Comin On Real Slow...

If there's anyone still out there reading this... well my apologies for a lack of time etc etc. We've had a tough few months and I've not had much time for making music, or writing this blog...

I've done a few quick edits for DJing, and hope to have some of them up here soon, as well as getting some vinyl out in the new year.

For those of you searching for the Caroline Crawford re-edit, here it is once more...

Caroline Crawford - Comin On Slow (Floorman's 124bpm dub).mp3


Caroline Crawford - Comin On Slow (Floorman's 124bpm dub).mp3

Back soon

Best

Floorman

Tweaking, tweaking, tweaking....

Been trying a few different file-hosting options so I don't have to keep reupping stuff to YouSendIt: MediaFire seem one of the easier hosts when downloading - don't clog you up with pop-ups or make you wait to download.

Also trying to embed a player so readers can preview tracks directly from the site - currently using a Yahoo player, but if anyone can advise a better option, I'd be grateful. Slowly going through the posts and reupping all music: hope to have it all done soon.

Been very stretched for time recently, but hope to be back up and running with lots more music posts soon...

Ossum Boogie

Just had an email from Timm Sure of Coyote Sounds and Is It Balearic?
about this tune we put together during the sessions for the Floorman album.

A cheeky little number - always goes down well on the dancefloors - posting here for your listening pleasure.

Been remixing a couple of Floorman tunes for an autumn release on vinyl: this may end up out at some point, possibly on one of the edits eps I'm planning...

Floorman - Ossum Boogie mp3 (MediaFire)

Ossum Boogie.mp3

Back soon...

Nearly there with house move/wedding stuff etc, so I'll be back soon with some new stuff, and reups of all the edits.

For those of you looking for the Michael MacDonald edit, I've re-upped it - get it here

I Keep Forgetting

How apt. A month since my last post: I'm still hiding behind the whole moving house/baby excuse for not getting busier with the blog. Life just keeps getting in the way. I finally moved the double bed out of the 'studio' (spare bedroom) now that we're getting some sleep and I don't have to use it for catching up on zeds. A bit more space, but it still feels tight, and needs some acoustic treatment - all that mattress/bedding worked ok. Suffice to say, there's not much actual studio work going on at present, but I managed to get a version of my Michael McDonald edit sorted enough to post here.

A sublime and absolute classic track from the former Doobies singer, as sampled by Warren G. This is either sacrilege or manna, depending on your attitude, though concerns of the former never stopped me before - too much of a good thing being preferable to not enough in my book...

I've had a lot of requests for re-ups, and when I get some time I intend to repost everything using Z Share or Media Fire, or another of those ad-ridden file hosting services - at least the stuff'll be there for longer than two weeks for those of you new to this blog. My website is still a way off, and physical releases not likely before the onset of winter...


Michael McDonald - I Keep Forgetting (Floorman Edit) mp3 (MediaFire)

I Keep Forgetting (Flooman Edit).mp3


Shouts out to DJ Anonymous, Captains Crate and Beat Electric, who've all been providing the soundtrack to my summer so far. Honourable mention to LeBaron, whose rips sound incredible compared to the norm thanks to a highly modified Technics 1200 and audiophile phono stage - I may be spending some cash on similar mods soon.

Hope you enjoy this, do get in touch if you need anything that's disappeared (email me) and check back soon for more goodies...

Figure this out...

It's been a busy month, hence not much activity here.

In the middle of finally moving the rest of my studio and records out of my house: 8 years of accumulated stuff and mountains of vinyl in every conceivable place. My studio was in the loft conversion three floors up and contained an unexpected amount of vinyl stashed under the eaves. I reckon I've moved about 12,000 records so far, as well as crates of CDs, tapes, studio equipment: only 12,000 more to go from the record shelves on the second floor- think I'll be employing a man with a van for the rest...

I'm in the middle of a few things edit-wise, and there's some stuff I've done and not posted - keep your eyes peeled on the blogs I'm linked to for some newbies.

I've something in mind for some of the stuff posted here, will be happening in September, all being well.

I've nearly finished my edit of I Keep Forgetting by Michael MacDonald, but I'm not convinced it's there yet so it'll have to wait till next week.

Here's something I've been playing out for the past couple of weeks -my Jamie Lidell edit. The new album has had a mixed reception, and I think the production's a bit disappointing in places - possibly playing it a bit too safe - but there's no denying the man's got some voice for a skinny white bloke, and he can cut it live: just hope he retains some of the madness of his old live shows now he seems to be heading for the mainstream...


Jamie Lidell - Figured Me Out (Floorman Ext Edit) mp3
Jamie Lidell - Figured Me Out (Floorman Ext Edit) mp3 (MediaFire)

Re-up requests and one from the vault...

Thanks to everyone who emailed and posted comments recently. I've been working on a few new edits, but have nothing new ready to post yet. To keep your appetites whetted, here's one I did a while back - a real low down soul groove from Barbara Acklin:

Barbara Acklin -I Can't Be Myself (Floorman Edit) mp3 (MediaFire)

I Can't Be Myself Floorman Edit 1.mp3


Also had a few requests for a re-up of the Caroline Crawford edit- get it here

Other requests have been made for tracks that are still available from the original links in the posts below so come on people - please try the existing links before asking for a re-up...

Witness The Filthness...

As promised, here's my re-edit of the mighty Witness (One Hope) by Roots Manuva. You can buy the original here (iTunes)

The original is 100% guaranteed dancefloor success. I decided to re-edit it with an extended intro and added filthiness (courtesy of MS20 filter action, studio nerds) after being asked to play it nearly every Saturday night at Dogma for the past two years by ace bar-person Adrian.

There aren't many tunes I can stomach hearing again and again, but this is certainly one of them. Is it sacrilege to mess with a classic like this? You be the judge, this is a DJ extended edit with minor tinkering and sonic trickery - maybe you'd rather I just did the extended edit and didn't mess with the sound of the original? This version has been tweaked and tested for maximum dancefloor effect. Let me know either way...

Witness (Floorman MS20 Edit) by Roots Manuva (YSI)


The cheeky DJ Ayres remix of Work by Masters At Work that's been doing the rounds on Hype Machine is another Saturday night dead cert for me. Ayres takes the track deeper into dancehall territory than before to great effect - his version always ensures much lowdown posterior-wiggling booty action, yes indeed.

As the version I'd got was only 2 1/2 minutes long, I thought I'd extend the mix a bit. Posted here for your pleasure for a limited time only as I'm not sure whether this is available commercially or not (have just checked, there is a vinyl release which can be purchased at the excellent Fat City). Check DJ Ayres website for mixtapes and other download goodies.


Work (DJ Ayres Chinkuzi Remix) (Floorman Extended Edit) by Masters At Work (YSI)

East meets West

Recording a lot of my vinyl onto my laptop recently - been DJing with Traktor Scratch since last summer. Have to say I'm enjoying not carrying huge bags of records around (though selecting tracks isn't as intuitive as flicking through a box of 12"s - especially when tired or worse for wear), and I'm finding a whole new world of mixing possibilities opening up via the instant loop and fx facilities- not to mention the beauty of doing an edit and spinning it the same night via turntables. Must be a lot of dubplate pressing plants going out of business, which is a great shame. I heard this week that Nottingham's just lost a great pressing plant: starting to remind me of 10-15 years ago when everyone confidently predicted the death of vinyl, only to see it flourish once more...

Anyway, here's two tracks that'll always have a home on my drive-


Harvey & Diesel's Moton Edit of East by Billy Paul (YSI)

This takes me back to playing at Tim Lee's Tummy Touch nights at 333, many moons ago. A great edit of an even greater tune.


The Doors - Peacefrog (Floorman extended edit) (YSI)

From around the same time - a cheeky extended intro version of one of The Doors' finest moments from Morrison Hotel.


This week I've been mostly taking the digital razor blade to Roots Manuva's Witness - played a rough version of the edit last saturday night and got a great reaction. It's currently running at over seven minutes, and if the crowd like it this week, it'll be up for grabs next week, either here or via one of the blogs listed on Hype Machine who've asked me for tracks.

Sorry if this post's a bit hazy - too many nights with not enough sleep.

Stay tuned...

Powder Everywhere...

Thanks to everyone who got in touch while I was away - great to come back and find people have been enjoying the music. I'm aware that I've not been posting as regularly as I was, but life, baby, moving house and snowboarding have got in the way recently (Easter in the Alps - BIG dump of powder woohoo...). Must try harder (seem to have been hearing that since schooldays - soo long ago...

Special mention to American Athlete for posting the Caroline Crawford edit (here).

Will try and pick up the pace a bit, though I'm going to have to finish/clean up a fair few edits if I'm going to share them with the world at large...

Some of you have been asking about vinyl pressings - something will happen this year- really good to know which tracks people want to see on disc, so do email me and let me know if there's anything you'd like on a pressing.


Floorman - Ossum Boogie mp3 (YSI)


Ossum Boogie is an early track from the Floorman Presents Stack
album sessions, before things really kicked-off with Holly on vocals, when I planned to do an album of eclectic tracks with different artists. It's a cheeky flute-driven funk/folk/soul instrumental number that goes down really well on the dancefloor (the combination of Jimmy's smoky Hammond organ playing, Ming's fine Fender Bass and random Floorman percussion stylings vaguely reminiscient of early Primal Scream???). There's a great vocal version courtesy of Shrivastava, which never got finished, though I'd like to post it here at some point.


While I'm posting Floorman stuff, here's the closing track from the album. Featuring, as ever- Holly Backler on vocals (her opera training in full evidence here - all live, no autotune), Ming on bass, Jim Baron on keys- and the incredible pedal steel guitar of Dave Langdon (the Midlands' answer to BJ Cole). Dave's a pedal steel genius - he made his instrument from scratch, even casting the pedals himself, and is able to conjure up some amazing textures and soundscapes - a pleasure to work with him on this track. I believe the pedal steel to be a much-underrated instrument: capable of far more than country and western swoops...


Floorman - Travelling mp3 (YSI)


Coming up very soon - more edits!

Where did that month go??

Time seems to be running away from me at present, can't believe it's nearly a month since I last posted...

Today I have a few items from the Floorman vaults.

First up is:


Closer To Me - Floorman(YSI)


from the Floorman Presents Stack album on Bocajito. Shameless self-promotion, I know, but this track features the incredible talents of Holly Backler, on top form both lyrically and vocally; together with some deft keyboard wizardry from the one and only Jim Baron, and some astonishing bass action from the mighty Ming on his beloved 64 Fender Precision, Bootsy. Inspired by a lengthy solo Jim played over the rough instrumental version of the track, which in turn reminded me of Carl Craig's stunning remix of 'Out Of The Storm' by Incognito - can be found on Headphone Sex- which incidentally owes no small debt to Kool And The Gang's Summer Madness (youtube link). Holly was given a title and the rest just followed on from there. Probably my favourite track from the album.


Next we've a slow-burning unreleased disco dub I did a while back. Hamilton Bohannon is one of the all-time great disco producers, and IMHO this work with the glorious Caroline Crawford is his finest hour. The original track runs at around 130 bpm, but I wanted to take it down a notch, dub it out and extend things a tad. This reedit runs at 124 bpm, is tempo-sync'd for the lazier DJs amongst you, and at just over nine minutes long offers plenty of time to head for the bar/toilet/nearest girl before you segue seamlessly into your next dancefloor monster.


Comin On Slow (Floorman Dub) - Caroline Crawford (YSI)


Finally for tonight, another unreleased Floorman edit, which I did for a trip to Oslo to play at the one and only Nomaden last year (hello Tosh, hello Baktus, hello Rune), as covered by the Klaxons-


The Night (Floorman Edit) - Frankie Valli (YSI)


That's it for tonight, and possibly for the next coupla weeks - heading to the alps this weekend: big snow expected, hoping to stay on my plank of wood more than I fall off - back after Easter.

Back Once Again

Great to come back to find some very positive comments on the Edits/Productions posted so far - thank you to everyone who got in touch.

Some great music coming from my Bocajito and Nottingham homeboys soon - look out for some Crazy P, Neon Heights and Secret Stealth soon. Crazy P have just finished mixing their new album 'Love On The Line', and it's a real belter: they've recorded all the tracks live in their studio - a big progression from the excellent 'Night On Earth'. I've been honoured with pre-release versions of the album for some time now, and there's dancefloor goodness aplenty...
Meanwhile Secret Stealth are hard at it in the studio recording their third album with Stealth /Stack vocalist, Holly Backler- from what I've heard so far it's going to be their finest to date.


I've been busy keeping up with our 15 week old son, so music and blogging have taken a back seat, though there's some new edits on the way soon.

Thought I'd post a trio of Hip Hop covers by way of a change-

Al Ben Azza - Concrete Schoolyard (YSI)

A great acoustic guitar 7" version of one of Jurassic 5's finest moments.

Ba Barracus Band - Mama Said Knock You Out (YSI)

Crazy Percussion-driven monster of a 7" that re-energises LL Cool J's classic.

The Gourds - Gin & Juice (YSI)

Imagine if Snoop Dogg was a Good Old Boy from Alabammy, chewing baccy with his white trash brothers while picking a mean banjo... Probably the most genre-bending cover version of all time???



And for those of you looking for another lengthy Floorman edit to spin while you take a much-needed break from the turntables, here's my segue mix of student favourites Jurassic 5's rumpshaking mid-tempo number 'In The House' with the original sample source, The Graingers' classic 'Shine Your Light'.

Shine Your Light In The House (Floorman's Disco Edit 2) - J5 vs The Graingers (YSI)

Fantastic Four Edit

I've been returning again and again to American Athlete's blog over the past six months. Always enlightening and always rewarding, pure quality disco, mixes and re-edits. His selections have inspired me on several occasions, and this is the result of the post in September 2007 of a Fantastic Four rarity entitled Got To Have Your Love.

A Tom Moulton classic that I wanted to play to my Saturday night crowd, but without getting too disco...

Fantastic Four - Got To Have Your Love (Floorman Dub Edit) mp3 (YSI)

Prince On The One

There's something seriously wrong afoot when an artist decides to sue his fan sites for using his image, which is allegedly what was occurring with Prince at the tail end of last year.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the track that The Purple One produced in response is by far his funkiest outing for many a moon. This is a very simple re-edit to make the track more playable to my Saturday night crowd. The man still has it: just wish we could hear more like this.

As usual, this is up for one week only. Please support the artists (even if they sue you)...

Prince - Pfunk (Floorman Freakshow Edit) mp3 (YSI)

Hot Chip Edit 2 - Something for the weekend, sir?

Hot off the presses (ok, off my drive) and ready for the weekend is Hold On (Floorman's Disco Freakshow Edit)  from the new Hot Chip album, Made In The Dark. This is an extended DJ-friendly edit weighing in at 8 minutes 22 seconds, giving you plenty of time to go to the bar/nip out for a smoke/get a funky asymetric haircut etc, while leaving your dancefloor safe in the hands of Alex, Joe & Co. This is my personal favourite from the new album, from what I've heard so far.

Please support the artists by buying the new single, Ready For The Floor which is out now in the UK, and/or the album Made In The Dark which is released on February 4th.

I'm planning on doing a dub mix of Ready For The Floor soon so keep checking back (Hype Machine won't link/list me until I've been posting for three months...)

Hot Chip - Hold On (Floorman's Disco Freakshow Edit) mp3 (YSI)

George McCrae - Treat Me Good (Floorman Edit)

Another unreleased Floorman edit, presented here for discerning DJs and soul fans, is You Treat Me Good by George McCrae from his eponymously titled 1975 album. 

This lush mid-tempo number gets an extended intro with added percussion, before breaking into the full vocal section and features some genuine old-school tape flanging effects courtesy of my Tascam TSR8. 

George McCrae - Treat Me Good (Floorman Edit) mp3 (YSI)

Floorman Presents Stack

Here's a disco treat from the Floorman Presents Stack album on Bocajito.

Influenced by Chic, and labels such as Prelude and West End, this includes the mighty Ming on Bass, Chris 'Hot Toddy' Todd on guitar, Jimmy 'The Mince' Baron on keys and the Stack Horns with horn arrangements by Toby 'Pee Wee' Kennedy. Vocals and lyrics from the one and only Holly Backler.

I'm just getting started blogging, and these are YSI links which will expire quickly. I'm avoiding Z-Share as I can't stand the pop-ups and ads. I'm looking into getting permanent file-hosting sorted soon, and will re-up these files with permanent links asap. 

Floorman Presents Stack - Not Enough Room mp3 (YSI)

Hot Chip Edit 1

Delving into my DJ bag, this is an extended edit of Hot Chip's 'And I Was A Boy From School' I did a while ago and features some old school tape-flanging effects for all you spoddy studio nerd types out there. It's my favourite track from The Warning- if you like it, be sure to buy their new album, Made In The Dark when it drops later this month

I've just finished an extended edit of Hold On from Made In The Dark which I'll post just as soon as it's been road-tested on a couple of dancefloors...

And I Was A Boy From School (Floorman School Disco Edit) mp3 (YSI)

Testing testing mic check....

This is a test posting.

The tune is Truth & Lies from the Floorman presents Stack album, and features the amazing vocal talents of Australian singer, Holly Backler and the keyboard wizardry of Crazy P's Jim Baron.

Floorman - Truth & Lies mp3 (YSI)