Living (As well as DJ’ing) in city centre Manchester means that I’m pretty much up to speed with every single musical event that occurs in our rainy city. Or so I’d have you think…
Whilst chatting to Italians Do It Better label owner Mike Simonetti regarding an IDIB tour of the UK he asked if I was dropping into Bar Common (Manchester btw) to check him play some records whilst Desire and Glass Candy performed on the other side of town.
I didn’t have a clue that Mike was even in the UK, never mind booked to play in Manchester. Nothing to do with the promotion. Honest…
Anyway, I agreed to meet Mike (And the promoter) at the train station and take him on a little record shopping jaunt to one of my favourite local used record stores – Endless Music, for an afternoon of digging before the evening commenced. The visit to Endless turned into one of those days where everything you pick up is a gem, not only musically but also in value. It transpired that the owner of Endless Music (Mike) had just purchased a fresh collection from Withington and judging by what was in the boxes (And some of the ‘used’ condition of the vinyl) could have only have been an ex-DJ, primarily one who spun gay disco and Hi-NRG but that’s never a bad thing in our books.
We both purchased a high number of outstanding tracks that day, Mike finding some seriously rare punk 45′s and myself a VG+ copy of Nicky Robson’s ‘Stars’ (Which I’ve just recently sold…) so we walked away very happy indeed. Especially as the prices at Endless are so ridiculously cheap.
Upon Mike’s return home to the U.S after a hectic European and Japanese tour he emailed me to kindly pass on his thanks for taking him to Endless Music and suggested that I create a guest mix for his Viva Italians Blog, using only records that have been purchased from that one shop.
Being a huge fan of Italians Do It Better and the sheer number of times I’ve picked up great records on the back of Mike’s posts on his blog there was no way I could refuse!
Well, here it is. A mix of everything you can come to expect from one of my mixes: French spatial disco, library and soundtrack gems, b-side boogie, British synth-wave, 80′s European electronica, Brit-Funk and a touch of rock and reggae.
Enjoy the music. Track list currently unavailable so get spotting via the comments on the mix post!
