from the ashes of my CD drive

Robsounds – Fly Tipping [Unsigned]
Robsounds – The Badger [Unsigned]
Robsounds – Rainy Summer Mornings [Bellarine]
Robsounds – Sunny Summer Mornings [Unsigned]
Robsounds – Ligne Blue [Unsigned]
Nero – Lost (Fractal Remix) [Pacific Front]
Dustin H – Recieve The Light (Fractal’s Photons Are Data Mix) [Pacific Front]
Nirvana + Scala Choir – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Fractal Remix) [Unsigned]
Shirt – You Are Wasted Seed [Tide Pool]

Rhythim Is Rhythim – Strings Of Life (Francesco Tristiano Version) [In Fine]
BT – Love In The Time Of Thieves [Black Hole]
Misstress Barbara – Barcelona [Border Community]
Misstress Barbara – Barcelona (Holden Bass Tool) [Border Community]
Misstress Barbara – Barcelona (Holden Bell Dub) [Border Community]
Misstress Barbara – Jamias Moi Sans Toi [Border Community]
Elektrochemie – Mucky Star [Get Physical]
Andrey Burtaev – Mostly Harmful [Precinct]
Burridge & Page – Why Are The Pretty Ones Always Insane? [Almost Anonymus]
NKDj – Put It Where You Want [Maschine]

Nemmo & Andre – Affectation (Dousk Dub Electro Remix) [Restart]
Shiloh – Lines [Floppy Discs]
Matt Rowan – Fat Fucker [Babylon]
Matt Rowan – Mogul [Babylon]
Matt Rowan – Works [Babylon]
Orbital – The Girl With The Sun In Her Head (AFK Remix) [Unsigned]
TWYO – The Young & The Wild Ones [Kittball]
Murge & Just B – For Today (Hrdvsion Remix) [Unsigned]
Burial – Untitled 1 [Hyberdub]
Burial – Untitled 2 [Hyberdub]
Burial – Southern Comfort [Hyberdub]
The Beatles – Because (Accapella) [Apple Music]

Royal Assassin – Turn At Twilight [Pacific Front]
Royal Assassin – Turn At Twilight (Formulate Remix) [Pacific Front]
Royal Assassin – Turn At Twilight (Dustin H Remix) [Pacific Front]
Royal Assassin – Turn At Twilight (Desert Dweller Remix) [Pacific Front]
Justice – D.A.N.C.E. [Ed Banger]
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid – The Sun Never Sets (James Holden Remix) [Domino]

where we at

Some quick hits:

I’ve got a half-release lined up for Perc Trax. The Primal release is now sometime between July and September. The two remixes for Pacific Front should be out over the summer. Still working on THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT, but a stupid naming error on my part lost about half of my percussion, and I’ve not had the drive to re-do it yet.

I am working on a posted mix that was supposed to be for a friend’s radio show for the Phil K show. My uber-mix with Matt Sinesthetix remains in progress. Also planning on another themed mixtape special.

The Phil K show was awesome. It’s really good to see that he can DJ outside of his magic FX box…which was never really in doubt, but still.
Tide Pool will have new shit soon. I have about 3-4 things lined up…and I just know that they’ll all be given to me at once.

Been thinking lots about the relationship between practice and DJing. Also about where the electronic music community actually is, in terms of being the future like we used to be. I think I need to sit down and design myself a theoretical live setup.

royal assassin – turn of twilight: out now

 

The “skullcrushing breakbeat epic” from myself and AFK is out now on Pacific Front.  You can find it here, and at fine online stores everywhere.  Remixes come from Desert Dwellers, Formulate, and Dustin H. 

lost another one

Very few people warrant use of the phrase “Rest In Peace”. I think that Kurt Vonnegut was one of them. He was 84, and was like Mark Twain mixed up with Ray Bradbury, shaken with Hemingway, garnished with golden age science fiction, and poured into a glass made out of the human condition.

Such a hypothetical glass would, invariably, end up melting due to the hidden warmth of its contents. So it goes.

If you’ve not read at least his collection of short stories, WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE , you may not qualify for the human race. If you are not of the human race, reading Vonnegut will probably teach you how to be. Other recommendations include SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE, CAT’s CRADLE and GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER.

You will be missed, Kurt.

101 Free Games #7: SquareOff and Toribash

SquareOff may just be the best designed five-meg, head-to-head flash game ever.  You draw a square / rectangle, and it goes flying across towards your enemy.  The bigger the square, the slower it goes.  If you hit an enemy square with your own square, they cancel each other out, and get smaller.  Take out the awful music, and you have a seriously *mint* piece of work.

Toribash, on the other hand, is a very different kettle of fish.   It’s a turn based head to head fighting game, like Street Fighter 2.  That’s right, turn based.  You control the joints of your rag-doll fighter against another rag-doll fighter, driven by someone one the other side of the internet.  It is meticulous, particular, obsessive, and really, really fun.

To expand on it, however, the game lets you record replays in the single-player “sandbox” mode.  Why not make it a game of throwing replays at each other, instead of working joint by joint?  It would be a competition both of who could make the best moves, and who could pick the best moves.

rhythm dividends

Had a thought on the bus.  If you’re beating time on, say, 1 and 3 with one hand, and 2 and 4 with the other, what happens if you insert a beat at the point where your hands cross in mid air.  You’d get 8th notes out, but how would it work with less regular tempos, and sparser starting points?  And is there a name for conjuring rhythms like that?  It seem like there should be.

nerdvana

I finished my Nirvana / Choir remix! You can download it here. It’s both brooding and pretty and other things like that.

proletariat ftw

As of Monday, April the 2nd, I will be doing a co-op term for Propaganda Games, in Vancouver. As such, I will be in Vancouver from April through August. If you’re in Vancity, we should totally hang out.

(I should note here, for the record, that everything I say and do here is my opinion and not the opinion of Propaganda, Disney, etc, etc, etc.)

101 Free Games #6: Plus Or Minus and Cytoplasm

Cytoplasm is a scion of the amazing Experimental Gameplay Project at CMU (again with the CMU!). Although I love the project, this is not one of the hits. It’s nice to look at, but the gameplay is loopy and simple: Grab some guys and throw them at the enemy. Repeat. Done after 10 minutes.

Plus Or Minus, on the other hand, is a game about magnets. While you should avoid the ‘Easy’ mode, the ‘Hard’ mode has the roots of a lovely puzzle game in it. You attract particles to your two charged magnets. When positive pariticles meet negative particles, they annihilate each other. Your objective is to prevent the particles attached to your magnets from reaching the edge of the screen. It needs tuning, but there’s a huge amount of potential there.

keepon dancing

Marek Michalowski, one of the mad geniuses at CMU, has made a robot that dances, named Keepon.  This is both the cutest and most brilliant thing you’ll see all day.  Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.