It’s a rarity that we leave the house, let alone Bedminster, so you know something big’s happening when we agree to hot-foot it into the centre of Bristol on a Saturday night to put on a party. That’s exactly what’s happening this Saturday, January 14, as we up sticks and pitch up at Start The Bus, Bristol’s bar-come-club for hot young things. As it’s January, we’ve made it free to get in – yep, no door tax – and invited some of Bedmo Disco Records’ Bristol-based artists to spin some tunes.
Think of it as a kind of preview of what’s to come in 2012. Both our guests, JIMMY THE TWIN and AWON, have releases due on the label in the coming months. Both are superb DJs with killer crate-digging and mixing skills. Both blend the best of the past – often drawn from the obscure fringes of boogie, electrofunk, disco and rare groove – with the best of the present. With ourselves in support, it should be a killer night.
So you want to know a bit more about our guests, then?
JIMMY THE TWIN is one of Bristol’s most thoughtful, generous and open-minded selectors. While he’s never been given quite as many props from Bristol scenesters than perhaps he deserves, he’s rightfully gaining a much greater reputation elsewhere for the quality of his productions – and most specifically his re-edits. In a scene where re-edits are usually loopy, over-filtered and housey, Jimmy’s faithful, respectful re-cuts stand out like a sore thumb. He does add new bits to his re-edits, but little more than new drum machine parts, tastefully created using his faithful Roland TR-505 drum machine. This month sees his first “official” release (some of his more popular older edits have already been bootlegged) – a specially-commissioned re-edit on the Philadelphia International 40th Anniversary CD. Given that he’s rubbing shoulders with the likes of Todd Terje, that’s pretty big. He’ll be following that up in March with his first 12″ – an EP of hot edits for Bedmo Disco Records called… wait for it… “505 FUNK (…WITH AN 808 BOOM)”. We’ll be posting previews of the mastered versions on the site very soon, but if you’re restless and want to hear some of the tracks, head over to his Soundcloud account. He’s got rather a lot of followers. We should also point out that he’s just become a dad for the first time, so if you pop down on Saturday do buy him a drink to help “wet the baby’s head” (said cherub is called Louie, by the way). Click below to download one of his classic mixes.
JIMMY THE TWIN – WELCOME TO THE BOOGIE CAFE MIX
AWON is the alter ego of one-time record shop manager turned garage owner Gareth Morgan, a longtime Bristol scene DJ, musician and bearded man-about-town. He once ran a night called Dusted Disco, which flickered brightly for too short a period for our liking. We first met him a few years back, got on quite well but didn’t really follow it up. We then kept bumping into him down at the Big Chill Bristol (where his other half, Katie, used to be a manager) and had long and probably dull conversations about the merits of Dub B-sides of silly synth-funk records. Then, back in the autumn, we asked him to do some bass guitar parts for us. He didn’t, in the end, but instead played us some of his tunes. We got a bit excited and offered to lend a hand mixing and re-arranging them. Within a week we were working on whole new tracks with him, waiting patiently while he changed floppy discs on his vintage AKAI MPC. Since then we’ve been in the studio every week. We also DJ’d together (Bedmo Disco and Awon, that is) on New Year’s Eve and had a blast – even if we were drunkenly flagging by the end. Gareth is a great DJ, an excellent producer and a decent musician – without him, we’d still be fumbling around trying to make four or five samples work together. For the record, there will be an AWON & BEDMO DISCO 12″ in May, and a solo AWON 12″ later in the year. He’ll also be joining us behind the decks at Soundwave in Croatia in July. Expect big things – and seriously heavy, dubbed-out electro-boogie!
So there you go – two reasons why you should get your dancing shoes on (or whatever counts for dancing footwear these days) and head on down to Start The Bus in Bristol on Saturday. The party runs from 10pm until 3am, and entrance – as we’ve already pointed out – is NOWT. ZILCH. GRATIS. FREE. You get the idea.
Feel free to support the event at the following websites:
BEDMO DISCO 