Thunder Picks #006

This week's Thunder Picks are brought to you by iphones and sitting in airport departure lounges (in very unglamorous locations, I might add), so it's shorter than usual – but I can assure you it contains the same amount of old guff.  

Thunder Anti-Pick Daft Punk Essential Mix 1999

This is the first in series of unabashedly negative contributions to this column, because now and again I simply need to vent. Regualr readers will remember that I was recently eulogising about Daft Punk's live set The Arches in 1997 and to a lesser extent, their Essential Mix in the same year. Well I enjoyed these so much I wanted to continue living in a little French jackin' house bubble on the tube on the way into work and downloaded their Essential Mix from 1999 too. Comments online said stuff like "Greatest Essential Mix ever" and the like too, so this was bound to be as winner. Wrong. It's appalling. I'm not sure what happened between 1997 and 1999 but the energy was gone and the track selection awful. If you can imaging all those pop house hits you heard way too much of in the late 90s, all together, on one mix, that would describe it pretty well. Stardust is on it twice so is Daddy's Favourite and even Joe Smooth. We don't ever need to hear any of those records again and in 1999 they were freshly overplayed. It also has Alan Braxe's of the Beastie Boys 'Intergalatic', which is one of the most ill conceived remixes of all time, managing to turn a silk purse into a pig's ear. There's way too many accapellas too, not even good ones but stuff like 'The Death of Jack' and 'In The Beginning There Was House'. Nice one, very original. In fact, to give you an idea of the quality, the two Basement Jaxx pop hits 'Red Alert' and 'Rendez Vu' stand out as highlights. It's that good. Basically, listening to the whole thing was an ordeal, but who am I to pass judgement (ha!), here it is, have a listen yourself – and looking on the bright side, it makes 'Get Lucky' sound good. 

 Zanzibar Chanel

I got put onto to this lot by Danny Red Rack 'Em and to be honest, I don't really know what to make of them, but I think I like it! They are definitely unusual though. Part New York vogue house part Divine, part MC Kinky and part Dalston basement house but all from Melbourne, Australia. They are a bit shouty but they are also quite unique and you have to admire their DIY ethic. They haven't actually had a proper record out, just a 50 run CD release, with a hand printed cover featuring an outline map of Australia emblazoned with the slogan 'shithole'. They then turned the CD artwork into a t-shirt and it didn't go down that well, as it seems not all Australians think their country is a shithole and failed to cotton onto the political statement through the medium of art statement the t-shirt's made. There's too much generic, sterile shit out there (see Daft Punk's mix above for a start), and these guys are doing something that's different. Not only is it different, they're doing it in Australia, not Hackney Wick. They've got balls and clearly knee deep in creative thought, so unsure or not, in my book they are indeed 100% house. Check them out on Boiler Room's tour of Oz and stick with it, dipping in won't do them justice. 

Juju and Jordash Coffin Train Getaway (Golf Channel Records)

I was lucky enough get hold of a copy of this a couple of months ago (thanks Phil) and has been rinsing it ever since. In fact, it's one of the strongest recent releases on New York's consistently excellent Golf Channel Records, which is no mean feat. This side of the record is far more dancefloor friendly than much of J&J's output, a real low slung acid throbber with a melancholy synth weaving its way around the bassline. I've pitched it down in warm-up sets and pitched it up for later in the night, with both working equally well, so it's pretty versatile as well as sounding great. On the flip it's 23 mins of more typical J&J spaced out weirdness, also very good if not a peak time banger. In good record shops now. 

From the Vaults Younger Than Park Woman

One of my favourite things in the whole wide world is talking about old records. So I thought I should bore you lot with a few too! This one came to mind when recently discussing the recent 10" coloured vinyl releases (taking over handstamped/individually numbered deep house releases maybe?). This pre-dates these more recent records by about 20 years but is indeed a coloured vinyl (in pink or blue). More importantly, it's probably my fav Terrence Parker record of that era, just pipping his mix of Donnie Marks 'Stand Up For The Soul' at the finishing line. Ok, it's Claude Young too but it sound unmistakably Terence Parker. And it's got a massive Chaka Khan sample in in it – you'll guess what song though…

Party of the Week – Thunder with Rahaan

Obviously I'm biased but this party will be pretty hot, figuratively and probably literally too. It's the eleventh instalment of Thunder and the last party before we reach our second birthday. Over those two years we've slowly ticked off all sorts of dream booking type DJs, like Music Box resident Gene Hunt, the bundle of energy and technical excellence that is Sven Weisemann  and most recently, a DJ who personally I rate as one of best music selectors in the world, DJ Nature. We can add Rahaan now too, as I've always wanted him at Thunder, ever since I first heard him play at Faith in 2006. Back then most DJs in London were boring me and the ket fuelled dance floors of the city with all sorts of minimal dirge. Then Rahaan rocked up playing Jesse Saunders, mixed Bent Boys edits, mixed Ame, mixed with Metro Area, mixed George Michael and Aroy Dee. It was refreshing to say the least and for a while, I truly believed he was the most exciting DJ around. Since then he's forged a bit of a reputation as a disco DJ but he was got his education at the school of Ron Hardy and can rock basement jams with the best of them, and that's what he's coming to do at Thunder. Dress to sweat and to get you in the mood, here's his set from the Faith party back 2006. 

Full details here.

Miles Simpson (Thunder)

Thunder is a party that happens once every 2 months. The guests and atmosphere at their parties is absurdly good. If you want to know about one of the truly great parties happening in London at the moment you really should get yourself down to one of their parties. x