To all those coming from the Pitchfork review of my mix, heyo! My ears are still burning, not just from Jess’s kind words but that fact that he got so much of what Aaron, Paul, Eve, me and everyone else is trying to do spot on. And extra props for getting that while I love mashups and have great respect for all who do them well, I don’t actually consider myself a mashup artist. Just a Mashit artist, and more generally, just a DJ doing what DJs have always done. Play other peoples records, and hopefully play them well. (Links to the mixes themselves are at the right.)

Bits and Bytes:

The new Deadbeat album New World Observer is everything I could have ever hoped for and more. Having had a preview of some of the new stuff at the Deadbeat/Monolake show at the beginning of the year, it’s awesome to hear the sonic trickery fleshed out in full. Extra bonus props for the tunes being at different tempos, including a couple that are quite fast and shuffly and good for dancing. Which are of course contrasted with others that make you just want to lie on a cold concrete floor and sob. Catharsis music. Philip Sherburne does a good review that’s up at Scape‘s site (click on the New World Observer album cover on the right). (He’s got awesome pictures from Mutek Mexico as well)

Thanks to Jace and Jake for chiming in on the Mashit mix post below and setting the record straight about Toneburst. Make sure you check the comments for their thoughts/history.

Ripley‘s been blogging up a storm, all sorts of things to be worried about these days concerning copyright issues. Also check out the Let Them Sing It For You post. And, she passed along the fact that A) The Pope has a blog (and Joey Ratz is pretty damn funny) and B) that people in Melbourne are, as usual, doing incredible things. Check out Is Not Magazine for an awesome example of public whatisitery that just totally makes a lot of sense.

Went to see Lawrence Lessig last night, and man is the guy ever a good talker. He strikes the perfect balance between being accessible/lively and communicating the gravity of the current madness in the world of copyright/IP law. And doing it all while saying that even though things may look grim there are concrete positive steps we can take to turn the debate around to what is good for the artists (although Ripley pointed out that this is a different tactic than actually discussing what is in the public interest). It’s nevertheless hopeful. As always, check Creative Commons for things copyleft.

While there I got to meet Evolution Control Committee who handed me a flyer for a show this Friday at 12 Galaxies. And who should be opening? Alan Astor, back on the scene. Should be fun. Also up in SF tonight, alternet.org is doing some readings/talks for their book Start Making Sense at the Swedish American Hall. Cool stuff to hit up before going to Andrea Parker at Dim Sum.

AND, also on the political tip, let us not forget that, as ever, David Rees is basically god. The new Get Your War On is hysterical. Can’t find a link to the Mustache of Understanding thing he did for New York Press, but seek that out too.

Gotten two trustworthy votes of confidence for UKrecordshop now, so I’ll definitely be using them for my next Grime/Dubstep order. Supposedly pretty quick, not too expensive (all things considered), and prompt with their response. Good things all.

Found a link to a great squat in Berlin I haven’t been to before but that Aaron Spectre did a show at last week with Patric Catani (who I didn’t know was part of EC8OR, which means that 17 year old Kid K once got yelled at that “The lights are too bright!” by Mr. Puppet Mastaz). Subversiv is here or at BrunnenStrasse 7 in Mitte.

Finally, just found about 19 T out of Japan. Lots and lots of interesting out there Japanese folks with lots of connections to people like Adaadat and such. Crazy beatz crossed with video game mayhem. What’s not to love? Gotta do some more investigation.

Hope to see some San Francisco types at Let’s Lazer Tag Sometime at Arrow Bar tomorrow, with Kid606 and the rest of the Tigerbeat6 crew.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 at 8:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.