Hackney’s Field Day festival looks to be taken over by a whole host of Rocks-approved acts in Victoria Park tomorrow, including Parma Violets, TNGHT and Jacques Greene, not to mention Oneman, all of which will be playing on the Ibiza Rocks stage later this summer. Other acts we’re looking out for include Ben Pearce, Clean Bandit, Savages and Chvrches. The Rocks Office are going to get down early to catch all the action - here are a couple of big tunes we expect to go off!
We’ve had the new Disclosure track on repeat this morning at Rocks HQ. It’s a solid house track from their new album ‘Settle’ with a banging bassline. The catchy lyric is probably going to be stuck in our heads all weekend!
Ibiza Rocks Resident and captain of the brand new W.A.R! Ship Doorly has been welcomed onboard the Toolroom Records label, home to the likes of Pete Tong and David Guetta. Here’s a quick chat Toolroom Records had with Doorly over on their Facebook page about his life in LA, his ’Boom Boom Room EP1’ and his huge plans for the summer… it’s good to know we’re not the only ones looking forward to a very special season in Ibiza!
Toolroom Records: You’ve recently relocated to L.A. Why did you choose to move there and how are you finding it?
Doorly: I’ve been coming to America for the last four years and always loved L.A; I have so many good friends here and the scene here is just exploding with positivity and action right now. And obviously the weather here is amazing all year round so why wouldn’t I live here! I’m loving every second of it; I’ve never been so happy! I have a great studio here and the positive vibes are really showing in my music since I’ve been here. I’m never leaving!
TR: We’ve heard you’re a whiz behind the decks – so much so that you’re one of Pioneer’s Pro-DJs! What does this involve?
D: DJing has always been my main focus and everything I do around it, making music, radio, throwing parties, is basically all just me trying to keep being able to be doing what I love best. I put 110% into my sets and firmly believe that watching a DJ should be a fully live experience, not a bloke stood looking at a laptop. Turntablism has always been my thing and Pioneer have really lead the way in technology giving us new ways to perform and more exiting ways to do it. As somebody well known for getting the most out of their equipment we naturally started to work together on bits and pieces. Alongside a few other Power Users such as James Zabelia, Zane Lowe, Laidback Luke etc, we tend to test out the equipment relevant to our style and help suggest developments and then do demo videos for them when the new stuff comes out. I’m a DJ geek so its a huge honour to be involved.
TR: We love the old-school house vibes of your ‘Boom Boom Room EP1’. Is this the kind of sound we can expect from your sets?
D: My sets have always been very eclectic and I tend to flex them based on the crowd I’m playing to. The last year I feel like I’ve defined my sound a bit more and I love that authentic house sound; nostalgia-evoking house seems to be what I’m striving for at the moment.
TR: What releases have you got coming up next?
D: I’m excited that Toolroom will be doing a full worldwide re-release of my track ‘Rush’ which had a USA release on Mad Decent; we all feel very good about this record so look out for that. And I have a track called ‘Drongoism’ which is forthcoming as part of the ‘Toolroom Ibiza 2013’ CD.
Also, I have a couple of tracks coming out on Southern Fried records as part of a ‘Fried & Tested’compilation I mixed for them due out in July. One of the tracks is a collab with Shadow child featuring vocals from Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, which is getting some great Radio 1 support from Annie Mac & Pete Tong right now. Also I’ve just delivered another EP to Toolroom HQ for later in the summer.
TR: This year is your sixth season in Ibiza; what plans have you made for the summer there?
D: I’ll be living on the island again this year, I didn’t for the first time last year and it just didn’t feel right. I already have almost 60 shows on the island this summer in the diary so I kind of need to be there! I’ll be playing at We Love Sundays at Space, Ibiza Rocks plus their Friday night party W.A.R for both of which I am the host. Also, a scattering of other parties I can’t mention yet and my own weekly Doorly & Friends Boat party with some VERY special guests on board! I’ve never been so excited for an Ibiza season to start; it sucks that I have to leave L.A but it could be worse! Bring it on! : )
Doorly’s ‘Boom Boom Room EP1’ is available now on beatport .
Whether your summer anthem will be a certain Daft Punk track or the Duke Dumont remix of AlunaGeorge, you can find all this year’s biggest tunes in our resident Ibiza Rocks DJ Ste-V-Something’s Mixtape, available on Mixcloud. Perfect for recreating those sunny Ibiza vibes at home.
By Kezia (@keziafrances)
Every once in a while, a night comes along that is so big that if I were a DJ, I’d be begging to be put on the bill. What at first seemed to be a straight-up Swamp 81 line-up at Fire in Vauxhall soon appeared to be becoming a beast of a party, with Schl Records taking over Lightbox next door and Skream announcing he’d drop in for a techno/disco set. Even during the notoriously quiet study period of May, it would have been rude to miss out.
Schl Records is the tartan-clad little sister of Swamp 81. In an odd way it reminds me of Effy, Nicholas Hault’s naughty schoolgirl sister in Skins (the one that didn’t say anything for the first two series but knew the best warehouse raves in Bristol). Schl’s very own Mushy kicked off the night, complete with his tune Ladykiller, which according to my sources has been doing the rounds on Rinse FM and getting crowds going at Vibe bar on Sundays. Klose One hopped on the decks to take over what was a pretty tight Schl line-up, all hosted by Johnny Banger.
Over in Room One Mickey Pearce was finishing up and Zed Bias was starting, so I tore myself away from Klose One as the whole room was singing, “come on, let’s jack” to go see them. Breach’s Jack is one of the undisputed tunes of the summer, but I wasn’t too bothered about leaving the rest of Lightbox to it as I knew someone was bound to drop it in the other room at a later stage.
I went back to the Lightbox portion of the club to see one of the massive names on the Schl Label, Dusky. Flo Jam was an underground smash for the duo last year and they’ve been keeping busy on the club scene ever since, building up a massive following and flawless set. As I passed through Room 2, Norwood Soul Patrol took over with a feel-good palette cleansing mix of R’n’B and old school anthems such as Michael Jackson and Usher. Everyone had sweaty smiles plastered on their faces, proclaiming non-pretentious raving is alive and well.
The whole main stage was a running, jumping hive of DJs and MCs as the crowd was invited to wish Sgt Pokes a happy birthday. No wonder it was such a party. As predicted, during the final stretch in Room One, well, the final squeeze (the place was packed) Skream dropped Jack, and to finish up, his remix of the banging no.1 Need You (100%) by Duke Dumont. The single has been somewhat overshadowed by the release of Get Lucky, which is a shame but it means that the Dumont remix still sounds fresh on the dancefloor.
Loefah turned up the bass and dropped his new track Veal, which samples Bad Habits and is another soon-to-be summer anthem (I hope). I ended up making a swift exit before the crowds and security got too messy and headed to Dalston for After, a new late night/early morning event on Kingsland Road. It’s a hidden treasure, a place where the majority of the DJs came for an exclusive mash-up of back-to-backs. As well as exports from the Swamp 81 and Schl night, there were DJs from Hot Creations and Troupe on the decks. When school’s finally out for summer, I hope plenty more nights like these are on the cards.
Here’s the new video from The Strypes for debut single ‘Blue Collar Jane’. The retro aesthetic is a signature of theirs and looks picture perfect in the video as they stroll around town and play a live gig. Can’t wait to see more from this Irish four-piece!
Cyril Hann shot into fame with a fresh take on the Destiny’s Child classic ‘Say My Name’ and has been hot property ever since. His new remix of American classic ‘Touch My Body’ by the one and only Mariah Carey is another dance triumph and, unbelievably, is free to download from Soundcloud.
Jessie Ware shows us some new material with the video for ‘Imagine it Was Us’, and it gives us a fresh excuse to have the Mercury Prize Nominated lady on repeat. It’s a surprisingly high-energy offering from the ethereally voiced singer of infamous songs ‘Running’ and ‘110%’. It channels many female influences, including echos of ‘Green Envy’, the song she recently worked on with Katy B featuring the lyric ‘Aaliyah, please’. There’s even a Madonna-esque dance routine (circa ‘Vogue’), in which Jessie smashes out the moves in her signature oversized gold hoops and a 90s high ponytail. The track is featured on a special Gold edition of debut album Devoted. We can’t wait to hear what the next one will bring…
R.Kelly surprised the crowds at Coachella with this rock rendition of ‘Ignition’ with French band Phoenix, mixed in with their song ‘1901’. At Rocks HQ we like it when the familiar ‘Remix’ chorus kicks in, but it’s probably a bit of a love it or hate it kind of thing. For some easier listening, here’s some original Phoenix (minus R.Kelly):
Two Ibiza Rocks favourites came together over the weekend when Mistajam brought DJ and producer Redlight in for a special guest mix on his Radio 1Xtra show. The musical tastemaker Mistajam himself is headlining at the Mallorca Rocks W.A.R! Opening Party on the 6th of June alongside Bauuer and Ms Dynamite. Let the summer countdown begin!
