In my years of running a London Bar one of the great thrills was setting the music policy and booking the DJs. In seven
years they didn’t come any better than Greg Wilson. I won’t bore you with an exhaustive biography (there’s one on his Soundcloud page). Suffice to say Greg is an authority on dance music and pop culture and has a DJ pedigree stretching back to the original disco era.
Greg DJs with an old reel-to-reel tape deck which he uses to create live edits, loops and samples. He has a slightly enigmatic history having retired from DJing in 1983 before the birth of acid house and the subsequent explosion in DJ culture. He returned 20 years later to widespread acclaim and is now internationally in demand as a DJ, producer and remixer
Luckily for us Greg loves to share, all of his mixes on Soundcloud are available as free downloads. The following are a couple of my favourites:
Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1
This was voted in the top ten of Radio One’s 500 Essential Selections. It’s a potted history of dance music, crammed with classics and underground gems. Anyone that’s graced a dancefloor in the last 20 years will find something to love here.
Hazy Cosmic Jive for Beats in Space NYC
A mix Greg did for Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space NYC radio show. It’s got a suitably spacey theme and features tracks from amongst others The Orb, The Fatback Band, Afrika Bambaataa and David Bowie.
Living to Music
And finally here’s a neat idea, it’s a monthly listening session for likeminded souls, wherever they might be. Each month features a different classic album. Next up is Love ‘ Forever Changes’. Listen communally or in the privacy of your own home!
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