HouseMusicDaily.com

Mix of the Day: Purple Music Podcast with Alfred Azzetto

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:18:00 CDT

Purple Music's podcasts, like their releases, are coming fast and furious! This is from a week or so ago by an Italian DJ/Producer that you ought to keep an eye on named Alfred Azzetto ...

Bernard Jones: Late Night Vibes

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:01:00 CDT

Bernard Jones has been doing his thing for a long time now, and few are able to flip through the many styles of House Music the way he does. "Your Smile" is one of his deeper numbers, a smooth edit of an old standard ...

Sonar is Coming to Chicago. This is Not Necessarily a Good Thing

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:27:00 CDT

Let's get to the real point here: bringing an event like Sonar to Chicago is like opening a Red Lobster in Cape Cod. The powers that be in Chicago have never cared much for House Music. If you ask them about Chicago's musical legacy, they'll mention the Blues, Jazz, even folk, but never House Music. They didn't care when it was the biggest thing under the sun and they'd be floored if they realized the influence Chicago producers and DJs have on the world today ...

Disco Makes You Blind, Deaf and Ugly

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:47:00 CDT

This is a 100% authentic story I found in Billboard from 1979 while doing research tonight, warning of the harmful health effects of disco. Lasers cause blindness! Speakers make you deaf! Cocaine rots your nose! And worst of all, platform shoes and stilettos will break your feets ...

Latest Chosen Few Picnic Info

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:00:00 CDT

Latest info for the Chosen Few Picnic, the largest House Music gathering in North America, including event ticket, VIP and other info ...

This Industry Treats Fans Like Shit and Other Observations

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:05:00 CDT

Negative impressions of DEMF, Rebirth on the iPhone, Aaron Carl reissue and 303 retrospective ...

Second Spin: Mike Dunn's The Congregation EPs

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 15:51:00 CDT

Mike Dunn's the Congregation EPs on Defected presented some of the most amazing House Music of the last two years. This is a curiously long examination of the 3 EPs, and why they should be treated as Chicago House classics ...

Mark de Clive-Lowe Owns the Internet (and Gives Away More Free Stuff)

Tue, 8 Jun 2010 19:18:00 CDT

Why do people write so much about Mark de Clive-Lowe? First because he's good - real good. And second because he can't stop giving stuff away. This one is a back catalog and out-of-print split from People Records from 2010 called Better Days/Chocolate Sundae in wav format ...

Another Example of Electro-House Creativity

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 17:30:00 CDT

This is really the best example I've come across to show just how painfully bankrupt Electro is. You can see why wearing a cartoon mousehead represents the apex of Electro's creativity now, can't you? Anyone can do this: just fudge the name a little and you too can start a rewarding career with a skimpy resume under the name Frankie Nookles, Davido Morelas or Kenneth Dupe Gonzalo ...

Mix of the Day: Kenny Dope Soul Trippin'

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 15:27:00 CDT

Kenny Dope has been uploading short (less than 1 hour) mixes, each with a certain theme, and if you're up for an Ice Cube drop at the top, this soul-infused classic set, Soul Trippin is hard to beat. Download link on the right. ...

Anane Invokes Siouxsie Sioux with "Plastic People" (Video)

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 15:11:00 CDT

Producers and labels hate to admit this, but dance music has always seemed somewhat disposable - get the hot track of the moment, play the crap out of it and move on to the next one, because there's no insult worse than being "late". Louie's made it his credo to produce timeless music - a song good enough to stand on its own, whether it's being played in 1000 clubs in 100 countries or 1 bedroom somewhere in the Bronx. ...

Mix of the Day: Ultra Nate

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:27:00 CDT

Should be pretty clear to you by now that I love Ultra Nate. As an artist, her career ought to be taught in those Discovery Center management classes as a blueprint - nobody, ever, has done it better. And she's also become a fantastic DJ ...

Wasted Chicago Youth: Dustbin Boogie Woogie

Fri, 28 May 2010 12:09:00 CDT

If this were 1985 and not 2010, Justin Long and Mazi (aka Audio Soul Project) would be the subject of a strange, cult-like following in Europe as these two shadowy guys from Chicago that craft the most incredible beats, pulling the strangest sounds out of the atmosphere and fusing them into bytes and acetate. ...

Mix of the Day: Fish Go Deep

Thu, 27 May 2010 16:55:00 CDT

Here's today's mix o'the day by Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson, aka Fish Go Deep. You probably remember them from the massive 2006/2007 "The Cure and the Cause" (the wonky fan-posted youtube video has more than 1.3 million views) and a ton of hot remixes, quite a few of them for Kerri Chandler ...

Jamie Lewis Retrospective and Flashback Tour

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:52:00 CDT

As mentioned in my interview back in January, Jamie Lewis was prepping a gargantuan 3 CD/2x12" vinyl retrospective of his career. That album Flashback, has dropped in sampler format on traxsource and will shortly be available in full format everywhere. In true KTel style, here are the hits by the original artists: ...

Alton, Amp, Phlash and Mashi: When the Morning Comes

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:03:00 CDT

Defected and Strictly Rhythm (which, newsflash from 3 years ago, is owned by Defected) currently occupy the first four slots in Traxsource's top 10, and that's probably gonna remain the case for awhile as the the next batch of remix packages from Quentin Harris' new album Sacrifice (released yesterday) drop ...

Mix of the Day: LawnChair Generals Spring Fling

Tue, 25 May 2010 12:22:00 CDT

Little known bit o'trivia for you: LawnChair Generals were the headliners at the release party for the very first issue of 5 Magazine back in late July 2005. Embedded is their new mix for Spring of 2010 (well, it's technically still spring for another 27 days, though it doesn't feel like it in Chicago), Spring Fling ...

Miguel Migs and Sonny Mason: Burnin' Up

Tue, 25 May 2010 07:16:00 CDT

A throwaway line at the end of this Salted Music cut calls it "disco tech". Much as I hate these instalabels (seriously, throw in a banjo and we'd have some idiot in London hailing "The Rise of Cowboy Disco"), it seems like a pretty accurate tag for Miguel Migs and Sonny J. Mason's "Burnin' Up" ...

Pirate Bay Founder Wishes It Would Die

Thu, 6 May 2010 16:56:00 CDT

For five years, I've been interviewing people who wished that the file sharing genie could be poured back into its bottle. Most of their wrath is aimed at a BitTorrent tracker named The Pirate Bay. If they ever dreamed of seeing this site 404 and vanish from the face of the earth, well, they're not alone ...

Pimpin' Ain't Easy and Neither is Running a Festival

Thu, 6 May 2010 15:13:00 CDT

A pretty amazing discussion is taking place (or was - it's just about over now) on the Infinite State Machine about the set up of this year's Detroit Electronic Music Festival (sorry, 'Movement') and the segregation of local artists in some cavernous dungeon known as the 'Made in Detroit' stage ...

Updated: Crobar to Reopen with 'Urban' Theme

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:26:00 CDT

Yeah, it's as bad as you expected. The former Crobar will remain shuttered for less than one week before reopening as a tacky mainstream joint called The Vibe ...

Julius Malema Rant: The House Music Remix

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:57:00 CDT

Julius Malema, leader of the African National Congress Youth League, went on a bizarre tirade against a BBC Reporter. One week later, the House Music remixes of his tantrum are flying ...

Crobar to Reopen with 'Urban' Theme

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:39:00 CDT

The recently shuttered Crobar is reportedly reopening under the name Vibe with a hokey urban theme. Bottle service and who let the dogs out for all ...

Blackcoffee SA's Male Artist of the Year

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:38:00 CDT

Nathi Maphumulo, better known by those in the know as Blackcoffee, was named Male Artist of the Year in last weekend's South African Music Awards for his stunning 12 track album Home Brewed. ...

Industry Footbullet of the Day: Internet Radio

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:38:00 CDT

Last week, this handy infographic began to make the rounds. It purported to show how many copies of music in varying formats an artist would need to sell to make the equivalent of the USA's minimum wage. Many artists and labels made a public display of sweaty hand-wringing in response to this. ...

Mark de Clive-Lowe and Jody Watley Make Beautiful Music Together

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:38:00 CDT

Back in 5 Mag's November issue, New Zealand soul/house phenomenon Mark de Clive-Lowe told me about a single he had coming out with diva Jody Watley. Usually these things are released even before I get an interview posted from print to the web. ...

Lineups for Southport Weekender and Detroit Electronic Music Festival Announced

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:29:00 CST

The talent roster for two of the largest electronic music festivals in the world were announced on Thursday, March 11, 2010: the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Detroit, May 29-31, 2010) and Southport Weekender 46 (May 7-9, 2010). ...

(Ableton) Masturbation and You

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:12:00 CST

So you're a youngblood, you're living in the city. You play a weekly residency and some gigs here and there. You're not the first guy on the flyer but you're not the last. You've played some big clubs, more often in the smaller room of a large venue, and you've been invited to some cities and even had people pay to bring you there. ...

How Hot is My Track? Rating the Promo Services

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:46:00 CST

Are you still using sendspace as a promotional tool? Unless it's personalized, as part of a larger campaign or sent specifically to a few key DJs or buds (for whom sending a track just to you has a personal touch that is indeed a stroke of genius), there are better options for getting music in the hands of the people who play it. ...

What Happened to Gemini? A Spencer Kincy Update

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:42:00 CST

I've put off writing this for awhile, much like I put off writing the original Spencer Kincy article 5 Magazine published last April. It's not a happy subject. But with renewed interest in this as well as wild speculation and rumor circulating in place of fact, it's probably about time for an update as well as to ask one of the philosophical questions posed by Spencer's disappearance from the scene seven or eight years ago. I also have some good news for fans of Spencer's music about a new re-issue by one of his original labels. ...

When Playa Hating Goes Too Far

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 21:33:00 CST

Back in the 1990s, when the Chicago Bulls were a dynasty rather than a laughingstock, I remember overhearing a conversation at a diner between two twenty-something women. Apparently, one of them had bumped into Scottie Pippen at a restaurant and asked him for an autograph. As the guy was sucking down a plateful of pasta, he declined. ...

Review: Doc Link "Lifts Me Higher"

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 19:46:00 CST

Doc Link is a cat that's been around Chicago for more than two decades. He just does what he does and woe unto you if you don't notice, because he makes beats that send the mega-hyped Agency DJs back to crate-diggin' in the ghetto flea markets. ...

Review: Chemars Feelin' Good EP

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:40:00 CST

s there ever a bad time for Hammertime? If you're listening to the Rescue + Uriah West Remix of Chemars' Feelin' Good EP on Hub City, the answer is hell yes there fucking is. This is a perfectly good remix, pushing the original into grimey loft nirvana and with otherwise terrific vocal samples and a sparse but effective '90s suicide keyboard riff. ...

Susan Boyle Hates Vinyl, or the Dangers of Self-Delusion

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:25:00 CST

Reading and listening the triumphant but ultimately shallow posts about the comeback of vinyl records has turned my stomach in knots and now it's inside out. This is nothing to celebrate and if you read the very statistics you're posting with a critical eye, you'd file this one not under WOOT but WTF. ...

Ableton and Serato Team Up on... Something!

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:06:00 CST

In one of the more cryptic pre-launch announcements in recent months, the makers of Ableton Live and Serato Scratch Live have issued a press release, launched a website and are throwing a party to let the world know that they're doing... something. ...

When Peven Everett Was Right

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:09:00 CST

We've written in the past about Peven Everett (or his collaborators, it's never entirely clear to me who is doing the typing) and his adventures and misadventures on the internet. ...

Electro is Like Eating a Bag of Candy

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 14:17:00 CST

Tasty but without substance, and you feel guilty and maybe the urge to vomit afterwards. Example:...

Fuck Yeah 2010: 4 Predictions for the New Year

Thu, 7 Jan 2010 17:32:00 CST

Unless you work for a hedge fund or a bookie, predictions for the coming year don't add up to squat. It's a useful way to fill copy, though, so as a relentless copywhore I'm going to list some of mine...

Things a 12 Year Old Can Do (But House Music Labels Can't)

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 05:43:00 CST

We publish a music magazine. Though the industry has changed quite a bit over the years, over the transom submissions are still the lifeblood of any music rag. You want to write about what's new, what's interesting, what's groundbreaking or just what's good to groove to...

Hi-Fi Hell: CDs vs. Vinyl vs. MP3 All Over Again

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:38:00 CST

Imported beer tastes better. Microbrews, as a rule, taste better. Yet Budweiser and Miller sell billions of bottles a year and it's not because they brainwash us by carpet-bombing advertising all over the place, but because millions and millions of people (yeah, I know!) like them. The argument of hi-fi vs. lo-fi has been around...

The Cold, Harsh Reality of the Music Business of the Future

Wed, 9 Dec 2009 03:01:00 CST

Summary: It doesn't exist...

Traxsource's Top 100 of 2009 Is Utterly Uncontroversial

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:55:00 CST

Traxsource has published their list of the top 100 and except for screaming at each other over the order, it's... pretty much about right...

YAHMD (Yet Another House Music Documentary): They Call It Acid

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 03:04:00 CST

Another day, another documentary on the history of dance music. This one at least focuses on a subset of what would eventually become a wildly diverse scene, and is narrated by Robert Owens and that's hard to beat...

Dance Music Grammy Nominations

Fri, 4 Dec 2009 14:03:00 CDT

Dennis Ferrer headlines this year's list of nominations in the Grammy Awards dance music and remixing categories. His remix of Don't Believe in Love by make-out music queen Dido on Arista Records is nominated for the Grammy for Best Remixed Recording (Non-Classical)...

Trance Kills

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:56:00 CDT

The (18 year old) victim and (DJ Seasunz, aka Juan Carlos Portieles) have been romantically involved for approximately 2 year(s). On the above listed date and location, the victim and (DJ Seasunz) were involved in a heated verbal altercation. The altercation escalated and (Seasunz) began to beat and bite the victim repeatedly and she fought back. (DJ Seasunz) choked the victim until she stopped moving. (DJ Seasunz) sustained several injuries which include: scratches throughout face and torso, swollen right hand...

Ralf Gum and Monique Bingham are Back

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:43:00 CDT

There are very few tracks I'd hype without hearing more than a snippet. Anything produced by Ralf GUM (discography, myspace, facebook) is right at the top of the list. Launching tomorrow (September 30, 2009) is "Little W. 12th St.", Ralf Gum's follow-up with Monique Bingham to last year's smash "Kissing Strangers" on his own GOGO Music label. (You can read my interview with Ralf from May 2009 here.)...

Getting Your Music Heard (Part 214,523,403)

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:31:00 CDT

Six months ago in this space, I wrote that "The freedom brought about by the decline of vinyl and the high production costs associated with producing it hasn't led to better music - just more of it." The signs of the music apocalypse are becoming increasingly apparent. A year ago, 5 Magazine received maybe 40 promos a month. We now receive well over 200. At least half of these are EPs containing three or more distinct tracks (and at least half of those sound like Eric Cartman singing "She Works Hard for the Money" with a disco beat, but anyway...). In other words, the amount of music flowing down the pipe every month has multiplied about seven-fold in the course of a year...

ASCAP Jumps the Shark

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:02:00 CDT

Forget making music, playing records, singing, learning an instrument or anything else of any value in the world. Become a lawyer, you get paid better and there are two chicks for every boy. Case in point: ASCAP has argued that every time your cellphone rings and plays a piece of music as a ringtone, it counts as a "public performance" and they want to collect performance rights. To be clear, the music is already licensed - Verizon or your telecom provider of choice is not bootlegging tunes. But the license isn't enough, they say: every time your momma calls you, another fraction of a penny should be transmitted to the artist...

Deep Sugar, 1.3 Million Shots of Licka + More

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:12:00 CDT

A round-up of sorts from the world of dance music today: Ultra Nate's Deep Sugar was picked the "Best Dance Party" in Baltimore by the local Baltimore City Paper. Ultra Nate's legendary Deep Sugar party keeps on trucking over baby-powder-coated dance floors every month in its adopted home of Paradox. From big names in house like producer Louie Vega to turntablist DJ Spinna to choice locals like KW Griff and the Unruly Records crew--which takes over the club's back room every month with its powerful DJ roster--Deep Sugar delivers again and again...

Remix My Song. Spread the Word. Get Paid (Maybe)

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:53:00 CDT

It just ain't House Music until we take a fun idea and run it into the ground. This weekend, I received four - count 'em, four - emails from labels promoting "remix contests". I've been seeing this everywhere, from Evolution Media to Depeche Mode to Mariah Carey to Jay-J to Radiohead. Would it kill anyone to try a little creativity in their promotions, though? Trumpeting a remix contest in 2009 is like bragging that the streets are cleaner since those horseless carriages came around...

Inside Job: Meet the Pirates (Part 2)

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:21:00 CDT

The Feds took down piracy crew Rabid Neurosis, or RNS, last week. According to most reports, RNS had retreated underground in early 2007, when the group was publicly fingered for uploading Eminem's album Encore more than a month before it was due to hit the shops. But for close to a decade, they were responsible for uploading an estimated 6,000 albums+ per year and were behind the pre-release leak of hundreds of tracks. How did they get them? Simple: at least one of the members worked in a peripheral but crucial link in the music industry's distribution chain...

Inside Job: Piracy in the Music Industry (Part 1)

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:52:00 CDT

In hearings held before the US Congress, European parliaments and a legion of industry panels over the years, one of the most alarming war stories of the battle against online music pirates is the tale of the track that's leaked before it's official release. A number of tracks have suffered this fate in recent years. Just last week, Jay-Z announced he was moving forward the release date for The Blueprint 3 after online leaks had supposedly ruined his label's marketing plan (though that link, of course, and this story you're reading now are acting as a form of advanced publicity. Jay-Z himself commented on the leak by saying fans should "enjoy" what he interpreted as a "preview".)...

The Tube: A Day in the Night of New York

Fri, 4 Sep 2009 15:27:00 CDT

Classic film on youtube: a 1983 British documentary on New York City nightlife, including stops at the Danceteria and the Paradise Garage...

Stereo Montreal Burns - Again; Arson Suspected

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 09:56:00 CDT

You really can't make this up. Almost 1 year to the date since a "suspicious" fire gutted famed nightclub Stereo Montreal - previously owned and perhaps intricately bound to the name of founder David Morales - another "suspicious" fire has burned the club just two days prior to the grand re-opening. The July 2008 fire caused an estimated $500,000 in damages, though Stereo's acclaimed sound system was said to have survived. Management claimed initially that the club would re-open within a matter of weeks, though it took more than a year for an announcement that the club would be reopening...

Love Alive: Your Wait is Over

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:32:00 CDT

This is probably one of the most anticipated long-players of the year. Jay-J has been working seemingly forever on this 14 track artist album and the results are well worth the wait. Leaks that emerged from the sessions for the album Love Alive were tantalizing and the final product showcases vocalists Big "Brooklyn" Red, Michelle Shaprow, Charlene Moore, BAM, Judy Albanese, Fabian Leo and showcases the musicianship of the multi-talented Scott Wozniak. And oh lookie, someone made a kick-ass promo video!...

Newsflash: Social Marketing is a Waste of Time

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:46:00 CDT

I've had a million conversations about the subject of social marketing in the House Music scene. David Sabat at DJMarketing101.com (who was one of the poor saps that had to listen to my rants) addressed this subject better than I can do here. If you're one of those folks printing your myspace address on every single thing you produce and think that's enough, I strongly recommend you go read that now. Being old enough to remember Gopher, an active USENET and even BBS, the notion that the next big thing can overnight become the last big thing - that all of this stuff can vanish tomorrow - is something I've taken for granted. A more recent example is Friendster. Those of us who were active on the internet back then remember hearing the buzz about this "revolutionary" social networking system and witnessed the hysterical peak and inevitable decline...

Someone Has to Scream Say It

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:44:00 CDT

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. People aren't going out, people aren't buying anything and every goddamned thing they could by is on the first page of Google a week before you release it anyway. I hear plenty of things that my grandmother would find funky and it sounds like bullshit to me, just pure, unadulterated bullshit, music made for cocktail parties and swingin' bachelor pads and beat poetry slams and makes me want to fall asleep with how goddamned respectable the whole thing has become. The outlaws became the industry and now the industry is falling to pieces and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it...

The Faceless Band Behind a Timeless Classic

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:16:00 CDT

Michael Viner, the head of the tabloid publisher Phoenix Books, passed away at his home in Beverly Hills on August 8, 2009. Most obituaries have focused on his prickly personality and his rather disposable books (his star titles include The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, New York's #1 Escort and he recently took to the web to defend passing a book contract to Rod Blagojevich). But history is a funny thing. What made for the most notoriety for Viner isn't what he'll ultimately be remembered for. It was a project for music by a band that wasn't really a band, for a movie that no one has ever seen, and turned out to become one of the most influential records of all time: "Apache" by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band...

Ralphi Rosario: He Ain't Gone Nowhere

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:08:00 CDT

Some months ago, a web publication that shall remain nameless (eh, nevermind) did one of those kooky "Where Are They Now?" features, focusing exclusively on Chicago House Music producers from the first and second wave. While pondering the fate of Robert Armani (he's doing fine, by the way, as anyone relying on more than 5 seconds of Googling could tell you), they also threw in a jab at Ralphi Rosario. They knew where he was, of course - Ralphi has been a fixture in this seedy lil town for more than 20 years - bu threw a hip-check at his current predilection for the more progressive aspects of House and asked instead "where it had all gone wrong". Again, spend a few months with your ear to the ground and you'll know that Ralphi hasn't gone anywhere. And it's proven with his newest release, "Everybody Shake It" on Blueplate Global. On the vocals is legendary diva Shawn Christopher (is the singer from the vocal mixes of "French Kiss" real enough for you?), and lest you wonder about the sound, the two or three progressive-ish tracks are offset nicely by mixes from L�go of Poontin Muzik and Jay-J of Shifted Music....