Earlier tonight, the power went out in my hometown (Sackville). Actually, a transformer exploded up the street and the power pole caught on fire, and NB Power ended up turning off the downtown grid for about four hours while they replaced it. During this time, I actually continued to cook at the Olive Branch. However, without electric power, I was limited to the propane stove and candlelight. At one point, I was trying to do dishes with a flashlight nestled between my head and shoulder. The light was shining into the dishpit, so between shining it into the slightly murky middle sink full of water, and then shining it into the left compartment where I was spraying steamy water, I suddenly realized that I should write a blog posting about the diffraction of light, and about how much I hate movies that purport to show laser beams in space.
However, I then remembered that I am weeks behind in my work, so a post like that should wait for Christmas Day, when I'm full of wine and sarcastic wit. So instead, once I was done cooking, I finished listening to the November shipment from the Richmond Record Pool, and here are my top picks of the month ...
Live Progressive Sets:
- Kurd Maverick, “All Over The World”
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Dfuse & Hiratzka, “This Is Our Time” (Obama Bootleg)
- New Order, “Faith” (Bootleg)
- Solange, “Sandcastle Disco” (Club Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Addex, “Night Life”
- Benjamin Leung feat Amanda Sampson, “Don’t Care” (Original Mix)
- DQ’s, “I Want You Here” (Original Mix)
- Hibernate, “Feeling” (Original)
Warmup Tracks:
- DJ Borra, “Black Sun” (Andrez Remix)
- Duvar, “Parameter” (Bjoern Stolpmann Remix)
- Fei Xue, “Flying Snow”
My favorite track from this month’s shipment was unquestionably the “This Is Our Time” track. When I put together the first mix on my website ("I Await The Morning") about six years ago, I mixed a lot of political quotes over the top of some laid-back house tracks from Hooj Choons. Most of the samples that I used were from the immediate aftermath of 911, because they were the easiest ones to find at the time. Back then, the internet was a much sparser landscape than it is at the present time, at least for people looking for wave quality sound bites. “This Is Our Time” was done a lot better than my original demo mix was, and it was ironic to hear it, because when I was watching the US Election results and Obama’s victory speech at the Pub, I thought it was a very well-written speech and thought that it would be interesting to overlay samples over a track of my own (which is what happened to create this track). As one recent CNN interviewee said, Obama has what is arguably the first pop culture presidency. Unfortunately, the Pub was (and is) a bit of a disaster from the move that had happened four weeks prior to that night, so I never did have time to put this project into motion myself. Luckily, someone else did. Click on this player to listen (the player is not visible in facebook, only in my original blog):
I should also applaud the individual who put together the bootleg of REM’s “Nightswimming.” You would think that it would be impossible to successfully combine REM, a trebly version of the Amen Break, and vocal samples of a guy who sounds like he’s sticking his tongue out at you. Well, you’re probably right. However, for a few brief moments, I almost thought that this bootleg could work. I thought that it was "a good effort under duress," even though the bootleg definitely didn’t make my best tracks list. However, I'll let you be the judge ...
James Sadoway Artist Album Released
on Saturday, December 20, 2008
A friend of mine, James Sadoway, has just released his first full-length album of self-produced electronica tracks. And for a limited time, he's offering free downloads of the entire album here on my website:
http://www.djbolivia.ca/jamessadoway.html
The album itself has quite a bit of diversity, from deeper house to faster breaks-influenced tracks. For those who like remixes, he's got four tracks remixed from Holden & Thompson (Nothing), Ace Of Base (Cruel Summer), Gabriel & Dresden (Tracking Treasure Down), and Plummet (Damaged). Of those, I'm especially fond of the energy that James put into Tracking Treasure Down.
Of course, James also has a number of his original tracks on the album, many of which feature the vocals of Vancouver pop vocalist Armstrong Jr. Two that I enjoy in particular are "Shut Up" and "Float Like A Butterfly."
Anyway, if you enjoy electronic dance music, I suggest you download the full album and check it out. To listen to "Float Like A Butterfly," click on the player here (visible in the original blog only, not in the Facebook notes feed).
http://www.djbolivia.ca/jamessadoway.html
The album itself has quite a bit of diversity, from deeper house to faster breaks-influenced tracks. For those who like remixes, he's got four tracks remixed from Holden & Thompson (Nothing), Ace Of Base (Cruel Summer), Gabriel & Dresden (Tracking Treasure Down), and Plummet (Damaged). Of those, I'm especially fond of the energy that James put into Tracking Treasure Down.
Of course, James also has a number of his original tracks on the album, many of which feature the vocals of Vancouver pop vocalist Armstrong Jr. Two that I enjoy in particular are "Shut Up" and "Float Like A Butterfly."
Anyway, if you enjoy electronic dance music, I suggest you download the full album and check it out. To listen to "Float Like A Butterfly," click on the player here (visible in the original blog only, not in the Facebook notes feed).
Record Pool Picks, October 2008
on Monday, November 17, 2008
This was a smaller shipment, only about two-thirds the size of most months, but there were several really good tracks in here that stood out for me:
Live Progressive Sets:
- Deadmau5, “Ghosts N Stuff” (Original Mix)
- Neon Stereo, “Rock This”
- Nigel Richards, “I Will Make Party” (Original)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Deadmau5 & Mellefresh, “Attention Whore” (Original)
- Monolythe, “Don’t Break It” (Original Mix)
- Pussycat Dolls, “I Hate This Part” (Dave Aude Dub Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Deadmau5, “I Remember” (Original)
- Deadmau5 & Mellefresh, “Attention Whore” (Phil Chanel Mix)
- Pussycat Dolls, “I Hate This Part” (Dave Aude Club Mix)
- Rezo & Emannuel, “1749 De Emotii” (Moshic Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Ad Brown, “I Just Do”
- Chris Drifter feat Ronyo, “Disconnected Illusions” (Original Mix)
- Lea D, “Urban Soul”
- Moti Brothers, “Exposure” (Original Mix)
- Retroid, “Chasing Rainbows” (Retroid Remix)
- Snake Sedrick, “First Lie” (Original Mix)
You can see several Deadmau5 tracks on the list. Deadmau5 (Toronto DJ Joel Zimmerman) recently caused a bit of a scandal in the DJ world when he gave this interview criticizing DJ's. But love him or hate him, his tracks are invariably well-produced, even though his sound from track to track is fairly consistent. Of course, some people would argue that's a good thing, and others would argue a lack of growth and creativity. Anyway, I'm not sure why "I Remember" is on this month's DVD, since I thought it was released back in February. Not that it matters - it's a great vocal track, which I love.
To hear "I Remember," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Live Progressive Sets:
- Deadmau5, “Ghosts N Stuff” (Original Mix)
- Neon Stereo, “Rock This”
- Nigel Richards, “I Will Make Party” (Original)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Deadmau5 & Mellefresh, “Attention Whore” (Original)
- Monolythe, “Don’t Break It” (Original Mix)
- Pussycat Dolls, “I Hate This Part” (Dave Aude Dub Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Deadmau5, “I Remember” (Original)
- Deadmau5 & Mellefresh, “Attention Whore” (Phil Chanel Mix)
- Pussycat Dolls, “I Hate This Part” (Dave Aude Club Mix)
- Rezo & Emannuel, “1749 De Emotii” (Moshic Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Ad Brown, “I Just Do”
- Chris Drifter feat Ronyo, “Disconnected Illusions” (Original Mix)
- Lea D, “Urban Soul”
- Moti Brothers, “Exposure” (Original Mix)
- Retroid, “Chasing Rainbows” (Retroid Remix)
- Snake Sedrick, “First Lie” (Original Mix)
You can see several Deadmau5 tracks on the list. Deadmau5 (Toronto DJ Joel Zimmerman) recently caused a bit of a scandal in the DJ world when he gave this interview criticizing DJ's. But love him or hate him, his tracks are invariably well-produced, even though his sound from track to track is fairly consistent. Of course, some people would argue that's a good thing, and others would argue a lack of growth and creativity. Anyway, I'm not sure why "I Remember" is on this month's DVD, since I thought it was released back in February. Not that it matters - it's a great vocal track, which I love.
To hear "I Remember," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Record Pool Picks, September 2008
on Saturday, November 15, 2008
As you can see, I'm still behind in my music ratings. I skipped August - not trying to get ahead, but because there was no DVD of music for August. Anyway, here are the September ratings from the Richmond Record Pool, and hopefully I'll have my October picks online within a day or so.
As usual, these are my top picks out of well over three hundred tracks, and I've broken them down by the style of event that I'd probably play them at.
Live Progressive Sets:
- Aaron Joseph, “Memory Test” (Original Mix)
- Benny Maze, “Breathe” (Heck Vocal)
- Freakquencer, “Trouble & Pain” (Club Booster Burn Dub)
- Jonas Steur feat Julie, “Cold Winds” (Original)
- Maslow, “Drive”
- Vortectral, “Round The Block” (Reaky Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Alex Garelli & Anthony Nardone, “Summer ‘91” (Main Mix)
- Barclay & Cream, “Groove Is In The Heart” (Mike Misar Club Mix)
- Jaimy & Kenny D, “Keep On Touchin’ Me” (Funkerman Remix)
- Jon Pegnato & Thee-O, “Small Talk” (Original Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Albert Keyn, “Save One Love” (BRT Remix)
- J-Soul, “Tidal”
- Neon Stereo feat Marcie, “Poses” (Original)
- Nick Detti, “London” (Original Mix)
- One World, “Isla Blanca”
- Proper Villains, “Put Me In A Box” (Faskil Remix)
- Roland Clark, “Black In My Soul” (Tiger Stripes Main Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Ame, “Rej” (ATFC’s Twin Cherries Edit)
- Che Dubois, “Told You” (Original Mix)
- DJ Shog, “Feel Me Through The Radio” (Inpetto Remix)
- Jarius Miller, “The Seventh Gate”
- Nick Detti, “London” (Electric Mix)
- Santiago Nino, “Invent” (Original Mix)
- Santiago Nino & Ronxxx, “Tell Me” (Original Mix)
I can't really say that I have a favorite track out of this batch, but I will admit that "Groove Is In The Heart" is a timeless classic. Yes, I know, it's cheesy mainstream club pop music, but a classic nonetheless. Love it.
To hear "Groove Is In The Heart," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
As usual, these are my top picks out of well over three hundred tracks, and I've broken them down by the style of event that I'd probably play them at.
Live Progressive Sets:
- Aaron Joseph, “Memory Test” (Original Mix)
- Benny Maze, “Breathe” (Heck Vocal)
- Freakquencer, “Trouble & Pain” (Club Booster Burn Dub)
- Jonas Steur feat Julie, “Cold Winds” (Original)
- Maslow, “Drive”
- Vortectral, “Round The Block” (Reaky Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Alex Garelli & Anthony Nardone, “Summer ‘91” (Main Mix)
- Barclay & Cream, “Groove Is In The Heart” (Mike Misar Club Mix)
- Jaimy & Kenny D, “Keep On Touchin’ Me” (Funkerman Remix)
- Jon Pegnato & Thee-O, “Small Talk” (Original Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Albert Keyn, “Save One Love” (BRT Remix)
- J-Soul, “Tidal”
- Neon Stereo feat Marcie, “Poses” (Original)
- Nick Detti, “London” (Original Mix)
- One World, “Isla Blanca”
- Proper Villains, “Put Me In A Box” (Faskil Remix)
- Roland Clark, “Black In My Soul” (Tiger Stripes Main Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Ame, “Rej” (ATFC’s Twin Cherries Edit)
- Che Dubois, “Told You” (Original Mix)
- DJ Shog, “Feel Me Through The Radio” (Inpetto Remix)
- Jarius Miller, “The Seventh Gate”
- Nick Detti, “London” (Electric Mix)
- Santiago Nino, “Invent” (Original Mix)
- Santiago Nino & Ronxxx, “Tell Me” (Original Mix)
I can't really say that I have a favorite track out of this batch, but I will admit that "Groove Is In The Heart" is a timeless classic. Yes, I know, it's cheesy mainstream club pop music, but a classic nonetheless. Love it.
To hear "Groove Is In The Heart," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Thanksgiving in Toronto
on Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada (last weekend) was pretty interesting for me. I’ve been completely swamped for the past six weeks with my bar moving, so this was my first chance to get out of town in quite a while.
On Friday morning, I flew up to Toronto. I flew on Sunwing this trip, instead of the usual Air Canada. I was curious to compare the two airlines. Ignoring all the unimportant things, like the plane and the ticketing process and customer service, I focused on the really important differences: the drinks on SunWing were only $5, instead of $6 on AC. I was quite happy with this, especially after having several mini-bottles of rye. It’s not that I care about the cost of the drinks – I just feel bad for all those AC flight attendants who have to make change all the time for a $6 drink. There aren’t a lot of places to go to find some extra change when you’re at 37,000 feet.
We got to Toronto and spent a couple hours in the airport, working on the laptops and having more beverages. After that, my host (Drew Dudley) took us to Hemingway’s. We met a few MTA alumni there, and the night was mildly entertaining. Actually, that’s the understatement of the year.
On Saturday, we went back to Hemingway’s for the afternoon, to continue the festivities. I didn’t want to get too exuberant, since I had to “work” that evening. After supper, we went to Filthy McNastie’s for some beverages and to watch the hockey game, then finally we headed off to Circa for the rest of the evening. Dave Dresden was playing at Circa that night, and the whole point of the weekend was to get some more video footage of him for a short promotional project that I’m putting together for him. Click here if you'd like to check out one of Dave's promo DJ mixes.
Circa is a pretty decent club, although I wasn’t that impressed with the clientele. It was too much of a “club crowd” for my taste, and not enough of the “party” crowd of people who pay more attention to the music than to their own appearances. Regardless, the staff at Circa were pretty cool, and the club itself was set up nicely. The layout was certainly confusing, but the number of unique rooms and themes was good. The only thing that I really disliked was the DJ booth itself. The booth was very, very dark – it was really difficult to get good footage. They did bring a portable light into the booth eventually, which helped, so the night wasn’t a complete loss. However, as usual, all sorts of things were happening around us. One of the girls that we went to the club with managed to slip in some vomit and break her arm. She wasn’t too impressed with this development, needless to say, but I think she’ll look back on the incident quite favourably. It will be a great cocktail story for her a year or so from now.
On Sunday, we drove off somewhere to the middle of nowhere in Ontario for Thanksgiving Dinner. On the way, Drew stopped by a random church for photos. Now this might sound ridiculous, but I was a bit curious about this particular church. I used to be a church organist. Don’t judge me – I don’t consider myself to be particularly religious, but it was an interesting job. And someday, I’d like to buy an old unused church and convert it into a massive recording studio. Anyway, this church was a six-seater. Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe twelve if you squeezed two thin people into each pew.
On Sunday night, we had to head back to the airport, but I was really tempted to go back to Circa before we left. The lineup was good, and since I didn’t have to think about filming, I thought it would be pretty fun. Victor Calderone, Roger Sanchez, and John Acquivava all played. Thank goodness that I decided to stop into the club before heading to the airport. I have literally wanted to see John Acquivava play for about fifteen years, but have never been in the right city at the right time. As far as electronica goes, Acquivava is probably Canada’s top historical DJ, thanks to both his solo work and his work with Richie Hawtin. Well, let me say that it was well worth the time. Unquestionably, Acquaviva played one of the most enjoyable sets that I’ve heard in a long time. Here's a photo of him, looking very relaxed behind the decks:
The trip home was fairly uneventful. I was looking out the window as we were about to land and was a bit surprised to see trees about twenty feet below us as we were still descending through the fog, but the pilots quickly jerked the plane up in an emergency manoeuvre and announced on the loudspeakers a few minutes later that they had a missed approach, and would try again. Lucikly, I don’t think that many people were looking out the window at the time, because I think that some of them might have had heart attacks. Anyway, the second attempt was perfect, so I made it home in one piece, and just in time for a second Thanksgiving Dinner with my own family in Nova Scotia.
On Friday morning, I flew up to Toronto. I flew on Sunwing this trip, instead of the usual Air Canada. I was curious to compare the two airlines. Ignoring all the unimportant things, like the plane and the ticketing process and customer service, I focused on the really important differences: the drinks on SunWing were only $5, instead of $6 on AC. I was quite happy with this, especially after having several mini-bottles of rye. It’s not that I care about the cost of the drinks – I just feel bad for all those AC flight attendants who have to make change all the time for a $6 drink. There aren’t a lot of places to go to find some extra change when you’re at 37,000 feet.
We got to Toronto and spent a couple hours in the airport, working on the laptops and having more beverages. After that, my host (Drew Dudley) took us to Hemingway’s. We met a few MTA alumni there, and the night was mildly entertaining. Actually, that’s the understatement of the year.
On Saturday, we went back to Hemingway’s for the afternoon, to continue the festivities. I didn’t want to get too exuberant, since I had to “work” that evening. After supper, we went to Filthy McNastie’s for some beverages and to watch the hockey game, then finally we headed off to Circa for the rest of the evening. Dave Dresden was playing at Circa that night, and the whole point of the weekend was to get some more video footage of him for a short promotional project that I’m putting together for him. Click here if you'd like to check out one of Dave's promo DJ mixes.
Circa is a pretty decent club, although I wasn’t that impressed with the clientele. It was too much of a “club crowd” for my taste, and not enough of the “party” crowd of people who pay more attention to the music than to their own appearances. Regardless, the staff at Circa were pretty cool, and the club itself was set up nicely. The layout was certainly confusing, but the number of unique rooms and themes was good. The only thing that I really disliked was the DJ booth itself. The booth was very, very dark – it was really difficult to get good footage. They did bring a portable light into the booth eventually, which helped, so the night wasn’t a complete loss. However, as usual, all sorts of things were happening around us. One of the girls that we went to the club with managed to slip in some vomit and break her arm. She wasn’t too impressed with this development, needless to say, but I think she’ll look back on the incident quite favourably. It will be a great cocktail story for her a year or so from now.
On Sunday, we drove off somewhere to the middle of nowhere in Ontario for Thanksgiving Dinner. On the way, Drew stopped by a random church for photos. Now this might sound ridiculous, but I was a bit curious about this particular church. I used to be a church organist. Don’t judge me – I don’t consider myself to be particularly religious, but it was an interesting job. And someday, I’d like to buy an old unused church and convert it into a massive recording studio. Anyway, this church was a six-seater. Yes, you read that correctly. Maybe twelve if you squeezed two thin people into each pew.
On Sunday night, we had to head back to the airport, but I was really tempted to go back to Circa before we left. The lineup was good, and since I didn’t have to think about filming, I thought it would be pretty fun. Victor Calderone, Roger Sanchez, and John Acquivava all played. Thank goodness that I decided to stop into the club before heading to the airport. I have literally wanted to see John Acquivava play for about fifteen years, but have never been in the right city at the right time. As far as electronica goes, Acquivava is probably Canada’s top historical DJ, thanks to both his solo work and his work with Richie Hawtin. Well, let me say that it was well worth the time. Unquestionably, Acquaviva played one of the most enjoyable sets that I’ve heard in a long time. Here's a photo of him, looking very relaxed behind the decks:
The trip home was fairly uneventful. I was looking out the window as we were about to land and was a bit surprised to see trees about twenty feet below us as we were still descending through the fog, but the pilots quickly jerked the plane up in an emergency manoeuvre and announced on the loudspeakers a few minutes later that they had a missed approach, and would try again. Lucikly, I don’t think that many people were looking out the window at the time, because I think that some of them might have had heart attacks. Anyway, the second attempt was perfect, so I made it home in one piece, and just in time for a second Thanksgiving Dinner with my own family in Nova Scotia.
Record Pool Picks, July 2008
on Monday, October 13, 2008
Yes, the headline of this post says it all: once again, I am extremely behind in my life. But I got to go away to Toronto for a few days this weekend to do some filming for Dave Dresden, and I was able to start doing some record ratings on the flights, so I figured that I'd start catching up.
So even though this is a bit out of date, here are my picks from the July 2008 installment of the Richmond Record Pool:
Live Progressive Sets:
- Armstrong Jr. & James Sadoway, "Float Like A Butterfly"
- J-Soul, "Riddle" (Vadim Zhukov 12-Inch Remix)
- Barbara Tucker & Tuccillo, "One Desire" (Hideo Kobayashi Dub)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Giorgio Sainz feat Paula Pcay, "Precious Love" (Twill Remix)
- Joey Paradise, "I’m Like That"
- Trox, "Lay Next To Me" (Le Disco Mix)
- Trox n Cybermodule, "Next Time" (Yuri Remix)
Studio Mixes:
- Adjay feat Tiff Lacey, "Part Of U" (Andy Brio Remix)
- Cell 2 Cell feat Lisa Berg, "Meladon" (Ionic Ben Remix)
- Cream Sound, "Always" (Snake Sedric Remix)
- Efdemin, "Float" (Original Mix)
- James Sadoway feat Shalini, "What We Are"
- Kaya, "Travel The Way" (Down Kill & Chris Drifter Remix)
- Nosmo vs Kris B, "Long For You" (Original)
- Parallel Sound, "Enigma" (Original Mix)
- Sunn Jellie, "Cassiopeia"
Warmup Tracks:
- Ariel Curtis, "Cowgirl" (Weepee Remix)
- Audionova, "Motion" (Tim Davison Mix)
- BP Zulauf & Isaac S, "Peek A Boo" (Isaac’s Version)
- DJ Ceratti & Graziano, "I See You From The Sky" (Original Mix)
- Matt Samuels, "Close To You" (Original Mix)
- Minoru Hirata, "Athena" (Pineapple & Zalaz Remix)
- Stereotip feat Liza, "Always Love You"
My top pick from the July 2008 Richmond Record Pool shipment was the Armstrong Jr. & James Sadoway track, “Float Like A Butterfly.” It’s probably ironic that I’ve picked that particular track. James has another solo track in this month’s picks, “What We Are,” that he did with Shalini, and I think I would be more likely to play that track at a party. However, I just like the lyrics and melody in “Float Like A Butterfly,” even though it has a healthy electro influence in parts of it (and electro is a style that I don’t chase). The lyrics are catchy enough in “Float Like A Butterfly” that I keep humming them in my head. So put on the handcuffs and check it out …
To hear "Float Like A Butterfly," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads of this mp3 are available.
So even though this is a bit out of date, here are my picks from the July 2008 installment of the Richmond Record Pool:
Live Progressive Sets:
- Armstrong Jr. & James Sadoway, "Float Like A Butterfly"
- J-Soul, "Riddle" (Vadim Zhukov 12-Inch Remix)
- Barbara Tucker & Tuccillo, "One Desire" (Hideo Kobayashi Dub)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Giorgio Sainz feat Paula Pcay, "Precious Love" (Twill Remix)
- Joey Paradise, "I’m Like That"
- Trox, "Lay Next To Me" (Le Disco Mix)
- Trox n Cybermodule, "Next Time" (Yuri Remix)
Studio Mixes:
- Adjay feat Tiff Lacey, "Part Of U" (Andy Brio Remix)
- Cell 2 Cell feat Lisa Berg, "Meladon" (Ionic Ben Remix)
- Cream Sound, "Always" (Snake Sedric Remix)
- Efdemin, "Float" (Original Mix)
- James Sadoway feat Shalini, "What We Are"
- Kaya, "Travel The Way" (Down Kill & Chris Drifter Remix)
- Nosmo vs Kris B, "Long For You" (Original)
- Parallel Sound, "Enigma" (Original Mix)
- Sunn Jellie, "Cassiopeia"
Warmup Tracks:
- Ariel Curtis, "Cowgirl" (Weepee Remix)
- Audionova, "Motion" (Tim Davison Mix)
- BP Zulauf & Isaac S, "Peek A Boo" (Isaac’s Version)
- DJ Ceratti & Graziano, "I See You From The Sky" (Original Mix)
- Matt Samuels, "Close To You" (Original Mix)
- Minoru Hirata, "Athena" (Pineapple & Zalaz Remix)
- Stereotip feat Liza, "Always Love You"
My top pick from the July 2008 Richmond Record Pool shipment was the Armstrong Jr. & James Sadoway track, “Float Like A Butterfly.” It’s probably ironic that I’ve picked that particular track. James has another solo track in this month’s picks, “What We Are,” that he did with Shalini, and I think I would be more likely to play that track at a party. However, I just like the lyrics and melody in “Float Like A Butterfly,” even though it has a healthy electro influence in parts of it (and electro is a style that I don’t chase). The lyrics are catchy enough in “Float Like A Butterfly” that I keep humming them in my head. So put on the handcuffs and check it out …
To hear "Float Like A Butterfly," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads of this mp3 are available.
The OhMiBod Vibrator
on Friday, September 5, 2008
Watching the growth of the iPod over the past several years, it’s been amazing to see just how pervasively it has entered and affected many peoples’ lives. And speaking of “pervasive entry,” I’m going to introduce a neat little iPod accessory today that some girls have already heard of: the OhMiBod.
The OhMiBod is a vibrator that hooks up to your iPod. Turn on the music, and the unit pulses to the beat. What could be more simple? For the girls who enjoy music, and who also enjoy sex, this is definitely a winning combination.
I meant to write about this several months ago, but I got distracted at the time. However, the well-known vocalist Marcie emailed me last night about something else, and it reminded me of a certain OhMiBod commercial, since she did the vocals for the music in the commercial:
YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6oYmSG-ccs
If you want to buy the track that accompanies the commercial above, here’s what to search for:
Tyler Michaud feat Marcie – Dirty Girl (System Recordings, 2007).
Beatport has a package of five different remixes available – search for Tyler Michaud and then go through his library.
I’ve gotten some feedback from female friends of mine who use the OhMiBod. It’s been suggested that albums like Madonna and Nine Inch Nails are good. Music that has some variation is more interesting, so house or trance music with a straight four-four beat wouldn’t be that great. But some heavy drum ‘n’ bass music might be very stimulating. The volume of the iPod controls the strength of the vibrations. Music that has been heavily compressed with a hard limiter would have an almost constant output, so tracks that have been compressed that way wouldn’t be that great. Of course, if you aren’t intimately familiar with music production, you’d have no idea what that means, and it would be tricky to sum it up here so I won’t bother. I’ll just say that sticking to classic rock would provide much more variation than heavily over-produced dance music. As far as the product itself, one of my friends said, "It’s obviously very much a novelty vibrator, and does not really compare to the more 'complex' ones such as the Jack Rabbit, but in comparison to other vibrators, the power is great. The different pulses are very interesting - teasing perhaps."
And if this isn’t enough to intrigue you, check out the company’s new vibrator that attaches to your cell phone. It’s designed to add a whole new dimension to phone sex …
The OhMiBod is a vibrator that hooks up to your iPod. Turn on the music, and the unit pulses to the beat. What could be more simple? For the girls who enjoy music, and who also enjoy sex, this is definitely a winning combination.
I meant to write about this several months ago, but I got distracted at the time. However, the well-known vocalist Marcie emailed me last night about something else, and it reminded me of a certain OhMiBod commercial, since she did the vocals for the music in the commercial:
YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6oYmSG-ccs
If you want to buy the track that accompanies the commercial above, here’s what to search for:
Tyler Michaud feat Marcie – Dirty Girl (System Recordings, 2007).
Beatport has a package of five different remixes available – search for Tyler Michaud and then go through his library.
I’ve gotten some feedback from female friends of mine who use the OhMiBod. It’s been suggested that albums like Madonna and Nine Inch Nails are good. Music that has some variation is more interesting, so house or trance music with a straight four-four beat wouldn’t be that great. But some heavy drum ‘n’ bass music might be very stimulating. The volume of the iPod controls the strength of the vibrations. Music that has been heavily compressed with a hard limiter would have an almost constant output, so tracks that have been compressed that way wouldn’t be that great. Of course, if you aren’t intimately familiar with music production, you’d have no idea what that means, and it would be tricky to sum it up here so I won’t bother. I’ll just say that sticking to classic rock would provide much more variation than heavily over-produced dance music. As far as the product itself, one of my friends said, "It’s obviously very much a novelty vibrator, and does not really compare to the more 'complex' ones such as the Jack Rabbit, but in comparison to other vibrators, the power is great. The different pulses are very interesting - teasing perhaps."
And if this isn’t enough to intrigue you, check out the company’s new vibrator that attaches to your cell phone. It’s designed to add a whole new dimension to phone sex …
Remixes of -When I Grow Old-
on Thursday, August 28, 2008
I sponsored a contest on my DJ website during the summer to encourage people to submit dance remixes of Mike Allison’s “When I Grow Old” track. We provided the raw clean vocals track for producers to download, to make things easier. We got a lot strange entries, ranging from drum & bass, to breaks, to atmospheric lounge music, to trance and dance. We also got some really high quality, creative remixes.
I’ve picked three of the top entries here. Not all of them are available yet from my website, but I figured I’d let my blog readers have a “sneak peek” at the tracks. The first track listed below (Bit Funk’s) is a great club track, and starting to get a fair amount of play in venues around North America. The other two mixes are trance-oriented - Prince Avitar did an incredible job creating the backing track, and the judges for the contest liked the Zodiacal Light remix for the winning entry:
Bit Funk's Club Remix
Prince Avitar Electro Aftershow Vocal Mix
Zodiacal Light Vocal Remix
If you want to learn more about the guys who produced these tracks, and links to their MySpace pages or websites, check here.
The tracks are a good example showing how different a song can sound when you give it a different drum track and tempo. I hope you enjoy them ...
I’ve picked three of the top entries here. Not all of them are available yet from my website, but I figured I’d let my blog readers have a “sneak peek” at the tracks. The first track listed below (Bit Funk’s) is a great club track, and starting to get a fair amount of play in venues around North America. The other two mixes are trance-oriented - Prince Avitar did an incredible job creating the backing track, and the judges for the contest liked the Zodiacal Light remix for the winning entry:
Bit Funk's Club Remix
Prince Avitar Electro Aftershow Vocal Mix
Zodiacal Light Vocal Remix
If you want to learn more about the guys who produced these tracks, and links to their MySpace pages or websites, check here.
The tracks are a good example showing how different a song can sound when you give it a different drum track and tempo. I hope you enjoy them ...
Record Pool Picks, June 2008
on Monday, August 4, 2008
Here are my picks from the June 2008 Richmond Record Pool shipment. I'm finally starting to get almost caught up with my music again, which is good, since I'm playing in Las Vegas this weekend.
Live Sets:
- Carl Jurgens, “City Lights” (Alex Gone With Stanley Cupid Mix)
- Deadmau5, “Fifths”
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Original Mix)
- Felguk, “All Night Long” (Original)
- Idiot Box, “Fast Slow” (Original Mix)
- Joee Conns, “Don’t Stop”
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Mario Good Mix)
- Rusian B, “Electro Static”
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Ashlee Simpson, “Little Miss Obsessive” (David Aude Club Mix)
- Mic Boogie, “Good Look” (White Punks On Dope Remix)
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Under The Covers Remix)
- Ne Yo, “Closer” (Stonebridge Club Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Cream Sound, “Always” (Stereotip Edit)
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Original)
- Felguk, “Do You Like Bass” (Blend Rank Mix)
- High Torque, “Sparks” (Original Mix)
- Michael & Levan, “Distant Closeness” (Dave Ferol & Arion Grey Remix)
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Mario Dub)
- Sinestetici & Kilo Watts, “Reflective Deceptor” (Misjah Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Aoo & ooA, “Artillery” (Diego Pericles & Skills Remix)
- Aoo & ooA, “Artillery” (Original Mix)
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Styller Remix)
- Jalabee Cartel, “Single Tab” (Original)
- Rogerio Martins, “Demente” (Original Mix)
My top pick from the June 2008 Richmond Record Pool shipment was the Misjah remix of the Sinestetici & Kilo Watts “Reflective Deceptor” track. Misjah, a Dutch DJ/producer, has a huge amount of production work under his belt. However, this particular track is not a very mainstream club-friendly track – more something that I would play at a warehouse party or similar event.
To hear "Reflective Deceptor," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog posting, not in the Facebook notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Live Sets:
- Carl Jurgens, “City Lights” (Alex Gone With Stanley Cupid Mix)
- Deadmau5, “Fifths”
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Original Mix)
- Felguk, “All Night Long” (Original)
- Idiot Box, “Fast Slow” (Original Mix)
- Joee Conns, “Don’t Stop”
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Mario Good Mix)
- Rusian B, “Electro Static”
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Ashlee Simpson, “Little Miss Obsessive” (David Aude Club Mix)
- Mic Boogie, “Good Look” (White Punks On Dope Remix)
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Under The Covers Remix)
- Ne Yo, “Closer” (Stonebridge Club Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Cream Sound, “Always” (Stereotip Edit)
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Original)
- Felguk, “Do You Like Bass” (Blend Rank Mix)
- High Torque, “Sparks” (Original Mix)
- Michael & Levan, “Distant Closeness” (Dave Ferol & Arion Grey Remix)
- Multiply feat Marcie, “Can’t Stop My” (Mario Dub)
- Sinestetici & Kilo Watts, “Reflective Deceptor” (Misjah Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Aoo & ooA, “Artillery” (Diego Pericles & Skills Remix)
- Aoo & ooA, “Artillery” (Original Mix)
- Domased Electronica, “Naiad” (Styller Remix)
- Jalabee Cartel, “Single Tab” (Original)
- Rogerio Martins, “Demente” (Original Mix)
My top pick from the June 2008 Richmond Record Pool shipment was the Misjah remix of the Sinestetici & Kilo Watts “Reflective Deceptor” track. Misjah, a Dutch DJ/producer, has a huge amount of production work under his belt. However, this particular track is not a very mainstream club-friendly track – more something that I would play at a warehouse party or similar event.
To hear "Reflective Deceptor," click on the player here (visible only in the original blog posting, not in the Facebook notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Record Pool Picks, May 2008
on Friday, July 11, 2008
Here are my favorite picks from the May 2008 Richmond Record Pool:
Live Sets:
- Dustin Skiles, “Tell Me” (Club Mix)
- Endforest, “By The Sea” (Original Shoreline Mix)
- Peppelino, “Energizer”
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Thomas Penton & Kotoswitch, “Take The Chance” (Alex Armes Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Eddit Sender, “Maya” (Original Mix)
- Greg Gow, “Industry” (Original Mix)
- Test Pattern, “Way Beyond” (Original Mix)
- Tim Mills, “Eclipse Of The Sun” (Sean McClellan Crazy Island Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- DJ Groovy, “Musica Um” (Original Mix)
- Endforest, “By The Sea” (Shifted Reality Remix)
- Hado, “Black Rain”
- Harold Heath, “Memphis Whisper”
- Harold Heath, “Monza” (Original)
- Steve Porter, “Pixy Stix” (Roger Lee Mix)
My favorite track of the month this time around was “By The Sea” by Endforest (Peter Safranyos, a Hungarian trance producer). Safranyos goes by his own name when producing trance, and by Endforest when producing progressive house. I especially liked the Original Shoreline Mix version. SJ Regan wrote the following about this mix on DanceNode: “The Original Shoreline Mix has a nice deep kick introduction and uses atmospheric sweeps to slowly introduce new elements and build the track towards the breakdown. The sound has a magical element, close your eyes and you could easily find yourself in a fairy tale. Endforest has juxtaposed a series of dark and grinding samples with the floating melody that helps keeps the track earthed and not too light and fluffy.” Personally, I just thought that this particular mix sounds a lot like an older Max Graham track, a style which I’ve always enjoyed.
To listen to "By The Sea," click on the player here. Sorry, no downloads are available.
Live Sets:
- Dustin Skiles, “Tell Me” (Club Mix)
- Endforest, “By The Sea” (Original Shoreline Mix)
- Peppelino, “Energizer”
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Thomas Penton & Kotoswitch, “Take The Chance” (Alex Armes Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- Eddit Sender, “Maya” (Original Mix)
- Greg Gow, “Industry” (Original Mix)
- Test Pattern, “Way Beyond” (Original Mix)
- Tim Mills, “Eclipse Of The Sun” (Sean McClellan Crazy Island Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- DJ Groovy, “Musica Um” (Original Mix)
- Endforest, “By The Sea” (Shifted Reality Remix)
- Hado, “Black Rain”
- Harold Heath, “Memphis Whisper”
- Harold Heath, “Monza” (Original)
- Steve Porter, “Pixy Stix” (Roger Lee Mix)
My favorite track of the month this time around was “By The Sea” by Endforest (Peter Safranyos, a Hungarian trance producer). Safranyos goes by his own name when producing trance, and by Endforest when producing progressive house. I especially liked the Original Shoreline Mix version. SJ Regan wrote the following about this mix on DanceNode: “The Original Shoreline Mix has a nice deep kick introduction and uses atmospheric sweeps to slowly introduce new elements and build the track towards the breakdown. The sound has a magical element, close your eyes and you could easily find yourself in a fairy tale. Endforest has juxtaposed a series of dark and grinding samples with the floating melody that helps keeps the track earthed and not too light and fluffy.” Personally, I just thought that this particular mix sounds a lot like an older Max Graham track, a style which I’ve always enjoyed.
To listen to "By The Sea," click on the player here. Sorry, no downloads are available.
Record Pool Picks, April 2008
on Sunday, June 29, 2008
After going through the April DVD from the Richmond Record Pool, I’ve picked the following as my favorite tracks:
Live Sets:
- Dfuzhion, “Unidentified”
- Hypnotic Haldex, “Crazy Bass” (Chris Tall Remix)
- KT, “Riders On The Storm” (Original Journey Mix)
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Original)
- Michal Poliak, “World Republic” (Bryan Cox Remix)
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (Noel Sanger Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Original)
- Steve Haines, “Takin U Back” (Abel Riballos Walking Tall Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Myon Remix)
- Fabio Olarte, “The Final Countdown”
Studio Mixes:
- Dfuzhion, “Multigrain”
- DJ Bia, “Deep” (More Deep Mix)
- DJ Tsepech & Naveed, “Breathe” (Summer Sessions Remix)
- Haken Ludvigson, “Trollflojten” (Soundank Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Control”
- Moti Brothers, “Mystic Night”
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Darin Mix)
- R-Tem, “Cloud Of Sound” (Natlife Nu School Remix)
- Sonic Division, “Time Machine” (Original Mix)
- Underwater, “Sleeping Under The Stars” (Sonic Division Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Bjoern Small, “A Sense Of Occasion” (Clockwork Mix)
- Chavi, “Otono” (Poyraz Remix)
- Diegopericles, “1994” (Jay North Remix)
- DJ Bia, “Pharma Trainer”
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (J-Soul Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Dream”
- Stuart C, “Project 009”
- Stuart C, “Unbreakable”
- Tony Arzadon, “Super Punch”
- Tony Arzadon, “Secrets”
My favorite track for the month was the Noel Sanger track, “What Are You Looking For.” I’ve enjoyed Sanger’s production pretty consistently in the past couple of years (tracks like “Trapped” and especially “My Prayer”). This Florida resident is relatively unknown in the traditional mass media musical world, although in the electronica world, he’s certainly made a huge impact over the past decade. Touring frequently with Tiesto certainly hasn’t hurt his image, but it is his production that caught my attention. If you want to check out his DJ’ing skills, check out his Summerbreeze mix comps, especially Summerbreeze 2.
To hear "What Are You Looking For," click on the player here (visible only in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Live Sets:
- Dfuzhion, “Unidentified”
- Hypnotic Haldex, “Crazy Bass” (Chris Tall Remix)
- KT, “Riders On The Storm” (Original Journey Mix)
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Original)
- Michal Poliak, “World Republic” (Bryan Cox Remix)
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (Noel Sanger Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Original)
- Steve Haines, “Takin U Back” (Abel Riballos Walking Tall Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- Mark Norman feat Celine, “Be With You” (Myon Remix)
- Fabio Olarte, “The Final Countdown”
Studio Mixes:
- Dfuzhion, “Multigrain”
- DJ Bia, “Deep” (More Deep Mix)
- DJ Tsepech & Naveed, “Breathe” (Summer Sessions Remix)
- Haken Ludvigson, “Trollflojten” (Soundank Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Control”
- Moti Brothers, “Mystic Night”
- Noel Sanger, “What Are You Looking For” (Darin Mix)
- R-Tem, “Cloud Of Sound” (Natlife Nu School Remix)
- Sonic Division, “Time Machine” (Original Mix)
- Underwater, “Sleeping Under The Stars” (Sonic Division Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Bjoern Small, “A Sense Of Occasion” (Clockwork Mix)
- Chavi, “Otono” (Poyraz Remix)
- Diegopericles, “1994” (Jay North Remix)
- DJ Bia, “Pharma Trainer”
- Mohawk, “Celestia” (J-Soul Remix)
- Moti Brothers, “Dream”
- Stuart C, “Project 009”
- Stuart C, “Unbreakable”
- Tony Arzadon, “Super Punch”
- Tony Arzadon, “Secrets”
My favorite track for the month was the Noel Sanger track, “What Are You Looking For.” I’ve enjoyed Sanger’s production pretty consistently in the past couple of years (tracks like “Trapped” and especially “My Prayer”). This Florida resident is relatively unknown in the traditional mass media musical world, although in the electronica world, he’s certainly made a huge impact over the past decade. Touring frequently with Tiesto certainly hasn’t hurt his image, but it is his production that caught my attention. If you want to check out his DJ’ing skills, check out his Summerbreeze mix comps, especially Summerbreeze 2.
To hear "What Are You Looking For," click on the player here (visible only in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Record Pool Picks, March 2008
on Saturday, June 21, 2008
For those of you who follow my blog and read my monthly electronic music picks, you're probably wondering what's happened to me lately. Well, I've been pretty much swamped since the start of the year, so I haven't kept up on my music ratings. Since I don't really DJ in the summer, because of my seasonal forestry work, it's not a big deal. Usually I can catch up on several months' worth of ratings in August. However, I just bought a new device for my truck last week, which lets me play my iPod while I'm driving around. You can see it sticking out of the cigarette lighter on the right side of this photo:
The device is called a "TuneBase" FM transmitter. Probably a lot of people know how these work: they broadcast a very-low power FM output from the device, so your car FM stereo can pick it up and play it. It's sort of like a low-powered portable radio station. This particular model is extremely impressive. It has different spacers and mounting sleeves so it can handle every different size and type of iPod securely, and it has a flexible arm so you can position the iPod where it is easy for you to see while driving. I've used different FM transmitters in the past, and this one is the clearest that I've ever used (probably because it has a push-button function whereby it picks the FM frequency with the least external interference).
Anyway, so I've decided that since I drive around a lot while working, I can start to slowly catch up on my music ratings. I haven't posted any here since last fall, but since I don't have all those DVD's here, I'll just go back to March of this year and then try to catch up to the present over the next several weeks. Here are my picks from the March DVD that the Richmond Record Pool distributed:
Live Sets:
- Artificial Dreamer, “Dusted” (Part 1 Mix)
- Kaskade, “Sorry” (Dirty South Mix)
- Tegma, “Who Stole My Oscillator”
- Toby Emerson, “Rapture” (Chad C Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- All Stars, “Thriller” (12-Inch)
- Des Mitchell & Chr Sarah Jane Scott, “Alive” (You Make Me Feel Full Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- DC Project & Alex Hentze, “Miss You Less” (Mix 2)
- First State, “Your Own Way” (First State’s Analog Reconstruction)
- Incognet Project, “Plastict”
- Macutchi, “All In A Day’s Work”
- Progression, “Different Day, Different Light” (Reward Remix)
- Quasar, “Road Network"
- Solarstone, “Rain Stars Eternal” (Original Mix)
- Tegma, “What The Fuzz”
- Voglemann, “Angelic” (Karim Haas Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Original)
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Section 75 Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “Natural Perfection” (Manuel De La Mare Mix)
- Tegma, “Circles”
- Tegma, “East Block (CCCP Mix)
- Tegma, “Monday Star”
- Tobias Hoppe, “Gentle Noises” (Original Mix)
I'm also going to add a new "feature" to my monthly record pool selections, the "top pick" of the month. This month, my favorite track from the DVD was the Toby Emerson track, "Rapture" (Chad Cisneros Remix).
To hear "Rapture," click on the player here (only visible in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
The device is called a "TuneBase" FM transmitter. Probably a lot of people know how these work: they broadcast a very-low power FM output from the device, so your car FM stereo can pick it up and play it. It's sort of like a low-powered portable radio station. This particular model is extremely impressive. It has different spacers and mounting sleeves so it can handle every different size and type of iPod securely, and it has a flexible arm so you can position the iPod where it is easy for you to see while driving. I've used different FM transmitters in the past, and this one is the clearest that I've ever used (probably because it has a push-button function whereby it picks the FM frequency with the least external interference).
Anyway, so I've decided that since I drive around a lot while working, I can start to slowly catch up on my music ratings. I haven't posted any here since last fall, but since I don't have all those DVD's here, I'll just go back to March of this year and then try to catch up to the present over the next several weeks. Here are my picks from the March DVD that the Richmond Record Pool distributed:
Live Sets:
- Artificial Dreamer, “Dusted” (Part 1 Mix)
- Kaskade, “Sorry” (Dirty South Mix)
- Tegma, “Who Stole My Oscillator”
- Toby Emerson, “Rapture” (Chad C Remix)
Mainstream Club Sets:
- All Stars, “Thriller” (12-Inch)
- Des Mitchell & Chr Sarah Jane Scott, “Alive” (You Make Me Feel Full Mix)
Studio Mixes:
- DC Project & Alex Hentze, “Miss You Less” (Mix 2)
- First State, “Your Own Way” (First State’s Analog Reconstruction)
- Incognet Project, “Plastict”
- Macutchi, “All In A Day’s Work”
- Progression, “Different Day, Different Light” (Reward Remix)
- Quasar, “Road Network"
- Solarstone, “Rain Stars Eternal” (Original Mix)
- Tegma, “What The Fuzz”
- Voglemann, “Angelic” (Karim Haas Remix)
Warmup Tracks:
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Original)
- Darin Epsilon pres Mimoori, “Green Destiny” (Section 75 Remix)
- Noel Sanger, “Natural Perfection” (Manuel De La Mare Mix)
- Tegma, “Circles”
- Tegma, “East Block (CCCP Mix)
- Tegma, “Monday Star”
- Tobias Hoppe, “Gentle Noises” (Original Mix)
I'm also going to add a new "feature" to my monthly record pool selections, the "top pick" of the month. This month, my favorite track from the DVD was the Toby Emerson track, "Rapture" (Chad Cisneros Remix).
To hear "Rapture," click on the player here (only visible in the original Blog post, not in the Facebook Notes feed). Sorry, no downloads are available.
Conduct Becoming 2008
on Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Conduct Becoming project, originally started in 2001 by Marc Carnes and Drew Dudley (with a tiny bit of assistance from myself), was created to honor the memory of Jason Abraham. Last week, this project released its eighth annual CD. A feature about that project and about the Pub was shown on CTV’s “Live At Five” program on the album launch night last week, and you can see that news clip here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywksUzmD9Xo
This year’s Conduct Becoming CD will soon be available for online purchase, and you can check out the Conduct Becoming website for more information. One of the tracks on this year’s album (Mike Allison’s “When I Grow Old”) can be downloaded for free as an MP3 from this link, if you want a sample of some of the music available on the CD. I've listened to the entire CD several times, and I highly recommend picking up a copy and supporting a very worthwhile cause.
For people in the southeastern New Brunswick area, there will be a special "Conduct Becoming Evening" hosted at Cranewood, the University President's house, next Friday evening (April 11th). Several of the artists and musicians from this year's album will be performing that evening. Tickets are $25 each and somewhat limited in availability. I went to this event last year and had a great time, so I highly recommend it.
This year’s Conduct Becoming CD will soon be available for online purchase, and you can check out the Conduct Becoming website for more information. One of the tracks on this year’s album (Mike Allison’s “When I Grow Old”) can be downloaded for free as an MP3 from this link, if you want a sample of some of the music available on the CD. I've listened to the entire CD several times, and I highly recommend picking up a copy and supporting a very worthwhile cause.
For people in the southeastern New Brunswick area, there will be a special "Conduct Becoming Evening" hosted at Cranewood, the University President's house, next Friday evening (April 11th). Several of the artists and musicians from this year's album will be performing that evening. Tickets are $25 each and somewhat limited in availability. I went to this event last year and had a great time, so I highly recommend it.
When I Grow Old
on Thursday, February 21, 2008
People who visit my website because of my DJ’ing activities probably assume that I focus almost entirely on “dance music,” or progressive/tribal house EDM, for those who pay close attention to the particular genre that I specialize in. However, I have a fairly broad background in music (as my regular blog readers must realize).
Last year, I wrote a track which I thought was pretty catchy. I'd categorize it as "indie soft rock." I recorded a rough copy of the song one Saturday evening before work at the Pub, and sent the recording to Mike Allison to listen to. A day later, Mike emailed me back to say that he really liked the song, and recorded a rough version himself. As soon as I heard it, I decided that I would try to release the song professionally.
What with all my other jobs and projects, it took a while for everything to come together, but over the next eight or ten months, I finally got the project moving forward quickly. We recorded the song partly in New Brunswick, in my own studio, and partly in Vancouver at FaderMaster Studios, with Shawn Cole acting as a recording and mastering engineer. Mike did the lead and backup vocals, and the acoustic guitar and bass. I played the drums, keyboards, electric guitar, and shaker in the new version.
I also enlisted the assistance of Deanna Musgrave to help me put a video together. We did some filming last spring, and more filming this past fall. Deanna has a lot of practice at putting videos together, and has a really interesting abstract style for some of her work which contrasts interestingly with the usual style that I’ve used in the past to put a lot of videos together. Deanna put together the first version of the video for me, and then added some additional footage with the help of Julien Strasfield as a technical guru in Final Cut (since I’m used to PC-based software). Having Deanna and myself working together as co-filmmakers and co-editors was a really educational experience for me.
It’s interesting that this project has turned into a “Mount Allison University Community” project. Mike is an alumnus at MTA. Shawn used to be my roommate while we were at university, and he worked at the campus Pub with me as the Student Manager (his mom, Filis, still works at the university too). Deanna is an alumnus. Julien is still a student, although he graduates this year. Ian Allen, another employee at both the University and the campus Pub, did the graphic design work for the CD, and helped with marketing. When we needed extra actors for the video, we recruited Dinao (a friend of mine who worked with me as a bartender last year) to act as Mike's supposed girlfriend. For the older version of Mike & Dinao in the future, we were lucky to have the assistance of Robert Campbell (MTA’s President) and his wife Christl (a professor at MTA) as characters. In fact, the only two people involved in the entire project who are not members of the MTA university community are the two kids in the video – Evan (my nephew) and Mira (Evan’s friend), which provided the "flashback" footage of Mike and Dinao when they were young. Maybe someday one or both of them will decide that they want to come to Mount Allison.
Here’s a link to the video, for those who want to watch it.
We also put together a full CD with this song as the first track on the CD, and I included eight of my favourite other Mike Allison tracks. Some of the other songs have been released on his various albums before, and some were not. The CD is called "Tilting At Windmills." I’m also working on getting a listing for the CD on Amazon.
You may be curious about the name for the CD. “Tilting At Windmills” is a phrase from Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. Basically, "tilting" was another word for jousting (by knights) in Medieval times, and in the book, our hero thought that a windmill was actually a giant, and so he wanted to attack it by jousting. Essentially then, “tilting at windmills” has come to mean “fighting a futile fight” or “fighting against imaginary enemies,” or variations on the same theme. I suppose that you could infer that since this song (and CD) are being marketed purely through guerrilla or viral marketing approaches, rather than conventional musical channels, we are “fighting the musical establishment.” However, we’re just doing this for fun, so the “musical establishment” is really an enemy in imagination only. Don Quixote is the best-selling work of fiction of all time (for non-political, non-religious works), so hopefully some of that charm rubs off and makes the CD popular too.
Anyway, if you like the song, please send the website link and/or the YouTube link to your friends. We’re not trying to make money off CD sales, so we definitely encourage you to share the mp3 freely. And if you want to hear the song on the radio, click here to see a full list of Canadian radio stations, so you can give your favourite local station a call or an email request to hear the song. Here are the links to the video on YouTube, and also to the page on my site where you can download the mp3 for free:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjauOyEt40
"When I Grow Old" (and the rest of Mike Allison's "Tilting At Windmills" album) is now available for mp3 download from iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, Napster, and Shockhound. We especially recommend that you check out the Shockhound link, because you can sign up for a free account now and as an introductory offer, you can download thirteen mp3's for free. In other words, you can get the entire "Tilting At Windmills" album for free that way!
Edit, December 2011: Sorry for the low quality of the YouTube video, especially by today's standards. Remember that this was created back in the early days of YouTube video, and before High Definition video recording.
Also, here's a link so you can play the song directly through SoundCloud, or download the music, by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the track:
Bolivia feat Mike Allison - When I Grow Old (Radio Edit) by djbolivia
Finally, here's a link to a SoundCloud page with a few of Mike Allison's other songs:
http://soundcloud.com/mike-allison
Check it out, as the songs there can also be downloaded for free.
Last year, I wrote a track which I thought was pretty catchy. I'd categorize it as "indie soft rock." I recorded a rough copy of the song one Saturday evening before work at the Pub, and sent the recording to Mike Allison to listen to. A day later, Mike emailed me back to say that he really liked the song, and recorded a rough version himself. As soon as I heard it, I decided that I would try to release the song professionally.
What with all my other jobs and projects, it took a while for everything to come together, but over the next eight or ten months, I finally got the project moving forward quickly. We recorded the song partly in New Brunswick, in my own studio, and partly in Vancouver at FaderMaster Studios, with Shawn Cole acting as a recording and mastering engineer. Mike did the lead and backup vocals, and the acoustic guitar and bass. I played the drums, keyboards, electric guitar, and shaker in the new version.
I also enlisted the assistance of Deanna Musgrave to help me put a video together. We did some filming last spring, and more filming this past fall. Deanna has a lot of practice at putting videos together, and has a really interesting abstract style for some of her work which contrasts interestingly with the usual style that I’ve used in the past to put a lot of videos together. Deanna put together the first version of the video for me, and then added some additional footage with the help of Julien Strasfield as a technical guru in Final Cut (since I’m used to PC-based software). Having Deanna and myself working together as co-filmmakers and co-editors was a really educational experience for me.
It’s interesting that this project has turned into a “Mount Allison University Community” project. Mike is an alumnus at MTA. Shawn used to be my roommate while we were at university, and he worked at the campus Pub with me as the Student Manager (his mom, Filis, still works at the university too). Deanna is an alumnus. Julien is still a student, although he graduates this year. Ian Allen, another employee at both the University and the campus Pub, did the graphic design work for the CD, and helped with marketing. When we needed extra actors for the video, we recruited Dinao (a friend of mine who worked with me as a bartender last year) to act as Mike's supposed girlfriend. For the older version of Mike & Dinao in the future, we were lucky to have the assistance of Robert Campbell (MTA’s President) and his wife Christl (a professor at MTA) as characters. In fact, the only two people involved in the entire project who are not members of the MTA university community are the two kids in the video – Evan (my nephew) and Mira (Evan’s friend), which provided the "flashback" footage of Mike and Dinao when they were young. Maybe someday one or both of them will decide that they want to come to Mount Allison.
Here’s a link to the video, for those who want to watch it.
We also put together a full CD with this song as the first track on the CD, and I included eight of my favourite other Mike Allison tracks. Some of the other songs have been released on his various albums before, and some were not. The CD is called "Tilting At Windmills." I’m also working on getting a listing for the CD on Amazon.
You may be curious about the name for the CD. “Tilting At Windmills” is a phrase from Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. Basically, "tilting" was another word for jousting (by knights) in Medieval times, and in the book, our hero thought that a windmill was actually a giant, and so he wanted to attack it by jousting. Essentially then, “tilting at windmills” has come to mean “fighting a futile fight” or “fighting against imaginary enemies,” or variations on the same theme. I suppose that you could infer that since this song (and CD) are being marketed purely through guerrilla or viral marketing approaches, rather than conventional musical channels, we are “fighting the musical establishment.” However, we’re just doing this for fun, so the “musical establishment” is really an enemy in imagination only. Don Quixote is the best-selling work of fiction of all time (for non-political, non-religious works), so hopefully some of that charm rubs off and makes the CD popular too.
Anyway, if you like the song, please send the website link and/or the YouTube link to your friends. We’re not trying to make money off CD sales, so we definitely encourage you to share the mp3 freely. And if you want to hear the song on the radio, click here to see a full list of Canadian radio stations, so you can give your favourite local station a call or an email request to hear the song. Here are the links to the video on YouTube, and also to the page on my site where you can download the mp3 for free:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJjauOyEt40
"When I Grow Old" (and the rest of Mike Allison's "Tilting At Windmills" album) is now available for mp3 download from iTunes, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, Napster, and Shockhound. We especially recommend that you check out the Shockhound link, because you can sign up for a free account now and as an introductory offer, you can download thirteen mp3's for free. In other words, you can get the entire "Tilting At Windmills" album for free that way!
Edit, December 2011: Sorry for the low quality of the YouTube video, especially by today's standards. Remember that this was created back in the early days of YouTube video, and before High Definition video recording.
Also, here's a link so you can play the song directly through SoundCloud, or download the music, by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the track:
Bolivia feat Mike Allison - When I Grow Old (Radio Edit) by djbolivia
Finally, here's a link to a SoundCloud page with a few of Mike Allison's other songs:
http://soundcloud.com/mike-allison
Check it out, as the songs there can also be downloaded for free.
Top Ten Classical Music Works
on Sunday, January 27, 2008
On Friday night, I went to a performance by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (in Edmonton, at Winspear). My former roommate, Marc Carnes, is the Director of Development at the Winspear Centre. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is pretty small as far as orchestras go, with about 56 full-time members, and when they perform bigger pieces, they hire in extra talent where needed. The Winspear Centre has amazing acoustics, and I believe that it is known as being one of Canada’s premiere performance venues for exactly this reason. The evening included a Messiaen piece, “Oiseaux Exotiques,” which featured guest pianist Louise Bessette, whom I met after the show. The 2nd half of the evening featured Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique,” performed by the ESO under the direction of William Eddins. All in all, a great evening of entertainment for anyone who enjoys this kind of music.
People who only know me casually might think that it’s strange that I would go to an event like this. If you know me because I’m a DJ, focusing on electronica and dance music, you’d probably think that listening to classical music would be the furthest thing from my mind. But I actually like several types of music, with dance, rock, indie/alternative, and classical being among the top genres (and I don’t mind country). I actually studied classical piano for a long time, and an understanding of classical piano theory gives everyone a great building point for understanding other genres of music.
For those of you who have always wanted to learn more about classical music, but didn’t know where to begin, I’m going to give you a quick “top ten” list to think about, since I am wide-awake right now after bartending this evening, and I can’t fall asleep at the moment. All of the pieces that I'm going to list here are easily recognizable, and quite memorable. I don’t watch a lot of movies or TV, but I can think of several movies that have soundtracks which included various of these pieces, so I’ve tried to list those tie-ins where I could. Anyway, here is my late-night off-the-cuff “top ten classical music” list.
1. George Gershwin, “Rhapsody In Blue” – one of America’s most well-known and loved classical works. This piece was written by Gershwin in 1924, and many people remember it from its appearance in Disney’s “Fantasia 2000” movie. When Gershwin was asked about his inspiration for the piece, he said that he wrote it on a train trip from New York to Boston, to describe the musical kaleidoscope of America. To honor this piece, it was played at the opening of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles by eighty-four pianists, playing simultaneously. The piece is instantly recognizable for its opening glissando on the clarinet. This is a very whimsical and upbeat piece.
2. Samuel Osborne Barber, “Adagio For Strings” – another unforgettable composition for me, because it was the backing music for the “Barnes Shoots Elias” scene in the movie Platoon. This piece was written in 1936, and was voted as the “saddest” classical musical composition of all time by a recent BBC survey. That’s not surprising, when you hear it, considering its mournful tempo and melodies. Versions of this composition have been remixed or sampled for tracks by such well-known DJ’s and producers as Sean Combs, Ferry Corsten, the Skip Raiders, Paul Oakenfold, and Tiesto. In fact, it was the strength of Tiesto’s remix of this piece, from his “Parade of Athletes” album, that led to him being asked to perform at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
3. Maurice Ravel, “Bolero” – this 1928 composition by Maurice Ravel actually embarrassed him because of its popularity. It was featured in the popular late 1970’s film “10” (Bo Derek & Dudley Moore), and is most recognizable for its ostinato rhythm on the snare drum throughout. The piece itself is very simple, and is one of the best examples in classical music of a piece that constantly builds throughout the performance. It is basically just two separate melodies, which continue to overlap each other, and more and more instruments get added as the piece progresses, until finally the entire orchestra is playing together at the end. Some people might also recognize this from its inclusion in the theatre production Copacabana.
4. Carl Orff, “Carmina Burana (O Fortuna)” – the Carmina Burana is a manuscript from the 12th or 13th century which is really just a collection of hundreds and hundreds of medieval songs and poems. Carmina Burana means “songs of Burana” in whatever language it was written in (Latin?). In the 1920’s or 1930’s, Carl Orff set 24 of these songs/poems to music, and the most famous of this group was “O Fortuna.” If you’ve seen “The Doors” (the movie), then you’ll easily recognize the “O Fortuna” selection from that soundtrack, when Jim and Patricia (the reporter) were in the library, entering the blood pact.
5. Mozart, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” – this work, meaning “a little night music,” was written in the late eighteenth century. There are four known movements to this (with the suggestion by Mozart himself that there was also originally a fifth movement), and the first movement is the one that everyone would recognize instantly. The best way that I’d describe this work would be that it is a pretty whimsical or frivilous piece of music. This composition has been featured in a couple movies that I can think of: Alien, and one of the Ace Ventura movies.
6. Johann Pachelbel, “Canon in D” – this 17th century work, often [mistakenly] assumed to be composed by J. S. Bach, is a simple three-part canon based on a repeating two-bar (eight note) bass line. And what’s strange is that I can’t think of any movies that this was in, off the top of my head. I used to love to play it when I was studying classical piano. However, a rock arrangement was made extremely popular by YouTube, in this video by an Asian guitarist.
7. Tchaikovsky, “Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” – the Nutcracker Suite is a ballet. Within the musical score to the ballet, Tchaikovsky wrote a series of waltzes and other works. The “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is probably the most famous of these. The song in the original Nutcracker which introduces the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is called “La Marche,” and that piece was used as the basis for a pop rock single that became a #1 hit in Britain in the 1960’s, although I can’t remember who wrote it. Anyway, that song, “Nut Rocker,” is one of the theme songs for Boston Bruins. Parts of the Nutcracker Suite (including “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” as an opener) were used in the original soundtrack to Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940 version).
8. Rachmaninoff, “Piano Concerto no. 2, opus 18” – Rachmaninoff, a Russian composer of the early 20th century, is famous for four concertos he wrote, and also for the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” I really like his 2nd Concerto, although his third Concerto is notable for being one of the most difficult works to play on piano. I can’t remember ever hearing any of Rachmaninoff’s pieces in any movies.
9. Ludwig van Beethoven, “Mondscheinsonate” – most people would probably know this better by its common English name, the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven’s list of produced works is enormous, such as his nine symphonies, and he is well known for the compositions that he continued to write over the years as he slowly became completely tone deaf. In fact, it is said that when his Ninth Symphony premiered, he did not hear the audience clapping so he started to cry because he thought they didn’t like it, and he did not realize until someone turned him around to face the audience that everybody had loved it. Anyway, the Moonlight Sonata is probably in a ton of films, but I can’t think of any right now.
10. Johann Strauss Jr., “An Der Schonen Blau” – this is something that you might recognize if I told you that the common English name for the piece is the “Blue Danube Waltz.” And if you’ve seen “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you’ll recognize this song. It was also used in a Monty Python skit, where there was an orchestra playing this piece in a football field, and someone kept blowing up members of the orchestra.
ETA April 5/08: I just saw "Hannibal," and the Blue Danube is also in this movie.
Alright, that’s enough about classical music for this evening, but if you have ever had any urge to start learning a bit about classical music, find copies of these ten tracks to get you started, and you won’t go wrong.
People who only know me casually might think that it’s strange that I would go to an event like this. If you know me because I’m a DJ, focusing on electronica and dance music, you’d probably think that listening to classical music would be the furthest thing from my mind. But I actually like several types of music, with dance, rock, indie/alternative, and classical being among the top genres (and I don’t mind country). I actually studied classical piano for a long time, and an understanding of classical piano theory gives everyone a great building point for understanding other genres of music.
For those of you who have always wanted to learn more about classical music, but didn’t know where to begin, I’m going to give you a quick “top ten” list to think about, since I am wide-awake right now after bartending this evening, and I can’t fall asleep at the moment. All of the pieces that I'm going to list here are easily recognizable, and quite memorable. I don’t watch a lot of movies or TV, but I can think of several movies that have soundtracks which included various of these pieces, so I’ve tried to list those tie-ins where I could. Anyway, here is my late-night off-the-cuff “top ten classical music” list.
1. George Gershwin, “Rhapsody In Blue” – one of America’s most well-known and loved classical works. This piece was written by Gershwin in 1924, and many people remember it from its appearance in Disney’s “Fantasia 2000” movie. When Gershwin was asked about his inspiration for the piece, he said that he wrote it on a train trip from New York to Boston, to describe the musical kaleidoscope of America. To honor this piece, it was played at the opening of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles by eighty-four pianists, playing simultaneously. The piece is instantly recognizable for its opening glissando on the clarinet. This is a very whimsical and upbeat piece.
2. Samuel Osborne Barber, “Adagio For Strings” – another unforgettable composition for me, because it was the backing music for the “Barnes Shoots Elias” scene in the movie Platoon. This piece was written in 1936, and was voted as the “saddest” classical musical composition of all time by a recent BBC survey. That’s not surprising, when you hear it, considering its mournful tempo and melodies. Versions of this composition have been remixed or sampled for tracks by such well-known DJ’s and producers as Sean Combs, Ferry Corsten, the Skip Raiders, Paul Oakenfold, and Tiesto. In fact, it was the strength of Tiesto’s remix of this piece, from his “Parade of Athletes” album, that led to him being asked to perform at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
3. Maurice Ravel, “Bolero” – this 1928 composition by Maurice Ravel actually embarrassed him because of its popularity. It was featured in the popular late 1970’s film “10” (Bo Derek & Dudley Moore), and is most recognizable for its ostinato rhythm on the snare drum throughout. The piece itself is very simple, and is one of the best examples in classical music of a piece that constantly builds throughout the performance. It is basically just two separate melodies, which continue to overlap each other, and more and more instruments get added as the piece progresses, until finally the entire orchestra is playing together at the end. Some people might also recognize this from its inclusion in the theatre production Copacabana.
4. Carl Orff, “Carmina Burana (O Fortuna)” – the Carmina Burana is a manuscript from the 12th or 13th century which is really just a collection of hundreds and hundreds of medieval songs and poems. Carmina Burana means “songs of Burana” in whatever language it was written in (Latin?). In the 1920’s or 1930’s, Carl Orff set 24 of these songs/poems to music, and the most famous of this group was “O Fortuna.” If you’ve seen “The Doors” (the movie), then you’ll easily recognize the “O Fortuna” selection from that soundtrack, when Jim and Patricia (the reporter) were in the library, entering the blood pact.
5. Mozart, “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” – this work, meaning “a little night music,” was written in the late eighteenth century. There are four known movements to this (with the suggestion by Mozart himself that there was also originally a fifth movement), and the first movement is the one that everyone would recognize instantly. The best way that I’d describe this work would be that it is a pretty whimsical or frivilous piece of music. This composition has been featured in a couple movies that I can think of: Alien, and one of the Ace Ventura movies.
6. Johann Pachelbel, “Canon in D” – this 17th century work, often [mistakenly] assumed to be composed by J. S. Bach, is a simple three-part canon based on a repeating two-bar (eight note) bass line. And what’s strange is that I can’t think of any movies that this was in, off the top of my head. I used to love to play it when I was studying classical piano. However, a rock arrangement was made extremely popular by YouTube, in this video by an Asian guitarist.
7. Tchaikovsky, “Nutcracker Suite: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” – the Nutcracker Suite is a ballet. Within the musical score to the ballet, Tchaikovsky wrote a series of waltzes and other works. The “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is probably the most famous of these. The song in the original Nutcracker which introduces the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is called “La Marche,” and that piece was used as the basis for a pop rock single that became a #1 hit in Britain in the 1960’s, although I can’t remember who wrote it. Anyway, that song, “Nut Rocker,” is one of the theme songs for Boston Bruins. Parts of the Nutcracker Suite (including “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” as an opener) were used in the original soundtrack to Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940 version).
8. Rachmaninoff, “Piano Concerto no. 2, opus 18” – Rachmaninoff, a Russian composer of the early 20th century, is famous for four concertos he wrote, and also for the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” I really like his 2nd Concerto, although his third Concerto is notable for being one of the most difficult works to play on piano. I can’t remember ever hearing any of Rachmaninoff’s pieces in any movies.
9. Ludwig van Beethoven, “Mondscheinsonate” – most people would probably know this better by its common English name, the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven’s list of produced works is enormous, such as his nine symphonies, and he is well known for the compositions that he continued to write over the years as he slowly became completely tone deaf. In fact, it is said that when his Ninth Symphony premiered, he did not hear the audience clapping so he started to cry because he thought they didn’t like it, and he did not realize until someone turned him around to face the audience that everybody had loved it. Anyway, the Moonlight Sonata is probably in a ton of films, but I can’t think of any right now.
10. Johann Strauss Jr., “An Der Schonen Blau” – this is something that you might recognize if I told you that the common English name for the piece is the “Blue Danube Waltz.” And if you’ve seen “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you’ll recognize this song. It was also used in a Monty Python skit, where there was an orchestra playing this piece in a football field, and someone kept blowing up members of the orchestra.
ETA April 5/08: I just saw "Hannibal," and the Blue Danube is also in this movie.
Alright, that’s enough about classical music for this evening, but if you have ever had any urge to start learning a bit about classical music, find copies of these ten tracks to get you started, and you won’t go wrong.
Distortion in Windows Media Player
on Thursday, January 24, 2008
Have you ever listened to songs in Windows Media Player and found them to be distorted in places, so the sound quality is terrible? The same files may play perfectly in all other programs - I've had files that worked in WinAmp, RealPlayer, Quicktime, Nero, and a host of other programs with no problems, yet Windows Media Player would not handle them properly.
As it turns out, MicroSoft has a Creative PlayCenter MP3 decoder resident in the operating system which is what causes the problem. Certain versions of Windows Media Player use this decoder, but there are compatibility problems. If you're not using that decoder file for whatever reason, you probably won't run into the distortion problems.
The simplest way to fix the problem, assuming that you're running on a Windows operating system, is to go down to your start menu on the bottom left side of the screen, click on it, then go into "search." You need to search your C: drive (or whatever drive your O/S resides on) and look for a file called "Ctmp3.acm" - if you can find that file, don't delete it, just rename it to "Ctmp3.bak" instead.
If you can't see the file extensions when you're doing searches (the default option on Windows, but one which I detest and disable immediately whenever I set up a new computer), I'll show you how to make your file extensions visible. Go to Windows Explorer, either through your Start menu or by holding down the "flying window" key (left of your left side alt key) and then pressing the letter "E" at the same time. Next, go into the Tools menu, and chose Folder Options in the drop-down Tools menu. In Folder options, click on the "View" tab. The seventh or eight option in that list usually says "hide extensions for known file types" and has a check beside it. Uncheck this, then click OK. Now you'll always be able to see file extensions in Windows Explorer and associated panels. If you're quite computer savvy, you might also want to set the other three options above and below that let you show hidden files, show O/S files, and display the full path name in the Title Bar (although this is only applicable if you're trying to conserve system resources by switching to Classic View, such as for intensive audio or video processing).
Anyway, now you know how to show file extensions, and how to fix the distortion problem on Windows Media Player. This may not be a problem on newer versions of Vista, but it certainly was on certain versions of WMP running on XP.
If you want a different approach to disabling the problem codec, here's another set of instructions:
The Creative Playcenter software rudely blocks the Windows MP3 codec. The following instructions show how to unblock it on Windows XP system. The instructions for other Windows versions are the same except the steps to get to the audio codec area from the control panel varies. Note that this will disable the MP3 capability of the Playcenter software. You can re-enable using the same steps or replace the Playcenter software.
1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Double click on "Sounds & Audio Devices"
3. Select the "Hardware" tab
4. Double-click on "Audio Codecs"
5. Select the "Properties" tab
6. Double-click on ctmp3.acm
7. Select "Do Not Use this Audio Codec"
8. Then click on the "Apply" button
As it turns out, MicroSoft has a Creative PlayCenter MP3 decoder resident in the operating system which is what causes the problem. Certain versions of Windows Media Player use this decoder, but there are compatibility problems. If you're not using that decoder file for whatever reason, you probably won't run into the distortion problems.
The simplest way to fix the problem, assuming that you're running on a Windows operating system, is to go down to your start menu on the bottom left side of the screen, click on it, then go into "search." You need to search your C: drive (or whatever drive your O/S resides on) and look for a file called "Ctmp3.acm" - if you can find that file, don't delete it, just rename it to "Ctmp3.bak" instead.
If you can't see the file extensions when you're doing searches (the default option on Windows, but one which I detest and disable immediately whenever I set up a new computer), I'll show you how to make your file extensions visible. Go to Windows Explorer, either through your Start menu or by holding down the "flying window" key (left of your left side alt key) and then pressing the letter "E" at the same time. Next, go into the Tools menu, and chose Folder Options in the drop-down Tools menu. In Folder options, click on the "View" tab. The seventh or eight option in that list usually says "hide extensions for known file types" and has a check beside it. Uncheck this, then click OK. Now you'll always be able to see file extensions in Windows Explorer and associated panels. If you're quite computer savvy, you might also want to set the other three options above and below that let you show hidden files, show O/S files, and display the full path name in the Title Bar (although this is only applicable if you're trying to conserve system resources by switching to Classic View, such as for intensive audio or video processing).
Anyway, now you know how to show file extensions, and how to fix the distortion problem on Windows Media Player. This may not be a problem on newer versions of Vista, but it certainly was on certain versions of WMP running on XP.
If you want a different approach to disabling the problem codec, here's another set of instructions:
The Creative Playcenter software rudely blocks the Windows MP3 codec. The following instructions show how to unblock it on Windows XP system. The instructions for other Windows versions are the same except the steps to get to the audio codec area from the control panel varies. Note that this will disable the MP3 capability of the Playcenter software. You can re-enable using the same steps or replace the Playcenter software.
1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Double click on "Sounds & Audio Devices"
3. Select the "Hardware" tab
4. Double-click on "Audio Codecs"
5. Select the "Properties" tab
6. Double-click on ctmp3.acm
7. Select "Do Not Use this Audio Codec"
8. Then click on the "Apply" button
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)