Thursday, August 30, 2012

[Free DL] KRTS & Lucky Cub - XOX EP


A nice free download to make your week - Vocalist KRTS teams up with producer Lucky Cub for a three track EP. Unlike a lot of Kurtis's material the Count Clockwork producer has brought a dark twist that makes for an aggressive yet pleasant sounding EP.







KRTS - Soundcloud

Lucky Cub - Soundcloud // Facebook


Monday, August 20, 2012

JNS's Top 5 Female DJ's


First of all it isn't sexist to admire and praise a female DJ on looks and personality if they have the talent to boot..y (cheeky!). Even as a male DJ I know that these attributes will always help make your name in the industry (I'll have to find some way of covering my ugly ass face I if I make I ever made it front page) but you can't have true success from that alone. One thing that I know for certain is a 5 can easily become a 9 behind a pair of CDJ's, that doesn't mean I'd love to have a DJ as a girlfriend, my girlfriend is a make up artist and I think I would rather it stayed that way - If she started telling me what songs to play other than 'one direction' I might start losing my edge.

Talking of make up artistry, its a mainly female dominated area although there is still a handful of men known to carry a few shades of foundation around - this is because traditional make up (excluding fashion) is aimed at woman and so they tend to pick up the interest. So why is it that in an industry like DJing that rely's on female inclusion on the dance floor, we don't have more ladies in the booth? I mean dance music isn't just aimed at men is it? Its live existence is for the most part down to the fact that many of us want to bump ugly's with the opposite sex and the only way to get that started is to attract them with some sort of sun dance routine. In other words we need girls to dance otherwise this sausage fest of a dance scene would become so intolerable that even Louie Spence would say there's too much cock to move.

Anyway, the following list is somewhat a tie up between the most talented and best looking DJ's I could think of. The woman in this list are great examples of how many female DJ's are at the top of electronic music scene. I honestly would have involved any female DJ with talent whether they were good looking or hideous but I all I've managed to find are beautiful woman. Sadly I think this shows up whats wrong with the industry.

So before I get into a rant about sexism and dance music let us continue to dribble and drool over the goddess's of the decks.

5. TAMARA SKY



Well I couldn't of started with a more controversial option! As a Playboy model it was never going to be easy to argue her case as to why she should be in this list. Tits out or not the girl can mix, been listening to a few of her mixes today all of which had some tasty tracklists. She's DJ'd at some of the biggest fashion events on the world including Mac Cosmetics Fashion Week party in New York and even Donald Trumps birthday bash! Even a cheeky TV appearance in the US on reality show 'The Girls Next Door'.







4. GINA TURNER

Gina Turner

Not a lot of info kicking around on Gina Turner but from what I've listened to I think she really should be up there with the likes of Annie Mac. She's worked with some huge names, credibly Laidback Luke and Style Of Eye. Take a listen to her stuff here, also recommend a read of her interview with Chemical Jump.







3. NINA KRAVIZ

Nina Kraviz

Used study dentistry in Moscow, now she tours the world over playing music she loves. Nina is a fine example of how persistence and passion can sometimes pay off. Her Deep House productions are flawless and her DJ sets have people booking her left right and center. I got to say 'Ghetto Kraviz' is one of my favourite tunes of the moment, the hypnotizing vocal is just brilliant. Not to mention her looks.







2. ANNIE MAC

Annie Mac

Yeah, you can't do a list on female DJ's without including the Mac! Annie Mac is known around the world for her show on Radio 1 and her DJ appearances from headlining festivals to presenting some of the best club nights in country. I actually had the pleasure to warm up for her in Inverness, joined by an entourage of friends she was incredibly down to earth and fun (She even gave us her Champagne!). Some achievements of hers include the success of her 'Annie Mac Presents..' releases, Mixmag cover CD, TV appearances including presenting on 'The Culture Show', 'Top Of The Pops' and appearing as a guest on 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks'.







1. MAYA JANE COLES

Maya Jane Coles

Maya Jane Coles has not only prevailed as a successful DJ but her productions are top notch, something which for me pips her over Annie Mac for the top spot. The London born producer heads two other projects with reasonable success, those being 'She Is Danger' with Lena Cullen and her dubstep alias 'Nocturnal Sunshine'. She's recently made the cover of Mixmag in a female DJ special and was asked by Radio 1 to make the famous 'essential mix' which later was voted the best essential mix of 2011. Under 'She Is Danger' she's remixed Massive Attack and Gorillaz to name some and won pretty much all the awards you can ask for as a DJ including - DJ Mags producer of the year 2011 and Mixmags Best Breakthrough DJ Award 2011. This year will no doubt see her impress and rise to the top!






Well that covers it for now, I know there are tonnes of female DJ's I am yet to discover so if you feel I've missed out someone then let us know!



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THE IRONWORKS & JUSTICE NEVER SLEEPS PRESENT - RITON
SUPPORT FROM THEM & US // POLYMATH // BOOMSHANK REDEMPTION

1ST SEPTEMBER // IRONWORKS // £10

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Saturday, August 18, 2012

How to save money as a Band/artist



Hey Guys, hope your all keeping justice and peace in the right?
So I had a listen to a limited edition run of a album called “Medusa” by InMe today. It was limited edition because the band had recorded it entirely by themselves and it was mixed by them as well (Mainly Greg I heard somewhere). Although it wasn’t perfect it was still a mighty fine effort to make themselves and by doing that in their homes it probably cost them nothing! So this brings me to the point of the post. How can we reduce costs on the recording and production of a record? how hard can it be? Bob Dylan and Neil Young done it.

Well, I am about to go into my 3rd year of Sound Production and I can tell you, some of the best sounds I have recorded has been by me just fucking about with mics.

So here is a list of ways I think you can do it yourself!

D.I.Y

Why not make it a Super awesome adventure of it and do it yourself? It took me about 6 faps of my pan handle to find this website and am sure you can find more if you try! Rental is cheap and will allow you to go nuts with no time constraints! I would advise you read some techniques first, you know can't hurt having a little bit of a idea before you go in ya know about recording? But this allows you to take equipment out and have a project with the band or yourself pushing your creative style and recording is always a fun way to spend the day!

Get some poor, dirty, lonely and desperate student to do it for you..

Well.... maybe just a student, It funny because I don't see enough people taking advantage of this but with most Sound Production or technology students there are most of them are dying to get experienced outside bands in for them to record in often professional and very expensive studio's using good equipment, I know I was last year and I was able to do that and the band benefited loads from it so you are both in a win-win situation!

Search for the engineer!

There are loads of folks out there who have their home studio's out there and are able to record bands in their homes! They often know what their doing and are willing to go to extreme lengths to soundproof rooms for their best sounds making studio quality records from the comfort of homes for a bit of silver crossing their palms! A band called Tubelord done this and got featured in Nuts magazine and are on to huge things from this cheaply done but well produced album! I for example do this (for details comment on the post) and I know loads of other folks who do it, now as a Musician looking for these people the best thing to do would be ask around and through a friend from a friend am sure you'll find someone, am not even kidding you will be amazed how cheap home audio gear is getting and why not do it yourself if your serious!   

A super quick post, I will probably follow this up with another post on more methods but am shocked by the amount of people who go straight to a studio to record so this was just a few idea's to think about! 

Friday, August 17, 2012

Felix Cartal - Tonight ft Maja Ivarsson + Remixes



I've been waiting on this one. This single had the potential to be a massive summer track, when I hear those vocals I feel like I'm being touched up by angels. The original is good but I think once it gets to the chorus/drop it just loses my attention so I'm glad there was really strong remix selection to release with it. Botnek had my vote before I'd even heard the others, these guys are on fire right now! Seen them in Glasgow and they had people hitting the roof with mostly originals and remixes of their own.



Other remixes on the release come from Autoerotique, Hot Mouth and Jay Fay.

The Hot Mouth remix is a second favourite for me. Its a good one to just move to, maybe not something I'd play out to get people jumping but it scraps the big breakdowns for some solid electronic cuts.



The Autoerotique remix is a big banger but its rounded synth squeaks remind me too much of Knife Party (something thats been getting on my nerves with electronic music lately). Still I can't fault it as a remix.



Jay Fay's remix is also decent. I wasn't keen at first because its slowed down moombahton banger but I guess its good to hear a completely different take on the song. Asides from that its an absolute banger!



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THE IRONWORKS & JUSTICE NEVER SLEEPS PRESENT - RITON
SUPPORT FROM THEM & US // POLYMATH // BOOMSHANK REDEMPTION

1ST SEPTEMBER // IRONWORKS // £10

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KOBI // THE LITTLE MILL OF HAPPINESS // MEURSAULT @IRONWORKS/MADHATTERS


I'm not supposed to be writing about bands because thats Euans job on here but last night I went out to watch KOBI play the Summer Showcase at Ironworks and what followed was a night of amazing talented bands one after the other that really had me thinking.

So after a thrilling four hour train journey home from Glasgow yesterday I decided to take a walk into town to watch some music and first up was the Ironworks for the brilliant Summer Showcase. I have to give this a mention since we don't really cover these sort of gigs, the showcase has been running for a year or so now (as far as I know) and its done a brilliant job of highlighting some of the cities most talented musicians. I go along as much as I can when its on because it never fails to surprise me - there's usually around three or four bands on a week - its a great way of uncovering the scene with a couple of shows.

I did however take some time on my leisurely stroll into town which unfortunately meant I missed the first band on which was Naked Red, I'll catch them some other time! Setting up were the now resurrected KOBI with a new brass addition to the band that had originally come together for their Belladrum main stage performance. The sound of loud talk was hushed by a slow vibrato from lead guitar that marked the start of the performance and immediately heads turned to the stage. Finishing with their new single 'Fight' - a progressive instrumental that hits harder than a tyson left hook - you can sense theres a real energy behind the music. The addition of a trombone player really makes this song come out, lead singer Gary holds back from mic for this one that has you thinking there's more to come. They continued to fire through a perfect performance including their newest song 'Eye in the Sky' which for me was the best of the night. Not the first time I've seen them play but again they didn't fail to impress.

KOBI on Facebook - Soundcloud - Bandcamp - Twitter - Website



Next on was The Little Mill of Happiness. Knew nothing about them before they came on and after hearing them I can't believe that! A band that sounds and looks like a wall of guitars they certainly had me interested. There's a dark feeling that runs through the performance but that doesn't stop some people moving their feet to a couple songs. 'Article of Faith' shines out as their best song in my opinion, its a song that I could easily picture in some bad ass american movie where the actor wields an almost empty bottle of Jack Daniels and doesn't give a single fuck. Decide for yourself.

The Little Mill of Happiness on Facebook - Soundcloud



So with that the showcase came to a close for the night but my night was nowhere near finished. At Hoots it was only getting started. Meursault, a band from Edinburgh had been tipped to me as something special to listen to and they weren't wrong! With just over two thirds of the room filled you can't help but feel disappointed with that turn out because this band could be and have been selling out venues across the country. They won't be playing shows like this for long by the sounds of it but it was good to see a lot of the local music heads there to watch including Radio 1's BBC Introducing presenter Ally McCrea. Definitely recommend you give them a listen and if you get the chance to go to a live performance don't miss it!

Meursault on Facebook - Soundcloud - Website



The rest of my night became a blur. Went to the Market Bar, tried argueing Daft Punk and Deadmau5 have had more effect on modern music than The Beatles, much to the amusement of Netsounds Unsigned com-padres Jamie and Murray - not as funny as Murrays stand up routine though.

So there I have done a little write up on some bands, think I would do it more often but the Indie scene doesn't really let people like me in. I think there is some initiation process involving chinos and ironically cool knitted loose jumpers.

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THE IRONWORKS & JUSTICE NEVER SLEEPS PRESENT - RITON
SUPPORT FROM THEM & US // POLYMATH // BOOMSHANK REDEMPTION

1ST SEPTEMBER // IRONWORKS // £10

BUY TICKETS  -  EVENT PAGE - IRONWORKS


Friday, August 10, 2012

[Track] Polkadot - Daydream *Free Download*

So I was derping about through the internetz the other day, and whilst power striding my way through the usual digest of funny pictures of cats and people's instagramed images of coffee mugs, I found this absolute GEM! There's some really nice deep house vibes in there that I am becoming increasingly fond of these days, check it out!



Nothing beats the feeling finding an unsigned, hardly heard of track that is of absolute beauty. This is one of those tracks. You can also download this track for free, along with a bunch of other great tracks, download linky HERE, it's the first track of the "The Party" list. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

RITON // support from THEM & US / POLYMATH / BOOMSHANK REDEMPTION



For those who don't know already, Justice Never Sleeps is working with Ironworks to bring you one of the biggest dates of the electronic dance calender. On September 1st we will present to you Riton - firmly up there as one of the UK's most respected and talented DJ's along with support from some of the biggest names on the local scene including Them & Us, Polymath and The Boomshank Redemption. What better way to end your Summer?

Riton has been known for his pulsating DJ sets, stunning original productions and incredibly diverse and intelligent remixes including working for M.I.A and Kylie Minogue. His music has been touched and remixed by fellow star DJ's like Benny Benassi, TAI and D.I.M to name a few.

His work as Carte Blanche with the late DJ Medhi (Both pictured below) became known and loved across the globe in its short time, it included vocals from Hot Chip singer Alexis Taylor for the song 'With You'. Other projects like Eine Kleine Nacht Musik have shown a different hand to his production and his collaboration with Primary 1 as 'Riton & Primary 1' produced some of his biggest hits to date including 'Radiates' and the ridiculously catchy 'Whos There' which I'm surprised to find today even has a version featuring a verse from Wiley!

Anyone who follows electronic music will know this is a night not to be missed! We also have a support line up full of local scene smashers including Polymath (previous releases with No Brainer Records and Vamp Music), Them & Us (set to release through Dave Spoon's Televizion Records) and 
The Boomshank Redemption (previously supported Chase & Status, Fake Blood).

So now that you have to go you'll need a ticket. You can buy your tickets online, from the Ironworks box office or even from one of us Justice Never Sleeps dudes - Send us a message on our Facebook page for details. 


Carte Blanche (Riton left, DJ Mehdi right)



Sunday, August 5, 2012

Justice Never Sleeps @ Belladrum Tarten Heart Festival 2012


So this has been my first post in a while as you can tell, I know its not good but hopefully you guys as well as the other JNS team can forgive me for being a lazy fat ass and I reassure you am back on it providing you with something alternative every week.

Now if you readers haven't been aware, one of the best festivals Scotland has to offer has just been underway. The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is done for another year and consistently gets better, The JNS team and DJ's were there this year in full force delivering beats so sick they had our body juices frothing! And as am sure you will hear about everyones views on this awesome weekend I'l let the DJ's who know electronic best cover that front, as for me I wanted do something a bit different and tell you who made my festival this year from just some of the amazing music I've heard this weekend from genres we don't usually feature, but things are about to change regarding that! So here is just a fraction of some of the bands I saw and although everyone delivered a huge show these guys are the ones who done it for me!

Fatherson 


One of the first bands to play on the Friday at the Hothouse Stage but was a performance that stuck with me the whole weekend. Sincere lyrics and huge catchy choruses led to a performance that had me singing their songs for the rest of the weekend. This 3 Piece have been going from strength to strength in the Scottish music scene and its no wonder why, I knew they were going to be good but not that good!


I was unable to share their lovely tunes but just follow this link here to listen to some outstanding stuff!


Treacherous Orchestra 

Definitely Something you wouldn’t expect to find on the blog I know but fuck it..This 11-Piece instrumental folk band are impossible to pinpoint because they draw on so many influences ranging from funk, techno, rock and many others making their music an awesome experience. The atmosphere at their gig was one of the best experiences from the festival and I am delighted to have been part of it, a great slice of the diversity found in Scottish music.


Frightened Rabbit 


A 5-piece band that I know loads of us were looking forward to this weekend, the firmly rooted success they've had in the UK and the US is easy to understand with honest soulful lyrics teamed up with the harmonies and addictive hooks they make something quite special. Their performance was an outstanding measure how a good live gig will always be the best way to hear music.


Roadway 

A 6-piece balls to the walls Classic Rock band who are locals to the Highlands of Scotland, their powerhouse gig at the Seedling Stage that I honestly thought was too small for Roadway's live performance which could have easily rivalled that to any main stage act this weekend. Huge, Raw and Epic are the words that spring to mind describing these guys, and their dedication to music and fans is something that is amongst some of the highest I've seen making very powerful and personal gigs to anyone lucky enough to see this cats live!


Stanley Odd 

 A 6 piece Hip Hop act hailing from all parts of Scotland, I have been following them for a while now but by some cruel twist of fate, any local gigs played has collided with something meaning that this Tartan Heart was the first time I have seen them live, and I am disgusted I haven't seen them sooner. Having only caught 5 hours sleep over the past 2 nights and trying to nurse a hangover with more alcohol the last thing I thought I would be doing would be bouncing through the entire set and generally krunking my shuffle from left to right but thats exactly what happened and I wasn’t the only one either. A blend of harmonic female vocals and truthful raps featuring heavily on modern day culture teamed up with huge beats made a bouncing atmosphere, it is often the small tents and performances that make such a genuine connection between act and crowd which is what makes those special moments at a live gig and this was one of them!


Hopefully guys you liked this bit of alternative posting, and I promise you my next post isn't going to take so long! Peace.