Northern Comfort

Northern Comfort is a blog/website run by Manchester's tallest man, Rob D and featuring contributions from Catcalledmorris (Chris to his mum) and Treva Whateva of Tru Thoughts and Ninja Tunes fame as well as various other contributors here and there. They cover many bases musically but with a predominance of hip hop posts, something which the three of them are very well versed in, they tend to provide me with more than enough information and enthusiasm on a genre that has defined a culture. There is also a decent amount of humour involved which can make for a highly entertaining read.

One of the many strengths of Northern Comfort are the mixes on offer. My personal favourite mix is by Rob's better half, Elisabeth Kurtis, which concentrated on all-girl bands from over the years and, to be honest, what Elisabeth doesn't know about all-girls bands quite simply isn't worth knowing. Rob and Chris are also superb DJs who have guested just about everywhere from Last Rites to Northern Disco and beyond and they've both contributed to Ema Nosurak's Nu Boogie radio show on Salford City Radio. Rob has been kind enough to let us link to his Xmas Mix, which should keep you jolly over the festive period. Northern Comfort is also the home to Kelvin Brown's impeccable mixing and selections, which have never been in more evidence than on his latest Celestial Blues.

Not content with keeping things on the Interweb, they're going to be starting a monthly night in Manchester in 2008 as well as guesting at other nights such as the awesome Northern Disco. Their site will also be featuring mixes from Hot Pot radio, which used to be broadcast on Samurai FM and featured the likes of Mr Scruff, the Unabombers, Treva Whateva and guests.

Rob is also adept at making records and you can download a few of them here.

Northern Comfort is definitely going from strength to strength but don't take my word for it, visit them here and see for yourself.