DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY profile picture

DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY

Stop dreaming of the quiet life, cos it's the one you'll never know!

About Me

The best place to find out info on me would be http://www.niceandnasty.net or simply say hello at a gig; however, I am an Irish DJ, freelance writer, and label boss behind Nice & Nasty records. None of which pays enough or at least consistently so I have to flog the old soul each day to the man.Originally I come from Belfast - the Shankill Road to be precise, well the Ballygo/Woodvale area actually. No doubt all those marching bands got me into drum beats of a different kind. No doubt certain chemical influences twisted things along the way.I was inspired by DJs David Holmes, Iain McReady, Keith Connolly, Dee Lynch, Glenn Molloy, and Robbie Nelson. I used to run Charlie Heggartys in Bangor, did a fair bit of DJing at Vico's (Brunswick CLub), THompson's Garage and The Art College (during its decriped later days rather than the halcyon ones of Sugar Sweet and One World). My favourite clubs were Faith at The Limelight on a wednesday; Circus Circus in Banbridge on Saturdays; and The Helmsman (Charlie Heggartys) on Mondays, but that was back in the day, early 1990s. When I think about it The Venue on Thursdays with its free grub was alright too. It feels like smeone else life mind you when I write this down.Since then I have lived and worked in Toronto, Canada; London, England; and, Boca Raton (near Fort Lauderdale), Florida USA. Along the way I have been lucky to party with some seriously good people - too many to mention, some names forgotten and well things done not the the ideal braodcast, but if like some quasi-award acceptance speech this is becoming I would like to thank Eddie Watters, Conor Kane, Gareth McKenna, Stevie Boyd, our Marc, John 'Crane' Lennon, MacGhan! Anto 'Bob' Brady, Dave Hales, Gingham, Leeza C, Richie (where did you go?) Visuals, Davie THompson and Sam Thompson, Desi Atkinson, Stevie Haller, Miller, Paul Davy, Paddy Hardcore Henry, Jenny Walsh, Owen, Malachy CLerkin, Barry Wigham, and Uncle Ian. Last but not least Apsamama!Today, however, I am rooted in Dublin's fair city and have been for the best part of a decade and unless something like a lottery win happens probably here for the duration of the game.Whilst in Dublin I have managed The Mean Fiddler and Mono; ran nights at The Temple Bar Music Centre, Kitchen, Isaac Butts, the Legal Eagle, Red Box, Club Nassau (Pegs), Metropolitan and was the promoter at The Hub (Switch). Currently I am doing regular parties at Radio City, the Hub and Crawdaddy plus gigging for any sad sack who'll have me.I believe that I am a house Dj but tend to play techno - you work it out - I was known for playting jungle a long time ago. I loce DJing. Love getting a mix together. Love watching people boogie. My biggest influences or people i would consider myself a fan of would be Richie Hawtin, Xpress 2, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, LFO, Slam, Hardfloor, Miles Davis, De La Soul, Jurassic 5, Paul Weller/The Jam, Ian Brown/Stone Roses, New Order (not so much Joy Division though), Happy Mondays, Gomez, Primal Scream, Foo Fighters, Snow Patrol, David Holmes, Tricky, Massive Attack, Colin Dale, Colin Favor, Dan CUrtin, John Aquaviva, Kenny Larkin, David Morales, Francois K, Depeche Mode and one or two more. Locally Chymera, Derek Carr, Tristen Polar, David Donohoe Source Code, Kudos, Queen Kong, Story of Hair, Asciinoid, Produse, Billy Scurry, Aidan Kelly, Dave's Hales & Ingham, Mark Dixon, Sean McCann, Johnny Moy and Donnacha Costello all float my boat.Other than that what can I say: I am married to April have two great children, Adam and Ruby and support Man Utd, Northern Ireland and Linfield or my sins; I dont like rugby or usually the people that do; I wish I had been given the chance to play Hurling (what a game); and I hope to discover the route to Ireland's 5th space one day and let art and love set us all free.Please go to Beatport, Juno, Audio Jelly, Beatsdigital, iTunes or Trackitdown and buy some quality tunes on the Nice & Nasty record label (please)For info on gigs and releases go to: www.niceandnasty.net and for online ticket sales go to: www.tickets.ie

My Interests

politics - music - sport - the troubles in Norn Iron. my kids, Ruby and Adam; my wife, April; philosophy, fantasy football. Actually fantasy foot ball and the real thing, well Man Utd take up too much time if i am honest. Quite like cricket, darts, snooker. Cant tolerate golf or rugby or silly people.

I'd like to meet:

Man Utd's Ronaldo to slap the little fucker although I am now coming around to not disliking him so much. I reckon Dave Grohl, Jack BLack, Alex Patterson, the Gomez boys would be all cool punters and deadly to go on the batter with. I would have loved to have met the late great Davie Cooper. It would be best to meet people at their level though. Like counter to public opinion I would love to meet George W Bush, to be part of that inner circle to see if he is a genius in disguise or the twat we think he is. But remember kids we drink coca-cola, drive cars with premium unleaded and consume shite at an ever increasing rate so unless we change why should people like him. Surely he, like America's greatest hero JACK BAUER does the things we dont want to to provide the things we like.

Music:

I like electronic music deep, funky, sometimes hard, sometimes with vocals and bongos, sometimes without beats, but mostly with a 4/4, acid b-line and driving metalic hi hats (sst sst sst sst). As for pop & rock i like it retro, indie, guitar based, loud, sweaty. I hate obvious art of any kind probably just to be pretentious, but I like most things by Richie Hawtin, Oasis, XPress 2, Masters at Work, Paul Weller, The Who, DJ Shadow, De La SOul, Jurassic 5, 4 Hero, Dave CLarke, DJ Sneak, The Advent, Happy mondays, Roses and Ian Brown plus Ian pooley, Slam, Alex Smoke and many, many more.

Movies:

Jaws, Bridge too far, Bridge over the river Kwai, Quadropenia, carlitos way, scarface, contact, star wars - even the prequels, leon, event horizon

Television:

West Wing (RIP), Simpsons, Gillette Soccer Saturday, Football Focus, Shameless, ER, Extras (not the office so much), The Bill, Ready Steady Cook, 24 and Give my head peace. Mad into that Great british Menu shite, enjoy Ugly Betty (its my shame), Frasier, Have I got news for you and Soccer AM.

Books:

I love 'To kill a mocking bird' by Harper Lee. I am also a fan of George Orwell. Oddly I have read several books by Irish comic Sean huges who is not unlike Nick Hornby with his over use of music/songs as memory ref points. Embarrassingly i like the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. Swashbuckling! otherwise I tend to read text books. not wuite the lover of manuals now but once a student always a student.

Heroes:

Davie Cooper, Martin McGaughey, Geordie Dunlop, Norman Whiteside, Paul McGrath, Frank Stapelton, Best, McCoist, and then Talcott Parsons and many others from Harolambos & Holborn. Warhol, hawtin, Brown, New order, Tony Wilson, Robbie V and Molloy, me mummy (aaahhhh).

My Blog

Dave Clarke's choice of tunes keeps geting better

Last week the worlds leading techno DJ, Dave Clarke played two trax from the Nice & Nasty catalogue on  his White Noise Show. Again the Octogen remix of Terrence Dixon's Tranquility and also ...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:58:00 PST

Dave Clarke supports quality music as always!!!!!!

Octogen remix of Terrence Dixon pleases Dave Clarke Taken from Daveclarke.com Aug 2008 Techno 1. Biz "Rolling Thunder" 2. Adriano Canzian "Turkish Testerone" 3.  Joey Beltram "Shaki...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:37:00 PST

Terrence Dixon (Detroit) on Nice & Nasty

Busy, Busy, Busy, but working with Terrence Dixon and Mark O'Sullivan right now makes me feel that Nice & Nasty is showing its teeth, its grown up nashers and having a right bite out of life.Terre...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:49:00 PST

Reviews of Marco Bernardi on Nice & Nasty

By Mark E G 9M8 Magazine, UK). Issue 232. August 2008 Irish techno flag flyers Nice and Nasty live up to their name with this dirty, late-night groover from Mr Marco Bernardi. The A1 is straight-...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:38:00 PST

PROMOS FROM NICE&NDNASTY

WE'D LIKE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND PERMISSION TO SEND YOU SOME MP3/WAV PROMOS. IF YOU'D LIKE TO ADD IN A POSTAL WE WILL CONSIDER YOU FOR A VINYL TEST PRESSING AND/OR A CDR.Here at Nice & Nasty we ar...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Tue, 06 May 2008 04:56:00 PST

News from Nice & Nasty

In association with Slick-DJ Magazine, Nice & Nasty invite you to a record release party.   Nice & Nasty release their 11th and 12th pieces of vinyl in May and June, respectively and...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:01:00 PST

DMC/MixMag UPDATE review of next record

Heretics Of Disko ’Feelin’ Electrified, A Diff Kinda Brotha, Tracy’s Revenge’ (Nice & Nasty) It’s Ireland’s hottest techno label again and the goodies they&r...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:39:00 PST

new releases for 2008

Released today on Nice & Nasty was:  Deep Tropical and Tracy's Revenge A Diff' Kinda Brotha Online only release from Sweden's Kenny Black (Finest Blend records, collaborator of Orlando V...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:28:00 PST

Review’s of New Music

SOURCECODE 'EVEN NUMBERS REMIXES' / CHYMERA 'MY LOVE' (NICE & NASTY) Ireland's Nice & Nasty operation has been operating for 15 years as one of ...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:50:00 PST

Billy Nasty / Marco Bernardi / Teknik / T-Polar

I have a few things to mention:Firstly, Marco Benrardi's EF,NG EP is out now on download and will be followed in January by remixes of EF,NG and PLastic Spanner on both download and vinyl. Remixes of ...
Posted by DESY BALMER NICE&NASTY on Sat, 03 Nov 2007 05:06:00 PST