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Saturday April 4, Mint Club Leeds: VVWI presents TINY Tim Sheridan versus MONSTER Mike Monday versus KING King Roc. Party going up from London, get in touch if you want to join...

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Mike Monday's Songs Without Words has made Popmatter's end-of-year "slipped disc" listing - the albums that should have been top the year before... "Finally, a Monday we can all enjoy."

And their review here: "From beginning to end, Songs Without Words is too much fun to put into words, hence the title".

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A wonderfully funky and woozy mix to celebrate the release of single four off Mike's Songs Without Words Part 1 on Om (IDJ's album of the month, doncha know).

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"If only all releases had such attention paid to them, maybe more people would buy physical copies of the music they like listening to."

Teleosteopathy.

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"It was early 2008 when he settled to dish out his second studio album. Luckily, the delay hasn`t dented his creative process, in fact, it`s lead to an even more varied and even more sonically sweeping affair, Songs Without Words."

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Here.

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Artist portrait on Rhapsody

To call something "unclassifiable" is the oldest trick in the artistic playbook -- and it's an even hoarier cliche in electronic music, which derives so much of its energy from classifications. But the U.K.'s Mike Monday has actually earned the tag. His productions -- for labels like Great Stuff, Freerange, Playtime and Om -- are all over the stylistic map, folding together elements of chunky tech-house, breakbeats, disco and deep techno; he's not afraid to foray into dubstep or Crayola-rubbed drum 'n' bass, nor to drop a long spoken- word sample from a certain Man in Black. What ties his music together is attention to detail -- every one of his sounds, from a sax bleat to an acid squelch, seems like the only sound possible in the moment it rings out -- and the ever-present element of surprise. And refreshingly, for an artist who ranges so widely, Monday's work never feels cluttered or willfully "eclectic." (He's even in the habit of producing lean, slightly deranged dub versions of his singles, revealing an unexpected dancefloor purism lurking beneath his just-for- a-lark attitude.) By turns goofy and gorgeous, his music is sure to bring a smile to your face (and a swivel to your waist).

And a review of Songs without Words (also Rhapsody).

Mike Monday's second album feels almost like a sampler of the best electronica circa 2008 -- you've got subaqueous dubstep ("Grace"), polychromatic minimal house ("Through the Keyhole"), spring-loaded neo- acid house ("Salieri Complex") and, for good measure, wonky, lopsided funk detours that sound like parade horns coming off a weekend bender. No matter how many styles Monday ropes in, he always sounds 100% himself; for all his tempo changes, the album works as a singular mood piece. This wordless set speaks volumes: it's a box full of boxes of surprises, stacked Russian-doll style.

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"Every ounce of energy and love has gone into it, and I'd like to think you can hear that on a record. I think a lot of people throw a lot of shit at the wall, and some of it sticks. And mine is to throw less, and make sure it's very very sticky!"

Interview by Guy Hornsby.

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Mike's written seriously about the reaction to Catnip on iTunes US, so we'll confine ourselves to reporting some of the more extreme reactions to Catnip being picked as video of the week.

It's quite hard to see how extreme the reactions are ("It's a free video! Enjoy it!") without reading them yourself, so check it out yourself. If you're not in the US, you can access US iTunes by going to the bottom of your iTunes screen and selected US, then search on "Catnip Mike Monday" - it's worth it.

But here's a few...

"If every figureskater knew this music existed, then their programs would be a lot more modern and more awesome choreography could be created for competitions. It has good cues for jumps and spins and if even good to listen to on your iPod. I luv luv luv I am Plankton and Stargirl. I am totally going to use this music for my next program!"

But there's a decent amount of this as well:

"Strange and retarded... what a waste of time."

Or

"Add this to your Mochipet and Squarepusher playlists for variety and interesting times!"

And ...

"Who knew that electronic music had the breadth of ideas - realised ideas - that Mike Monday has?"

Or

"Waste of money, you've already clicked yes."

Summary: the internet really is full of 12-year-old Emos. Give them both barrels, Mike!

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In case you can't read it, it's a staff recommendation: "Fantastic new album from Om ... this is so quirky, trippy and funky in the fun electronic genre... the BPM hits all angles ... experimental dance music at its party best ... Fans of Trentmoller, Royksopp, Mr Scruff and Lemon Jelly will love it ... Obscured fun electronica... Jeff M."

Jeff, we owe you a beer. Thanks!

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If the Yellow Submarine filmclip had been a little more like this, the Beatles would still be touring together as we speak and we'd all be saved from Paul's horrible attempts at sculpture.

Shape and colour blog.

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Supercool French blog Get the Curse has its own Mike Monday mix up - Michel Lundi gets the curse...

.

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I must agree the question is still unanswered, since it has struck me speechless.

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Quite a lot of news on Catnip, the video for Mike Monday's new album Songs without Words...

It's been iTunes US's video of the week (and a free download).

It's also getting amazing reactions on videomaker site vimeo - more than 2600 plays, 80+ "likes" and a set of raves already.

And finally, there's even a specifically reframed version to watch on ze iPhone - here.

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LISTEN AND BUY AT BEATPORT: here.

What is Playtime? For the press it was "one of the best labels to come out of 2005" (DJ), or "the label of the moment" (One Week to Live), and the record label that bought you Mike Monday's debut, Smorgasbord, an IDJ album of the year and a "classic" (One Week to Live). For clubbers it was the first night to bring Claude von Stroke and Abe Duque to the UK - "one of clubland's finest inventions" (DJ) and "the last mixed club left standing" (TNT).

But mainly it was a bit of wonky fun - one of few labels of its time waving the flag for wonkier electronic music. So as it relaunches over the next few months, look out for off-kilter new rave music and remixes from Hannah Holland, Riva Starr, a little mechnical jazz from Germany's Andre Crom, Luke Solomon, Worthy and Yankee Zulu, the Lost Cowboy, and our original Big Daddy and of course Mike Monday - who incidentally, will be headlining the relaunch of the club on Fri Sep 26 at the newly-returned-to-house Bar Rhumba (and whose new album, out next month, manages to be both wonky and wonderfully serious. Check out playtime the club and the official launch party at Wet Yourself, London, Oct 12).

But for now, it's Banshee, by BuggedOut and Trailer Trash's Hannah Holland, London's queen of batty bass. It's a slinky, knowing nod to the rave - but not as you knew it - with a deeper, more overwhelming Mike Monday mix ...

"DOPE!" - Style of Eye.

"Mike's remix is great" - Rob Mello.

"Sickkkkkkk!!!!!" - Worthy.

"Love it!" - D Ramirez.

"I'll hammer them" - Paco.

"Cool!" - Crookers.

"Awesome. I will hammer this everywhere" - Laurent Garnier.

"Really good" - Brodinski.

"Great stuff!" - Fil OK.

"Bouncy and hot" - Luke Solomon.

"Amazing stuff" - Tomboy.

"Nice" - Rodomaal.

"Thanks! Love the original" - Zdar.

"Lovin' the original" - Cormac.

"Particularly feeling the Mike Monday mix" - Philip Sherburne .

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He's bald, his house beats bounce like no others, and he's blue - Mike Monday in San Francisco's Bay Guardian.

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PRAISE FOR TRACKS FROM MIKE MONDAY'S UPCOMING 'SONGS WITHOUT WORDS PART 1'

Laurent Garnier – “What i always love about Mike Monday is that he always have a lot of personality in his music. This is another great one from him. Will support as always!”

Lee Van Dowski - "playing 11 11. good job."

Mark Henning - "hello nest is wicked! is that out already?"

Tom Pooks - "very good track this hello nest !!!!"

Mark Knight - "Hello Nest is my pick here, awesome groove & energy"

Justin Martin - "loving loving loving The 11 11.... very sick shit"

Master H - "So glad to see that UR album gonna be release soon and what a release......I've had a carefull listening and i really like the minimalist Hello Nest really well produced but the one really do me is The11 11 so nice and great build up all the way long nice drums and perc well done. Support and respect"

Cass - "Lovin both the tracks, with Nest probably winning out just by a nose."

Simon Baker (Infant/Playhouse) - "reckon that will work the floors for sure ! !"

Dirt Crew - "really like the 11 11. funky!"

Giles Smith (Secretsundaze / Two Armadillos) - "11 11 Sounds like a cool track – fresh and different with a cool bassline"

Peter Kruder - "Tight Stuff!!!! Wicked....both tunes."

Milton Jackson (Freerange/Urban Torque) - "these are both amazing"

ANDY CATO (Groove Armada)- "QUALITY MUSIC. FULL SUPPORT"

Funk D'Void - "tested it out 3 times...everytime fucking rocked!"

Rainer Weichold (Great Stuff, Germany) - "huge freaky shit"

LUKE SOLOMON - "Played both sides at his Rekids album launch party at Panoramabar in Berlin, and ended up saying that Hello Nest was his musical highlight of the night. crikey."

CLAUDE VON STROKE - "Will play this for sure doooooood!"

MAZI (AUDIO SOUL PROJECT) - "Really feeling “The 11 11”. The groove, the build, the distorted piano in the middle all are sick!"



MASON - "The 11 11 rockssss!"

James Masters (Rekids) - "Thanks for the track – it’s a killer!"

STYLE OF EYE - "I can´t wait to hear your next album, this is a massive release!! both sides are great, looking forward to playing it out!"

KAROTTE (Cocoon) - "i like the " hello nest" track. Will play this"

SIMON RIGG (owner and manager of Phonica) - "Really like the A side"

Will Saul : "The 11 11 is the pick of the bunch for me though. Fandabidoso.
Hello Nest is also Fab (great name by the way) - love the big throbbing pad
- will play this loads (see I'm not as gay as you thought)."

Ralph Lawson - "Really like Hello Nest!"

Dan Cat - "in awe of them"

Falko Brocksieper - "the tracks u sent me are WICKED!!"

Tim Paris - "the 11 11 is Hot hot hot. great tune, great production, i love it !"

Tim Sheridan - "All wonderful!!"

Tomas Barford/Tomboy (Get Physical etc)- "great great stuff you sent me....such a fat sound..."

Tommy Four Seven - "BAD ASS!!"

Basti Tiefschwarz – “Glug Glug dub is good for me.”

Kiki – “I am plankton"? ha ha, excellent! Love the "glug glugs", but hope it doesn´t start a new minimal-sub-genre ;)

Jimpster – “Deep in the Marine Biology sense of the word. Love it!”

Llorca – “Supa funky bass, supa swinging beat! Lovin it!”

Jeff Samuel – “Wow, I Am Plankton is totally weird! Cheers to Monday for trying something new!”

Luke Solomon – “This is hot hot hot funk!”

Touche – “Original and fresh sounding.”

Onionz – “Salieri Complex is ill!”

Hector Romero – “Love me some Mike Monday and here he doesn't let me down! Salieri Complex and I Am Plankton.”

Jose Gonazalo – (DeeJay Magazine Spain) – “Mike Monday sound is far from the hype, but is perfect for underground dancefloors."

PRAISE FOR SMORGASBORD, MIKE MONDAY'S DEBUT

“A player of the year, album of the month, and one of the albums of the year” - IDJ

“An LP we just can’t put down” - DJ



“One of the finest electronic albums this side of Playgroup [..] a classic” - One Week to Live

“House music that stretches the imagination without losing the ability to rock the dancefloor” - Mixmag

“[Mike Monday and Playtime Records are] one of the 100 reasons dance music still rules” - IDJ

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On hi-hats and top end: "my rule of thumb is always less is more. Always"

And on the relationship between kick and bass: "I'm afraid there are no hard and fast rules. But here are three bits of advice I can give".

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HEY PRINCESS! WE'RE BACK!

The international society for people trying to escape the everpresent Jodie Harsh presents...

RETURN TO SOHO!

SHOREDITCH'S FAVOURITE UNDEAD, ZOMBIES ATE MY BRAIN, AND PLAYTIME
present....

THE RE-OPENING OF PIVOTAL VENUE BAR RUMBA.
(SHAFTSBURY AVE, QUITE NEAR THE GAYS).

London clubland is, as always, collapsing - the gays are away, dancing at Bergheim. The straights are taking a horrified peek downstairs in the cubicles at Bergheim, and that's dancing too - in its own special way. The venues are shutting! There's no music! The kids only want rawk, and live! And Shoreditch is one terrible scratchy teenbeard after another - the sort that make a man look like a plucked chicken - a rich plucked chicken, one who can afford American Apparel.

Give it up! Escape Shoreditch! Return to Soho! And be part of the relaunch of the legendary Bar Rumba - the venue that bought you Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon's legendary mid-weeker Space, Giles Peterson's THIS!, seminal d'n'b testing ground Movement ... such an amazing history that even those difficult bitches on the Faith Forum have had nice things to say about it (as long as no-one else catches them being nice, obviously...) It's a stupidly good set of nights coming up, with guests including Dinky, Terry, Maurice Fulton, Roland Appel, the fantastic Greg Wilson, Optimo, Stefan Goldmann, Todd Bodine, remixer of Playtime favourite track, Paranoid; plus Jona, Steve Kotey, Clive Henry...

And for the launch Fri Sep 26, it's Playtime and Shoreditch's own Zombies Ate My Brain as the opening night. So we've pulling out the first listen for London to Mike's Monday's new album, Songs without Words - about to be announced as album of the month in the next IDJ ...

PLAYTIME V ZOMBIES
OPENING NIGHT FOR NEW BAR RUMBA

MIKE MONDAY, first London listen to new album Songs without Words (IDJ album of the month)
SHANE WATCHA / Zombies ate my brain
BIG DADDY / Playtime
NOBODY / Zombies Ate my Brain.

ZOMBIES V PLAYTIME, 10PM-6AM, £10 / cheaper with concession from hello@playtime-records.com or playtime-records.com. Bar Rumba, 36 Shaftsbury Avenue, London W1D 7EP. Picadilly Circus tube. Info 020 7287 6933 or hello@playtime-records.com.

MIKE MONDAY

It's the next phase of Monday's advance into electronics. His debut LP, Smorgasbord was an IDJ album of the year, a "classic" in One Week to Live and an "LP we can't put down", according to DJ mag. But his new CD, Songs Without Words, is a step beyond. Simulaneously serious and lighthearted, it's Monday staking out a big claim for electronic music: that vocals can't provide half the experimental and emotional charge of cutting-edge electronic noise.

But while its humour pushes the album well away from the predictable monotony of today's dance music, it's the most committed European electronica acts supporting Monday's ideas. With fans from Kiki to Tiefschwarz, Will Saul to Falko Brocksieper, Alex Flatner to to Anthony Collins, MANDY to incredible support from Laurent Garnier (“I love the personality of Mike’s music”), Monday has put a human face and human emotion to the best elements of today's electronic production ...

SHANE WATCHA

He's one of the DJs that keeps the London scene together. His night Zombies Ate My Brain is one of "London's best afterparties" (DJ mag - which has also nominated Watcha as one of their "Fantastic Four"). He's part of London's Circo Loco, playing from warehouse parties to the soon-to-be-much-missed The End to tours in Moscow, Europe, SE Asia and Australia and New Zealand and the USA, as well as playing in London alongside an endless list of big underground names like Steve Bug, Loco Dice, Claude Von Stroke, Marc Houle, Konrad Black, Tim Sheridan, James Holden, Clive Henry and Mr C. Not bad, as he says, for a guy who first started playing to 20 in a tiny bar in South Africa.

BIG DADDY

Even five years ago when it started, Big Daddy's night Playtime, was being called "one of clubland's finest inventions ... it honestly sounds like nothing else around" (DJ), "the best mixed club in the capital" (TNT) and "terrific ... one of the last truly mixed parties left in London" (Guardian), It gave the first-ever London slots to now pivotal figures like Claude vonStroke and Abe Duque, and earned its first resident Big Daddy gigs in Russia, France, Asia, Australia, the States, all over the UK, as well as creating a new record label, Playtime Records - "one of the reasons dance music still rules," according to IDJ, and a label that will relaunch in Oct with a new tracks from Andre Crom to Riva Starr to Hannah Holland to Dirtybird Records hero Worthy, as well as more up-and-coming artists like Lost Cowboy and Yankee Zulu ...

PRESS ENQUIRIES
hello at the - x - agency dot com.

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residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=9591

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"Perfect for mermaid dancing" - xlr8r.com/news/2008/08/singles-update.

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"Destined for ultimate dancefloor success in two completely different ways [...] And if you think this is good, just wait until you hear his album, out late September, I've heard it - it's just like catching up with an old friend."

www.ibiza-voice.com/story/news/1540

"A monstrous, floor filling, rip roaring, techno romper that builds and builds."

www.datatransmission.co.uk/viewreview.aspx?reviewID=388

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24 hour party people - vinyljunkierecords.blogspot.com/2008/08/monday-club-tv.html

Nordic music site megamind.se/page.php?id=2935

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clubevents.info/news.php?news_id=378.

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PHOTO CREDIT: SHAUNA REGAN Shaunaregan.com. ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: DRUNKPARK / SEB GODFREY drunkpark.com. Click on image for print-ready version.

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Mike Monday's second album is coming soon - Songs without words.

It's the sequel to Smorgasbord - "a classic" (One Week to Live), "an LP we just can't put down" (DJ) and one of IDJ's albums of the month and of the year. But it's a lot more expansive than Monday's first album - from moody, detailed stoner soundscapes to the sly and silly funk for which he was previously known to purely experimental electronica (as well as a collection of animated Mike Monday adventures - part 1 of which is now out...)

And one of the best shows of the new expansiveness is I Am Plankton - the world's first 12-inch of aquarium noises you can dance to...

Promo requests for the whole album to grant@the-x-agency.com.

Laurent Garnier - "What i always love about Mike Monday is that he always have a lot of personality in his music. This is another great one from him. Will support as always!"

Basti Tiefschwarz - "Glug Glug dub is good for me."

Kiki - "I am plankton"? ha ha, excellent! Love the "glug glugs", but hope it doesn't start a new minimal-sub-genre ;)"

Jimpster - "Deep in the Marine Biology sense of the word. Love it!"

Llorca - "Supa funky bass, supa swinging beat! Lovin it!"

Jeff Samuel - "Wow, I Am Plankton is totally weird! Cheers to Monday for trying something new!"

Luke Solomon - "This is hot hot hot funk!"

Touche - "Original and fresh sounding."

Onionz - "Salieri Complex is ill!"

Hector Romero - "Love me some Mike Monday and here he doesn't let me down! Salieri Complex and I Am Plankton."

Jose Gonazalo (DeeJay Magazine Spain) - "Mike Monday sound is far from the hype, but is perfect for underground dancefloors."

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Mike Monday's new album showcase - taken from Sonar 08. (More podcasts here.)

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There's also a new Mike Monday mix available via through X podcasts:

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The londonpaper:

DJ mag:

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A lot of Racing Posts have died to get Playtime this far. It started as a little thing for 120 in tiny bar off Regent St - a mixed night for male and female princesses, playing this newfangled wonky house stuff with the slogan "look normal, they must suspect nothing". Now Playtime has grown up to become the first club to bring new sounds like Claude von Stroke, Abe Duque and Mason to the UK, and a record label described as "label of the moment" by One Week to Live and "one of the best labels to come out of 2005".

In between, there's been some killer releases - little did we know that Mike Monday's 'what day is it?' was huge in Berlin when every UK producer would have killed for success there. And some astounding gigs (Abe Duque's live set with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, very early UK appearances from Sebastien Leger and Oliver Huntemann, and the insane party for the release of Mike Monday's Smorgasbord, not to mention the Fear and Loathing night with Hunter S Thompson on the door...)

But now Playtime is five, and we're ready to move on. June 22 will be our last date at the key, and Playtime moves to the Ministry main room with John Acquaviva's new night Electronic later in 2007 ... But in the meantime, who else should a mixed-up night like Playtime get for its fifth birthday but one of the most mixed-up, ambisexual, fast-talking acts around at the moment...?

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Been quite a year for us, and now IDJ has said that Smorgasbord is one of its albums of the year, and Mike Monday one of its main players. Thanks guys!

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Two surprises for Playtime labelmates in Mixmag today: Tom Mangan is "one to watch out for" and Mike Monday is one of the "top 10 electro names to check" alongside "The Wanted" AKA Deepgroove, whose new track Never You is out on Playtime real soon now...

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From Notion magazine:

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Raveline article and review.

Groove.

Partynews.

De-Bug.

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A lucid interview with M Monday on 4clubbers.net. And even uk-dance, which I have to admit I've seen as a fairly meanspirited bunch of naysayers in the past, likes the album

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The lovely hippies, we mean, at the big chill.

And the mixmag review is a 4/5...

As well as great reviews in Nuts and Touch. Wah-hey!

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Playtime the club is being profiled next week, btw...

And who do punters think should win the DJ mag top 100 award? (Thanks nico!)

Mike also played at the launch party for the DJ mag awards...

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Whoo! Album of the month!

Readable text below as always...

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And a review in the eclectic and leftfield section as well!

And 4 stars in DJ mag as well...

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Lead review in One Week to live - "you know you're listening to a classic".

4/5 stars in DJ mag - and then they sneakily upped it to 4.5/5 stars when they decided, the fortnight after their original review, to make Smorgasbord one of their "LPS WE CAN'T LEAVE ALONE". Readable text below...

Plus DJ mag...

We're promised, incidentally, that the IDJ four-page feature coming out Sep will also be a rave review...

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Now this is actually on someone elses' label - Will Saul's Simple - but as it involves Mike we thought it was worth covering. 2000 copies on vinyl in the first week, #10 in the DJ mag hype chart for Bhalobashi, Mike's first track on that label. It's doing particularly well in Germany with fans like MANDY and Phonique.

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We're a little run off our feet at Playtime HQ at the moment but here's an update.

The album cover - and the album just got 4/5 in its first-ever review in DJ mag, too!

Plus releases:

The first CDs are out in the UK Sep 6 but there's actually another two versions of the album coming.

Itunes special digital release - out next week with two extra tracks - a new one ummyjig and the much-loved boondoggle.

Beatport DJ version - 12"s of the all of the album tracks - will be out late Sep.

Plus there's a tour!

Official album launch:
Playtime at the Egg, London, Fri Aug 25.
ike Monday 4hr extended set, Justus Koenchke, Tim Paris, Big Daddy.

Ibiza album launch
Acquaholic at Privilege
John Acquaviva, Mike Monday, and Big Daddy is doing the warmup party as well.

August
22nd - Festival Batumi, Georgia
25th – Playtime launch party, London
26th – Redlight, London
27th – Jaded + wrong, London

September
2nd – OCD, Rhythm Factory London
5th – Acquaholic launch party, Ibiza.
15th – Le Club, Nice, France
16th – Nodisko, Brixton, London
17th - Inigo, London, UK
22nd - Playtime, The Egg, London, UK
23rd – Mind the Gap, the Arches, Glasgow,

October
6th - Sumo, Cardiff, UK
7th - Bob Sinclar/Brique Rouge, Turnmills, London, UK
14th - Club Vibrant, Liverpool, UK
21st - Junkbox, the Zap, Brighton
27th - Sullivan Rooms, New York, USA

November
11th - Playtime, Ministry of Sound, London,UK
18th – Disco Slut, Preston, UK.
24th - Playtime, EGG, London, UK

Plus a China and Australia tour in Dec ...

Join us! You know you want to!

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This Wednesday 2nd August 6-8pm BST (5-7 GMT / 7-9 CEST) you can catch my first ever radio show on www.pushfm.com (or if you are in the North London area 107.7fm).

As there are so many dance shows around right now doing much the same thing, I wanted to try and do something a little different...

Week after week at gigs and over the net I've picked up loads of great music from up and coming (and often established!) djs and producers, which I regularly play out and which often never sees the light of day.

So aside from trawling the globe for the records which aren't necessarily the usual "big" tunes you'll have heard a million times, I'm including an unsigned/demo section where I'll give these tunes some much needed exposure. I'll also be getting guest mixes and interviews from some criminally underrated djs and producers from the UK and further afield.

There'll be tracklistings every week at http://blog.myspace.com/magicmikemonday and www.pushfm.com every week, so if any A&R people are interested in any of the unsigned stuff just drop me a mail!

Oh and every show will be archived for a week on www.pushfm.com and there'll be a podcast of it shortly.

For me dance music got good again when we searched for the new, the exciting, the different - so I want to do my bit to push this great new music...

"THE PUSH" - Mike Monday's New Weekly Radio Show

WHERE : www.pushfm.com / 107.7 fm (North London)
WHEN : every Wednesday 6-8pm BST / 5-7 GMT / 7-9 CEST
ARCHIVE : www.pushfm.com (for 1 week)
TRACKLISTINGS : www.pushfm.com / http://blog.myspace.com/magicmikemonday

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Mike Monday about to reach critical mass, says mixmag in their people to watch this month...

Original piece:

Plus Mike did the "in the bag" piece for DJ mag this fortnight (readable text below):

Posted by X at 5:04 PM | Permalink

Well that’s it. Complete, finished, done. Mike Monday - “Smorgasbord” started life as a double ep of 8 club tracks for the delectation of djs, and with the encouragement of my wife Sally, and Grant my partner in Playtime Records, it grew and became a full length album.

The last few months have built to a crazed and sleepless peak in trying to finish it on time. Grant gave me an unmovable deadline of Monday 19th June to have it complete and mastered. For it to be released in early September (practically the last time for an underground dance album to come out this year and not sink without a trace), we needed enough time to get promos produced and out to press to have a chance of getting it reviewed.

I also had a gig at Privilege in Ibiza on Tuesday 20th June, and was leaving at the crack of dawn on Monday 19th so I could go to the opening of Cocoon on Monday night. This meant that I had to finish by Saturday morning, the last possible time the album could be EQed and mastered.

So, I bravely booked the mastering session for 11am Sat morning, battened down the hatches, turned off the phone, ignored the email/myspace and generally got down to business in the studio. With a month to go, I had 8 definite tracks and a whole host of possibilities for the rest (eek). With 2 weeks to go I had only 5 definite tracks and was still oscillating between the ever increasing options for the others (yikes). With 1 week to go I literally had 4 definites and no idea what I was doing (aaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhh!!!).

This wasn’t helped by the British Summer’s unwavering ability to provide precisely the incorrect conditions required for the activity in question. In short it was bloody hot.

My current studio makes things worse as it has a pitch roof which when the sun shines, ceaselessly blasts waves of heat into the room. And when the sun goes down, said roof retains the heat, so even if it is a pleasantly balmy evening outside, indoors is reminiscent of the interior of a wood fired oven. Good for pizza, bad for album.

Anyway – at about 6pm on the Friday evening pre deadline, I sat down in my local with a pad, a pen and a pint and wrote down exactly what I had left to do. That turned out to be mixing down 6 tracks, arranging and mixing down 2, and completely writing another. I won’t go into the details but rest assured I went through as many highs and lows in that one god awful night as in the whole of the rest of my life. But I got it done. So at 7.30am, I got on my bike to go home to bed for a couple of hours armed with a cd of the whole thing.11 tracks of pure quality!

Or so I thought. When I got back home, I woke up Sally and played her the album only to realise that I still had varying degrees work to do on every single track except one! So I got in the shower, phoned the mastering engineer who gave me an extra 2 hours, and cycled back to the studio. 3 hours and 3 cans of red bull later I turned up to the mastering suite (where they have great coffee, thank the lord), and we got down to the mastering.

I don’t need to go into the finer points of mastering here, but suffice to say that mastering an album is a process which is much more creative and involved than I had appreciated, and it took until 10pm when I cycled away from the studio with the completed album in my cd walkman.

This is where things get a little hazy…

I do know that I had to cycle to the studio to pick up my records, then home to get changed as I had a gig at Ministry at 11pm, so I had time enough to listen to the album in its entirety on the walkman. I also remember phoning Grant to tell him it was crap and that it didn’t work and I HATED it. I think I had an argument with the cab driver on the way to the MoS, as well as a bouncer on the way in to the club. But essentially I made it to my gig (a little late), and somehow ended up playing records for 3 hours and apparently rocked it, although I find that hard to believe. And no I didn’t go home to bed after the gig, but that’s another story…

After living with the finished article and listening to it while in Ibiza (no I didn’t make it to Cocoon – I think my friends Simon and Kate who picked me up from the airport feared for my health and sanity), I ended up taking out a track and reordering it slightly. I never appreciated how much just one track can unbalance an entire album, so was surprised at how much happier I was without the superfluous track. The new order also works much better than before as now there’s a great shape and momentum to the whole thing.

Its very difficult to be objective about your own work, especially when you are on as new and uncertain ground as I am with this album. But my aim with “Smorgasbord” was to create an album that reflects me and my influences, and which is first and foremost a good listen, something I think I have achieved.

Now all I can think about is the next one…

Xmm

P.S. all the tracks on my Myspace page are off the album
P.P.S. “Smorgasbord” is released on Playtime Records in the 1st week of September 06
P.P.P.S. There’s going to be a “Smorgasbord” site coming soon – watch this space…

Posted by at 10:15 AM | Permalink

Yes, yes, y'all - Playtime turns 4 next month. We've still got this month to get through - Tim Sheridan, Kerowack and Coley! at the club with Mike Monday and Big Daddy this friday (23 Jun).

But then for the birthday we've got the first previews of the upcoming album by a certain house legend - live!

No, not Mike - his album is being launch at Playtime Aug. We mean A Guy Called Gerald.

And if you're around next Friday 30th, Mike Monday is playing at the Intergroove stand at 4PM (in his guise as Howarth brother #3) and Big Daddy's playing at Sketch that night.

Posted by X at 11:15 AM | Permalink

UPDATE: It's official! MIke Monday's 1st artist album, smorgasbord, will be out 1st week sep on Intergroove. He's keeping it all fairly mysterious at the moment but we can confirm it will have two of our favourites of his new pieces, Thing and Late Developer, a radically detroit update of Tooting Warrior as well as old favourite What Day Is it and a surprising number of not-really house tracks. YA! RLY! Launch will be a very extended set at Playtime Fri Aug 25 ...

Posted by X at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Amazing reviews for Boondoggle: a sureplayer and 4.5/5 in DJ, 4/5 in IDJ and 6/7 in One Week To Live! Hat trick!

Can't read that? It says ...

"You'd better savour this one 'cos it's the last twelve to come from Mike Monday for a while. But don't panic, he's got an album arriving in a month or so. Longplayer or not, this should keep your box occupied - a rather odd slice of Playschool electro-house that bangs away with a groove as adult (and filthy) as a Jenna Jameson film but with a childish vocal. It honestly sounds like nothing else around - quirky but powerful - showing that Monday has really found his own territory (JK)."

Meanwhile...

And in case you missed it, Playtime rocked at our first 2006 gig at Ministry. Thanks to our guest Tomboy who played an absolutely superb soup-to-nuts deep-to-techno set...

Posted by at 12:13 AM | Permalink

For those of you who missed it on beatport: he was a man who knew about L-O-V-E ... and, er, he was a man who, er, did the remix. Easily the most romantic front-page splash ever done on beatport, we present ... the ad!

It's like Brokeback Mountain without the spittin', no? Enormous hilarity in Playtime HQ for that one - thanks Liz, love your work!

Posted by at 12:11 AM | Permalink

DJ mag has given L-O-V-E four and a half stars, describing our man Mike Monday and L-O-V-E G-O-D Tom Mangan as "two of this year's key players". IDJ gave it four out of five but also said Playtime was "one of the finest labels to come out of 2005". Result!

The track is now on beatport by the way and will soon also be on DJdownload.

Meanwhile, promos have just gone out for a secret Playtime track that is being sent only to DJs on the promo list who've been good with their reactions ... It's called Boondoggle (b/w Boondubble - see what we did there?). It's a Mike Monday track and it's being pressed now for very quick release in early March - to clear the PR decks in advance of the upcoming Mike Monday artist album (well, 8-track) due in May.

Which means there's going to be a lot of non-Mike stuff between now and mid-year. He's always going to be the main artist on Playtime but as Playtime head honcho Big Daddy points out, we've also got three killers from the Insignificant Others, Cass and Mangan and the Wanted - plus a King Roc remix and a David Duriez remix coming up as well.

Posted by at 12:08 AM | Permalink

The first reaction for Tom Mangan's new track on Playtime, L-O-V-E, is a page in DJ mag!

(Readable text here.)

And there's end of year charts from Playtime head honcho Big Daddy and our main act Mike Monday. Aside from that? We had a bit of a month off ...

Posted by at 12:01 AM | Permalink

OCTOBER UPDATE
Playtime Records #2, Mike Monday's Tooting Warrior and Belter, sells out its first pressing within a week, is played at the Space closing party by Groove Armada, and is licenced by nastydirtysexmusic, Tom Stephan, John Acquaviva compilations. Woo-hoo!

The a side: Tooting Warrior - a big jump-up number dedicated to the endlessly energetic residents of South London and Steve Lawler's "track of the summer". You may have already heard it on Ministry's shit-hot nastydirtysexmusic compilation.

The other side? Belter, a favourite of Ewan Pearson and David Duriez - liquid, menacing, and guaranteed to get the ladies dancing - assuming you like ladies with tattoos who swill whisky from the bottle.

We do. Reactions here.

Posted by at 11:55 PM | Permalink

Playtime Records #1, Mike Monday's What Day Is it ...

Makes it into the top 10s of every DJ in the enire world. Yes, really! Groove Armada. Lee Burridge. Mylo. Tom Neville. Tom Stephan. Annie Mac. Ewan Pearson. D’Julz. Paul Woolford. Rob Mello. The fabulous Miss Honey Dijon. Phonique. Freestyle Man. Jo Jo De Freq. Tony Senghore. Lee Coombs. Sancho Panza. Laurent Garnier. Josh Wink. Stompaphunk, Tribal Sessions, Chibuku, DC10. Rob da Bank. Mark Knight. Nic Faniculli. And more ... check out the reactions...

Posted by at 11:36 PM | Permalink

It started with a chance comment in an interview for Mike Monday's debut album, Smorgasbord - an IDJ album of the year, a "classic" in One Week to Live, and "an LP [DJ mag] couldn't put down".

- Why didn't you use vocalists? Monday was asked.

- Because producers use vocalists when they aren't ambitious enough, Monday replied. They think they can't do real emotion without words. I think that's crap. Anything you can feel, you can convey in music. And better, the listener can pull a lot more personal meaning out of an instrumental than a set of lyrics...

Hence Monday's second album, Songs Without Words. Two years on from that first spark at the interview, it's an album with exactly one tiny vocal snippet across the whole platter. But it's got the broad emotional and experimental charge you get from the best electronic albums, and which you'll never get from the third-grade poetry of song-based rock and indie.

From moody, detailed stoner soundscapes to purely experimental electronica to the sly and silly funk for which Monday was known in the past, Songs is a long way from Monday's debut - and a hell of a long way from Monday's early days as a purely dancefloor producer.

It's a pick-and-mix approach also reflected in his upcoming live show. Drawing on Monday's background as a saxophonist and a desire to go "well past the laptop", Monday's live gigs next year will incorporate Heath-Robinson-like synth contraptions driven by a saxophone, a band of bald men in glasses, and the showmanship of Monday's first band - one of the first live house acts, Beat Foundation, which disbanded in the 90s went Andy Cato left to form Groove Armada.

And that's alongside Catnip - a set of cartoons accompanying the album. Drawn and animated by Drunkpark (Seb Godfrey and Joe Hamilton), they hark back to the innocence of San Francisco cartooning in the 60s. It's a wide-eyed, slapstick blue version of Mike Monday and his adventures in the world of the album artwork of Songs Without Words - angry cats that want feeding, guitar synths that fly, and a mad psychedellic world of clouds, trees and a moon that all talk. (The first episode is available from myspace.com/magicmikemonday, with three more to come through the album launch period.)

So it's got a sense of humour - which puts it far from electronica's usual monotony. But it's also the most serious, committed European electronica acts who support Monday's attempts to pull electronica out of its dance-focused rut. With fans from Kiki to Tiefschwarz, Will Saul to Falko Brocksieper, MANDY to incredible support from Laurent Garnier ("I love the personality of Mike's music"), not to mention playing regularly in San Francisco with Claude vonStroke, with fellow wonk god Jesse Rose - and being one of few acts recently asked to remix the Classic Records catalogue by its founder Luke Solomon.

And then there's his own gigs - regular slots at Watergate, at the supercool Terrassa boat parties in Paris, across Europe and with constant tours of Australia, Asia and the US - all on the back of huge early techno and house hits behind him like What Day is it? and Tooting Warrior (top 10 in the German dance charts) ...

Well, as IDJ says, "pretty much every week you hear someone new trying to inpersonate the Mike Monday sound..." - but now Monday himself has broken the mould, and his new album pushes him firmly into the same electronic mainstream as Trentmoller, Royksopp and the Knife.

CAT OM299 OUT EARLY OCT

Continue reading "Introducing: Mike Monday " »

Posted by X at 4:13 PM | Permalink