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Posts tagged "Music"

50 posts with this tag

Superhero like, even

music mix defcon dance

Superhero like, even

Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing materials for their own ends.

The m3u is dead. Long live the m3u!

code music

The m3u is dead. Long live the m3u!

It seems like everyone is a DJ nowadays.

As usual, I blame digitization. When you had to lug 30 lbs of vinyl up a creaky warehouse stairwell, there was a pretty good chance you were going to play some fire. Serato was alright, because at least you still had the turntablism. With the advent of CDJs and Rekordbox, it was all over.

Ancestral Music from India, Persia, Turkey, and Greece

film music

Ancestral Music from India, Persia, Turkey, and Greece

I had the good fortune of catching Maz Karandish & Alexander Karvelas, along with their tabla player, performing an evening of ancestral music from India, Persia, Turkey, and Greece. This was part of a Groupmuse event in the Oakland hills – notable for being the first event put on by that organization that strayed from the Classical European Chamber Music tradition. The performers were fantastic, including the dancers for many of the Turkish and Greek songs, and I was happy to see an organization like Groupmuse offering a diversity of voices as a direct result of the George Floyd murder and resulting protests.

Take It Back

music mix takeitback

Take It Back

Take It Back: a renegade gathering to make up for lost time stolen by the plague. Performed on a brilliant sunny day in Berkeley, California.

Take It Back Flyer

Don’t Say Damn…Say Whoa

music dance

Don’t Say Damn…Say Whoa

Don’t Say Damn…Say Whoa

I’ve been enjoying these old mixes of The Electrifying Mojo.

Mixcloud

The music is always on point and the message is just as crisp as it was all those years ago. The Mental Machine is just the sort of positivity the world needs right now.

Sit back, tune in, and enjoy the ride.

Mission: Dance 2 (Jungle Boogaloo)

music mix mission dance

Mission: Dance 2 (Jungle Boogaloo)

The world is constantly shapeshifting, adapting, and evolving. This mix was improvised by popular request on an unexpected Wednesday at a warehouse in the Mission, San Francisco.

This is What You Get

music

This is What You Get

The music world is having a reckoning. With musicians and performers being some of the first to be cut and the last to be allowed to go back to work after the pandemic, where do we go from here?

Turtle Bugg (Sublimate), Ash Lauren (Underground & Black), and Matt McDermott (RA) weight in on possible futures.

Year in Review 2020

Smangtasia

music

Smangtasia

Smangtasia is a place on earth. A psychedelic experience in the mountains surrounded by nature, specifically tailored for the pansexual rave warrior.

The fun starts July 20-23 on the farm in Roxbury, NY. Find out more at smangtasia.com.

Mission: Dance

music mix mission dance

Mission: Dance

This mix is an homage to legendary NYC discotheques Area, Limelight, Visage, Danceteria, Roxy, and the Paradise Garage. Performed on a rather lit Wednesday at a warehouse in the Mission, San Francisco.

Mission: Dance disco ball

Sublimate in the Bay

music

Sublimate in the Bay

As some of you know I throw a monthly house and techno party in Brooklyn called Sublimate. It’s one of the city’s last proper undergrounds, and we put a huge focus on quality artists and kooky spaces. If you dig my DJ sets, it’s because I’m fortunate enough to be able to meet my favorite artists and shepherd their dope beats back to you.

On October 13 I’m super excited to bring the love to the Bay for an evening with the godfather of house music, Chez Damier, “dutch master” Frits Wentink, and Brooklyn’s best kept secret Sagotsky. It’s gonna be lit city 9000.

B-boys on E

rap drugs ecstasy music

B-boys on E

It’s widely known that marijuana and hip hop are inextricably linked - just turn on the radio or take your pick of MCs becoming poster-boys of weed culture. However, there’s a more obscure branch of rap references dating back to the early 90’s that have another target in focus: ecstasy. In December of 2000, Simon Reynolds penned an article for the webzine of London-based record label Hyperdub, which now boasts artists such as DJ Rashad, Burial, and Martyn, about the rising trend of MDMA-related references in rap lyrics.

More Twerking!

music mix NYE twerk

More Twerking!

Following the NYE disco funk set from Old Man Syne, James Fish and I decided it was about time to rinse out the crowd, bumping serious old skool beats till 6 N’ tha Mornin’.

The high priestess Shanza sayeth unto the people: ❝More Twerking!❞

Twerkin with Old Man Syne

Age of Wonder

music mix NYE

Age of Wonder

This New Year was spent with good friends in the cozy woodland surroundings of Wonder Valley Ranch in the Sierras. My alter ego, Old Man Syne, cooked up some groovy beats to help ring in 2017.

Old Man Syne

Folks danced hard, and in the morning I was paid the most excellent complement when one reveler told me that my set was like being inside a “utopian dentist’s office from the 70’s”.

Ediblebob

music mix ediblebob edididob

Ediblebob

There are places and events that, through the years, begin to take on special meaning. Few parties more near and dear to my heart than Trip Vest’s once-birthday-now-festival on a secret San Francisco beach. It’s had many names in its history – last year at Edididob (Every Day I Dream I’m Dancing on the Beach) I played a particularly luscious morning mix for the revelers. In fact, sunrise is one of my favorite times to spin because dancers are in such a malleable state you can take them almost anywhere.

The Pretty Lady and the Electronic Musicians

music film hacker tools

The Pretty Lady and the Electronic Musicians

This “modern fairy tale” from Xerox Films explores various advances in electronic music, circa 1972, as two enterprising musicians construct increasingly elaborate instruments to compete for the favor of a beautiful lady. The piece explores the various technologies behind the theremin, amplifiers, musique concrete, synthesizers, and multi-track recording. The twist ending is particularly prognostic of modern times.

The film is animated by Stephen Bosustow, who is also responsible for Mr. Magoo, the excellent Freedom River (1972, narrated by Orson Welles) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1972, with the voice of John Carradine).

Make it Rain

music mix betabrand

Make it Rain

As you know, California is currently racked by a drought engineered by the same crooked ‘scientists’ who faked the moon landing. Luckily, Betabrand has a solution: in partnership with SpaceX they’re grinding up used pants and bits of fabric from the cutting room floor to pack inside a rocket that will be detonated above the skies of Mendocino county to induce rainfall.

To raise money for the (rather expensive) pants, not to mention the rocketry equipment, Betabrand held a fundraiser at their offices on Valencia that yielded more than $600 for those effected by the drought and wildfires. Your humble DJ ¢hip$et, né Pup, threw down drippy, wet beats feat. none other than the face-melting cypherpunk Ri¢h Jone$.

Beach Dreams

music mix edididob ediblebob

Beach Dreams

Ten years ago I met a chipper, extremely bright, and enthusiastic kid by the name of Trip Vest. Together we built soccer-playing robots out of drill motors, solenoids, and scavenged spare parts. Through the years, although we didn’t hang in the same circles and Trip moved to California while I bounced between Japan and New York City, we remained good friends and I always saw him with a smile on his face.

Audiomerge

code tool music bash

Audiomerge

I often have to combine multiple audio files (wav/mp3) into a larger mp3 file. You can automate this process using the following script, audiomerge.

Usage: audiomerge output.mp3 input.wav input2.wav input3.wav

Far Out! A Journey back to 1974

1974 music mix travel

Far Out! A Journey back to 1974

For fans of funk and disco the 70’s are a magical and formative era. For a DJ the 70’s are a smorgasbord of groovy rhythms and deep grooves. This weekend, in celebration with my buddy Bill, his fiancé Jen, and a killer cast of friends and family I put together a musical line-up for their 1974-themed party at Dunton Hot Springs in the mountains of Colorado.

Warm Slice of Jazz

music

Warm Slice of Jazz

Jazz has become my go-to choice of musical accompaniment while working, offering an analog alternative to the usual electronic lineup. Generally I’ll tune in to KCSM 91.1 and have started compiling my favorite artists on Spotify in a playlist called a Warm Slice of Jazz (named for one on my favorite quips from comedian John Oliver (skip to 5:50).

Special thanks to Micah Ginnis and Peter Eames for sending some fantastic musical recommendations and Leonid Afremov for the portrait of Pharoah Sanders.

Tools of the trade: Subsonic

tools music

Tools of the trade: Subsonic

A large digital music library is both a blessing and a curse. Before the advent of Napster I would carefully scour AudioGalaxy looking for tracks to stuff into my Rio PMP300. There comes a point, however, when a music library becomes too big for its britches and you need to move to a client/server model.

Many services offer the ability to upload your tracks for remote listening. Lala did an excellent job of this before it was promptly purchased by Apple and killed in 2010. AudioGalaxy has also been reborn as a similar service, and even Google Music is testing the waters. The issue is that many of these services limit the number of tracks you can upload or have other silly issues (no support for FLAC, inability to stream to phones, etc). I am still hopeful that Spotify will come to the rescue, but in the meantime with a burgeoning music collection it was time for an alternative.

AutomaticDJ in Action!

code music

AutomaticDJ in Action!

People have been sending lots of love and great feedback for AutomaticDJ, the passive music selection system that plays tunes from the Hunch API based on your face. I’ve released the code on GitHub and am looking forward to see what people can create.

Here is a video showing AutomaticDJ in action:

Note that you need not have any music likes (or any likes at all!) on your Facebook profile for this to work. That’s the magic of the Hunch API.

Hackers and Musicians Rock "Music Hack Day"

code startup hunch music

Hackers and Musicians Rock “Music Hack Day”

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasbonte/sets/72157625907764731/

While most of America was home watching the Grammys, hundreds of sleep-deprived hackers, musicians, record label execs, and members of the press from around the globe were packed into the main room of GeneralAssemb.ly where teams were presenting 48-hour hacks that clicked, beeped, tweeted, and screamed at Music Hack Day NYC.

This, the 12th incarnation of Music Hack Day (brainchild of SoundCloud’s Dave Haynes) featured over 70 teams hacking around the clock on more than 20 APIs offered by a flock of cutting-edge startups (including my own beloved Hunch API, presented via Emacs).

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