Warp Records' 10 best

I usually only write about technology here, at least lately. In the past I actually did write about music here, though most of my music-related content was posted on Electronic Music World. But the 20th birthday of Warp Records is a good reason to share some thoughts on another topic than technology for once.

Beatstad festival, or: How I got to meet Live

For nearly half of my life, I've been fan of a single band: Live. Their music is probably the most important thing in my life, next to my wife and kids, and PHP . It is also one of the most important things I share with my wife. Important enough for us both to have "Dance With You" to play on our wedding, as she came walking in. Ever since meeting her, as time and money permitted, we'd go to every show in The Netherlands that they played. But I had never met them. Until yesterday.

Here we go again, two days in a row

It is time again. After '97 (following the release of Secret Samadhi) and 2006 (following the release of Songs for Black Mountain), the two concerts Live is giving in Paradiso will be the third and fourth I attend in the mother of all pop-venues in the Netherlands by Live. I am sooooo much looking forward to it.

Digitizing music: Terratec PhonoPreAmp iVinyl

Having been a DJ in the past, I have quite an extensive vinyl collection in the attic. A lot of the music I have there I don't have in any other media, either because I didn't want to buy the music twice or simply because the music isn't available outside of vinyl. It's a shame having so much good music and not being able to do anything with it. Until now...

John Peel

I recently finished reading the biography "John Peel - A Life In Music " by Michael Heatley. I knew he was a special man, but thanks to this biography I now know that he was responsible for introducing an insane portion of the music I listen(ed) to to a large audience.

Netlabels and reviews

For quite a while now, I've been running the Electronic Music World magazine. I've just launched a new subsite.

Inside The Virtual Machine

A while ago, I announced here the download of Back2Buzzics, which was the first track I'd written in years, literally. I've not been doing nothing since then. I've actually finished yet another tune!!!! This one is called 'Inside The Virtual Machine', is again quite housey in nature, with some bassline, dreamy strings and ... there is an amen break! Download now includes an mp3, by popular request Ogg download MP3 download

Back2Buzzics

It has been a long time since I have seriously done some music, let alone finished a track for public consumption. Well, (hopefully) good news! I have a new track! Download yourself this new track of mine, Back2Buzzics. It's done completely in Buzz (thanks to my new VMware Player which allows me to run Windows inside Linux). It's inspired by oldschool techno wizards such as Robert Armani. Enjoy! Update: The song is now also available for listening at Last.fm

On Cunts and Cock(er)s

Jarvis Cocker, probably best known for his role as lead-singer of the British band Pulp, can also survive on his own. He's proved that to me by a new single he released, Running The World. I got the track from Bleep for a wonderfully nice price of 1.40 euro and it was worth every penny. A wonderful track about the state of this world, and the fact that those running the world are, as the British can so wonderfully call it, cunts. I can highly recommend getting this wonderful track.

Live in Ahoy` & HMH

Since quite a few years already my wife and I try to attend every concert (excluding festival appearances) by Live in The Netherlands. So when we heard that Live would be doing first one show, then two, we quickly had our tickets. But we were definitely not prepared for what we were going to get... Wednesday June 28. The minute I finish work I leave for Rotterdam, where Live is playing Ahoy`. Two support acts open the evening. A Balladeer is quite nice, and were able to get the (relatively small) crowd going. Proof of the fact that this concert was far from sold out: We came in while A Balladeer was already playing and we easily able to position ourselves nearly at the front, a few rows from the stage. Anyway, A Balladeer was very nice, and the crowd definitely seemed to enjoy their music. Second support was the dutch singer Charlie Dée. Her voice had a ring to it that reminded of Bjork. That was however the only thing that was really positive. Her music didn't fall well for the majority of the audience, which was evident and must've been frustrating to her. When she announced that she'd be starting her last song, the audience gave a loud cheer, mainly because that would mean she'd soon be gone from the stage. I have to admit that she is a talented singer, and so she did not deserve this. But the concert promoter did a bad job selecting her as the second support for this evening. After a short wait, Live came, and started with a surprise in the form of them playing Simple Creed. A lot of the following songs were no surprise. Of course, there was a selection of songs from their new album, Songs From Black Mountain, but this selection was surprisingly small, considering this tour was to support the release of that album. The majority of the show consisted of all the good old songs that most people would like to hear. There were definitely some surprises, such as them playing Iris and Mirror Song. Being slightly biased, I'll say that as always, Live was playing great! However, it seemed they had some technical difficulties, because there were times where timing was off. Adam Kowalczyk's backing vocals at one point were completely mis-timed, and Ed's lead vocals also had some hiccups in timing. It definitely didn't make the party less big. And Live decided to give the fans what they asked for by playing for well over 2 hours. After they finished and we regained consciousness from our living dream of such an extended concert, we had a hard time getting home. It was 4:30 when we finally found our bed. After only two hours of sleep, I had to get up again. Work was awaiting, another day of work which would be followed by the second concert by Live, this time in Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall, a location easier to reach from my work in the center of Amsterdam. After the Ahoy` concert we'd concluded that we were so lucky to have experienced this concert, and that the chance of Live playing that long again were small. Boy, were we wrong. With the Heineken Music Hall being so close to my work, we were able to be at the doors the minute they opened and we were able to get a nice spot right in front of the stage. The Heineken Music Hall was completely packed, this show was sold out, when the support act started. Absynthe Minded was the only support for this concert, and I have mixed feelings about them. Some of the songs they played were brilliant and beautiful, others were outright boring. The audience didn't really seem to be catching on to the enthusiasm of the band. But with 45 minutes, they definitely were able to put down a consistent and solid set. Before the support started playing, the big boss of The Alternative, the concert promoter organizing the concert, announced that they would not limit Live in any way. If Live felt like playing on, they would be able to. Nobody would tell them to stop. This turned out to be the very truth. After the regular set and the first encore, of which the setlist was quite similar to the evening before, the crowd kept cheering “we want more”. More we got, because Live came back for a second encore. And for a third encore. And even for a fourth encore! At that point, it was clear that drummer Chad Gracey was too tired to continue. Judging from the energy coming from the other band members, if Chad Gracey had been able to continue, Live would've played even longer! But by that time, it was well passed midnight already, and they had started playing around 9:30 PM. Nearly three full hours worth of concert! Respect for both Live and all the fans that even up until the last track were able to keep jumping and cheering. So yeah, we had an awesome time! Truly amazing. These two experiences only heighten my love for Live. The bond they seem to have with their fans, and especially their dutch fans, is unique. I definitely know where we will be the next time Live is playing in The Netherlands.

Live!

Live in Paradiso. Something to never ever forget.

Paradise here I come

It's gonna be a good weekend!

A Dream Come True

Truely a dream come true. Live is doing Paradiso again.

Surrender

I got a nice present from a client

Music to code to

My top 5 of albums to code to.

[meta] The Right Way of Marketing

I just published a new article over at Electronic Music World about a (to me) new music distribution system offering mp3 downloads, no DRM. The Right Way Of Marketing.

AudioFlickrScrobbler is back!

My AudioFlickrScrobbler is back!

Kratarknathrak

The new release by Kratarknathrak is out now on Laidback Electronica!

IDM continued

My essay got published!

IDM

A short essay on the definition of IDM

Fun with usernames

Username: Al_Qaeda

BookCrossing RingMix #1

Over at the Dutch BookCrossing forum, there was the idea that anyone interested could join the 'MusicRing', where every participant would compile a cd (either mixed or with seperate tracks) and those cd's would, once a month, be passed on to the next participant. This is a perfect way to learn about new music you'd normally not find out about. My cd is now finished. It's mixed (well, tracks flow into each other, not beatmixed), and contains 16 tracks: 1. Beefcake - Untitled 1 2. Eboman - Sample Jazz 3. Suki Takahasi - The Public School 4. Eminem - Lose Yourself 5. Carl, Tomas Danko, Eminem - I'm sorry Eminem 6. Tobiah - I love your music 7. Daft Punk - One More Time 8. Girls On Top - I wanna dance with numbers 9. Bitcrush - Have you lost your way 10. Mercurial - March of the Lemmings 11. Metaxu - 01091939 Warsaw 12. Urawa - Assembly 13. Somatic Responses - Spatial Awareness 14. Deceptikon - Bossanovastyles 15. New Order - Blue Monday 16. Liquid - Liquid is Liquid (remix) I'm very happy with the end result. It's a shame there's copyrighted tracks in there, because now I can't publish it on the web...

Take On Me

One of the most amazing music video's I've ever seen is the one for Take On Me by A-ha. Remember the one? Where the girl ended up inside the comic book? OK. Now that I've refreshed your memory, check this. Amazing!

Illegal downloader spends more money on digital music

According to this article on BBC, people who get the most of their music through file sharing, are also the biggest spenders when it comes to buying legal music online. This basically means that the music industry is starting to sue their best clients. In what kind of world are we living then? Again, I will reiterate the fact that I'd love to buy my music through legal online music stores if only these stores were available to me (a linux user). Of course, there is Bleep and eMusic, but these don't give me the occasional top 40 tune that I like. Time for the music industry to change the way they handle digital music and file sharing, maybe?

BitTorrent

Don't you love BitTorrent? I just got myself 20 cd's worth of material by The Beatles. Most of these I already own on vinyl, but I was too lazy to actually do the whole digitalization myself. Some great material that I didn't yet have though, such as 2 cd's of live recordings at BBC. Nice!

Boards of Canada

We are extremely proud to announce that Boards of Canada have finished and mastered their new album, to be released in October - their first release since 2002's Geogaddi! The album is very much classic Boards, building on themes and sounds that can can be heard in their intervening remix work for Beck, cLOUDDEAD and Boom Bip.