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2008: shows of the year

December 22, 2008 · by · in

And this year there’s a clear, but surprising winner:

You wouldn’t know it, but San Fran DJ John Howard is a very hard man to find a picture of.  He did, however, demolish the room at Hush last New Year’s Eve.  There were no fancy tricks, no black magic scratching, no laptops, and not even very many CDs, as I recall.  Just spectacularly lush house/disco, inch-perfect programming, great mixing, and wonderful flow.  It was a set to restore one’s faith in dance music – Larry Levan would have been proud, to say nothing of Ron Hardy.

Honorable mentions in store for:  Richie Hawtin, Heartthrob, James Zabiela, and Jamie Lidell.  Seems to be a good year for the letter J.

2008: album of the year

December 20, 2008 · by · in ,

This gets harder every year, it seems.  With that said, here’s your winner:

STEINSKI – What Does It All Mean?

The key here is not just the first disc of cut-up, sample-built classic jams…but the second disc, a mix that Steve Stein did for Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel show back in 2002, and which ranks up there with Coldcut’s Journeys By DJ in terms of feel and scope and humanity.  Calling Steinski the Kurt Vonnegut of hip-hop is probably a compliment that has no meaning – but it’s one hundred percent true just the same.

Honorable mentions to:  Steve Reich, Jesse Somfay, Limbo, Portishead, Prefuse 73, Thom Yorke, Aesop Rock, and Radiohead.

2008: singles of the year

December 18, 2008 · by · in

Cutting this to three was impossible, but here goes:

Best Love Letter To Video Games: COPY – It’s A Little Too Late [Audio Dregs]

I don’t think this came out in 2008, but I don’t care.  Copy has more in common with Bach than Koji Kondo in terms of writing, but Bach didn’t get to work with pure square waves or huge, pulsing basslines.  It’s a rare record that makes me want to dance and to finish Final Fantasy IV again.

Best They Did What?!?:  The Rolling Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want (SOULWAX REMIX) [Columbia]

How tacky.  “As featured  in the…”.  Honestly, what is dance music coming to?  Oh wait, it’s coming to the utter, perfect apex of the edit heavy Justice / Paris / Nu-Rave style.  Soulwax are beyond on point here, with this snappy, almost-downtempo remix.  If this does not make your crowd dance, they might be dead.

Best Journey In To Outer Space, Around The Sun, And The To Unknown Stars:  Garnica – Pink For Men (SOMFAY REMIX) [Elefant]

This track is almost eighteen minutes long, and not one second of that is extra.  You may well forget your name, where you are, and what you were going to do for the rest of the day.  An utterly stunning achivement.

Honorable Mentions to, and don’t think I don’t love these records:
Cortney Tidwell – Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Ewan Pearson Remix) [Ever]
Future Funk Square – Demystified (Andy Page Remix) [Default]
AFK & Dustin H – Seismic (Stefan Anion Remix) [Pacific Front]
K.I.M. – Fistogram [Modular]
Rennie Foster – Devil’s Water [Rebirth]
Hrdvsion – Playing For Keeps [Wagon Repair]
Miles Dyson – Live In Mexico []

2008: sets of the year

December 15, 2008 · by · in

And here we are again, the best DJ sets of the last 300-and-some days.  A higher standard overall, but maybe fewer standouts.  At any rate:
Best Political Statement That Happens To Be An Amazing Mix As Well:   Z-TRIP – THE OBAMA MIX

No, seriously.  This is both a masterpiece of political theatre and a thousand thousand kinds of fly.  Chuck D would be proud.  It picks up where his 2003 Anti-War mix left off, uses a bunch of the same material, but is way more coherent and way more fun to dance to.  Get down right here.

Best Reason To Be French:  JUSTICE – Xmas Mix

This is cutting 2008 fine, but I go by the dates in my sets folder, so there.  Not like it matters, as this breakneck set of disco, kitsch and blatant pop is as much as you can have without being, well, French.  Find it here.

Best Soul:  JEROME DERRADJI – Still Music

The set sounds exactly like the picture.   Get it here.

Honorable mentions to:  Flying Lotus, Caleb Fox, the Cloudcasts, Appleblim, Four Tet, Optimo, Dabbler,  DJ Soo, Quiet Village, Sasha & Digweed, Chloe Harris, and so many many more.

‘sonata sonata! ‘sa rondo!

December 12, 2008 · by · in , ,


I’m delighted to report that the mad scientists over at OverClocked got the call to do the official soundtrack for the HD Remix of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.  You can hear what they came up with here.  It’s both super funky, surprisingly respectful, and another important moment for OverClocked and fan artwork in general.

In totally unrelated art, I was sent a video of a king-hell piece of choreography that the Royal Ballet did recently, called INFRA.  It comes in 3 parts, and you owe it to yourself to watch in it what passes for “HD” on YouTube – it is uncanny, sublime, and amazing.

Jumping again:  Pauline Oliveros came by UVic recently to talk about her music and her experiences with the San Fran Center for Tape Music.  In addition to knowing her way around tape delay, she talked about her current work in making an “intelligent agent” that could improvise with her in a useful way.  This is a king-hell problem – it would require detection of just about every musical aspect of sound, and then a non-random way of using that data to generate new sounds.  Oof.  I, of course, managed to miss her concert, so I have no idea what state her current system is in.

More on music:  I went to see LaSaM do a concert called ‘Sonic Whisper’, and I came away all kinds of impressed.  With the exception of a few moments of wankiness, the sounds and music were lush, detailed, and never overstayed their welcome.  Hopefully I can get a recording of it soon.

breakin ur intertubes

November 24, 2008 · by · in , ,


The good people at DRGBLZ may have destroyed image macros forever…or given them a new and beautiful lease on life.  Be sure to read from the bottom up.
In less ridiculous news, I am DJing at Hush on December 20th with Matt What, for another two hours of six-turntable + guitar  dancefloor chaos.  Davey B appears to be on opening duties once again.  You, yes you, should come down and shake it.

Some other quick thoughts:  I’m thinking about a composition system that involves lego blocks, a dynamic thing that imitates the flocking of birds, and about music that can only be played once.  More on those as they slide through my brain.

Fractal – Awesome

November 12, 2008 · by · in

You’d think it was reading break and I finally had time to DJ or something.  Nahhh.

 

Download here.

I blew some things on this, but it’s a lot of big dancey fun and the utterly s-i-c-k Kathy Brown bit more than makes up for it.  That lady was serious business.
1: Sander Klienerberg – Work To Do [Little Mountain]
// Kyle Geiger – Glide [Drumcode]
2: Big Black Boot – Vibrate [Release]
3: Funk Harmony Park – The Winner (Martin H Remix) [Sumplus]
// Kathy Brown – Turn Me Out []
4: Hrdvsion – Playing For Keeps (Daddy’s Angel) [Wagon Repair]
5: Bart Van Wissen – More Fun [Audio Therapy]
6: Moulinex – Break Chops [Discotexas]

tdpl24: Eddie Cointreau – Fish Fingers EP

November 10, 2008 · by · in

The march towards a quarter century continues. Listen here, buy here.

1: Eddie Cointreau – Oncorhynchus
2: Eddie Cointreau – Acipenser
3: Eddie Cointreau – Acipenser (Something Wicked Remix)

“Sometimes, you just want to dance. Sometimes, you want to dance at four in the morning, in a dark room. Sometimes, you want to dance until you cannot dance any more, at four in the morning, in a dark room. If you fit any of the above catagories, Eddie Cointreau’s Oncorhynchus is for you. Of course, if you instead like acidstep freakouts and / or throbbing, sophisticated techno, we’ve got you covered as well. Art comes care of Davie Murphy”

a commitment to sharks

November 8, 2008 · by · in ,

I’m delighted to report that my remix of Rennie Foster’s tune A Commitment To Transit has been released.  You can find it at Juno, Beatport, and other fine estabilishments.

I’m equally delighted to report that Matt and I will be doing our seven turntable / guitar / effects / DS party at Hush Nightclub again, this coming December 20th.  Bring your dancing shoes.

And, finally:  sharks!

win!

November 7, 2008 · by · in , , ,

O.  B.  A.  M.  A.  Thank all the powers of heaven and hell.

Moving on from politics, let me point you to some of the amazing things you can do with Little Big Planet, care of 1up.  This is serious business, right here, and speaks to where mainstream gaming is going, I think.  (See also Halo 3’s Forge, and the tools in Guitar Hero:  World Tour)

Back to techno:  I went to see Richie Hawtin just before I left Vancouver, playing on his new 4 deck, 2 laptop, custom controller thing.  Hawtin obviously revels in the power it gives him, and he’s experienced enough to know not to go crazy with the effects and the edits and so on.  A good show, if a bit clicky at times.

Also on the subject of music, I had a thought that Guitar Hero could become a really useful teaching tool, if the fret buttons were replaced with a programmable touchpad.  This would allow people to start with the very simple 4 / 5 button configuration that the games actually use, and then move on to a system that emulates frets more and more exactly.  If you had a pressure sensitive pad, you’d be golden.

Music again:  There’s a mad scientist who wants to summon up the ghosts of Glen Gould and other dead, gifted performers.   You can watch him talk here.  While I’d love to see the code he’s using to drag MIDI data that is that specific out of audio tracks, I disagree with his thesis that the performance is merely what the performer did to the instrument.  A performance is the sound, the performer, the people around you, the space, and everything else.  A recreation of exactly what the performer did to the instrument, while a clever idea, won’t cut it.

Finally, I got the first trade of DOKTOR SLEEPLESS, by Warren Ellis, and it’s either going to be the best book he’s ever written, or a complete mess.   Very much worth a look though.