03:00 – London. Heathrow. Here/hear by choice … sort of. Movement … on the move… If you’ve never spent a night in Heathrow, it’s surprisingly fun, and surprisingly lively. Camped out in Costa Coffee in Terminal 1, open all night mostly for the airport staff, but also travelers are coming and going, some shuffling and barely awake, some like the guy who works here in front of me doing shots of sugar and all smiles. Been listening to Blackdown and Infinite, DJ Pinch and Loefah are up next but I’m taking a break to write this and put my “pop” play list (basically everything thing that’s neither too frenetic/hard or too chill/sleepy) on random…. Elliot‘s playing from beyond the grave “… I don’t think I’m ever gonna figure it out…” a great song that never came out, never will come out … the ultimate dubplate, sadly but truly never to be released…

Perhaps I should back up one step (explain why I’m so chipper at 3:00AM sitting in an airport cafe), explain what Pinch and Loefah are doing here with me, and why I’m half a world away from my home. Working backwards as it were … hopefully shedding light on my extended absence and on what’s to come.

Ripley, curled up on the other side of the wall trying to sleep, and I are on our way to Berlin. To live there for the summer, when we’re not on tour either by ourselves or with DJ C (see below…) We were fortunate to get a great ticket in one way, but the price we had to pay was a last flight in / first flight out of our layover city … which happens to be London… If you’ve never traveled west-east on a morning flight, it’s actually great … 6 hours and your done, you take a nap, you read some and do some work, and you arrive without the time-displacement of having a morning without having a night. So here it is 3:30AM here but 10:30PM for me, night’s young, I’ve had a cappuccino, and not sleepy. NOW, where will I be after arriving in Berlin at 10AM when my body will think it’s 5AM? Who knows, but hopefully someone will get me to the flat, possibly RQM or one of the Tolchas.

3:30AM and awake, and with power thankfully snuck to me from behind the coffee bar (big up the guy who works here who’s been keeping an eye out for us) but NO access to internet has given me the perfect combination of circumstances to work on the business at hand, a full length feature on Dubstep for XLR8R‘s 100th issue in September. Deadline’s not for a month, but I did promise Vivian, XLR8R’s editor, a draft. Actually an extremely sensible request, given that we always think “Oh, yeah, traveling, perfect time to write, lots of in between time going wherever/there, just bought a second battery to prolong work…” and then it never happens… Plus it forced me to do a majority of the phone interviews sitting at my kitchen table with Riddim instead of from a payphone by a beach in Croatia.

So, but yeah, check that last paragraph. Full feature on the most vibrant interesting musical scene on earth, license to call any one of 2 dozen of my favorite musicians and say “what’s the haps?” in the name of the best print source for musical haps on earth. I’m blessed. I can’t get over it if I ever let myself think about it. And my research has left me even more hyped. Blackdown waxes eloquent, Infinite is the ball of energy that every scene needs, Pinch reveals himself to be thoughtfully articulate guy even though I think he feels he didn’t come off well (not true!), DQ, Skream, Distance, Loefah, bombastic Joe Nice. I’ve got a second round to do … got to find out more about this Iron Soul that no less than four of my interviewee’s tip as the hotness, got to get Kode‘s thoughts … but yeah … “well chuffed” I believe is the phrase.

This all comes on the heals of last month’s writing adventure, my first feature on Breakcore, just released in the June issue (#98 … look out for it, it’s got Get Physical on the cover). It was … a struggle … for many reasons. Some external to the writing (finishing my work job, writing my final UNIX scripts before leaving for the summer, and getting sick twice in the course of it took a real toll). A lot of it was wrapped up in the writing itself … If you’ve ever gotten a chance to peruse this thread on c8, you’ll know the incredible debate surrounding breakcore, and the huge amount some people invest in how it’s represented or not (and of course the uncaring many others have towards the same topic). It was exhausting, the writing of it, and, well, it was my first feature. Introduction and the scene profile of 6 artists, Hecate, Aaron Spectre, Parasite, Rotator, and Criterion and Doily. Sidebar written by Ripley (thank you again!). Vivian was very patient, endured lateness unparalleled, then helped me rewrite it over and over… While much of the words in the article are mine, Vivian was instrumental in the structure of it as well, and many thanks for her patience. On top of all that, it’s the scene I’m most involved with people-wise, the one where I interact with artists mentioned often. In talking to Barbara Hallama about it, she sighed knowingly. “Ah, you’re sitting between the chairs!”, I guess a literal translation of German phrase that I’ve very much taken to heart. Ultimately, I leave it to you, readers, be you breakcore producers/listeners in any conceivable way or not, to let me know what you think if you do manage to pick it up and read it.

All this, though, sits within my larger roll at XLR8R, as monthly columnist (still can’t get over it) and doing reviews. It’s more writing than I’ve done before about stuff I’ve cared so deeply about. Hence my relative silence in the online community … with so much energy towards that, not only have I not had the desire to write freely, it’s been difficult for me to even take in information online (blogs and so forth)… I got to the point where if someone wasn’t telling ME about it directly, I couldn’t deal with it … which is a trait of a former employer that I always detested and swore I would try never to emulate…

So… there’s my explanation/apology (and within it my renewed resolution) … I’ve been writing Basic Needs, my reviews, and now features in some ways in a vacuum. It’s an endless stream of e-mails, of tracking, of websites, of sound clips listened to as loud as possible on headphones … Forget hearing “Dubstep in its proper environment on a massive system” … I only heard electronic music in general in the company of more than one person or louder than my small to middling sized car speakers can go a handful of times in ’06. I think this actualy isn’t sor from from how a lot of us outliers consume dubstep and a lot else these days. I’m hungry to re-associate music with the social space of the dancefloor, the aspects of it that made me fall in love with it in the first place. Music to watch girls by …

Hence, the third shell, alluded to above… the being half way around the world part (actually probably just a 1/3 technically, but who’s counting besides me?), the London part, the Berlin part. How odd is it that I sit there looking out Terminal 1′s doors to the British pavement, but the first time I’ll set foot there won’t before another month.

Ripley and I will be staying for the summer at Dub Gabriel‘s flat, on Pappelallee, sharing a wall with DeeRoy’s Dubstore, one of if not the best store for reggae and all things Jamaican in Germany, itself a dub-centric nation if you know how to look at it. Write, read, learn to use Live, connect to new folks, and play, those are the goals for the summer. Some part of it I think of as a “tour”, some of it is weekend excursions, hopefully some of it will be house parties that come up on the spur of the moment. People that I tell that I’m gonna be in Berlin for the summer react anywhere between sever distaste (“that city was played out 10 years ago”) to utter disbelief, showing once again that multiple interpretations can all be right, quantum-tatively.

The booking of the tour has been a difficult process… 2006 brings less financial ability to make even the bare minimum of expenses for an in-between DJ such as myself, in-between in the sense that I’m neither nobody nor a named producer… We’ve lost more gigs than we’ve gotten, but those that we’ve got I’ll guard with ferocity, every single one bound to be awesome. Hamburg with the Hoch10 crew to promote venerable FSK Radio, and a chance to catch up with Incite and Baze Djunkiii and meet some new folks. <Electric Renaissance in Halle, and the next night with what has to be the most enthusiastic crew it’s ever been my pleasure to interact with … Disrupt and the whole Jahtari scene who have gone through hell and high water to get a small but what sounds like a people hanging from the rafters gig at Staubsauger (Vacuum Cleaner!). Then dubstep with Freakcamp and a return to the site of 2004′s Clownboxing, the R.A.W. Tempel. All that’s just in Germany, after that it’s Austria, Ireland, UK for 10 days, maybe Finland? (Come on Joonas!), Germany again, Austria again, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and then who knows. It’s all up here, on our little tour site. I’ll definite present details about each show, each crew as we go forward … but a note to anyone who has the power to even remotely do something about it who might read this in Europe. Take a look at the schedule here, any day not it, we’re open, and hoping to play. Just hit me with an e-mail.

Leaving with you a couple pictures from the USA… As is always the case, I see most of the Bay area when and outside comes and requests to see it. Tones was here for a week at the end of May. We made the trip to Colma, a suburb of San Francisco where there are more people below ground than above. A city of graves. Including one that was important to him and one that was important to me… across the street from each other.

This is Emperor Norton’s grave. He was Emperor of the United States… you never heard? Legendary from the Bay, perhaps the first kook in a city renound for kooks … I’ll let Tones add to the story if he wants in the comments, but here‘s the page in the Wikipedia. Pretty awesome stuff, and pretty awesomely American.

The grave of my ancestor. Yup, that’s my last name, and yup, I am related. 5th Cousin 3 times removed if you want to know (and no, that stuff isn’t mumbo-jumbo… learn a few simple rules and you’re geneologically set for life). Buried in a Jewish cemetery (which was fascinating in its own right … the gaudiness of some Dead Californian Russian Jews must be seen to be believed). Cool moment for me to connect with the old man.

Just awesome… I know nothing about it other than this is what we found. Motto for the summer. “It’s a Feeling!”

GONE THINKING — BLOG TO RECOMMENCE ON OR AROUND JUNE 1ST (GIVE OR TAKE A WEEK)

Three likkle mixes here, one from me and two from friends.

First is my joint for Straight Up in Australia. Brother B contacted me and a lot of the mixes that were already on the site were pointing in directions that I was thinking about at the time, but also thought I was thinking about in a different way. So I created The End of Dub mix for him. I wanted to thread the dub through a lot of genres that aren’t traditionally seen as being strickly dub, but that if you go off and ask some of the producers in, they always list Tubby/Professor/Perry/Scientist as an influence. Pretty proud of it actually, favorite moments including how the Amit and Rupture fuse into each other almost in tune, how the Touchin’ Bass track and the Rhythm and Sound mix meld so precisely, and the fact that I got that I finally got that Xhale track on something because it’s so beautiful and Civik was never a label that received much attention as far as I could ever tell. In away this is the alternate history to the party party thread of the XLR8R column, although the idea of reaching into different genres and pulling out the hidden representations still holds. Just here it’s dub whereas there it’s, I don’t know what, good party music I suppose.

Tracklist is just below with a link to the page at Straight Up which has the mix. Right now it’s just streaming from them since that’s the way they do it and because I’m maxxed on bandwidth at the moment from the 12 Years mix and the post NYE Beat Research mix. If you want a copy for download, by all means holla at me on e-mail (see top right) and I’ll send you the link.

Kid Kameleon – The End of Dub (Click the Listen button)

Track (mix) – Artist [Artist]
1. Echolectrics – Alter Echo & ERS1 [Unreleased]
2. Thugaadub – JSt*r [JSt*r Music]
3. MK Ultra – Amit [Commercial Suicide5]
4. Little More Oil (Taking over Venusuala to fuel our SUVs mix) – dj rupture Sister Nancy and Kid606 [Souljazz]
5. Going Away (Dubplex Inc. remix) – Hilltribe vs. Staple Singers [Hilltribe]
6. Hang On – We [Home Entertainment]
7. Windows – CMA [Up Above Records]
8. Cissy Strut – Pablo [Redhook]
9. Killer in Tunisia (Latin Remix: Grubby) – La Sonara Poncena & Elephant Man [Noisybunch]
10. Mistake – Framix [Toolbox]
11. Dub for Lazy Loafters – Chocolate Weasel [Ninja Tune]
12. Nlogax – Boards of Canada [Skam]
13. Entomodub 2 – Lena [Quartermass]
14. Texas Tea Deadbeat [~scape]
15. Rebiana Sand Sea – Hiss and Buzz [Skor]
16. Let we Go – Rhythm & Sound w/ Ras Donovan & Ras Perez [Burial Mix]
17. Phantom Movements – SoulWeaver [Touchin' Bass]
18. Ali Mc Bills – Jahcoozi [Kitty-Yo]
19. Synergistic Effect – DJ Spooky, TCDSS and Alter Echo [M Records]
20. Long Bone – Sofa Surfers [ESL]
21. Everything Criss (Dub) – Horace Andy [Bam Salute]
22. People of the Book (Swayzak remix) – Systemwide [Select Cuts]
23. Traitor – Skream [Ital]
24. Officer – Coki [DMZ]
25. 28g – Loefah & Skream [Tectonic]
26. Cheat I – Appleblim [Skull Disco]
27. Money Honey (remix) – Pressure feat. Warrior Queen [Hyperdub]
28. Bulldozer – 2nd II None [Road]
29. Tokyo Ghost Stories – Aarovane [City Centre Offices]
30. Light Red – Xhale [Civik]

Really happy to do this one for Oz, it’s my strong desire to get back there in ’07 I guess (I was there at an influential time and have lots of friends there still … plus Brother B lives one neighborhood over from where I did). BUT, given the nature of this mix and the last few I’ve posted, one of the next mixes I do MUST showcase the harder stuff… I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a chance to get out some of the breakcore that I’ve been keeping up with, Aaron Spectre and Math Head and dev/null and Enduser and such, and I got to get some of that down on the 0s and 1s. Don’t want people thinking I’ve gone all soft eh?

If you’re still in need of a hip-hop fix, got two other little mixes for you. One: definitely peep Who the Fuck is RQM!

(Click for Mix)
RQM is the voice of Al Haca, who we hope to be doing lots of business with this summer. He’s compiled 9 of his best joints, including a couple new exclusives in there, and I hear Robert of The Tape’s production hand in there a lot (my favorite producer of the moment). Also of course the usual cast of characters from Al Haca and the Tolcha fam. Minimal was the standout track from Autoreverse and it sounds like the new Tape vs. RQM album is gettin’ on the done side, so we’ve got that to look forward to after this. Peep it.

Also, just a little thing from Dear Friend, #1 Dad, and all round music soul of the Triangle One Duran. Just his latest mix, bit of this and that all along the hip-hop and just outside of hip-hop track. Don’t have a track list (OD holler at me in the comments if you want to post it), but listen anyway, it’ll make time fly. Get it here.
UPDATE: Here’s the page on WXYC for the mix, complete with tracklist.

Heading to Mexico this weekend!!!!!!! I adore the desert and it’ll be awesome to spend some time in it. I’ll take lots of photos, should make for some good stories.

Ripley, C, and I’s tour page for the summer is up here. Like I said before, if you’re interested in booking us or know anyone who might be, check it and get in touch: Riddim Abroad 06. We’re especially looking for leads on some festivals that we might still be able to get in on at this late date. Doesn’t have to be giants like Sonar, can be smaller stuff, but we know in Summer all the traditional promoters get shy about doing events, and festivals are a safer shot.

That’s it for now, except to say to friends who might be wondering, I’ve got a new home. I’m pleased as pie.

I can’t believe in my rush to get the info out about The Bug’s Valentine’s Day shindig thing on BBC, I forgot the other half of what I was going to say. Which, see above. Pretty much an A list of the world’s…. that. At the moment. Have fun lads and lasses.

Also got this from Aaron Spectre: A hell of a fun looking show at Transmediale with pictures here and videos here and here. Seemed like fun, I know a couple other people where there… next year.

Things that I forgot to throw on my list from yesterday but wanted to mention:

Radical Cartography! From Ripley (who’s got a new site design [which if any css types out there can figure out how to get rid of the little salmon-colored bar at the top right of her profile, get in touch with her]), which seems like the kind of thing that would be on Boing Boing and if so forgive the reposting, but man is it ever cool.

Friends started the No Selector Sunday night thing in my old hood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s at Bembe, which has to be one of the cooler locations in the US. I saw a superb Dub Trio show there once. Check No Selector’s My Space page for the haps (and, despite the name, you can see some superb selectors there in addition to the live acts)

I forget if I already posted this, but it bears repeating, El Kano from Adverse Camber is a wikkid selector. His Bumpin’ Bellycore mix is here, and he did one for Guttabreakz here, and starts with an unbelievable Loefah/Lalo Schiffrin mix! Now he’s blessed Mashit with its latest mix, totally rough and rugged Brokecore style.

The Tenement Museum in NYC is doing an awesome project involving streets, maps, music, remixes, and more. A Musical Bear associate was involved and it’s got a cool interface. Check it out here.

ERS1 of Raggabot has a new mix here that’s a really hard, breakcore/ragga-jungle crossover thing that he added a lot of tweaks and his own productions too. Don’t see it mentioned on the site itself, but here’s the direct link to Rude, Rugged, and Rough. Not for the faint of heart.

The Fotons peeps in Belgium are doing Mutant Hip-Hop 2. Kode 9, Shadow Huntaz, Ghislain Poirier and others. It’s all happening next weekend. Which is the same time as the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam, which is everyone else under the sun. Is it any wonder us Americans try to go to Europe as much as possible?

Yacht Rock! I’m safe enough in my love of Steely Dan to be able to laugh at their foibles. From Cooper.

Inperspective finally got the ball rolling again and are putting out something new from Fracture and Neptune. Sounds every bit as good as their previous releases. Check it out here.

Strategy of Community Library is coming to San Francisco right at the end of April for a week. He’s looking for gigs, and it’ll be my first chance to hear him, so someone better come up with something! Looks like he’s got something new from Solenoid as well on Comm Lib.

Ripley discovered this Breakcore Wiki, which could be an invaluable resource if people start to put some time into it. Looks like it’s just beginning but this is definitely the way for this scene to be communicating.

Lastly, two things from DJ Dubya in Chicago. One is this amazing Elliot Smith tribute/music/demos site, complete with basically a whole new album’s worth of MP3s which they’re calling Basement II. For those of us who already get a chill listening to the finished Basement on a Hill, and who wonder about the production decisions made after Elliot’s death, this is truly haunting and worth spending a quiet solitary afternoon contemplating.

The other thing is his top 10 list. He was one of the original members of the top 10 round table discussions that took place for several years at the OCSC in Carrboro, and since we can only all meet virtually now, I’d like to post it. He also sent a link to this funny site that in effect aggregates the results from many many top 10s from last year. To which I say, Sufjan who?

TOP TEN ALBUMS 2005
* Josephine Foster – All the Leaves Are Gone
* Low – Great Destroyer
* The Evens – s/t
* M. Ward – Transistor Radio
* The Distillers – Coral Fang
* Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News
* Wolf Parade – Apologies To the Queen Mary
* Paul Metzger – Three Improvisations For Modified Banjo
* Devendra Banhart РNi̱o Rojo
* Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase

Singles:
* Spoon – “I Turn My Camera On”
* Boards of Canada – “Broken Drum” remix
* The Mae Shi – “Que Onda Guero” remix
* Kanye – “Gold Digger”
* Sufjan Stevens – “Chicago”

Listening to The Bug’s valentine’s day extravaganza on the Breezeblock. Check it here. A whole slew of MCs (including Ari Up!) on the mic and a bunch of extremely awesome tunes. Check the Razor X album on Rephlex if you haven’t done so (samples here on Boomkat.) Hopefully a lot of these tunes will be on the Bug’s future album that he’ll be doing with Ras B and Warrior Queen, Acid Grime he says. Plus I’m sure some will end up on the Lady Bug 7 inch label. Whole thing is simply smashing.

Wow, can you get more faithful? GoldenEraJungle has been launched with 100+ mixes of music from 92-96. I’ll definitely be sifting through a lot of these, all your favorites are here, I just wish there were some tracklists for more of them. Found out about if from Nicky Nutz, whose mix is a good place to start (and you don’t need a user/pass for it).

Skream’s new record is out on Tempa. All great stuff, including the awesome Lightning, the only dubstep tune I know of to use the amen break that I’ve been waiting for since hearing on Blackdown. Awesome stuff as always (it’s even got a track with the Hatcha whip sound and a skank!) and a couple of things aren’t at traditional dubstep tempo, which means I get to play them in other sets. Oh, BTW, if you haven’t seen Blackdown’s interview with Dizzy Diz, check it out here. Big ups!

A bunch of great Math Head tracks are finally going to see the light of day with a full release on Reduced Phat. Remixes by Mad EP, Aaron Spectre, and Drop the Lime. All superb, this is going to be a best of ’06 contender.

Other qwikies:
Friends of mine worked on Through the Fire, looks cool.
DJ C and DJ Flack are playing at Ghislain Poirier’s joint in MTL for Bounce Le Gross. Check it.
David Last is on tour in Japan! 10 shows! Check out the schedule if you’re reading this from out East.
Big big tunes out on U-Ome’s X13 label out of LA. Listen here. Especially feeling Mainframe’s.

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)

Ripley on decks with a friend of Tones in front and DJ C and Wayne and Wax in the background talking to a friend.

L-R: Ripley, DJ C, Wayne and Wax, Flack, Kid K, Irie La

Beat Research was awesome as always. I think it’s good for my soul to play there at least once a year, to know there’s a sizable group of people who will come out and really actively engage in listening to the music and even bop around a bit when they get enough drinks in them. Got to connect with some friends I hadn’t seen in awhile, including Sileni and dev/null, both of whom have got some fabulous new material. Sileni is looking for signings, and most of dev/null’s stuff will be on a forthcoming album for Cock Rock Disco. Sounds wikkid.

The set itself was generally pretty good although not quite as polished as my last two at Beat Research. But most of that was due to using the less than optimal CD players at The Enormous Room. I guess it really isn’t too bad a thing if the track plays a bit longer than I wanted it to.

Not to ramble, so the set list is below, and I’ll do a separate post about the Makesomenoise mix and all the rest, and how it all relates.

Kid Kameleon Live at Beat Research – Jan 03, 2006
Track – Artist (Label)
01. Ally Mc Bills – Jahcoozi (Kitty-Yo)
02. Paranoid (JSt*r remix) – One Self (Ninja Tune)
03. Problem Version – Razor X (The Bug vs Rootsman) (Rephlex)
04. Dancing Box (feat. TTC) – Modeselektor (BPitch Control)
05. Crushed Ice (feat. Sascha Perera & RQM) – Tolcha (Metapolyp)
06. The Instrumentals (Jock Strap Remix) – Short n Sassy (Tino Corp)
07. Kung Fu Fighting (Karl Moesti remix) – Carl Douglas (Select Cuts)
08. Punjabi Clap (feat. Takeova Ent.) – Sukshinder Shinda (Unknown)
09. This is How we Bite the Dust – Q-Unit (http://www.q-unit.net)
10. They Wanna Know (Whisper Edit) – Mr. Lee G and Ghislain Poirier (Unreleased)
11. Let the Riddim Hit ‘em (Omega One mix) – Eric B and Rakim (The Rub)
12. Black Barbie (Mdslktr Remix) – Jahcoozi (Shadetek Records)
13. Misintentions – Soul Coughing (Warner Bros.)
14. Turn Left for Jambaliya / Melt – Hiss and Buzz (Skor)
15. I Don’t Know (feat. Tony Tuff) – Razor X (The Bug vs Rootsman) (Rephlex)
16. Limb by Limb (Shakleton Remix) – Cutty Ranks (Unreleased)
17. Angry – Skream (Ital)
18. Transform – Andy Havok (Sting)
19. Deander – Shadowhuntaz (Skam)
20. Neverland – Digital Mystikz (DMZ)
21. Money Honey (remix) – Pressure feat. Warrior Queen (Hyperdub)
22. Remyxamatosis (Christian Vogel remix) – Radiohead (Parlaphone)
23. Echolectrics – Alter Echo & ERS1 (Unreleased)
24. Pull it Up! – Nron and Miked (Tax Records)
25. Fiddle with the Volume (Ghislain Poirier mix) – Lady Sovereign (Chocolate Industries)
26. Iron Man – Sir Mix-a-Lot (Nastymix Records)
27. Guerilla Warfare – Cloak and Dagger (Intasound)
28. The Seed (Remix) – Sixteenarmedjack (New Lick Dub)
29. Ago – Martsman (Offshore)

This cheered me right up. It comes from Toneland, who in turn got it from here. All bloggers should give it a look see, it’s good for the soul.

Little things you should know about:

Math Head is releasing a record that’s almost guarenteed a spot in 06′s top ten. Math + Drop the Lime + Mad EP + Aaron Spectre remixes. Check it out here, it’s gonna be on Reduced Phat.

Jason is going on tour in the US. I’ll post a schedule when I have it (ahem, Jason or Zad?)

Drop the Lime is in San Francisco for a show at the Hemlock Tavern on the 10th. Don’t miss it (for SF types who read this blog but I’ve never met [especially playtherecords crew], don’t miss this, and let’s link up.)

This is insane. It’s everyone.
———

That’s the little bits in web world for the moment. The two big pieces of news with me is that A) I finished three mixes this week, and I have a 4th to post tomorrow, so I’ll spread that info as quick as I can and B) I’m now a regular columnist for XLR8R. Starting March you can find my column Basic Needs towards the back, in place of the singles reviews. More about that in a bit, but if you can’t wait till then, I have two articles in January, one on Debaser and one on The Bug. And they did a little front piece on me, which was very sweet. I gave them a funny picture, which they were kind enough to reprint. I’ll post it later.

Lastly…

I’ll end it by posting something Hollin sent to me. This is a friend from NC, someone who is part of the group that, untill 05, used to get together every New Year and hash out the top 10 releases of the year at the OCSC. I think I mentioned this last year. Hollin is one of the funnier people I’ve ever met. The only online presence I can point you to is this. Don’t even bother to click on the picture. Just read his top 10 below.

top ten. hollin’s most fascinating people of 2005.

10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
yeah- i know- pretty fascinating. NASCAR. i’m hooked. not quite sure why, except that i live in a desparate place called raleigh, nc – and since then i’ve gotten a TV, become addicted to watching sports, and lauren surpised me with one of the greatest gifts i’ve ever recieved – a set, pewter no less, of dale jr mugs, beer steins, and shot glasses. unbelievable. february- daytona 500 on fox. go jr.

9. Zarqawi
killer at large. zarqawi vs. bush. intent on eradicating what humanity is left outside of carrboro. shit dudes. danger.

8. Martha stewart.
she wandered off the property – onto like 5 TV shows. gave the audience skulls before halloween. strangest thing i;ve ever seen. believe it- ‘Everyday Food’ and ‘Martha Stewart Living’ are cherished monthly reads.

7. Terrell Owens
man what happened??????????? he’s sick on the football field – in all ways. i feel for him. i wish he could have a life change and take someone great to the superbowl. except he already did that. a sad story.

6. John Roberts
something is not right about that dude.

5. Ali G
what took me so long to find Ali G????? sheesh. tops chappelle, stewart, etc…..the best.

4. Miguel Calderon
‘greetings from my hairy nuts’ is now #2 alltime most favorite artwork. sadly.

3. Timothy McVeigh
still.

2. Maureen Dowd.
i can’t believe that a woman like that actually exists. hilarious.

1. Oprah Winfrey
there is not a greater individual on the planet. she’s like jesus.

Ahem.

Hello.

New leaf?

This is a top 10 post. Currently there are 72 entries in my top 10 post. Kalculation Kameleon style. Been building this list for awhile, since November actually, always desperately afraid that I’m going to “leave someone off” or throw my opinion behind something that was deserving at the time I was listening to it but isn’t so much now, or just generally flub it in some way. No longer.

General thoughts? People are fond of saying 200x was the year that something happened. New York Times reviews are always based around such ideas. But really, the only thing that happened overarchingly for me this year was spectrum, how much I realized that everything is just what it is. No matter how much your musical scene means to you, someone always has a different interpretation. Be it macro (as in Sony/DRM macro) or micro (what exactly is that sound that Wiley uses in all his productions, that clicky thing, that tons of other producers have now picked up on and used when they are making a “grime track” or whatever). Nothing too big, none too small as to escape the possibility that someone else will reinterpret it in another way. I’ve actually given musician friends across the spectrum a sort of backwards piece of advice several times this year along these lines, something that was basically told to me by my sweetheart. Here it is: no matter how much you might want your stuff to suck, you can’t prevent other people from liking it. This is not born of a hippy California mentality, but more a way to deal with the daily stress of living in a place like New York. I’m hard on myself. I grump about every conceivable aspect of my mixes. I obsess about hypotheticals of irrationals, stuff about minute record drift, about whether too many tracks from one country end up on a mix in a row, minutia that if you get bogged down in will prevent you from getting anything done. And I’m not the only one, lots of people have harrumphed to me that they A) hated that particular mix there or B) the monitor speakers sucked or C) they never should have signed that contract or D) so and so jacked my vocals and I hate what they did with them or D) music is basically a worthless pursuit and what’s the point?

And fortunately, to these people, these good friends, I say a very heartfelt, loving, so what? Every track below didn’t exist before this year (except my little ’04 list, more on that in a second). Now they do. And they’re on my list. And not lightly. That’s a huge fucking deal!!!!! Music got done, in the face of all the horrific injustice in the world in general and despite every imaginable personal barrier to the creative process, from birth to death. I have many many detailed gripes and doubts and misgivings about all sorts of specifics within scenes, but one thing I believe is that at the end of the day, good music gets made. It’s more than love. It’s the way it should be.

So, there’s my overarching statement. Jess is probably rolling his eyes at the moment at the sentimentality. But, you know, so what? We could all use a bit of a big up.

Specifics? I didn’t break it into respective scenes this year as I did last year. Am I over scenes? Not at all. I keep hammering home that a scene is the most vital incubator of new music out there. But I think this was the year I fully gave up thinking of myself as being part of one scene, or indeed even many. It drives me crazy. It doesn’t help me create or enjoy music. I suppose eventually I’ll get around to making a track (could 06 be the year?) and then it will get classified somehow, but at the moment the only category I could think of to put stuff in was format, basically long (Mixes), sort of long (Albums) or short (Albums and Eps). And of course, there follows on some stuff I couldn’t find a spot for anywhere. In the end, I just had to put up or shut up. Soon as I post I’ll remember 2 more things I forgot and feel bad about it. But that’s life. If you’re not on here, don’t mean a thing, you’re not the only one. Big love to all. 2005 done. Flip the record over.

Mixes
01. DJ Family – Ghetto Bang Down
02. DJ Flack – Blue Beats for Longing
03. Ripley – Ich Bin Defekt
04. Aaron Spectre – Life We Promote
05. Kid Kameleon – Mashers Without Borders
06. JStar – XFM Mix
07. Skream – Mix for Blackdown
08. dj / rupture – Lemon Red mix
09. DJ C – Baltimore
10. DJ Kentaro on the Wheels of Steel
11. DJ Raedawn – 80 Minutes of Funk
12. Megatron – Road Work Vol. 1
13. Kano – Bumpin’ Bellycore
14. Shadow vs. Diplo – Megatroid Mix
15. El Indigo Globo -Live at the Jardin Modern

Damn there were a ton of good mixes this year!!!!!! DJing is healthier than it’s ever been, new ideas, new combinations, whole genres created. Podcasts? Sure, great, I’m glad the world is getting in on the concept of being a DJ, I’m all for greater popularization of the art. But damn if the 15 folks (sadly 14 guys and one lady…) didn’t make my day, proving there’s still real sonic craftsmanship out there.

DJ Family DJ Family DJ Family! I said it before a couple months ago and I’ll say it again. Damn the shit is insane. Sheer bloody-minded obsessive precision applied like never before. He’s got a new mini-mix on his site, check it, and Family, get over States! I know you said Europe was on the agenda, but don’t neglect us either.

Flack did it right, flawless mix, best mood setter ever, best thing to work too all year. Talked about it earlier down the page, but the fact is I still listen to it as much as I did when I first heard it. Chicken soup for Pete Rock’s soul.

Ripley. I’m biased. But just look at the praised heap upon you. This thing is stellar. Make no mistake, it’s HARD to be a breakcore DJ. Most people who are remotely interested in the sound are producers. DJs are a rare bird in the scene. But without mix CDs, how would we know who to find out more about? Keep faith, give us a new one!

Aaron Spectre. He’s king. He’s like Elvis with an O8. I haven’t seen his current performance but I hear it’s blinding. Number one influence on me to switch to Live in 06. People should be talking about Aaron in the same tone they use to talk about, I don’t know, Sandra or Devandra Bernhardt.

Me. What the hell. I’m damn proud of it, mostly because where else can I sit down and here exactly all the tunes I want to hear in a row? Plus, I’m not Harriet Miers, I don’t have to recuse myself when President Bush comes around. Or maybe I’m more like Alito and just conveniently forgot. Or the computer fucked up.

Jstar. I had a bit about Jstar on Blackdown’s page. I meant every word. Folks at Apple paint a rosy picture of everyone getting in on the remix game. Jstar don’t listen them, he just does it. His dubbed out sprawl of a remix of Bigger than Hip-Hop has been in my head since I heard it, and his XFM mix represents the best of the best of him and others.

Skreamin’. I just heard the first bit of the Breezeblock Dubstep Warz with Mary Ann Hobbs gushing about him. Funny stuff, but Skream man, ya living large. 05 was your year, you’re batting 1000.

Rupture. Lots of people talk up Jace. Count me among his fans for sure. I’m glad so many of his mixes are seeing the light of day, it helps us all. Killa.

C’s B series. Who knew Jake had all this time to sit around make mixes? B series is great, and it’s nice to know what I try and condense into one mix can easily be spread out over several. Hopefully dozens.

Who knew? I guess the folks at Ninja Tune. Kentaro flawless pulls out the wayback machine, giving me chills all over again just for the track selection, then does it up in the most intense ways. One of the best CDs I got this year to review.

Raedawn – fellow traveler, although I like a lot that he comes out of a different background than me. Lots of stuff that I never would have thought of putting together and done in style. The real sound of New York, at least the New York I remember.

Mega Mega. Dude can do no wrong. An American treasure, only surpassed by Plasticman for favorite DJ I saw live this year. Roadwork is a true document of all that’s right about 2005′s grime scene at the time it was made. Made with pride in America. Blasted with even more pride traveling across the Bay Bridge!

Kano’s like some sort of kindred spirit who came upon me out of the ether. I’m sure we were bound to catch up sooner or later, Adverse Camber held it down proper with the Mashit crew this summer, but Kano’s unbelievable dedication to getting good good music that doesn’t end up on a lot of mixes out there for others to hears is admirable. Plus, the man turns ‘em out! Deserving of glowing respect.

Shadow vs. Diplo. The old master. The new master. This might have been out in 04, but so what, I just heard it. It’s awesome to hear crucked up tweeked out versions of every tune I ever wept and wailed to from the Private Press.

And finally, ex-Rotator, Indigo managed to get us a copy of his CD. Some admirably weird stuff with a totally unique style. I can’t really describe it. Lots of really tiny Mysticals. Just take my word and check it out.

Albums
01. Beck – Guero
02. Shadowhuntaz – Valley of the Shadow
03. Jason Forrest – Shamelessly Interesting
04. Deadbeat – New World Observer
05. DJ Panzah Zandahz – Me and This Army
06. Mutamassik – Definitive Works
07. Jahcoozi – Pure Bred Mongrel
08. M.I.A. – Arular
09. Al Haca vs Stereotyp – Phase 3
10. Drop the Lime – Never Surrender
11. Wasteland – October

OK, I gave detailed love to my bredren and sistren DJs (and left a whole bunch more off – Like I said, no disrespect). Gotta cut back or this post will consume my life. Random thoughts for albums included: Why didn’t the Shadowhuntaz get more love? Dudes are saving the genuinely weird end of hip-hop, and it’s a total brilliant coup (for us nerdy post IDM white boys anyway) to get the might Funckarma to produce your album. No one nailed that genre like they did, and the Huntaz go all crazy overtop of it. Deadbeat has been in my top 10 3 years running, and each one is better than the last, man can do no wrong. Jahcoozi vs M.I.A. has the whole Sri Lankan frontwoman thing going, but they’re both in the list for very different reasons. Jahcoozi’s stuff hit me out of left field, I hadn’t really heard of them a year ago, but damn if every cut on that album isn’t musically great, a real demonstration of what pop should be if anything from Germany were allowed to truly break through to an American market. The whole Al Haca/Stereotyp/Jahcoozi/Modeselektor/The Tape/Tolcha thing was the story of the year for me in general, dub + rap + weird beats + sometimes electro + sometimes pop. You can even manage to sneak some, gasp, soul in there and get me to like it. M.I.A. though is a different story. I stayed out of the whole Dissensus thread because to me what was always interesting about the album was the remixes, the open source nature of it. I only care about where she’s from or how she represents herself after I’ve decided whether I like the music or the project in the first place, and it was definitely cool to hear not only the beats on the album but all the great remixes it spawned.

Who else… Jason Forrest is the man and Shamelessly Interesting is his best thing yet. Drop the Lime, the album is good, it’s more the whole ensemble that I’m bigging up, two albums, several EPs/Singles, an insane live show, and a ton of remixes/one offs crashing parties everywhere. And Beck? I just like him. And I liked this album better than the last two.

Tracks/Singles/EPs
01. Kano – Mic Fight
02. Jahcoozi – Black Barbie (Modeseleckor Remix)
03. Vexd – Gunman/Smart Bomb [Planet Mu]
04. Skream – Midnight Request Line [Tempa]
05. Aaron Spectre – Evil Most Foul [Death$ucker]
06. Debaser/DJ C – Crazy Baldheads [Mashit]
07. Jason Forrest – War Photographer [Sonig]
08. Debaser – Youth Bust [Nuff Styles]
09. Loqtus – Tell Dem Inna Babylon [Cause and Effect]
10. Com.A – Brand New Funk [Romz]
11. Young Dot EP [White]
12. Eight Frozen Modules – DJ, Riddim, and Source [Planet Mu]
13. Missy – Loose Control
14. Ludacris – Numba One Spot
15. D.M. Project – Habibi [Man Recordings]
16. Toasty – Knowledge/Like Sun [Hot Flush]
17. BOC – Dayvan Cowboy [Warp]
18. Panzah Zandahz – Radiohead Breakz [Finger Print]
19. Postal Service – Against All Odds [some soundtrack]
20. The Legendary KO – George Bush Don’t Like Black People [mp3]
21. Enduser – Maneuver EP [Soothsayer]
22. ERS1 – Beat it Trip II the Moon [mp3]
23. Rotator – Dissident Sound Maniac [Peace Off]
24. Jstar – Sbiggerdan/Snoopin Foxy [J-Star Music]
25. Framix – EP [Toolbox]
26. rupture vs. 606 – Little More Oil Remixes [Soul Jazz]

Bits and Bytes everywhere, good stuff across many many genres, and I’ve given up being able to set up the distinctions in a way. Picking at random, the Eight Frozen Modules thing just keeps on being great, intricate to the max. Panzah Zandahz is the man behind the Radiohead Remix album, and an upcoming Beck remix project he says, and people always ask about that stuff. I can’t fully support BOC’s album as a top 10 candidate, but Dayvan Cowboy is absolutely there. I realized after I made the list that Crazy Baldheads is an 06 track. But in reality it’s originally an 04 track (or like an ’94 track really), and these things get blurry. Aaron Spectre put out a couple great EPs, and Loqtus from LA needs to hit the world up with a bunch of tunes that are done and just have to get out. Toasty was 05 right? At the beginning yes? Again, hard with the dubstep crew to know actual consumer release dates because everything is on mixtapes for months before it surfaces. And yeah, that IS Phil Collin’s Against all Odds Postal Service is covering.

Best of ’04
01. Wasteland – October
02. Enduser – Bollywood Breaks
03. Electro Meca – Battling Doll Beats
04. DJ Family – Ghetto Bangdown
05. Phillip Roebuck – One Man Band
06. Mei-Lwun – Sweet Home Country Grammar

This one I did just for fun, It’s all the tracks that came out in 04 but that I didn’t hear till 05 and were big tunes for me. Notice Wasteland here too. Craig says in some places it came out in December of 04 and some it was out in January of 05, and originally I had it just here in 04. Family’s mixes came out in 04 too, but the big stories are Bollywood Breaks and Battling Doll Beats. Seriously Electro Meca is on some other ish, no one is marrying breakcore with both electro and oldskool hip-hop the way he is, and more people need to start releasing his stuff! The man is awesome! Also, little shout up there to Phillip Roebuck who is just awesome and his latest album was produced by Steve Albini!

Artists
01. The Bug
02. Plasticman
03. Heatwave

Three musical experiences I couldn’t quite quantify in any other way but deserve a mention. 1 is The Bug who had a stellar year with at least 3 singles (if not more, I might be forgetting some from the beginning of the year), and I was fortunate to hear January ’06s Razor X album in 05 as well, and to interview the man himself, so all round his vibe sort of permeated my world. 2. Plasticman (or is it now Man Plastic, Chris?) just generally put on a great live show, had a couple awesome singles, and made the mixes that kept me up to date on the music from the scene, so he gets an all round forward. Finally, Heatwave just tore it up, from the Punchline label to the Scandalbag label, to the Mas Fuego parties. All you have to do is look at the pictures to see these guys are totally on to something..

Honorable Mentions
01. The EFF
02. Micromusic.net
03. Wrecked Distro
04. Juno
05. Wasted in Berlin
06. The C8 thread on Breakcore
07. Sileni going to help out Katrina victims

Music enablers. Juno = best online record store, Wrecked = best breakcore outlet in America. EFF keep us sane, Micromusic keeps us game. Breakcore is alive and well and living in Berlin (Wasted) and France (c8/praxis). And the story of the year is that Sileni is officially Drum and Bass’s kindest soul and dropped everything he was doing to go and live in New Orleans after the disaster and work for Hartford’s Food not Bombs. How f’in cool is that????!!!

Saddest Moment of 06
01. Mike Doughty – Madeline and 9

I loved this song when it was a live bootleg. It was everything that was great and weird about Soul Coughing. Eventually I heard it as the pop junk it became in a sports bar in Baltimore. What a disappointment.

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There ya go. More to come.