Saturday, April 18, 2009

Day 107: Please does it have to come to this.

If there is one thing that doesn't turn me on, it's middle aged German guys selling me useless software. Tho I suspect that in this fucked up world there is niche for exactly that sort of thing.

Imagine my disgust then when I saw the following video, which is Paul Van Dyke pimping some iPhone app for DJs:



What's weird is, that I had no idea until recently that Paul Van Dyke was like that. He's probably one of the biggest DJs in the world, but I don't think I have ever heard one of his sets, for more than 5 minutes at least.

For me, it's dance music for people who don't like dance music. The Big Mac of the raving world. Not overly bad... just, well, bland. Infact, I just realised I've been spelling his nam wrong. Youtube says it's 'Dyk'.

Aaaaaaaaaany way before I launch in to a full blown anti trance rant... am I the only one that thinks this video is like watching someones dad try and sell you something cool on QVC?

=/


2/365

p&&l

bang!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Day 106: RSS Stole my life.

Even for a techy, I was pretty slow on the uptake with RSS, and to be honest didn't really even understand it till fairly recently. Though now it's mind numbingly obvious.

However discussing this briefly the other day, I realised it's actually having the reverse affect on my life as intended.

I think the idea is that, instead of trawling all your favorite sites to see if there is anything new and interesting, you simply subscribe to the feed, et voila, you have more free time than you know what to do with.

What's happened for me though is that having this centralised source for viewing information means that anytime I find a site that's interesting, I stick it's feed in to my reader. Most of the time it's great, and really useful. It's no secret that a lot of the info you see up here is sourced from my RSS feeds.

It also happens to be how I discover a lot of music too, so from a DJ perspective it's also very handy, I just don't see where it will end.

As it stands at time of writing I have 112 unread items, and that's after going through the main feeds already.

Please RSS, I want my life back you unrelenting provider of new information...!

Oh don't forget... you can always subscribe to MY feed here :P


2/365

p&&l

bang!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Day 105: Dubstep Doc

I've struggled with Dubstep for years. Which for a DnB loving Bristolian is a hard thing to understand.

I love fat basslines, and moody music... so why not Dub Step? Who knows. Well keeping it cutting edge as I do. Here is a documentary from THREE years ago about the blossoming scene in Bristol.

Even from just watching the first few minutes I already get it a lot more, and now am left with a regrettable sense of 'missing the boatedness' Ah well next time maybe.
2/365

p&&l

bang!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Day 104: Scenesters

Thought I'd have a bit of rant today, don't know why. Maybe because it's mid week, and it's cloudy...

Scenesterism is something that's kinda never really bothered me as I tend to ignore it. You know, people who do shit just cos it's trendy, people who get gigs cos they are a fit female DJ, or some soul selling white shirt fanboy crevice licker.

Either way, never bothered me, cos I always wanted to do things my way. Yeah a bit of nepotism is always going to be there, and certainly forging relationships with important people etc needs to be done. What I don't like is doing that, whilst pretending it's not that.

Over the course of these 104 posts, I have contacted various people for various reasons. Some asking questions, some saying 'I like what you do' some just brazenly asking to listen to my mix etc. Everyone though genuine and clear in whatever the intention.
I've made some new friends, some I never even got a reply, thats all fine. I'm not even really going to diss scenesters, I think what I hope though is that in the long run talent, sincerity and friendship win out.

After all, what's the point in all of this if your not enjoying it, or doing it cos you love it. If you're into this for a profile boost, or to be cool then that's really fucked up. DJs aren't really cool anyway, certainly never trust a DJ that seems too cool. By their nature they are geeks. Music and equipment nerds with obsessive tendencies. Someone willing to grind away at a breakbeat for 4 hours till they get it right. Also don't trust DJs that don't move,dance,fidget,bop etc when they
play. If you don't love what you're playing, no-one else will!

So right now, if you're wearing a white shirt, playing the latest Minimal/Bloghaus anthems plucked from the Beatport top 10, stiff as a post, with $100 trainers, at your sisters boyfriends club. Be afraid, we're coming to GET YOU....

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Day 103: Record Label

Just a quick tip in today's bang. A site I discovered some while ago, I thought deserved a post of it's own. The excellent RCRDLBL is a site formed by a collective of independent Record Labels.


The artist repertoire is excellently varied, and the music is always interesting and of high quality. The good thing is they give out free mp3s EVERYday, and what's good is that one day it could be some thumping electro from Boys Noize, the next it could be some Serene melodic female Swedish Hippy folk, you never know, but it's always good, and a real delight as a music lover to be gifted with different sounds all the time, even if they're not your normal thing.

So yah, really worth a visit, and signing up to the newsletter to get the free tunes in your inbox daily.

2/365

p&&l

bang!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Day 102: Why have I still not got one...

The reasons to get an iPhone seem to just keep mounting up. I'm almost at the point where I actually should be giving reasons NOT to get one.

Ok, well there are a few reasons. The main one is I don't want to get one now cos they aren't exactly new, so knowing my luck they will release a super new one the day after I get mine. Secondly, they are, let's face it, silly money.

I could still go down the iPod touch route, that could work out quite well, the problem there though is that they don't have the mega capacity that I would like. I have all the music I own (which is a fair amount) on my current old faithful, and still a few Gb to spare. 8 or 16gb just ain't going to cut it, despite me not actually listening to 98% of it, but that's not the point. Above that tho we are back in silly money world again.

I probably would just be better off with a Pacemaker, much more suitable, dedicated device and stacks of storage...

No virtual synths on a Pacemaker though... I'll just have to get both.




2/365

p&&l

bang!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Day 101: Onward...

After yesterdays uber post, please forgive me if I am a little lighter on the posting today. The day has been lost in general despite reading some Ableton tutorials and having a bit of a meddle.

I am officially posting my first demo today too, to a Radio station that dedicates Friday nights to listener sessions (mixed in with those by 'proper' DJs).

So much for making the most of these days off. I get more done on the average weeknight!

Here is a pretty picture to make up for reading this fairly lame post:


2/365

p&&l

bang!