Manchester : Remixed - and we're live!

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So, it's July 1st, and we're ready to go live with our new project that you'll have been hearing about recently if you follow us on any social media platforms. Below is the official 'Manchester : Remixed' blurb, along with the list of artists (each linked to their individual websites - so you can have a listen to their great original material) involved in this project. Read on! 

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In 2011, if you put the words 'Manchester' and 'remix' together, as an artist, HeavyFeet is probably one of the first names you'll come across, be it through Google, or in conversation with a dance music enthusiast. Their bass heavy sound has been transported sonically from Manchester, across Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States via their two-man DJ sets, but also through their continuous music production and remix work, having remixed for the likes of Skepta, Roisin Murphy and DJ Zinc, working with both major record labels (EMI and Universal Records) and smaller, independent labels, across the world.

Following a conversation with a Mancunian pub landlord about the notorious indie music that Manchester was exporting during the late eighties/early nineties, coupled with dance music production and new technology (from the likes of Arthur Baker, Andy Weatherall and Paul Oakenfold), and having firmly established themselves within the dance and urban music industries over the past three years, Mike and James of HeavyFeet decided to set about clearing their schedule for a calendar month, to delve into the world of merging indie songwriting with dance music production, today, in 2011.

HeavyFeet launch 'Manchester : Remixed' on Friday 1st July. The project will see Mike and James remix eight current Manchester associated bands and songwriters over a one month period. From international touring acts, to less prominent, more underground talent, the project will focus on presenting a remixed snapshot of what the City of Manchester has to offer an international audience, musically, in 2011. All eight remixes will be showcased exclusively as part of a special remix focused BBC Introducing show on Sunday 7th August via BBC Radio Manchester. Following the show's broadcast, all eight remixes will be available to download for free via heavyfeetmusic.com, and other specially selected online music platforms and blogs. Throughout the entire thirty one day creative process, HeavyFeet will be blogging and Tweeting about the project via heavyfeetmusic.com and twitter.com/heavyfeet.

The artists officially involved in 'Manchester : Remixed' include:

The Whip - click to listen
I Am A Camera - click to listen
Dutch Uncles - click to listen
Santiago Street Machine - click to listen
Kirsty Almeida - click to listen
Airship - click to listen
Jessie Rose Trip - click to listen
Spokes - click to listen

A bonus HeavyFeet remix of Delphic's 'Doubt' is available now to download for free to celebrate the launch of this project below:

Filed under  //   Airship   BBC Introducing   BBC Manchester   Delphic   Dutch Uncles   HeavyFeet   I Am A Camera   Jessie Rose Trip   Kirsty Almeida   Remix   Santiago St. Machine   Spokes   The Whip  
Posted July 1, 2011 by HeavyFeet 
 

Stamp! Beats: Media Interest

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It's going to be hard to not make this appear like a name dropping exercise, but we wanted to mention how the media reacted to the '12x12' project over the initial few months of it going live. The music magazines (namely Mixmag, DJ, iDJ) we service the singles to were initially quite good at picking up on the releases and reviewing them and despite us not really getting much coverage in terms of column inches on STMP001 (ft. Virus Syndicate), we were rewarded with a 'Killer of the Month' feature in DJ Mag for STMP002 (ft. Jenna G), and as we moved through the release schedule we begun to see regular reviews (a few of these that we have scanned are available to see on our new 'Biog/Press' tab on the heavyfeetmusic.com homepage). As the releases picked up and we got the hang of which journalists at which magazines like what, we were able to target people a bit more specifically, which we feel certainly helped confirming reviews. Comparing this situation to being a DJ, there's nothing worse than being carpet bombed with every promo from a label. We'd much rather receive music that the label owner thinks we're going to dig and support, generally with a personal note attached stating this, than receiving every release and having to sift our way through them to find one decent track. It's a similar idea, once you know a person's tastes, be personal and don't spam them with so much music that they're overwhelmed. It'll just increase your chances of them sweeping your CDs into the nearest bin upon arrival.

Throughout the '12x'12 project we'd been keeping a pretty close eye on our radio airplay, and whilst this would often require us to scour various tracklists across multiple websites each week. We were genuinely quite surprised at the support we begun to receive however. Our radio airplay had gone up (looking at it from a year on year basis) on BBC Radio 1 (Kissy Sellout, Judge Jules, Annie Nightingale), BBC 1Xtra (DJ Target, Mistajam), BBC Asian Network (who off the back of them supporting a few singles, asked us to do them a guestmix), Galaxy (now Capital, we continue to receive their support), Kiss and BBC Manchester, who deserve a special mention as they have, to date, supported every release from the '12x12' project on their weekly BBC Introducing show. Considering we were not using a radio plugger or PR company with radio contacts, we felt pretty positive about this airplay increase.

Additionally, The BBC also recognised our increase in airplay and offered us a BBC artist page, which again, was a nice gesture to receive around the halfway point of the project. Separately the BBC also ran a piece on the progression of the project in October 2010, shortly after we'd delivered our case study of HeavyFeet/Stamp! Beats's development of the '12x12' working model at the In The City music conference in Manchester. We noted an increase in licensing opportunities also, and had interest from Sony (Australia) for tracks from STMP001 and STMP003, on two separate mix compilations. Whilst neither of the tracks made the final tracklists (this isn't uncommon, most artists compiling such compilations get the label to clear about 50 tracks so they have a decent number of tracks to pick from when programming the mix...), it was great to see that our efforts in promoting our music through all mediums available to us was reaching a worldwide audience. 

For people's interest, there will be a final round-up of all press coverage (both physical media and online) in a later blog post. 
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STMP005

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HeavyFeet ft. Kovas - We Came To Party
Stamp! Beats
Release Date: 02.08.10

'We Came To Party' was one of the first beats we constructed in the summer or autumn of 2009 when we first toyed with the idea of setting up Stamp! Beats. As we'd often discussed making beats or tracks with a commercial sound, not necessarily for commercial exploitation but more because we're both heavily influenced by what we hear on daytime radio, the basis for the track was born through that. So, with some nicely verging-on-the-side-of-cheese chords we initially set about rinsing the synths through all the hardware in the studio till they came out the other side twisted beyond all recognition, then did the same with the drums, and managed to finally concoct the first vaguely commercial track for a HeavyFeet release. 

For vocals, Kovas seemed the perfect choice for us. We'd wanted quite an obvious and familiar sounding vocalist who could deliver some wonderfully standard Americanised lines (no disrespect intended!) similar to those heard in the charts. He managed that perfectly, although we did choose to get Hannah T (of 'Just Fall' fame) to double up on the chorus at the last minute to give the whole track that extra dimension in the chorus, and lift the necessary sections.

When it came to remixing 'We Came To Party' we knew that a considerably more underground and less divisive version would be required from us. By taking some choice parts of the vocal we managed to give them an entirely different meaning and effect within the track, on what was essentially an original club tune. The club mix we released was certainly a manifestation of our growing forays into producing house music for the main room, and we managed to sort out a remix from Tom Stephan that complemented ours with a very similar playability, whilst his version took on a much darker persona. We'd received support from Tom on a few of the remixes we'd completed early in 2010 and were very chuffed indeed when he agreed to be part of the '12x12' project. For us to have an artist remix one of our tracks who made tunes we had grown up to in the clubs was rather special! The only downside in the entire release was that Tom wasn't able to deliver us the remix in time for us to send it out (he's a busy man) with the first wave of the promotional campaign, this was however, the only real hiccup we had in the entire project when it came to actually putting the music out there, which we feel is quite an achievement.
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Check out blog instalment number six next week! 

M&J

Filed under  //   12x12   BBC 1 Xtra   BBC Asian Network   BBC Manchester   BBC Radio 1   HeavyFeet   Stamp! Beats  
Posted February 1, 2011 by HeavyFeet