For those wanting to catch the Onda Sonora Soundsystem on New Year’s Eve. We’re playing seperatly. Disco Dalglish will be playing at the party held at JH Eenders. Other dj’s there are Soul Rebel, the Batida Boys and all other residents. BLA will be playing at Jesus Paradise, Rue St-Christophe 20 - 1000 Brussels. Other dj is Thierry Steady Go!. Both places will be open for everybody from midnight on.

Other good spot to party is The Saintbar in Halle where Boddhi Satva will be playing.

Have fun.

As the first guestmix in Brekbit’s “Lost in Music” show. So tune in on 98.8fm, Saturday 30.12.07 from 21h ‘till 22h (only in the Brussels area). Or check the internet listening thing on the Fm Brussel site. The program will be available for the rest of the week on the net. Big thanks to Brekbit and Daquan.

This site is an ace source of old skool (house) mixes. New ones too but if you’re looking for mixes done by Larry Heard, Ron Hardy, Greg Wilson, Bobby Konders, Red Alert, Tony Humphries and all those legends from back in the day at their peak, well, then this is nothing less than heaven. Sometimes the sound-quality is rather poor but you can’t expect that an original Ron Hardy mix is CD-quality, can you?

All who love disco, electro, early hiphop or house be sure to check this site. It’s a great source of info on the brief period in the early eighties when all those genres came together. Or better said, when all those genres were one. Disco and funk became electro-funk in 1982-83 and electro-funk became electro, hiphop or house after that.

The site has loads of information on the music, the club scene, the influences it had on beatmakers and dj’s. Lists, articles, mixes and interviews put together by Greg Wilson. The man is one of this music’s pioneers in England. Great dj, remixer and clearly with a big passion for the music. Gotta love this site for that. The bit where he and Norman Cook are discussing how they discovered how scratching was done is hilarious.

• Dilla’s last ever concert in Ghent. Musically maybe not the best but emotionally off the scale. - J Dilla / Jay Dee – Donuts. For those who doubt the man’s genius. Headphone classic.
• Marc Mac, another true genius. Just listen to these records: Marc Mac - How About a Game of Chess, The Visioneers - Dirty Ol’ Hiphop, Marc Mac - It’s Right to Be Civil
• Madlib - BeatKonducta Volumes 1-2: Movie Scenes. Another fine example of the art of sampling.
• Rush Hour Family. Kid Sublime, Aardvarck, Tom Trago and Antal playing at our parties. The constant stream of fine records they are releasing. The great selections they sell at their shop. Visiting their parties is planned for 2007.
• Onda Sonora going stronger than ever. Meeting the nicest people, having plenty of fun. Now that both of us live in Schaarbeek it even gets more fun.
• Our little RSCA-fanclub. Makes going to the matches so much more enjoyable.
• Collecting Panini stickers. An old hobby revived.
• Southport Weekender 39. Absolutely the best 4 days of my year. Enjoying the nicest music with the nicest people in the nicest conditions healed my soul more than a little.
• Getting involved in the Brussels nightlife. They haven’t seen the best of Onda Sonora yet. - Opening at Decadance for Roy Davis Jr. and discovering the royal art of warming up.
• Nice gigs I checked: Tortured Soul at Pukkelpop, Dilla at De Centrale, Slum Village at Charlatan, Lefties Soul Connection at Sojo, Nina / The Opposites at AB, Reel People at Southport.
• Memorable dj-sets I’ve seen: Kerri Chandler at Stereosushi, Larry Heard at Charlatan, DJ Deep at Decadance, Jazzy Jeff at Petrol, Theo Parrish at 10DaysOff, Kenny Dope & Keb Darge at Silo, Rainer Trüby / Titou Mariani / Phat Phil Cooper / Lefto / Roy Davis Jr. / Aardvarck / Tom Trago, Antal / Red D / Kid Sublime / Mr. Critical and all our friends at JH Eenders and too much to even sum up at Southport.
• Taylor McFerrin – Broken Vibes EP – Rude Movements. Absolutely massive broken beat workout.
• Discovered the fabulous world of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Science fiction with a comic twist. Totally my thing.
• Hip House revived. Wahoo’s “make ‘em, shake ‘em” was a hint to this revival but it’s Mr. V who took it to the next level. “V gets Jazzy”, “Beat that Bitch – Mr. V remix”, “Put Your Drink Down”, … all dancefloor bombs. But Wahoo coming back strong with their remix of Three Kings “Shake Dat Booty”. Loving it.
• Kerri Chandler, Dennis Ferrer, Jerome Sydenham, Ame, Henrik Schwarz, Tickski and co. Trippy house with massive build-ups and ditto breakdowns. “Rej”, “So let the wind come”, “Drumstick and a Lightfixture”, “Camino del Sol – Joakim remix”, etcetera. All good. Really looking out to Karizma’s LP in 2007.
• Me rediscovering vocal house. To close down this triumvirate of house genres. Dennis Ferrer “Church Lady”, Blaze “Found Love – Fanatix mix” (always gives me the goose bumps), Shuya Okino feat. Blaze an Phil Asher ‘Love is the Key”, Markus Enochson feat. James Ingram ‘Day and Night”, Ben Westbeech “So good Today – Osunlade mix” and the Tortured Soul LP. Thank you Southport.
• 1982 - 1983. Electrofunk. Greg Wilson. Check his mixes, check his re-edits, check his playlists. We need that man for a set in a Belgian club. Now.
• Benji B. Deviation. Best radioshow. No discussion. Other fine radioshows: Lost in music (FM Brussel), Worldwide (BBC Radio 1), De Hop (Stubru).
• Myspace and blogs. As you might have noticed.
• Taking the huge mental step of dj’ing with CD’s. You can’t deny evolution nor the many pro’s. Although I tried, for a very long time. Still keeping it real though. Still buying vinyl like a madman. But now I’m able to promote stuff from my friends. A very big plus.
• Birth of Alexander. On a personal tip. And the understanding and pure friendship I get from some people. Thanks.

Friday 12.01.07 - Onda Sonora with Eleven, Vega & Onda Sonora Soundsystem - JH Eenders - Halle
Saturday 13.01.07 - Boddhi Satva & Franck Roger - Livingroom - Brussels
Friday 19.01.07 - Dyn-O-Mite with Gene Drayton Unit & Thierry Steady Go! vs Souligan – Charlatan - Ghent
Saturday 27.01.07 - We Play House with Kirk Degiorgio, Red D & Onda Sonora Soundsystem - Decadance - Ghent
Saturday 27.01.07 - Wonderful with Wonderland, Lefto, Vic’n Lloyd and Brown Moshunz - Le Tavernier - Brussels
Sunday 04.02.07 - Sunday Matinee with Kenny Larkin & Red D - Charlatan - Ghent
Friday 09.02.07 - Onda Sonora with Rainer Trüby & Onda Sonora Soundsystem - JH Eenders - Halle
Friday 16.02.07 - Laurent Garnier Live - Styrofoam & Fat Jon - Het Depot - Leuven
Friday 16.02.07 - Music in Mind Festival with 4Hero feat. Marc Mac en Mc MG - Concertgebouw - Brugge
Saturday 17.02.07 - Futurama with Carl Craig - Silo - Leuven
Saturday 24.02.07 - Kerri Chandler - Stereosushi - Antwerp
Saturday 24.02.07 - Red D feat. Lady Lynn - Café Capital - Antwerp
Wednesday 21.03.07 - Jazzbreak with Soul:ID - Le Tavernier - Brussels
Friday 30.03.07 - Carl Craig - Petrol - Antwerp
Saturday 31.03.07 - Henrik Schwarz - Petrol - Antwerpen 
Sunday 08.04.07 - Onda Sonora - JH Eenders - Halle

Unlike what we’ve been spreading before, the next "We Play House" session at Decadance in Ghent won’t be the 13th of January. No need to worry ‘cause it isn’t cancelled. It’s just rescheduled. The new date is Saturday the 27th of January. A bit of a shame we’ll have to miss the Wonderful party at Le Tavernier, but not the end of the world. We’ll support next time.

The main guest for "We Play House" still is Kirk Degiorgio. We’ll be warming up. Red D is the other dj on the bill. More info soon on the Decadance site.

Our last party of 2006 was, like most of them this year, fantastic. Check the pictures. Thanks to dj Soul Rebel for warming up / joining us behind the decks. And having lost son Tom back behind the wheels was great. Big thanks to all who served drinks for a while. We couldn’t do parties without those lovely people and we can’t express our respect enough for this. We’ve played a lot of the "classics" of this year. New stuff, old stuff, disco, house, hiphop. Some Southport 39 classics. It was all good, never cheasy. It’s so cool to be able to play all these underground tunes and getting so much response. Businghe Underground Rules.

2006 was a very good year for us. Started with growing succes a regular hiphop & breaks night called ‘Ain’t no half steppin’ ‘. Had some classic Onda Sonora’s. Welcomed Lefto, Red D, Titou Mariani, Rikkie, Soul Rebel, Antal, Aardvarck, Tom Trago, Kid Sublime, Mr. Critical, The Compositive Two, Camo Brothers, Phat Phil Cooper, Jonathan, Vega, Tweet, De Nihilisten, Mellow P & 2000WAT as guests. Shared the decks with lovely people like Roy Davis jr., Rainer Trüby, Jerboa at nice parties like Bruksellive, We Play House (Decadance), Step One and more. Thanks to everybody who made this possible.

Hopefully 2007 will even be better. Should be nice to export our vibe a little more. With the succes of the Onda Sonora nights as a firm foundation for our wild plans and the fact that JH Eenders is planning on upgrading their soundsystem, our own parties can only get better. One thing we’re planning on doing in 2007 is inviting more talent from around the way. Dj’s and soundsystems we’ve checked and liked can expect an invitation. Supporting our local scene.

So we’re ambitious for 2007 and look back with a smile on 2006. Hope to see you on one of our next parties.

On Myspace Music you’ll find just a little too often tunes that are, at their best, not half-bad ideas that need to be worked out. But once every now and then there’s something that stands out. And it’s twice as nice when it’s made by somebody you know.

Switec is somebody who managed to do just that. Check out his "Lost in music theme" on his myspace and enjoy the sweet strings. The only bad thing about it is that it should last a little longer. But that’s a plus too, n’est pas ?

The "Lost in music" the song is about is the fine second hand shop in the Platte Steen 3, 1000 Brussels (right around the corner of the Ancienne Belgique) run by BLA’s fellow "Keep On" dj and organiser Brekbit. A good source for all things jazzy, funky, soulful and disco.

Next to being a shop, "Lost in music" is also a radioshow with a blend of all styles mentioned above. On FM Brussel, a local radio in the Brussels area but you can enjoy the latest episode through the net. The show is always a supreme start for the Saturday evening.

Mr. Critical showed his immense talent twice at our parties. Once with mc Elpo as the Compositive Two and once as a party dj. And we will ask him back for sure. His 2 "Changing Channels" mixes are well mixed collections of about anything funky wrapped in nice artwork. Worth every penny. Now he has made another mix, titled "Journey into sound", which is for grabs at Laid Back Show. A very fine site, indeed. You all need to give it proper check.

More info on Mr. Critical and The Compositive Two on the mighty myspace. 

In 2007 Rush Hour will celebrate its 10^th anniversary. Many nice events are planned. A tour in Australia with Aardvarck (live), Recloose, Antal & All Out K. But there’s more. Much more.

SHOE, DELTA, PARRA & MACHINE
Rush Hour presents this exhibition with these four Rush Hour related graphic designers. Art inspired by music: ‘Let’s face the music’. Venue: Pakhuis De Zwijger, Piet Heinkade, Amsterdam. Check this link for more info.

RUSH HOUR RECORDINGS
Much goodies in the pipeline for 2007. Aardvarck - Cult Copy remixes (2000 and One, Dexter & Quince), the first two parts of San Proper’s ‘Amsterdam Family Project’ feat. Steven de Peven and Tom Trago (the second one is a big tip, take it from us) and Comtron’s debut album "Follow the Money". Check this link for more info about the label.

ANGST RECORDS
This has been a big BLA myspace favourite these last few months. Angst records has been created to release all things Punk, Fun and Loud. Amsterdam’s punk-rock band Malle Pietje and the Bimbo’s ‘Are You Punk Or Are You Drunk’ abum is the first release. ‘Keihard beuken’ is a major winner. Check the video for this first single

RUSH HOUR BLOW OUT SALE
On Saturday the 23rd. Free drinks, a toast on 2006 & 2007 and Jerome Sydenham behind the decks. But we need to spend our money on presents for family and friends. And not all of them are dance music aficionados. So we need to skip this. A shame. But we’ll make the trip early next year. Rush Hour, best shop this side of everything.

They’ll be selling lots more second hand vinyl in 2007. Picked up some nice Chicago House goodies this year and missed some things by an inch but Onda Sonora will be on the prowl for this.

Check their Parra designed shirts. We would love to see some women dancing on our dancefloor wearing those girly small only shirts for sure.

All on sale here.

PARTIES
The 08BAR with its nice concept (bring your own beats) and all Rush Hour related parties look like a must do. So they’re high on our to do list. Surely the Strange Fruit gigs, with Benji B and Taylor McFerrin as last 2 guests, are a big recommendation.

So it looks like we can expect a lot coming from up north. Maybe Onda Sonora will try bring over some more Rush Hour dj’s to Belgium. We’ll see. We will keep you informed of all things happening in Amsterdam. And when we make the trip, we’ll bring back lots of goodies and stories to share through this blog.

Well, next Keep On party has a flyer. Simple as always ‘cause of the complete lack of time of it’s designer. Hope to see lots of dancing people this time. Expect soul, funk, disco, boogie, broken beat and soulful house. It’s free, it’s fun and sometimes a little wild too.

For those loving that raw Chicago house sound (often called “like Red D” at the Onda Sonora HQ), we found some fresh vinyl (and mp3’s) unearthing the original source.

Ron Hardy may not be the most well known dj but he’s certainly one of those notorious “key” figures in dj-history. He represented the harder edge of the Chicago scene out of which “House” music originated. As opposed to Frankie Knuckles, who imported the New York disco sound to the windy city and so planted the seed for this new style of music.

Ron Hardy was the dj who played the more energetic and raw sets appealing to the youth, in contrary of Frankie Knuckles’ more sophisticated style, which led to the (acid) house sound of Chicago. His repetitive and uncompromising vibe can still be experienced when listening to Ron Hardy edits. Remixes he made from disco and early house songs to fit them better into his sets. Those edits where never released properly and until now you could only find them on shady bootlegs or the net without being too sure it weren’t hoaxes.

But now Bill Hardy, Ron’s nephew, is releasing those edits, taken from the original reel-to-reel’s. They are very raw (being made by cutting up tape and pasting them back together) and repetitive (prolonging breakdowns eternally). But used wisely in a set they are devastating.

These edits were a big influence on The Parrish’ “Ugly Edit”-series. As a dj Ron Hardy was (one of) the main influence(s) on Theo Parrish, Moodymann, dj Pierre and most (original) Chicago house cats.

Check ParteHardy records website for more info about the releases. You’ll find where to find the vinyl too. The nice boys from Rushhour have got the second volume still in stock.

Lots of Dutch grafic designers having their exhibition in Belgium these days. Delta in Brussels and Parra in Ghent. Parra is known for his Rockwell Clothing designs, his sleeves for Rednose Distrikt and other musical madmen, his musical productions (released through Rushhour) and for his artwork as such. One of Onda Sonora’s BLA absolute favorites. Go check the expo.

More info about the exhibition by clicking this link
More info about Parra by clicking this link

Both Yoeri and Bart of Onda Sonora are proud collectors of Football Panini stickers. Just started the Football 2007 - Belgian edition. If any of you guys or girls have any doubles to change, just shout.

Both of them still have a lot of doubles from the Worldcup edition. If somebody still needs some gaps to be filled in their album we’re glad to help. 

Last Bugalu with Jazzman Gerald and Lefties Soul Connection was a blast. Opener, Brothers on the Run sounded promising (although we missed most of their performance due to a elaborated apero). The Dutch funkateers of Lefties Soul Connection delivered a tight and sizzling hot set. Thierry Steady Go! Vs Souligan and Jazzman Gerald continued with a more than fine selection of soul and funk music. Lots a nice people in the cosy Sojo club. Big up to Stan and the other Bugalu’s. It was the best.

We, being the Onda Sonora Soundsystem, have recorded a mix. A collection of supreme 80’s disco and soul tunes sequenced together in our own chaotic fashion. We’re still editing the mix (the original mix is a rough take, more than 2 hours long). But we’ll provide everybody who’s interested with a copy. It’s almost Christmas after all. Just send us a mail. And if somebody knows a way to throw it on the internet legally, let us know.

Although already made public here and there, the next Keep On won’t be with the female dj duo L-Fêtes. A bit of a shame really but the Keep On boys are working on a tight plan to fix this setback. More news about this soon.

Reminder: Next Keep On will take place at Dali’s Bar, Petite Rue des Bouchers 35, 1000 Brussels, on Saturday the 20^th of January 2007. Entrance is free.

More on the Keep On Myspace

A new party in Brussels. A concept building on the success of the nice “Jazzbreak” sessions on Wednesday nights at Le Tavernier. Same organisers, same mix of live performances and dj’s. The first edition of Wonderful is planned Saturday 27.10.2007 and will feature a live gig by Wonderland and dj-sets by Vic ‘n Lloyd (from On-Point.be), Brown Moshunz (aka Ugo Castelluci aka the mastermind behind Jazzbreak and Wonderful) and Lefto (Belgium’s finest hiphop dj).

Don’t forget to visit those Jazzbreak sessions. Still one of the best regular week events in Brussels.

More info on these links:
Wonderful myspace
Jazzbreak myspace
Brown Moshunz myspace
Vic ‘n Lloyd myspace
Lefto myspace

Maybe some will have checked our links and already found this wonderful blog but a little extra promo won’t hurt. People with a wide interest in graphic design, music and nonsense should check www.on-point.be kept up to date by Alex aka Lloyd.

Anyone in Brussels with a little interest in grafics or comic books should visit the "De wereld van Franquin" Expo. It’s great. The man was a genius. His Robbedoes and Guust work is well known and well documented but it’s the later work that’s really mindblowing. His monsters, his "zwartkijken" drawings, the doodles he made (which are nothing but miniature grafitti pieces), … they’re all among the best inkt on paper you can find. Go visit the expo, it runs until April 2007. More info on this site.

Part of the expo is a little film with fragments of his appearances in tv-shows and stuff like that. One of the things you see is a short bit where the Flirtations are singing "Nothing but a heartache" in a decor designed by Franquin. If anyone knows where to find the full films of this, tell me. Two of my favorite things (soul music and Franquin’s artwork) coming together, that’s something I need to have.

Damn, you should all come to those nice Strictly Niceness parties … they’re truly strictly niceness … sweet disco, funk and alike in a more than nice context. We’ll keep you posted about the future of the nicest party in Brussels (as long as our project doesn’t get real). Big respect to Kwak, Eleven, Bernard Dobbeleer, those lovely women behind the bar, United Music and all those involved.

Experience dj Eleven the 12th of January at JH Eenders … check our links for more info about the venue

Saturday 13.01.07 – We Play House with Kirk Digiorgio, Red D & Onda Sonora Soundsystem – Decadance Ghent – www.decadance.be
Friday 19.01.07 – Dyn-O-Mite with Gene Drayton Unit & Thierry Steady Go! vs Souligan – Charlatan Ghent – www.democrazy.be
Sunday 04.11.07 – Sunday Matinee with Kenny Larkin & Red D – Charlatan Ghent – www.charlatan.be
Friday 09.02.07 – Onda Sonora with Rainer Trüby & Onda Sonora Soundsystem  - JH Eenders Halle – www.eenders.be
Friday 16.02.07 – Music in Mind Festival with 4Hero feat. Marc Mac en Mc MG – Concertgebouw Brugge – www.musicinmind.eu
Saturday 24.02.07 – Kerri Chandler – Stereosushi Antwerp – www.stereosushi.be
Friday 30.03.07 – Carl Craig – Petrol Antwerp – www.petrolclub.be

To get our regular newsdodo dropped into your mailbox just click on this link and fill out the form. You’ll get, not too often, a mail with all necessary info about our activities and occasionally some info about nice events from people we like. And if we’re doing something like making shirts or fabricating a mixCD you’ll know it first through our mailing.

Larry Heard presents Mr White – You Rock Me – Alleviated
J. Rawls Presents Liquid Crystal Project – Tribute To Dilla – Unique
Various – Je Suis Frenchy, Je Suis Funky – La Musique Funky
Bobby Cole – A Perfect Day – 2Siders
Oezlem – Dude Can’t Dance – CDR
Landslide and Don Freeman – Conundrum – Phil Asher’s Restless Soul Mix / DK Edit – Sick Trumpet
Taylor McFerrin – Broken Vibes EP – Rude
Biz Markie - Studda Step – Kid Sublime Remix – White
Mr V – Put Your Drink Down – Defected
Dennis Ferrer – Church Lady – Defected
Tom Trago – Fluorgreen Legged Gangster – Rushhour