Music, style, and life. We are mGrooves. We are 4groovers…

This year WMC was different. This year WMC was new. This year WMC was rediscovered. This year WMC was better and only a small part of why is due to the fact and lack of that other monstrous ever-more douche party that has been traditionally at the end of the week. There were so many sub-plots and ancillary notes of seeming importance it is hard to choose where to begin, but begin I will attempt. At the end feel free to tell if I was successful or not.

Emee, Tunde, and friends create a veritable European Union.

Let’s start with arrival, and the Future Classics 4 Party. The weather was perfect! We arrived at our hotel (Beach Plaza) and quickly made haste up Collins Ave to the National Hotel. Future Classics 4 was just underway starting at noon. And let’s just say this up front: the show was awesome like the weather.

The deejays were noteworthy from lesser knowns (to me, at least) like Niclas Thoresen; to Baltimore/DC locals such as Neil, Kempton, Terry, and myself; to the heavy hitters like Studio Apartment, Quentin Harris, and Danny Tenaglia. Quentin’s set and the later show by the Basement Boys with Crystal Waters singing live was just incredible.

In between we got re-acquainted with folks not seen since last WMC, and met many new ones. And to think we just landed earlier that day?

Here is the photo album (so far — more photos to be added):

And here is one of the better videos available thus far:

My girlfriend, Tunde, is a 3rd generation artist, her father and her father’s father who both studied and taught art. Tunde, a trained sculptor, hair designer, and photographer, was taught this interesting freedom song.

Her father taught her the song in its original language and in her native Hungarian, her father who was born and grew up in North Africa. She graciously performed the song for me. Below is the a sample it. We call it simply, “Her Freedom Song”.

Yes! I can’t believe it’s almost here. And there is still so much to do. I will be attempting daily posts leading up to and during the event.

Come and join us in Miami at Future Classics 4!

Speaking of which, it was nice to get a little snippet of what Danny Tenaglia might grace our ears with during Future Classics 4. Here is recent interview and podcast to Resident Advisor…

Click this for Future Classics 4 tickets and info…

Just in case you all missed it, ScandalDC through Stylo was recently featured in the DC edition of Examiner.com by Washington DC Music Scene Editor, Kim Cameron (Bringing Style to the Gazuza Lounge).

Kim, herself a successful song writer and performer for the DC based Side FX in addition to being a well traveled journalist, went as far as to describe Stylo as a “DJ with style” and his mixes as “a refreshing change”. The ScandalDC series Thursdays at Gazuza is “super hip”.

Stylo will be at the helm Feb 24; Kochi of Scandal will be on the decks next, March 3; FugAmI, March 10. Contact Matias at Gazuza Lounge for table reservations with never a door cover.

Scandal Thursdays at Gazuza

Many of us have heard the phrase, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’ Well I don’t know if the phrase is true or not, but it has certainly come up for endless debate in the modern psychology community. And I’d rather talk about “Your Words” anyway.

What I’m talking about is the new song from the sultry voiced Rae and her compatriots deejay/producers on the song, Studio Apartment. Did I mention that I will be performing on the same stage as Studio Apartment for this year’s 4th Annual Future Classics Party at the Winter Music Conference? Get tickets at Wantickets.com. Did I also mention that a partner in dance music crime, Terry Thompson (Code Red/Defected) and I working on bringing Studio Apartment to DC the weekend prior to WMC? But I digress.

Rae offers up another solid dance tune in what is becoming a river of solid dance tunes. Studio Apartment offers their usually stellar production chops to the piece. From a deejay perspective this is a great song to use in the middle of a build-up set in route to what ever top-of-the-set banger you are traveling towards. Check out the official video…

Here it is… the party to start all parties. For the Winter Music Conference 2011, that is.

This is truly going to be sick! Including some cool sponsors including local Baltimore/DC favorites Soul Mob and mGrooves, the talents on the turntables is outstanding. The party features the likes of:

BASEMENT BOYS
STUDIO APARTMENT
HARLEY&MUSCLE
GROOVE JUNKIES
CHOCOLATE PUMA
WAYNE WILLIAMS
TERRY THOMPSON
JP RIGAUD
NEIL KURLAND
STYLO
KEMPTON INGERSOL

It is also a celebration of the Basement Boys 25 years in this music makin of booty shakin’ House music. Get your advance tickets; click on the image above…

Interested in a VIP table or cabana? Email Terry: chepizza@aol.com

And so it began earlier this week.

Fresh off the amazing New Year’s Eve Party at Gazuza, some fans were expressing their love of Enya’s music. The Irish singer, instrumentalist, and composer has been a favorite of mine since the 1991 release of Shepard’s Moon. But the 1986 BBC series, the Celts, is widely heralded as the production to catapult her onto the international scene. There is a song by her, by the same name.

So sometime soon, I will begin at an attempt to make a remix of an Enya song for House music. What’s your favorite Enya song?  Tell me by commenting on my Facebook fanpage or emailing me here…

Born To Fly

The Mix Born To Fly was a collection of music I performed live. The following is the song list:

Le Freak – Chic
Natural – Afro-Mystik
LaLa – Danism feat. Heidi Vogel
Gypsy Travels – Hamza
Frozen – Pete Dafeet
Insatiable (Wagoncookin Remix) – Miamik
Butterflies (Opolopo Remix) – Kaje feat. Sacha Williamson
Simply Yes (Fred Everything Remix) – Shure-I-Kan feat. Alexander East
Pursuit of a Dream – Dani Junquera
Born To Fly (Jay’s Naked Dub) – Lisa Shaw
African Flute (Vincent Thomas Remix) – Ansari
Inside Out – Mr Patron vs Barely Regal
What You Do – Manuel Sahagun
The Freshest Kid – Scrubfish & Nate Laurence
Smoke As I Walk – William Alexander
Lowride Remixes (Junia Ovadose High Ride Dub) – Nick Maurer

-s

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (190.0MB)

Here are some of the mixes in 2010. Listen and download from 4Groovers feed, on Soundcloud, or contact for the CD-only mixes.

I know everyone does these lists, but I’m going to do a few anyway. The first of these a top 5 best things that I am thankful for in 2010. I won’t bore you all with a lot of enumeration; just the list.

5. Good drink.

4. Producing a few good songs.

3. Achieving a dream.

2. Support from friends and family.

1. Finding love.

-s

Wow, it’s December. And really to me it seems like yesterday that it was January and I was talking about performing at WMC for the first time. Have I really been that much of a party animal?

So here we go with the closing sets of 2010 and preparing for 2011. I will be back to WMC 2011; I’m sure you all are well aware of the separation of Ultra and WMC this year into different weeks instead of being dove-tailed. I am working with a few partners to bring a party, mostly like on Thursday night of WMC. So I hope you all will join me in Miami Beach for this occasion.

The local sets begin Dec 2nd with ScandalDC weekly at Gazuza Lounge (Washington, DC).

I have a few surprises in store as usual. Also, I am looking into bringing back Lust4Life in 2011 at a new location. So please stay tuned for that news as it develops. A return to collaborating on events with visual artists will also be something to look for in 2011.

Already, there is a lot to look for. And to get you all sexed up, House music style, check out the latest podcast…

-s

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (118.1MB)