The thing about trailblazers is they often don’t know that’s what they are. They’re either too busy doing it to spend any time pondering about how significant what they’re doing actually is – or...
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It’s not just Louie Vega and Derrick Carter who need to think of the polar bears! Massive Attack publish report into live music and climate change – and the industry won’t like its contents…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the perspective of an insider on the music industry’s attitude towards climate change. Which is basically nothing. And before that, I wrote in April about a report...
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A rare piece of early house history! Shoom flyer from March 1988 hits eBay with the price already in three figures – and it’s all for a very good cause…
Regular readers will no doubt know by now that this blog loves a bit of history. Not a lot of the stuff from the early days of the dance music scene has survived, and...
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As ABBA announce a new single after a 39-year hiatus, shameless producers who want clicks on socials waste no time creating remixes the world didn’t ask for…
Every single time a singer dies these days, the likes of Soundcloud are filled within days – and sometimes even hours – with “tributes” to the deceased. Now, allow me to explain. By “tribute”,...
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Think slagging off the dance music press is a new thing? Nope – the tradition has been going strong for at least 20 years now…
There are people out there – and if you don’t know one, you probably are one yourself – who think everything was better in the past. You know the sort. They’d have you believe...
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It’s a miracle they didn’t crack under such pressure! London nightclub The Egg’s MD Hans-Christian Hess reveals they lost £100k per WEEK during lockdown – meaning a potential loss of £7million…
Big numbers have been a thing during this pandemic. Big numbers of people have fallen sick. Big numbers have died. Big numbers have been spent on furlough schemes around the world. And big numbers...
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As Michael K Williams is tragically found dead at the age of 54, did you know about his roots in the world of 1990s house music?
I was saddened to hear last night of the death of Michael Kenneth Williams, who has passed away at the age of 54. No one knows why – all we know is that his...
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Here’s One They Made Earlier: from neo-soul to peak-time house, how Natalie Williams got the Laidback Luke treatment…
For this week’s edition of Here’s One They Made Earlier. it’s Natalie Williams. In 2006, she released a song which at the time was in the neo-soul genre. It included a flute solo by...
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Double jabbed to get into clubs or no entry, paying festivals £75k to plug the vaccine rollout – why are governments so determined to treat younger people like fools?
Over the weekend, I read in the Belfast Telegraph about a forthcoming event called Emerge. It’s taking place at Ormeau Park in south Belfast on September 17th and has the likes of Mella Dee...
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Texas promises $10k to anyone who shops a woman seeking an abortion attacks – isn’t it time DJs from the dance music world made their disapproval clear to see, or do they care more about their bank balances?
Anyone who cares about women’s rights should be extremely concerned about what’s happening in Texas right now. With the support of the US Supreme Court, the southern state has made abortion illegal in all...
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As Anita Baker joins De La Soul, Taylor Swift and Stevie Wonder in owning her masters, why does this continue to be the exception than the norm for music artists?
Earlier this year, Anita Baker did something extremely unusual for a musician. She told everyone to basically stop listening to her music. Yes, someone in a group of people who normally wants us to...
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Want to make the DJ scene even more elitist and white than it already is? Then put in DJ diversity clauses and watch as the problem isn’t solved…
When you’ve spent a little bit of time studying the mainstream dance music magazines, you’ll notice a few things. For example, there’s surprisingly little journalism in them. Many of them tend to run a...
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How you get to the top of Mixcloud’s charts revealed: have millions of dedicated fans with nothing else to do!
Exactly four months ago today, I wrote an article on this blog asking exactly how does Mixcloud compile its own charts. The original feature referenced an interview that Mixcloud CEO Nico Perez (pictured above)...
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Derrick May claims he was six months into negotiations to sign with ZTT in 1991 – but why did the deal fall apart? The truth is out there, somewhere…
One of the questions that has been asked of Derrick May over the years is why did he stop producing music in the early 1990s. Records like “Strings Of Life”, “The Dance” and so...
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Could Northern Ireland’s nightclubs be about to mount a legal challenge on Stormont to force a reopening? Rumours abound of solicitors getting ready to act…
I’m hearing some interesting rumours emanating from Belfast this weekend. Word is that a couple of different companies are threatening to mount legal challenges against the Northern Ireland Executive over their continous failure to...
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“Our contribution to the national and international reputation of the cultural sector could not be replaced” – Resident Advisor in their own less than humble words when seeking a bailout last year…
On Wednesday, someone was kind enough to send me a link to a file which contained the application form of Boiler Room for their bailout last year. I blogged about it then, much to...
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