A BIT OF HISTORY
As a production team Mettle Music have been quietly fine tuning their craft to perfection over the past seven years and after releasing 20 singles, 2 artist albums, featuring on 50 plus compilations and compiling the outstanding 'Destination Manchester' mix album. Mettle Music are now firmly established in the minds of those in the know as one of the finest production team's Manchester has produced in recent years.
From their first 12" with Toko Records one of the UK's most revered and much missed house label's to the release of their second artist album 'Moodswings' on the 'Bar De Lune' label. Nic Conef & Mark Wadsworth's writing & production has gained much confidence & maturity over the years and they are now consistently producing material of depth, musicality & soul. Avoiding obvious pigeonholing and predictability by covering the spectrum from leftfield downtempo chilled beats to booty shakin floorfilling latin house via deep soulful grooves and jazzy broken beats. These boys have paid their dues & have now definitely come of age.
Both also venture off for other projects, Mark has a solo project Square One with his second album 'Field Gentian' just released (March 2005) on Freerange & is now responsible for the day to day co-ordination of Mettle Music's studio production. Meanwhile Nic DJ's all over the world, oversees the live band, and has taken responsibility for running & developing the new label.
'Mettle Music' (the label) launched in October 2004 with 'Moodswings The Vinyl Collection' a special four volume EP project which gathered fantastic support for it's vibrant mix of club tracks, deep house, latin vibes & broken beats from the likes of Laurent Garnier, Ashley Beadle, Rocky, Brian Tappert, Rithma, Miguel Mig's, Mr Scruff, DJ Chus, Faze Action, Ben Watt, The Rurals, Spiritual South, Chris Lum, Atjazz & Solid Groove. The label is now on its 6th Vinyl release & has also just launched its digital label which has 12 releases scheduled between November 2005 & January 2006.
Summer 2005 saw the label raise the bar with the launch of the 'Vibes' series of quality CD compilations, exploring the influence of various musical genres from the past on contemporary productions. Each volume will feature a strong genre driven identity creating an evolving collection of outstanding music. Themes will include among others Latin Vibes, Jazz Vibes, Funk Vibes and Disco Vibes etc.
The Mettle Music team believe wholeheartedly in bringing deserving, quality music to a wider audience. To this end the albums will combining a mixture of the classic along with many new and exclusive tracks & the Vibes albums will be thoroughly researched to include only music of the highest calibre that matches the lofty vision & ideals of the series.
The debut compilation - "Latin Vibes: Lounge Selection' was released in July 2005, followed by 'Latin Vibes: Club Selection' in November 2005 with one new release planned every three months.
Stunning (Latin Horns), as simple as that.
Laurent Garnier
This record is already a firm favourite of mine. Love the production, goes with the weather!
Ashley Beedle
This Music is fucking amazing. These tracks are smooth and real and playable. I like I like I like!!!
Rithma (Om)
It's so nice to see bands progressing rather than regressing. With Mettle Music, the first album was great and the second album is AMAZING!
Mike Chadwick - Jazz FM
By taking a few risks and remaining open to outside influences, Mettle Music transcend boundaries and defy categorization, just the way music should.
Luke Magnusson - XLR8R
An outstanding slice of sublime musicality for your mind, body and soul. This is a divine journey that will instantly calm your nerves and transport you to a kinder, gentler place.
Paul Dailey, Tweak Magazine (US)
The gorgeous laidback grooves and summery funked-up cuts are a
perfect reminder of those sun-kissed lazy days.
Jon Freer - Keep On Magazine
Faultless production, mature arrangement and highly complex songs, I can't praise this highly enough. It's amongst the freshest, most musical and exciting house music I have ever heard come out of Manchester.
Marc Rowlands (Guardian/City Life)
A jazz and soul infused collection featuring rich orchestral textures and top notch song writing. A soundtrack to balmy sunsets (or sunrises) at the beach.
Phil Williams (DJ Filter)
Fantastic music from one of my fave uk labels at the mo!! Massive thanks!!
Andy Compton (The Rurals)
Downloads (& soundclips) from the Vibes series are available direct from us at http://mettle.greedbag.com , as well as iTunes, Traxsource, Beatport, Xpressbeats, Clickgroove, Stompy & many other good download sites.
You can buy CDs from us direct at http://www.mettlemusic.com/mmcd1.html , or at Juno, Tunes, Amazon, HMV & many other good record stores.
Vinyl 12"s are also available from Juno: here .
