The North East Is Brilliant #002

So its time for another missive from north (and to the east) of the Watford gap. Just to let you know, were all still here. Toiling away in our subterranean workhouses. Shackled to the giant donkey wheel that, when turned, provides the energy for your Macchiato machines and wireless iPod docking stations.

During the spaces between our 8 day – 25 hour working week, some of us are still finding the time to make music and throw parties.
Hes a pick of some of the most gravy flavoured bits and bobs coming out of the north east of England in the next couple of weeks.

Irn Blus Flight Recorder label has to date been a vinyl only affair, releasing tracks from the likes of Perseus Traxx, Emil Strunz and Irn Blu himself.
This month sees their first foray into smaller, shinier plastic, with a CD compilation entitled Obliged to Space.
The whole thing has a shamelessly Kosmische feel and features artists including Antoni Maovvi, Rude 66 and Moguh amongst others.
Frankly, its just fucking brilliant. Be a grown up and buy it!

Constant State is a new project that seems to want to play a bit fast and loose with the traditional concepts of releasing music. Its been set up by David Kenney, the man behind Audio Parallax recordings, and while hes being tight lipped about exactly what way things will be released, it appears that itll be in differing forms of physical media, with no real solid thread between musical genres other than Davids own personal tastes. This is kind of a watch this space thing at the moment, but the clips hes been posting on the Constant state facebook page have got me really, really excited about whats coming out.

Tough Luck Records. 

Tough Luck is a new label project coming out of Sunderland. Theyve just dropped their 2^nd release with a various artists 12 and Digi release that features local boys Chris Cue and Adrian Fairless, alongside some other names who Im unfamiliar with (which, in all honesty, is a solid indication that theyre probably quite trendy producers). Definitely one for the more Ibiza tinged dancefloor, it features 4 out-and-out house cuts which are fairly indicative of the younger, better looking, club scene in the region.

Right, as far as parties go, its only my second column and Im already going to throw in some heavy nepotism vibes.
November the 23^rd sees a party Im involved with called Tourist bring Weatherall & Johnston back to Newcastle for their second appearance as A Love From Outer Space.
Nothing much to say about ALFOS that hasnt already been said, so instead Im going to use this as an excuse to repost a fantastic recent mix by Sean Johnston, and to point you in the direction of the last remaining cheap early bird tickets its pretty much guaranteed to be an AMAZING night, and were really going to town on dressing the venue, so I hope you can make it if youre in the vicinity.

Right, hopefully Ill be back with more stuff in 2 weeks time, unless by then weve been fracked off the face of the earth. In which case can I just take this opportunity to say, on behalf of the North East, its been a pleasure serving you all and we deserved what we got.

Geoff Leopard
xx