Check out this tech house tune with samples from Mario on the Nintendo…

LOVE IT!

I was at the annual Bumbershoot festival in Seattle today.  AWESOME day!  One of the best things about the festival is that on top of the scheduled stage acts, there are lots of random performers who start dancing and singing on the street every now and again. 

The Match Fours acappella group were there to promote the Washington Lottery.  I’m not sure if they helped sell lottery tickets, but they certainly entertained the crowd!  Check out this awesome version of ‘I can see clearly now’. . .

These guys worked great together and sounded like they could perform pretty much any song without using a single musical instrument.  I was on my way to see another act, but ended up standing outside the lottery stand for about 15 minutes whilst these guys pulled in the crowds.  On top of sounding great, they had lots of fun, check out this (perhaps slightly clichéd acappella) version of ‘The lion sleeps tonight’. . .

The guy on the right is the bass man – it was amazing how he keeps the constant tone whilst the others are singing and chatting to the crowd.  They also sang ‘Four Little Numbers’, which is apparently the Washington state lottery song (not that I would have known). . .

And one last clip of an unexpected Blondie vs. The Bangles mashup . . .

For the first time in months, last night I went along to Mango in Reading (Berkshire) last night for the re-launch of Lunar.  The night promised to to provide some ‘exciting new developments’ for the main room and the garden.  I have lost track of the number of club nights which have promised to provide something ‘different’, ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘surprising’, etc…, however Lunar really did deliver on it’s promise by providing the audience with a huge surprise half way in to the evening!

In a club known for a stomach rumbling sound system, stunning lighting displays and a packed dance floor full of dance music fans shouting ‘TUNE!’, the last thing everyone expected was a Spanish (as a tribute to Ibiza) dancer to inject a little bit of culture in to a House/Techno night, but that’s exactly what Carrie and Sam arranged for their Lunar Cosmonauts. . .

Click the image below if you would like to see the flyer the night. . .

Last weekend Stratford Upon Avon hosted the annual Global Gathering dance music festival!  What a weekend!  Loads of great DJs, hot tubs, beautiful people, ugly people, muddy people, sun burnt people and lots more! One of the highlights for me was the amazing afternoon set by Steve Angello.

We saw Steve play for the first time in Pacha, Ibiza about a month ago, where he totally rocked Swedish House Mafia on the Monday night!

The Saturday afternoon at Global Gathering was a slow start, due to amazing and slightly crazy time everyone had on the Friday night.  We arrived at the main arena at about 3pm, although spent most of the first hour or so chilling on the floor of the Golden Circle section.  When Steve got on the decks, right from the first tune we were up our feet, shouting ‘tune!’ continuously and joining the ever increasing crowd to support Mr Angello during his superb set!

Here is a video clip with a cheeky Basement Jaxx remix early on in the set (note how busy it was behind the golden circle!)…

Half way through Steve was also accompanied by some pyrotechnics which included smoke, explosions, confetti and a few other bits.  I managed to get a bit of video of the confetti falling whilst Benni Bennasi was on his way in…

All in all, the best 1.5 hours of house music I have had in a long time! Great work Steve Angello! We are thinking of going back to Ibiza just for the Swedish House Mafia closing parties now!

Oh, one last thing.  We even got our photo published on the BBC website (I’m the one on the left) (click to view)…

(The ‘Tune’ and sunflower glasses were hand made by Ilona whilst we were sitting in the tent during the day.)