It’s been a slightly bizarre 2 weeks in the world of TPHP
since our last outing; a series of unexpected events have left me stewing in a
peculiar cocktail of emotions, ranging from anger and frustration through to
triumph and outright smugness. This blog is inevitably the place to vent about
these events.
At the end of the last blog I said we had two more episodes
in the pipeline before the Ibiza Specials hit your iPods in June. I also half
mentioned that one of those episodes would include the start of a periodic
‘guest mix’ feature.
Sadly, the guest mix feature has hit the rocks just off that
rugged, God-forsaken island known to all creative people as ‘plagiarism’. This
has meant a rapid shuffling of my summer schedule. I will explain…
Starting a guest mix feature was something I’ve had in the
back of my mind for a while. Having taken a vow not to do anymore of the
‘oldies’ episodes I did last year, I am now in desperate need of ways of
keeping the podcast fresh and interesting.
A DJ from the US randomly approached me asking if he could
do a guest mix for TPHP. After listening to a set from his MixCloud, I thought,
“yeah, why not?” Let’s give a platform to other DJs. Let’s open things up
every 3-6 months to keep things fresh.
Everything seemed pretty normal. He sent me an hour long set of
trance. I put together an hour of more house orientated music to compliment it.
The episode was done. All ready to go.
But when I sat down to put together the full and final written
tracklist (which I do very thoroughly, might I add, to get the spellings and
labels all spot on), what did I find? An absolutely identical set on SoundCloud
by a Turkish DJ called Emre Tüylü. So brazen was this audio larceny that even
the tracklist he had sent me had the BPMs in brackets next to each track,
exactly as the original creator had done on SoundCloud.
On finding this out, the mixture of conflicting emotions was
exasperation and self-satisfaction.
Exasperation in that my time had been completely wasted by a so-called
‘fellow DJ’, but self-satisfaction in that I had completely outdone an attempt
to deceive me.
The key thing for me was that I had actually found out
before the episode was uploaded. To have unknowingly posted the mix of another
honest, passionate trance DJ as someone else’s work would have been a real dent
to the creative integrity of my own podcast. Who knows? I might never have
found out.
If you’re reading this Mr. DJ Kidd Kurrupt of Maryland, USA –
to call you a douche bag would be an insult to douche bags everywhere. The sad
thing is, the person you cheat the most in doing stuff like this is yourself. A
fail of epic proportions on your part – one I almost couldn’t get my head
around.
Incidentally, an e-mail challenging him on it was not responded to with any kind of vehement defence or gracious apology. Actually, his constantly pestering (and at times cheeky) e-mails ceased rather suddenly.
Dickinson 1, Plagiarism 0
Anyway, rather than mix a new ‘regular’ episode from scratch
at short notice, I’ve opted to make Episodes 32 and 34 do a little swapsies.
My Ibiza Specials are in 4 epic parts this year, but rather
than have them consecutively throughout June and July, we’re going to start
them off now and revisit later in July. This will quite neatly mark the start
of the Ibiza season.
Actually, we’ve just had an abnormally glorious week of
sunshine here in the UK. I was out in the garden earlier, melting in the sun
with a head like a lead balloon – I closed my eyes and just for a split second
I could feel that icy pool water on my skin....
Part 1 is something completely new for 2012. This year, in
anticipation of my 4th trip to the White Isle, I returned to the Ibiza
Spotlight forum to get all the inside gossip on the up-coming season. They have
a thread on there called ‘Tracks For 2012’ where users post their suggestions
for big Ibiza records of the year. As the forum is regularly frequented by
Ibiza veterans and cultured house and techno connoisseurs of discerning taste,
the suggestions given are always of a high standard and really dissect deep
into the core of something that is inexplicably ‘Ibiza’.
This was something I attempted with my ‘Ibiza Loves House
Music’ episode last year, but the opening 40 mins of that set really only
scratched Ibiza’s surface. I love house and techno, but my knowledge of it
compared to trance made it difficult for me, on my own, to really capture that
‘Ibiza spirit’ in a mature a way as I would have liked.
For this week’s ‘Spotlight On Ibiza’, I've handpicked a
selection of the very best suggestions from the ‘Tracks For 2012’ thread. It’s
made for a fantastically deep, textured and sophisticated set that builds
nicely to some slightly chunkier, club-orientated grooves later on. 5 of the
tracks are my own picks, mainly just to bridge a big harmonic gap between The
Major and Sunday At El Row.
Given my DJing background in trance and hard dance music,
this was a million miles away from my DJing comfort zone. In fact, this mix
starts out at around 20+ beats per minute slower than the music I first
attempted to beat-match with on those beloved Pioneer 100s back in 2007. I was
really nervous about mixing this set. In reality, it’s turned out as well as I
could possibly have hoped and I really enjoyed doing it as well. I’m actually
proud of myself for not chickening out on it.
Thanks to the members of Ibiza Spotlight for their unwitting
input. If you listen, I hope you enjoy it.
In the words of Frankie Wilde, – “Ibiza is…”
THE PHIL-HARMONIC PODCAST EPISODE 32
THE IBIZA SPECIALS
PART 1 - SPOTLIGHT ON IBIZA
1. Matthew Dekay & Lee Burridge - Für Die Liebe [All
Day I Dream]
2. Niconé & Sascha Braemer - Run Away (Dan Caster's
Dark Mix) [Stil Vor Talent]
3. Hollis P Monroe - I'm Lonely (Laura Jones Remix) [Noir
Music]
4. James Zabiela - Blame (Tom Budden's ALiVE Remix) [Hope
Recordings]
5. Just Be - Touch Me [Get Physical]
6. Zeitgeist - I Dance For No Reason (Giom Remix) [Save
Room Recordings] <<<(Phil’s
Tune Of The Episode)>>>
7. PBR Streetgang - Downstroke (Deetron Remix) [Hot
Creations]
8. Gui Boratto - Destination: Education (Terranova Mix)
[Kompakt]
9. Pig & Dan, Mark Reeve & Dean Demanuele -
Machines [Bedrock Records]
10. Maceo Plex - Sex Appeal [Crosstown Rebels]
11. Nneka - Shining Star (Joe Goddard Remix) [Decon]
12. Nicole Moudaber - Hair [Leena Music]
13. Dub Taylor - Holy Cow [Opossum Recordings]
14. Sacha Robotti - The Major [Dirtybird]
15. Jay Lumen - Drop That [Mistakes Music]
16. D-Nox & Beckers - Jacaranda (Dosem Remix)
[Tronic]
17. Mark Knight - Alright [Toolroom Records]
18. Umek - Sunday At El Row [1605]
19. Mark Knight & Funkagenda - The Man With The Red Face [Toolroom Records]
20. ENCORE : Storm Queen - It Goes On (Vox) [Environ]
Back to normal episodes for the next two offerings. Gonna try and keep some summery vibes in at least one of them. Then, it’s back to the Ibiza Specials and some Poolside Progressive, as per last year! See ya!
