Wednesday 28 November 2012

Dig Deep with Templebys & Funky Onion DJs


On this week's show we welcome a whole host of guests from the Preston funk soul jazz scene...

Neil from Valley-Events Management is dropping in to give us the full lowdown for the forthcoming Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club event in December. Check the flyer at the bottom of this post.

Phil Carr, newest member of the North West's most up and coming funk outfit Templebys, will be putting down his drum sticks to giving us a taster of the bands debut CD, as well as telling us about some of his highlights from this year's festival circuit.

True veteran of the Preston scene Gordon Worden (Funky Onion) is joined by the vinyl mastermind Boney Votel for the Mini-Mix at 9pm.  The pair take to the decks with a wedge of 45s and sought after slabs of wax, giving us a flavour of their forthcoming new club night.

Saturday 24 November 2012

The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club Album (Freestyle)


Craig Charles is set to release his debut album on Monday 26th November 2012 and it's an absolute winner.

Released on Fresstyle Records, one of the UK's best funk labels, the LP is packed full of the funk and soul gems Craig has been playing on his BBC6 Radio Show, at Festivals and in the clubs for time.

Check the soundclips below and get it ordered from Freestyle and Juno Records.



Here's what the label have to say...

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Dig Deep with K'Alexi Shelby (K Klassik / Transmat / DJ International) 151112


On this week’s show we are truly honored to bring you legendary Chicago house and techno producer / DJ K Alexi Shelby, better known as K'Alexi aka El Chocalata, in the mix for 1 hour.

One of The founding fathers of house music since the late 80’s, K Alexi is a time served pioneer of the true house sound with a DJ and a phenomenal production career spanning over 20 years.

At the age of 12 Mr.K' Alexi Shelby developed friendships with Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy whilst attending seminal venues like The Warehouse and The Music Box in the mid 1980s. It’s here that he took inspiration from artists such as Stevie Wonder, Prince, Curtis Mayfield and David Huff. Influences that continue in his music to this day.

K’s early tracks helped lay down what is now the trademark Chicago house sound; a solid kick drum, rumbling dark bass, smooth strings, incredible percussion and poetic spoken word.

In 1987 he released Essence Of A Dream under the guise of Risque III, a track that firmly established the name of Mr.K' Alexi Shelby amongst the most prominent of all house producers at the time and still sounds fresh today.

The B Side features Risqué Madness which was inspired by Kikrokos - Life Is A Jungle on Polydor Records from the ‘Jungle DJ And Dirty Kate’ LP released in 1978; a track that Ron Hardy re-edited on his reel to reel.

In 1988 K'Alexi released More Than Just A Dance under the alias of Risqué Rhythm Team. It's the Backyard mix that passes the Dig Deep test, a deep solid string laden house cut with a great bassline that's in the same field as Larry Heard.

1989 saw the release of the jaw dropping acid killer All For Lee-Sah which came out on Transmat under the name K. Alexi Shelby.  Definitely one of the standout tracks for me, and a recent sharing led up and coming UK based producer and DJ Cottam to say "that's right up my strasse, kinda stuff I'm buying and playing now".



Sunday 11 November 2012

Itch Mix DJ Series

As the 10 year birthday of Preston based club night Itch gets ever closer (March 2013), we thought it was about time that we pulled all the Itch mixes together and put them online in one place.

Spanning 2003 to date, these mixes give a taster of how the club nights sound has changed over the years whilst reminding us of some of the great music that the ever faithful crowd has danced to in venues all over the city...

We will be uploading one mix/CD a day until we're done and we hope to get them all up in the next month.

Big up to everyone that ever came to party with us, a massive shout to the itch crew for all their help over the years (you know who you are x) and much respect to all the DJs that have come down to the club and played ace sets.