Each now and then (when I’m on-line and bored), I spend a bit of time in the Track ID forum on the http://www.livesets.com site. I get a little buzz out of helping people out with IDs for any tracks I know/remember. I like exercising my musical memory as well. Until recently it was always track ID requests via short/small mp3s cut out of recorded DJ live sets, these days it’s mostly all links to YouTube clips, everyone has a camera in their phone these days!
There’s always lots of track ID requests from Richie Hawtin sets, which is how I came across the clip above. Track IDing the music Richie plays is often difficult, because he plays a lot of promo/un-released music, tracks from within the Minus crew and friends, and tracks that are months away from release, or possibly never released. I actually wonder if Richie requests producers and labels to delay releasing tracks sometimes, so that he can play them out exclusively for a while, it wouldn’t surprise me. A good way to keep ahead of the pack I suppose, and help build hype for a track.
Anyway… back to where I’m going with this post. Have a look at that YouTube clip above.
Notice anything? No, not the trashy crowd… He’s not using turntables!
Richie has stopped using vinyl turntables, which he was using for controlling Traktor Scratch software with, and is now a laptop DJ, digital DJing. He’s using Traktor 3 software, and letting the software do the beat-mixing too.
I don’t have a problem with this myself, I think it’s pretty cool. I like how Richie continues to challenge himself as a DJ, using new technologies. I’m sure there may be some laptop DJ haters who will have a problem with this though. Is this the future of DJing? I believe Chris Liebing and Speedy J have been doing similiar things with laptops and controllers for their ‘DJ’ sets as well.
Richie’s pushing Traktor 3 to it’s limits, running 4 decks, using 2, 3, or 4 tracks or loops from tracks all layered together, then adding effects from within Traktor 3 and from another laptop. Some would argue if you need to layer that many sources of music and add effects as well, then the music isn’t very interesting to begin with.
He’s using two Allen & Heath Xone:1D MIDI controllers, mapped to various functions/effects in Traktor 3, and for control over various paramaters/knobs in audio effects software/plug-ins from the other laptop. I heard he uses a foot-pedal for turning something on/off in effects software as well, taking little grabs of audio to mess with using modulated delay effects would be my guess. I imagine he’d have to be using more than a single NI Audio8DJ USB audio/MIDI interface for all those channels of audio, and effects sends/returns, 2 perhaps.
I believe he’s running Ableton Live on the other laptop, and have read that he uses the Lexicon PSP 42 plug-in effect a lot. That’s probably where a lot of those crazy modulation/delay effects that have become a bit of a Hawtin trademark sound, come from.
So track IDing Hawtin stuff is going to become even more difficult, as he creates new music on-the-fly from loops of multiple tracks, could make for some interesting mixes and moments on the dance floor, keeping positive. I know the Hawtin sound is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Essentially he’s now doing with DJing live what he began with his software created DE9:Closer To The Edit and Transitions Mix CDs. I think that’s pretty cool.
Some short little Native Instruments video clips, with Richie explaining his new way of DJing, and some of the features of Traktor 3 that he uses, popped up on the Minus podcast the other day, check them out at the links below.
Those Allen & Heath Xone:1D units are sexy… I want! Would look great alongside an Allen & Heath Xone:92 mixer, I want one of those too! Need a fair amount of dosh for all that though.
Usually it’s very quiet for clubbing, events and visiting international DJs/live acts over the Winter period from June till late August here in Sydney, but there have been quite a few things on this year deep-tech/minimal wise, which is a nice change.
However… I didn’t actually get out to many. I just didn’t have the energy or motivation to drag myself out into the cold when the night came along, apologies to promoters.
I missed out on seeing/supporting… Ion Ludwig [live], Ekkohouse [live], Phonique, Charles Webster, Heiko Laux, Quarion [Live], Luca Bacchetti, and recently Lützenkirchen, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a couple of others that I would have enjoyed as well. I only have myself to blame.
I think I’ve also been suffering a bit of depression from ‘this time last year…’ memories of my European summer 2007 clubbing holiday.
I also realise, I’ve not blogged much about some of the things that I did actually get out to, so it’s time to fix that, before I forget it all.
Remembering back, here are some words and thoughts on some past club/dance events I went to.
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Lost Baggage @ The Cross : 03.05.2008
Alex Smoke [live] played much the same awesome set as he played a couple of nights earlier, that I wrote about here. Playing to a busy party, packed dance-floor this time. I really enjoy his music/sounds. I had a nice chat to him afterwards about music production too. One of the new tracks/moments in his live set I really liked and remembered has just been released on his Vakant label… Whirrfless!
Matthias Tanzmann played in the smaller side room of The Cross, and mixed up sounds more on the deep/house tip than minimal/tech like he played last time I saw him at that crazy little party at the Goethe-Institut Sydney. I wanted to check out some of his other performances in Sydney around this period, but unfortunately didn’t make it to any.
I had a fun night with friends at this Lost Baggage party. Typical messy/rude crowd, no real surprises there, we don’t let it spoil our night. I remember I got quite sick with sore throat after this party, thankfully that cold/flu bug didn’t last too long.
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We Love Sounds… Stephan Bodzin & Dubfire – Side Show @ Arq : 06.06.2008
Stephan Bodzin [live] looked the crazed, mad scientist at work, performing live, with a blur of white gloved hands, getting busy all over his gear, and waving his arms around like a man possessed. I imagine the gloves are to protect the screen on the JazzMutant Lemur MIDI controller’s screen. He gives a great performance. The music sounded very large! Those typical Bodzin, Rekorder, Huntemann style phat, buzzy, fuzzy, de-tuned, filtered, synths layered over deep, growling bass-lines, shuffled by minimal beats, with the required 808 toms, and white noise breakdowns/builds.
He has some fantastic control over all the elements of sound during live performance, but he tweaked things too much for my tastes. Dropping the beats, and filtering bass-lines and synth patterns into washes of white noise oblivion almost every 16 bars. Not much sustained dance floor pressure really. I guess that’s not his thing. The (young) crowd loved it (dance floor was packed), short attention spans and all that. I have to say, I’m not as much of a fan of this sound now as I was a year or two ago.
Stephan was using an Apple MacBook with Ableton Live, and a bunch of MIDI controllers; A Monome Pad Bank, Behringer BCR2000, and a JazzMutant Lemur which was projected via video camera onto a screen for all to see (like at the Bjork concert). He also made much use of a EFX-1000 effects unit. Another of his MIDI controllers was some bizarre, long, white, plastic tube, custom made no doubt, that he err, rubbed up and down, see clip of it in use below.
Dubfire followed with a DJ set, using an Apple MacBook covered in a shiny red skin. I think I heard someone mention he was ‘mixing’ using Traktor 3 software on the laptop. There were reports of either bad mixing, or people hearing him cue other tracks via the monitors? I didn’t notice. We only stayed for the first 30 minutes or so of his set. I didn’t get much out of it, too many of those long, drawn-out, minimal, plodding tracks, like the stuff you hear from Dubfire, Radio Slave, and on the SCI+TEC label, all played back to back, exactly what I expected to hear, which was the problem I guess, needed more variety to keep my interest. I heard he got better later on, judgements could be questionable.
Arq is a great club, nice sound, it’s my 2nd time there, first time was to see the Detroit Grand Pubahs [live] and Larry Tee. To be honest I didn’t put much effort into being out at this, was not in the right (wrong?) frame of mind, and sat through most of it.
I’m glad I went though. It was a nice warm-up for a busy w/end of clubbing. It also meant I didn’t need to see Stephan Bodzin play at the We Love Sounds Winter Festival event, playing last, and could leave earlier in preparation for heading to the after-party, via a shower, change of clothes and feed at home.
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We Love Sounds Winter Festival 2008 @ Moore Park – Entertainment Quarter : 08.06.2008
This is a large, multi-area day/night event (I hate calling one day events festivals), with a whole heap of international and local DJ’s, live acts, and live bands.
It’s very cool how you can go from the club vibe of The Forum, to the live band/concert vibe of the Hordern Pavilion, to the huge, mega, warehouse space, rave vibe (complete with big screen visuals and lasers) of the Royal Hall Of Industries, all within 100m walk outside of each other. There are a couple of other areas/venues as well, but we didn’t venture there. We spent most of our time in The Forum, which was the Minimal Fuss minimal/techno area, seeing…
Gaiser [live]. He was the reason we got to this party in the early afternoon, playing at 2.30pm. It was much the same live set as he played at the Lost Baggage party, that I wrote about here. It was very enjoyable once again. Our friend labelled it as advanced class minimal, ie: not for beginners. I think his bass damaged the sound system.
Lindstrom [live] is not really someone I’m that familiar with, but I thought he played a good live set, even though it was all a bit too funky for me, and quite cheesy at times.
Ellen Allien… Wow, she was really impressive! A very eclectic mix, starting with Bjork, and then working her way through a nice variety of minimal, techno, even some early 90’s Detroit sounds, some BPitch Control (her record label) style electro-house/techno, and even some proper electro beats! Perfect on the mix, cute and fun to watch. Along with Gaiser my favourite sets of the day.
Marc Houle really looks bored when he plays live. His repetitive bleeps and beats, that verge on the annoying, didn’t agree with us too well by this time. Some problems with the sound-system didn’t help either. He’s great at what he does, but I think I’m over those sounds.
We also popped into the huge Royal Hall Of Industries to see a bit of Steve Lawler and Dubfire during the event. A very impressive display of visuals, lasers, lighting and massive sound in the Royal Hall Of Industries venue.
Dubfire played much the same sounds that he played on the Friday night at Arq, although more impressive sounding on such a huge sound system in a huge space, with huge visuals, huge! He was playing Radio Slave – ‘Grindhouse” (Danton Eeprom Vocal Mix) at the time.
I had heard that Steve Lawler has moved on from the prog/tribal house sounds into more minimal sounds. What we heard him playing was minimal-ish, but definitely closer to prog, not for us.
Overall, I thought this event was pretty good, very well organised, great production, and we had a nice friendly, hassle free, easy day. It didn’t seem over-crowded, but there were heaps of people there. Musically it was perhaps a little flat, just needed a little more variety of the minimal/techno sounds, Ellen’s set excluded. I’m glad it wasn’t as cold as it was when we went to the last one in 2006, that made for an uncomfortable experience. I heard everything was an improvement on the year before. Like the T1000 says, I’ll be back.
~ ~ ~
We Love Sounds – Official After Party : Numero Duo @ The Cross, The Bourbon, The Bunker : 08.06.2008
I’m not usually a fan of the after-party thing, but this starting at 10pm, it wasn’t much of a stretch. It featured all the same Minimal Fuss area international DJs/live acts from the festival, so had a great line-up.
It was awesome being able to see Gaiser play 3 times over 6 days. He played in the smaller side room of The Cross this time, with it’s new punchy, killer sound system. Much more intensity being in a more intimate environment, much the same set once again, enjoyed as much once again. I had a peak at his MacBook laptop screen whilst he was playing too, I was surprised to see so many full tracks of clips (Ableton Live), considering it sounds like there’s usually no more than 6 sounds in his minimal tracks. I had a bit of a chat with him after his set too, nice guy.
Ellen Allien was excellent once again, mixing up many of the same tracks she played earlier. Tad got her Orchestra Of Bubbles track ‘Rotor’ track IDd for me.
Caught a bit of Lindstrom and Marc Houle both playing live whilst checking out other rooms during the party as well.
Dubfire was originally advertised as playing, but he didn’t. I saw him hanging out partying there though.
I almost forgot that Stephen Bodzin DJd at this party in the smaller side room of The Cross as well. He was laying down some of his harsh, dark, synthetic techno sounds. I couldn’t get into the room at the time, it was going a bit crazy!
I was very impressed with local DJ Selen Parmen, who warmed up for Gaiser. I’d not heard of her prior, or seen her play before. I really enjoyed her set, very similar taste in sounds to me. Check her out: http://www.myspace.com/selenparman. I hope to get to see her play again in future.
I quite enjoyed this night out, hanging with my mates (the girls stayed home), we got up to all sorts of crazy stuff… nah, not really, we chilled.
With this party being spaced out over so many rooms, it didn’t feel very well attended at times, and emptied out early. A lot different vibe to a Lost Baggage party at The Cross.
~ ~ ~
The Pube @ The Civic Underground : 25.07.2008
That’s a err, odd name for a party, it makes more sense if you look here.
Back in the very ubercoolische Civic Underground again, an intimate basement club in Sydney that reminds me of Berlin. Great sound in this club. Drink prices are not very healthy for your wallet though. Not a large turn out of people on this night, which was fine by me, this place is difficult when full, but enough people to look/feel like a party. Caught up with some old friends, which was fun.
Akufen was the special guest at this Minimal Fuss party. I was fearing hearing a set full of glitched up, cut up, disco/funk, micro-house sounds, like on his Perlon releases. But, what we got from him was a nice set of solid, dance-floor friendly minimal/techno, with a nice swung feel at times. A lot of it reminded me of Mark Henning’s productions in sound/style. It was a similar sound to what we heard Matt John play in Barcelona and Berlin last year. We enjoyed it, soaking up the bass whilst sitting at the edges of the dance floor. It was nice to hear Robert Hood’s classic ‘Minus’ too, and Mark Henning’s ‘Sick Note’ about the only tracks Akufen played that I knew. Matt Aubusson & Dave Choe played some great sounds too. I’ve not seen these guys play much at all this year, which is dissapointing.
I’ve been talking about posting up a new DJ mix for a long time. Well, I’ve finally done a new one.
This was recorded whilst I was cleaning up around the apartment last Saturday, so we’re talking long, evolving tracks joined with outro/intro mixes, nothing special there, unattentive mixing? Anyway, I’m quite happy with the flow of sounds. It turned out well considering I didn’t pre-plan this mix. It’s a bit heavy on the Stimming productions, but he is one of my favourite producers currently, along with Solomun.
Music is on the deep, melodic, epic, emotion stirring side of house, deep-house, minimal, tech-house, what ever you want to call it. Lots of realistic strings (hence the title) as well as brass sounds, it’s almost classical music with beats at times.
I’m not going to label this as a decoded_ mix, it’s musically very different from where I last left decoded_.
Will there ever be a decoded_ show 50?
Anyway, I hope you like this mix, it’s been on high rotation on my iPod the last few days, sit back and enjoy.
DJ Dave McCann : Connected With Strings, Mix – Part 1
Philip Sherburne – Milk & Honey [Lan Muzic] D Dub – Deep Blue [Takt] Stimming – Danke [Buzzin’ Fly] Stimming – Kleine Nachtmusik [Buzzin’ Fly] H.O.S.H. – White Elephant [Kindisch] Christian Prommer’s DrumLesson – Around The World (Solomun Remix) [Sonar Kollektiv] Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Holunderbaum [Musik Gewinnt Freunde] Solomun – Don’t Cry [Compost] Patrice Baumel – Clair [Get Physical Music] Stimming – Getting Out Of Something [Diynamic]
Here’s a link to a great article on ResidentAdvisor, about Hamburg’s Diynamic label, which features artists such as Stimming, H.O.S.H., and Solomun, and has that classical concert hall meets dance-floor sound on many of their releases.
Another DJ gig for me this w/end, as guest at Subservice, playing support to Melbourne’s Stuart McKeown. With Subservice DJs Dave Nolan and Den Williams.
Where: The Bunker (24 Darlinghurst Rd, Kings Cross – Under the Bourbon)
$10 before 12 *
$15 after
* Message me if you would like free/cheap entry.
Set Times:
1000-1100 – Den Williams & Dave Nolan
1100-0100 – Dave McCann
0100-0300 – Stuart Mckeown
0300-Close – Den Williams & Dave Nolan
Nick Curly – On My Way (Ali Nassar Remix)
Stimming – Kleine Nachtmusik
The Asphalt – 8 Mile Road (Sascha Dive Mix)
Stimming & Solomun – Feuervogel
Johnny D – Soleil (Delete Remix)
Daniel Mehlhart – Wach Werden
Milton Jackson – Cycles
Robert Babicz – Dark Flower (Joris Voorn remix)
Lee Jones – Aria (Tiger Stripes Remix)
Patrice Baumel – Clair
Sebo K – Far Out
A’roz & Leo Fernandez – Que Silos Ejercicios (Baffa Rework)
Tiger Stripes – Survivor
Motorcity Soul – Aura (Jimpster Remix)
Solomun – International Hustle
John Tejada – Raindrops
Delete – Black Mamba
Andrew Technique – Dream On
Rodriguez Jr. – Rubbo Swingo
Martin Donah – Akvedent
Daniele Papini – Church Of Nonsense
Suedmilch – Hakuna (Kanio Bing Bong Mix)
Radio Slave – Grindhouse (Danton Eeprom Vocal Mix)
Maetrik – Sex With Bass
One of my favourite minimal, tech-house, deep-house producers at the moment Stimming from Hamburg, is the next featured artist on the Resident Advisor podcast series. Usually these are DJ sets, however we’re treated to a live set of all Stimming productions. Sweet!
Tracklist…
01. Lee Jones – Safari (Stimming Mix) – Aus Music
02. Stimming – Una Pena – Diynamic
03. Stimming – The Anger – Liebe*Detail
04. Stimming – The Beauty – Unreleased
05. Stimming – Saibot – Unreleased
06. Stimming – Danke – Buzzin’ Fly
07. Stimming & H.O.S.H. – Radar – Diynamic
08. Dan Berkson & James What – Keep On (Stimming Mix) – Dessous
I’ll have Traktor Scratch very shortly too. Let the fun begin!
I hope to have some new mixes up on-line soon. You can check out mp3s (music only mixes) and play-lists from all my decoded_ Internet radio shows from 2005-2007 here…
I woke up this morning with the sound of a fluffy, bouncy, melodic techno track cycling in my mind, but… I couldn’t remember the artist or title.
It was making me feel a little frustrated and I couldn’t start my day properly until I found out what it was, and listened to it, to clear my mind. So, whilst eating breakfast I searched through my mp3 collection, thinking it sounds very Minilogue, Mathew Jonson or perhaps it’s something on the Wagon Repair label.
I found it! I wasn’t far off…
Cobblestone Jazz – W from the Cocoon G Compilation last year.
Now what’s really strange is, I don’t have this track on my iPod, it’s not a track I listen to often. I have that Cocoon G Compilation CD it’s featured on, but have not really listened to that much since buying it in Frankfurt about 13 months ago.
I guess it’s possible my friend Ant could have played it on the w/end at our friend’s party, and perhaps that’s where I heard it recently. But I don’t think he did play it.
I have been remembering and thinking about Germany, Frankfurt, Cocoon etc. a lot over the last few weeks, remembering our Europe holiday this time last year, sorry to keep going on about it. I was listening to tracks off the new Cocoon H Compilation on Beatport last night, so maybe that all triggered off some faint memory, that somehow links back to this track.
I put Cobblestone Jazz – W on my iPod and listened to it on the way to work this morning, ahhh I feel better now. It’s a really nice track, very memorable sounds. I should listen to it, and play it more often.
Thanks for reminding me of this track brain. Can we play this game again tomorrow morning?
Speaking of Mathew Jonson I’d love to see him play live again, he was awesome last time. He’s a really nice guy too, Joanne and I had a great chat with him in Barcelona last year outside the Minus party at City Hall in the wee hours of Monday morning.
![Stimming [Live] - Resident Advisor Podcast RA.111](http://users.on.net/~dmccann/images/ra111-stimming.jpg)
