JEB LOY NICHOLS, HUW COSTIN & THE DEVIL'S JUKEBOX DJs @ SOCK FREE HIDEAWAY ( NOV 1st), IN PICTURES 

pics c/o Chanty

6. SUMMER ECHOES

By Troy Dean

 for Sock Free Hideaway

MANY THANKS Troy, I have my feet in the sand-box as I type listening to this dreamy mix. We've both had emotional summers and thankfully yours sound tracked better. His never prolific but always rewarding posts in both the Melting Point and Aficionado never failed to reward my ears and always had a calming effect. They weren't showy and always pricey either, just sound music, so, take off your socks, relax and float downstream... 

Summer Echoes mix by Troy

In Troy's own words -

I’d been collecting records for well over 25 years when I hooked up with my very good friend Bobby Beige to work on a night in Amsterdam.

We were both fairly disenchanted with the music scene in Amsterdam at the time so decided to throw our own parties. We began with “cut the crap” which later evolved into “Melting Point” when Siba started playing with us and has remained that way since. We have our regular show on Red Light Radio each month which is a loads of fun for us and has been going now for around 3 or 4 years. There’s a lot more freedom playing on the radio as opposed to a club as it gives us a much broarder range of what we can play. As far as playing out goes, the Garden Festival in Croatia (which saw its last blast this summer after a very memorable 10 years) was beyond doubt my favourite place to play, as a perfect setting for the music I love it simply doesn’t get any better than that.

Melting Point Radio Show: https://www.mixcloud.com/RedLightRadio/playlists/melting-point/

Soundclound pages: Troy https://soundcloud.com/troyski Siba https://soundcloud.com/siba-kladic Bobby https://soundcloud.com/bobby-beige-amsterdam

Red Light Radio

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JEB AND HUW AND THE DEVIL'S JUKEBOX DJ's, A Bloody God-send

OBVIOUSLY, PLEASED as punch to have so much talent on board and under one roof. Acts and venue confirmed, so all systems go. Got a feeling we'll be hearing some fresh material from both artists too. Witnessing Huw Costin captivate a church hall children's nursery space in outer Oldham. I know this stage is his. And he won't have my mate heckling 'Treasure' every two minutes because he'll be away.

Both are craftsmen and play from the heart and Jeb Loy Nichols has the kind of respect in this industry, few do. His most recent material has been startling with promise of better to come. Jeb's Jukebox on the Caught by the River web-site is the place to go for the uninitiated. Dulcimer is the place to go for the rest of us. Oh, and the DJ's are not playing around either, Chris's mixes are some of the most widely respected on Balearic Social and with his partner Fritz, I expect some great sounds to be reverberating around that space. Let's put some love in the air.

Sock Free Hideaway | Facebook - initiated  

Jeb's Jukebox - Caught by the River- uninitiated

Guest Mix Chris Maude 4.1.15 (Andy Pye - Balearic Social) - Mixcloud- love in the air

HOTTER THAN JULY

SPRING 2015 was the season and year Ned came to town. The atmosphere was incredible and the solo show was anecdotally crowd pleasing, even electric at times. But the venue stank like an open air toilet. Be With have fired out a timely Prone re-issue and conjured up a Letta, and, with more big-hitters in the pipeline (kindly forgiving the R & B), they deserve special praise indeed. Aficionado has entered the world of tens and as that means committing Menage a' Trois's Conditional Love to vinyl and an Eleventeen Eston track. It is a great idea. With Leo and the mighty Tommy Awards in the pipeline, this label is hotter than ever. Speaking of Tommy Awards, their blissful track Skogen Bortom off the limited comp Woodsmen & Lady Log is a fucking masterpiece. Just long enough to induce a trance-like state. 

Cassette action has been thinner on the ground, but, am expecting a Len Leise soon. His Stars for Jorge edits twelve nearly caused me a hernia as my computer crashed mid-purchase. Needless to say, it would've been worth it. Les Halle's Invisible Cities has been the cream of the crop. Edits seem to be back on form. Basso has sold me some exceptional ones, and his own on Edits Des Amateurs, Bussi Bar has been the most played to date. Those boogie vibes everyone's complaining about but done properly. I was also ve

ry fortunate Piccadilly were taking pre-orders of Dubbla Budskap'a Lonely Behavior twelve too. Another great journey of a record and sleeve for people who like art and dancing.

DJ Charts > Sock Free Hideaway > Jeb Loy Nichols is coming to town!

The world domination that is Horsebeach has only supplied me with a b-side this year to date. A bloody good b-side called Let you Down, which is a guaranteed head-nodder. Aloah Got Soul has been teasing us with a couple of Mike Lundy promo sevens with the pick Tropical Lightning doing strange things to my senses. Highly recommended. As is Tired Tape Machine's Not Here LP whose string laden songs have a proper haunting quality. Although technically 2014, it's made this year very special at times. All Similarities and Technical Difficulties End Here, the debut proper of The Sly and Unseen doesn't disappoint either. Woozy, organic, and shimmering in ambient majesty, there is something heart-warming about this music. Live they were mesmerizing, taking very simple elements but making magical sounds. Pure alchemy.

On a heavier sound tip, Father and Son Record and Tapes is a label worth listening as well. 2 really strong twelves and counting. Plus, Robbie Williams rewired for some serious piano cabin fever. Another grower I was fortunate to purchase was Toulouse Low Trax's Kadiz on another buy on sight label Kunstkopf. It accompanies wrong dancing on the Persian rug superbly. Check the Juno chart for my other Turkish sauna, shufflers and the like. As DJH bows out leaving us more confused than ever about the politics of dancing, the bloody festival season is upon us, and I must confess to hating camping or staying in a good mood for more than 3 hours a week, so, I'll hopefully be concluding 3 years study instead. Needless to say, 'party hard.' 

5. MIXED MESSAGES


By Mata Hari 

for Sock Free Hideaway

ANOTHER YEAR, another amazing mix. We're back in the sand dunes, but, without the technicolour ambience, this time the vibe is more spillage on the Persian rug, outside the tent, inside an antiquated television set. Mata Hari has been irrepressible in sharing her love of slightly strange, exotic, other era, musical gems, and isn't afraid of vocals. It's great to hear so many abstract voices.  Passion and attention to detail help make this mix unique and I owe her a big thank you for taking us on this wondrous musical journey, so, pull down the futon, put a straw in your fizzy pop, take a sip and forget you exist for 53 minutes. Well, just slightly over 53 minutes. 

MIXED MESSAGES by Mata Hari

In Mata Hari's own words:

"My greatgrandmother started the family record collection with Billie Holiday records.

My grandmother would only listen and still only listens to Prince, oh and now

his new girlband too of course. Just only Prince related stuff, so Kate Bush and Vanity 6 are cool too. My mother used to dj at gaybars and then play YMO, Lil louis, Malaria!, James Chance, Salt 'n' Pepa everything...They told me I wasn't able to sleep without watching MTV first as a baby and wanted to become a jazz dancer like Madonna and Janet at two, that last part was caught on camera, so that I do know for a fact. At five I made mixtapes for my walkman to walk through my pretty tough - used needling findings on in the bushes - hood, that I just remember, Smurfen house, Captain Jack, Güngör Bayrak, my youth, all on there. At seven I used to record a fake radio show with my cousin on tape at my grandmother's place. At ten I was burning mixtapes on cds for classmates, sleepover-birthday-party stuff mostly though with Aaliyah, Destiny's Child, TLC and everything dancehall overrepresented, I'm sorry, that I didn't always buy records, that I started while in high school, never bought enough though. Recently I have decided it to be ok being an obsessive record hoarder - something i never dared getting myself into, because I know myself - so I started selling my twenty years of vintage clothes hoarding, finally, to make room for infinite records."

THE SLY AND UNSEEN / WILD BIRDS OF BRITAIN @ SOCK FREE HIDEAWAY (ON 25TH JAN) IN PICTURES

Pics c/o Chanty and TSAU 

2014 - Musically, incubated bliss

THE SLY and Unseen came to my attention in the spring, and listening to their Improbable cdr was a truly intense experience. All Facts Dream, the standout track, is one of those you can immerse yourself in over years. One that doesn't come around very often. I've had a pretty isolated year, all told, and, generally speaking, the more experimental, less polished acts have gotten my attention.

(Note, the freebie from Mark Fry who gave away a collection with his wonderful South Wind Clear Sky LP that contained the remarkable Aeroplanes. Undoubtedly, one of the songs of the year.)  

For Horsebeach, LP of the year. (See my gig praise in an August post on this blog.) Aficionado Recordings, who've released several winners this year, also deserve high praise for their new bag and already pencilling in some more golden cuts next year, besides affiliating themselves with the LP of the year. Bed Boxroom Rebels Records have put out a retro seven by the Watchmakers that have some spiky sixties styled moments and the mighty Winds, but Yosoy's Talk was the killer tune from them the label. It could've come straight out of Berlin with its glacial pop brilliance. Er, hold on, it did.

Menage A' Trois put out the wonderful Pride cassette that's both a knowing nod to the eighties and catchy in a nineties sense of the word, with its high ambition. Covering UB40 on their debut says it all about this band. Cassettes from Australia's Not Not Fun have been of an especially high quality. Legendary Heart's Aerial View with its beautifully spatial title track, and Delicate Features' The Passenger, whose wonderfully constructed Transparent Shadows track, has been label highlights. Only eclipsed by Eleventeen Eston's much feted Delta Horizon, which all but nails the perfect summer pop sound. A masterpiece from start to finish.

Not to be outdone, Sui Zhen's cassette action in  the form of Body Language also rocked. Obviously, the cassette of the year goes to A.r.t Wilson's Overworld. A stunning odyssey of sound, picked up by Basso and given a lovely pink wax vinyl pressing. A masterpiece in this and any year. Another great year for Laura Groves hit its ceiling with Freedom of the Floor, the standout tune from her collaboration with Bullion under the monicker Nautic. Mondo records also put out 2 well received winners this year, as did Fools and Fables, both putting the sand beneath my feet and definitely 2 labels to keep your eyes peeled for. Similarly, Wolf Muller has made some incredible music too, which luckily I don't have to mention in any more detail as it's blown up big.

Possibly the high point of my listening pleasure was unpacking and playing the Woven Entity CD. Some very sparse, organic and experimental jazz that snakes around your head for weeks. A little brittle, but no less engaging, was Risakuru by Longstone. A complex 2 part twelve that is in  part a modern ambient jazz opus and in part earth installation art-work. Again, intensity has been my buzzword. Along with a plethora of dynamite long players (see my Juno chart on previous post), these songs have supported me through a trying year. Hoping for more music of similar calibre in 2015. However, the EU changes to VAT, lead me to suspect it won't be so. Dealing with bands directly and buying physical music off them has been easy in the past, but now, encouraging them to the pressing plant is going to prove harder with costs rising. That said, I'm not turning into Farage as I expect common sense will prevail and business will resume as normal in the not too distant. Waiting is half the fun, which is why not all the music mentioned here was recorded this year.