I first came across Mark Byrne playing one Thursday night in the Twisted Pepper. At what is a predominantly student night, he brought the crowd with him on the harder, less hook driven parts of his set. He dropped out of deep rhythms into vocal grime tracks with a confidence bordering on arrogance. All the while maintaining control of the floor which belied his youth.
Having discussed the Stomp Mix series with Shatterfreak, we decided we’d keep it for such occasions as these, local lads who deserve a bit more attention for being bloody good and original on the mix.
So first a bit about Mark. He got a start running the top floor in the Twisted Pepper on Thursdays once a month for Mr. Jones under his own banner. Juice has held down a monthly residency ever since at the weekly Junior Spesh night. Mark has a useful turn of phrase for explaining the arrangement, “The way I always describe it is Junior Spesh is Arnott’s and Juice is the Levi’s store in Arnott’s…. We run inside it but we do our own thing”.
He says the main aesthetic with Juice has just been to have a good time without any pretentious vibes. The focus is on bass music, but the more up-beat side of things, exemplified by their 1st birthday guests last week, Bok Bok & L-Vis 1990,”…they are two artists who get a lot of plays at Juice and I like what they represent…As you could probably guess… from my mix I am a big Night Slugs fan.”
When thrown the old music journo cliche, ‘What do you think of the scene at the moment question?’ Mark points to some smaller collectives such as Nexx and B-Side running through Junior Spesh as the guys on the up. He also flags asshole like behaviour as being on the increase in Dublin town, “My only problem with the whole bass and alternative music culture is the pretentiousness that can often come with it. There are a lot of music snobs out there. It’s not cool to be an asshole”.
It sure ain’t.
And the mix? “This mix is basically just songs I like and was done on CDJ 1000s and a DJM 400”
Consensus has been reached at Stomp that its a stomper. Plenty of change ups, wonky bits, diva vocals and even a sly Wiley instramental. Enjoy.
Tracklist :
1. Randomer – Stalker
2. Martyn – Left Hander
3. Christian Martin – Waiting
4. Zomby – Alothea
5. Zomby – Black Orchid
6. Velour – Scent of Romance
7. T.Williams – Break Broke
8. Nguzunguzu – Mirage (Girl Unit remix)
9. Wheez-ie – keep yer chin up (Salva Remix)
10. Bok Bok – Look
11. Seiji – Frustratin’
12. Kill Frenzy – booty clap
13. Dj Tameil – Back it up (Mike Q Ego edit)
14. Dark Sky – High Rise
15. Fis-T – Deep Mover
16 Lil Silva – Night Skanker
