Mikki is part of the Music Is Love (MIL) record label and Artist Agency. He’s done us a fresh exclusive mix of groovy house beats and answered some questions we threw at him, so turn it up and take it all in!

Tracklist soon

Industry Standard – Shine Bright In The Night
Fulbert – Take It Easy
Detroit Swindle – The Break Up
Cassio Kohl – Keep On
Laszlo Dancehall – Gave Up
Soul Vision – Don’t Stop (King Unique Vocal Mix)
Jamie Trench – Back Chat
John Dimas – Rhythm Trap
Leon Vynehall – Brother
Antonio – You Got Me (Bumpy Club Mix)
T-Rwrk – Chante
Wax #30003 – Side A
Clubland – Let’s Get Busy (Pump It Up)

Good to have you on our podcast Mikki, been watching you for a while and excited to see what your are up to, can you tell us a little bit about what we should expect in your podcast?

Thanks for having me! I tried to mix it up with a bit of everything that would fit nicely into an uptempo slot. So there’s groovy, funky vibes, some minimal stripped back stuff, a garage classic or two, some hands in the air vocal tracks, some techno, and one of my all time favourite acid house tracks to finish! Had lots of fun doing this mix, hope everyone enjoys listening as much as I did putting it together!

Are there any of your own tracks in the mix? what kind of music and artists are inspiring you right now?

I actually just made a pretty hard and energetic track this weekend which has had a nice response, but I don’t own CDJs and personally it does my nut in to record vinyl releases and then do mixes in Ableton, so I’ll have to wait till that’s out on vinyl if I want to include it in one of mixes haha. I’m really feeling Jamie Trench, John Dimas and Cassio Kohl lately. All of who’s tracks are in the mix, lovely properly well-rounded releases! Sccucci Manucci overall, as a label, really feeling stuff from them, last few releases have been right up my street and the forthcoming ones are nice and fresh too, new sounds! Also Timmy P. I heard one of his unsigned EP’s and it’s hot stuff, looking forward to seeing it go to a good home!

Well, nothing turns me off more than to hear people do the same sound over and over, which I’m hearing a lot of people doing with their releases at the moment, both new producers and one or two established ones. In general those who mix it up and switch it up really inspire me a lot. Or to hear someone do a new take on a style that’s already been done before, you know, think outside the box a little and breathe fresh life into something, that’s cool too.

I know there is an upcoming release on the stellar Music Is Love, can you tell us a bit about this record?

From the start I’ve taken my time with the narrative and track selection of the EP so it has something for everyone and covers all bases, so to speak. There’s a nice downtempo vocal track, the kind of track you could close your set with or play early doors, very soulful and beautiful sounding, pads, pianos, strings, soulful vocals and adlibs, that type of thing. Had a lot of fun recording that track as I haven’t worked closely with a the vocalist for a while, and I feel the sessions we did have formed a great partnership, of which more tracks will no doubt blossom from! The 2nd track is more of a groover, garagey and bumpy, chopped up vocals and stabby, but still musical. The 3rd track and newest addition to the EP is pretty energetic, with a big bassline, synths and vocals sprinkled here and there, just enough to add the vibe while keeping it stripped back and rolling. It’s nice to hear how a lot of the dirtier, more peaktime, and even techno tracks I’ve been feeling lately have rubbed off on the mood and overall development of the track. There’s also going to be another artist’s remix of the vocal track, which is still in planning, but will be on a peaktime dancefloor vibe and definitely something worth waiting for! I’m looking forward to hearing how someone will take my soulful baby and turn it on it’s head into a banger! The EP has always been planned for MIL which has been good, it feels like more of a partnership that’s been worked towards to. A bit more personal than say, shopping a selection of tracks to a label, and I wouldn’t want to release it anywhere else.

90’s house is getting a bit tiring now, I can hear in your sound that you are always trying to push things on a little, so whats next? whats next for your sound?

You can say that again! People need to give up the whole ‘909 drums, DX100 Solid Bass, saturated drum bus, sampled up and down chord on every track’ flex! You buy one of their records and never buy another cos they all sound roughly the same as the first. A few producers do it well and think outside the box but a lot of it is getting so played out and samey as well. Maybe a prog rock revival? In all seriousness, I’ve always loved Garage, 90’s House, Garage House, House & Garage, whatever funny name you want to give it, and I’m sure I’ll continue to incorporate that style in tracks of mine from time to time. But I just think people need to stop being so predictable but with that whole vibe. People act like if you don’t like ’90s House’ then you don’t like House full stop. There is actually 13 years of house off the end of the 90s to take inspiration from. And a fair few years from the 80s too!

Me and Liam Geddes have been talking about collaborating for a while now, talking about injecting some darkness and ravyness into a peaktime house and techno vibe. It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean but I suppose you could liken it to what Groove Chronicles did to the UK Garage sound. I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes of that anyway, me and Liam got on great when we DJ’d together back in April, and I think the foundation of any good collaboration is really getting along with and finding common ground with the person you’re working with! Plus we live in working distance of eachother and both use Logic haha! I’ve also started going back to some of my 80s Soul and Funk influences, messing around with those over a more updated Disco and Jazz-Funk kind of sound. So basically Nu-Disco, but with an emphasis on implementing vocals and more live instrumentation into the mix of electronic sounds.

Where can the good people of the interwebz hear you play next?

You can catch me playing at 20:22 NQ in Manchester on 28th September along with the rest of my Music Is Love brothers, Oli Furness, Angus Jefford, New Jack City, Liam Geddes, and Maxwell. We’ve also got Samuel Deep headlining for us and it’s going to be a heavy party! My next release will be on a 4 track VA from Plastik People, alongside tracks from Louie Balo Guzman, Mike Sharon and Marc Cotterell, out late November on vinyl followed by digital. To keep up to date with all this good stuff plus mixes and a free download or two, you follow me on my facebook fanpage, soundcloud, or twitter! Or all of those pages, if you’re down with all of these online networking platforms 🙂