Logic Tutorial: Resampling Pads Using EXS24

This Weekends Activities

Troupe - 011 @ XOYO, Saturday 12th.


Line Up

Hot Since 82 (Noir)
South London Ordnance (Hotflush)
Ben Pearce (Purp & Soul)
Hannah Wants (Dirty Bird)
Whitesquare (Troupe Records)
SQUA (Troupe Records)
Danny Fry (Troupe Records)
Sharkbait (Troupe)
Late Lunch




Time: 9pm - 3am
Venue: XOYO/ 32-37 Cowper Street; Shoreditch; London EC2A 4AP
Cost: £10

Mooch 4th Birthday @ Basing House, Saturday 12th.

Line Up

Tom Ruijg
Natalie Coleman
Ed Jones




Time: 10pm - 4am
Venue: Basing House/ 25 Kingsland Road; Shoreditch; London E2 8AA
Cost: £5 / £8

Meet the wanderer... Romanthony

House veteran Romanthony talks on camera to Slices about his lean production period following the success of "One More Time" alongside Daft Punk.

Motor City Drum Ensemble On 2013

2012 wasn’t really his year, to say the least. But with an Utrecht-based love nest together with his girl, a few less gigs, frequent visits to the swimming pool and an album on the way, we trust that 2013 will treat Motor City Drum Ensemble a lot better.

How was 2012 for you?


‘I had a hard year... In January I had a big burnout and I couldn’t do shows for almost 6 months. Before that I travelled 4 years straight every weekend and it was getting too much for me. I could sense that something wasn’t right already at the end of 2011, but I couldn’t really put my finger on it. I thought ‘I am young, I can do many shows’. But I reached my limit and when I noticed that, it was already too late. It was an experience I don’t wish on anybody. Because of the burnout I really had to reinvent myself and my whole approach on the job. Some people might be able to do 3 shows a weekend, but I now know I’m not. Everyone is different. But because I don’t do many shows, I’m naturally more excited about the shows that I do!’
 

Was there a specific gig in 2012 that was very memorable for you?


‘The first gig abroad after the burnout was at the SuncéBeat festival in Croatia. I stayed there for five days and had a super nice summer. The beach, the sea, nice people. When I had the burnout I was really doubting if my lifestyle was something that I wanted to continue doing. But when I was there it struck me in the heart as being so beautiful, that I was reassured that this is where I belong.’

Do you make new year’s resolutions?


‘Normally I don’t, but this year I really wanna stick to the swimming plan that I made. I’ve already started, but next year I wanna even increase it and go to the pool at least 3 or 4 times a week. Swim a kilometer a day, clear my head. Then I come back to the studio really refreshed. I also like the sounds at the swimming pool, the typical sounds of that big hall where you have all the little kids screaming. There’s always a funny atmosphere.
And also I want to finish my album. But I don’t want to rush it, because it needs to be super good. There’s a new single out in January, the Send a Prayer EP, with 4 new tracks that probably won’t end up on the album. These tracks are very danceable and good to play out, while the album is gonna be more of an at home thing. To be able to focus on the album I will do less remixes, but for example I did one for Bicep.’
 

I heard you don’t like getting older.

‘I had this discussion with Tom Trago in Paris a few weeks ago. We both agree that we want to turn younger again and not older. The magic 30 is coming very very fast.’



But what’s the problem? You get older you get wiser, right?

‘I had those crazy years when I would just travel and not think too much about stuff but just do it. And now getting wiser, I do things more consciously and I think way more about how I approach my music. Sometimes I wish I wouldn’t think about it so much again, but at the same time it’s good. It’s two sides of a medal. With my music I found that once I start thinking too much about it, it kind of loses the magic. I need to be impulsive with my music and at the same time I need to be very cautious when it come to my lifestyle. That’s the twist here.’


Article Sourced: http://www.trouwamsterdam.nl/en/blog/2012/12/swimming-laps/571/

Dennis Ferrer Speaks on EDM & Djing

We catch up with the New York house icon for a chat about whether the EDM boom means anything to him and why digital DJs need to get a little more creative with their controllers.

Attack: 2012 has been the year when the world suddenly realised how big dance music has become in the US. How does it feel to you to watch the rise of ‘EDM’?

Dennis Ferrer: It’s the same as before, honestly. This rise is cyclical. It happens to always coincide with majors taking an interest in exploiting the scene. Fair play, though, as this is what a record label’s core business is about. Exploitation is the name of the game.

Big money gets thrown around, big name artists from other genres get remixed by ‘popular’ commercial dance music producers who then get bigger, command even bigger DJ fees, need bigger venues, command bigger studio production fees and now all involved need huge returns on anything to do with such producers or artists. Voila! There ya go – a bubble of proportions unlike any other that will explode, leaving the majority in tatters and exiting in droves like a disgusting urinal when the original invested parties are not seeing the gains they want or need.

It’s nothing new, actually. After this it will be business as usual for all of us. Underground dance music at its core will remain as it has always been in one way or some sort of slightly altered form. Same as disco, same as early 90s house, same as early- to mid-90s techno, etc.

“SEEING HOW MUCH MONEY GETS THROWN AROUND EXCITES ME A BIT SOMETIMES.”

I watch… not holding my breath.

How much do you think it impacts on what you do?

I’d like to think it has no effect on me whatsoever but seeing how much money gets thrown around excites me a bit sometimes.

What the hell… to each their own, though. At this point it’s just pop, honestly. Anyone worth their salt will attest and admit to that.  I’m not here to judge, per se, but I’ll definitely say what most of the so-called underground and purists are thinking.

Some of the new fans who’ve discovered dance music through EDM maybe don’t even know the term ‘house music’. Is that a problem or do you think there’ll be a crossover as newcomers discover the roots of this music and the culture behind it? Will that have a positive or negative impact on house?

In all actuality, I can’t really hate on what’s happened. Some people who would never have been exposed to dance music are finding underground artists and it’s refreshing. I know it’s benefited me a bit somewhat. Now, it doesn’t happen in any large percentage that’s measurable, but I suppose we can live with whatever fallout we get. In the end it won’t have as much impact on the underground scene as most think. Again, it’s cyclical. It’s happened before, and here we go again. No need to get too excited.

You’ve been talking on Twitter and Facebook this week about the ongoing debate regarding digital DJing. You’ve been quite outspoken about your belief that laptop DJs who use controllers should do something special with that equipment rather than just hitting sync and mixing in the same way that might be expected of a CD or vinyl DJ. Can you sum up your thoughts on the issue?

Let me clarify. I stated that if all you had was a controller – no CDs, no timecode control CD or vinyl, or just vinyl in general – and all you did was select a track and push sync then you are not DJing!

Sorry… Nope… Don’t even try to argue it.

DJing is synonymous with using a round plate to beatmatch and/or show feats of skill like a turntablist. It is the possibility of train-wrecking a mix that affords you the luxury of that naming convention. This is not my definition, but the one I was brought into and live by.

Now, if you’re doing interesting things like mashing loops together with FX, playing beats on pads or keyboards and in essence doing something to create your own music, then you, my friend, are acontroller-ist and what you have is a pseudo-’live show’. Controller-ists get full props from me.

There are no ifs and buts about it. In the end the only ones bitching about this, of course, are the button pushers claiming to be DJs.

We’ve already seen a small backlash from DJs who remain loyal to vinyl despite advances in CD and laptop DJ technology. Do you think we’ll see another split as people react against controllers and the sync button?

Bottom line – yes.

Did you have similar feelings about CDJs at any point?

No. Because, in the end, there was still a tactile feel to the jog wheel and the anxiety of train-wrecking a mix. I went through that explanation when I went from vinyl to CDs myself. It seems like everyone is afraid of showing up on YouTube train-wrecking. It’s understandable, though, because it possibly could affect your bottom line monetarily. Still, it’s being lazy, and if you’re an entertainer making big money then shame on you.

Is there a danger that we might let the technology overshadow the music?

Not at all. Skill sets are a commodity. I believe if the trend continues then those with the skill set will be able to charge a premium.

“AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, HAVE SOME FUCKING PRIDE, Y'ALL!”

What do you think the most important features of a good DJ set are today? Have your thoughts on what makes a great DJ set changed over the years?

My views have never changed. Track selection and crowd reading are tied for number one. Anything else after that is a bonus.

Do we have our priorities right when it comes to DJs and how they play to a crowd? Is part of the problem that our expectations of DJs have become warped? A lot of people turn up to clubs now expecting the DJ to mix flawlessly, play to the crowd, dance behind the decks and put on a very different kind of show to what people might have expected 20 or even 10 years ago. Is that just a natural progression?

In a way we’ve all been spoiled rotten by technology. I can’t expect it to go backwards, but I’d prefer to see the technological advances in an area where it’s not making the DJ become a manual operator of a laptop jukebox. A monkey cranking the box. I mean, why even bother having someone stand up in the booth in the first place then? What the fuck are we getting paid for? To look cute? As I’ve said before, have some fucking pride, y’all!

Article sourced: http://www.attackmagazine.com/features/interviews/dennis-ferrer/2/

No Vogue - Mixed by At One

No Vogue - Mixed by At One (Track Marked) http://wtrns.fr/Q5_4WPZm15jmso0

Kerri Chandler 44min Video interview

Kerri raps over life, love, music and passion.....

Derrick May Interview after Beatport Live

Ashley Beedle Video Interview

Ashley Beedle is an English producer and DJ, hailing from London Town.

With a career spanning two decades and a discography that speaks of some of dance music's finest moments, Beedle is an underground legend.

Co-producing under several guises, including X-Press 2, Black Science Orchestra and Ballistic Brothers; Ashley is behind some of the finest 'four to the floor' beat music tracks to ever grace the under and overground scenes.

His current 'Run The Track' leviathan follows a string of awe inspiring successes. From the classic Black Science Orchestra album 'Walter's Room', via X-Press 2 chart topper 'Lazy', Beedle has left an indelible mark on UK dance music history.

DJ Qu Talks NY's Golden Era of House Music

The New York house sound and the city's "golden era" of clubbing come up during this 18-minute video discussion between Make Me and Strength Music boss DJ Qu.

Atjazz & Jullian Gomes - Overshadowed Reviewed.

So now you've heard the original.... Take a moment to ask yourself what stood out? An the reason I say this is because....  No two people will hear the same thing, in that sense we all interpret records differently!


First off let me be the one to tell you the tracklist:


Atjazz & Jullian Gomes - Overshadowed (ARC - 38)


1.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes 
2.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes  (Atjazz Galaxy Aart Dub)
3.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes  (Jullian Gomes Perspective)


PURCHASE HERE


Yes that's right..... I can assure you that you will be receiving one of the best vinyls I have heard in a while (No Bullshit) this is a hot joint. It's hard to review tracks for me as I see sound and that effects in turn how I feel and interpret a record but here goes anyway. Usually with records I would see landscapes, different forms of impacts, various colours and or stories. Yeah you guessed it, with this record I see a short story. (It's possibly best to have the original track on in the background as you read this first review)


Track by track, whats the crack?


1.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes


First point to make is the kick drum just screams at you with a ferocious force that will drive deep in the heart of any clubs sound system, I would liken it visually to the moment when chubby rain impacts on a puddle. Immediately as the kick is thrust in you are hearing these haunting yet melodic keys, which has all the eeriness of your average haunted house but makes you feel more mellow than a 1970's hippy. 


So now picture this groove building with some well mixed tape noise in the background and now you have the point in the visual story in-which the young girl is looking out the window, as the rain beats down on the windowsill she puts her hand to the window and a single tear falls down her face. (At this point your unsure whether this is a review, a badly written script or if im crazy...... Answer is probably the later)


Moving on.... You remember you have the constant chant of the clav, driving the groove and a minute in the track breaks into a deep dark and dubby groove that has a consuming presence, which is quickly followed up by a deep driving bassline that makes the hairs on your neck raise, so close your eyes and we can really do some work on the dancefloor here!!!! You have the claps and snares flowing throughout the mix with the enchanting keys building and building. At this point you notice that the girl at the window has seen a ghostly figure motioning up the garden path toward her, the tension is building and the arrival of this ghost is imminent. Then you realise the girl at the window is not scared or sad, it's someone special coming home and the hi-hats are motioning waves of excitement and the changing hi-hats are expressing beaconing the need to hurry inside as they build. All the while the haunting chants are just echoes of memories this girl has of that special someone, it all becomes clear. (At One has lost the plot!)


As the track brakes for an aptly timed interval the door to the house is blown open by the wind and the girl turns from the windowsill to face her door slightly ajar. Everything calms slowly as the anticipation for the impending crescendo of sound and that special some one to re-enter as the girl peers toward the door. At this point the crescendo comes and the track comes back in just as it stopped, not what you expected right? Neither did the girl, the chants an dubby beats continue to drive you through. The girl smiles, just as i suspect you will and she embraces the thought that....... The special someone was never going to come through the door or inside, it was just to let her know she was being watched over, cared for, loved still from a distance. Overshadowed......


Quick note: I just wrote this with the track on a loop, the story ends abruptly for me but how will you perceive the track? How will you hear it? What will you hear? How will you feel? (this was wednesday night 11pm, after having missed the apprentice). I know one thing though...... Tomorrow I will probably see something totally diferent...




For the next two tracks, there will be no story thats the joy in buying the record.....


2.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes  (Atjazz Galaxy Aart Dub) 


This is typical Atjazz fuckeries, he takes a track and puts into a completely different zone!! With a dope deep soulful house work out of dubby beats, percussion and a serious musical journey. Opening up with a notable almost reverse melody and progressing with some dope additions to the track musically including the faintest guitar or maybe even harp riff in the background. Now you know when Atjazz does Astro remixes he means business.... yeah well, a Galaxy remix tells the Astro where to go..... please believe. 


Even down to the reverse chimes everything is where it should be, the vocal samples are executed to perfection, the layers of keys upon keys are worked well and the end product is a force to be reckoned with. All in all a dope work out and fitting dedication. 


3.) Overshadowed - Atjazz & Jullian Gomes  (Jullian Gomes Perspective)


Yeah yeah Mr Gomes, we know you got the juice. This 'perspective' is a straight four to the floor killer, deep, moody, dub groove. You have this almost minimal version of the track with a deep dark bassline driving the whole way through, with crazy background noises, synths and fx being positioned in & along the way, as well as the original key riff. Until you come the break when we almost fade to black and this deep dark chugging bassline comes right back in with the drums, hitting you with nothing but solid building grooves as the track builds back into the motion. For me this track really kicks at this break and does a wonderful job of making you screw up your face! With samples and sounds being positioned to perfection to kill you with ambience.  Mr. Gomes definitely brings that late night heat.


For me this package is a solid (9/10) and just all round niceness.....


For all you vinyl junkies Overshadowed will be out on 22nd May, no digital option is available as yet.


PURCHASE HERE

A Trip Around Acid House in 1988.....

1988 documentary about the emergence of the acid house scene in the UK.


World In Action - A Trip Around Acid House from Racket Racket on Vimeo.

DJ Spinna – Video Interview with Dubspot

Spinna talks DJing, Hip Hop, Electronic Dance Music + more......

Derrick Carter Talks Lifestyle...

Derrick Carter and Herman

After the UK's Second Summer of Love in 1988 and '89 gave house music a firm foothold across the Atlantic, Derrick Carter was part of the first wave of Chicago DJs and producers to invade Europe, in the process permanently altering its pop-music landscape. A couple of decades later, songs built on a house-music framework have started to dominate the pop charts in America too—it wouldn't be hard to draw a straight line connecting Carter to radio juggernauts like Will.i.am and David Guetta.

That's not to say most people would even recognize him. At the Wicker Park bar and grill where he suggested we meet—a surprisingly jocky place for a house-music legend to hang out—our server either didn't know who he was or kept it to herself. She seemed mostly worried about his food—he was so busy talking that he never touched the chili he'd ordered, and she must have asked us six or seven times if everything was all right.

Carter prefers this relative anonymity—he'd rather be an influence behind the scenes than have his face on magazine covers. "You know what," he says, "I have such a comfortable existence that is built on not having a crossover. I like to live a normal life. I mean, OK, there's like this crazy—I've done Australia and New Zealand. I'm about to go to Istanbul on Friday, I was in Belfast on Saturday, I got back from London yesterday. So there is this fantastic element. But it's really much more commonplace than it sounds. It's work. And I come back, and I got to pick up dog shit, and I got to go to the grocery store because we're running out of food, and there's company coming tomorrow so I have to do some dusting."

Globe-trotting superstar DJs are often able to fit the self-regard of an entire arena-rock band into one person, but Carter's default mode seems to be nonchalance. He describes his late-80s collaborations with Mark Farina, which more or less launched the entire genre of ambient techno, as "basically just some suburban kids that fooled around in a studio and came up with some stuff."

That mellowness doesn't carry over to the music he spins, though. Carter recently released Fabric 56, a mix in the highly regarded series curated by forward-looking London club Fabric since 2001, and it's full of massive songs built on the kind of polyrhythmic beats he's known for—funkier and less bare-bones than the beats in old-school first-generation house, they fill up large swaths of the audio spectrum, and they're frequently accompanied by exhortations to get lewd on the dance floor. He's been DJing since the late 70s, when as a grade-school kid he took over the decks at a family reunion, and the black music of that decade left its mark on his aesthetic. "I liked funk. I liked disco, but I liked funk," he says. "I like big slap basses. Like bow! Bar-Kays, and like James Brown, and who else was big? Parliament. I liked groovy stuff. Anything that just settles right into the pocket and just rides the pocket." From there, he explains, it was a "natural evolution" for him to get into house.

Carter is a deft mixer and can build and release the energy in a room so subtly his touch is almost subliminal, but other than that there's nothing understated about his sets. This is an essential part of his practical-minded philosophy of DJing.

"Maybe there's a bit of an art form," he says. "I mean, it should be respected and it should be presented in a certain way. But I also feel like it's not . . . fuckin' we aren't DJing at the Louvre. It's music at a club—people are getting drunk, trying to get a little ass. There's a part of me that knows that the reason that people are here, the reason they've paid to hear me, is that they want to have a good time. Not to stand around and debate the finer points of the hi-hats or how the interplay between the bass and the kick kind of creates a third bass line, you know? I can do that too, but I just don't have the energy. I'm busy. I got shit to do. I gotta make this party happen."

Carter's Fabric mix doesn't contain much you could use to pin it to 2011, at least by ear—the styles that have occupied the sets of young, cutting-edge DJs in recent years, like dubstep, electro cumbia, and UK funky, are all absent. With its tracks from old-school artists like DJ Sneak, Roger Sanchez, and Cajmere (represented by his unkillable 1992 "Percolator"), it sounds like something straight out of the 90s. Carter explains the consistency of his style over the years by invoking his aversion to hype.

"I get sent so much shit," he says. "I get this shit with these taglines like, 'Get ready for Ibiza 2011 with this new house track that comes through with catchy vocals and a hot bass groove,' and it's just like so much hype and it's just like, get off me. Leave me alone. It stinks already."

At this point in his career, it'd be fair to call Carter a die-hard traditionalist, but if you talk to him about the mainstreaming of DJ culture over the past few years, he comes off less like an old crank and more like a bemused veteran. "They sell DJ equipment at fucking Best Buy!" he says, and laughs. "I had gone to get a flash drive, because the new Pioneers [CD DJ decks], you can put something on a flash drive and pop it in the B slot and play off those. So I found myself looking at DJ mix controllers and the pitch-controlled CDJs that they had there. And I was like, Hmm, that's not bad. But then I was like: What the hell am I doing?"

On the topic of the Guettas and Will.i.ams of the world incorporating house music into platinum-selling pop, Carter is agnostic. "It's kind of whatever, it's cool," he says. "I don't care. I'm not pro or con about it, because it doesn't really matter how I feel. I'm not gonna get up in arms about something that doesn't affect me. I'm not getting on the radio, and they're not coming to Fabric. So it's fine."

He also says he rarely thinks about issues like that unless journalists ask him to. "I never have the time to sit and think about, like, dissecting things. I don't have that particular bent. I just have a gut‚ and I feel it and it's fine. I don't start to question things. I'll just roll with it, and if it starts to seem a little off and I don't have my mood right, maybe I'll check it in the mirror."

I ask if he thinks his ability to stay true to his instincts has helped him keep his career going for so long.

"Well, you know, I've had this conversation with my therapist, who I recently started seeing because I'm getting old and I'm trying to make some sense of this shit before I get out of here," he says. "And what I feel is that some people are made for what they do. I just feel for me, the core of who I am suits this music thing. I've been doing it for 20 years. I still fly off every weekend and pop back on Monday. Maybe a little bright-eyed—tail's a little bushier than before. And I talked to my therapist and she said, you know what, this just suits you, it fits who you are, and that's OK. So I was like, all right."