 |
|||||
|
|
|||||
 |
|
||||
|
Each major city has its special underground, monthly/bimonthly dance party; many of which become legendary and necessary complements to any music-lover’s weekend. Body and Soul in NYC, Scuba in San Francisco, and of course, LAZY DOG in London.
Following the success of the first LAZY DOG CD released in Oct 2000, Ben and Jay are back with an incredible second installment. LAZY DOG Volume 2 is the second chapter in their series of deep and soulful adventures of contemporary house as well as a selection of the top current club faves: Sade's "By Your Side," a killer version of Lucy Pearl’s "Without You," and Jon Cutler's "It's Yours" which was a #1 single on the UK club chart. In addition, there are two Joey Negro mixes, a Wamdue mix of Kim English's "Been So Long" and a Ben Watt exclusive mix of "Heard It All Before" by Sunshine Anderson. 2002 promises Lazy Dog Vol. 2 in March and a tour of North America beginning February 19th. Jay will expand his own touring schedule (Shanghai and Singapore). Ben continues his lateral role as remixer and producer (he is currently mixing the new Beth Orton album) and also launches his own small London bar-club, Cherry Jam, in west London in February, a joint venture with Alan Grant (ex-director and events co-ordinator at Notting Hill Arts Club). Whilst Lazy Dog will remain in its traditional Sunday slot at the Notting Hill Arts Club, Cherry Jam offers the chance to develop a new program of nights and events reflecting the range and diversity of west London cultural life. A brand new monthly Saturday night slot involving Ben and Jay is on the agenda.
For
more Lazy Dog info, check the Lazy
Dog Club website |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
Having
started as a low-key end-of-weekend party for deep house lovers
back in April 1998, Lazy Dog has today become a name synonymous with
soulful and social day/night Sunday clubbing in the UK. Keen to build
their own sound and scene, Everything But The Girl's Ben Watt and DJ
partner Jay Hannan, have played as back-to-back residents almost every
night ever since. In the first year, occasional DJ friends would stop
by and play for free (Deep Dish, Fabio, Satoshi, Guidance Records) but
more recently, it is the Lazy Dog sound and vibe itself that people
come for, with Ben and Jay establishing their deep soulful house journey
in an atmosphere that feels like a free basement party. 
Ben
Watt is one half of Everything But The Girl (9 albums in 17 years,
8 million records and counting ...), a duo whose music has spanned
three decades. Enthused with new ideas, Ben's DJ work began in
1995. He made his first appearance at James Lavelle's Dusted and
then took over from Howie B (co-producer on Walking Wounded) as
a resident DJ-in-rotation at West London's chilled Sunday Club
@ Paradise, spinning freestyle sets of jazzy drum n bass and deep
house. He took the formula round the world on various legs of
EBTG's Walking Wounded World Tour, playing nightly DJ sets to
open their show, often adding free late-night aftershow slots
at numerous US clubs (incl. Giant Step in NYC, Science in Santa
Monica, Metro in Chicago). In August 1997 he took his own drum
n bass style into a well-received London residency at Bar Rumba's
monthly Friday breakbeat night, Transition. Lazy
Dog has given his love of deep house a fresh platform, and spawned
many of the ideas on EBTG's 1999 album, Temperamental. More recently
he has turned in a series of acclaimed house remixes inspired
by Lazy Dog for Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Maxwell and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Jay
Hannan grew up in Cambridge, England. In 1991 he was taken on
at London's premiere independent dance music shop, Blackmarket
Records as a house music specialist, before being promoted to
shop manager and chief buyer, where he influenced A&R dance
music policy at various London record labels, and forged partnerships
with many seminal deep house labels such as Soulfuric, Wave, Guidance
and Large. From 1991-96 he was also a resident DJ at London clubs
Spice and Spirit, span regulars sets for leading dance radio station
Kiss FM and toured in Northern Italy appearing most notably at
Kama Kama (Pisa) and Hacienda (Genoa). In 1998 he left Blackmarket
to concentrate on setting up Lazy Dog with Ben, and for a time
ran UK promotion for Guidance Recordings and Large. In 1999 he
opened for Everything But The Girl on their UK Tour, and as his
reputation has grown with Lazy Dog, his DJ activities have taken
him on solo slots to Spain, Holland, Norway, Israel and Brazil.
