bits to pieces

ok, back from j-land and currently dealing with a nasty dose of reality... first of all, thanks to everyone who has contributed to pete's last post. i have found the whole discussion very interesting and worthwhile.

who can find me (i can now)

if you have a look to the right, you'll now notice there is a search function for the blog. our dear friend, yuri, who has more net skills than the 3 of us combined, added the function, so much thanks to her. now you can happily search for all the old ssgs you want.

tokyo adventures pt 2

after don williams really dropped the ball, i was relying on soundstream to set things right. an essential part of any visit to tokyo is a good night out at a club and this was my 2nd, and last, chance before departing. the night started off well as we arrived to a local dj, dasha, warming things up very nicely. hadn't heard of him before, and what i saw i liked. he finished with the new tobias. track, 'clapper', which i am a big fan of. sounded fantastic on a big sound system. so we were starting to get pumped up and in the mood. then the next local dj, salmon, came on. that is a picture of him on the left. and yes, he was wearing that mask when dj'ing. not exactly redshape... unsurprisingly, he was a complete vibe killer and managed to not play one decent track during his whole set. not exactly the perfect lead in to soundstream. but once salmon and his stupid ass mask left the stage, the good-ness began flowing again. soundstream knocked out a very nice 90 minute livepa of, as expected, cut up disco treats. the high level of repetition in his sound gets a bit tiring on the ears after a while, but on the whole it was a really enjoyable set. and finishing up with 'for disco play only' made me very happy. to close out the night was gonno, who i was quite interested in seeing (a) because of his name and (b) donnacha costello did a really nice remix of a track of late last year. and as it turned out, he played a great final set. very appropriate to close out things. so all in all, a fun night out. not happy that i am missing fumiya by a couple of days, though...

ssg mxs

for all the tracklist hungry readers, here are the records that XDB played in mnml ssg mx25:

part 1
1. Jitterbug "Raw Winter ep" Uzuri 006
2. MXM "Disloc8ted Science ep" AmpArt 001
3. Kenny Larkin "Keys Strings & Tambourines" Planet E
4. Re-Composed "Movement8 C2 rmx" Deutsche Grammophon
5. Levon Vincent "Invisible Bitchslap" Deconstruct 001
6. I-Robots "Laws ep Part2" Opilec Music 002
7. Risksoundsystem "Tsiy Kerry Chandler Inst." Kerry 001
8. Sasha Dive "Basic Collective pt.2" Deep Vibes 003
9. Wbeeza "New Skank ep" Third Ear 100
10. Chez Damier "Untitled" KMS 49
11. Pullen/Damier "Forever Monna" Balance 06
11. The Answer "John" Rockin House 08
12. Jitterbug "Raw Winter ep" Uzuri 006
13. Arto Mwambe "Mudhutma" Brontosaurus 004

part 2
14. Soul Capsule "Las Ramblas" Trelik 13
15. Unknown Artist "Music Institute 20th Anniversary 1/3" NDATL
16. Aril Brikha "Art Of Vengance ep" Fragile 13
17. Aril Brikha "Art Of Vengeance ep" Fragile 13
18. Jesper Dahlbäck "The Persuader" Svek 11
19. Sons Of The Dragon "SOTD" SOTD 01/02
20. Robert Hood "Omega" Peacefrog 043
21. Johannes Volk "Internal Structure ep" Lifeworld 02
22. Unknown Artist "Primitive Urges 01" Primitive 01
23. Techno Grooves "Mach 4" Stealth 1191
24. R.A.Presents "Entangled" Deviate 007
25. JS 01 "JS 01" JS 01
26. Convextion "Venus In Spurs" Tektite 10
27. Aftrax "Extended Play" Nova Mute 31
28 .Levon Vincent "Six Figures ep" Novel Sound 02
29. DPLAY "Huub Sand" Running Back 018
30. Plein Soleil "Casus Belli" PlayRJC 02

the mixes have been coming pretty fast lately, so now is a good time to go back and enjoy them all again. i've got the natural/electronic.system one on as i write up this post... the next mix in the series will probably be from ancient methods. this is one we are very excited about. if you haven't heard anything from them yet, i strongly suggest checking their myspace and start joining us in a state of excitement. i have a feeling they will come up with something special. all their releases so far are seriously heavy gear... besides that, we've got some other excellent people lined up, so more good sounds on the way.

'cast crazy

i must admit one trend i have been somewhat sceptical of is the explosion of podcasts this year. there seems to be a new 'cast starting every week. i have been hesitant to say anything about it, because it'll seem like i am just being pissy and defensive. but i get the feeling having a podcast is just increasingly something you should do. what is the point, though, of having a dedicated podcast if what are being contributed are just standard mixes? there are, however, some really good 'casts out there with a specific theme/purpose. i think LWE's talking shopcast is an excellent example in this regard. anyway, this is all a very long way of highlighting 2 new podcast series which have impressed me. first up is the new timecast series from peter van hoesen's time to express. the opening mix is from eavesdropper and it really is a beauty. a very carefully composed hour of quality electronic music. definitely get on it. the other new podcast is care of mutek, and is just ridiculously strong. digging into their archive of live recordings, they've already posted 14 episodes from people like vladislav delay, closer musik and lawrence. while the write-ups are somewhat over the top (the one for lawrence is pretty ridiculous), there is no doubting the quality of the music. i think we are all very lucky the mutek crew are kind enough to share these treats with us.

ok, that's all for now. now that life will be a touch more normal, hoping to be posting more regularly. will make sure to post some new sets sometime soon too...