@ Power House – The NYC Edition

Posted: September 19th, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Gigs | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

Finn Johannsen – Stickymix 48

Posted: November 1st, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Mixes | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Odyssey – Inside Out (Remix By Al Kent)

Million Dollar Orchestra – The Loneliest One

Jeff Mills & The Zanza – When The Time Is Right

Kenny Lynch – Half The Day’s Gone (KL Tribute Dub)

Ultra High Frequency – We’re On The Right Track (Organic Disco LIRR Remix)

Unknown Artist – 45566 BPM

Norma Jean Bell – Libre Comme Un Oiseau

Sami Reza – I’m Drowning

Unknown Artist – Last Time We Danced

Flaunt Edwards – Planets Of Life (Kon & Flaunt’s Scorpio Groove)

East Coast Love Affair – Shake

Michael McDonald – Sweet Freedom (The Reflex Revision)

Julio Cruz – Inside Your Luv

Disco Dandies – Inside Your Love

Dimitri From Paris x Fiorious – Music Saved My Life (The Extended Discomix)

Never Dull – Want My Love

Lee Pearson Jr. Collective – Start Today

Vick Lavender – Beautiful Lie

East Coast Love Affair – Without You

Pal Joey – What Can We Do Now

Hauke – Desire

Mistura feat. Kendra Cash – Smile (Joey Negro Club Mix)

Matt Early & Lee Jeffries – Love Is Growing Deeper (Matt Early Main Mix)

STR4TA – After The Rain (Dave Lee Alternative II Mix & Dub)

The Patchouli Brothers – Can’t Get You Down

AC Soul Symphony – Manhattan Skyline (JN Spirit of 77 Mix)

Belcampo – Your Kissing

Carl Bean – I Was Born This Way (Moplen Dub #1)

Dimitri From Paris – Can’t Get Enough (Dubstrumental)

The Shapeshifters Feat. Billy Porter – Finally Ready (Extended Monologue Mix)

Michael Gray Feat. Kelli Sae – MacArthur Park (Michael Gray Dub)

Unknown Artist – Across 110th Street

Jkriv – Souvenirs

Saint Paul – Soul Secrets

LoveHrtz – Classic Case

A/P – Make Them Move

Javi Frias – Universal Sound

Julio Cruz – Feelin’ Tipsy

Austin Ato – Heat

Brooklyn Funk Essentials – Watcha Want From Me (Mochi Men Remix)

Julio Cruz – Midas Touch

Unknown Artist – Involved

Paris Brightledge – For Love (Eric Kupper Mix)

Interstate – Mind Games

Byron Stingily & Teddy Douglas – We Belong Together (Maurice Fulton Remix)

Queen & Disco – No Goodbyes

Lord & Dego – Mandarin Delight

Los Hermanos – Another Day

DOS – Work That

Amy Dabbs – A Girl Like Me

Virna Lindt – Once

@ Paloma Invites: Pal Joey

Posted: August 26th, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Gigs | Tags: , , | No Comments »

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Finn Johannsen – Werking Class Heroes Part 2

Posted: November 9th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Mixes | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

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Go Bitch Go! – Work This Pussy (Original Bitch Mix)
DJ Sneak – Work It
Sub-Culture Feat- Marcus – Dreams (Tribal Life Mix)
Springboard – Be My Man (Club Mix)
Todd Edwards – Winter Behavior
Sound Design – Searchin’
Gypsymen – Bounce
M.A.D.A. – The Good Stuff (Culture Mix)
Mental Instrum – Bott-ee Rider (Open Wide!!)
Gayland – Get By (The Instrumental)
Georgie Porgie – Strawberry (Georgie’s Club Mix)
Deep Style – …Down (Elementary Dub)
L.J. – No Work
O.D.C. – Model 9000
Aswad – Shine (Remix Dub)
DJ Sneak – Come Together
Nature Boy – Tobago
The Cover Girls – Wishing On A Star (Magic Sessions Vocal Dub)
Martha Wash – Carry On (Masters At Work Dub Mix)
Uncanny Alliance – I Got My Education (Underground Dub)
Louie “Balo” Guzman – Don’t Shut Me Out
The Miners – Calling You (Giancarlino Stress Mix)
Mood II Swing Productions – I Need Your Luv (Right Now) (Balo’s Banji Mix)
Full Swing – Choices (Choices Vocal Mix)
Marina Van-Rooy – Sly One
Lectroluv – If We Try (Hard Dub Edit)
Pal Joey – Rat Race
Celo-Sound – Every Day Every Nite
Hardrive Feat. L.G. – Sindae (Kenlou Dub)
Black Rascals – Sympathy (Club Dub)
Three Generations Feat. Chevell – Get It Off
Romanthony – Falling From Grace
Interceptor – Together (The S-Man’s Miami Mix)
Daniela Mercury – O Canto Da Cidade (Murk Boys Miami Mix)
Mission Control – Outta Limits

Playing Favourites: DJ Sprinkles

Posted: February 3rd, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Interviews English | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Nina Simone – See-Line Woman (Philips) 1965

I picked this because of the extraordinary lyrics, which reappeared eventually in the house scene. Kerri Chandler did a version of it. And there are some rhythm patterns that you use as well. It was also a hit in the gay house scene. There are many house tracks based on this tune.

Personally, I really like Nina Simone a lot. I think there have been a lot of really bad remixes done of this track. For example, the Masters of Work remake added a really cheesy synth pad over her, so it’s really been bastardized a lot. But I think that’s part of the whole schmaltz of the gay house scene as well. That it has this way of reducing things to a cheap standard.

I think there’s a way in which it’s complicated to play music that verges more on gospel than soul in the club environment. And I think that’s something that Nina herself would like in a weird way. She identified herself less as a jazz musician, and more as a folk musician. And felt that she was channeled in the jazz corner by the industry. In her biography, she talks about being—if anything—a folk musician. That kind of cross-categorization is really interesting to me. And there’s also this idea of “How could her music get worked into a DJ set?”

Especially with this contrast between the euphoria of her live performances that is associated with her work, and her audience’s reactions to her work. She’ll play something like “Mississippi Goddamn,” this sad, tragic song. And the audience is like, “I love this song!” They’re cheering like idiots.

I think the same goes for this song. The way that she sings this song is not cheerful at all. That contrast struck me in that gay house context as well. It’s not the same sort of material that you ordinarily associate with it.

For sure, that’s something that I identify with in my own music. I often produce it from a perspective that people don’t sympathize with particularly. Or they approach it from an angle that is different from where I produce it from. They want to turn it into something, despite the complaints, that is energizing for a party. For me, I’m totally not concerned with this type of energy.

I really have a respect for her. I can empathize with this idea of immigration, of leaving the United States. It was under different circumstances, of course, but as an American who emigrated to Japan I feel a kind of simpatico with her.

Would you basically say that this streak in your work, where you reference things like this, is that you try to remain faithful to the original vibe of the material?

No. I don’t believe there is an original, or that there is something to be faithful to. I don’t believe in faith at all, in any form. I think this is important to clarify. That doesn’t mean just being kind of aloof or naïve about the connotations either. It’s about thinking about them in a way that allows for complications or recontextualizations as opposed to simply doing an homage or a tribute. Nina Simone has had enough tributes, you know? It’s OK if we don’t tribute always.

Gary Numan – Cry, The Clock Said (Beggars Banquet) 1981

Your Rubato series where you do piano renditions of Kraftwerk, Devo and Gary Numan. It struck me that all three of these acts have this weird relationship between technology and humanity. Was that your purpose with it?

Yes, of course. The purpose of the series was to investigate the techno pop icons that were the seminal acts of my childhood. And to think about how it polluted or influenced or channeled my own productions, as well as my own politics. And, of course, techno pop is very phallo-centric, Mensch Machine, so I wanted to also complicate the homo eroticism of this musical world that almost exclusively prevents the entry of women. Which makes it either a misogynistic or gay space. Or both. Or neither.

So all of the piano was composed on the computer, which I felt kept the technological association with these original artists and what I feel their vision was for using technology, but also to have the result be this neo-romantic piano solo that wasn’t a Muzak version, but going towards an avant-garde piano that—unless you were a big fan—you might not be able to pick out the melodies.

Sexuality this genre seems really warped in a way. As you said, like with Kraftwerk. The only time that they explicitly dealt with sexuality was on Electric Café on “Sex Object,” which is a really weird track.

Yeah. They had it in Computer World , they also had “Computer Love,” though. But it’s always about either the machine or the woman is the object. Always objectified. “Sex Object” has a very weird elementary school approach to gender.

Everybody likes to think of Kraftwerk as being very much in control of their image, but if you look at their catalogue, it’s a total mess. You have this Krautrock stuff. The Ralf und Florian album, that was cut from the catalogue for a long time because it didn’t fit in. They are much more eclectic than they want people to think.

I think their concept is also much more open than many people think. They left some leeway.

I think a lot of it is due to the record company. I’m coming at Kraftwerk as an American, and which records were distributed to us there may have been different than what was sold in Europe. So things like the first ones with the pylons were never seen until I was in New York. And they were, like, a million dollars. It was Autobahn , Trans Europe Express , Radioactivity , Computer World , Mensch Machine and that was it. If you could track down the Tour de France EP, it was a miracle.

How would you place Gary Numan in this? He also played with these ideas, but it always had a bit of a tragic note to it.

I think that the Dance album… Remember when you interviewed me about the Dazzle Ships album, and I talked about it being a kind of crisis moment when an artist is trying to figure out their own artistic direction, and they’re faced with the pressures of the major labels that they’re signed in and locked into. Dance was right around the same time, and I think it was Gary Numan’s crisis with the industry. When you look at it in relation to the kind of progress of the sound of his work—and at that time he did have a very linear channeling of what he was doing—this was the album that was the peak of this weird electronic Latin percussion thing. He had people from Japan working with him. His next album, Bezerker, was this more industrial thing. It was samplers and all this sort of stuff. For me, though, Dance was the height of this certain kind of sound that he had control over, but also dealing at the same time with pressure from the label.

Image-wise, what he did up to Dance certainly served him better than what he did after. I remember this sleeve of Warriors … Maybe the image that he portrayed earlier wasn’t exactly original, but it served his voice quite well. And his persona.

For me, the conflict of something like the Warriors cover, where he’s standing in this S&M gear, all leathered up with a baseball bat as though he’s some kind of bad ass road warrior guy, is that he has this posture that is totally faggy and limp. And the bleached hair. And then he’s not queer-identified. He’s straight-identified. He plays with gender in his lyrics, but he makes it clear in his interviews that he’s not. For me, it’s this contradiction between the kind of costume play that you could find in a gay club, but for me it was also a mismatch…like the leather bottom.

It also has to do with being a nerd that is really into science fiction. He also has this nerd component. His lyrics are all about Philip K. Dick and Blade Runner . He was totally into that stuff. And I think that’s also what drew me to him. And it also made me repress the impact that he had on me. By the time you reach 18 or so, it’s too tragic to say that you’re a Gary Numan fan. People react in this horrible way. But he, more than Devo or Kraftwerk, was really influencing me.

I used to plagiarize his lyrics and enter them into the school district contest and get ribbons for it. And when my father was upset with me about music and things, it was my Gary Numan records that he would lock away in the closet so that I couldn’t get at them. There was a lot of battle around Gary Numan in my adolescent life.

I think that’s why the “Cry, The Clock Said” has such a special connection for Comatonse. Because the first EP was basically a dub remix of this song. Read the rest of this entry »

Playing Favourites: Quarion

Posted: January 21st, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Interviews English | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

> Sound Dimension – Granny Scratch Scratch (Soul Jazz)

This is a 70’s reggae track by Jackie Mittoo. It’s almost Minimal, very basic.

True. It’s got some Techno appeal, it’s just rhythm. That’s what I like about this Dub stuff, there are so many things you can recognize that were used later on in electronic music like House and Techno. Dub was so important for that.

So these ancient production techniques are still valid? There seems to be a direct line from Jamaica to today’s productions.

Yeah, I listen to Dub. I don’t listen to a lot, but I like some of it. But I like to use the state of mind of Dub in my music. It’s more a musician thing. I like to use the techniques of it. I’m getting more into the music, too. It’s amazing, the way they were mixing the bass and the drums in the 70’s. Really crazy.

They also put some emphasis on just doing tracks, not songs.

It really is the basis of what came afterwards, from Hip Hop to House to Techno. Drum and Bass also, of course. They all took elements from Dub, that’s really interesting.

> Yukihiro Takahashi – Walking To The Beat (Pick Up Records)

The next one is by Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi. A Synthpop track.

It is interesting. It has this kind of proto-House feeling. What I really liked was this crazy soprano sax solo at the end. It is almost like Free Jazz, for 30 or 40 seconds, and then it stops. That was quite bold.

I think he actually wanted to do some kind of pop hit though. The singer on this record is the one from the 80’s pop group Icehouse for example. But for a pop hit it is probably too weird.

I think the harmonies are built up quite traditionally, but this solo part really surprised me. It is almost like New York ‘s Post Punk era. Trying some new crazy stuff.

Maybe you should use some sax solo in a House track.

Well, I used to play sax in the past.

Really?

Yeah, for a long time. But I kind of really got tired of the sound and I don’t think I’m going to use it. But you never know. I started playing Alto Saxophone when I was 13 years old. I had tried piano a few years ago, but I wasn’t so much into it. I don’t remember why I chose saxophone, but I remember I wanted to do a wind instrument. With the saxophone, I learned to play jazz and I absolutely loved it! I began rehearsing with a few bands, mostly Jazz or Funk groups. When I discovered DJing, I was instantly hooked and I started playing less and less saxophone, until I quit around 2001. DJing, collecting and discovering music became more important for me. I dabbled into production around 1996, but got a home studio setup two years later. I remember that my main reason for producing was that I found that certain records were lacking something or were arranged in a way that I thought was not so effective. I was thinking “Hmm, the producer should have put this part first” or “the chord there doesn’t sound nice although the beat is dope”. After a while I just thought I should make my own tracks.

I remember that a lot of the early Deep House tracks used the same sax sound. Really flat and synthetic. They seldom used a real saxophone, always this cheap sound effect.

Yeah, terrible. Read the rest of this entry »