The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 12

THE IBIZA SPECIALS PART 1 - IBIZA LOVES HOUSE MUSIC

Hola EDM fans.

As mentioned at the end of my last entry, what I would call ‘normal’ episodes of TPHP are taking a break until early September. But, never fear, the music does not fall completely silent. Far from it!

I fly out to the spiritual home of dance music, Ibiza, in less than a month. The villa is booked; the excitement building. To celebrate another much anticipated return to the White Isle and to get you all in that sunny, holiday season mood, I’ve got 3 ‘Ibiza Specials’ in the pipeline for you. This is the first.

The trinity of EDM is house, trance and techno. All three of those styles have a home in Ibiza; all play their part in giving the Balearic hotspot its rich, cultural atmosphere. But anyone who has been to Ibiza knows that it is house music that rules the roost. In Ibiza you don’t just get house music; you get the best house music.

And since there hasn’t actually been much house music in this podcast so far, I thought it was about time I put together a proper house set – something a bit more accessible for the radio listening public to get their teeth into. The vast majority of tracks in this set are ones I’ve been building up over the course of the last 18 months or so – some real favourites that I’ve simply not had chance to play.

In the opening 40 mins or so I really tried to be as true to the real spirit of Ibizan house music as I possibly could – in particularly opening with a track that pretty much defines the island. Dennis Ferrer’s Sinfonia Della Notte was a tune I picked up on whilst browsing the Ibiza-Spolight forums ahead of a previous holiday in 2009. All the house heads there seemed to agree it was one of the finest records of that year. The mix proceeds to turn up the heat pretty quickly but does its best to be as rhythmic and percussively-driven as possible. Plenty of jazzy tribal vibes and sunny continental touches!

After that we take a pretty sharp change of direction and get into the types of house music that are more likely to be frequenting the clubs and radio stations in this country. You get the full spectrum of electro and ‘big room’ house here, stretching from the low rolling synths of Laidback Luke’s Timebomb, to the warbling stabs of DirtyLoud and Lazy Rich, to the trancey touches of Tiësto and Hardwell’s Zero 76. Plenty of kick, plenty of bass!

There are a few oldies in there too. Electrixx’s cheeky Tetris remake will forever remind me of Tiësto smashing up Privilege in 2009. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to do a house set without playing Deadmau5’s remix of Calvin Harris’ Merrymaking At My Place. And no series of ‘Ibiza Specials’ would be complete without at least one version of Three Drives’ famous ‘waterfall tune’, Greece 2000 – in this case the epic Chris Reece remix.

In all honesty, since I cut my teeth as a DJ mixing hard dance music, house music is something I’ve really had to work at to get comfortable with. Considering this type of music isn’t exactly my forte, I’m really pleased with this mix. I hope it does the business for you!

THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST 012 - IBIZA LOVES HOUSE MUSIC

1. Dennis Ferrer – Sinfonia Della Notte [Strictly Rhythm] <<<(Phil's Tune Of The Episode)>>>
2. Luigi Rocca & Pleasurekraft - Nostromo [Hotfingers]
3. Peter Gelderblom & Blacktron - Burn It Up [Spinnin' Deep]
4. Bass Kleph – I’ll Be OK (Superskank Remix) [Definitive Recordings]
5. Riva Starr - I Was Drunk [Made To Play]
6. Truelove - Get Down [Loud Bit Records]
7. Soundshaperz - Cocaine [Confidence Recordings]
8. Nadia Ali, Starkillers & Alex Kenji – Pressure [Spinnin' Records]
9. Federico Scavo - Let's All Chant (Manuel De La Mare & Marshall Remix) [Hotfingers]
10. Laidback Luke feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn - Timebomb (Instrumental) [New State Music]
11. Dada Life - White Noise / Red Meat [Dim Mak Records]
12. Calvin Harris – Merrymaking At My Place (Deadmau5 Remix) [Do It Yourself Entertainment]
13. Three Drives – Greece 2000 (Chris Reece Remix) [S2 Records]
14. DirtyLoud - School Of Funk [Bugeyed Records]
15. Aaren San - Apes From Space (DirtyLoud Remix) [Plasmapool]
16. Sami Saari - The Punch [Captured Music]
17. Fast Foot - Protect Animals (Lazy Rich Remix) [Sick Slaughterhouse Recordings]
18. Electrixx - Tetris [EXX Records]
19. Mord Fustang - Lick The Rainbow [Plasmapool]
20. Spencer & Hill – Less Go! (Porter Robinson Remix) [Bazooka]
21. Steve Angello - KNAS [Size Records]
22. Tiësto & Hardwell – Zero 76 [Musical Freedom]
23. Phatzoo - Twisted Tweak [Just For Fun Recordings]
24. ENCORE :  Swedish House Mafia – One [EMI]

Part 2 arrives on the 6th of August. Got another dose of summer for your iPods. Take care!

The Phil-Harmonic Podcast Episode 11

Welcome ladies and gentlemen,

Another 2 weeks gone; another instalment of harmonically mixed dance music goodness arrives in the shape of TPHP episode 11.

Now, there’s a track towards the end of this week’s mix called Beautiful, an Alt+F4 remix of an absolute classic by Finland’s DJ Orkidea. Back in 2008, I did a huge journal-based rundown of my favourite 150 trance songs of the previous 15 years (which you can still read at last.fm, in fact). This version of Beautiful sat proudly at number 18 in that chart – without doubt one of my favourite trance records of all time. True to its name, it is a thing of real beauty.

And that track more or less sums up the sound I was going for in compiling this week’s episode. I’ve been wary of late that some episodes have had a nastier, slightly aggressive edge to them – particularly episodes 5, 8 and the back end of episode 7. For this week, I want to take away some of the pace and aggression, substituting that for some brighter, sunnier vibes. Still plenty of energy, just more in the way of lush pads, piano lines and classical (even operatic) touches. This week’s mix is, I hope, clear proof, if any was needed, that trance music remains as emotionally textured and ‘musically picturesque’ as any kind of modern music.

As if to completely contradict myself, the opening track (and my tune of the episode) doesn’t necessarily conform to the sound that I was going for in this mix. But it is one of my favourite producers playing it simple and doing what he does best – deep chunkiness, followed by a riff that raises the hairs on your neck and gets into the innermost recesses of your brain. It’s Jochen Miller’s new one on High Contrast Recordings – One Day. I wasn’t that much of a fan of either U & Eye or Troucid, but this is a return to form.

Our sunshine-soaked tunes follow later on and are the likes of Craving’s Inflection (from Richard Durand’s In Search Of Sunrise 9 compilation), Tritonal’s reworking of Mark Eteson’s Universal Language and Timeline Music’s piano-driven piece, Dreams Will Never Change. There’s also Andy Moor’s fantastic remix of Bladerunner theme, Rachel’s Song, and Cressida’s Kibo, a track inspired by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disasters in Japan earlier this year – the voices you can hear are various people saying ‘I feel for Japan’ in their native tongues. Do support that one if you can, as all proceeds go to the Japan Relief funds.

As always the pace does pick up after the hour mark, but doesn’t quite touch the usual 140 BPM tempo. I’ve tried to keep that summery, uplifting vibe in the second hour – Jorn Van Deynhoven provides us with yet another remix of Bobina’s huge You Belong To Me, Dub Tech Recordings release a pure Balearic stormer in Last Novel, a track that sounds like it’s escaped from a Roger Shah Magic Island compilation, while Enhanced Recordings serve up yet another one of those trademark uplifters in Stonevalley’s remix of Jaco – Uncertainty.

I’ve saved all our oldies for the end this week – they are the aforementioned Beautiful by Orkidea, a 2009 remix of that age old Ibizan classic, Mystery Land by Y-Traxx – a track I’m sure all of you remember from the film Kevin & Perry Go Large – and, speaking of truly beautiful trance records, we end on Goldenscan’s 2005 track Only With You. Now, this last track is a very personal record for me. Many won’t remember Goldenscan; many that do will probably prefer this release’s A-side, Halcyon. But with Miriam Stockley’s haunting, almost sweeping vocal and its shades of Atlantis vs. Avatar – Fiji, this one gets me every time. Another truly gorgeous piece of melodic music and another one of my all time favourites.

Last time out I announced this podcast had made its way onto iTunes for all you iPod and iPhone users. This week I’m pleased to reveal that a new RapidShare Pro account means that all episodes of TPHP will be available for at least the next 2 years. As an episode comes down from SoundCloud a direct link download will go up on this blog and those links will be used in my RSS feed for iTunes and WinAmp. Hopefully, it all stays working!

THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST 011

1. Jochen Miller - One Day [High Contrast Recordings] <<<(Phil's Tune Of The Episode)>>>
2. Gareth Emery & Jerome Isma-Ae - Stars (Hardwell Remix) [Garuda]
3. Kenneth Thomas feat. Roberta Harrison & Steven Taetz - Drive (Ryan Mendoza Remix) [Perfecto]
4. Craving - Inflection [Songbird]
5. Temple One - Zebra (Nuera Remix) [Enhanced Recordings]
6. Thomas Kelle - Mars Needs Lovers (Daniel Rems Remix) [Alter Ego Digital]
7. Mark Eteson - Universal Language (Tritonal Club Mix) [Monster Tunes]
8. Mike Koglin vs. Genix - Helion (Norin & Rad Remix) [Anjunabeats]
9. Turn & The Breaking Clouds - Dreams Will Never Change [Timeline Music]
10. Vangelis - Rachel's Song (Andy Moor Remix) [CDR]
11. Cressida - KiBo (The World Speaks Mix) [Euphonic]
12. Mark Sixma - Arrivals [Songbird]
13. Tiddey - Copacabana Dream [RR Recordings]
14. Bobina & Betsie Larkin - You Belong To Me (Jorn Van Deynhoven Remix) [Maelstrom]
15. Viceverse & Farhad Mahdavi - Last Novel (Farhad Mahdavi Remix) [Dub Tech Recordings]
16. Jaco - Uncertainty (Stonevalley Remix) [Enhanced Recordings]
17. Orkidea – Beautiful (Alt+F4 Remix) [Sential Recordings]
18. Y-Traxx - Mystery Land 2009 (Fred Baker vs. Barry Jay 2009 Remix) [Nebula]
19. Goldenscan – Only With You [A State Of Trance]

Well, that’s another one done. ‘Normal’ episodes of this podcast are going into hibernation for a couple of months now. Of course, there will still be fresh episodes coming your way - I’ll explain what form they will take in 2 weeks! See ya then!