Moussa Clarke

My Summer 2010 Mixtape

Moussa Clarke — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:48:18 +0000

Please download my latest mixtape, showcasing the tunes that have been a staple of my DJ sets over the last couple of months.

I know we’re pretty much in Autumn, at least in this hemisphere, but this was recorded a few weeks back, so Summer Mixtape it is!

It’s my usual mash-up style, and runs the whole gamut from funkier house sounds to big room tribal bangers, to blissed out techno and nu-pop, all with its eye on firmly on the dancefloor. Featuring tracks and remixes from Max Sedgley, Kobbe, Basskleph, Max Cooper, Starsmith, Russ Chimes, Dr. Kucho and more… Full tracklist below!

I love feedback, so please leave me a comment, send me an email, or catch me on Facebook or Twitter.

DOWNLOAD MP3:
Moussa Clarke Summer 2010 Mixtape
http://bit.ly/9UTTWl

TRACKLIST:
01. Max Sedgley feat. Tor Cesay – “Sound Boy” (Kraak & Smaak Remix) – Jalapeno
02. 5eya – “As it’s loud” (Sharooz Remix) – La Bombe
03. Kobbe vs Hugo Rizzo – “Bring Back the Drums” (Keith John Stripped Down Remix) – Kult Records
04. DJ 19 & Moussa Clarke – “Acid Piano” (Tamer Fouda Mix) – 19 Box Recordings
05. Spada – “The Match” – Flash
06. D-Formation, Bloody Beatroots & Steve Aoki – “Weakness For Warp” – (Basskleph Mash-up) _ CDR
07. C-Mos – “20 Million Ways” (Daniel Ortega & Mike Moorish Bigroom Remix) – CDR
08. Bahar Canca & Matt Williams – “Latino Girl” (Dr Kucho Dubstrumental) – Sub Bubble
09. Moussa Clarke & Terrafunka – “She Wants Him” (Eugene Noiz Remix) – CDR
10. Hot Chip – “I Feel Better” (Max Cooper Remix) – CDR
11. Plastiscines – “Barcelona” (Lifelike Remix) – Nylon
12. Robyn – “Hang With Me” (Starsmith Remix) – Konichiwa
13. Mark Ronson – “Bang Bang Bang” (Russ Chimes Remix) – Sony

“Acid Piano” with DJ 19 and Hiroko Inokuchi

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:37:03 +0000

Out this week is another collaboration of mine, this time with DJ 19 from Tokyo, and featuring Japanese Shigin songstress Hiroko Inokuchi. It’s called, slightly misleadingly, “Acid Piano” (but there is indeed acid and piano in DJ 19′s version of the track) Remixes come from Canadians Les Boyz Electro, Egypt’s Tamer Fouda and Belgium’s Dimix, with support from all over the show, including Oliver Lang, Larry Tee, Benji Candelario and loads more… It’s out now on Japanese label 19Box Records, via Beatport.

Buy the single on Beatport:
http://bit.ly/bu38jZ

Watch video on Youtube

“And The Beat Goes On” on Hed Kandi – “Disco Heaven” 2010

Moussa Clarke — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:49:08 +0000

My track with Barcelona/NYC dude John Ashby, a cover of the Whispers’ classic “And The Beat Goes On” has made it onto the latest Hed Kandi compilation – w00t! It’s also out as a single release on Dylan Rhymes and Dirty Funker’s rather splendid Cubrik record label, with remixes from Funk L’Amour and Swanky Tunes.

Check out the Hed Kandi – Disco Heaven 2010 CD:
http://www.hedkandi.com/product/na/albums/cd/hed_kandi_disco_heaven_2010_2cd/

Buy the single on Beatport:
http://bit.ly/cZqhSr

Open Source & Free Audio Software & Plug-Ins for Mac OS X

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:43:11 +0000

I use open-source software all the time outside of my studio work, but I still turn to trusty Logic Pro for sequencing/DAW. However it’s perfectly possible to go Open Source or Free (as in Beer) in the studio too these days. Easier on the wallet, and no need to go down the dodgy crack route… Here’s a list of some stuff I’ve tried out, some of which I use regularly in my own productions and remixes. It’s mostly OS X, since that’s what I use for production personally, but most of these have Linux or Windows versions too…

Audio Editing
Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Very decent open-source audio editor.

Switch
http://www.nch.com.au/switch/mp3.html
Batch converter for WAV/AIFs/mp3s. Essential little tool.

Sequencers/DAWs
Ardour
http://ardour.org/
A full featured Open Source DAW/Sequencer. You need to pay a minimum of 1$ (more if you’re feeling flush) to get the full version which allows you to load and save Audio Unit settings.

Reaper
http://reaper.fm/
Not really Free nor Open Source, but I’m including this here because it’s very reasonably priced (60 US$ at time of writing) and because it allows you to download a full uncrippled version for evaluation purposes. It’s also a little less quirky than Ardour, especially if like me you’re more used to Logic/Cubase rather than Pro Tools, and it is a more than worthy substitute for those more expensive offerings.

Plug-Ins
Smart Electronix
http://www.smartelectronix.com/
A loose collective of developers dabbling in music software. Some great off-the-wall plugins and more trad stuff too. Including mda, Bram, DestroyFX and others…

Togu Audio Line (TAL)
http://kunz.corrupt.ch
Loads of wicked free plug-ins. Brilliant sound, I use these a lot.

Audio Damage
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/
Commercial company that also do some free downloads, a vintage Compressor, Pulse Modulator and Fuzzbox

Izotope Vinyl
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/
Great novelty plug-in, make your tune sound like it’s on an old worn-out ’78rpm disc

Alphakanal Automat
http://blog.alphakanal.de/
The awesome (and free) Automat soft synth.

CamelAudio CamelCrusher
http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php
Nice distortion/compression/filter combo available for free download.

Studio Toolz (http://www.studiotoolz.net) is an online resource for free Mac Audio software and is worth checking out.

If you want to try out a full operating system geared to audio, you could try Ubuntu Studio, a distribution of Ubuntu aimed at multimedia creation: http://ubuntustudio.org/. It includes Ardour, Audacity and other Open Source tools. I can’t vouch for it, since I haven’t tried it, but it seems like it’s worth a look.

Happy downloading

My Local MP, Kerry McCarthy, and the Digital Economy Bill

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:51:38 +0000

As our little constitutional crisis plays out here in the UK with today’s hung parliament election result, and with paranoia mounting about Greece’s financial woes being replicated here, I wonder how far up the pecking order the Digital Economy Bill will be when our new hamstrung government comes into power, whoever that might be.

My own local constituency is, since relatively recently, Bristol East, where Kerry McCarthy (Lab) just got re-elected. She is also Labour “Twitter Tsar”, whatever that means, but interestingly didn’t vote on the Digital Economy Bill.

As a music biz/creative type, as well as a resolute web geek, I’ve got a personal interest in the DE bill. I’m against it, by the way – I think it’s unrealistic in scope and badly thought through, let alone morally dubious. I happen to think it actually has good intentions, in that it seeks to protect creatives, but that it fails miserably to do this, and needs scrapping completely and looking at again, for various reasons.

When the Twitter storm about this was reaching its peak, and just before the second widely-watched reading, I decided to pitch in and contact my local MP, something I haven’t done since the Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 (“Repetitive Beats” indeed!)

This was my opening gambit:

April 6th, 2010

Dear Ms. McCarthy

I just spoke to your secretary who suggested I email you about this, since I believe the Digital Economy Bill is getting a second reading today.

I have recently become one of your constituents, after moving from London. I am very concerned that the Digital Economy Bill is being rushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny and that it will give sweeping powers to the government that haven’t been properly debated.

I have a personal interest in Copyright legislation, since I currently work in the music industry, and I feel that this bill is wrong in many ways, not least because it seems to have been created at the behest of industry lobby groups, rather than considering the general public interest.

It ignores and misunderstands the new digital reality, and attempts to prop up an outdated [...] business model with ill-conceived protectionist measures. More worryingly, it has the potential to help the UK lag further behind in the internet age – it is ill-informed, anti-consumer, potentially harmful to free speech, and ultimately will not help the entertainment industry at all in the long term.

I am a long-time Labour supporter, but I don’t feel I could support a party that fails to understand the modern age, and worse, appears to hurry through bills without scrutiny when pressured by powerful and monied corporate lobbyists. I voted for Labour, not the BPI.

Please could you let me know your own position on this? Regardless of the eventual outcome, I and I think many others would appreciate it, if you could at least demand that this receives proper debate and scrutiny, rather than being pushed through in a hurry at the end of parliament.

Thank you very much for your time.

Kind Regards
Moussa Clarke

To her credit, she replied just over a week later!

April 14th, 2010

Dear Moussa

Thank you for contacting me about the Digital Economy Bill, and welcome to Bristol! Please note that, now Parliament has been dissolved, I am not able to reply to you using my Parliamentary email account.

You will not be surprised to learn that I have received several emails on this topic in recent weeks and I appreciate why people will be concerned that its process through the Commons had to be completed during wash-up, in which the Government and Opposition agree how to conclude business before Parliament is dissolved. This meant, though, that there was the necessary degree of cross-party consensus, and the general view across Parliament was that illegal online copyright infringement is a serious problem for our creative industries. The debates rightly focused on how this can be tackled most effectively, and of course, very strong views on both sides of the argument were expressed in the Commons.

The Bill was ultimately passed by 189 votes to 47. It is certainly disappointing that there was not more time for debate within the chamber. This is in part, however, because the Bill was so extensively scrutinised in the House of Lords, and indeed significantly amended with further safeguards. While it is regrettable that we ran out of time for more detailed scrutiny in the Commons, I think the considerable debate we have had outside Parliament has been a positive addition and given MPs significant food for thought. We also had significant scrutiny and consultation of the Digital Britain white paper.

I have tried to attend a number of events over the past few months to hear both sides of an admittedly complex debate, and have certainly appreciated the information I have received through the many emails from constituents, comments on my Blog and from the people contacting me on Twitter. This has informed my discussions with colleagues and Ministers about the controversial measures in the Bill, but I could not vote last Wednesday as I was one of the duty tellers.

Although the Bill included many widely supported and much-needed measures, I share some of the concerns that have been raised with me about some clauses, not least the potential to disconnect; undoubtedly this should only be used as an absolute last resort if, firstly, the warnings and advice are not heeded, and subsequently the less stringent technical measures are ineffective.

Before Wednesday, I had received assurances that only the uncontroversial would go through. As it turned out, this was not entirely the case, although some such as Clause 43, were dropped. Additional amendments were introduced though, and further regulations will now be required before the technical measures can be used, or a copyright owner can apply to the courts to block a website. Very importantly, these Commons amendments will require further public consultation and greater parliamentary scrutiny before the regulations can be introduced.

Personally, I am keen to see musicians’ livelihoods protected, but it is troubling that the positions, generally, of the music industry and internet providers/users are currently so polarised, and I would certainly support greater negotiation between the two. I have spoken with Stephen Timms, the Minister for Digital Britain, since the vote and he agreed that this would be a more positive way forward. I hope to be in a position after the election to discuss with him further how the Bill will be implemented to ensure the sanctions are only used where absolutely necessary.

Similarly, I have received an email from my colleague, Eric Joyce, inviting returned MPs to a meeting at the House of Commons in the first week of the new Parliament to discuss how to make changes to the Act to ensure it is appropriately implemented and takes account of reservations raised by both sides of the argument. If re-elected, I do plan to attend this.

In particular, I have promised to look into concerns raised with me by Watershed, amongst others, about the implications of the law for cafes offering free wi-fi access. It would be entirely wrong if they were penalised, or felt they had to withdraw the facility because of provisions in the Act.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your thoughts on the Bill; while I appreciate you may still disagree with some of its measures, I hope you may be reassured that it has been subject to much more deliberation than last week’s debates in the Commons, and will still be in the months to come to ensure it is appropriately implemented, on which we must now focus.

Yours sincerely
Kerry McCarthy

Now I’m not at all savvy in this kind of thing, but I felt since I had her ear, I should probably get some points in. My reply was a little on the verbose side, and if I’m being completely honest, rather rant-y in retrospect. No points for succinctness – I’ve published some edited highlights below:

Dear Kerry

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me at length, and thank you for the welcome to Bristol. I am definitely enjoying life here!

I’m sure you’ve heard these points made by other people, but while I have your attention, I might as well add my voice. Apologies in advance for length

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
As a music industry creative myself, I very much appreciate your commitment to the creative industries in the online environment, but I would say we need to be very careful with language. For example, the terms “music industry”, “record industry” and “musicians” are not interchangeable, and their business issues are not identical. This bill seems to me to be primarily designed to protect a certain subset of the record industry, i.e. the major labels, but I’m not sure it really helps any other stakeholders, except insofar as they align themselves with the record industry’s ailing business model.

I am an independent record producer, DJ, and also do some digital marketing consultancy work. I also used to work for large record labels, so I understand the arguments from quite a few perspectives.

The recording side of my business already forms a much smaller part of my turnover than it used to – I’m resigned to that fact, I see it as an inevitable result of an internet-enabled world – but it’s this same internet world thats has reduced my marketing expenses, globalised my business like never before, increased my publishing and PRS revenue, and enabled me to find new ways of making money within the music industry. And this is without even going into the huge cultural, social and educational benefits that the internet provides outside of my business.

So far from being a terrible threat to my creative business, its net effect on my income has been pretty much neutral. Boring, I know. Yes, my business model has had to evolve, but that’s not been a particular problem. In fact it’s been very interesting to try to rise to the challenge.

[...]

THE BILL AND ITS PASSAGE
Regarding the bill and its passage through parliament, there are many issues that have been endlessly rehashed online: Was the bill properly debated? Were lobbyists’ claims adequately critiqued rather than just taken at face value? Was there sufficient expertise in parliament to properly debate the issues? Is the resultant bill even enforceable?

I do appreciate that the bill was debated at least in its initial stages, however it still seems strange to me and to many other people that something of this complexity was hurried through wash-up in 2 hours, and forced through with a 3-line whip, when it would normally have been debated for much much longer. Surely it would have made sense to wait until the next session of parliament? Surely the long debate in the Lords that you mention should have been a signal that this needed lengthier debate when it went back to the Commons? While I don’t claim to understand the ins and outs of the parliamentary process, I am led to understand that it was pretty much without precedent that something so complex was passed through wash-up. Why was this?

You say it “had to be” this way – but it’s my understanding that this was a decision taken by Harriet Harman’s office, not that this was an inevitability. The country is now left with a highly unsatisfactory and contentious bill having been passed, and while I appreciate the law will be further knocked into shape when parliament returns, why was it so necessary to rush something so flawed through in the first place? It seems that the Labour Party (I dont include Tom Watson, Fiona McTaggart and others who defied the bill, they are now bona fide geek heroes) is now left with a very vocal horde of liberal-minded digirati, outraged at the apparent lack of scrutiny, many of whom where possibly previously sympathetic (or at least apathetic!) to Labour, and who are now effectively campaigning against them online ahead of the coming general election. Whoops.

I watched the second reading and the wash-up “debate” with great interest (it’s the first time I have sat in front of BBC parliament coverage for any length of time!) and I was struck by the lack of expertise on display. While I appreciate that MPs can’t be masters of all trades, I would at least have thought that the “Minister For Digital Britain” might have been familiar with basic digital terms and practices. Sadly that didn’t seem to be the case. The fact that someone like John Redwood, who I personally find politically odious in almost all other respects, was one of the few making perfect sense on the subject was also rather troubling. Intelligent comment seemed to be the preserve of those who were against the bill – again Tom Watson, Fiona McTaggart, Eric Joyce et al. I don’t say this only because I agree with them, but also because they seemed to be the only ones present who actually “get” what the internet is about, rather than merely repeating the record industry lobbyists’ dubious claims without subjecting them to any kind of analysis. The whole debacle would have been funny, were there not such worrying ineptitude on display. It also smacked of cynicism. There’s a tweet from the night that sums the feeling up very well: ”A whole generation just lost all faith in modern politics in the space of 24 hours. Well done guys, well done.”

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY VS THE RECORD INDUSTRY
Music is an intrinsic part of human nature and our culture, there will always be demand for it, and that demand will always be exploited commercially in a capitalist world. The Music Industry covers a whole range of businesses and activities from performing music, sound engineering, to marketing and selling music, music publishing, record labels, radios, nightclubs, producing music for TV, film, advertising, and many, many other interconnected fields.

To say that the “music industry” is in trouble is inaccurate. It’s the “record industry” we’re talking about here. While the BPI figures have historically been rather spurious (See for example http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jun/09/games-dvd-music-downloads-piracy), it would be difficult to dispute that the record industry is suffering because of the advent of the internet.

Although I think this suffering is inevitable, since as I will argue below their business model is on its last legs. But conversely, organisations like the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which collects income from Radio and other sources, seem to be taking in record revenues, and largely as a result of online income – and certainly their artists (including me) are benefiting from this financially. (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8567099.stm) The live music industry is also currently in great shape.

So let’s stop pretending that the music industry as a whole is in the doldrums – it isn’t. There is some market restructuring happening, but it’s not going anywhere soon.

Clearly a paradigm shift has occurred that the record industry (for self-preservation reasons) want to try to combat. It’s worth taking a look at the origins of the record industry, to give us an insight into why it’s in the pickle it’s in now.

A LITTLE HISTORY
I know this is a rather philosophical point, but the recording industry business model only exists originally because of what was at the time a new technology – the phonograph. The industry was made possible because physical media have built-in scarcity, i.e. they were difficult to copy. The phonograph cylinder was later joined by other types of physical music media, including Shellac Discs, Vinyl Discs, the cassette, the CD, the minidisc, the DAT etc etc – all with varying levels of success, and each affecting and finding their niche within the music media ecosystem in their own way. Later media (cassettes, CDRs, etc) became gradually easier for the layman to copy. Those physical media are now (almost) obsolete, and the new digital-only media such as mp3s have entirely different market dynamics. They are not physical, and easily copied/shared without any cost to either producer or consumer via the internet. You can’t impose any artificial scarcity on them to prop up the old business model via technical restrictions, at least not for long, because the internet community will always find a way to circumvent it, and these methods will be shared online as quickly as the copyrighted material is. Add into that differing legislative attitudes to copyright throughout the world and it amounts to one gigantic and futile game of whack-a-mole for the copyright enforcers. No amount of protectionist legislation will change that in the long term, unless you really want to have internet restrictions on the scale of China’s in place (I hope you don’t)

Let’s look at history again, this time at some of the industry panic that greeted gramophone records, radio and the humble cassette.

When records first appeared, the music industry was up in arms because they thought no-one would buy sheet music anymore. Why would they when they could hear it on their gramophones? It was true at first, and music publishers (companies originally set up to sell sheet music) thought they would die out, but eventually income from licensing the music for record sales was enough to sustain them. The music publishing industry changed its business model, and a whole new subset of the music industry was created – the recording industry.

When radio first appeared, the music industry was up in arms because they thought no-one would buy records anymore. Whey would they when they could listen to them on the radio? It didn’t – radio actually drove record sales. Additionally, the music industry made a deal with the radio stations and collection societies such as the PRS collected money from them – this created another revenue stream for artists and publishers (I’ll come back to this point later).

When cassettes gained popularity, the music industry was terrified that home taping would kill music. It didn’t, and music is still alive and well. Dan Bull has parodied this brilliantly on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3jkUhG68wY

And so on… Every industry has these worries when a potentially disruptive technology comes along, and I’m sure some companies would love to be able to legislate against anything new ever happening – every saddle-maker up and down the country must have been worried about their livelihood when automobiles became popular and threatened the horse & cart industry. (I’ve taken this image from an article I read online, can’t remember exactly where!)

It seems to me that the major labels have made some major business blunders in the last couple of decades which haven’t helped their situation – hind sight is a wonderful thing, but there are some things they could have avoided doing, which many pundits pointed out at the time, and which might at least have slowed down the uptake of free file-sharing – for example not agreeing digital standards early enough, trying to enforce unpopular restrictive DRM, and other failures. Their intense lobbying for this bill shows how desperate they are, but a lot of people can’t help feeling they didn’t do much to help themselves, and that they probably got a lot of bad advice from lawyers and tech companies only too willing to take their dollars throughout the last couple of decades.

And European governments are now legislating to try to protect their sclerotic business model – for example Hadopi in France, recent legal activity in Sweden, and now the UK’s Digital Economy Bill.

A BAD LAW

This law seems to be the latest in a long line of measures that treat consumers like idiots (or worse, potential “criminals” [...]). I know that the recording industry and the BPI are potentially fighting for survival, [...] but why do they seem to be aiming all their fire at music fans? They are alienating their main consumers, the people who actually support their industry – with everybody’s civil liberties as unfortunate collateral damage. Strange tactic.

This is irrespective of the privacy, legal, technical and moral issues which the bill itself brings up.

[...]

I’m also concerned about the knock-on effects the bill could have: suppressing sites like Wikileaks which could in theory fall foul of the bill as it currently stands (and it’s not good enough for government just to say “oh but we wouldn’t do that”), stifling competitiveness and innovation in the digital economy, and by default all businesses which rely on digital technology and the internet (i.e. pretty much all businesses!), making the uk look more backward and less dynamic and lagging even further behind other parts of the world in the tech stakes, reducing public wifi access, and potentially depriving families of what is now an essential utility and right (especially those not tech-savvy enough to google “VPN”)

It seems quite a hard sell to persuade people that a couple of crumbling international record companies’ supposed “rights” to sell us mp3s trump our rights to privacy, free speech, internet access, and our future economic competitiveness.

It’s entirely the wrong approach. You say you will be trying to knock this law into shape, but you’re starting from a very low base.

SOLUTIONS:
So what about solutions for the online “problem” if we can call it that? And what about the “carrots” for music fans rather than beating their internet connections with a big ill-thought out “stick”?

Well at one end of the scale, people already know what some of their business solutions are. Diversification, selling merchandising, concentrating on live income and treating recordings as promotion (http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/01/give_away_the_m.html), the honesty box sales model (see Radiohead - http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_yorke), deals with advertising brands, and many other potential income streams which already exist or are emerging now – all of these are valid, but don’t provide a one-size fits all – it largely depends on the artist.

I don’t think mp3 stores necessarily provide a long-term solution, although offerings can work quite well depending on price and the consumer experience. Itunes is a model that works, at least for now, mainly because of the hardware lock-in with the Ipod and Iphone. [...] What might be needed outside of Apple’s offering is a cheap and convenient enough alternative to free downloading – and I don’t think that currently exists on a large enough scale – or with enough choice of material to rival a simple Google search (unless Google starts an mp3 store integrated into search, now that would be an idea – the beginnings of it already exist – http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/google-closes-the-loop-on-music-search/). However free will always trump nearly free for a lot of people, so it has to be accepted that we will never have a situation where all fans will buy via these sources.

To me the most sensible and possibly the only workable option borrows from the kind of deal that the collection societies made with radio many years ago: Blanket licensing ISPs to distribute music and other media. I would think that an organisation like the PRS/MCPS alliance or PPL would be best-placed to administer this revenue since they already do this with radio, or maybe a new society should be set up. Money could be allocated to artists or their publishers via per-download/stream accounting where it could be traced, and where it can’t would go into a pot to be distributed via a Nielsen type ratings system. The financial burden would still ultimately be on consumers (via the ISPs), but this would seem to me to be a much fairer way and less contentious way of achieving the same aim – i.e. getting consumers to pay for access to music. I believe something like this was even suggested at the committee stage, and it’s not entirely clear why this advice was ignored. There is more info on this idea all over the web, and I’m sure you’re already familiar with it, but here are some examples:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/03/how-an-isp-musiclice.html
http://www.intelligencecentre.net/2010/03/16/could-blanket-licensing-for-isps-be-the-solution-to-file-sharing/

This last idea wouldn’t save the major record labels, and might even accelerate their decline since they could easily become irrelevant in this new music business ecosystem – so by definition it would not be championed by BPI lobbyists since it might put them out of a job – but as I’ve argued their current business model is very nearly at its natural end anyway, since the physical media which enabled it are obsolete – maybe they will slowly go the way of the saddlemakers, or eventually be absorbed into music publishing or artist/event management where there is still money to be made (this is already pretty much the case with smaller independents). And that… is just fine, I don’t really see any compelling economic or moral argument for rescuing their current business model.

CONCLUSION:
It was good while it lasted, but this awful law won’t bring back the good old days. Music as both culture and industry, with the internet as one of its major promotional forces, is definitely here to stay whether the record industry survives or not in its present state, and whether daft illiberal laws like this one get passed or not. Regarding the bill, the overwhelming worry of many of my online peers is that we now have a potentially terrible law in place, and that parliament as a whole does not have the will to solve this situation, maybe because some of its more powerful members have decided to prioritise the recording industry lobbyists’ outdated and self-serving views over those of all other stakeholders, including the general public’s, and maybe because it doesn’t sufficiently understand the new internet paradigm nor its technology. Certainly the parliamentary processes that so many watched online didn’t do anything to dispel these worries, in fact quite the opposite. Not a good starting point.

I hope you prove them wrong, and I for one think it’s better to look to the future of the music business, rather than to pine for the gramophone!

Sorry for length, this has turned into a bit of an essay, but I hope I’ve managed to make some valid points that you might consider in your future deliberations.

As for where my vote will go in the general election, I am still undecided, but I am very impressed indeed by you taking the time to respond to me, and sincerely wish you all the best in the coming weeks

PS: Would you mind if I published our correspondence online?

Kind Regards
Moussa Clarke

I also made some other points about cyber-lockers being a key promotional tool for me, about the dubiousness of asking ISPs to spy on their customers, and a (rather layman-ish) outline of the legal, technical and moral flaws of the bill. Obviously she then had a general election to fight (and an uncomfortably high-profile Twitter gaffe to deploy), but she still managed to find the time to send a reply a couple of days ago.

May 4th, 2010

Dear Moussa

I am sorry for not being able to get back to you sooner on this; as I hope you will appreciate, things are rather hectic at the moment. Glad to hear you’re enjoying life in Bristol.

I do appreciate you taking the time to give me such a considered account of your perspective, and you have certainly raised some very valid points. I agree with you too about the very valuable input of MPs like Tom Watson, who has also blogged about this quite extensively.

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to do justice to your email in my reply to you at the moment, but I can assure you that I will be raising your points as part of any future deliberations, if I am fortunate to be re-elected next week and hope to be able to attend the meeting organised when Parliament returns.

Thank you again for your email, which will be very helpful. You also asked if I was ok with you publishing our correspondence online- that would be fine by me.

Best wishes

Kerry McCarthy

So what do I get from all of this? I don’t hold out much hope that anything will change much in this bill, especially since the UK Parliament is likely to be rather chaotic over the coming months and not too focused on this particular issue, and in any case seems to lack will and expertise in this matter. I am also not really any the wiser as to what Kerry McCarthy really thinks about it – although at least it’s clear that she is thinking about it – however I’m genuinely impressed by having an engaged and professional local MP – I know some other people who complained about this bill didn’t even get a reply from theirs.

Whatever you might think of Labour at this present moment in time (or of the Digital Economy Bill), Kerry McCarthy probably deserved her re-election.

In the meantime, check out http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ for more information on what can be done now to try to get the Digital Economy Law repealed.

You might also want to write to your local MP too after they actually get parliament in place again

New Mix Session – February 2010

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:50:24 +0000

Here’s my new DJ promo mix for February 2010.

Quirky ethnic tech, big room shakers and a rousing piano finale, featuring tracks and remixes from the like of Seamus Haji, Dumb Dan, Mike Monday, Phunk Investigation, Felix Baumgartner, Ellie Goulding, Riva Starr, Russ Chimes, Hard Rock Sofa, Swanky Tunes, Eelke Kleijn and yours truly….

Download the mp3 here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?2newwzyjmlk

Please share!

Tracklist
01. Dumb Dan – “When I Get Mad I Just Play My Drums” (Accapella) – Dumb Recordings
02. Mike Monday – “Yoppul” – Get Physical
03. Riva Starr – “Black Cat, White Cat” – Snatch
04. Phunk Investigation – “Cradle of Life” – Absolutely
05. Stripper feat. DJ Omega – “Stripper Theme”- Giant Pussy
06. Nate River & Monkey d’Luffy “Tcha Tcha” (Hard Rock Sofa Remix)
07. Jay C & Felix Baumgartner – “Souk” – CDR
08. Mary Mercury & Enge(i)ne – “17 Breath” – Bomba
09. Seamus Haji & Dino Psaras – “My Destiny” (Seamus Haji Mix) – Big Love
10. Eelke Kleijn – “The Way That You Are” (Dumb Dan Edit) – Outside The Box
11. Whelan & Di Scala – “Big Apple” – Big Love
12. Moussa Clarke & John Ashby – “And The Beat Goes On” (Swanky Tunes Mix) – Cubrik
13. Les Boyz Electro – “Untitled” – CDR
14. Ellie Goulding – “Starry Eyed” (Russ Chimes Mix) – Polydor

A Mix of Remixes

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:09:10 +0000

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and I’ve at last got round to putting together a mix with some of my remixes, productions and collaborations from the last few years (this only includes stuff under my own name, so no older stuff like PF Project, Tzant, Musique, Philter etc, I’ll leave that for another time)

Here’s the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gdtvmonljgd

And here’s the tracklist:
Rocinante – “Everybody Knows” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Jackalope (UK)
Puppa – “Sense Da Groove” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Helvetica (Switzerland)
Moussa Clarke & Terrafunka – “She Wants Him” – Armada (Netherlands)
Julianne – “And I Love To Say Goodbye” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – 19 Box (Japan)
Wally Lopez – “Dark Suite Piano” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Factoria (Spain)
Jody Wisternoff – “Starstrings” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Hed Kandi (UK)
Moussa Clarke & John Ashby – “Much Better” – Unsigned
Dave Lambert – “House In Play” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Progression (Belgium)
Burned – “Schneid” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Bikini (Germany)
David Vendetta – “Break For Love” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – DJ Center (France)
Dave Lambert – “Yeah” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Progression (Belgium)
Ricky Stone – “Shanghai Taxi” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – 891 Records (UK)
Simple Minds – “Different World” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – Absolute (Italy)

Facebook Fan Page

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:47:19 +0000

I’ve actually had a Facebook Fan Page for a while, but I’m finally starting to pay more attention to it.

My personal Facebook account is getting kind of unwieldy, nowhere near the 5000 limit yet, but it’s already getting tricky to keep track of my close friends and contacts in amongst it all.

Now I’m not complaining, it’s great that so many people want to connect – it’s just that they are probably better served by joining my fan page, which is a little closer to the MySpace music page idea – I’ve got a few hundred outstanding friend requests, and I’m going to try to message each one individually…

In the meantime, I’m also posting the link here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moussa-Clarke/43553846330

It’s not up to much yet, but it’s got all my blog posts and Twitter updates, and I will be populating it with tunes and other media over the coming weeks. If you’re on Facebook, feel free to join up!

PS: As a geeky aside, I’m really liking Ping.fm, which in conjunction with TwitterFeed and some uber-noodly fiddling about on Yahoo Pipes, allows me to update all my social sites’ status via Twitter. Anything that saves me time navigating the ever-expanding social web landscape is just great in my book. Now if they could only just make it work with the Eastern European sites I’m on too

Summer 2009 Mix Session

Moussa Clarke — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:49:22 +0000

Yep, it’s that time again – My latest mix session is available for download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ziojby1m4zi

Enjoy!

Tracklisting:
01. Hermanez – “Blister” (Spektre Remix) – Eklektisch
02. Cevin Fisher – “The Freaks Come Out” (Gabriel Robella Remix) – Subversive
03. The Good Guys – “Get Freaky” (Olander & Cabrera Mix) – House Session
04. The Good Guys – “Get Freaky” (Original Mix) – House Session
05. Marc Vedo – “Get It Out” (Original Mix) – Koolwaters
06. Tempered DJs & Ellesse – “Rocket Science” (Mark Holmes & OD Muzique Remix) – Manchester Underground
07. Block & Crown – “Deep In The Night” (Pacha Mix) – Dumb
08. Angger Dimas – “Duck Army” (Original Mix) – Vicious
09. Lenka – “Trouble is a Friend” (Nadastrom’s Wishful Dub) – Epic
10. Gai Barone – “Organum” (Dino Lenny Remix) – Afterglow Deep
11. The Gossip – “Heavy Cross” (Fred Falke Remix) – Backyard
12. Jerome Isma-Ae – “Smile When You Kill Me” (Blake Jarrell Remix) – Jee Productions
13. Omid 16B – “The Epic” (Main Instrumental Dub) – Sexonwax
14. Jay C – “The Music” (Instrumental) – CDR

Twitter DJ

Moussa Clarke — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:09:22 +0000

I’ve made the jump and started using Twitter in earnest in the last few weeks. I wasn’t sure about it at first, I thought it seemed like it might maybe be just a fad for tech bloggers, desperate politicians, and luvvie radio/tv celebrities keen to show their tech credentials. I suppose I failed to understand its potential usefulness as part of a general online presence – until I started using it, that is.

Twitter is a service that lets you post sms-length 140 character messages (“tweets”) to your so-called “followers”, people who subscribe to your little missives. As a follower, you get a stream of headlines as people go about their day. People share everything – links, what they had for lunch, philosophical musings, political feelings, literary quotes, where they’re going for a drink etc. You’d think this would just give you a load of chatter and noise, but what you get is surprisingly interesting and relevant (I’m wondering if I will feel the same once the novelty has worn off, but for now I’m enthusiastic.)

There are people who twitter well, and people who do it badly. The major mistake seems to be to fill your Tweets with purely marketing-oriented babble. Of course I know you want to sell me stuff, but please at least give me some interesting factoids in between your shameless commercial plugs. For DJs this translates into you not only telling me about your forthcoming gigs or your various Beatport releases. Sure that’s all very cool, and honestly I wish you the best of luck, but by the tenth subsequent Tweet on the same subject I’ve actually given up caring and stopped following you (let’s face it you probably already spam me enough via email/Facebook/Myspace anyway!) I won’t mention any names, but I will definitely like you more if you Tweet about other things

As for those who do it well, check out Funkagenda, Dave Seaman and Imogen Heap for starters. What works for me is they don’t just talk about their current CD release, but about their general interests, food, travels, studio processes, jokes, favourite bands, whatever – and they sound like human beings (which seems to be an important point to bear in mind whenever you indulge in online conversation, or indeed any kind of conversation). So go ahead, tweet about that Sunday Roast you’re cooking – I might even go and buy your next single.

I also dig the fact that you can integrate Twitter with Facebook and Myspace (and other networks) via Ping.Fm or via dedicated applications within FB/MySp. This is really cool since it enables you to automatically synch your updates across Twitter/Facebook/Wherever. I’ve found that since I’ve been using Twitter, I’ve been updating far more often, which translates into more interactivity and stickiness on my Facebook/Myspace pages. Yes of course, I could have been doing that anyway, but the fact is I wasn’t, and Twitter woke me up to that. My Facebook profile in particular is far more lively as a result.

So what of it’s actual usefulness? Even though I’ve only just started using it, I can see that it can be an integral part of anyone’s online presence and personal professional brand, whether you work in music, advertising, or whatever. Used in conjunction with Facebook, Myspace and whatever other social networks you’re on, it’s another great way to make yourself heard online…

PS: Here are some useful links about Twitter, online music marketing, and online marketing in general:

How to Twitter: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638550095558381.html
Some suggestions on how to behave in the Twitterverse.

Personal Branding: http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/
Mashable on setting up your online personal brand.

What Would Google Do?: http://www.buzzmachine.com/what-would-google-do/
Very zeitgeisty book on applying Google’s business ethics to absolutely everything.

New Music Strategies: http://www.newmusicstrategies.com/
Andrew Dubber’s blog about the music biz in the internet age. Essential reading.

And finally you can find me Twittering on about fine cuisine, airport experiences, books, and, yes, gig dates, at:
http://www.twitter.com/moussaclarke

Videos from Freestyle in Almetyevsk and Neon in Kirov on Youtube

Moussa Clarke — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:20:56 +0000

Last month, I was back in Russia again, and had the pleasure of playing in Almetyevsk on the 14th February, and in Kirov on the 28th February. Both gigs and cities were interesting in their own right!

The party in Almetyevsk was A LOT bigger than I expected – I had imagined some small scale club, but walked into a rollerdome filled with stack speakers and what looked like about 4,000 people having it. Check out a little clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0AXoMao5To

Kirov was great too, a fine city with very friendly and relaxed people. The gig at Neon Club was for the local branch of STS, a TV channel, and we were followed around all day by a TV crew. I’ll post a video of the TV newspiece at a later date, but in the meantime here’s some clips from the club:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckfZFQ2Gq_I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPbuQc4GuXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gmhLUPhEfA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdTJc3TN23w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWBehPljqR0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XHr55qif0A

An Englishman in Russia Part 1 of 10

Moussa Clarke — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:03:44 +0000

It’s no secret that I’ve got a bit of an ongoing fascination with Russia and other countries in the CIS. I’ve been visiting regularly since 2001, and I’ve made many, many friends there. I love the energy of the people and the clubs there, and I find it culturally extremely interesting.

The country is vast, a sprawling mass of contradictions. On the one hand you have the impossibly rich elite of Moscow and the major cities, fat from the spoils of the 1990s and Russia’s huge wealth of natural resources, and the shamelessly wannabe rich, who have embraced US-style materialism like no tomorrow, sporting a kind of ultra-capitalism which sits rather uncomfortably with my European liberal mores. (Although as I’m reminded by well-to-do Russians, this is because twenty years ago, they had nothing, and maybe tomorrow, they will have nothing, so they’re making sure they’re enjoying the present). On the other hand, you have relative deprivation in the countryside – living in a “quaint” village is absolutely not an aspiration for well-heeled middle-class city folk like it is, say, in the UK. Strong individualism coupled with collectivism and a huge generosity of spirit; rampant inward-looking conservatism, but an ultra-liberal open-ness amongst many to everything that is new or foreign; extreme beauty and desolate ugliness; unbearably chaotic yet tightly regimented (the trains and metro are cheap and run on time! amazing for a Brit!); traditional values and decadent moral relativism (Russians tell me that when the Communist system was in action, they were essentially told how to think and behave, and since it broke down, and during the turbulent 1990′s, there was a sense, that, hey, maybe anything is permitted); genius/talented/creative/destructive/violent/fatalistic; all or nothing.

Contradictions – Russia is all of these things and more, once you put your finger on any characteristic, it surprises you, morphs, and eludes you. I have a lot of affection for it, and particularly (and this is the main thing) for the many fantastic people I’ve met there. The famous “Russkaya Dusha”, the Russian soul, at once hard, dry and pragmatic, and vodka-soaked and sentimentally romantic…

In the second half of 2008, Russia.Ru (Russia’s biggest Internet TV website) asked me if I would be interested in taking part in a documentary series where a camera crew would follow me discovering the “real” Russia. I immediately agreed, of course.

This is the intro to “An Englishman in Russia”, the first of an initial 10 episodes, filmed over the space of a few days in the Caucasus, the colourful multi-faceted and multi-ethnic South-Western region of Russia, on my way to a gig in the city of Stavropol. Directed by the acclaimed Russian documentary maker Alexander Rastorguev. Enjoy!

http://www.russia.ru/video/moussa_clarke_in_russia_p1/

Jody Wisternoff – “Starstrings” (Moussa Clarke Remix) out on Hed Kandi

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:56:43 +0000

My remix for Jody Wisternoff’s “Starstrings” is seeing the light of day in the UK on Hed Kandi. Originally out on Dutch label Dirty Soul for a while, it’s now getting a full-blown UK release, after plays from the likes of Judge Jules on BBC Radio 1 and numerous other DJs.

Available on vinyl now from Juno:
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/Jody-WISTERNOFF/Starstrings/345540-1/

Interview on Armada Music Website for “She Wants Him”

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:15:42 +0000

I did an interview for Armada’s website a while ago for the release of Moussa Clarke & Terrafunka – “She Wants Him”.

Read it here:
http://supra.armadamusic.nl/news/2008/11/2168/

SWMC 2009 in Sochi

Moussa Clarke — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:57:42 +0000

I was in Sochi in Southern Russia for SWMC at the beginning of February. SWMC (Sochi Winter Music Conference) is Russia’s answer to the Miami Winter Music Conference, smaller in scale, but now an essential part of the Russian clubbing calendar – if only to witness the drunken antics of Russia’s superstar DJs in a concentrated space

Sochi is a seaside resort on the Black Sea, and was popular as a resting place during Soviet times. These days, it resembles similar resorts in other parts of the world in both positive and negative ways – great weather, nice beaches, fantastic nightlife, a lot of tourist-oriented construction projects, garish hotels, hideously expensive seafront restaurants and more. It’s also going to be the site for the 2014 Winter Olympics (snow-tipped mountains are a short drive away), so it’s currently the recipient of a lot of government investment. It seems to be thriving, no visible signs of the financial crisis here.

The conference itself was very interesting from a local dance music industry aspect and from a networking point of view. The daytime forums seemed to be little more than self-promotional platforms for the guest speakers, but then this is the norm for music forums (and I do have a slightly cynical viewpoint, and maybe a touch of conference fatigue, having done the rounds of Midem, WMC, Popkomm and ADE during my tenure as A&R at a large indie during the late 90s).

The real action (as always at these kinds of events) takes place in the hotel lobby or during the night-time events. Particularly fun was a vodka and khimkal’naya fuelled get together at the local stalovka, with Agent Smith, Bobina, Denis A and a whole crew of DJs and promoters. I also played a great little party for Dewar’s on the friday night, and a short but sweet set at 8Nebo on saturday. Also managed to check out Plotforma, a really cool club on a seafront pier.

All in all I’m definitely up for coming back in 2010, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more and network in what has become one of the major nightclub markets in the world!

Winter Warmer Mix Session

Moussa Clarke — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:46:53 +0000

Here’s a link to my most recent mix set, featuring some of the tracks that I’ve been hammering over the last few months…enjoy!

Moussa Clarke’s Winter Warmer Mix Session 08/09
http://www.mediafire.com/?jbmtcdnzyfz

Tracklist:
01. Upfade – “Panga (Gui Boratto Mix) – Symphonic
02. Sudha – “Leche” (Way Out West Mix) – CDR
03. Tune Brothers – “Make Your Body Pop” (TV Rock & Luke Chable Mix) – HouseSession
04. Evil 9 – “All The Cash” (Alex Metric Mix) - Marine Parade
05. Ellektra vs Ting Tings & Midfield General – “Shut Up The Disco Sirens” – CDR
06. Tim Healey & Marc Adamo – “Ghetto Blaster” – CDR
07. Moussa Clarke & John Ashby – “Body Music” – CDR
08. Trisco – “Musak” (Piece Process Remix) – Positiva
09. Yoav – “Club Thing” (Fontano Remix) – Universal
10. Paul Thomas & Funkagenda – “Thrapp” (Amin Golestan & Marco G Remix) – LMR
11. Wonderland Avenue – “Idol Eyes” (Dumb Dan Remix) – Slammin Muzik
12. The Outrunners – “These Girls Are Dressed To Kill” (Russ Chimes Mix) – Valerie

Online Interviews…

Moussa Clarke — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:33:28 +0000

There’s a few interviews of mine online which I haven’t linked to yet, so I’m rectifying that now.

First up is one for French blog freeyourmind, in which I shoot the breeze over email with Fantomas about past & forthcoming projets and coffee preferences:
Free your Mind Interview (in French & English)

I also recently did a video interview for russia’s biggest internet tv portal Russia Ru, talking with Nikolay Ledebev about some of my impressions regarding life in Russia:
Russia Ru Interview (in Russian)

Finally there’s an interview with Czech Republic’s biggest dance music site Techno Cz (this one conducted with DJ Breeth via the medium of Skype!):
Techno Cz Interview (in Czech)

Big thanks to Thomas, Kolya and Michal!

Looooong Gig Round Up

Moussa Clarke — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:10:12 +0000

Oh dear, I’ve left it ages again since the last blog post. Blame my hectic schedule – updating my blog was always in the back of mind, but, well… it kind of just stayed there. To make up for it, here’s a rather lengthy round up of my gigs over the last three months.

Firstly the Useless Party on Halloween in Paris didn’t disappoint. La Java is really a great venue, with a really friendly crowd of people, and firing sets from Howie B and residents Princess Lea and Fantomas. Met some great people, and also found the time to go and quickly check out Fabrice Dayan playing across the road. Paris is great, I cut my teeth playing there in the 90s when I was starting out, and looking forward to playing there more in future…

Back in London the day after, I made it over to Inigo for the Halloween instalment of Love Asylum (nee Love Bullet). Anjuta, the promoter, has gone for an ongoing fancy dress theme, so it was amusing to be playing to a club full of ghouls and witches, although I have to admit I felt kind of under-dressed.

I then played NVL in Minsk in Belarus. Dumb Dan played there the month before and told me a little bit what I should be expecting. NVL basically means UFO, and the entrance to the club is appropriately decked out to look like a spaceship. It’s a brand new club with a wicked sound system, and a glammed up crowd. They make an effort on the production/theming too, particularly mind-bending on the night were the uv’ed up dancers/acrobats making bizarre shapes and movements during my set. Also during our stay there we managed to have a car accident (luckily no-one was hurt except the car), and witness the magnificence of the Minsk National Library. If you haven’t heard of it, google it or check it out on Youtube now. It’s properly paradoxical – a bastion of reserve and erudition that looks like it’s come straight out of Las Vegas. Brilliant.

Next up, time for a trip down to Stavropol in the South of Russia to play in Ermitage, for a Winston-sponsored party. Another great club with a really responsive crowd. There’s much (much) more to my trip down there, since I was followed by a camera team from Russia.Ru, Russia’s biggest internet TV portal. It features, amongst other things, me learning to play accordion in the street, cooking shashlik in a restaurant and burning my arm, dancing tectonik with a couple of teenagers by a statue of Lenin, drinking fresh mineral water with a very strong sulphurous after-taste, and almost getting arrested by the local militia. But I’ll leave all this for a future post, when the film is actually ready for you to view!

The weekend after this I was over in Kharkov in Ukraine to play a club called Maska. It was touch and go whether I was actually going to make it at one point since there was so much wind that the plane from Kiev was heavily delayed. But all good in the end. The club was cool, a slightly younger crowd who seemed to really get into what I was doing. We also went to check out S.O.N. in the same city. A really cool club, was rather empty on our visit, but could see it being wicked on a busier night.

Sadly, the following week’s gig in Romania was cancelled due to the venue, Atlantis, having some trouble with the local authorities. It was disappointing since I was really looking forward to my debut there, but hope I can make it at some point in 2009! Anyway, I managed to head over to Barcelona for a few days to meet up with my good friend John Ashby to work on some new tracks and a video project we are plotting together. More info soon

The next few weeks it was back to Russia again. On 5th December, I played the closing set for NokiaTrendsLive at Gaudi Arena in Moscow with Tiga and Santogold. I missed Santogold’s set, but heard Tiga playing for the first time before me – he was really very good, on point musical vibe and good connection with the crowd. I also hooked up with some old friends, including the ever-hilarious and urbane Alexey from 44100, and managed an interview for a local tv station, where they quizzed me about my ongoing fascination with Russia.

Also made it to Studio 74 in Chelyabinsk (yes, it’s really like my second home). Had a fantastic night there as always. Also popped over to L-Radio for an interview with Petr Karetnikov. He noted that I am the only foreign DJ who has had quite so many interviews on their station (we counted six that we could remember)

Then it was over to Podval in Ekaterinburg. This was only my second time playing in the city, I had been to Snow Project a couple of years before, where the DJ famously plays from a snowplough in the middle of the dancefloor. Just before the gig, I did a quick interview for Radio Pilot with the FullHouse DJs crew. I really liked Podval, it’s a tiny venue with a real party vibe. It gets busy late and stays open late, and has a reputation as an after hours place. I only wished I could have stayed longer, but we needed to get back to Moscow in time to fly to Turkey for New Years Eve…

..which was spectacular! Adam & Eve is a luxury design hotel in Antalya in Turkey based around the concept of relaxation and partying in equal measures. The New Year’s eve event took place in the Atrium, a massive hall with a huge rectangular ceiling covered in hundreds of thousands of tiny mirrors (it’s in the Guinness Book of Records because of this), flowing champagne, acrobats and performers, scintillating lasers reflecting off the roof and fireworks shooting out of the walls. It was a great way to see in 2009, and I can’t wait to go back there this summer.

Couple of weekends off at the beginning of January then right back into the fray. I re-visited Love Asylum in London, this time at the fantastic Dex Club in London – a really great venue, with a slamming crystal clear Funktion One sound system – and with the crowd in full superhero garb. I managed a 3 hour set despite having sprained my left arm (blame the icy pavements in Moscow!), I think the Joker and Catwoman particularly enjoyed it.

Which brings me finally to last weekend in Zelenograd in Russia. I played at Kakadu, where I had the honour of being the first ever English DJ to play. Cool little club which stayed rocking until well past 6am. Nice one…

There’s a huge list of people to thank for the above gigs and for looking after me over the last couple of months, so here goes: Thomas, Emmanuel, Fabrice, Anjuta, Shiva, Misha, Sasha, Gosha & the rest of the crew in Minsk, Nastya, Yury, Alena, Anton, Taras, John, Roma, Anya, Petr, the FullHouse DJs, Zhenya (and Zhenya’s mate who drove us to the airport!), Tolga, Darina, Svetlana, Andrey, and anyone else I’ve no doubt forgotten to include. You’re all stars, see you again very soon!

I’m super-busy over the next few weeks again. This week I’m heading off to Sochi in South of Russia for SWMC, Russia’s answer to the WMC. I’m playing at a VIP party (oo-er) on Friday 6th as well as at 8Nebo on Saturday, with Solaris Heights and Denis A. Please check my schedule for other forthcoming gigs, and see you out and about!

Halloween in Paris and London

Moussa Clarke — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:22:16 +0000

It’s a double-header for me this Halloween!

On 31st October I’m off to Paris for what looks to be a really interesting party, the brilliantly-named Useless. Organised by music blog stalwarts Freeyourmind, it’s an all-English lineup (sort of, if we ignore the Senegalese and Jewish ancestry in at least two of the participants ), since I’ll be playing alsongside Howie B (talented producer, U2 et al) and Princess Lea (local expat DJ diva). It’s all happening at cult venue La Java, where none other than the legendary Edith Piaf sang. Ca va dechirer les gars

On 1st November, I’m back in London to play Love Bullet, my cosy little monthly UK residency. Here I’m joining Dan Proxy for what promises to be another night of carnage. The venue for this one is the small but perfectly formed Inigo in Clapham.

UCOH Radio Interview

Moussa Clarke — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:20:35 +0000

There’s an interview with me up on the UCOH website. It was broadcast a while ago on CRMK in the UK. Check it out here!

Oven Ready Returns to Copenhagen

Moussa Clarke — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:18:37 +0000

Last weekend I was back in Copenhagen in Denmark for a fantastic party at Culture Box. It was a welcome one-off return for Oven Ready, which used to hold legendary events at Vega, promoted and driven by local DJ hero Tim Andresen.

Sadly though, I had to leave the club as soon as I finished playing. I’d been pretty ill and was on super-strength antibiotics, and made the fatal mistake of having one drink, after which everything went kind of pear-shaped. I now know exactly why they have those warnings on those packets – dont do it kids!

Miss Chelyabinsk 2008

Moussa Clarke — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:16:38 +0000

This weekend I’m going back to Chelyabinsk in Russia for a date that’s a little bit out of the ordinary for me! It’s not a gig as such, I’m doing a personal appearance and providing the music for the local heat of the Miss Russia contest in the city of Chelyabinsk in the South Urals. The music won’t be my usual clubby fare either, expect glamourous lounge, cool pop, indie dance and balearic beats mashed up together to provide the sonic backdrop for the night, as the contestants and models strut their stuff on the catwalk. I’m really looking forward to it, and also to catching up with some of my friends in Chel!

Beatport Chart October 2008

Moussa Clarke — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:15:25 +0000

I’ve just put together another chart for Beatport – here it is in no particular order:

Mike Monday – “Salieri Complex” – Om Records
David West – “Hello Piano” – Mistakes
Julianne – “And I love to Say Goodbye” (Moussa Clarke Remix) – 19 Box
Wonderland Avenue – “Idol Eyes” (Kikko Martini) – Slammin Muzik
Tim Andresen – “Grasshopper 2008″ – What Happens
Eddie Cabrera – “Palma Nights” (Daniel Lindeberg Mix) – Dumb Recordings
Orkidea – “Metaverse” (Jody Wisternoff Remix) – AVA
Wize – “Grand Voyage” – Sismic
David Gausa, Static Revenger & Scumfrog – “Into The Deep” – Sutil
Mr Gil – “The Dawn” (Chris Crowther Remix) – Orbiter

Gatecrasher at Gaudi in Moscow

Moussa Clarke — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:53:41 +0000

I’ve just got back from another weekend in Russia, where I got a last minute booking to play the closing set for Gatecrasher at Gaudi Arena in Moscow, as a replacement for Mauro Picotto, who couldn’t make the event. A fun night, and particularly interesting to see Dimitry Almazov aka Bobina play. He has a huge local following, and possibly looks set to enter the DJ Magazine top 100 this year, the first Russian DJ to achieve this – watch this space! You can check out some videos from the party on Youtube.

Also got the chance to attend the re-launch of the uber-glamourous Most club in Moscow on Friday night. It’s just had a re-fit, courtesy of architect Alexey Haas, and it’s looking and sounding great!

I’ll be back in Russia in a couple of weeks

Wally Lopez presents Dark Suite – “Dark Sweet Piano 2006″

Moussa Clarke — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:52:23 +0000

Another track I remixed a while ago is finally available from Beatport. Wally Lopez presents Dark Suite – “Dark Sweet Piano 2006″. I actually completed this remix a couple of years ago for Wally’s Factomania label, but it was previously only available on vinyl or via the Factomania website. It’s now getting a full digital release – Plays from all the usual suspects