Alan James - Producer/DJ

Thanks for all the support in 2023!

As a stats geek, I'm loving seeing the year-on-year growth on my SoundCloud (though 2015 doesn't display for some reason). I've been trying to produce bounce for a very long time and never originally expected to go anywhere near as far as I have.

"Doctor Jones" (a collaboration I engineered for Big Ric DJ, released on DNZ Records) sits over 28000 plays on the label's SoundCloud, making it by far the most-played track I've ever produced. It's also still at #11 in the junodownload scouse house chart, months after its release. Cheers!

And I've been fortunate this year to play bounce DJ sets in Birmingham, Leicester and Newcastle - thanks to everyone who attended any of my sets and to the promoters for the bookings.

I've had setbacks, too - I think everyone does, whether feeling overlooked by some brands or having some tracks which fail to gain much momentum among other DJs.

But, overall, it's been a year of growth - thank you SO much for all your support!

Something very weird going on with my SoundCloud stats at the moment 🤣; they say they're aware of it. Looks like they've lost some data. Anyone else got this issue?

My new collab with NIXY & DeV1Se, "Lost Generation", can now be heard exclusively in their awesome new Donkers 3 mix! I've kept this one very quiet, only telling about 2 people that the tune even exists, so hopefully it's a nice surprise :)

I recommend listing to the whole mix if you're a fan of bounce based on hardcore, but if you're interested in checking out "Lost Generation" it comes in at 1:04:54.

https://soundcloud.com/dev1se/donkers-three-mixed-by-nxy-devse-bonkers-5-6-7-bounce-homage-mix-nixy-devise

FREE DOWNLOAD!

As a thank you to all those voting for me in the Tidy DJ Competition, and because it's freezing and I thought people could do with some cheering up, I've decided to give away a remix I made way back in January 2021, that I've kept as an exclusive until now.

This track was the climax of Bounce Times 3. It was also the closing track of my Bring The Bounce Back 3 set, where I got an awesome video of it going off well (and, if you listen very carefully in that video, you can hear me telling Charlie Bosh that I was only recording it because I thought it would be funny to show Pat, who had said he hated bounce 🤣). And it's the only track from my BTBB3 set to also appear in my recent Convergence 2.1 set. It's HARD bounce, with sirens and hoovers - if you prefer the cheesier end what I do, this probably isn't the track for you. But, if you like the more aggressive stuff, this could be right up your street.

Regarding the Tidy comp, it's been a bit of a nightmare as only the first 100 names added show up in the newsfeed on many phones (clicking through to my artist page seems to solve it). Massive, massive thank you if you persevered in order to give me your vote. Also, I understand there have now been a total of over 16000 votes between all DJs; the top 12, plus 2 others from the top 50, will be headed to Tidy HQ to perform for the next round. While it would have been amazing to play my custom made remixes of Tidy classics in front of Amadeus, I'm not in a position to draw those sorts of numbers - though if you like the remix and get a chance to throw me a vote before polls close tomorrow afternoon, I guess there's a remote chance I could still make the top 50...

Anyhow, I hope you hard bounce fans enjoy the free tune. Here it is: https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/rupture

I've added my name to this - no pressure at all to vote for me, as you only get one vote, but if anyone would like to then that would be massively appreciated :)

I've attended every Tidy Weekender since I returned to hard dance in 2015.

I put up a post on my personal page this morning asking whether I should upload this. The response was a massive "yes", so here's my set from Convergence 2.1 at the weekend. It's a bit hard than you may be expecting from me...
https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/convergence-2-1

Convergence 2.1, Suki10c, 16 Sept 2023.

Massive thanks from myself and Big Ric DJ for all the support on "Doctor Jones" - you awesome people have got it to #1 on the Juno Scouse House chart. Cheers!

We figured lots of people might remix "Barbie Girl", so went for a bouncy version of another Aqua tune, but put loads of original twists on it rather than a simple donkover.

I know some people say charts don't matter and that you should prioritise making music you love. While there is some truth in that (and I focus primarily on what I like rather than what someone else might be doing), having tracks perform well FEELS FANTASTIC. I've had a couple of tracks in the past 12 months that I thought were ace but hardly sold any, and it's a bit disappointing when that happens. Whereas this feels brilliant - so thank you so much if you've bought it!

I've topped the Juno Scouse House in previous years, but this is the first time in 2023 ("Go Dallas" reached #2). I'd told Ric I was quietly hopeful that "Doctor Jones" might just do it, but never expected it from just over 2 days of sales! That's made my morning. Cheers again!

Tonight! 3 hours of bounce on yoradio internet radio, followed by an hour of Powerstomp. Set times and details are on the flyer. I'll be playing some of my latest productions, along with a few promos I've been sent and some of my other bounce favourites. I hope you can join us!

My take on the uplifting "Colour The World" is coming to Excite on 8 September. Meanwhlle, I just popped a sneaky radio edit onto SoundCloud. I hope you like it!

https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/colour-the-world-radio-edit

Producers (of all genres) - how do you approach promo copies of your signed tracks? How many do you send out, how do you decide who to send promos to, and do you stagger them or send them all at once?

Most labels leave this as a decision for producers, but after 30-something releases it's still a topic I'm never sure how to address. More promos of your track in the hands of DJs means potentially means more play before the track is released, but each promo you send out could be a lost sale and some labels advise against sending promos for this reason (plus the risk of them being shared). Though I've seen a couple of posts/comments this evening suggesting that most active DJs don't actually visit download stores these days - if they don't have a promo, they're not playing the tune.

Do you prioritise club DJs or streamers? And is it better to send tracks to the biggest DJs, who have the biggest following, or slightly smaller DJs, who probably don't get as many promos so may be more likely to support the tracks they're sent? To what extend is being mates with someone a factor in whether you send them a promo?

Tonight!
https://www.facebook.com/djsfactorylive

**FREE DOWNLOAD**

https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/hero-2023 (Full DJ-friendly free download, 32 bar intro)
https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/hero-2023-radio-edit (Radio edit. free to stream, not downloadable)

I started a remix of Bonnie Tyler's 80s classic "Holding Out For A Hero" back in 2019, completed it in 2020, used it on Bounce Times 2 and then gave it away as a free download in 2021. However, I've cleaned it up for 2023 and played this version at Excite in Newcastle earlier this month. I've retained the hoovers, arp, vocal and all the stuff which I thought was cool previously, but made it sound more like my current productions. And now this version replaces the previous one as a free download. Enjoy!

In case you've missed my recent official releases and would like to support them, they've at:
https://www.excite-digital.co.uk/product/alan-james-this-is-goodbye/
https://www.excite-digital.co.uk/product/big-ric-alan-james-temptation/ (with Richard Lynsky)
https://audiofuze.digital/product/enjoy-the-silence/ (with Adam Taylor)

Cheers!

Hero 2023 **FREE DOWNLOAD** FREE DOWNLOAD! In 2019 I played about with a remix of Bonnie Tyler's 80s classic "Holding Out For A Hero". In 2020, with so much time at home due to lockdown, I took the remix a lot further and incl

FREE DOWNLOAD! Loreen is back on Eurovision tonight and is one of the favourites to win, so it seemed like the perfect time to give away a remix I did of her previous Eurovision masterpiece, "Euphoria". I remixed this a year ago after a friend posted the lyrics and I couldn't get it out of my head. I kept it private until the Autumn when I used it in my Bounce Times 4 production mix. Since then I've heard a couple of other new, very good bounce versions, but here's mine if anyone would like it. The full version is a free download (with 32 bar intro - those of you who prefer shorter intros, remember to set your cue to bar 17), and a streamable radio edit.

Also, I've on yoradio tonight at 9pm if anyone would like to hear me on internet radio. Which is during Eurovision, but my advice is to watch Eurovision afterwards on iplayer anyway, so you can fast forward all the boring bits 😉

Full version: https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/euphoria
Radio edit: https://soundcloud.com/8bit-alan-james/euphoria-radio-edit
Yoradio: https://yoradio.co.uk/yolive/live.html

Maybe I'm old, but to me, MCing over a vocal is no better than someone going to the cinema and talking loudly throughout a film.

I'll be streaming tonight on yoradio ( https://yoradio.co.uk/ ) at 8pm. Hope some of you can join me for some bounce! There is a chat room, which has just been upgraded in the last 24 hours to add facebook login support - if this doesn't work for you, you can join as a guest. Make sure you've got the "s" in the URL, though, or it may take you to the old page which only has chat in some browsers.

Bounce is dead... love live hardcore!

Alan James... Goes Hardcore To celebrate April Fool's Day... I had a go at a hardcore production mix. I hope you enjoy it! Tracklisting: 1) Alan James - This Is Goodbye [AJHC Edit] 2) John Cooper & Alan James - Mario Madness [A

When I first heard the original of this 6 days ago, I had no idea it'd spawn such a crazy number of remixes. However, I decided to upload mine anyway as I believe mine offers something a bit different to the other remixes I've heard - it's (moderately hard) bounce, with a big dollop of UK hard trance, as well as being the only remix I've heard with a sprinkle of 8-bit in it.

I hope you like it!

I don't normally remix current songs, nor work without a midi, so I was a little out of my comfort zone but I'm very happy with the result.

The track is a free download, but pleeeeeassseee, if you like it, leave me a comment on this post and/or a repost on SoundCloud in order to help it get heard. Cheers!

CH & EG - Miracle (Alan James remix) **FREE DOWNLOAD** When I heard this last weekend and thought I'd try doing a remix, I had no idea so many other producers were working on it, too! I hope you enjoy my version, complete with hard trance riffs and a hin