Getting digitized?

As I’ve clearly stated in the past: I’m a vinyl junkie. An analogue dinosaur. In the field of dance music we have often been the very first genre to embrace new technology. Indeed, more than any other musical variety, dance music and audio technology are intertwined. I have watched all this change and although it interests me a lot, when it comes to performance I am an absolute Luddite. Turning up at clubs to watch my dancefloor heroes play on CD decks makes me want to send the sparkling lights and fancy buttons hurling to the ground. Like a nineteenth century cotton mill, the pioneer CDJs 1000, lying in bits would bring a smile of satisfaction to my face. I’m told they’re sexy. I just feel that CD DJing is cheating – not so much the technology aspect, as in principal it is the same technique as vinyl DJing, but that the audience is cheated. I watch with horror as my favourite record shops close down as everyone turns to the cheaper alternative… Anyway – I have stuck to my guns regarding CDs and remain a vinylist.

However, it’s not just CDs that have changed the face of DJing. One of my favourite DJs is Sasha. I remember reading several years ago how he was embracing Ableton for production. I remember picking up a (vinyl) copy of Involver in 2004 and being blown away by the ‘new’ sound. The thick bass, the really electronic feel, floor-friendly loops, perfectly cut vocals… It is an ambition to produce music and I’ve always liked the sound of Ableton. I dabbled with Cubase a few years ago but Ableton seems to be the software daddy. Shock horror – I realised that Ableton could be used for DJing. I was at a gig at the Q bar, Cardiff, and the DJ had a laptop and a complex looking MIDI controller. He was playing an Ableton Live DJ set… I trainspotted for a bit, to check how it all works… DJs are anoraks at heart and get a high watching others at work. It is the quickest way to improve your style, by studying others in action. I started to interrupt the guy by bombarding him with questions. It all looked posh and he seemed a bit snobbish, with all his fancy equipment… He was very vague and seemed to be avoiding my answers. I didn’t appear to be spending much time at all cueing… OK – fair enough… Some DJs don’t need to cue much. I’ve seen Norman Jay cue a record, when someone dropped a glass from the balcony onto the decks at Ministry of Sound, in literally under 2 seconds, without a glitch in the music. Jeff Mills is notorious for spinning about 5 records every minute throughout the duration of a DJ set, bunging the vinyl over his shoulder as he slams in dub plate after dub plate of the most experimental techno. Thing is – as I soon learnt. You DON’T beat match with Ableton. It is all automatic. How can this be DJing? I felt properly cheated. It’s like losing your lifesavings in Las Vegas then realising you have been playing with a marked deck.

It put me off Ableton. I’m a DJ, not a jukebox. However, I continued reading and reading about the program and it seems that virtually all of my production heroes are ranting religiously about its power. I knew that at some stage I would be on board. I’d have to be, if I want to actually make some decent tunes, realise the dream…

I picked up a book and got studying. Ableton 6 landed on my lap and I churned out a couple of tunes. Very basic, very nasty really, but an attempt nonetheless. It is a powerful program, for sure, it just gets very confusing. I let it fester on my PC for a while and decided to wait for a bit of inspiration. The social side of DJing is important. Swapping label notes in a grotty record shop, booth banter, interacting with off-their-face clubbers. I think that the growth of social networks has helped the whole dancefloor community. I have a DJ category for friends on facebook and there are over 200 people in there. I was a self-taught vinyl DJ but always absorbed advice from my peers which proved fundamental. I decided to invest in a bit of MIDI equipment for potential use with Ableton and through a mutual friend, managed to find the local Ableton guru. I needed to get sweaty in the studio with someone, and get shown how it all operates. A few tips wouldn’t go amiss. As boring as DJing may appear to non-musos, it really is an exciting subject and digesting books and technical manuals just isn’t the done thing.

So, I loaded up on tinnies and made my way out to visit Dave Wired, techno legend extraordinaire. When I was a teenager, I used to get off my box at the Muts Nuts @ The White Lion, Chepstow, where Dave usually hammered out the last set of Techno every Saturday night. The White Lion music agenda was very underground and for a sleepy Welsh village to host one of the cutting edge forums for Goa trance, minimal techno and esoteric electronic, was quite a blessing. Dave’s style influenced me in the first place so it was important that he would be my teacher.

DJ Wired’s style can be described, if I had to tag it, as ‘nosebleed techno’ which is pretty far removed from my 130 bpm progressive house or ‘handbag’ as my mates in the pub refer to it. 180bpm beats; four top the floor with some occasional breaks. It is fast stuff and not for the feint-hearted. I don’t play this music, or indeed listen to it much, but I do appreciate it. Dave stopped DJing two years ago. Hung up the headphones. He gigs all over the world – from Europe to South America. It’s all a LIVE Ableton set these days. Not DJing, but playing his own productions. Live manipulation of his own tracks in a set that smashes hell out of global festival audiences in the tens of thousands. To hear him talk, as a sceptic of the digital revolution, I was initially unimpressed. I still cannot get my head around the idea of a DJ not using vinyl. After a few beers, we headed into the studio. This is where I truly began to realise the power of Ableton. As I said, I’ve had a dabble. But – Dave loaded up a live set which was MASSIVE. He started it rolling and I was entranced as I witnessed what could only be described as a high voltage electric storm on his laptop screen. Beats, bass and the odd vocal, all dynamically shifting. It’s hard to keep track with your eyes what’s happening. The bass bins do the talking though. The music comes slamming out and sounds shit hot. Everything is done on the fly. You prepare each individual sound in the studio, load up a host of audio clips and mash them all up. Mixing, although everything is beat synched, takes on a whole new phenomenon. You can start the next track my clipping out, say, for example the hi-hats of the track playing, add in the hats from the next track, and start looping some vocal from your sample library. Ableton has a massive host of plugins and effects which makes the most expensive Allen&Heath mixer look primitive. Autopan the kicks of one track mirroring the one you’re mixing in, flange up the mids and whack in a few breaks to liven it up. Glitch a few beats, reverse them on the fly and some of the most amazingly complex mixes can be made. To be fair – there is no time for cueing up beats. As a DJ I often cite myself as an original artist for blending two tracks together, ‘in the mix’ to create something new. Very often though, I hardly even change the EQs. Seeming tracks together in an Ableton becomes a whole new mixing experience. It provides an endless challenge and the possibilities are infinite.

I am happy in a way as I try to learn this new technology. It will consume my entire life. I can see why Ableton can be classified as a religion and I am still a new convert. The sacrament may be sample editors and MIDI manuals but I think that the future of dance music really does lie with Ableton. I won’t be hanging up my headphones just yet, but the appeal of becoming a producer means that the digital lure is starting to bite. In a world of hypocrites I am just following nature’s path. If you are interested in electronic music then Ableton is the new drug of choice.

Wez G - Angels & Demons

Wez G - Angels & Demons

http://wezg.podomatic.com/entry/2009-05-28T06_38_36-07_00

http://www.mediafire.com/?dqtnmy4znz2

This mix spans from laidback tribal grooves through to slamming Laurent Garnier techno. It starts off with a hot off the press forthcoming single from Shuffle Music's very own Tricia Lee Kelshall in her awesome collaberation with up and coming producer, Adam Sheridan. Thanks to Enzo at http://www.plastic-music.co.uk for the Italian promos, part of the Plastic Fantastic Label Management project. Check out the revamped Wez G website at http://www.wezg.org.uk

1. Adam Sheridan feat. Tricia Lee Kelshall - State of Calm (Chillout Mix) [White]

2. Presslaboys - Angel (Neverdogs & Davide Ruberto Mix) [Presslab Records]

3. Sergio Fernandez - Sarkis (Saeed Younan Remix) [Baroque]

4. Crystal Waters vs Alex Celler - Under Gypsy Woman (Sebastian Leger remix) [White]

5. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls (Jon Disco Reversion) [Domino Recording co]

6. Dirty Knight - Black Spot on the Sun [White]

7. Djuma Soundsystem - Bipolar (Original Mix) [Rebirth Records]

8. Cristiano Vinci & Massimo Licari - Vision (Superjuno Mix) [Presslab Electro]

9. Dean Coleman - I Want You (Sultan & Ned Shepard Mix) [White]

10. Daft Funk - Around The World [White]

11. Glenn Morrison - Orange Glow EP (Charlie May Remix) [Therapy Music]

12. Worst Case Scenario - Hot Beef [Rekids]

13. Laurent Garnier - Gnanmankoudji (Horny Monster Mix) [PIAS Recordings]

Punta Del Este

Ibiza has for long been engrained on the roadmap for travelling clubbers across the globe. In Privelege it has the largest nightclub on the planet. All the top DJs fare their way on the White Isle every summer and the closing parties have become part of nightlife’s folklore. Goa, on the west coast of India, experienced a massive rise in club tourism during the nineties. Its full moon beach parties with flowing melodic trance earned it the accolade of those slightly more adventurous beatniks. There is a war among the travelling clubber cognoscenti to find the best place on the globe for their holiday partying. Oneupmanship is a a reality… In the chillout room of Ministry of Sound or Spundae, nothing sounds better than casually dropping into the conversation about how you ‘discovered’ the latest craze in the dance music world. In this article I aim to explore one of the more exciting emerging resorts in the world which isn’t particularly familiar to European or North American clubbers. Punta Del Este is ‘the St Tropez of South America.’

On the southern tip of Uruguay this small town of about 10000 inhabitants, has long been the destination of wealthy South American playboys. Whether you are an Argentinian cattle rancher or a Colombian drug baron, the chances are your summer hols involve a nice trip to the Punta Del Este. During the southern hemisphere summer months, from December through to February, the population of this ‘village’ swells to a million holidaymakers…

The population is mainly European in heritage which gives this coast an Ibizan feel. About ninety percent of people proudly trace their European ancestry, mainly to Italy and Spain. However, unlike other resort towns on the continent which cater to predominantly Europeans and North Americans, Punta del Este maintains its Latin American character. Yachts dot the harbour and glitzy bars and restaurants compliment the luxury hotels. The comfortable surroundings all pave the way for the most hedonistic nightlife in the Western hemisphere.

British superclub Cream started doing events in the Punta Del Este a few years ago. Indeed, when their main club in Liverpool closed its doors, Cream still continued in Uruguay, drawing in the crème de la crème of international DJs. It is a regular tour spot and a lot of DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto, enjoy catching some winter sun while laying down the party beats in some truly fabulous nightclubs…

Maybe, Uruguay, doesn’t automatically feature highly on your to-do list of holiday vacations. Outside of their archaic multiple world cup winning football teams, Uruguayans remain very much an unknown quantity in the eyes of much of the world. Don’t let that dissuade you though. Surely a destination that you don’t read about in the red-top gutter press must have an appeal. Drunken yobbish behaviour symbolises much of Ibiza, Goa is subject to corrupt law enforcement and is full of tales of traveller woe. Try something different. Cheap Spanish carriers can take you across the Atlantic for about a few hundred pounds. Exotic and stylish, with quality music. Punta del Este is the clubbing destination for the distinguished aficionado.

Swine Flesh

Wez G - Swine Flesh - DJ Mix Download

http://wezg.podomatic.com/entry/2009-05-07T13_03_27-07_00
http://www.mediafire.com/?eitneamdtzh

Ooh dear... We're all going to die from Pig Flu... While we wait for the disease to engulf the planet, you can get prepared by listening to the Wez G podcast. House music is like a disease and this dirty, dark, melodic, progressive number will have you rolling around in your sty's muck... Some old classics thrown in to meet some upfront cutting edge vinyl slices. Corking, Porking House Music, to make your ears bleed...

1. Perfecto Allstarz - Reach Up [Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag] (Indian Summer Remix) [Perfecto]
2. Apparat - Arcadia (Sasha Invol2ver Mix) [White]
3. Charlie May - Demons Among Us [5ThirtyWest]
4. Undisputed Truth - Let the Drums Speak (Ground Earth Mix) [Plastica]
5. Bedrock - Beautiful Strange (John Digweed & Nick Muir's Even Stranger Remix) [Bedrock Records]
6. Sunscreem - Love You More (Band of Gypsies) [S12]
7. Deadmau5 - Cat on a Leash [Mau5trap]
8. The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die (Stereo Mono Remix) [White]
9. Da Hool - Meet Her at the Love Parade (Nalin & Kane Mix) [Manifesto]
10. Kraftwerk - Tour De France (2009 Kraft mix) [White]
11. André Sobota - Self Constructive (Original) [Spectrum]
12. Lexicon Avenue - Psycho Killer [White]
13. Rone - Flesh (Sasha Invol2ver Mix) [White]

Is the DJ an artist?

DJing is a relatively new phenomenon. Sure, DJs have existed on the radio for some time, playing song selections on the radio, or providing the soundtrack to weddings and fortieth birthday parties. However, mixing as an art form emerged in the late seventies, early eighties, when DJs such as Frankie Knuckles in America, started doing live edits to underground disco music, seaming tracks together to enhance the flow of the music and boost their party-hard audiences. This was initially done using tape machines. A pair of scissors and some cellotape and your wannabee jock could splice together songs. It was a rudimentary art form but it worked. Modern DJing was born out of this tape splicing when someone realised that the highend Technics 1200 turntable which had been around since the early seventies, had a pitch control unit which enabled DJs to manipulate songs further, and begin to actually beat match and mix them together. DJing was alive and disco and early house music provided the new soundtrack of a generation. Hip Hop jumped quickly on board and the workability of the Technics turntable meant a whole new form of skilled DJs cutting and scratching tracks. Bodypopping and breakdancing was all to the beat of the Technics turntable. I need not continue with the evolution of dance music. Suffice it to say, it has run hand in hand with innovation and technology.

DJing became a career option. The problem is, as is very often the case with emerging sciences, how do you categorise a DJ? Are they musicians, artists, skilled, unskilled? Are they on the same level of employment in a nightclub as a barman or cloakroom attendant? Surely they are not creative as they just use other people’s artistic skills… Are they artists in their own right? Is a DJ on a par with a violinist or a concert pianist?

When you are in the company of musicians and mention that you are a DJ, scorn is usually poured upon you. You aren’t fit to lace their boots – they are skilled, you are just an operator…. I beg to differ. DJs may use other people’s music for their art (though self-produced DJ tracks are becoming more common during a mixset). Using other people’s creative material is not a new phenomenon in the field of music. Take for example a concert pianist or violinist. Surely they often play symphonies by Beethoven or Mozart compositions. They didn’t necessarily create the material. They add part of their own character to a rendition of an already written piece of music, but they are not being completely original. A DJ may play a record but by manipulating the pitch, by choosing when to cut it with another record, the DJ changes the song and adds part of his personality to the show. It takes skill to pluck a Cello’s strings, or stick to a complex rhythm pattern on a set of drums, but DJing has its own set of skills. Scratching, beat matching, cutting and chopping, pitch blending all form part of a successful DJ’s repertoire. To me the most skilful part of being a DJ isn’t the ’manual skills’ as I refer to them but the ‘mental skills’. A good DJ is not averse to a bit of brainwork and to me set programming is fundamental. A skilled DJ programs his set, his tune selection, with the utmost precision. Each track should follow musically into the next, the music program should be interesting, challenging, entertaining, seamless. It should take the listener on an auditory journey. The difference between a good and bad DJ set very often lies in the set programming. The set of technical skills varies very little between performance DJs. The wheat is separated from the chaff by the occult skills of planning and sequencing tracks.

Consider another form of art. Photography is a relatively new phenomenon in the field of visual art. It involves a new technology. However, photographers are similar to painters. It involves a different set of technical skills to use a camera successfully. But in using his tools a photographer chooses a maybe otherwise dull scene to shoot, capturing the art he sees in that image in the camera lense. He presents the image in a way to portray his feelings, his emotions, his perception of the world. Nowadays, photography is widely accepted as a professional art form and indeed a prosperous career.

I think that DJing is certainly more acceptable these days. Musicians recognise the need for good DJ talent to perhaps compliment their work. DJs such as Paul Oakenfold were touring with U2 and the Happy Mondays back in the early Nineties. We are seeing today independent DJ artists like Mark Ronson or Sasha emerge in their own right as pop stars / music performers.
DJing is the photography of the music world. It is an art form. Often misunderstood it is part of a DJ’s role to define what it is to be a DJ, to be an artist, to be a musician. We should revel in our new science. Our artistic legacy inspires tomorrow’s musicians. New technologies make DJing one of the most evolving forms of music. It has never been a more exciting time to be a DJ. We are tomorrow’s musical artists.

Wez G - Beautiful Stranger

Wez G - Beautiful Stranger

http://wezg.podomatic.com/entry/2009-04-30T02_53_53-07_00
http://www.mediafire.com/?iimjmyr1m4g

Beautiful Stranger is about that random woman you cross paths with in the street. The casual glance, the seductive smile, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dull day. Soundtrack to your mystery encounter, 'Beautiful stranger' is melodic, progressive, has some lovely vocals, and finishes with some far out, imaginative guitars and chillout. The tempo of that glare, the heat of the moment, the passion of the parting... Float away into a fantasy of house music...

1. Kasper Bjørk - Doesn't Matter (The Juan Maclean remix) [Plant Music]
2. Cabin Fever Trax - Acid Party [White]
3. The Chameleon Project - Feel [Guerilla]
4. Bedrock - Forge (Tom Middleton Remix) [Bedrock Records]
5. Calvin Harris - I'm not Alone (Herves's See You at the Festivals Remix) [Fly Eye Records]
6. Infusion - Dog Town (D-Nox & Beckers Remix) [White]
7. Deadmau5 - Brazil (2nd Edit) [Mau5trap]
8. Nootropic - I See Only You (New Nootropic mix) [Hi-Life]
9. Cabin Fever Trax - Beyond Contact [White]
10. Spooky - Candy (Original Version) [Notting Hill Music]
11. Andain - Beautiful things (Gabriel & Dresden Unplugged Mix) [Magik Muzik]
12. Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle [Blonde Music]

Radio Rebelde

In February 1958, Che Guevara, a leading revolutionary in Cuba, set up Radio Rebelde, to help the cause of the July 26th movement. Led by Fidel Castro, this movement had been encamped in the hills of east Cuba, the Sierra Maestra, fighting a guerrilla war against the Cuban army forces of General Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban Dictator. This war had been waged since December 1956.

A small band of exiled Cubans had returned to the island under the leadership of Fidel Castro. They sailed from Mexico aboard the Granma. A young Argentinian doctor called Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, formed an integral part of this movement. ‘Che’ would eventually lead his own column in the march out of the Sierra Maestra to the Llano in the final offensive on government forces to seize control of the Cuban cities. In the new Cuban Revolutionary Government, Che would have leading roles. His literate mind and eloquence would make him the most famous revolutionary in the world. In his later job for the Cuban government he would address the United Nations as well as form a key member of the Communist ruling elite. He was to hold the position of Minister of Agriculture and he would also be the key Cuban contact in their relations with the Soviet Union, participating in particular heavily during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

This ‘face of the revolution’ was an idealistic thinker. He was an intellectual. A thinking man’s fighter. Che had been inspired to join the July 26th movement as a result of his motorcycle travels through Latin America where he witnessed the social struggle of the poor and felt directly the effects of US imperialism. In Guatemala, Che witnessed the CIA overthrow of the régime of Jacobo Arbenz. Che had realised the importance of the CIA’s clandestine radio operation in Guatemala. They had set up a station, La Voz de la Liberación, which broadcast propaganda. In Cuba, Batista had been utilising propaganda, manipulating the course of the war, falsely reporting casualties of the Rebels, and lying to the people in general. Censorship had been introduced and correct information was difficult to determine. Several journalists had visited the Rebel bases in the Sierra Maestra but this would not suffice for the anticipated revolution. At Che’s command post, Pata de la Mesa, some radio equipment arrived and the first broadcasts of Radio Rebelde were transmitted.

Radio Rebelde was run on a short wave transmission. Its content consisted of latest combat news, music and spoken literature. It broadcast nightly and began with the Cuban national anthem and the 26th of July hymn. The station had a slogan "¡Aquí Radio Rebelde!" “(Here Radio Rebelde!”).There were a few teething problems and initially the broadcasts were not very powerful. However, the persistence of the idea meant that by the time of Batista’s fleeing of the country on January 1st 1959, which signified the end of the revolution, Radio Rebelde had achieved stability and had been having an impact. Capt. Luis Orlando Rodríguez was in charge of the intial broadcasts before a specialist, Carlos Franqui , arrived from Miami, United States, to become the movement's overall director of information.

On New Years Eve 1958 and on the morning of the first day of the New Year, Fidel Castro broadcast across Radio Rebelde, rejecting any prospect of the military staging a coup to oust Batista. He reported that Che’s forces had taken Santa Clara and called on the rebel forces to push onto Havana and Santiago. He called for a further general strike. The last words of revolutionary Radio Rebelde were "¡Revolución Sí, Golpe Militar No!" (Revolution Yes, Military coup No!). Hours later the government forces unconditionally surrendered and the revolution had, against all odds, succeeded.

The concept of realtime propaganda has changed the face of war and became an essential tool of modern warfare. Propaganda has always been an important factor, but without Radio Rebelde, the struggle of the July 26th movement would undoubtedly have been protracted.

Radio Rebelde is still running in Cuba today, broadcasting on FM to 98% of the island. Perhaps in this day and age, they would be using an internet broadcast. As yet, at Krykey, we are unaware of a revolutionary radio station on our network. But who knows about the future? Perhaps a twenty-first century Che will seize advantage of the broadcasting potential of internet radio, and reach out to the people to overthrow tyranny and evil?…

Oppressive governments of the world: BEWARE!