Dec/090
Discmakers: Top 10 Articles of 2009
I regularly get email and snail mail from Discmakers. I like their company, their business, and some of what they do really reminds me of their partnership with CDBaby.
This popped up in my email this morning and recaps some of the great content that I’ve read over the course of the year. Check out the topics that interest you and you just might find some tidbits of useful advice and things to keep in mind as you continue along your musical journey (whether it be hobby or professional!).
1) 7 Effective Strategies To Get Your Music Noticed
2) The Zen of Ear Training – Part 1
3) The $999 Home Studio
4) Behind The Glass with Daniel Lanois
5) Pro Studio: Laptop Recording 101
6) Creating the Perfect Pitch
7) Get Paid When You Get Played
8) Do You Need a Direct Box for Home Recording?
9) Indie Resolutions
10) From Your Project Studio to The Sound Machine
Dec/090
Soundcloud: Audio Soul Project (Mazi) – DJ set for 5 Magazine New Mix Monday
A wonderful house set by Chicago producer and DJ, Mazi Namvar (Audio Soul Project). This mix takes us through some excellent forms of chill, traditional, and deep house.
I first heard some of Audio Soul Project’s original works via FOEM.info’s remix contest. I was excited to find him on SoundCloud posting DJ sets, remixes and original songs!
Click over to SoundCloud for the full track list and download. Be sure to give some props to Mazi if you dig the DJ set!
Audio Soul Project (Mazi) – DJ set for 5 Magazine New Mix Monday by AudioSoulProject
Jul/090
Grooveshark 7/7/2009 – Downtempo
Downtempo, chill, and even trip-hop styled tunes that I’ve been listening to will appear in these playlists from Grooveshark. This has taken the place of my love for the now defunct Seeqpod (RIP).
Jul/090
Tom Cosm – Helping the Masses Produce and Play Live
I was looking around for solid tutorials on setting up my Ableton Live! templates and sets to accomodate live performances of my music.
I’ve been producing primarily in Reason ever since 1.0 so I have a lot of my best tunes thus far fully mixed AND mastered in Reason. Lo-and-behold I found more than I had ever dreamed in the way of free, high quality, easy to understand guides taught by Tom Cosm.
Not only does Tom make some awesome electronic music, he performs his stuff live (traditionalists would say 1/2 perform 1/2 DJ.. it’s a hybrid set) and is pretty damn entertaining in doing so.
You have to check this guys site out. Go read his articles and watch his videos even if you feel rock solid on your Ableton Live! skills: you just might learn a few tricks from this guy!
Jun/090
So I Went to a Rummage Sale…
A friend of ours (my fiancee and I) invited us over for breakfast and a crazy trip to this insanely huge rummage sale and Rotary auction on Bainbridge Island, WA. I instantly thought “wow, I wonder what I could find on vinyl there?” as our friend describe the insanity of this event. To say this rummage sale and auction was “big” is an understatement. The whole thing went down in a middle school. There was stuff in all of the parking lots, class rooms, and gym!
I was delighted to see big signs for “Records and Tapes” in the gym. I went over there and saw about 8-9 large boxes stuffed full of vinyl records in their cases. My joy quickly turned to curiosity and only *slight* disappointment as I found scores of religious music, sermons, chior, and loads of Christmas music. There were the occasional off beat jazz, blues, and contemporary rock albums in there but nothing that really grabbed me.
I did, however, find the following gems in digging through ALL of the stockpile (you never can be sure what you will miss, right?)
Steve Martin – “Let’s Get Small” :: The condition on this one is ‘poor’ but listenable. I found in a stack that had no slips, and it is pretty beat up but I wanted it for sampling purposes. Classic!
Derek and the Dominos – “Layla – and other assorted love songs” :: Good quality, no cover.
Various Artists – Swingin’ Sound :: Impulse buy. Dave Brubeck, Ray Conniff, Miles Davis, Duke Ellinton, etc. I enjoyed the record quite a bit, and the potential for mixing/sampling is certainly there.
The Dell Trio – “Cocktail Time” :: Impulse buy. I bought it for the name and cover art in hopes of some good jazzy/loungy stuff. It is certainly NOT what I was hoping for, but funky/different enough to remain in the collection for now. The music is that of… nearly elevator style… is the best way I can put it. It’s straight out of 1949.
Now those are the first batch. The next ones are of special interest by me and considered to be the real ’score’ of the trip!
A Winter’s Solstice :: Yep. I’m a sucker for this stuff. All of that Christmas music from my younger life will stick with me, and I was elated to find this one as another patron was sifting through the records in the box next to mine. Sweet!
George Benson – Breezin’ :: It was the only George Benson record in there, and I nabbed it! How can you go wrong putting on this one for some relaxing times? ;)
I managed to pluck out an EXCELLENT (in cover, slip, and record) 1984 print of Mannheim Steamroller’s “Christmas” (!!!!!!). I was shocked to see it and couldn’t imagine how anyone would let that go from their collection (no matter how small). It brings back memories from growing up listening to this on reel to reel, tape, and CD over the years of Christmas.
The beauty of it all: Each record was only $0.50!!
May/090
iLike Launches iPhone Applications for Artists
iLike has launched a new service which allows artists to employ their iLike page services into an iPhone applications for fans. The limited time fee of $99 is a steal. Check out the demo of the iPhone application right here.
May/091
Ancient Astronauts – We Are To Answer
Ancient Astronauts
We Are To Answer
I was excited to see that ESL has set Ancient Astronauts’ first release for June 9th. You can check out the ESL website for song samples and some presale goodness. The tracks are in the same vein as Wax Tailor and DJ Shadow styled hip-hop sample driven tunes that you can certainly groove to.
“The Ancient Astronauts will be releasing an album on June 9th. The album, titled “We Are To Answer,” features a variety of new sonic collaborators including Bootie Brown and Imani of legendary hip hop group The Pharcyde, Azeem, Tippa Irie, Bajka, Phat Old Mamas, Ulf Stricker, Raashan Ahmad and Entropik. A block-rockin’ boom-bappin’ sonic tour-de-force, “We Are to Answer” is a musical vision of life on Earth and beyond!” – ESL Music
It was very cool to see an appearance from Bajka, who lended awesome vocals to Bonobo’s “Days to Come”.
This is a delicious album from end to end featuring some quality beats, hip-hop grooves, and dubtastic feelings. I couldn’t avoid bobbing my head in places. This is certainly going to be stacked into my regular travel rotation for the summer and I can’t wait to find some of this on vinyl!
May/090
Wishing for a Comeback
Welcome to another new series, ‘Wishing for a Comeback’. Sometimes I think about artists/bands/groups and wish that they would release new material, even long after they have dissolved into the ether.
For instance: I wish Sneaker Pimps would release a new album. Their incredible trail (yes, including the bastard child Bloodsport) of trip-hop goodness helped to shape aspects of the modern sound scape from the peripheral. Blast just about any of their songs from your car system and you will certainly turn heads of those questioning ‘wtf?’ and those in-the-know thinking ‘hell yea! Sneaker Pimps!’.
Without an over dosage of Sneaker Pimps in my musical experience through my late teenage years (including the year Becoming X was released in which I had a hard time grasping the music) I doubt I would have jumped to even more chilled music (downtempo, chillout, both vocal and instrumental).
Annoying to me was those who passed off the group as another electronic-dance act. Danceable, sure.. but so is just about any other band you intend on going to see live. I think the attraction to the group here is more about the details in the beats, the odd sounds, the weird hooks, paired with some down trodden lyrics and vocals that really cashed in on that post-apoc feel (especially present/interesting in the late 1990’s for a lot of youth).
If you were put off by the fact that the female vocalist wasn’t present on the later releases (Splinter, Bloodsport), perhaps the music was lost on you as is most situations where people put so much emphasis on the vocal work of bands rather than the entire package. Regardless of who would be singing the vocals, since I actually enjoyed Bloodsport quite a bit, I would love to see Sneaker Pimps release new material.