After kicking off to a great start with Quantic back in June, Cinephonic well and truly settled into its groove with it’s second outing this month. It was a monster weekend with the Mr Elephant team also ramming the bull’s head the night before with a funk flavoured Party Rockin Mammal Session. A little sleep later and we’re back again at the Hare and Hounds for a very different animal.

Video by Jack Brabant

As always with Cinephonic we base the visuals of the night around a theme. This time around it was all about the road movies. Marc Reck opened us up with a great bit of chilled trip-hop, the room nicely filling up to the warm sounds of artists such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Thievery Corporation & Barry Adamson.

Mr Vj Blendstate was on the light fantastic, craftly mixing up some killer clips from Thelma & Louise, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103074/ David Lynch’s lawnmower powered movie “The Straight Story” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/, and the classic Easy Rider http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/ as the pace picked up ready for our special guests.

Rhurbarb Radio favourites Skeleton and Dolhasz perfectly translated their radio show ‘The Beat Suite” http://thebeatsuiterhubarbradio.blogspot.com/ into a live environment. Covering a massive range of genres just like a certain resident of ours loves to do, the experimental pair seemed a perfect match for Marc and the night.

The Beat suite’s 1st set saw some great scratching from Skeleton & some seamless blending from Dolchasz. Taking it from the trip hop into the hip hop and building up into choice dubstep and big room breaks, their style, vibe and mixing was 2nd to none and kept the tension building and the party rockin vibe flowing!

Despite the soaring temperature the place was nice and full by 11:00 and our DJ’s responded accordingly cracking the tunes up and getting everybody moving. The visuals hit overdrive with some feedback powered cliff driving, motorcycle acrobatics, and Lawnmower action for good measure.

Midnight came and it was time for Marc’s 2nd set. Starting from breaks and switching it up with each track, it seemed our resident was looking for what was the crowd wanted in order to set the place off.

After breaks, a little swing, it was the huge bite from the liquid drum and bass which set the place on fire and took us into a great hour of crowd pleasing jungle & drum & bass!

Blendstates visuals were creating a filmic visual narrative that bought the cinema to the dancefloor with impressive skill and inspiring imagination! Skeleton & Dolchaz took to the decks for their 2nd set and displayed why they are two of the moste versatile djs in brum, effortlessly jumping from jungle to drum and bass, from breaks to dubstep, dropping in some cheeky numbers and keeping the floor locked and jumping all the way through.

Massive thanks to all those who came out and created a truly lovely vibe creating a proper night to remember. Also special thanks the venue for staying open an extra half hour allowing our DJ’s a unanticipated B2B set at the end!

Cinephonic will return on the 10th October with details to follow soon. If you’d like to keep posted automagically, please subscribe to the rss, or join the facebook group (invites for each event)

This week we have music from a few midlands artists, a lil afrobeat, some swing, a breaks mix from The Lab’s recent edirol tour, a liquid drum and bass mix from the Ez Rollers warm up set and some footage from their own set recorded live @ the launch of Get Em in @ the Hare & Hounds

Mr Elephant Radio Show #5 – Aug 3rd 2009 by marcreck

Tracklisting

Hanna & Barbera – Flintstones Jazz Score (Reckorder Edit)

Friendly Fire Music / Ras T Weed – Melody and Rhyme

Tamedun – Tamedun Don Come

Tony Allen – Jekalewa

Quantic Ft. Alice Russell – So Long

Waldeck – Memories

Barry Adamson – Jazz Devil

Free Control - Witness

Lamb – Cotton Wool (Fila Brazillia Mix)

Marc Reck – The Lab Edirol Tour Mix

Bedrock - Granite

Alphadrive – Chronos

DJ Icey - Glance feat. Nikki Carabello – V2.2 Mix

Speedy J - EDLX ToolFunkanomics – Circle Kid (Funkanomics Remix) The Prodigy – Thunder

Bit of Dj Icey Mix

The Prodigy – Warrior’s Dance

Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought – We Play the Music

Tim Healey & DJ Deekline feat Fast Eddie – Yo Yo Get Funky (Crissy Criss Time To Get Grimey Remx)

Marc Reck‘s liquid drum & bass set @ Get Em In launch with Ez Rollers – August 2009

Nookie – Get Down (PBK feat Miss Drop)

Roni Size – Heroes (2008 Re-edit)

Syncopix – Lost In Space1

Bungle Feat Ayah – If I leave
Roni Size- Its a Jazz Thing (Utah Jazz Remix)

Ez Rollers recorded  live Get Em In launch with Ez Rollers – August 2009

So our first proposed Inter-mix event was actually a Balkanik Eruption event. Both Marc & Liam both having gigs on the pre-booked night, meant we couldn’t run the full Inter-mix idea, but thankfully it did give us an opportunity to invite one of our favourite Birmingham events – Balkanik Eruption down and see how they run things.

Suffice to say it was a balkanik blast!

First up on the decks was Uncle Zitty, who is no stranger to rockin underground dancefloors and one of the residents of Balkanik Eruption.

Next up was our very own Marc Reck who played his first totally Balkan set, and judging by the dancefloor and residents responses did us proud.

Next up was Leon Trimble aka Vj Chromatouch who was not only doing visuals but also using Traktor and what sounded like a load of mashup balkan music

And to wrap things up was Zuppa Inglese aka Brian Parsons who used his fabulous music collection and tailored skills to full effect til 2am.

Hosted by Ellie Middleton with face painting from Rosa, and door hosting by Kyle, the Balkanik eruption crew are not only a pleasure to work with, but they really know how party.

Join their facebook group and look out for their next event (normally at the Cross in Moseley)

(Its only a week away til the launch of Cinephonic @ Hare & Hounds, so time for a little overview

https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk/buy_tickets/events/?id=10007316

Cinephonic
Born out of frequent collaborations between Marc Reck and Blendstate Visuals at Mr Elephant’s various events as well as with Project X and The Night Times, this project aims to take the relationship one set further…

A new night from Mr Elephant, Cinephonic aims to be something a little different. A treat for both your eyes and ears, each night will take you on an audio visual journey. We take two films from a genre and remix them together VJ style with a carefully selected choice of tunes to take the audience on a trip start to finish. Expect seriously danceable tunes of all flavours wrapped up in beautiful big screen visuals.

We are launching the night with a very special headlining guest DJ, none other than Quantic, aka Will Holland. In honour of our guests beautiful South American surroundings, the tropical vibe of his latest albums and with a nod to Mr Elephant the first Cinephonic will be based around a nature theme.

Quantic
Jazz sensibility with future dance floor orientated grooves, deep funk and tough drums.

Will Holland is one of the most talented and prolific artists in the world of alternative dance music today. Recording under various guises, Will first found acclaim as Quantic. As well as Quantic and the Quantic Soul Orchestra Will is one half of The Limp Twins, a duo he formed with Russ Porter. Initially a deejay partnership, it wasn’t long before they started recording, with Russ taking on the vocal duties and Will adding the magic with his savvy production.

He has enjoyed consistent success with his Quantic moniker, releasing his first album, ‘The 5th Exotic’ in the summer of 2001. It was picked up on by some of the most respected names in underground music. Richard Dorfmiester, Mr Scruff and LTJ Bukem all rated it very highly, not surprising when tunes like “Common Knowledge” and the near classic “Life in the Rain” had blazed across dance floors all over Europe. With elements of Jazz, Funk and Afro blended with tight breaks and Will’s distinctive production, ‘The 5th Exotic’ proved irresistible and won him many plaudits.

He built on this acclaim with the release of ‘Apricot Morning’ less than a year later, dispelling any talk of “the difficult second album”. His sound seemed to expand in every direction on ‘Apricot Morning’ and he became the first Tru Thoughts artist to collaborate with Alice Russell as well as recording with MC EQ and Bristol’s freshest hip hop crew, Aspects. ‘Apricot Morning’ is a perfect snapshot of everything happening at the jazzier end of underground music in 2002, as proved by Gilles Peterson who ranked it amongst his albums of the year.

The release of the album ‘Mishaps Happening’ in 2004 saw Quantic continuing to work with Alice Russell as well as recording two tracks with the legendary Spanky Wilson (with whom he went on to collaborate on a tour and an electrifying album for his Quantic Soul Orchestra…but that’s another story).

Quantic released a two-disc ‘One Offs, Remixes and B Sides’ album in 2005, which featured a collaboration with Mr Scruff and remixes by Pilooski and Seiji; and his fifth long player, ‘An Announcement To Answer’ followed in 2006, cementing his reputation as a 21st Century Quincy Jones.

Quantic regularly DJs across the world (and we mean the World not just America, Europe and Japan) spreading the unique Quantic sound with each set. His music has been featured on countless compilations and appeared in TV soundtracks, and as ever he has a busy schedule of remixes from respected labels across the board. In 2007 he relocated to Colombia, where he has had a studio built and is continuing to create exciting music at a characteristically prolific rate, taking inspiration from the heady mix of rhythms and sounds on his doorstep.

2008 saw a new project come to life, under the moniker Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno, a summery dub and reggae-inspired affair with an authentic tropical vibe. The album, ‘Death Of The Revolution’ came out in July 2008 and features Will Holland on various instruments with contributions from a host of Latin American musicians, including the legendary Peruvian pianist Alfredo Linares. This album pricked up the ears of many tastemakers and fans alike, including Gilles Peterson and Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio 2), who have been excited and curious about the new progression in Quantic’s music – and impressed that it sounds as stunning and original as any Quantic album to date.

The big story for 2009 is Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro, a handpicked band of internationally renowned musicians set to take over from The Quantic Soul Orchestra in realising the next stage of Holland’s musical vision.
(www.quantic.org // www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/artists/quantic)

Tradition in Transition: A Postcard from Cali

Shot in Cali and Buenaventura in Colombia. A Postcard from Cali is based around the music of Quantic and his Combo Barbaro from their forthcoming Tradition in Transition album on Tru Thoughts Records . (Screening starts 9pm)

Tradition in Transition: A Postcard from Cali (TRAILER) from Quantic on Vimeo.