the ineffable genius of DJ Q

new Trumpet and Badman EP is a KILLER

The moment in the Sheffield set when Q drops "Gotta Get Thru This" is such a vibe ting.

http://f.cl.ly/items/1e421q003Q420q144729/ClouDrop%2015%20Aug%202014%2019%3A02%3A44%2015%20Aug%202014%2019%3A02%3A45.png

/ end communication

Is there a missing 'J' in that logo?

no we are disqualified from listening again sorry

Fuck.

i dunno what it is! as a consequence of me telling q about this thread he occasionally sends me things he wants to tell us about - like this graphic - and i'm sorry if it comes off as street-teamy. but he says deets are forthcoming.

da quietus

never stop street teaming for DJ Q.

this week's essential garage is a banger. features a monstrous insectoid thorax and an inspired dash of the reelists 'freak mode'

won't be putting it up til its unavailable to stream but i trust u will all rise above mediocre ilx-poster-ass indolence

yeah, the new one is a blast - here's a link for the casual crew

https://www.ministryofsound.com/radio/shows/dj-q

that mysterious jpg tracer posted refers to this new collab with the also-excellent flava d (who i'm beginning to discover)

https://soundcloud.com/localactionrecords/dj-q-flava-d-ps-loc018

that sbtv mix:

http://www48.zippyshare.com/v/89508614/file.html

think i missed this one! thanks

(in fact i know i did because sparks & kie vs ten walls is something u generally remember in life)

and now theres this´
http://www.mixcloud.com/Outlook_Festival/outlook-mix-series-20-dj-q/

ahhh that looks hella good. shame i have zero time

c&a preditah collabo what what

he even brought back booda 'no more calls' from the 1xtra days. q if ur reading this plz release that on ur label u known u want to okthxbye

zero time - tell me about it. managed to make time for the new essential garage though. amazing.

the preditah/c&a thing is a free download btw
http://monkiandfriends.redbullstudios.com/

amazing mix here -

https://soundcloud.com/djqmusic/dj-q-live-paris-social-club-paris-france-23rd-august-2014

i feel like it's a summation and refinement of his 2014 mixes so far - "baay-beh", fly-bi, etc

or maybe i just like it cause it's super accessible, relatively speaking

in comparison to?

his previous club mixes; this feels like a "greatest hits" in a way

yeah i wasn't asking in a pointy accusatory way, guess i'm just interested in hearing to what extent the mos sets may be daunting to perhaps the more life-balanced non-acolyte shall we say

it's clearly v understandable why any garage dj would approach live sets in this way (especially so abroad) and of course q does do it in a particularly switched-on way; however behind the freewheeling party fun i do sometimes wonder whether and how far ukg still has to make excuses for itself by taking frequent recourse in emollient nostalgia... and even though garage is pervasive in so many ways now how the particular association in itself may be something that many recoil from (much like how kids today want to grow up being seen as any and everything but an r&b singer despite demonstrable evidence to the contrary)

obv i'm not trying to hop in the nerd wahhmbulance here with the "keep it ardkore" siren blaring feebly but idk it's kinda hard not to discern a slight subconscious implication that the radio sets are too experimental or estranging to fly irl when really they already do so much to make all the hard weird crazy edges of ukg's ecologies as fun as inconceivably possible, without having to pop monsta boy acappellas over the top or whatever (haha this reads like shots fired at dj ez now)

isn't it just the difference in radio sets vs live sets, the former pretty much always for the hedz and your producer wanting as many "exclusives" as possible to sell the show with?

I love both modes. Esp. in a live setting the sheer thrill of hearing some of the old 2-step tunes - esp. less obvious ones - is massive. On the flipside there's a certain taut plastic-covered muscularity to the new productions Q draws for that makes his radio sets really deeply satisfying to me in a way that a more golden oldies set might not in anything other than a live set (though it's complicated here by the thrill of Q's mixing and bootlegging, which really comes to the fore live).

Partly this is because grooves like "Testosterone Deficiency" or (in a different way) PVC's "You Know My Man" don't feel like they could have existed three years ago. But even less obviously contemporary stuff like the CJ Reign remix of "Jack" has a - what is it - a toughness that feels now even though objectively we're just talking bass driven 2-step circa 2001.

yeah i think i've probably misarticulated here... really the difference is the live sets are like a dizzying quickfire hopscotch from old celebrated bits in/to/thru new riddims (v noticeable how v much more the chris lorenzo catalogue features in these btw), in-yer-face style ukg evangelism, whereas the radio sets take advantage of a freer licence to draw the listener along someplace and deliver abrupt switches or weave over extra layers etc

trace is also right in saying it's something of a time-old dj situation in any genre smaller than the omni-categories (ie i'm not saying him playing an old bit is like a house dj having to play frankie knuckles every set) (wrt radio production tho in this particular instance i'd be v surprised if mos' input extended beyond "send us a mix once a month and we'll bang some idents on it cheers"). and of course it's better to be aware of and willing to please your punters than not!

still tho i would argue that the radio sets are functionally dance music first and foremost, whether hi-concept or not, so idk it does just seem something of a shame that it should demand adaptation in the wild (however skilled and judicious that may be)

(heh i'd also say there's probably an additional vague overarching thing informing this circumlocution which is just generally internally wondering how impressive or distinctive q mos sets actually do come across to the non-kvlt who quite reasonably arent interested in the ecologies and microdialectics etc)

i mean to put it another way it's really as simple as silently freaking out on the bus to (for instance) the randomer/mella dee drops in the latest set and thinking "fuckkkkk i wish i was there!!" and then that there kinda being a mirage really

in this particular instance i'd be v surprised if mos' input extended beyond "send us a mix once a month and we'll bang some idents on it cheers"

hah yes i'm sure you're right about that. but i think there's an expectation that mixes for the radio are going to make a statement of some kind, set out a stall, be "promo", have a certain proportion of new choons, show the way in some regard

lol at your last post, this is so very true

comes back to what i mentioned earlier - the thing is i'm actually not so certain that that expectation is there for most manifestations of ukg, not in the active, agent way it generally is of other stuff. pr's will always liberally throw around words like freshest etc but i mean beyond that... ukg i think holds a place in the public consciousness somewhere in between fond nostalgia and a vague awareness that its lifeforce is still extant and maybe particularly influential lately - but really when you start talking of edgy new this n that it generally immediately becomes basshouse etc. i mean take q out of the equation and who do u really got making the same case, what does the world look like then? so this is really why i wonder if there's an constant subliminal element of deferential persuasion involved in the more referential live sets beyond just keeping the party bubbling with crowdpleasing hits

the randomer/mella dee drops in the latest set and thinking "fuckkkkk i wish i was there!!" and then that there kinda being a mirage really

― r|t|c, miércoles 27 de agosto de 2014 20:53 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

aah these are the awesome slo-mo pitchshifting jungle bits right? had been kinda trying to imagine for while how breakbeats could be used in a garage context, without it just being yer standard "breakbeat garage" (in the 138 trek sense) but when these dropped unexpectedly they surpassed my fantasies. never even rated mella dee or randomer that highly before, and i suspect they wouldn´t have/won´t hit me in the same way if i´d just heard them on soundcloud or whatever. anyway, need to listen to this set again asap

haven´t listened yet but a free classified ep has just dropped too :)
http://2tuf4u.bandcamp.com/album/completely-classified-e-p-vol-1

ok, listened again and realise i probably got a bit carried away with the break thing there. still, no one can say Q isn´t pushing back the boundaries of what garage can be by selecting tracks like these.

the classified ep is straight tropical/todd edwards aceness as you´d expect

*breakbeat thing

yeah def ... never liked mista men at all, and altho i've heard q make good use of randomer stuff before i'd never have touched anything on l.i.e.s with a bargepole (good sublol at what sounds like the "white sickness, white sickness" vox sample in gt turbo)

the fact q can pull off these moves while keeping them in close loyalist vicinity to todd edwards bits most sets is obv another example of what makes him so singular

https://soundcloud.com/cicadamusic/cicada-feat-fleur-around-and

on the subj of breakbeats i still wanna hear someone play this!

in-depth interview here. it focusses more on his productions so nothing on the mos shows. still, pretty good
http://thequietus.com/articles/16148-dj-q-interview

ya good stuff. i am also a big advocate of keeping many plates spinning of course

author was on some weird tenuous shit bringing a lineage to butterz into it... i guess there is an arguable consonance but it is light years more abstract than he can make out

tenuous and overstated maybe, but i can see why he mentioned them i suppose.

this interview set me off listening to old (early 00s) sidewinder sets on yt, still my favourite era of garage I think and obviously the closest reference to Qs approach.

where can i hear this FIAT tune he mentions then?

http://www.mixcloud.com/bennybrassic/a-tribute-to-dj-q/

download
https://www.sendspace.com/file/od504a

1. Caught up - DJ Q
2. Come with me - DJ Q
3. Big Man (DJ Q Tropical mix) - Jammer
4. Call me baby - Classified
5. Unit 50 - DJ Q
6. All nite (DJ Q remix) - Trumpet & Badman
7. Over me (DJ Qçs Summer 2step mix) - DJ Q feat. Louise Williams
8. PS - Flava D & DJ Q
9. Wreck it - DJ Q
10. Serious- DJ Q vs Maxwell D
11. Makaveli - DJ Q
12. Be Mine - DJ Q feat. Kai Ryder
13. Baby (DJ Q remix)- Spooky
14. Intoxicated (DJ Q remix) - Javeon
15. I got the love - Trumpet & Badman
16. Broken (DJ Q Vocal mix) - Kcat
17. Two faced - DJ Q
18. Go home - DJ Q
19. Every time - DJ Q feat. Kassandra
20. Vibers - DJ Q
21. Bang dis - Trumpet & Badman
22. 2 on 1 (DJ Q remix) - Tinashe
23. Will I ever be free - DJ Q
24. Cocaine (DJ Q remix) - Olivia Louise
25. I can see - Classified
26. Eros Dance - Trumpet & Badman
27. Breaking free - Classified feat. Louise Williams
28. Brandy & Coke VIP - DJ Q
29. Oh yeah - DJ Q & AC Slater
30. From time (DJ Q edit) - Drake
31. Dance with me - DJ Q
32. Go! - Trumpet & Badman
33. All Junglist VIP - DJ Q
34. Me & You (DJ Q remix) - Cassie
35. Soundboy connection - DJ Q feat. Robbie Rue
36. Portrait of love (DJ Q remix) - Raheem Bakaré

finally got round to this! total pleasure as ever benny, ace selection ace mixing

ur skillz are p dangerous now 4real, if u were to go pro and had a show i would absolutely listen on the regs

Perhaps the worst thing about travelling is no new Q or related mixes :-(

thanks! been wanting to do this for ages but was a bit hesitant considering who it is, hopefully its good enough :)

sadly this will probably the last mix i´ll be doing for a while. new baby and new job imminent = zero free time

ESSENTIAL GARAGE - 11th August 2014
http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/47776928/file.html

ShezAr - What I See (DJ Q Remix)
Oushe - Peeta Andre
Roska - Danky Dank
DJ Q & Flava D - PS
Mike Millrain - Dub All Night
Paleface ft Olivia Louise - Look Into My Eyes
Locklead & Wouter S - Stutter
DJ Q - Make Me Feel
Netsky ft Beth Ditto - Running Low (Todd Edwards Remix)
Duke Dumont - Won't Look Back (Shadow Child Remix)
Cause & Affect - Get To The Chopper
The Reelists - Freak Mode (DnD Remix)
Artifact - Even
Randomer - Huh
Mella Dee - GT Turbo
Toddla T & Danny Weed ft Jammer - I Don't Wanna Hear (DJ Q Remix)
Plastician - Spring Roller (Roska Remix)
Meridian Dan - 1 or 2 Drinks
Redlight - Set Me 3
MNEK - Wrote A Song About You (Shift K3y Remix)
Mak & Pasteman - Gunman (Bass Mix)
Moony - French
DJ South Central - Always
Shola Ama - Can't Have You (Ed Case & Carl H Remix)

Benny i sent your mix to Q and he sez:

i'm 12 mins and 47 seconds in and this mix is sick!

:D

he also says the track "fiat" mentioned in the article was a transcription mistake, track is actually "fear"

so chuffed, cheers tracer!

guys, the ministry show is no longer :(

what?!!!

is there not even gonna be a september show then?

please tell me he´s already got something else lined up

it seems MoS is going in a "different direction" which may or may not involve attempting to more directly flog their comps, via their radio station

Kiss FM! 11pm

http://radioplayer.kissfmuk.com/live/

(british summer time)

taping but my ears have yet to perk up once tbh