Category: media-and-expression

The Essential Mixes

Armin Van Buuren djing

Essentialmixes.net is a website where you can stream, download, view tracklists and rate every Radio 1 essential mix since it began in 1993. Wow, but its not flawless.

There are so many amazing mixes on the site… One which takes me right back is Force & Styles mix from 1997. Just check out the playlist from this sweet mix. The only tune missing is the Eyeopener by Dj Brisk.

  1. Force & Styles – “Paradise & Dreams” (Diverse)
  2. Force & Styles – “Apollo 13 Pt II” (UK Dance)
  3. Bang The Future – “Body Slam” (GBT)
  4. Force & Styles – “Cuttin’ Deep” (Diverse Recordings)
  5. DJ Quatro – “Musical Mayhem” (HecTec)
  6. Sy & Bunter – “Connect Your Step” (GBT)
  7. Sy & Demo – “Love & Devotion” (Quosh)
  8. DJ Stompy – “Body Rock” (Hectic)
  9. JDS – “Higher Love” (Stompin’ Choonz)
  10. DJ Eruption – “Don’t You Want Me” (United Dance)
  11. Demo
  12. Ham & Time – “Here I Am” (Jal Premium)
  13. Ramos & Supreme – “Gotta Believe” (Hectic Rewinds)
  14. Hixxy & Bananaman – “Together Forever” (Essential Platinum)
  15. DJ Eruption – “Let The Music” (United Dance)
  16. Force & Styles – “Pretty Green Eyes” (UK Dance)
  17. Force & Styles – “Your Love” (Happy Trax)
  18. Bang – “Cloudy Daze” (Next Generation)
  19. Force & Styles – “Shining Down” (UK Dance)
  20. DJ Demo – “Your Mine” (Universal)
  21. Slipmatt & Eruption – “Sunshine” (First Recordings)
  22. Billy Bunter – “Untitled” (GBT)
  23. DJ Eruption – “Reach Out” (United Dance)
  24. DJ Vinyl Groover – “It Doesn’t Have To Be” (Hectic Rewinds)
  25. DJ Vinyl Groover – “Time After Time” (Obsession)

The site its self is pretty impressive, it really celebrates the dj and the amazing mixes which is good thing. So I went to register and found out, registration actually costs money up front which is a bit cheeky, yes its only 2 pounds 50 but there should be a option to sign up without paying. Then if you want to download, you have to pay. There’s also no clear indication what kind of downloads will be available. I can’t actually tell if the downloads are mp3’s, ogg vorbis or something drm’ed like AAC/WMA?

Reading people tweets, there seems to be a lot of problems downloading mixes, so maybe they should adopt some kind of P2P system like bit torrent to ease the bandwidth problems there having. Something like P2Pnext would be perfect for this setup. Finally, it would be great to have a API or at least RSS feeds.

I’m sure someone is already writing a script/app for this site to go into XBMC/Boxee/other devices, if there not – I might just do it myself.

System F remix competition

To be fair the last thing I really want to do is enter another competition after the sheer Mess O’Potamia of the Lets Mix Next Generation DJ contest, I’m not so sure I really want to enter another, but remixing a range of System F/Ferry Corsten’s tunes is too tempting.

Back in 1999, System F’s ‘Out Of The Blue’ redefined trance music for a new generation. Ferry Corsten’s synth-laden classic destroyed dancefloors across the planet and became a worldwide chart hit, beginning one of the most successful careers in dance music for the Dutch maestro. 11 years on, the track is being re-released with a host of new mixes from Tiësto, Hi_Tack, Laidback Luke, Rafaël Frost, Giuseppe Ottaviani, Koen Groeneveld, Showtek and others!

To celebrate, Ferry Corsten in association with Trackitdown.net and Copa Football, has launched FC System F – the chance to become part of the greatest team in trance history! By entering the competition, users are able to remix highlights from the System F back catalogue. To kick things off, Tiësto, Laidback Luke and the above have already remixed ‘Out Of The Blue’, but there are 10 further original tracks presented in the line-up, all waiting for the remix treatment from a new star player.

Starting weekly from February 2nd, Ferry will post the original parts of a System F track on the website. After agreeing to the Terms & Conditions and registering, fans will be able to download the parts for free, and have 3 weeks to send in their remix via a download link to team@fcsystem.com

Wonder if I can use LMMS for remixing these tracks once their available?

FLCL / Fooly Cooly

Cosplay FLCL

I’ve pretty much backed up all my dvds to my storage array which is great and been watching some of the odder stuff. A good friend Lucas who now lives in Toronto (miss him) bought me FLCL on DVD a while back and I loved it.

So when I watched it again last weekend, I forgot how good this Anime is. Its only 6 episodes but there so involved and a joy to watch. Here’s a brief overview…

FLCL, also known as Furi Kuri or Fooly Cooly, is a fast paced and confusing Japanese animated series. The story begins when an energetic alien girl drives up on a Vespa and hits an unsuspecting adolescent boy over the head with a left-handed bass guitar.

This crazy hyperactive style can easily be misinterpreted, causing strongly opposing opinions of the show’s value. There are many metaphorical plots and hidden meanings underneath its surface. The series is a pun in itself with suggestive and sexual metaphors. The strange situations and dialogue reflect the confusion and awkwardness of puberty (as well as society in general). FLCL is an exercise in unconventional, self-alluding anime.

The plot takes on an unconventional love story, using comedic elements to bridge the story together including satires of John Woo and South Park, not to mention allusions to other anime such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Lupin III and Gundam. Essentially the series is a coming-of-age story.

If you look carefully you will find most of it on Youtube, but its worth buying or getting in a much higher rez. The cinematic direction is great and up there with some of the best animation I’ve seen.

The world’s most important 6-sec drum loop

Matt showed me this earlier in the week but I had to blog it. This is a excellent example of remix culture… Imagine if Amen had claimed copyright over the break? Or if they had licensed it only to the top producers in the music industry.

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the “Amen Break,” a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music — a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison’s 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent, 2009

There are quite a few differences between popularity at the box office and on BitTorrent. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and 2012 are ranked 2nd and 4th based on their worldwide grosses but didn’t make it into the top 10 list of most swapped movies.

On the contrary, RocknRolla is the third most pirated movie on BitTorrent this year, but with a minuscule worldwide revenue of $25 million it was ranked just 168th at the box office in 2008 when the movie came out. Part of the success of RocknRolla is that it was released by the infamous uploader aXXo whose releases are always guaranteed to have at least a few million downloads.

Taken from TorrentFreak

rank movie – downloads = worldwide grosses

  1. Star Trek – 10,960,000 = $385,459,120
  2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – 10,600,000 = $834,969,807
  3. RocknRolla – 9,430,000 = $25,728,089
  4. The Hangover – 9,180,000 = $459,422,869
  5. Twilight – 8,720,000 = $384,997,808
  6. District 9 – 8,280,000 = $204,570,836
  7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – 7,930,000 = $929,359,401
  8. State of Play – 7,440,000 = $87,784,194
  9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 7,200,000 = $373,062,569
  10. Knowing – 6,930,000 = $183,260,464

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