R.A.M. III: Hello, Fluorescent World

DJ Scallywag- Hello, Fluorescent World



1.Braun & The Mob- da pluster up (aller a...ist schwer)
2.Jamie Lidell-When I Come Back Around
3.James Figurine-Ruining The Sundays
4.Cut Copy-Future
5.Casco-Cybernetic Love
6.Console-14 Zero Zero
7.Modeselektor-Silikon (Serious Mo Rmx)
8.Morgan Geist-Most of All
9.Alex Smoke-Never Want To See You Again
10.Dntel-This Is The Dream Of Evan & Chan (Superpitcher Remix)
11.Minotaur Shock-Mistaken Tourist
12.Hot Chip-The Warning
13.Burnto Bertolucci-Bake Me Dome Tonight
14.Modeselektor-Vote Or Die
15.Tricky Disco-Tricky Disco (Plone Remix)
16.Ulrich Schnauss-In All The Wrong Places
17.machinedrum- offs (cassis wings remix by Secede)
18.Johannes Heil-Last
19.I Am The Robot And Proud-Osaka (Girls Are Short)
20.Computer Rockers-Green Screen (DMX Krew Remix)
21.Solid Groove & Sinden-Overbooked
22.Spac Hand Luke-Psycho
23.Daedelus-Samba Legrand
24.Cut Copy-Time Stands Still
25.machinedrum-cherokee lectro mix by Acid Wolf
26.Copy-Like a Turtle
27.Mobius Band-The Loving Sounds Of Static (Junior Boys Remix)



Hello, internet.

So if you don't read the words gathered in this here scramblepatch, then do yourself a favor and skip this. I'm just trying to talk my way out of an imaginary corner that I may or may not have painted my way into...however I made a mix that sounds nice and/or good. You should check that out.

If you do read this then, well, I hope you weren't too confused by that last one. I was in a bit of a tizzy when I wrote it and threw in some of that patented mobius logic for shits and gigs. Who knows what I've been aiming for by doing that. But honestly, without sarcasm or spin or unsubstantiated weirdness, these are the details on my current situation.

1. I'm moving to New York tomorrow. This has been in the works for some time and the best reason I can come up with is "because it's something that I need to do." I know, right? But I'm actually dead serious about that being the case...logistics be damned. So yeah, this is probably the ballsiest thing I have done in my young life. Or maybe the most retarded. Or possibly even the best? We shall see...

2. I'm most likely going on a substantial blog hiatus because I will be needing to get my shit together on the non-internet front. I will try and be semi-good about the Scumcasts though, if time allows.

3. I'm not gonna finish R.A.M II. In case you remember me mentioning it, it's this mix that I've been futzing with on and off for a long ass time...like at least a year and a half. I've already built it up to near completion only to dismantle it and start from scratch...twice.

But just in case you were wondering, it was called Intravenous Digitalis and it involved a lot of caustic idm-style music interspersed with snippets about human progress, technological integration/paranoia, and ideas about the universe. Like, stuff about viewing life as a self-preserving program with a seemingly inescapable trajectory towards combining and complicating...or some things regarding the idea of purpose as it relates to the aggregate of data we accumulate as a species, and then pondering how that knowledge is being assimilated and interpreted in the collective sub-quantum repositories on which our reality is erected...and of course, plenty of things revolving around our inability to deny the selfish animalism embedded in our survival coding, and how that fact, combined with our current means to manipulate the natural world on a global scale, seems to inevitably put us on a crash course towards one dismal ass future...

::cough:: so yeah, fun stuff like that. You can probably see why trying to tackle something like this could make me get exponentially weirder, huh? But I finally (FINALLY!) realized that not only is all this head-churning, asymptote-overload bizz way too much for just a "mixtape"... it's also waaaay too much for me to really try and effectively communicate at this point in my life. Maybe one day when I am more established, and technically adept, I will be able to do justice to the concept without sounding like a nutbar. But from this point forward, I gotta focus on the here and now. Things that I can actually benefit from. This little tangent is the only piece of that endeavor that'll see the light of day.

All that being said, I conceived of this project as a 3-parter. I've actually had the third one done for at least a year. Needless to say, it's much simpler in scope, just a collection of songs I was digging at the time that were in some way computery, but still had a strong emotional component. There's also a heavy boy/girl undercurrent to it too. The highs and the lows. Actually, a lot of highs in this one surprisingly...there's a string of 5 or 6 songs in the middle there that sound, like, mind-bogglingly optimistic. That's why it was the last one, to kind of pad the hecticity of the middle one with a bit of hope. Anyway, I really should have let this one loose at the time, but right now is a pretty decent "release date" too, considering my sitch. It shouldn't sound too dated, simply because there are some really great songs on it. Enjoy.



Here we go...headfirst into the unknown.

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Scumcast! 5

^ ^ ^ ^ ^


Get it?

Cause it's the 5th Scumcast!...and I'm still "a-live!"...and like, bang! the pope!

.....

meh, 2 outta 3 ain't bad.

Scumcast! 5


1.Adventure Time- This Dome Is Our Home
2.Zongamin- Tunnel Music
3.Chin Chin- Appetite (A Chicken Lips Dub)
4.Olav Brekke and Sideshow Jogge- Gul Boss
5.Mock and Toof- Brown Bred
6.Smith and Hack-Falling Stars
7.The Beat Broker-Get Down On Love (Dub Mix)
8.Bang Gang-It's Alright (62 French Girls Can't Be Wrong Remix)
9.A Certain Ratio-Knife Slits Water
10.Joakim-Come into my Kitchen
11.New York City Survivors-The Game
12.I-F - Space Invaders are Smoking Grass(Alden Tyrell Edit)
13.The Octopus Project-Mmaj
14.Dominik Eulberg-Adler
15.Secondo-Unstedt (Secondo Reshuffle)
16.Swayzak-Blufarm
17.Odyssey-Who

I tend to describe what I did in the mix here, don't I? A-hwellll...it starts off with that retro futuristic stylee...so there's some oddball disco, some jams that are heavy on the arpeggiator, that type of thing. Then I got that depraved look in my eye again there for a second before shaking it off with some nice "listening" techno.

Other than that, again, sorry for the lack of random nonsense on here. What can I say? Yes, I'm a total derelict. I'm definitely in "blog limbo" for the second time, and I'm pretty sure that that's just a subsidiary of a much larger man/boy limbo deal that I've been wrestling with for far too long.

But it's cool, it's taught me a few things.

In a nutshell, I've learned that my personality mixed with the concept of having to fill some abstract, boundless marketing criteria makes for some strange ass results...especially when you never take the time to even try and define said box. I think the only rule I've been running with is "well, it's the internet...so it's not really real... so why not loon the fuck out!"

Basically, I figured it'd be fun to exploit some neurotic tendencies by projecting them into an exaggerated persona. This would, in turn, serve as a bit of promotion for the mixes I was doing and make them semi-useful, right? Yeah well, I think even nurturing these things knowingly has had some errr...adverse effects. Most of the time I think I've said too much. Sometimes I feel I'm in too deep (like Omar Epps). But I'm fairly sure I've embarrassed myself on more than a couple of occasions and I'll probably never even know it. I guess I thought my blatant disregard for proofreading or spell-checking was somehow endearing in a rag tag sort of way. Looking back, ind it kind of obnoxious. The wonders of a disposable medium, ey?? Oh wellz.

Actually, I think the biggest reason I've stopped is not so much that I care about coming off as a nut, but rather because my business cards do actually say DJ Scallywag. I'm thinking it might have cost me a few potential regular folk dj jobs at this point, due to some unwanted googling. Seriously, I actually started laughing to myself when I finally realized, "hey that blog is the first thing to pop up. That could kinda make it like a resume in a sense, huh? doot da doot da doooo......oh...ohhhh shit."

I'm sure my myspace page hasn't helped either...but since I'm about to change it, I'd also like to say that for the past half a year or so, it was intentionally set-up to look like "some hipster shit" at first glance, then "some anti-hipster shit" if you actually delve into it, complete with yet another degree of alienation and retaliatory commodification. I find the whole denial spiral thing attached to these established stereotypes to be pretty fascinating, not to mention all the snowflake syndrome stuff. I tried to address that in my own weird way. At this point, I feel like I could go on and on with little theories as to how these current trends will grow culturally, but since they are pretty much ultimately pessimistic, it's not too important to me right now. Speaking of which, there's also a lot of bonus material in there too, mostly of the bleak and confusing variety, so peep the insanity while it lasts. Oh and there's another huge reason why I haven't been doing this anymore...the real biggest actually...but I think I'll just leave that for next time.

ANYway, so back to the subject...I can't approach this blog like it's the fractured byproduct of my existential puttering anymore. Also, I feel like sometimes I cheapen artist's mp3s with my scattershot ramblings and general lack of focus. So, I'm stripping it down to just mixes for the foreseeable future. That was my initial goal anyway and the only thing I tend to not be wildly irresponsible with. As of right now, I'm actually looking to come off as the approachable, well-balanced, T-Pain-loving American that I pretend to be when working in real life. Terrible, right?

(Hahaaaaa! No it's brilliant! So what, did I like, finally win or something?!? What's my prize??? No more ridiculously self-involved, pseudo-intellectual bullshit to wade through?!? An actual attempt at furthering your creative endeavors without shooting yourself in the foot every time? Yeah, Ok! Sure! I'll take it! As in starting now! That is, unless you want to claim that all of your previous syntactical nightmares have actually been made to look that way on purpose? Or that all of your failed attempts at coming off as clever or cool were actually meant to be perceived as such? Hmmm? -Ed)

Oh what up, broooo!!! Hey, I'm glad you popped in because I've been wanting to tell YOU something!

Dude, you are seriously the weakest, most obvious gimmick ever. Honestly, who the hell would be like "oh yeah, you've got some random blog that you only manage to take half seriously? Sweeeet! I was totally thinking of starting one of those too...but instead, can I just like, edit yours and talk shit about you the whole time?" Haaah. Yeah, okay! I mean, if that WERE the case, I might even kinda understand why you were such a dick. You're like, the worst editor ever! I'd be super bitter. But unfortunately, because you aren't even a believable construct, all you've ever really done was make me look marginally crazier. Plus, you're right, I just admitted that I'm actually sane as fuck...so hey congratulations...you've got nothing on me! Anyhow, I still can't believe I edited out that part where I killed you sometime last year. So hey, guess what?

Now you die for reals.

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thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink!!!




( for good this time...at least on the internet. -Ed)



I run the self-deprecating humor around here, fool! Ka-boom!!!
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Whooooo....noiyce.

hey, so check me out!

::wipes chunks of imaginary rainbow-flavored brain matter off of face...then busts a slick little spin move/jazz hands combo::

Super Employable!

Unnnnnnnhhhhhhhh!!!!!





PS. Serious though, model citizen...1-2-3 Go! :)

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Endless Baleria...

Scumcast...Turbo Edition!


Scumcast! 4: Endless Baleria...


1.Lovebirds-Modern Stalking
2.Tangoterje- Diamonds Dub
3.Blackbelt Andersen-Sandoz
4.Sorcerer-Hawaiian Island
5.U-tern-Daft Punk Vs. Gwen Guthrie
6.Stardust-Music Sounds Better With You (Miami Horror Remix)
7.Stockholm Cyclo-Sticky
8.David Joseph-You Can't Hide
9.Putsch 79- Doin It (Daniel Wang Remix)
10.Blackjoy-Moustache Diskodub
11.Tony Allen- Ole (Moritz Von Oswald Remix)
12.Business Man-Dubby Games
13.Metro Area-Caught Up
14.Lindstrom and Prins Thomas-Suppegjok
15.Induceve-Jazz Chops
16.Diesler-La Playas
17.Daniel Wang-Unhouse
18.Anja Schneider & Sebo K-Rancho Relaxo
19.Jona-Full Pool
20.Jurgen Paape-So Weit Wie Noch Nie
21.Lazyboy-Police Dogs Bonfire
22.Hot Chip-Colours(Fred Falke Remix)
23.Pepe Braddock-Deep Burnt
24.Beatfanatic-Jorden Skall Kala
25.Bent-Always



Sooo, seeing as how me and time haven't exactly been seeing eye to eye lately, I'm guessing right now might thee perfect time to drop a summertime megamix...but ay, I guess that's kind of the point of summer, right?

Anyhey, about a month ago, I figured I'd make an attempt at scoring a ton of cool points by doing an Ibiza-style mix. You know, something invoking white sand, exotic lotions, oversized sunglasses, hours of casual fist-pumping, eternal bliss via self involvement and indifference, etc, etc. And I did actually intend to set about working on it that way, but as you might have guessed, the idea of doing an all day eurotanning sesh mix just for the ""context of it all"" wore thin pretty quickly (like after two or three songs really).

So instead I tried to cobble together an island beach party vibe using stuff I genuinely like from a couple different genres, doing my best to bridge the whole chill out beach thing with stuff that actually sounds good when it enters your ears. In the end, I opted for some classier jams, but there is still a decent amount of guilty pleasure kitsch in there. Oh, and we're rolling with the original title, Endless Baleria, as well because hey...I've got the re-emergence and subsequent co-opting of said pan-atlantic buzzword ALL figured out.

You know how it is, when you are real busy being too cool for words and all the sudden the blog house and electro ease up a bit and those previously abrasive textures take a sudden turn for the smooth. It's like you have no choice but to turn to the asshole next to you and go, "woOOOow, it's getting like, massively Balearic in here...u wanna go do another bumpy, ba-bro brah?"

I mean, that's just how it works in the 07, right? Right?!? Of course it does. But yeah, to all my twenty-something yacht rockers the world over, just know that the title was kept for your enjoyment. Here's to the cycle coiling in on itself once more!

But serious, curiously misdirected ranting aside, if you do find yourself beach or poolside on Labor Day, then try bumping this as the sun is starting to set... This button turns this into a megapost

Scumcast! 3D

Scumcast! 3D

Tracklist:
1. Chromatics-Hands in the Dark
2. Escort-All That She Is
3. Crystal Castles-Crimewave
4. Rodion-Love Tongue
5. The Juan Mclean-Every Little Thing
6. Diskjokke-Flok i Farta
7. Kango's Stein Massiv-Tobakk
8. Rhythm King and Her Friends-I Am Disco (mia rmx)
9. Federico Franchi- Cream ( Franchi Alternative Mix)
10.M.I.A.-Bamboo Banga
11.Von Sudenfed-Fledermaus Can't Get Enough
12.In Flagranti- nonplusultra (Sex Schon Remix)
13.Proxy-Din Dah (Sleazy V Re-Edit)
14.Zzt-Lower States of Consciousness
15.St Plomb- A Bat in my Shoe
16.Worthy-Irst Te (Christian Martin Remix) and
17.Modeselektor-Black Block (Scallywag's Three Men and A Bay Bay Remix)
18.Burial-Exit Wounds
19.Armand Van Helden-NYC Beat (Emperor Machine Remix)
20.Panico-Lupita (Zongamin Remix)
21.Senor Coconut (feat Towa Tei)-Mambo Numerique



Remember that game "telephone" we'd all play back in the day during snack time or juice time or since like, the dawn of time? Where someone would whisper something and you'd whisper what they said in the next persons ear all the way down the line and the last person said what they were told and it was usually something totally different?

Yeah, I loved being the one to twist the words around too. Y'know, for posterities sake. Just to do my civic duty in skewing the lens a little further. I'm wondering if these Scumcast deals could be a little extension of that? Only this time, I get to whisper sweet nothings into every single link in the chain. Ahhhhh...

(Inner)Peace through subversion? I'd like to think so.

This time we started off oh so collected with the austere sleekness, then things managed to turn comfortably sinister for awhile before resurfacing with a bit of the worldliness I was leaning towards from the get go. The live aspect got bypassed this month, mainly because it was late at night and I was trying to quietly brainstorm with the Ableton and some headphones and things just sorta went from there. I tried to make amends for that by throwing in a little bit of extra digital wankery. That ying yang twins/david banner/hurricane chris medley is my first and last attempt at doing the "name your mashup!" thing. It's track 17. Give yourself a good minute to soak up all the levels on that one.

Seriously, I retire undefeated from the game...maybe not sonically (the qual on the banner acapella was pretty shammy), but uh, titularly?!? No contest.

("Ay Bay Bay's Day Out" was another contender...but I felt it was a little too obscure/not at all relevant to anything...except for how much I miss watching guys like Joe Pesci or Joe Mantegna or any Joe Sicily types getting caught up in the screwball antics...only not really...pretty much just for the purposes of saying that right there I guess...actually, I think i just wanted to claim a little Baby's Day Out...man, that little dude just kept on crawling his way out of trouble there, didn't he?...foiling capers and shit..oh and you know John Hughes wrote that movie?...guess he knew he had a good thing going with the whole bumbling criminal thing after Home Alone...dude also wrote the story for Maid in Manhattan apparently...so yeah, if you want to reminisce something fierce, then check out his IMDB from before '91. Soooo many classics!)

Yeah, talking about stuff is great....

Which brings me to my next topic: this fuk-ging blooooogggggggg-gu-gu-gu-guuuuuhh...



Yeah, looks like I am suck at doing this again...at least in terms of frequency or volume or circumference. I still can't figure out if that's a good or bad thing. I mean it's all good fun to sit around and talk to yourself about whatevs, whenevs (I know, thats why crazy people do it all the time! -Ed) but I feel I've pretty much proven that part already...of this vague point I've been trying to make...to myself. That might not make a lot of sense...







Maybe the whole "splayed out thought process" approach was too much. From now on it'll be all subtlety and coded expression. Trust me, it'll make me seem so much cooler. Watch, I'll reel in all these tangents and keep it all packaged and discrete, all while angling this shit a little harder at your preconceptions by feeding you exactly what you are trying to buy into. You'll get totally caught up in the mystique. That way, when you are fully primed, anxiously willing to really listen, the sudden onslaught of overwhelming beauty/despair will resonate that much deeper, maybe even freeing/frying your emotional core...forever??

Then we'll all have much more in common, yeah? :)


Anyway, I just want to show you some stuff. Radio silence. Startiiiiiiing.....now.

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Visualati Substantia (Redux)

I feel like I've been drabbing it up real hard over here with all this typing and pouting and what have you, so today is mondo picture day. It's been awhile, and I've got a ton of great things to choose from, so this might be very reminiscent of those monster posts from yesteryear. Not to say that I've really gotten much better, but hey now. Can't you tell I'm all about the overkill? It's all or nothing.

(And by "all" I guess I he just means larger doses of half-acidness. -Ed)

Yeah, well you know what, I'm gonna let the art do the talking today. But speaking of half-assing it (^^^this guy thinks he's clever...) , I also toyed around with the template a little...tried to make things look a little poppier or zippier or zangier or some shit. So yeah, let me know if that's giving you a headache. I'm thinking I might just make everything grue and bleen, and have the whole page strobing violently fast...cuz that's the color of magic!

Anyway, fire up those eyeballs.


James Jean

This guy is pretty much my favorite artist right now. So amazingly versatile. I can't wait to see what happens next.



















The Vader Project



Some favs...


Jim Koch



Shag



Plastic God


d'Holbachie-Yoko











RMND







Kristian Olson






MR. Oppositeface








Audrey Kawasaki









Thymann









Tim Hawkinson










Theo Jansen



One gripe...what's up with that lil' lo-fi jazz interlude? Kinda like, ummm ok...

Other than that, quite an inspirational cross-pollination of disciplines, yeah?
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Phew! OK, I'm cutting myself off. It is now time to go watch 2 robots and their friends make an entire arena full of people go absolutely insane. Yesssssssss!



Daft Punk-Human After All (Sebastian Remix)

Daft Punk-Technologic (Basement Jaxx Remix)

Ratatat-Goose

Edit: yeah, so that once again confirmed my suspicion...one of the best possible experiences in life is to be surrounded by people and then collectively releasing ridiculous quantities of positive energy and elated thought...and to be instructed to do so by lords of the man-machine mind meld via 4/4 love and intradigital telepathy? Wow. Undeniable.

Note To Self: look into streetwear that is fully equipped with state-of-the-art fiber optic wizardry such that every day folks can rocket minds out of cranial cavities with the skin-peeling velocity usually reserved for ejector seats and/or space travel. 2008 will be the Year of the Technicolor Dreamcoat! This button turns this into a megapost

Scumcast! 2

Y'know we lookin' fly man/
Peculiar Purple Pie Man/
Lasers shoot out my eyes that straight up re-attach yo' hymen/

Check Checkuh 1-2. A-Mickey Mickey Mickey Mouse, Rock the House.

Scumcast Round Two ba-buh-buh-baby! jyeeeah....


Scumcast! 2

1.Kilo-Paradiso
2.Thomas Fehlmann-Schaum
3.Kalabrese-Hafenlied
4.White Magic-The Gypsies Came Marching After (Pocketknife's Silk, Wool, and Rust Remix)
5.In Flagranti-Bipolar
6.Escort-All Through The Night (The Rapture's Hush Hush Remix)
7.Lil Mama-Lip Gloss (Kid Fresh & Haterboy Refix)
8.M.I.A. feat Timbaland-Come Around (Eli Remix)
9.Diplo-Work Is Never Over
10.The Black Ghosts-Any Way (Fake Blood Remix)
11.Stanton Warriors-Pop Ya Cork
12.Kocky-Keep Ballin
13.Alex Smoke-Prima Materia (Abort Mix)
14.The Field-Silent

Subscribe to the Scumcast!

Again click that to subscribe with whatever you use. Also you can feed this xml to itunes or whatever you use. I'm accommodating like that.

http://www.djscallywag.com/Mixes/Scumcast!.xml

So yeah, another live mix for your ears, ranging from pretty new to brand spanking new joints. It's kind of a quick peak time party set wedged between some shimmery, hypnotic post-techno songs...so there's some stuff that's really detailed (yet hazy) and some stuff that beats you over the head.

Huh? Yep. I guess Scumcast's are gonna be crazy like that?

It actually turned out alright though...always curious to know what people think, by the way. I like feedback. I actually like constructive criticism even more. Don't be afraid to tell me my shit sucks if you can back it up with valid points. I encourage it.

(Yeah, c'mon people! It's so easy for me to call dude out on his shit that it barely even phases him anymore. Where are all you other condescending fuckheads at? -Ed)

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In other news, I've convinced myself that I'm moving to New York at some point. It's pretty damn amazing. So many people from different walks of life just stacked right on top of each other...all this sensory info jampacked into every nook and cranny...plus not fucking with cars and the little bubble that that creates between you and the world...all of it is pretty invigorating.

Granted my whole trip was basically just a hardcore bender, but good things managed to occur. There was this whirlwind of awesomeness amidst all the massively intensive bev'n that kept me going strong. Towards the end, my blood literally felt like it was trying to leap outta my body... sort of like in The Thing when they do that blood test shit and all hell breaks loose. Such a sick movie. It was probably trying to stay there cause it knew I was leaving, right?

Serious though, shout outs to everybody that was accommodating. Apologies to the chick from Thunderheist for thinking it was ok to get up there and dance with you while you were performing. It's cool though, the security guard decided to choke me out for you after he dragged me off the stage. Also apologies to the girl in the makeshift bathroom at that loft party in BK. I thought the drapes they used as walls were pretty funny or fun or whatever. I guess I was so stoked about dropping that deuce that I felt obligated to tear da club up immediately afterwards (basically just punching the curtains while stomping around I think...). I didn't realize there was another "stall" directly adjacent. Your screams scared the fucking shit out of me!

(WE SOME HEADBUSSAS!!! WE SOME HEADBUSSAS!!! -ED)

But yeah, fun times were had. Only real complaints? Lots of flow was required (but I knew about that). Mostly, it was just the mug factor that was pretty intense. I'm dainty as fuck when it comes to temperature, and the humidity plus the sun beating down was a little much at times. Plus when you throw some of those hard wiffs from the subway in there...whooo boy. That gust of pure hot muggage that you get hit with on the first couple steps down into an entrance?!? Goddamn...that almost bowled me over a few times.

Also, there was this person on the subway that I can't stop thinking about and I was wondering if anybody knew more of his story.

We were in Manhattan, I think it was the E train, and I was super hung over/zoning out really hard, and all of the sudden this tattered old blind man comes limping in through the between car doors with a large husky type dog in tow. He had a microphone and an ancient looking speaker strapped to his hip, as well as all of these laminated newspaper clippings taped to his chest. I tried reading them a little, but I was still in a stupor and wasn't processing all too well. I remember one said something about glitches...glitch face or something. Anyway, after he entered he stood there for a second, all rickety and mangled, then proceeded to moan into his microphone. It wasn't just a moan though. It was the most somber, devastating wail I think I've ever heard, like a horribly drawn out death bed lament, only eerily melodic. Hearing it through the crackly old speakerbox gave it the strangest echoed out quality as well; there was a distance to it that was so haunting yet visceral, but he was standing right there, contorted like a zombie, eyes soaked in emptiness.

As he started to lurch forward I noticed that my friend, who was sitting on the opposite side of the train, had struck up a conversation with the lady sitting next to him. She had just put some money in the man's cup and was going on about how she sees him all the time and how she feels so bad for the dog. She said she works as a dog walker, and she could tell by how the dog walks with his tail between it's leg that it was very, very sad. Looking at the dog as it passed, I saw how it was shuffling along with heavy steps, almost dragging its paws. Its head was low to the ground and its eyes were focused on the floor. And yeah, she was right, it's tail was between it's legs, but more so then any dog I've ever seen. Its tail was literally buried between it's legs, like it had been pulled as far forward as possible and then stapled to its stomach. At the same time, it became pretty apparent that the lady was completely strung out. She kept nodding off while my friend was talking to her, swaying slightly and slurring her speech while her eyelids hovered at half-mast.

I was starting to reel as all of these feelings were hitting me at once, colliding with my previous drone state, fucking up my head. Then all of the sudden, the wave of polarity eased up slightly, just enough for me to snap back into the moment. Maybe it was because the box was actually a foot away from my face at this point, spewing its mess of sound directly at me. I leaned in and I swear I could hear a seemingly lucid speaking voice trapped in the white noise. There was a half-formed murmur, some scattered makings of a message trying to cross planes, but I just couldn't make out the words; They were buried too deep, lost in a wash of static and hiss amidst the rhythm of subway tones. I looked up to see if the man was really trying to communicate with me, trying desperately to tell me that he knew exactly what he was doing here, that he completely understood the gravity of what it was he was trying to show everyone - the reason he persisted - but he just kept shuffling forward with his neck swiveling sideways back and forth and his mouth slung low and crooked and his eyes wobbling around clouded and aimless in their sockets. Everybody else on the train kept to themselves as he passed by.

I've lived in LA my whole life and have seen and dealt with plenty of derelicts and crazies in my day, and while they are all difficult to deal with emotionally, I usually don't dwell on them. Still, everything about this man was so intensely world-weary yet still forcefully present that I can't decide if I saw a ghost, or a living monument to the true depths of human sadness.

I figure if he's a regular on the subway then somebody has seen him and read those clippings he had dangling from his torso. I was curious as to what they say or if anybody knows anything about this guy or if he's just one of many fractured souls that you can't help but mentally phase out while living there...y'know, in order to maintain some sort of positive outlook about how real life relates to our well-meaning but logically delusional feelings regarding universal morality/karma.

Anyway, I just want to know more and I really hope someone with a more poetically inclined delivery has done this guy justice. He needs a Hubert Selby or William Vollmann level of empathetic understanding.

...





Soooo...anybody in the mood for some mp3s?

Peder-ache

Peder-timetakesthetimetimetakes

I guess I got caught up in the wonders of melancholy there for a sec. Here's some top notch moodiness courtesy of Peder off Ubiquity (a consistently great label that I guess is isn't really "indy" enough to be "blogworthy"). Peder is a part of OG production/remix team, The Prunes. As in really dope remix on the Beastie Boy's Sure Shot Ep back in the day Prunes. Or all over the classic Mo Wax Headz 2 compilation, remixing DJ Krush in his prime Prunes. These are from his new solo album, "And He Just Pointed To The Sky". Yeah, how on point is that for a title of a somber record?

Black Moth Super Rainbow-Sun Lips

Black Moth Super Rainbow-Rollerdisco

These guys also have really nice melodic leanings that I'd say are steeped in melancholy, only their brand of it has been sandblasted with psychedelics in order to maintain some semblance of bliss. And they got the always crucial P-Fizzy review so you know Internet Town is lit up with positive approval. Sun Lips is a gorgeous whirling lobotimizer that has been scorched with a pleasantly grating emphasis on blaring tonality. Rollerdisco is the inferred intersection between old school Boards of Canada and overdosing a few times too many.

Dj Lobsterdust-Baby Arrow (Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells V Album Leaf V The Carpenters)

Best straight mash-up I've heard since Flosstradamus's Twista Versus Sigur Ros or Cosmo Baker's Applause Riddim Versus Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Super choice combo with the key's matching like gloves (plus some lovely bonus humming courtesy of the Carpenter's). Lobsterdust is an awesome dj name, btw. It's up there with DJ Rumpelforeskin, only with a 5-MEO-DMT nod.

Ohzz, and also, I love how much shit gets talked on mash-ups, yet how kinda necessary they are if you are trying to make a name for yourself as a dj. Especially considering that the difference between a mash-up and sampling is basically how far you strive to make both elements recognizable in a pop culture sense. If it's obscure, it's sampling. If it's old, it's sampling. But if it's recognizable or was released fairly recently, it's looked down on (yet eaten up at the same time). Yes, I know the main reason there's a stigma is because it is so easy to make a shitty one and there are tons of them, but as far as branding goes, shit still seems to be very lucrative.

Back to the subject, look at Kanye, who pulled a super cheap shot with the Daft Punk sample for his new single, even though it is conceptual gold as far as pulling in the whole indy market that I'm sure he became intently set on after being burned by Justice at the MTV Europe awards, and then catching on to a couple of the ins and outs (most likely via A-Trak). It's an empty power move, but considering how high profile he is makes it genius in a business sense...like a certain hollow kind of genius that can't be denied because that's just how our world works...but hey, I'm sure Daft Punk was more than happy to take his money. I mean, it's not like they got a new album coming out or anything. The just got zeitgeisted back into the fray because of an awesome awesome stage show.


Ginny-Can't Be Serious

This could soo work as the Scarface End Credits Theme. A slow motion Pacino/Phife Dawg montage would kill this shit! Or even better, a music video with random business dude tied to a chair,a cloth around his mouth, and Ginny with the big hair and pink fog machine action acting all hard like she's gonna execute his ass while he squirms and sweats. Instead, she just feigns all kinds of sinister, kinda grinding on him and slapping him around a little while going back and forth between him and her girlsquad to throw down some hot steps. Mane tossing abound.


Strategy-Running On Empty

This is a great forward thinking fusion of downtempo and dub inflected beats that's nice and clean but somehow not innocuous. Ohh, I'm kinda loaded and just typing a bunch of hooey now.


Ennio Morricone-Cavallina A Cavallo

Ennio, one of the greatest composers evaaaaaaa. Here he is forgoing all that cinematic grandeur in favor of some bubbly light-heartedness. It's like a combo of 70's porn music and detergent commercial jingles. Nice!

Jimmy Ross-First True Love (Larry Levan Mix)

Ok, but sirius. New York was dope and lived up to my internal hype after fetishizing it's culture for so so long. Here's some real deal realness courtesy of the don of NY flavor. Has he been called the Quincy Jones of Disco? Cause that could be a good claim. Man I feel like I've made a lot of claims tonight. Whatever. I'll deal with it later. PUBLISHHHHHHHH. This button turns this into a megapost

777ULTRABLISSOUT777

Hey. What's up.

Sooo, a little recap on today. I wasn't rocking a powdery white tuxedo and top hat combo...I didn't have some stunning fem dressed in victorian garb at my side...there was no gigantic lake nestled high in the clouds...it wasn't filled with cream soda and giant sherbert mounds...and we definitely didn't get to peddle around it in a little foot powered watercraft shaped like a swan, giddy with the majesty of it all.

Instead it was grey outside all day and now I have to go and play "party like a rockstar" for a bunch of people that don't actually like music...just collective acknowledgement.

:/



Fuck. I actually gotta get going.

Ok then, well I'll post the new Scumcast! I recorded tomorrow(ish). Here's a good jam for today.

Dondolo- Fluffy Angel This button turns this into a megapost

X

I'm a little curious as to the logic behind The Hype Machine (how they filter, how they choose what blogs end up on the front page, and so on) because half the time my posts don't show up there, and when they do they end up on page 6. I'm assuming some sort of hierarchy is in place. Not that I deserve a higher spot, but still, I've chopped up one of my shitstorms into 3 parts so that it looks a little bit more like what normal people posts tend to look like (even though I did the damn thing in one sitting as usual). I'm just gonna try and give off the illusion that I didn't do this the retarded way for once. Oh and for the record, I assume this tendency has something to do with always procrastinating with writing papers or doing projects for school and then churning them out at the very last minute (and I say always as in "every single time ever")...that's managed to translate into blogging. Pitiful!

But yeah, meat. substance. not semantics. I will just say real quick that I'm leaving for New York tomorrow for the first time in my life and my pump is through the roof and a good portion of the trip is gonna be funded by selling a bunch of First Generation Transformer toys on Ebay after they have been kicking it in my parents attic for the past 15 years or so and I think this act has got to entail some sort of symbolic representation of my existence in a wierd way. Also I've had diarhhea for the past month. Anyway, if anybody from New York has some suggestions as to where it's going down at night, please feel free to let me know! Fridays a toss up between Yo Majesty and Tim Sweeney and Saturday is a Trouble and Bass event at Tim "Love" Lee's party in Brooklyn.

OK, um I'm gonna get high now because it doesn't feel like this thing is gonna write itself today.

...


(I guess that means he's getting high right now. Kinda explains why he's so random with the ellipses. Kinda. -Ed)



::cough:: YO LES DO DIS!



I'd say this is the funniest internet thing I've seen this month. Seriously, stick with it.



I gotta give it up to this one on multiple levels. I mean, if I was an avid churchgoer and my youth minister played this for me, I'd probably be genuinely tickled in the way they intended me to be. But I've got an aunt and uncle who are TBN power preacher status now with Porsches and facelifts so I've got that level too. Even the jumbo sized version that dude rocks couldn't handle all of my "Why's"...



100% Pure Highsauce. This makes me miss Wondershowzen...




Warning! These next 2 videos could be too awesome for your own good. This is from some movie that I really want to see now...



And this is more exploding psychology from Sekitani. This is a video for a group called Obakejaa. Ahhh, my mind has been scissored with funshine!





Some ultravans from Japan. They all tend to have those spikes, btw. The comment that I remember from wherever I got this?

"Yo, where all the tentacle-rape-themed vans at?"

Seriously!



Ok, music blog mode, GO! Here's the video for the first single for MIA's new ish. More of that lo-fi colorblast stuff that I've been claiming, only this is done with an early 90's Afrojamaican aesthetic. Is afrojamaican a real term? I figure its gotta be, right? Anyway this is cool.


Justice Essential Mix

Here's the essential mix that Justice did for Radio One. A lot of old school stuff and influences mixed together with their sound. I was pretty impressed. Here were my favorite tracks minus that Syreeta Wright jam because I don't have it. I really liked how they mixed back and forth from stress into that zzt-lower states song, it breaks up the monotony of it a little. Zzt is Zombie Nation and Tiga and they're gonna release the song shortly. Considering the names behind it and how many times I've heard people play Higher State of Consciousness in the last year, I'm assuming it'll be huge.

Alan Braxe and Fred Falke- In Love With You

AKA the other other Daft Punk.

Chic- Everybody Dance


Chic had way more to offer than just Le Freak and Good Times.

M83-Run Into Flowers (Midnight Fuck Remix by Jackson)

At least these guys acknowledge Jackson and his Computer Band, because he did end up doing what they are doing first. They tend to do it better though. Dancier and less randomness just for the sake of it. Also can't wait for a new M83 album. In a year maybe?

Dabrye-Game Over (Flying Lotus Remix)

Flying Lotus's beats have been steadily progressing towards greatness. Warp took notice and signed him. 1983 was cool, but I have a feeling this dude is just getting started. This button turns this into a megapost

pear

(note: I figure I might get cease and desisted while I'm away so I'm putting these on a yousendit just so I don't end up getting sued to pieces while I'm gone. Or wait, no, I found these on yousendit so I decided to link to them. Yeah.)

Anyway, this portion is dedicated to dudes from my teenage years that are still throwing down even after I thought I could right em off.

Chemical Brothers-The Salmon Dance Feat. Fatlip

So I figure you'll either love or hate the first one. I've always had a soft spot for Fatlip after seeing him spill his guts to Spike Jonze on that What's up Fatlip documentary. I recommend seeing it, if only for the no joke tranny recap. But yeah, I mean joke-y songs usually only got like one or two listens in them, but this shit is dope. It's full of bleepy goodness. That bass that kicks in when Sammy mentions Japan? Unnh! But mostly I just want "The Salmon" to catch on in the club. That would be awesome.

Chemical Brothers-The Pills Won't Help you now feat. Midlake

And if that one doesn't prove that these guys are still paying attention, then this should at least let you know that they still know how to make a great song. They get cred points for pulling Midlake, but regardless, this song is wonderful. Plus I assume if you were huge into the Chemical Brothers in 94 then you realize how true this song rings at this point. Fuck knows I do. The new album, We Are The Night, drops July 2nd.

Beastie Boys- The Rat Cage

Beastie Boys- Freaky Hijiki


So this new instrumental Beastie Boys album just kinda crept out of nowhere. I was depressed by how shitty "To the 5 Boroughs" was, considering that I loved every other Beastie Boys album and consider them one of my favorite acts of my teenage years. But dudes are old as hell so I'd really rather not have to watch them pull a muscle while trying to keep things all rambunctious anyway...and I REALLY don't want a whole album full of preachy filtered vocals.

This was the perfect move at this point. Not only that, but it's pretty damn good! It's funky as hell, raw, and its got a bit of their punk influence, as well as a lot of spacey vintage keys. Some backwards retrogear association thing is telling me that it sounds like a mix of the stuff that DC Recordings and Truth and Soul are putting out now. The In Sound from Way Out 2 may be a more logical way of looking at it though.

And because I've got nothing but opinions, I'm gonna claim Ill Communication as my fave. Licence to Ill may have had the biggest cultural impact and Paul's Boutique may be the most critically acclaimed and groundbreaking as far as sampling is concerned, but I'd say that Ill Communication had the best spread of irreverance, musicianship, and thoughtfulness. Plus in 8th grade, I rode around the city cramped in the trunk of an Explorer filled with like 8 high school kids, getting drunk and blasting Sure Shot for like 3 hours straight so done deal.

Oh it looks like the Beasties have a little blog too. Stole these clip from them.



In high school there was this one dude's house that was like the afterschool refugee camp for everybody that was destined to fail. I really wanted those type of guys to like me back then. I remember the grandma of the house was super senile and dudes would get high and start fucking with her mercilessly. One time she ate all the cigarette butts from the ashtray. I wasn't there but I heard everybody just sat around and laughed and encouraged her while she did it. Then she had to get her stomach pumped. You couldn't fuck with Grandma after that because I think it was made very clear that her social security paid the rent. But the dude's sister was like 15 at that point so everybody just ended up fucking with her instead. Get it?!?

Anyway, that place was terrible.



Sesame Street most certainly was not. Way hopeful. This has to be the funkiest a children's show has ever gotten. Goddamn, Stevie. And that one kid on the ledge?!? He's like my idol. This button turns this into a megapost

a mint

Dizzee Rascal- Where's Da G's feat. UGK

Dizzee Rascal- Bubbles

Dizzee's got a new album, Maths and English, due out the 21st here in the US. UGK is on that bitch! These are my two favorites tracks from it.

Roll Deep-Celebrate (JME Remix)

Other then Dizzee and Wiley, I've pretty much completely fell off with the grimewatch now that the hype has faded. I was always basically just about the beats when it came down to it anyway, so dubstep and other uk bass stuff has been more up my alley. Skepta's verse on this is a good example of why. Something along the lines of "I'm in Roll Deep but I live in North London so I only see them on the weekends but I'm still in Roll Deep, I swear, even if it doesn't seem like it, so uhh...Young Jeezy." Is that how you're supposed to represent on a posse cut? I guess rhyming a word with same word all the time doesn't really do it for me. This track is still hard as fuck though. JME's got good uptempo stuff.

JME-Duppy

True Tiger-Bare Face What

Here's another good JME produced posse cut that's a little older as well as the instrumental for that Bare Faced Dynasty track from the Run the Road 2 comp. It's a big ass industrial track that gets mac truck'd by some sinister horns, but the eq sounds all kinds of fucked up on this version. I'm offering it up because I want to know if it was a shitty vinyl rip or if that's how it was pressed. I can't really hang with the original vocals, but i figured i might be able to throw some trick daddy over it or something. It's got a scene tag so I assume it's the engineer's fault, but I would love a cleaner, bassier version if it exists. Don't really expect an answer on this one though. (Yeah, I figured you knew that all the questions you pose end up rhetorical at this point -Ed)

But anyway, back to UGK, I know I ragged on International Player's Anthem versus just regular old Player's Anthem because of Andre's verse bobbing around all over the place and taking up all kinds of time before the beat drops...but the video makes it come together so well that I take it back.



Paul's Rowdy Roddy Piper claims...Pimp C and Bun B's gear...those super focused hand claps in the car...and of course, ya boy Lukas Haas tenderly imploring Three Stacks to keep his heart. Everything about it is amazing. I don't think I can imagine myself enjoying any rap song more than this for a good while. Int'l Summertime Anthem as well.

Willie Hutch- I Choose You

Here's the original track. Between this and Stay Fly, I'd say the South owes Willie a whole lot of love. And don't even get me started on the Moby and Chemical Brothers samples, let alone the Dr. Dre or Biggie ones! He's up there as one the greatest in my book.

And on that note, shit, I gotta pack. Peace LA. This button turns this into a megapost

SCUMCAST!!

So I should've been doing this a long time ago, but I think I'm finally inching towards the "Go For It, Dude" point in my life. Not all pistons firing full speed do-or-die status yet, but closer towards that mythical place in my head where I feel I'm not just a huge waste of space and am actually taking steps to dig out this potential that I've been told I possess. I usually take forever to put together the mixtapes I offer up, just to try and ensure that when I do put something out, it is well worth listening to. But I've also realized I need to supplement the more crafted ones with something more consistent. Y'know, to keep my name hot in the streets. Plus djing all these standard working gigs has been slowly eating at my soul. So yeah, I took an hour out of my incredibly hectic schedule of constantly listening and hoarding, to actually string together some of the records that mean something to me.

And so, the SCUMCAST! was born.

SCUMCAST! ONE

1. Baby Oliver- Primetime (Uptown Express)
2. J.R Writer- Get 'Em (Dev79 Street Bass Refix)
3. Justice- Valentine
4. The Chromatics- In the City
5. Padded Cell- Unknown Zone
6. Feist- Sea Lion (Chromeo Remix)
7. David Bowie- Pretty Thing (The Scar Remix)
8. Goodbooks- Leni (Crystal Castles Remix)
9. Feist- My Moon My Man (Boys Noize Remix)
10.The Hasbeens- Make the World Go Away
11.Charlie- Spacer Woman
12.Giorgio Moroder-The Chase
13.Black Devil Disco Club- The Devil In Us
14.Curses!-Tearing Me Apart
15.Surkin vs Khia-Radio Fireworks+My Neck My Back (Courtesy of DJ Eli)
16.Buraka Som Sistema-Yah!
17.Bonde Do Role-Marinha
18.James Braun-James Brown is Dead 3
19.UHU-Virtual Network
20.Dopplereffekt-Voice Activated
21.Stupid Set- Hear the Rumble (Pinktronik Re-edit)
22.Boom Bip-The Pinks
23.Digitalism-Echoes
24.Efdemin-Bergwein
25.Junior Boys-In the Morning (Hot Chip Remix)
26.Matthew Dear-Deserter (Four Tet Remix)

So yeah, this one's got new Justice, Bonde Do Role, Environ, Kitsune, some peak time party shit, some claustrophic robot shit, old italo stuff, all capped off with a heart bursting ending.

Again, I'm gonna stress that this was live. It's basically me just randomly pulling records from all kinds of genres and doing my best to put them together on the fly, brain-storming session style (I made an edit from that Boys Noize remix to the Hasbeens because I stopped and thought a nice long blend would sound good under the acapella part). There's some ugly blends and there's some decent ones but no straight trainwrecks so I figured might as well post it to help get over being super critical of my shit. My unk -> mims -> t-pain -> "some fucking Nor*Cal fratboy douchebag yelling in my ear to play some Mac Dre, son" game is immaculate though, btw. Oh yeah, and the left ear of my headphone isn't working. I've gone through like 4 headphones in the last year or two. Word of advice: Headphones don't got Lamborghini doors.

I'm gonna shoot for this being a monthly podcast so be sure to feed this .xml link to your podcaster.

http://www.djscallywag.com/Mixes/Scumcast!.xml

For itunes just copy the link into the "subscribe to podcast" option under the advanced tab. I also put the whole blog on some RSS shit via Feedburner but because I just use bookmarks like a dinosaur, I can't really say I know how that all works yet...not that I really feel all that dumb for not walking around with bluetooth gear strapped to my head, shooting all these rogue frequencies into my skull, rerouting crucial thinky-paths. Just don't come crying to me when you are busy spending all your moneys on little wheelbarrow sidecart thing to rest that lumpy-ass mess of a headgrowth you've got going on there. ( Um, yeah I didn't wanna say anything, but those anti-pulsing meds you've been taking don't really seem to be working...)

PS I still intend to post mp3's and rant about minutia and it'll still probably look like sloppy joe's only with words, so don't think you're off the hook. This button turns this into a megapost

Neil with the Deal ain't got shit on me!

So if you fuck with all this internet blog nonsense (you do), then you might have noticed these ad's for Wakeyz in the sidebar under sponsored ads. Or you might not have. I was under the assumption that my attention doesn't even begin to encroach on those dedicated "sell you shit" spaces. I figured I just had blinders on due to sheer conditioning at this point. Statistically, I'd assume that the auto-filtration of any sort of casual ad-related ANYTHING is pretty collectively developed by this point, at least on a conscious level (unless you are your grandparents or something, which again, you aren't...)

However, in the last couple days, my peripheral has been getting lit up by all these Dr. Mario pills raining down on a huge cracked out Residents' style eyeball guy, so my inner fiend begged me to take notice. Then I saw the words "Drug Mall" and floors and floors of condoned chaos started wildly sprouting up in my mind. Sedative Stands. Hopped up Haberdasheries. Wide eyed Willy Wonka shit as far as the eye could see. So not only did I click on it, I did the rapid fire multiclick thing while looking over my shoulder (I live alone).

So I hope you clicked on the Wakey's link. It'll be helpful if you are actually reading this and want to make sense of what I try and communicate. Lord knows I have enough trouble attempting to meet all you phantom people half way as it is. My ability to focus is pretty garbage pail kids (criterion edition). Ok, so if you care to, at some point you'll see a blue page slide down over the wakeyz products you are looking at and hopefully it'll all be clear. That's your signal to turn the page back here.

So obviously, the site is well designed, they went through great lengths to come up with the names of funny drug infused food supplements with graphics, menus, flash, all of that (I liked the ChloroFoam face mask and electrified cutlery). But turns out...it's a fuggin' mattress company! Huh? I thought mattress companies were terrible at marketing. The best thing mattress dudes got going for themselves here in LA (main guys being Leeds and Sit and Sleep) is that they battle to see who can outcheese each other with the low-budget factor. This here is like some Nike level consumer manipulation. By pretending to offer these ridiculous products, they call out our societal obsession with energy drinks and other "fda approved" stimulants. Yet at the same time, they are actually selling all this merchandise that coincides with the fake Wakey's ad campaign. Shirts, mugs, stickers...everything. Is this the ad guys way to circumvent that feeling of disgust you might feel when someone is trying to sell you something using methods that are transparent or beneath you? Is this self aware notion really that inherent to so many twenty-somethings nowadays? It does seem hard to deny that many many ideas are being increasingly re-examined and then coupled with a shit-ton of irony...repackaged by people that see the fault in everything. So it does make me think, are these guys trying to be the "indy" Tempurpedic? And is anybody actually buying their bibs or bumper stickers?

Anyway, biggest point being, I've never taken a marketing class or anything but I was kinda impressed by their tactics and how they tried to sell me some boring ass shit in a clever way that also entertained my eyes. The fact that they advertise like this on the hype machine, blogs, etc. just makes me curious as to how large this demographic has really gotten. Guess what, kool kids...even the mattress guys have this figured out to a certain extent. Uh Oh.

I guess the only recourse is to go ultrahypermeta, right? Then they'll never be able to stake a claim on you. I can't wait till people have to explicitly specify what level of irony they're on. (Oh darling, do you not see, I was making a level 7 double reverse pretzel comment on that subject, you must've thought I was addressing you in a level 4 way. Ah! You poor thing, you really couldn't tell I was inferring two more double negatives?).

Anyway, hit me off with that e-mail you promised and I'll tell you were to send the free full size queen, fellas. ::wink::
------------------------------------------------

So, there's my referential jump-off. I swear I told myself I was going to make these short and to the point. Instead I've got a page long tangent about some random ad I saw. Terrible! Plus all these blocks of text just look so uninviting.

(I believe it's called self-sabotage, my man! -Ed)

Meh...hey look, it's drizzling pictures.











I'll do another big art post again soon. But for the readers (people read?), I'm gonna tie this into my own promotionally-inclined inclinations by giving you one more natural alternative to restless nights. It's a mix I made three or four years ago, the first ambient one I ever made. Posting some old Xela and Super Numeri made me want to dig it up. I made it pretty much for myself, for utilitarian purposes, but my friends have said they like it and go to sleep to it too, so here it is. The only version I still have is already chopped into mp3's. Hopefully that gapless playback thing in iTunes will compensate.

Sleep Spindles 1: A Blanket of Stars

1.Ovuca-Untitled
2.Aphex Twin- SAW II Disc 1 Track 3
3.Aphex Twin- SAW II Disc 2 Track 5
4.Prefuse 73-Untitled
5.Xela-Bobble Hats in Summer
6.Bola-Vm8
7.Delarosa & Asora-Suki Swims
8.The Gentle People-Relaxation Central
9.Monolake-Indigo
10.Biosphere-Mestigoth
11.Fog-Plumb Dumb
12.Super Numeri-Electric Horse Gardens
13.The Album Leaf-We Once Were One
14.Labradford-Soft Return
15.Casino Versus Japan-Trad Velicido
16.Atom Heart-Acid Magic
17.Bochum Welt-La Nuit
18.Octavius-Artificial Spark of the Electrical Stripping
19.Biosphere-Kobresia
20.Biosphere-Poa Alpina
21.Brian Eno-Becalmed
22.A little thunderstorm action in case you haven't drifted off yet...

I'll just say, it's no Aurora Borealis in terms of arrangement or attention to detail, but it does start with Track 3 off Selected Ambient Works 2, which is one of my Top 5 recorded pieces of audio ever...so there's that. "Bobble Hats in the Summer" is also top 10 track that nobody has ever heard. The ending of that track? Tear-inducing. So beautiful.

Anyway, sorry for talking so much to myself while being watched from a two way mirror that I set up, ya know. From now on it'll just be party pictures with that one filter. You know the one.

Stay tuned for my Justice vs T-Pain mash-up, Buy you a D.R.A.N.K. There's bmore drums over it too. How do I do it, right?

Dntel-To a Fault (feat. Grizzly Bear)

Dntel-Last Songs

Jimmy Tamborello had quite the bevy of high profile indy people guest on just about every song from his last album. Makes sense though, it's common knowledge that he invented the genre together with Zach Braff. Anyway, The Grizzly Bear collabo was tops for me. That other song is Pre-Postal Service, back from his first full length from 2001, Life Is Full Of Possibilities. I stumbled upon it right around then and being big into samples and electronic stuff, I was really captivated by how he chopped up those acoustic guitar loops back in the day. Still a great song, though.

The Virgins-Rich Girl

I've dipped into pretty much every genre imaginable, and I know that jangly British guitar rock is not my strongest trait, tastemaker-wise. Certain genres like dancehall, hardcore, early house music, folk rock, etc. all have stuff I like, but I'm not driven enough to really turn them out and dig through them them. I leave those ones for others to inform me when shit is really good. I don't get a constant stream of blood and dopamine trickling out my ears this way. I think I was tipped to this joint on EVR. I like it a lot for what it is. Catchy riffs, clever lyrics, nice drawl, and a sick disco bassline. I'd say it sounds kinda like the Arctic Monkeys or the Strokes meets The Rapture, but I could probably break it down even better than that if I knew more about this stuff. That hard panned hi-hat kinda fucks with me though.

Dimlite-Lullaby for Gastric Ulcer

Dimlite-The Way Blood Travels

My original genre of choice was stoner downtempo stuff in the vein of Mo Wax or Ninja Tune. Nowadays, it's real hard to find artists that can really innovate with this sound, pushing it in a new direction while keeping things appealing but not strictly experimental. Dimlite's one of those guys whose forged his own sound but can still keep your head nodding. I'd say his stuff references J Dilla and Four Tet in equal parts. For fans of Daedalus, Caural, Flying Lotus, etc.


Cozy Powell- Dance With The Devil

This is a great but pretty obscure track that all the of sudden decided to randomly crop up in my life in a crazy little trifecta. I heard DJ Harvey play it his Sarcastic Disco warehouse party two weeks ago (dope as fuck btw), and then I listened to the new DJ Food Solid Steel mix, Now, Listen Again, and there it was again (this is also real good, but get's a bit too British with the Pendulum tracks towards the end). Then I saw the movie Hot Fuzz (hilarious) and guess what track pops up. Wierd shit. Anyway, this track is a monster, it's basically just a real heavy drum workout with some classic rock power chords but it is heavy heavy. If this is how the forces that be are deciding to collude on my fate, then sure, go ahead I guess, as long as you keep hitting me with jams of this caliber. Sidenote: If you look at dude's room in Shaun of the Dead, he's got a bunch of Ninjatune posters on his walls. I remember seeing that back in the day and I started geeking out and rocking back in forth in my seat while looking around the theatre smiling...nobody else got it. Story of my life?

Michael Rother- Silberstreif

Here's some more rock stuff from German musician, Michael Rother. He was in Kraftwerk in the early 70's, before they turned into robot. He also recorded with Brian Eno under the name Harmonia. This is like krautrock mixed with thinking back about how you used to go wind surfing all the time and how killer that was. In fact, some weekends, you like to take the Saab out and cruise the shoreline with the top down, and when this tune really gets going, you swear you can feel the ocean spray as your hair whips around in the breeze.

Anthony Rother- No Love

Anthony Rother- 10,000 Dancer

And here's another german Rother who makes electro that is obviously informed by Kraftwerk. Association City, huh? This is from his 04 album, Popkiller. I figured more people would know about his shit now that electro is big again.

No Bra-Munchausen

And now that we are in Germany here's some of that Level 3 irony we discussed earlier, courtesy of No Bra. The beat sounds like it was concocted in some pitch black underground fetish dungeon. Everything is made out of latex and the clientele use butt plugs like battering rams. The lyrics are a pretty hilarious though. It's a pretty scathing indictment of disaffected socialites who claim to know about everything. Thankfully, I only get like half of the references. Did you click that picture? Yeah, she just cruises to parties like that. Gravity has not been kind to this woman and she wants you to know this. I'm curious if she has a line drawn in her head where she knows just exactly how much she does this to make a social statement versus how much she does it to alienate people while still drawing attention towards herself in a publicity stunt kind of way. Or does that only matter to me?

Supercheap-Super Rich

I don't especially like this song, I just feel like I'm tying shit together left and right today so I thought I'd pull out the theoretical female response to that Virgins song, just to bring everything super full circle. I still like it though, it's just the chorus is a little disappointing. This comes from a comp from last year, Berlin Insane IV. See, it's German too! Yeeee. I have pleased myself once again. (I so let you slide this week -Ed).

PS Oh yeah, and I notice those match.com ads on myspace, i'd like to say mostly because of the fast loading streaming video, which seems like a kinda new advent. They are pretty funny to me. Like, how much body language they throw up in there because there's no audio or how they have semi-obtainable looking girls on it versus real model types. Like the nerdier looking chick who takes her glasses off and next thing you know, she's all that. Smart thinking, ad guys. Still haven't clicked though. Should've mentioned a drug mall. This button turns this into a megapost