Sorry that this weeks Mixin’ It Up came a little bit late but we had so much stuff for you yesterday that we saved it for today. Let’s go to Tel Aviv:
“We’re Botanika – a DJ crew based in Tel Aviv, comprised of Nadav Ravid (aka NDV), Amir Egozy, and our disco-licious designer Lady Moon. We spin everything from soul, funk, reggae & hip hop up to a variety of dancefloor flavors, like house/techno/b-more/dubstep/breakbeats and whatnot. This mix is just a glimpse into our larger selection, quite similar to our Botanika FM radioshows, while on a real dancefloor we’d probably let the music breath a bit more, but as we had certain stuff we really wanted y’all to hear, we just had to cramp it all in.
We mostly do parties around town either by our own or alongside our local friends (Kalbata, Onili, Soulico, TABAC, Kids Up Late, East of Eden & the Supplement Facts posses among others) – so sometimes you’ll hear us playing pure dubstep while at others on a hip hop/dancehall/bass vibe or on a soul/disco/house tip & so on. Over the past few years we’ve DJ’ed alongside international talents like Diplo, Sinden, Stereotyp, Seiji, Ghislain Poirier, Orgasmic, Roots Manuva, Laurent Garnier, Trickski, Al-Haca, Jahcoozi, Benga, DK, Juan Mclean and many others.
Anyway, we like mixin’ it all up, which we get to on our own parties and on our weekly Botanika FM radioshow on 106FM. Each of us does also another weekly show of his own – Nadav presents a 2 hour music show on GLGLZ, Israel’s biggest radio station, and Egozy does a weekly podcast for Walla!, the biggest web Portal in Israel. Our Myspace usually has links to most of them, so if you dig this you’re welcome to visit us for more.
Be sure to check NDV’s Shirbul project – 13 remixes to all Israeli artists done over the past 5 years, some sung in English and some in Hebrew and on a wide range of musical styles – which can be downloaded for free as a zip file including all the separate tracks (in 320kbs mp3′s) + artwork, and/or as a 50 minutes continous DJ-mix done by Egozy – over here.”
Download: Botanika Discobelle Oct Mix
Outkast – The Art of Storytelling
We thought this will be a fitting title to start off the mix with. We love Outkast in general, Andre 3000 had a magnificent year with lots of great guest spots, and this one has been very big for us.
John Miles – Stranger in the City (Pilooski edit)
Another big favorite for us – we dig a lot of what Pilooski has been doing, and this one has become sort of an anthem at our monthly loft parties.
Polar Pair ft Shawn Lee – Ever Happy (remix)
Polar Pair is Nadav’s collaboration with Malkiel Grossman – one of the first DJs to play electronic dance music here in Israel, and also a close friend, a mentor and a source of inspiration for us. Botanika actually came together after Malkiel’s Sofabeat club closed down early 2004. On this track they host the multi-talented Shawn Lee, not a proper dancefloor tune, but we still wanted you to hear it.
Flying Lotus – Melt!
Like many around the world we’ve been captured by Fly Lo’s sci-fi take on hip hop and beat-making, and this one here is just one of the finest and simplest grooves he’s done – drop it on a buzzin’ dancefloor and see everyone go pre-historic!
El Guincho – Kalise (Frikstailers remix)
Stepping it up a bit with this wacky acid-cumbia remix of El Guincho, this is a hot new tune for us and has gotten us all hyped up, as both of us are very fond of good dancefloor tracks on slower-than-usual tempos that mix different elements into something fresh.
Jellybass – Wobble
This one has a bit of a nu-jazz flavor, alongside a wobbling bassline straight outta the dubstep arena – another example of hybrid sounds we enjoy spicing our sets with.
Cool Kids – What It Is
One of the more up-tempo and old-school flavored tracks by the Cool Kids, which we’ve been generally into over the past year.
Al Haca ft RQM, Coppa & Fefe – Banana Split (Polar Pair remix)
Polar Pair remixing our dear friends from Al-Haca Soundsystem, the sort of futuristic bass heavy dancehall we love so much.
Rustie – Pendulum
Another young producer which has become very big over the past year and so, this was the first track of his that really caught our ears and has proved itself each time we played it out.
Sugababes – Too Lost in You (Various Production remix)
Other than endlessly searching for rare stuff we also enjoy throwing in something with a bit of a pop flavor once in a while. Various Production are usually very interesting producers, thou not all of their output is really suitable for dancing.
Onili – Games (NDV ‘ave a new game remix) (http://remix.nadavravid.com/)
Onili is a close collaborator of ours and one of the more talented singers and performers we have the pleasure to work with. She’s done a song with Polar Pair, and this is one of two remixes NDV has done for her, which appeared on the first single from her forthcoming album. She also guests on the mic in some of our club gigs, and she and Egozy do monthly DJ/MC sessions at the Shesek lounge here in Tel Aviv.
Benga – Someone 20
Def one of the more talented dubstep producers around, this almost 4X4 track appears on any of the non-vinyl versions of his Afro Warrior album, samples the famous Night Rider theme, and kicks ass. Anyway, we thought it works as a nice interval between the two “sections” of this mix.
Kranz Trio – Din Da Da Da (NDV RMX/BLND)
NDV again – here with a bootleg blend/remix he’s done with a couple of cheeky tracks from the 80′s, somewhere between broken-beat & b-more,
Lil Mama – No Music (Starkey remix)
One of Starkey’s friendlier and bumpier remixes to date, quite different from the darker dubstep he’s been putting out lately, this one has a great bump and goes great in a variety of different contexts, anywhere from hip hop to electro..
The Go! Team – Doing it Right (Yo Majesty remix)
One of the remixes to Yo Majesty’s Kryptonite Pussy was among our biggest tunes of summer ’07, but this remix for the Go! Team (always picking great remixers, btw) is totally far out, blending together so many different sounds and sounding like nothing else.
Martyn – All I Have is Memories
We wish more dubstep tracks will have in them as much innovation and musicianship as Martyn, sounding almost deep-house with those keys and the general vibe. Also worked quite good here as a bridge between the super-hectic Yo Majesty remix (so many drums going on there!) and the following…
Polar Pair ft Atlantis – This is What Happens (Mark Flash remix)
The original Polar Pair track that hosts Atlantis from Underground Resistance is more of a cut-up punk-funk affair, which Mark Flash from the UR camp has remixed into a totally classic Detroit sounding piece of music. Needless to say we’re so excited about this and eagerly waiting its proper vinyl release – more news regarding that early 2009.
Egg Foo Young – Up It
Proper club track from the so talented Egg Foo Young (aka Michna), which we’ve been following over the past few years and just recently released a great debut album on Ghoslty.
Sabbo – Babylon a Kill Dem
Sabbo is a quarter of Soulico crew – good friends of ours, which focus more on hip hop and dancehall but also share our general open-mind approach to music and DJing. Here’s a small sample of the tracks Sabbo has been doing over the past year and so – all very bass heavy dancefloor material, which hopefully will also be released early 2009.
Stush – Dollar Sign
This one has been around for a few years now, but thanks to the Heatwave crew and Soul Jazz records it got a good vinyl pressing earlier this year as part of their “An England Story” compilation – which is a treat all over. Anyway, Lady Stush is totally irresisteble, and Egozy has been dropping this track endlessly all year long.
Sunship ft Warrior Queen – Quits (Kalbata remix)
Our homie Kalbata did a remix to what was supposed to be the immediate follow-up to Sunship’s biggest smash over the past years, “Almighty Father”, but as Casual records sort of disappeared the whole release got lost in between until Sunship released the original just last week. Be on the lookout as this version should hit the blogsphere sometime soon.
Tawiah – Every Step (Zed Bias dub-rub)
Sooo much soul in a dubstep-ish track is quite untypical for that genre at the moment, and this remix by Mr Zed Bias is totally fabulous and has been sort of an end-of-the-night torch song for us, bringing this mix to it’s end.
Jackie Mittoo – Wall Street
But then we just thought we’d sneak this marvelous Jackie Mittoo piece – one of the most important reggae musicians ever, a perfect groove&melody for those moments before the club opens or after everyone’s gone… also quite fitting with all this Wall Street/economy crisis the whole world is freakin’ out about…
Peace&out
The Botanikats”
