I feel the need to put my public house in order, and I realize that I’ve been alluding to some things here and hinting at other things there, and saying I would mention it in the future, but then telling a friend about it, like, actually someone who isn’t online at the time, and then thinking I’ve blogged about it, round and round in a sort of sonic loop, similar to what at work we call “Having Pressed Alt 3/4″ (That is, sending the signal that’s coming into the mackie mixer* from Pro Tools or Avid on channel 1 and 2 out the Alt outputs (ie, outputs 3 and 4, as opposed to the main outs which can be thought of as 1 and 2), and where do Alt 3 and 4 go? Why to the 888 or the Mojo or the Adrenaline box (click here if you’re lost), which if you have your track record-enabled or your digitize tool open, it’s set to listen for input, but in order for you to hear what it’s “listening” to you have to listen to it as well, which how do you do that? By listening to the channel… which is on, yes, Alt 3/4. The outcome, as anyone who’s spent even a small amount of time around a studio can tell you, is a dreadful squawk)**,***,****
*Which, can I say that Tim from Orangecore pointed out that the mackie diagrams/how to manuals are ridiculously fun to read, no joke, and even illustrate the concept of sound being sent out to the room, presumably where you want it to go, with little happy dancing people! That’s so cool. Oh, you can even see the dancing guy logo on the top left of the main index of their site, and note that their little tag in a google search says: “World leader in the development of professional audio gear … straight outta Woodinville, WA, USA, y’all.” Can’t beat that.
** Sorry for the rant. This is the rant I have often wanted to deliver on the job, ie, IT’S A 12 CHANNEL MIXER FOR GODS SAKE!!! It’s not a piece of equipment from Mars, the government didn’t develop it, it’s super well designed and intuitive… sigh, anyway, as I said, just getting stuff off my chest from work
*** Can you tell I’ve been reading David Foster Wallace?
****OMG – He gave a commencement speech at Kenyon. Check it out!

Anyway, stuff:

I have been truly blessed. The music gods have given me a monthly at one of the best clubs on the planet. Starting in March issue, XLR8R is changing the format of their singles reviews to a more conversational style, complete with all the important things in bold. I have 500 words, give or take, to cram in as much info as possible into my column Basic Needs: Low End Necessities from Ragga to Dubstep and Beyond. It’s kind of the “Other” category, Other that is than Techno, House, DnB, Dub/Dancehall, and I think Downtempo/Abstrakt, and maybe Indy Electronic (as in, those are the other columns. Ross Hogg is doing the dancehall one). Or something along those lines (I haven’t actually seen the first one!) I WILL be covering Dubstep, Grime, breaks-y stuff, bits of electro, Baile Funk, dubby/ragga stuff that doesn’t fit into traditional Dub/Dancehall or DnB, “Random Fusions” meaning mashups that are more dance than hip-hop, and I’ll always try and sneak a more extreme thing in there along the breakcore or ragga-jungle lines. In addition to that running in print, I’ll have some singles reviews that will be published online (here), and there will be a guest reviewer doing some singles in addition (I think the first one is in April, and it’ll be Low Budget).

So. Neat huh? In addition to that I’ll be doing articles as I can. There are actually two from me in the January issue, one with Debaser of Press Up Records and one with The Bug. In March will be In The Studio with Ghislain Poirier, and I’m working on April’s this weekend, but it’ll be 8bit/chiptune related. AND, in addition to all that, I get a little mention as a featured contributor in the January issue, so you can see the following picture of me and my favorite little guy in the front of the mag:

He dictates, I just take notes.

The official line: As a DJ I’ve always been interested in getting my hands on as much material as I possibly can, vinyl, CD, whatever. Now, I can officially solicit material on the writing front as well for the column. Keep in mind the general musical genes I outlined above and that I turn in my article two to two and a half months ahead of when the magazine comes out, so I’m sort of looking on the forward tip, although if something’s just come out in the last couple months, send it for consideration. I need to know label, track names and artists names, so it can’t be “I’ve got all this great material but I can’t tell you who the MCs are or what label it’ll be on because it’s not confirmed”. And, in general, I already get lots of stuff from XLR8R themselves plus other people, so while everything will be considered, not everything will end up in the column, and often times it will just be because of space issues or because of the flow of the column that month. Standard stuff. All that being said, send music! I want to hear it.

Grooves
The other folks I write for at the moment used to be a magazine and now they’ve gone completely digital after 18 great issues. The 19th issue is free and available here at http://www.grooves-digital.com. It’s a PDF document that’s been built into the HTML interface so I can’t link you to it directly, but look for the article on DJ Mixers. That’s mine. There’s also good pieces on Coldcut and Kaffe Matthews. All the reviews you came to know and love are available on the original Grooves site: http://www.groovesmag.com After this issue, there will be a small subscription fee, so check it out now and then hopefully sign on for the long haul.

Straight Up
I’ve done a mix for the nice folks from Straight Up in Melbourne. It’s an internet station that I believe is run out of the neighborhood next to the one I used to live in. They’ve had people like The Tape vs. RQM and Jimpster. I tried to expand on the themes I sort of explored in the Mashers without Borders mix, and while this one is less layered, it think it comes across as darker, although of course I couldn’t resist a couple funny bits. It’s call The End of Dub, about dub on the outside, dub done by outsiders to dub. It’ll be posted in a week or so, and it’s only streamable, but I’ll direct attention to it when it’s up.

Press Up Records
The third mix I’ve been working on is actually going to see an honest to god release on CD! I’ve done it for Press Up Records out of Toronto, and if you’ve read any of my stuff about ragga you’ll know I hold label boss Debaser in the highest regards. Very clean, clear new ragga productions, many of which are original voicings by some pretty great, well-known artists. Most of the tracks have been released, although there are some upcoming tunes on there as well. It’s recorded but it’ll be a few months before the mastering and art and duplication comes together. Actually I’ve sort of been wracking my brain for a name/art concept and haven’t been able to come up with anything… suggestions? Anyway, the mix is solid, I did it all off of CD for maximum control, and the nice thing about all the tunes on it is that they change up quickly within their structure, so I didn’t have to rush to mix as fast as possible. More info about that will come as I know it, for now check out the Ragga Jungle board or the Press Up Records website.

Mystery Mix
Another mix alert: The intrepid Riddim Methodists will be contributing a mix collectively to a website that I’m going to keep mum about for the moment for reasons that will become obvious eventually. It’s a crazy huge undertaking for 6 people to build one coherent mix over a country’s-worth of distance. We’re mixing bits together and passing them back and forth, and then mixing the mixes. It’s all very heady stuff, but hopefully will translate into some serious ass-wiggling.

Baja
On the gig front, I really only have one coming up, but boy is it a pretty sweet one. Ripley and I are playing in Baja California at this party which is taking place at this hot springs resort. This is all arranged by our friends at Suburban Theory that threw our LA gig last July. Actually what’s happening is that we’re providing the Chill out area for a much larger rave that’s all trance and house and what not, not really my scene per say, but hey, take me to Mexico and I can do chill till the Yuka comes home. Chill as in:

and

I will definitely take lots of pictures and have lots of musical stories to tell. I’ve never been to Burning Man, and I know that Burning Man types (Burning Men?) would argue that this is completely different, but to me desert + neo hippies + chill out electronic music seems about there. I’m considering not taking my laptop. I just realized if I didn’t that would probably be the longest time I’ve been without checking e-mail in years. But, then, I suppose that’s the definition of chill.

Summer in Europe
So that’s the spring. This summer Ripley and I will be in Europe. We are looking for a flat to rent in Berlin, preferably in Kreuzberg, so if anyone knows of anything that will be available from the beginning of June to the middle of August, drop us a line.

Also, we’re looking for bookings and nothing’s too big or too small. We will be joined by DJ C of Mashit for two weeks sometime in July, and that’s probably when we’ll do our most intense touring. I will be creating a “We’re going on tour” webpage with mixes and shots and bio info (god, I haven’t redone my official bio since the last tour two years ago), and that will be hosted on the Riddim Method site. I’ll make a lot of noise at that time but right now, to anyone reading this in Europe, or anyone who might know someone in Europe who should be reading it, get in touch, since our schedule is wide open at the moment. Once we get a few gigs we can start to build the summer around them, so now’s the time. Definite more info to come.

Google Earth
As a side note, to facilitate all that, because I’m a big nerd when it comes to maps, I went to the trouble to get Tiger so that I could download and install Google Earth which has finally been released for Mac. It’s insane, a huge time suck, infinitely useful, and the greatest trip toy for nerds ever invented. If you haven’t checked it out and you have the system to run it, do so!

School
As for the Fall and beyond, I’m hopping that my application to what used to be called SIMS and is now called iSchool will be accepted. That’s what all the stuff about writing and GRE’s and whatnot was all about last Fall. If you’re curious, check out the school’s redesigned website here. (Odd that it’s still sims.berkeley.edu). More news when I have it.

Updating Info
So, yeah, that’s a big old blast of personal info, which might explain why I’ve been a bit absent from the online world. I’ll be back to talking about music stuff and other random thoughts about gigs next time (with a report on Drop The Lime who I’m going to see perform in a few minutes!) Plus I have some maintenance to do on the links section for both here and Riddim Method. Never stops…

Make Some Noise Mix
I’m leaving you with the week’s second mix. This one I did for Andreas Churchill, following on the heels of my gig at Bootie last month. Andreas maintains several sites, including his own, Beat Mixed, and the one that I did the mix for, Make Some Noise. (He’s also a Mod for GYBO.) A true podcast, I get a little intro and then he goes on to play some fun tunes after my shift is over. All mashups or covers or remixes of various kinds. Tracklist is below, and I’ll link it to his site where you’ll find links to the various artists on the mix. Enjoy, and keep supporting mashups at this critical juncture, now that the world’s premier portal Get Your Bootleg On has been served a Cease and Desist! Mash that down!!!!!

Kid Kameleon – Make a Second Try mix for makesomenoise.co.uk

Alex H – Set Intro (Dr. Teeth + many others)
DJ Erb – “That’s Life” (Frank Sinatra vs Nas)
Omega One – “Let the Rhythem Hit ‘em” (Eric B & Rakim)
Dopplebanger – “Flash Runner” (Vangelis vs Grandmaster Flash)
50 Cent – “In Da Club” (Josstintimberlake Mix)
Grubby – “Haters Hotel” (Elephant Man vs Richard T Bear)
Dean Gray – “Dr Who On Holiday” (KLF vs Green Day)
M.I.A. – “U.R.A.Q.T.” (DJ C Mix)
DJ Jay-R – “My Other Car is a Beatle” (Beatles vs Gary Numan vs L’Trimm)
Mochipet – “Yes / No Means No” (Yes vs NoMeansNo)
DJ Panzah Zandahz – “Me & This Army” (Radiohead vs Sev Statik)
Paul Anka – “Wonderwall” (Oasis Cover)
Alex H – “Mahna Mahna in Memphis” (The Muppets vs Marc Cohen)

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