Keepintime started as a simple idea, to bring some of the most revered and notable L.A. session drummers together for a photo shoot, then have them talk about the recordings that were famous to hip-hop DJs and producers, with some top LA beat jugglers. From that effort in 2002 came the short film,
Keepintime:
Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl (2 parts on YouTube). The short documentary toured around, and in 2002, along with the screening, some of the drummers and DJs put on a live improvised show in Los Angeles. From that 2 hour show, a 45 minute film was made:
Keepintime - A Live Recording. Later that year, after screening the short film in England,
the Keepintime crew were invited to Brasil, to team up with Brasilian percussionists of renown, and make a beat record. They also put on an epic live show. That whole enterprise was made into an almost two-hour long documentary,
Brasilintime. More information on the artists inside.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 20, 2013 -
5 comments
William Benjamin Bensussen is a DJ and producer who started DJing in San Diego's
Gaslamp Quarter, where his weird, heavy sound was generally a dancefloor killer, earning him the name
The Gaslamp Killer But he kept at it, and found a home in Los Angeles, performing with the
Low End Theory crew. On December 1, 2012, Gaslamp Killer joined an ever-growing list of notable DJs and
appeared on BBC Radio 1 with an Essential Mix "
This runs the gamut, freak flag and spliff waving in the air. 2 brutal and beautiful hours of raw beats, boom bap, and Birdman. There is psych-rock, there is juke, there is Spaghetti Western. Exclusives from Lotus, HudMo, and Dilla." If you like what you hear, there's even more below the break.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 17, 2013 -
24 comments
John Peel's Record Collection "Online interactive digital museum"
The Space has begun the mammoth task of digitising DJ John Peel's record collection. Now, nearly 8 years after his death, the first 100 albums under the letter A are ready, with a new letter to be released every week. With bonus content such as photos, Peel Sessions and
samples of radio shows (Spotify may be required for some audio), it's a fascinating look inside the great man's never-ending enthusiasm for music.
posted by jontyjago
on May 1, 2012 -
31 comments
DJ Greg Wilson has photos of the
Haçienda DJ
Booth (no,
not the one you're thinking of).
DJ Hewan Clarke who played every night for the first four years
talks about what it was like in the early days of the Haçienda:
What I used to do when I was playing the records… I always had to go out, run onto the stage, stand in the middle of the stage and listen to how it sounded in the club, went back in and readjust it on the mixer and I was constantly doing that because there was no feedback from what was going on outside, you just had to look through that gap. [more inside]
posted by oneirodynia
on Feb 17, 2012 -
12 comments
Contrary to popular belief,
cats can make great DJs. It's just a small sample, but it's nice to see him really get into it as the set progresses.
posted by gman
on Jan 27, 2012 -
32 comments
If you're looking for some uplifting dance music to help you get your week going, Goldroom's
Otoño Mix 2011 is a very soulful nu-disco collection that pairs nicely with The Magician's
Magic Tape Sixteen. Need something with more energy? Edwin van Cleef's
November mix is a bit more hands in the air, perfectly suited for the elimination of afternoon doldrums.
[more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin
on Nov 21, 2011 -
41 comments
In Southern California in the 1980s, KROQ had this weird un-DJ-like guy named (seriously)
Rodney Bingenheimer, who came on late at night on Sundays and played punk records and new bands like Blondie, The Ramones, X, Joan Jett, Devo and Cheap Trick. Did this weirdo really have some influence? A 90-minute 2004 documentary now on YouTube,
Mayor of the Sunset Strip (Part 1) tells his story, and it's weirder than you may have imagined.
[more inside]
posted by planetkyoto
on Nov 14, 2011 -
24 comments
DJ Zhao brings contemporary and classic dance music together from all five continents, with focus on Africa. While his DJ sets reach from culture centers to remote areas of the globe, and from now back through the ages, DJ Zhao’s remix and mashup work directly connects “East” and “West”, acoustic and electronic, traditional and hyper-modern. Equal parts ethno-musicologist and booty shaker, Zhao is an ambassador of boom not only talking about, but demonstrating through raw sound experience, the underlying unity of all earth cultures and peoples. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Oct 10, 2011 -
6 comments
DetroitTechno.org presents a documentary (
1 2 3) about the history and politics of techno with a focus on the
Detroit Electronic Music Festival, now called
Movement, from its inception in 2000 until the most recent one in 2010.
[more inside]
posted by gman
on May 15, 2011 -
26 comments
Happy belated 39th birthday,
Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin, or as most folks call you, simply
Amon Tobin. The Brazilian-born producer
first released music as Cujo, and has since moved on to his own name, with
five albums and a slew of EPs and singles released since 1997,
plus two video game
soundtracks, and
a film soundtrack. He also has
an EP of collaborations, side projects with
Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman as
60hz and
Two Fingers. And that's the overview ... (music samples a-plenty inside, or you could skip the chatter and
listen to much of Amon Tobin's discography streaming on his website).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 20, 2011 -
29 comments
Legendary hip hop producer DJ Premier interviewed in
the XXL Icon Interview and
The Smoking Section. Remarkably candid conversations about his life in East Coast hip hop, with interesting stories about his work with Jay-Z, Biggie, Puff, Nas, Jeru the Damaga, Group Home, Suge Knight, Christina Aguilera and of course, Guru. On finding records to sample:
"Well, there’s still diggin’ spots. If you’re in that world like I am, you know the spots, you see everybody—Just Blaze, Alchemist, Large Professor, Pete Rock—we still pop up in those spots. You got Big City records, you got Turntable Lab, you still have A1, you got Academy, you know. I’m not gonna tell you all the digging spots."
posted by the mad poster!
on Dec 20, 2010 -
11 comments
The days of the legendary late-night FM DJ are pretty much behind us...with one notable exception.
Vin Scelsa, whose radio career spans 43 years on six different New York City FM stations, has developed a uniquely passionate following through his free-form show
Idiot's Delight, which blends an idiosyncratic array of music new and old, commentary, and
book recommendations. For decades, Vin has used his on-air time to read entire chapters of books, wax philosophical, and add to his
remarkable roster of guests.
Faithful fans chronicle
every aspect of the show, archive
past playlists and
articles, and even create works like this very homemade but very informative and worthwhile Unofficial Documentary: Parts
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Jun 29, 2010 -
11 comments
The story starts in 1992 or so, when the 14 year old Brit,
Dominic Stanton, bought turntables and started spinning early drum'n'bass. He transitioned from DJ to producer, made demo tracks, and got signed by age 17. He went on to produce broken beat
* and jazzy downtempo
*, even into the realm of disco edits. Then about two weeks ago, the 31 year old musician called it quits.
The point is that I am no longer Domu. He is a character, always has been, and as of Friday 13th November 2009, he no longer exists. Neither does Umod, Sonar Circle, Bakura, Yotoko, Rima, Zoltar, Blue Monkeys, Realside or any of the other names I put out music under. I am cancelling all my gigs and not taking any more. My hotmail is closed, my Twitter is closed and my Facebook is closed.
Furthermore, his website is closed and the original post of his farewell message is lost, though you can still
view the cached version or find it
copied elsewhere. Domu's website now simply states
This really is The End . . . Step inside for an abbreviated journey.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Nov 30, 2009 -
46 comments
The "
Bonus Beats" tracks on 12" singles were used by DJ's to either extend the mix of the main track, or sometimes played within a dj mix on their own. One DJ mourns their
passing.
[more inside]
posted by analogue
on Jul 28, 2009 -
15 comments
Metafilter is certainly no stranger to
music mashups, or even
live music mashups, but a few artists are taking things a step further with live music and video mashups. Not prerecorded mashups of live music and video, but live performances of DJs (often calling themselves "VJs") mashing up music and video together on the fly.
[more inside]
posted by Grimp0teuthis
on Apr 8, 2009 -
14 comments
Mixed With Love: The Musical World Of Walter Gibbons: "This tale begins with a skinny white DJ mixing between the breaks of obscure Motown records with the ambidextrous intensity of an octopus on speed. It closes with the same man, sick with Aids and all but blind, fumbling for gospel records as he spins up eternal hope in a fading dusk. In between, Walter Gibbons transformed the art of DJing and marked out the future co-ordinates of remixology."
[more inside]
posted by Len
on Feb 7, 2008 -
6 comments
Suddenly, a man in a vintage hat rides up, hip-hop blaring from a glowing Plexiglas container shaped like a tropical fish set above the back wheel of his bicycle, control lights flashing. Fossil Fool, a rolling rapper from San Francisco who rides the college circuit preaching the benefits of peddling, grabs his microphone, cranks up the volume and starts to rap. Paul Freedman, aka
Fossil Fool, is one of the founders of
Rock the Bike, which makes Soul Cycles -- bicycle-based, often human-powered hi-fi and
PA systems -- for "playing clean, powerful, uplifting
music at street festivals and off-grid parties." RTB recently made a
mobile DJ booth for Austin's DJ Manny;
here's how. Attention, party-throwers: In 2008, you may well be able to
rent or borrow a Soul Cycle for your own shindig.
posted by GrammarMoses
on Oct 28, 2007 -
9 comments
Get in on the stream while there's space, because Autechre is doing a boomtastic live DJ set full of 80s electronica, mashed up weirdness and god knows what else... more links posted in the thread as I think of them but I have to hit post now because it's time sensitive.
posted by fleetmouse
on Dec 29, 2006 -
33 comments
Alan "Fluff" Freeman has died at
the age of 79.
Although he
gave up broadcasting in 2000, due to poor health, he will always be remembered as the man who invented the chart rundown, complete with background music and jingles.
He is probably best known for
Pick of the Pops, which reached a mainstream audience, but was also a champion of rock music. Along with
John Peel and
Tommy Vance, Fluff was the last of the three great DJ's I grew up listening to on late night radio. I'm too young to remember his Radio Luxembourg shows, but The Saturday Night Rock Show on Radio 1 was compulsory listening, part for the music and part for Fluff's unique catchphrases and jingles, particularly
Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal (rm) which became his theme on all his radio shows. He was also the inspiration behind the Harry Enfield character
Dave Nice. We'll miss you Fluff. Not 'arf!
posted by bap98189
on Nov 28, 2006 -
29 comments
WaxDJ.com - an excellent source for free downloads and streams of original electronic music mixes of all sorts, from seasoned pros to beginning bedroom amatuers, all told numbering in the hundreds or thousands. My current brand new favorite is the very diverse and well-versed Detriot/Chicago techno stylings of DJ
Rubsilent. Recomended mix: Future Funk 23:
(Direct MP3 link) (Streaming mp3 link) But don't let me divert you - search for your favorite local DJ or browse for new ones.
posted by loquacious
on Oct 11, 2006 -
19 comments
