It’s kinda rare that we go out of our way to book DJs for our end of month parties. Mostly pitches come to us or we work with repeat partners. John Fitzgerald aka. DJ Fitz is an exception: we have actively hunted this one out for a late, esoteric session. Tonight we are very excited to present his collective <Doodcast> taking over the turntables from 9pm – 3 or 4am.

As a soupçon here’s a Turkish psych-out mix he recorded for the inimitable David Byrne’s radio station, suitably titled: Middle Eastern & Maghreb Disco Funk from the Golden Era (1975-1985). We also got to pick John’s brain a bit about seeking out records, the Doodcast project and putting together a show.

First up, thanks for sending us the mix to share. How did the collaboration with David Byrne come about?

WHEN David Byrne's label , Luaka Bop , did a big reissue project on the music of William Onyeabor, the label manager Eric (who I knew from DJ things throughout the previous 5 Years) asked me if I had any of his music and I had two records which I them sent to them. Plus, I had a connection with a Nigerian taxi driver here in Hackney who’d lived in London since the 80s, but used to jam with Fela back in the 70s in Lagos and knew Onyeabor also; and, helped Byrne’s crowd get in touch with Onyeabor. So I developed a friendship with the label and they started following my mixes etc online and asked me to do a Special Mix for David Byrne's online radio show.

You've got a real ear for blending esoteric, psychedelic records with ones that feel instantly familiar and have an almost 'pop' sensibility (to my ears at least). What's your process when digging for records and then subsequently putting together a mix? Does one inform the other or do you take a more freestyle approach?

I take mostly the freestyle approach. Having said that, crazy covers also have helped me a lot along the road: sometimes you just know its mental! I can never say no to an Indian cat wearing a crazy Christmas jumper or some dude hanging out behind a palm tree in Trinidad.

When I saw this cover years ago in a Portuguese record store, where there was no chance to listen, I was sure the goods were there.

This mix uses a lot of records you found in Turkey; the radio show that first alerted me to you was your 'Bombay Synth Funk' one on NTS which, for the record, is possibly the mix I've listened to the most on the internet. In both instances you seem to be opening up the listener to a whole world of music that you may have known nothing about at all before, that deviates so far from the tried lines of musical etymology and history. The Bombay Synth mix made me look for that kind of music in a whole different way because it gave me that eureka moment where you realise that this technology to make these records was not solely limited to Detroit or London, say.

Are you finding these records online or are you travelling a lot to make these connections?

Initially I started digging in the Late 90s/early 2000s and was mostly funk/soul/jazz records, when I lived in New York. Then Moving to europe in 2003 I started travelling alot for work and finding lots of great records in Italy, Germany, Portugal and also in Turkey (where I travelled to and DJd many many times). In recent years I looked online a fair bit, but now it’s almost more expensive to buy some records than a car, so I don’t do it unless I really NEED it. I mainly buy now when travelling - still in stores.

To the uninitiated, what and who make up the Doodcast collective? What's the ethos behind the project?

It’s Mike Stoke, McAndrews and myself. We lived in Dalston in the early 2000s and my flat was above the the East Garden noodle shop on the corner of Kingsland Road and Dalston Lane. The guys also lived nearby. We got tired of the bars and club scene around and basically we said ‘lets make a Podcast,’ in my tiny flat (please note** we had no idea what we were doing - probably still don’t!) So, we invited forty people around to hang out and we started DJing, talking, telling crazy stories, drinking grog… It became a regular occurrence after a while and then we started inviting guests and others and now we have done it in many parts of the world. It has around 200,000 listeners now on the world wide web.

What should we then expect on Friday at the bar? We're running from 9 till late so there's a fair chunk of time to play about with!

It will be a DJ set, Friday Night Party, no time for messing: so lots of Loose Jams :-)

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