So I’m both shocked and pleased to report that I just faxed off a contract that signs four of my songs to Precinct / Primal Recordings, who release artists like Leama & Moor, Tilt, Kosmas Epslion, Ozgur Can, and Probspot.
*squeee*
I also just wrote an ambient / intro tune for a:Loud, that will hopefully be used on their upcoming compilation. It’s called ‘Turn On Mercury’, and I’ll have a clip of it up soon, don’t fret.
Got a chance to listen to the new Hybrid album, I CHOOSE NOISE, and the new BT epic, THIS BINARY UNIVERSE. I highly recommend both, although with the following provisos: the BT should be heard in 5.1,with the videos, and the Hybrid should be heard louuud. Both, however, are pretty fine and awfully inspirational and recommended.
Alright: the verdict on the Hybrid is in, and it’s this: Boys, you needed to find who you had to kill to put your Planet Funk remix and ‘Sleepless’ on this album. And you should have done what ever you needed to do to get them. Because your album is in need of some gargantuan, take-no-prisioners dancefloor monsters. There are some near things, but none of them are textbook Hybrid home runs.
Also, I’m really curious, Mike, about your mixdown choices. A friend of mine said “It’s an album – it’s allowed to have dynamic range.”, and certainly no one likes dynamic range more than me. But I also like songs that I’m going to play in clubs to be loud, tight, and to pounce like a tiger. And the big dancefloor cuts (Dreamstalker, Dogstar, Just For Today, Falling Down) just don’t.
But! The secret track is fannntastic, so there you have it.
I am getting more music released!
‘The Flowers Preach’, which came out on a:Loud yesterday, is a scarybreaks-like-Habersham tune. You can buy the mp3 from Juno here.
And, the latest Royal Assassin track, ‘Turn At Twilight’, has been featured on Pacific Front’s monsterous new compilation, Storm Warning 2. You can get that from Beatport here.
There are also rumours that my remixes of Chris Fortier for Fade will be out soon. Stay tuned…
We have some hot hot hot hot new Tide Pool action for you, in honor of Canadian Thanksgiving. In no particular order, we’d like to thank huge, distorted roknroll basslines, gorgeously progressing techno tracks, and rolling breakbeats. And, of course, our Albertant cohort, Cecil D, who conjured them all up.
http://museumoftechno.org <-- "including a rare collection of 19th century bad-bwoy kickdrums" And, meet Mr. Robin Van Persie, for Arsenal.
…being a list of wonderful DJ-ish sets that are not mine:
c79 – supermacrosoulisistictwilightsoundsystem. A fantastic conjuration of jazz, funk, and groove, that morphs into techworks for the last half. C79 shall conquer.
AFK & Forumulate – Live @ VEMF 2006. The Pacific Front massive gives you an hour of their own work, live, with extra sax.
RA.027 – Ewan Pearson. I hate and fear the word “Podcast”, but I love Ewan Pearson to bits, especially when he puts together a summer, slightly-detroit-ish selection like this.
if you’ll pardon a moment of senseless fanboy action: James Holden played one of my records for Tide Pool, ‘Save vs. Wands’, in his set at Mysterland, which is a festival in Holland. I think my precise reaction was “wooooooooooooooooooo!”
If you come to one of my shows this year, come to this one. It’s the semi-finals of the Hush DJ Challenge, and it will be immense. It is at the mighty Hush, this Saturday, September 30th. Bring dancing shoes and “Vote For Thor” banners, please.
(Actually, cancel that last directive – if I see any of my friends wander in and immediately vote for me, I’ll be most put out. I expect to stand or fall on merit and skill, dammit, not on knowing more or less people than the other guys.)
And yes, I am aware than an anemone is not, in fact, a fish. With that proviso accounted for, this is the first of hopefully many interweb promo mixes for Tide Pool. This one is even entirely composed of tracks on Tide Pool. How about that.
Download by clicking on the pretty picture, which was taken, for the record, by Pat.
I just had a shocking thought: I’ve not gushed about The Beatles at all on this website. This embarasses and shocks me:
Now, with that said, I don’t know what I can say about Those Guys that would be meaningful, after 40-50 years of press about them. Except for two things:
Sir George Martin, their producer, is a genius of the highest order. So too is Geoff Emerick, their engineer for REVOLVER and onward. Norman Smith, who recorded their earlier work, can’t really be ignored either. He only did RUBBER SOUL, HELP, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, and so on. Not a bad few sessions to have been involved in.
Emerick, on the other hand, got to do his first work with Martin and the boys recording Tomorrow Never Knows, on a four-track tape machine. The modern mind boggles.
And then Martin pretty much did all the orchestration – for Eleanor Rigby, Penny Lane, and so on and so on and so on. Ridiculous shit.
The other thing that I want to mention about this pop music from my father’s generation is that, as someone who writes electronic music and listens to hordes of electronic music, all those cats could write songs around just about everyone who makes techno today. It’s embarassing, really, that two scouse lads with guitars can leave all of us, years later, still desperate for a great hook and two good harmony parts.