays money) and procrastinated terribly until I could no more and just about hit the deadline on Friday. While doing this work I felt listless, uninspired and that irresistible urge to catch up on the goings on in Ramsey Street and Summer Bay.

Contrast that with my demeanour from Friday onwards where I couldn’t wait to get into the studio. We all have to do stuff that we’d rather not, but the difference in my attitude and general work rate was startling.

I’ve yet to work out what part of this project is getting me so energised, whether its immediacy, the freedom I’m allowing myself, or the feedback, but I think for now I’ll just go with it. This music lark is fun innit?

So when I finally got around to it on Friday my challenge was to write a piece of music that would appeal to a house or techno DJ but which would also work on a home listening album. The problem I have with most albums by artists who usually write for the dancefloor (and I include myself as one of them) is that what works in your average house or techno club simply doesn’t translate well to the home stereo. Unless you’re having a party in your kitchen.

So why bother writing any house or techno for this album at all? Or why bother writing an album, why not stick to writing tracky tracks?

Because if I’m to follow through with what I said in my style vs genre piece, it should be possible to write house or techno that fits my vision. And with “Contains Nuts” I feel I have, or at least gone some way in getting there.

Stuff I Learnt This Week

1/ Writing music is like being in love. You know when its right because you won’t care about anything else.

2/ The number of hours spent writing or producing a piece of music is not proportional to its quality. Its more likely that the opposite is true.

3/ Too much leaves one wanting less. On Sunday I wasted a good few hours undoing what I had done on Saturday evening. I must continue to stop myself from over-producing. And yes, I’ve said it every week so far.

The Music

Two different mixes this week, the album version is of course completely free and you can get the extended club mix (specifically tailored for high-volume night-time use in front of a sweaty mass of baying punters at your local discotheque) for 99p.

Listen & Download: Mike Monday “Contain Nuts (Album Version)” (Download via Mikemonday.com Here)

Co-founder of Classic Recordings (along with Derrick Carter) and Freaks member, Luke Solomon, has been busy in the studio. He recently helped to co-produced and co-write a handful of tracks from Damian Lazarus’s last album. Download his latest mix titled, “Some Songs Have Words Vol. 3”.

Listen & Download: Luke Solomon’s “Some Songs Have Words Vol. 3” (Download Via Soundcloud.com)

Featured in mixes from everyone from Mark Farina to Juan MacLean, French funky deep house producer just put up his summer 2010 mix free for download. Check it out.

Listen: Giom Summer Mix (download via Giom’s Soundcloud)

Is this a new track from Lauryn Hill? Chances are it’s not new, but a leaked unreleased track from the 1998 Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (hands down still one of the best records of all time!). She definitely is making a comeback according to the NPR interview and the buzz over her killer performance at the Harmony festival. New or not, it’s definitely welcomed! Download the tune, and be sure to catch her on the Rock The Bells Tour.

Download it here.

Listen: Lauryn Hill “Repercussions”

Om alumni, Dave Pezzner, just dropped his debut solo album on Jimpster’s Freerange Records. Titled, “The Tracks Are Alive”, the album is a deep / dub house gem. Each track is memorable and DJ friendly, with deep build ups and breakdowns.

Although the sound is very much, Pezzner, you can hear elements of his funky house influence as well (many may not know that Dave was half of funky house artist, Jacob London). Listen to one of the standout tracks below featuring vocals from Larissa Kapp.

Click here to download a free podcast from Pezzner @ Kontrol in San Francisco.

Click here to purchase Pezzner “The Tracks Are Alive” From iTunes.

Listen: Pezzner “Find Me”

Prepping for the Underworld take over? If you haven’t already, download the the first track from the record, “Scribble” here and prep yourself for the take over. “Scribble” features co-production from drum and bass artist, High Contrast.

Click here to purchase the entire “Scribble” single featuring remixes from Netsky.

I felt like jacking it in a couple of times this week.

Much of this was the anti-climax after the excitement of the first release, and the dawning realisation of the frightening task ahead of me. I’ve also got some other studio work on at the moment which I have to finish on Friday, so after that I hope things will get a little less fraught.

Despite this, I feel like I’ve hit my stride musically. There were a couple of times when I found myself falling into some old bad habits, like spending waaaay too long trying to find the “perfect” sound, but if I hadn’t I’d have finished Robot Go Disco very quickly. I had more trouble thinking of a name for it than writing the thing.

There are some implications that I hadn’t thought of previously in writing an album track by track in public. My ideal of writing music for myself alone would only really occur if I didn’t ever play it to anyone. Releasing the tracks as I write them means I’m opening myself up to (both good and bad) criticism way before the whole album is finished. This is bound to affect my album writing process, no matter how hard I try to ignore the noise.

For instance if I release a tune and it gets double the number of downloads of anything else, I might be tempted at worst to replicate it, or at best to make subconscious decisions in the studio as a result of the perceived success of that track. I’ve noticed that by just playing my music to someone else fundamentally and permanently changes my perception of it, so you can imagine what releasing it does!

But so far the benefits of this process are utterly out-weighing any downsides. Despite my couple of freak outs this week I’m loving it. And the weekly deadline, knowing that the world will be able to hear whatever I’ve done that week, is forcing me to write out of my skin. For every idea I’ve committed to audio there are another three that I can’t wait to get out.

Stuff I Learnt This Week

1/ At all costs I must avoid getting bored of the track I’m writing by over-playing it. Ironically this tends to happen with tracks that I’m most excited about. If I’m in danger of getting bored I must stop or move on. And constantly looping the same bit so I can have a boogie in the studio (whilst being fun) probably isn’t the best idea.

2/ My first idea has always been the best this week. Tinkering, editing or changing what I record has just made it worse.

3/ I musn’t overproduce. I should just leave it, as if it’s a bit rough I can get away with more musically.

4/ I need to stop checking my traffic and download numbers every five minutes. Its a pointless waste of time at this stage of the game. From now on I’m instituting a policy of two checks per day.

Click here to check Robot Go Disco and download for free.

Listen & Download: Mike Monday “Robot Disco” (Download via Mikemonday.com Here)