modyfier

2010-12-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

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modyfier is in a bardo state. while this location will remain as an archive, all past, present and future contributors to the process series can now be found here. please redirect yourselves.

2010-12-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

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ACHIM MAERZ

With this mix, I wanted to create a little compilation of tracks with special beats that I like. You'll hear eight tunes I picked out of my record collection. Records by DIMLITE, EMPTY CHAIR, AARDVARCK, INSTRA:MENTAL, JOE, APPLEBLIM/PEVERRELIST, 2562 and NSNT PRJCT. Instead of talking too much about the music and why I did this mix, I put down eight statements that in my opinion fit to the mood of the mix:

1. Note to self: Stop Expecting.
2. It's hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; but it's even harder to give up when you think it's everything you want.
3. Listen! Don't believe any of this. Keep on partying! You'll never regret it. Trust me!
4. Whatever you want to do, do it now. Life is time and time is all there is.
5. I'm just tweeting to tell you I blogged.
6. The more you say, the less you say.
7. Do you remember when you said you'd never forget this?
8. Shut down computer. Go outside. Meet someone!

achim maerz - process part 243 by modyfier

2010-11-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

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M50

I have to confess, I feel a bit apprehensive trying to describe my creative process.

To proceed, I suppose I could begin with a pre-conceived notion of where I'm headed, and then attempt to beat a path towards that destination. Conversely, I could enter, discern a path and then follow it devoutly to the end it seems to demand.

Maybe these are just sides of the same coin. A competition between identity and location, between who I am and where I am.

Where I am: the feeling of that moment, the emotion, the sensation; the feedback from those around me; the direction my sound or texture or colour or key suggests. This seems to me to be the path that pulls me along.

Who I am: my notion of what I am trying to create or emulate or discover; the reaction I strive to evoke in myself, in others; my message, my habit, my ability. This is the part that pushes me to search for a path, or to cut one anew.

These are all imaginary, invisible forces. In reality, I try to create something out of the sounds I have assembled, try to muster some meaningful expression in the moment with the vocabulary and tools and ingredients I have.

My experience is that of discovering the path in the same motion as I set out upon it. While I find my way, I hope that the moments that don't work serve to elevate the moments that do.

m50 - process part 242 by modyfier

2010-11-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

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ALEJANDRO MOSSO

When I was contacted to participate in the Process Series with a DJ mix or a track, I knew that it would be with a track, as I am not djing. Also, doing a mix at home with the music I like would´ve be fun but I guess less interesting and personal than composing something special for the occasion. So I tried to plan this with enough time in advance to be sure I would have the time to sit for one or two days in the studio to work.

I also decided (after checking other issues of the series, especially Dntel´s) that keeping detailed written track of everything I did in the process of producing could be interesting for me and maybe also for the readers. I wrote almost everything, even if it was just a thought, an event, an idea or something stupid.

As a result here is the detailed list of my composing process and the resulting track.

I would say that the track it is not even finished and probably the mix needs a lot of work still. But I am quite happy with the general feeling of it and maybe in a future I would modify it and release it somewhere. For now it should be taken as an open experiment or excercise for self-discovery.

As a conclusion, I would say the inspiration and the process to transform it into a "finished" product, unlike many other artists, usually comes from my everyday routine. As a strange as it may sound, waking up, going to the studio and starting with a few sounds, takes me on a tunnel where the outside world disappears and the ideas, melodies, etc. start to flow. Obviously, this doesn´t happen every time. I guess that is the magic of it. But, as someone said: You never know when inspiration will come, but it better find you working when it does!!

Monday, 11th October 2010

- 10:30: I wake up with a bad pain on my back. I should probably change my pillows or my mattress...or probably better: do some excercise. I read emails, prepare my "mate drink", eat some toasts and start to plug my studio.
- 13:20: I add the first kick.
- 13:26: Straight four to the floor is not my thing today. I add some small variations.
- 13:30: I start a bassline with a simple sinewave oscillator with an extra click on the attack. An easy, moody melody on A minor.
- 13:40: I create a new channel with an interesting succession of chords, but it doesn´t fit with my previous bassline....mmm...I delete it. You can always start again.
- 13:43: I add some delay and LFO modulating the filter frequency to give some movement. It's a very moody and happy atmosphere. A minor 7 and D minor 7 chords.
- 13:50: A cowbell helps for the rhythm...not sure about the sound...but I'll have time to change it later.
- 13:55: I open the wonderful Collision (Applied Acoustics technology in Ableton) and add a mallet sound. Same note, variable rhythm, almost random. The modulation capabilities are great...play a bit with it to get a moving feeling on the background.
- 14:05: I add a shaker, timbal and new bass line. A groove starts to take form. Nice :)
- 14:15: After some minutes listening, I start to imagine a new melody...quite cheap and pop...but I say to myself that with a nice percussive sound, it could help the rhythmic and instrumentation of the loop. I put it on the keyboard and register with an awful sound. I will have to change it soon.
- 14:22: The track without the kick misses the groove. I realize that the problem is my LFO modulating the filter of the chords. It´s not set to oscillate in synchro with the beat. Problem solved.
- 14:25: Suddenly, I get a new bassline melody in my mind. It sounds familiar. I hope I'm not stealing without even knowing it. I put it on the keyboard. It's an awful sound, but nice idea. I tweak the sound until I find something decent.
- 14:40: After listening a few times, the personal test moment arrives: mute the main melody part and hope that the loop still has enough consistence to groove alone...(I´ve been always stronger for melodies than for rhythms). Nice! I think it passes the test. Minimal but hypnotic. I think I have something worth continuing.
- 14:50: I like it. It still needs tons of work, but it is going somewhere. I stop to work. I am hungry. I will continue later.

- 17:00: I reopen my project and play for few minutes, muting parts, playing around. I definitely like it. I arrange the sounds, the mix, clean some samples, etc.
- 17:10: I change the kick figure...more variations.
- 17:30: There are some interruptions, email, etc...I stop work on the project.

- 18:15: I come back again to my loop and realize that is quite ezquizofrenic. But no worries, it gives some tension. I add some more percussion, sporadic fx, some dynamics processing, compression, gate, etc.
- 18:20: I start to be worried about the arrangement suitable for this track. It is not a club track, and it is not just home listening either. What is it? What to do? Where to go?
- 19:30: For the last 30 minutes I've been adding fx and some more little melodies coming in and out of the track. Without the main chord, it sounds quite mysterious, almost vodoo-like.
- 19:55: I feel like I am starting to ruin the track, so it is better I quite for today.

Tuesday, 12th October 2010

- 12:20: I open the project. Listen few times. No new ideas coming yet, just arranging the mix and the sounds.
- 12:40: I can´t find new ideas. I close the project.
- 14:50: Back from lunch. I try again to find some ideas.
- 15:00: No great ideas about composition, but good ideas for effects, delays and reverbs.
- 15:20: I stop. I will continue another day.

Friday, 15th October 2010:

- 15:15: I reopen the project after few days. I was busy working on other urgent stuff. I listen to the loop a few times. I decide to take the day to work on it.
- 15:30: I do a real time recording of everything and I end up with a 12 minutes loop. Now I need to cut, arrange, delete, etc. and then I will have a better idea of the final arrangement.
- 16:50: After more than one hour of changing details, mixing, arranging, etc., it's time to take pause.
- 17:20: I continue working on the final details. I am almost ready but need to correct some last details on the mix, bounce and do a home made mastering.
- 18:30: The render is done. Final EQing and mastering are done.

alejandro mosso - process part 241 by modyfier

2010-11-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

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SINNER DC

from coast to coast, everything changes. a journey where the destination does not matter after all. a sound, and we're off to a mysterious journey. are we going somewhere? we follow the wind. it guides us like the stars. and off a surprise, we have discovered a new island. we stay there awhile. nature is lush and unknown. strange creatures appear. in the back, the distant sound of waves. and we are already different.

sinner dc - process part 240 (from coast to coast) by modyfier

2010-11-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

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CRAMBE REPETITA

Notes on three mixes:

- There is a certain amount of self-indulgence in presenting three mixes as part of a series that more often than not does one per artist. Thankfully, I don't consider myself an artist.

A
- I began the A mix as a sketch to see if some new tracks worked well with one another. But then I forgot to put things in front of the opening track to lead the imagined listener in a bit more gracefully. Oops.
- I think the Mathew Jonson tracks goes on a bit too long, but it was almost impossible to mix anything out of it in the way that I prefer to do things. Every time I'd think I had something, a synth squiggle would come in and mess it up. That's not a bad thing.
- There's this wonderful moment after the San Soda track where the Karizma track comes in offbeat, but doesn't sound like it until it's left naked there to stand on its own. I'm fascinated by this moment where your brain switches to the "proper rhythm" even if something is still matching fine.
- Those tiny skips early on in the final track aren't your mp3 file messing up, they're my mp3 file messing up. I also don't know much about "levels," "mastering" and "compression," as I'm sure you'll hear very quickly. Sorry about that.

crambe repetita - process part 239a by modyfier

B
- I began the B mix because I recently got a computer back that had a folder in it with a bunch of files that I had tucked away for when inspiration struck. It took four months, an unusually long time between mixes for me, to put together a mix like this. I'm not sure why that is.
- With mixes like this, I prefer to do a lot of hands-on work so that even if you know something that's playing, it doesn't necessarily take you out of the flow.
- That said, the track that comes in at the 54 minute mark is by Daryl Hall. Unlike much of the rest of the mix, there is nothing else going on at that moment except him.
- Overall, 28 tracks were used.

crambe repetita - process part 239b by modyfier

C
- I began the C mix because I was recently asked to make another mix for an acquaintance of mine, and I had about eight hours too much material that I wanted to use.
- Artists that had to remain on the bench, despite my best efforts: Kepler, Bochum Welt, Bark Psychosis, Flying, Giardini Di Miro, The Avett Brothers.
- More than anything else, I'm interested in how the moments between the tracks sound, how they flow into one another in those three, five, ten, 20 seconds. This is the same, whether it's a dance mix, a mix for the car or whatever B is.
- I had to make this mix three times. Odd, as you think it'd be the easiest of all.

crambe repetita - process part 293c by modyfier

2010-10-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

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CARLO

Everything started around two years ago when I decided to leave Málaga, my home town, and moved to London.

I had in my mind to make a few tracks deeper and softer than I usually do. This track was the first of a series in this vein.

The feeling came from my first day in London: I woke up early to a beautiful red dawn. It was quite curious and, for a moment, I didn't know if I was dreaming or if it was real. I focused on this feeling when I started the track.

Putting the soul of that day into this track gave it its name, red (grey) day. Grey because most of the days I’ve spent in London are quite sad. I tried to reflect on the thin line between dreams and the real world. All these new feelings mixed inside me and came out in a slow BPM, a deep bass and lots of strings. The structure is like that day: a red morning, a quiet evening and a crazy night.

I feel like vocals are often too explicit, so I play them in reverse and no one can understand what I say. For me, there is no other language, just music.

carlo - process part 238 (red (grey) day) by modyfier

'Red (Grey) Day' was recently included on Multi Vitamins MVD28.

2010-10-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

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FOREVER DELAYED

The theme of "Church of Sticks" is despair contra hope. A battle between taking the necessary steps to move forward and to bury yourself in something you have no control of. The fight between these two premises seem to be inevitable and uniform throughout the track. However, depending on how you listen to the composition, one of them seems to come out as a victor.

forever delayed - process part 237 (church of sticks) by modyfier

2010-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

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GHOSTS ON TAPE

I made this mix about 6 months ago and it's finally surfacing just now. These things happen. If I were to do this mix again today, it would contain completely different tracks. It's interesting though, because rather than just focusing on the inclusion of dubs and unreleased tracks, the delay has given me a new perspective on this mix and has forced me to focus on the quality of the music alone (although there are still plenty of unreleased and exclusive jams here). To me, this mix is an entire club night, distilled into one hour. We start slow with the vaguely creepy and exotic vibes of P-Fang, onto the cavernous techno of Claro Intellecto, work our way up to the UK funky-ish styles of Martin Kemp and L-VIS 1990 and the shuffling cartoon-y rave vibes of tribal guarachero, ending up at the ghetto house and grime sounds that round out the mix. There is an arc. We are going somewhere.

ghosts on tape - process part 236 by modyfier

01. P-Fang- 'Mirage'
02. ???- 'Snakes Cave'
03. Claro Intellecto- 'New Life'
04. Reade Truth- 'Let's Go To New York Instead (Brennan Green version)
05. Deepchild- 'Daylight'
06. Martin Kemp- 'Terr'
07. L-VIS 1990- 'Forrest Riddum'
08. Zander Hardy- 'Attack'
09. Subeena- 'Wishful Talk (Ghosts On Tape Remix)'
10. Big Dope P- 'Kazfara Juke (Dubbel Dutch VIP Demo version)'
11. Roska- 'Squark (Tribal Guarachero Mix)'
12. Ghosts On Tape- 'Equator Jam (Canblaster Tribal Mix)'
13. DJ Tetris- '???'
14. DJ Cuca- 'El Canto'
15. Girl Unit- 'IRL (French Fries Remix)'
16. Cajmere/Chief Boima- 'Percolator Decale'
17. DJ Hyperactive- 'Reptilian Tank'
18. DJ Deeon- 'Work This MF'
19. SRC- 'Lemsip'
20. Kavsrave- 'Baggage Handler'

2010-10-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

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CARLO PASSAMONTI

I believe in a warm sounds that are emotional, moving and evocative. Sounds that move around and nurture the thoughts of those who are still able to close their eyes and dream. This mix was recorded while having a drink in mid-September on lovely, melancholic afternoon.

carlo passamonti - process part 235 by modyfier

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

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IORI

First of all, I would like to thank Rayna for giving me this great opportunity. This mix is put together from my recent favorite tracks of 12 inch Vinyl with a Urei 1620 music mixer. It represents my recent style - deep, spacy and mystic. Also, I wove in some memories of Cio D'Or.

Thanks, again. I'm really honored to be part of the Process Series.

iori - process part 234 by modyfier

01. Nuel / Aquapalano Ltd 01 / A2
02. Horizontal Ground 02
03. Donato Dozzy / Time Out The Gap
04. Function vs. Jerome Sydenham
05. Forward Strategy Groupe / Applied Generics
06. Marcel Dettmann / Silex
07. Peter Van Hoesen / Terminal
08. Donor / Truss / Abbott (Mike Parker Remix)
09. Sandwell District Sampler Two / Silent Servant
10. Function / Burn
11. Jeff Mills / Something In The Sky 001 A1
12. Gowentgone / M.A.M. (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
13. Sandwell District Sampler One / AA Function
14. G-man / The Way You Move
15. Cio D'Or / Goldbrokat (Donato Dozzy Remix)
16. Sandwell District / Female Live Extract

2010-09-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

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BEANER

So, I received a forwarded email from Rayna through my partner in War Vs. Sleep (Brian aka C.L.A.W.S.). It was an unexpected, but very welcome email. I have been a fan of Modyfier for a while now and have always wanted to participate in the Process Series. Unfortunately, that made it kind of difficult for me to decide what to do. I wanted it to be unique; to fit with the concept, but to stick out. I had thought about what I would do for Modyfier before, and had usually decided on a new song. Then I had this idea of doing 45rpm records slowed down to 33rpm as a set. House music that sounded sadder than the sad house music that I already DJ. I don't have turntables at home, but I wanted to start immediately. So I decided I'd do a liveset. But not live. I decided I wanted to do one hour of 100% new music, at 100bpm. Music that came to me stream of consciousness and focused on extended repetition, molasses beats, and subtlety. (I actually originally wanted it to feel like one song, but that didn't work out). And I would give myself a maximum time-frame of one week. I like flawed perfection better than perfection. I hope I've done that, but I have a myopic vision of my own work.

I worked for 3-1/2 days (not straight) on this, piece by piece, never closing the Ableton project window except when the amount of tracks/samples made it crash. I used some samples and instruments that I have played, some heavily effected and some not so heavily effected drums, some found vocal snippets which I always love and a lot of arpeggios. Each "song" or section naturally grew out of the one before it, which is why it isn't structured the way I would structure a live set, DJ set, or album. A few parts ended up wherever they ended up that could have worked better closer to the end or middle or something. I didn't want to edit to make it "better", but less natural. I hope people like it. And remember: Oh honey, please don’t give your heart to a world system based on exploitation of the luckless, give your heart to us.

beaner - process part 233 (skirtchasin') by modyfier

Catch Beaner at 222 Hyde in San Francisco this coming Friday, 24-October. More information here.

2010-09-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

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AND

Our concept behind this piece is that no matter what you do, people will always have different opinions and different ideas behind what is right or wrong. We have been working as a duo now for 3 years. Many times we will get to the point in our creative process, where a track can go in one of two directions. Generally it'll be that one of us feels the sound should be developed in one way and the other feels that it should go in the opposite direction. When working as a duo you need to make a decision that first of all makes both of you happy and second of all it should be a compromise often involving variations from both of our original goals and ideas.

The way we set about working towards a final piece here was that we decided to contribute a track, rather than a dj or live set. After deciding on this, we went to work on a set of loops for the track. We had a nice set of loops built that we both liked and felt would be suitable for the project, it wasn't until that point, that we realised we could give the project a twist. We thought rather than build one piece of music, why don't we make two tracks based around the same collection of sounds.

So, instead of one track, we decided to give away two tracks built from the exact same sounds. The arrangement of the loops and tracks are completely different to one another,and we feel they represent two sides to the same story. As they have been built with the same sound sources there is a definite connection between the two pieces of music, but at the same time, the two results couldn't be more different from one another. Again, this is comes down to how decisions were made on one track and not the other in both situations.

Creatively we tend to work quite intuitively, allowing us both to put ideas forward for discussion. Sometimes these ideas will stay exactly the same from the start of the creative process to the end, and other times, the first idea may morph several times to the end result. This doesn't mean that the original idea was wrong, it may just mean that it didn't fit what we were wanting to create at that moment in time. Music can be based around how you feel at the time that you make it, your mood can really affect how your end result sounds.

The place where we live also has a lot to do with how we design our sounds. Living in an industrial city like Manchester has really influenced both of us, from the soundtrack in the clubs to the busy city life with millions of natural and manmade sounds around all the time definitely has affected our mindset. This is quite different from living in the countryside where maybe 90% of the sounds are natural and generally more peaceful.

So, one story can have two completely different versions, depending on who tells it, what they perceive to be the right or wrong way of doing something, the situation, the location and of course the people involved.

Many Thanks to Rayna for asking us to contribute to Modyfier, we have both really enjoyed the whole process. It certainly made us sit back and actually think about some of the reasons, why we make music and what contributes towards our everyday surroundings and influences.

AnD - process part 232a by modyfier

AnD - process part 232b by modyfier

2010-09-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

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SMEAR

This mix was quickly cobbled together in Ableton without a controller. It's a mixture of old favourites of mine as well as recently discovered things. It has it's imperfections and the track choice is stylistically 'diverse', to say the least. This was due to a concerted effort to have a rather stunted flow in order to present the pieces of music in unfamiliar contexts, and create shifts in mood and texture that otherwise cannot occur in regular DJ sets.

This is material I normally wouldn't get a chance to play in a club, but is hopefully a good representation of the spirit and thirst for new sounds that I aspire towards as a producer.

Thanks goes out to Rayna for the chance to contribute to the Process Series.

smear - process part 231 by modyfier

01. He Said Omala - Sea Horse Trading
02. Brian Eno - Draw One Animal
03. Lil Louis - God Is Watching
04. Ike Yard - NCR
05. Max 404 - Lost
06. Notek - Country Break
07. Bruce Gilbert - You Might Be Called
08. Kareem - Ciclop
09. Chris & Cosey - This Is Me
10. Der Zyklus - Cherenkov Radiation
11. Farah - Law Of Life
12. Vromb - Animation
13. Andrea Parker - Empty Words
14. Squadra Blanco - The City Shall Burn

2010-08-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

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GABRIELE MANCINO

There is something beautiful in every kind of musical genre. As a DJ, having the will to go and find it is one of the most important things. Having no limits in musical research is about carrying through on this attitude. In this set, I've tried to do this by assembling a little bit of every style that I play. It was recorded from vinyl at home, after a beautiful day spent on my home city's beach in Sicily, Mondello.

gabriele mancino - process part 230 by modyfier

01. Osunlade - Sokinsikartep - Yoruba
02. Agoria - Magnolia - Infine
03. Enliven dOP Acoustics - The Dust - Enliven Music
04. Chupacabra & Dorian Paic - Dub - Raum Musik
05. Sven Tasnadi - Winter - Smallville Records
06. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Blam Blam - Oslo
07. Wasted Chicago Youth - Love Thy Enemy - Tuning Spork
08. Shinedoe - No Boundaries - Intacto
09. James Yuill - This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas Sneaky Edit) - Kitsune

2010-08-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

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ROSSELLA

This mix shows my own conception of electronic music with dub, dubstep and techno contaminations. It has been a walk inside of my emotions. It needs concentration and a free mind to listen to. It is neither for relaxing to nor for the dancefloor. It is for thinking over the flux of events and of how things fit together. I went looking for these things in this set. Sometimes I found them harmoniously or sometimes unexpectedly. Emotions - positive, negative and also indefinable - always leading the way.

My work is dedicated to Violante Sanfelice: her smile will never leave us. Special thanks to Walter Ercolino.

rossella - process part 229 by modyfier

01. Unknown artist – Black Water
02. Tadeo – Transmission – Net28 02
03. The Black Dog – Empty set calculation – Soma 083
04. Tadeo – Zona de Fluctuation Espacio-Tiempo – Net28 02
05. Alva Noto – Pax (for Chain Music) – Line 044
06. Raudive – Entrance – Wires 001
07. Mark Fell – Topology (2) – Line 019
08. Yves De Mey – Lichtung – Line 039
09. Mount Kimbie – Ruby – Hotflush Recordings 004
10. Reagenz – Free Rotation – Workshop 09.3
11. Rodrigo BK – 1 (Original Mix) – Statik Entertainment 0276
12. Maks – Trit – Panel Trax 02
13. Hubble – Tauchen – Unreleased
14. Tadeo – Winds of Glory (Marcel Dettmnann's Rmx) – Cyclical Trax Series 02
15. Donor – Rethoric – Stroboscopic Artefact (Monad II)
16. Model 500 – Starlight (Intrusion Dub) – Echospace Detroit 313 LE

2010-08-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

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RONE & GASPAR CLAUS

This live session, featuring cellist Gaspar Claus, took place on November 19th, 2009 at Café de la Danse, Paris.

I met Gaspar about two years ago. He was playing a wonderful music with his father, the famous flamenco guitarist, Pedro Soler. I was instantly captivated by the character, a kind of punk-dandy, brilliant and a little weird, traveling all over the world carrying his massive cello on his shoulders. I asked him to be my partner on a film soundtrack project, "La Femme à Cordes", directed by Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka, who is the creator of Spanish Breakfast music video.

A few month later, my label InFiné offered us the opportunity to unite our skills in order to support the band Aufgang as they were performing for the first time in Paris.

I remember the few days we had to prepare this concert. I already had selected a certain amount of beats and the virtual synths that seemed to be adequate to build a basis for our project. Then I presented my work to Gaspar, in order to know what he thought of these drafts. His response was instantaneous. He immediately took his bow and jammed on my music.

Suddenly my monologue became a dialogue.

I enjoyed this situation: the fact that a single thought can lead to a shape, built step by step by sharing and welcoming different suggestions.

We played, a long long time. We were seeking, experimenting, and sometimes something beautiful emerged, something evident that was beyond us, beyond everything. When it happened, we used to make a little break, sharing a glass of Suze, then we were back again, to our music, inventing our own language.

It is pleasant and always amazing to see how far a collective creation can lead. There is a balance to reach, to define each others parts, with an absolute freedom of expression from and for both of us. In a two-hands work, you always have to wonder what you can do for your partner, not what you cannot ask. It's a difficult work (as well as a game), but it remains terribly exciting.

This public recording is therefore a collective composition, captured in real time.
It is an act of creation, with its impulses of hopes and doubts, with its hitches, mistakes and randomnesses, that make it so lively and significant to me.

Text by Erwan Castex (Rone). Thanks to Karine Gence.

rone & gaspar claus - process part 228 (live at café de la danse 091119) by modyfier

2010-08-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

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DJ QU

This is an archived mix from '2007. Enjoy and always remember to live the music. I do. It governs most of my life decisions which, in-turn, give me inspiration to create. It's a very simple process for me and, in my opinion, very understandable to almost anyone. STRENGTH MUSIC for life!!!!!

dj qu - process part 227 by modyfier

01. Intro / Soulphiction / Sonar Kollectiv
02. Ghana Wadada / Soulphiction / Sonar Kollectiv
03. Kick the Peace (QU's Edit) / Agoria / Code 1026
04. Imagine If / Jenifa Mayanja / Bu-mako
05. Cicely / DJ Koze / Philpot
06. Afro Beats / Tier-Ra-Niche / ???
07. All I Need / Tier-Ra-Niche / ???
08. Quincey Rise for My First Born / DJ Jus-Ed / Underground Quality
09. Yo This Shit is Hot / DJ Jus-Ed / Underground Quality
10. The Zones / DJ QU / Strength Music Recordings
11. There's Somebody Out There / Marcellus Pitttman / UniRhythm
12. Faces & Places (QU's edit) / Henrik Schwarz / Compost
13. Untitled / Joey Anderson / ???

2010-08-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

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I.D.

I.D is the production alias of DJ Tomas, formerly Dub I.D. I dropped the “dub” from my pseudonym because there are a number of other artists using a similar prefix. Dub remains a central influence as well as supreme listening pleasure. That will not change. The premise for this mix: DJ mixes are too long. Specifically, my DJ mixes are too long. I tend to get overambitious and make mixes containing 20 or 30 songs; 90 minute sessions that most people don’t have time to digest or listen to in one setting. Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing I enjoy more than marathon club sets. Two to four hours is my preference. But for this mix I’ve tried to rein it in a little. This set came out to be a few seconds shy of one hour. I’ve still got some work to do. My selection focuses on the melodic and ethereal (meaning less wobbly) side of dubstep. The past three years have seen great fusions of techno, IDM and dubstep elements that make genre distinctions blurry. Some of the best music lies in these “in-between” areas. That’s where my I.D. is too – simultaneously between genres, scenes and songs.

i.d. - process part 226 by modyfier

01. George FitzGerald – Weakness
02. Jus Wan – Azure
03. Scuba – Aesaunic
04. Late – Bittersweet
05. Low Density Matter – Blue Steel
06. Kontext – Aeromonarch Attacks
07. Sepalcure –Love Pressure
08. Elemental – DeepChord
09. Reso – Hemisphere
10. Breakage – Open Up
11. Beat Pharmacy – Nuclear Race Appleblim mix
12. Dhyan Moller – Lost In 3s (DJG Remix)
13. Daega Sound System – SOS (Original Mix)
14. Arthur Oskan – Eggshells_XI Remix
15. F – Spacewalker
16. Instra:Mental – Tramma
17. DFRNT– Tripped (Synkro remix)

2010-08-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

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JAY LOCKE

This mix was simply inspired by wanting to put together tracks I usually don't get a chance to play out in the club. The tempo is more of a slow head-nod and gives a deep-house feeling (almost like hip hop, but not). The speed was brought back a bit on this one, giving a soul-pitched mood. I feel this way from time to time, when I get in a certain zone: a cracked window and a dim red light. Not sounding routine but somewhat unique, with a blissful ending. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed creating it.

jay locke - process part 225a (it's all matter) by modyfier

This mix came after I was emotionally drained and then inspired again. A lot was going on at this time. I tragically lost 2 close family members in a very short period and I am sure most of the inspiration came from that alone. This set is definitely different from the usual. It just feels great to know that I can find the spirit to do a mix like this and I hope you feel what I felt when I created this. I hope you all "get it". FROM MY SOUL TO YOURS: please enjoy.

jay locke - process part 225b (this bright light) by modyfier

2010-08-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

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DANIELA STICKROTH

I have made a conscious decision to present this mix, 'Water Will Always Find a Way', without a playlist because I would prefer for everyone to just listen to the music: No artists. No label. No thinking. Listen to the music, follow the water.

daniela stickroth - process part 224 (water will always find a way) by modyfier

2010-08-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

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NAX ACID

The Abstract Archetype is a philosophical speech without words. Introspection and emotions are the key elements of a stream that flows and modulates from one concept to another. Melodies are not the only way of creating emotions and sensations. It is the very atmosphere that creates them. If you allow yourself to sink in and be caught by it, you can be taken deep beyond your conscious mind. Music is a way to distance oneself from a world trapped in a rigid rationality.

Present and Future are just moments of our life. We live in the present and living each present moment, by our choices, we create the future, new moments to be lived in the present. So is the music. We listen to it in the present with anticipation: we never know how and what is going to change in the future, only the composer does.

The mix comes from my music collection. Unfortunately, not all the tracks were on vinyl because they were from my collection of electro acoustic music I studied when I was a student of Sonic Arts at Middlesex University. It represents part of my evolution from the past to the present which, like a philosophical speech, flows following an abstract thread of thoughts.

nax acid - process part 223 (abstract archetype) by modyfier

2010-07-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

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MUJABA

This is a collection of tracks I picked out of my box that I have never recorded in a mix before, except for ‘Got to Get You Back’ which, personally, seemed the perfect start to this mix. I’ve always had the idea to use it as an opening track, and at the time I made this recording, I had just split up with my girl and Kym Mazelle's lyrics well described the situation.

‘Muzik’ is one of those tracks I bought about 15 years after it originally got pressed on vinyl. I remember being about twelve and getting in touch with American Rap and what we considered to be NY Oldschool, Hardcore and Punk. It's funny, I would’ve never thought that at some point I'd end up with a 4/4 record collection.

'Breath Control' is Danilo Plessow’s first pure House vinyl he has ever put out (if I am not mistaken). Of course, he’d made some House tracks before but I think this was the first time he completely concentrated on making a House record. We started our label, Four Roses, together with another mate in 2006, but unfortunately it all got stuck due to other projects and personal commitments. I am just right now sitting here and making plans for something new to appear later this year.

I discovered Keith Tucker's, 'It's A Mood', at Hardwax where I meet up with my friend, Finn Johannsen, from time to time. I pulled the copy from a box without knowing it was the last one in stock. I had a listen, considered it to be good and then handed it over to Finn for listening. We both were eager to take the record home so in the end I had to convince him to leave it to me this time as I had been so stupid to leave an excellent DJ Sneak record to him some months earlier (what I obviously regret nowadays).

Bernard Badie’s 'Motivation', is also a discovery I made on one of our common record shopping sessions somewhere in Berlin.

Dance Mania have put out so many releases and having missed most of them at the time, I have just now started to become acquainted with the label. Also, recently I found a nice recording of a mysterious and anonymous DJ gig recorded during Love Parade 1996 that almost sounds like a 'Best of Dance Mania' set. I've really been enjoying a lot of what they have been doing and 'Mental Kombat' is one of those tracks.

'Dance Dance' is a record I was recommended once by Mitch, the owner of Melting Point record store in Berlin. Besides selling records, he is a passionate football enthusiast and I’ve spent quite some time talking about players and teams. You should know that he personally despises my favorite team so it has always been big fun talking so far.

'Mary Mary' is missing the usual patterns of House music, working without any of the well known drum machine sounds or chords, but there are some rough Aretha Franklin samples. It’s different and somehow a bit crazy and therefore, I think, of great value.

Ben Klock uses an amazing slamming bass drum on his remix for Jason Fine that I consider to be his Panorama Bar trademark kick. In listening, you should make a mental picture of how the drums should sound on a proper system. Also, an excellent Oni Ayhun mix features on side B.

'Mortal Trance' is one out of a series of great re-releases on Rush Hour recently and a record that absolutely has stood the test of time.

It's the same with G.Flame & Mr.G’s 'Pulsez'. Moods & Grooves indeed have put out a few goodies that are worth checking like Anthony Shakir’s Da Sampla project. Great record and also one of my late discoveries.

Finally, 'Letters From the Edge, is a lo-fi statement and a raw musical trip with a sudden ending.

mujaba - process part 222 by modyfier

01. Kym Mazelle - Got To Get You Back (Amazella Mix) - Syncopate
02. DJ Pierre - Muzik (The Siren Mix) - Strictly Rhythm
03. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Breath Control - Four Roses
04. Keith Tucker - It's A Mood - Seventh Sign
05. Bernard Badie - Motivation - Distance
06. Sneaky Tim - Mental Kombat - Dance Mania
07. Danell Dixon - Dance Dance (DJ Pierre's Wild Pitch Mix) - Nite Grooves
08. Grand High Priest - Mary Mary - We Ze Records
09. Jason Fine - Many To Many (Ben Klock Remix) - Kontra Musik
10. Boo Williams - Mortal Trance - Rush Hour
11. G.Flame & Mr.G - Pulsez - Moods & Grooves
12. Hieroglyphic Being - Letters From The Edge - Mathematics

2010-07-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

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SANTIAGO SALAZAR

Imagine: You are out on a Monday night in the infamous Rampart District of downtown LA. You walk into a black building off Lafayette Park Place and Beverly Blvd. This 6-story black building has no name and all you can hear as you enter is a muffled sound of steady four-on-the-floor beats pounding. You walk to the door and hand five dollars to a short heavy-set guy named Mack. As you enter, you notice a single red light over the bar and a blue light coming from the dance floor. You smell a mixture of cigarettes, Pine Sol and old plumbing, but you don't care, because your sole purpose of being here is to dance until 6am on a Monday night. Maybe you buy a Snapple w/Triple Sec or a Rum and Coke at the bar and head towards the dance floor. A tall Latino wearing sun glasses and a velvet suit is doing a cat-walk dance back and forth like it is his own personal runway. You find a dark corner to do your own shadow dancing to the deep house vibes laced with techno and everything else in between the DJ is pumping. “Is this the Twilight Zone?” you may ask. But no, it’s the Beverly Room – a little place I called home in 1994-1995.

santiago salazar - process part 221 by modyfier

01. Big Strick - Whatup Doe! - FXHE
02. Jus-Ed - Jusnotic - Underground Quality
03. DJ Qu - Secret Place - Strength Music
04. Andy Vaz - The "Y" Theme - Yore
05. Hakim Murphy - Micro303 - Syapsis Records
06. A.O.S. - Ultra Fine One - AOS
07. Hakim Murphy - Rebcubx - Machine Dreams
08. Disco Nihilist - Leaving Bull Creek - Construction Paper
09. Silent Servant - La Noche - Historia y Violencia
10. Function vs Sydenham - White Light - Ibadan Records
11. Delta Funktionen - Silhouette(m.dettman rmx) - Delsin
12. DVS1 - Polyphonic Love - Transmat
13. Schwarz/Ame/Dixon - Berlin-Karlsruhe Express(live version) - Innervisions
14. Roberto Bosco - Biosphere - Minimalsoul Recordings
15. Psyche - Crackdown - Transmat

2010-07-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

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STEVE OH

This mix is a reflection of my mind state. Not scared to venture into the deeper realms of house music, I've spun tracks produced by some of my favorite artists/producers as well as myself. So, sit back, close your eyes and enjoy the journey.

steve oh - process part 220 (mind state) by modyfier

01. I Love Alex by Omar S.
02. House 13-2010 by Steve-Oh-Traxx
03. Raw Cuts # 6 by Motor City Drum Ensemble
04. Big Bad Drum by Samuel L. Session
05. God's Promise by Black Jazz Consortium
06. Mouth (Pepe Bradock Remix) by Iz and Diz
07. House 5-2010 by Steve-Oh-Traxx
08. Japanese Prayer by Marlon D
09. E-79 by Kink
10. Birds (Tony Lionni Remix) by Kuniyuki Takahashi
11. Work Dat Shit (Original Mix) by Steve-Oh-Traxx
12. Tripping in the 16th by Martin Buttrich
13. M.A.R.S. (Bangana Remix) by Remote Area
14. Deepness by Black Jazz Consortium
15. I'm Going There One Day by Martin Buttrich
16. The Buzz by DJ Qu
17. Steve-Oh State of Mind by Steve-Oh-Traxx

2010-07-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

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MIKKEL METAL

I guess all artists want to try something new from time to time - to stray away from the usual patterns and go somewhere else. And, at least in principle, the listener or viewer will display a positive attitude towards this. Yes - artistic change and development is a good thing.

However, the reality is a little more complicated than that. Very often fans of, say a specific musical act, are very conservative. They've locked onto a specific way they want their artist to sound like, and don't always welcome the change. And then again change isn't always good. Sometimes it just smells too much of "trying to do something different - just to do something different". And moreover when an artist sits down and consciously decides to do something new, the result just might not be that good. Often there's a very good reason why people have built their name around a certain sound or a certain expression.

So what is the conclusion? Fans: Give your favourite artist some space to experiment. Artist: Go ahead and experiment, but remember to remain a hard judge on yourself and don't fall in love with the new, just because it's new. This is slightly too educational and perhaps also not very controversial, but still worth repeating.

In the world of electronic music there's an awful lot of labeling going on. And labels come in very handy for some rough categorization in a world with an ever growing pool of electronic music. But very often, people are a bit sloppy and imprecise. As a frequent user of many websites about electronic music I often raise my eyebrows. "This is deep house?" Well, not the way I understand it. But luckily you can always hear for yourself since there's audio all over the web nowadays.

Knowing that there might be disagreement about the definitions, I still would wish that people were just a little more precise in their labeling of different kinds of electronic music. Speaking for myself, it only took a few releases into my career in electronic music before I was put in the box saying, "dub-techno". And I've kinda never been able to escape it. I guess I'm ok with this, even though I've made lots of tracks that aren't dub-techno to me (but sure there have always been, and still is, a firm core of dub-techno in my releases).

Much more than throwing around labels and references, I prefer when somebody listens carefully and tries to describe what's going on in the music. I love a reviewer that really manages to tell to me what he or she hears.

Finally a few words about the track presented here. It's called "Totemo". I made it in 2009 and added some final elements in June 2010. It came into being as an attempt to have fun and do things just a little differently. I made some new sounds with my little hand-held recorder. You'll hear children's musical instruments, my voice doing just random stuff, domestic samples and more. I also tried to make a different rhythmic structure than normal.

In the end, I guess it's not that difficult to hear that I made this track (assuming of course you are famiilar with my productions). I'm afraid the melodies and overall aesthetics reveal me. But hey - nothing wrong with that. I just hope somebody out there will enjoy it.

mikkel metal - process part 219 (totemo) by modyfier

2010-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

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AKIKO KIYAMA

As gravity makes us blind, we lean…
As we can’t see the edge from where wind starts…
As there are still many things that still have yet to be named…

We live unconsciously and it can be said for music as well. I am too ignorant to confess what music is.

I adore the thrilling feeling of opening an egg to see how the inside goes. And I love even more knowing the shell cannot be put back and that time never seems to flow in reverse. My experience of making music is a little bit like this. It doesn’t disappear, but rather, grows stronger. It gives me a hint of life yet to come.

akiko kiyama - process part 218 (live) by modyfier

2010-06-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

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JESSE SOMFAY

What is art...music in particular. It's language, it's a translator, a vessel for feelings where words can't do any good in describing. I was born like this, on all the time, my sight never ceases, my body falls asleep but I dream so real I don't really sleep. I remember growing up really young and just going out alone into the woods trespassing through neighbours' back yards and I felt at home out there...not in the typical way someone goes out into nature to escape, it was more, still is, like going home, like being released. In itself it was music to me. Those moments are music. Emotions, sensations, complex, simple, audible or not. All of it is an endless tune.

When I listen to the music of other people, it's listening to their heartbeat, to their soul's pulse. Sometimes I can tell if its from deep within or just the surface, and usually that is what gets me to like a piece of work or to stray from it. I like feeling that soul pulse of others. It's their gaslamp flickering...their lives, realities, stories. You hear/feel a version of what they felt in a moment. You feel a ghost of what might have caused those feelings within them to exist. You could feel their experience as an insect caught in amber for a thousand years, its shape is still present, but the insect is gone or it has changed.

This set is just shy of 18 hours of those pulsing souls that I felt deeply. I wish it could be more but I don't want to go on for days and days [laughs.] It is a prepared set so it isn't done live and it's not beatmatched, not mixed in the typical manner, it's more a focus on the music itself and the story(s) within the music and the journey of the set [if you decide you really want to listen to all 18 hours rather than flick through it. Either way is good.] It took me a while to decide which pieces I wanted to string together and the order I wanted them all to be in, and this story that is a collage of the pulses of others is the result.

You could say it's an inspirations kind of set but it's deeper than that to me. The best inspiration I usually derive from is usually not others work, aurally, as inspiring as it all really is. Usually it is in quiet moments alone in waking or dreaming where I find it. It could be walking alone in the rain, the smells of soaked spring blossoms just starting out, night air, the sound of distant traffic when falling asleep, being in someone's arms, losing that feeling, or longing for it, stresses, hopes failed and realized...all of those silences where the music is all that and just a heartbeat, a nervous system and the sounds of animate and inanimate life.

A lot of the pieces in this set remind me of these fragments of reality. Some of them sound like they were stripped from dreams directly. This is something so rare, I don't feel that many are able to do it, I wish I could, and I crave it like I crave the feelings that generated the final outcomes. Music that sounds like it came straight from inside, the sap of a dream. It captures these moments and bottles them. You can play those feelings over and over, and when it's done truly, it never grows old, you can always go back to it. You can't often do that with moments like that in life, can't play them over again. I sometimes wish it were possible to be stuck in those moments forever, but that would drain the possibilities of other moments out of life. I savour them while they happen, and then move away, the next will come at some point...

This is what compels me to do my own work. I'm addicted to capturing these feelings. I could do it just for myself but I'd rather share, share my glowings, maybe pass them on to someone else who could be inspired by it. It's difficult to describe this drive as anything other than pure compulsion. I don't know how else to transmit these feelings and I can't really feel those feelings in my own work afterwards. I know it is there because others react to it in ways that let me know those feelings are there, but it's strange how they aren't there for me. It's sacrifice and it is good this way… it keeps me going because I crave it so much. Even if it never comes for me in my work, I'll always want more, always want to bottle it. I can't stop even if I need to.

It's the closest thing I'll ever get to feeling home, like feeling where I should be. I never feel that way unless I am translating these feelings, otherwise I just want to be elsewhere, but I don't know where that elsewhere is, I can't find it. Music, hearing others' music, their flickering, comforts me, lets me know I'm not the only one, that a lot of us feel this way for so many reasons.

This set is the flickering of others and this is me flickering back, reflecting their flickering with a convex mirror for others to reflect on to further others, through inspiration, a smile, whatever. It's just another trigger for the butterfly effect. The people in this set all captured moments and I am more than sure that so many of them crave capturing them as much as I do. These are their moments strung together to form and reflect a hive moment, something that can only happen when everything is clustered. A new context, a new reality, emerges...

Note: Due to a ghost in the machine, the soundcloud player doesn't let the full length of the first part of the set play out, but it can be downloaded as a full length mp3.

jesse somfay - process part 217a by modyfier

001 RJD2 - Salud
002 RJD2 - Someone's Second Kiss
003 J Dilla - Waves
004 RJD2 - The Proxy
005 Murs & 9th Wonder - Fornever
006 C-Rayz Walz - We Live
007 Cannibal Ox - Scream Phoenix
008 Vordul Mega - Peanut Butta Up's
009 RJD2 - Work
010 Vordul Mega - Hard Times
011 Stereolab - Metronomic Underground (Wagon Christ Remix)
012 J Dilla - Lazer Gunne Funke
013 C-Rayz Walz - Music Take Ovah
014 J Dilla - Shouts (Alt) (Instrumental)
015 Babu - The Unexpected
016 J Dilla - In The Night / While You Slept (I Crept)
017 J Dilla - Take Notice
018 El-P - The Overly Dramatic Truth
019 RJD2 - Making Days Longer
020 J Dilla - Kaklow (Jump On It)
021 Sonic Sum - Circuit Breaker
022 J Dilla - Geek Down
023 Cannibal Ox - Pigeon
024 Aesop Rock - Keep Off The Lawn
025 Sonic Sum - Marathoner
026 El-P - Blood
027 Vordul Mega - Hattori Hanzo
028 Cannibal Ox - Raspberry Fields
029 Rob Sonic - Sniper Picnic
030 Aesop Rock - Dark Heart News
031 The Reavers - Nature
032 C-Rayz Walz & Parallel Throught - Vomit Chorus
033 The Reavers - Scoundrels
034 Vordul Mega - Broken
035 Rob Sonic - Shoplift
036 El-P - The League Of Extraordinary Nobodies
037 Aesop Rock - Five Fingers
038 El-P - T.O.J.
039 The Reavers - Hochiminh
040 Sonic Sum - Sara-Inge
041 El-P - Dear Sirs
042 Sonic Sum - Untitled
043 Burial - Fostercare
044 Foals - Spanish Sahara (Mount Kimbie Remix)
045 Take - Before You Think
046 The Bug - You & Me
047 Burial - Nite Train
048 Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill (The Bug Remix)
049 Vex'd - Killing Floor (MAH Remix)
050 Brothomstates - Qtio
051 East Flatbush Project - Tried By 12 (Autechre Remix)
052 Gescom - Viral Rival (Autechre Remix)
053 Meat Beat Manifesto - Prime Audio Soup (Boards of Canada Vegetarian Soup Remix)
054 Lamb - Gold (Autechre Remix)
055 Mira Calix - Sandsings (Boards of Canada Remix)
056 David Sylvian - Shadowland (Autechre Remix)
057 Autechre - Cichli
058 Gescom - Leritue (Autechre Remix)
059 Autechre - Zeiss Contarex
060 Autechre - Treale
061 Autechre - os veix3
062 u-Ziq - Goodbye, Goodbye
063 Boards of Canada - Red Moss
064 Beaumont Hannat - Psi-Onyx (Autechre Remix)
065 Autechre - Second Peng
066 Autechre - Acroyear2
067 Squarepusher - Square Window
068 V - Vliezwei (Autechre Remix)
069 Autechre - V-Proc
070 Squarepusher - F-Train
071 Aphex Twin - Vordhosbn
072 Squarepusher - Tundra 4
073 u-Ziq - Catkin and Teasel
074 Autechre - Flutter
075 Squarepusher - Theme From Ernest Borgnine
076 Squarepusher - Tundra
077 Autechre - Plezo
078 Squarepusher - I Wish You Could Talk
079 Squarepusher - Sarcacid Part 2
080 u-Ziq - London
081 Squarepusher - Beep Street
082 Mogwai - Sine Wave
083 Aphex Twin - Heliosphan
084 Aphex Twin - .215061
085 Autechre - Oval Moon (IBC Mix)
086 AFX - Where's Your Girlfriend
087 Stereolab - Refractions In The Plastic Pulse (Autechre Remix)
088 Squarepusher - Song, Underwater Torch
089 Squarepusher - My Fucking Sound
090 Autechre - Parhelic Triangle
091 Freeform - A.T. (Autechre Remix)

jesse somfay - process part 217b by modyfier

092 Squarepusher - Parallelogram Bin
093 Hecker - Itiso161/ae (Gescom Remix)
094 Einsturzende Neubauten - Finger Und Zähne
095 Stereolab - Percolations
096 Einsturzende Neubauten - Unseasonable Weather
097 Aphex Twin - Gwarek2
098 Einsturzende Neubauten - Airplane Miniature #4
100 Death In June - Lord Winter
101 Laudanum - Procession
102 Ben Frost - Killshot
103 Gnaw - Haven Vault
104 Khanate - Dead
105 Sunn O))) - Big Church (Megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért)
106 AEthenor - III
107 Sunn O))) - Belurol Pusztít
108 Blood Fountains - Cold Flood / In
109 Fear Falls Burning Vs Freiband
110 Ghengis Tron - The Feast / Ergot (Dntel Remix)
111 Fennesz - June
112 Aphex Twin - Gwely Mernans
113 Einsturzende Neubauten - Negativ Nein
114 The Skull Defekts - Unholy Drums For Psychedelic Africa
115 Einsturzende Neubauten - Das Schaben
116 Slipknot - (515)
117 The Observatory - Lowdown
118 Sonic Youth - Providence
119 Einsturzende Neubauten - Halber Mensch
120 A Storm Of Light - Alpha (Law Of Nature Part 1)
121 Burial - Untitled
122 Callisto - 31 46°N, 35 14° E
123 Grouper - Cover The Windows And The Walls
124 Belong - Same Places (Slow Version)
125 Grouper - Vessel
126 Grouper - Follow In Our Dreams
127 Julianna Barwick - Cloudbank
128 The Sight Below - Fervent
129 Fennesz - Perfume For Winter
130 Lovesliescrushing - Elephai
131 Lovesliescrushing - Last Blue Ray
132 Pyramids - The Echo of Something Lovely
133 Belong - I Never Lose. Never Really
134 Nine Inch Nails - In This Twilight (Fennesz Remix)
135 Pyramids With Nadja - Into The Silent Waves
136 Leyland Kirby - Memories Live Longer Than Dreams
137 Burial - Forgive
138 Sigur Ros - Untitled
139 Olafur Arnalds - ...Og Lengra
140 Tangerine Dream - Sequent C'
141 Richard Skelton - Undertow
142 Burial - Night Bus
143 Autechre - Vletrmx 21
144 Tortoise - To Day Retrieval (Autechre Remix)
145 Mamiffer - Suckling A Dead Litter
146 Fennesz - Transit (Featuring David Sylvian)
147 Nine Inch Nails - The Day The World Went Away (Quiet Version)
148 Brian Eno - Music For Airports Part 1
149 Autechre - see on see
150 Nine Inch Nails - A Warm Place
151 Autechre - Nine
152 Eluvium - Under The Water It Glowed
153 Kraftwerk - Heimatklange
154 Boards of Canada - Untitled
155 u-Ziq - 27
156 Tangerine Dream - Rubycon Part 2
157 Cluster & Eno - Schone Hande
158 Kraftwerk - Kristallo
159 Neu! - Lila Engel (Lilac Angel)
160 Sonic Youth - Sugar Kane
161 Stereolab - Refractions In The Plastic Pulse
162 Stereolab - K-Stars
163 Sonic Youth - Sweet Shine
164 Stereolab - Super Falling Star165 Depeche Mode - Waiting For The Night
166 Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
167 Depeche Mode - Freelove
168 Depeche Mode - Insight
169 Depeche Mode - When the Body Speaks
170 Depeche Mode - I Want You Now
171 Japan - Ghosts
172 This Mortal Coil - Mr. Somewhere
173 Nine Inch Nails - Hurt (Quiet)
174 Swans - In My Garden
175 This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
176 Dead Can Dance - Emmeleia
177 Squarepusher - Love Will Tear Us Apart
178 Swans - Love Will Tear Us Apart (Black Version)
179 Abronzius - Charlotte Sometimes (The Cure)
180 Swans - Mother's Milk
181 Sonic Youth - Flower
182 Joy Division - She's Lost Control
183 Einsturzende Neubauten - Seele Brennt
184 The Skull Defekts - Six Sixes
185 Swans - I Am The Sun
186 The Angels of Light - My Brother's Man
187 Nausea - Lie Cycle
188 Einsturzende Neubauten - Der Schacht Von Babel
189 Jodis - Follow The Dogs
190 Earth - Hung from the Moon
191 Jodis - Ascent
192 Kodiak - Beginning
193 Ascend - Dark Matter
194 Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Welk
195 The Observatory - The Boring
196 Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Spectral Beings
197 Coalesce - We Have Lost Our Will
198 Inga Liljestrom - Fall
199 A Storm of Light - Sister
200 Isis - The Minus Times
201 Slipknot - Skin Ticket
202 Celeste - Ces Belles De Rêve Aux Verres Embués
203 Isis - Hive Destruction
204 Integrity - Heavens Final Word
205 Isis - Celestial (The Tower)
206 Floor - Sunday
207 Antischism - Freedom At Last
208 Thou - Out Of The Mouth Of A Fool
209 Antischism - Pets Or Meat
210 Korn - Swallow
211 Korn - Ball Tongue
212 Korn - Lost
213 Deftones - Bored
214 Forensics - Crashing
215 Year Of No Light - Abbesse
216 Jesu - Friends Are Evil
217 Boris - …And Hear Nothing
218 Isis - Threshold of Transformation
219 Pelican - Final Breath
220 Jesu - Mother Earth
221 Russian Circles - Malko
222 Alcest - Percées De Lumière
223 Junius - [Elan Fatale] 1
224 Jesu - Farewell
225 Iroha & Fragment - Bittersweet
226 Year Of No Light - Sélénite
227 Fall Of Efrafa - Simulacrum
228 Junius - At The Age Of Decay
229 Envy - Zero
230 Boris - Akirame Flower
231 Floor - Serendipitous Montag

2010-06-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

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DJ SPIDER

This mix was made with all of my own unreleased tracks under the DJ Spider & Spider Bites monikers. Some of these tracks are scheduled to be out this year and there are a few that might never come out, but they were just sitting in my library of personal cuts. I never plan to release everything that I create, because some music is far to personal & I don't think it needs to be heard by just anyone. Also, I create many genres of music, so not all of my music interests the average person. That comes from being a live musician and jamming with people, creating music & never even recording all of those sessions. Not every audible sound has or will ever be recorded; the gift of hearing should never be taken for granted.

With that said, I would like to elaborate briefly on the mix itself. Unfortunately, I had to mix this all from CDRs. I almost always play 85-90% of music on vinyl, but in times like this when the tracks haven't gotten to that stage yet, I just play them on a CDR from two separate CDJs, through a mixer & straight into my studio setup. No computer bullshit here! I'm not a fan of using computers to mix dance music, specifically.

I knew going into this mix that I was going to play all of my unreleased tracks, so all I had to do was start digging around my library of beats. To me this would be something different for both myself & the listeners of this blog. I don't normally hear mixes of all one artist, so I took this opportunity to showcase some of my unreleased material to you. I only picked tracks that I felt would work together as I do live & just went at it. I'm not one to plan ahead as the universe is always in motion & one thing that I might think is perfect at one moment might not be so great the next moment, so I believe everything has its place in time, thus so the spontaneous feel is accomplished in the end. This is the same for me in the club. I never predetermine what exactly I play, I just pack records that I think will fit what I'm trying to push at that set moment.

There is one remix on here of one of my older tracks that is scheduled for release later this year & was remixed by DJ Aakmael. It will be out on vinyl in the coming months on my label Plan B Recordings. I had to drop it in here for you all to get a taste of what is coming out on Plan B Recordings!

I normally layer my Spider Bites works over beats when playing live, but I thought I would rather start & end my mix off with these pieces, so that they can speak for themselves. The same goes for the other tracks. I just blended everything one after the other with no doubling or tripling over the top of any track, so to let each track breathe.

Lastly, I would like to mention that my titles represent moments of my life & my beliefs & interests at the time of creation. I've had to explain to people over the years why I have such far out titles & I just tell them to Google it & learn something. All of my tracks are conceptually built & they sometimes are a warning to the listener as well as sometimes they can just speak about esoteric arcane subjects that I am into. I also have images to all of my tracks which one day I'll have the money to be able to put together the proper packaging with all of the images to help present the story a little bit better. I create what comes naturally to me & I do it honestly & seriously, every day of the week.

Thank you all for listening & feel free to write to me at: djspidernyc@gmail.com. Feel free to browse some of my other work at the following: Dj Spider, Spider Bites and Plan B Recordings here or here.

All music was written, produced & mixed by spider @ Web Lab Studios / NYC

dj spider - process part 216 (unreleased works from the deep) by modyfier

01. Spider Bites - Alpha & Omega (UNRELEASED)
02. DJ Spider - Toxic Trace/Spider's Purified Mix (UNRELEASED)
03. DJ Spider - Chem Trails (UNRELEASED)
04. DJ Spider - Jungle Juice (UNRELEASED)
05. DJ Spider - Tribal Mechanism (UNRELEASED)
06. DJ Spider (DJ Aakmael Remix) - The Empty Tomb (UNRELEASED)
07. DJ Spider - Debt = Slavery (UNRELEASED)
08. DJ Spider - Antikythera Mechanism Part 2 (UNRELEASED)
09. DJ Spider - Beyond Vision (UNRELEASED)
10. DJ Spider - Toxic Trace/Spider's Toxic Tonic Mix (UNRELEASED)
11. DJ Spider - Subteranean Chambers (UNRELEASED)
12. Spider Bites - Swirling Within A Dark Cloud (UNRELEASED)

2010-06-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

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CASSEGRAIN

Cassegrain is a project started by Evirgen and myself (Tsiridis) at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona 2008.

I've always been inspired by dark sounds. Initially, pretty much anything by Warp, leading on to techno, eventually (with many guitar bands in between). I'm a big fan of warm, deep house music as well but I think it's more from a punter/listener's perspective. The stuff that gets me more excited as a producer is usually a bit darker.

Evirgen and I had common tastes. After listening to each others stuff, we discussed different things we might like to make, sat down and started working on some loops. 'Cotton' came about quite organically. I think the way we made it comes across when listening to it. It starts off pretty basic and builds up along the way while more and more sounds are added and taken away. We did it in several live takes, adding and removing loops and sounds and editing effects.

What came out is a deep, dark techno track with a dubsteppy intro/outro. We asked Benga to record some vocals, not something he's known for but we thought that it'd be fun. The initial idea was to have an ironic comment from Benga at the end of the dubstep intro: "This is not dubstep". We weren't so keen on the labeling idea afterwards and opted for a more subtle direction. The track has been through so many versions now as far as the vocals are concerned. I recently thought that perhaps we would have made a straighter techno track if it wasn't for the Academy's influence? There were very few techno orientated people there that time round so we had hip hop and dubstep around us constantly (not complaining :)!).

cassegrain - process part 215a (cotton (original)) by modyfier

'Olbia' is a straighter club track that I started whilst away for a gig in Olbia, Sardinia. This was made with Berghain fully in mind. I enjoy contrasts a lot when it comes to making music. I was in sunny Sardinia at the end of June sitting on a balcony making gritty warehouse techno. It sort of has an opposite effect or influence - at the moment I'm in Greece with 35º but everything coming out is more suited to about 35º less.

cassegrain - process part 215b (olbia & olbia stripclub edit 'the elements') by modyfier

The 12" is out now on Mikrowave and to continue the 'Elements' series started by Kevin Gorman last year, we're offering parts of 'Olbia' and 'Olibia Stripclub Edit'. More information about the EP can be found at Boomkat, Hardwax or Beatport.

2010-06-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

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FABRIZIO LAPIANA

This mix was recorded alone (except for a glass of red wine) in my home studio with 100% vinyl on a warm afternoon in June.

Making a mix without direct contact to people (which is a source of great energy for me during my gigs) was really not easy. On the flip side, without the dance floor, I could create a very deep and mental mix that doesn’t reach higher rhythms until the last part of the mix.

This podcast represents my love for deep sounds, from house to techno, without any borders.

I hope you’ll enjoy.

fabrizio lapiana - process part 214 by modyfier

01. Joey Anderson – Dive Deep – Strength Music
02. Claudio Fabrianesi & Donato Dozzy – Fade Out – Mule Electronic
03. Darragh Casey – Xuri – Antiqua Recordings
04. Tob Jona – Metro 501 – Artless
05. Redshape – Blood Into Dust – Styrax Leaves
06. Jakob Corn – Mirrorflip – Dolly
07. Patrice Scott – Distance Against Time – Sistrum
08. Till Von Sein & Tigerskin – Polio – Morris Audio
09. Culoe De Song – The Bright Forest – Innervisions
10. Jerome Sydenham – Black Ice – Apotek
11. The Reminder – Coffee First – Etiku Records
12. Fabrizio Lapiana – Not For Kids – Attic Music
13. Marcel Dettmann – Captivate – Ostgut Ton
14. Alan Fitzpatrick – Face of Rejection - Drumcode

2010-06-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

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DUBLONER

The sound of echoes late at night somewhere in the world rattles the paper off the walls. Music you ask? I can’t be sure to be honest. The sound is the inspiration in itself though. The sound is what makes us beat our brains to create and re-create and re-formulate the cut to make even more sound. Dub has inspired almost everything in my life and every form of music that exits my brain. The music creates itself somewhere else on some other plane. The beings come down to twist arms and move fingers and then the sound is finished….or as finished as it can be. Working with Isaac on this project has been a pleasure and a privilege. He's one of the real people. I don't use that term lightly anymore. Working with his voice made the music what it is. There wouldn't be one without the other. Cosmic dub delight! The message is in there...between the echoes and inside the electricity. The deep booming bass and textured lost piano melodies create the mood. Some lost city on some forgotten planet is where the newest details can be found. The sound is the feeling and vice versa. This is all we have. This is what I know. Thank god for the King, without whom we may be lost.

dubloner & isaac haile selassie - process part 213 (the fight the spirit (kush arora remix)) by modyfier

For more information, visit de'fchild productions.

2010-06-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

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JOEY ANDERSON

When I started this mix, it was raining all day. Personally, rain puts me in a very creative mood musically. The grey sky and constant flow of water invokes a very atmospheric picture. When I begin my sets, I never preselect songs, but rather attempt to choose tracks that will allow me to create the picture I'm searching for. Some of the tracks in this mix are unreleased and some are on wax. It’s on the deep side of things. Not dark, but rather grey. I hope you enjoy.

joey anderson - process part 212 by modyfier

01. Spider Bites – Rust – Plan B Recordings
02. DJ Qu – Secret Place (Joey Anderson Remix) – Stength Music
03. Joey Anderson – In My Life – Unreleased
04. DJ Qu – Step Back Up – Unreleased
05. Ryo Murakami – Lunch of God (Scott Ferguson Remix) - Quintessentials
06. Rise – Joey Anderson – Unreleased
07. Johnwaynes – Entrudo – Mule Musiq
08. DJ Qu – Circuit – Strength Music
09. –
10. Joey Anderson – Scattered Keys – Unreleased
11. Keith Worthy – Now That’s House (K-Dub’s History of House Mix) – Aesthetic Audio
12. DJ Qu – Tunnel Visions – Strength Music
13. Spider Bites – Hell Dust – Plan B Recordings

2010-06-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

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Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE

The story behind the track "Chainsaw" came during and after its recording, which is usually normal for me. I often leap blindly into a production, naively piecing the bits and melodies together and discovering fresh mental imagery from the sounds during the process. I always find it hard to explain this important part of my working strategy, but basically it's about leaving all my options open at the outset and letting the 'muse' (or whatever you'd like to call it) take over. I never really know where I'm going to end up when I'm at the starting line.

With "Chainsaw," midway through putting beats in place and coming across the main melody line I was reminded of a particular low-budget horror film (I'll let you guess) and placed a couple cheeky samples from said film to cement the association. Thus, the project took on this horror movie theme, referenced in the title.

There are five tracks in the project. I created a separate "Loose Version" that changed the mood towards a more Italian fright flick feel (inspired by a recent viewing of Argento's Tenebrae). Remixers Ajello and Jota Wagner captured this same vibe in their versions, Wagner even adding his own cheeky sample from a different film, without knowing the theme that I had come up with for all of this. My belief is that a contextual thread in a song can be felt by the listener even if they aren't aware of it, and these additional, somewhat unintentional 'horror show' remixes give evidence to this.

So, we now come to my third version, the "Balearic Version." With other versions exploring the darker edges of the soundtrack I felt that my imaginary film should have a lighter resolution. Honestly, I also thought that it would be funny to take the dark theme and wild melody and make something gentle and light-weight from it. I knew there needed to be piano chords in this, so that became the starting point. Some drum machine beats and a jazzy breakbeat undertow followed, as well as the bouncy, almost 'drum n' bass' style bass line. I attached the crazed, overridden Juno-106 melody from the original but it didn't quite seem to fit. This element added too much frenzy and darkness. I didn't want to lose the melody, so it's low in the mix (you can still hear it). Then the defining element came to me: to replay the melody with a bit of Spanish-sounding guitar. This idea was originally a "wouldn't it be funny if ... ?" moment, but I've learned to trust my instincts as moments such as these usually yield the happiest results. Guitar in place, extra percussion and some subtle synth embellishments added, and I suddenly had what there was no choice to call anything else but the "Balearic Version" (tongue firmly in cheek). It's like the end credits to the "Chainsaw" movie, where the killer's been stopped and the heroes are in a warm embrace as the screen fades to black. Of course, the film the original track drew from actually doesn't have this upbeat ending. By the end of this "Chainsaw" film, though, this is where my own ghostly 'muse' led me.

q-burns abstract message - process part 211 (chainsaw (balearic version)) by modyfier

Also, you can isten to the entire "Chainsaw" EP here.

2010-06-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

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SACHA ROBOTTI & LUCA LOZANO

Why start a record label? Why now? In a climate of two-a-penny digital labels, unauthorized downloads and abundant Ableton DJs, it seems like a strange decision to make - a strange decision perhaps, with an inevitable outcome. The digital revolution has helped and hindered the music industry in equal measure; the current playing field vastly differs from the way it once was, models have shifted and times have changed.

Klasse Recordings was founded in reaction to the changing surroundings. We wanted to carve out a place for ourselves, where we had the freedom of choice regarding output, without worrying about the outside world. The sheer volume of new, digital dance music can be dizzying and at first glance, it might seem counter-productive to add to this ever growing mass. Nevertheless, the label considers music as the most important part of the whole "industry process". It is about creating a home for like-minded friends, a reclusive den if you will, in which we can immerse ourselves and simply create. Klasse is about returning to the music by treating it as art.

Waiting somewhere within, but not constricted by the boundaries of House and Techno, Klasse's musical output draws on many themes and ideas and is influenced heavily by travel, movement and the relationship between man and machine. Klasse's primary releases are about getting back to basics, making simple yet innovative club music for underground dancefloors and exploring what can be achieved through collaborations between musicians, producers and artists.

Our mix showcases samples from the first release, as well as some unreleased and unofficial material by Klasse artists. The rest of the selection was not about the newest and most exclusive titles, but rather a collection of tracks that we love very much, ones that we will always return too. Making a mix for home listening is always an interesting task and we have aimed for a flow that is somewhere in-between the intensity of the dancefloor and the attention that can be given whilst traveling and listening.

We very much hope you like it.

luca lozano & sacha robotti - process part 210 (klasse recordings) by modyfier

01. Intro
02. Martin Buttrich - Enough Love To Hate It - Desolat
03. Omar - Lay It Down (Andre Lodemann Remix) - Peppermint Jam
04. Kiki - Good Voodoo (Visionquest Remix) - Bpitch Control
05. Azari & III - Reckless (With Your Love) (Luca Lozano Unofficial Remix) - CDR
06. Luca Lozano & Sacha Robotti - Bartok (Siopis Remix) - Klasse Recordings
07. The Royal We, Hector, Shaun Reeves, Seth Troxler - Party Guilt (Acapella) - Crosstown Rebels
08. Stimming - Melodica - Green
09. Sacha Robotti & Hofhauser - Das FF - Takt Records
10. David Keno & Jaxson - Living Large - Yellow Tail
11. Hector Couto - Serio - Anabatic
12. Markus Fix - Research - Cecille
13. Christian Burkhardt - Doubledub - Raum...Musik.
14. Heinrichs & Hirtenfellner - Down - Dekandent Schallplatten
15. Radiohead - Nude (Justin Martin Remix) - Buzzin Fly
16. Bearweasel - Superhero (Boris Werner Remix) - Supernature
17. H.O.S.H. - Funk King (feat. Markus Homm) - Diynamic
18. Hoste - Bumps - Klasse Recordings
19. Sebbo - Elephanze Ce Danze - Souvenir Plus
20. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams - R&S Recordings
21. Marco Carola - Bloody Cash - Plus 8
22. Luca Lozano & Sacha Robotti - Bartok - Klasse Recordings

2010-05-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

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CHRISTOPHER RAU

I recorded this mix with a tremendous hangover on a Saturday afternoon. I don’t remember the party where I was the day before, but I was somehow in a special mood. I used two Technics SL-1210Mk2´s, an Allen and Heath Xone 32, and some fucked up scratchy needles (you will hear). Some parts of the mix I planned and others not. It’s semi-improvisational.

The first song I played is from Miles Davis. It’s an old record from my father’s collection. It’s not rare, but since my childhood, I liked to listen to this record. Then I come over with the dinosaurs from Kraftwerk. Everybody knows 'Die Roboter'. I used this track to start slow to make way for the other slow records that come later, after I play some current slow house hits.

I think for either a podcast or playing at a bar, this music is the right thing. The record from Space Dimension Controller is special for me. I found it at Hardwax in Berlin. I was hit by the colours on the cover so I gave her a try and boom! There's some really great shit that’s coming up to us from SDC. The last one is from a band called Dominique. I got this from my favorite record store: Smallville Records. The whole album is so beautiful.

I hope you all will enjoy listening.

christopher rau - process part 209 (the level mix) by modyfier

2010-05-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

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PEZZNER

For me, doing digital studio mixes are a bit of a challenge. I’m usually trying to pull together the perfect mix often hyper-editing the songs till they fit perfectly. In a way, doing a studio mix is not unlike writing a song – just instead of samples and synth sounds I’m using full songs.

Mixes like this are always something I like to do when I’m in route to a gig. It seems to pass the time nicely, and Ableton holds up really well in Windows power saver mode. I’m usually able to get about 3.5 – 4 hours of battery life out of my Toshiba laptop which is enough time to get the job done.

The mix I did for Kristina Childs’ ‘Plasmodium’ podcast was a little different than the mixes I’ve done in the past. Previously, the structure was pretty standard – beat match the songs to fit the tempo of the mix, and select songs which contribute the overall flow of the mix while staying in key with their counterparts.

With the Plasmodium mix, I wanted to see if I could adjust the overall tempo of the project and leave each song at its original tempo. So rather than beat matching each song and warping them into place – the project is constantly adjusting itself to the music. The idea is to leave the majority of each song unwarped, and only warp the audio file during the mix. To make things a little more tricky, I figured it would also be cool to migrate my way from a slower funk tempo (90-something), ending with a more up-beat dance tempo (120-something).

Doing this was a little tricky because the transitions needed to sound natural with as little warping as possible. I needed follow a bit of a hierarchy:

1. Song Selection: First and foremost I needed to stick with the songs that are going to work with the mix. So I put together a pool of music that I felt was in-line with my vision for this mix. The end result was a pool of about 60 songs of various tempos.

2.Sort by Tempo – Then by Key: It seemed easiest to run the songs through Mixed-In-Key to measure tempo first, this way it would be easy to see which songs were closest in timing, then I could see which songs were closest to each other in key.

Since the point of this mix is to keep the songs beat matched while mostly preserving the full integrity of each song, I decided to only warp each track only while it was in the mix. To do this, I had to lay out the mix first. I sliced each song from the start of each mix to the end of the mix, and changed the timing algorithm (in live 7) to “complex” during the mix. After the each song was finished being mixed, the following clips were left unwarped.

The end result was pretty nice – very little to no degradation in sound for each song that I used, and a full beat matched mix of music leaving each song as it was intended to be heard.

pezzner - process part 208 (plasmodium) by modyfier

01. Fatback Band - Summertime Funk
02. Rayko - Transfer (Endless Melody Edit)
03. Submoave - Garden With Blue Grass
04. Kraak and Smack Feat Ben Westbeech - Squeeze Me
05. Audited Beats - Trailer Party
06. Nego Mozambique - Wake Up For The Music
07. Lewie Day - Lychee Martini (With Francis E Dec Radio Rant)
08. Audion - I Am The Car
09. Soul Clap - Concious
10. Koze - Mrs Bojangels
11. Hakan Lidbo Feat Vincent Inc - We Fall So Deep (Addex Remix)
12. Sebastian Davidson - Nightbird (Aki Bergen and Seb Davidson Mix)
13. Daze Deten - Downtown Hustle
14. DJ Leandre - I Tried 4 U
15. Mark E - Human
16. Soundstream - Rainmaker
17. Bubba - Grander Scale Of Love
18. Lee Curtiss - Smoking Mirrors
19. Andre Lodemann - Where Are You Now
20. King Tubby - Psyche Out

2010-05-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

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TABAN HAYES

In this jaunt, I decided to start off ambient because I made this mix in the morning (and I don't like listening to intensity in the morning). However, as I woke up during the process of mixing, my neurons started connecting again. So I ended it with dubby beats. This is for those slow mornings, where the dog is staring at you, the newspaper has nothing really shocking in it, the cell phone is out of batteries, the computer is off and for a few minutes you are in a moment of meditation of sorts. This train of thought reminds me of a line of spoken word I heard in the N. Sotomayor song Dreaming I. "We are all individual, as individual as the anxiety that kills us.” Turn it all off if it’s on. Our natural state isn't attached to a cell phone or staring at a computer screen. And at our core we know it, which makes moments of stillness so amazing. I don't know about you but I treasure the organic.

I named this Mangolian mix because I finished a mango as I mastered it. It was simply tasty.

taban hayes - process part 207 (mangolian mix) by modyfier

Intro: YMO - Snakeman Show KDD (My Company is Called)
01. James Murray - Eleven (Decades Mix)
02. Triola - Schildergasse
03. Mooma - Herd Forming
04. Green Empathy - Walk the talk
05. Sarah Corbe - Lichtreise - Original Mix
06. Taban Hayes - Chutney (unreleased)
07. Reaganz - Freerotation
08. Rocket Empire - Simmer Down Jammie
09. Blaze Dem - Dubness of Creation
10. Federico Aubele - El Amor de Esta Pueblo - Original Mix
11. Mother Nature - Night Call - Original Mix
12. Tosca - Everyday and Everynight

2010-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

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SAWF

In this mix Sawf tried to combine seemingly disparate tracks from different genres like Industrial, House, Breaks etc. By ‘combine’, he doesn't mean it in the classic way of mash-ups, like going from soft beats at the start of the set and ending in a hard way. Rather, using four decks on Traktor, he really layers these separate genres after exhaustively equing and filtering them. He always wondered why people use four decks to mix four techno tracks or four house tracks. It’s boring to him as a DJ as there's no real challenge in mixing tracks in the same genre since the beatmatch is automated. Sawf has no boundaries . He creates in a world where edges don’t exist. Trusting in his intuition, his ideas eventually loop back around and come out in his music with greater range and depth. While techno is in the main structure of this mix, you also get a million things coming in and out as they pass by each other and create new contexts.

sawf - process part 206 by modyfier

01. Ripperton & Agnes - Zeitgeist (tool edit) [Num Records]
02. Milton Bradley - The Unheard Voice From Outer Space [Prologue]
03. Sawf - Vafla [N/A]
04. Oskar Offermann - Only My Shorts [White]
05. Sawf - Slim [Perc Trax]
06. Aaron Carl - Down Revisited [Wallshaker Music]
07. Sawf - Okladon [N/A]
08. Motor City Drum Ensemble - Got It [Prime Numbers]
09. Sven Wittekind - Sucker Fuck U Too [Abstract]
10. tINI - That's Right [Desolat]
11. Sawf - Body (Dub) [Perc Trax]
12. Moodymann - Dem Young Sconies [Planet E]
13. Martin Buttrich - Back It Up [Desolat]
14. Dollkraut - Loot [Doppelschall]
15. Ben Klock - Viscoplastic [Deeply Rooted House]
16. Ancient Methods - The Whip [RSB]
17. Martyn ft. Spaceape - Is This Insanity? (Ben Klock Remix) [3024]
18. Dj Slugo - Taris Sleeps Wild [Dance Mania]
19. QX-1 - Work That Motherfucker (Sawf Dubapella) [N/A]
20. Sawf - La Kouva [Perc Trax]
21. Perc - Benwell (Sawf Remix) [Perc Trax]
22. British Murder Boys - All The Saints Have Been Hung [Counterbalance]
23. Blackpocket - Ure A Sta (Martyn Remix) [Fat City]
24. Jeroen Liebregts - Hunter / Grazer (Sinecure Remix) [Audio Assault]
25. Dj Godfather/Starski - On Da Flo [Twillight 76]

2010-05-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

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FRED P (aka BLACK JAZZ CONSORTIUM)

Rather than plan out a set like I often do, this time I just picked tracks out of a pile: some new, some unreleased and some that I have been playing out. No thought process. I just let go and, in one take, this mix is the result. It's not perfect (although I don't think that is the point). It's more about discovering the possibilities. There is something artful about it and yet still playful at the same time. I enjoyed this exercise in that it allowed me to not program – just play and see what happens. This reminds me of the early days in the 90's in the basement jamming: no program, no process. I hope the listeners will enjoy what is being presented and shared here.

fred p (aka black jazz consortium) - process part 205 (from the q to you) by modyfier

01. DJ Spider - Nang Yerk (Feat: Venus 7) - Plan B Recording
02. DJ QU - Secrect Place - Strength Music Recordings
03. Analog Diaries - Sketch 9 - CDR
04. Patrice Scott - Eclipse - Sistrum Recordings
05. DJ Auqa Beat (AQBT) - 11 - CDR
06. Adultnapper - Monitor - Lion1Music
07. DJ Jus Ed - Listening In - Underground Quality
08. Move D - Aspiration 2010 - Soul People Music
09. Joey Anderson - Untitled - CDR
10. DJ QU - Circuit - Strength Music Recordings
11. ?
12. Black Jazz Consortium - The Om - Soul People Music

2010-05-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

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OLI MARLOW (SONIC ROUTER)

Music is so personal, and in turn so endlessly subjective. It’s the personal relationship I have with music that I wanted to explore, given that - to me at least - the nature of these mixes is a little…different. It wasn’t planned at length or mused over with a fine edit comb; it was recorded and arranged hastily in one night.

For people who might have read my writing or those who follow the blog for the specific kind of music it covers the choices could be a little weird for weird’s sake, but it was a simple exploration of a neglected record collection that bore it. Obviously there are songs and artists I needed to include for whatever tenuously personal reason, but the particular ‘sound’ I was looking for in all the material exposed itself rather obviously to me at the time.

This mixtape is dedicated to the memory of Ted Danson in Three Men and a Baby; he lived the rawk’n’roll actor lifestyle hard but bolted at the final hurdle. I’d rather be Steve Guttenberg from that film any day; Selleck had the career, the sharp suits and the mustache but Steve...Steve was the one with all the creative flair.

oli marlow (sonic router) - process part 204 (the book of creeps) by modyfier

01. Gerhard Trede - Technischer Bewegungsablauf (mlr’s Ted Danson edit) [Normal]
02. Foot Village - . (mlr’s Skip To The End edit) [Tome]
03. Mountains - Map Table [Thrill Jockey]
04. Birdengine - Alone With The Beast Folk [Drift Collective]
05. Hymie’s Basement - America Won/America Two [LEX]
06. Skeletons & The Kings Of All Cities - Fake Tits [Ghostly International]
07. Bill Callahan - Invocation Of Ratiocination [Drag City]
08. Liars - It Fit When I Was A Kid [Mute]
09. 13&God - Superman On Ice [Anticon]
10. Instruments - Black Kite [Free Download]
11. Sixtoo - Cue Burner/Soft Weapon [Bully]
12. Soso - All The Useless Things These Hands Have Done [Endemik]
13. Aesop Rock - Coma [Definitive Jux]
14. John Baker - Codename [Trunk] >> Charles Bukowski Outburst
15. 10cc - I'm Not In Love [Mercury]

2010-04-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

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GIORGIO GIGLI

From my private collection of 12inch, 10inch and 7inch vinyl, this set represents an introspective path of emotions, thoughts and untold words. In the same way as you read a book, every track represents a chapter and every vinyl groove is like the ink path of a pen writing a story onto blank pages. This set represents my history and roots. In 120 minutes, I tried to tell you what I was, what I am and what I might have been in a future that doesn't exist anymore.

Once upon a time...the future. Has been realized using vinyl with 3 technics sl-1200mkII and ortofon concorde pro cartridges, 2 disc stabilizers and an allen&heat xone series mixer. For a more realistic listening, please play this mix at low volume (headphone listening recommended).

Special Thanks To Our Loved Ones (we still try).

giorgio gigli - process part 203 (once upon a time...the future) by modyfier

2010-04-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

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OBTANE

First of all, I really want to thank Rayna for the opportunity she gave me to contribute to the Process Series.

This mix reflects a present vision into the future. You'll feel endless energies alternating between post-romantic and introspective moments (like life should be). It’s an hour of sharp cuts, psychedelic drones and dark beats. I love sci-fi culture and tend to dislike things that are human-centric as I think the real danger for our species is our species itself.

I grew up with Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. I continue to live in a state of limbo, ignoring what I consider the worst expressions of society: politics and religion. I always get interested and inspired by the third-part, the hyperspace, the after-human, technologies, mechanics and anything considered "hybrid".

obtane - process part 202 by modyfier

2010-04-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

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CHYMERA

Once upon a time I was a vinyl DJ. Gradually I lost interest in the process of acquiring endless slabs of wax to add to my collection. The catalyst was when my entire vinyl collection, CD collection, 1210s and mixer were robbed from my house one fateful night back in 2002. I had been Dj'ing for 2 years by then but those were my most enthusiastic 2 years ever. I literally devoured techno, house, electro, electronica and much more besides. It was a brand new and fresh sensation for me after many years as a metal and alternative freak.

It was a killer for me to have all that robbed. The records were one thing. The decks also had a lot of sentimental value in that I had received one of them as a bonus after spending a summer in Germany during college installing TV studios around Germany. If it hadn't been for that highly generous gift then I may not have headed down the path of the DJ all those years ago. As it was, I purchased the other deck and a cheap mixer and threw myself into it. From that point on I was hooked! I loved the physical side to it, spending hours in my bedroom working on the mechanics of mixing, then once that was done finding new and ever more daring combinations of records to layer on top of one another.

After the decks were robbed I managed to buy another pair second hand along with a mixer. I then began the soul destroying and wallet burning task of buying back all my favourite records. Still to this day some of them I have never been able to find again. I dj'ed with some enthusiasm for the next 3 or 4 years and then by around 2005 I had pretty much lost interest. It was around this time that I really made big advances with my own productions and I decided to concentrate more and more on that. With good results (I think)! I left Ireland in 2006 to move to Costa Rica for a year. It was during this time that I became reacquainted with Dj'ing through the discovery of Beatport and digital download sites. Once again I started consuming and reconsuming...even buying up mp3s and wavs of tracks I already had on vinyl, and not to mention finding many tracks which had been previously robbed and I had never found again until that point. Now I am purely a digital DJ. Although this mix was done on Ableton, I play with CDs normally, however my mixer is on the fritz at the moment. I don´t have any attachment to vinyl anymore. In fact, they are all in storage in Ireland at the moment but due to be shipped over in 2 weeks. I´m going to go through them all, keep only the ones with sentimental value and then put the rest up for sale. I have all I need on my hard drive now.

Rayna asked me to do this one a very long time ago, I think almost 2 years at this point! For one reason or another I never got around to it. Actually, that´s not entirely true. There were at least 4 or 5 failed attempts over the past 2 years. Initially I wanted to do something really special like a non-electronic mix or a weird abstract one, but I just couldn´t get the attempts to sound good. So finally I just went and took it back to the basics. This is a straight up mix, going from some more listening orientated though still vaguely dance-able stuff at the start through to some solid house in its various forms. I consider myself a producer before DJ, although I do love DJ'ing. But the time it takes to stay on top of new releases and promos is just not worth it when there is valuable studio time wasting away. I play most weekends but usually I am booked to play live sets. I get booked for DJ sets maybe only once a month or less. In the week before the DJ set I sit down and listen through everything that´s been building up since the last time I checked.

Techno is always closest to my heart but I must say that there is so little of modern techno which moves me. I´m just not fully into the forms which are around today. I found that when I was playing techno tracks out, people weren´t getting it a lot of the time. The stuff I was playing was too dated, for them at least (not for me). I have become better at knowing what kind of crowds might appreciate it and when I do drop in the old stuff at the right time, they go wild! So anyways, the mix is predominantly house. And I think it´s evident from the sound that this is the kind of house that has been around for many years as well but I hope it won´t ever go out of fashion. Most of the tracks I picked up in the last 2 weeks along with a couple which I have been trying to slot into a mix for a while. I really concentrated hard on the flow with this one. I let the tracks breathe. I wasn´t interested in lots of layering or effects because most of the tracks have a very definite start, middle and end. There´s a lot of musicality and emotion to the ones I selected. I just let them tell the story. For me one of the most important things about putting together a mix is not just the tracks that you include but the ones you leave out. All the tracks need to gel together in the right way. If one is not working, you need to take it out. I think they flow into each other very well from start to finish. I hope you also feel the same way!

chymera - process part 201 (long time coming) by modyfier

01. Dead Can Dance - Ascension
02. Four Tet - Angel Echoes
03. Alex Q - Love (Reynold Remix)
04. Sascha Funke - Mango
05. Nufrequency - Fallen Hero Feat. Ben Onono (MCDE Remix)
06. Azari & III - Reckless (With Your Love)
07. Solaris - That Chick Feat. Fifi (Break Mix)
08. Glocal - After Midnight (Old Is Cool LNX Davis Mix)
09. Mano Le Tough - Eurodancer
10. DJ Sprinkles - Masturjakor (kINK And Neville Watson Remix)
11. Circulation - White (Mix B)
12. Chymera - The Rumours Of My Demise
13. Carl Craig - A Wonderful Life

2010-04-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

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THE SIGHT BELOW

Live sets are usually tricky to translate into a recording. Most likely when any artist is mixing live electronic music, the tendency is to adjust the sound and balance of instruments according to the acoustics of the room, the speakers available and setup (stereo, quad, etc) and multiple other factors (like the number of people in the room). Ultimately, what sounds great live might not sound that interesting when you record straight from the main soundboard and play it back at home, in headphones or home stereo system. It is one of the main reasons I seldom record live sets – they just rarely translate well into the recorded format. I remember last year somebody recorded a bootleg of our set at Sonar festival in Barcelona. It’s been floating on the Internet for a while and I must say it’s a pity, as it is definitely not representative of what we sound like in a live setting. Part of the beauty of live performance is the physicality of it –like when listening to a very dense, textured wall of guitar noise with sub frequencies at 120db’s…ah, beauty!

Anyway, based on this previous experience, I’ve become more aware of this and have decided to start recording lots of The Sight Below (or solo) sets. I usually tend to record in subgroups, at least 4 channels worth of stems. That way I can master the recording later in my studio and adjust levels of stems, eq the mix, compress, and translate what sounded great live into what would sound great in a recorded setting. I definitely do not try to make it sound like the published works (album or ep’s) – part of the beauty of live performance is to experience either new material or new arrangements of songs. Otherwise you might as well just stay home and play the record.

When Rayna asked me to write a new piece for Modyfier I decided recording and mastering a live set for her blog was the way to go. I’ve been an avid reader since its inception and feel really honored to be writing piece #200. I prepared this live set for an event at the Seattle Art Museum called SAM Remix. It was a very special event in which I created visuals that would interact/react with the music. I was also performing in quad sound for the first time and it added a new level of depth to the music. Of course, this last aspect is very difficult to translate into a stereo field, but with that in mind, I hope you, the reader, enjoy this live set. Hats off to the folks at Modyfier for creating such an amazing body of work and happy #200!

the sight below - process part 200 (live at the seattle art museum) by modyfier

2010-04-09T17:14:00.001-07:00

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OBLIVIOUS

stroboscopic artefacts showcase text here.

Oblivious Artefacts // Stroboscopic Artefacts Modyfied # 5 from Oblivious Artefacts on Vimeo.

2010-04-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

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PERC

stroboscopic artefacts showcase text here.

perc - process part 199d (stroboscopic artefacts modyfied part 04) by modyfier

01. Xhin "Arrival" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
02. SCB "20.4" [SCB]
03. Scuba "Three Sided Shape" [Hotflush]
04. Wacker Und Zittrich "Tournesol" [Meerestief]
05. F "The Untitled Dub" [7even]
06. Lucy & Ercolino "Gmork" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
07. Perc "Wooden Art"[Stroboscopic Artefacts]
08. Remute "Crackin' Skulls" (Pacou Remix) [Tresor]
09. Pascal Mollin "District 10" (Alien Invasion Remix) [Brilliant]
10. James Ruskin & Mark Broom "Hostage" [Blueprint]
11. Marcel Dettmann "Unrest" (Norman Nodge Remix) [Ostgut Ton]
12. Perc "1909" [Perc Trax]

2010-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

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ERCOLINO

stroboscopic artefacts showcase text here.

ercolino - process part 199c (stroboscopic artefacts modyfied part 03) by modyfier

01. Hudson Mohawke "Star Crackout" [Warp]
02. Xhin "Arrival" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
03. Flying Lotus "Tea Leaf Dancer" [Warp]
04. Lucy & Ercolino "Gmork" ( Dadub Tool) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
05. Francesco Tristano "Strings of Life" [Infiné]
06. Cio Dor "Organza" (Milton Brandley Remix) [Prologue]
07. Lucy & Ercolino "So the Nothing Grows Stonger" (Dadub Remix) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

08. Johann Johannsson "Fordlandia" [4AD]

2010-04-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

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XHIN

stroboscopic artefacts showcase text here.

xhin - process part 199b (stroboscopic artefacts modyfied part 02) by modyfier

01. Xhin - Intro [Not On Label
02. Modern Heads "Mooger" [Prologue]
03. JPLS "Convolution" [Minus]
04. Lucy, Ercolino "Gmork" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
05. Audio Injection "Way I Am" (Monoloc Remix) [Droid]
06. Cari Lekebusch "Robs Melody" [H-Productions]
07. Masuki "Dry Rain" (Pfirter Remix) [MindTrip Music]
08. Daniela Stickroth "The Slot" (Xhin Remix) [Lineal]
09. Kai Randy Michel "Subtile Dimension" [Brillant]
10. DJ Pierre "Stress Or Justice" (James Ruskin Remix) [Afro Acid Digital] 
11. Decoy Linzatti "Gomit Shin" [Stockholm LTD]
12. Xhin "Link Tool" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
13. Lucy & Ercolino "So The Nothing Grows Stronger" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
14. Jalebee Cartel "Tough Cookie" (Xhin Remix) [Not On Label]
15. Xhin "Arrival" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
16. The Knife, Planningtorock "Schoal Swarm Orchestra" [Rabid Records]

2010-04-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

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LUCY

Stroboscopic Artefacts is delighted to present a label showcase on Modyfier. We have collected together four Processes from our artists, a slight slither of prose and one audio visual teaser to give you an insight into our sounds and our thoughts. We begin with the short story which gives you a hint as to the label’s dystopian awareness:

No one knew when it had happened. But the arts of the Fifth Power had prevailed. New laws had been imposed upon the two worlds. And these laws could not be broken. Slowly the old ideas of the judge and the judged became nonsensical and even courts of justice soon became obsolete.

The first law declared the closing of the boundaries. The reflective surfaces that were once able to connect the worlds lost their patina of iridescence. One world slid into darkness: the expanses of water, gleaming metals, even the eyes of the creatures grew dull as the connections were severed. Yet, the other world could still peer unnoticed into the darkness.

The next law forbade memory, and with it time and consciousness. With consciousness erased, the ideals and hopes, the dreams and melancholies that had once given depth to their world vanished. Deprived of their own consciousness they became mere mirrors, the perfect two dimensional reflection of the collective ego on the other side.

However, those forced to see their own actions again and again also underwent consequences. The eyes of their opposites were no longer filled with the unknown. Other perspectives had disappeared. Imagination had been deprived of movement, and movement itself transformed into a static image. The Fifth Power had guaranteed their safety, but it had made them unable to change. The two worlds became transfixed, inertly engaged in an endless stroboscopic process.

The Processes begin with label owner Lucy. He chose to record his mix in one take with no post editing, no over-thinking, no cheating; this is exactly the straight-up approach of his dj sets. Xhin’s Process is a mix that brilliantly intertwines hard, deep techno with his uniquely leftfield elegance. Ercolino’s Process is a selection, a handpicked insight into his references. He’s packed tracks for every eventuality and the result is a wandering moonscape of moods. Perc’s Process is a mix which seems to start at the foot of a glacier and travels far from this point, right into an industrial dub filled wasteland. Stroboscopic Artefacts’ visual designer Oblivious presents a video response to the Krishnamurti acappella from the SA001 release. This is also excitingly the first ever video short to be featured on Modyfier.

Text by Clare Molloy and Luca Mortellaro (The explanatory part) and Amanda Morelli (The dystopian short story).

lucy - process part 199a (stroboscopic artefacts modyfied part 01) by modyfier

01. Lucy "Why Don't You Change" (Krishnamurti Acappella Extended) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
02. Frank Martiniq "My Visor" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
03. Redshape "Dark & Sticky" [Delsin]
04. Peter Van Hoesen "Above 90" (Norman Nodge Reconstruction) [Time To Express]
05. Xhin "Link" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
06. Scuba "From Within" (Marcel Dettmann Remix)
07. Perc "Wooden Art" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
08. Lucy & Ercolino "So The Nothing Grows Stronger" (Dadub Remix) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
09. Robert Hood "Sleep Cycle"
10. Dino Sabatini & Donato Dozzy "In Vaders" [Prologue]
11. Surgeon "(Intro) (Version II)" [Tresor]
12. Planetary Assault Systems "MOD" [Figure]
13. Alan Fitzpatrick "Face Of Rejection" [Drumcode]
14. Xhin "Fixing The Error" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
15. Lucy & Ercolino "Gmork" (Luke Slater Remix) [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
16. Jeff Mills "Moon"
17. Chevel "Trevisun" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
18. Hironori Takahashi "Medue" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]
19. Lucy "Why Don't You Change" [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

2010-03-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

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FERNANDEZ MANETTA

In my sets, I try to find balance between minimal and compact techno tracks. I prefer darker sounds that do not forget the dance floor.

fernandez manetta - process part 198 by modyfier

01. Alex Smoke – Lux Plus (Unknown Wanderer Rmx) / Hum+Haw
02. Exercise One – Colony / Wagon Repair
03. Redshape – 2010 / Delsin Records
04. Martyn feat. Spaceape – Is This Insanity (Ben Klock mix) / 3024
05. Delta Funkitionen – Silhouette / Delsin Records
06. Terence Fixmer – Echoes / Electric Deluxe
07. BCR Boys – Delete / Synewave
08. Peter Van Hoesen – Face of Smoke / Komisch
09. Pantha Du Prince – Frozen Fog / Dial Records
10. Riclod & Mark Morris – Softrum (D.Diggler Rmx) / Panormus Music
11. Andrea Giuliani & Luca Rossetti – Pow Tenz (Robin Rmx) / Substudio Records

2010-03-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

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JAMES TYLER

Ethnicity, culture, and life experiences are the primary components that shape & mold my musical art form. My father happens to be of African/Native American descent while my mother is Filipino/Chinese; a mish-mash of distinct cultures. In spite of these differences they share many similarities when it comes to music. Rather than go down a long list citing specific analogies, I’ll concentrate my focus toward musical aspects.

The composition titled ‘Amerikkka’ is fused with rhythms from Africa & influences from Asia intertwined with elements of Jazz, Blues & Gospel. These musical influences are genetically encoded within my DNA as are my physiological traits and personality characteristics! The use of percussion instruments (i.e. cowbells, a go go, woodblocks banging away at excessively high volumes) was deliberately done to create tension and stress throughout the song. As many of you already are aware, disparities still run prevalent in America between the rich & poor and many of the ethnic minority groups that are all viable components of America. Yes, it’s true that in 2009 we elected our first “Black President” of the United States, however, that event didn’t transform America into a colorblind society overnight!

On March 3rd 1991 Rodney King, an unarmed black man, was arrested for alluding police officers during a high speed chase along Los Angeles freeways. After finally being stopped and forced out of his car for what was supposed to be a routine traffic violation, the situation quickly escalated into a brutal savage beating by LA’s finest. This event sent anger and shockwaves across Black America. In New York I vividly recollect being let out early from work that day as management was worried for our safety in the event that riots were going to ensue, especially upon news that LA was being torched and pillaged by angry black mobs! This didn’t happen! Despite passage of Civil Rights Legislation the struggle continues! This tragic & shameful event gave me the inspiration to write the music and lyrics for ‘Amerikkka’: Amerikkka home of the brave land of the free, Amerikkka Mista Jim Crow steady holdin’ onto me.

The remaining 4 songs selected are all original compositions. I owe a great deal of gratitude and appreciation to Desmond Deis, and Jeffrey Young for contributing their musical talents and abilities on several of these tracks utilizing Texture Music Composition Software. Audiophiles please bear in mind that these songs were recorded on a 4-track cassette Tascam Portastudio back circa 1986-92 in a studio apartment in NYC so the sound quality is somewhat compromised. It will be immediately noticeable as soon as you open the music files. Again, this music was composed pre-digital age (wav/aiff/mp3 files) which is the high fidelity standard for today’s music. Some of you may have a difficult time sitting through an analog song converted to a low-fidelity mp3, file but if you would kindly indulge me and try to focus your concentration more on the musicality rather than the low-fidelity you just might be able to enjoy the music!

One last acknowledgement, I would like extend a tremendous amount of gratitude and thanks to Benjamin Brunn who, by the way, is an incredibly gifted musician and composer! He is primarily responsible for encouraging me to share my music with you! These tracks were sitting in a box on a closet shelf for over 15 years until just a month ago when I started an email correspondence with Benjamin via Sound Cloud! Last December, I gathered up my courage and reluctantly sent him a song in low fidelity mp3 format to get his feedback. After not getting a response for several days I was convinced that he wasn’t going to bother with a novice like me. Besides, why would he care about an unknown artist? Well to my disbelief and surprise I got a reply which excited and shocked me at the same time! He was diplomatic, kind and encouraging which I didn’t expect from an accomplished musician of his caliber! Were it not for his patience, kindness and constant positive reinforcement I don’t believe I would be here now sharing this music with you. Benjamin Brunn: a BIG THANK YOU! Tobias, thank you too! Also, I would like to thank Rayna deNiord for giving me this opportunity to participate in Modyfier’s Process Series. A BIG THANKS to you too!

Peace, Love & Soul,
James Tyler

james tyler - process part 197a (dont make me wait) by modyfier

james tyler - process part 197b (hot diggity damn!) by modyfier

james tyler - process part 197c (i gotta luv jones) by modyfier

james tyler - process part 197d (amerikkka) by modyfier

james tyler - process part 197e (jazz4free) by modyfier

2010-03-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

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FADER

First of all, it's an honour to be here (take a look at the impressive list on the right). When I was invited to participate in the Process Series, I did ask myself, “What should I do?” I'm a DJ, but I consider myself a collector even more. This allows my tastes to go further than what I get to play, most of the time, in front of a dancing crowd. I was confident that I could do whatever style I wanted to here on Modyfier. This made the answer to the question of, “What should I do?” even more difficult.

It's been a long time since I recorded a Dubstep set and longer than that since I recorded an IDM set. I also realized I had never attempted a Cosmic/Balearic set before even though I collect all this stuff. Yet in the end, in the moment I made this recording, I felt most like playing some Dubby Techno. This is, by the way, the first set I have ever recorded in the morning. Not at an afterparty, but on a Wednesday morning, before going to work. I couldn't sleep anymore anyway, so I decided to attack the day (and my sleeping neighbours?) with some dubbed out beats.

This mix was recorded with 2 Technics turntables, my (t)rusty old Rodec mixer and a bunch of vinyl. There's no big story behind the track selection, just all tracks that I love. I think I could easily do a twenty hour mix of only dub techno, so of course this mix does not intend to be any 'definitive collection', just the tracks of the moment...I hope you enjoy it.

fader - process part 196 by modyfier

01. Round Three – Acting Crazy
02. Mikkel Metal – Kenton
03. Marko Furstenberg – Repentance
04. cv313 – Sailing Stars
05. Alex Attias – Brazilika
06. Sven Weisemann – Shove
07. David Hausdorf – Untitled
08. Havantepe – Air
09. XDB – F.E.B.
10. Bvdub - A Quiet Vengeance
11. AM/PM – Maratea
12. Quantec – Chain Data
13. Luke Hess – Transform (Marko Furstenberg Remix)
14. Deadbeat & Fenin – Teach the Devil's Son

2010-03-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

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SCUBA

I’ve spent the most of the last 2 months trying to explain myself to people. That’s the problem with doing an album: with singles, people tend to assume it’s a mindless dancefloor exercise but as soon as you make a long player, you need a vision or they suspect that this supposed artist isn’t quite deserving of the title. The problem with musical visions is that even if you’re lucky enough to have one, they’re not always the easiest to articulate. Hazards litter the road, from pitfalls of prog rock concept pompousness to narcotic-fuelled free jazz insanity, and it can seem impossible to pick a coherent route between being perceived as a psychedelic flower-arranging communist to an over-analysing under-qualified academic.

Having swatted away questions about my opaquely-titled first album, the actual meaning of which not being something I had any interest in discussing in public, I made the decision early on that I wouldn’t lay any verbal traps for myself with this record. The title pretty straightforwardly refers to the three musical inputs that went into the writing process, one of which wasn’t there at all when I sat down to what I hoped would be, at most, a six-month process last January. The fact that I didn’t send the album to mastering until December was partly due to my own convoluted work flow but also thanks to the discovery of the third input, the series of Autonomic podcasts by DBridge and Instra:mental.

Admitting influence from something contemporary can be problematic, of course. The obvious one is the assumption that “influence” really means ripping off. There are countless examples of that, including the pertinent example of the invasion of Dubstep by producers of bad music from other genres, and it’s pretty easy to spot it happening. But the main thing that struck me with Autonomic wasn’t something entirely tangible, it was more of an attitude than anything stylistic that could be directly copied. It was a real sense of freedom which came through most nakedly in the influences sections of each podcast, but was also very much present in the mixes of new material that were the main point to the whole exercise.

Of course there was also the fact that something new and interesting was being done with what was ostensibly drum n bass. Having been heavily into that whole thing in the mid-late 90s, when nights like Innovation still had a little bit of that original rave atmosphere to them, the obvious creative cul-de-sac of the last few years has been depressing for me and led a lot more people to give up on it entirely. The notion of 170bpm slow jams, the polar opposite of the latter-day dnb kick/snare quest, was almost perverse and yet seemed to make perfect sense. Interestingly, it was partly the influence of another contemporary trend that led the authors of Autonomic down that path in the first place. DBridge has talked about how the attitude of the earlier Dubstep scene reminded him about why he started making music in the first place, not so much in a stylistic way but more in the approach to making music – regaining the freedom to discard the rules and constraints that can be so suffocating when making club music.

One stylistic element of Autonomic that did resonate with me was the use of melody. I had a conversation with DBridge midway through the year after being completely blown away by a track which turned out to be one of his. It sounded like something from the soundtrack to a movie starring Cory Feldman in 1985, and I said to him: “I’ve always wanted to make music like this but I’ve never had the balls to do it”. This track is partly a reaction to that conversation. I always find it difficult to talk about specific bits of my output, but this is the continuation of something that has been in my music since I first started writing when I was a teenager, but has never really been able to come out much in my releases. There are traces of it in an early Scuba track, Harpoon, and also in a track on the first album, From Within. But it’s very disguised in even those tracks. Fundamentally, it’s the idea that melody isn’t something that needs to be hidden, which is quite ironic since I’m currently in danger of being typecast as being a techno obsessive, something which wouldn’t always be associated with melodic freedom.

But in fact, restraint is actually one of the most important factors in creating anything. Knowing when to stop is crucial, whether it’s when you find yourself thinking more about compressing the kick drum than the whole atmosphere of the track or when that atmosphere has rendered any possibility of encouraging the listener to dance impossible. Then again, without experimentation it’s hard to learn anything at all.

scuba - process part 195 (6th form) by modyfier

2010-03-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

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INANNA

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

This mix was an idea I had, a means to express, and to investigate my own feelings, and the feelings of others through music.

A male created counterpart was intended in the original concept, but who is to say he will ever finish his mix, or name it Juliet. His stories, as well as my own motivated and inspired the creation of this mix. He also partnered with me on the remix of An On Bast's 'Upon The Dew Drops' featured in the mix.

Each track was chosen for a specific reason, to convey a certain feeling, or tell a story, and they were chosen for the words, the sounds, and the titles. My intention was to express the feelings I've had through music, as they relate to love, relationship, friendship, and romance. I wanted to explore the diverse palette of human emotions felt in the experience of interaction.

The first track on the mix is entitled 'Why'. The moment I heard the track I knew I would introduce the mix with it. It had a deep sound that pulled at me, and it asked the question I think we all ask, at one time or another. One I have asked myself many times, especially recently. What is the answer, if one even exists for us? Can we just make it up ourselves, or do we rely on something deeper, an unseen source to provide it?

I consciously create my mixes, I always have a story I want to tell with them. I make mixes to work out my own inner turmoils, knowings, and secrets. It is a selfish act, with an unselfish aspect; that I hope it brings people some joy, peace, satisfaction, and that is causes them to feel, to understand, to expand. Music is felt. It relates to something in us, that isn't as commonplace (vision isn't really commonplace) as our everyday visual experience, which is one we often don't have much control over. Music is intended emotion.

As a multi-genre kind of women, Dubstep was calling. Coming from a 2-Step and Garage background, it was about time I made a Dubstep mix. A genre Iv worked with before in production, but have never made a mix of. If there is any message, let it be to be conscious, to be careful with each other. To realize the impact your words and actions have on others, because all of us, no matter how little we think of it, impact those people we come into contact with. Observe the shadows, and the light you leave behind.

inanna - process part 194 (romeo) by modyfier

01. Why – Original Mix – Myrkur
02. Lost For Words – Synkro
03. My Own World – Synkro
04. Upon The Dew Drops – An On Bast – Inanna and Chris Ward Remix
05. Cosmo – J:Kenzo
06. Closer – A Made Up Sound
07. Separation - Spherix, Sigha
08. Milk – Dub & Run
09. Cocaine – Afghan Headspin – Gella’s Drifting mix
10. Fading – Indigo
11. Relapse - Shortstuff
12. I Need to Know - Radian
13. Reminissin’ – Geiomix – Geiom
14. Reasonz – DJ Madd
15. Glazed – Brackles
16. Heartbreaker – Deadboy
17. Nouvelle Histoire – Von D
18. Watching You – Instra:mental

2010-03-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

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DOUGLAS GREED

When I record a set I usually just let it roll (or at least I try to). It can be hard to find a way to admit to myself that that I´m all alone at home and it ain´t a club…no matter how many shots I drink or how loud I put the speakers on or how fast my neighbour switches the room lights on and off pretending to be a living strobe.

So, as always, I start 10 - 17 times and then just promise myself that tomorrow will be a better day. It´s quiet strange how much different it is for me (and for most of the dj´s I know) to record a set at home. Everyone complains, “the atmosphere is missing.” I try to get around this by putting a digital-picture-frame in front of where I dj showing drunken people dancing. In an attempt to make the atmosphere perfect, I ask friends to come around frequently and ask stupid question while I mix like:

"Hey , can you play something faster?"
"Hey dude, I like your style but can you please play something nice??"
"Can you play this tune where that guys always says - hmmm. hmm, dup, di , sharam dam dam???"

But, unfortunately, even this doesn’t help me to find the right mood. Instead, I decide to do something that I don’t often do: make a digital mix with a bunch of tunes that I just really love and don´t have the chance to play at parties, at least not very often. As a result, this is not a regular dj mix for me, but more of an influences mix. It’s a journey from electronica to indie rock and features tracks that have given me some amazing moments, which are part of the reason why I do music at all. The kind of moments where all your senses seem to be lost in someone else’s mind and you get the chills and can´t help yourself to just play it over and over again. Some of the tracks on this mix I rediscovered in my stash and was surprised to find that even though I had heard some of them a thousand times, years ago, that they still have something special that makes me feel alive.

douglas greed - process part 193 by modyfier

01. Philip Glass - Kneeplay 1 (Einstein on the Beach)
02. Autechre - Clipper
03. Depeche Mode - Lie to Me (Remix)
04. Martyn - Seventy Four
05. Radiohead - Up on the Ladder
06. The XX - Heart Skipped the Beat
07. Boards of Canada - Oirectime
08. Home Video - Gas Tank (Sasha Onvol2ver Remix)
09. Julian Plenti - Skyskrapper
10. Son Lux - Break
11. Jesu - Wash It All Away
12. D-Bridge - Wonder Where
13. Lomax - Too Real
14. The Knife - Heartbeats (Live)
15. Beak> - The Cornubia
16. The Stone Roses - I wanna Be Adored
17. Animal Collective - My Girls
18. Lykke Li - Knocked Up (Kings of Leon Cover)
19. Kadebostan - Vodka Wedding
20. Frank C. Jackson - I Want To Be Alone

2010-02-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

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COMMODITY PLACE

We are so proud to contribute to the Modyfier's process series and we would like to thank Rayna for the opportunity. The set below is a recording of a live session that we played one night in our studio. It's dirty, it's not perfect and the sound quality is not "state of the art”...but…this is a real night with Commodity Place's music. This recording is dedicated to all people who still believe in music that is made with the heart.

All tracks are originally composed by Commodity Place. Special thanks to all at Còclea Music Ltd.

commodity place - process part 192 (live) by modyfier

2010-02-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

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PAUL COREY

Like anyone who has got the nod to man the decks for this wonderful series, I spent more than a little bit of time thinking about what direction my contribution should take. I eventually thought I'd contribute a l mixtape. It's been years since I've made a compilation of this nature, probably the first since I bought my Technics and CDJs. Having said that, the methodology behind this approach isn't too dissimilar from the way I program my radio shows, something that I've been doing for more than five years now in Cambridge, UK.

The records I chose for this mix could have been very different, and I've wrestled with choices ever since I knew I was going to do the mix; but, as is so often the case, everything seemed to be hastily assembled in a matter of moments despite my carefully-laid plans. I've owned some of these records for a long time now and it's no exaggeration to say that some of them are in my head for a time every day, but it's been a while since I've played most of them. Consequently, getting them out of their boxes and laying eyes on them properly was like a reunion with old friends.

So these tracks have definitely been influential on me, but so have many others and they only represent a particular dimension through which I have consumed music. As far as the mix itself is concerned, as said before in spite of having it on my mind ever since I got asked to do it and wanting to plan it with military precision, it pretty much took care of itself once I found myself surrounded by the music. Like a lot of DJs, probably most, I rarely plan what I am going to play when out in a club or a bar, things come together and you react to the crowd. Mixing at home is completely different. I always have a direction in mind and like peaks and troughs, darkness and light. I like my mixes to be a mass of as many contrasts as possible within the house/techno template. It would be wrong to say there's absolutely no spontaneity, but when recording a lot of thought goes into the shape and construction of the finished product. I'm definitely not a "big tune" person in that I don't pepper sets with standout tracks, preferring instead highlights to be patiently built up over a reasonable period of time. Time is also very important. The longer the better, but if operating within strict confines, which is the norm, then I like symmetry and shape. Thankfully, after having done this for a while now it seems to happen quite naturally.

In any case, I threw all of these conventions out when putting this selection together and feel liberated by the experience. It came through a software crash, which would have annoyed me a lot if I'd been mixing more conventionally. Many thanks to Rayna for giving me this opportunity and the idea to reacquaint myself with my past. Oh, and just for the record, every bit of this mix was off vinyl. That's just how it happened.

paul corey - process part 191 by modyfier

01. Introduction - Lightnin' Hopkins (Charly)
02. Calling Miss Khadiju - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers (Blue Note)
03. Ja Funni - King Sunny Ade & His African Beats (Island)
04. Degi Degi - Don Cherry (Horizon)
05. A Love Supreme/Acknowledgement - John Coltrane (MCA)
06. Black Satin - Miles Davis (CBS)
07. Last Tango In Paris (Ballad) - Gato Barbieri & His Orchestra (United Artists)
08. Two Sevens Clash - Culture (Joe Gibbs)
09. CB200 - Dillinger (Island)
10. Back To The Old School - Just-Ice (Fresh)
11. Put Your Filas On - Schooly D (Flame)
12. Strong Island - JVC Force (B-Boy)
13. Poetry - Boogie Down Productions (B-Boy)
14. Follow The Leader - Eric B & Rakim (MCA)
15 Mountains - Prince (Warner Bros)
16. Knife Slits Water - A Certain Ratio (Factory)
17. Somewhere Between Distance & The Impossible - Experience Chris Nazuka (Classic)
18. Movement - Ron Trent (Prescription)
19. Jailbreak - Paradox (Ronin)
20. Hard Life - Hard Life (Underground Resistance)
21. Sex In Zero Gravity - Red Planet (Red Planet)
22. Humana - Millsart (Axis)
23. Always Crashing In The Same Car - David Bowie (RCA)
24. You Did It, You Did It - Roland Kirk (Fontana)

2010-02-12T12:18:00.000-08:00

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TOM MCCARTHY (earnest endeavours)

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to Rayna and Mackaveli for hooking this up. It’s been a long time thing to do on my list and the process of doing this has really awakened a spirit in me. Sometimes you need a kick up the a*rse to do the things you say you’re going to do. This opportunity and process has really done that. THANKYOU Modyfier and THANKYOU to all the artists and record labels that make it possible for such incredible music to reach my ears. I hope you support them if you like what you hear – go and buy the records or CDs.

I’m thinking of a million things I want to say about the music I’ve included. How to rationalize it, to explain choices and direction etc. but I think ultimately its just the music I listen to most – and I have tried to include pieces from my favourite artists of the past few years. Some old, some new, I just wanted to create that moves between light and dark with a sense of disturbance and menace but also beauty and elegance – all the things that appeal to me most about modern electronic music.

But enough rambling – I’m not the best with words and the music speaks far louder and with more clarity than I ever could. So I’ll leave it there. Hope you enjoy it and please support the artists if you enjoy their music. Go and buy records and CDs from your local independent retailer or online store.

tom mccarthy (earnest endeavours) - process part 190 (underland vol 1) by modyfier

01. Hildur Gudnadottir - Elevator (Touch)
02. Deaf Center - Lamp Mien (Type Records)
03. Max Richter - Song (Fatcat Records)
04. Solitaire Albread - Pour (Miasmah)
05. Jacaszek - Rytm to Niesmertelnosc No.1 (Miasmah)
06. My Brightest Diamond - Dragon Fly (Murcof Remix) (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
07. Arovane - Goodbye Forever (City Centre Offices)
08. Apparat - Aspirin (Shitkatapult)
09. Pantha du Prince - The Splendour (Rough Trade)
10. Maps and Daigrams – Footprints & Secrets (Moamoo)
11. Andrew Thomas – Shiny Garden (Kompakt)
12. Olafur Arnalds - Haust (Erased Tapes)
13. Colleen - Sun Against My Eyes (Leaf Recordings)
14. Digitonal - Over Line (Toytronic)
15. Julian Neto - Fascination Pour Les Oeuvres Mineures (Miasmah)
16. Lexaunculpt - Emori Dixon Renamed (Planet Mu)
17. Nils Frahm - Ambre (Erased Tapes)

2010-02-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

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QUARION

When I was invited to come up with a new "process" for Modyfier, I knew I had to record something special. After much thinking (and even asking some friends for their opinion), I've finally settled upon the following project: to record my first ever Dubstep DJ-mix.

I've been following Dubstep since about 2006. I knew there was potential in this music to fit with my tastes but somehow I couldn't find the artists that would really make me "dive" in the scene and start buying records. This all changed when I heard Burial's first album: I was instantly hooked on the rolling character of his beats and the deeply personal atmosphere that he was able to create. Since then, I've been digging more into Dubstep and I've found some of the most incredible music I've heard in a long time.

Back in the late 90's, I was an avid collector of Drum n' Bass. I thought it was the ultimate form of music, blending together all the genres that I love: Hip-Hop, House, Techno, Jazz and Dub. There was also a very strong "forward" approach: producers where constantly coming up with new techniques and ideas to keep the music fresh, sometimes creating tracks that were on the border of experimental music. I feel this similar hunger for innovation within the Dubstep scene and it's very motivating, as a producer, to hear people who are constantly "breaking sound barriers" (remember Reinforced?).

My aim for this set was to showcase as many of my favourite artists as possible, so I kept a basic rule of 1 track per artist (or project name). It was tough sometimes, particularly for people such as Martyn, 2562 or Pangaea who have released so many wonderful records! Mixing-wise, the selection had to be flowing so I took extra care with the order of the tracks, specially because tempos in Dubstep can go from 125 to 140 BPMs...

This set is very personal and I don't think it can't be taken as an introduction to the scene. However, the mix sheds light to a specific corner within the multi-angled Dubstep room and I hope it will inspire those who are not familiar with the genre to continue exploring the other corners...

quarion - process part 189 (dubstep special) by modyfier

01. Martyn - Far Away - 3024
02. A Made Up Sound - Closer - A Made Up Sound
03. F - Phase One - 7even
04. Four Tet - Love cry (Joy Orbison Remix) - Domino

05. Falty DL - Party - Ramp Recordings
06. Untold - Sweat - Hotflush 2
07. Pangaea - Router - Hessle Audio
08. Jus Wan - Action Potential - Apple Pips
09. Instra:Mental - Futurist - Naked Lunch
10. Pearson Sound - So Far Ago - Soul Jazz
11. Burial - Exit Woundz - Hyperdub
12. 2562 - Channel Two - Tectonic
13. Dfrnt - Tripped (Synkro Remix) - On The Edge
14. Peverelist - Infinity Is Now - Tectonic
15. James Blake - Air & Lack Thereof - Hemlock
16. Ghostleigh - Dleep Off - Ghostleighdubz

2010-02-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

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NOAH PRED

When Rayna first invited me to contribute a mix for Modyfier, the idea intrigued me as an opportunity to share a different side of my musical interests. So I endeavored to create an iconoclastic mix, something that would display my varied sophistications - but every attempt turned out wrong: overcooked, underdone, you name it; nothing worth serving to friends or family, let alone the general public. It seemed my ambitions had doomed the mix to failure, toppled by the weight of its own concept. As I forged ahead with other projects, it became apparent that I should go in another direction for Rayna's mix - another direction entirely. I abandoned outright the overwrought notions that were hemming me in and headed in the opposite direction...

The resulting mix was recorded live in those very first infant moments of a new decade, spinning on three decks from 0:00 on January 1, 2010 for the CMKY New Year's Eve in Boulder, Colorado - a raucous event not only amplified by the holiday's festivities, but also by the fact that it was the final event to be held at B-Side, a key venue in the area that had nurtured the nascent (now burgeoning) local electronic scene over the past five years. Veering towards potent party tracks in the best tradition of NYE techno, I hope this mix, loose and wild in parts, captures some of the mania of that night - a packed and sweaty room filed with the haze of the past, hope for the future, and the promise of impending novelty just around the corner: intensity, excitement, a fresh moment for all...

noah pred - process part 188 (cmky nye 2010) by modyfier

01. David K - Take It - Highgrade / Stephan Barnem - Eight 8 (Obando Remix) - Attary
02. Asem Shama - Metroman - Paso
03. Stephan Barnem - Eight 8 (Obando Remix) - Attary
04. Symbio - The Gasps & Fissures Parade - Blipswitch / Derek Ruiz - Calamidad - Attary
05. Derek Ruiz - Calamidad - Attary
06. Signal Deluxe - Golden Samurai (Rhauder & Smart Remix) - Blaq
07. Victor Torres - Flight of Invaders - Attary
08. Agaric - Nobody Home - We Are
09. Cari Lekebusch - Spindizzy - H-Productions
10. Touane - Bare Duty - Left Handed
11. Dominik Eulberg - Gasthof "Zum Satten Bass" (Jonas Kopp Remix) - Trapez
12. Samuel L. Session - Sections - Be As One
13. Funk D'Void & Sian - A Raven Wheeling Overhead - Soma
14. W.S.G.M. - Pale (Pablo Bolivar club mix) - Jato-Unit
15. Limaçon - Sans Rip - Thoughtless
16. Roland M. Dill - Candy Mountain - Trapez

2010-01-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

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BENJAMIN BRUNN

At first I would like to thank Rayna for approaching me and giving me the opportunity to let my music speak. And certainly in this case I said 'yes' straight away, although it took me a while to complete it. I recorded this piece of music in my room on Veddel Island here in Hamburg during the last couple of weeks. It is basically what I would play in a club these days. I used a TR-626, TR-707 and my Nord Modular. I love these gray machines and I think they fit nicely next to my red Keyboard. Apart from the rough keys I played with my fingers, I spiced the music up with a couple of other meaningful recordings of others speaking. Without explaining too much, because everybody should draw their own conclusions, to me these bits are about the fundamental components 'yes' and 'no' in life. 0 and 1 in the digital world are what 'yes' and 'no' are in the real world out there and in all we do. Life is like an unlimited sequence of 'yes' and 'no' and its consequences. Every single 'yes' and 'no' can be positive or negative, cause joy or pain and may be senseless, only the combination over time makes sense and life is all about the right sequence of answers and decisions. Everyone is responsible for their own set of 'yes' and 'no'. Some are brought to us and we have to cope with it, in most cases we have to control. At first sight, 'yes' seems to be the better answer, however, sometimes 'yes' means 'no' on the other end causing unhappiness. One thing is for sure, time keeps going and we have to fill it with 'yes' and 'no'. However, in whatever we do, Steve Jobs said we should "stay hungry, stay foolish", and I think he is right.

benjamin brunn - process part 187 (stay hungry, stay foolish) by modyfier

01. Playing With Life (formerly known as 'Developers Live')
02. Acidic Sun
03. Ear Against The Wall
04. No Word Can Tell
05. My Piano Says 'Maybe'
06. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
07. No
08. Larry Heard's 'Can You Feel It' (Modyfier version)

2010-01-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

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FLORENCE ATLAS

One set to "modify"... What an honor!

People have a tendency to look at me with a peculiar expression when I say this, but I absolutely do not have the soul of an artist. First, I don't have the talent that it takes. Further, does the act of compiling the masterpieces of other people constitute an art in itself? I don't think so.

Above all, I love music and, of course, playing it. Music is for me the art form which elicits the most emotion from people. This emotion is strong and deep but also tends to be communicative, even contagious, so to speak. How exciting to see people smile, laugh, dance, hug and kiss...inspired by the music that is played to them. It brings about an extraordinary sensation.

For this mix, I have assembled pieces that I love deeply, and that I also love to play. Together, they bring forth beautiful emotions (different - that is also the pleasure of not sticking to a particular style). I hope you like it.

florence atlas - process part 186 by modyfier

01. Shonky - Time Zero - Freak n'Chic
02. Simon Flower - The Whisper Had It (Redshape's Disco Dub) - Poker Flat
03. Let's Go Outside - I'll Lick Your Spine - Soma Records
04. Pele - Childhood's End (Kollektive Trumstrasse) - Connaisseur
05. Symphony Of Love - Quantum Leap - Yeti Records
06. Booka Shade - Darko - Get Physical
07. H.O.S.H. - White Elephant - Kindisch
08. Gabe feat. Adam K - The Mask (D-Nox & Beckers rmx) - Sprout
09. Marc Romboy vs Stephan Bodzin - Mab - Herzblut Recordings
10. Dubfire, Huntemann - Dios (Original Mix) - Ideal Audio
11. Peter Kruder - Shine - Gigolo Records
12. Public Energy - Three O'Three - Probe

2010-01-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

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STIMMING

Rayna asked why, not how I make things. Right now, I try not to take care of where things are going. I try to make only tracks that come from deep inside without thinking about, "will it sell?" or "does it work in the club?" It’s actually pretty hard not to think about these things when you´re making music for a living. But four weeks ago, my life came to a point when I felt "radical" enough to do exactly that. After breaking off a relationship and having a pretty successful 2009 (as an artist) I felt it was time to get away from that 7min tech house club tune. So I made a series of tracks that don't fit in a drawer. The only rule I had was to be fast - the making process shouldn’t be longer then 8hours. In general, I like to do things fast, but I can’t always predict how long things last. For Funkworm I needed 1.5 days but for a new remix for Robert Babicz, I needed about 3 weeks.

However, as it is very important for me to put personal emotion into tracks, and as this emotion changes from day to day (of course), I wanted to be fast this time, to keep this project like a documentary.

So, the track you will hear is called Jansec2010. Imagine me sitting in the studio, still having a massive hangover from NYE…still being intoxicated and also frightened about something I did on the first day of 2010. I can't tell you what it was, but it went over a limit for me (no worries, no one was hurt physically). So, on the second day of 2010, I was still shocked and angry and I knew when I put that feeling into music, which is mainly energy for me, I would be able to get over it. And this is what happened. I often do music in a way of giving therapy to myself, which helps me a lot not to forget the middle of myself. I’d already made eight other track like this, or at least in a way that is different from the productions I've done before. Maybe I’ll make a short album out of it or maybe I won't…? I still want to work that way for another couple of weeks and when I feel I´m finished, I’ll start to think about what I want to do with it.

So, enjoy this track and I recommend to put your subwoofer on or at least listen with good headphones...those little notebook speakers kill music! :)

stimming - process part 185 (jansec2010) by modyfier

2010-01-19T10:50:00.001-08:00

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MODERN HEADS

We were very pleased to hear from our dear friend, Tom Bonaty (Prologue), that we have the honor to publish a new mix on Modyfier. We loved the idea as it was an excuse for us, Gianluca and Dino, to work together again. We wanted to start immediately. The only problem was that we live in two cities, 1500 km away from each other (Gianluca in Rome, Dino in Berlin). So, we thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to meet in the studio and work together, share our minds and understanding of outstanding techno music. We began by exchanging ideas on what tracks to choose and about the atmosphere and movement we wanted to give this mix. The first day we met in the studio in Rome, we turned on our machines and laptops and started our sustainable trip straightaway. With the lights low, away went our thoughts…just the two of us and what has bound us for 12 years: music.

The mix starts with a low beat atmosphere and noise and transitions into uncompromising straight beats. We enter the study after one hour of hallucinated traffic, and pass through an ambient garden to find the proper finish. The atmosphere was too good to stop. We will continue to pursue sounds that portray urban visions but that are at the same time also very spacious.

Thanks to Modyfier and Prologue.

Words by Dino Sabatini

modern heads - process part 184 by modyfier

01. Convex - Robert Henke
02. Ambient Garden - Gianluca Meloni ( Modern Heads )
03. Subtraktive - Intrusion's twilight dub - Echospace Detroit
04. Grand Bend - Echospace dub - Echospace Detroit
05. Kenton rmx - Marcel Dettmann - Echocord Colour
06. Immersion rmx - Sleeparchive - Scion Version
07. Surma - Speedy J - Electric Deluxe
08. Cracktest - Orphx - Sonic Groove
09. Magnit tools - Collabs, Chris Liebing, Speedy J - Electric Deluxe
10. Trashold rmx - Substance - Sonic Groove
11. Aquaplano B1 - Nuel - Aquaplano
12. Romantic Warrior - Dino Sabatini ( Modern Heads )
13. Substratum - Mike Parker - Orange Groove
14. EDLX - Speedy J - CLR
15. Flat Axe - Shed - Ostgut Ton
16. Idea - Mr Bizz - Delikat Rec.
17. Real Life - Luke Hess - Echocord

2010-01-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

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CLAUDIO PRC

With this mix, I wanted to express the style of music that characterizes what I love to both listen to and play. Above all, it represents the feelings and emotions that define my past year. I recorded this set at home in the evening with the intimacy of only myself and the environment of a beautiful Sardinian winter around me. Well, also with my own collection of black beauty: vinyl.

The mix is an up and down of vibes, some deeper and some harder, that create a pleasant flow, full of sounds and sensations that lead me to imagine different lands, real and unreal. The set represents the concept of the music I like: not too fast, deep but at same time so hard, where I can feel that it comes straight from the core!

claudio prc - process part 183 by modyfier

01. Luke Hesse - Reel Life (CV 313 Dimensional Space Mix) – Echocord
02. Mikkel Metal - Jeman (Cassy Remix) - Echocord
03. STL - Silent State - Smallville
04. N/A - Variance III (Marcel Dettmann Edit) - Sandwell District
05. Paul Brtschitsch & Cio D' Or - Safran - Broque
06. Ben Klock - Subzero - Ostgut Ton
07. Juho Kahilainen - Black Stream - Prologue
08. Perc - Mathlete - Ovum
09. Samuli Kemmpi - Droning - Prologue
10. Norman Nodge - NN 8.0 - MDR
11. Edit Select - Sliotar - Edit Select
12. Santiago Salazar - La Minoria - Historia Y Violencia
13. Quantec - Deeper Basement - Pong Musiq
14. Edit Select - No Automation - Edit Select
15. Samuli Kemppi - Joiku - Prologue
16. Paul Brtschitsch & Cio D' Or - Kurkuma - Broque

2010-01-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

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TOM BONATY

Nearly one year ago we started with our first EP on Prologue and it was really aN unbelievable year for us. We were announced as Label of the Month on Resident Advisor, we got one "Release of the Month" on Germany's biggest electronic music mag "Raveline", we were in a list of Phillip Sherburne's important releases in 2009 with one EP and we will have our first bigger Label Night in Berghain Berlin in January 2010. What time could be better than now to do a Prologue Label Showcase for Modyfier?

I tried to use as many Prologue releases, Prologue artist tracks and friends as possible in our showcase mix. You will hear nearly all of the Prologue artists like Cio D´Or, Giorgio Gigli, Samuli Kemppi, Juho Kahilainen and Claudio PRC. Claudio's track in this mix is as-of-yet unreleased and will be unleashed in early 2010.

We hope 2010 will be a succesfull year for Techno music and Prologue again. At least our list of our upcoming releases looks promising. We would like to say thank you to all of you for your support and we hope you will enjoy our label podcast and music. Peace.

tom bonaty - process part 182 (prologue showcase) by modyfier

01. Cio D´Or - Tränensalz - Prologue
02. JPLS - Reset - M_nus
03. Iori - Magnetic - Prologue
04. Valmay - Distrust - Blueprint
05. Samuli Kemppi - Joiku - Prologue
06. Alex Bau - Repaints (Gary Beck Remix) - Credo
07. Samuli Kemmpi - Metal Space - Komisch
08. C-Rock, Stardub - The Source (Reboot Remix) - LoFi Stereo
09. Deadbeat / Fenin - Teach The Devil's Son - Echocord Colour
10. Horizontal Ground - 2.1 - Horizontal Ground
11. speedy j - bootes - Electric Deluxe
12. Nick Dawson - Extend 8.2 - Plexo Solar
13. Function - Disaffected (Normen Nodger Mix) Sandwell District
14. Giorgio Gigli - Introspection - Prologue
15. Nax Acid & Giorgio Gigli - Depth Perception - Aconito Records
16. Giorgio Gigli - The Soul Trap (Edit) - Aconito Records
17. Giorgio Gigli - Spazio - Prologue
18. Samuli Kemppi - No one can hear your echo in space - Prologue
19. Claudio Prc - Empty Circle - Prologue (upcoming)
20. Juho Kahilainen - Kuolunkelot - Prologue

2010-01-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

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REBEKAH AFF

Spontaneous, as are all my favorite mixes, I had to arrive at the the point of forgetting that I had to make a mix for this site, in order to have a satisfying free-jam, which resulted in the mix below.

I went through many different ideas and mixes over the last eight months (!) before realizing that this was the one I would submit. I found myself tending toward conceptual ideas, and had many a listening session. Originally, I intended to send in those sessions as well, in order to show the actual process behind a rather obsessive-compulsive mind.

In the end, however, I just put on a record that I wanted to listen to, without a plan of making a mix at all. I realized how much I love that first record. I stopped it, set the needle back to the beginning, pressed record and listened to it almost all the way through while finding the next one. And so it went. No organization, plan or style, no pressure...just a bit of fun and some records that I like.

I hope you enjoy it.

rebekah aff - process part 181 by modyfier

01. Unknown - Untitled - Wax1001
02. Cassy - A Plea For Me - Cocoon Recordings
03. Steve O'Sullivan - Touch Up - Sushitech
04. Chaton - +91 Ahead 2 (Ripperton's Los Barrios Mix) - Plak
05. Horsepower Productions - Let's Dance (Club Mix) - Tempa
06. Efdemin - Lohn & Brot (Sebo K Version 2) - liebe*detail spezial
07. Spencer Parker - My Heart - Rekids
08. Unknown - Untitled - Frozen Border 04
09. Delano Smith - This Heart - Mixmode Recordings

2009-12-29T17:55:00.000-08:00

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MASTER H

A friend of mine, Dennis Bobbit, told me about Modyfier as he knows how I love to share music with people and express myself by making mixes.

This time, things were a little bit different. Usually I take the time to reflect on how to organize a mix to best express the mood I'm feeling at the moment. However, that wasn't the case as I was doing two remixes in my studio at the time, one for Sillicone Soul and another one for Chymera. The only chance I had to make this mix was to find some time in the middle of all the production and work I have running my own label, Komplex de Deep. The thing is, I'm really happy with the result as it is a real instinctive mix. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about what I was going to do. I put on tracks that I trust strongly. At the time, I was working on my future release of Chymera's 'The Rumors of My Desire', so I played it live for the very first time here. Enjoy and keep it real.

master h - process part 180 by modyfier

01. Linkwood – RIP (Original Mix) / Prime Numbers
02. Alain Ho & Daniel Kyo – All Those Frqs There / Composite
03. Joel Alter – Alley Cat / Room with a view
04. Robert Babicz – Astor (Glimpse Remix) / Systematic Recs
05. Chymera – The Rumours of My Demise (Original Mix) / Komplex de Deep
06. Matthias Vogt – Hofats (François Dubois" Remix) / Komplex de Deep
07. Kai Alce - Polyester Static (Original Mix) / Real Soon
08. E S P – It's You / DJ International
09. Chymera – The Rumours of My Demise (Master H Remix) / Komplex de Deep
10. Levon Vincent – Late Night Jam (Original Mix) / Otsgut

2009-12-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

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BRENDON MOELLER

My contribution to the wonderful Modyfier blog has coincided with the opportunity for me to create the first DJ mix in my new studio, in my new home, in upstate NY. Having lived in Queens, NY since 1994, I have finally escaped to the suburbs with my family. The heart of NY is not that economically viable for an artist anymore, let alone one with a family who is attempting to carve out a livelihood as a label, producer and DJ.

I decided to record this mix in real time and just let the creative muse spontaneously take me wherever it desires. Generally, most tracks that make it into my “DJ bag” are played at least 3 times, usually on a variety of systems to determine if it’s something that will work for me…and YES, I have purchased many a .wav and then discarded it after a proper listen, but thankfully in most cases it’s now possible to preview tracks in their entirety online.

I gravitated to this set of tracks in the moment because they obviously were fitting to my then state of mind and seemed like the correct choice to go with the flow of the mix. The opportunity to put together 60 minutes of music for me is a chance to escape into a magical world of music and mixing where adventure, joy, a rainbow of emotions in fact, occasionally even pain can occur. My role as the DJ is to spontaneously pull tracks and create a nonstop journey and atmosphere for the listener and myself that will hopefully transport us into that magical world rather than leave us high and dry. The imperfections, strange mixes, occasional errors and experimentation hopefully contribute to keeping it real rather than detracting from the overall vibe and intention. I had fun creating this, hopefully you will have fun listening.

The mix was performed and recorded using Traktor Pro, an Evolution UC-33 Controller, a 15” Macbook Pro, a Gigaport soundcard and a 500GB Glyph portagig drive aka DJ bag! Hope you enjoy.

brendon moeller - process part 179 by modyfier

01. Floating Points – Vacuum Boogie
02. Herbert – Around House
03. John Daly – Do It
04. Ooft music – In Search Of Ecto One
05. House of House – Rushing To Paradise (DJ Harvey Streets Mix)
06. LCD Soundsystem – Bye Bye Bayou (Main Version)
07. St. Plomb – Saturnic Night Access
08. Demdike Stare – Haxan
09. Pete Namlook & David Moufang – Black Sun
10. Theo Parrish – Anansies Dances
11. Billy Preston – Space Race (Beat Pharmacy Edit)
12. Manaboo – Unhuh
13. Frankie Flowerz – It's Funk, It's House
14. Lee Foss – The Edge (Original Mix)
15. Dop – The Genius of The Crowd (Original Mix)
16. The Orb – Styrofoam Meltdown
17. Donnacha Costello – Ten Thousand Hours

for those of you in san francisco for nye, please join brendon moeller, jonah sharp, nikola baytala and alland byallo at gray area foundation for the arts (GAFFTA). more information and tickets available here.

2009-12-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

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SHADI MEGALLAA

Let me begin by saying that I can't believe the mix is finally done! There I said it. Now let me start from the very beginning. Even though it would be "cooler" to say that I was very pleased when Modyfier asked me to submit something for the Process Series, that's not how it worked. I've been following the blog for sometime and think its absolutely brilliant. So I contacted Rayna and told her that I'd love to be involved. Luckily for me she was already familiar with my work. That being said, I contemplated for a long time whether I should submit a track or a mix. Every track of mine has some crazy story behind it it but I thought since I've been DJing a lot more these days that I would submit a mix. The main reason I chose to do a mix was because I kept being asked to make a demo for local promoters in Dubai because tha0t's the closest place to where I live (Abu Dhabi) that has something that resembles an electronic music scene. I could go into that in more detail but I'm here to talk about the process.

I wanted to finish the mix before my recent trip to Toronto & New York but I never got around to it as I had to finish up some productions. Two days after I got back I had to get ready for our monthly Boogie Box party that I throw in Abu Dhabi with my partner Hassan Alwan. It started looking like it would be difficult to pull this off but I was determined as it was something I was very excited about (still am). I could have done an uber slick mix in Ableton but I felt that it would be too polished. I didn't want to be spoiling people and having them dissapointed when they show up to my gig and come to the shocking realization that I am human! I thought the old school method was the best way to go. Another big part of that was due to my falling deeply in love with vinyl again. Not that I ever stopped loving the black beauty, but just missed the crackle of a record. DJing with Serato has started to become a pain in my skinny ass lately! Looking at text just doesn't seem to be the same as going through some records.

Now since I have a fulltime job it was proving to be very difficult to get the whole mix recorded in one go. Also because it can be quite chaotic around my house sometimes. Like when my sister decides to call every 3.3645 minutes. I might be exagerating a bit.. well.. no I'm not. I started out picking some records and off I went. I compiled the tracks as I went along. I recorded each mix separately simply because I felt like I had so much music at my disposal to just do it all in one go & not have the flow of the mix suffer. What I had to do to keep the mix feeling natural considering I "cheated" a little was to just record the first take of every mix I record. I really wanted to play some of the records I had along with the digital music off Serato but that was a little bit of an issue when it came to the levels. Maybe I shouldn't point your attention to that because you simply might not notice it, but since I'm an honest guy. I have confessed. That is the only thing that makes me cringe a little when I listen back to the mix now. Don't get me wrong. I am very happy that it's done because at one point in time I was about ready to raise the white flag. I stayed focused and marched on like a brave soldier.

I also recently bought a Boss D-7 Delay pedal. It's normally used for guitars but you can also use it as an effects unit when you're DJing. Which brings me to the setup I used for the mix. I made the mix on 2 Technics SL 1210s & my Rotary Allen & Heath Xone 92. Early on, I did want to use the delay pedal on the mix but later decided not to because I don't feel that I've mastered it 100% yet. I also didn't want to get too carried away because its very easy to do that on that thing. So much fun! I was positive that I had to play Silverlining - Pearl Divers track on the mix because I had been looking for that record since 1998 and finally managed to snatch me a copy from Discogs! The amount of excitement I got when I got that record in the mail was unreal. It reminded me of why I do this in the first place. Downloading a track from Beatport is like ordering McDonalds except it won't make you feel physically ill afterwards. Ordering a record is like dining at a fine restaurant where you actually have to wait but you will be treated to a highly orgasmic meal. I'm getting carried away here. Back to the point. All the tracks featured on the mix are ones that I have been playing a lot lately, except for Asad Rizvi's smiling at the sun. Simply because I haven't ripped the record, but that's why I played the record. Which takes me back to my falling in love with vinyl again. That seems to be the theme here. Another very special record that I had forgotten about untill I found the record is Gus Gus - Believe (16B mix). That tune was one that reminds of when I first started to get into electronic music. I had heard it on Sasha & Digweed's very early Northern Exposure discs.

The mix was done over 2 days simply because I was busy. I had played the night before with Hassan for a Charity event to reaise money for kids in Kenya to get an education. The organisers managed to raise 40,000 Dirhams! Just thinking to myself right now, WOW how many records could I get with that much money!!! I'm bad I know. That was a joke, i'm very happy to help these kids and to have been a part of that event. The reason I mentioned the event is because while Hassan & I were driving to return the speakers I was listening to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album. We were exhausted and didn't say much to each other until Bob Dylan's '115th Dream' came on. It starts off with Bob Dylan playing alone & since the rest of the band missed the cue they all burst into laughter. I remember Hassan & I finding it very amusing. We got such a kick out of it. He then proceeds to say take two and they all get it right on. I didn't have an intro but I usually like to do that on my mixes so I thought with all the different takes I've been doing it made perfect sense to start the mix with it.

Now, I'm sorry if I have bored you but I just realized that I enjoy to write. The problem is that I write the way I speak. If I write the way I speak it would mean that I speak the way I write but I don't. Wouldn't it be odd if someone went around saying things like yours truly & please find attached. Anywho.. I hope you all enjoy the mix & spread the love.

shadi megallaa - process part 178 by modyfier

2009-12-14T10:38:00.000-08:00

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MIGUEL COLMENARES

I was never musically trained, but I've come to realize that doesn't mean much when you can grow a good sense of appreciation for music. Making music for me has simply turned into an output for all the musical intake I've been giving myself during the past few years. To me music is a tool. one that allows you to remember past moments of your life or that entices you live the now and then. Therefore, if music is a tool, then sounds are the individual parts of the tool, and as such they must somehow fit together in harmony to make such tool effective.

Now there are many ways for someone to achieve that effectiveness. My approach is simple, build a groove and go from there.

I've been looking for an excuse to work on something a bit more conceptual, and finally the process series has given me that excuse. For this project I have chosen to work with a limited set of sounds, making simplicity the main focus of each piece. I will also use the opportunity to sample one of my favorite youtube bits from one of the all time greats: Herbie Hancock. It's a recording from 1983, where he's sitting in the studio with Quincy Jones and a Fairlight CMI. In the video, apart from having tons of fun, Herbie discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the synthesizer/sequencer, which of course is the foundation of electronic music as we know it.

This discussion is relevant because out of the 10 samples max. I used for each track, most of them came from a Korg Electribe SX, one of the fixtures in my setup for the past couple of years. I've found that without some sort of hardware, music making is not nearly as fun or engaging. Hardware also allows me to record parts from start to finish and gives room for some improvisation (mistakes) during the process.

I usually (but not always!) begin a track with a kick and a couple of bass sounds. From there I move towards the hats and claps and ultimately I dig for some fitting instrument samples to complement the grooves. Then, once I have a loop playing and after moving it around to get some ideas for the sequence, I take a small break and immediately go back to the project to begin recording the sequence. If this doesn't happen in the same session then I will probably never finish the track at all.

The resulting output of this particular project is 3 different tracks done during 3 different sessions, but following the same construction process. Ultimately, no matter what the process is, the key for me is that I have to enjoy what I'm doing and as cheesy as it may sound, music is my passion and it shall stay that way... and remember DON'T BLAME THE MACHINES! and I quote "... how can it be the machines fault? we have to plug it in!"

miguel colmenares - process part 177 (sketches of a groove (exhibit a)) by modyfier

miguel colmenares - process part 177 (sketches of a groove (exhibit b)) by modyfier

miguel colmenares - process part 177 (sketches of a groove (exhibit c)) by modyfier

2009-12-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

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AUTISTICI

I listen to the mellotron at different pitches and feel comforted by its tone. There is a lot of nostalgia in this sound.

To begin with the track starts with me obsessing on an audio element, a single note from a mellotron. I listen and listen over again weighing up its form, function and impact on my psyche. The next stage is to develop and sculpt the sound introducing elements that recontextualise the material in a manner that gives me a sense of narrative. I am interested in the manner in which material is conceived, gestated and developed as well as the manner in which it ends and decomposes. I prefer to work alone. There is a stream of consciousness element to my work – an immersion in the material which would be hard to replicate with someone else in the immediate physical environment.

I develop tonal interplay layering different pitches of tone to form a warm changing slow melody.

It is a controlled process. One of sculpture, refinement and distillation. I usually know what I want to achieve, which aspects of the frequency of the sound I want to emphasise and which ones I want to diminish. Whether a sound should move across the stereo field or not, whether a sound is to function as a percussive or a texture. Sometimes the way two or more different sounds come together and form an interesting phrase can come about by chance. It is lovely to use these moments in the composition. However, the way I write and compose means that I thoroughly explore the material from many different angles. This increases the opportunity to find what works and why and provides the opportunity for organic composition to occur.

The image in my head is an open conservatory at the back of an old manse house – the house of my grandfather. I want to hear the sound of birds in the garden and the rattle of someone setting the cutlery for dinner in the adjoining kitchen. Further samples are recorded and injected to form an atmosphere in the background of the track.

My compositional effort is just the beginning of the process in my view. Beyond the production and output of sound there is the role of the listener. I have always been fascinated by the role of human perception. I am aware that different people will make sense of the same experience in different ways. Furthermore, the same person may make sense of the same material presented at different times in different ways. This illustrates the role of the human brain as a receptacle of music and the mind as a transforming force via subjective perception. In my view it is the listener who occupies the position of the final ‘active element’ in a track. The psychological sense they make of the music, what they filter in or out, the external environment in which they listen all contribute to their perception of the material.

autistici - process part 176 (key for a lockable cabinet) by modyfier

Key For A Locakable Cabinet from 'Complex Tone Test' on Keshhhhhh

2009-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

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PHILIP MARSHALL

Goodbye 2009. For me and many people I know this year has been, more than usual, a year of extremes – peaks and valleys, disruption and elemental change. Oftentimes blindingly positive, occasionally bitingly harsh. Mid-October, my dear friend Finn mailed me, introducing Rayna. An invite. Loved Modyfier, of course; glad to accept! Three days later I was sitting on a grey train speeding through Belgian rain to attend the funeral of a former lover in Antwerp. In the interim I programmed a rough version of this mix and this first bare-bones sketch sound-tracked what turned out to be the most strangest of weekends...

That Antwerp visit was spent in the closest company of Gerard; he filled my blank bleak mindset with music and art; phrases rendered in neon at a Ceryth Wyn Evans installation (“In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni”) burnt into my mind. We watched Jack Smith's joyous “Normal Love” and I decided to splice its woozy nth generation VHS soundtrack into it all. On my return, I decided to restructure said sketched sequence, focussing on the work of colleagues, collaborators and friends, adding in tracks gifted to me during the past twelve months by those I love. Quite by accident, a composition of my own sat centrally – recorded a year ago for a friend in Berlin who has since moved on, whilst I was leaving Paris, retreating to London.

To call this a mix is pushing a point. Not a DJ, see – much more an editor. Maybe best think of it like scanning the airwaves; late-night radio. These tracks were finally (re)arranged in mid-November, recorded in four passes, then compiled in Logic. Sometimes you are hearing up to eight tracks, layered. It's quite dark in places and intentionally dumb in others. I guess it's about movement, space and claustrophobia – trying to make those contrasts heard. Why do I like sounds intermingling like this? Because I like to try to connect all the disparate parts of my life, my friendships, my work. Falling forwards from one experience to the next, headfirst! I particularly like the end section, which has made my neighbour bang angrily against the walls...

I sit here in London in late November writing these notes. The record covers I have been designing these past weeks are all copyrighted 2010. Falling into the future. Keep travelling forwards, not forgetting lessons learned. Goodbye 2009.

(This sequence is dedicated to Manu, who would've no doubt not much liked it and preferred me to have made a 7am-at-Berghain kinda mix for him!)

philip marshall - process part 175 by modyfier

01. Portsmouth Sinfonia - Also Sprach Zarathustra op.31
02. BJ Nilsen - Gotland
03. Ryoji Ikeda - Headphonics 0:0
04. Chris Watson - Quelja Mine
05. Daníel Ágúst - Someone Who Swallowed A Star
06. Clara Rockmore - Valse Sentimentale
07. Rachel Sweet - Wildwood Saloon
08. Oren Ambarchi / Lasse Marhaug - Devil Wolf Men
09. Tony Conrad - Extracts from the soundtrack to Jack Smith's “Normal Love”
10. Tyrannosaurus Rex - Wind Quartets
11. Henry Flynt - Blue Sky, Highway And Tyme
12. Brian Gulland & Frank Ricotti - Journey
13. The Percussion Research Ensemble - Trance Formations
14. Souls on Board - Hole
15. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Erupting Light
16. Derek Jarman - "Is that actually going? It really is…"
17. BJ Nilsen - Viking North
18. Philip Marshall - Ghost
19. Jana Winderen - Drift
20. Stephen O'Malley - Petite Géante
21. David Sylvian - A Fire in the Forest
22. A.C. Marias A.C. - So
23. Alfred Schnittke - O Thee, the sovereign of everything existing, who gives us precious gifts
24. Akira Rabelais - Gorgeous curves lovely fragments labyrinthed on occasions entwined charms, a few stories at any longer sworn to gathered from a guileless angel and the hilt edges of old hearts, if they do in the guilt of deep despondency.
25. Mika Vainio - Behind The Radiators
26. Nana April Jun - Sun Wind Darkness Eye
27. Philip Jeck - All That's Allowed
28. Panasonic - Minus 25
29. Shed - Ostrich-Mountain-Square
30. Nana April Jun - The One Substance
31. Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache