- New remix EP! I’m basically doing here what I tried to to with Biggie, but now I have more tools at my disposal and I don’t suck as much. I wanted to do another Hip-Hop legend. Nas was on the list, and is still. Ironically though, one of the songs on this album is a 2001 track (off The Blueprint) called “The Takeover” in which Jay-Z talks alot shit about both Mob Deep and Nas. I can’t mess with the original, which is one of Kayne West’s best beats, it manages to sample The Doors and KRS One and David Bowie. Dang. Anyways, yeah enjoy. Most of the tracks are pretty dark besides “H.O.V.A.” which kind of has a dance party vibe, and “Encore” which is sort of a reflective, hopeful sounding song. Here’s the cover:
There’s still much to be desired with my scratching, but I’m getting better. Also there should be a guitar solo. Maybe at the end of HOVA. Okay I’ll stop. Here’s the stream:
Okay what the fuck? Bandcamp has changed since I last used it. There used to be a drop down menu to embed albums on a variety of sites, including WordPress. Now they’re only providing embed shortcodes for Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+ (with Facebook being default embed). Hmm. Okay, well here’s the damn link cause yeah F this:
- Nazi Buddha ‘Came From Outer Space’. Which isn’t the official title I guess; it’s just the one to get you to click on the link. It works. Turns out this ancient Buddha statue, discovered in the 1930′s via a Nazi organized archeological dig, was carved some 1000 years ago out of a meteorite that crashed to the Earth’s surface some 15,000 years ago. This has Indiana Jones written all over it.
Also from the BBC:
- Hubble Telescope Captures One of the Most Extraordinary Views of Universe to Date. The image comes from a result of astronomers pointing the Hubble towards a very specific patch of sky for around 22 days. Letting in 500-ish hours of light to the scope. It captured around 5,500 separate galaxies, including the farthest it saw, UDFy-38135539. Just to give you an idea, that galaxy is over 13 BILLION light years away. Which is of course so mind-blowing it is almost incomprehensible…
- Hey I made a new remix! It got a little dark… yeeeaaaahhh sorry about that:
Just to give you an idea of how different it is, here’s the original:
- Mikey Mictlan of Doomtree has a new album out. And he’s offering it up for FREE (but give him a few bucks, eh):
- Check out this Photostream on Flickr; guy calls himself/herself OM2 Urbx. Specializes in urban photography for the 21st Century. This one is called “Clane Crimber” (and no, I believe that is not a typo):
- These Verve Remixed albums are brilliant. Damn. The idea is to take old songs from the history of the label, and have modern Electronic and/or Hip-Hop produces remix them. So they’re both for fans of the history of the label and the artists associated, AND modern music fans to serve as an introduction to said artists. Awesome idea, and something more labels with 25+ years of history should do. And big ups to The Current for playing something I wasn’t familiar with and piqued my interest more than “oh, this is pretty decent indie rock”.
BitTorrent has a new plan for getting money into the hands of content producers — and it’s putting its method to the test with a handful of new tracks from turntable maestro DJ Shadow.
The file-sharing hub released a “bundle” of three tracks on 24 July from Shadow’s upcoming Total Breakdown: Hidden Transmissions From the MPC Era, 1992-1996. The torrent, which also includes photos and archival footage from Shadow’s early years, will come with free software from BitTorrent’s advertising partners — like, for example, RealPlayer. If downloaders install the software, the DJ will get a share of the revenue.
The DJ Shadow bundle is the first of many new content experiments BitTorrent has in the works, the company said. Finding ways for artists to make money from file sharing could be a significant shift in the perception of the practice among artists and music labels. It seems to have brought around Shadow (aka Josh Davis), who in an interview with Wired last year lamented that peer-to-peer file sharing had “removed music sales from the equation.”
- Paul Pope did a drawing of Luke at the gate’s of Jabba’s Palace for shits and giggles:
- I’m sitting outside in my new wooden chair with the cat and the birds watching THIS movie. It’s a free documentary that’s been uploaded to YouTube called The Crisis of Civilization. The movie is essentially wholly narrated by Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, the Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development. The film discusses how all the “crisis’s” we face today — everything from ecological disaster to financial meltdowns to terrorism — are just manifestations of a civilized, industrial global system that is failing. If it has an overall thesis statement, it is that this current global system (and every aspect of it) cannot continue to exist as it does through the entirety of the 21st Century… at least without catastrophic consequences.
“The white paper outlines a series of challenges currently facing China’s extraction of rare earth minerals. China holds 23 percent of the world’s total quantity of minerals, mostly sourced from three main sites in the south of the country. Those sites are now heavily depleted to the extent that China believes two-thirds of their total supplies have now been mined, and the remaining seams are of a much poorer quality which will increase the cost of extraction.
Illegal mining, and the theft of supplies, has also meant that prices have been kept far lower than China believes they should be — so as demand for copper, iron and other metals has shot up over the past 20 years, rare earth mineral demand has not increased prices commensurately.”
- KROWNE — of my Black Lantern Music family — has won the Orbital/Beatport remix contest of the track “Wonky”!!!! Congrats Gary!! Fuck yes yes yes. Here’s his SOUNDCLOUD. Krowne is a really talented producer who creates these tricky sound designs, think complex architecture (curved glass, laced rafters like braids), steeped in on-the-go DJ skills and a keen sense of how to tickle an earhole. He’s good. And if you go to his Black Lantern page, you’ll find a bunch of albums for free. I really dig “Quantum Living” a lot.
- John Peel’s record collection. And it isn’t even done being archived yet. Damn. Apparently he had around 25 thousand LP’s 40-some thousand singles, and “several thousand” CD’s. Plus the site itself is really well designed, like being transported to the place he broadcasted and listened to all that music over the years. “The Space”.
I know there’s a whole shitload of record collections out there. And especially amongst the DJ’ing type, where they’ve got a basement full of shelving up to the ceiling. But I thought this was a cool picture. Apparently it’s Madlib’s collection, and it weighs 4 tons:
Madlib’s 2010 idea of releasing an album every month — the project was dubbed “The Medicine Show” — was clever. From what I took away from it, he essentially dug through his record collection by genre, then made break-beat type records zeroing in on one particular style. So he’s got an album that’s all Brazilian music, one that’s African music, there’s even one that’s “psychedelic, progressive and hard rock & funk circa 1968–1976″. It’s a great idea. And something more DJs with assloads of records should look into.
- So I’m absolutely going to go see theAvengers, no question. And I’m sure with Joss Whedon at the helm quite a bit of focus will be put on character, importantly. But I don’t know why everyone’s making such a big deal about it “outdoing” Dark Knight Rises, especially before either has even come out. I’ve heard and read so many people lately talking about how they’re doing such a better job promoting it, and how the trailers are soooo much better and all this. Dude, it’s a movie… like, can’t we judge what’s “better” based on what’s the better movie. Wait a second, it isn’t even about “better”. These are two completely different things. Avengers is your razzle-dazzle ZOMGIronManvsThor?!!!? action flick and Batman is… well, more of a film’s film. Cause seriously, in the end, I would be shocked if TDKR wasn’t the better movie on the whole. And maybe everyone is off the C. Nolan bandwagon, I dunno. I’d be fine with that. Maybe even a little bit happy.
- Yesterday between working on my shit I made a quick remix for Texture’s next release, a trilogy of EP’s as one and a slew of remixes and rarities. Which will be a treat, seeing all three of those together. I was telling him that I wanted it to come across as a little more haunting than it does, but I think it still gets the job done. Had a lot of fun tweaking with his line “nothing is sacred” by adding a whole ass load of modulation, pitch shift, and delay to provide some nice backing vocals for the refrain. The guitar could be tweaked a bit more, but I kinda like keeping guitars (for the most part) effect free. Really liking the tone of the new telecaster on this one. Check it out:
Be sure to look out for NEUROLEPTICA. I’ll likely be posting here as well.
- This is old. BUT, if Game Of Thrones was a 2-D fighting game (probably made by Capcom):
- Samsung Can Continue Selling Galaxy Tabs In Germany.Apple has lost another lawsuit, this time in a German Appeals Court in Duesseldorf. The ruling marks the third attempt and loss by Apple taking legal action against competitors citing infringement of patent rights.
“Furthermore, “following the design changes undertaken by Samsung, the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1N does not contravene competition law. Apple’s iPad computers and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N are rival products of equal value,” the court said in a statement. Earlier this month, two other courts in Germany — in Munich and Mannheim — also quashed Apple’s request to impose a preliminary ban on sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1N and Nexus smartphone.
The two technology giants are engaged in a legal battle involving dozens of cases worldwide as they struggle for leadership in the hugely lucrative smartphone and tablet computer market.
Apple launched legal action in April last year, accusing Samsung of “slavishly” copying its iPhone and iPad designs. Samsung has focused its own lawsuits on technology patents rather than design. The South Korean giant received two legal boosts in December. A court in San Jose, California, denied Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have banned the sale of three Samsung smartphones and a tablet computer. Australia’s High Court cleared the way for Samsung to sell its Galaxy 10.1 tablet in the country in time for Christmas, dismissing Apple’s bid to have a ban extended.”
The iPad 3 will come out in March I guess. It will purportedly have faster processing power and a better graphics engine.
- Why did everyone hate on Iron Man 2so much? Yes, there is little action but if you want 2 hours of almost non-stop robot on robot brawling I’d recommend any of the Transformers movies. The fights are quick; much quicker than the end of the first movie, which went on way too long. The story of Tony Stark’s self-made artificial heart slowly poisoning his bloodstream (and subsequently synthesizing a new, man-made element) is a good one, and would be a fascinating run in the pages Invincible Iron Man; but I always need to remind myself, “how many people who like the Iron Man movies have read an Iron Man comic?”
It’s too bad that Favreau isn’t doing the third movie, because he’s been slowly building towards the man behind the curtain, pulling the strings, since the beginning: The Mandarin. Who, as the first movie insinuates, has been funding extremists. “The Cave of the Ten Rings”. And I’m pretty sure Shane Black is on record as saying he isn’t going to use him because he sees the character as a racist stereotype.
- El-P — as this article reads — hasn’t been as quiet this year as it seems. He reunited with Company Flow, first of all (in an opening slot for Portishead, oddly enough). He’s been updating this blog, periodically, which is chronicling the making of his next album. Here’s to hoping that it will finally release in 2012. In the meantime, he’s been guesting on other tracks, doing DJ gigs here and there, and even releasing a tiny bit of new material every now and again. He just released a very strange Metallica and Prince mashup that should make your head spin. This is what he had to say about it:
“I was asking people who follow me on Twitter about who the most anti downloading/digital music musicians were and we landed on Metallica (who I dont give a shit about) and Prince (who is one of my biggest influences). For fun, I put this thing together comprised of Metallica’s “Unforgiven Part 2″ and Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
Here’s the track:
- UnusualTimes.net has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of the most unusual happenings of 2011. This is only Part I of the list, featuring 25 happenings. Some of my favorites were:
Well… my “new” album isn’t done. But I do have something here to ship out to the world-wide net. For free.
It’s a 6 track EP built solely out of FELT acapellas and FLAMING LIPS songs. It was so damn much fun to make, and the hope is that it’s as fun to throw on the stereo. This is the track list:
- So the Doomtree crew, who may as well be called “Super Friends”, has a new project where they’re combining the music of one of my favorite punk bands of all-time with one of my favorite hip-hop collectives of all-time:
FUGAZI + WU-TANG = WUGAZI
They have a Tumblr-based website for the project already, and they’ve so far released two tracks on their Soundcloud. Here’s the newest, delicious track:
- Want to know what Google thinks you’re into? CLICK HERE. Apparently I’m into comics, meat and seafood recipes, radio, myths and folklore, astronomy, hip-hop, visual art and design, and movies. That isn’t 100% wrong…
- Iron Fist Clothingmakes some pretty cool stuff for the more punk-aestheticized amongst us.
