Welcome back to the Phonica Mix series! This month we’ve asked another rising star to join us behind the decks and he goes by the name of Mike Greene aka Fort Romeau.

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We were first switched onto to classy sounds Fort Romeau back in 2012 when he released his Disco-influenced Kingdoms LP on 100% Silk. Since then he has signed to Ghostly International where he’s developed and fine tuned his sound in the form of two original and well received EPs for their main imprint as well as another one for their sub-label ‘Spectral Sound’. Earlier this year he dropped his second album, ‘Insides’ which also landed on Ghostly International (we were huge fans of it here at Phonica!). Fort Romeau is also a top selector, he enjoys digging deep in the crates and is praised across the globe for blending the old with the new with a certain finesse that keeps him in demand all year long. He recorded this mix just before he set off for an American Tour and we couldn't be happier with the results. Without further ado, this is Fort Romeau in the Mix for episode 15!



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Hey Mike! How are you doing? Since you've been on tour in America we've missed your face here at the shop... anything to write home about?

Hi hi, yeah its been good so far, played a boat party in Chicago and then a great club called Monarch in San Francisco! I’m just in NYC at the moment, playing at Output in Brooklyn on Friday with Erol Alkan, so that should be fun.

We know you're a big crate digger, Have you found any good spots over in the states?

Yeah there are a few places here in New York that are good, Academy records in green point and A1 records in the east village. There’s a place called ‘The Thing’ that Willie Burns works at that I haven’t been to yet but want to check out… there’s something like 750,000 records there all costing $2. Probably need to take a packed lunch for that one!

Without giving away any secret weapons, What's one of your favourite records you've discovered in the last year?

There’s been quite a few good ones this year, I’ve been going back to a lot of 90s stuff recently, a few of which are in this mix, things like the Nick Holder record and the Earth People cut which sounds sort of French touch-y but is actually released in 1990. There’s the Whitney Houston / Kraftwerk mashup that I’ve played a couple times, which goes down much better than expected. I also picked up this 12” of Tony Humphries remixes of Deacon Blue, which you’d imagine would be terrible are actually really cool!

Can you tell us a bit about the mix you created for us?

It’s a mix of old and new records that I had lying around as I was packing my bag for the states. Starts out with a few newer deep things before going into some classic jacking / acid / disco vibes. I like to record these podcast mixes live rather than laboriously putting them together on the computer, I don’t really get that.

What's the meaning behind your stage name as Fort Romeau?

I wish I had a better answer for this but I don’t. Basically I hadn’t come up with a name and my first record was ready to be pressed… I was in the south of France and near a place called Font Romeu, so just changed it a bit and that was that. In hindsight I would have chosen something more people can pronounce properly!

The majority of your music has landed on 'Ghostly International' and their sub-label, 'Spectral Sound'. How did this relationship form?


After my first record on 100% Silk, they asked me for a remix for one of their artists “Beacon” I think they liked what i did so asked me if i had any more material and it just went from there really.

Your latest release after the 'Insides' LP landed on Gerd Janson's Running Back imprint. Can we expect more from you on his label in the future and are there any other releases on different labels we can look forward to?


Ive got a track on the new Music For Autobahns compilation that Gerd has compiled, that will be out on Rush Hour pretty soon, Id love to do another one on Running Back at some point definitely. Also planning to do another one with Robert Johnson later this year, just trying to finish that up now. There’s also a few other things that are too tentative to mention, but yeah quite a lot of stuff this year!


TRACKLIST:

 01. Axel Boman - 1979
02. Moodymann - It's 2 Late 4 U And Me (Youandme Edit)
03. FP Oner - The Law Of Correspondance
04. Sleezy D - I’ve Lost Control
05. Caucasian Boy - Northern Lights (Old Skool Re-Edit)
06. The Wamdue Project - Neburu-Electric Storm
07. Nick Holder - Eddies Groove
08. Earth People - Dance (Dub Mix)
09. Mood II Swing - I See You Dancing
10. Tasty Treats - Action 93
11. Bell Boys - The One
12. Blu Cocteau - Niemi