Asher Roth - Boys Video

Ladies and gentlemen... Benny Goodman in the House

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

This song is bloody sick... sooo sooo sick... the perfect blend of noise, melody, mood, style, and grace that I love in Rock... its like Portishead's "third" meets Santigold's "L.E.S. Artistes"... but even more sick... glorious!

DOOM - Gazzilion Ear (Thom Yorke Remix)

I need to cop this, but in the meantime.. a blend of two of my favorite artists...



Well done at that... the fast pace of DOOM alongside the deceivingly slow (but oh so skittish) chunk of Yorke reminds me of Jungle with the bass and breakbeat juxtaposition.

Juice Presents a Bad Case of Disco Fever...

Here is a very very very loosely mixed (iPod shuffle style) Disco mix I made for my aunt. I hope you enjoy (I'm not a Disco DJ so pardon the loose mixing)... its about an hour, its iPod safe as its all in one track, and CD burn worthy as it clocks in about 1hr of a mix. While Disco could be seen as a foundational music for dance music... the real gems I played out in the final three... these are just genius pieces of music as they blend electronics, vocals and arrangements in ways that felt in most dance musics today.

Download Here

Good Times – Chic
That’s the Way (I like it) – KC and the Sunshine Band
Disco Inferno – The Trammps
A Fifth of Beethoven – Walter Murphy
The Hustle – Van McCoy
La Freak – Chic
Funkytown – Lipps Inc.
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Santa Esmerelda
If I Can’t Have You - Yvonne Elliman
Fly Robin Fly – Silver Convention
I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
Ring My Bell – Anita Ward
Rock With You – Michael Jackson
Don’t Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) – Sylvester
I Feel Love – Donna Summer

And in case you wondered about Disco.. it died just like any other genre of dance music... as exemplified...

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head - 20th Anniversary Reissue

I remember the days I would smurk and burn holes through the albums of the old farts of my day. Anything 'old' was nothing more than irrelevant, dirty, a waste. This was in a time when Hip Hop ransacked through just about every piece of vinyl I knew of... when Punk music hurt to listen to. To see old ass relics and the dumb nostalgia held by my elders when they picked up a CD of an album bought 15 years earlier reinforced how 'cool' and cutting edge I was and how little they 'got it'. I reveled in their inability to understand how sweet the Beastie Boys blended Rock music crunch with Hip Hop swagger.

And yet here we are. Just as much as Chicago, Boston, Led Zeppelin, or Queen had little to no relevance to the Beasties. Fact Magazine passes along the reissue news for "Check Your Head" to remind me how much music, Hip Hop, commercialism, my conceptualization of cool, and social factors that affected music... has changed in 20 years. It makes me wonder if this...

has anything to do with this...

Web Trend Map

I copped this from another blog... but it's just so stunning I had to share.. The original can be found on flickr

Phillip Glass - American Masters

PBS doc on the one and only Philip Glass. He has been one of my favorite non-EDM artists and I'm so happy to see him be so normal. I share a kindred spirit with him in the sense of his exploration of repetition, embrace of various non-western influences, and variation within a particular space is quite akin to dance music, or DJ music. Glorious!

Updates and Resident Advisor Winter Music Conference Review

So amongst the various projects and dealings with being unemployed, I've been slacking a bit with updates over here. But, to keep you company, here is respected online magazine Resident Advisor's review of the entire 2009 Winter Music Conference.

During much of this time, I've been reading all about DC unemployment policies, working on a very overdue House and Disco mix and working on new tracks for my upcoming ill.selection showcase. A few of these new specimens can be found on my myspace. But let me tell you, the stuff thats siting in my computer has shaped itself up quite nicely, with more structured arrangements, multiple layers of low, mid and highs... and a dabble into pads and strings... not my usual, but its still heavily rhythmic. I'm still coming up with a title for the mix as I've been listening to some sets and tracks recently and I've been noting how vibes have been influenced by Funky and having tracks move towards more percussive angles... but with the recent Blackdown article on Pitchfork showing off the new school half-step... I'm looking forward to that too.

And after vibing off local DC Producers... I must say that I think my beats come from a VERRYY far off place in comparison to the rest of the lot. Which is not a bad thing at all for either them or I... but it has influenced my beats to be 'anti' of what I'm thinking is the vibe of the moment for DC Dubstep, which has made up of a handful of producers (mostly DnB heads) with a tendency for atmosphereics, metalics, Distance-like techy angles. (examples here and here) I fancy myself towards sounds of a rhythmic propulsion... which is what i dug about Jungle/DnB to begin with.

I also appreciate the fact that my friends, who are not into EDM in any way shape or form, dig my tunes and get turned off by the more traditional beats. :P

Anywho... big up to all yall, blah blah blah and that whole mess.

"ill.selection's Rhythm Driven Mix" maybe????