You know it’s a DJ Premier song after two bars. Here is another great track he produced for Joey Bada$$ and it just sounds as oldschooly and warm as we love it. Bada$$ has a great, laid back, hypnotic way to rap like Nas in his good times. Now add some superb video artists to make an outstanding visual representation and a new classic is born. Enjoy “Unorthodox”:
Joey Bada$$ – “Unorthodox” (Produced by DJ Premier) from GreenLabelSound on Vimeo.
Finally, Native Instruments released an app for the ipad called “Traktor DJ“. Since Traktor is the widest used DJ software and the ipad has so much to offer to manipulate music with its interface the expectations were extremely high. And they didn’t fail. The price of 18 EUR is ok for what you get and after reading the first reviews and I instantly had to download and try it.
I spent a nice long ride on the train with figuring out the thing and produce a little mix. The app runs smoothly and is very intuitive, it comes with effects like looping, delays, flangers and filters or freezes. The freeze function is certainly the most innovative. While in a loop, you can touch certain parts of the loop and play it, like single drums or sounds. While playing, mixing or skipping, it never gets out of synch, and combined with a soundcard you can send different sound signals to master and prelistening. So this is actually a serious alternative for a gig in a bar, maybe not in a club.
So here it is, enjoy 30 minutes of bass music with Benga, Kryptic Minds, Redrum and Fused Forces.
The mixes can be recorded directly within the app. I was a bit annoyed at first because I could not find a way to export it. But with a little help from the NI support I found the way. This is how you export and save a recording from the Traktor app for iPad:
“In order to export your recorded mix you need to sync (connect) your iPad to a desktop computer, then open iTunes and click on the iPad tab. Select the “APPS” tab and then scroll down to the section “File Sharing”. You will see TraktorDJ in the file sharing apps list. click on it, it will show you the recorded files which you can save now with the “SAVE TO” button to a location on your harddrive.”
Here is the official promotion video with Richie Hawtin preparing a set in the taxi:
I love these Rube Goldberg machine videos which show chain reaction of moving things. A ball falling down, hitting a bucket, turning a swing, breaking a bottle, releasing a gas, setting something on fire and so on.
Here is one which combines free running aka parcours with a gigantic setup of a machine. You’ll see people being shot at and fired in the air, jumping off roofs, bathed in cold water and gigantic towers falling. Starring the freerunning champion Jason Paul.
Here is the making of:
Years ago my friend Tom Dicicco, who was an upcoming producer then and now a regular guest at Berghain, told me about Kryptic Minds. “They are reeeeealy good”, he said, with a knowing nod, as if he knew they were going to be that big as they are now.
With a heritage of dark, soundfocused and complex drum’n’bass they formed a whole genre of dub heavy, reduced and dense dubstep. The niche of dubstep I really love. They are part of the widespread DMZ crew, releasing on their very own Osiris Records and have a worldwide followership who love their “fearsome sub bass assaults that lead listeners into an edgy otherworld”. Their slow and focused tracks produce an energy which is highly hypnotic and infectious and to me they have been very influential in my own dubstep voyage since 2006. I was especially blown away by their performance at Outlook festival together with Youngsta. It was just so massive and overwhelming.
Now they released a mix as a part of the famous Fabric series. Check it out as it subtly driving forward and roomfilling. The better your soundsystem the more the bass will come to life.
Es ist eine schockierende, verstörende und bedrückende Lebensbeichte, die Alma in dieser Dokumentation ablegt. Sie sitzt vor der Kamera und erzählt von ihrer Vergangenheit als Gangmitglied der Maras in Guatemala. Sie spricht, zittert, weint, fasst sich wieder, versinkt in sich. Die Geschichte beginnt mit ihrem ersten Mord, danach erzählt sie von ihrer Kindheit, wie sie in die Gang kam, von ihrem Alltag mit Schutzgelderpressungen und Drogendeals, von Liebe, Flucht, Rückkehr und dem Versuch auszusteigen.
Alma zuzuhören schnürt einem die Kehle zu. Geschichten über Gewalt, Willkür, Perspektivlosigkeit, Kriminalität gibt es so viele, meist aber sind die abstrakt. Das einzelne Schicksal mit all seinen Details und all seiner Härte ist aber eindrucksvoller als Statistiken oder Nachrichten. Es zeigt die Spiralen, die Lebensläufe, die sich so millionenfach auf der ganzen Welt abspielen. Mich hat vor allem das Banale daran schockiert und die Wendepunkte an denen alles auch ganz anders hätte laufen können.
Wenn Alma erzählt und sich erinnert wird ihr, ohne dass sie es explizit sagt, klar für was sie ihr Leben geopfert hat. Für nichts. Weder ist sie besonders reich oder besonders frei geworden, hat nicht im Glamour gelebt, sondern ein paar Augenblicke der Macht über Schwächere und ein kurzes Aufzucken der Selbstbestimmtheit ihren Eltern und ihrer perspektivlosen Situation gegenüber erlebt. Mit 15 hat sie ihr Leben geopfert für ein Leben in Abhängigkeit von den Gangbossen, in Schuld und schließlich im Rollstuhl.
Arte TV erzählt diese Geschichte in einem sehr gut gemachten Webspecial und einer noch besser gemachten App für Android und iPad. Während Alma erzählt, können wir hier auf einer Parallelspur Impressionen aus Guatemala, Clips und Zeichnungen sehen. Die Geschichte bekommt eine sehr dichte Struktur, die gezeigten Bilder vermischen sich mit Almas Worten im Kopf zu einer eigenen visuellen Vorstellung der Ereignisse.
If you work in communication you know this situation. “Focus groups” are people picked by an advertising or market research agency who represent customers. They are put in a room to share ideas about a product, a design or a campaign. They are meant to find out “insights” and feedback to test the marketability, but in fact, most of the time they are like shown in the video: dull, frustrating, uninspired and uninspiring for everybody. Truth is: If you want to know what’s really going on in the mind of the people you cannot ask them. You need to find other ways to figure that out.
A very simple and funny idea to promote a book, “Truth in advertising”. (via)
House Music is big in South Africa. Resident Advisor shows a video portrait of the scene in Johannesburg, interviewing producers, DJs, party organizers, showing the impact music can have in a society. Watch Real Scenes: Johannesburg
I like the vibe in this video and to take a look at a to me so far unknown area. And I like the political dimension of it: “In a city still rife with poverty, house music can offer a way out. For our latest Real Scenes film we journeyed to Johannesburg and its outer lying townships, meeting the DJs, producers, promoters and record labels who are central to its story.”
Here is a list of movies (especially gangster movies) I need to see. Partly as a note to myself, partly as an inspiration for my readers.
Watch more films!
Gangster squad
Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and-if he has his way-every wire bet placed west of Chicago.
Lawless
LAWLESS is the true story of the infamous Bondurant Brothers: bootlegging siblings who made a run for the American Dream in Prohibition-era Virginia. In this epic gangster tale, inspired by true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant’s family in his novel “The Wettest County in the World”, the loyalty of three brothers is put to the test against the backdrop of the nation’s most notorious crime wave.
End of watch
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are Brian and Mike, two smart, courageous officers who through cop instinct bust open drug and human-trafficking rings run by the Mexican cartels, and now the rumour is that a revenge assassination has been “greenlit” by some high-ranking executives south of the border.
Silver linings playbook
After spending four years in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his mother and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.
Argo
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA ‘exfiltration’ specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.
Oh god, it’s Fashionweek again.
(picture by Starstyling)
You want to go the best parties? Sure, here are my recommendations and how to get on the lists:
Monday, 14th
DANDY DIARY – SQUAT HOUSE BERLIN FASHION WEEK // OPENING PARTY
10:00pm until 5:00am
Friedrichstraße 112, Berlin
FB Event
Tuesday, 15th
G SESSIONS POP UP STORE
Torstrasse 66, 10119 Berlin
Come by for some drinks, great music by LookyLooky and a look at the latest G-SHOCK watches and limited editions.
6pm – 10pm
ROCAWEAR’s first ever Fashion Week Berlin Party
music by D E N A (live), Wyn Davies (live)
Prince Charles, Prinzenstraße 85f
DOORS: 10 pm (don’t be late!)
Tell somebody to put you on the list
WOOD WOOD PARTY
A strong line-up of friends will provide the music and from 22-24 drinks are on us.
Music: 2 Horn Disko, Bianca Checker, DJ Schowi (Bass Ill Euro)
Soju Bar SKALITZERSTR. 36 next to KIMCHI PRINCESS
10pm – 5 am
RSVP to: event@woodwood.dk
STARSTYLING Party mit Florian Kolmer, Female Macho, David Keno and FNM
Cookies
Doors open at 12
Wednesday, 16th
SWERGIE
Moneybrother (SWE), Pelle Almqvist of The Hives (SWE), Icona Pop (SWE)
free food and drinks 9.00 pm
Radialsystem V
Holzmarkstr. 33
Please confirm your attendance
HOUSE OF VANS BOILERROOM
Boys Noize, Modeselektor, Hercules and Love Affair, Brodinski and Gesaffelstein
Stadtbad Oderberger
10pm – 4am
Free tickets are exclusively available for collection at the Vans Store Berlin (Alte Schönhauser Str. 48, 10119 Berlin, Mo – Sat 11.00 – 20.00) or at selected Vans retailers (Titus Berlin, Titus Zoopreme, Firmament, Civilist, SOTO, Depot2).
Website
FIER SHOWROOM OPENING EVENING
DJ Nebu [ES], Amy Heaton (Kaltblut) and lots of art and fashion
The WYE, The Old Post @ Skalitzer 86
19:00-22:00
Open bar between 19:00 and 20:30
Full program
Guestlist here
Thursday, 17th
THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB
ALI SCHWARZ (TIEFSCHWARZ), CAPABLANCA (GOMMA), VLADIMIR KARALEEV
FROM 10 PM TILL LATE
AT BALLHAUS BERLIN / CHAUSSEESTR. 102
10115 BERLIN
Friday, 18th
FASHION WEEK SPECIAL – SLEAZE lädt ein
Sick Girls, Mitch Alive
Cookies Berlin
23:45
FB Event
to be continued
And another DJ mix I have to blog. Deadbeat at Boilerroom Berlin. Flows nicely and Deadbeat is quite cool to watch while he’s perfectly mixing. (via daskfmw)