The Armory Podcast

This week we're pleased to welcome back to The Armory, our good buddy, DJ 8Ball, the longest active member of the Space Cowboys clan in San Francisco. For his second appearance in The Armory, 8Ball treat us to a fabulous, 2-hour drum and bass mix entitled, The Late Summer Drum and Bass Incident. Enjoy.

8Ball (aka Josh Damon) has been DJing for more than 15 years, starting with jungle then breaks at warehouse parties and on the playa. These days 8Ball plays all sorts of genres, from breaks to disco, from old school hip hop to new school funk, rock to electro, and all sorts of stuff in-between. He's one of the founding members of Space Cowboys.

He's also one of the producers for the RIPEcast, a weekly podcast of fresh DJ mixes from Space Cowboy DJs and friends.

https://www.facebook.com/8ballxjoshdamon

http://soundcloud.com/spacecowboys/sets/8ball-mixography

http://spacecowboys.org

http://twitter.com/joshdamon

http://instagram.com/joshdamon

http://tumblr.com/joshdamon

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

This week we're thrilled to welcome to The Armory, DJ Justin Johnson of San Francisco. One of the hardest working men in the business, Johnson runs four labels including Barely Legal Records. While Johnson is an accomplished DJ in his own right, he is respected by artists around the globe and has helped us line up some serious talent for the Armory Podcast, which we very much appreciate (thank you, Justin!). Now press play and get down!

Justin Johnson is a DJ and producer from the San Francisco Bay Area spinning Breaks, House, and Tech House. He also operates Cable Recordings, Barely Legal Records, Cylon Dub Receptor, and Southern Vice Recordings. With a discography of more than forty tracks, he has worked with John Selway, Johnny Dangerously, and Johan Afterglow, as well as remixes for iiO, DJ Punk-Roc, Nigel Richards, Velcro City Records, Beyond Zilla, and Quartz Lock.

As a kid, he was raised on heavy doses of Blues, Jazz, and Funk, and when the New Wave scene started he became mesmerized by the sounds of the synthesizers, staying up late listening to the radio just hoping to hear Gary Numan or Afrika Bambaata. In high school he started to link up with other DJs, landed his own radio show on KSRH (San Rafael, CA), and honed his skills with good friend Mr. E and other local DJs. During his college years he would spend hours mixing with John Howard and going to the underground events in the SF Bay Area.

In 1994 he made a move to New York City and within a year of being in the north east, his shoulder was tapped by Scotty Marz, the founding father of Kingsize USA promotions, to become part of the crew. One year later he had built up such a solid reputation that he was recruited by Scott Richmond and Jonathan Kadish (aka Mr. Kleen) to work at the world famous Satellite Records in New York City. Justin quickly made a massive impact in the store and became the Breaks buyer and the stock manager for all three stores (Boston, NYC, Atlanta). Satellite offered the opportunity to not only be on the cutting edge of new sounds and producers, but also to be able to help cultivate the sounds of other DJs like Danny Tenaglia, DJ Icey, Adam Freeland, DJ Dan, Dave Dresden, Thomas Bangalter, Todd Terry, and just about any other taste-maker in the industry. After years of consistently rocking the north east in renowned venues like The Limelight, The Tunnel, The Roxy, Roseland Ballroom, and Irving Plaza, he became known as the “King of Breaks” in NYC, and an appearance at a massive NYC festival (6th Element) was so impressive that it even caught the ears of The New York Times.

Justin always brings the futuristic funk with him and you can hear his influences from the old school to the latest innovators - from Kraftwerk, King Tubby, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, John Coltrane, Giorgio Moroder, Gino Soccio, and all the way up to Bass Bin Twins, King Yoof, Lee Coombs, The Freestylers, Badboe, Olav Basoski, Maceo Plex, and Carl Cox.

His passion for DJing is still as strong now as it was when he started more than twenty-five years ago, and he is still on the radio running his internet show called ‘Techtonic Funk Brigade ‘on NSB Radio (1st and 3rd Fridays 5pm-7pm PST).

For more information on Justin visit:

www.djjustinjohnson.com

www.facebook.com/djjustinjohnson

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.

For those of you who aren't at that thing in the desert, Armory Podcast creator and Space Cowboy, DJ Zach Moore, is on the 1s and 2s this week. This is Zach's set as recorded live at CO.Inside in Denver, CO on July 25th. We hope you like!

As a member and resident of Space Cowboys, DJ Zach Moore spins events from San Francisco to the Black Rock Desert to New York City and beyond. Over his ten-year career, Zach has played epic, sold-out events like Outside Lands, Burning Man, Treasure Island Music Festival, Lightning in a Bottle, PEX Summer Fest, GhostShip Halloween and the legendary Breakfast of Champions.

In San Francisco nightlife, Zach is known for three distinct styles of dance music: party-rockin UK & Florida breaks, funky nu-school house and soothing, atmospheric house which he plays under the alias, W.Haze. Zach is also known as the creator of The Armory Podcast and for his work on The RIPEcast, the Space Cowboys’ Breakspoll-nominated, electronic music podcast.

For more information on Zach visits www.djzachmoore.com

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

We're excited to have good friend of the program, Tektite of the Vitamin B crew in Brooklyn, in The Armory this week. Press play. Get down.

A DJ and promoter for over fifteen years, Tektite is also the founder of Vitamin B, NYC's longest-running monthly breakbeat party. Coming up on it's sixth year, Vitamin B brings top talent from around the world to Brooklyn, including legendary headliners Deekline, the Stanton Warriors, Zinc, Icey, Mafia Kiss, Marten Horger, DJ Assault, Keith Mackenzie and DJ Fixx. Tektite is also part of the Blackbird Squadron music and arts collective, which performs at festivals throughout the US on a jet-black school bus with a precision hand-built 30,000 watt sound system.

For more information on Tektite visit his SoundCloud page at https://soundcloud.com/tektite/

For more information on Vitamin B visit www.facebook.com/vbparty.

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

The Tampa takeover of The Armory Podcast continues this week with breakbeat sensation, DJ Hero, on the 1s and 2s. Press play. Get down.

After taking the name DJ Hero in 1996, Hero began his career as a DJ, playing everything from house, to breaks, to trance, and just about everything in between. After a few years of figuring out what was his sound, DJ Hero focused on breaks. After playing up and down the east coast, holding residencies in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee, and playing countless gigs around the greater south east, Hero decided it was time to change his focus to producing his own music.

In 2000, DJ Hero started Solitude Studios, locked himself behind closed doors, studied, read, and practiced, producing whatever came to his mind. After several years of teaching himself the ins and outs of engineering, Hero hooked up with Huda Hudia, founder of Kaleidoscope Music, where he engineered and produced many releases to come from Kaleidoscope Music. In 2008, DJ Hero moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Denver, Colorado where he hooked up with DJ Vanish, and began Velcro City Records, and expanded the services of Solitude Studios to artist development, audio engineering, sound design, and mixing and mastering. Together, Hero and Vanish, work hard to provide quality dance music to the scene they love so much.

In 2010, DJ Hero was given tier one artist status on www.beatport.com, the largest distributor of digital dance music in the world, placing him in the top 20% of artist globally. 2011 proved to be a good year as DJ Hero left Velcro City Records to team up with Illeven Eleven. Over the years, DJ Hero has worked with Huda Hudia, DJ Volume, Keith Mackenzie, Calvertron, Lazy Rich, Simply Jeff, Dave London, DJ Fixx, Messinian, Whiskey Pete, Baby Anne, DJ Icey, and many more.

Today, Hero calls Ground Level Records his home, having released two full length albums, and released countless chart topping tracks. Hero focuses on producing party breaks, music that he considers fun for any dance floor. He hopes to be an influence and teacher for all those looking to find love in the music he’s come to be so close to.

For more information on DJ Hero visit:

www.facebook.com/originaldjhero

www.soundcloud.com/originaldjhero

www.mixcloud.com/originaldjhero

@originaldjhero on Twitter

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

Today The Armory Podcast turns 50, as in 50 fabulous episodes from some of the world's finest purveyors of breakbeat, house and ghetto funk!

To commemorate our little milestone, we're pleased to welcome the UK's Ying N Yang (aka Jake Stanford and Jake Osei-tutu)to The Armory. Recently signed to the Utah Saints' Sugarbeats Label, the two Jakes are known for their unique live sets which feature Stanford on the 1s and 2s and Osei-tutu's live drum accompaniment. Stanford and Osei-tutu are also known for their successful monthly, Eargasm, in Birmingham.

For More information on Ying N Yang visit:

www.facebook.com/yingyangbang

https://soundcloud.com/jakeyingstanford

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

This week we're pleased to welcome to The Armory from Perth, Australia and Rump Shaker Records, the fabulous Beatslappaz! For their appearance in The Armory, Ian and Andrew put together this fantastic mix of mostly unreleased dance floor bombs including their latest remix of Justin Johnson's "Go Back" available September 15th on Beatport on the Barely Legal imprint. Now press play and get down!

For more information on the Beatslappaz visit:

https://soundcloud.com/beatslappaz

www.facebook.com/Beatslappaz

http://rumpshakerrecords.com

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

This week in The Armory we welcome another one of Zach's Space Cowboy cohorts, DJ Aaron Pope of San Francisco. Aaron is a seasoned veteran of San Francisco nightlife and a respected member of the Burning Man community. Before he joined up with the Cowboys, Aaron was a resident DJ with the Burning Man crew formerly known as the Deep End. Aaron has been enjoying a long hiatus from DJing this summer, but took some time away from hiking, camping and backpacking to put together this funky breaks and house mix for us. Press play and enjoy!

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.

Lately The Armory Podcast has become a survey of 808 Florida breaks and this week we welcome another one of Tampa’s finest, DJ Shaykee of illeven:eleven Recordings, to the 1s and 2s. For those of you who keep a close watch on the world of breaks and bass music, you probably know that Shaykee, along with fellow Armory guest Eddie Light, was featured recently on the Stanton Warriors world-renowned podcast. We’re stoked to have him as our guest this week. Now press play and get down.

For more information on DJ Shaykee visit:

https://www.facebook.com/DjShaykee

https://soundcloud.com/djshaykee

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com

Enjoy the warm and dulcet tones of this atmospheric house mix from San Francisco's W.Haze on The Armory Podcast.

Artwork by www.jempanufnik.com