Soylent Night

She was being verbally abusive again. I repeatedly asked her not to speak to me like that. After eating dinner at her parents' home she continued to speak to me in a disrespectful and dehumanizing manner, so I got out of her Audi. Of course, this upset her and she chased me down the street, yelling into the silent suburban air. I refused to go back to the car. I told her if she wanted me to go with her, she could pick me up where I stood. I was being incredibly stubborn, but I had a damn good reason for my behavior. She went back to the car and I stood around for a bit, thinking maybe she would pick me up. She did not return, and I was glad. I decided, masochistically, that I needed a physical reminder of my emotional pain. So I went walking and kept walking.

I was lost. I waved my arms and tried to ask people at intersections for directions. I tried asking politely. I tried shouting. But no one wanted to help because Boulder is the most self-absorbed land on Earth. Exactly where I belonged in that moment. I walked miles in the wrong directions. Eventually I went into a hospital emergency room because that's all I could find that was open before 6am on Christmas Day. The guy at the front desk gave me directions so I could walk back and get my shit from her house before driving back to my apartment.

I walked at least 15 miles, from 2am - 9am, in zero degree weather, and She wanted to have a 'conversation' when I got to her house. She wanted to know why I left her car even though I had already told her exactly why. And no answer I gave satisfied her. She wasn't letting me leave her room. I had my things in my arms and couldn't physically move her from the doorway. Even when I successfully moved her a couple feet away, I'd try to open the door and she would slam it shut. I was incredibly exhausted after walking all night and She had slept. I tried to escape through a bedroom window, but She pulled me away. I was left with two options: Break her. Or break her things and hopefully She would let me leave. Well, I'm not going to hit her, so I told her if she didn't let me go I would start kicking shit. She didn't let me go. I started kicking shit. And She still didn't let me leave until, finally, her roommates came in and asked me to go, and all I could say to them was "THANK YOU THANK YOU" as I got the rest of my stuff and left. One of them said, "I know it's not your fault" as I was escaping, so perhaps her roommates understood what was happening better than I could. Perhaps they observed similar reigns of control over her previous lovers.
"She makes all her boyfriends miserable."
She's "Harsh." "Demanding." "Insensitive." She's an "uncompromising bitch."
"Didn't anyone tell you not to date [her] before you moved here?"
No.
But if someone had warned me, would I have bothered to listen? Love is blind as They say.

I moved here to have a relationship with her, play music for people, and escape the Midwest.
At least I accomplished one of my goals.

You are right, Levon.
Woman is The Devil.

Damn.
I love women, and one terrible incident isn't going to make me start hating all women. I just don't think I'll be dating any more Aries girls. Fire and water don't mix. Remember that, kids.
Or don't. It's your life. Find out for yourself. How many things would you have done differently, had someone warned you beforehand?
I have no regrets.

RIP Minimal Man

Ian David Loveday died last June. I only found out just now. He worked with Baby Ford and was one-half of Minimal Man. That last release on Sender was sick, and I was always a fan of "Treatment Feel". Damn, a lot of people died this summer.

Unsung

The most reserved member of the Modern Love family has produced what may be my favorite track on the label. This is no small accomplishment, considering how much I love all the Modern Love releases. Then again, maybe "Night Jewel" is my favorite right now 'cause it's new. I'll concede that. Nevertheless, it's a fucking astounding piece of techno mastery. Thank you, Mr. Stott.

Full Of Grace

Jouem - Volume Two - Levitation EP is ridicuously good. And yes, I understand there's a deep house trend that's hitting the UK and especially Germany right now, and trends tend to produce a lot of watered-down clones of a few truly astonishing works. Well, this Jouem release is truly astonishing. I'd be proud to shelve this one at the top with my Driftwood records. It's at least that good but in a different way. A bit more atmospheric and textural with lots of reverb on the mid-high percussion. Also, it's a slower tempo affair; both tracks play at 112BPM which will keep a lot of the non-risk-taking (ie: boring) djs away.
Whatever. Sounds like God.

Finally

STL on Echospace. More djs must be taking notice.

How Make '£' With American Keyboard?

Trulz & Robin - Turn My Head 12" on Discogs right now for £0.99.
Great record. Great steal for a UK resident.

Zen

Deal Of The Day

Mountain People - Mountain003 12" for $13.99 on Discogs. If you live in UK/Europa there's plenty of copies for sale, so you needn't worry. For us Usians, however, fourteen bucks and shipping buys a record that's worth every last goddamn cent.
I would buy this, but I already have at least two copies.
Anybody got an "Anonymous Release" 2, 3, or 4 they want to trade?
I got plenty of records to choose from.

Invisible Bitchslap

I'd say Levon Vincent's Invisible Bitchslap [Deconstruct 01] is my favorite record of 2009 but it was released in late 2008. So I'll just say it's my favorite record of this last year. Better yet, it's one of my favorite records ever. So there.
Although the title track is very good, it's the hypnotic b-side roller Woman Is The Devil that has me dancing all over my kitchen while I make dinner. I could describe the track and tell you why I love it so much, but I'm not into that kind of writing. I think it's completely pointless and I've never gotten anything from writers who go into the structure of tracks or attempt to describe sounds. The only thing that matters to me is actually hearing the track. Woman Is The Devil is so good I only need to ask you one question: Do you like dance music? If you answered "yes" and you claim to be a dj of some kind then you need this record. You can mix it with house. You can mix it with techno. You can mix it with deep dub shit.

Solemn Days [Deconstruct 02] is also amazing. Buy it immediately. The Deconstruct releases--at present there's only two of them--are getting increasingly difficult to find, so good luck getting each for less than $20.

Want more great Records from Levon Vincent? Check out Novel Sound (featuring solid contributions from Jus Ed as well). And again, good luck. Six Figures [Novel Sound 02] is way the fuck sold out.

Moved In

Preparing studio space. Going to finally set up my decks tonight. But I can't play records 'cause I have people living above. Damn. That was the one nice thing about my last apartment; I was the only tenant in the building and I was very loud.

Anyways. Writing to tell you there's a brand new / sealed copy of Animal Collective's Feels on Amazon dot com right now for $40 and you should totally buy it. That's a fair price for this record, used, and a darn good price for a brand new copy.

I'll be back soon with some real information about new record releases.

Stay deep.

West

Overwhelmed.
Need to find solid ground.
Will write more when things make sense again.

Audi 5000

I knew I absolutely had to get out as soon as possible after we went to see Mountains.
"They already played."
What? It's barely after nine.
"Yeah, they played first."

Mountains played first. Before 9pm.
Fuck this.

I'm out of here.

Peace.

Too Short

Re: Hu - Ton.

Four minutes and thirty fucking seconds?
Are you fucking kidding me?
This beautiful thing should be at least seven minutes.
Fuck.

Late Bloomer

I don't buy many records that could be classified as progressive house or trance. So when I do buy such a record, you know its shit has got to smell like roses.
David Garcet's Ero smells like a full blooming garden. This track is absolutely sublime. It shines. Very similar in production style to The Field but with more sex.

Gowhere

Two of my friends died this week.
One drove off an exit ramp and hit a utility pole.
The other--consumed with grief and negative emotions stemming from our friend's death--shot himself in the head last night.

The news is full of violence.
I want to leave.

...

let's go to Pluto the atmosphere's clear
we'll be really cool there with nothing to fear
let's go to Pluto it's cold and it's damp
where children are heroes death is high camp

I want to see Pluto I want to have fun
I want to turn blue under an alien sun
oh let me see Pluto it seems such a gas
with oceans of methane and petrified grass

let's go to Pluto
lets live on the dot
see the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

come on let's do Pluto it's really not far
an unleaded dream drive to the prettiest star
I want to see Pluto but maybe I'll wait
til the world turns to meet its plutonium fate
the days will be long here the years will be more
let's go to Pluto like we did before

let's go to Pluto
let's live on the dot
see the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

...
The Creatures - Pluto Drive

Final Days Of Loneliness

Are these the last days because I'm suddenly going to have friends and feel loved?
Or because I'm not going to exist any longer?

...

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

...
exc. from Charles Bukowski's The Genius Of The Crowd

Sad News

I received news today that Andy Hughes passed away this month.
He was a collaborator with the Orb, involved in mixing and engineering albums like Live 93, Pomme Fritz, and Orbus Terrarum.

He will be missed.

Vinyl Wins Again

Excerpts from The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials


Vinyl discs

Vinyl discs are adversely affected by ultraviolet light and thermal cycling (heat fluctuation). The consequence of thermal cycling is that each cycle of temperature results in a small irreversible deformation, and these deformations are cumulative. Vinyl discs are resistant to fungal growth and are unaffected by high humidity levels.

CDs

The compact disc is a laminate of 4 different materials. The bottom of the disc is made of polycarbonate onto which the pits containing the digitized sound information are stamped. A thin layer of aluminum is then applied, covering the pits. A thin lacquer coating (which becomes the top of the disc) is then applied to cover the aluminum layer, and finally the ink for the labeling.

As with any laminated products, one must wonder how the aging characteristics of each material will interact with, and affect adjacent layers.

..............................

Thus far, vinyl has proven to be the most stable of the materials that have been used in the manufacture of sound recordings. However, although stable, its life is not indefinite. Pickett and Lemcoe, in Preservation and Storage of Sound Recordings, states that "failure by chemical degradation of a vinyl disc in ordinary library environments should not occur in less than a century".

..............................

by Gilles St‑Laurent - Music Division - National Library Of Canada

A Fellow

I recently sent a message to Mountain People because I noticed that Butch - Muskatnuss samples from Mountain 003. Not just a sound but an entire loop. A really obvious one. It's the raw, incredible groove that runs through the entirity of Mountain 003.


-------------------------------------------------------------

From: [Me]
To: mountain people
Date: Jun 17, 2009 11:40 PM
Subject: you're probably already aware of this, but...

(url to track)

I normally don't care about 'appropriation' like this.
But Mountain 003 is one of my favorite records. EVER.
Did you get any credit for this?
Money?
Fillet Mignon?
A high-five?


~ Love


-------------------------------------------------------------

Then this conversation took place :
(url to blog no longer exists. It was basically an e-mail conversation between MP and Butch, wherein the latter denies using the sample then admits he may have forgotten to remove it before finishing the track.)

-------------------------------------------------------------


I hadn't intended to start any kind of dispute. And I really don't know what is being said because I can't read German. But, I have to be honest, something about this kind of appropriation just rubs me the wrong way.
An artist like Girl Talk doesn't bother me; he samples popular music and runs the sample for 4-16 bars, creating new compositions from several sources. It's like hyper sampling. It's smart. It's Steinski.

But Butch uses the Mountain 003 sample(s) throughout Muskatnuss because those samples are the bulk of the track. Take out the MP samples, and what's left? Some unneccessary textures and extra sounds?

I love Mountain 003 because of its simplicity, its deadly beatcentric accuracy. This track cannot be improved. You can't improve upon perfection.
So why try and then pass it off as an original production...?

Intro That

He wanted respect but he found fear.
He wanted wealth but he found envy.
He wanted love and he found himself.

Quitters Never Win

Where did dancerecords.com go...?
I'm not terribly upset since they stopped stocking new vinyl, but I did have $200+ in my cart. Older, discounted records that I wanted to buy.

Dumb.

Woman Is The Devil

(Since Discogs won't allow me to write two-word reviews...)


Instant classic.

Sucka MCs

I made a recent mass record purchase on Ebay. I've gotten burned on these transactions before by irresponsible record sellers like Aaron Perkins. (This swell guy doesn't even bother to visually grade his records. He graded several records as 'Near Mint' that had deep, obvious gouges on them. Yes, they skipped. A lot.) But I couldn't pass up this opportunity. Besides, what would I lose more sleep over :
Another possibly negligent transaction by a dickhead Ebay seller...
Adding another hundo to my credit card debt...
Or not getting those Robert Hood records for less than the cost of new records...?
Exactly.
'Hoodlum' 2x12" for $2.99!?! Missing that would have been cause for a wrist-slitting party.


Tha Purchase :

Detroit Grand Pu Bahs 'Sandwiches' $3.76
G-Man 'IV' $2.99
Monolake 'Tangent' $5.59
Pelon 'No Stunts' white label $8.99
Porter Ricks 'Vol 2' $8.49
Pub 'Summer PT2' $7.00
Rhythm & Sound w/ Tikiman 'Music A Fe Rule' $4.45
Robert Hood 'Hoodlum' 2x12" $2.99
Robert Hood 'Internal Empire' 2x12" $20.50
Robert Hood 'Moveable Parts Chapter 1' $8.40
Robert Hood 'The Pace' $8.00
Robert Hood 'The Protein Valve' $3.25
Robert Hood (Floorplan) 'Envy' $4.25
Speedy J 'Public Energy No. 1' 2x12" white label $3.25
Thomas Brinkmann 'Axel/Bernd' $4.25
V/A 'Loops' Serotonin Loop Comp $3.25
V/A 'Techno-1' Detroit KMS Comp $5.59Pretty fucking respectable.


THANK YOU digital djs for selling your records. You may be stinking up the new vinyl market (at least in USia) but your generous contributions of some old gems back into the used record pool is greatly appreciated. I've been buying a lot of sweet techno lately for less than it would cost at Beatport for the 'virtual' tracks.

On the other hand, since your Love doesn't eat you from the inside out as it does me, you don't have to deal with issues like, "Oh shit, 'Internal Empire' skips since it's scratched and I'll have to negotiate some kind of refund, possibly wasting time/energy/money to return it."
This is where your insensitivity, your lack of complete commitment pays off, digital djs.
Lucky for you, ignorance is bliss.

Stephan Motherfucking Laubner

All of his STL releases are either on my shelves or in my wantlist.
Perlon -> his own Something label -> the latest on Smallville Silent State...all strong releases. Most are goddamn incredible.

You're going to feel like a poor bastard later if you don't buy his records now, like how you feel when you look for Moodymann and Theo Parrish records that didn't get pressed or repressed enough to meet demand.

...

Love is not a business.

Perfectly Articulated

Shawn Rudiman - Rubin's Place...
[Technoir Audio : TNA-001]
This came out in 2003. I discovered this gem last year in 2008. Even my ears can't be everywhere at once :(
While the entire release is solid--"Martini Kiss" and "Solitude 1" are straight-up Rudiman loves Detroit techno and "Shakedown" is a funky-good broken beat jam--"Rainy Days And Nights" steals the show. Soulful and sincere, "Rainy Days..." is the kind of track I wish I could make after collapsing to the floor, screaming until I lose my voice, then getting back up, wondering, "Why didn't the universe burst into flames by the sheer force of my will?"
Nice one, Shawn.

Almost Forgot

Oh...
And Levon Vincent too!

Your Scent

I've listened to Butane's "Inferno Jack" about fifteen times in the last three days.
A fact which probably says just as much about me as it does about this track.

We're All Fucked! (Not Really)

Swine Flu. (Not caused by eating pork.) Daily suicide bombings. Large chunks of ice, the size of Rhode Island, break off Antarctic Shelf. (Still think global warming isn't real? C'mon meow.)
Oh, and there's this whole recession thing too.
Yeah. Kinda sucks. And not in that "oh god yes that feels fucking great" kind-of-way.

Escape!
Drug and alcohol sales are at all-time highs. Why pay off .02% of your credit card debt when you can use that money to instead buy a gram, a quarter, a few pills, or that bottle on the top shelf? If you feel like shit today, you're probably going to feel like shit tomorrow. Might as well feel like a rockstar for a few hours now while you can. Fuck it. You may not have a home next month. You may apply to work at McDonalds and be turned away because they're already flooded with applications. Worse, you may even get that fucking job.

The world is in upheaval and amidst the shit music being pumped out of bloated udders, there is still that small trickle of genius. Tracks being made by the real heads. The hungry. The ones who want it so bad they would probably die (or kill themselves) if they had their sampler/laptop/Machinedrum repossessed. Because these artists are the possessed.

Keepin' it real:
Wireman
Atheus
Kris Wadsworth
Tin Man

(No need to mention MLZ, Portable, Redshape, T++, Newworldaquarium, Andy Stott, Omar-S, Mike Huckaby, Luke Hess, Shed, Quantec, Let's Go Outside, Claro Intelecto, Schatrax, Bvdub, or Marko Furstenberg because you already know about these guys and buy their records, right? RIGHT...???)

Escape with music.

Universal Language

I brought my Korg ES-1 to Easter lunch today. The younger people were keenly interested in it.
I had to leave it in the car at first because my mom doesn't understand.
Music is an ice breaker.

The Choice is Yours

I don't really have much of a choice anymore. If I want to make a livable income someday I have to do it through music. Go ahead and laugh. I know underground dance music producers and djs don't make shit. But they can.

I look at it like this:
What am I more likely to do...?
Meet all the qualifications for some job at Sony Pictures, authoring dvds...
Or release some records and get paid to play music?

It has to be the latter. I've spent all my 20s buying and learning dance music. My stacks are deep deep deep now. Unlike my peers, who were busy getting "job experience" I educated myself on the history of dance music. I went to a Chicago warehouse party and all the North American techno festivals that matter. I went to a shitty rave in the basement of a church and had a great time; I wasn't even rolling.

I don't have a choice because I already made my choice. I probably made my choice when I was nine, taping songs from my clock radio into the crappy built-in mic of my boombox because I wanted compilations of my favorite songs. Luckily, there were good radio stations in Baltimore. I was soaking in the rays of Orb's "Perpetual Dawn", enjoying the fresh beats of Black Sheep, moving in new ways to a continuous mix of alien-futurist-machine-music called "techno" on Saturday nights, giggling to Doctor Demento on Sunday nights, and digging the fact that there was a dj personality who referred to himself as "Zoltar, brotha from another planet". No joke. That dj was a fucking badass.

I've given so much of my life to music that I've become useless in other areas where I actually had some skill. And you know what? I don't care. I don't care because I was tired of being that 'jack of all trades and master of none'. That was aimless and getting me nowhere. Am I somewhere now? I don't know. Maybe I am. And maybe I'm heading to an even better place. What I do know is that I've become a lethal record buyer, and I have one of the best techno/house collections in the Midwest. The only djs who can compete with my collection are already well-known. Like I'm sure Daniel Bell, Kevin Saunderson, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Kenny Dixon Jr., and Derrick Carter have incredible collections. Anyone else who isn't a well-known professional, good luck. You won't beat what I have. Maybe your house selection will edge out my house selection. Maybe you have more boring drum'n'bass records. Maybe you paid way too much for some Italo Disco 'gems'. But overall, looking at the entirity of the collection, you can't fucking touch this. You can't beat what I have because you don't devote your entire life to digging for techno, and if you do, please get in touch with me because I'd love to meet you. Dabble after work? Laptop dj on the weekends? Fuck you. I only want to know my equals. I want the hardest of the hardcore. You have to eat, sleep, fuck, and shit dance music to step up to my plate.
Bitch.

KDJ 20

Sometimes it's real fucking funny what sellers write in their discogs seller comments. To sell his copy of Andrés - Untitled [KDJ 20] seller housemusicandhockeydontmix wrote: "This is andres best by far. don't think it isn't."
Well, actually, no it isn't his "best by far". That's a ridiculous exaggeration considering DJ Dez's entire output via his Andrés alias is solid. And besides, no track on KDJ 20 is better than "Trues" [KDJ 13]. "Trues" is an absolutely astounding track and (don't get me wrong) KDJ 20 is a healthy slab of Detroit glorification but it doesn't top "Trues". No way. Forget the market prices; that's a matter of supply versus demand. You want a soulful, deep house bargain? Buy KDJ 13.
Oh, and housemusicandhockeydontmix's seller feedback is awful. How can you trust his opinion?

Seduce Me

I'll never be able to see something exactly how someone else sees it. I'll never be able to fully comprehend another person's perspective. That's just how it is. I'm me. You're you. We live in different worlds and they may overlap in some ways but they cannot be the same world unless we are the same person. Which we aren't.

Films, however, can establish a temporary perspective that verges on seeing through another person's eyes. This accomplishment by films--even by some that are terrible--gives me a high regard for the medium; I believe filmmaking is the greatest of all arts.
Tonight I saw Coraline, an enchanting film by Henry Selick, the madman responsible for A Nightmare Before Christmas. The film was excellent and the viewing with special 3D glasses made the illusion of altered perspective more successful than most other films.

Good films, like good lovers, are seductive because they draw you in. They make you forget about everything else for a while by temporarily changing your perspective. I suppose, living like I do (in a cave), I often substitute films for the company of women. Everyone wants to be seduced. Everyone wants to forget who he/she is for a while. Unfortunately, a film only lasts a couple hours and I'm quickly thrown back into my reality: Lonely. Uncertain. Drifting.

Oh. And about the first thing I said...Someday some genius will invent that SQUID device from Strange Days and then I'll be wrong since that fucker taps into your cerebral cortex and you can experience another person's reality via ALL of your senses. Since our senses link us to the physical world, you'd literally feel like you were in the shoes of another human being. So what's left to differentiate realities then? Our souls?

BAM!

Hatikvah - Love Bells (KW's Detroit Sleaze Remix)
[Morris Audio Citysport Edition]