This week

Telekinetic Roots: TKAT

On any given Friday night, you might find David Azzoni (aka TKAT) rocking the decks at Black Betty with Monk One, holding down the rhythm section and backup vocals with afro-latin-beat group Chico Mann, or maybe just cruising around Brooklyn on his fixie. This Friday however, you can catch the one and only TKAT drop his favorite vinyl selections at OFF THE RECORD.

I had some lasagna with David at Front Street Pizza to catchup and learn a little more about his love for DJing and music (which is probably the reason we both work at the TTL - it sure ain't the pay!).

S: How would you describe your DJ style/influences?

T: Nowadays I do a lot of different stuff, but when I first started out I was really into the J-Rocc Beat Junkie Style - you know, the idea of being real tight technically, while still rocking the party and having fun. When I play dance, hip hop, soul, dancehall - I try and play in a way that isn't just like "these are matched up just 'cuz I can match them up" but have a sort of continuous flow and transfer from vibe to vibe without it being jarring or awkward. Keeping it surprising and diverse.

S: So your pretty much open to any style/genre?

T: Yeah, and lately I''ve even been into mixing in hits and commercial joints with the other stuff to keep the party rocking.

S: Cool man. So tell me about your involvement with Chico Mann...

T: Chico Mann is a project from Marcos Garcia - it's all his music, his productions, etc. In order to do a live show though, he got ambitious and tried a couple live line-ups that didn't really work or translate the sound. But through a review of a single I did, we became friendly and he asked me what I could bring to it. At first he wanted to do a laptop performance...

S: Like Ableton?

T: Yeah, but for me - not only do I not know that stuff (still using Garage Band!) - but what I got from him is he wanted the show to be more like a continuous live dance party. Like going to see a good DJ, but its a live band.. not like the traditional band format of a song then clapping then song, etc. But more like working the crowd as a DJ - but from a band aspect.

S: How do you guys do that?

T: Well, what we came up with is that I pretty much hold down the entire rhythm section of the band through DJing - drums, bass, guitars - aside for the live percussionists we have. Marcos gives me the tracks and I edit them accordingly to work with the live show. That way I'm able to make the tracks flow in a way more like the flow of a dope dance party.

S: Wow, pretty crucial part of the band there!

T: Yeah, pretty crucial. But it's way cooler than just standing at the laptop at a sweaty dance party, which is what it always turns into. It's me mixing live and vibing with the band and they vibe off me, so without being cheesy, its like back in the day when DJs would mix breaks and it was all about that interaction with the people.

S: Dope. I hear you also do vocals too?

T: Haha, yea but they turn me down a bit because we also got Vinia and Matiana who are more talented than myself. But yeah, I add a little low end. (laughs)

S: So what can we expect this friday at OTR? This raw party style?

T: Yes. But I probably won't get too into the commercial stuff, just because APT is such a good venue to not have to do that. I really like the idea of playing on a Friday night and not having to play everything people know (unless its classics or that sort of thing).

S: Nice. I'm excited to hear the energy you bring to Chico Mann, but on the solo. One last thing though - Tell me about the origins of "Telekinetic Kat" (TKAT is an abbreviation of this moniker)...

To hear this story, you gotta come out on Friday and ask him in person ;)

Ron Morelli Live Mix

Thanks again to Ron for dropping the heat on Friday. Incase you missed it, here's the MD recording of his set:

RON MORELLI @ OFF THE RECORD PART 1
(48min 13sec / 192kbps MP3 / 66.4MB)

RON MORELLI @ OFF THE RECORD PART 2
(40min 13sec / 192kbps MP3 / 55.4MB)

Tracklist coming soon?

This week

Once Punk: Ron Morelli

-Whereas many DJ's play songs that make you ask, "Wow, What song is that?" Ron Morelli's mixes have this unusual effect on me where I end up asking, "Wow, Is that even a record playing?"-

The first time I heard Ron spin was downstairs at 205 Chrystie, a small Manhattan club known to DJ's for it's floating turntable setup, Urei rotary mixer, low ceilings, and excellent suspended speakers. Snack and I actually went to see our friend Lloydski DJ that night, but he must have just finished because when we got there all I see is this dude with a handlebar moustache killing the floor. The music sounded like a futuristic blend of house and funky synth shit and when the song was about to peak, I think Lloyd flipped the strobe light on, which made Ron look kinda like a skinnier Giorgio Moroder flashing in the dim club lights. Needless to say, the floor went nuts and we all had a great time. What I remember most is that the music didn't sound like any records I'd heard before and at one point I literally peeked in the booth to see if he was performing some of it live. Later, when I asked my friend who the DJ was, he said, "that's Ron Morelli" and I haven't forgot the name since.

That was in 2007. Recently, I was helping out Anton at the TTL store, who throws the 'No Ordinary Monkey' disco parties, and recommended a repress of Jody 'Finger' Finch's "Jack Your Big Booty" to him - a raw, dirty Chicago House jam that I was sure he'd be into. To my surprise, he passed on it saying, "If you want to hear some real jackin' stuff, you gotta hear Ron's new tracks." That's when the light went on and I again pictured the moustached DJ at 205 up to no good, but this time in the studio. I contacted him soon after and asked him to be a guest at our party - to our fortune, it turned out his schedule was open and he agreed. Through our conversations, I found out a little back story about one of our favorite DJ deviants in the city and what might be in store for the near future.

"I started out listening to Hip Hop at a young age through radio and older cousins stuff like Grandmaster Flash, Whodini, Run DMC, and the like...eventually in high school I got heavily into punk rock," says the native from Long Island, who also sung in a band and toured. In fact, the first turntables he had were used to listen to Punk 7"s." It wasn't until the frustration from having to deal with band members set in that the desire to create music with other people started to fade in the late-90s. At this time, the once vibrant NYC hip hop and club scenes started to decline, the money got worse from club owners and the value of the DJ really started going down. Coincidentally, that was when Ron took a trip west to San Francisco and happened upon an Eddie Def mixtape jam packed with electro classics which spawned his interest in djing.

Upon returning to New York in 1999, a friend of his was working at a store called Sonic Groove and put him on to new music there. He mentions getting blown away by the hard electro acids sounds of Bunker Records which featured artists like I-F and Unit Moebius. It was also during that era that artists from Holland like Legowelt, Guy Tavares, Bangkok Impact and Novamen were coming overseas pretty regularly, which further fueled his interest. "When I get into something, I get pretty obsessive about it," he says. "In many ways this music I was hearing was like punk - d.i.y., rebellious, and loud," so making the connection was pretty natural. Eventually in 2005, he went on the road to DJ with the Novamen - DJ Overdose and Ingmar Pauli, and Manhunter, who are his friends Jason and Ari, (Ari Goldman from Beautiful Swimmers). Ever since, Ron's been pretty serious about his craft.

If you ever happen to hear Ron spinning his mystic blend of chicago house, dubbed out synth jams, and pumping disco off-shoots, consider yourself lucky! He's quite a beast on the decks. You can also catch him turning you on to new music every Thursday 12-2am on his No Flash show with Pete Leonard on East Village Radio and maybe spending time in the studio to create new sounds.

He'll be our featured guest later this week at APT and this time we'll have the minidisc rolling, for sure.

Erno The Inferno Mix

Shout out to my man Erno The Inferno for coming all the way from Detroit and playing with us on Friday! The set was awesome, but due to a missing cord we were unable to record on the minidisc :-(

Fortunately, Ernie rolls deep with promo mixes and a gangload of unreleased stuff from friends. Here's his mix from a soul party he spins at called Slow Jamz every Monday Night at Woodbridge Pub in Detroit(Wish we had something like this in New York). Seeing how it's officially the beginning of summer, this couldn't have come at a better time.

Erno The Inferno - "Slow Jamz Mix"

This week

Tour Detroit: Erno The Inferno

If it wasn't for Ernie Guerra inviting us to play at his Tour Detroit party a couple months back, we would probably still be believing all the heresay about the dirty D. Honestly, I've always known Detroit for it techno, house, and hip hop and was a little nervous how people would react to our disco-centric sound. Lucky for us, Ernie loves disco(new and classic) which was a huge relief right from the start. The city isn't saturated with disco DJ's like NYC is, so it was pretty cool hanging being able to hang out in a vacant lot eating pulled pork white castle sliders and being able to talk about classic 12"s with an abandoned train station in the background. Ernie grew up in Detroit, so he knows the city backward and forward and introduced us to just about every dope DJ in town. In short, we were in Ernie's house and the only thing I didn't want to do is leave.

Ernie's dad played drums in a disco band. Not to say it was a like father like son story, because Erno actually started off playing a lot of alt rock and punk jams, but I think the connection to the beat was always there and I'm sure his Dad's collection must've been raided at some point. Besides, even though he has a deep affection for disco, it definitely isn't his only bag. Ernie's influence comes from all over Detroit and during our stay he played us everything from dope minimal and house tracks, rare funk, soul album cuts to his friend's new hip hop demo and new indie rock. His range is kind of a reflection of the city's diversity because every DJ, producer, and musician he introduced us to was definitely doing their own thing. We would go to one party and meet funk, house, and techno DJ's, rock musicians, artists and singers all in the same place, chilling and drinking together. The independent DIY spirit is heavy over there and frankly speaking, I think it allows people to explore their own groove without infuence of outside hype. Unlike NYC, with it's hipster party scene, photobloggers and magazines full of DJ's trying to go POP!, all anyone wants to hear in Detroit is the final product, and if it's good it's good. If you seem like you're riding on any kind of coattails whatsoever, you will get spotted from a mile away and get called out for it! That kind of shit makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

But as most small cities, once you've stayed there your whole life you get to know it as your own skin and there's always the danger of getting too comfortable. That's where Tour Detroit comes in. That's the party Ernie's been throwing with his partners Joe Vargas and Steve Roberts for a while now. The party usually packs around 400-500 people in a different location once a month around the city and they usually fly in DJ's into Detroit to see some dope new names throwing down. They've already featured artists like Osborne, TNT (Osborne and Tad Mullinax), Dan Balis from Escort, Wurst Friends, and more. He keeps the city connected with the rest of the DJ world that way and it couldn't be better. Definitely worth checking out in you're in the D.

This friday, June 19th, we'll return the favor and feature Erno The Inferno at Off The Record. I talked to him yesterday and he's already got a bag of vinyl ready. Come get blazed to some of that Detroit heat.

For a listen:
Ghostly Podcast #20
Myspace
DJ Set with Kyle Hall

Swimmers Live Mix

Almost didn't get this live recording due to lack of power outlets, but thanks to the bouncer at APT for hooking up a double A battery for the MD (yup, recorded straight to Minidisc!). Without further ado, here's what you missed if you couldn't come thru on Friday:

BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS @ OFF THE RECORD PART 1
(1hr 18min 57sec / 192kbps MP3 / 108.5MB)

BEAUTIFUL SWIMMERS @ OFF THE RECORD PART 2
(1hr 20min 59sec / 192kbps MP3 / 111.3MB)

Big thanks to Andrew and Ari for dropping the realness on our debut night. Jams for daaaays... (I'll try and get a tracklist for this ASAP!)

This Friday

Flashbacks Are Good: Beautiful Swimmers

The title to this track is perfect because when you see psychedlic french girls doing aerobics with LSD trails to deep grooved electric boogie, what else can you say but "Oh Yea!"


You can thank Andrew Field-Pickering and Ari Goldman and their new project Beautiful Swimmers released on Future Times Records for that little mind melter. "Oh Yea!" is one of the singles off their first recently released 12". The flip has the track "Swimmer's Groove," another favorite that we played on Turntable Lab Radio a couple of weeks ago. We invited them to play with us this friday at APT, so I thought I'd introduce myself.



I called Andrew and asked him what he was up to. "A whole lot of chillin." I thought that to be kinda funny, because throughout our conversation he also told me about his solo project as Maxmillion Dunbar, how he co-runs Future Times Records, his relationship with People's Potential Unlimited and how's he's a rapper in the group Food For Animals. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a whole lot of workin' to me.

He's lives in Silver Springs, Maryland and from how he described it, I was almost ready for a vacation. Mainly because they have plenty of two of my favorite things in life: lots of records and time to enjoy them.

The scoop is, there's a lot of wax floating around DC and Maryland's flea markets and small stores that are leftover wreckage from their Disco/Gogo/Boogie era made by local artists that never quite reached success. So although most of it carries an essential soul element, a lot of it was really bad. Beautiful Swimmers is kind of a search and rescue team designed to find the good parts, re-organize them and build on the golden ideas that were stuck in a bag of cheese.

In fact, Andrew tells me if he hears a really good part in a record, he'll truly hope that it will get really bad at some point so he can actually have the liberty to use it in a song. So in a way, in a world of shameless sampling, they're producers with virtues and I have to respect that. It kind of reminds me of that saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" It shows through their music as well. The result is a sound that's carries a obscure soulful groove with a bumping dance feel.

Similar vibes can be found on his label he co-runs, Future Times Records. which also put out a Rhythm Based Lovers 7" and Maxmiliion Dunbar(also Andrew). Both are getting a lot of "wolf-ears" from fans of the new boogie brigade.

Which then brings me to PPU. They're those three little diamonds that have been popping up on some of the best, rare disco and boogie represses of the year. The letters stand for People's Potential Unlimited which fits perfectly because not only does the founder, Andrew Morgan, find the music and re-releases it on vinyl, he licenses each and every one from the original artist. So let it be put to rest - they are no bootlegs and the shit is for real! Check the Beautiful Swimmers' edit of "Message In The Music" by the Initals that we played on the radio show a while back. So good.

When I asked Andrew about Mr. Morgan, he tells me about his ridiculous connections in the game: He became friends with Stones throw's Dam-Funk back in the day by supplying him with some rare boogie vinyl. One time when Dam was playing a party with him and Andrew put on a jam that made him freak out. "Oh Shit, you have that!?!?" Dam asked. Andrew turns and replies, "Yeah, I have all of them." Which means like ALL 45 copies that exist...in the world. Now that's deep.

It's no wonder, together with the Swimmers they keep that DC/Maryland connection strongly paved with some rare soulful-ass funky music. Can't wait to hear some of that in NYC.

Fun Fact: The name Beautiful Swimmers is really showing their love for Maryland in the highest regard. There are books in the local stores titled "Beautiful Swimmers" that show you where the best lakes, swimming and fishing are. Also the scientific latin name for Maryland's beloved blue crab literally translates into "Beautiful Swimmers." Put that in your pipe and smoke it.