Tag: music

A few hours before going clubbing for the first time this year

Dance in front of a laser

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. The plan was to go to sleep for a couple of hours after eating dinner then wake up and get ready to go. However I'm sitting here writing this blog post, playing loud dance music, talking to Sheila on IM and trying to get a hold of Ryan Alexander. Ryan expressed a
interest in coming along tonight but I didn't have him on my twitter list so I missed it all. Anyway, I'm buzzing and I haven't even touched the Redbull yet.

I got a feeling that I might end up doing a quick mix while I'm waiting. There are some banging tunes which I've been listening to a lot recently and their just crying out to be mixed together. I've also been playing with the idea of doing a music dj podcast but I know I'd get sued silly. Anyway, I might provide a voice overlay track to my next mix if I find the time.

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Friday 19th Jan, One night with Ferry Corsten. You up for it?

Last time I went clubbing in Berlin



January 14, 2007 10

—

6am

— Ferry Corsten 4 hour set— at The Gallery at Turnmills, Clerkenwell, London

Four hour set from Mr Corsten, supported by Abel Ramos and Gavyn Mytchell

One of the top Dj's in the industry hits London next Friday. In my attempt to get back into clubbing before I get really too old physically to do it all, I'm going.

My only regret is that I'll have no one to share the night with. Most of my friends are into weird music (only learned who the police were a while ago) and won't be interested in going out till 6am. Unless I might be wrong? If your reading this and thinking yeah sounds like a good night then leave a comment or drop me a email. As mentioned on the podcast we just did, I only drink lots of Redbull so I'm legally allowed to drive my scooter home afterwards, which means theres a chance I could drop you home if your
on the way to Woolwich. I also found a nice discount on the ticket price.

Because so many people of the Ferry Corsten forum are going to see Ferry in Turnmills we wanted to do something special! So we can offer a special entrance for just £10. To get your ticked you have to go to THIS special link.
Please put : FINGERS in the Promo code box. Go through the rest of the options and then on the next page it will offer you the £10 ticket.

The last time I went seriously clubbing was in 2005 over in Berlin. My friend Carl was going to come out too, but his girlfriend was ill. So I decided to go alone. Now to be fair I had a flipping wicked night but there were some odd things to get use to in Berlin like getting money back for your glasses at the bar (actually makes a lot of sense). I must have shed like a ton of sweat that night because there were so many good tunes played by the likes of Paul Van Dyk and Tiesto.

The way I currently stay in touch with what's going on in the Trance and Progressive scene is via the member only Bit Torrent site Trance Traffic. Armin Van Buuren's A state of trance show is simply awesome and is a must if your into your trance and progressive music. Without it I wouldn't be currently listening to the classic Intuition
(Martin Roth Classic Style Mix)

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Flicker music podcast

Minimus EP cover

My friend Paul Crowley has created a flipping awesome podcast for his and Gareth Cole's exclusively online music lablel Flicker Tracks.Yes Flicker with an E not without the E. Anyway his just launched a new EP called Minimus and decided the 30secs preview you get from the Apple iTunes store wasn't enough for slow building arrangements which you find in a lot of house and trance music. And he's very right, there's tracks which sound nothing like the first 2 mins because thats your build up period (or mix period) then the track comes alive with something amazing which suprises the listener. Paul says it much better that myself

We decided that it is important that anyone interested in our material can hear significantly more than the 30 seconds currently afforded by iTunes. This is particularly important with club focussed music, where lengthy intros facilitate equally lengthy and seamless DJ mixes. Slow-build arrangements don’t necessarily reveal the true nature of the track in the opening bars, or in fact, in any given 30 second sample.

It’s always been true that the medium has dictated the format and length of mass produced music (from wax cylinders through to compact discs) but in this instance, the promotional method is creating an artificial limitation – the medium is not at fault. It is as if when writing material, you should now produce the musical equivilent of the elevator pitch to have the greatest chance of commercial success.

Were we to write and arrange our material so that the first 30 seconds gives the casual listener a more representative sample of what’s to come, we would then risk rendering the material less appropriate for the intended context – a club (which of course is creating another restriction on form, but one that we choose intentionally). Anyway, all this technology is supposed to be about creativity and freedom of expression, right?

Your damm right Paul. I've added the podcast to this entry which I hope will give it even more visability and I don't think Paul will mind. It would be easier for others to do the same if there was a creative commons licence like Attribution-NoDerivs License attached to the podcast. Then people could play it, copy it and even play it on a commercial radio station. I would also add – it would be great to have included a little tracklist (maybe linked to the direct track on itunes) in the blog post. But it was great to hear louise's voice over the music, very professional sounding.

So about the actual tracks.

1st track minimus – is damm fat and heavy, I like it and might have to get it for net Saturday's Bash.

2nd track bring you too – is a nice rich leader track. Something I would use to bring the crowd to a new place. This is certainly what I think of when thinking progressive or tech house.

3rd and 4th tracks are not quite my style but sound like something I would dance to in a house club.

5th track skidmark – is another fatty track perfect for playing in a bar, warm and smooth, perfect for a slightly upbeat lounge club. Saturday is calling its name.

So Paul it worked, your elevator pitch of a podcast has made me considered buying some of your tracks. Now if it wasn't in itunes encrypted mpeg4 audio (AAC) I could use it in a DJ set next weekend. Oh well…

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Digital Music is not a loaf of bread which can be stolen

In a long series of things which I've been meaning to blog for a while. I saw this on Torrent Freak.

Singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy is part of the growing group of artists that understands that there’s more to music than selling pieces of plastic, and suing your fans.

In an interview with Wired Magazine (from a while ago), Tweedy said:

A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that’s it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it’s just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.

Jeff Tweedy is the leadsinger of the popular band Wilco, that won two Grammy’s back in 2005. He doesn’t consider copying and remixing as evil, but as a way to facilitate creativity.

On the official website of the band from Chicago we even see a link to the BitTorrent tracker where Wilco fans actively share high quality recordings.

Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator. People who look at music as commerce don’t understand that. They are talking about pieces of plastic they want to sell, packages of intellectual property. I’m not interested in selling pieces of plastic.

For those who are interested in the copyright debate, here’s a presentation by Larry Lessig titled “Who owns Culture“. The presentation served as an intro to conversation about p2p and free culture by Jeff Tweedy and Larry Lessig (audio link).

This all comes at a time when EMI music CEO and Chairman Alain Levy tells an audience at the London Business School that the CD as we know it is dead. And to top that, the IPPR released a study on why copying of CDs and DVDs for personal use should be legalised.

IPPR Deputy Director Ian Kearns said:

Millions of Britons copy CDs onto their home computers breaking copyright laws everyday. British copyright law is out of date with consumer practices and technological progress.

A recent survey among 2135 British adult consumers shows that most people don’t even know that they are breaking the law. Of all the people that participated in the survey, 55% said that they have ever copied CDs onto other equipment. However, only 19% actually knows that this behavior is illegal.

Well what more can you say? Three interesting stories in the downfall or change of the music industry.

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Zune all about sharing of media?

Zune Walkthrough

I'm watching a video about the Microsoft Zune. Its quite interesting but there's not enough to make it much better than a ipod. The sharing has been talked about a lot but the thing which I think Microsoft missed is the loud speaker. Yes sure it would be very ignoying but its what the kids are doing with there phones now. And if the Zune is all about sharing, it would make sense to have a loud speaker too, imho.

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Going nuts for certain tunes while paying 200 pounds for the privilage?

dj's de laptop

I just had a quick look at my audioscrobbler/last fm rss and noticed i'm listening to the same 3 tunes over and over again. Its not a mistake, its actually me loving these tunes which I stayed up to 2am searching for the other day. I've had them all of 2 days I believe and can not wait to do a mix with these new tunes. What are the tunes, you maybe asking?

  • FB Featuring Edun – Who's Knocking (Ferry Corsten Rmx)
  • Gabriel and Dresden feat. Molly – Tracking Treasure Down
  • Kosmas Epsilon – Innocent Thoughts

.

They've been on my list for quite some time but finally went actively searching for them on Trancetraffic and found them all there in 320kps Lame encoded Mp3 format. Mighty impressive quality and great tunes which could not be found on iTunes and Allmp3.com.

I simply will not buy music which is DRM'ed, practially Fairplay DRM (what a joke for a name) does not play on my ipaq, mobile phone and certainly not in my Dj application Virtual DJ. I mean why the heck would I buy music from the iTunes store and put up with the fact that I could not mix with it? Insane I tell you. So much for the mix in Apple's Rip Mix and Burn tagline from years ago.

Anyhow talking about Insanity, dance music and mixing. I saw this Digital DJs Unaware of Copyright Law on Slashdot recently.

The BBC reports that if you're a DJ, playing your digital copies of files off a laptop or mp3 player is illegal. The UK royalty collection agency, PPL, demands that such DJs pay £200 for a license in order to do so. From the article, 'Many DJs are still unwittingly breaking the law by playing unlicensed digital copies of tracks months after a new permit scheme began, the BBC has found. This includes legally-purchased downloads, which are normally licensed only for personal use, as well as copies of tracks from records or CDs.

What the heck? Geez this is the kind of thing I hear about in America not in the UK. Going through the comments it seems this headline grabbing story may not be all its craacked up to be. The first informative comment goes like this…

I think the article summary is a touch misleading. My reading was that the public performance of songs whose copyright the DJ doesn't hold is what's illegal, and the £200 is for a licsence that remedies the situation. Nobody is telling anybody they can't play music on their laptops, and I'm sure the submitter didn't intend this, but I think it's important to point out that this only relates to public performance. Additionally, DJs do not need to pay the liscence if they are playing from CD or vinyl.

So this still applies to someone like me it would seem? I don't get it why because its digital I have to pay a license fee on top of all the music I'm playing on my laptop? As someone said, its a specific license tax on just those who utilize digital delivery systems. Some comments which sum up better than myself.

So a DJ can play a CD, but if she plays the same track ripped to an MP3, she has to pay an extra 200 pounds for a license? Where's the sense in that? The US compulsory license scheme actually seems sane by comparison.

Hey you thief, don't you dare be playing my tracks where lots of young impressionable kids will get to listen to them and then afterwards possibly go out to their local DJ shop and buy my records/CDs! Well unless you give me 200 big ones!

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The Fall out over the Sony Rootkit/DRM

Sony BMG logo

The backlash against the SonyBMG rootkit and DRM has been one heck of a rollercoaster ride which doesnt seem to be ending anytime soon. Here's some highlights in case you have missed them. interlaced with some Cluetrains.

A couple of lawsuits have been filed against Sony for breaking there EULA.

Then Sony issued a patched which is impossible to find (everything sony is impossible to find on there site to be truthful) and does not actually remove the DRM, well what do you expect?

Talking about the EULA, some very interesting clauses and points to consider when buying your next CD

Sony's Exec, Thomas Hesse (President of Sony's Global Digital Business) replied to the whole issue of Rootkits and DRM by saying What users dont't know cant hurt them… (A must listen by the way!). And echoing Miles thoughts, Apple and Microsoft must be pissing themselves with laughter. Thomas Hesse has some balls saying what he said and the bloggers will have the last say about his ridiculous comment.

#14 Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.

New virus uses Sony BMG software, yep that very badly written code for the RootKit has been lerverged for a virus which hides via Sony's Rootkit.

The complete list of SonyBMG Rootkit CDs at the EFF

Apple Anti rip software found on the same Sony BMG CDs. Usual discussion on Slashdot about Mac users and will Sony bring DRM to linux too?

The power of the blog outlines what's been already seen by in other areas like the Kryptonite lock. When will the mainstream media actually pay attention to what there children are reading online?

#6 The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

#94 To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.

And of course some fun, Sony I download your music


At long last, Sony halts production of 'rootkit' CDs

Sony BMG Music Entertainment said Friday that it will suspend production of CDs with copy-protection technology that has been exploited by virus writers to try to hide their malicious code on PCs.

The decision by the music label comes after 10 days of controversy around the technology, which is designed to limit the number of copies that can be made of the CD and to prevent a computer user from making unprotected MP3s of the music.

Security experts blasted the technology because it uses “rootkit” techniques to hide itself on hard drives and could be used by virus writers to make their malicious code invisible. The first remote-control Trojan horses that took advantage of the cloak provided by Sony BMG surfaced this week.

“We are aware that a computer virus is circulating that may affect computers with XCP content protection software,” the record label said in a statement Friday. “We stand by content protection technology as an important tool to protect our intellectual property rights and those of our artists. Nonetheless, as a precautionary measure, Sony BMG is temporarily suspending the manufacture of CDs containing XCP technology.”

Lets hope thats the end of XCP and its rootkit. Somehow, I know it wont be.

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