#13min "CUNT" mix for #FEELINGS in FACT Mag

Re-=posted by the good people of FACT Magazine:

UK ballroom impresario Niall Connolly drops an importantly-NSFW mix.

Earlier this year, Connolly shared the untold story of the UK vogue scene (part one and two) and shared a sizzling mix of contemporary vogue under his CVNT TRAXXX alias. And while his moniker may be controversial, it nods to one of the most important word in the scene (as anyone who has listened to ballroom knows).

“I always knew that associating myself with the “c-bomb” would be controversial, maybe even a turn-off for some folk, so when #FEELINGS asked for a 13 minute mix a few years ago, I decided to put something together to show how “cunt” has been used positively,” Connolly tells us.

“It basically means hyper-feminine and also super-strong, and in the context of voguing and drag it is very positive. House, and in particular ballroom music, has been the main genre for using the word, and this mix covers both modern ballroom and also the older 90s track that first used the term, like Tronco Traxx and in particular the legendary Kevin Aviance.”

Stream the mix — which features modern producers like MikeQ and Divoli S’vere alongside vogue originals Kevin Aviance and Tronco Traxx — below. Catch CVNT TRAXXX with MikeQ this Saturday at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen.

HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR "My Offence" (the meaning of "cunt")

The latest Hercules & Love Affair video features a lot os NY nightlife stars explaining the meaning of "cunt" as a positive term used in queer/trans world. Hats off! Now I can just send people to the vid when they ask me about my name :)

SUGUR SHANE Kill Da Bitch EP

My homie Shane has a new EP dropping on the label Main Course, featuring this (the title track) and the stone cold ballroom classic "Buddha V Shane" which features heavily in my dj sets already. The nice people at Main Course - you can check out the full release here - have put together this video for the lead track:

Pam Van Damned @ CHA CHA BOUDOIR

Me and other members of the Hosue Of Tranarchy helped our sis Pam Van Damnedwith this lip sync to Light Asylum at Cha Cha Boudoir:

CVNT TRAXXX @ House Of Trax, XOYO, July 11th 2014

Some nice footage of voguers Benjamin Milan and David Magnifique plus friends, during my set at House Of Trax at XOYO. I love the way this looks against the strobe, though I had to keep my finger on the button to keep it on constantly, while djing and filming at the same time!

Tracks: "Walk 4 Me" Tronco Traxxx / "Vouge Remix" MikeQ & Madonna

Dance Tunnel re-posts my DJ SPRINKLES interview

(Originally published on CVNTY, 2013)

By Niall Connolly

In May 2013 I travelled to Glasgow for the Arika 5: Hidden In Plain Sight festival, a celebration of the past, present and future of vogue and ballroom culture. Among those performing at the festival were Vjuan Allure, legendary dancer Pony Zion, and DJ Sprinkles, whose connection with voguing goes back to hir residency at famous New York trans*/drag bar Sally's 2 in the early '90s.

I conducted an in-depth interview with Sprinkles about vogue culture that touched on many other subjects like politics, activism and gender expression, as well as notions of “spirituality” found within house music, and Sprinkles' reaction to those ideas within hir own work as Terre Themlitz.

The following is an abridged version of the interview, which can be read in full (3 parts) by clicking here

You are primarily known as a "deep house" dj and producer, and yet so many elements of that culture have to do with "spirituality", and not even a religious spirituality. In the UK, I feel, house music culture and the drugs that surrounded it was in a way a kind of secular spiritual rebirth, though it didn't have a language to express that necessarily. I find it very interesting that you are directly oppositional to that. 

I am directly oppositional to that, but I also have no hope of crowds of people overcoming those spiritual subtexts.  But the promise of overcoming is not what is important, resistance is what is important.

But do you find that your position alienates you from certain parts of the house music genre? Are there songs you wouldn't play? 

Absolutely there are things that I won't play. But there are also things like that I will play, I just happen to like them in some way. And I will deal with them. Like "Inspiration" by Arnold Jarvis, a track that is politically antithetical to my own nihilism. But I love it! And the irony of a track like that in one of my sets is not lost on everyone. You have to allow for humour, and camp. And hypocrisy, and "the fake" and all these things that are also a part of drag culture and transgender culture... I guess for those reading this who don't know anything about me, we should mention I identify as transgender, by the way...

READ THE REST HERE

CVNT TRAXXX @ House Of Trax, XOYO, July 11th

w00p! Looking forward to this, always great playing with the HOT fam!!