DANNY HOWARD SEPTEMBER COLUMN
The Radio 1 man's monthly column
SUMMERTIME NOT-SO SADNESS!!
September can always become a bit of a comedown period for people looking back at their summer activities, especially if they’ve visited Ibiza! Every single week I see people online reminiscing about the amazing summer they had on the island, and if you’re looking to extend your summer a bit — there are always the closing parties! This is perhaps my favourite time on the island because it’s always a good vibe of people there for the music, flights are generally a bit cheaper and it just feels a bit naughty being on the island so late in the year!
I’m in it for the long haul as I’ll be playing the Pure Pacha closing party on October 4th and then it would be rude not to stick around for the DC10 closing two days later...
MR SATURDAY NIGHT
Being the day of choice for most of us to really get stuck into the weekend as far as our raving plans go, it always gives me great excitement to be a part of a lot of people's pre-party via my BBC Radio 1 show. Recent figures (released by RAJAR) show that the listenership for R1 Dance Anthems has gone up this quarter (and year) to well over a million, which I was extremely pleased with, So I wanted to take the opportunity to say a massive thank you for listening, supporting and enjoying! It’s an absolute pleasure doing the show and something I’m very proud of, and it’s all for the love of dance music — so let’s keep it going. Play it loud
LIKE A RABBIT OUT THE HAT...
It’s not often that I single out individual tracks to shout about because there’s so much good music out there right now. In this case though, ‘Sunlight’ is on another level... I have so much love for this tune that I think it’s a late contender for track of the summer. It comes from Belgian producer The Magician, who unleashes this on us from nowhere! Familiar from his work with Aeroplane and recent solo remixes of Clean Bandit, Chris Malinchak and ZHU, this time he really has been working that magic wand of his in the studio. It’s big!
POWER TO THE MUSIC!!
With dance music booming right now, there are so many tunes available that the scene seems to move at a lightning-quick pace. Some tracks stick and become huge anthems; most, however, are released and forgotten about within weeks. That, unfortunately, is the sad reality of the business today but on a positive note, it keeps it fresh and competitive!
With little money to be made on the music, a lot of producers are recognising this and giving us exactly what we want — but for free! UK producer Kryder started his own new free label Sosumi this year that has released quality big room house including the colossal ‘Big Momma’s House’, a collaboration between him and Tom Staar.
The latest artist to follow suit is Mat Zo. Look out for new music from the drum & bass-turned-house producer on his new Mad Zoo imprint. I’m a huge fan of Mat Zo, so it will be a real treat to enjoy his tunes for free!
