nigeriaspecial

Miles Cleret has been DJ’ing, record collecting and traveling the world in search of all kinds of music for over 16 years since a teenager. Borrowing African, Latin and Brazilian LP’s from his mum and Jazz and Soul from his dad (some of which never made it back!) he had a varied musical background and a voracious habit of finding evermore new sounds and rhythms from around the world. In 2001 it was time to put 10 years of collecting and Dj’ing to use and he started Soundway Records after a trip to Ghana that inspired him to compile and release the Ghana Soundz albums, putting together rare and unreleased afrobeat and afro-fusion tracks from 70’s Ghana available outside of Africa for the first time.

Since Soundway has evolved so has the demand for the DJ services that go hand in hand with the label duties. Having started out doing underground parties in London and Manchester in the early nineties whilst a teenager (playing to back rooms and chill-out areas gave him to opportunity to play a generous mix of all styles and surprise people without the need to be the main attraction), he got a feel for what makes people move whilst remaining intent on peppering his sets with tracks that no-one knew or could get but keeping away from the snobbery of the Jazz-funk or Rare groove scenes that often professed that good music should always be rare and unavailable (There’s always a place for the classics!).

Miles has played at clubs and events around the world in the last few years as well as co-running a successful and unique night in Brighton England- the Afrobase sessions, mixing tropical dance music new and old from around the world, that has been running on the seafront every month for over three years. He has also started a bi-monthly Soundway events in Hackney, London< . Studio productions include being one half of Latin remix duo “Los Hermanos Latinos”.

The Soundway DJ policy is clear – upbeat tropical music from Latin America, Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean alongside the odd bit of Funk, Jazz, reggae and soul as well modern tracks and remixes with a similar flavour – anything from Nigerian Afrobeat to Colombian Cumbia, Samba from Brazil, Reggae and Calypso, Brazilian broken beat and Afro Hip Hop. If it’s got a positive feeling and a rhythmic complexity and then it’s on the agenda. 

Recent Gigs have included the Chicago World Music festival, Womad UK, Glastonbury, the Big Chill festival, The Candela festival (Puerto Rico), Notting Hill Carnival (London, UK), Teatro Festival (Amsterdam), Turntables on the Hudson (NYC- regular guest), Womad Festival, Turning Point (Toronto bi-annual guest), Salon Daome (Montreal -bi annual guest) Jelly Jazz (UK), Supporting Seun Kuti and the Africa 70 (Brighton, UK), Bol De Funk (Marseille), La Santanera (Mexico - with Nickodemus and Quantic) as well as club Gigs in Spain, France, USA, Sweden, Germany UK and Holland.