Jack's Top Tracks - March 11 2013 - the best electroswing on the web

Phew, what a day. First morning at a new job, so I have been ever so slightly stressed out today. Perhaps your Monday was tough too? If so, here is this week's selection of tasty electro-swing goodness to help you relax. If you don't need help relaxing (you lucky blighter), just enjoy the music. That's an order.

---

Old

Elle and the Pocket Belles

That's right - this week you get 5 lovelies to listen to and gawp at. You there! Stop drooling.
I have selected this video for you this week because I was at a great night on Friday at which these girls were headlining. Performing with their Big Band they always put on a great show. A special nod to Li'l Kimberley, who tells me she is the cute one of the group. I, however, suspect that this is a front to lull unsuspecting and totally respectable gentlemen like myself into indiscretions and louche behaviour. You can keep up to date with their activities via their home page, Facebook or Twitter.

---

Old

Kiril Dzajkovski - Jungle Shadow - Live at Exit 08

You thought I had gone soft didn't you? Well, this will put your mind at ease. This crazy little video is from a few years back - I came across it when researching an academic piece on the Balkan Beat scene last week. It sounds ever such a lot like Pendulum bought a trumpet. Get your listening apparatus around these five minutes of brassy Balkan bonkers-ness and I guarantee you happiness will result.

---

Brand SPANKING New

Pique-aboo - Spanky

Stockings! Bottoms! Spanking! Swing! I think I died and went to heaven. Pique-aboo are a Cape Town-based duo consisting of  Talya (vocals) and Helena (drums) - just came across these girls last week, but didn't have space for them in the selection, so here they are this week. What do you think of the song?

---

New

donJohnson and Leo Wood - I need swing (ft. Myles, Declan and Nicko B)

Who likes bass? Do you like bass? I like bass, so I like this. donJohnson, one of the guys behind the legendary Cabaret Voltaire (Exeter and Bournmouth), has made this wubby, dubsteppy, bluesy number and it quite simply rocks.

---

New

Defunk - I Put A Spell On You (ft. Sam Klass & Vindaloo)

I think Mr. Defunk must have put a spell on me. When was the last time he wasn't included in the selection? How is it that he keeps producing such stonking tracks? This one makes me feel like James Bond. Actually, I am far more suave, not to mention disreputable (I mean really, how come he still hasn't done the dirty with Moneypenny?) Have a listen - I defy you not to pump your fists with the bassy, choppy synths.

---

So that's it for another week. It has been really hard to choose between tracks this week, and there is a whole load of great music around at the moment. Keep your eyes on the Facebook and Twitter feeds the latest updates. As always if you are a DJ, producer or a band, do send me your latest tunes and you never know, I may just plug them here for you. Everyone else, do please share your thoughts on this week's selection this week. What did you like? What didn't you like? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Profile: Richard Shawcross - Ragtime Records

Although the UK is home to the world’s first dedicated Electro-swing club, most of the earliest tunes came out of Europe. This is now beginning to change, with the launch of a new Birmingham-based label called Ragtime Records - stated aim: to make electro-swing "you can really get down to". One of the men behind this is Richard Shawcross, aka C@ in the H@. 

I met him on a drizzly Tuesday evening in November, at my flat in Shepherd’s Bush. [I was working 13 hour days in December and have only just got around to posting this!] Having visited his sister in Highgate, he was driving back to Birmingham to prepare for the label’s launch party that weekend, but stopped off to chat to me. 

Richard takes to the decks at the Ragtime
Records launch party.
Taken from Ragtime Records Facebook page

I was particularly interested to get under the skin of the man who’s music I have admired for some time, and who’s take on electro-swing is typically British. I decided to start by talking to him about the music he makes as The C@ in the H@, work which combines swing with dubstep, jungle, and turntablism. I asked if blending these styles presented a challenge. “Not really,” he said, “I’ve always made dubstep, and I find that lots of syncopation helps me. I was inspired to start making electro-swing when I heard a youth group playing big band swing and thought ‘I’d love to put a big bass line under this. I find that I can be more melodic with the bass when there is some swing involved, which gives me more options.”

We chatted on about dubstep for a while, before I remembered that we were meant to be talking about the new label, which launched on Saturday 24th November. He and Tom Hyland (guitarist in Birmingham electro-swing band Electric Swing Circus) have started the label in response to what they see as a gap in the market: “There aren’t a lot of British electro-swing labels. It’s a growing scene and the UK needs to be represented. We had the first two EPs ready [‘Gangsta Swing’ by the C@ in the H@ and ‘Penniless Optimist’ by Electric Swing Circus] and were going to release them on a different label, but they were taking so long that we worried about how seriously they were going to promote them, so we decided to do it ourselves.”

He told me that for both himself and Tom it is a labour of love rather than a money-making scheme, and points out that even if money were the object, it would be very hard to turn a profit. Will they, then, be putting on some live shows and club nights? “Well, Tom is planning a festival for May next year [See the post about Swingamajig], where I am sure the label will be represented, and I was actually talking to someone today about doing a London night in the new year. It would be good to get the label’s name out known in some other cities too. But even then the money isn’t better in gigs; it is just that the money in sales and production has gone down!” Richard is quick to play down any suggestion that they are mounting a challenge to the established UK electro-swing label Freshly Squeezed, or their popular ‘White Mink’ events. “Those guys have done fantastic work - I just think there is room for another label.”

So far as future releases go, he tells me that there will be more music from C@ in the H@ and an album from the Electric Swing Circus. Although they are looking to take on UK-based artists, there is also a project in the pipeline with French swing-house producer Vassili Gemini. “There are some established people I would love to get involved in the label, people like DJ Switch [3x world champion DMC DJ and collaborator with Richard on their dubstep/turntablism project ‘Brotherhood of Filth’]. It was actually him who introduced me to electro-swing. I don’t want to limit the label to one style of electro-swing, but I think scratching can add so much to a live show.”

Talking about other potential signings he is a cautious, perhaps not wanting to count his chickens. “There are some guys out there who just need a little more time to hone their production skills a bit more. I’d love to help them out and will where I can, but it is really something that artists need to experiment with and learn for themselves.” He is in favour of letting them find their own sound rather than steering them in one direction or another. “That’s something I liked about the Gangsta Swing EP of mine – it was original, no one else had really made anything like it.”

If there were a mission statement for the label, he thinks it would be to encompass the whole electro-swing genre. “That’s where the name comes from – ragtime was really where syncopation came into western music, and I want to bring the whole thing full-circle, from the very beginning right up to date.”  Although we had spoken before, this was the first time that we had met in person. It was especially instructive to be the one to break the news of his recent nomination for ‘Best Remix 2012’ in the annual electro-swing awards, for his reworking of Swing Republic’s ‘Crazy in Love’.  His response was disarmingly excited, almost boyish, a broad smile crossing his face. “Wicked! I didn’t even realise ‘cos I have been away from my computer for a day or so. I’m well chuffed,” he enthused. The overall impression was of a laid-back, friendly guy who just loves making music. Electro-swing is not a genre that takes itself overly seriously, and Richard seems to embody this attitude.  Since this interview was conducted Ragtime Records has released the aforementioned Gangsta Swing EP, which is available for download on places like beatport and Juno. C@ in the H@ will be playing at the epically huge Electric Empire Escapade in Peckham on February 8th. Check out their Facebook page here, and on Soundcloud here.

New music update

There has been something of a spate of great free downloadable music landing on the doormat here at Cad Towers over the last couple of days. Being rather busy with the day job I at the moment I am just going to share them here for you all.


First, Kiwistar, that channel-hopping, gig hungry producer/DJ has very kindly offered us all a nice 90-minute mix of some of the finest electro-swing out there. The mix includes the excellent French turntablists C2C's new track 'Down the Road', a rather jolly 'Inspector Gadget' remix, Kormac's 'Wash my Hands' and some really grubby stuff towards the end - Huzzah for swingstep! If you like this, Kiwistar has several gigs over the Jubilee Weekend, including one at the Islington Metalworks on 1st June, and, I believe, at White Mink at Meadowlands on 2nd.


UPDATE - those of you who follow me on Facebook will have seen that Kiwistar is not playing at Meadowlands.  


Kiwistar's Spring Swing 2012 Mixtape Free Download by Kiwistar


Next is a clean version of another Jeeves and Wooster mash-up, this time with a couple of US mainstream rappers I have never heard of. As you may know, I love the original television show and have blogged a different remix of the theme before - this one is, I think, better - the lyric and the beat fit so perfectly - really great mash-up electro-swing.


DJ Jeeves & MC Wooster Quik Get Down (DJ Dodgy-Style Mash-Up Edit) by Barely Legit


Finally, I would never forgive myself if I didn't warn you all that this is the last day (17th May) that you can download the excellent Electro Swing and Gospel Breaks set from Skeewiff. ever since my original post about them they have been played at least once a day. Get it while you still can! Skeewiff - Electro Swing & Gospel Breaks (D/L enabled until 18/5/12) by Skeewiff 


 Lots of love,


Jack