Been more than a minute. I apologize for not using this newsletter more regularly. Aiming to rectify that with some good emails in the near future so stay locked if you wish.

Wanted to give you a shout cause I’m doing a five hour stream TODAY from 1pm to 6pm. It’s my 32nd birthday today. I remember being 17 and listening to “See Me Now;” obsessing over the line “This the Christ year, last year was magic: 32.” Well here I am.

I’ll be live from the 8 Ball community space from 1pm NYC time to 6pm. Going to try to host video/audio on https://www.twitch.tv/sorryrecords but will probably be live on 8 Ball's website and YouTube as well.

Have got a rare three set weekend coming up in NYC as well if anyone’s round and interested in that sort of thing…

Playing at House of Yes for the first time on an all cancer bill put together by the great SilkyBlack. I’m excited for this one cause I’ll be in the “Onyx Room” with my dear friends and Rave Cafe family ZiggaZao and L B33 playing (for the most part) all night b3b. Ziggy and Lauren are two of my favorite people to dance alongside and I can’t wait to get into it with them at this one. There’s also gonna be sets from Zoobiana, the aformentioned SilkyBlack (who has a killer “Set It Off” edit that I’ve been playing out a ton lately), and fellow North Carolinian gum.mp3 in the Main room. Last time I went to House of Yes I saw Nicky Siano open a set with Sylvester’s “Sell My Soul” and they brought out a big colorful parachute at one point and everyone on the dancefloor got under it like children in gym class.

So happy to play yearly Brooklyn rave institution FOURTH WORLD for the first time this year as well. I’ve always appreciated the party’s multi-genre locals only DIY dog pile approach (not to mention their tradition of giving out free hot dogs). Every year for over a decade, FOURTH WORLD has booked a veritable clown car of hard working NYC talent for a multi-room extended day into night party where live sets intermingle with DJs and there’s a Warped Tour style “everyone gets an hour” approach to set times.

This year’s lineup features so many dear friends and artists I adore. Too many to mention but I wanted to single out the great SSPS who I am so honored to be sharing a bill with. “"SSPS is Jon Winfield Nicholson AKA Jon Sunville AKA Porkchop AKA Blaak Gigi.” I first saw him on Nation’s twitch channel a while back. He was playing the most divine jacked out disco stuff; blending Steve Miller Band’s “Space Intro” over ‘em and accidentally letting the opening riff of “Fly Like An Eagle” play at one point (an exact experience I’ve had frequently while DJing!!). His productions for Nation are so amazing and I’ve been dying to hear him DJ more ever since this fantastic episode of Groove Trackers on WKCR-FM.

Lastly we’ve got a killer Sorry Records night at Bossa this Sunday July 6th from 10pm to 4am. So happy to invite Pittsburgh legend Davis Galvin back to play a four hour b2b from midnight to close. Davis and I played b2b all night in the Bad Room a few summers ago for a Sorry party and I can honestly say it was one of the best nights of DJing I’ve ever had the privilege to enjoy. Just like their productions, Davis’ DJing covers a great range of musical ideas, worlds, and energies. We played everything from Herb Alpert to Parris Mitchell, MEMBERS ONLY edits to Run DMC. Davis whipped the crowd into a frenzy with their own unreleased edit of Freeez’s “Southern Freeez,” and a dude wearing a Def Leppard T-shirt danced on top of the sub for multiple hours. That night was the only time I’ve ever had a club ask me to not stop DJing. Remember playing the UR classic “Afro's, Arps And Minimoogs” towards the end of the night and thinking “this is what its all about.”

In addition to Davis and I, we’ve got another beautiful out of town guest in tow — Chicago’s own Hi-Vis who you may know from their mix series Beyond / Below or work alongside sold as Farplane and behind the scenes at the great Lizard Label. Feel very blessed to have gotten to know them through our mutual boy Tony G. Can’t wait to hear how they kick things off on Sunday.

Some assorted recent radio stuff here as well —>

Thanks yall!

I was chatting with my friend sddp about “jack” and got inspired to put all my playlists together in one place. Apologies for the Spotify of it all. I highly recommend jacking your body on a regular basis.

Endless love, gratitude, and respect to Ron Hardy, Chip E, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Steve Poindexter, Frankie Knuckles, Bam Bam, Gene Hunt, Spencer Kincy, Larry Heard, Joe Lewis, K' Alexi Shelby, Rodney Bakerr, Marshall Jefferson, Mike Dunn, Traxx, the Burrell Brothers, Todd Terry, Parris Mitchell, Paul Johnson, DJ Pierre, Kevin Saunderson, Robert Armani, Traxman, Ali Berger, Jamal Moss, Jerome Hill, and the city of Chicago !!!

Much love,

Nick Boyd 🎈

Sorry Records // Music

JACK WORMHOLE MIXING

PSYCHEDELIC WORMHOLE JACK GOGO

JACK TECHNO

JACK HOUSE

JACK HARD HOUSE

ETC SINGLES OF JACK

Tracks from outside the usual sources (house, techno, etc) that embody Jack to me

JACK COMPUTER

The Other Side of Acid / Ron Hardy / Jack You Til You Die

JACK MASTER

Big dump of everything above in one place

🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨

• The official Honcho beer being called Gremlinz 2 this year.

• Curational flow for Thursday at Hemlock Hole 

• boxofbox opening set / Campout debut — a set I’ve dreamed of for years, fulfilling all my dreams and then some. A master at work touching on the space, the moment, and their personal musical palate with grace and poise. Autechre! Scott Walker! Aretha! Janet Jackson! Malcolm McLaren and Shep motherfucking Pettibone! 

• Another killer Rose Kourts set that left knees weak and hearts bursting in pride. 

• The Honcho Trick a.k.a. when a DJ you’ve never heard of before ends up blowing your mind (and ass) & makes you feel less alone in the world. The first of many this year being Karim Olen Ash who brought house authority and irresistible groove for a fantastic daytime HH closer. 

• W-E-R-K HonchoFM — an incredible idea made real by Jeffrey Sfire and Josh Bondi with mastering from Physical Therapy. Admittedly this didn’t work at our camp site at the highest point on High Meadow but I’m head over heels in love with this concept and loved hearing endless stories of folks pulled from their tents by the sounds coming through the FM airwaves. 

• A barnstormer set from ARCHANGEL b2b Cisne — overflowing with JOY and reminiscent to me of the best of the Brooklyn rave underground over the last 10 years. Mischievous tempo, groove laden all genre music lovers feast that took me from middle school dance memories to Myrtle ave spirals and back again. That Wayne Wonder “No Letting Go” edit… the K hole MAW / Denise Belfon “Work” edit…. #woof

• Hanging with some of the Bounce House crew and catching Furtive’s wildly creative, intentional and exploratory Grove closing set on Thursday night which felt like a journey through late night techno-obsessed computer glow lit digging and featured a bizarre yet amazing Sean Mendes “There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back” moment.

• Rising early to catch Savannah G’s masterful 10am opening set on Friday — my favorite exploration of Disco in four years of going to Campout. Delivered loud and smooth as a motherfucker on that superbly tuned system. Silk smooth. Like BUTTER. Oddysey’s “Inside Out.” “Rock with You” off MJ’s Off The Wall (!!!). Getting to have a profound moment with Bohannon’s “Let’s Start The Dance” — a track I’ve cherished for years <3

• Dan Beaumont’s slow steamroller of a set — everything in its right place, locking each and every dancer more and more with each blend, the way the sky turned grey and the air temperature changed mid blend and tension built until the sky opened up for our first rain of the weekend. The clear joy beaming up from Dan as he cracked a smile and let loose Billy Griffin’s “Hold Me Tighter in the Rain.” Reminded me of Lakuti and Tama Sumo’s HH closer from 2022 in the best way.

• Hard to put NAP’s set into words. Easily my favorite of the entire weekend. Personal expression meets masterful groove and a profoundly based POV for something my ears and ass registered as a Whole New Bag. The kinda set that’s gonna make me a lifelong fan — diving into the archives already, catch me at Mansions on Thursday for the all nighter for sure, for sure. 

• Charlene’s banter before and after every drag performance — a comedic voice of this and many generations!!! Queer Catskills Cutting Up style.

  • The way the crowd boo’d when Charlene said “she’s from Berlin” when introducing Colin Self

• Colin Self’s psychedelic rock n’ roll stallion-galloping-at-sunset-mask work opus set to Sinead O’Connor.

• Sweet sweet Sobolik demolishing the Grove with ease and glee — a well deserved peak time main stage moment that brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. 

• ‘Nohup’ closing set = the literal definition of “nailing it.” Intimate, groovy, veteran freak vibes that made myself and many others feel deeply at home from front to back. The Wally World moment, Daft Punk “Veridis Quo,” Jerome Hill's Itsu Uno “B Boy Rave For The Ageing Hipster" !!!

• Waiting out the rain under Lexi’s tarp listening to Galaxie 500 and Freur's "Doot Doot"

• Making my way down to Hemlock Hole solo on Saturday afternoon just as Jamie O’Sullivan was playing Rockers Revenge “Walking on Sunshine.” Also the sick “Stand on the Word” dub he played (think this was it but I could be wrong…)

• Love Letters powerful stomping HH closer on Saturday. Talking to Maxime a few days before the set about the space and the crowd, he said “All I have to do is try to be the most me I can be.” Mission accomplished !! Paul Johnson!!! Robert Armani!!!

• When Leonce closed his set with Meli'sa Morgan’s “Still In Love With You”

• ST MOZELLE’s rock solid genre soup set that had me and all my friends saying “damn this DJ is goooood” over and over again.

• The mischievous grounding magic of slo mo SHYBOI.

• Yuqi continuing the Big Chair tradition

• Sister System closing down Hemlock Hole with Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” sludged the f out. 

• “Legit nothing better than sunday at Honcho Campout” - Lexi

• Eris and Maya’s closing set (“Bar A Tym,” Federal Hill’s “I Have Something For You,” whatever that “Whoomp! (There It Is)” sampling track was !!)

• Visiting Shady Maple Smorgasbord, the largest buffet in the US, on the way home. 

Endless love to the entire Honcho community — staff, artists, dancers, drag performers, and pups. Follow Honcho here.

Keep an eye on their Soundcloud account in the coming months for archived sets from this year. There’s also a huge archive of sets from previous years here.

Much love,

Nick Boyd

P.S. I’m throwing a party in Brooklyn on 9/1 at Bossa Nova Civic Club — Sorry Records with Pump Media Unlimited, Doula, Nick Boyd

Welcome back ‼️

Sorry for the lapse in zone — it’s been a while 😛

Hoping to make up for it by sending over this humongous Halloween playlist I’ve got and highlight some personal favs from the spooky canon.

BOYDZONE HALLOWEEN SPOOKY SHUFFLE

Unfortunately hosted on Spotify but I used a free trial on some website to auto-convert it to YouTube (only 200 tracks) as well if you can’t stomach the Spotify.

No Name - Jason's Revenge (Jason Jacks The Dub)

This is the gold standard IMO when it comes to Halloween House. All the absurd theatrical jack horror of Bam Bam’s equally iconic spooky classic “Where’s Your Child” but a little deeper, a little more jack than acid although both present and accounted for. Fondly remember excitedly sending WTCHCRFT this track the day we met <3

CBF - The Ultimate Code

Dramatic jacky ominous spooky machine music bliss!! Found this on this great Techno Party compilation from Dance Factory in 1992 which contains the eternal House Crew rave classic “Keep the Fire Burning” and some other big spooky Masterpieces of Rave type beats like BitbyBit’s fuckin insane “Hardcore Is the Future.”

Human Blood - Blood City Funk (Short Version)

I found Human Blood a few years back when I was doing an deep dig of North Carolinian countercultural freak music type stuff. They were a horror-obsessed funk band based out of Greensboro, NC right by where I grew up. I can’t find the long version of this song or much else from the band but lord I’ve run this one OUT. Southern Funk for skeletons! There’s a breakdown where they chant “The blood is on ya! The blood is on ya!” It doesn’t get any better than this!!

Flashback Of A Genius - The Stalker (Laugh-a-pella)

I was heavily considering making a DJ mix entirely based around laughter earlier this year. Ended up semi-scrapping the idea in favor of whatever my Somersault “Locked in the Vocal Booth Dub Mix” was (note the laughter theme regardless). I did find some amazing cuts I’ve found lots of use for in the digging process — especially this incredible “laugh-a-pella” which is a third CDJ marvel.

Javen Souls - Future (Maurice Fulton Mix)

In line with the rest of the tracks on the erratic handful of Bubbletease Communications Classics volumes that Maurice Fulton has chucked out digitally over the last decade or so, I’m not particularly sure what exactly “Future (Maurice Fulton Mix)” is besides uhhh Maurice doing Maurice. Superbly organic machine funk dread fog stuff that reminds me of Drummy’s remixes for Sorry Records this year in tone in a way. This one’s really similar in vibe to another creepy biofunk weapon in the Bubbletease Classics canon — Orphies - “ Love the Flute (Maurice Fulton Remix).”

One of those “Google only shows Spotify and YouTube” tracks - I found a 1997 V/A 2x12” deal It’s A DJ Thing 4 with what appears to be the original mix (still produced by Maurice Fulton) alongside some interesting tracks I gotta check out from Phil Asher and the Def Mix crew — Frankie Knuckles, Satoshi Tomiie, Eric Kupper…

Dubstep Halloween Monsters - Monster Bass Mash

This is really a staggering record all things considered. Tone is off the charts. There’s a deep modulated male vocal talking in the background that reminds me of Kool and The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” (which is fucking perfect highly recommend listening to it frequently in your life). Algorithm american edm dubstep — the future is now and its spooky!!

Kool And The Gang - Jungle Boogie

Kool And The Gang - Jungle Boogie (The Reflex Revision)

Just came across this now looking up a link for the original — insanely fun last 2.5 minutes on this edit from supremely competent disco edit fixture Reflex.

Outkast - Dracula’s Wedding (ft. Kelis)

Honestly its a humongous shame that Outkast didn’t get a budget to make a video for every track off Speakerboxxx/The Love Below — hard to accept the fact that a concept track about Dracula (Andre 3000) and his bride (Kelis) doesn’t have a video!! I gotta run back that record soon — it’s been forever.

Gnarls Barkley - The Boogie Monster

Another spooky theatrical sound effect laden 2000s r&b/pop jam. This was the first record I ever bought because I read a positive review (Rolling Stone or Spin) without hearing any of the music. Got a CD the day it came out at Walmart in 2006. I believe I also bought a Mxpx compilation with like 75 songs on it too the same day.

Thanks for reading! You can catch me on Twitter and listen to my DJ mixes and radio shows here. Have got a Spontaneous Affinity mix coming out soon too, a recording of my set in June opening for DJ Delish and Leonce at Nowadays. Also throwing our biggest Sorry Records party ever on November 4th !! Info below - tickets still cheap —> https://ra.co/events/1596151 🥳 🐡

Tickets

Back at it in the zone this week — keeping it loose and casual and sending some tracks I’ve been enjoying lately live and direct 2 you.

Currently running through the KOOOONK catalog cause lookin like they’ve got it pretty much all up on streaming. I’ve noticed recently that folks don’t know Konk as much as I had thought which is fine (plenty of Konk to go around) but confusing to me as I’ve always thought “Your Life” was a kinda blockbuster classic for the whole like post punk/no wave/leftfield disco/punk funk/downtown sound sphere. It’s done major shit for me too and still moves me every time tbh.

While “Your Life” is a perfect fit for everything from dancefloor bliss to acid-induced existential weeping (“It’s your life / do what you want”) , the Konk I’m on today is more of the picture-perfect mid-summer afternoon stuff. I love the drums I love the horns I love the dub I love everything.

Can’t forget the SKULL WHIP

And I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t include the Larry Levan/Mancuso hammered Your Life dub mix

Apparently not everyone is a fan — just came across this deranged Discogs grump. Can’t wait to dive into the rest of his prolific comment history <3

Was Konk from Texas? This artwork is superb !!

BOYD ZONE TRANSMISSION 2

Second transmission of the Boyd Zone on 8Ball Radio has been archived if you want to tune in. Can’t say the same for both the first episode and last night’s super sick episode 3 b2b with my friend Farsight because I’m still learning how to use the software (literally called “butt”) at the station and accidentally deleted em but hey embrace the mystery and lock into the not-lost transmission 2 recording below.

Full tracklist on the upload there but I thought I’d expound on some of the tracks cause why the hell not starting off with legitimately the funniest house song I’ve ever heard in my entire life — Ladies and Gentlemen by Robbie Tronco.

It’s a long and undeniably dated big room NJ/NYC style 90s powerhouse. You don’t have to listen to the whole thing but you have to listen from 5:30 to 7min.

I’ve tried and failed to understand what this thing is. It was obviously rinsed by Tronco and others in the 90s but seems to have never seen a proper release. It’s not on Discogs but it was distributed to DSPs round Christmas 2019 alongside an incredible Loleatta Holloway vocal edit remix titled “Billy’s Buldge” which I played in the mix above.

We put out a record on Sorry Records by Tony G called Pianoman that samples dialogue from Good Will Hunting, a Diplo/Mark Ronson collab with Dua Lipa, and of course the piano boy himself Billy Joel. Coming across “Ladies and Gentlemen” the following year on YouTube digging for tracks for Nowadays with Delish (who was on the Tony G record herself) — I was just beside myself. Whatever you think you’re doing — someone has done it before!!!

James Bangura put out this “Everybody Dance Now”/ C+C Music Factory edit tool for $1 and I’ve easily gotten $100’s worth out of that purchase. Just works everytime in da mix. I love him so much — one of the best folks we’ve got in the US dance underground 1000000% s/o Black Rave Culture

And a couple from a Terrace — a producer I’ve been diggin into voraciously recently:

My bad !!! I’m having too much fun just like doing the Toyotathon voice in my head and googling “Alf deviantart” while trying to nail the Papa John’s vibe using text generators for the Backwoods and Friends logos — successfully I may add / see above ✌️

Anyways I’ve decided to do my friends, family, and loved ones a favor and channel some of all this track frenzy into this void vessel. So yeah I’m gonna try to put some of that soup in this bowl.

Sometimes you find something you don’t understand… something that intrigues you in its own particular and special way but you just can’t put your thumb on it. Sometimes you just decide to live in that feeling forever and just purposefully never google or look into legit anything about the artist because the mystery is more fun than knowing. DJ Bobo prime example !!!

I found this one above while doing my yearly “nevins remix” comb through spotify (Jason Nevins forever idc even the bad stuff) and it’s stuck to me like glue for half a year since. The verse at 1:18 that is purportedly about the beauty of multi-culturalism and ends with him proclaiming “welcome to the danger zone!” — bars — the fucking breakdown about how “music is my life / music is my passion” at 3 minutes?? We’re at the mountain top — smooth brain rapture awaits.

In honor of the Zone — I’ve gone and taken a look into Mr. DJ Bobo for the first time and I am not disappointed. So he’s a Swedish dude — famous for euro dance which is a genre I thought I understood but tbh my grasp is loose and probably pretty surface level. Some guys on Discogs seem to think there was some special stuff coming out in the early days !! The original mix is really insane too — slowed down pop 90s hip-hop/dance pop/euro trance thing with lots of appropriative toasting to boot. Big Peter Andre - Mysterious Girl vibes. Big ups GFOTY Cake Mix for all the heads.

These live videos have an insane amount of plays and blew my face off tbh — what is going on people

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Moving on to the Hard House portion of the email — I’ve accidentally fallen into a hole that I didn’t see coming. Had dug into this stuff before but a day spent shuffling this playlist I made using Spotify search tools (“label:underground-construction” in the search bar <3) I’m diving into all sorts of very good very loud stuff.

Here’s my favs so far

and here’s like nearly 700 tracks off the label in a big dump

This is the one that’s destroying me the most tbh

…

Some incredible hard house mixes I’ve been loving legit like every track slammer

Can’t wait for vol 2 and 3 legit masterpiece vol 1 its so solid

Anyways that enough for me now. I thought I’d add that Boyd Zone is also a radio show and the next episode is tomorrow night on 8Ball Radio at 9pm NYC time.

Here’s some mixes and records I made or put out on Sorry Records as well cause why not —

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