Defected in the House Miami 2007: Ibiza-spinning DJs Sam Holt and Gavin Mills of Copyright will soon release these three-CD mix on indie British house-music label Defected Records. The idea, according to the duo, is that the album should capture the spirit of WMC, which they’ve been attending for nearly a decade. CD One reflects the daytime, poolside vibe; CD Two is a darker, deeper nightclub feel; and CD Three is a mix of breakout songs from past WMCs. This should be the perfect mix for the conference except for two incongruous things:
(1) There’s a kind of hubris in releasing an album called Miami 2007 before the conference has even happened and
(2) Defected has actually canceled its own annual party at WMC, with label head Simon Dunmore citing “too many parties” and “fewer and fewer punters that actually know their s**t” as well as “appalling” club sound systems and attitude. “It takes ages to plan an event like this and costs are considerable. If it was your time and money.....would you bother????” he asks. Ummm...if my label had just released a Miami 2007 conference album...yes???? Ah, well, there’s still time for him to change his mind.
Transitions Vol. 2: John Digweed is still the mixer with the mostest as he proves on this latest CD of progressive house and trance. The 14 tracks include several “Digweed Cheeky Edits”: Abyss—Mind Games, G-Stylz—Belong to Me, Felix Hauser—Mandolina (Robert Babicz rework), and Jackmate—Manray. Like many of his sets, this starts out sprightly and electro and gets progressively darker and almost frightening in some parts before releasing. In unrelated yet related news, Digweed is slated to do the music for the movie version of Irvin Welsh’s Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. Hear some of the set, or catch him in Miami with MSTRKRFT—they’re not Sasha, no, but their electro sound will probably pair well with his own tendencies in that direction. At WMC: March 20, “Diamonds 07 Tour,” Pawn Shop.
Get Salted Vol. 1: The Naked Music sound of mellow jazzy soulful house that Miguel Migs made popular certainly goes well with poolside lounging, but it may not be exactly the sound you hear at the conference. For one thing, the San Francisco DJ’s latest album, Those Things, released on Om Records through his own Salted label rather than Naked Music, is a mix of electronic music and live instrumentation—indeed, he’s taking the show on the road with a live band and the singer whose voice is inseparable from Naked Music, Lisa Shaw. For WMC, however, he’s playing at the Om Records party, so the groove is likely to be the funky, deep-house sound that Om’s artists gravitate toward. More on the new album later, but you can listen to Salted here. At WMC: March 23, “Get Salted with Miguel Migs,” Shine at the Shelborne.
