Tokyo Jo

I played in Tokyo this weekend. What amazingly intensely insane and exhausting trip that is etched into my mind forever. Did I say I enjoyed it? That's what I meant. I don't think I ever adjusted to the 8 hour time difference. But it sort of worked out because as soon as I realized this, it just meant I let myself sleep all day and stay up all night (this is really helpful for a DJ actually). I did manage to do some stuff in the day....like a lot of window shopping, the pound was seriously letting me down there, everything worked out to be like paying for it's weight in gold. But the best times were had in the Tokyo nightlife: karaoke, a trip to the famous Womb club, and of course our own night at Warehouse representing Bugged Out and London at London Calling. Bugged Out residents Matt Walsh and Bi-Bop also joined me on the bill along with numurous other London mates at the party, which meant there was a lot of misbehaving and maybe just a tiny bit brits abroad at times (Oops! ;o)....oh and of course the food was indescribably heavenly and fresh, I lived off raw fish and Edamame mmmm! There are some things in Japanese culture that I found totally enlightening that made for some utopian moments, and naturally some alien moments when I didn't quite get it. I absolutely adored their tireless enthusiasm for their pastimes i.e. fashion, music, culture and the respectful attitude towards work and other peoples work. Thanks so much to Julian and Peter for being such great guides. And thank you to I Am Tokyo Night for the pic and great review!

Vampire Weekend

I played a double header this weekend at Bugged Out with Miss Kittin. First we did Sankey's Soap in Manchester then down to London for the End. I did the late set in Manc and had such an amazing time. Thanks to everyone who stayed until the lights went on and made it such a special night. Manchester is quickly becoming one of my fave cites to play right now. I got such a warm vibe from everyone that night and I loved the warehouse feel in the club. In London I did the early-mid set before Caro. Two incredicbly satifying and inspiring gigs....playing with Kittin is always a great party, we kinda just feed off each others energy and I can enjoy entertaining my dark-side, playing mindfully and with sense of drama....pure escapist, fantasy, just for a session. And why not?

Here you can listen and download my set from the night in London. Remember this is a LIVE MIX, no computers, or Ableton have been used, just two Pioneer CDJ's and a mixer, recorded live on the night at the End. I'll soon be posting via podcast too (my podcasts are coming back with a vengeance TBA) but until then, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST☺

★ Diplo - Wassup Wassup Ft. Rye Rye - Crookers Remix
★ Jan Driver - Rat Alert
★ A-Track - Say Whoa - Boys Noize Remix
★ Hatiras - Tom Le Douche
★ Bloc Party - Mercury - Herve is in Disarray Remix
★ Plan Tec - Jonas Kopp Remix -Espias Psiquicios
★ Crystal Castles - Crimewave - Sinden Remix
★ Smith N Hack - Space Warrior
★ Man Like Me - Carny - JoJo De Freq's Island Pressure Remix
★ Tomas Schumacher - Red Purple
★ Kebacid - Felafellows
★ Kevin Saunderson - Rock to the Beat - Smith & Selway Remix
★ Melon & Je Davu - I Zebra
★ Chemical Brothers - Hey Girl, Hey Boy - Soulwax Remix
★ Medhi -Pocket Piano - Brodinski Remix
★ Patrice Baumel - Roar
★ Justice - Phantom II - Boys Noize Remix
★ Italo Boys - Zinga
★ Hot Chip - Hold On - Switch L.A. Remix
★ Kevin Saunderson -Bassline - Joris Voorn Remix
★ Fra Soler & Maxim Ruiz - Zambomba
★ Diplo vs Sega - Ready Or Not
★ Holgar Zilske - Wrecker

Return Of The Mac!

After an unbelievable 6 weeks of painful computer withdrawals, the Mac is back! It's hard to believe that Apple could not figure out what went wrong with my machine. It was a freq case of Mac attack. My repair guy told me it was getting shipped strait over to the Apple development technicians -in other words the people who actually design the machines- so they could try to solve the mystery of my Mac....in the end they had to replace my entire machine....To credit Apple, they did give me incredibly fantastic customer support and genuinely tried resolve the issue, while reimbursing me for anything lost in the process (except precious time of course). I truly wish all the businesses I have to deal with with were so helpful. I still love Apple for all the genius stuff they produce. I've had 6 weeks to learn how everything I do completely revolves around my Mac, to say I'm happy it's back would be a massive understatement.......So after this little period of misfortune, now I can finally get back to blogging, being a digital DJ and of course my most beloved passion, making music.

On top of the Mac meldown, October had been one of my busiest DJ months of 2008. I played everywhere from Moscow to Madrid, from Nottingham to Newport. It's a shame I've not been able to tell you all about them.....but there are still many more to come.....that's one of the reasons I like to blog: the second you finish playing the experience just disappears into the cosmos, here I can at least document a little bit of the hard work and excitement that is unique each night.

To try to make up for my Mac attack and my resulting neglect of this blog, I'M OFFERING 10 HALF PRICE TICKETS ON MY GUEST-LIST FOR BUGGED OUT THIS WEEKEND at the End in London exclusively for De Frequencies' blog readers. So that means £8 tickets and guest-list cue. The first 10 people to email us here at De Frequencies will get 'em. It's gonna be a fabulous party will me and Miss Kittin ripping it up in the main room and loads of other hot guests, so get yourself down there, and if you're in London and you're a Freq HIT US UP!

The End of The End

ME @ THE END IN DECEMBER

Oh dear, it's true, I've not posted for almost two weeks now....but I really have the best (actually the worst) excuse! My laptop of over 4 years just died on me a couple of weeks ago, just like that poof, its gone but after that long, you start to expect this to happen, so naturally I had the entire drive backed-up. No major trauma. It just means until I can afford to replace it, I have to use my desktop computer -normally strictly reserved for making music with- to do admin tasks including blogging. But last week suddenly my desk top died! Can you believe a monster 8 core processor Mac Pro, basically the top Mac your money can buy, and less than a year and a half old, can breakdown just like that!? I can't, I wasn't expecting it, and it couldn't have happened at worse time. Thank god for my extended Apple warranty is coving it. Although it seemed way over priced, I highly recommend getting it if you're buying a Mac (you also get telephone support)....anyways, this is why I've not blogged. And not done a lot of things. I've come to realized my whole life revolves around my Mac. So borrowing my boyf's lappy, I'm writing a little update finally for De Frequencies until I get it back.....

If you haven't heard already, the news was out last week, London's legendary End club is going to be closing it's doors for ever in January. Really, it's like the end of London club venues en masse this year, it kicked off with the closure of the massive Canvas and the historic Cross, along with the slightly younger fab boutique disco The Key. Then, the long-time London clubbing institution Turnmills closed it's doors, and now one of the last standing credible 'proper' club venues, The End. The End was the first club I visited when I moved to London in 2001, it was one of the few, of the then massive number of big clubs, that appealed to me because of their great underground line-ups. Now I've played there, OMG, for like 5 years?! I'll be sad to see it go. So Bugged out will be looking for a new home, along with Erol Alkan's Durr club, two important alternative dance nights residing at The End. Where will we go??? If someone opened up a medium sized two roomed 1500 capacity proper night club with a killer layout and sound-system, they would absolutely clean up right now....I hope someone does, or else we're going to be forced to keep throwing parties with crappy sound systems in the car parks (well, alt least more than we already are!)

It's just coincidence, but The End website-zine asked me to do an interview with them the same week they announced their closure. It's quite in-depth because Bugged Out asked the questions, and I think the questions are spot on because they know me so well. You can check out my full interview for The End here.

Field Report

Me and Naomi// *Girlcore*



Crooker


Isa GT, Crooker & Friend


Modeselecktor on the mic


Brodinski & Matt Walsh


Richie Hawtin Eating some crisps


Richie on stage


Richie's techno-tastic-lightshow


Brodinski rocking it

I had the weekend off, and went down to check out the brilliant line-up in the Bugged Out tent at the Field Day festival in East London. It was the first time in as long as I can remember I went out to enjoy some music without thinking about playing myself! It was completely recreational. Strange, but nice. Nice to have the time to check out some some other acts, and socialize. The weather was crap and raining, of course, but then that just made it all the more a proper English festival. I met up with some friends in the crowd and met a few new people backstage. I had a really nice mojito and organic chicken burger...... and then just generally misbehaved......now, back to the studio with some fresh perspective........

In Da Bug

It was another great night. Packed with a responsive crowd. Felix payed the best I've heard him....and what character too, with that big cheshire cat grin, and swaying around with his big bottle of bling Tequila. And what about his spontaneous Ibiza-style go-go dancers (his girlfriend and her sister?!) going mad on the podium...er, booth. Brilliant.

I was a little wilted from this ridiculously humid weather we've had, as was everyone, so I eased into the night with some house-ier-disco sounds, before building up to the big-room-techy stuff.......and to my huge enjoyment (and relief!), the debut of my new remix went down a storm at about 2am........xxJ

Love Bug

I was in spain for most of last week. I was in Benicassim doing the FIB pre-party on Weds which was really really packed and fab. There were loads of familair faces from the festival last year...... Then hopped on Ferry over to Ibiza. A place I hadn't played for almost 6 years! To be honest, I never really liked playing there. I think the first time around, in 2002, Ibiza was not quite ready for the electro-non-conformity of De Freq....but a lot changes in 6 years......I played at Amnesia this time, in the main room. I really think it's the one of the best if not the best venues on the Island. It was Jade Jagger's Jezabel night, so I was glam-ing it up (at her stunning villa afterwards and at the club ; ), but I still kept the music underground and unashamedly upfront.....it was really a big success for me to see the crowd in Ibiza really going for all of it. A great night......

But now it's that time again!!! Bugged Out is on tonight at the End in London, and I'm playing the 1-3am set before Felix Da Housecat , whoop whoop! It's been at least a year since I've had this earlier-peak-time-ish set (normally I do the weird and wonderful graveyard, 4:30-7am), so I'm super excited and getting my tracks together for tonight......I've literally just finished my Man Like Me remix, and just done some DIY mastering so I can debut it tonight. It's turned out to be quite a peak-timer I must say, and quite a tricky one at that, so Bugged Out in the End's main room is surely the best possible place to test drive it?.....I'm also gonna drop Alter Ego's new completely bonkers discothequed-up version of Tiga's classic "Sunglasses at Night". I know what you're thinking, I too was a bit scared when I initially heard it was getting remixed, but trust me this will blow your camp-as-you-know-you-wanna-be mind. It is seriously fresh...........

Bugged Out is always a place where I really can play what I want to play, that being the most forward thinking, entertaining electronic club music. It's totally about music, listening to it, buzzing about it, but it's also just fun and and about letting go....serious, but without being up your arse about it.....It's really another great-line up tonight too. Hope to see you there!