Ever since Ultra released the internationally renowned deep house classic, “It’s Over Now” with the esteemed Basement Boys in 1989, Naté has been a perennial force in dance music. Considering the ephemeral nature of dance/electronica music (e.g. Hot today, gone tomorrow), Naté’s endurance attests to her musical acumen. She attributes solid songwriting and being a true artist, as opposed to an anonymous voice, to her longevity. “I’m a songwriter. I’ve written about 95 percent of my material,” Naté explains. “In that music, there’s a very specific personality that comes across, which really transcends the dance-floor moment and becomes a part of people’s lives.”

Rocking the decks for over five years at Deep Sugar (at the Paradox every 2nd Saturday) Ultra has secured gigs in Australia, Montreal, Brazil, the UK (at Ministry Of Sound, no less) and France, where she drops a regular radio mix on the respected dance station, Radio FG.

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I was going to save this for tomorrow’s Tuesday Tunes posting but it’s too good to wait. Check out this super laid back set of funky/deep house tunes courtesy of Milton Jackson.

You’ve gotta love this one of a kind mix. In case you didnt already know:

Milton Jackson (aka Barry Christie) Released his first EP aged 19 on Solemusic’s Tronicsole imprint. Known for his dark, almost techno influenced deep house music. Milton Jackson tends to fuse straight driving beats with eclectic, techy production styles. His first and so far only long player, ‘The Bionic Boy’ was received well by critics and the house fraternity and it spawned the Pepe Bradock influenced ‘Sunlight’.

After having mainly appeared on Glasgow labels such as Solemusic and Glasgow Underground, 2006 sees Milton spread his wings with EPs due out on Freerange, Silver Network, Urbantorque and Luke Sardello’s Icon Recordings. He has also recorded under a variety of pseudonyms, even venturing into the down-tempo domain as Napoleon Solo. His Bear Trax imprint released Mylo’s first vinyl release when the pair recorded as ‘The Pretty Boys’.

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With all of the remix contests popping up all over the internet (some legit, some not-so-legit), its refreshing to see a contest that seems to be opening up the competition for all the right reasons.

Here’s what Mark Knight had to say:

“There seems to be an over saturation of remix competitions at the moment, but these aren’t really proving a spring board for people careers. With myself as a producer and Toolroom as a leading label, we felt we had the vehicle to offer up something innovative and put something back into the development of up and coming artists. The ethos of Toolroom has been one of finding and nurturing new talent – ala Funkagenda and Dave Spoon. We’re looking for the stars of the future right now, so this co-production competition makes perfect sense. With the 8 bar loop I’ve provided, I’ve laid down the backbone of the track with enough scope for interpretation. What I’m looking for is clever use of the parts, creative sound design with any new parts included and a good arrangement. Over to you guys…”

The catch is that you have to buy the remix pack (its only a couple of bucks at least)

Beatport: Get the key parts HERE
Toolroom: Get the midi partsHERE

“Future Music Magazine,Mark Knight and Toolroom Records have teamed up with Beatport and Sonic Academy to launch a fresh and exciting ‘co-production’ competition – the first of its kind. The idea of the competition is to give up and coming producers the chance to work with one of the industry’s leading artists, launch their music career with the world’s premier dance label and be financially rewarded for their work, receiving 50% of publishing and an equal share of artist sales royalties. Not a bad deal at all.”
If you want to enter, get to the studio because you’ve got to upload your gem to Beatport’s SoundCloud by the 15th of July.

The full details of the competition are here: http://www.djmarkknight.com/

Hailing from the Netherlands, Hardsoul consists of brothers Rogier (DJ Roog) and Greg van Bueren.

Founded in 1997, Hardsoul began releasing music on Soulfuric Recordings, a label owned by Marc Pomeroy and Brian Tappert. This led to another release on Soulfuric, “Sweatshop”, in 2003, before graduating to Defected Records’ sublabel ITH Records, where they released Back Together, a vocal anthem sung by Ron Carroll, in 2003. It received airplay on mainstream radios and topped at #60 in the UK Singles Charts.

They have also remixed tracks for Black & White Brothers, Todd Terry, Blaze, King Britt and Africanism.

In 2004 Roog and Greg launched their own label, Hardsoul Pressings, under the Soulfuric umbrella. In 2006 Roog and Greg launched their second label, R&G Electronics, which is meant to be a platform for the less well known cutting edge in house music.

David Akermanis is an up and coming producer/DJ, belonging to the new breed of talented producers making his hometown of Toronto, a centre of excellence in house music.

He’s already shown he has top productions by garnering support from Matt Darey, Enesto vs. Bastian, Solarstone, Tom Colontonio, Airbase, Gabriel Lukosz of Basic Perspective, Kenneth Thomas, Andy Moor & many more. His unique progressive sound stands out amungst the crowd and David is quickly carving out his own niche in the world of house music.

His signature combination smooth, sexy melodies and driving bass elements is instantly recognizable, making David one of the hottest breakthrough talents in dance music today.

Tracklist:
01. Lady GaGa – Alejandro (Afrojack Remix)
02. Squeeeze – Doop (Manuel De La Mare Remix)
03. Sebastien Drums & Avicii – My Feelings For You (Original Mix)
04. Martin Solveig – C’est La Vie (Fedde vs. Martin Club Mix)
05. Eddie Thoneick – Nothing Better feat. Shena (Original Mix)
06. James Talk & Ridney – What You Need (Vocal Mix)
07. Morgan Page – Fight For You (Sultan & Ned Shephard Remix)
08. Dave Aude – Make it Last feat. Jessica Sutta (Original Club Mix)
09. Cicada – Fever (D.O.N.S. Remix)
10. DJ She vs. Vlad Topalov – Satisfied (Swanky Tunes Remix)
11. Shawn Mitiska – Silently feat. Jaren (Matt Cerf Remix)

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Mathieu James is a local DJ that has been pumping out some great house music in Toronto. With a releases out on Pawn Shop Records called “Sneakin’ Around” and several more on the way, Mathieu James takes on the vital radio guest mix to show off his powerful brand of electronic music.

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Tracklist:
1. Bob Sinclar – New New New (Avicii Remix)
2. Dennis Ferrer – Hey Hey (Dim Chris Remix)
3. Prok & Fitch – Walk With Me (Daddy’s Groove Remix)
4. Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition (Axwell & Dirty South Remix)
5. Laidback Luke & Gregor Salto – Shine your light (Siege Remix)
6. Laidbackluke & Gregor Salto – Step by step (Abel Ramos from Haarlem with love mix)
7. Miike Snow – Silvia (Sebastian Ingrosso & Dirty South Remix)
8. Big World – Quadrillion (Moguai Remix)
9. Marco V & Sander Van Doorn – What Say (Hardwell Remix)
10. Steve Angello – Monday with Axwell & Dirty South – Open your heart (acapella)

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Love, love, love, LOVE this tune.

This week we’re bringing back one of our favorite intelligent housey duos: the very talented Latenta Project.

Miki (Inox) Stefanoski and Dimce (Dido) Filiposki met 7 years ago, over a chat service talking about the music they both love. Now living in the same city a short distance from each other, many nights are spent in their home studio sharing ideas, creating tracks and mixes to be shared with anyone willing to listen.

Latenta Project tracks have been played and supported by Laurent Garnier, Luke Fair, Desyn Masiello, Demi, Ricky Ryan, 16Bit Lolitas, Leigh Morgan, Nacho Marco, Spiritchaser, Eelke Klein, Satoshi Fumi, Ross Couch, James Talk, Kosmas Epsilon, Manuel Tur, Dana Bergquist, Harry Peat, Steve Mill, Spin Science, Sebastian Davidson, Scope, Add2Basket, Tom Morgan, Mike Haddad just to name a few…

What was a dream of producing proper house music is now a reality. Their first track ‘Good Morning’ woke everyone up including Ricky Ryan who used it for his mixed compilation on Proton Radio two years ago. Since then their tracks have been signed to numerous labels including Plastic City, Proton Music, Sick Watona, Ready Mix, Deepology, Witty Tunes, Outside The Box Music, Cabrio Records, Body Rhythm Black etc.

Playing all over the Balkans from and even Dubai they are proving that a true passion can take you places. They both understand what it takes to move a crowd whether they are warming up for someone like Luke Fair or head-lining a full night set. “Its easy to select 20 peak-time bombs and play a 2 hour set but in a 5 or 6 hour set you really need to program the timing. Time and time again they have proved that their passion keeps the crowd not only attracted to the sounds bellowing out of the speakers but glued to the dance floor!

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Back in the day, playing out your own edits was strictly for the DJ elite, who had the reel-to-reel know-how (and the cuts on their fingers to prove it). But between the spread of affordable DAWs and the rise of digital DJing, it’s easier than ever to create your own custom versions to play out.

But getting your exclusive refix to sound decent on a big system is harder than it might seem. DJ TechTools comes to the rescue with ‘Pump Up the Jam: A DJ’s Guide to Mastering’. They enlist the heavyweight mixing/engineering expert John Cuniberti to spell out the basics of mastering, and UK house DJ/producers Sonny Wharton and Digital Impression chime in with their own tips for eager beavers who want to sink their teeth into the dark art of mastering for club play.

Check out the entire thing over at DJTechTools.

For those of you attending the Dada Life event this Friday at The Social for NXNE 2010 will be happy to hear that you can get a second serving of Dada Life goodness on Vital Radio this weekend! Tune in this Saturday, Sunday and next Wednesday (exact show times to the left) as Dada Life take over the Vital Radio guest mix!

They don’t care about genres. They don’t care about smartness. They don’t care about the things you care about. Dada Life just want to make you jump up and down. Then make you crash into a wall with a smile on your face.

The formula has been a winner since the start. In summer 2006 Dada Life released ”Big Time” on Mylo’s label Breastfed and DJs all over got their first take on the duo. Since then there has been a steady stream of records: ”The Great Fashionista Swindle”, ”Vote Yes” and “Fun Fun Fun”. Played by DJs such as Crookers, Tiësto, Eric Prydz and David Guetta – and featured on tons of compilations. Dada Life have also remixed artists such as Laidback Luke, Maskinen, Alex Gopher and John Acquaviva.

Now get ready for the next step. The first single – “Happy Hands & Happy Feet” – from their upcoming album has just been released. The album is called “Just do the Dada” and will drop soon.

As DJs Dada Life always have a little extra in their record bag. They constantly produce their own remixes/edits (“Guerilla Farts”!!!) of good tunes in order to have something unique to play. (And when they get bored with the tunes, the mp3s end up somewhere on the net…)

Dada Life – Happy Hands & Happy Feet (Official Video):

Dada Life – Let’s Get Bleeped Tonight (Official Video):