05.27.09 Rough Drafting Round Two

The notion that too much freedom is a creative hindrance is so very true.

I've got the equipment, I've got more records then I can remember, and I've got a job that gives me enough time in the evening hours to indulge in my vinyl addiction.

Last weekend, I was all geared up to throw down and create my next mix. Emilia would be gone for the weekend (COUGH taking her kids on a backpacking trip COUGH), I was not scheduled for work at my second job and all my friends were out of town on climbing adventures. It sounds like a perfect set up for making a pot to black tea, burning some incense and throwing down the wicked Jungle Massive.

However, every time I passed my wheels of steel I was just uninterested in getting started. This lack of interest was disconcerting to me. Am I feeling alright? Am I getting depressed? What the in blistering blue blazes has got me stalling out?

I'm partly willing to blame the wicked hot temperatures outside for my sloth like behavior towards my second favorite past time. However it was after Tuesday intense rain storm and the wicked soaking I received that I started feeling back in my usual mood. Then it was a part of a conversation that I caught with Mr. Eagle that got me thinking. Is my expansive freedom the hindrance that is plaguing me?

After a 3 hour session at the climbing gym and a relaxed dinner with Emilia, I lumbered my tired bones into the Annex. If limitations is what I needed then limitations is what I will give myself. I pulled out the "high grade / dancehall drivers" from the stacks. In all, I think I had about 20+ tracks.

As I've been typing this entry I've been listening to the 60 mins of music that was produced from this session. I'm willing to call it a rough draft, (such an odd term when my mental association of this term is with massive educational literary works). But its true I will continue to listen to this rough draft and rearange tracks, edit tracks or make notes about other tracks I want to add.

All of this makes me sad that I have such a disconnect with my annex. When I was younger I did not have half the records I own now and those days were a lot simpler. Wake up, watch cartoons, play video games, go to class, play some records, do home work, go hang out with friends (play more records), and go to bed.

So here is to limitations, and getting reacquainted with old friends.

ETL

5.19.2009 Notes from Rusty Junglist Volume 001: Hey Soundbwoy What You Got?

So its been a while, since I've released a mix for public consumption. I hope you all enjoy and please feel free to leave me feed back so I can improve.

Tracked and Itunes Ready:

Untracked Single Track:

Podcast Link:
http://rustyjunglist.podomatic.com

Album: Hey Sound Bwoy What Do You Got?
DJ: Edward The Librarian (ETL)
Track Listing:

1. What is a Selector- NPR: Session Spotlight: Michael Franti & Spearhead
2. Hem Dem- General Malice
3. Champion Sound- Q Project
4. Every Man- UK Apache & Mir Crew
5. Ragga Youglist- Jamalski
6. Man of Experience- Oscar Da Grouch
7. Studio One UK- DJ Krome & Mr Time
8. Champion DJ- Rebel MC Feat. Top Cap / Potential Bad Boy '95 Remix
9. Peace, Love, & Unity- DJ Hype Feat. MC Fats
   

04.28.09 Try to find the boom

Over the years I've spun records on all sorts of set ups. Lugging speakers at tall as I was in a 1982 VW drop top rabbit. But one name always brought delight to me ear and the struts on my car.

Mackie.

Small loud and rugged as hell. These speakers were king.

Now I'm back or looking to be back and the first bar we find has no PA. This I'm surfing the www looking at live sound again.

With everything else I'm pushing new grounds for me as a DJ. Using Serato, buying a DJ stand, now owning speakers.

What happened to the old days where all you needed was you records. BA Ha.

So the question remains Mackie or no Mackie?

04.23.09 Ths Sounds in my Head

The other day I switched up my headphones, I'm not sure why I guess cause I was lazy and did not want to walk up stairs to nip them out of my bag. When I threw on this next closest pair of head phones on I was shocked at the fit, the sound and a few other "added features". Thus prompting this review.

*** NOTE: All the reviews stated here are my options. I'm not sponsored, no one gives me kick backs and the fact that they are all Sony Products... well its cause those are the only headphones I've spent my hard earned money on. Cheers.

For years I've exclusively used the Sony MDR-7506's. In college I aspired to take as many audio classes as I could without being an audio major. Music is my hobby not my life. My instructor that I looked up to a lot recommend the MDR-7506's and I did not look back. The fit, sound clarity and unique nature of them in my local DJ community made them a perfect match. Also the fact that if they ever fell apart I could take them apart and hot wire them. My first pair lasted 7 years of college, DJ gigs and international travel. So when I had to retire them I was a little bummed, (yes I did resurrect them and still use them to this day).

When I head to retire them it was unfortunately just before a gig, (I slammed them in a car door 2 hours before). So I bussled down to a local music shop in Columbus Ohio and picked up my first MDR-7509. This was my "back up" in till this year. During this time period I mainly used them for day to day office reviewing of my music files. I found their fit to be loose, the sound to be very bass heavy and the plastic foam coating to be annoying especially as they started to disintegrate and flake off.

Most recently for Christmas my better half bought me a pair of MDR-V700DJ. She did so with the hopes I would use the one cup on one cup off functionality so she could talk to me while I was DJing. At first I was unimpressed with its fit, sure it was firm and snug but it lacked the encompassing feeling the MDR-7506's had. But as I started using them more and more this became less of an issue. The over all construction of the MDR-V700DJ are sturdy and ment to take a beating that daily use can bring. Pho-Leather was used to cover the cup foam padding insead of that annoying plastic foam coating, over all beefy construction, and easy to take apart and mod. However, I've already found their weak point: beware of their hinge that allows the cup to rotate. Its possiable with out much force to snap the little plastic clips that stop the cup from being allowed to rotate 360 degrees. I watched a set get droped by a kid at a local DJ store from about a foot and a half from the surface it slammed in to. When it was my turn to preview a few records the head phones almost feel apart in my hands. Besides that little flaw the clearity is modest and has been a nice addition to my headphone quiver.


A) B) C)
















A) Sony MDR-V700DJ "Remix" Headphones
- Beffy Construction with fatial flaw
- Modest sound clearity
- Conforming flexablity for headphone positioning
Overall Rating: √√√ (3/4)


B) Sony MDR-7509 Professional Studio Headphones
- Solid Construction, annoying plastic foam coating and flakes off with over use
- Great over all clearity and range
Overall Rating: √√√√ (4/4)


C) Sony MDR-7506 Studio Standard Folding Headphones
- Good Construction, annoying plastic foam coating and flakes off with over use, exposed
wires are easy to sever
- Amazing High End clearity
- Easy to fix and Mod
Overall Rating: √√√ (3/4)


My one over all issue with all of these headphones would be to get a 90 degree angle on thier imputs. Espically with my DJM 600 mixer having the headphone cord fountain up always seems to get in my bloody way. lol

04.21.09 An untangable evening

I started working on one of my goals for the year.

Actually djing with Rane Scratch Live. Up till now I've been using it for sampling and toying around with it.

A hand full of things I've learned.

1) you can have to much music. From what I can tell my 500,000 song library in iTunes seems to crash the "build overview" function.

2) you can't read the coded records to tell you how much time you have left. I never realized how much I used this in my DJ practice. Thus I kept running out of track. This in no way is a problem with the program... More a learning curve as I start to use this new format.

So why now? Sure it's a goal of mine to start moving this direction. But the spark came from the closing of the DJ Hut. The last of the exclusive dance music record shop. Sure the are heading online... But every DC record shop that has gone on line has failed. Yoshie Toshie, Capital City Records both fizzled out and from what I understand Dj Hut is not looking to improve their already poor user interface and information architecture.

I hope the DJ Hut proves me wrong, I hope the dc DJ community continues to support DJ Hut during these new and rugged times.

***NOTE: i would like to comment that I will continue to buy my records from DJ Hut. However this means they are put in the same level as Juno.co.uk, hardtofindrecords.com and all the other online record stores. I have local pride but I have that pride because of my interactions with the staff and patrons of DJ Hut.

This lack of interaction and personalize emotion that I experience with online shopping is very much like the impersonal emotion I feel about playing mp3s. I guess this is just another learning curve.

So here's to the future and here's to old friends. Catch you on the flip.

BRILLENT

11.20.08 The record collector

I could go and change the names on all of you but honestly the names in this story are to good to pass up.

So as many of you have gauged from the annex collection, I LOVE MUSIC. More importantly, music that is impressed on to vinyl. Now I'm not such a purest that I can't appreciate other forms of musical data delivery. I enjoy my MP3 player, and mixtapes I adore. But when it comes to playing music for others in a DJ setting I appreciate being able to physically manipulate the audio. I commonly refer to this as touching the music. This selection, application, then manipulation of the music allows me to feel like I'm doing my part to provide the audience with a performance.

With this in mind let me regale you with a little story about a man from Fort Wayne IN. Kodiak is his name, honestly when looking at him on the street now a days you would never guess the epic vinyl collection this man had stashed away. This tall, youthful man, fit the bill for your average american. However once inside his moddest home he reveiled to us years of musical prouis. Kodiak was a collector of dance music from roughly the early to mid 1990's to... eeeh. Lets just say present.

So how did I met this man? Craigslist! Of coarse. (laughing mentally)

Kodiak was selling off his collection. Thus I found his post "House Techno DnB Jungle Trance vinyl, over 650ish records." This modist title and the 2 photos showing crates and crates of records did not do this collection justice. Kodiak had build up a collection of every Amen, 10LBS, Big tune that came out of the Detroit Techno House movement from the mid 1990's. Tracks that I knew of but never knew the name of. Tracks that mentally transported me back to dark warehouses, roadtrips and hours spent in my college art studio. Tracks that I had no right buying cause I could never use them in a jungle set. I found myself playing just to hear them again. The ghosts of memories filled the small back room where Kodiak kepts his records. My partener in crime Mr. Wilson and I played tracks, reminisced and absorbed all that these tracks had to offer us.

Kodiak (a master sales men I would later find out) left us alone for a chunk of time then came back in to join our musical adventures. Wilson took a break to just let it all sink in, while I dug through stacks, and discussed music, memories, and life.

This is the life of a digger... I would love to tell you that these are the way I fill my days, milling the back stacks of records stores or meeting new friends to dig through their prized record collection. One day... I will open my record store online. hahahaha

PS- if anyone is interested in buying the records described I've linked Kodiak's name for easy contactablity.