Essential Mix Review: Catz ‘N Dogz recap career with tunes old and new
Ten years ago, Greg and Voitek of Catz ‘N Dogz began playing together in their Polish hometown. Fast forward to 2013, through club nights, residencies, and radio shows, and the pair have landed themselves their first Essential Mix on the Radio 1. Both in this mix and more generally, their musical taste is difficult to categorize -it’s house, disco, tech, tech house, and bass. Like many of the other Essential Mixes that Dancing Astronaut highlighted so far in 2013, Catz ‘N Dogz use their 120 minutes on air to share their favorites in dance music, whether or not it fits into any particular categorical field or subgenre.
If there is, however, a bit of a theme associated with each artist’s mix, Catz ‘N Dogz’s is that of a overview of their time DJing and producing together. They ripped 12 inches of yesteryear, edited down tracks, and collected exclusives from friends at their own Pets Recordings, dirtybird, and Get Physical. You could dismiss this mix as simple, but that’d be too easy. More careful consideration reveals a deep and rich understanding of the history of house music and a discerning eye towards the future.
Jacek Sienkiewicz’s 2004 “Dream Machine” opens the mix in a soft and even seraphic fashion and after working through three more quick samples of Prosumer, Youandewan, and their own work in less than six minutes, they dive into “Calypso Path,” a steel drum island-house jam. Before long, it’s back to basics with house godfather Marshall Jefferson’s “Mushrooms” vocals overlapping The Revenge before visiting more recent wonderments like Pedestrian’s “Hoyle Road” and German contemporaries Arto Mwambe.
More well-designed choices lead the way into the second hour. The recent &ME mix of Cocoon’s Adam Port’s “Black Noise” melds with an edit of a Switch track from 2005, there’s a very under-the-radar Fantaboy’s hip hop heavy “Pump It All,” and Hannah Wants’ Massive Attack refix of “Teardrop on the Fire” sears itself into Catz ‘N Dogz’s Radio 1 legacy.
Covering tech, house, hip hop, and calypso wasn’t enough, so the friendly Polish DJs include some Bollywood flair and disco-heavy rhythm guitar on Andrew Weatherall’s dub of a Detachments song. There’s more Eats Everything, of course some Daft Punk, and boatload of other tracks that would leave even the savviest of music hobbyists scratching his head. In some ways, the track with which they chose to end brings the mix full circle. Terry Brookes’ “Breaking Cycles,” released right at the cusp of Greg and Voitek’s career together, slows the BPM of the mix and lulls its bystanders out of Catz ‘N Dogz’s memorable past and pushes right into their promising future.
01. Jacek Sienkiewicz – Dream Machine
02. Youandewan – Disarray
03. Catz N’ Dogz – Fixnation
04. Prosumer – Blei
05. Ralph MacDonald – Calypso Path (Sofrito Edit)
06. Brooks – Clix
07. Harry Kane – Acapulco Highway (Ralph Falcon – Whateva Acapella)
08. Marshal Jefferson – Mushrooms vs. The Revenge Remix
09. Pedestrian – Hoyle Road
10. Rhydin – Nash
11. Arto Mwambe – Muduhutma
12. Adam Port/Switch – Black Noise (&ME Remix)/Get On Downz (Max Fresh Remix)
13. T-rwrk – Chanté
14. Till Von Sein & Area – Lafayette (Unreleased Version)
15. Fantaboys – Pump It All
16. Alex Cortex – B2 (Catz ‘N Dogz Edit)
17. Hannah Wants – Teardrop On The Fire
18. Detachments – H.A.L. (Andrew Weatherall Disco Dub)
19. Brassroots – Good Life
20. Catz ‘N Dogz & KiNK – Good Love
21. Michael Mayer – Speaker
22. Breach Vs. Ron Costa – Letz Uri (Eats Reebeef)
23. Heartthrob – In My Room
24. The Time & Space Machine – Pill Party In India (Psychemagic Remix)
25. Catz ‘N Dogz vs. Phil Kieran – They Frontin’ feat. Monty Luke/Ghetto Face Space Place
26. Partial Arts – Cruising
27. Dodha – Symbasim
28. Daft Punk – Da Funk (Catz ‘n Dogz 2013 Idiotic Edit)
29. Nikola Baytala – Zero $
30. Mange Tout – What To Do
31. Needs – Brother
32. HNNY – Boy
33. Broker/Dealer – Dig Deep
34. Terry Brooks – Breaking Cycles
Categories: Music