The woman who brought dance music to the Middle East delivers an MP3 mix for your listening pleasure – and talks about her love of Mel & Kim…
Since moving to the UK from her native Lebanon, Nicole Moudaber has been making quite an impact on clubland. She’s run club nights such as Soundworx at Turnmills, she’s produced tracks that have won props from the likes of Carl Cox, Valentino Kanzyani, Ivan Smagghe, Ewan Pearson, Funk D’Void, Roger Sanchez and Danny Howells, and she’s been working in the studio with Justin Drake from Peace Division. Still, you wouldn’t expect anything less from the first person to bring dance music to Beirut, where she hosted parties between a bombed-out mosque and a church. This year looks set to be massive for Nicole. She’s already remixed BFE’s I Got Cash, Ortzroka’s Midnight, and X-Press 2’s classic Muzik Xpress. And now she’s got a tonne of new tunes on the way – including an unlikely version of a Mel & Kim tune. So as Nicole delivers an MP3 mix for your listening pleasure, EQ finds out more…
Tell us a bit about Get Fresh. How did your cover version come about?
The idea came about when I was talking to my friend Kim Appleby – I always loved Mel & Kim tunes, particularly Get Fresh, and I was looking for a track to rework because I wanted to deliver something on a slightly commercial electro tip, but with an underground feel. I thought Get Fresh could be an interesting contender. It wasn't an easy one to rework though, but we finally nailed it. And I'm happy to say Kim loves it.
What else are you working on in the studio?
Working alongside a very experienced and talented engineer such as Justin Drake means I can be confident that he understands the direction I want to take, and the sounds I want to design. Being in the studio with him is such an enjoyable experience, and one that brings out so much creativity in me. So I’ve been working on several new productions which I’ve signed to labels such as Azuli, Steve Lawler’s Viva Music, Plastic City and Urbantorque. Tina Is Dancing/Bedroom Drama is out on Azuli this month. So is Boxer Girl/Indecent Exposure on Viva. And I’ve remixed Tiger Stripes’ Beach Buggy for Urbantorque.
Tell us a bit about the mix you've done for us.
There are so many cool deep house and techno records available at the moment, but that doesn't make it easy to choose tracks to include in a recorded mix. So the mix I’ve done for EQ is a selection of my favourite tracks of the moment and a good representation of what I enjoy playing out. I hope you like it.
Anything else going on we should know about?
Being a huge fan of Carl Cox, I was delighted when asked for a DJ mix from me for his radio show this month. I’m also looking forward to DJing at the Nocturnal stage at Global Gathering on July 26 – this will be my first UK festival DJ date. And of course, there’s a lot more studio work forthcoming in the next few months.
Get Fresh is out now on Nocturnal Groove. Tina Is Dancing/Bedroom Drama is out now on Azuli. Boxer Girl/Indecent Exposure is out on Viva on April 31. Visit www.myspace.com/worldbeats
