Wie schön das ist

It's 19.00 and I'm ready for bed. My eyes are droopy and the skin below them is a dark shade of purplish blue... I am recovering from a fantastic weekend. Friends of mine got married on Saturday, but the celebrations lasted the whole weekend! It was a special day for a number of reasons. Of course it was special to see my friends getting married, but there were a lot of details that made this wedding an extraordinary one: the fantastic setting of Cardiff Castle, the cake and the stunning wedding dress (both made by the bride herself!), the Dusty Springfieldesque hairdo’s of the bridesmaids, the beer (smuggled across the German border by two of their friends) and last but not least the ORIGAMI FLOWER ARRANGMENTS (also made by the bride herself!!).


For the party they’d booked the EXCELLENT Klezmer Kollective, an 8-piece outfit from Cardiff. Their music led to wild and ecstatic dancing by all guests (as you can vaguely see on the picture above)! As there weren’t any DJ-facilities the couple had asked me to put together some compilation cd’s for the evening and night. Because the now-husband is German and the now-wife is Welsh I dug up songs by German and Welsh artists and some odd covers in either German or Welsh, some of which I’ll share with you here. I especially love Motown ‘auf Deutsch’, they sing with the cutest accent. Sehr süß!

Marvin Gaye - Wie Schön Das Ist. Get it here (YSI).

The Beatles – Sie Liebt Dich. Get it here (YSI).

Marty Roos - Blauer Montag. Get it here (YSI.

Tom Jones – Ring Of Fire. Get it here (YSI).

Alex Warren and Terema Wainwright - Newport Ymerodraeth State Of Mind. Get it here (YSI).

Throw that Curve Ball in my direction!

December last year, I got a phone call of a certain drummer of a certain band. I had no clue who they were, but I thought the bandname was pretty cool. Which is like meeting someone with nice shoes.. a good first impression. And so I agreed to meet with them to talk about art for an album cover. A few Mb (make that Gb) later here it is: The cover for Baby, It's A face by Bombay Show Pig. All shiny and nicely printed by the polish people. Oh how good it feels to hold this in my hands!
I'm not going to post a song from the EP on here, but I will give you this one: a club-worthy remix with a funky wobble. Done by FretHinge who obviously, know how to party. More distortion!

Bombay Show Pig - Curve Ball (FretHinge rmx) get it here (YSI)

Hear the sub go boom

I must confess I wasn't too impressed with Katy B when I saw her singing along with DJ Zinc, last year at the Warehouse Project in Manchester. Maybe it was too R&B, too garage-y (?) for my taste. But her debut solo single, produced by Lord of Dubstep Benga... Oof, what a banger. And what a thrill it was to play this track and hear the sub at Rotown go BOOM last Friday!


Katy B - Katy on a Mission. Get it here (YSI).

Blanche is on a roll!

So after a successful test ride through the parks and streets of Berlin we found out that Blanche’s tweeters were a little antique... 1991 wasn’t a good year for speakers and therefor we blew ‘em up! But revamped with two Excalibur cone speakers with a maximum power capability of 540 watt she's now ready to roll down the streets of Rotterdam!

This Friday, September 17th, you can find us with Blanche at Rotown, Rotterdam. We will be warming up for the band Bombay Show Pig and we will even be joining them during their performance. JAIKS!! Entrance is free!


The next day, September 18th, we will be DJ'ing with Blanche during the opening of minishop Bazar Bizar at de Meent, Rotterdam. The party won’t be so very mini, because we’re also celebrating the fact that Bazar Bizar won the Gouden Grasspriet award!

There is also a rumour going around that on October 9th and 10th Dutch Dolls are wheeling Blanche over to AHOY, Rotterdam to play some bassful tracks at the 100% Tuning fair while taking in a lovely blend of hairgel, Hugo Boss and exhaustion fumes. And we’ll be doing some promo for our main dude Remco and his Shop 4 Cars. This rumour is yet to be confirmed so keep checking back here for the latest news!

Yaam man!

Things started out great for Blanche, but unfortunately for the last few days it has been pouring here in Berlin. And with the rain our plans for doing all these guerrilla DJ gigs were flushed away.. So we decided to try our luck with some clubs and bars (read: places with roofs). And at Yaam we got lucky! They loved the look of Blanche as well as our Coconut Mix, so they asked us to roll by on Saturday afternoon. We're so thrilled; the place looks like a beach, they've got great cocktails and jerk chicken. So Berliners, drop by from +/- 17.00 till 19.00 at Stralauer Platz 35!!!

You're too Görli Görli

Yesterday was a very special day. Because, despite of our first Becks-and-Hefeweizen-hangover, we decided to get up 'early' and take our lovely lady Blanche for a short stroll through Görlitzer Park in Berlin. Just to see how loud she can get. We were so hung over that we forgot half the equipment (we even forgot the music!). We went back twice and we still didn't have everything... But nevertheless Blanche's first walk in the park was a delight. We made one enemy but lots of friends. The local drug dealers were a fan. They want to book us at their next "party"!


We also met a musician called Wynton Kelly Stevenson. It turns out he has a very original way of playing the harmonica. Check it out on his MySpace!! It's a nice blend of dub, blues and hip hop. "That's the shit right there!", to speak in the man's own words.


Sometimes Blanche gets stuck in the cobbled stones. As we were jerking her we ran into another awesome musician. Yarah Bravo is MC/singer/beat maker and apparently she has a weak spot for sound systems. Her voice reminds us a bit of Lisa „Left Eye“ Lopes, and she's opening up for Freeway tomorrow. Who is very scary looking, like a black version of Matisyahu, but with less hair on top. So we might go and check her out live! You can watch her in this video...



Here's our ode to yesterday. A song we didn't play because we forgot to bring it.


Sophia George - Girlie Girlie. Get it here (YSI).

Reggae for Reggaehaters

Once upon a time I was a one, a Reggaehater. Until I went on holiday to Jamaica. To keep me occupied while lying on those white beaches sipping fruit shakes I bought the book Bass Culture - When Reggae Was King by Lloyd Bradley. This fist thick book tells the story of reggae in the context of the island's sociological and political history, which is a turbulent one. I bought a Studio One box set and started listening to all the old stuff. And after seeing the dancehall queens on telly in our hotel room I was SOLD. I was no longer a Reggaehater.

So when a friend of mine declared she hated reggae with a passion I strongly felt the urge to try to convert her. Sadly she's returning to her heimat today, so as a goodbye present I made her a compilation of my favorite reggae tunes. I guess technically speaking it's not all pure reggae, there's some ska and early dancehall in there as well, but pff.. Bob Marley is not on there, but his son Damien is, along with a.o. Dawn Penn, Horace Andy, Toots & The Maytals, Yellowman, Chacka Demus & Pliers, Mr. Vegas and Tanya Stephens. These names don't ring a bell? Download the zip file and give 'm a listen. Maybe you'll see the light as well? And if you're already a Reggaelover I'm sure you will enjoy this string of hits.

Get it here (128 kb MP3s + tracklisting)(YSI).