Hello, wow, it’s March already… Life goes by faster the older you get, I’m sure of it. I hope you’re all well and all is going well.
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged any thoughts and comments here about all the music I’ve been listening to, and club/music events I’ve got out to, and continue to get out to.
I have trouble synchronising my spare time, energy, motivation and enthusiasm I think, well, that’s my excuse. Or maybe I’m just really busy, or maybe just lazy.
The truth is, work is all work no play these days, it’s brain numbing. Nights at home are spent chilling, enjoying all the wonderful TV shows discovered via channel BT with Joanne, that’s become a passion.
It’s not all TV at home though, I’m often on the PC, seeking out music, messing around with Ableton Live (never seem to progress beyond initial track ideas, but it’s fun), or spending time killing enemies inside FPS PC games, it should probably be a concern how much enjoyment I get from that. I’ll have a chat about FPS PC games soon, I must get around to installing and playing Bioshock 2 soon.
Weekends are usually always busy for us, eating out, catching up with friends and family, seeing movies, clubbing, partying, recovering. There are also the weekends where I love to just relax and do as little as possible, but it’s the busy weekends that are the most memorable and rewarding. You certainly appreciate weekends more when you work full time.
So, the blog is being neglected. I’m starting to think it would be better if I just posted up smaller, shorter, quicker things here more often than doing what I have been, which is these grand plans to write up lengthy, detailed reviews/posts with lists of tracks spotted in DJs sets. I start writing them, but they never get finished, so they’re never posted. I have a drafts folder full of them. I’m not sure there would be any benefit finishing them and posting them now, unless you really want to know the names of a bunch of tracks Joris Voorn played at Nevermind in February 2009, wow that was more than a year ago.
As suggested by James from the SydneyLovesTechno blog, I also wanted to write up a follow up on 2009, my best (and worst) of 2009 club/music wise, with charts etc. But now that we’re well into 2010, wondering if it’s still worth doing.
On that point, something that has become very clear to me, is that the most enjoyable and inspiring music things I’ve seen and experienced out over recent years have all been live performances, people playing their own music live with laptops, hardware, instruments etc. Mathew Jonson, Laurent Garnier, John Tejada, Alex Smoke, HMC, Robert Babicz, Orbital, Depeche Mode all come to mind.
I’m just not hearing or seeing anything that interesting in DJ sets these days, I’m not being inspired but a set of music. Considering all the hardware, controllers, software around these days for DJs to use, you would think there would be a lot of cool and interesting stuff happening. Perhaps all this future DJing technology just isn’t being used within the genres of music I like. Techno isn’t technology music anymore? I don’t believe that. What’s Richie Hawtin up to? Perhaps it’s because the music isn’t as good/interesting to me anymore…
Music is still a big passion. Listening to it is a big part of my life. I’m always seeking new stuff out, collecting music, buying stuff on Beatport, downloading podcasts and DJ mixes. Or having musical trips down memory lane via YouTube clips. It’s always nice to have new stuff to listen to on my iPod on my public transport travels during the working week. I love my iPod I use it every single day.
A lot of the time at home I feel like I spend more time organising my digital music collection, than actually using it to mix with. Every weekend I think about recording some DJ mixes, but it never seems to happen, I never find the time. I can’t believe I managed to record a 2 hour mix/DJ set for my Internet radio show, every single week in years gone by. I really would love to do some more DJ mixes.
The sounds? To be honest, I’m not really hearing much unique, inspirational, special, memorable new music within the techno, tech-house, minimal, and deep-house genres I like. I had a brief love affair with nu-disco, but it’s not exciting me as much anymore. Perhaps I’ve been into it all for too long. There’s just too much stuff sounding all the same/heard it all before, too much music trying to fit in, not enough stuff pushing forward into new directions. Is it because anyone with a computer and some music software can churn out tracks now?
But it’s not all bad, it’s the rare gems I come across that keep me interested in seeking out more music, but you don’t come across them us much anymore. I’m hard to please. I’ll post up a list of music I’ve been enjoying recently, shortly.
So, like I said, I think I’ll post up shorter things more often from now on… He says after posting this essay… /me rolls eyes.
Anyway, enough dribble, hello, I’m still here, more soon.
Posting to express interest in your Best of 2009 chart. Oh and I’d also like to check out these “rare gems” you write of.
Comment by V-Tron — March 18, 2010 @ 8:37 pm
I have found the most exciting sounds of the past year to be around dubstep, dub, future reggae and believe it or not a lot of soul and soulful hip hop stuff a la Stones Throw records. Sadly tho, dubstep is on the brink of consuming itself, becoming the new electro house, and yeah, techno spare for a few quality releases hasn’t done a huge amount for me.
As far as the good techno album electronically I’ve gotten into the new Monolake and JPLS, and also liked what Redshape has done, but really, he’s a new take on and older sound, much like the Planetary Assault Systems long player which was wicked. Have heard some wicked stuff from US producer Eskmo (who I also had the pleasure of seeing at SXSW last week) and also some loose stuff coming from Flying Lotus (ditto re sxsw). Actually that whole scene around Brainfeeder records are doing excellent things, and their DJ sets transcend what most are doing verging on live performance.
Mix CD, the Omar S Fabric one wins hands down for 2009. Best album probably Ambivalence Avenue by Bibio on Warp.
Bring on the rest of 2010!
m.
Comment by MattC — March 23, 2010 @ 5:09 pm
Hey guys, thanks for your comments, sorry for the delay following them up.
Yeah, dubstep doesn’t do much for me, the stuff I’ve heard just sounds like slow drum’n’bass to me, and that’s a sound I’m well over, and lost interest in when it never went anywhere, new tracks sound exactly like old tracks. What surprised me is that Joanne’s 17/18 year old brothers are getting into dubstep, and it’s being played in the pub/club they work at in Wollongong. So yeah maybe it is the new electro, and it’s about to be invaded by all the scene kids into Bloody Beatroots and Crookers etc.
I like Redshape’s sound. I’ve always loved that very prototype, analogue techno sound. It’s the music that seems to come out when I’m messing around with Ableton and some soft synth emulations of old analogue synths. I’m looking forward to seeing him play. Yeah some of the JPLS stuff is great, sometimes a bit too deep and spaced out for me.
I’ve not heard that Omar S CD, have heard good things, will check it out. I saw him DJ in Frankfurt in 2007 and he played very old-school house/techno and acid stuff, was cool, but his messy mixing was difficult to ignore.
Comment by decoded_ — April 7, 2010 @ 1:43 pm