For the 2nd time, I’m donating my time to this fun charity in San Francisco. It’s call Silicon Valley Rocks and it’s a gathering of a bunch of folks who (broadly) Silicon Valley higher ups during the day, and are (broadly) in bands at night. The whole thins is done to raise money for Music In Schools Today. It’s at the DNA lounge which is always a fun place to play, mainly because they have a good sound system and a DJ booth high above the floor, which makes you feel like the king.
Also, I’ve been working on, and just finished, a little 20 minute mix for Tom Ravenscroft’s show on BBC6. Totally psyched to do it, Tom’s got good tastes (last week’s guest was Plastikman!) and I was put up to it by Alex from One-Handed Music. It’s short so I used it as an opportunity to reach out to some artists I hadn’t had before and collect some good new tracks. I got so many I’m considering doing an alternate take mix after the original one comes out!
Finally, always a happy day when I get something new in my inbox from PK who runs King Deluxe records. They not only have great music but have the best art of any label ou there right now. It’s an EP by a new-to-me artist Muta, and it’s called Runner. Seems like it’s out now so check it out! Heady stuff…
The latest release on DFRNT’s label Echodub is out. Super stellar release from a relatively new French producer named Isotroph. Lots of variation, with one track in the skippy nu-garage vein, two it the slightly more house/drummy mode, and one totally excellent joint (Fission) in that weird netherworld between hip-hop and dnb – the syncopated Autonomic sound of people like Indigo and Synkro.
Beyond just being a good solid, full release, it’s definitely a credit to Alex/DFRNT for what he does with both Echodub and his “other” label Cut for being able to do that thing of making and putting out sweeping, big, synth-heavy tunes that tweak emotions but don’t come across as cheesy or over the top, or calling on tropes and signals that miss the mark. It’s VERY hard to do that, and most people fail at it – and Echodub isn’t flawless, there are some things that aren’t for me on there. But on the whole it’s super impressive undertaking. Plus it’s just well run and well presented as a label/experience – and DFRNT even does all the art. Who knows how he has the time!
*It takes a lot to impress me when anything “Soulful” comes across my radar – only a few people do it well. Afta-1 is one of them. And now so is Abjo. Seriously amazing Sankofa EP from this cat from San Diego, hits that verrrrry difficult balance between smooth without being cheesy, chill crisp beats without being limp, and interesting from first note to last. Apparently he’s got 10 other albums to check out! From the Soulection label, who are giving away a gigantic comp packed with awesomeness that you should check out.
*My man Henry in Portland who goes by the name The Plain Ensemble has a whole EP worth of beats that he’s shopping around and that really needs a home. This guy is young and seriously talented, and he ends up making whatever he touches turn gold. He has me listening to Disco, a rare feat. Check out his tunes at his myspace page and help them find a home (I’m thinking maybe Top Billin’?)
*New-to-me Russian DnB producer Oak released his single Otaku this week. Totally beautiful beguiling stuff for fans of Bop – he and Oak run the Microfunk.ru blog, which is a the heart of this sound at the moment. Otaku has a killer remix by ASC as well.
*Super quality beautiful stuff from the Dewtone label coming at a rate of one per month. Another group of artists that I hadn’t heard before but are also doing a balancing act of ambient house and techno (and straight up ambient), drawing you in and not being cheesy at the same time. I like everything about their presentation too, their artwork is particularly nice. Personal favorites are Nadia Popoff, nikosf., and Recue, but check out their Foundations Compilation for the full range of flavors.
*I’ve been rediscovering Alva Noto’s Xerrox Vol 1. and 2. You should too.
*The eLan album is out on Monkeytown and totally overflowing with tons of quality tracks and remixes. It’s pretty hard to keep up with all that’s going on here, but eLan’s definitely nailed his sound and come into his own on this release. And the supporting cast of remixers is stellar.
*The Brokenchord remix of Fulgeance‘s “London Falling” is off the hook! Look out for it when it’s released on the Fulgance album.
Ghost Mutt of the awesome Lowriders Collective playfully calls it “Bandwagon Footwork”, which far from being belittling I think neatly tells the story in a nutshell. Which, slightly expanded, in my interpretation, reads like this:
*Producers in Chicago ever since the 90s have been making raunchy, funny, over the top dance music. With very simple drum and bassline programming. Like this. People called it Juke.
*In the 2nd half of the ’00s, other Chicago producers took that template, sped it up even more, took out some kicks, threw in A LOT of toms all over the place, and started both cutting up and weirdly detuning vocal snippits. Like this.
*Lots of this stuff was played for dance-off battles at places like rec centers in South Side Chicago. They look like this. Hense the genre name: Footwork. As in music for footwork battles.
*Mike Paradinas of Planet Mu, always a pioneer listener, picked up on it (with a little help from my hommie Staypuft and others) and put out a ton of this stuff, which in turn reached a broad community of international electronic music producers that might have otherwise missed it.
*Those producers, includinglotsofwhitepeople, realized that it was the craziest, weirdest dance music out there and started to incorporate the production technics of Footwork into their tracks.
*(Bang and Works Vol 2 out Nov 7th! It’s huge!)
I made a mix of all my favorite stuff of the last couple years – both from the original Chicago footwork stuff and the folks that have taken it and run with it. The result is up on Percussion Lab. Mixed fast because that’s how this stuff is meant to be presented (I once had a DJ Funk mixtape that had 99 tracks on it – I always guessed because that was the max # of divisions you could put on a CD). 47 tracks in 59 mins and 59 secs. Enjoy – click my feet above for the link (Percussion Lab is sometimes a little slow, if it doesn’t load, try again soon)
This year I got to be part of the group that planned the Forest Stage (formerly the Chill Stage) at Priceless in Belden, California. Most of my time went to figuring out how to get artists there and how to get them paid. But for 1 brief hour I got to take the stage. This was, sort of, the result – that is, the set actually had two halves, the first one being all Drumstep stuff that I’m saving for a future mix. Then it had a 2nd half that was all hip-hop and beat stuff, trying to straddle the line between being chill (as befitted the stage’s history and the lovely forest) and dance-y and upbeat (being our new vision for the stage). The result is below, cleaned up from some Ableton flubs and fleshed out with a few tunes that were cut in order to make room for the drumstep at the beginning. Enjoy!
My page has had a remix. Not like a total deconstructed Shackleton like thing, more just like a simple hip-hop party breaks beefing up of the good stuff. Sidebar is cleaned up, trimmed down, and updated. I redid my bio page to be more like a list. Because I like lists. But most importantly I started the archive of all the mixes that I’ve ever done. Check it out. It’s got about 25 right now. Hopefully it will get up to 75 or so, but over the next chunk of time.
Oh, and I made a Facebook page too. Because who are you if you don’t have a facebook page?
Look for more and shorter posts soon. In the mean time, go listen to Baths. It’s radiohead for 2010.
I’m not really sure what I did to deserve the good fortune of headlining this event, other than randomly sitting next to David Evan Harris at a table at Cesar in Berkeley a couple years ago. But through twists and turns now I and two other wonderful DJs are playing the open party for David’s project, which happens to be the big spring show at Yerba Buena this year! All the info you could possibly want is here, which is also where you go to RSVP.
I’ll just highlight that:
A) They made a video for the party, that my face appears to grace as the still shot for. Click the video link below.
B) It’s free
C) it’s at a time when both night owls and early birds can make (7:30-11:30)
D) It’s in the main hall of YBCA which holds 1000 people
E) It’s free
F) There’s bars and such, and there will be 10 huge video screens hanging from the ceiling
G) Tinker and Boima and I will be playing all sorts of adventurous music, from the jovial to the wild.
H) It’s free
I) It’s next Friday
J) It’s free
Don’t miss it.
In other, almost entirely unrelated news, I’ve become obsessed with Yellow Magic Orchestra. I can go into this more at another time, but let me just post these two videos of the same song 27 years apart. These guys were geniuses then and they’re geniuses now.
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