|
 Now,
about that indie music mix mentioned in the last post ... I called this
one Caught in a
Downpour referencing the flood of music that's rained down
recently -- artists have been impressively busy this spring. The
independents theme is earned mostly by contributions from KUSH, All
India Radio and The Warheads; joined, as usual, by lots of
tunes from emusic.com -- a site which I have grown accustomed to thinking
of as a repository of mostly independent artists (change is coming there,
though.) One track from a more major-label presence, Laura Izibor's
From My Heart to Yours (DJ Premier mix) really rocks this set --
thanks to the Giant Step folks for that hook-up.
Another indie effort is the K-Salaam & Beatnick remix of Marvin
Gaye's Let's Get It On ... these NYC producers had a busy
spring, releasing an album's worth of remixes. That classic Marvin
Gaye track keeps company on the Downpour set with two more (original) classics, just because
they're worth hearing over and over: Roll Um Easy from
Little Feat and Fred Neil's Little Bit of Rain. If
you missed these the first time around, now's your chance to catch up....
And speaking of classics ...
RIP Michael ... a brief
appreciation on FLYpaper, courtesy of YouTube.
As
I work on pulling a few things together for the annual Declaration of
Independents (independent music) blow-out that I like to schedule for
sometime around July 4th (yes yes, full-out hokey ... so sue me
 ), I
realize now is also the time for a shout-out to the fine and generous
people (musicians, label owners and other music promoters) who add me to
their promo list each year. Because of their willingness to create
that partnership, the end result of what I do is immeasurably richer ...
Certainly the BeatConscious show has been the better for having music from
All India Radio, The Warheads, Worldwide Groove Corporation, Andie
Hahn, Fila Brazilia/The Cutler and more from 23Records,
Vice Lounge, Monta, Citrona and Greg Long among many downtempo
mailing list members making music, Julian Brody, BN Loco and the
other Modus Vivendi artists, Afternoons in Stereo, Dr.
Echo, the guys of Torso, Gary B, Subatomic Sound System people,
the beautiful minds behind KUSH, Alex and the crew at
Aardvark, James Foster, Sterling Angel and more from the
many pages of myspace and the many participants of the
RadioDirectX network ...
Well clearly, to complete
that list would take a
page ... and today, I'm enlarging it by one -- the
Giant Step
family of artists, one that includes quite an impressive roster of
musicians as you'll see when you click that link and visit the Giant Step
site. I'm busily acquiring tidbits from the current releases on
offer and you can expect future BeatConscious shows to come decked out
in these gems....
Now, in true yin/yang
fashion, we need to touch on the downside after all that happy stuff ...
and it's pertinent, because a fair number of artists and labels have picked
up on BeatConscious due to finding the show on the Live365
network ... so it's a drag to have
to say I'm putting my renewal on hold for a while so I can see how the
money / job thing shakes out this summer (and, to be honest, because I
also had to commit big bucks to re-roof my lanai and make some other
home repairs) ... One school of thought is that if you can make it thru
this summer, you have a fighting chance ... of course, there's another
school that says this is just the rehearsal, but I'm pretending they're
not talking to me yet. Anyhow, my L365 show is going to be operating
on a VIP-only basis for the next few months ... if you have VIP'd me in
the past and let me go, or if you have never VIP'd me before and suffered
thru the commercials, etc., then this would be a good time to consider
BeatConscious as one of your VIP picks ... For those who can't get
to it just now, I understand, and I hope to be back and available to all
listeners by the fall. In the meantime, of course, there is still
the BeatConscious show on
mmRadio where, for the same low low price (still
zero) you get not only MadameFLY grooves but a raft of other DJs as well
(some of whom are a great deal more talented than me, I don't mind telling you.)
Highly recommended and always up to date -- drop by and listen for
yourself.
The
buzz is on
Previous Features:
Against
all expectation, a new set joined the stream in May, inspiration thanks to fresh
tunes from The Warheads (their most recent effort is the
Vrykolakas Brides set) and also due to the fact that this winter I started
watching the HBO series The Wire on DVD, each episode
of which closes with a perfect little downtempo joint by Blake Leyh
titled The Fall ... hey, you take it where you find it. Also
need to give a shout-out to my old friend, Afternoons in Stereo ...
I happened to be listening again to the "Best of 2005" set he compiled for
his Urban Modernists radio show which included a great Yonderboi
track from that year, Eyes for You ... and that one promptly went
onto the set-list as well.
At
any rate, short but sweet,
Down to The Wire
appeared on mmRadio by mid-month, and then the decks were cleared
for another, quite different inspiration ... we learned that one of the
community members, a Canadian who went by the nom du musique DJ
Spaceman, had lost his battle with cancer ... Sonny was a
sweet-natured man, a beautiful spirit whose talent, enthusiasm and
helpfulness to others enlightened and inspired those who knew him.
The community is now working to create a memorial to that spirit, in the
form of group project that will complete the last PowerSpin tag-team that
Sonny was working on before his death this spring ... I'm working on my
own contribution to the project, fittingly for this Memorial Day weekend.
I'll be hoping to hold my own with the trance heavyweights ... I do have a
few gems from back in the day which I'm delighted to offer to the effort.
You'll be able to hear the finished tribute on the Translucent station of mmRadio ...
check here for further information.
As
noted on FLYpaper, Uncle Mo
is layin' low just now, made skittish by one thing or another ... not to
fear, that doesn't dry up the music, not as long as there are great mixes
from days past that need to be reworked in Studio 7 to take advantage of
the greatly improved sound handling... This month, it's
FreeFall from
August 2005 that's gotten the treatment ... as well as
a new CD cover (the
original was pretty generic, the new one much more evocative ... follow
that link and see for yourself.) But no changes to the selecting or
the sequencing ... I find this set to be pretty perfect just as it was
originally conceived. It's up and playing now on mmRadio, if you'd
like to come by and check it out. If you've never heard Tanita
Tikaram's I Might Be Crying or Laurie Anderson's
Freefall, the two tracks that close out the set, then you owe it to
yourself to check this one out.
Had
my heart's desire ... the chance to get together for a brief catch-up
visit with one of the key characters in my musical development ... the
full story is on
FLYpaper.
Of course, now I'm a bit
behind on the next show for BeatConscious ... but bear with me, I've got
great new music to comb through and I'll be finding the perfect flow for
your next musical moment this spring.
If your Oscar money was on
Slumdog Millionaire, then that was easy money ... the little
picture that could swept the Awards, thus giving me the opportunity and
incentive to upload another Asian Underground set to the
BeatConscious show on
mmRadio ... this time I chose to rework one that had not previously
been given the MixMeister treatment ... a set I called
A Visit with My Guru.
This set originally explored what I thought was a tight correspondence
between Asian Underground and late 90's drum'n'bass ... in fact, some of
the tracks were pretty intense for a BeatConscious show and so they were
among the ones that were eliminated in the rework process and replaced by
newer tunes ... leading off the set, for example, is the Funk'n'Gandhi
track from the album of the same name by The Warheads ... also new
to that set-list was a Massive Attack remix of the classic Mustt
Mustt from Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn. But the core of the set
remained the same and with its current appearance on BeatConscious, more
folks like you will have the opportunity to hear a staggeringly great
booty shaker from Nitin Sawhney called Streets ... don't
miss it!
Every minute I spent working
on updating My Guru for 2009 was a minute I didn't think about the global
financial crisis ... I hope listening to it will transport you away from
your worries also
In other news, some of you
may remember the story about my
introduction to electronic music in the mid-90's courtesy of
Tranceporter's DJing at the Key West restaurant Dim Sum ... and you
may also have read here in the news update about us reconnecting not so
long ago (such is the power of the internet ...) Well, I hope we'll
be able to have a visit during this year's WMC in Miami, scheduled for the
last week of this month ... I'm intending to buzz over for a very quick
visit to catch up with Donald and window-shop a bit with a girlfriend ...
more about all that later.
Oscar®
night is coming up fast ... haven't seen most of the contenders, only the
one that I was interested in: Slumdog Millionaire ... as I
noted on the beatmixing.com forum: I've seen four of Danny Boyle's
films now -- Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Sunshine and now this one. I've
liked them all but this one just rocked. This will be the first year I pay
much attention to the Oscars in quite some time.... Makes me want to
dust off some of the old bhangra sets and remix them in in Studio 7
... and so, of course, I did, starting with a complete rework of the set
In a Scented Garden ... this was originally compiled in
2000, from CDs probably (this was pre-MixMeister) and ran about 74 minutes
with this
line-up. I remade it in 2004, basically just recompiling it in
MixMeister. This time, however, much new music was available and I
put a lot of thought into resequencing for better flow ...
you can
see the new set-list here for the rework entitled One Night in a
Scented Garden. I've even updated the cover art -- if you
check out the Covers page, the original is the very first image at the top
of the page, and
the new one is here.
There were five of these
sets when I first made them in 2000 and I think enough good material
exists now (including, of course, the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire)
to rework most of them, which I expect to do throughout the rest of 2009.
If you enjoyed the movie, and your enjoyment translates into an interest
in the music, please drop by the BeatConscious stream on mmRadio (you can
use the "hear me on beatmixing.com" image-link in the panel at the left
side of your screen to get there....) And by all means, let me know
what you think.
And may the best film win!
Must
say, couldn't be happier at the prospect of the next couple of days ...
the opportunity for hanging out with Tepmix during his brief visit here in
sunny Florida -- it's chilly to us, but comparatively balmy for him.
And equally exciting, the inauguration of the new
President. Make no mistake, I expect 2009 is gonna be a tough, tough
year ... no doubt the first of several ... but at least we're leaving the
nightmare behind and beginning the business of repairing what's been
broken. Like most people, I'd rather push up my sleeves and get to
work, not just sit and stare helplessly at the mess.
To inaugurate that effort in
my own way, I'm uploading a new set to the BeatConscious show ...
actually I've been spending the morning with the business of giving this
mix a title, so you're here, looking over my shoulder while the mental
process takes place ... My original thought was, yeah the economy is
wrecked, but it's not like it's the first time -- we've been here before
... you only have to think back to some of the songs from tough times
past:
"Money's Too Tight to Mention" (Simply Red), for example.
Well, of course, that's how a set gets started ... although I
couldn't find a workable version of Blind Alfred Reed's classic
"How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?", I did find a wickedly
appropriate opener from
Fila Brazillia
called "Whose Money" ... and for those of you who never heard the 1980
masterpiece, "Money Changes Everything" by Atlanta's
The Brains,
well, now's the time to get caught up .... join us for
Too Tight
(The Money Funk) on mmRadio's BeatConscious show (look for the
"hear me on beatmixing.com" button, one of the choices under
ONLINE AUDIO on the left-side panel.)
It's a cautionary tale for these dark days when people are
overwhelmed with second thoughts on just about everything they took for
granted over the past couple of decades.... (a sentence, BTW, that employs
all the other possible set titles I considered and then rejected
).
Mine
was lovely, hope yours was also ... Christmas, of course. I know
that for lots of folks who had to travel in order to be with family, the
weather in the northern half of the U.S. created quite a nightmare, but I
hope you arrived safely and that the warm glow you found waiting for you
made up for the effort of reaching your destination....
At this point, Moto and I are looking forward to reconstructing the
regular schedule for BeatConscious on mmRadio ... each of us has a
little something in the works, but no sense of when we'll have a finished
product ... I have a fair amount of new music to attend to, including the
latest project from The Warheads and recent acquisitions from the good
people at
emusic.com ... why, I even bought a couple of CDs while shopping for gifts
on Amazon and hope to work them into the mix as well.
If you have some new music
to share, drop me a line and bring me up to date ... remember that the
primary audience for the streams on mmRadio are working DJs and other
tastemakers who may seek out music that they hear on the show to
incorporate into their own sets ... I make it my business to make sure
they can easily find the artists whose music plays on the BeatConscious
show ... and so we keep the flow moving on
Up next, Christmas ... and
with that reliable return comes the BeatConscious Christmas show as
well ... as old friends already know, the BeatConscious show on mmRadio
begins December by adding a Christmas mix to the regular schedule and then
throughout the month we gradually add more while trimming out the regular
mixes ... until, by Christmas Eve, we are Christmas music 24/7. The
process is well under way now (how could it not be, with just about a week
left to go ...) and the most recent addition was my own new production for
this year, The
Illuminated Grinchmas:
you can read about it here if you like.
Now of course, I keep in
mind that not everyone has the time or interest to tune in to the show,
especially as busy as people are during the holidays ... for you, I've
contrived to have a little
something under the tree....
However you spend it, have a
lovely holiday ...
To
all of you who celebrate it, a very happy Thanksgiving ... mine was about
as good as it gets and very reminiscent of the best of times "back home".
In the run-up to the
holiday, I uploaded a new show ... or rather, The Recombinator has
been at work again, remixing a set from 2003 that seemed full of tunage
that would be worth hearing again ...
The
Money Groove, Part 1 got the attention this time, and emerged
relatively lightly touched ... it picked up a couple of new tunes and so
isn't any longer the experiment that it started out to be ... that is,
remixing a friend's compilation of 'new favorite tracks' ... as told in
the mmRadio feedback thread, back in the day:
A Visit from DJ Money
G -or- Inspiration is where it finds you.
I have a friend in the financial services sector who has turned into a
downtempo head over the past couple of years ... I've given him the
nickname DJ Money G, though he doesn't mix (yet) but makes compilations.
Every time he and his wife come to FLA for a visit, we catch up on one
another's crates and give the gift of music. Last visit, he left me with
four CDs of his latest favorites, and I gave him a couple of my recent
mmRadio sets.
As I listened to his CDs, I couldn't help but think about how a
resequencing and actual mixing of some of the tracks might turn into
something really tasty -- hey, I'm only human (a MixMeister-enabled human,
that is.) So, I set out to make my own mix, my own flavor, from his
selections ... I call it The Money Groove.
Among the artists on this set, you'll hear Fila Brazilia, Praful, De-Phazz,
Ja Wobble/Bill Laswell, The Dining Rooms, Sofa Surfers, Deadbeats and
more.... There's every possibility of a Volume Two being created from the
rest of this material ... stay tuned
(See
http://community.beatmixing.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/416605445/m/809609555
for the whole write-up.)
There did, in fact, turn out
to be more Money Groove sets, and I will be handing those over to The
Recombinator also ... but first:
Christmas tunes
are coming.
Yes, folks, here at BeatConscious, we wait a decent interval after
Thanksgiving before we start talking Christmas ... but as the holiday came
late in November this year, and since I usually start adding the Christmas
sets early in December, I guess it's time to start planning the morphing
of the show into its eventual "All Christmas All the Time" line-up, due to
be in place by no later than Christmas Eve. I expect a few new mixes
to be added to the show this year: a holiday set from DJ Mojito from
Germany, a remix of The Grinch from me and whatever else shows up under
the tree ... As we do each year, the BeatConscious DJs will strive to give
you the perfect downtempo buzz for your holiday festivities ... Join us!
All
girls, all the time! Fully-clothed (or, at least, so I imagine) ...
What paradise is this, you ask?
Isla Mujeres
is our destination ... not, this time, an island off the coast of Yucatan,
but instead an island of the mind, where the voices are women's voices ...
from a whisper to a shout, from jazz to triphop to sugar-soul and lazy
lounge-flavored house. It is, of course, the newest show to stream
on BeatConscious, and I invite you to join us ...
In addition, I should
mention -- for all of you who get your BeatConscious stream via mmRadio
(and if you don't, you can sample the stream on
this page) -- I'm not the
only DJ who has contributed new pleasures to the show: DJ D-Groove
brings us another of his Soul Lounge sets (this one called: Patio
Light, Drinks & Good Friends), plur contributes a session
of Processed Beatz for an unaccustomed dip into minimal/tech
house, while phreaq has dropped an excellent ethno flavored set he
calls My Belly's Bigger than Buddha's ... and that's just in
the last couple of weeks ... Still in rotation are mixes from dani72,
kicko and stilly, who returned this summer after a long
absence, with Balearic Bliss to share. There's even
the delicious anticipation that my station co-host, Moto, will find
the time and opportunity to drop a new set sometime soon -- getting
hitched can slow a guy down just a bit when it comes to time-out for
non-essentials
So come on in ... we'll be
happy to make space for you here on the banquette and share the breezes
and the bliss.
Update: As I usually
do before traveling, I've refreshed the Live 365 version of the
BeatConscious stream, so those of you who get your downtempo fix at that
outlet can rest assured you are hearing the latest as of October 12th ....
And to all the independent artists who have contacted me over the past
several months, via the email link at Live365, my appreciation to each of
you -- the show would be nothing without your music.
Looks like I dropped a link
to the Cabin
Fever mix a couple of posts back, without actually adding the
set-list to the usual page ... mea culpa ... I've made up for that now,
and also added cover art
and set-list for the most recent BeatConscious show,
Autumn
Atmospherics ... This one started as an updating of a 2002 mix
titled Autumn Will Come but instead of just improving all
the transitions, I took it a step further ... as described in this
write-up from the Beatmixing.com feedback thread:
Here's where a couple of
impulses intersect, one (The ReAnimator) is the urge to keep old music in
the mix: if it holds up, it should continue to be heard. The second
impulse is to cherry-pick the best tracks from an old mix and recombine
them with more recently-acquired tunes … and see what results …
Enter: The Recombinator
From the original mix ... DJs Wally & Swingsett and Bugs
deliver the kind of sultry vocals that characterize good downtempo tracks
while A Guy Called Gerald brings some atmospheric DnB energy to the
set. The Guardians of Dalliance, Ambient Rhythms and dZihan & Kamien
are also still kickin and of course we have that "ultimate downtempo
joint" from Coldcut -- and the track which gives this set its name
-- Autumn Leaves.
Among the new additions, Quantic's "Infinite Regression" track is
the slyest, it's references easily applicable to mixing, especially
remixing original mixes … The Nojazz track is quite a find, with
its easy-to-mix spoken intro, audio fireworks, and the fact that it quotes
a couple of bars of the Autumn Leaves remix that closes the set is a
double plus.
Also new to the set are pieces from Cantoma, Lemongrass, PFM, Govinda
and the crazy opening track from Four Tet, so eerie and yet so
iirie, if you follow….
And that's the story with
music so far ... at this point, I'm hard at work on the next set, which
will feature all the great woman-centric music that has come my way in the
past couple of months.
The
heat is still around and now plenty of rain as well, as we deal with the
first tropical storm to really have any effect on the area ... good prep
for the real thing as we head into peak storm season. That day off
from work gave me the chance to update the
Live 365 stream, so
those of you who get your BeatConscious hit from L365 are all caught up
now.
There was an excellent
WIRED interview with CD Baby founder Derek Stivers recently
and I found this quote to be pretty perceptive:
Wired.com: What is the most broken aspect of the
music business?
Sivers: The disconnect between the music, as a final product, and
the musician, as a person going through an ongoing creative process.
There are plenty of millionaires who would pay millions to hang a Van Gogh
painting on the wall, but hardly one that would have ever had the crazy
nut over for dinner. I feel like the big companies are like that with
musicians. They'll say, "We love music! It's all about the music!" -- but
if a musician shows up at the door, they call security.
The closing jab is also
excellent:
Wired.com: What area of the music business offers
the most hope for fans of great music?
Sivers: The areas with no music business in them.
Friends talking to friends, talking about what they love, away from the
influence of business.
I'll just point out that
"friends talking to friends about [the music] they love" is in fact the
guiding principle of BeatConscious.org.
So,
you know, it's hotter'n a pistol and everybody around here (FLA) is pretty
much hangin' out inside, enjoying the A/C when they can't be in the pool
or in the Gulf ... and so this is our time for cabin fever. Some
suffer it in the winter, some in the summer, but it's always the same
routine ... stuck inside due to the weather, feeling like half your life
has shut down, waiting for better times (actually, that also sounds a
little like what people are feeling on account of the economy, but that's
a different subject for some other post....) Anyhow, if you're lucky
like me, you have something as interesting and engaging as MixMeister to
help you while away the hours ...
The result of my time inside
this July/August can be heard in the newest upload to the BeatConscious
stream on mmRadio, aptly called
Cabin Fever
(or was I just too lazy to come up with a clever name -- you decide.)
I must tell you, there are some stand-out tracks on this set,
particularly from favorites like The Warheads, All India Radio and
a new discovery, Proof of Concept.
The Warheads have been
working on a soundtrack for something called Nihon Noir,
while the newest release from All India Radio (Fall) has had
a few of the tracks remixed for our listening pleasure ... a portion of the mix bounces
back and forth between tracks from these two offerings and the overall
effect is truly sublime.
Proof of Concept is
the nom du musique of James Foster, whose "View from Above" I've
paired with one of my favorite tracks of all time, Lamb's "Five"
from the Fear of Fours album ... you'll hear how this new
artist holds his own with the best, and you may be encouraged by that
showing to seek out his music on Myspace ....
Speaking
about the latest show to stream on
BeatConscious,
Independence Suite 2008 (see post below), I want to take the
opportunity to also pay respects to
All India Radio,
purveyors of fine music based in Australia (the new release is Fall)...
and to Martin Kennedy and Leona Prue in particular.
They co-wrote the track Let Me Remain, which I
find stunningly lovely ... I went so far as to ask Martin for the lyrics,
because the tune just haunts me, and Leona (the wordsmith) was kind enough
to oblige ... if you see me driving along singing, it might just be that
I'm singing along to Let Me Remain, now that I know the words.
And speaking of musical
favorites, I understand there is new goodness coming from The Warheads
... heard a little bit yesterday (would it be wrong to say Asian
triphop?) and will be looking for a new CD soon ... this is a very active
and talented group ... like All India Radio,
The Warheads
are a source of consistently excellent music and I'm delighted to have
found them ... hope you will seek them out as well.
Take
a second to read the last post (immediately below) and you'll understand
my gratitude to KUSH, one of several independent artists featured
on this July 4th's indie music set: Independence Suite 2008.
But the fact is, I appreciate everyone out there putting in the time and
talent to produce such excellent music ... I only know my one little
downtempo corner of the musical world of course ... but from what I hear,
there's good news in almost every genre, and a large number of listening
venues (the artists's websites, their myspace pages, last.fm and pandora
and a number of other online radio outlets, including of course mmRadio
and Live365, where you can catch the music that has entertained and
impressed me and my fellow MixMeisters and other music devotees.)
Go here to check
out the set-list for the 2008 indie music offering and use one of the
links in the left-side panel to check out the actual music (L365 listeners
-- coming to you a bit later in the month.)
One special (though
relatively tiny) feature of this new mix is the drop from jrs of The
Warheads ... it pleased me enormously ... like anything you never knew
you wanted until after someone gave it to you.
And now, back to enjoying my
long weekend ....
Took
the plunge, took the challenge, and on this rainy June weekend I renewed
the Live 365 station presence for BeatConscious ... I can spend the text
elsewhere to talk about why I would even hesitate (as you make your own
economic decisions these days, I know you know) but here I'll just say
that under the new terms of membership, the greater cost is buying more
server space which I've used to plump up the roster of sets ... you can
find the current line up on
the Live 365 information page. I made the decision in part
because I recently had email from another fine group (KUSH) who let me
know they'd found me due to the station on L365 ... not everyone mentions
that, so it's possible to lose sight of the great job the station does in
keeping me connected to the world of music lovers looking for a new sound
to love. I listened as I worked this weekend and even with the
commercials, the station sounds decent ... though I would hope and expect
that most serious listeners would buy a membership that would relieve them
of listening to the commercials. Why don't you check out the show
(you can use the Live365 link in the navigation panel at the left side of
this page, under the word "Audio" to stream it) and let me know what you
think ....
Memorial
Day Weekend, a perfect time for uploading a new show to mmRadio and
updating the website as well ... and I waited for this sweet moment until
after I had done my yard work ... just so you know.
I'm calling the new show
SemiConsciousParty ... with a bit of a nod to Ziggy Marley
and the basic recognition that we never entirely commit to our own part in
the big picture as long as our personal lives keep throwing us curves.
You'll find the
set-list
here and the
cover over here.
Enjoy the soul sensibilities of Erykah Badu, Verse 2, Subatomic Sound
System, Rithma, Nightmares on Wax, Atjazz, Freddie Cruger, Joy Denalane,
Fontella Bass, Lauryn Hill, Deela and others .... And you may
find you relate to some of what they have to say.
Speaking of what people have
to say, I've posted a new article link on the
BrainScan
page, another one about the healing powers of music ... the scientific
community keeps poking around the edges of this particular line of
research, but never dips more than a toe in. Maybe this time,
they'll get a little farther.
WIRED magazine
has an interview with Brian Eno ... I've excerpted
a small bit on the
BrainScan page; if you're interested in the entire article, you can check that out
here. And the NYT also has a cautionary tale about
the rise and spectacular downfall of a prolific blogger, Emily Gould,
told in her own words. My first experience of the phrase
oversharing ... but I recognized it
instantly:
One of the strangest and
most enthralling aspects of personal blogs is just how intensely personal
they can be. I’m talking “specific details about someone’s S.T.D.’s”
personal, “my infertility treatments” personal. There are nongynecological
overshares, too: “My dog has cancer” overshares, “my abusive relationship”
overshares.
It’s easy to draw parallels between what’s going on online and what’s
going on in the rest of our media: the death of scripted TV, the endless
parade of ordinary, heavily made-up faces that become vaguely familiar to
us as they grin through their 15 minutes of reality-show fame. No wonder
we’re ready to confess our innermost thoughts to everyone: we’re
constantly being shown that the surest route to recognition is via
humiliation in front of a panel of judges.
But is that really what’s making people blog? After all, online, you’re
not even competing for 10 grand and a Kia. I think most people who
maintain blogs are doing it for some of the same reasons I do: they like
the idea that there’s a place where a record of their existence is kept —
a house with an always-open door where people who are looking for you can
check on you, compare notes with you and tell you what they think of you.
Sometimes that house is messy, sometimes horrifyingly so. In real life, we
wouldn’t invite any passing stranger into these situations, but the remove
of the Internet makes it seem O.K.
Trust me, I'll be keeping a
careful eye on FLYpaper for signs of this oversharing stuff ...
Thank
god I've never lived an interesting life ... otherwise, people who
followed it on FLYpaper
would be really upset about the lack of news there ... as it is, most of
what you need to know, you can read right here in the Fresh News column.
And in fact, I do have a news flash for today, the very tag-end of April
... an email from the Tranceporter! OK, lose that confused
look ... think a little and you'll remember reading the
History of My World page
from a couple of years ago (I'm SUCH an optimist
 ) At the time I wrote
that page, the punch line was that I had been in contact with one of the
guys from the musical godhead, Heights of Abraham. But of
equal importance on my personal scale of wondrous happenings, is that I've
also heard from the Tranceporter, the guy who introduced me to the music
of HoA to begin with. Since that hazy day in Key West, we have
touched base maybe twice, and I have an absolute fit (the good kind) each
time ... especially because it is completely unexpected -- like all the
best presents.
So, for you DP, a big warm
public hello ... thanks for all the new music recommendations -- you can
be certain that I'll be tracking them down. And when we are both on
the same continent once again, we really must try to have a visit and a
meal together ....
So
you know I went to WMC, and so I'm sure you're wondering if I brought home
any new music ... well, as mentioned already (see below), I had the
pleasure of meeting up with Emch and the Subatomic Sound System
folks for the Miambient event, and Emch kindly comped me a couple of
the CDs he's brought with him ... and on these I found some excellent
music, including the track Rize Up which appears on the new
Dub & Dubber 08: 2008:04:20: Dubset, uploaded this morning and
currently stream on mmRadio ... yes, folks, it's that date once again and
it could not pass unmarked here at BeatConscious
Check out the set-list
here.
Respect and appreciation
also go out to Miguel Migs who appeared at The Opium Garden and
handed out a few copies of his new release on OM Records: These
Things (Remixed) ... the Cottonbelly remix of Fire
is among the stand-out tracks on that collection, and you'll hear it on
the D&D 4:20 mix also. Also in the spirit is a contribution from the
Dubmatix remix contest -- the Dubactivist version of Dust, Dirt
and Sand, a timely anthem for a troubled economy.
Whether you celebrate today
or just have yourself a typical pleasant Sunday ... enjoy.
Did
I go to Miami? Indeed I did, and lived to tell the tale ... check it
all out on the Winter Music
Conference page -- complete with pictures. Speaking of
pictures, I'm pestering my friends for some of their shots, so do check
back as I expect to be updating that page over the next week or so....
This year it seemed
downtempo was in shorter supply ... one really excellent opportunity was
the Miambient afternoon at The Standard Hotel (respect and
gratitude to Emch for the heads-up on that event.) Otherwise,
I was hearing House music and the best of that was the BasicNYC
party at the Beach Plaza Hotel ... details on these events via the
link above. I did come home with a couple of discs in addition to my
pics and good memories ... look for tracks from Miguel Migs and the
Subatomic Sound System people to pop up on the BeatConscious
stream soon.
Speaking of the
BeatConscious stream (and I mean the one hosted on
beatmixing.com)
-- do visit me there soon and see the striking new site design by DJ Jez
(not just a DJ, but a phenomenal graphic artist as well.) The
site redesign is set to launch on April 1st and barring any of those pesky
technical issues the web sometimes serves up, we hope to have you join us
and let us know what you think.
Yes,
it's about time for the Winter Music Conference in Miami ... but
before I go, I just had to drop one more jazzy joint for ya ... click on
over to the BeatConscious show on mmRadio (beatmixing.com --
see the link on the leftside panel) and see what you think about The
Mighty Wick, featuring the music of Parov Stelar, Gary B,
Afternoons in Stereo, The Warheads (in their jazz outfits, this time)
and duo Tassel & Naturel featuring DJ Cam ... and much more
besides: check out the
set-list here.
Last
month, I promised you a new Quiet Storm-style mix featuring new material
from the good folks at ViceLounge and you know I wouldn't lie ...
you can hear Terms & Conditions streaming now from the
BeatConscious show on mmRadio (check the panel at the left for
the link.) This being February, you can assume that Terms &
Conditions is the Valentine's Day joint... Check out
the cover art and
the set-list
for more clues as to my heart-rate and whether or not those are stars in
my eyes ....
In addition to the
ViceLounge mash of Melissa Young's "Just a Girl", this mix runs the
gamut from Memphis Minnie to Candi Staton with a couple of
stops for Remy Shand, the Canadian neo-Soul artist who put out one
record in 2002 and then disappeared....
Work and other aspects of
Real Life are a bit overwhelming this season ... you can bet I'm looking
forward to a week in South Beach at the Winter Music Conference in late
March ... there will be the chance to meet up with other MixMeisters as
well as seeing some inspiring musical performances ... If you find you
have the time and the inclination, please join us there and help us make
the party happen
The
new year is well under way and so it must be time for a fresh show on
BeatConscious ... I believe Moto will rearrange things
this weekend, retiring the "Best of 2007" show and shuffling the mixes
around a bit ... At this point, the one truly new item will be my 2008
kick-off mix of independent artists, featuring the music that was brought
to my attention during the last couple of months in 2007 (when my
attention was really focused on pulling together the Christmas show.)
Stop by beatmixing.com and check out the show (MoonDrop)--
you'll catch up on releases from Torso, unworking mind, Alyse Black,
The Warheads, Tassel and Naturel, Neptilos and Sonanaut, among others.
You'll find links to all these folks on the
Declaration of Independents page post that supplements each Indie
mix aired on the show.
Speaking of new music, I had
a message recently from Jake, an ex-New Yorker transplanted to the L.A.
area ... we talked about how it's good to keep up with folks in the same
vibe and I asked him to be sure and let me know if he heard anything that
might be good for the show ... he said, I'm always on the hunt!
Well, I'll bet you are too ... just because not too many folks make it to
BeatConscious.org unless they are seriously interested in music ...
interested enough to read a small non-commercial website that isn't even
giving anything away for free
...
So, by all means, pick up a
few tips while you're here and before you go, consider sharing your own
tips with me: drop a line to talkback [at] beatconscious.org and let
me know what you've discovered recently ... and let me know how you found
it. I'm guessing that the majority of new finds will have come via a
musician's myspace page. But maybe you know the musician personally,
or maybe you discovered a website by reading your local arts newspaper.
However you got there, I'm interested in hearing about it. (If you
are interested in my stats, I can tell you that about 30% comes from
friend requests on myspace, 50% comes from artists contacting me directly
and the rest from news articles or tips from friends. This is a
guesstimate ... no calculators were used in developing this data.)
Coming soon: a new
Quiet Storm-style mix featuring the latest track to drop from the fine
people at ViceLounge ... watch for it!
So
we made it through another one ... no thanks to anything but blind luck
and the sheer refusal to lie down, or so it seems on the gloomier days.
Yet I think just about everyone has something that pulls them through in a
positive way (as opposed to simple denial or hiding out) ... and that one
thing, for me, is of course music: Hearing it, mixing it,
discovering new music and making sure that others learn about the really
cool stuff that comes my way ... and this year, thanks to Tim and Tom (no,
I'm not making this up) I'm actually learning a little bit as the months
roll by, proving it's always handy to have a pro around when you have
puzzles to be solved.
New things are cooking at
MixMeister, as usual ... new version releases of the software including,
most significantly, a version for Mac users. Their numbers may be
small but they are a vocal bunch and MixMeister, now with the financial
cushion that came from their alliance with Numark, has finally had the
chance to respond to their demands to be included in our world ...
The Mac version should be rolling out this month.
And it looks as though some
of us in the MixMeister community will be visiting South Beach for the the
2008 Winter Music Conference ... it seemed like a nifty place to have a
little party we've been planning. If you are planning on being in
that neighborhood March 26-30, be sure to let me know ....
Until then (or the next
opportunity) you have my very best wishes for this new year.
I've made an
archive of the oldest contents of this section ... feel free to
visit and dip in, should you have the time and inclination....
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