That brings me to work music. For me, some records are perfect to work to. I listen to them over and over again almost as background music and never get sick of them. Some of these records I can listen to more attentively in the car or on headphones and enjoy them as much. Others, I can't.

So I'll keep this post short and leave you with a brief list of albums I rock at work on a consistent basis. Why? Dunno. Post responses and criticism - and your list. Here goes:

The National - Boxer

The Postal Service - Give Up

Burial - Untrue

Joni Mitchell - Blue

The Velvet Underground - Live, 1969 Vol. 1

Andrew Bird - Armchair Aprocrypha

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America  (mostly on Fridays)

The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic

It's quite the cross section. I'm trying to pinpoint a rhyme and reason. Help.

[dailymotion id=k4V684v3AHaMZlJ9dT]

My boy MOTA is always coming through with some of the ill sticky icky mixes. He's one of those cats who is always on top of the latest ish way before anyone else has ever heard of it. He's not a big time DJ or TASTEMAKER. Just a dude with a really appreciative ear and good taste. I'm not sure how he stays on top of the new ish but I think it might have to do with his SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO. Either that or he has some kind of ill SPIDEY SENSE. I should look into that.

So, it should come as no surprise that this latest rare mix comes to me via Mota the man. It features the music of DJ SHADOW and was mixed by World Famous Beat Junkie D-STYLES. It was released as a promo CD when you purchased THE PRIVATE PRESS off of hiphopsite.com. A true gem from a couple years back.

HEY MOTA, everyone here at MM!!! thanks you for your rampant hip hop consumerism. We all have something to learn from this. Holler at your boy!

LISTEN!!! - DJ SHADOW V. D-STYLES

Anyway, I guess this is my tribute to Shadoe Stevens.  Or my dream.  Doesn't matter.

Shadow:

Stevens:

clic derecho :.: descargar :.:
gravity's ra1nbow : why so serious mixtape

nurse betsy: have you seen the falling stars, dr holland? they're beautiful!
dr holland: you don't understand, newcomer... those stars are dying, that's what they are... everything dies here. even the stars...

tracklist:

01 . dark meat :.: success (diplo’s unsuccessful space dub)
02 . sébastien tellier :.: l’amour et la violence (boys noize remix)
03 . lázaro casanova :.: venganza
04 . felix cartal :.: l’amour
05 . depeche mode :.: just can’t get enough ([?] remix)
06 . dj shadow :.: midnight in a perfect world (hensforth remix)
07 . underworld :.: ringroad (autokratz remix)
08 . simian mobile disco :.: love (beyond the wizard sleeve remix)
09 . liaisons dangereuses :.: los niños del parque (12” mix)
10 . death in vegas :.: aisha
11 . primal scream :.: accelerator

clic derecho :.: descargar :.:
gravity's ra1nbow : why so serious mixtape

This one's pretty essential, a half-hour Miami bass radio set by the one and only DJ Shadow. He did this for the Radio 1 Evening Sessions program, hosted by Steve Lamacq, I believe. You get a nice intro to the Miami sound, which is normally associated with genres that came later like ghettohouse and funk carioca into the booty category. Shadow's set should remind us all how Miami bass has its roots in hip-hop, fitting considering Shadow is one of the most respected and talented names in the game. You'll notice lots of scratching, real raps (not repetitive samples like ghettohouse, say) and that trademark filthiness that set rap free to be as nasty as it wanted to be. There's also the higher tempo and sustained kicks, for those looking to get a blueprint for the sound.

(Pound for Pound)

To this day, that record sits among my top five ever and at that time provided a stark contrast to the gangsta rap that was dominating the air waves.

Shadow's ear for eerie soul and cinematic samples combined with a penchant for hard-hitting yet downtempo beats have placed him in a category unto himself. Below is a collection of videos from some of my favorites tracks. The video for "Midnight in a Perfect World" is amazing and the song makes me want to do one of two things: go surfing or cruise on an open road at sunset with the windows down while bumping this track. "Six Days" is another moody song and the video is just as strange. "Organ Donor" needs no introduction.

I finally got my turntables up to the city this weekend. I'm officially inspired.

"Midnight in a Perfect World"

*note: not original vid, but well made.

"Six Days"

"Organ Donor"

Californian hip hop producer and DJ Josh Davis is better known as the influencial DJ Shadow, a highly skilled mixer and considered a hugely important player in the development of instrumental hip hop and trip hop. Walkie Talkie, a track taken from his second full-length album The Private Press, makes for a great Audiosurf course - the bouncy hip hop beat creates an undulating track with a happy mix of fast and slow sections. Short but sweet.

Walkie Talkie is available to download from the good people at 7 Digital.

where people from Bob Dylan to Miles Davis have shown up in the past.    With a great view from anywhere, the crowd was lively, and the visuals gave you a sense of Dj history and future, with exploding iPods and all.  

  To people who don't understand DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist as musicians here are some clues:

    1) they perform with live 45's on the spot and keep the music flowing by creating loops on the record themselves with strategically placed tape.  With the exception of only a few loop pedals and echo effects, they do everything by hand (like a guitar player, right?) including queuing, syncing, blending, mixing, cutting, all difficult as hell.    

2) To say this doesn't require an equivalent amount of skill to say, a 'traditional' instrument, is to display one's ignorance and miss the point.  Like any artist they must immerse themselves in the music and contact their materials daily, practicing, brainstorming, planning, executing and finally performing and presenting their work to an audience.  They make it look easy, which is the idea behind any player who practices to the bone to give the best experience possible.    

3) Finally, their originality comes from their choice of song, their interplay and participation with an audience, and of course how they put all the tracks and the live show, including visuals together.  The hours poured into finding records, listening to them, linking them takes amazing effort.  They 'write' songs with this effort by combining existing sounds to generate a new and unique experience.     

A copy of a copy, the hyper extension of modernity in the form of vinyl pressings, exponential growth, a cyber mental experience within some tools of modernity, i.e. record players, records, video  screens, trains, planes, buses, and over-sized speakers.  All magnify and re-examine modernity from the post-hyper-modern digital Tech 21st Century lens. 

 I am defending a culture I love and wish others could open up to this music, so this is my attempt to educate. enjoy

Hell yes the show was inspiring and more than entertainment.

Depois de toda a expectativa criada em torno do novo projeto One Day As A Lion, parceria do vocalista do Rage Against The Machine, Zack de La Rocha, com o baterista do The Mars Volta, Jonh Theodore, o EP com cinco faixas acabou vazando na internet. A equipe do Subsom teve acesso ao material e, apesar de empolgada com a volta do zapatista aos palcos, se decepcionou um pouco com o que ouviu. A verdade é que quem for procurando um novo álbum do Rage Against The Machine, nos moldes de Rage Against The Machine, clássico disco de 1992, vai se frustrar.

Ao contrário do Rage, One Day As A Lion conta apenas com a bateria de Theodore e a voz de Zack de La Rocha, que também toca piano/sintetizadores, mas isso não quer dizer que o material seja ruim. De La Rocha criou um EP extremamente cru – apesar dos muitos sintetizadores – coisa que, apesar de não ter a participação de um Tom Morello, tem potencial para agradar a maioria dos fãs do Rage Against The Machine. Por ser excessivamente menos complexo que o The Mars Volta, o mais provável é que a recíproca não seja verdadeira.

Como foi citado acima, o disco não contém nenhum dos solos e riffs costumeiros de Morello, substituídos aqui por um incessante sintetizador que se limita a repetir batidas programadas, o que acaba por incomodar bastante. Wild Internacional, primeira faixa disponibilizada pela banda em sua página de myspace, mostra Theodore (como de costume) muito bem na bateria, com uma pegada garagista bem menos quebrada que a característica do The Mars Volta. De La Rocha mantém sua postura política esquerdista e, felizmente, sua voz continua exatamente a mesma: rasgada, gritada, com a mesma raiva dos tempos áureos do Rage Against The Machine. É, antes de tudo, um trabalho, digamos assim, intimista de De La Rocha, que despeja o discurso anti-capitalista em um rap-rock (alguns fãs já falam em alternative hip hop) com batida industrial.

A segunda faixa do disco, Ocean View não traz muitas novidades, repetindo a fórmula da primeira música. Já em Last Letter, a coisa muda um pouco de figura. A música é mais trabalhada e encorpada que as duas primeiras e ainda conta com uma brincadeira de Zack nos sintetizadores, que até lembra um pouco uma boa e velha guitarra. Em IF You Fear Dying, o tom industrial dos pesados sintetizadores contrastam muito bem com a voz furiosa do vocalista e os pedais duplos de Theodore. Mais uma vez, parece que aqui acertaram a mão. Na última faixa e homônima ao disco, One Day As A Lion, a fórmula se mantém, não merecendo grandes comentários.

O que é perceptível é que a dupla funciona bem e que há potencial no projeto. Outra coisa bastante flagrante é a mão (no caso as mãos) de Theodore, baterista-polvo que deve fazer um estrago tocando as cinco faixas ao vivo. Apesar de promissor, o EP é irregular e o incansável uso dos sintetizadores (marca do projeto) acaba cansando os fãs que aguardavam algo parecido com o RATM. O disco foi lançado no último dia 22 de julho, nos Estados Unidos, e não tem previsão de chegada no Brasil.

O nome da banda foi retirado de uma fotografia em preto e branco do fotógrafo norte-americano George Rodriguez, que mostra uma parece branca no violento distrito de Boyle Heights, em Los Angeles, com os dizeres: “é melhor viver um dia como um leão que mil anos como um cordeiro”. O EP foi gravado por Robert Carranza no estúdio Once Way Recording.

Segundo De La Rocha, ativista político e admirador do guerrilheiro mexicano Emiliano Zapata, “trata-se de uma reflexão visceral entre um ambiente cultural pitoresco e uma realidade socioeconômica brutal”. Antes de formar a One Day As A Lion, Zack De La Rocha estava - ao contrário dos outros membros da Rage Against The Machine, que formaram a Audioslave - fora dos holofotes e se limitou a fazer trabalhos com o DJ Shadow e com Trent Reznor, do Nine Inch Nails.

It's hard for me to judge a DJ performance, having only seen a few. I went to this concert with a love for DJ Shadow's Endtroducing . . . and respect for Chemist's work with Jurrasic 5. I had seen videos of Chemist performing, and thought it would be cool. I was mainly there for DJ shadow, however. The show was interesting, but I wouldn't say it was anything special. Honestly, I would have loved to have just heard some Endtroducing tracks or just a set of darker more Shadowy mixes, but because it was a "Hard Sell" show, there was none of that to be found. What we got instead, which was explicitly explained by the informative video prior to the performance, was mixes of popular songs found on 45"s only. It was very cool to watch the two of them mix these records live, using nothing but some type of tape(used to create live loops), effects pedals, mixers, and record players to do it, but at the same time, the songs weren't so great. After all, it is about the music, not about how difficult it is to create the outcome. Some of the stuff didn't even sound so good. For two of the most famous underground DJs of all time, the music did not sound as spot on as it should have. There were, however, some very nice mash-ups, but nothing blew me away, although the songs got progressively better as the night went on. I liked the darker more psychedelic stuff they began working with towards the end. Also, it was very cool when the two emerged from their workspace with portable, neck strap equipped, 45" players which whirred and whizzed with each scratch.

Aside from the music, the visuals on the screens behind them did catch my attention. Dozens of cameras captured them at work, including one on Cut Chemist's wrist that contributed a shaky shot of his scratching. All of these shots were at times layered together to create a psychedelic amalgamation of visuals on the two screens behind the DJs.

It was fun to watch Shadow and Chemist at work, I just wish that the music had done a little more for me. Definitely not a bad, show, just nothing extraordinary. What they were doing obviously takes a great deal of talent and hard work, but the music is most important, and it could have been stronger.

So, I posted about this show before I even went, because I was so excited. So now I feel like I must do a little diddy of a short re-cap. The Show: Amazing. The Crowd: Surprisingly Cool. Ms. Girl Friday buying mini's of booze to sneak in: Brilliant. The Cheeseburger for dinner: Blew. Brooklyn Brewery being there to make me forget the cheeseburger that blew: Priceless. The opener for the show was The Mighty Underdogs which contained no other than Captain Blackalicious himself, The Gift of Gab, who surprised everyone when he brought out Mr. Lif for a little collabo. Gab even did Alphabet Acrobatics, if you don't know that song, you're tired, go home and get some rest. The show started really late and Girl Friday had to leave early because of work. So I was solo from there on. You know what? I still had a fucking amazing time. That's a rare experience folks, that and seeing the drunkest couple ever roll around on the ground and dance like cavemen when they first discovered fire (seriously that's the best analogy I can think of, it was beyond description). Okay, solo at a show, with no money for more beer or snacks (because Girl Friday left) due to my accounts being frozen due to a robbery a while back (fuck those guys) and it still was awesome. Not so awesome: A polish lady getting really mad at you because you realize don't have enough money to pay for a kielbasa after you order it. The dude who asked me to bum a smoke 3 times. The chick on stilts walking through the crowd and her little friends that kept throwing glowing hula hoops in front of my face. Regardless, still one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. So I will say this one last time, if you can catch this show....serious. Check out some pics that I found on the ol' internets when you click that link right HERE:

Il regista è Jonathan Glazer, la "band" gli U.n.k.l.e. (uno dei tanti pseudonimi del produttore brittanico Dj Shadow). Una delle prime produzioni che abbandonano definitivamente la forma del videoclip tradizionale a vantaggio di una sua ibridazione con il cortometraggio.
Una chicca di dieci anni fa (1998).

Quand Steinski  arrive en plein milieu d'une scène hip hop alors naissante, c'est un peu un chien dans un jeu de quilles. Lors du fameux concours orchestré par le label Tommy Boy qu'avec Double Dee il va remporter haut la main, son âge canonique (32 ans) et son abscence totale de street credibility en font l'E.T. de service (le film de Spielberg est encore tout chaud à l'époque). Il aura pourtant en quelques minutes donné une leçon de grammaire qui va laisser bouché-bée les morveux d'alors... le hip hop a alors 5 ou 6 ans. Pourtant, il y a peu de chance que vous connaissiez celui qui a changé (inventé?) de DJing moderne. Pour des raisons évidentes de droits ses morceaux aux 100 000 samples n'ont jamais circulé que sous le manteau ou alors ont suivi des voies bis : radio, disques gratuits, white labels etc... Avant l'ère internet, il fallait être sacrement averti (en gros être un spécialiste de hip hop qui lit Wire) ou alors être là par hasard au bon moment -pas sur que, par chez nous, Sydney ait jamais évoqué son nom. Depuis quelques années, le P2P a permis d'avoir accès facilement à ces morceaux fondateurs et souvent cités (de De La Soul à DJ Shadow), qui réussissent le tour de force d'être à la fois à construire des grooves imparables et à construire des mosaïques que ne renierait pas John Oswald.  Mais grâce à cette compil, il sera enfin possible d'explorer plus amplement un parcours de deux décennies : de la pierre philosophale (The Payoff Mix) à des mixes plus récents plus faciles d'accès comme le Nothing To Fear déjà disponible en CD, en passant par nombreux incunables.

There's some light reading on this little gadget but it's worth it to know what the hell it is :P Hypebeast has the info.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT sleep on this. This is a limited engagement that is a turntablist wet dream of epic proportions. DJ SHADOW has teamed up with CUT CHEMIST and are currently touring their live show "The Hard Sell" with only a few dates left on the roster. This incredibly inventive show presents live mixes only using original vintage 45's (bonkers, i know), 8 turntables, 4 mixers, guitar peddles, effects box and visual projections that mix in live video of the masters at work. These guys are living legends of the genre. If you live within 300 miles of any of these cities go to this show. Go. Now. Buy Tickets. Shush...I don't want hear any excuses. You will thank me. Still Pondering? What did I say? No excuses! I'm going to be at this show tonight in the epicenter of tight jean hipsterdom where most will act like they are too cool for it, even though they bought tickets. Where the words, "why isn't he, like, using cd's. They totally sound better" will be heard at least twice. Where many, who just stole their parents records out of the basement and now call it their "collection", will be posturing about "b-sides" while muttering, "I have that track" after a positive crowd reaction. Where boisterous stories of turntablism that begin with, "I was DJ'ing this party" leave out the other half of the sentence "at my friends house" will fill the night air. All this, rolled into one, with some chick screaming the whole time on her cell phone trying to find her friends, and I'M STILL FUCKING EXCITED TO GO! So no excuses. Go to the website. Tickets. Thank me later. Check out some of the videos from the tour by clicking that link right HERE:

O EP de lançamento do projeto, que terá o mesmo nome da banda e cinco músicas, tem data de lançamento marcada para o próximo dia 22 nos Estados Unidos. Em pouco menos de dez horas, a faixa foi ouvida mais de 47 mil vezes e conquistou a maior parte dos fãs do Rage Against The Machine.

A maioria comemorou Wild Internacional e alguns até consideraram a faixa parecida com as de The Battle Of Los Angeles, debut do RATM, de 1992, e considerado por muitos o melhor trabalho do grupo.

Antes de formar a One Day As A Lion, Zack De La Rocha estava - ao contrário dos outros membros da Rage Against The Machine, que formaram a Audioslave - fora dos holofotes e se limitou a fazer trabalhos com o DJ Shadow e com Trent Reznor, do Nine Inch Nails.

E aí, o que você achou?

(stamattina un piccione è entrato in casa, dalla finestra. mi sono detta che è un buon segno, anche se non credo ai segni)

Music: DJ Shadow - building steam with a grain of sand