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Eddy Says
Eddy Says: I am a battered, broken and very happy man
By Eddy Temple-Morris | Published on Monday 20 July 2009
I can’t believe it’s Monday and I’m at home writing you my weekly note. Yesterday I had, without doubt, one of the worst journeys of my life. If only somebody had given me a heads up that you have to get out of Bugjam EARLY, otherwise you’ll end up, as we did, in a queue for OVER FOUR HOURS! A journey that should have taken an hour and a half, ended up stretching for seven hours, with the majority of that time in a single queue to get out of the festival itself. Never again.
But that was a really shitty end to an otherwise great weekend. We were at Bugjam to play a Losers gig, which went really well, with the crowd baying for an encore by the time we’d finished our live version of Candi Staton at the end of the set. I then got a message from Louis Streetlife DJs saying to watch out for his Dad in a beetle dragster while we were there. And before the heavens opened on Sunday I got to see that beetle, with Louis’s 64 year old father behind the wheel, hurtle past me at a measured 126mph! In a BEETLE!
We’d converged at Bugjam from Latitude (Tom) and Matter (yours truly). The latter was hosting the Remix All-Nighter, obviously. And wow, what a night that was… I left Matrix & Futurebound rocking the main room at 5.30am through a door that had seen 1500 people come through it. Matter really looked like the superclub it is that night. I had lots of nice messages from those of you who had ventured to check it out, and see what all the fuss was about regarding *that* sound system. The collective thumbs were up. Everybody I saw, talked to, got messages from, had an amazing time.
Punks Jump Up did a sterling job getting the crowd going at the start – they’re such a talented pair and it was lovely to hear some of their mixes (that brilliant Miike Snow one, for example) on the legendary Matter speakers. Burn The Negative sounded great in there with a receptive crowd to play to. Phil Hartnoll had it right off, with a barefoot set of hard back-to-88 sounds, him and his missus bouncing around in the booth. Ladytron were very cool and the crowd loved them. Personally I wish they’d crack a smile, maybe communicate with us a bit more. I know they’re trying to be really cool and aloof, but it does tire – for me – after a while. They remind me of those beautiful Chow Chow dogs, that look gorgeous but growl at you if you try to pet them. But, like I said, the crowd loved them, so this is just a personal opinion and worth very little.
Then Alex Metric. Now, I’d had a conversation earlier with the God-like-genius Mr William Orbit, whom I’ve become friendly with since he appeared on the Remix a few years ago. We talked about how brilliant Alex is and how it looks like he’s produced the next U2 single. Will said: “I don’t think Alex realises just how good he is!” Spot on. Alex is so modest and approachable. So anyway, I introduced the two of them and they hit it off big-time. I don’t think either of them will mind my leaking to you, the extended Remix family, that Will asked Alex to work on his next record. Alex is one of the many programmers that worship Will Orbit, for good reason, so he was fit to burst, as I think we all would be, if we found that man amongst our fans!
Alex totally rocked that room. He has got better and better and better at DJing, since that early Remix Allnighter at SeOne years ago. I watched a lot of his set from above the dancefloor, just looking down over the writhing mass on that incredible giant wooden chopping board, attached to woofers and pistons below. He spanked it. Royally. At one point I saw Will Orbit in the middle of the dancefloor, taking it all in, one face among a thousand others on that floor, eyes fixed on Alex in the booth and ears undoubtedly gauging the quality of sound. Alex finished with a ferocious edit of Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ – best version I’ve ever heard. The boy is on fire.
Japanese Popstars were a revelation. I knew they’d be relentless. I knew they’d be energetic. I knew they’d be uplifting. But my gosh, they have these things not in ‘spades’ but in ‘oil-tanker-loads’. Their album makes so much more sense to me now – so you HAVE to see them play.
On a personal note, it was lovely to finally meet one specific Japanese Popstar – Decky. I’ve ‘known’ Decky, as much as you can ‘know’ someone from a relationship on email/online, for well over a decade, since he was in Hedrock Valley Beats (remember them? From the old big beat days – they did that remix of ‘Jesus Says’ by Ash, which I put on an early Xfm Remix compilation).
I had a great time after the Japstars, and Brendan and Jamie (Matrix & Futurebound) were awesome afterwards, holding onto the hardcore that had stayed the course. It really was an incredible night, so thank you to all who came to see and all who came to work. I call it work, but really we came to play, and play we did, with big hearts and big smiles.
The next one is shaping up very nicely, with some old friends like Pendulum and The Whip, squaring up to some new pals, like Zombie Nation and (the astonishing) Mixhell.
It’s going to be LIVE on Xfm too, because it’s Matter’s birthday that weekend. So put it in your diary, it’s the Friday after Bestival, 18 Sep, and it’ll be the best party in London this year. Guaranteed.
X eddy
Eddy Says from this edition of the CMU Remix Update.
