I’m really looking forward to the Ott show tomorrow night at Nectar. This footage from his show on the 7th in Austin, gets me that much more jazzed for it.

Tonight (11.19.08) is another installment one of my favorite music happenings in Seattle. Dancechurch is a family-friendly, alcohol-free, community gathering on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month at the Church of Bass.

Tonight’s schedule looks like this ::
7pm: Hendrik
8pm: Alextronica (LIVE)
9pm: DEFIB (LIVE)
10pm: Close

I was recently gushing about how great Defib’s music is. I’m really looking forward to hearing him play live on the Church of Bass’ great sound system.

Defib - Crunchmonkey

I apologize for the all the silence around here of late. Beyond being crazy slammed at my day job, I’ve been busy getting my design portfolio site up and running. I’m hoping to get back onto my regular posting schedule this next week.

Until then, why don’t you head over to Soma.fm and listen to some of the finest streaming radio on the ‘net. Their Groove Salad station is a personal favorite of mine.

Do you know about Far Too Loud? If you like breaks or just good n’ hard peak-hour dancefloor mayhem, you should.

To quote the bio on their site:

The rise of Far Too Loud within the breakbeat scene so far has been nothing short of impressive. With each release they have received a bigger response and reached a wider audience, ensuring no Breaks DJs box is without one of their records. Snapping up the Best Single award at Breakspoll 2007, only a year and a half after their first release, confirmed that these boys are serious players, especially as they were up against the some of most elite artists in the scene!

This is not hype, ladies and gentleman. This is the truth.

I stumbled across them in my never ending search for sufficiently high-energy breakbeats with a psychedelic edge, and when I did, I felt like I hit the mother load. They have tapped into a sound that works wonders. Great sound design, crazy glitched-out breakdowns, huge bass lines, and super punchy percussion. I wouldn’t call myself an expert in the breakbeat genre, but I listen to enough samples on Beatport, while digging for killer new tracks, to know that this sound cuts through the medioric formulas of the genre and commands you attention.

They are one of the few acts that I am eagerly waiting for a chance to see/hear perform live. An entire set from Far Too Loud on a giant PA would be grounds for multiple eargasms and sore dancing legs. Please someone bring them to Seattle!

Check out this DJ mix by them. It contains tracks by them and others, but it opens with one of their more popular tracks and it’s pretty easy to pick out their tracks from the others. Almost half of the set is their music, so it gives you a really good taste of Far Too Loud’s very special flavor. A download link and tracklist can be found here.

FTL Oct 07 Mix - Far Too Funky


There’s another DJ mix and a streaming player of single tracks on their site, so I encourage you to explore it a bit. I’m a huge fan of this group and the more others in Seattle get into their sound, the better the chances of bringing them out here. Spread the word and turn it up!

This weekend brings us two amazing events that I’m really looking forward to.

Tonight (Friday, 11/7/08) is HOTwired at Noc Noc with a very special live set by the globe trotting, dance floor destroying LOUD. Last weekend, he played to a crowd of 15,000+ party peeps at a festival in Mexico. The Noc Noc has a very cozy dance floor with one of the best club sound systems in town, which is setting this night up for some serious trance’n'dance magic. To make the night even sweeter, the cover charge is still only $10! This is also Osiris Indriya’s 30th birthday bash. He’d love a birfday spanking if you cross paths with him.

Here’s LOUD rockin’ the recent Solar Vision 2 festival:




Saturday (11/8/08) brings us SeaCompression 2008: American Apocalypse. This is the Seattle area’s Burning Man decompression party, and year after year, it just keeps getting better.

Check out this floorplan! With all that activity housed under one roof, it’ll be a taste of that special playa cacophony that is so strangely satisfying.



The soundtrack for the night will be provided by a small army of DJs and musician. Here’s the most up-to-date schedule. I’m happy to see lots of new names on the list as well as a bevy of SeaCompression favorites from years past.

AMERICAN ROOM
7-7:45 :: ONNOMON
7:45-8:30 :: ECKOE
8:30-915 :: SWEET CHRIS BELL
9:15-10 :: LOVEVIRUS
10PM-11PM :: MICHAEL HOLDEN
11PM-12PM :: TERRY vs. SHAPESHIFTER
12PM-1AM :: AMANITA vs. CRISPY
1AM-CLOSE :: GEMINITRIX vs. DJML

APOCALYPSE ROOM
7-7:40 :: GRAVITY
7:40-8:20 :: SPIRE
8:20-9 :: KIRBY Vs. RED ROCKET
9-9:40 :: BTOX(ic)
9:40-10:20 :: JEREMY BALL
10:20-11:10 :: AWAGGIE
11:10-12 :: MICHAEL MANAHAN
12-1AM :: DANIEL HARM Vs. BOUYANT BRIAN
1AM-2AM :: ECQ Vs. HAAPS

Tonight (11.15.08) is another installment one of my favorite music happenings in Seattle, Dancechurch. Dancechurch is a family-friendly, alcohol-free, community gathering on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month at the Church of Bass.

Tonight’s schedule looks like this ::
7pm: Hendrik
8pm: Byron Dreamweaver [BC]
9pm: Dj Muad’deep
10pm: Close

In celebration of a new day for American politics, here’s a celebratory morning chillout set I played during the final few hours of a three-day event, Memorial Day weekend, 2007. The night before was silent so those with long drives ahead of them could rest peacefully, and I played the first set of the morning. This blissful mix is a collection of my favorite cheerful, rise-and-shine music.




Tracklist ::
Digital Mystery Tour - Rue Des Roses
Pan Electric - Sweet As Rain
Kuba - Mura
Androcell - All is Full of Dub
Lucine Icl - Scheming
Gaudi - Chaine a Chaine
Nada - Manakhana
Shulman - Zero Degrees
Omnimotion - Japan (Omnimotion Remix)
Youth vs Abakus - Spiritual Being
Abakus - California Sunshine
Banco de Gaia - We All Know the Truth (You Have God)
Secede - Friday Fall

Today seems like a perfect day to point out this amazing Obama poster by double-threat Scott Hansen, who designs under the guise of ISO50 and produces beautiful, feel-good, Boards-of-Cananda-ish music as Tycho. I really want to write up a proper profile about him, but for now, please point your browsers to this post where Scott walks through the design process for this poster.

He keeps a blog that has been a big source of inspiration for Splendid Beats. Check it out here.

And here’s a bit of delicious Tycho music to bathe you in nostalgia for times forgotten:
Cascade (Live Version)

I recorded this video at the AfriAsianEurAmericana Muzik show at Skylark on the Oct. 19, 2008. Performing are James Whetzel on sarod and Sebastian Lange on violin and beats.

I’m ever so grateful to call these two very talented individuals my friends and get to hear them play out quite a bit, though rarely in a performance like this. They both played solo sets that night, and then jammed with each other for a bit. I recorded several videos of their session, but this video really captured a special moment in the set. I don’t know if this is a rehearsed piece or improve (as they are known to do on many occasions), but I think they’ve really tapped into an interesting sound. It’s very rare to hear them play this riff-based, duet of the sarod and violin and I find the dynamics and repetition of a central theme really moving.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

More about Sebastian and his band EQlateral can be found here.

More about James Whetzel can be found at www.funketabla.com and http://ilike.com/artist/James+Whetzel.

And for your further enjoyment, here’s some good video of a typical James Whetzel solo set:

Meet the Future Nurses, the indomitable DJ duo of Osiris Indriya and Amanita. As a DJ 2×4 team, they play a fine mixture of chunky electro and progressive house, with a dash of psytrance and breaks to crank up the energy levels when needed. Hey, no wonder I like these guys! They are also the masterminds behind the fabulous HOTwired events (see my previous post for exciting news about the upcoming show) and Iosis Art Parties.

Their new mix, 001, was recently unleashed upon the unsuspecting Intertubes. I wish I could embed it here for your immediate enjoyment, but I just can’t seem to get the DJMix.net player to play nicely with Wordpress. So, if you are a fan of fun, interesting, and irresistibly groovy dance music, I highly encourage you head over to their DJMix.net page to stream or download the mix. This colossal mixture of great DJs and their excellent taste in booty rocking beats is wreaking havoc on Seattle dance floors on a regular basis, and 001 is just a taste of what they can cook up. Bon appetite!