27/01/12
Aww yeahhh, the big man is back. Not Ian Paisley, he’s barred after that time he drank too many jager bombs, tried to feel up one of the glass collectors, and then was sick all over his own tie and shirt. Not a pretty sight. No, I’m talking about the other big man – Andy Campbell. The last time he DJ’d at GIGANTIC there were reports of women throwing their underwear at him, and men trying to become his best mate. It was weird. The music *was* awesome though, just check out his previous set list a few blog posts back.
Anyway, we’re super stoked that he is taking up the helm at GIGANTIC again, so we asked him to pick out a few songs that are tickling his fandangle at the moment. You can always rely on Randy to pick out a few beauties, and this time is no exception. His choices are posted up below. If you’re in Belfast tonight you should totally go along and see enjoy his set. He has reliably informed us that if you go up to him and whisper the keyword ‘Galavant’ in his ear, he’ll give you a kiss on the cheek. Guaranteed.
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Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence (RAC Remix) (right click to download)
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Chris Malinchak – Deal ‘Em (right click to download)
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Essay feat. Rhian Sheehan – Mountain Mountain (right click to download)
Enjoy the tunes, and if you want guest list for the club hit us up on our Facebook or Twitter accounts. Booya!
26/01/12
Woah, in terms of Gigantic puns, that one has got to be up there with the best of them, although it only works if you pronounce Gotye incorrectly, and with a Northern Irish Accent. Apparently it’s actually pronounced in a similar way to Gaultier.
Anyway, name nonsense aside, this blog post is dedicated to Gotye. The first person to recommend him to me was Mike Mormecha from the band Mojo Fury. Then, not too long after that, Suzie McCracken recommended I check him out as well. I figured it was about time to pay attention. So, the story is, Gotye is an Australian artist who is MASSIVE down under, and who is now set for big things in the rest of the world too. His album Making Mirrors is due for release in the UK soon, but I’ve been able to listen to an advance copy.
The record is brilliant, really diverse and eclectic. I strongly advise picking up a copy when it’s released in the UK. You may well have heard ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ already as it’s really blowing up right now. In case it as passed you by, here it is again.
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Gotye – Somebody That I Used To Know (right click to download)
And here is another choice cut from the album. ‘I Feel Better’ is one of the most uplifting tracks, and it really reminds me of a cross between Jamie Lidell and Gnarls Barkley.
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Gotye – I Feel Better (right click to download)
Top top it all off, today is Australia Day as well. Perfect!
25/01/12
Eesh, I’m having a serious cringe at that blog title, but hey, it’s late at night and my brain is grinding. Tonight is Burns Night, when people all over the world celebrate the life and poetry of late, poet Robert Burns. I’ve used it as an excuse to post up some songs from some great Scottish musicians and artists.
I put a posts out through the Gigantic Facebook and Twitter accounts to get people to suggest their favourite artists. The response has been amazing, and when you start to list all the great Scottish acts it’s pretty mind-blowing. For a country of its size the amount of talent they have produced is astounding. From monster draws like Biffy Clyro and Franz Ferdinand, to indie heroes Arab Strap and Belle & Sebastian, and electronic pioneers such as Boards Of Canada and Hudson Mohawke. To top it all off most of AC/DC were born in Glasgow. Mentalism.
You could easily do a years worth of posts about Scottish music, and there are probably entire blogs dedicated to Scottish music, but I’m only going to pick out three tunes.
The first track is one that no one suggested, but that I felt was a good place to start. The band are Big Country, and this is their biggest hit ‘In A Big Country’. Weirdly, Scotland isn’t a big country, but this is a great pop song. I think the fantastic Dogs Die In Hot Cars owe a big debt to these guys.
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Big Country – In A Big Country (right click to download)
It turns out I’ve decided to post up these songs in chronological order, as next up is Teenage Fanclub. I’ve been looking for an excuse to post up ‘What You Do To Me’ for ages, and this is the perfect time. I still love Bandwagonesque, probably because it reminds me so much of my childhood. Teenage Fanclub played at the first gig I ever went to, sandwiched between The Breeders and Nirvana. Will I ever get tired of telling people about my first gig? I don’t think so. Anyway, I wish everyone in the world knew this song, so that I could play it at my DJ sets and sing in peoples faces. Alas, it mainly resides in the hearts of the indie few.
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Teenage Fanclub – What You Do To Me (right click to download)
Continuing in chronological order, the last song is from the underrated Sons & Daughters. They’ve dropped off the radar in the last few years, and their third album more or less passed me by completely, but in the early days they were awesome. It looked like they were going to break through with their second album, but it never quite happened for them. I was going to post ‘Dance Me In’, as it’s their anthem, but I decided to go for something different and picked ‘Darling’ instead.
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Sons & Daughters – Darling (right click to download)
Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions, I now have a big list of new music to get stuck into.
23/01/12
OK, while there are still a few hours left in Monday I thought it would be a good time to fire up a few new tunes that I’ve been digging for the past few days.
The first track is by an artist I know more or less nothing about, and I’m feeling a bit too tired/lazy to do any research. Tell you what, if you like the tune too (and I’m pretty sure you will) then could you do some fact finding for me and give me a brief synopsis of their career to date? You’re the best. The artist is Blackbird Blackbird, the track is ‘New Leaf’, and I think it’s class.
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Blackbird Blackbird – New Leaf (right click to download)
Following that, we have a new song from Santigold. She’ll be dropping a new album soon, which is about time really because her debut was out flipping aaaaaagessss ago. What has she been at, like? Pft. I don’t think it’s *quite* as good as ‘Go’, but then Karen O was on that track, so it immediately sends the brilliant that notch higher. ‘Big Mouth’ is still well decent, and bodes well for the new record.
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Santigold – Big Mouth (right click to download)
This last song isn’t actually that new. I know some people would still consider a song that has only been out since September last year as ‘new’, but all the blog snobs will be like ‘Nah man, it’s like two weeks or less, after that it’s OLD NEWS MUTHAFLIPPA’. Well, it’s new to me, and that’s good enough I reckon. Perhaps it will be new to you too. Oh yeah, it’s Neon Indian ‘Polish Girl’, and it has a noise that remind of either Sonic or Mario, but regardless of the game it increases the win factor by 38%.
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Neon Indian – Polish Girl (right click to download)
Well, that’s the lot, hope you found something you liked in amongst that.
21/01/12
Holy epic flip balls, what a great night. I had a feeling that it was going to be another Big Friday, but I didn’t think it would be THAT big. The club was jumping from dead early, and everyone was well in party form. A large part of this might have been down to Local Celebrity Cat Anderson bringing her birthday party to GIGANTIC. They were all dressed up with a Movie theme, and Cat came as David Bowie in Labyrinth. It was one of the best/creepiest costumes I have set eyes upon. Top marks.
DJing was an absolute blast. Truth be known, I did cater a big chunk of my set to Cat’s music taste, but hey, you can’t beat a bit of Phoenix, Chromeo, Prince, Hot Chip, Roisin Murphy and whatnot! There were some other really good requests too. Claire Ward asked for Family Of The Year, which was a first for me. I played ‘St Croix’, which has the amazing line ‘You bring the ocean, I’ll bring the motion, together we’ll make a love potion’. Lauren McCune asked for a bit of Beyonce, and I played Destiny’s Child ‘Bootylicious’, as the last song no less. That was great.
The most mental request of the night definitely goes out to John D’Arcy for Feargal Sharkey’s ‘A Good Heart’. I don’t know what’s more mental, the fact that he asked for it, or the fact that I played it. I had no idea what the song would go down like, and it did split the crowd a bit. Joe Dougan actually abused me for playing it, and he typed the word ‘CUNT’ on his phone and held it up to the DJ box. Loads of other people seemed to get really into it, and sang their hearts out at each other. Crazy.
Here are the three tune highlights of the night for me.
First up is DJ Shadow feat Little Dragon ‘Scale It Back’. I love this song, and it fits really well at the start of the night. It got Dillon to pull a few moves on the dance floor, which is always good. He actually recognised the vocal as Little Dragon, even though he hadn’t heard the song before, so I figured it would be good to post it up for him.
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DJ Shadow feat. Little Dragon – Scale It Back (right click to download)
The next song is a tune that was first recommended to me by Simon Elliot. It’s Eddie Murphy ‘Party All The Time’. Andy Campbell requested it on behalf of a friend last night and I thought, what the hell, I’ve never played it before, let’s see what happens. And you know what happened? It went off! I reckon this could be a new anthem for me. ‘Party all the time, party all the time, party all the time…’
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Eddie Murphy – Party All The Time (right click to download)
I actually found out about this last track through Jack Hamill, AKA Space Dimension Controller. He ended up at the club last night as well, so I as soon I spotted him I dropped it. It’s a 70s Disco Remix of David Guetta ‘Sexy Bitch’ and it is properly good. This is definitely going to be a staple of my sets for the next while.
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Davdi Guetta – Sexy Bitch (70s Disco Remix) (right click to download)
Big big love to Gillian, Grace, Hollie, Dermot, Dillon, Helene, Sarah, Daisy, Cat, Stu, Mike, Jenna, Andy, John, Garth, Ryan, Lauren, Rachel, Aaron, Niall, Beth, Paul, Nik, Kev, Dan, Joe, Dom, Phily, Aine, Cara, Lauren, Leanne, TIm, Claire, Becca, Tristan, Chrissie and everyone else who came down and danced but I don’t know the name of. Party all the time…
18/01/12
Stumbled across a new band earlier, and there are a few things I like about them. The first is that they are named after the Clone Quartet anthem ‘Carousel’*. The second is that they remind me of a ton of bands I like – Kowalski, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Miike Snow, Two Door Cinema Club, The Whitest Boy Alive, that sort of thing. The third is that they are giving away their lovely Allston EP completely for free via their website. Truth be known they’re not *quite* as good as that list of bands I mentioned but they do peddle a fine line in indie synth pop, which I love. In fact, their sound is exactly the kind of aural pleasure that my ears enjoy. It’s promising stuff indeed.
Here is ‘Get Up’ the track that is doing the rounds on the blogs right now. Pretty damn tasty.
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Carousel – Get Up (right click to download)
The other track on the EP that I’ve been digging is ‘Here Now’. Think I might prefer it to be honest.
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Carousel – Here Now (right click to download)
You can download the full EP from their site via the 26 Allston tab. Go check it out here.
* I made this part up, but it would be awesome if it was true.
17/01/12
Are you all over The 2 Bears yet? If not, you should be. The 2 Bears are Joe Goddard and Raf Daddy. You might know Joe better as one fifth of Hot Chip. Joe makes the beats, and Raf delivers the vocals.
There are two really good pieces of news about the act that have came to light in the past week or so. The first is that their debut album Be Strong is going to be out on January 30th. I’m really looking forward to it, and I have little doubt that it’s gonna be a surefire stonker. The second piece of good news is that they’re playing Dublin at the Button Factory on Friday February 17th. This doesn’t matter as much to us as it’s a Friday night, but if you live in Dublin or are there that night then we strongly recommend you hit it up. It’s a double-headline show that also features Benoit & Sergio. Extra win.
Here are the two biggest 2 Bears tunes of the moment for you to enjoy.
First up is ‘Bear Hug’, which has been out for a good while but I’ve only started dropping it lately. Such a tune.
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The 2 Bears – Bear Hug (right click to download)
Next is current single ‘Work’, which has been getting caned a fair bit on the radio lately. I’ve also added in an Oliver $ remix for good measure.
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The 2 Bears – Work (right click to download)
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The 2 Bears – Work (Oliver $ Remix) (right click to download)
17/01/12
We hadn’t put up a Gigantic photo gallery on the Facebook page in a bit, so I decided to pull together a load of images from the past wee while and put them all together into one bumper gallery. There are a couple of choice images in there, but this one has proved to be the most popular. Can’t imagine why, look at the hack of them!
You can see the full gallery over here.
15/01/12
Apparently Friday 13th is an unlucky day. I was born on the 13th, and turned 13 on Friday 13th, and that day I won £13 on 13 10p scratch cards, so I actually think it’s a pretty lucky day. Friday January 13th 2012 at Gigantic also turned out to be a lucky one. First off, there was a bus load of about 100+ people up from Dublin for some private dinner/party thing before the club started. This meant the room was pretty full for when the club kicked off, and they were already well on their way to drunken party town. Next, there was a humungous guest list, with loads of friendly faces on it and a great crew of nice peeps out to party. Finally, DJ Dom Brogan called by for an impromptu visit, and we ended up DJing back-to-back for the last two hours or so.
The place was completely heaving, and I figured it would be a good idea to get drunk and leave the car. Cue lots of vodka and even more dancing. It was belter, think I danced as much behind the decks as I would have out on the dance floor. There were loads of good requests made, and we managed to play a bit of everything. Dom kicked off with At The Drive-In ‘One Armed Scissor’, which we didn’t think was going down very well so we cut it short. As soon as we did, Emma-Rose McGrady stormed up to the front of the DJ box to give off about cutting it, then Jess Whitall came up and started giving us a hard time too. Then Greg McGeady came up later on and mentioned about it being cut short too. Whoops on that front I guess! You know what went down amazingly well too? Sum 41 ‘Fat Lip’. Loads of people were singing along like mentalists, including The Wonder Villains. For a minute it did feel like we had turned into The Limelight, but then we dropped some mental beats and the balance was restored.
One of the standout tune highlights of the night for me was definitely Prince ‘Controversy’. It was requested by Aaron Brown, and with Prince there is always a temptation to play ‘Kiss’ or ‘Raspberry Beret’ as they’re the big hits, but in all seriousness I prefer controversy. It just has such a groove.
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Prince – Controversy (right click to download)
Another big track was The Isley Brothers ‘Shout’. It was Dom’s pick, and he asked me if I knew what it was. I didn’t think I knew it, then when he dropped it I was like ‘Oh! That tune!’ It’s an absolute monster, and people went bananas to it. Inspired choice.
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The Isley Brothers – Shout (right click to download)
And the last song I’m going to post up is Hall & Oates ‘I Can’t Go For That’. This version is the pseudonym edit, which is actually another track which came via Dom. There were a few guys who had been asking for Hall & Oates all night, and I forgot to play it. We had actually stopped the music and were planning on finishing up when I heard them in the crowd chanting ‘Hall & Oates! Hall & Oates!’. I couldn’t resist it, and quickly stuck on this tune. It was a cracking way to end, even if I did have to cut it short as the managers were going to kill me for running late. Managed to get a bit of a dance in to it though. A brilliant ending to a super night.
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Hall & Oates – I Can’t Go For That (Pseudonym edit) (right click to download)
Big big love to Simon, Sarah, Claire, Sib, John, Eimear, Paul, Dee, Emro, Cassy, Chris, Cheylene, Dave, Aaron,Dermot, Daisy, Ryan, Victoria, Jess, Tommy, Greg, Jessica, Stu, Victoria, and everyone else who dance but that I have forgotten.
13/01/12
Kapow! It’s Friday Bangers time. This weeks selection of tunes comes courtesy of AU Magazine Editor Chris Jones, in a roundabout sort of way. We were listening to the Imprintthisonyourmind ‘Best Of 2011′ podcast in the AU office, which featured Paul McCarthy and Chris as special guests, selecting some of their favourite tracks of the year. We didn’t really want to listen to the podcast, but Chris forced the office to put it on because, as he said, “my voice is silken like chocolate, just sit back and enjoy it”. Turned out to be a good move – the tunes were great and the tones were indeed dulcet.
A few tracks really stood out for me, so I thought it would be a good idea to blog them today. Chris also added in a third track, because I like it when things come in threes.
The first choice is Chrissy Murderbot feat. Warrior Queen ‘Under Dress’. Straight up banger.
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Chrissy Murderbot feat. Warrior Queen – Under Dress (right click to download)
Next up is Blawan ‘Getting Me Down’. I love the weird rhythm that threads the vocal lines together.
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Blawan – Getting Me Down (right click to download)
And lastly we have Julio Bashmore ‘Battle For Middle You’. I think it was meant to be Battle For Middle Earth myself.
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Julio Bashmore – Battle For Middle You (right click to download)
Thanks to Chris for the picks. Follow him on Twitter here, he loves it and is a proper celebrity on that thing.
Yo! Welcome to the GIGANTIC blog. The primary purpose of this place is to promote music that we’re into, and that we’d like other people to hear too. We want to try and help break new bands and tracks, and also like to dig up old classics that we think need more exposure. Essentially, we want to help makes tunes Gigantic. Of course, we do enjoy throwing out the big pop and electro bangers as well, we’re not music snobs.
