Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Electro Aggregator - London Electro and Dance Survival Guide

I'm really snooty about my music. Make it crunchy, clever, mashupy electro or stay home. I've pretty much had enough of Lady Gaga radio mixes and certainly more than enough old, shrill Beyonce (had to look up how to spell that).

Some clubs claim cutting edge music: T Bar and Dalston Superstore, come to mind, but they only do boring, uninspired funky house.
Others are in a great position to improve our musical worlds: Loop Bar or Walkabout, but

You'll never, for example, hear Kid Cudi's Persuit of Happiness remixed by Benny Benassi - even though everyone should!


I'm on the constant, obsessive search for genuinely good electro and dance music and, I have to say, for the most part, I'm pretty dissappointed most of the time when going out in London. I trawl bittorrent, iTunes Podcasts and YouTube constantly looking for stuff that sounds good.

Last Friday I discovered InSpiral's DJ night - which, at the time, was featuring the exuberant Simon Iridium . Simon was busting out some noteworthily sick dubstep while people were lazily munching on vegan lasagna and my girlfriend and I proceeded to explore the depths of organic vodka debauchery.

We shall also be in attendance at Don't Let the Electro Drown You - Boat Party hosted by Decks on Decks and featuring my favourite London DJ who almost never does live sets: Iax.

But generally, listening to dubstep in a vegetarian (and overpriced) cafe is an exception that proves the rule. There's almost no good electro in London that I've been able to find - and I've looked hard.

If you're like me, do get in touch - for the moment, here's some links for amazing electro music that you won't hear at any London club - and that's a shame.

London Electro and Dance Survival Guide
(for when you can't find decent music around LDN)
  • Iax Podcast - Electro House ,Filthy House, Dirty Electro, ohh....and Funky house - free on iTunes - always fantastic episodes of clever mashups and generally pulsating havoc.
  • Video2mp3.net - give it a YouTube address and it gives you an mp3 to download. The easiest way to get what you want where you want it.

  • Zombie Discosquad - one of the only dj duos in London that restore my faith in the town's dance scene. 
So where's the stuff that sounds like that? Is it at Egg? Is it at KoKo?
If you like what I like, get in touch in the comments or @londonslumlord

I leave you on this: Lady Gaga vs. Metallica 

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ortega Spanish Tapas Restaurant,55 Charterhouse Street, Farringdon,

I randomly picked this restaurant after searching for restaurants compatible with the Taste of London card in the Clarkenwell area. WE decided on Ortega due to its proximity close to our work. The picture of the exterior used on teh Taste of london website did not give it justice. We entered to find a trendy, rustic, authentic decorated, 2 storey, dark wood Spanish restaurant very welcoming and with a smart looking waiter ready to serve us. We ordered 2 of the ham and cives potato corquettes, which we both loved, i had the small prwans (they were out of king prawns)- which where tasty and nicely chewy but small and then we ordered seconds of chicken in mushroom sauce which was deliscious even though i was pretty full by now and my partner ordered the meat balls which were nice and substantial and very tasty. we had 2 pints of san miguel (only beer served there) and 2 espresso's and they gave us a complimentary shot of "spanish baileys" which was custardy yet delightful. Total bill price was 42 pounds discounted to 21pounds with T.O.L. A very very recommended place to eat!!