Funky House DJ | Paul Velocity

Oct232009

Hed Kandi Destroy The Disco

Funky new look for Hed Kandi. Its a style thats been done before but I like it, if it’s a one-off.

Destroy The Disco NOW!!!!

Jul292009

New Miss Selfridge for Hed Kandi Fashion Range

Miss Selfridge have teamed up with Hed Kandi to bring you ladies some inspired dancefloor clothing for this season.

I think this is a brave move by Hed Kandi who are clearly looking to dominate the clubbing market in a variety of niches which so far include perfume, prints, fashion clothing range, CDs and events.

There are ten Ibizan inspired dresses to choose from, the prints are designed by the Ked Kandi resident illustrator Jason Brooks. Dress sizes range from 4 to 16 plus there are many accessories available to help complete the look.

click the graphic below to see the full range including video catwalk!

Jun052009

Hed Kandi DJ Competition Fails To Impress

A few weeks ago, I was mooching around the Hed Kandi web site and saw that they were due to release a competition soon. It was billed to be the mother of all competitions where, in a nutshell, the prize would be a residency with Hed Kandi, playing at parties all over the world and living the jet-set lifestyle.

This competition really appealed to me and I got quite excited about the prospect of jetting around the world with some of the top DJs playing for such a well known brand.

So I had a look at their website this morning and saw that the details for entering the competition had been released. What would the rules be? How would they be judging this competition for the ultimate prize? I read on to find out.

Whoever gets the most votes, wins.

I’m sorry? What was that? Whoever gets the most votes, wins??? What kind of stupid competition is that? Allow me to explain.

To enter the competition, you have to create a Hed Kandi page on Facebook. This page is then used to describe all about you, have some press releases, some videos, mixes, releases, biography and so on. There will be a button on the page where, when clicked, will give you one vote. The idea is to get as many votes as possible to make the top 10 leaderboard. If you are on the leaderboard when the competition closes, then you have a chance of winning.

It doesn’t really make sense to me. If Hed Kandi are looking to take someone around the world with them, if they are looking for a DJ to represent their brand, surely they would want to pick a DJ based on their skills and not how many friends they have, or how deep they roll.

By running the competition in this way, it is not impossible for Hed Kandi to have a top ten leaderboard of bedroom jock wannabes who happen to have an entourage behind them.

This has really upset me. I thought this would be a good competition to enter because I think I might have the skills that they are looking for, but there is no “competition”, no comparison of talent and I am reluctant to get pipped at the post by some kid who happens to have over a million “friends” on myspace.

As marketing campaigns go however, it has to be said that this is very clever of Hed Kandi. This is a great way to get other people to do their marketing for them and they are really using the social networks to promote and enforce their brand. What better way than to create a popularity-based contest in order to get people spreading the word and marketing the Hed Kandi product for them.

So from a marketing angle, I genuinely applaud you Hed Kandi, you have found a way to really harness the web of today and use it to your advantage.

But as a DJ, I feel cheated and I fear that each and every day this industry is starting to become less and less about how talented the DJ is and more and more about how many people walk through the door.

If you like, you can enter the Hed Kandi competition here.

Jun042009

Hed Kandi Launch New Website

HedKandi.com has changed! They’ve been busy at Kandi Towers, creating a brand new website for you to keep up to date with everything in Kandi world.

The new site is now live, so why not pay them a visit and check out the new interactive events map, new online shop and news features…

http://www.hedkandi.com

Apr022009

Pioneer HDJ-2000 Competition

To celebrate the launch of the first release in the brand new Hed Kandi series “Nu Disco”, Hed Kandi are teaming up with Pioneer Pro DJ to offer a treat to all of their fans.

Their web site says “Up for grabs are FIVE pairs of fantastic HDJ-2000 headphones for you to win along with a copy of the Nu Disco album”… but what you would want with five pairs of headphones I don’t quite know

To be fair, the Pioneer HDJ-2000 headphones are a great piece of kit. They look good, are comfortable and produce a great sound which are three of the main things that I look for in a pair of cans.

The HDJ-2000 have a flexible lightweight swivel/fold design which means you can stuff them in your bag a bit easier without them snapping. They’ve even got some of that memory foam stuff for the ear cup padding! Quality!

Anyway, if you want to get your filthy mitts on a pair, why not enter their competition here: http://beta.hedkandi.com/Competitions/Pages/PioneerHDJ2000_competition.aspx

Mar262009

Hed Kandi Nu Disco - The Future Sound Of Disco

The Future Of Disco Out Monday. You are no doubt wondering what this excursion from the usual Hed Kandi programme is all about.

Enter Nu Disco, the natural evolution of the much-loved Disco Heaven series and the sound of Disco today.

The time has come for Hed Kandi to shed their halos, don their neons and swap strings for synths in this uber-cool disco adventure on two CDs.

Starring… Aeroplane / Friendly Fires / Fred Falke / Farley Jackmaster Funk / Todd Terje Alan Braxe / Shazam / Crazy P and more…

Get your copy now!

Mar042009

Join Me On Last.FM

I’m always on the lookout for fresh new music as well as reminiscing about oldskool stuff too. Most of the time I have either Hed Kandi radio playing during the day, or a bit of Radio 1 if I fancy it but I have come across something much better.

http://last.fm is an intelligent online radio station. Once you have registered, you can enter artists that you like and Last.fm will play you tracks from those artists as well as from producers in a simmilar genre and style. This is very much in the same way that Pandora used to work but Last.fm have the whole social networking thing attached too making it easy for you to share your favourite tracks and create playlists from the music that you like.

One downside is that not all of the music is avaiable at the same volume, so you will find yourself reaching for that dial quite a few times. But the major plus side is that Last.fm will learn the music that you like and over time it will start to suggest better and better tracks for you to listen to. You get to discover new music in the genre that you like that you might not have heard of before!

I’m quite new to the Last.fm thing and I probably havent checked out all of the features, but on the face of it its pretty damn good. Go and take a listen now. Its free and you might just discover a few jems of audio delight that you never knew existed!

• http://last.fm
• Paul Velocity Last.fm Profile

Feb232009

Hed Kandi Twisted Disco

Twisted Disco is a twisted journey into the darker side Of house featuring tracks and remixes from the likes of Kid Cudi, Laidback Luke, Rudenko, Chris Lake, Mobin Master, Wez Clarke, ATFC, Kurd Maverick, Vandalism and more.

Disc: 1
1. Rudenko Everybody
2. Kurd Maverick Blue Monday Vandalism Remix
3. ATFC Feat. Lisa Millett Bad Habit ATFC’s Lektrotek Re-Visit
4. Robbie Rivera In Too Deep EDX Mix
5. Bart B More Vs Oliver Twizt Finally
6. Richard Grey Feat. Kaysee Crash On You
7. Paul Gardner Feat. Peyton You Can’t Hide From Yourself Kid Massive Vocal Mix
8. The Montanas & DJ Roland Clark Music Talking D.O.N.S. & DBN Remix
9. Golden Girls Kinetic ATFC Remix
10. Chris Lake Feat. Nastala If You Knew
11. Henry John Morgan Cherokee Go With It Wez Clarke Remix
12. ATFC Feat. Rae Giv Me Luv ATFC’s Ocean Trench Mix

Disc: 2
1. Kid Cudi Vs Crookers Day ‘N’ Nite Mobin Master Remix
2. Thomas Gold & Matthias Menck Everybody Be Somebody
3. Joey Negro Must Be The Music Nicola Fasano Mix
4. Kid Massive Feat. Elliotte Williams N’Dure Get Busy Soul Avengerz Mix
5. Juan Kidd & Felix Baumgartner Feat. Lisa Millett Now You’re Gone
6. Stockholm Syndrome Pressure Stockholm Syndrome Vocal Mix
7. ATFC Feat. Yasmeen Tell U Y New Jack Swing Original
8. Lucien Foort The Shame Baggi Begovic Vocal Mix
9. Chocolate Puma Morning Rain
10. TV Rock Feat. Rudy Been A Long Time Laidback Luke Remix
11. Delerium Feat. Sarah McLachlan Silence Niels Van Gogh Vs Thomas Gold Remix

Buy it now

Jan092009

Hed Kandi | Kandi Lounge

Hed Kandi have a new release out soon. It’s kalled Kandi Lounge and is due for release on 19th Jan 2009.

Roisin Murphy, Kish Mauve, Mr Scruff, Crazy P, The Sunburst Band, Reel People, Diplo and more.

CD 1 tracklisting:

1. Frankie Valli - Beggin’ (Pilooski Edit)
2. K. Tamati - Go Get It ft Ladi6
3. Soopasoul - Brand Nu
4. Mr Scruff - Kalimba
5. Kraak and Smaak - Squeeze Me (Original Mix)
6. T-ski Valley - Catch The Beat (Dim & Mousse - Better Days Mix)
7. The Super Phonics - Dial L For Love
8. Belleruche - Anything You Want (Not That)
9. Central Avenue - Keep Me Coming (D3’s Historic 80’s Mix)
10. DJ Mujava - Township Funk (Crazy P Remix)
11. Lykke Li - I’m Good I’m Gone (Fred Falke Extended Mix)
12. Kish Mauve - Lose Control(Fred Falke Remix)

CD 2 tracklisting:

1. Roisin Murphy - Let Me Know
2. Munk Ft Asia Argento - Live Fast! Die Old! (Maral Salmassi & Zero Cash Remix)
3. The Sunburst Band - Fashion (Joey Negro Club Mix)
4. Crazy P - Lie Lost (Maurice Fulton Mix)
5. Diesler Carlas - Beat
6. Bennson - Can’t Get Enough
7. Love Over Money - Keep On 2 (Original Vocal Mix)
8. Reel People - Anything You Want (Album Mix)
9. Sistars - Inspirations (Innocent Sorceres Mix)
10. Muzzaik Ft Virag - Our Girls (Original Club Mix)
11. Diplo - Blow Your Head (DJ Eli Escobar Remix)

You can pre-order your copy from Amazon, or get it from iTunes.

Dec122008

A Nice Bit Of Eye Kandi

Are you still stuck for that perfect Christmas present for that special DJ in your life? (HINT, HINT @ my girlfriend). Check out these amazing pieces of artwork from funky house connoseuirs Hed Kandi.

They have taken the artwork from their extensive range of compilation series, and turned them into box-art giclée prints on canvas. The subtle touch that I like the most with these works of art is that they have CD-like spines along the edge so that they look like giant versions of the CD packaging.

They come in square sizes of 250mm, 400mm and 700mm wide and are priced at £35, £55 and £125 respectively.

To be fair, its not a bad shout for a piece of funky house history and to have such an iconic framed picture by the one and only Jason Brooks. If you buy online, the larger prints come individually hand numbered (for you collector freaks).

Check them out! Hed Kandi Eye Kandi prints.