Ruben F – On The Dancefloor

Something of a 'usual suspects' feel to the blog tonight, with three labels representing who get a LOT of TIWWD love I know, but when they keep putting out records as good as these what's a boy to do?*

So this one, then, comes on Al Bradley's 3am and features three mixes of Groovin' plus bonus cut The Man Machine. Groovin' starts life as a garage-y organ groove, gets a slightly more contemporary-sounding refix from Poussez Vs Toast Burglars (!) that features elements of both tech-house and nu-disco, then on the Terry Vernixx High Desert Remix becomes a more percussive affair that'd be suited to terrace play, but without losing the deep/soulful timbre of the original. The Man Machine rounds out the EP on a deeper techy tip, with disembodied sample speech and a simple nagging organ/synth riff.

And between 'em, any DJ who plays deep house should find at least something to spin here.

Out: This week

About: You can find 3am Recordings on Soundcloud and Facebook.

*Actually I think you're supposed to build 'em up for six months then knock 'em down to make yourself look 'clever' and 'cool', that seems to be what a lot of dance music magazines/blog/etc take great delight in doing… but I've never played that. Never felt the need…

Audio Units – Sample The Example

The digital DJ debate continues, as on this latest from Al Bradley's long-running 3am, an unnamed speaker vents his spleen at all the haters who diss fellow DJs for using Traktor, Serato etc… but gives those DJs who ARE using Traktor, Serato but AREN'T doing it properly something of a wake-up call as well. "As long as you can rock a party, that's what it's about," is pretty much the case put forward.

Now, I'm not getting bogged down in that whole argument here, for many reasons… perhaps we'll discuss it another time but right now all you need to know is, this track rocks.

For me, it's the Full Vox Mix that works best, for sheer tongue-in-cheek value if nowt else ("If you're a new DJ, learn your fucking history. That's why the older DJs are gettin' mad at y'all… y'all don't know shit!"). But there's no shortage of less vocal-centric remixes. James Silk's rub is his trademark high-quality, old skool-leaning deepness and the Ruben F Ghetto Mix takes us into techier territory with firing 909s to jack-jack-jack your body, while label boss Al Bradley's 3am Deep Dub is a spaced-out, head-mangled affair that shouldn't really take much explaining.

Like I said, all you need to know is this rocks – in whichever mix you go for. And if a track rocks a party, that's what it's about!

Out: This week

About: This week, you can mostly find 3am Recordings on Facebook and Soundcloud.