HARD FORMAT

HARD FORMAT is a beautiful design blog that has been...

"...set up to celebrate our love of brilliant music-related design. That means we’re going to focus on records, CDs, cassettes and their like. However, Hard Format isn’t intended to become a dusty museum devoted exclusively to past glories, though there’ll certainly be some of that, we also want to highlight the brilliant new design work being produced right now"

They have recently featured the artwork for Data70's SPACE LOOPS series after spotting them on the GUTTERBREAKZ blog

ROBOTRONIC RADIO

ROBOTRONIC RADIO are currently hosting a show called THE DEPOT which describes itself as...

A forray into the finest experimental pop music, past and present. Short mixed segments meld genre classifications into insignificance, all bound loosely with brief cassette-recorded gurgles courtesy of your host who can't toast, Saucy Jack.

The June show features NO.1 ASTRONAUT - Heartbeats Per Minute from the AT HOME WITH NO.1 ASTRONAUT LP, available for free download from BLEEPFIEND

PLASTIC SOUL - Three on More4

PLASTIC SOUL is me and my old friend Paul Bateman. He sold me a dodgy guitar when I was 18 and we've never looked back.

Over the years, we've lent the name to a variety of projects, including drum & bass (Brand New Heavy 12" on L Double's Flex Records), "psychedelic jazz" (Plastic Jam 7" on Strawberry Recording Co.) and as House DJs during the late 90's (mainly in The End's back room at the For Your Pleasure parties).

Sometime in 1999, we recorded the unreleased Three Degrees E.P, featuring 2 slightly odd House tracks (InSoul8 and Moodibloo) and a sort-of-breakbeat track called Three. The latter has just found it's way on a More4 advert.

The advert will be screened at 9.20pm, Tuesday 8th July, More4. I'm not sure how much of the track you can actually hear and we are in no way responsible for the talking heads that feature, honest. You can hear / see it on the YouTube clip below:

DATA70 - RoTA, Notting Hill

DATA70 have been invited to spin some records at RoTA (Records of the Afternoon), Notting Hill Arts Club on Saturday 19th July. The event is hosted by psychedelic music download store and record label, NORTHERN STAR RECORDS from 4-8pm.

There will also be live music courtesy of THE ZEN CIRCUS, THE NOVA SAINTS, SAY, SATSANGI and a DJ set from LOST MUSIC.

We've been told we can play whatever we like, so don't expect any space loops!

PODCAST - More Minimal

A new series of WNCL PODCASTS coming your way for the summer time. Stripped down clicks and bleeps in the MORE MINIMAL mixtape is available.

Photography from Rob Godden's BUDDHA'S BREAKFAST photo blog

REAL SOON

Currently on the WNCL gramophone player and continually restoring my faith in House music with every new release, the REAL SOON label come correct yet again with their latest offering by SESSION VICTIM. "No Friends (No Power)" encapsulates everything that is good about quality House music - timeless, sassy, a touch of funk with the odd quirk here and there. "Old school pumping chord patterns and no nonsense beats" say the label. Quite right too - classier than a mother fucker.

Label owner, Paul Hammond (ex ULTRAMARINE) also records as FURTHER DETAILS and has a delicious new album, OLD BONES available now on A Touch of Class, Germany. Real smooth...

NO.1 ASTRONAUT - At Home With...

That man Gutterbreakz again. The BLEEPFIEND imprint is a free-download, internet label that is "primarily dedicated to releasing lost/forgotten/unreleased electronic music recordings that we feel deserve a wider audience, to the best of our limited abilities."

I take the great honour of having the first release, NO.1 ASTRONAUT "At Home With...", a 10 track compilation of tracks taken from dusted down, hissy cassettes, recorded on shamefully lo-tech equipment in the suburban confines of my Mum and Dad's house when I was a lowly, unemployed graduate. Who'd have thought...

Another one from the archives, part 3 of the LOW BATTERY CASIO tapes is featured on the label's MYSPACE page amongst other soon-come offerings from future Bleepfiend artists.

All artwork comes from DOPPELGANGER

DATA70 - Blog Features

The aforementioned GUTTERBREAKZ blog review and Q&A with Data70 was not only very nice indeed, making us feel quite special for the afternoon, but also led on to a couple of other blog reviews.

First up was a great spot on the well respected BLISSBLOG, written by Simon Reynolds. Very exciting.

Followed swiftly by another piece written by South East London based blog TRANSPONTINE featuring some interesting musings on West Norwood.

Promo copies of the brand new, 24 track, DATA70 "Space Loops Volume Three" will be on circulation soon

GUTTERBREAKZ

I have many reasons to big up the infamous blogger GUTTERBREAKZ (aka sometime dubstep / minimal techno producer PATCHWERK MAN and owner of internet download label BLEEPFIEND).

Asides from the fact that he will often articulate my own thoughts better than I ever could and spookily mirror my own experiences in electronic music, new and old, be it a love of Fast Eddie, 2562, the production genius that is Rob Gordon or the golden days of Metalheadz amongst so many other things, he has also championed the DATA70 and NO.1 ASTRONAUT projects that I have been involved with. Flattering to say the least.

Links to these last two projects to follow in the next posts. Thanks for everything, Mr Gutterbreakz

MYPODCAST

There's also a new home for the WNCL PODCAST. I've archived all of the mixes from podomatic and moved them to mypodcast, as well as adding the last 2 mixes in The Spring Quartet series (House / Breaks). They're all free to download. Enjoy.

WNCL HQ

Out of the basement and onto the roof…The cassette library headquarters moves premises this month. Still in West Norwood, naturally, a bit more room and a cracking rooftop view of the city skyline. A makeshift studio has been assembled amongst the cardboard boxes as we prepare to live on a building site. New contact details available on request

MOOCH!N - Saturday 29th March

MOOCH!N
Babalou, Brixton, SW2
10pm-5am
£5 Guestlist b4 12 / £8 after

I have the great honour of warming up the decks between 10-12 at the next MOOCH!N party. These chaps know their House music and know how to throw a party so come down. Their new home is Babalou (formerly the Bug Bar under Mass) in Brixton. Click here for more details. Hope to see you there.

DATA 70 - In The Studio

With Space Loops Volume 2 out in the shops and getting some nice reviews, Jon and I thought it would be a good idea to try our hand at recording some more at WNCL HQ.
So far we've had two side-splittingly funny but very productive sessions with a third to follow before the end of the month. Plenty of new loops in the bag - hope to get a taster up on the MYSPACE site soon.

PODCAST - The Spring Quartet

I'm in the middle of a new series of shorter WNCL podcasts, THE SPRING QUARTET. The DUBSTEP (mostly tunes I've bought over the last couple of months) and TECHNO ROOTS (Basic Channel, Maurizio and friends) mixes are already up and ready to stick in your iThing. 2 more to follow over the coming weeks. Help yourself and enjoy.