I saw Ed DMX DJ last night at a Dissident Records party in Soho.  It was fun.

It reminded me how music should be – real vinyl, scratching, eclectic, clever and joyful.  He kept switching between styles from gangsta rap to funk to electro to acid and beyond. SO GOOD!

He’s got a podcast you should check out. It has this freestyle gem on it:

PAJAMA PARTY – YO NO SE

Man Parrish, the “electro funky white boy” and pioneer of electronic music, made a track with Paul Parker, the creator of my favourite jogging track – Right on target.

PAUL PARKER – ONE LOOK (WAS ENOUGH)

The collaboration reads better than it sounds – right?

Alex Macpherson wrote a great piece about Cassie on the Guardian music blog. I agree with everything he says – Cassie’s brilliant.

This track has a freestyle sound!

CASSIE – TURN THE LIGHTS OFF

I’ve been having really bad luck on eBay.  I’m going to stick with just ordering nitrous oxide for my fellow bloggers because 12” singles are proving to be a big no.  Almost every record I’ve ordered recently has  either got lost in the post or come to me scratched, warped or worse. One girl sent me a 12” of Joyce Sims’ All And All beautifully wrapped in brown paper and bubblewrap but without any cardboard backing – it arrived in several pieces!

So thank god for this freestyle 12” that came all the way from America undamaged.

WILD MARY – NO ONE KNOWS (VOCAL EXTENDED MIX)

All the clothes in this video are perfect.

THE JETS – CRUSH ON YOU

The other good scene, The Roxy battle,  features Rock Steady Crew and the NYC Breakers in a breakdancing contest. I’ve already blogged about that before. So here are the NYC Breakers a few years later wearing tight trousers.

As requested by Mr Michael O’Neill whom I’ve just noticed spells his surname with two Ls. I never noticed that before. This is the 10 minute version for those who adore extended saxophone solos.

EXPOSÉ – POINT OF NO RETURN

BTW you can get Come go with me here – it’s good but nowhere near as good.

My friend from Picnic Land tells me that there’s a Joyce Sims freestyle song that’s better than Shannon’s Let the music play! Is that possible? I’ve been searching for a while and I can’t find it. During my hunt for the mythical track I came across this 12″ single. It’s nowhere near as good at Let the music play but it’s definitely a seven or eight out of ten. I think this might have been produced by Kurtis Mantronik but Wikipedia, Discogs and the record’s sleeve all give conflicting information.

JOYCE SIMS – WALK AWAY (12″ CLUB MIX – HIP HOP STYLE)

In this world where everybody is sophisticatedly swinging along to Jodeci is there room for Miami style 808 bitch rap?

I don’t know the story behind the I got your boyfriend/girlfriend shtick but I like the music.

GET FRESH GIRLS – I SEEN YOUR BOYFRIEND

MC LUSCIOUS – BOOM! I GOT YOUR BOYFRIEND (X-RATED EXPLICIT)

Bonus track
WINK D FEAT CANDY FRESH – GET BUSY

I best stop posting my own material. It will only end in my four-track indiepunk demos or worse the IDM phase.

Here’s a really beautiful track with slightly stalky undertones.

C-BANK – I WON’T STOP LOVING YOU

It’s the best freestyle track I’ve been listening to recently. Even better than the other C-Bank track I adore.

C-BANK – ONE MORE SHOT

BOBBY COLEMAN – MUST BE THE MUSIC (FREESTYLE MIX) - this is SO good – I thought it was Ed DMX.

LATIN EXPRESS – BROOKLYN KNIGHT (BROOKLYN BOUNCE CLUB MIX) – this is even better – it’s my top find of the year – link taken from Freestyleflashback.

TRINERE – ALONE AT LAST (PRETTY TONY’S HYPED EDIT)

FFWD – BABY DON’T GO

LOUISA H – FANTASY BOY (MAXI VERSION) – note that string pattern – might come in handy later.

SHANNON – MY HEART’S DIVIDED

EXPOSE – COME GO WITH ME

EMOTION IN MOTION – FOREVER
MIKATRONIK – FUNKYTOWN
DAVIAH – MIRACLES

Arthur Baker – Breakers Revenge/ Beat Street clip (1984)

Freeez – I.O.U (1983)

Soul Sonic Force – Planet Rock (1982)

How the hell did that happen? At 3am I was having the worst night in recent months. The Korsan was empty and the manager said if Melanie Houston didn’t stop playing techno he’d… well… I didn’t stick around to find out. Things changed. Fast forward 90 mins I was having fun and… OMG… the manager was dancing along too!

Anyway back to 3am… I missed my DJ set due to technical problems and was in a stinking mood. The few that came were leaving and by then there were just 10 people. I was in such a bad mood even my reassuring friends were unable to offer comfort – a lot of them had gone – sob, sob, etc.

It was pretty bleak but as the Korsan emptied out leaving just the Night Slugs crew I stopped focusing on everybody else and started focusing on the only thing that was reality – the music – it was suddenly getting REALLY good when GUNIT played. I came on and had a blast spinning back to back with Jam City, Charisma and the star of the show Melanie – that girl is crazy and fun – she was the party. I played Chimo Bayo, Adult, Black Devil Disco Club, DIE, Fast Eddie and… er… Miss Kittin and the Hacker. She played horrible shit which just sounded SO right. Even after the lights went on she kept playing track after track and we kept dancing for at least an hour.

At 4.30 we were so danced out that we had to take the needles off the decks to stop her playing. That couldn’t stop her – she started playing a skipped CD glitch?!? (or maybe it was static) and cross fading a rhythm and filtering and EQing the sound into the most amazing minimal beat – for five incredible minutes. It reminded me of that Viz cartoon character, Ravey Davey, who danced to pneumatic drills in the street or Tires in Spaced with zebra crossing beeps. I felt like I was on drugs. In fact, maybe I was, perhaps somebody put something in my drink??? Back to bed now.

Damn, it looks fun. There’s a special top secret guest. I dream TKA do a live PA. I’m not a gambling man, well, not a successful one anyway, you should have seen lose at Walthamstow Dog Track, but, I bet it’s Ed DMX. Ed may live in Wood Green rather than Miami but he’s good. Here’s a mix he did live at La Boom De Luxe in France in ‘98. The first half is probably my favourite mix ever and I’ve been basing my DJ sets on it for years.

The party looks a blast but drink responsibly and don’t stay out too late – YGM?

Top Nice’s LOUIS ENCHANTE is playing – he’s starting a night dedicated to freestyle music soon. I’m a huge fan of the genre too. Here’s a freestyle-style minimix I made on Sunday afternoon at DAMAGE’s while recovering from Field Day.

1. Jailbait – Be The One – Atlantic – 1987
2. Break Machine – Street Dance – Record Shack – 1983
3. Shannon – My Heart’s Divided – Mirage – 1984
4. Man Parrish – Boogie Down Bronx – Boiling Point – 1984
5. Latin Express – Brooklyn Knight – Dfo Record Group – 1995
6. Lisette Melendez – Together Forever – Columbia – 1990
7. Bobby Coleman – Must Be The Music – Micmac – 1990
8. Ffwd – Baby Don’t Go – Criminal – 1987
9. Midnight Star – Operator – Solar – 1984
10. Company B – Fascinated – Bluebird – 1987
11. Noel – Silent Morning – 4th & Broadway – 1987
12. Shannon – Give Me Tonight – Mirage – 1984
13. Freestyle – Party Has Begun – Music Specialists – 1984
14. Egyptian Lover – Egypt – Egyptian Empire – 1984
15. Trinere – Alone Or Last – EKG Entertainment – 1992