The Low End Theory: Recent Episodes
The Low End Theory
Shan and OB dive deep into the world of the legendary duo Faze Action who have very recently remixed Australian producer Gratts. Known for their unique blend of disco, funk, and house music, Faze Action has left an indelible mark on the dance music landscape. Through an engaging conversation, we explore their journey, the evolution...
Sounds Familiar is celebrating a decade in dance music by releasing 3 LP’s throughout 2023. Titled “Familiar Sounds”, after vol 1 released in April 23 which featured the likes of Dego Kamma & Masalo, Aleqs Notal Feat Anu, Kai Alcé, Retromigration and Hugo LX, the second volume of the trilogy has just been released. Collecting...
We’re back.. and with a few changes.. The game changed.. We’re no longer bound to a radio station – RIP Base FM.. So now we are back in pure podcast form, and this episode is a full length interview with Australia’s favourite DJ Kid Kenobi. This is actually our second attempt at chatting with Kid...
Today on the program OB and I are truly in the company of greatness as French disco legend CERRONE joins us on the show. I take a deep dive into his classic breakbeat “Rocket in the Pocket”, we chat about his work with The Kongas, Don Ray, Lene Lovich, and Jocelyn Brown – AND he even jumps into the mix to give us a glimpse of the what we can expect ahead of his first Australian visit this week.
French super producer Yuksek joins us on this episode. He drops in for a chat and a mix – and gives us a sneak preview of his brand new album Dance ‘O’ Drome. Yuksek is just a guy who truly loves music. Music is simply a part of who he is, and he jumps from one project to another with an infectious energy. His latest album, which shares its name and diverse musical ethos with his Dance ‘O’ Drome show on Radio Nova is a brilliant blend of global grooves featuring that huge club sound he is known for. At its heart is a magnetic disco beat, with energetic bursts of punk-funk meeting intense Italo choruses. Its immersive sound design pays tribute to a variety of influences, from the groove-filled house music of iconic Parisian label, Roulé, to the chilled-out Balearic disco of Metro Area, and everything in between.
On this week’s show, OB goes in deep with a Shep Pettibone mastermix that covers all eras from this prolific producer. Not entirely hyped to Shep yet? Well, after getting a start working with Arthur Baker & Afrika Bambaataa, Shep rose to prominence as a remixer for the much-loved Prelude and Salsoul record labels, remixing legendary acts like Loleatta Holloway, Leroy Burgess, Inner Life and Aura. From there, he would start producing for Madonna, New Order, Depeche Mode, Level 42, Janet Jackson, George Michael, Duran Duran, Whitney Houston and pretty much all the top pop acts from the 80’s into the 90’s. His 12” club mixes were the “go to” cuts for any dance floor DJ, his remix style paved the way for EDM long before it was even a term and to use the word “pioneer” when describing his work is a given. You just know OB cut this one up into a 2-hour megamix that will take you back to the days when New York radio stations ruled the world of club culture. This one is not to be missed!
This week we chat with Greek born artist Steve Mill who lives between Berlin and Thessaloniki, and has been in and around the industry for many years as a DJ, producer, and avid digger & collector. Drawing on his cultural roots, Mill conjures up warm melodies and body moving beats. He has released on True Romance, Large Music, Madhouse Records, Dirt Crew and Moodmusic. A mainstay of the underground scene, he worked as a label manager at Kerri Chandler’s Madhouse Records no less. Working these days as Artist Services Manager at Beatport, Mill develops new talents to grow their profile across the electronic music industry.
Joining Shan and OB this week is Maarten Smeetz, one half of Dutch house outfit Dam Swindle (Heist Recordings). Since the duo dropped their first EP ten years ago they’ve become known for their widescreen approach to making and playing club-ready grooves. Not being a one-trick house music pony, the pair seamlessly join the dots between soul to tech and back round to disco. Their latest EP, Keep On Swindling Part 2 includes a couple of brand new tracks, plus a few quality remixes that highlight how the pair genre hop at will. The boys chat to Maarten, play a stack of the Dam Swindle back catalogue and also drop 2 sets of some serious upbeat house, disco, funk, soul and boogie.
German producer Georg Levin describes himself as a rock/soul artist, but his music is mainly known in the dance music scene as it straddles that line between deep house, jazz and soul. He drops into The Low End Theory to talk about his latest single, It Was Fun For A While, which has just been released on the highly respected German record label, Sonar Kollektiv. The boys also chat to him about his production partnership with DJ Dixon called Wahoo that has seen the pair remix quite a few acts when not releasing albums themselves and they also chat about a career that has seen Georg work for MTV and how he set up his multimedia company, Playdis TV. Add in some big party sets and you got yourself a winner, so put aside 2 hours for a jam-packed show from the boys
Alma Negra are Basel-based twins Dersu and Diego Figueira and they have been spinning funk, house, disco, latin, boogie and African rhythms across Switzerland and Europe since their teens. With Cape Verde roots, they got their start as first dancers, then drummers and soon jumped into production with releases on Sofrito, Heist, Basic Fingers and Lumberjacks In Hell along with numerous jams on their own Alma Negra Recordings that sit comfortably on the dance floor but bring unusual sounds and arrangements to the club. The DJ duo have also been developing a live set with a cast of musicians that has seen them tour festivals throughout Europe post-Covid. They’ve just dropped the brand-new Harambee EP and it’s some quality dance floor action that’s equally quirky, funky, deep and definitely disco.
Shan & OB chat to Dersu about their career to date, what it’s like getting love from Giles Peterson and viral live jams for Red Bull. The boys also drop 2 fire sets of funk, disco, dnb, hiphop, soul and mashed-up beats.
Dutch production outfit Fouk are the duo behind Outplay Records, the label known for its special blend of infectious house music infused with just the right amount of broken beats. Of course, this means that Shan & OB had to have them in on the show this week, so ½ of Outplay, Daniel Leseman, stops in for a chat about their career to date. Said career includes some fairly huge releases on Detroit Swindle’s Heist Recordings, Local Talk, Razor-N-Tape, and their own Outplay Records. They’ve also done some huge remixes for acts like The Brand New Heavies, Groove Armada, Joey Negro’s The Sunburst Band and Mayer Hawthorne in between playing DJ sets around the world, Glastonbury included. Their label has just released the brand new Afro Quarters EP from Sofa Talk & XL Regular and it’s that perfect concoction of neo-soul, house and dance floor funk. We chat to Daniel about all this and what it’s like releasing proper vinyl in the digital age and the boys do this over and under a proper DJ mix show that will take you on a proper journey.
Shan & OB speak with the man behind the Razor N Tape record label, JKriv. This Brooklyn-based producer, DJ, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has a professional musical career stretching nearly 2 decades and has been called “an innovator of the scene” by Defected Records boss Simon Dunmore (no easy feat). It’s a title he has rightly earned, with releases and remixes on Z Records, Soundway, Heist and (of course) his own Razor-N-Tape label, plus many more. While we’re at it, he’s also the guitarist and a songwriter for the super-influential boogie-funk act, Escort, with shows going off globally. Hey, the dude has even played at Coachella. So sit tight or dance your arses off for a very energetic and funky show as we play a stack of Jkriv’s extensive back catalogue of funky music, plus a fresh blend of hiphop, boogie, soul and music of the house variety.
Hailing from Stockholm, Mad Mats provides a proper history lesson about broken beat, funk, latin, breaks, house music and hiphop in a candid chat. He is the quintessential b-boy and after launching his career in the mid-1980’s, he would go on to tour the world for over a decade and would then start the Raw Fusion record label in 2002. With release after release being the “go to” tracks the world over for almost 10 years, Mad Mats launched a brand-new label in 2011 called Local Talk that is still going strong today. Being that he has quite a varied taste in artists, the boys go deep in conversation about all the genres that make his labels tick and, as always, they do this over a couple of party sets of the highest order sticking strictly to the Raw Fusion, Jugglin, Local Talk and assorted record labels associated with Mad Mats.
There are few artists to have emerged in the last decade or so who've made a more indelible mark on the deep house universe than this Bristol native who has called Sweden home for quite some time. Crackazat's productions routinely hit that musical sweet spot between elemental dancefloor fire and cerebral musicality due to him regularly combining influences of jazz, house, garage, funk, hip hop, Latin and neo-soul into everything he does. His new album 'Evergreen' represents his most accomplished work to date and is the post-pandemic record we were waiting for. Shan & OB chat with him about his career - and the boys do this over so much good music that they could barely fit it all in, including a strictly Crackazat set from Shan, and a heavy selection of new releases from OB that needs to be heard.
Sam Redmore signed to Jalapeno Records a couple of years back and has since dropped single after single of pure fire onto the dance floor masses. Known for genre hopping at will, his productions straddle all styles of latin, cumbia, house, beats, hiphop, downtempo, soul and jazz. In addition to his own productions, he’s reworked, edited and remixed acts like Bob Marley, Q-Tip, Chic and Talking Heads and he’s gained support from the likes of Craig Charles, Gilles Peterson, Quantic, Nightmares On Wax, Don Letts, The Nextmen, Danny Krivit and more. His debut album is dropping sooner rather than later, so Sam came in to wax lyrical with the boys around 2 party sets that send this show skyward.
OB invites one of his best mates to host the entire show with him and it’s a strictly 45’s only special with Melbourne legend, Mr Lob. For those not in the know, Mr Lob is a DJ, vinyl collector and the co-founder of the very popular Forty Five Kings Collective. Not only has he been an active DJ on the scene since 1999, but he’s the legit mixtape master with his Mixcloud channel regularly getting listens into the tens of thousands. OB gets the lowdown on all that he’s been up to over the years, including a very successful streaming stint that started in the midst of Melbourne’s covid lockdowns and OB even gets Lob to drop his favourite 45’s amidst a candid conversation about the highs and lows of a long career to date. In and amongst all this, OB drops 2 sets of strictly brand new 45’s along with a few classics thrown in for good measure.
New Zealand's DiCE_NZ has been making waves for quite a long time producing jam after jam on labels like Discoholics Anonymous, Audaz, Slightly Transformed, Hot Gorilla and his own label, Hot Jandal Music. His tracks and edits are at the top of every DJ’s playlist that you’ve been hearing in the clubs and he’s just dropped a brand new release of original material on Hot Digits called The Situation EP and it’s made for some serious funky good times.
Shan & OB welcome another legend onto their show with Freddy Fresh stopping in for a chat. The name alone conjures up visions of classic hiphop, party breaks and electro mayhem. His Howlin Records label has released classic jams from the likes of Fatboy Slim, Krafty Kuts, Dynamo Productions, Ursula 1000 and many more and he’s produced tracks for well over 100 record labels all over the world in just about every style known to humankind. He’s been ranked as one of the world’s best DJ's and music producers, played in more than 35 countries, and he’s written a book that is universally accepted as the first book in the world to detail the independent record labels that released rap music from 1979 to 1989, “Freddy Fresh Presents Rap Records” (now into its 2nd printing).
As if that’s not crazy enough, he’s also had songs played on commercials, TV shows and plenty of films in between his work as a faculty member at his local college in Minnesota where he taught music in between all of his touring and production commitments. Phew!!!! With so much to cover, this one is an all “Freddy Fresh” special as the boys play all eras of tunes from the dude that almost single-handedly wrote the book on modern DJ culture.
Shan and OB go deep with Berlin-based production collective Jazzanova and DJ Amir about their upcoming release on BBE Music, 'Strata Records - The Sound of Detroit - Reimagined by Jazzanova'. Strata Records was an iconic Detroit record label from the 1960's that had some avant-garde jazz leaning tendencies over plenty of soul, latin and blues. Whilst the label did not last as long as others, their output into the 70's left an impression on everyone from John Lennon to Juan Atkins and guaranteed its place in modern jazz folklore as record fiends now search far and wide for copies of the original releases. Working with DJ Amir, a legendary NYC DJ, music curator and edit master (alongside his partner Kon), Jazzanova has given a new lease on life to many of the tracks from the Strata catalogue, shaking many up with live sounds ranging from afrobeat to hip-hop.
The boys talk to to the group and Amir about how they went about re-imagining a back catalogue of obscure 60's/70's jazz records so they'd sound fresh in a modern context and how they translated the diverse sounds and styles of the Strata Records legacy into a soulful and cohesive musical statement that honors the label’s community of creative musicians. Of course, they do all this over plenty of tracks from Jazzanova and Amir, plus 2 sets of genre-hopping goodness for your listening pleasure.
With a career spanning from the ’90s to now championing all styles of the breakbeat, the Freestylers really need no introduction. Coming out of the UK rave scene with much more b-boy/b-girl ethic than the rest, they released certified classics on the Freskanova label (We Rock Hard & Pressure Point) as well as numerous 12’s, remixes and singles for all the top breakbeat labels of the day. Then, under their alias Raw As F**k in the early 2000’s, the duo gained commercial success with their track “Push Up” receiving airplay on pop stations, mainstream commercials and huge sporting events. I’m doing so, everyone came to know the “Freestylers sound”. They’ve been voted the “Best Band” by Musik Magazine, rocked tours for MTV, opened for Lenny Kravitz and their new album “Other Worlds” is a return to their breakbeat roots. The Freestylers are back!
With the recent passing of percussionist/songwriter James Mtume, we lay all tracks from his legendary funk/soul/boogie supergroup, including all the jams that James wrote for other artists. In between working with Stephenie Mills, Donny Hathaway and Tyrone Brunson he managed to create a string of classics that have been staples in so many of our lives so we had to do something to signify his passing. So strap yourselves in for some quality sunshine music that will lift your spirits higher than most of the artists were who he was working with.
If you love your bass, hiphop, reggae, dancehall, disco, soul, funk, house and beats of the upbeat variety then this one will definitely be your soundtrack to get your EOY celebrations hyped to a new level.
For those that are uninitiated with the Tall Black Guy story, after being raised on a steady diet of Motown, techno and hip-hop this former basketball star decided that music was more his thing and he would move to Chicago and start producing a healthy platter of soulful chords, smooth melodies and chest hitting drums that would catch the attention of Gilles Peterson, who would subsequently include a TBG track on the seminal Brownswood Bubblers Compilation. From there, Terrel would make albums, concoct remixes and release singles on labels like Bastard Jazz, First Word and his own Tall Black Guy Productions.
His new album with rapper Ozay Moore, Of Process and Progression, has that hallmark TBG groove that will make you move in ways you thought were impossible. In a very candid interview, TBG goes in deep on his interesting history, how he found himself recording and working in Europe and what it's been like being so prolific during a global pandemic.
The boys also drop a stack of his quite extensive catalog of signature music, plus plenty of brand new tunes and even some Christmas hip-hop to close out affairs.
In case you were unaware, Janette has been shooting music, fashion, portraiture and documentary work since the mid-seventies, celebrating cutting-edge culture that has made her one of the most important photographers of our time. Think of those iconic photos of LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, The Sex Pistols, Blondie, NWA, The Clash, Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC and The Police and she probably took those shots. She’s basically straddled that line between hiphop and punk rock over a long career that has also seen her work cover cultural movements that transcend pop culture, such as her Black Lives Matter images that garnered quite a lot of attention recently. She is the quintessential “rebel” photographer. The lads chat to Janette about all of this, plus her new book that’s just come out and they do it over a stack of legendary hiphop, punk, new wave and club tracks that take you back to a time when the world was exploding with change (not unlike what’s going on at the moment). So lock yourself in for a very different show this week.
One of the key pioneers in the UK breakbeat and bass movement since he first started dropping records in the late 90’s, Krafty Kuts has multiple awards to his name, has released music on too many labels to mention, his 2003 album with A.Skillz (Tricka Technology) is certifiably one of the most iconic hiphop and funk albums of all time and he’s been continuously immersed in beat culture since forming his own b-boy break dancing crew in the late 80s, even playing alongside the Rolling Stones and The Prodigy.
Seriously, this cat lives, breaths and sleeps the funk without compromise.
It’s actually an “all-Krafty” show as we drop 2 exclusive sets of Krafty Kuts signature tunes, remixes, edits and collabs on the hiphop, funk, breaks and bass tip. So strap yourselves in for a big show!
With a fascinating history living in China for close to 20 years, UK DJ DSK is a b-boy’s b-boy. His DNA Records label has been releasing quality hiphop, funk, reggae and boogie originals, edits and covers of those classic tracks that make a dancefloor. When not releasing YouTube clips of himself almost getting arrested scratching on portable turntables at iconic attractions throughout Asia, he’s remixed London Posse, ran a DJ agency and taught turntablism to rampant fans over the course of a long career. Of course, the boys go in deep on all this, drop a stack of his and his label’s jams and play 2 absolute belting sets of eclectic and upbeat tunes on a very big show this week.
DJ Nu-Mark. Long considered a musical pioneer due to his innovative songwriting over many years as part of hiphop icons Jurassic 5, Nu-Mark has stayed busy over the years doing production work for The Lonely Island (Saturday Night Live), TRDMRK (with Slimkid3 from The Pharcyde), Nas & Damian Marley, Aloe Blacc, Quantic, Souls of Mischief, Method Man and MF Doom and continues to release quality music to the day (even scoring movie soundtracks). More importantly, he’s about to drop a new album called ‘Run For Cover’ and (you guessed it) it’s a cover album featuring amazing otherworldly versions of classic tracks from Dr. Dre, Nelly, Busta Rhymes and Deee-light performed by wide-ranging acts like Melbourne’s very-own The Traffic, plus acclaimed groups Full Crate, Jungle Fire, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and many more. Of course, the boys go in deep with Nu-Mark about his history coming up in the LA hiphop scene, his time with J5 touring the world, going solo, producing for movies and TV shows and what it was like working with Hollywood film stars. Shan & OB do this amidst a couple of sets of dope jams in between a stack of DJ Nu-Mark material, including some exclusive drops from his as yet unreleased album.