phil mison – luna (mp3)

cantoma – pandajero (mp3)

reverso 68 – piece together pt 1 (mp3)

frontera – walking in the rain (mp3)

it's time for the next instalment of our ‘beginners guide to’ series, and what better way to continue, than to introduce our next guest down at best foot forward this saturday, phil mison…

after falling into the world of dj’ing, mr mison finally got his ‘big break’ way back in 1991 when warming up for underworld's darren emerson. from here, things gradually started to escalate, most notably when jose padilla asked him to come play at the sunset hangout cafe del mar. after a good 2 year stint as the cafe del mar resident, phil decided to return to british soil to concentrate on producing some of his own material…

it would seem as no coincidence then, that the man's first solo project was to be found on the café del mar 4 compilation. the track ‘luna’ is a floaty, blissful 6 minute journey, that is perfect for those ibizian sunset moments. from here, the artist name phil mison disappeared and instead, he became the artist now known as cantoma, dos hombres, bazuaka, reverso 68, frontera and balearic buffin…

one of these guises, cantoma, appeared on the fantastic soundcolors 4 compilation. having previously compiled and mixed soundcolors 1-3, phil passed the mixing/compiling task over to his dj buddy, and local mancunian, moonboots. from here cantoma escalated and various tracks, and an album, followed. the track selected, ‘pandajero’ can be found on the ‘cantoma’ album, but was first released back in 2001 on a super limited danish release for music for dreams…

with the success of cantoma apparent, reverso 68 and frontera became the next projects on phil’s agenda. the birth of both projects came about after a meeting with a certain pete herbert. after buying records from pete for a good few years, the two got chatting and decided to put their joint admiration for all things italo/disco/cosmic/balearic into action…

first up was the more dance floor orientated reverso 68. their debut release came in the form of ‘piece together pt 1’ and was released on pete herberts own label, specialist interest. then came the frontera project, first up was the track ‘nature’- on the now, much easier to get hold of, music for dreams america label. then came the album, and more recently the 12” release of ‘walking in the rain’. ‘walking in the rain’ is a cover of a flash & the pan track, and is an obvious indicator of their admiration for the synthesiser sound…

here at best foot forward we are a little excited about his pending appearance. not only has he produced some of our favourite records of recent years, but he also still manages to dj globally to rave reviews. only last year phil played in hawaii at dj harveys 39 hotel, and although manchester is not quite honolulu, we think our northern charm, chips and gravy, and me and kev in a pair of jazzy hawaiian grass skirts, should just about win him over...

note : if for some reason, you cant make it down on saturday, why not click here (or here) to have a listen as to what you're missing out on...