The Motown Elevator

I am moving to last.fm

2006-09-22T21:50:00.000+02:00

Yes, from now on, I will live in my last.fm page. I have realized that last.fm is a better place for someone like me who is not a professional Dj, nor producer, nor musician, nor even a music critic. I am not even interested in following the calendars of music events, raves and festivals (my kids don't let me go...). I am just a music lover. The only music-related gift I have is my taste and my music collection, something that can be better shared with others in a place like last.fm. That will be my contribution to the cyberspace. I can't give any other.
Blogging here was fun, I have learned a lot and it helped me to "met" a lot of nice people and great blogs (which I will keep reading, of course). But being "only" a music lover I sometimes felt that blogging about music was like dancing about architecture (with the permission of Frank Zappa). At last.fm I can share my playlists and my actual music (which I am quite proud of), and not only my words (which I am less proud of). Words still can be used there, as last.fm provides users with a journal and many other tools for inter-user communication. I am also interested in their social features to explore new musics, as for me, the joy of music is the joy of exploring, something that is difficult to do with blogspot, but is just a click away in last.fm. See you there !

Do you want to work with/for Underground Resistance ?

2006-09-05T22:45:00.000+02:00

Yes, they need people with "organizational skills, strong written and oral communication skills, professional demeanor, and strong computer skills" and offer a great opportunity for working in the recording industry. Check it here. Sounds good. Now, if I only live in Detroit...
(Yes, this blog is still alive, a bit dormant, but alive)

Tags: djing, detroit, dj, music, techno, electronic, job

New releases by Derrick May ?

2006-07-15T15:32:00.000+02:00

According to the great Sufmart blog (in spanish), Derrick May has promised new releases of brand new material. They said that Derrick has never ceased to produce during all these years, and now he's happy with the quality achieved. Great news. Read it in this interview with Derrick May (thanks for the link, Sufmart!).
That, of course, is the breaking news. But in that interview other interesting things are discussed by Derrick: how he disliked the word "techno" because he feared would add to confusion (how right he was!), how african-american people are not aware of what techno is and their lack of interest in it (reminds me a scene in "Mo' better blues" where jazz musicians said exactly the same about jazz!), how Detroit has managed to be always an "underground city", etc. Read it here.

Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, music, techno

SONAR 2006 performances - for download

2006-06-23T20:36:00.000+02:00

Wonderful! I have found this web page at spaceboss.net with some links for downloading the live mixes and performances that took place just a few days ago at Sonar 2006, Barcelone. Including Jeff Mills, Miss Kittin and even Chic. Freak Down !

Tags: music, mixes, techno, sonar, electronic, dj

No gestures

2006-06-15T17:26:00.000+02:00

There is nothing like the air guitar in electronic music. The sounds that come from other music styles can always be identified to some human gesture like beating, playing the strings of the guitar, and the like. Not here. Of course, the dance community has developed their own gestures, obvious to anyone, but those gestures are, again, abstract and unrelated to instrument performance. Some will consider this just another face of dehumanization in electronic music but I consider it truly liberating. Software is more flexible than hardware. Freedom from physical constraints means infinite flexibility and endless malleability. The sky is the limit.

Tags: ambient, dance, dj, electronic, music, techno

Modulations - The documentary - in youtube

2006-06-11T10:47:00.000+02:00

The best documentary ever on electronic music is available in youtube in four parts. Contains more than 70 interviews with techno and electronic heroes. There it goes:

Tags: youtube, electronic, kraftwerk, berlin, detroit, ambient, techno, dj, minimal, mix, dance, music, house, IDM, rave

Flash animation: drugs and the brain

2006-05-24T12:21:00.000+02:00

It would be an hypocrisy to say that these things do not concern electronic music, for good or for bad. So please, inform yourself with this cool and amusing animations that show the effects that different drugs have in the brain.

Tags: brain, drugs, rave

Video: Minus records

2006-05-23T21:49:00.000+02:00

Very nice video made by M_nus about M_nus. How they work, who they are, releases in 2005, etc. Enjoy.

Tags: detroit, dj, electronic, Hawtin, labels, M_nus, music, techno

The way we listen music

2006-05-19T11:24:00.000+02:00

Too much music, too little time. As information overload permeates all aspects of life, in electronic music we also suffer from music overload, and that's why we need DJs. The phenomena is quite new.

Our parents were exposed probably to 1% of the music we are exposed today. Even in the 80s music distribution was scarce, at least by today standards. TV shows were scarce, good radios were scarce, no internet, etc. Finding some records was really a nightmare. If you had 100 LP's (a lot of music, for the time), that would fit in just 4 Gb. Today it is not uncommon to have 40 Gb of music (1000 LP's, only big stores could afford enough shelf space !).

The consequences (at least for me) are too big and deserve to be analyzed with care. First of all, my pattern of listening has changed. In the 80s I bough an LP and listened to it during days or weeks until I could almost memorize most of the songs. Nowadays, I have lots of files in my iTunes-iPod that I have only played once, and probably I will not play them again until next year, or in two years, who knows... Secondly, purchasing music in the 80's was like a permanent search for "the great song". Now, I do not pursue "great songs" anymore, and I'm happy with that. I just search for music that makes me move (physically or mentally), holds my attention and maintains me in some tension, or takes me up some peaks and down to some valleys...

Listening music in search for "the perfect song" is like reading blogs in search for "the perfect blog post". Nonsense.
Listen, enjoy, learn, go for more... That's how I listen nowadays.

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, house, ipod, iTunes, music, techno

Costello and techno. Just found this old quote.

2006-04-28T13:01:00.000+02:00

I am talking about Elvis, not Donacha, of course. I can't imagine how people with some taste and supposedly open to music can say crap like this:

"Costello: Techno? What is Techno? It sounds horrible when you hear it in your car. It's music that's out of control. They're hits to dance to when it's hot. Like these Ibiza compilations. I saw an advertisement on MTV for this disc and there were a ton of Englishmen dancing. Everything very ridiculous. I suppose that it's music for young people. I don't know. If you go to Ibiza, you feel the heat and you dance with it, all the same fun. But if you listen to it in the car, you can't even drive. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner. It's not music for listening, just dancing."

It is sad, because I really like (liked?) Costello back in the 80s, when I was a post-teenager. After "Blood and Chocolate" I lost interest in his career, geared towards the crooner side...
It is fun how some stars from the pop-rock circus hate electronic dance music, and how ignorant they are about it. Probably they are in a parallel universe and can't understand what's really going on and how things are now so different from their young days. Anyway, the history of music is full of quotes like this. Here is an old quote by Sinatra on Elvis (the real Elvis, now):

"Rock is sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons. By means of its almost imbecilic reiteration it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth."

Years later, Sinatra and Elvis sung together in a duet. Maybe Costello is phoning Sven Vath right now...

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, music, party, techno

The D in HDR

2006-04-07T01:10:00.000+02:00

The D in HDR
Originally uploaded by UrbanTiki.

Amazing image from detroitean photographer UrbanTiki. To me this photo sounds like Sean Deason or Carl Craig. UrbanTiki has done it again. Congratulations.

Video: Derrick May on the birth of "Strings of Life"

2006-04-01T00:31:00.000+02:00

This is probably one of the best moments in the history of techno and electronic music. Derrick May talks about the creation of "Strings of Life". He says it was almost by accident, but the result was so good that it even scared himself !

Tags: detroit, dj, electronic, music, techno, video

iDJ2: iPod DJing for the rest of us

2006-03-30T21:10:00.000+02:00

Look at this wonderful machine for iPod DJing. I will not wait to Christmas to have one. The price is good as well (400 €, according to sufmart). Richie, watch your back ! Check it at Numark.

Tags: apple, dj, djing, electronic, house, ipod, music, techno

My missing link between goths and electronic music

2006-03-26T17:14:00.000+02:00

A recent article in The Guardian claims that goths turn out to be very succesful people when grown-up. Could be. Anyway, as I never embraced nor liked goth things (which could explain my unsuccesfulness) I know that I have a big hole in my music culture. I have heard that there was a time where goths embraced some forms of electronic dance music before anyone else and I have heard that there is a link between über-goth bands (like Bauhaus or Killing Joke) and some forms of techno. And I remember to see some goths in techno clubs in Europe in the early 90's (which surprised me at the time, as I associated them with other kinds of music). My knowledge about this matters does not go beyond the Joy Division - New Order link, but I am sure there is more...
So please, illustrate me and leave me some comments on this issue (or better yet, explain it in your blog and link me :-). Where is the missing link between Derrick May and Suicide Girls?

Tags: ambient, dance, electronic, goth, music, techno

ETA announces end of violence

2006-03-22T13:33:00.000+01:00

Yes, off topic, but this is the best possible news that I could read. It's a great day here in Spain.
Orain Bakea !

build-climax-release and verse-chorus-verse

2006-03-14T23:07:00.000+01:00

Interesting post about musical structures by frey. I don't agree totally with it, specially when it says that build-climax-release is not necessary in techno and house mixes (for me that's essential and it is something that really makes a difference among DJs). Check it here.

Tags: dance, electronic, music, techno

What? Our favorite techno-stars are MySpacers?

2006-03-10T14:26:00.000+01:00

Trying to find the URL of the video in my previous post I arrived to Kevin Saunderson's page in MySpace (!). And yes, you can read in his page that he really studied at the Belleville institute... My God ! I can't believe this. Isn't myspace the root of all internet evils today? The amazing thing is that he is not alone. Check out the myspace page of Derrick May, Jeff Mills, Kenny Larkin,... many of them !
This means that techno blogs like this need to update their links section asap. I think I will leave blogger and move to myspace, too (just kidding).

Tags: dj, electronic, music, myspace, techno

Video: Kevin Saunderson @ The Elevator Tour

2006-03-10T13:56:00.000+01:00

Wonderful video of one of our favorite stars on tour. Check it at 313tm. From the tour named "The Elevator". As you know, this elevator thing is one of the most recurrent ideas since the birth of techno. You will love the video.

(btw, does anybody know why all my links to pictures hosted in discogs are broken?)

Tags: detroit, dj, electronic, music, techno

Rhythm has no owner

2006-03-09T17:14:00.000+01:00

Rhythm belongs to us all. Melodies are copyrighted, but rhythms are not. Nobody will ever take control over them. Exploring rhythms is akin to exploring the layers of our brain that all humans share, the part of our brain that make us equal to each other. Everybody understands rhythm without being teached. Just like language, that also belongs to the people (but rhythm was born first). It is not surprising that electronic dance music, with its emphasis on rythm, is the only true global music, whose roots can be traced to all parts of the world and that is enjoyed by people in every country.
Read this quote by Peter Sadlo, percusionist: "Rhythm belongs to the most primordial form, musical expression. Animated by heart and heart beat, our ancestors where instinctively lead to transform this basic rhythm acoustically and integrate it into their patterns of life. Today, at the beginning of a new millenium, rhythmic and rhythm claim a fundamental importance in the conscience of people, placed well before melody and harmony."

Tags: ambient, dance, dj, electronic, IDM, music, techno

Joey Beltram: The Rising Sun

2006-02-25T21:03:00.000+01:00

As Zappa said, "talking about music is like dancing about architecture", so I will not try to explain in words how this production by Joey Beltram sounds. I can say, however, that different bones of my body can't stop moving when I listen to it. True hard, classic, physical techno tracks, born to be mixed, very basic but very effective. Not very soulful, and maybe nothing new but, who cares if "it works" better than a swiss watch? ("it works" is the title of the second track, Joey knows what he is doing). Just try it by clicking the iTunes button right here.

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, music, rave, techno

Video: Richie Hawtin interview

2006-02-25T12:41:00.000+01:00

This time the video is from google. Better interface and speed than youtube. Enjoy.

Tags: detroit, dj, electronic, music, techno, video

A bunch of electronic music podcasts for you.

2006-02-18T12:04:00.000+01:00

These are the music podcasts I am currently subscribed to, via iTunes and my new iPod 60GB. Some of them can't be found in the iTunes Music Store, but you can subscribe anyway. The links provided here are for the feeds, so you can enter them directly into iTunes (just drag the link to iTunes or go to Advanced/Subscribe to podcast):

- David Guetta's audio podcast. Mixes, with playlists and artwork.
- Electronic periodic. Ambient music.
- FrequencyBerlin podcast. Artists like Pacou, Claude Young, etc.
- Istadream. The best free electro house podcast.
- Livefeed Rodz-Konez. Amazing! Live sessions by Surgeon, Mulero...
- Techno.fm
- Technopodcast. Very good sessions by spanish DJ PC Board.
- The Detroit Sessions with Brian Kage. Detroit techno and house.
- Trackwerk. Underground dance music.
- Transitions with John Digweed.
- Ultima Thule Ambient Music Radio. There is no better ambient.

Tags: ambient, berlin, dance, detroit, dj, electronic, house, IDM, ipod, iTunes, mixes, music, podcast, podcasts, RSS, techno

YouTube banned my videos from Winter Olympics opening ceremony

2006-02-15T05:54:00.000+01:00

Yes, banned. The videos in my previous post do not work any more. Sorry for that. They have been banned in YouTube. I received this e-mail today: "Your video Richie Hawtin @ Torino 2006 (2 of 2) has been rejected due to its inappropriate nature. Please refer to our terms and conditions for more information on what video material is not permitted on YouTube."
No more explanations. No way to reply that e-mail. No defence possible. Of course, as you can suppose, a video with a excerpt from the Opening Ceremony of Torino 2006 does not contain obscenity nor drug abuse. Copyright? it was recorded from a public television, the spanish TVE2. There are millions of videos in YouTube that contain similar material, like sport events, so I don't understand a damn thing.
[UPDATE: I have rechecked a bit and it seems that all videos related to Torino 2006 are being banned at YouTube. It seems that someone from the Olympics Committe or something told them to remove the videos. Oh, how lovely are those people, aren't they?]

Tags: torino, torino2006, dance, winter, fascism, Hawtin, music, freespeech, censorship, dj, banned, minimal, techno, puppy, electronic, youtube, olympics, copyright

Videos: Richie Hawtin's music at Torino 2006

2006-02-12T04:04:00.000+01:00

[UPDATE: YouTube seems to have banned all videos related to Torino 2006. See my post above.]

I recorded the opening ceremony of Torino 2006 with my EyeTV and I uploaded an excerpt to YouTube. This excerpt, of course, is the section featuring Richie Hawtin's music. The topic of this part of the ceremony was about Italian Futurism and engineering. Due to limitations in YouTube I was forced to split it into two parts. Enjoy !

You can also watch them in YouTube: Link to part 1, link to part 2.

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, Hawtin, minimal, music, olympics, techno, torino2006, youtube

Richie Hawtin on your TV on Friday

2006-02-08T17:48:00.000+01:00

I hate sports. I would like to propose the UN an initiative for 2007 to declare it "International Non-Sports Year". So I would never expect to publish a post related to the Olympic games here. However...
This friday, Feb 10, Richie Hawtin will perform in the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Torino. He will present new music created specially for this event. Get an appetizer of the music here.
This is becoming a standard, at least in europe. In the last Olympic Games at Athens we could enjoy a performance by trance DJ Tiësto (trance is not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it, anyway). Still, these are european based events, albeit aimed to an universal public. I would love to see Jeff Mills perform at SuperBowl or NASCAR. That would be a sign that many things are changing in the musical scene in the US. Keep dreaming...

Technorati Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, minimal, mix, music, torino2006, techno

Great reading at "Women of techno" e-zine.

2006-02-05T12:20:00.000+01:00

I recommend you to visit the web of the women of techno project. It is focused on techno women DJs from Canada, but there is much more content, that goes beyond what the title suggest. Like they say, "some topics explored are sampling, postmodern quotation, artists' involvement in the international music industry, and critiques of corporate control". Please, check it !

Technorati Tags: dj, djing, electronic, music, techno

Good news for laptop DJs

2006-02-03T08:50:00.000+01:00

The biggest problem of DJ'ing with a touchscreen is that those screens only allow for one click, at one point, at once, just like in a non-touchscreen. But DJs use both hands and many fingers at the same time. Now Apple has patented a touchscreen that allows the user to touch many controllers at once, using all the fingers and even the toes, if you want. Via Music Thing.

Technorati Tags: apple, dance, dj, djing, electronic, music, techno

iWeb + Keynote = video podcast

2006-01-24T23:09:00.000+01:00

Sorry for going off-topic now but I am quite excited about the things you can do with iWeb. As it always happens, the real power of an application comes from its combination with other apps. Just like in a well performed mix, by the way, where the power of a track comes from its combination with other tracks (hey, this is on-topic now). For instance, check this combination of Keynote presentations, podcast creation (with GarageBand, probably) and iWeb. You can even subscribe using iTunes. The possibilities are endless...

Technorati Tags: apple, garageband, iLife, ipod, iWeb, keynote

Demolition of the Motown Records

2006-01-21T17:19:00.000+01:00

As posted before, the demolition of Motown building finally took place. Very sad. Thanks to UrbanTiki for posting this snapshot at flickr.

Technorati Tags: detroit, dj, motown, music, techno

Check some photos of the Motown Office building...

2006-01-18T09:29:00.000+01:00

... before it is demolished, in few days. Via detroitfunk.

Technorati Tags: detroit, motown, music, techno

Two thoughts about Moog

2005-12-31T14:37:00.000+01:00

2005 left us without Moog's sheer genious. Remembering him, I have revisited "Moog: The Documentary", and I highly recommend it to everybody, interested in electronic music or not. However, two things are bugging me since I watched it.
First, the name of Moog's invention ("synthesizer") has been probably a mistake. As he (defensively) says in the documentary, "these are not fake sounds, these are true electronic sounds". I agree, that's why I think the name "synthesizer", which denotes imitation and copy of natural things (like in the phrase "synthesis of urea") is unfortunate. It would be better to stick with the name of the creator, "Moog". It took years to lead people into looking at this instrument as it is, not as a substitute of anything else. That battle has not finished yet...
Second, the keyboard. He says that you don't need a keyboard at all for playing and modulating the sounds that came from his machine. You could use any other device. They put a keyboard in it because they thought it would be easily accepted by musicians through the world. This proved to be true but, at which price? The consequence of that design decision led many people to use the synthesizer in "traditional" ways. He recognizes that most of the musicians that adopted his invention used it to create music that could be done without synthesizer anyway. Using it to create new musics, impossible to create before, also took some years.
In any case, these two issues do not shadow the incredible achievement of Robert Moog, a device that truly changed the world and the life of so many people.
Happy 2006 to all !

Technorati Tags: ambient, dj, electronic, IDM, Moog, music, synthesizer, techno

A live mix from 3 Chairs (Parrish, Wilhite, etc.)

2005-12-27T09:34:00.000+01:00

As you see, activity is quite low here during Christmas. However, I can't let pass this opportunity to recommend you a live mix by the 3 Chairs collective from Detroit. Check it at OseaO internet radio, or, better yet, get the mp3 here. These are great DJ's, from the kind that make you think that different music styles are not really different. Enjoy !

Technorati Tags: detroit, dj, electronic, house, music, mix, techno

Do you miss the touch of your vinyl records?

2005-12-12T23:49:00.000+01:00

Then, if you use Mac OSX, you can download CoverFlow, a wonderful app for vinyl fetishists that brings a physical touch to your iTunes collection. Wonderful!

Tags: dj, kraftwerk, music, musica, osx, techno

The best ambient @ Ultima Thule podcast

2005-12-05T19:28:00.000+01:00

This is not exactly about techno, but I know that you guys have quite extensive musical taste, and I am sure you will like the music podcasted by the guys behind Ultima Thule, a radio station from Australia. It is mostly ambient music, but taking a very wide definition of "ambient", including music from Pete Namlook to Hallucinogen to Steve Roach to Ravi Shankar to music from the middle ages (not very electronic, as you may expect). If you like true ambient music (and I mean true ambient: music that, according to Eno, works as background as well as foreground) or, if you are like me and you need ambient music, specially when working at the computer, please take a look at this podcast. Click here to get their RSS feed. Enjoy!
Tags: ambient, music, electronic, RSS, mixes, IDM, podcast, podcasting

DE9:Transitions - Something big is going on

2005-11-26T03:52:00.000+01:00

I have bought DE9:Transitions today. I have listened to it only once so I don't feel qualified yet to say if I like it or not. I listened to the full 96 minutes mix and every second of it caught my attention. However, it is really more difficult music than DE9:Closer-to-the-edit so I prefer to listen to it another 5-6 times or so before writing a review. In any case, something big has happened. Hawtin has opened a lot of doors with this (instant classic?) release:
- From now on, say farewell to (manual) beat matching.
- Say farewell to two-track mixing. Go for 4, 5 or 6 tracks at the same time.
- Complexity of track selection will grow exponentially. Think about hundreds of tracks...
- No more transitions between tracks. Not even tracks between transitions. The transition is the track. The role of a track is to help make a transition.
- Finally, the leitmotif has arrived to electronic mixes. Despite the above innovations, coherence will not suffer.
- In traditional DJing the granularity is gross, measured in minutes. Say farewell to traditional DJing. Say welcome to micro-DJing, measured in seconds. The lower limit has been reached. Below this level the only option is to mix separate notes, but that would be composition, not DJing.
So now, I don't know what a track, a transition or a session is. Hawtin has put all those concepts upside down...
Tags: dance, DE9, detroit, dj, djing, electronic, Hawtin, mix, music, techno

Carl Craig's "Landcruising" updated to 2.0

2005-11-18T12:41:00.000+01:00

If electronic music is software, let's treat it like software. Carl Craig seems to be doing that. Today I received an e-mail from the iTunes music store about the new album by Carl Craig, titled "The album formerly known as...". Of course, the title makes reference to the album formerly knows as "Landcruising", only upgraded ("Landcruising 2.0"?), as most of the tracks in this album are new versions of tracks already published in "Landcruising".
Nice move, Carl, on the artistic side at least. However, I don't find reasons powerful enough to buy it... The new features and bug fixes are not groundbreaking, and I think registered customers should get this upgrade for free...

Update: If you like Carl Craig do yourself a favor and get this 2-hour mix at brokenloop.
Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, electronic, music, techno

Jeff Mills' vision of future dance

2005-11-08T17:14:00.000+01:00

The dance-floor as a transformative experience. The DJ as a hierophant of some sacred misteries. Quoted from a post in Jeff Mills blog:
"Some people may say, that maybe just "old school" music might be enough to satisfy -- I say, WAKE UP!. The world-wide dance music scene can go much further than just satisfy. I strongly believe that with a little effort and planning, the parties people pay to get into every weekend can bring more ideas and experiences in a way that could affect them for the rest of their lives."
Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, jeffmills, music, techno

Dj mixes from net labels, under Creative Commons

2005-11-06T11:26:00.000+01:00

This is great news for all electronic aficionados out there. Dj Mitch, the guy behind a site called deepindub.org release mixes made from tracks from different net labels (with their permission) and release them for download, under a Creative Commons license. Each mix focuses on one particular label, and main styles are deep house and minimal.
Something like this was strongly needed, given the proliferation of net labels and the lack of time we all have for listening to all. Now, instead of spending a looooot of time checking each label, track by track, you can go to deepindub and listen, in one shot, a nice mix that gives an overview of a particular label's music and spirit.
I posted some time ago about the role of DJs as artistic RSS aggregators. This is just another take on that. Thanks to deepindub.org, and I hope more initiatives like this will follow!
Tags: music, house, electronic, creativecommons, cc, mixes, mix, dj, techno, minimal

The new DE9 by Richie Hawtin

2005-10-28T20:49:00.000+02:00

It is called "DE9: Transitions". It will be released on Oct. 31. Hawtin promises to explore the Z plane (depth of sound), in addition to exploration of the X and Y planes (time and amplitude). Check the trailer here. Can't wait !

UPDATE: Check also this interview with Richie Hawtin here.
Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, techno

The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit

2005-10-22T18:07:00.000+02:00

Check out my latest addition to the links section. A wonderful set of photos about the fabulous ruins of Detroit. Fun and sad at the same time, and very strange, specially for us europeans, who tend do think in the greeks when we think about ruins.
If you like that, check also the flickr photos by UrbanTiki, a detroitian photographer who is in love with Detroit. See an example below:

By the way, this is my first post using flock, the new web2.0 geeky browser. How does it look? (update: I needed to retouch this a bit with ecto... oh, well)

Tags: detroit, flock, photography, ruins, techno

Musicians out there: give me blogs, don't give me interviews !

2005-10-18T14:02:00.000+02:00

If blogs were invented in the 70's, can you imagine how wonderful would be to have today a collection of blog posts by Kraftwerk, Eno or Bowie? I would read that instead of any interview or biography.
I collect a lot interviews with my favorite artists and musicians. Just look at the links in this blog. However, I have come to realize that I don't find too many things interesting there. The question-answer game between the (sometimes ignorant) interviewer and the interviewed leaves a lot of room for improvement. In many cases, different interviews ask the same questions again and again. I don't even trust in the edit and transcription of the interview.
Now, forget about interviews with musicians and look at musicians who blog, instead. In a blog you can really appreciate the soul of an artist. In a blog they talk about what they think it is important for them. They don't answer stupid, banal questions: In the best case they ask the questions to themselves or to their fans, and even engage with them in a dialog.
The important thing, however, is not in the blog per-se, as it looks today, but in the information that the blog will accumulate as time passes. That would provide us an accurate trace of their souls, their transformations, their influences, thoughts about their own music and about the times they were living. Real fans will appreciate that more than any other thing in the world.
Finally, as this is a techno blog, please take a look at these techno artists who blog: Jeff Mills (with wonderful photos), Alan Oldham (who blogged extensively about his move from the US to Berlin) or Drexciya (hard to read, but interesting). I couldn't find more, for now. I would love to see blogs by the following artists: Derrick May, Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig, Richard James (Aphex Twin), John Tejada, Juan Atkins, FSOL, UR...
So, please, artists, musicians, dj's: give me blogs! or, better yet, give me podcasts !!!

Tags: ambient, blogs, electronic, techno, IDM, dj, blogging, music

Cybotron as a symbol of the techno-rock divide

2005-10-13T09:43:00.000+02:00

At last I have finally put my hands on a Cybotron compilation, called "Interface: The roots of techno". The only track I knew before was "Alleys of your mind". The important thing is that, after listening to it, I immediately understood why the group splitted. Track after track, it seems that we are listening to two different bands here: an electro-dystopian-visionary one and a more rock-oriented one (tracks like "eden" or "enter" remind me the vocal style of Robert Smith !). This roughly corresponds to the different visions of music that Atkins and Davis portrayed and that ultimately lead to the end of the band.
Everybody knows that electronic music and rock belong to two different worlds. In Cybotron those two words collided in 1985. It was a divorce waiting to happen.
Tags: music, electronic, dj, techno, detroit

The DJ vs. the producer

2005-10-05T10:54:00.000+02:00

Most electronic artists present these two faces that greatly complement each other. However, I have been observing that, in some cases, for the same artist, his work as a DJ is better than his work as a producer, or the other way round. I have started these two lists to show my opinion on how some artists balance those two facets. Please post yours.

Best DJ than producer: Laurent Garnier, Carl Cox, Dave Clarke, Eric Morillo, Oscar Mulero, The Advent, Cristian Varela, T-1000, Richie Hawtin (difficult to classify, this last one!)...
Best producer than DJ: Derrick May (yes, I know you will disagree!), Juan Atkins (the DJ is great, but as a producer he is out-of-this-world), Joey Beltram, Surgeon, Sean Deason, Felix da Housecat, John Tejada, Jeff Mills...

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, house, music, techno

Playing with last.fm in the last days

2005-09-19T18:53:00.000+02:00

On the past days I discovered last.fm, a social-tagged-internet-radio that allows you to discover new music from people with similar taste. I have been a bit "busy" trying to build my last.fm profile in order to better define my musical tastes to other users. The amazing thing is that the system is integrated with iTunes (and even the iPod) so your profile is defined from what you actually listen to.

My first reaction was: ok, I am an electronic music junkie who loves Detroit Techno so I will communicate last.fm how much I love Detroit artists and tracks... My surprise was: I can't do that, at least directly. It is not possible to edit your tastes in the profile... How it works, then?

First, you need to download iScrobbler, a small app that monitors iTunes and sends the information to last.fm. A last.fm profile is "what you listen" and not "what you claim to listen". That's a big difference. If you love a track, don't build your profile rating it "5 stars". For last.fm, a loved track is a track that you play a lot of times. The same goes for artists.

Your actions, not your words, define your last.fm profile. That protects us from people who say "I love IDM" but they are actually listening to Britney all the time. This is more accurate, and I am starting now to fully appreciate this approach, even when it can confuse beginners (like me). You can check my last.fm profile here.

But that's not all. If you download the last.fm player then you can actually listen to a HUGE database of music. You can even create your personal radio (profile-based) and listen to the personal radio of other users or groups, like the Detroit Techno last.fm group. There is even tagged radio. Check, for example, the Detroit Techno tag radio.

last.fm is a dream for people that are always in exploratory mode with regard to music. Other people already have enough with MTV.

Tags: ambient, detroit, dj, electronic, IDM, ipod, last.fm, music, techno

What? Less than 400 tracks per iPod?

2005-09-07T13:54:00.000+02:00

This is crazy. A study by Solutions Research Group shows that the average songs per iPod is 375, and that half of iPod owners have less than 100 songs in their devices. Remember that we are talking about a device that can store around 20,000 tracks! This is amazing, as my iPod mini is always in shortage, and I have a Creative Zen of 20 Gb that is also full.
it seems that most iPod owners are not hardcore music fans, but they wear an iPod as they wear sunglasses in a cloudy day. But there is another explanation, related to which kind of music do iPodders listen to. If you are into country or trash-metal I doubt there is even 300 songs that deserve to be stored on your iPod. Just take at look at George W. Bush's iPod. Think about it: how many songs did U2 wrote? how many songs did The Beatles wrote? Coldplay? Britney? I think you can store all their full discographies in a single CD, and that's the music that most people listen to.
But we, electronic music fans, will be always short of space. Not only because there are thousands of styles, artists and tracks to listen, but also because we love DJ mixes. So if an artist like, say, Derrick May, has actually published few tracks, you can find/buy/download a lot of live mixes by him that are absolutely wonderful, absolutely different one to each other, and absolutely long (from 45 to 120 minutes). Hell, I have almost one Gb of Richie Hawtin mixes! And growing.
On another side, I don't think we are in love with the "song" format. We focus on more on "tracks", a form that is not done for listening in isolation but to combine with other tracks. We even enjoy doing our own mixes, and we need a big pool of tracks for that.

Tags: apple, dance, dj, electronic, house, ipod, music, techno

Retrofuturism

2005-09-05T01:41:00.000+02:00

Retrofuturism portraits images of the future as they were seen in the past. It also portraits images of the past as if they were the most futuristic ones. The effect is truly amazing, when done right, as retrofuturism can be more futuristic than futurism alone. Examples can be found in every art. My favourite example is the song "one more kiss" in the soundtrack of Blade Runner (a movie full of retrofuturistic references). In videogames, you can see it at work in the "Fallout" series. Retrofuturism works because it's emotional, somehow nostalgic.

In techno, a good example is the soundtrack of "Metropolis" by Jeff Mills. Clearly, with that work, Mills was pursuing something retrofuturistic and, IMO, he completely succeed, at least if you listen to his music as you watch the film. I remember to read in hyperreal that all the DJ/rave culture is highly retrofuturistic, as you have the most electronic and futuristic music combined with the "old-fashioned" vinyl. Also, this wonderful motown-with-electronics sound that we all *love* posses a retrofuturistic touch.

The most amazing thing is that, when you are into retrofuturism, you can no longer look at some images of the past in the same way. Some things done in the past work perfectly as retrofuturistic today, even when the author had no intention of doing it. It does not even need to be artwork. That happened to me when looking at the videos of the "mother of all demos", that is, the demos made in 1968 by Doug Engelbart, father of the mouse. They would work perfectly as backgrounds for a Jeff Mills session. Take a look at them, you will be amazed.

What about Kraftwerk? I think they sounded futuristic at their time, but they sound more and more retrofuturistic each year ("computer love", "the model"). However, that is a *good thing*, and proves that their music will remain forever.

Well, "the future is not as it used to be" (who said that?).

Tags: dance, dj, electronic, IDM, music, retrofuturism, techno

What happened to Discogs.com ?

2005-09-03T13:50:00.000+02:00

Today I went to the discogs web page only to find that the domain has expired. This is really bad news. Discogs was the best reference in the www for finding information about electronic music. The only positive sign is a message in the caption bar that says "www.discogs.com coming soon". Very sad story...

Update: It seems there has been a problem with the expiration date of the domain. It is working again now. (thanks, module-records)

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, djing, electronic, house, IDM, music, musik, rave, techno

The history of House music at apple.com

2005-08-30T01:21:00.000+02:00

My love for Apple grows and grows each day. Today I went to www.apple.com to check something related to their new mouse and I found a link to this wonderful story about the foundations of House. It seems that a DVD about the Chicago House scene is on the works. The authors are Josell Ramos and Chip Eberhart, who used Apple software to create the DVD. Move your body !

Tags: apple, chicago, dance, dj, djing, electronic, house, mac, music, musica, osx, rave, techno

Drexciya speaks at Drexciya blog

2005-08-24T15:03:00.000+02:00

I have found interesting things in a post at Drexciya Research Lab blog. The post is a compilation of different interviews with James Stinson. Some quotes follow:

"I got my first taste of techno around 1980-1981. I was a kid riding my bike with a small radio and Alleys Of Your Mind by Juan Atkins came on. I stopped my bike to get a better listen"
"We don't make songs based on a concept. We make the songs first and deal with the concept around the songs. The whole thing with the aquatic world was created due to how creative and innovative water is"
"(Ego free music)Right. Most definitely. And that's the way it should be. Because if you make music for any other purpose, it's not going to come out right. It's not going to feel free, you're not going to be able to create freely like you're supposed to. You'll be making music to survive, you'll be making music for phoney reasons. But if you make music because you love it and because it's in your blood, I think you're going to make some of the most beautiful things that anybody has ever heard"
"As far as I m concerned, Richie Hawtin, Moby, and all the rest of em can do what they want, but don t step into my house if you don t respect it. Don t even call what you do techno ! "

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, djing, electronic, kraftwerk, music, musik, rave, techno

Robert Hood: Wire to Wire

2005-08-13T11:33:00.000+02:00

I have recently got this 2003 CD by Robert Hood. I think this is going to be one of my favorites yet. I appreciate the music that puts your head at work by following different layers of synths, but is also emotional and soulful. In his tracks, small variations take the listener from the beginning to a different ending without even realizing what's going on. They trap the listener in a delightful paradoxical situation of listening to something that is repetitive, but surprising.

Hood, with Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Sean Deason and others are transcending Detroit techno and taking it to new heights and to new audiences. These guys are really shaping the music of the 21st century, like Jazz artists did in the 20th. Who said techno is dead? techno mutates and will keep mutating. Techno has not even left its childhood.

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, electronic, IDM, music, techno

A quick way to track techno podcasts

2005-08-09T22:56:00.000+02:00

I was tempted to provide a list of techno podcasts in the links section when I discovered Odeo. What Flickr did for photos, Odeo is doing for podcasts, including the use of tags for quickly finding items. You can find there not only podcast channels but shows as well.

So I added a link to the "techno" tag in the sidebar, pointing to http://www.odeo.com/tag/techno and that's all. Enjoy the shows. I did not have the time to downloading all of them, so tell me how do you like them.

BTW, it would be nice if they provided a RSS associated to each tag. It seems that they are working on it.

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, electronic, ipod, music, odeo, podcast, podcasting, techno

The role of DJ's as "RSS aggregators"

2005-08-06T01:20:00.000+02:00

Information is not a scarce resource. The scarce resource is attention. That is why we all use these amazing new technologies like RSS readers, tags and search engines. The same happens in music, and, above all, in electronic music.

The economics of electronic music deserve more analysis, but you don't need to be Greenspan to realize that producing an electronic track is cheaper than paying a band of musicians plus renting an expensive studio. Among other important reasons, this is why so many electronic dance records are released per year. For instance, dancerecords.com claims to receive 250 new titles a week. You need 20 hours just to listen a 5-minute track from each of those records. You need more than 4 days to listen those 250 records, assuming 25 minutes per record.

And here comes the role of the DJ as aggregator. Of course, not all those records deserve to be listened, and surely most of them are mediocre. A DJ, based on his/her taste, and the knowledge of his/her audience, selects the quality records and tests them in live mixes. The DJ, of course, does not listen everything, but searches for particular styles, labels, artists, etc. (these act like tags in technorati or del.icio.us).

That's why we strongly need this role of the DJ's, at least in electronic music. They are the aggregators of the "music feeds" we are interested in. For example, for me, Laurent Garnier was my "aggregator" for the best Detroit Techno ever. DJ's were less needed in the past, where the number of published records was smaller in comparison. The only problem is that, at a high growth rate, soon we will need DJ's for finding DJ's. For now, trust the DJ!

Tags: djing, detroit, dj, electronic, IDM, dance, tags, techno, music, RSS

At last, a Detroit Techno podcast

2005-07-11T10:00:00.000+02:00

I am still amazed by how boring are most of the podcasts out there. They require your attention for minutes in order to transmit a pointless message. Music podcasting, at least, can be fun. According to 313tm, DJ Brian Kage has started to publish his mixes in podcast form for download and listen on-the-go (if you have an iPod). Read the full story here.

Updated: Another one to the list. FrequencyBerlin (Pacou, Claude Young, etc.) have also published a podcast. Check it with iTunes or find it here at Odeo (don't know Odeo? Is the Flickr of podcasting).

Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, kraftwerk, music, podcast, podcasting, odeo, techno

Memories: Supremes, Kraftwerk, DAF, ...

2005-07-02T11:27:00.000+02:00

Memories
This photo shows some of my early music, in casette format, contrasted with my latest acquisition: the iPod. As you can see, the trajectory followed by my music tastes makes perfect sense, and I am not the only one who followed it. If I were the only one then there would not be Detroit Techno, or House or even electronic dance music. Things happen because they should, never at random.

Come on, how many of you have "computer world" in casette?

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, dj, electronic, house, IDM, ipod, kraftwerk, motown, music, techno

Jeff Mills + symphonic orchestra

2005-06-13T16:37:00.000+02:00

According to 313tm, on July 2nd, Jeff Mills will play live with the National Orchestra of Montpellier.

Honestly, I have no idea of how that performance can actually sound. I can imagine a classical orchestra playing "smells like teen spirit", but I can't imagine it playing "the bells" or "changes of life". It is analog vs. digital, or pattern-based vs. organic music. I am intrigued... The concert will be filmed in a DVD, available in November.

What's next? Autechre with Compay Segundo? Why not? Electronic music has always been very promiscuous.

Read the full story here.

Tags: house, music, electronic, musik, dance, detroit, dj, techno, IDM

Kevin Saunderson interview

2005-05-27T09:34:00.000+02:00

On May 25, Metrotimes (Detroit's weekly alternative) published an interesting interview with Kevin Saunderson. He talks about his family life but also about how he met the other Belleville guys: “I came out of a different background, going back to New York when I was an underage kid and sneaking into the Paradise Garage or The Loft. I was into Earth, Wind & Fire and Chaka Khan, and those guys were very European in their taste, with some Prince and Parliament-Funkadelic mixed in.”

Tags: dance, detroit, dj, electronic, house, kraftwerk, motown, music, musik, party, rave, techno

A 1984 view of electronic music

2005-05-18T10:07:00.002+02:00

"The New Music"

This is a book published in Spain in 1984. The title is "The new music: from industrial to techno-pop", written by Adolfo Marín, who was closely related to the industrial scene in Spain at that time. Not a bad scene, by the way, with people like Aviador Dro, Macromassa and, of course, Esplendor Geométrico (whose music inspired Autechre at some point): the grandparents of Oscar Mulero and Cristian Varela.

The book traces the history of electronic music, from martenot-waves to krautrock to Depeche. The most interesting parts are interviews with Schulze, Schnitzler and Kraftwerk ("we are closer to electronic funk than to rock"). There are some things that look strange from a contemporary point of view. For instance, there is not a single mention to black artists (with the exception of M. Mooney, lead singer of Can before Suzuki joined the group) and there is little interest in rhythm. No Detroit, no House, no clubbing, no DJing (we are in 1984). The rock-and-roll model was unchallenged, even in avant-garde circles. At most, some artists laughed of that model (The Residents, Devo) but were actually trapped inside it.

The end of the book, after revisiting it last week, left me a bittersweet feeling. The latest pages are devoted to artists that promised a lot but delivered nothing. Many of them were de-technified or absorbed into the pop-rock circus. There was a depressing, dark, after-punk feeling in most of them. Others were stuck in a pretentious, pseudo-avant-garde junk (Laurie Anderson, my god!). No fun, no dance, few rhythm. It is clear to me that african-american people from the Great Lakes saved the day, but that history belongs to another book...

Tags: ambient, electronic, house, IDM, kraftwerk, music, musik, techno

maximinimalism: John Tejada - Logic Memory Center

2005-05-05T16:01:00.000+02:00

Tejada proves that minimal and maximal are not contradictory. Both qualities coexist in this wonderful work by one of the most interesting creators in electronic music nowadays. They even coexist in the same track.

To test by yourself this apparent contradiction, listen to "Unit B1656" or "Possessive Patterns" and try to follow the multiple layers of micromelodies that Tejada organizes. Your head will spin from one line to other, in a listening experience that reminds the pixelation of a Bach fugue. Certainly, too much minimal creates a maximal.

Of course, Tejada is not the only techno artist that dominates this maximinimal or minimaximal connection. Jeff Mills comes to mind pretty easily. But in this work, John Tejada does it so brilliantly and explicitly that I can't imagine how someone could call his music "repetitive".

The negative point in this work, for me, are the singed tracks (very Depechy, by the way). When someone sings lyrics in techno tracks like these, the listening experience described above breaks. Singing is so "foreground" that distracts the listener from the wonderful "backgrounds". It forces the listener to look at the tree in front of him instead of looking to the forest behind. But the forest is still there and electronic music lovers will surely find it and enjoy each bit of it.

Tags: ambient, dance, detroit, electronic, IDM, musik, techno

Midnight Club 3 - A Detroit techno racing videogame

2005-04-28T18:11:00.000+02:00

Buying a videogame just for the soundtrack? Yes. I think I will do it for first time, even when I am not a fan of racing games (I don't dislike them, anyway). The game in question is "Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition", which appears to be a decent street racing game according to gamespot. The company behind the game is Rockstar Games, creators of Grand Theft Auto series.

The important thing for us is that the streets in the game are actual streets from Detroit and the music is, of course, Detroit techno, featuring artists like Mad Mike. A recent article in Detroit Free Press tells us more about the story and about the people behind it. All music is from the Submerge label and you can check the "tracklist" here.

According to that article, "Terry Donovan, the CEO of Rockstar Games, was an electronic DJ before he helped found the company in 1998, working at clubs like Berlin's Tresor and the House of God in Britain. He says he's been a fan of Underground Resistance for years". Terry, if this is true, why did you include so few techno tracks in GTA: San Andreas?

Technorati Tags: music, electronic, techno, dance, videogames, games, detroit

mp3 at Tresor cheaper than iTunes store !

2005-04-28T15:21:00.000+02:00

Yes, after paying around 9.9 € for album (from artists like Drexciya, Dj T-1000, Jeff Mills, etc.) I have now realized that those same albums can be downloaded from the Tresor store by less than 5 €. I don't want to even think how much I would have saved...

So, beware, techno fans worldwide !
Technorati Tags: dance, electronic, music, mp3, techno

Some books about techno

2005-04-26T10:52:00.000+02:00

Some books about the history of techno that I intend to read.

This is the Bible of (american) techno. The author has a blog. "Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk" (Dan Sicko)

An european view by L. Garnier. Looks very appealing, but it's in french: "Electrochoc" (Laurent Garnier, David Brun-Lambert)

A guide to techno: "The Rough Guide to Techno" (Tim Barr, Tim Barr)

Technorati Tags: books, dance, electronic, music, techno

pics & tracks: Jeff Mills - Changes of life

2005-04-22T18:18:00.000+02:00

20030525 Toronto 150
Originally uploaded by gakout.
Click to listen:

Techno can be very visual... This is the first of a series of posts that put together a track with a photo, so that they both fit together and reference, or suggest, each other (IMO).
The pics come from flickr. The tracks come from the USA iTunes Music Store, so you can listen it just by clicking the iTunes button above.

Technorati Tags: techno, photo, jeffmills, dance, itms, flickr, music, iTunes, electronic, IDM, ambient, musik

Democratization of dance

2005-04-18T16:21:00.000+02:00

I don't belong to the "techno generation" but to the "travolta generation" instead. I am happy to see that dancing has been democratized. This was not the case some years ago. My generation had too many issues and prejudices with regard to "dancing good" or "dancing bad".

What was dancing for most of us? Simply stated, it was an exhibition act performed mainly in nightclubs where the first goal was to attract people from the opposite sex. You danced for the others. "To observe and be observed". Generally speaking, dancing was for those gifted people or for those with enough will to learn the "steps" of a particular style. Normally, class, sex and race differences came into play at the time of dancing according to one style or another. Attitude prevailed. PLUR was just unconceivable. That was plain stupid, as attitude only leads to boredom, envy and bad feelings. Combined with alcohol, attitude is the worse drug ever.

Was it some kind of "aristocratic" dance culture? Yes. But a (peaceful) French Revolution was taking shape, thanks to the rave movement and to electronic dance music. At the raves (or "fiestas", as called in Spain) or techo-dance-house clubs, nobody gave a sh*t about how others dance. Now, there is no more "dancing good" or "dancing bad". No more "look at me" or "look at that guy". The point now is to completely submerge your head into the music and enjoy each beat, with your mind, with your soul and with your body. It is, at last, a true dionysian and liberating experience, like it should have always been. Exactly the opposite to what I experienced around the 80's.

Technorati Tags: techno, house, dance, music, rave, electronic

Richie Hawtin promises more DE9

2005-04-14T14:41:00.000+02:00

In a bizarre article about the Berlin scene, published at Metro Times Detroit, that you can read here, it is said that "Hawtin's next mix-CD project promises to triple the content of 2001's DE9: Closer to the Edit, on which Hawtin reinterpreted and recast 70 tracks into a 53-minute mix."

This is clearly good news for those of us who loved DE9, a true masterpiece of cut-and-paste. When I was a kid and played with tapes and records and voices and re-records, what I was actually trying to achieve was something like DE9, only without Hawtin's genius.

There are also other nice quotes: "There's no me there anymore. It's not important for me to control anything. There's nothing conscious about it. There's no ego in it." Also, it is said that "he'll be working with his friend Ricardo Villalobos on several remixes of Depeche Mode, a band that both call "bigger than the Beatles" for tech-generation kids."

If you wonder about the "Detroit-Berlin" thing he points that: "Both Detroit and Berlin have people with an incredibly strong will to survive," he says. "Out of decay and pain comes this strength; you see it in both cities. You put (the music) out there, and it's like there's nothing they can't understand."
Tags: berlin, detroit, music, scene, techno

Derrick May: saving the world from bad music

2005-04-12T17:48:00.000+02:00

100_2001
Originally uploaded by sneak.

Here he is, the man himself. Look at the phrase behind. I completely agree ! Just read my previous posts here.

Technorati Tags: techno, house, music, dj, djing, detroit

DJ's killed the rock star

2005-04-10T23:57:00.000+02:00

I am completely sick of the “song” format. I can’t stand another chorus-verse-chorus-verse-etc. (in spanish: odio los estribillos!). Enough is enough. Luckily, since I get into electronic music I have been freed from such a static, boring and recurrent structure. This is one of the reasons I am so happy with this music: structure is free, completely free. And a DJ can even rise this freedom to a higher degree, if his mixing skills are up to the task. I will post many other reasons why I love e-music later in this blog.

People into e-music never use the word “song”. They talk about producing “tracks” or just "productions", which is, IMO, a more humble and realistic concept. Absolute lack of pretentiousness. They never say “I write songs”; they say “I produce tracks”. And the main purpose of a track is not to be remembered for the next ages to come: they come to live when they are mixed with other tracks. Tracks, unlike songs, are not ends in itself. The value of a track is given by other tracks that act as context. My value as an individual is given by my social network...

Of course, this is closely related to the lack of attitude and the lack of cult to personality that is so surprising in electronic dance music, and that I absolutely LOVE. Electronic artists (DJs, producers) are hard workers that do not pursue stardom at all cost. The audience of a DJ just wants to have FUN, and does not care about their favorite drinks or about the shirt they wear or about their opinion on animal rights or about how many instruments broke on stage or about flying pigs on the shows or about their last problems in court or about their last marriage or about their haircut or about how many drugs take per day or about how nihilist they are or about how cool is the way they hold the micro or about...

Tags: ambient, dance, dj, djing, electronic, house, music, rave, techno

Browse tags at a glance with OmniWeb

2005-04-08T14:45:00.000+02:00

With OmniWeb you can create wonderful shortcuts for browsing Technorati tags at a glance. Just go to Preferences, Shortcuts and create a new shortcut (clicking +). Name it, for example, technorati and use tag@ for the keyword. In the URL write: http://www.technorati.com/tag/%@

It's done. Now, if you want, for example, browse the "music" tag just go to the addres bar and type "tag music", as you would do with a normal URL. You will be taken to the technorati page http://www.technorati.com/tag/music. Want to see what's going on with "mac"? Just write "tag mac"...

It works because the @ in the keyword tells omniweb that a parameter will follow the keyword ("music" in our example). In the URL the parameter is expanded right at the %@ location. Of course, this method also works with flickr and del.icio.us. This is left as an exercise for the reader !

(Yes, this is a bit off-topic in this blog... That's why I love blogging: freedom of posting at last! )

P.S: OK, I have learned the lesson. Now, this things will go to my other blog. I promise to keep this on topic from now on...

Technorati Tags: mac, apple, omni, omniweb, Tags, technorati, flickr, Del.icio.us, browsers

Soon in this blog...

2005-04-06T10:14:00.000+02:00

Well, this is not an entry but a list of topics that will be posted in the future to this blog. It really makes me think that this blog deserves to exist. Feel free to suggest more, if you are listening:

- Rythm belongs to the people
- Democratization of dance
- Attitude perceived as harmful
- No cult to personality
- Repetitivism and minimalism
- No violence
- How to fill an iPod if you are not into electronic music?
- Techno as tribalism+technology
- About emotion (and lack-of) in electronic music
- Ambient: the background/foreground model
- Depressive vs. exciting vs. euphoric music (?)
- About “all sounds the same”
- About particular artists, labels, DJs, movements, etc.

Technorati Tags: techno, music

Techno at the 30s, Is it possible ?

2005-04-04T23:22:00.000+02:00

As a 30-something (30-too-many, actually), I have not been into electronic dance music all my life. My first favourite music was Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes and the like, at the end of the 70s. Then punk, after-punk, new wave, techno-pop, etc. Other musics also catched my attention: Brian Eno, Motown, Velvet, some classical, a bit of jazz, etc. The grunge movement was too little interesting for me. Too many bands playing songs that sounded like other songs I was already tired of. I was also too bored of all that rock-and-roll attitude that I can’t still stand. Well, Green Day were not bad...

The point is that I never payed attention to all the electronic movement that was around Chicago, Detroit, Berlin and taken the world by storm. “That’s Bakalao”, I said, as it is known here in Spain. Nothing strange, of course, as many, many, people of my generation still think it’s a bunch of crap. My only touch with that music was at some clubs in Madrid, but I just was there having a good time with friends. I never payed attention to the music or even the DJ (a DJ? what’s the point of paying attention to the DJ?, I thought).

One day, around 2002 I arrived at home with some CD’s recently bought: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Thin Lizzy, The Jam, Costello, etc. Looking at them I had an illumination “do I really think in keep buying this kind of music for the rest of my life?”. It was something lika a Paulinian experience. So I started a search for the music that “the kids” like now, found some dance radios, attended two or three “raves” (yes! only!), looked for sessions in mp3 and a new world opened for me. I have never looked back.

Of course I do not renegate of my past, so the parallelism with St. Paul ends here. I still like Pink Floyd or Yes or even Green Day, just as my grandmother likes Sinatra, Nat King Cole or Marife de Triana. I just do not care about that music any more, nor even about new bands that, actually, have nothing new.

If I look at the past, I go to Motown and stop there. This amazing story will continue in a future post...

Technorati Tags: techno, music

Elevator Breakdown iMix

2005-04-03T23:08:00.000+02:00

Visitors have the right to know about my tastes. So please check my 1st iMix created by me at the iTunes Music Store. It is called Elevator Breakdown. Very Detroitie....

Why "The Motown Elevator" ?

2005-04-03T14:55:00.001+02:00

I think I should first explain the title of this techno, ambient and e-music blog. As many people know, Derrick May defined Techno as "Kraftwerk and Funkadelick stuck in an elevator" (more or less). I always have found that image very exciting and a very precise description of how Detroit Techno sounds. Something like: imagine that Kraftwerk are not german-born but african-american born in the Motor Town. Which music would they do?

I thought that the evocatory power of such image could be enhanced by putting that elevator at the Motown building in Detroit. So that's why I decided to name this blog as The Motown Elevator. A reason as silly as any other...

Technorati Tags: techno, ambient, IDM, electronica, music, electronic