I’m really getting into sound art/turntablism right now- i’m not a dj but i love experimenting with vinyl records

COLD CRUSH

Ol’ Skool Electro Funk, Rap & Boogie.

Fri Dec 4th @ 202 Broadway

Patrick HAF (The Sentinel), Simon Caldwell, OSC-00, Retali8

Info: Cold Crush web site & Facebook Link

Mixtaps: OSC-001 ELECTRO MIX & Patrick HAF (The Sentinel) ELECTRO MIX

Sydney’s newest – and only – monthly old school electro freak sensation! Cold Crush drops a bomb on you with the dopest electro, funk, old school rap, hip hop and party rocking sh!t once a month on a Friday night! Residents OSC-001 and RETALI8 bringing the heat alongside headliner Patrick HAF (Southern Outpost, Datadisk / San Fran) and Simon Caldwell.

And check www.coldcrush.com.au for old school videos, graff photos and mixes from Bambaataa, Patrick HAF… and just posted OSC-001’s ‘Freakbeats Volume 1′ mix – a heavy mix of all things West Coast electro funk from an original digger and promoter of Sydney’s mid-90s Panic Zone party!

Herbie Hancock – Rock It

Thanks To Cold Crush (http://www.coldcrush.com.au)

Scratching is an integral part of of many kinds of music.

Developed in New York during the early 80s by hip hop DJs like Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore and Dj Kool Herc, from hip hop, to Miami bass and electro funk, you can now hear thousands of tracks featuring a Dj scratching the record back and forth to the beat, now it has even broken out of its hip hop roots to be heard in styles like pop and even metal.

While not the first record to feature scratching (that honour goes to Grandmaster Flash – The Message, in 1982), certainly one of the first songs to reach huge commercial success was American Jazz musician Herbie Hancock’s single Rockit, a single from his 1983 album Future Shock.

The cuts in Rockit are by Grand Mixer D.ST, using the record Change The BeatFab Five Freddy and B-Side. Years later, legendary DJs Qbert and Mix Master Mike would go on to describe Rockit as the spark that inspired their interest in turntablism. Check out the documentary Scratch for more. Rockit is also more recently famous for its appearance in the soundtrack of Zoolander, as it is the record used as the secret signal for Zoolander to kill the President of Malaysia. (check the video link to hear it), by

The video itself is directed by Godley & Creme, featuring robot sculptures by Jim Whiting. Herbie Hancock himself only appears in the video playing piano on the TV screen, which is smashed to pieces in the closing moments of the clip.

Herbie Hancock certainly knew how to rock it baby. If you’re looking for the mp3, Rockit and the Future Shock album are available to download from Amazon right here.

Don’t forget – the opening night of Cold Crush, Sydney’s only monthly electro funk, Miami bass and old school rap club is this Friday night at 202 Broadway! (on the corner of City road) See you there.

This time around it’s a pre-Christmas cracker: UK DJ Woody Madera is in the bungalow and explains how he got hooked on turntables. The man was a founding member of the Table Gimps crew and has been rocking shows across the globe for a while. He’s also recorded as part of One Self with DJ Vadim. He’s a wiz in the world of turntablism and his sets and routines are always experimental. to say the least.

This interview was done in Woody’s home town at Burnley Mechanics, two years after he won the UK ITF title. The occasion? A ‘Love Music, Hate Racism’ event he was playing at in support of cultural & musical diversity.

Listen to the best bits here.

Exile, is a legend waiting to be acknowledged as one. With continuos creativity pushing him to the edge every time , he consistantly shows us that he is a true musician looking for the bliss of that next track!

His first record appearances came as a member of hip hop duo Emanon alongside rapper Aloe Blacc. They released various singles beginning with 1998’s “P.S.I.” before releasing their debut album, Anon & On. After 2002, Exile went on to release one more Emanon album well as a solo album, 2006’s Dirty Science, and another collaborative effort, 2007’s Below the Heavens. The latter album was critically acclaimed for Exile’s productions and raps by new artist Blu. Exile’s guest production work with artists including Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah, Kardinal Offishall and Jurassic 5 is also renowned. He claims his influences to be contemporary producers J Dilla, Jon Brion and Madlib. He is known for “coarsely chopped beats” that give off “laid back soulful vibes.”

Discography

Solo

• Dirty Science (2006)
• Radio (2009)

Emanon

• “Stretch Marx” (1995) cassette
• “Imaginary Friends” (1996) cassette
• “PSI, Outside looking in” (1997)
• “Dawns Second Coming” (1998) cassette
• “Acid 9″ (1998)
• “Mc’s Like Me” (1999)
• Anon & On (2002)
• The Waiting Room (2004)

With Blu

• Below the Heavens (2007)

With Fashawn

• Boy Meets World (2009)

With Blame One

• Days Chasing Days (March 2009)

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

Hot Shit!!!

Perusing the leaflet stack while having an tipple on a rainy Sunday afternoon; I came across a promo book for a recently released game DJ Hero. In my typical gender based game analysis that is based on my imagination, I initially blasted the concept, complaining developers will make a game out of anything.

This preconception was further solidified when I started reading the promotional wanky literature, filled with gems like; “You’re going to buy DJ Hero because its… well, brilliant. Don’t fight it. Its got cooler mates than you have, and you’ll only improve you social station by hanging round with it.” Yes, a overpriced chunk of plastic that will be eventually used as a book rest defiantly has higher social credentials than I have. Much more than if I actually purchased a pair of 1210’s. Maybe that is the reason Technic’s production line is coming to an end; the kids decided it would be much cooler than to learn how to pretend to be a DJ, with someone elses generic commercial play lists, rather than experience the pure euphoria of finding a track on vinyl that you have been searching for what feels an eternity and then share your joy with an empty dance floor at a house party.

Maybe I am being too hasty. Besides, if DJ Shadow hand picked the soundtrack it can’t all be that bad eh? Well, there are at least 4 tracks from each of the artists that were generous enough to provide themselves as avatars. One one hand, you can play as Daft Punk, the most elusive yet omnipresent DJ’s on the planet, or Eminem who has also, like you, has probably never touched a cross fader in his life. I also can’t imagine a better floor filler than the mighty Vanilla Ice vs Paula Abdul. It sounds a bit too much like Simon Cowell has stuck his grubby mits another musical money pie.

The game has got a wealth of turntable and musical genius’s interweave into the program. The one and only Grandmaster Flash provides the narration for the tutorial, and it looks like you might need him. It looks bloody impossible. Maybe it might be easier to actually learn how to mix?

For those of us that are alive and well, and forever grateful for the contribution of our present day’s inspiration.

We live for the benefit of life, for the music of the day…

Join in on the experience…

-pacroc-

A principios de 2009 se publicó “The spirit of Apollo“, album debut de N.A.S.A. (Sam Spiegel y Zé Gonzales), uno de los mejores del año no solo por su contenido musical, con el Hip Hop como principal ingrediente, sino también por su increíble nómina de colaboradores: David Byrne, Tom Waits, Gerge Clinton, Seu Jorge, Santogold, John Frusciante, KRS-One, Kanye West, M.I.A. ó DJ Q-Bert por citar algunos, vamos, para echarse a temblar!!! No se puede negar que N.A.S.A. tiene buenos contactos y amistades.
Lo que váis a ver ahora es el video de uno de los tracks de este LP: “Spacious thoughts” que acaba de ser subido al canal de Youtube de Anti- y que ha sido realizado por la productora de Montreal (Canadá) Fluorescent Hill, que ha dejado su particular estilo en este impresionante video animado.
Ah! en la canción colaboran Tom Waits a la voz y piano y Kool Keith rapeando.

+info: N.A.S.A. Myspace

Feat. Esthero

geht mir im moment einfach nicht aus dem kopf. repeat, repeat, repeat…

If you’ve been sleeping on Keys N Krates then SHAME ON YOU. These dudes are the illest in live remixing probably EVER. This trio comes from Canada (eh!) and come with it like no other. Peep the trailer to their new mix below, then download the mix that we so happily uploaded for you, AND most importantly…QUIT SLEEPING! Everyone from Mos Def to Simian Mobile Disco are brilliantly remixed on here…Go get you some.

Re-Mixing 101 mixtape
http://www.mediafire.com/?jjnehfytinq

Danish DJs teach Palestinian youth to work the decks

By Jackson Allers, November 8, 2009 for NOW LEBANON

Palestinian youth on the decks (© Andreas Johnsen)

“Turntables are in fact musical instruments,” Danish turntablist Martin Jakobsen explains at his Gemmayze flat the night before the start of a series of DJ workshops for Palestinian youth called: “Turntables in the Camps.”

“This is our first time in Lebanon, and Den Sorte Skole – the three-man DJ crew that I’m repping – we want to introduce the idea that there is this global DJ culture that Palestinian youth can take part in; a culture that doesn’t exclude them in the ways that they are excluded from Lebanese society, and that through turntablism, we can teach them to use sounds from their own lives to create music.”

Jakobsen told NOW Lebanon he was not sure what to expect out of the process, but he said, “I am realistic – I know that it’s not going to save anyone – but these workshops are a way of saying to them – ‘Hey, everyone can be a DJ – and, ‘You don’t need all this fancy shit’ – especially if we’re investing the equipment for them to come and experiment on from time to time.”

Jakobsen’s compatriot, Simon Dokkedal, the crew’s scratch specialist, waxes a little more street on the matter. “We training the next generation of sound pirates!” adding, “Hopefully we’ll plant the seeds here, and from this we can create a new generation of hip-hop DJ’s here in the camps.”

Den Sorte Skole, aka The Black School, or L’Ecole Noir, are not quite a household name in Denmark, but telling by the number of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians present at their showcase club gig on Thursday night in Beirut, their cult following is legion.

The DJ trio – who work their magic on six turntables – were named Denmark’s best hip-hop DJs in 2006 and best overall DJs in 2009. Jakobsen says this has given the group the ability to cherry pick the festivals and concerts they’ve played at in the last 3 years, including playing for fifty-plus thousand people at the prestigious Roskilde fest in Denmark in 2009.

This success also gave Jakobsen enough clout to approach the Danish Centre for Cultural Development in Beirut for the “Turntables in Camps” seed money.

The project itself was the brainchild of Jakobsen, who has lived the past year in Lebanon with his wife. While traveling to meet his two cohorts at DJ gigs throughout Europe and finishing a master’s degree in political science, he figured that he had to start bringing this DJ experiment into marginalized communities in Lebanon.

In this case, he wanted to venture into perhaps the most neglected youth sectors in Lebanon – ultimately making contact with five Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon: Bourj al Barajneh, Mar Elias, and Sabra & Chatilla in Beirut, and Nahr al Bared near Tripoli, the Palestinian refugee camp leveled by the Lebanese army in the summer of 2007.

Simon teaches Palestinian youth wassup with scratching. (© Andreas Johnsen)

As Jakobsen explained, the objectives of the “Turntables in Camps” project were pretty straightforward: breakdown barriers wherever they exist by providing “a space for creativity and musical dialog”.

Certainly, Den Sorte Skole are building on the traditions of the hip-hop DJs that spawned the term “turntablist” before them. DJs like Cut Chemist, D-Styles, Z-Trip, Madlib, and Beat Junkies members like DJ Babu and J-Rocc, to name a core list who have literally become the modern vinyl archivists of the black soul music traditions from the Americas to Africa. And it is this musical tradition that contributed to the group’s namesake.

During the first day of a two-day workshop held at the Sunflower theatre in southeast Beirut on Thursday, about 30 Palestinian youth from Sabra and Chatilla, Mar Elias and Bourj al Barajneh soaked up the sounds of the breakbeat drumming coming from Den Sorte Skole’s stacks of records.

“We want you to look and listen to what we do. It’s hard, what we’re doing, but you have to understand that anybody can be a DJ,” Jakobsen told the rapt audience before separating the youth into boys and girls groups – a move that was not a cultural issue according to Jakobsen. Nonetheless, the female DJ duo, Ladybox, an increasingly popular club DJ crew also from Denmark, was tasked with teaching DJ skills to the girls. “The boys just dominate in such situations,” Jakobsen said.

Ironically, it was the girls who dominated the first stage of the workshops this week – clamoring for the DJ equipment, bobbing their heads in unison and dancing to the sounds of hip-hop classics like Tribe Called Quest’s “Bonita Applebum,” Kurtis Blow’s “These are the Breaks” and House of Pain’s “Jump Around” – songs they had never heard before.

Rita Biza, aka DJ Rita Blue, said she was surprised by the girls’ openness. “They seemed quite shy at first, but we introduced them to the equipment and showed them what was possible, they were fighting to get on the decks and having such a good time. That’s exactly what we wanted. So they’re really hungry to learn.”

According to Rita’s partner Lei Miriam Foo, aka Sista Lei, “If I didn’t know where these kids were coming from, then I would never have known how hard their lives were. With this DJ equipment in their hands, it was like the world opened up to them and they were laughing and having a great time.”

Aya, 14, and Mina, 20, two workshop participants from Mar Elias told NOW Lebanon that the workshops were “cool”, but they definitely weren’t expecting a new army of female DJ’s to emerge.

“If you tell your father you want to be a DJ. What’s he going to say? What is that – a DJ?” Aya said.

The two seemed to agree that being a DJ was somewhat more acceptable because DJ’s “are behind” the decks, as opposed to scantily clad Arab pop singers out in front of the stage. They even questioned Lebanon’s only seasoned female MC, Malikah – seen regularly on Rotana Musika TV’s underground music show, “Shababiyat.”

Mina explained, “A lot of Arab culture is resistant to the idea of a girl or a boy being a DJ simply because they don’t see it as a ‘normal’ job. But if a girl started to earn good money as a DJ, they might reconsider. They certainly might just be silent on the issue if someone were making a living at it.”

Indeed, a law passed in 1995 prevents Palestinians from working in over 70 jobs in Lebanon. Palestinians cannot be doctors, lawyers or public-sector workers, but there are no Lebanese laws barring Palestinians from working as DJs.

Den Sorte Skole’s third crew-member, Martin Hojland, said that while he didn’t expect miracles from the workshops, he did hope that the participants would see turntablism as bigger than a musical genre. “There is definitely an art to deejaying and using turntables as instruments. In this way, we hope they take their own sounds as the foundations for some homegrown interpretations of turntablism.”

Adds Jakobsoen, “Hopefully, as we bring in a DJ instructor to continue the project (in the months to come), these kids will do the turntablism thing in a Bourj al Barajneh kind of way or a Chatilla kind of way. I don’t give a damn what they call it, as long as they make it their own. That’s what turntablism is all about anyway.”

Quoting from the underground hip-hop crew Dead Prez out of New York, Jakobsen extols – this project, “It’s bigger than hip-hop”.

This article first appeared in NOW Lebanon

Der DJ von One Self heute Abend im Subway!

Tip top. und noch mehr.

For me personally, the announcement that Aesop Rock was producing this album, this summer at the infamous Colorado venue Red Rocks, was a nice shot in the arm.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Ant.  I think he’s brilliant (who else uses slide guitar in Hip-Hop).  But after a brand new Ali record this year produced entirely by him (which is a great record), as well as Lemons last year and a whole slew of local work, I was ready for something different.  Now, I guess us locals got that in some very atypical Hip-Hop releases this year from the Twin Cities:  Eyedea & Abilities‘ “By The Throat” takes the boundaries of rap music and slices them to pieces with revolutionary turntablism and pseudo-singing, and POS‘ newest album is both melodic and heavy with both singing and screaming (I hear he’s up for some MTV awards??  Good for him).  But bringing in a Def Jux dude like Aesop Rock to produce the new FELT record is simultaneously similar to the “Hip-Hop variation” previously mentioned, and something else entirely.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always had a thing for the Def Jux sound.  El-P, Cage, Mr. Lif, Rob Sonic, I love all those guys.  My favorite set at this year’s Soundset festival was probably Dibbs and El-P (although, seeing DOOM was dream-like).  And that particular sound is very much felt on FELT 3 (I couldn’t resist it, I’m an assbag, I know).  Aesop has been making his own beats since he began.  Since then, his music has refined itself to a sort of trance-y, industrial-hop that’s catchy and weird at the same time.  2007’s solid “None Shall Pass” had it, and so does this album.  There’s a good balance of complexity/simplicity in his production; tracks might contain verse rhythms with very little to them, a few drum hits and some bass, but they’ll quickly evolve into a layered “wall of sound” (I wonder of Phil Spector will be fucked with in prison?) type production with melody and hook.  It’s the type of thing that keeps one’s ears perky, that’s for sure.  And, like I drove at earlier, it’s very refreshing to hear.

SLUG and MURS are good rappers, in general and on this album.  That should come as no surprise to anyone even thinking of reading this.  Murs not only seems to get better and better with time, he also seems to expand his reach more and more with time (what a combo, eh?).  He’s a little bit snarky on this album, talking shit and taking names, but it works for him and he isn’t a dick about it.  Murs is still a hard-working everyman’s type of MC who relishes in connecting to the listener (this is probably more obvious on “Murs For President“), and it still feels like he’s out to show the listener he’s there for them, and his skills as an MC. 

Slug, on the other hand, feels like he’s to the point where he doesn’t feel like he needs to prove anything to anyone.  This is both good and bad.  Even on the latest Atmosphere disc, it felt like he was stepping backwards from irony splashed quick witted rhymes of his previous self.  The good news is his lyrics are more mature, they’re immensely thought-out and carefully delivered.  The bad news is they don’t seem as desperate (in a good way) as they once were.  It’s like he’s turned from a young blue-collar type to a retired old writer of novels sharing his wisdom with the world.  It’s interesting to listen to, and beautiful in a way, but not quite as much fun as it once was.

But the three indie rap icons come together well in the end.  I really think the highlight is the production — and who knew Aesop could scratch like that? — although there’s really no two rappers who didn’t come from the same crew with as good a chemistry as Slug and Murs do.  And that meet-up at Fifth Element looked awfully fun, too bad I missed it.

-Sonny

Warchurch- live improvisational turntable band doing there thing @ the pike in Long Beach, CA.

Don’t Sleep Long Beach!!!!!!  Warchurch is in full effect and Funky like the Water in TJ from a DJ! You’ll Sh*t yourself….

The Church is an improvisational turntable band that has brought it’s own new creative edge to the Long Beach music scene. Not to be missed.

They are holding it down @ the Pike bar and grill located on the corner of 4th and Hermosa in the LB! 1st and 3rd Mondays each month …No Cover… yea I said it…FREE!

Curtis Greyfield

Truman Odious

Delmos Wade

Michelobe Long

Ezekiel Dunbar aka EZ Dun

Dr. Turtleman

Live @ the Pike

Live @ the Pike

Live @ the Pike

In the Lab

Waxolutionists – Unter Vier Augen – Plastic People

Featuring Fiva MC

Zu Fiva poste ich irgendwann nochmal gesondert. Ises wert.

Keine Ahnung was dieses Clerasil-Pickel-Bild soll…

Hey all my southern Cali family and friends…. Here we go again with another celebration presented by the Abstract Workshop Collective. Please come on out and experience what has kept these cats pushing steady for the last 12 years. Now in it’s now location “The Basement” in Long Beach. Peep the details on the flyer. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Peace

-Delmos

Jay Z trifft den Wu Tang Clan, der wiederrum vorher Bekanntschaft mit der El Michels Affair gemacht hat

Aumentando mi latente devoción por DJ Craze, os dejo con un set suyo de no tengo la mínima idea de qué año, pero bueno, la cuestión es que está muy bien:

Prez's Groundbreaking Roc Raida Tribute Flyer

DJ Mr President is a 3threat!

Having spent the best part of two decades perfecting the art of DJing and working with some of the biggest names in Hip Hop, it would be unfair to describe New York native DJ Mr President as anything other than a true artist and hip hop scholar. Prez has a genuine passion for Hip Hop culture and has developed his own unique style by closely studying pioneering contributors to the genre.

Versatile, focused and experienced, DJ Mr President is a rare breed in the urban music today. Working hard to promote lyrical and reflective Hip Hop with his mixtapes and diverse range of other projects, Prez is a shining example of exactly what the culture is lacking.

Demonstrating his characteristic passion and determination, upon hearing about the death of Roc Raida, last month Prez embarked on a groundbreaking tribute. In a selfless and humbling act of respect, the veteran turntablist decided to man the decks for no less than 24 hours non-stop in memory of the pioneering DJ. He also streamed the entire event live online so Roc Raida fans could tune in and join the tribute.

Like his current namesake, Prez’s charisma and determination are unmatched by his peers. In short, what Obama is to Politics, DJ Mr President is to Hip Hop culture, providing a much-needed hope for change within the genre. Many young DJs could stand to learn an awful lot from Prez’s unrivaled passion for turntablism, humble outlook and his outstanding contribution to our genre.

For more information about DJ Mr President and his work, just go to www.djmrpresident.com or follow him on Twitter (@DJMRPRESIDENT).