In August 2007 Elektron CEO and co-founder Daniel Hansson passed away in an unfortunate auto accident. It is in large part his creative vision and eye for detail that have made Elektron’s products what they are today. The 45 Tribute pays homage to his creative genius and his philanthropic spirit. Artists from the Elektron community have taken their time and energy to contribute to this project freely in his honor.

I think its a great cause to support and some damn fine tunes to be had for a mere $5. http://www.45tribute.com/

we also now have a facebook group that you can join here

Classic - DJ Premier remix featuring Kanye West, Rakim, Nas, and KRS-ONE in tribute to the AF1.

Weather reporters go on strike

One of the most fascinating audio documents from the last decade was no doubt The Conet Project: Recordings from Shortwave Numbers Stations, a four CD set of recordings from mysterious radio transmissions of unknown provenance believed to be secret government communications.

They generally consist of male or female voices in varying languages reading streams of numbers, letters, or even morse code. (Wilco’s popular album, ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ takes its name from a sample of the set.) ‘Shift Coordinate Points,’ by Dutch composer Esther Venrooy takes these transmissions as its material and inspiration. It will air November 21st, as one of four projects that make up Disturbance, ‘a series of internet radio broadcasts’ curated by Washington DC-based Niels Van Tomme.

Every Wednesday in November a different composition is being broadcast around a sonic or psychological disturbance that affected the artist. All nightly transmissions are being transmitted from art@radio, an o! nline radio station based in Baltimore, Maryland focusing on experimental sonic culture.

Although Venrooy’s is the only one to reference Numbers Stations, all of the projects function as personalized appropriations of this rigidly hermetic system.

art radio.net

Just a quick heads up come that im in the finals for the melbourne fringe festival DJ comp called FRINGE SPIN. If your in Melbourne come along and check it out. I promise to be awesome and make pleasing sounds come out of the speakers. The theme is “around the world” Be vocal and boozy. I know i will!

Im told there will be some breakers and a big video screen projecting the action.

peace

After a couple of requests Ive uploaded this mix again. It was recorded as a prelude to summer in 2005 and was the first mix that christened this podcast. So I guess a few of you may have missed it.

It really just mellows me out defiantly a great prelude to summer and the impending daylight savings, barbies and lazy weekends at the beach. If you cant make it to the east coast of Australia you can always check the vibe on this mix. It definantly reminds me of my friends new and old from up north who I miss chilling with.

Includes tracks by Artifacts, PUTS, Sadat X, Pete Rock and CL smooth, Afu Ra, J Live and Rodney Rude among others.

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Memories recall, the brain and hip hop. Drum breaks and Horn Loops.

When I first understood the power a virtual snapshot could trigger a memory of another time, which is the essence of what advertisement and marketing people try to express in the visual media. I understood straightaway the feelings this memory recall can create. A forgotten song plays on the radio that digs up feelings that you the listener associate with driving on a Sunday with your family on holidays from school. It at least triggers the neurons in your brain and invokes a good or bad feeling about that time.

In hindsight I think this is one reason that I gravitated towards the sound collage style of music utilising any and all reference points. I was always about the beats first and then after a few listens the mc’s message would seep through. The late 80’s through to the late 90’s for me produced some timeless classics.

Food for thought.

Ive also added a bit of reading material which can be wordy at times but an interesting read nonetheless titled – Making beats- The art of Sample based hip hop. by Joseph Glenn Schloss

Let me know if your enjoying the reading material, blog posts or music. Feedback always welcomed.

PLAYLIST

boom bap 1 check the rime - a tribe called quest 2 sound of the police - krs one 3 the main ingredient - pete rock and cl smooth 4 In Meh Dreams - Bush Babies 5 Obstruction. A Freestyle (Moonrock Featuring Ivo) - Moonrock feat. Ivo 6 vapours - biz markie 7 stakes is high - de la soul 8 runnin - pharcyde 9 AIN’T NO HALF STEPPIN’ - big daddy kane 10 girl trouble - STEZO 11 Marley Marl Scratch - Marley Marl featuring MC Shan 12 Step Up Front - Positive K 13 Fat Pockets - Showbiz & AG 14 Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II) feat. DJ Shadow & DJ Quest - Handsome Boy Modeling School 15 Mr. Hood Gets A Haircut - KMD 16 Soul Power - Wu Tang feat Flava Flav 17 South Bronx - Krs One

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It’s been a little while between transmissions. Ive recently relocated from Sydney to Melbourne and don’t have access to turntables at the minute. But im working on that.

 Chick Corea at the Melbourne Jazz Festival

The great people over at melodytrip.com have asked me to review the Melbourne jazz fest for them. So over on spaceport26 we have spent the last 2 weeks in immersed in the jazz venues around Melbourne. Highlights for me so far have been Chick Corea and the Yamandu Costa Trio. You can read the reviews here.

For this episode I thought Id dig out some of my jazz favourites to share with you. Included is some Alice Coltrane Featuring Pharoah Sanders (who I will be seeing perform tonight), some Herbie Hancock including the full version of chameleon and the Mighty Art Blakey and the Jazz messengers track “On the Ginza” from one of my all time favourite jazz albums Ugetsu. Enjoy!

playlist 1 Bettina - Bola Sete 2 Journey into Satchidananda - Alice Coltrane feat. Pharoah Sanders -Journey in Satchidananda 3 On the Ginza - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Ugetsu 4 Jazz-New Age - Herbie Hancock ?? (I don’t know if this is right my I have some nasty ipod gremlins at the moment. If you know the correct track name let me know.) 5 Chameleon - Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

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Mid last year a good friend of mine emailed me and asked, “what is IDM?” I became quite animated and started telling him about artists that I have been into since the mid 90’s. Releases like the Artificial Intelligence series from Warp and many of their artists including Aphex twin, Autechre’s early work, Mouse on mars, Squarepusher and Boards of Canada among others.

He was intrigued by this music as he had only read about it at uni.I promised him a mix of some of my favorite IDM tunes, which I totally neglected to produce. Damn slacker! He did give me some of his reading material for the class, which I will share with you. It is a pdf written by Simon Reynolds titled - Funk Dance Lets Art.

I like Simons writing style, but with no reference point it can be confusing as so many artists are name checked. Some that is still actively producing work today and others that have disappeared into the ether.

Simons book Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture is a great starting point if you are interested in reliving some of those moments of hedonism or if you are just interested in dance music history in general. Its been a while since I read It and I have a feeling that this may be an excerpt.

The DJ history website also has some more recommendations for music and culture reading.

You can check out more of Simons writing at his blog blissout. He has also been published in many esteemed publications such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME) among others.

The mix included is sprinkled with some new Idm, funk, Hip-hop, and Jazz. I think Ill dust off some of my favourites and create that IDM mix soon enough after all.

Good for a sunday afternoon with the paper or pre golf psych up.

enjoy

playlist 1 Sofisticada - Luiz Bonfá - Bonfa Burrows Brazil 2 Little Children - David Axelrod 3 Crystallized - The Detroit Escalator Co. 4 This Complete Feeling of Loss - Colin Everingham - Skies of Error 5 Moments In Love - The Art Of Noise - (Who’s Afraid Of) The Art Of Noise? 6 Persian Teardrop (Massive Attack Mix) - Cocteau Twins 7 One Day or so - Depth Affect 8 Nuno - Prefuse 73 - vocal studies & uprock narratives 9 Make Me Love You - Pivot 10 Check out My Gold Tooth - Jimmy Edgar 11 Kind of Laid Back - Birdy Nam Nam

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As i happened onto my regional newspapers website on this fine christmas afternoon, i noticed a headline “the godfather of soul is dead.” James died at 73 from pneumonia and died around 1.45am local time (1745 AEDT), said his agent, Frank Copsidas, of Intrigue Music.

This man had such a vast output of amazing music and was such a charismatic entertainer. He was rumored to have been very hard on the players in his many lineups, but managed to get the best out of them.

The music has indirectly influenced much of modern music today - disco, rock and of course hip hop. Being the most sampled man in history is no mean feat.

Im going to post a couple of the mans hits and a funky rendition by two australian jazz legends of an familiar christmas tune, from a release that is popular with the digging crowd for the drum break at the start, but nevertheless a great rendition in its own right.

James Brown rocks out during a concert in Shanghai, China, early this year.

Im glad that I had the opportunity to see the man live last year. Rest in peace James Brown.

papas got a brand new bag

away in a manger - don burrows quintet

Wow, it’s been a little time between posts, finally the turntable has returned, but still has some little problems, she is old so I forgive her for having little quirks.

So much great music at the moment, I’m super impressed with the planet rock cover (I know it sounds bad) on breakout-music, seriously dope…. I was going to hunt down the 7” but now they’ve its been released on a 12” with an additional jazz mix. I think the jazz mix is my pick. Patiently waiting for my copy to arrive.

Check out sound snippets on their myspace page breakout music and the label site here. Apparently Mr. Confuse, Info & Kova had their musician mates play the cover and they meticulously resampled the tiny fragments into this stormer.

Dopeness, as is all the other releases on this label, lots of covers of funk classics and other oddities. This is defiantly one of my favorite labels at the moment.

I’m in Melbourne for a little holiday and am djing at a great little Sunday afternoon shindig called Off Beat at Workshop..

On Sunday December 3rd Workshop again will play host to an afternoon and evening of the finest in downtempo, IDM, ambient, 3/4 and world music sounds. In this sophomore iteration we introduce a couple of new styles to the mix - minimal and instrumental hip-hop.

Workshop is at 413 Elizabeth Street in downtown Melbourne, with access through the A’Beckett side entrance.

more info at u magazine

its at the workshop

thanks to easysleeper for the gig hookups!

Ive been itching my to post the first podcast for weeks, patiently waiting for one of my turntable to be fixed.

Its heating up here in Sydney, everyone seems to be spending more time outside, days are longer and weekends are lazier. This mix really just mellows me out defiantly a great prelude to summer and the impending daylight savings, barbies and lazy weekends at the beach. If you cant make it to the east coast of Australia you can always check the vibe on this mix.

Includes tracks by Artifacts, PUTS, Sadat X, Pete Rock and CL smooth, Afu Ra, J Live and Rodney Rude among others.

Listen Now:

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