Radio 1 - Dance Blog

Flux Pavilion's Essential Mix

2012-04-13T14:44:19Z

This mix is an accumulation of a lot of things for me - anthems that I love to play out, tracks that I love to listen to and artists and labels that I'm proud to represent. I've tried to include a little bit of everything that shapes me as a DJ and a performer. And of course I've thrown in some bangers for good measure! Let me know what you think of it!
Flux Pavilion
:: Listen to the Flux Pavilion Essential Mix (from Saturday the 14th of April 2012 at 3am)

My Essential Mix

2012-03-21T16:55:18Z

For this installment of the Essential Mix I took the opportunity of doing a 2 hour long mix and fit in music I normally don't get to play in a club. Tracks by Oneohtrix Point Never, Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland (aka Hype Williams) and The Names are among my favourite tunes of the last few months, so I thought I'd share. There are a few club tracks that I've been playing out a lot, most notably by some of the guys on my label such as Redshape, Trevino, Jon Convex and a brand new Jacques Greene track! The mix was recorded in my studio in a single take (!) on a nice Sunday afternoon using Serato vinyl, two effect pedals and a Korg Monotron Delay. Hope you enjoy it!

To all the inspiring musicians out there - Martyn

:: Hear Martyn's Essential Mix

Hard Dance Award Organiser Ed Real gives us the low down

2012-03-17T01:00:00Z

R1’s Kutski picked up Best UK DJ for the third year in a row, long live King Kutski!

Between 1st January and middle of Feb over 15,000 fans of hard dance music and culture made their voices heard by voting in the 9th Annual Hard Dance awards. This is more than ever before and the truly global spread of voters made the results ceremony particularly exciting (and nerve wracking for some)!

Last year the awards were held at Storm@The Emporium in Coalville, Leicestershire. But after 8 years in the UK we thought it was time to take the Awards global. Our hosts on the night of 9th March were the professional team at Matrixx in The Netherlands.

Never before have we witnessed so many lasers and LED screens which gave the whole presentation the feel of the Oscars goes Star Trek!!

On the night some of the usual suspects picked up their awards for their incredible work, but we took particular pleasure in awarding some surprise winners such as the ferocious Angerfist who came from no-where to win Best Worldwide DJ. He came on stage wearing his trademark ski mask and then proceeded to rip up the rave with blistering 200 mile an hour hard beats. Anyone left standing on the dancefloor at the end deserves an award themselves!

Photos by Davy Huijgens

Sónar Barcelona lineup revealed

2012-02-10T19:45:00Z

Annie Mac announced the very exciting Sónar Barcelona lineup on her show this evening, Sónar will take place on 14, 15 and 16 June. More information will be released soon.

Here's the lineup so far:

The Roots
Fatboy Slim
Deadmau5
Hot Chip
Richie Hawtin
Amon Tobin ISAM
Friendly Fires
James Blake dj
Nicolas Jaar
Luciano
Metronomy
Azari & III
Laurent Garnier presents LBS
Squarepusher
Modeselektor
Peaking Lights
Mary Anne Hobbs Vs Blawan
Mouse On Mars
Hyperdub presents Kode9 + Cooly G + Scratcha DVA
Austra
BBC Radio 1 presents Annie Mac & guests
Darkside (Nicolas Jaar & Dave Harrington)
Jacques Greene
Jacques Lu Cont
John Talabot
Supersilent featuring John Paul Jones
Diamond Version featuring Alva Noto & Byetone + Atsuhiro Ito
Brainfeeder presents Thundercat + Kutmah + Lapalux
Maya Jane Coles
100% Silk presents Ital + Maria Minerva + LA Vampires + Magic Touch
Julio Bashmore
Trevor Jackson
When Saints Go Machine
The Suicide Of Western Culture
Plapla Pinky
Psilosamples
Dago
Uner

Youngman and Grimmy get to know Hull

2012-01-28T16:43:59Z

Hover your cursor over Youngman to hear him talk new music and more!

Grimmy chatted to Youngman about media training, stage nerves and dark times in a festival toilet. Youngman then gave us an amazing acoustic performance including a Katy B cover at Fruit in Hull. We caught up with him fresh off stage to hear about his favourite fresh sounds.

:: Hear Youngman's tip B.Trait on Soundcloud

Listen back to his performance over here

Redlight spreads some new music love

2012-01-28T16:13:07Z

Hover over the image with your cursor to hear Redlight talk new tunes!

Redlight treated us to massive set last night in Hull with some high energy from Dread MC. We caught up with him backstage at Fruit to talk about his big tips for this year.

More on Redlight's tips for 2012:
:: Boddika on Soundcloud
:: Mickey Pearce on Soundcloud
:: Maverick Sabre on Soundcloud
:: Meek Mill feat. Rick Ross Ima Boss on YouTube

Take a listen back to Redlight's set over here!

Having it in Hull!

2012-01-28T14:55:10Z

We're continuing our adventures in new music up here in Hull all weekend. Last night was amazing, Redlight, Joker, Jack Beats and Annie Mac all before 9pm! Check out Annie backstage at Fruit giving us her hot new sound tip for 2012!

Hover your cursor over Annie to hear her speak!

:: Hear Annie's show and see pics from Fruit!

Backstage at Fruit!

2012-01-28T01:23:46Z

we've been having a massive amount of fun this weekend in Hull, we've already seen Annie Mac take over Fruit with her guests Joker, Redlight and Jack Beats! Check out our talking photos to see what hot new music our favourite DJ's are listening to right now!

Hull!

2012-01-17T11:03:17Z

Looking forward to our first LIVE Radio One event of 2012 when we land in Hull on 27th January. My show on Radio 1 has always been about a mix of pushing new talent, the next generation and the hottest dance music by the established heavy hitters from around the world.

Our line up for Hull does all that.... I'll be joined by:

:: MADEON who at just 17 years old is one of the most anticipated new acts for 2012. Hailing from Nantes in North West France he has electrified the scene with breathtaking remixes for Pendulum and Deadmau5 and his inventive performances on YouTube, like this:

:: JULIO BASHMORE is another rising star from the nuBristol scene delivering in many peoples opinion the best tune of 2011 in "Battle For Middle You":

:: Finally the mighty GROOVE ARMADA very much live and in effect! Aside from storming my 20 year celebrations at Maida Vale last spring they have been wowing audiences around the world with their new set up. As we say in these parts....it's going to be BIG !

Pete

:: Find out more about BBC Radio 1 in Hull

Essential Mix Of The Year 2011

2011-12-09T19:10:05Z

It's Essential Mix Of The Year time again. Just pick your favourite from the fifteen below using the link here and at the bottom of this blog.

A Radio 1 Panel made up of the Friday Night Dance Show producers have debated and argued their way to a shortlist of the following fifteen two-hour mixes. All mixes broadcast between January 1st and December 10th 2011 were up for consideration.

Picking out fifteen was a near-on impossible task. The standards were high in 2011!

In the end, the shortlisted mixes were the ones that made maximum use of ttwo hours of air time, taking the listener on a creative, flowing, coherent musical journey from start to finish.

The most popular mix will be broadcast in full at 3am on 24th December.

Good luck choosing a winner!

Above & Beyond Former Essential Mix Of The Year winners returned with an emotional therapy session, making clever use of spoken word to tell a story.

Beardyman Utterly unique. Beardyman recorded this mix using only a keyboard, an effects pad and a microphone. No records or CDs or MP3s! Check out the video on the Essential Mix page.

Brookes Brothers A high octane mix which crammed in over 100 tunes and almost as many genres!

Carl Craig A seamless journey through deep house and techno from the second wave Detroit innovator. Completely classic.

Dimitri From Paris A funk & disco fuelled mix which set old school classics against contemporary tracks in a coherent vibrant mix.

Eats Everything at In:Motion Recording your first Essential Mix in front of your hometown crowd could be daunting. Eats Everything breezed through it mixing up a tight-as two hours of Bristol Bass.

Eric Prydz at Creamfields Apparently Eric didn't know his set was being recorded for the Essential Mix until just before he went on stage. No matter. As expected, it was epic.

Jamie XX A mix filled with personality. He'd already served up a classic 6 Mix for 6 Music. Dare we say he went one better on this Essential Mix?

Joker The second Bristolian to make the shortlist. Joker's debut was all about grinding bass and effortlessly flowed through dubstep, house and d&b.

Julio Bashmore And the third Bristolian! There really was somethin in the South West water in 2011! Bashmore's debut was an all vinyl affair joining the dots between classic UKG with future facing Bristol Bass.

Kaskade An epic, melodic, uplifting big room mix from America's superstar DJ.

Maya Jane Coles One of the stars of the year served up one of the most train-spotted mixes of the year crammed full of (at the time) unreleased goodies. The mix bounces and flows effortlessly through two hours.

Pete Tong 20 As part of a night to celebrate 20 years of broadcasting on Radio 1, Pete put together a very special mix of classics and hidden gems from twenty years of DJing. He pulled off a spectacular musical journey.

SBTRKT A mix that encapsulates the the sound of 2011 from one of the artists of the year. Packed full of exclusive and never heard before tracks.

Seth Troxler Funky, sexy and bouncing. Troxler recorded this mix live in one take in Jamie Jones living room. We wished we were there!

You can vote here

Huw

Huw Owen is Executive Producer for BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix

Snap Crackle.....Drop!!

2011-11-25T16:07:52Z

This week we went for something a little deeper, in our quest for the ultimate gritty crackly vinyl search!!

For those new to the show, we have a feature called 'Snap, Crackle...Drop' where each week I dig through the sound track to my youth recorded on these prehistoric massive plastic discs we used to called "vinyl".

This week I selected one of the really early hardcore rave / jungle tracks from Kickin' Tunes, called "The Bee"!! Dubby and dark, this track really showed all the elements of dub, and ragga that formed this early sound. Not an instant classic this week, I'll admit, but a very important staple in the scene back in the day!! Great artwork too!!!

And don't forget to listen to the show!

Organ Donors join Kutski in the studio

2011-11-11T14:33:50Z

The legendary Organ Donors, pushers of the hard edge sound join Kutski in the studio and pick out a piece of proper old skool vinyl for Snap, Crackle…Drop!

The choice; Holy Noise - ‘Father Forgive Them’ (Hit House Records)

Scott:

Maybe showing our age a little here I think you might have still been nappies John when this one came out!

Mat:

This was one of the 1^st records I owned all the way back in 1990. At the time it was one of the hardest tracks I had ever heard, and I still think it sounds fresh now 20 years later, The man behind this track is Paul Elstak who went on to make numerous Dutch hardcore and gabba anthems through the mid to late 90’s

Kutski:

I think I was only 8 years old when this came out!

PS: Don't forget to listen to the show!

Radio 1 Goes Dutch

2011-10-30T07:00:00Z

Tonight we brought you 'Radio 1 Goes Dutch' with a 12 hour dance music marathon celebrating the best in Dutch dance music!! Click on the photos below to hear them - they're available for 7 days from today.

Double Dutch with Pete Tong and Chuckie	Judge Jules and Armin Van Buuren
Behind the scenes with Kutski	A special extended essential mix from ADE
Laidback Luke Goes Dutch

Radio 1 in Amsterdam

2011-10-28T18:23:17Z

Check out our pics as Heidi, Chuckie and Judge Jules head to the 'Dam for some hard dance music and some rather tasty food!

Kutski raves it up at the HARD Dance Event, Amsterdam

2011-10-28T14:06:52Z

HARD Dance Event held at Q Dance headquarters

So ADE is Europe's answer to Miami Music Conference, people sitting around in expensive suits, drinking over priced coffee trying to seal business deals to justify the money they have spent on passes, flights and hotels…

Cue HDE (HARD dance event), our rebel splinter group to the ADE which consists of DJ, producers and promoters from all of the harder styles gathering at the Q Dance offices to meet up and socialise outside of a club environment.

Headhunterz plays the Hardstyle ADE afterparty alongside Kutski

Of cause there is a business element, and many plans are laid for the following 12 months, but it is a lot less formal gathering, and the beer and food was flowing readily all day!

I was over there primary for a social trip to catch up with everyone, and do a bit of research of what everyones plans are for the near future, to make sure we catch all the best stuff for the show, but I also took part in a panel discussion about the UK hard dance scene, and took control of the airwaves for Q Dance radio for half an hour.

That's the thing I love about the hard scene is the feeling of community and common purpose. There is only friendly competitiveness, just about everyone one the scene knows each other and are good friends on a personal level too!

Following this 'hard day at the office' we all let our hair down at the first every hardstyle ADE after party with myself, Headhunters and Ran-D taking control of the decks at the sold out sugar factory in the evening, before the rowdy rebels spilled into the DJ Mag 'Top 100' party where TEN of the top one hundred DJs in this predominantly house and trance poll where hardstyle and hardcore!!!

The future is bright, the future is HARD!!!!!

DJ Viper who deliveres a storming Double Dutch Halloween Horror Mix for my show tonight