Tony_S

Last night, July 14th, Faithless turned the Roundhouse into a church of rave like only they can … 

3,000 ecstatic people in a beautiful venue … one gigantic smile. I dj-ed following the gig and afterwards was lucky enough to make it to their post-gig party.

I was made up when I found out they were playing in my venue for the iTunes festival. Many years ago I had a band called Out To Play with a fantastic guitarist called Tristram Cox. We were both serious jazz, hip hop and funk heads and the music was a fusion of all three. Tristram also played in Maxi Jazz’s brilliant Soul Food Cafe band, and Max came down to a few of the gigs that we played and would freestyle on some of our tunes. We did this at the Jazz Cafe, Ronnie Scotts, WKD and various other places. He was an awesome talent and had a great feel for what we were doing.

Out To Play came to a natural end and around the same time Max formed Faithless with Rollo and Sister Bliss. The slight connection means that I’ve always followed and loved their music, and I’ve seen them live several times. Max is as much of an amazing front man as ever.

Big respect.

I’ve just finished a new tune, you can listen to it here:

You’ll see that I’ve given it the memorable title of ‘Unfinished-12” …

How do you name a piece of instrumental music? I often have this problem and here my inspiration really has run dry. Somebody famous apparently once said that “talking about music is like dancing about mathematics”, something I totally agree with - how can you describe music with just words? … which is what a title is really supposed to do. But of course, you may think that it can’t really be described as “music” in any case …

So I’ll throw this open to any and all suggestions - polite ones only, of course :-)

Here’s a new mix I just uploaded to my MixCloud page, hope you like it …

Summer Fever? Think I was a bit delirious with the heat … at least I managed to resist the urge to mix in some sampled vuvuzela’s …

Of course the title comes from Peggy Lee’s timeless song. Classy, filthy and completely evocative. She was an true all-rounder, a singer, songwriter, composer and actress; along the way she divorced four husbands and carried on performing well into her 70’s. Respect.

The rest of the tracks reflect what I’ve been listening to lately, old and new, with one of mine slipped under the radar for good measure. Aki Bergen and Soul Minority feature heavily in this, two of my favourite producers of the moment.

Full listing:

1.  Fever - Peggy Lee

2.  Got To Be Strong - Agnes (Ornate Records)

3.  Good Voodoo (Chaim & Visionquest remixes) - Kiki

4.  Close Your Eyes (Soul Minority Remix) - Atnarko

5.  A Love Like This (Matt Masters Remix) - Jimpster (Freerange)

6.  The World As I Live It - Art Of Tones

7.  Right To Your Soul (Aki Bergen Remix) - Kevin Yost

8.  Elephant - Martin Dawson

9.  Chile Is Not A Spice - Masque

10. Vabanque - Manuel Tur

11. Backwards Disco - Milton Jackson (Freerange)

12. Erotic Soul - Gorge

13. London Thing (Soul Minority remix) - The Runners

14. Yoga (Aki Bergen Remix) - Les Bijoux

15. Canción Ocho - Tony S

16. One Nation Under A Groove - Funkadelic

17. My Everything (Original mix) - Roberto Rodriguez

18. Don’t Stop Now (Original mix) - Bleep District (Lost My Dog)

Still gutted that T-Bar has closed - one of my favourite places and an essential part of the London landscape.

One consolation is that they are having a farewell party, and fitting that Soul Clap are hosting - also one of may favourites. Here’s their rework of Womack & Womack’s ‘Conscious of My Conscience’: awesome.