James McArdle @ Automatque.

After a chilled out festive period AUTOMATIQUE are back with their first party of 2012.
This is going to be a pretty special party to kick off the new year with the return of a well known local DJ making a one off appearance back at the Trades Club!
James McArdle (Construct/DividedByDirt)
Some of you will remember James from the legendary DividedByDirt nights which ran at the Trades Club from 2002 - 2006!
After twisting James's arm for a short while they have managed to get him to play a one off gig back where it all started!
But before they turn down the lights and flood the room with concentrated dissonant melodies,they caught up with james and had a chat....

1. Hi James, how's things....?

All good thank you, apart from a still nagging hangover from a long weekend in Europe. Worth it as always though.



2. You are known for the infamous DividedByDirt parties in Hebden Bridge but what have you been upto since then....?

Things were moving nicely just before we had to finish DividedByDirt. The night was getting talked about in the right places and selling out every time, I was DJing at Fabric and other great clubs. Given the circumstances in which we ended it I decided to remove myself from everything for a couple of years afterwards. If I'm honest I began to hate it for a while, I don't know why. I didn't think I'd ever get back into it at one point. I sold a lot of my records that I wish I hadn't. I moved to Manchester and continued working in PR, looking after press for Mute Records, Because, PIAS et al among others and slowly began to get back into all things 'dance' on the side. I set up Construct and got back into everything, DJing in particular. The break has done me a lot of good, things seem clearer now.



3. Tell us a little bit about Construct....


I set Construct up late 2008 I think, although I didn't really start working on it properly until the last couple of years. It was (and still is really) a small operation housing my personal tastes in electronic music. Something I could control on my own alongside other projects, a night that I could stop and start at will if necessary, choose how much output I wanted at any given time, look after all the artwork, work with artists I liked and respected.


It's essentially an agency, a (very irregular) party and a soon to be record label and mix series. I like to work with a small number of artists but work a lot more closely with them. I have no grand plans for the agency to be massive or anything like that. I think the majority of DJs and electronic artists don't need a manager as such, more someone who can look after a few things in one place, find the right labels for their productions, manage their own labels, make sure they play the right clubs..

I've been building Construct very slowly, I have a clear aim for it which I'll probably get to in the next few years.




4. I see you have Will Saul @ the next Construct party, nice booking! What other artists are doing the business for you at the moment....?

Thank you, we're looking forward to this one, I've always been a big fan of his DJing. I'm in a groove again of revisting older stuff at the moment actually. A lot of mid-90s trippy house music, ICube, Gemini et al. I tend to play more long, warm up sets so I can get away with more of that stuff. On the newer side, I really like Sam Russo's recent stuff, I'm a big fan of Ion Ludwig's, Hugo Barritt I've been playing quite a lot of recently, Steven Tang, Basic Soul Unit, Canson, Lerosa, Levon Vincent... there's a truckload of other stuff that will come to me later sorry! There's the ones that are always doing it of course.. Craig Richards, Perlon, Swayzak, Matthew Dear, Cassy, John Tejada, Carl Finlow, Motivbank, Spectral Sound, Dixon, Ata, Weatherall...





5. Whats your thoughts on all this DJ X Factor malarky....you can keep it short and sweet if you like....?

I'm genuinely intriqued as to how they will do this actually. A 5minute DMC Championship type routine perhaps? If so the auditions could be very funny actually. To be honest I couldn't give a monkey's arse about these kind of things anymore, it's too easy to get angry with them. It's a completely different world from what I see as DJing. It's mainstream music for mainstream audiences and that's ok I guess.





6. What can we see from yourself and Construct in the future....?


Well after many (many) years putting it off I'm finally going to get my head down this year in a studio. Unfortunately no matter how much you enjoy it or how great you are at it, it's not enough just to be a good DJ anymore. That's just the way it is now. You have to have a load of other stuff going on too.


The Mix Series will launch next month which I'm excited about. These will be as far from Construct's current musical output as possible. The first one will be from Philip Sherburne. He's done a really great job with it. They'll be pretty irregular and likely to be compiled more from label owners, journalists, collectors and not just DJs or producers. These kind of people have incredible, vast record collections and tend not to be jaded by turning out podcasts every week.


The agency will grow a little more with probably another 1 or 2 additions this year I think. The label will also launch this year, although I've been saying that for a while. I have a few bits almost ready but need to pull my finger out and get in gear with it really. When it starts there will be a release every few months focusing on just one original piece and one remix on the flip. A small run of vinyl, nice artwork, a very simple affair really.


Thanks Antony

Giles Peterson worldwid vol.5 No.1 // Ross Allen//Giles Peterson Interview.

A few weeks back, Gilles was a guest on Ross Allen’s Ministry of Sound radio show, coinciding with the release of Gilles’ brand new Masterpiece compilation. Typically, as the two are firm friends and kindred spirits, what was supposed to be a short interview snowballed into a 2 hour marathon and threw up some amazing insight into Gilles’ musical roots and broadcasting career. So much so that we felt compelled to re-up for anyone who missed it. Enjoy!

Listen here

DJ Harvey-interview.

DJ Harvey - Beats In Space Radio - 07-06-2011 by R_co

Moodymann Redbull Lecture

This may be old news to many of you but I personally never tire of watching this. Moodymann is a favorite here at Slow cookin and this is a rare interview/lecture with the man himself from the people at the redbull music academy.

1 and a half hours long but stick with it as this is Kenny Dixon Jnr at his enigmatic best!

Honorary props to his hair wench too....whats that all about!!

E.A.R Records

Eclectic Avenue Records are a Leeds based label which started just over a year ago. With releases from the likes of The Dead Rose Music Compnay, Rob Mello, Pete Herbert , Popular Peoples Front, and Justin Harris already, they are making something of name for themselves. They release vinyl only, a dying art form in this digital age. GBS is an avid vinyl collector and I hate it when he pulls out gems that are vinyl only jobbo’s, however, I love it at the same time as it makes the tracks that little more exclusive.



                  Ryan Shaw                J.Cub                 Leena Sharma


Head honcho J.Cub took the time out of his busy family life, as well as his moving house and writing music schedule to answer us a few questions...

Hiya Jacob, how’s things..?
All good thanks, I had a really chilled out Festive period with my wife and 4 year old Son. It was the 1st time in about 6 years that I wasn’t playing, so have started 2011 with a spring in my step.


Now E.A.R. records, what’s all that about?
Eclectic Avenue Records (E.A.R) , it’s a vinyl only record label that has the abilty to put out an “Eclectic” style of high quality music, an “Avenue” for “Eclectic” music. We press up 300 1st editions vinyls (this is stated on the artwork) when they have all been sold we press up another 300 but they will state “2nd edition” pressing, therefore you want to be getting your hands on the 1st editions.The label is designed with quality in mind and this can be seen / heard with the producers that have been signed to the label such as.. LTJ Xperience, Popular Peoples Front, Pete Herbert, Toby Tobias, Rob Mello, Justin Harris, Small Giants (which is myself and Joshua IZ), The Dead Rose Music Company, PBR Streetgang and our in house star, Ryan Shaw.


What made you change direction from the Baker Street records to E.A.R. records?
It took a lot for me to do this, I started Baker Street back in 2006 with Paul Hardy, its like giving up a child. I lost loads of sleep over the decision to sell my half to Paul. Basically I had been planning E.A.R for years, the style, the sound, the look and where I wanted to take the music. Baker Street was and still is one of the strongest House music imprints but that’s what it was “a House music label” and I wanted to be able to involve different styles of music. We didn’t want to spoil what we had achieved with Baker Street so I reluctantly sold my half to Paul so he could keep the flag flying. I wont lie it took me about half a day to sign the contract, I even went through about 10 different pens to sign it with as I wanted to say goodbye with a good pen, and yes I did share a tear. However this meant I could put all of my energy into E.A.R and Paul could carry on with what he was doing.

Which artists have inspired you?Haha love this question, this often comes up in interviews and when I start going through and the reason why you can see people drifting off, but I like to give the reason why they are inspiring to me rather than just say a load of names. So I will try and keep it to a minimum…. In no paticular order…

Barry White for his voice, song writing and how he layered strings in his records

Ian Durry for what he had to put up with in his life and he has to be one of musics best wordsmiths (if you get time listen to the lyrics in “There ain't half been some clever bastards”

“Einstein can't be classed as witless.
He claimed atoms were the littlest.
When you did a bit of splitting-em-ness
Frighten everybody shitless”

Cant help but laugh at that.

Quincy Jones, the best producer EVER to walk the planet. When you delv into who he has produced and the styles he has produced it just knocks you out. Ive just had to stop writing and go and put “Razzamatazz” on the record player now. Its just one of the tracks that really shows you the emmence sound he produced.

Don Letts, bit of name droping here but Ive had the pleasure of djing with Don and also he played one of my tracks on his cult radio show on 6 music. This guy is a proper DJ, without him there would not be any 2 tone, and that means no Specials! Can you imagine ?? an amazing guy who changed how people saw eachother in race coulor and creed. Please read up on him if you don’t know. He is a bloody nice bloke as well.

Kraftwerk, um now people have always talked about aliens being on this planet before Humans existed. Well I kind of think the same about Kraftwerk these guys were so ahead of their time that they must have been time travelers. Still amazes me some of the sounds they made back in the 1970’s compared to the sounds people are still “trying” to make now with all this technology.

Elvis, I wasn’t that much into his music however his performances were just amazing, he was a proper showman. Its funny how he was one of the 1st artists to go out on stage and just go for it. After that everyone started to do it.

Joe Meek, a bit of a sad story of his live but if you have seen the film “Telstar” you will know what an amazing person he was. He used to make weird sounds out of making new pieces of studio equipment and wiring them wrong. I wont spoil what happened if you havent seen the film of his life but if you get chance watch it

Ive actually stood outside the property in London where there is now a blue plaque on the wall. Sad I know.

There are so many more I could go on with but I think that’s enough for now.

Who should we keep an eye out for in the future?Lady Gaga, she’s shit you need to avoid her at all costs.
The future brings mystery for E.A.R we pretty much have most of the releases ready to release for this year, starting with Ryan Shaw “Lovin” feat Pete Herbert remix in Feb , then we have the followin .. Justin Harris and Rob Mello, PBR Streetgang and Toby Tobias, Small Giants, and there are a few more that we are keeping under our hats for now. Further than that we don’t know, Im asking a few choice artists to send music to me.

I hear your starting a live show, when will this start and what kind of sound can we expect?
Yes “The Allstar Beat Samplers” it’s a complex idea, something else I have been planning for years. It’s live band with Drums, Horn Section, 4 piece backing group, a sampler and 4 different lead vocalists. Im even going to be doing a vocal! You can expect to hear, Jazz, Funk, Hip Hop, Disco and an element of Ska. I have some amazing people involved like the trumpet player Malc is from the Haggis Horns and is also the trumpet player for Jamiroquai, Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse and the list goes on. Ive also got a chart topping vocalist Emmie, and my wife JoJo. Its still very early days and I am still writing but its very exciting, we have our 1st gig on the 29th of May in Leeds. I also want to be able to release our music on the label.


Any gigs that your looking forward to?
Um well there is actually, funny you should ask!
We are doing a E.A.R label party on the 26th of Feb @ ‘The Musiquarium” in Leeds. This is a brand new venue that only holds 150 people max. It’s a FREE party , however you need to of recived an invite. (to do this subscribe to our E.A.R facebook page). The line up is as follows..


ROB MELLO
PBR Streetgang
J.Cub & Ryan Shaw

This is going to be a very special party so Im buzzing about it.


Quickies…


Favourite record at the moment? It has to be the future release on E.A.R Ryan Shaw “Lovin” feat Pete Herbert remix


BEAR007 Ryan Shaw "Lovin" PETE HERBERT REMIX Sample by Eclectic Avenue Records

Favourite venue? The Pink Lounge in San Francisco

Fast food or slow cooking? HAHAHA I have just bought my wife a slow cooker for Christmas and we love it (showing our age there)


Cheers for that J.Cub, we prefer slow cookin' too and we'll definatly be checkin' out Telstar.


Here is also a mix to download from head honcho's J.Cub & Ryan Shaw.


Also check out the E.A.R soundcloud for past & future releases.

We will also keep you informed about the E.A.R Records party too, so watch this space.


Challis & GBS.