Happy new year. I hope you’re not feeling too tender if you were out partying last night. There’s been plenty of good mixes and podcasts over the last 12 months – here’s a few of that are worth a listen if you haven’t already (click on the titles to get the mix).

No ID On The Track… – Rob Pursey and Superix

Southern Hospitality have put out a lot of strong mixes in 2011 (check out basically everything on their site) and this overview of productions from No I.D has been my favourite of the lot, covering the range of his career from the 90s Common Sense and his own Black Album era up to the current stuff.

Used Vols 1 – 6 – Fake Blood

Fake Blood presents a series of breaks tapes that play like a history of hip hop without using any hip hop records. All originals pressings – no comps, mp3s and all that. Impressive stuff.

Black Magic – Big Jacks

Grand Groove DJs Big Jacks put together an excellent mix of smooth 80s soul – some stuff you may be familiar with and some you might not but all incredible music.

Graduation Special – Gonorstein

A new Gonorstein mix is always a time for celebration and this year he put this mix of hip hop from his school days. As with all his mixes the selection is premium.

J Rocc’s Stussy Japan mix

J Rocc put this mix together for Stussy to promote his debut album for Stones Throw and unsurprisingly it’s ridiculous. All sorts of stuff on here – Bobby McFerrin, Eugene McDaniels, The Four Tops, Mike James Kirkland… serious stuff. Also worth checking out is J Rocc’s and Spinna’s 90s mixes. One does hip hop and the other does R&B. Pipomixes has got links for them.

You Been Doin All This Dope Producin’ (Dre Day 2011 Mix) – Mike 2600

This is the official mix for Dre Day 2011, which is a party to celebrate Andre Young’s birthday but on by Burlesque Design. Mike 2600 has put together a mix which focuses on the source material for Dre’s hits.

Breakin Bread Podcast’s Best of 2011

Breakin Bread’s end of year radio show highlighting the gems from the previous 12 months is always a treat for December. Skeg, Steve the Sleeve and J-Squared make some choice selections of hip hop, funk, soul and more over 2 hours. Make sure to check out their monthly podcasts throughout the year – you can subscribe through iTunes or check them out on Mixcloud.

Flyte Tyme Vol 1 – Sparkle Motion

Sparkle Motion (Tobes and DJ Yoda) present a best of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis productions – SOS Band, Janet, Alexander O’Neal. Hot. Yoda also did a best of LL Cool J mix that was really good but I can’t find an active link for that.

Matthew Africa – 2 Busy Sayin Yeah Podcast

There’s not one particular episode of DJ Matthew Africa’s podcast that I’m recommending but just subscribe – every show is excellent and he covers all types of music – new raps, old raps, disco, soul… it’s all about the good music.

Love Break 3 – Cosmo Baker

Cosmo Baker does another volume of sweet soul that’s unmissable. Check out Cosmo’s Top 10 mixes that he does every month (and he’s done a best of 2011 too).

Diamond D’s Live 45s at On The Real, London

Here’s a live recording of Diamond D playing 45s of classic breaks at London’s On The Real night. I could easily listen to this every day.

Fred Fades – Still Chillin’

Lastly, a digging mix from Fred Fades of all sorts of records. There’s a lot of stuff on here I’m not familiar with. I recommend checking out his other mixes on his Soundcloud.

I’ll sign off with thanking everyone who’s checked out my mixes and to all the sites that have shared them about – it’s much appreciated. I’ve got a couple of mixes planned for 2012 so keep checking back on here and if you’re on the twitter follow me – I’m @@maxtoiletmaxtoilet.

I was thinking I was going to do any Xmas posts on the blog this year… First off, J-Squared and myself did a guest post for WhoSampled.com, the premier place for finding out about samples, on samples of Xmas records – The Twelve Breaks of Christmas.

Next, DJ Beatmaster did a festive edition of his Ill Behaviour radio show on Leicester’s Demon FM – I did a live mix of seasonal hip hop, J-Squared got on the phone to discuss his favourite Xmas hits and then Beatmaster himself kept the festive momentum going. You can now download the show to re-run the fun at your leisure.

DOWNLOAD ILL BEHAVIOUR XMAS SPECIAL

OR LISTEN ON MIXCLOUD

Check out Ill Behaviour’s site for a track list and make sure to check Beatmaster’s show every Wednesday night on Demon FM.

Lastly, Phill Most Chill aka Soulman has just put up a Xmas mix. This is what I’m going to have playing on Christmas morning.

Feliz Navidad. On Wednesday I’m doing a live mix of Christmas favourites from the Season’s Beatings and stuff that didn’t make it onto the mixes on Beatmaster Wright’s Ill Behaviour show on Leicester’s Demon FM on Wednesday 21 December at 10pm. If you’re in Leicester you can tune in to 107.5FM – for everyone else you can listen online live (click on the ‘listen live’ button). 

Also, all four volumes of SB are now on Mixcloud (I think they’ve got download links on them if you want to play them offline but if not *cough* offliberty.com…):

SEASON’S BEATINGS 1

SEASON’S BEATINGS 2

SEASON’S BEATINGS 3

SEASON’S BEATINGS 4

Thank you to everyone who’s helped us put these mixes together and spread the word. Shout out to Dave H who did the artwork and also did the first volume with us, shout out to Gidge and the rest of the Off The Hook friends and family, nice one Glenn for making that first one sound tip top, thanks to Boombox Distribution and Breakin Bread crew for spreading it worldwide, thanks to Dan Greenpeace for playing them in their entirety on the All City Show on XFM every Xmas Eve, also other radio thanks to DJ Food at Solid Steel and Mr Trick at Turntable Radio.

Thanks to all the magazines, newspapers, message boards and websites that reviewed it, Hip Hop Connection (The DJ Yoda reviews were often quoted), Canadian Vogue magazine, Metro newspaper, Spine Magazine, UKHH.com. Mistletunes.com, Digital Vertigo, Skratchworx, Stones Throw MB and any others that I can’t remember right now. Thanks to everyone who helped us get drops for the first one (nice one Matt for the Keith Harris hook up) and to everyone who used to send us suggestions for future volumes – very, very helpful. Lastly thanks to everyone who’s bought or downloaded them,  put them on their FB, or retweeted about it or just actually tells someone about them. It’s much appreciated.

Fellow Off The Hook alumni Gidge has been churning the mixes out recently. This one focuses on some disco bits that he’s found in his local record shop. These are vinyl only mixes and all live. Make sure to keep an eye on his Mixcloud for new mixes.

GIDGE – TO THE BONE ON MIXCLOUD

Fake Blood has recently put out the final volume of his breaks series and I’ve got to say it’s tip top. He’s going through a lot of the originals to all your favourite raps, mainly from the 90s era and doing nice doubles to catch those special bits. I like to think I know breaks but there’s a few things on here that are new to me. All originals, no compilations. Respect to Fake Blood.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

This is a live recording of a short set of Library music from the night of soundtrack music I do alongside DJ Wax On at Quad in Derby. Library music is commercial music that is used in television programmes – the stuff I’m playing could be heard in things like The New Avengers, Prisoner Cell Block H, The Sweeney or whatever – but this music wasn’t available to the public until the 90s when these records were getting rediscovered and put on compilations and what not.

Some of the mixes are a litte bit ropey but it’s still a good listen.

LISTEN ON MIXCLOUD

OR DOWNLOAD HERE

TRACKLIST:

Giant’s Causeway – Johnny Pearson
Accadde A Bali – Ararwak
Hula Rock – Lew Howard & The All-Sters
Name Of The Game – Brian Bennett
Lightly Salted – Barry Ungar
Safari Park [Edit] – Stringtronics
Long Wait (from Hawaii 5-0) – Morton Stevens & His Orchestra
Discovery – Brian Bennett
Girl At The Top B – Alan Hawkshaw & Alan Parker
High Diver – Alan Hawkshaw
Bio Rhythm No.3 – Thomas Clausen
Ne Parlons Pas De Rien – Godchild
Mile High Swinger – Alan Hawkshaw
At Risk – David Lindup
The Heavies – James Clarke
That’s What Friends Are For (instrumental) – Alan Parker
Mixed Drums – Andy Loore
Scrabble – Rene Costy

BONUS: If you want to hear a little bit more you can download the next 20 minutes of what I played which included People Under the Stairs, The Police, BDP, Dave Matthews, Maggie Thrett and a few other bits. DOWNLOAD THE REST

For more knowledge on the Reel Music night like us on FB or follow us on the Twitter.

I could quite easily fill this blog with all the mixes from Southern Hospitality. This one I’ve been listening to all week and had to be shared here. Superix and Rob run through a load of classic No I.D. productions, old to new. You can’t go wrong with this. Seriously.

GET ‘NO I.D ON THE TRACK’ VIA SOUTHERNHOSPITALITY.CO.UK

DIRECT MEDIAFIRE LINK FOR DOWNLOAD

32 minutes of beats, breaks, original blends, rappin’ and handclappin’ all rearranged inna cut & paste fashaaaaan. Featuring bits and pieces from Jazzy Jay, Incredible Bongo Band, Ultramagnetic MCs, Kraftwerk, Beastie Boys, Spoonie Gee, Breakestra, Rare Earth, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Tuff Crew, and so much more.

This megamix coincides with the one year anniversary of Mike’s EXTRA LARGE party, going down each second Friday in First Avenue’s Record Room in downtown Minneapolis.

More music at http://extralargeparty.blogspot.com
Follow Mike on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Mike2600

Gidge has done a mix for the scary season for you to enjoy – a good selection of hip hop, funk, reggae and soul – all live, all vinyl, all scary as hell. Don’t have nightmares.

Christopher Lee – Dracula Intro
Depth Charge – Dead By Dawn
Jeru The Damaja – Ain’t The Devil Happy
Aspects – Scary Lesson
Parliament – Dr Funkenstein
Kool Moe Dee – Monster Crack
Dana Dane – Nightmares
Manzel – Evil, Wicked, Mean & Nasty
Gene Page (Blacula) – Run Tina Run
Josh Saunders – The Dead Don’t Die Alone
El Michaels Affair – Chevez La Ghost
M.Hubler & S.Schwab (Vamyros Lesbos) – The Ballad Of A Fair Singer
James Pants – Devilry & Sorcery
Gene Page (Blacula) – Blacula (The Stalkwalk)
Red Blood – Soul Frankenstein
Whodini – Haunted House Of Rock
Goblin (Day Of The Dead) – Zombie
6ix Toys – Voodoo People
Crazy World Of Arthur Brown – Fire
Dub Syndicate/Lee Scratch Perry – De Devil Dead
Scientist – Blood On His Lips
Hot Blood – Sex Me
Tricky – Hell Is Round The Corner
Christopher Lee – Dracula Outro

STREAM ON MIXCLOUD

and here’s some extra Halloween related hits…

A live recording of Roy Ayers with Pete Rock and the Robert Glasper Experiment. Originally seen on FUNK IT. Check their site for more info…