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DJ Moodie - Construction Skills CD [Beat Brickies]
DJ Moodie - Construction Skills CD [Beat Brickies]
Here North London's DJ Moodie drops his debut mix CD on us and what a stormer it is. Moodie from the Beat Brickies and the Underground Alliance crew has put together a formidable tracklist which includes just the right amount of exclusives (quite a few) combined with top dexterity behind the wheels of steel and a pretty laid back attitude to DJ interference.

Including intro and outro etc. the CD weighs in at 27 tracks deep and so as you can imagine we are treated to pretty much full length tracks, with the pattern being some scratching or doubles at the end of tracks and during the track switchovers, the rest of the tracks largely being left free to play on. This technical stuff is all handled smoothly and with a certain flair and aplomb, this less is more approach points to a DJ who has confidence in his skills and obviously doesn't feel the need to overdo it. This is a bonus as Moodie is unobtrusive and does what any DJ should which is to select great tracks and generally to make the listening experience more pleasurable.

With Moodie, being a member of Undali, it is unsurprising that the majority of the tracks are delivered by Undali members or associates and so this offering does have a kind of in house / advert feel about it. Regardless the CD is all about building and getting your mates in on a project is one of the best ways of boosting their profiles. It also helps that they all have skills and come correct with theirs.

Stand outs from the Undali camp include Chasin' Dragonflies by the increasingly well exposed Skrein, Spit Blood On The Moon which features all the talents of Prem C, Thre and Orifice Vulgatron all produced by Foreign Beggars producer Dag Nabbit and Contact Play's Eye Spy. Skrein with a whole load of solo material soon to be released also gets another couple of tracks included, including The Youth and Armageddon.

The specials and exclusives are well selected and include some of the UK game's top names including SkinnyMan, Braintax, Rodney P and of course local heads Task Force who get busy over one of Moodie's own beats for On Da Mixtape. This is all great and with more Foreign Beggars contributions including a beatbox from Rabbi Shlomo and cuts from people I have not heard of before like Strappa Doobie and Colombo Majik as well as special productions from Elmore Judd, Wyt-Fang, Skitz and DJ Mentat this really does shape up to be a heavy offering and I haven't mentioned Roots Manuva and Seanie T either!

The CD design is done by Sam Sharpe at Meerkat and looks really good with the CDs title - Construction Skills being represented to the fullest with the simple but effective use of construction tape to form the design. The only fault I have with the front cover is that the lettering is a bit small and when the picture is displayed at a smaller size on the web the text becomes illegible. The construction skills theme is continued on the inside cover which as well as the tracklist also includes a mock up of a builders id card along with spoof photo of Moodie holding a brick and a spanner, complete with headphones and a spliff in his mouth.

All told then, this is a top quality release, no demo business here. Moodie as come on strong with this first release and has done a tremendous job. I think that although some of these tracks have been released it is likely that most people will not have all of them and I imagine that for this reason completists and fans alike will lap this up. Make sure you check for Moodie and the Beat Brickies.

[email protected]
www.beatbrickies.com
www.undali.com
www.meerkatdesign.com
 

Intro Early Doors:
1979-1985
False Dawn:
1985-1990
Underground Years:
1990-1995
The Renaissance:
1995- 2000
The Future:
2000 & Beyond
Artists &
Discographies

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