Tired of your old DJ setup? Gardner Post is now selling its Baby Grand Master. The "piano" is equipped with some serious hardware: two Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD players, Edirol V-4 Video Mixer, Allen &Heath Xone:92 Mixer and three Marshal LCD Monitors. As far as speakers, there's a dual 15" Subwoofers, 18" Subwoofer, 12" Subwoofer, 3 Bullet Tweeters and AB 1100 Watt Power Amplifier.
In case you're wondering what to get me for my next birthday, this would do nicely.
Sadly the auction has just finished, but eBay item #320091605269 is amazing - a bass speaker from King Tubby's legendary late '60s Hometown Hi-Fi sound system. The history of dub has more about Hometown Hi-Fi: "He took it to a dance and played the vocal, which everybody knew, then played the dub plate of this rhythm track and people couldn't believe it." According to the auction, it was "Recently found at a yard in Water House, (Near to Tubby's studio [at 38 St Lucia Road]), by one of our record hunters" The speaker box sold for $617, apparently to a dub 7" collector from my home town of Bristol, who's now going to have to pay $400+ to ship it over.
Dubai can sometimes be a tough city for musicians, audiophiles, and the otherwise musically-obsessed. When planning releases, record labels tend to lump the Middle East together with Asia and other bootleg capitals (did I ever mention my DVD lady that meets me in a parking lot with a suitcase full of new release films that all mysteriously have Russian subtitles???), hence new albums don't show up on our shelves as long as two months later than in Europe or North America. Coupled with the fact that Virgin records is the only place worth shopping, we sometimes need to resort to drastic measures. Enter the music blogs.
Over the past couple of months I've come across some pinnacle sites that not only review new music but also post most of it right there for you to download. No more spending hours trying to download torrents of some artist's new album only to find out that the file is actually an audio track to some bad porno flick, this is the only way to go.
Noteworthy:
Good Weather for Airstrikes - Great reviews and everything from MSTRKRFT to Bloc Party to Indie Rock with a little electronic thrown in for good measure.
Filter 27 - All electronic, all the time. Especially good for new Essential Mixes, and other DJ stuff.
On the Download - Rock, and more Rock.
Bring the Beats - Eclectic mix of various electronic and rock.
Pinnacle Remixes:
LCD Mixed LCD Soundsystem Remix album
Flip the Switch - Chemical Brothers album remixed
Prodigy Mixed - Prodigy remix album
Over the past couple of months I've come across some pinnacle sites that not only review new music but also post most of it right there for you to download. No more spending hours trying to download torrents of some artist's new album only to find out that the file is actually an audio track to some bad porno flick, this is the only way to go.
Noteworthy:
Good Weather for Airstrikes - Great reviews and everything from MSTRKRFT to Bloc Party to Indie Rock with a little electronic thrown in for good measure.
Filter 27 - All electronic, all the time. Especially good for new Essential Mixes, and other DJ stuff.
On the Download - Rock, and more Rock.
Bring the Beats - Eclectic mix of various electronic and rock.
Pinnacle Remixes:
LCD Mixed LCD Soundsystem Remix album
Flip the Switch - Chemical Brothers album remixed
Prodigy Mixed - Prodigy remix album
After finally jumping on the year-before-last's bandwagon, I downloaded a copy of Sasha's Essential Mix from Maida Vale which was the penultimate winner of Essential Mix of the year. Sasha performed this using a music app called Ableton Live, where instead of mixing one record directly into another as any other Dj would, he works with bits and pieces of any number of songs and can mix and match as he wants - a drum beat from one, an a-cappella vocal part from another, a bassline from a third, etc, etc - essentially remixing (pardon the pun) the tracks on the fly. I could mention here that my band, Advance 44, has been doing this sort of thing with our live sets for the past couple of years ... I could, but that would mean even getting further off-topic, so I'll spare that one for another time.
The point I'm slowly crawling towards is this: at about 76 minutes into the mix Sasha drops a couple really dope tracks. One of them is a track by Sia called Breathe Me which has been remixed by Ulrich Schnauss and then again by Sasha for this mix. While digging online for an mp3 copy to download, I unwittingly uncovered the entire history of this track and its remixes, which I now feel compelled to share:
Breathe Me was originally released about two years ago and remained more or less unknown until one of the Six Feet Under producers heard it and decided to feature it in the final episode of the tv series. Apparently, Ulrich Schnauss was a SFU fan, as a few months later he released one of his typically intense remixes of Sia's original track. Fast-forward another few months to Sasha who's been regularly dropping Ulrich's remixes into his sets - he heard the remix and reworked it yet again, this time live, during his Maida Vale set.
Original: Sia - Breathe Me
Remix 1: Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnass remix)
Remix 2: Essential Mix - Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnass remix, remixed further by Sasha)
From girl-with-piano to chillout dance classic in three easy steps. I know, so now you know.
Playlist: Sasha, Essential Mix live at Maida Vale:
1 Intro
Detroit Escalator Company - Abstract Forward Motion
Ian Brown - Kiss Ya Lips (No ID)
No Doubt - Hella Good (Sharam Jay Remix)
Timo Maas - Massive
Glitch - Tip Toe (Jonathan Hart Bootleg)
Unknown - Unknown
Michael Mayer - Lovefood
Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee (Smith n Hack Remix)
Jori Hulkkonen - Science (Original)
Jori Hulkkonen - Science (Aril Brikha Remix) w/ Sasha - Wavy Gravy Parts
Juliet - Ride the Pain (Thin White Duke Mix)
Extrawelt - Zu Fuss
Spooky - New Light
Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) w/ Sasha Re-edit
Egg - Wall (Original) w/ Sasha Re-Edit
Jori Hulkkonnen ft. Jerry Valuri - Lo-Fiction (Dub Mix / Edit)
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (Original) w/ Sasha - Wavy Gravy Parts
M83 - Teen Angst (Remix) w/ Sasha Re-edit
Moby - Raining Again (Ewan Pearson dub) w/ Thomas Newman - Drive Away
R1 Outro
The point I'm slowly crawling towards is this: at about 76 minutes into the mix Sasha drops a couple really dope tracks. One of them is a track by Sia called Breathe Me which has been remixed by Ulrich Schnauss and then again by Sasha for this mix. While digging online for an mp3 copy to download, I unwittingly uncovered the entire history of this track and its remixes, which I now feel compelled to share:
Breathe Me was originally released about two years ago and remained more or less unknown until one of the Six Feet Under producers heard it and decided to feature it in the final episode of the tv series. Apparently, Ulrich Schnauss was a SFU fan, as a few months later he released one of his typically intense remixes of Sia's original track. Fast-forward another few months to Sasha who's been regularly dropping Ulrich's remixes into his sets - he heard the remix and reworked it yet again, this time live, during his Maida Vale set.
Original: Sia - Breathe Me
Remix 1: Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnass remix)
Remix 2: Essential Mix - Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnass remix, remixed further by Sasha)
From girl-with-piano to chillout dance classic in three easy steps. I know, so now you know.
Playlist: Sasha, Essential Mix live at Maida Vale:
1 Intro
Detroit Escalator Company - Abstract Forward Motion
Ian Brown - Kiss Ya Lips (No ID)
No Doubt - Hella Good (Sharam Jay Remix)
Timo Maas - Massive
Glitch - Tip Toe (Jonathan Hart Bootleg)
Unknown - Unknown
Michael Mayer - Lovefood
Ricardo Villalobos - Easy Lee (Smith n Hack Remix)
Jori Hulkkonen - Science (Original)
Jori Hulkkonen - Science (Aril Brikha Remix) w/ Sasha - Wavy Gravy Parts
Juliet - Ride the Pain (Thin White Duke Mix)
Extrawelt - Zu Fuss
Spooky - New Light
Sia - Breathe Me (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) w/ Sasha Re-edit
Egg - Wall (Original) w/ Sasha Re-Edit
Jori Hulkkonnen ft. Jerry Valuri - Lo-Fiction (Dub Mix / Edit)
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc (Original) w/ Sasha - Wavy Gravy Parts
M83 - Teen Angst (Remix) w/ Sasha Re-edit
Moby - Raining Again (Ewan Pearson dub) w/ Thomas Newman - Drive Away
R1 Outro
To commemorate their 5th year anniversary, the good people at TimeOut Dubai decided to throw a little soiree, and in typical Dubai style this meant hosting a free-admission party at Apartment Lounge with none other than DJ Darren Emerson (formerly of Underworld fame) as the main event. Yep, he was there, and yep, I got to meet him. One of the perks about living here is that whenever there's a big name in town they don't tend to hide away as they do in the real world, so it's easy to just go up and chat. I'm normally not a star-struck kind of person, but I make a big exception when it comes to Underworld band members. Darren was with the group through all of their glory years, from Dubnobasswithmyheadman through Born Slippy and Second Toughest to Beaucoup Fish, so really during the entire time that they were good. Well, that's not entirely fair, A Hundred Days Off which Rick Smith and Karl Hyde wrote after Darren Emerson left was okay, but to be honest I always thought the remixes other artists did for the singles off that disc were much stronger than the originals. Wow, now I'm off on a major tangent ... did I mention that I met DARREN EMERSON???
a 2 Ton (4500 Lbs US), 3.5 M by 3.1 M by 4 M mobile 2000 watt steel and aluminuim horn sound system, all powered from a commercial 12" speaker driver. It functions as a mobile audio input station whereby people can plug-in in order to project content a distance of 1 km, designed to be the ultimate monophonic sound projector intended to catalyze social activities in multiple settings.
Sure, if by 'catalyze social activities' you mean disturb your neighbors and throw down kick ass parties. Massive.
MSTRKRFT on the upswell of rock remixes as a natural return for the genre:
"Rock &roll music has always been dance music. AC/DC is basically house. 'Got me under pressure' by ZZ Top is like fucking techno". "I think the line [between rock and dance music] was less blurry before the whole grunge thing. You can't play Pearl Jam in the nightclub and have people dance. You can't play 'Even Flow'."
"Rock &roll music has always been dance music. AC/DC is basically house. 'Got me under pressure' by ZZ Top is like fucking techno". "I think the line [between rock and dance music] was less blurry before the whole grunge thing. You can't play Pearl Jam in the nightclub and have people dance. You can't play 'Even Flow'."
Picked up a bunch of electro tracks the other day including a nice little crunchy number by a gent by the name of Alex Grani. The track, titled Flip Desgreap, can probably best be described as the sound you would hear if Mr. Oizo beat the crap out of Mylo in a back alley with a Roland Jupiter 8. With luck this new infusion of electro will help stave off the encroaching wave of euro dance music that's been washing through Dubai this summer.
Take a listen here
Take a listen here
Can we really be the first people to think of this? The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine, was released in 1989 (wow, that really dates me) - with all the fantastic electro remixes of 80's tunes going around right now (think MSTRKRFT, Mylo, etc) we, the good people at Advance 44 International Studios, thought it was about time somebody did a nice dirrrrrrty electro remix of Head Like a Hole. Coming soon to a stereo near you ....
I have no idea yet why this got cancelled on such short notice - I can voice plenty of theories but most of them would probably land me in trouble with the thought police (aka those who sponsored my visa) so I'm just going to leave it at that for now. But the Sasha show this past Thursday was going to be the big one for what will otherwise be a pretty slow two months in this fair city - it's not like back home where all of the good concerts come through in the summer. In Dubai, everyone who can afford to do so gets the hell out of dodge to get away from the stifling heat, consequently nobody bothers to book any big acts between July and September. Why do you think Bon Jovi will be playing here in August? I rest my case.