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?