Down Under back over here.

Picked up a stack of tracks from an Aussie mate of mine the other day - we share similar tastes in music, so I send him links to British hip-hop and he returns the favour.

This time around, the recommendations were thoroughly sunny, so I thought I'd share a few of the best with you.

First up are Bliss N Eso. consisting MC Bliss, MC Esoterik and DJ Izm, they seemed to have been around on the Australian scene for a good few years now, so I feel I've been more than a bit behind the cutting edge on this one, this is cracking little summer evening number, from their album Flying Colours



The other end of the scale is Seth Sentry, who hasn't even been signed yet, but seems to be getting himself around a cult following around Melbourne. This guy has fantastic flow, and definitely falls under the 'relaxed, non-aggro' hip-hop that I really like. 'The Waitress Song' is due to be included on his yet-to-be-released EP 'The Waiter Minutes Promo'.



Last up is Shad, who isn't Australian, but Canadian. This track, 'The Old Prince Lives At Home', from the album of the same name, definitely ticks my 'phat horn line' box, and shows his skills with the acapella at the end - this bloke deserves to be better known over here.

Purple Radio presents: Big Chill Sundae

Purple Radio @ The Thunderbolt, Bristol

Mellow, Mellow

We've started a new mix project thingy, which is basically an hour of non-scary tuneage to soothe your frazzled noggin after what has probably been yet another monster weekend. It runs midday 'til 1 fortnightly Sundays and is open to all. So if you fancy putting a mix together of suitably calming, laidback stuff for broadcast- please get in touch.

Here's the opening gambit from me.

Andre 3000 ~ Prototype

The Beatles ~ Sun King

Cantoma ~ Maja (dub)

Isley Brothers ~ For The Love Of You

Marvin Gaye ~ After The Dance (instrumental)

Sub Sub ~ Past

Crazy Penis ~ You've Lost That Feeling

Lemon Jelly ~ Soft

Marlena Shaw ~ Loving You Was Like A Party

The Futures ~ Ain't Got Time Fa Nothing

Lowrell ~ Mellow, Mellow

Leroy Hutson ~ All Because Of You

Cheers

Blackie

Mellow, Mellow

A long weekend in Detroit [1]

So I was updating the thread I started on the purple radio forum with a few impressions from the weekend just gone, but thought it might be good to try and flesh things out somewhat for posterity.

Friday:

Arrived at the motel around 10:30pm. Being able to drive to Detroit after coming home from work still feels surreal (in a good way), but certainly wasn't complaining. About 3.5 hours' drive, plenty of time to listen to some recent downloads (Four Tet vs Burial stands out in particular, and the Surgeon RA podcast made a lot of sense en route). No fecking service stations were fully open on the 403/401 heading west, though - sort it out!

My room-mate, as discussed, has already left for the evening (he was off to a private barbeque/gig round someone's house) but my car license plate attracted comments from my neighbours - first time someone's GOT it, but hardly surprising under the circumstances. Turns out not only do these good folk know my room-mate, but we have other mates in common, *and* two of us are on DJHistory! You know when you sometimes feel "yup, I'm definitely in the right place"... hadn't been out of the car even an hour, and I knew this weekend was gonna be special :)

So I ended up tagging along with them to a party - early night, pah! - which my room-mate also happened to come along to. Can't really recall much, apart from Karizma was playing (and was great - so were the others who played before), struck by what a great crowd it was (very mixed, no attitude/lairiness, everyone up for it, and seemingly fuelled on little more than booze and ciggies - there's no smoking ban in Michigan). But a great first night in Motor City, and the festival hadn't even started!

Purple Radio presents: Funkatarium

Purple Radio @ The Bank, Bristol.