DIRTY MIND MIX #114: Funkerman (Netherlands)

This weeks DIRTY MIND MIX is coming from Dutch DJ & Producer Funkerman. We are happy to present his second mix on our House Music Internet Radio! Do not miss his great set. Tune in at www.dirtymindmusic.com

Tracklist:
01. Eddie Amador - The Funk (King Unique's Speechapella)
02. Marsmobil - Gonna Be My Day (Hendrik Schwartz Acoustronic Remix)
03. Ferreck Dawn - Kabeya
04. Gamat 3000 - Photone (Matthias Tanzmann Remix)
05. Funkerman - Paperbag Revolution
06. Leeboy And Gab - Funky
07. And ME - One Day
08. Jose Wated - Collect 200 (Israel Vich Remix)
09. SLS & Samuel L. Session - Set The Drums
10. Stojche - Whack Whack
11. Comme Lapin - Vaai
12. Saeed Younan - Yeah Ha (Original Mix)
13. Funkerman - Everyday Getaway
14. Ame - Fiori (Dixon Beat Edit)
15. Cabaret Des Belles - Lettres (Original Mix)
16. Tom Budden - The Tree Dance (2010 Re-edit)
17. Kolombo presents Kagomba - Kagomba (Andhim Remix)
18. Reset Robot - La Porte


About the artist:
Funkerman is a well known house DJ/producer from Holland. From his first love of pioneering US hip hop, through obsessive crate digging for classic soul, Disco & Funk, to riding on the first waves of US house; he has always been on a quest to find, make and play new and exciting music. Through years of hard work DJ-ing & producing, Funkerman established himself internationally, and by 2004 he founded Flamingo Recordings, with fellow producer Raf and Fedde le Grand. The label releases huge hits like Fedde le Grand’s ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ and their collaboration ‘3 Minutes To Explain’. He remixes artists like Ida Corr, Guru Josh and the Sugababes. His track 'Speed up' was featured in the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips. Whilst enjoying the many fruits of his labour, Funkerman’s aim is to keep on improving musically and to push electronic music to the next level.

More information:
www.funkerman.com

More information about our DIRTY MIND MIX Internet Radio Show

Fallen Heroes - Chapter 3: Deadmau5

They were music heroes for me. The best DJs, Live-Acts, Producers in my eyes. But driven by commerce or by whatever they suddenly changed into something worse… other style, other image. No quality at all anymore. This is about me and my Fallen Heroes.


Chapter 3 - Deadmau5

In the year 2007 there was suddenly a certain song. DJs of different House Music genres played it a lot in their sets. The track was progressive, it had a cool melody, a good groove and a pushing atmosphere. I liked it right away. I searched for the song quite a time and finally I found out, it is "Arguru" from an artist called "Deadmau5". "Dead Mouse?" Never heard before, but I knew immediately, a guy who calls himself like this and writes the name like he does is very creative.

I made some research: the name comes from an incident where a mouse crawled into his computer and died. "Dead Mouse" was too long for an IRC login name, so he abbreviated it to be the “leet speak” spelling “Deadmau5”. His real name is Joel Zimmerman, he is from Canada and during that time 26 years old.

Aha! I wanted to have "Arguru" as my profile song in my myspace page - during that time a still very important social network. But Deadmau5 had the track not online. So I wrote to him… and Joel answered very nice! He will put the track online. Oh yeah, I love Social Media!

From this moment on I had an eye on his releases, and he produced a lot! And all the tracks were remarkable. All main melodies are played in a certain style. Beautiful compositions with high recognition, but still having an underground touch! Pure innovation! I loved releases like "Not Exactly" or "Jaded" - and especially "Faxing Berlin", the best track of the year. Is he the Mozart of our time?

Now Deadmau5 went off like a rocket! He made for sure one of the fastest careers in the electronic music biz. It rained down awards for him, he was everybody's darling! But only because of his good productions? No!
First: Joel is a master of Social Media. He knows how to speak to fans and how to use the different available free channels for excellent self-promotion.
Second: he invents a huge marketing gag. Suddenly he wears a gigantic mouse head during his gigs (originally he created the shape while learning to use a 3D program). It is said one head is worth more than 10.000$, equipped with a headphone and ventilation system. Everybody speaks about it, and everybody wants to see him live. And yes, fans wear Mickey Mouse ears like there is a Disney Parade going on. What do you want more!?

Suddenly Deadmau5 changes his new songs a bit. His famous style of playing the melodies is gone. OK, an artist has to develop, especially when you want to stay on the top. The track is still good though, so don't worry...
But the releases are getting with the time more and more worse, more and more towards Electro. For those who do not know: horrible cheap aggressive tones, which you heard already at least 1000 times before, combined with zero innovation - this is Electro. Or "stabbing in the back" music like I call it.

In the past I played every new track from him on our internet radio. Now: not even one. He was the greatest producer of our time, now he is a cheap ripoff. But why? I heard from promoters who book him for a gig that he is now very arrogant. If its true, I don't know. Maybe the success was too fast for him, maybe he wants to make even more money. Cheap Electro sounds are played in every small village club, the target group who likes it is much bigger. He completely changed for getting more audience - but they are no music lovers. A huge pity - for those who know: we lost one of the best composers of all time.

Read also:

Chapter 1 - Bob Sinclar

Chapter 2 - Erick Morillo


Photo: Deadmau5

Interview: We Are E Artist Management (Amsterdam)

We Are E is a well-known artist management located in Amsterdam, representing a lot of interesting Dutch artists like Rauwkost, Daniel Sanchez, Oliver Weiter, Johanna Mercker, Joey Daniel and Arjuna Schiks. They are just celebrating their 2nd anniversary, time to take a closer look! An Interview with Kelly Peelen:

First, as always, describe yourself in 3 words:
Driven, self-opinionated and curious

Now congratulations to We Are E! You are just celebrating the 2nd birthday! Tell us, how did everything start?
Pieter Ridder started Squz Agency back in 2008 and started to represent the Dutch techno prodigy duo Rauwkost and some other artists.
In the same period Frenk Wiersma and Tjeerd Bijnsdorp (Evotions) were looking for new experiences in the dance industry and Rauwkost’s success got them in contact with Pieter and eventually We Are E was born. As usually start-ups mean lots of things to be done and therefore I joined them shortly after.

How did We Are E develop in the two years?
Well we started as a small agency with both young promising and a bit more arrived successful artists. In two years I can really say we as agency as well as our artists all have grown a lot!
We spent the last two years building on a solid foundation for the brand and our artists by organizing regular parties, unique photo shoots and videos and the use of social media.
This also resulted in the fact that successful artist like Darko Esser and young talented artists like El Mundo & Satori and Bas Amro joined our agency recently.
Fundamentally and personally for me nothing really changed/improved although things got easier due to the combination of the hard labour Pieter and I put in and better contacts we have nowadays.
For example on the phone it doesn’t take as much introduction as it used to be two years ago because people start to recognize us as an agency.
Current projects include setting up a label and releasing records. So there is plenty of more to come in the near future so stay tuned…

Nice! So how do you select new artists you want to manage? What qualities must they have?
Based on the popular and well-known X-Factor We Are E searches for their own unique E-Factor which is also indescribable but fairly recognisable when an artist is talented.
As an agency we find it important that an artist adds value to our little corner of the world called Dance music. We organise this by shifting emphasis between for example producing and releasing records or hosting their personal events. What ever suits them best.

Describe your functions at We Are E.
Fortunately there’s hardly a dull moment in the music industry and therefore my working day or week is hardly ever the same. Bookings take up quite a large proportion of my time so does the day-to-day management and the communication with the artists. Getting in touch with them especially on Monday or Thursday can sometimes be a mission impossible! ☺
Besides that I’m responsible for the promotion of the We Are E Brand and our artists, so you can say I’m looking for new opportunities to promote both of them on a daily basis.
On a periodic basis I do organise our two-monthly We Are E party in Studio 80 in Amsterdam.
As mentioned above I recently started to assist Frenk Wiersma from Evotions with our upcoming label called “We Are EP”.

Soon the electronic music festival season starts in the Netherlands. Which are your favourite festivals and why?
For sure my Dutch festival favourites include Source Festival and Costa del Sol!
Source Festival has a great musical program, but also pays a lot of attention to different types of art like photography, theatre acts, live paintings and has really cool decorations.
Costa Del Sol shares these kinds of art but most of all is a festival, which has a really great vibe and loads of pretty people!
Going abroad I absolutely love NACHT DIGITAL near the east German Border for basically everything that little charming festival has to offer!

Please write spontaneously a short comment for each of the following terms:
Amsterdam: ♥
Rotterdam: cold city
Social Media: I like!
Loveparade: terrible what happened last year…
Best Club: Trouw Amsterdam
Best DJ / Producer: Marcus Worgull / Apparat


More information about We Are E: 
www.wearee.nl
www.facebook.com/wearee
www.soundcloud.com/we-are-e

We Are E is celebrating the 2nd anniversary on 4th February in Club Studio 80 in Amsterdam!


Interview by Joe Landen

More interviews here!

New House Tracks: Funkerman, Luca Bacchetti, Mark Henning

Time for good new House Tracks:

Funkerman - Paperbag Revolution

We just got in the new promo of Dutch DJ/producer Funkerman. He is one of very few artists, who knows, how to make good commercial and underground Housemusic. "Paperbag Revolution" comes in the current cool house style, with strong whistle and (drum)effects! We present soon his second DIRTY MIND MIX!

David Alvarado - Klugh (Luca Bacchetti Remix)

Cool House Track! Nice rhythm and voice. We should have an eye on Luca Bacchetti, an Italien, living in Barcelona.

Mark Henning - Collider (Original Mix)

Wow! We heard this track in Club Watergate here in Berlin and it blew us away! Dark and powerful! Listen it loud.

All three house music tracks are just uploaded to our internet radio pool.
Tune in at www.dirtymindmusic.com