SHG Radio Show Episode 033

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is on progressive and tribal house, and a bit of trance & techno. Liner notes for this episode (033) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.

By the way, if you're looking for DJ mixes in styles other than progressive/tech-house, check out www.djbolivia.ca/mixes.html. That page has a number of mainstream/top40 dance mixes (the "Workout Mix" series), as well as some deep house, drum and bass, and other styles.







Here's our Podcast Feed to paste into iTunes or any other podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/shg

Older episodes of the show are not directly available from our servers anymore, to conserve space for more recent episodes. However, all older episodes have been archived permanently on SoundCloud.

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:





Here are Track Listings for episode 033:

01. Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream" (Liam Keegan Remix).
02. Dresden & Johnston, "Keep Faith" (Original Club Mix).
03. Afrojack, "Take Over Control" (Original Mix).
04. Kaci Battaglia & Ludacris, "Body Shots" (Dave Aude Club Mix).
05. Robyn, "Dancing On My Own" (Buzz Junkies Club Mix).
06. Hyper Crush, "Keep Up" (Tony Arzadon Remix).
07. Lady Gaga, "Alejandro" (DJ Nejtrino & DJ Baur Radio Mix).
08. Antoine Clamaran, "Gold" (Thomas Gold Remix).
09. La Roux, "Bulletproof" (Dave Aude Club Mix).
10. Stromae, "Alors On Danse" (DJ's From Mars Club Remix).
11. Taio Cruz, "Dynamite" (Mixin' Marc Club Remix).
12. Far East Movement, "Like A G6" (Disco Fries Remix).
13. Duck Sauce, "Barbara Streisand" (O God Remix).
14. Ke$ha, "Take It Off" (Jake Walmsley 2010 Electro Remix).
15. Flo Rida, "Club Can't Handle Me" (David Guetta Remix).



Follow @djbolivia
More information is available on our Website:
   http://www.subterraneanhomesickgrooves.ca


This week's mix is a fairly significant departure from the regular format of the show. Rather than focusing on house, trance, and techno, this show is composed pretty much entirely of mainstream club dance tracks. I wanted to record a mix for my roommate, Kati Topolniski, for her birthday, and this is the result. I've often had requests to play more club tracks here, so depending on the feedback from this week's show, I'll probably do mainstream sets now and then in the future, maybe once every six to eight weeks.

For anyone in New Brunswick, I'll be playing at the "Thallowe'en" party in Sackville tomorrow night.





Go to the Mix Downloads page on the main DJ Bolivia website if you'd like to check out a number of our older mixes. If you really like this mainstream set, I've also uploaded a copy of the same mix but without the radio show promo comments. It's on the Mix Downloads page and it's called "Workout Mix 01."

We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx




Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Phish Concert in Manchester, NH

I went to a Phish show in Manchester the other night. Phish is an American jam band which is one of my favorite groups, period. A lot of people don't really know Phish's music, because they didn't really have any "top 40" singles. However, their talent as musicians, either individually or as a group, is pretty incredible.


[Click on any of these photos to see them in higher quality].


Phish is a four-piece, led by singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio. They all met at the University of Vermont in the early 1980's, and formed the band then. Although there were a few personnel changes at the start, the current lineup (including pianist Page McConnell, bassist Mike Gordon, and drummer Jon Fishman) solidified in 1985. They toured extensively from the late 1980's to 2004, when they broke up for a number of years, returning to the stage in 2009.

It's hard to describe their music as being a particular style, since they incorporate rock, jazz, funk, folk, bluegrass, reggae, country, blues, and classical elements into their performances. So it's probably best to just think of them as a jam band. They have often been compared to the Grateful Dead, and with good reason. Not only in their style kind of similar, their fan base is also very similar. It's like a big community. One guy that I was talking to for the first half of the show said that it was his sixtieth Phish concert. Incidentally, he was also pretty impressed with our proximity to the band, and said that he had never seen them from that close (we were standing together in the front row).

The last time that I saw Phish before this show was in 1996, in Portland (Maine). That was an amazing show, the second-best concert that I've ever been to in my life. So this one needed to be pretty impressive to compete. I wasn't disappointed - the first set was pretty decent, but the second set was stellar. The funny thing though is that when I listened to a recording of the concert afterwards (more on this in a minute), the recording sounded a lot better than it did live at the concert. Great miking job on the part of the recording engineers. Maybe part of the problem for me (for the first set) was that I was so close to the stage that the sound wasn't distributed properly, because I was sort of "behind" the speakers. I wandered around a bit during the second set, to hear the sound from different parts of the arena.



One of the best things about the band is their tape trading policy. Fans are actually permitted and encouraged to share recordings of their shows. In the early days, fans would bring cassette recorders with boom mikes into each concert, and trade tapes around at subsequent shows. Now, Phish has taken it a step further and every ticket-holder can get a free recording of the concert, posted on their website, usually within a few hours after the show is over. Amazing. And brilliant, since this policy has undoubtedly increased their popularity. It's also a great way of giving fans more insight into the band, since every show is basically different. They don't perform the same songs in the same order, night after night. It was entertaining to see them talking back and forth between songs, trying to decide what they'd play next. They also have a huge repertoire, and there were times where I was amused to see them trying to figure out the words to a song before they started playing it. I think that this concert was a pretty eclectic one compared to many. I haven't studied the set lists, but I'm guessing there were songs in the first set that they hadn't played live since at least 2004.

Anyway, speaking of live recordings, I highly recommend that you check out their website for live music: www.livephish.com. You can download tons of old concert recordings in great quality, for very nominal prices. And the quality of the recordings on the site is pretty sweet.



The entire trip was great. We were impressed with the large $2 draughts at Murphy's Taproom before the show (especially the Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale, which isn't available in Canada). The "Shakedown Street" fan community bazaar before the show offered clothing, drinks, and art galleries. And the concert lasted for almost four hours with intermissions - a full three hours of performance time.



Here's a video clip of the opening track (a cover of "After Midnight" by JJ Cale, and made famous by Clapton):



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdsLbdCzfbc


Now I've got the urge to go to another show soon. Perhaps Madison Square Gardens for New Year's?

Remixing Disco Classics - Duck Sauce

I played a track for an old friend of mine (Ian) last night. It was by a collaboration that goes by the name of "Duck Sauce," and is composed of Armand van Helden & A-Trak. If you were DJ'ing or clubbing in the 90's, you'll know Armand quite well, for releasing track such as "The Witch Doctor," "My My My," "The Funk Phenomena," "You Don't Know Me," and dozens of others. I have tons of his vinyl kicking around my studio. You'll also recognize the name A-Trak if you read this blog fairly regularly - he was the 1997 world DMC champion, and the brother of the lead singer from Chromeo (whom I featured here a couple weeks ago).

Anyway, the song is called "Barbara Streisand," and it came out back at WMC in March, which of course is the launch point for a huge number of dance floor anthems. Here's a link to the video:



YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWhtcU4-xAM


Anyway, when I started to play it, Ian got pretty excited. Ian is a child of the disco era, and he recognized the tune. It took him about five minutes to place it, but in the end, he nailed it. Check out this older recording of "Gotta Go Home" by Boney M:



YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjLWh2150I


But ironically, Boney M also covered this track:



YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcXiMQ0J2So





The disco era was essentially comparable to "The Macarena," if I could use that comparison. Immensely popular for a while, then it got to be so predominant that there was a backlash and people started to detest it. The beginning of the end of the disco era was Disco Demolition Night at Chicago's Cominsky Park in the summer of 1979. However, with the number of remixes of disco classics that are coming out these dances and rocking the dance floors, you might start to think that the disco era was simply ahead of its time.

Put a comment here if you can think of any disco classics that you'd like to see sampled (or even remade) as a modern day track.

SHG Radio Show Episode 032

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is on progressive and tribal house, and a bit of trance & techno. Liner notes for this episode (032) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.

By the way, if you're looking for DJ mixes in styles other than progressive/tech-house, check out www.djbolivia.ca/mixes.html. That page has a number of mainstream/top40 dance mixes (the "Workout Mix" series), as well as some deep house, drum and bass, and other styles.







Here's our Podcast Feed to paste into iTunes or any other podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/shg

Older episodes of the show are not directly available from our servers anymore, to conserve space for more recent episodes. However, all older episodes have been archived permanently on SoundCloud.

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:





Here are Track Listings for episode 032:

01. Jamie Matrix & Cat Knight, "Hold On" (Original Mix).
02. First State feat Relyk, "Cross The Line" (Extended Mix).
03. Hausjacker, "Circus Freak" (Luke Pompey Mix).
04. Jaro Sabo, "Pray" (Original Mix).
05. Andrey Ultravision, "Stereo Life" (Original Mix).
06. Tom Glass, "Little World" (Original Mix).
07. DC Project, "Inirer Beis" (Original Mix).
08. Luciano Pizzela, "The Birds Rekall" (Original Mix).
09. Mihell & Pinkfinger, "T3" (Dead Peasant Dark Tiger Remix).
10. Sam La More, "I Wish It Could Last" (MYNC Bang The Drum Remix).
11. Amurai feat Melissa Loretta, "Unconditional Love" (Original Mix).



Follow @djbolivia
More information is available on our Website:
   http://www.subterraneanhomesickgrooves.ca


The last track on this week's show features Melissa Loretta, a vocalist from Toronto (photo below). My roommate, Drew Dudley, is a friend of hers and he introduced me to a couple of her tracks. Watch for her name to become a lot more well-known in the future.





For anyone in New Brunswick, I have a show at Chezzy's Lounge in Sackville (on Allison Avenue) tomorrow night. It'll be a longer set, from 11pm to 4am.

Go to the Mix Downloads page on the main DJ Bolivia website if you'd like to check out a number of our older mixes, or visit our SoundCloud page for individual tracks and remixes.

We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx




Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Pioneer HDJ-2000 Headphones

I am in an extremely good mood right now. I just got a set of HDJ-2000 headphones.

I've always been a fan of Pioneer's HDJ-1000 series, in some respects. I love the sound quality that they had. I've tried Sony headphones many times, which have a pretty good name in the industry, but I just never really enjoyed them. I always felt happier going back to the Pioneer brand. In fact, I've owned three sets over the past ten years.

The problem with the 1000's though is that there was a serious design flaw. The parts connecting the earpieces to the frame are made of plastic. And they broke quite easily. I got my first two pairs at the same time, back around 2002 or 2003. I ordered a set from DJMR, who then wrote back and said that they were not available. I ordered a set from overseas, and as soon as that set showed up, DJMR sent me a record order with a set inside. I didn't bother returning the second pair, figuring that someday I'd need a second set anyway after I wore out the first set, and besides, it's always good to have extra pairs in the studio.

Before long, I became a victim to the broken plastic problem in one set. I wasn't really pulling on it at the time either - the headphones got knocked off a table onto a carpet floor, and broke. I managed to put them back together with a bit of crazy glue and part of a plastic bread bag tab, to help reinforce them. Unfortunately, between my two sets, I managed to have several more accidents, from pulling them off at customs in airports, to having other DJ's break them during sets. One set got repaired so many times that I finally threw it out and ordered a third. I know - seems crazy, but as I said, I really liked them. You can see a couple photos below which show where they always crack, and a crack that I fix and then covered with the plastic tab for reinforcement (in retrospect, I should have maybe used a dime).





About a month ago, I was doing some work in the studio and once again, had an accident with the older of my two pairs. So I called the music shop and asked them to order another set. They replied that the model had been replaced and only the 2000's were available. Same specs, but they looked different. I went online and looked at a photo, and didn't really like the look, but I went ahead and ordered them anyway. They showed up this week, and I opened them a few minutes ago.

The box that they came in is really quite nice. Sort of reminds me of the classy sort of packaging that Apple uses with iPods. But the packaging is going in the garbage, so that's pretty irrelevant.



The first really pleasant discovery was that the cord is detachable. If you break the cord, you don't have to replace the headphones - just buy a new cord. And the connection is very, very high quality, and very solid. Not the sort of thing that will ever wiggle and cause shorts, or fall out accidentally.

The real surprise was when I put them on. Soft padding, instead of the hard padding that the 1000's had. This model is extremely comfortable compared to the HDJ-1000's.

So we have the same high specs on the drivers in the headphones, a solid brand name, and a couple of great improvements. Pioneer really listened to feedback on this one. If you want to see a bit more detail, you can click on any of the photos in this post and see them in larger size.

Features:
- Lightweight magnesium design
- Protein leather surface with memory foam padding
- Removable Mini XLR connector
- 'i-hinge' design with 90° auto return
- Type: Fully enclosed dynamic headphones

Specifications:
- Frequency response: 5 Hz to 30,000 Hz
- Impedance: 36 ohms
- Sensitivity: 107 dB
- Maximum power input: 3,500 mW
- Driver units: 50 mm dome type
- Cord: 1.2-m-long one-side connection coiled type (extended length 3 m)
- Plug: 3.5 mm 3P mini-plug (gold-plated, threaded type)
- Weight: 290 g (without cord)
- Accessories: Carrying pouch, 6.3 mm 3P plug adaptor (gold-plated, threaded type)



I'll be using these both in live performance settings, and also in the studio. And the odd time when I'm in the house and have time to relax and listen to music, I'll use them in the living room. The current price in Canada is about $320.


Follow @djbolivia


Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Mix: Chris Blackmore, "Boredom & Relapse"

Here's another mix by Chris Blackmore. He shared this with me several weeks ago, but I'm just finally getting around to putting it online.

To Download it, go to Mixriot:

http://www.mixriot.com/content/chris-blackmore-boredom-and-relapse


Here are track listings for this mix:

01. Max'C & Chris Kaeser feat. Anita Kelsey &
Fast Eddie, "What We Gonna Do" (Mode CK Mix).
02. Mephisto feat. Kurtis Blow, "In The Name Of Love" (Original Mix).
03. Nabiha, "The Enemy" (Daddy's Groove Magic Island Remix).
04. Rocco Domingo feat. Saeeda, "Bette Davis Eyes" (Max Carra Remix).
05. Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream" (Kaskade Remix).
06. DJ Dan, "In Your Area" (Morgan Page Remix).
07. Chris Lake & Marco Lys, "Cross The Line" (Main Club Mix).
08. Daniel Portman & EDX, "Darkside" (EDX 5un5shine Mix).
09. Andrew Bayer & Boom Jinx, "Keyboard Cowboys" (Original Mix).
10. Blake Lewis, "Heartbreak On Vinyl" (Robbie Rivera's Juicy Vocal Mix).
11. Haley, "What Do You Say" (Original Mix).
12. Gareth Emery feat. Lucy Saunders, "Fight The Sunrise" (Original Mix).
13. BT & Andrew Bayer, "The Emergency" (Dave Aude Remix).
14. Switchfoot, "Always" (Max Vangeli & AN21 Remix).

Yukon Blonde

Last night was about the first regular Saturday night that I remember in many years where I was in Sackville while there were students around but I did NOT have to work or have a show. I was a little apprehensive about the thought of actually relaxing and having fun on a Saturday night (not that work and playing gigs aren't fun), but the evening ended up being far more enjoyable than I expected, by the end of it.

I found out that there was a pair of bands playing in town, namely Greg MacPherson and Yukon Blonde. This had some interesting potential, since I had actually met Yukon Blonde in Vancouver a year ago when they were recording out at my good friend Shawn Cole's studio, Fadermaster. I think I ran into them at Mushroom too.

Anyway, Shawn recorded their self-titled full-length album that came out earlier this year. The album is great - it was nominated for this year's Polaris Prize, which is pretty prestigious as far as the Canadian music scene goes. Here's the video for "Wind Blows," the only song from the album that I could find with a real video:



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKUWpnQVZ0Y


Both groups put on an enjoyable performance. The show was at the Royal Canadian Legion. That was pretty cool too, since it was the first time I had ever been in there (despite the fact that one of my grandfathers served in the Canadian Navy). For those who didn't know, the Legion is one of Canada's largest community based service organizations, with nearly half a million members across Canada who contribute millions of dollars and volunteer hours for a huge variety of projects and causes.

Despite the time of year, Yukon Blonde (photo below) is NOT on their way to the Halifax Pop Explosion this coming week - their next shows are in New York. They've got quite a few shows lined up over the next month, so check them out if you can. Their MySpace profile has a list of upcoming shows:

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/yukonblondeband

Video: Classified, "Oh Canada"

Now that hockey season is heating up, I figured it was prudent to show a bit of Canadian nationalistic pride. Here's a video by Classified, a group from Halifax, which has been a favorite of mine for a while now. It's kind of funny seeing quite a few of my friends in this shoot.



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znejGNjOtmY

Sorry that I had to use this smaller version with lyrics. The original on YouTube, which had a lot more views, just got blocked in Canada by Sony, for reasons which I haven't figured out yet. Probably because of the entire Heritage Council commercial that was also included. Viewers from other countries might be able to watch it though.

Anyway, big ups to Classified & IV for this little bit of Canadiana.

Turning Vinyl LP's into Useful Objects

So I have just FINALLY found a use for all those old copies of "The Macarena" that I have on vinyl!! Check out this video:



YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-KVx5U5NRA

SHG Radio Show Episode 031

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is on progressive and tribal house, and a bit of trance & techno. Liner notes for this episode (031) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.

By the way, if you're looking for DJ mixes in styles other than progressive/tech-house, check out www.djbolivia.ca/mixes.html. That page has a number of mainstream/top40 dance mixes (the "Workout Mix" series), as well as some deep house, drum and bass, and other styles.







Here's our Podcast Feed to paste into iTunes or any other podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/shg

Older episodes of the show are not directly available from our servers anymore, to conserve space for more recent episodes. However, all older episodes have been archived permanently on SoundCloud.

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:





Here are Track Listings for episode 031:

01. Hado, "Black Rain."
02. Jairus Miller, "The Seventh Gate."
03. Antix, "Circade" (Magitman Remix).
04. Progression, "Different Day, Different Light" (Re-Ward Remix).
05. Idiot Box, "Fast Slow" (Original Mix).
06. Angelo & Nicosia, "Free Your Mind" (Original Rework).
07. Alex D'Elia & Nihil Young, "Other Side Of The Pillow" (Simon & Shaker From The Depth Remix).
08. Magitman & Brisker, "Braniac" (Original Mix).
09. Ad Brown, "I Just Do."
10. Outsiders, "Hallowed" (David Amo & Julio Navas Remix).
11. James Sadoway, "Never Suspect" (Stellar Mansion Remix).



Follow @djbolivia
More information is available on our Website:
   http://www.subterraneanhomesickgrooves.ca


This week, I decided to do something different. Most of the time, I try to use very new tracks, or in some cases, unreleased tracks from other producers. However, for this episode, I "dug into the vaults" and every track is older. I think I'll try to do this about once every five or ten shows, to feature some music that has been released over the past several years.

James Sadoway is in the process of re-doing his website. Check it out here:
http://sadowaymusic.com

Go to the Mix Downloads page on the main DJ Bolivia website if you'd like to check out a number of our older mixes, or visit our SoundCloud page for individual tracks and remixes.

We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx




Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Mix: Bolivia, "Live at Ninja Party 2010"

I'm really starting to feel like I'm getting caught up on the backlog of old projects in the past week or so. I now have the mastered version online of the set that I played at the Ninja Party in July. The levels were a bit up and down during this set, so I ended up compressing it quite a bit - unfortunately, the compression degraded the sound quality a bit (but it's still pretty good).

Here's the download link:

   http://www.chma.fm/DJ_Bolivia_-_Live_at_The_Ninja_Party,_2010-07-31.mp3

[Note: many people have had problems downloading mp3's publicized here. If that's the case, click here for help & suggestions. You can also find many other of my live mixes at this page].



[This mix is hosted on the NetFirms server, not my radio show server, so traffic might be a bit constrained for the first 24 hours as the set gets a lot of downloads. Please be patient and come back in a few hours if you have problems downloading].





The Ninja Party is the most prestigious party of the annual DefCon hackers' convention, held in Las Vegas every summer. This was the eighteenth year for DefCon (and the third that I've played at it). Estimates for the number of people overall at DefCon vary, but reports are usually between about ten and twenty thousand attendees. The Ninja Party, however, has strict limits on attendance. Only one thousand "badges" are given out, and the badge acts as an official party invite. Each badge is also allowed a +1, so in theory, two thousand people should attend the party. tProphet (one of my good friends, who set up the sound system and show) and I didn't use our +1's, but probably every other one of the 998 badges did, so attendance was probably just shy of two thousand people.

The party was held at a boutique hotel just off-Strip, and since it hadn't yet opened to the public, the Ninja Party was sort of its christening. I played in a large open courtyard, with swimming pools. The shuttles that were taking people from the Riviera to the venue were mobile parties in themselves. When I climbed aboard, someone was dispensing vodka from a large pesticide spray container directly into peoples' mouths. The party itself was open bar, and playing in the warm weather under the skyline of the Strip was pretty surreal.

Here's a photo of my "badge." The badges were pretty high-tech (after all, it IS a hacker's convention), and change from year to year. This year's badge featured a sort of D&D type multi-user game, with the badges communicating with other nearby badges via wireless. Characters could fight each other, or solve challenges or go to certain locations to fulfill a set of ten goals. I saw one of the badges listed on eBay (lame) before the party for $2,000.





Here are track listings from the set:

01. Matteo DiMarr feat Dashka - Blower (Original Mix).
02. Laidback Luke feat Jonathan Mendelsohn - Till Tonight (Bolivia's Edit).
03. Philip Whirlpool - Time Has Come (Bolivia's Edit).
04. EDX - Thrive (Bolivia's Edit).
05. Victor Del Guio - Americano (Bolivia's Edit).
06. Bolivia - Highway 22 (Ninja Party Instrumental).
07. Peter Punck - The Mix (Bolivia's Edit).
08. Maurizio Gubellini feat Mia Crispin - Getting Personal (Bolivia's Edit).
09. Adam Beyer - Filthy Lobster (Bolivia's Edit).
10. Nick Muir & John Digweed - Tangent (Bolivia's Edit).
11. Stefano Noferini - Ghuroom (Bolivia's Edit).
12. Quivver - Boom Boom (Original Mix).
13. Phunk Investigation - Dark Floor (Bolivia's Edit).
14. Harry Choo Choo Romero - Phuture (Bolivia's Edit).
15. Saints & Sinners - Pushin Too Hard (Bolivia's Edit).
16. ALCA - Calling Africa (Bolivia's Edit).
17. Kid Culture & El Mundo Satori - Around You (Bolivia's Edit).
18. Mark Knight & Wolfgang Gartner - Conscindo (Bolivia's Edit).
19. Crazibiza - Spinning Around (Bolivia's Edit).
20. DJ Chus & Gonzalez Gonzalo - One Night In Havana (Bolivia's Edit).
21. DJ Josh Blackwell & Miss Babayaga feat Rachel - Professional Widow (Bolivia's Edit).
22. Peter Brown - I'll House U (Bolivia's Edit).
23. Spencer & Hill - Housebeat (Bolivia's Edit).


Follow @djbolivia

Overall, I was really happy with the set, and the venue and event was incredible. The first half hour was pretty good, but after that, I felt like everything was flowing better than any other show I've ever played. Here's a couple of photos that Pinguino took at the event. You should be able to click on either photo to go to the full photo gallery, or click on the direct URL link below:







Penguino's DefCon 18 Photo Gallery:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinguino/4865105991/in/set-72157624667002016/lightbox/

Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Video: Chromeo, "Night By Night"

I'd like to think that I know a fair bit about music, because I pay attention to so many different genres. But that approach has its own downfall, because it is impossible to really become proficient in one or two genres if you're watching half a dozen. Time waits for no man, and time is my most precious commodity - worth far more than anything else to me.

A lot of the videos and bands that I feature in this blog will NOT be electronica/dance based. However, this particular act is an exception. It is also an exception for another huge reason: I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn't know anything about this act until 24 hours ago. Their name is Chromeo, and they're a duo from Montreal.

I first heard of Chromeo when reading some history of Hall & Oates (previous blog post). And then later in the day, one of my Berklee classmates mentioned the duo again in a discussion about grooves in music. I was stunned that these guys are from Canada (which admittedly has a smaller music scene) AND also have videos on YouTube totaling millions and millions of views, and yet, somehow they slipped through the cracks for me until now.

A few interesting facts:
- "Dave 1" is David Macklovitch, who does the guitar, lead vocals, and dancing.
- "P-Thugg" is Patrick Gemayel, who does keys, synths, and talk-box.
- The two childhood friends JOKINGLY describe themselves as "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture." (I try to stay away from political commentary in this blog and on my fan page, because music should unite people of all opinions, so please don't jump on this comment as anything negative from my own point of view).
- Dave 1's brother is A-Trak (1997 world DMC champ). Dave also worked in a record store with world-renowned DJ/producer Tiga.
- Their song, "Don't Turn The Lights On" was featured in FIFA 11.

So yeah, I stand humbled. Check out this video for "Night By Night."



YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppNC0uAaCv0

Doesn't that video make you want to shoot a video in a warehouse with a Freightliner?




One of my profs from Berklee (Loudon Stearns) pointed out a great link for me about Chromeo:

Motherboard TV Link: http://motherboard.tv/2010/9/21/electric-independence-chromeo

Live from Daryl's House

Anyone who knows their 80's retro has heard of "Hall & Oates," more properly known as Daryl Hall and John Oates. They had quite a large number of well known songs: "Private Eyes," "Kiss Is On My List," "Out Of Touch," "I Can't Go For That," and "Maneater" are just a few of nearly three dozen Billboard-ranked singles.

The story of how they met is kind of interesting. Both were leading separate bands at a "Battle Of The Bands" competition at the Adelphi Ballroom in Philadelphia, when the "Battle" got serious. Gunfire broke out between a couple of gangs, and there was a riot. They both were trying to make it to safety and ended up meeting each other in a service elevator. It also turned out that they were both attending Temple, and a while later, they started working together.

A few years ago, Daryl started broadcasting live musical jams from his own house, featuring a number of guest artist, representing everything from rock to soul to blues. He's got a website to archive all of these shows, at this link:

http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com


If you want to check something out, go to episode 33 (from a few months ago) which features a guest appearance by Train, from San Francisco. Each show is actually indexed so you can jump around pretty easily. There's a good performance of them singing, "Hey, Soul Sister."




Actually, there are all kinds of great performances, so I shouldn't dwell on just that one. But if you have time, take some time to look around the website ...

Popcorn

One of my favorite songs when I was young was a song called "Popcorn," which my parents had on an old eight-track cassette tape.

The song was originally created by Gershon Kingsley in 1969, and then redone by a group called Hot Butter in 1972 (the version that I knew). The song made history as the first predominantly electronic song to crack the Billboard pop charts. A ton of artists have remade the song since then, including a fairly well-known version by Crazy Frog in 2005. However, the Swedish Chef from the Muppets has a video out now featuring the song.

Check it out, it's pretty awesome:



YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvDvTnTGjgQ

SHG Radio Show, Episode 030

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is on progressive and tribal house, and a bit of trance & techno. Liner notes for this episode (030) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.

By the way, if you're looking for DJ mixes in styles other than progressive/tech-house, check out www.djbolivia.ca/mixes.html. That page has a number of mainstream/top40 dance mixes (the "Workout Mix" series), as well as some deep house, drum and bass, and other styles.







Here's our Podcast Feed to paste into iTunes or any other podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/shg

Older episodes of the show are not directly available from our servers anymore, to conserve space for more recent episodes. However, all older episodes have been archived permanently on SoundCloud.

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:





Here are Track Listings for episode 030:

01. Stereofunk, "Happy Piano" (Peaktimeboutique Remix).
02. DJ Groover & Jelena Milosev, "At Night" (Nalder Clay & DJ Lewi Mix).
03. Patrick Hagenaar, "Work It Till Ya Pass Out" (Houseshaker Mix).
04. Roland Clark, "Black In My Soul" (Tiger Stripes Main Remix).
05. Proper Villains, "Put Me In A Box" (Faskil Remix).
06. Julian Jeweil, "Techno Corner" (Original Mix).
07. Philip Whirlpool, "Time Has Come" (Brother Mix).
08. Mark Knight & Wolfgang Gartner, "Conscindo" (Original Club Mix).
09. Marshall aka Luigi Rocca, "Just Believe" (Original Mix).
10. Rah Band, "Clouds Across The Moon" (Jay Lumen & Umek Hey Baby Remix).
11. Crazibiza, "Spinning Around" (Tommyboy Remix).



Follow @djbolivia
More information is available on our Website:
   http://www.subterraneanhomesickgrooves.ca


And here we are with episode thirty. I don't really have much more to say! Happy Thanksgiving Weekend, to everyone living in Canada.


Go to the Mix Downloads page on the main DJ Bolivia website if you'd like to check out a number of our older mixes, or visit our SoundCloud page for individual tracks and remixes.

We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx




Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Jeremy Messersmith - "Tattooine"

For those of you who enjoy indie productions, you MUST check this video out, which was only released to YouTube yesterday:



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp7UzGSg8g0

Jeremy is from Minnesota, but I wish that Canadians could claim him as one of our own.

Web: http://www.jeremymessersmith.com

And yes, although the song is great by itself, don't forget to note that the video portrays the original Star Wars trilogy, rendered in lo-fi paper animation.

Las Vegas Mix from July 30th

I've got a mastered copy of the set that I played on July 30th, 2010, at the Defcon 18 Hackers' Convention.

A bit of background about the set:
- I was pretty reluctant to post this at first, because I didn't think it was that great. But after listening to it this week, I realized that it didn't turn out that badly.
- The first half hour has some rough mixes - the show was the first time that I had touched a pair of CD players in four months, so I felt a bit rusty. After realizing that I was a bit wobbly, I played extremely conservatively for the rest of the night, and just focused on making sure that the timing was good.
- I was playing on a mixer that I wasn't entirely familiar with, so there are no effects or filters in the set.
- Yeah, I screwed up a bit just before the 18:00 mark. I started to bring a track in, and faded it out quickly.
- The track of my own that I played during the set (Highway 22) was not mastered properly (I was working off a laptop and headphones all summer), so it sounded pretty lacklustre compared to the other tracks from Beatport and from other producers. I mixed out of it well before the end of the track for this reason. I won't apologize though, since my mastering of the full set this week masked some of that weakness.
- The end of the set was slightly distorted, I don't remember why I cranked the levels too high on that very last song. Not major, but noticeable to the trained ear.
- The mastering sort of tamed all the levels down for the version that you're downloading, but if you're a producer and looking at the audio file closely, you'll see where tProphet's announcements at the start were pretty peaked, so I ended up hard limiting them even after massive compression on the rest of the set.

The crowd was pretty much perfect for my first set in four months. About maybe 250-300 people by the time I finished playing, but it was more of a socializing crowd than a dancing crowd, since the event was a mixer party first and foremost. However, I was surprised to get quite a few people on the dance floor by the end of it.

I've played some of these tracks on my radio show in the past couple of weeks, and if you listen to both, you'll notice the ones on the show are different than the ones in this set. On the show, I don't edit any of the tracks, and leave all the breakdowns alone. For the live sets, I chop out almost all of the breakdowns and do a bit of other editing before I burn the tracks to CD, to keep the dance floor sweating. However, based on my positive experiences with making my radio show in Ableton lately, these could have be the very last two major live house/trance/techno shows that I ever perform using CD's. By the way, if you want to know which remixes I used as the basis for these edited tracks, you should be able to figure out most of it from the track listings of my Subterranean Homesick Grooves episodes from the past three weeks. If not, email me and I'll let you know which mixes I started with.

I played again the following night at the Ninja Party, off-strip. The Ninja set was amazing, in my own opinion, and one of the best shows that I've played. I'll be posting the mastered version of the Ninja Party set here in a few days. I have a radio show to make first though, for Friday night, and a show on Saturday night, so I probably won't have time to get the Ninja set online until Sunday. So think of this set as a warmup to the Ninja set.

Here's the download link for this set:

http://www.chma.fm/DJ_Bolivia_-_Live_in_Las_Vegas,_2010-07-30.mp3


Here's a photo that is quite unrelated to this set:




And finally, here are track listings from the set:

01. Human Beans, Manambros, & Vidaloca - House Of The Rising Sound (Original Mix).
02. Edo van Asseldonk - Fly To The Moon (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
03. John Acquaviva & Ramon Zenker - Dot Bomb (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
04. Marco Bros - I Hook U Up (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
05. Helvetic Nerds - Mistaken Identity (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
06. Patrick Hagenaar - Work It Till Ya Pass Out (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
07. Basti M & Brockman - Sweet Sexy Housemusic (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
08. Marc DePulse - El Lobo Loco (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
09. Erick Morillo & Eddie Thoneick feat Shena - Nothing Better (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
10. Promonova - The Rhythm (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
11. DJ Ortzy - Infected (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
12. Horny United - Lady Of Ice (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
13. DJ Groover & Jelena Milosev - At Night (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
14. Stereofunk - Happy Piano (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
15. Bolivia - Highway 22 (Vegas Instrumental Dub).
16. Oliver Garcia feat Dilek Taskin - House Wa (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
17. Slava Flash & Alena Lvova feat Alena Lvova - Her Jogging (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
18. Technotronic, Dimitri Vegas, & Like Mike - Pump Up The Jam (Bolivia's Re-Edit).
19. Tune Brothers & Anthony Locks - I Like It 2010 (Bolivia's Re-Edit).

Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca

Bolivia - "Highway 22" Track

Earlier today, I was starting to master the recordings of the shows that I did in Vegas a couple months ago, before putting them online, then discovered another project that I had forgotten about. There’s a track that I played both nights (slightly different versions) as an experiment – one that I had produced myself. The style is sort of a progressive house sort of track, no vocals or anything. It wasn’t a finished track, but I’m going to post it here anyway for fun. This is more for educational purposes than as a professional release. I’ll try to get the final version finished next week and share it.

In terms of the production, this version is entirely self-contained as a Reason 4 file. You can download the mp3 if you want, or if you have Reason 4, you can download the RPS or RNS song files, if you want to see how it was put together. It’s pretty basic, and at the moment, everything is done within Reason. When I finish it up next week, I’m going to Rewire it into Sonar and then it needs some serious mixing and mastering. I also have a ton of little changes that I'd like to make to the basic sequencing and midi data for the "final" version. Especially in the drums, which are far too repetitive right now.

And here are the links to the Reason files:

http://www.djbolivia.ca/production/Highway_22_Reason_Ninja.rps
http://www.djbolivia.ca/production/Highway_22_Reason_Ninja.rns

Feel free to share them around, if you want. Actually, once I get the final version done, I might release those files too, and tell people that they may feel free to remix it if they want. I could even pick a few of the best remixes and publish them on my website and Facebook fan page.



By the way, highway 22 is NOT in Bolivia, in case anyone thinks that is where the photo was taken. It's a highway in Alberta that I was working on at the time that I put the track together.

If any other producers out there want to give me some helpful feedback and critical analysis, feel free to write to me at djbolivia@gmail.com. Most importantly, remember that this was done in headphones on a laptop, and there is no mastering yet, so the overall levels don't have much punch (yet).

Music/production copyright ©2010, Jonathan Clark.

SHG Radio Show Episode 029

Welcome to this week's edition of Subterranean Homesick Grooves™, a weekly electronica-based radio show presented on CHMA FM 106.9 at Mount Allison University in Atlantic Canada. The show is normally programmed and mixed by Jonathan Clark (as DJ Bolivia), although some weeks feature guest mixes by other Canadian DJ's. The show encompasses many sub-genres within the realm of electronic dance music, but the main focus is on progressive and tribal house, and a bit of trance & techno. Liner notes for this episode (029) can be seen below.

Para la información en español, vaya aquí.

By the way, if you're looking for DJ mixes in styles other than progressive/tech-house, check out www.djbolivia.ca/mixes.html. That page has a number of mainstream/top40 dance mixes (the "Workout Mix" series), as well as some deep house, drum and bass, and other styles.







Here's our Podcast Feed to paste into iTunes or any other podcatcher:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/shg

Older episodes of the show are not directly available from our servers anymore, to conserve space for more recent episodes. However, all older episodes have been archived permanently on SoundCloud.

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:





Here are Track Listings for episode 029:

01. Matteo DiMarr feat Dashka, "Blower" (Original Mix).
02. DJ Chus & Gonzalez Gonzalo, "One Night In Havana" (Original Mix).
03. Promonova, "The Rhythm" (Vincent Vegas Remix).
04. Alejandro Montero, "Brasil" (Original Mix).
05. Marco Bros, "I Hook U Up" (DJ Pearl Remix).
06. Basti M & Brockman, "Sweet Sexy Housemusic" (Fisher Fiebak Remix).
07. Helvetic Nerds, "Mistaken Identity" (Incognet Remix).
08. Tune Brothers & Anthony Locks, "I Like It 2010" (Tune Brothers 2010 Mix).
09. EDX, "Thrive" (EDX's Fe5tival Mix).
10. Horny United, "Lady Of Ice" (Mike Candy & Christopher S Remix).
11. Slava Flash & Alena Lvova, "Her Jogging" (Wow & Flute SutilVox Remix).



Follow @djbolivia
More information is available on our Website:
   http://www.subterraneanhomesickgrooves.ca


Our Odeo-based audio player that normally shows up in the blog is apparently not working at the present time. I'll look into this over the coming week, and try to find a replacement.

For anyone who follows my facebook page at facebook.com/djbolivia, I will be posting my sets from Las Vegas (end of July) at some point in the next few days. Sorry for the delay!



Go to the Mix Downloads page on the main DJ Bolivia website if you'd like to check out a number of our older mixes, or visit our SoundCloud page for individual tracks and remixes.

We also have a file containing complete track listings from all of DJ Bolivia's radio shows, studio mixes, and live sets. The PDF version can be viewed from within your browser by clicking directly. Both the PDF and the Excel versions can be downloaded by right-clicking and choosing the "save link as" option:

View as PDF file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.pdf
Download Excel file: http://www.djbolivia.ca/complete_track_history_djbolivia.xlsx




Follow Jonathan Clark on other sites:
        Twitter: twitter.com/djbolivia
        SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/djbolivia
        YouTube: youtube.com/djbolivia
        Facebook: facebook.com/djbolivia
        Main Site: www.djbolivia.ca
        Music Blog: djbolivia.blogspot.ca