MixTAPE: 'Double Trouble'

Last Friday saw the Irish invade Bristol's fair city with weapons of mass dancefloor destruction. I'm talking, of course, about Arveene and Matagouri - who descended on the Arc Bar and totally teared shit up. I started things off upstairs, imagining that I was some sexy Italian from Rimini circa 1982 (unfortunately none of this is true), rocking gems like 'Sea Hunt', Bamboo's 'Space Ship Crashing', and 'Robot Is Systematic' to a surprisingly receptive female contingent of the audience. Puffin had decided to take things easy and enjoy the night, so Softy was up next with Noze's 'Love Affair', and the surefire hits of Justus' 'Advance' and Dennis Ferrer's 'Son Of Raw' amongst other bits and bobs. The floor was ready for some freak mode action, and Matagouri was the man to set it off.

Known to his mother as Alex McKee, he's a damn fine chap and an even finer DJ. His selections were impeccable and he really worked the crowd into a sweaty mass of dancing bodies.By this time I was already well on the way to becoming a drunken fool so apologies for my hazy memories about what was played (there were some top house tunes outed, but they escape me at this very moment - any help Mr McKee?). I do remember, however, the long overdue resurrection of LCD's 'Beat Connection', which had all of the TAPE crew dancing around like the buffons that we pretend not to be most of the time. Some top quality disco shizzle was dropped before that (the original mix of Rinder & Lewis' 'Willie & The Hand Jive' being a particular favourite), before he whacked in the surefire disco monster that is Patrick Cowley's 'I Feel Love' remix. We did indeed feel the love, and when he finished up on the bombshell that is the Soulwax remix of The Gossip, everyone was waiting with baited breath to see what Arveene had in store for us.

He definitely had some work to do to show up his compadre, and I remember myself shaking my head in disgust when he started off with that 'Around The World' cover by Dangerous Dan and Nicky Van She, which I hate with a passion. If you're going to play a version of it, why not the perfect original rather than some crap knock off job of a cover? It did however provide much hungover amusement to myself and Soft as we cracked each other up over various comedy aspects of the track... As with many of our comedy in-jokes, I guess you had to be there.

Anyway, let's not dwell on this, as it was the only bad track that the Arvmeister played all night. His was a captivating and engaging performance, and in the environment of the upstairs of Mutant Pop you can see why he's one of Ireland's most lauded DJs. By this time I was posivitely wasted, but I can remember the unveiling of the knarly tech-house bleep fest that is the Nightmoves remix of Robbie Williams - roll over Soulwax. Top stuff by Mr Waites that should cement his position as someone who makes dance music for dance music lovers rather than fashionista nu-ravers. Other standouts were Marc Houle's 'Bay Of Figs', T2's 'Ortzroka', Claude Von Stroke's remix of Jamie McHugh, and DJ Hell's mix of the Presets that Shit Robot was rocking Timbuk2's dancefloor with last week. Arveene also unveiled a couple of his own original productions (quality booming electro-house that had us all in agreement at their sheer quality), along with his remix of Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' which is going to do some serious dancefloor carnage in '07. Seeing the assembled crowd erupt to it really was a Mutant Pop moment that raised a smile to my face and got everyone's hands up (not, however, for Detroit).

Speaking of Mutant Pop moments, you'll never guess what he played a quarter of an hour from the end though... only fucking 'Strawberry Fields Forever'! What may sound like the most ridiculous idea on paper actually sounded like a life defining event, and strangely enough this is without any form of illegal narcotics having their effect on me. How he managed to mix it in I'll never know (or remember), but that man is capable of some serious crowd pumping trickery on those CD-Js that doesn't really come across in his recorded mixes. To summarise, it was probably one of most enjoyable Mutant Pops for me since Matt Waites' last visit (no disrespect to Mock or Simon Rigg who both played barnstorming sets), due to it being generally stress free and having such a good atmosphere. Big thanks go out to Alex and Arveene for blessing our fair city with their superb selections and skills, and I'm sure they'll be paying us a return visit sometime in the future.

This weekend it's TAPE's turn to show some international dance party loving, as we return the favour and head over to headline the Family night in Dublin, where both Matagouri and Arveene are residents. Saturday the 9th is the date, and Wax is the venue, so all you Dublin TAPErs should drag your friends and pets down for some decadent electronic madness. We've been really looking forward to this, so expect some no holds barred peak time freak zone action (and a bit of disco of course!).

We were asked by Arveene to do an hour long mix to preview our show this Saturday, and after many arguments over its content and structure, here's the finished article. It'll be played on Arvo and Jonny Moy's radio show on Saturday, so tune into Transmit on Spin FM (103.8 FM for all you analogue radio fans) to hear it being aired to the unsuspecting public. Or you could just download it of course! Here's the tracklisting and download link:

Puffin Jack & Richard Carnage - 'Double Trouble'
1) Intro
2) Young Dog Alien - Amp Trouble // Young Dog Alien
3) Soundstream - Soul Train // Soundstream
4) Chica & The Folder - Tibetteppich (Pink Elln Balkon Remix) // Moniker
5) Heidi vs Riton - Vejer // Get Physical
6) Losoul - Matchbox // Playhouse
7) Palermo Disko Club - Pump // Kitsune
8) Alexi Delano & Xpansul - Echolocation // Plus 8
9) Nasty & Thresher - Black Sorcery // Elektrix
10) Smash TV - Yellow Asteroids // Bpitch Control
11) Audion - Hot Air // Spectral
12) Sideshow - Scary Biscuits (John Tejada Remix) // Aus
13) Interlude
14) Toastyboy - Skinny // Destructive
15) Mala - Left Leg Out // DMZ
16) Stereotyp - Flingstyle // G-Stone

Download:
Puffin Jack & Richard Carnage - Double Trouble

So to summarise....

FAMILY @ Wax, Dublin

This Saturday!

Richard Carnage & Puffin Jack invade the Irish capital, with the fantastic Matagouri in support!

Be there, or be a right angled, four sided object!