I NEED SUGAR

So, yeah, we had our launch party on Saturday night. It was a mixed bag of chaos. The good part was it was an eclectic venue that could probably handle more loud and about double the people; there were tasty popsicles; great people; and the shirts kicked my ass.

The rough part was not having a chance to chat to too many of the awesome friends who came out (I didn't even say hi to Nicole or Anita, and that's pretty much all anyone else got out of me) and massive insane technical difficulties which derailed my spinning intentions: while I wanted to get much filthier with the tunes, I couldn't access my main hard drive for the last 3/4 of the night. No playlists meant mad scrambling. It wasn't too bad, but it meant I was completely occupied trying not to have dead air or trainwrecking all over the place. Anyway, I'll make sure that doesn't happen again.

In the meantime Abdul Smooth and I have been working on getting some pics up, with mixes to follow. Here's the Jeremy Wright popsicle porn. And here's a set of pics from the evening.

So, what did you think? How was the patio friendly venue? Do we need more people? I think we need less cover charge and crazier music. Agreed? Let us know your thoughts. We'll be doing it again, and it's going to be even better!

Since 2007 I've been putting together playlists of freakishly awful music for Hallowe'en. Sometimes little miracles happen and you get a playlist that's too much fun to ignore. There's usually a combination of minimal, metal, trip hop, industrial, drum'n'bass and anything else I've been able to collect that's good and dark dark.

One of the first things I did when I got my new mixer and was prepping for the I Need Sugar Launch Party, was to pull out the 2008 Halloween mix and get a little dirty with the minimal tracks in the playlist. I made a short promo mix of about 40 minutes which wasn't too bad, but now I've got a mix of the rest of those 2008 tracks with such a tremendously large amount of screaming in it, it needs to be shared out straightaway. Enjoy!

Download the 08 Halloween mix.

And here's the tracklisting as near as I can remember:

Mathias Schaffhäuser / Michael Giacchino / Radio Slave - Graupause / Hunting Ghosts (Boone Edit) / Screamapella

Pantha du Prince - Walden 2

[a]pendics.shuffle & Mikael Stavöstrand - Take Me Higher featuring Erika Alexandersson

Ellen Allien - Go (Marcel Dettmann Remix)

Shackleton - Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Mix)

Jonny Greenwood - Henry Plainview

Bot'Ox - Tragedy Symphony

The Kittens - Intro

Aphex Twin - Icct Hedral (Philip Glass Orchestration)

György Ligeti - Lux Aeterna

Salvatore Freda & Massimo Stefanelli - Endless Ride

Sasha - Who Killed Sparky (Radio Slave's Panorama Garage Mix)

Supermayer - Two Of Us (Extended Album Version)

UNKLE - Burn My Shadow (UNKLE Surrender Sound Session #5)

The Cheapers - Fog

M.I.A. - Can't Find You

False - Fed On Youth

Jonas Kopp - Androgeno

Oliver Huntemann - Sao Paulo

James Holden / The Kittens - Corduroy / Outro

And, of course, you can hear both Halloween mixes on People Downtown Radio, with more on the way.

Beeps and boops, one square at a time from André Michelle.

Here are my tone matrices, which you'll have to reclick to hear:

Underworld will be at the Kool Haus this coming Aug 11. I've seen them there twice before. Really, the only times they've been here as the dance outfit. (They previously opened for the Eurythmics back when they were sporting a more traditional band setup).

If you haven't seen them live, even better than the mad dancing and live video work, they have a tendency to jam out tracks and play with their standard tracks (not the impression you'd get from the Everything, Everything DVD, which pretty much only included hits).

Here are a couple of live tracks which were originally released to members of Underworld Live as live videos. If you haven't seen the daily blogging, shop, and other treats at Underworld Live, you should go there now.

My favourite version of Dinosaur Adventure 3D, live from Electraglide, Tokyo, Japan 03.11.28 (Download AAC)

A nice mix of Born Slippy.NUXX and Born Slippy.NUXX 2003, live from The Akademic, Sophia, Bulgaria 2005.07.06 (Download AAC)

And here's the last.fm event page for the Underworld show.

Photo also from Underworld Live.

Fever Ray will be here Oct 2 at the Kool Haus. This is an all ages event for $34. Tickets available from Rotate This and other fine outlets that are not Ticketmaster.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I've seen some videos of The Knife playing live which show a rather lavish production, and would expect somewhat they same, though Fever Ray are clearly more downtempo than The Knife.

If you haven't heard what is thus far the best album of 2009, here's the video for the opening track:

Here's the Facebook event page, if you swing that way. And last.fm's event page.

We'll be throwing down some beats in a couple weeks on Saturday June 13th when we launch what will hopefully become a monthly residency in Toronto.

You'll hear a wild selection of beats being mixed up by Abdul Smooth and I Need Sugar blogger Lee Dale (also known via Say Yeah).

Got a track you'd like to hear? Upload your selections here and rate other people's tracks. We'll include the top vibes on People Downtown radio and of course we'll spin the best vibes live.

We'll post more info as it comes, suffice it now to say that this gig is gonna be superfresh!  Free popsicles all night long to welcome the summer vibes, plus a free drink if you pre-purchase a ticket online for just $10.

Click here to buy tickets online: http://peopledowntown.eventbrite.com

Here's the full low-down:

People Downtown presents the launch party for I Need Sugar

Saturday June 13th, 2009 from 9PM - 2AM

@ the Central - 603 Markham St in Toronto, Canada (just south of Bloor st, steps away from the Bathurst subway station)

$10 entrance; (*pre-sale/online tickets include a free drink)

with DJs:

Abdul Smooth (http://www.abdulsmooth.com) + Lee Dale (http://www.ineedsugar.com)

And you can show your love on Facebook on the event page.

Update Jun 4:

We got tees!

But until then: