Sitting here listening to the latest De Phazz album “Days of Twang” and I have to say that I’m somewhat surprised. These guys are prolific producers but I felt that their sound had been getting old lately. Their latest effort is a welcome surprise. A little jazzier then even some of their previous stuff but much more musical all-together. Check them out when you get a chance.
Time now for this month’s Vee Mix. It starts off quite retro with a great remake of the Talking Head’s “Burning Down the House” by one of my favorite Canadian Artists “Tiga“. Then from a reworked Depeche Mode right into Royksopp…..you know, the song from that Geico commercial. Then we’re into some newer music before we’re back in the 80’s with a remake of the one hit wonder Freeez. Out with some ragga and dub stylin’. Enjoy.
1. Finest Dreams (Featuring Kelis) – Richard X
2. Burning Down The House – Tiga
3. Dare – Gorillaz
4. Leave In Silence – Depeche Mode
5. Remind Me – Royksopp
6. Losing My Religion (2006 Shelter Vocal Mix) – R.E.M.
7. Girls In Hats – The Loose Cannons
8. Night Music – Linus Loves
9. Going Nowhere (Whitey Remix) – Cut Copy
10. IOU 2005 (Livewater Club Anthem Vocal) – Freeez
11. Jump N Twist – Freestylers
12. Dancehall Priority – Dreadzone
The band DEPHAZZ (formerly De-Phazz) is well known in Europe with six previous albums under their belt and an extensive touring schedule. Clever and campy, downbeat and jazzy, their albums have garnered two Echo award nominations (German Grammys) and numerous top ten/twenty chart positions in Germany but they have only released two albums stateside (on Watermusic Records). They have licensed music for many commercial ad campaigns throughout Europe and have appeared on over 150 compilations worldwide.
“Days of Twang” is considerably more pop/rock driven than their previous releases and is guided by the retro viewpoint of bandleader Pit Baumgartner’s musical roots. Featuring longtime vocal collaborators Barbara Lahr, Pat Appleton and Karl Frierson, this collection spans genres and moods for a truly intoxicating experience.
Apple had a great thing going with iTunes but as with anything that gets too popular and too big, the latest version of iTunes is just too bloated and uses way too much memory to be an effective media player. When I first started using iTunes a few years ago the application was less than 20mb and didn’t use much memory at all. Now, it’s almost 40mb and a complete memory hog. Apple is trying to make iTunes your one stop shopping program. Not only music, but podcasts and video and now it’s also incorporated with Apple TV. All this just makes iTunes impractical if you just want to play music and nothing else.
Every so often I get update messages for the latest version of iTunes, and I tried updating to version 5.0 when that came out and it just totally messed up my computer. My drivers were all messed up and I couldn’t burn a cd in iTunes or with Record Now. I tried to delete 5.0 but deleting the program didn’t fix the issue with my drivers. I ended up having to do a clean install which was a complete pain in the ass. Anyway, after all the hassles I put iTunes 4.9 back on my computer and never had a problem again.
I hardly ever buy any songs from iTunes because of the crappy DRM and AAC format they use, but I found something recently that was only available on iTunes and I couldn’t purchase it because Apple wants me to have the latest version of iTunes to be able to download songs from their store. That’s completely preposterous! Now they are forcing consumers into using their latest software. I wonder if that’s even legal?
Anyway, if you have a new computer and you want to download iTunes, do not go past version 4.9 if you want a problem free media player. If you want all the other functionality and you have a lot of RAM, go for it, but I tell you……it’s a dog.
Audiophiles have complained forever about the loss of sound quality because of the compression and I’m not going to argue that. People complained about the warmth of a song on a vinyl record being lost when the cd came out, but going from cd to mp3 was a much bigger loss. Luckily bandwidth has improved so much in the last couple of years that downloading and using any music in less than 192Kbps is a complete waste of time. If more music was available in 320 Kbps we would have music that is audibly almost as good as the original wav file from a store bought cd.
Funny thing that with all this modern technology we are creating a whole generation of people who walk around listening to music with their ear buds that, in simple terms, is the difference between AM and FM radio. I remember joking that my dad had AM or Mono ears because he couldn’t tell the difference when stereo first came out.
Ironic how a whole generation grew up listening to High Fidelity records and cd’s and now the latest generation is growing up listening to lousy sound quality songs from the iTunes store. In my mind the record labels made a huge marketing mistake by not using the sound quality angle. Hey, you can drink a PBR or a nice micro brew. Both are beer, but they’re definitely not the same.
There is an audible difference between an AAC, MP3 and Wav file. Try it at home with a song that you have from the original store bought cd, then make a MP3 version of the song and after that download the same song in AAC format from the iTunes store. Unless you have mono ears like my dad, you’ll hear a clear difference.
If you still don’t believe me, I imported the “Nickodemus” song “Cleopatra In New York – Karuan Remix” into Adobe Audition and you can visually see the difference in quality.
If you’re going to compress your music, only use the highest bit rate MP3 your computer and hard drive can handle. MP3 needs to become the defacto standard in compression. Don’t use AAC. Don’t use WMA.
The 94/7fmArea54 Cocktail Mix at Doug Fir the other week was a blast. We had nice spring weather and set up outside on the back patio. Doug Fir and the Jupiter Hotel are definitely our little slice of South Beach right here in Portland. Can’t wait to do another live broadcast from there this summer! Check out the Cocktail Mix every Tuesday and Friday on 94/7fm in Portland. If you can’t listen live, here’s one of my mixes from earlier this month.
1. D.A.N.C.E (original) – Justice
2. Motif Sky (Extended) – Camouflage
3. Strictly Rude Boy – Thunderball
4. Gunshot Dub – Resin Dogs
5. Dubpusher – Miguel Migs
6. Go (2006 Mix) – Moby
7. Girl and the Sea (Cut Copy Remix) – The Presets
8. Lonely Hearts – Joakim
9. The Creeps (Vandalism Mix) – The Freaks
10. Brain Leech – Alex Gopher
11. Young Folks – Peter Bjorn And John
At this point everyone has probably heard that Apple and EMI have partnered and will offer DRM (digital rights management) free songs on iTunes for 30 cents more than the DRM infected songs they were selling before. Granted, they will be 256Kbps instead of the old 128. However, I was reading conflicting reports whether Apple was going to offer songs in MP3 format or continue to offer songs in their proprietary AAC format. At this point it looks like they are still going to continue selling songs on iTunes in AAC. Honestly, selling songs in AAC is pretty much the same as having DRM. Talk about a bait and switch operation. Apple and EMI get tons of press and all we get is some better quality sounding songs for $1,29?? Seriously, Steve Jobs only needs to fart and the cool-aid drinking press eat it up like it’s the most important news story of the millennium. I know that you Mac die hards out there are probably blowing some fuses but you have to realize that your beloved Apple and their proprietary hardware and software are no different than the boys from Redmond. They are actually better at the game than Microsoft.
So what can you do with AAC files? Play them in iTunes and on your iPod….that’s it! If you want to play them on any other MP3 player you’ll still need to convert the files. Sounds like this new arrangement is still in Apple’s favor. Maybe it’ll get the anti-trust guys in Europe off their backs for a while, but until Apple starts offering DRM free songs in MP3 format, you’re still stuck using their software and hardware. What a thrill to pay more for the same! Thanks Apple!
If you want to purchase real DRM free songs check out www.emusic.com They don’t have all the big labels, but tons and tons of great indie and up and coming acts.
This is a great title for an album. It reminds me of a mix between a pocket Casio and a symphony and that’s really what this album is all about……..it’s an electro symphony! Welcome to “Moon Safari Part II”. Frenchmen, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel have gone back to their lush cinematic sounds of their first album which was something that I felt was missing in Talkie Walkie and 10,000 Hz Legend before that. Most of the dreamy vocals are still performed by our French friends but ‘Pocket Symphony” also adds guests vocalists Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy on a couple of the tracks. “Pocket Symphony” might not go down as a great pop album, but it’s divine dreamy, sleepy time music.
Every Tuesday and Friday I host the 94/7 Area54 Cocktail Mix on 94/7fm. Every last Friday of the month it’s broadcast live from a club or bar in Portland. This month it will be at Doug Fir Lounge on the 30th from 6 until 8pm. Check out dougfirlounge, it has to be one of the coolest clubs in the country. Not only from a design standpoint, but it has some of the most kick ass bands in the country performing there when they come through Portland.
You can check out the Cocktail Mix live if you tune in at 6pm Pacific to 94/7fm. I have been getting a lot of requests to post some of the mixes online and I’m finally giving in and posting a mix from earlier this month. I had to convert it to 96kb so that it wouldn’t eat up too much bandwidth and it’s probably not going to sound great on your big stereo with big ass subs, but that isn’t the point. Remember, if you like some of the music you hear here, go out and support these artists by buying their records.
(Hey You) What’s That Sound – Les Rythmes Digitales
Now here’s some music that I’ve been really digging lately. I’ve heard a bunch of remixes in the past from Zeb, but this is the first full release that I got my hands on and if you’re into the dub, Middle Easten and Afro Beat sound, you’ll have to check out Zeb’s latest album.
Zeb, born of Italian & Gypsy parents, moved to England at an early age of 16 & played guitar with the band “The Indians” at 18. After moving to NYC, Zeb helped start the great party Organic Grooves & has been a key contributor to IRMA Records (Italy), Codek Records, Rhythm Love Records, Turntables on the Hudson & WONDERWHEEL Recordings.
“Stop the Earth, I Want to Get Off!” is an amazing album that spans the world in Eastern Dub & Folk, Bossa, Funk, Afrobeat & everything else that Zeb challenged himself with. Zeb plays Guitar, Oud & Bass.
