Lazy

Man I've been such a bum lately! Hence I haven't posted on here for awhile. The funny thing is I've been on the internet A LOT lately. I've just gotten wrapped up in some other things (pretty typical of me once I get started on the internet). BUT I've got a few posts coming up and hopefully some DJ sets to share. I'm compiling right now.

The Presets - My People

I know this is not new music but I was just listening to The Presets and am reminded of their brilliance. If you have not yet taken advantage of their brilliance please do so immediately. This video will serve as reference.

Side Point....

That last post brings up something. Why are artists so afraid to be "pigeonholed"? Maybe that, by definition, is part of being an artist; not being predictable lest creativity be lacking. I definitely understand that but I think there's a few things to think about:

1) What if you're simply not that good at other styles?
For instance, you have "So and So" who makes what has been labeled "tech-house", but for fear of being "pigeonholed" decides to try "acid jazz". Would it be such a bad thing to be stuck in the genre you're good at?

2) What if that's just your sound/look/whatever?
Here's an example of two bands in particular who, respectively (and respectfully), have in the past declined being part of the genre they helped create. Depeche Mode, for instance, didn't like being "club" or "dance music", while Massive Attack didn't like being termed "trip-hop". I understand that sometimes the image that the title or associated group creates may not be what you represent but honestly, the description fits. If people had created any other term would they have liked that any better? While I love both (A LOT), I doubt it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for creativity and diversifying your sound but at what cost and is it always good?

Josh Wink to release new LP, "When A Banana Was Just A Banana"

Let me just get the disclaimer right out there: I've never been a huge fan of Josh Wink. However, I do know a fair number of people who will be excited to hear this news. And, well, it's not all about me, is it?

Back on topic, Josh Wink has just recently announced the release of his forthcoming, interestingly titled LP, When A Banana Was Just A Banana. This will mark the Philadelphia-based DJ/producer's fourth studio album.

Wink, who is already known for his eclectic style, seems to be making an even more outspoken statement against the dangers of "pigeonholing" in the electronic music genre.

“In a nutshell, it speaks really of the loss of innocence of music," Wink starts. "Music was just music when I was growing up. Nobody was ridiculed or had views of ‘I only listen to this one kind of music’, I grew up listening to everything. Today, so many people tend to only listen to one style of music with a strong opinion of why. I miss the innocence of how it was, like when you were younger, ‘A Banana Was Just A Banana’.”

True dat Josh Wink!

When A Banana Was Just A Banana is due to be released February 2009.

Depeche Mode - New Album and Tour of the Universe!

This is HUGE news for me, as I am a HUGE Depeche Mode fan! Their 12th studio album (yet to be titled) is in the works right now and will be followed by what I can only imagine is an immense tour. Especially since it has been dubbed "Tour of the Universe 2009". So far only the European leg of the tour has been announced but I'm sure dates for the U.S. will come soon. For now, enjoy the "in the studio" video as a teaser!

December Shows

Perhaps I'll expand this later, but residing in Colorado I thought I'd post some noteworthy shows coming to us in December. They are as follows:

12/2 - The Crystal Method - Fox Theatre, Boulder
12/6 - D. Ramirez - Vinyl, Denver
12/7 - Sebastien Tellier - Bluebird Theatre, Denver
12/11 - Nic Fanciulli - Beta Nightclub, Denver
12/13 - Satoshi Tomiie - Vinyl, Denver
12/18 - Dubfire - Beta Nightclub, Denver
12/19 - Glass Gentlemen - The Snake Pit, Denver *TBC

Get Physical's 100th release

The always brilliant Get Physical just put out it's 100th release, entitled GPM 100. I just listened to it and picked up a few tracks from Beatport. It is certainly worth checking out. See "Donut" from Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y. below. It actually reminds me of my friend Option4's music.... a lot!

It's not on GPM 100, but I also picked up "Long Way Down" by Tom Demac from the album, Editing Shadows.

Two funky, kinda strange tracks. Have a listen:

Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y. - Donut [Original Mix]
Tom Demac - Long Way Down [Original Mix]

Minilogue - Animals (short version)

Also caught a glimpse of this, while I was there. Please check out Minilogue.

The Man...The Machine...Street Hawk

In the recent past, I enjoyed a brew with a good friend while looking up memories that we look fondly upon via YouTube (scrapbooking followed shortly after). This is what it eventually led to: Street Hawk. The single greatest influence on my childhood, save only my parents. I can't wait until NBC ruins that for me as well. Grimace.

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die - Free Download!

As you may or may not have heard, The Prodigy is getting set to release their fifth studio album, Invaders Must Die, on their new label Take Me To The Hospital. It's big news considering it will be the first album since Fat of the Land to include all three members and the guests look impressive (Dave Grohl and James Rushent of Does It Offend You, Yeah?).

In support of the album they've made the title track "Invaders Must Die" available for free download. If you want it click....right....almost there....here.

Personally I didn't really care for it. I kinda felt the same thing for many parts of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. It just seems like the old Prodigy luster has worn off. In my opinion they've gotten kinda cheesy/poppy and have proven that even in a genre as interesting as electronic music, a genre they once pioneered, an aging Prodigy can lose relevance with the best of 'em. I sure hope I'm wrong, and they promise they are returning to their "old-school but cutting edge" roots but we'll all find out when the album is released, March 2, 2009.

Ben Watt feat. Julia Biel - Guinea Pig [Vocal Variation Mix]

Found this one particularly cool. Ben Watt of Everything But The Girl, and most recently owner of the Buzzin' Fly imprint, has once again proven his mastery of deep house.

Ben Watt feat. Julia Biel - Guinea Pig [Vocal Variation Mix]

Furthermore...

Sasha played a brilliant set at Beta.... and was gracious enough to take pictures with us sub-DJ's.

Review: Sasha - Invol2ver

Here's a fairly recent review I did of the latest from Sasha, Invol2ver:

Curse my impatience!

The funny thing is I know better.

I know better than to rush Sasha to put something new out.

But here I am again, a few years after his previous release, Fundacion (which as usual blew me away), teaching myself the same lesson: perfection takes time. Hopefully I learn this time.

In case you didn't catch it, I am most certainly impressed by the latest mix/near-album (let's just call it project) by the one and only Sasha, entitled Invol2ver. As if no time at all has passed since the original Involver, Sasha aka Alexander Coe once again flexes his production muscle with a set of songs all hand selected and remixed by himself that create this DJ set with a soul.

As the disc begins, I am immediately pleased with the slower, down-tempo entrance into the rest of the set; something I long for in a good mix but seldom get. Should I expect anything less of Sasha though? Especially on a disc with this ambition? Working through the meat of the disc, I am again impressed by the warmth that Sasha brings out of these songs. It's something I've always loved about his sound, and Invol2ver is no exception. Every song is so thickly layered and rich, while never becoming too crowded. It's interesting, because the disc is not really a peak-heavy, club type set; however, it's not by any means boring. In fact, I'd rather listen to this type of set either way.

Throughout the disc there are a few songs you may recognize. Songs that, of course, are more than capable of standing on their own but when given the careful touch of an artist like Sasha, can blossom into a familiar yet entirely different and interesting form. Case in point, the "Sasha Invol2ver Remixes" of "Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron and "The Eraser" by Thom Yorke. I was particularly interested to hear these mixes and how they would fit in. Even with utmost faith in the best outcome, I was pleasantly surprised by how these unique mixes respected their respective originals yet showed a different side to them, all without sounding like cheesy mash-ups or too forced.

Well, I suppose you've heard enough of my Sasha praising for one sitting, so I'll wrap this up. But whether you're a long time Sasha fan like myself or not, I invite you to listen to this latest piece and see if you don't become one.

Interview with The Faint

So, this interview with Jacob Thiele of The Faint actually took place in July 2008 but this blog was not in existence at that time and this was a fun interview so I thought I'd go ahead and post it. Might see me playing catch up with a couple older subjects as well, but I'll only put it up if it's worth it.

"Hello... this is Josh with Kaffeine Buzz. Am I speaking with Jacob?" "Yeah, hey can I call you back?" "Sure! Talk to you in a bit." "Hey this is Jacob, is this Josh?" "Yeah, hey I have a call. Can I put you on hold and disconnect with them really quick?" "Sure, actually why don't you call me back on this number ___-___-____. I have a bad connection." "Ok, sure, call you right back." So went the first couple minutes of my interview with Jacob Thiele of The Faint. But being the professionals we are, we made the best of a bad phone situation and this is what happened:

KB: So, your album Fasciinatiion is coming out on August 5. Those of us who have been to shows have heard some early versions of the songs. How similar are the studio versions to the live versions we've all heard?

JT: For the most part they're pretty much the same. "A Battle Hymn for Children" changed the most. Because we got to play a lot of them live we were able to see where we needed to make adjustments.

KB: That's a nice way to test out a song.

JT: Yeah, the melodies are all pretty much the same but playing them at shows allowed us to make little tweaks to them.

KB: So, how does this one compare to previous albums?

JT: Well, it's kind of an amalgamation of all the previous albums. We took a lot of the styles and sounds of the other albums and built it from there. Like some of the earlier ones, we mainly put together in a basement. It's kind of nice recording that way, but we've realized there are shortcomings to recording with that method. Wet from Birth differed because we built each song; in the studio and stuff. Lots of times we would come up with an idea for something, let's say a bass line, and we'd all sit down with a bass and go to our corners and see who would come up with the best bass line. Then we'd give it to whoever could do the most with it. Like we know Clark is the best programmer and certain bass lines only Dapose can play and I'm the guy for synths.

KB: Sort of like a survival of the fittest concept?

JT: Well not quite that tough, sort of though. But this album is kind of like taking all of those experiences and blending them together.

KB: On that note, which album, would you say, was the most challenging?

JT: Well, I guess this one in a way. We would play songs from the album but it was frustrating because we knew it would be like 4 or 5 months till it came out.

KB: You guys have released the first single from the album, "The Geeks Were Right". Now I'm curious; were the geeks actually right?

JT: Heh. Hmmm. Yeah I guess so. I guess we were hoping the geeks were right. The whole idea for this song kind of came from this dream, or vision, that Todd had for the future and science. He's really into science and technology and gets really excited thinking about where it will take civilization. This song is about those smart, geeky guys actually doing something to further that. It's funny; I went to my high school reunion, my 10 year reunion, for some reason. I guess because I don't really have anything to be ashamed of and it was interesting to see what happened to everyone. The "cool kids", the jocks and those guys, were just working the same jobs they were since high school while the geeks were actually doing really interesting things with their lives. They were proving that the geeks were right by doing things to better the world.

KB: So, do you guys consider yourselves geeks?

JT: Yeah I think we're all geeks. Todd, of course, "geeks out" on science and that kind of stuff. Joel "geeks out" on compressors and Clark "geeks out" on music software; then he teaches that stuff to Todd. It's funny though, we actually used a lot of 70's and 80's synths on that track; even used a Commodore 64 on it.

KB: Nice!

JT: Yeah. We had this quote posted on the board while we were recording. God, what was it?! Something about the old future. You know like how the future was predicted to be. The way 1985 was supposed to be. We were comparing it to the new future; the way it actually happened. I think the new future is where it's at.

KB: So I'm curious. What are some of the influences or bands that you guys draw from?

JT: Well, when I joined the band, I know I was really into the Urgh! A Music War stuff. Bands like Devo, Gang of Four. Hmmm, New Order as they were coming out of Joy Division, old Human League, Vince Clarke, Depeche Mode; all those bands. More recently I've been really into Mr. Oizo. He just writes this stuff that's really strange and interesting. It helps to hear his music when I feel like I'm in a rut, helps me get out of it. I really like the oblique strategies. Heh, the way the French say it, they call him Mr. Wazoo.

KB: Haha, those French!

JT: Oh yeah and Sebastian. He's been doing some really cool stuff. Actually there's a lot of interesting music and art I've been noticing in the last five years or so. It's interesting the way art and music fight the backwards-thinking, conservative minds in office. It seems to happen every so often, when we have a president like that in office.

KB: Haha, true... true. I notice you guys are releasing Fasciinatiion on Blank.Wav Records. What prompted the creation of Blank.Wav?

JT: Well, I guess we just kind of wanted to do our own thing; do everything for ourselves. We met with Saddle Creek and some other labels and told them we really wanted to do our own thing. We just felt like everything is heading towards digital sales; something like 50% of all sales will be digital by Christmas, so we felt like the time is now. So many artists are doing that and have been successful and it just seemed logical. Of course we know there will always be those people who find it for free somewhere, I'm not sure where they get it, but digital is big. Last I checked it's not available as a free download somewhere but I haven't checked today yet haha.

KB: Yeah I know those guys and I'm sure they'll find a way.

JT: Heh, yeah me too. I'm not mad at those guys. We spent all of our money, and then some, paying to put this album out but if they feel like they deserve the music without paying for it...

KB: So have all the ties to Saddle Creek been severed?

JT: Well, things are undefined with Saddle Creek right now. We're still cool with those guys and still hang out with some of them. They still have all of the previous albums but things are kind of up in the air. We just felt like we could do what we want with Blank.Wav. Maybe we'll sign some bands in the future.

KB: Well, I guess that's all I had. I feel like I've been asking all of the questions. Is there anything you wanna ask me?

JT: Heheh. Hmmm...

KB: That's ok, there's no good answer to that. Well, we look forward to the album and the coming tour.

An Introduction....

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Dr. Brown, Dr. Hershey Brown. I like things, especially of the electronic short; and I'd like to share these things with you. Hence, I've created this blog. As with any good relationship, I hope you'll share with me as well. This blog will primarily focus on interesting electronic music but from time to time I'll put up other things that catch my interest (and hopefully yours too).

Now, just to be upfront, I am involved in a couple electronic music projects. So, from time to time you may see a shameless plug or two regarding these excursions. In fact, might be time for one now. I'm one half of a two man electronica group called Glass Gentlemen. Glass Gentlemen operates on the electronic music label we created, Counterfeit Records. And finally there's my DJ/solo project operating under the moniker Dr. Brown.

So, here I am and there you are.