‘The grass is always greener on the other side’ as the saying goes. Living in London you have access to a range of music and performances on a regular basis, but there always seems to be events and gigs outside of London that you wish you could go and see – whether it’s near or far away. The lure of this greener musical grass was enough to convince me to make a trip down to Rome in December to go and see Gli Originali, an Italian music project regrouping some of the country’s finest hip hop artists with a 20 piece live band directed by Franco Micalizzi.

Micalizzi is renowned throughout Italy, and parts of the world, for his work composing scores for a string of Italian and American b-movies in the 70s. The scores have earned him a reputation as they are amongst the finest examples of orchestral jazz funk from the era. Micalizzi was working at the same time as the great Ennio Morricone, and while Morricone is renowned for his more minimalist, tense and classically inspired scores, Micalizzi’s work was much more upbeat and frenetic, with a big Afro-Caribbean influence. While the movies are rarely known outside of Italy, the scores have become prized possessions for producers, DJs and collectors.

The good people behind Skrecz, the leading Polish turntablist site, are pushing things forward this year and expanding their recently established battle to welcome international heads.

The 2007 Skrecz.com Battle, held at the end of February, will this year host showcases from the likes of 2tall and Rafik as well as entrants from other European countries, including quite a few Scandinivian DJs who will be coming down en force. The event will also be filmed by our good friends at DJ Battle TV.

In addition they've secured sponsorship from Eclectic Breaks and the battle will be followed by a club night and feature visual works from VisualArt Project.

Just got a heads up from Crs over at t-turn regarding some new videos of a recent John Type showcase at the Italian ITF finals.

John Type is one of the ex-members of Alien Army, who disbanded a few years ago with their various members carrying onto solo paths, including Tayone who's been busier than most in recent years (see the recent news items for more on that).

Below are three videos from John Type's showcase at the ITF finals, showcasing his new compositions. The tracks were all debuted for the first time at the ITF finals and should be part of a forthcoming release from the man. You can find out more details on the man and his music over at johntype.com and his myspace page.

Ok we're back. Regular visitors might have been wondering what had happened to the site in the last few weeks - showing empty directories, missing files and other various things instead of the site.

The truth is our previous host packed up just before xmas leaving me deep in shit as we say, during what is one of the most unpractical times of the year.

Thankfully we found a new host pretty soon but then moving the site over was another matter entirely. After a few unsuccesful attempts by myself at fixing the CMS engine and pulling my hair in frustration, my good friend Dave aka Shadowdog from clan-km was kind enough to lend a helping hand and sort it out. The site now runs on Joomla! instead of Mambo, which is a pretty smooth and easy transition.

In other news Spin Science has also relocated to Tokyo, Japan - a move made roughly at the same time everything went pear shaped, hence the additional worry and headfuck of getting it all sorted out. Still it's all gone pretty smoothly so far, and life in Tokyo is good.

As for what that means for the site, well I'll be making some announcements in the coming weeks - once I've got a better idea of how Spin Science will move on in 07 and beyond. In the last two years we've achieved over 2 million hits, with an average of 100,000 unique visitors a month - which is no mean feat, so thanks to all the regular readers, visitors and other people who've helped keep this site grow, as well as all the artists and labels who've helped keep it going too. Without any of you this wouldn't have been possible so far. Chances are the site will become much more of a permanent resource in the coming months, as I have other things to do and more importantly a new life to begin and country to discover.

Expect more details in the coming weeks and still new content in one form or another. That's it for now, the site will be updated and tweaked too over the coming weeks. So keep an eye out and tell everyone we're back.

Massive thanks go to Shadowdog for helping out with getting the site back online, as well as Dreamhost for providing us a new home.

2tall and Lamont are two names that most people who follow the happenings in scratching and turntablism will no doubt know or be familiar with. The pair have now released the first EP on the Real Tablist label (headed by Lamont), released in conjunction with Needlework Records (home to 2tall amongst others) who is handling the digital side of things.

That's right, the 'Senses Overloaded' EP, which was announced back in the summer is now available - firstly in digital format on Needlework's Bleep.com page and very soon on CD via Real Tablist. A vinyl release may happen in the next year.

Regular listeners of the Turntable Radio podcasts will already be familiar with some of the tracks from the EP, including the excellent 'Perpetual Patterns'. On offer are 7 tracks, 3 from each artist and one joint collaboration.

• 1: Perpetual patterns - 2tall
• 2: Senses Overloaded - Lamont
• 3: Winding down - Lamont
• 4: First inspiration - Lamont
• 5: Senses Overloaded (2tall remix) - 2tall
• 6: Thought police - 2tall/Lamont
• 7: Glowstick justice - 2tall

This year saw our biggest ever giveaway, a real extravaganza with 6 different competitions offering everything from dj equipment to records, cds, tapes and more.

But like most things in life not everyone can be a winner - well you are all really as the picture on the left says, but really the bank account couldn't take it. And so here's the list of the winners. All winners have been contacted, but if for some reason you haven't received an email then please drop me a line so we can sort it out. All prizes are being sent in the next 2 days.

Thanks to everyone who took part and look out for more competition in the new year.

Xmas giveaway extravaganza winners:

• Eclectic Breaks & Stanton giveaway: Benjamin Ewins
• The Inside/Norm Rex giveaway: Juuso Ritari and Kamil Rosol
• NozL giveaway: Ulf Eide and Dennis Tjoengf
• Dj Klock giveaway: Yiu Yue Hin Derek
• Needlework Records giveaway: Bryan Murphy
• TTR and Spin Science goodies bag giveaway: Jacob Meyer and Manystylz