Practice, practice, practice

Last couple of weeks I have been very busy practicing my turntable skills (as I have mentioned earlier). This is due to my new equipment which seems to work quite well. Yesterday I dug some old hard techno records from the vaults and gave them a spin. Boy was that fun!!!

It´s funny how I now notice the big difference playing different styles of music. When spinning house or trance you have to try to find suitable moments to enter and use the intros and outros to create a constant flow. You also have take care of the harmonies, check out the places where there is breaks and remember if any vocals have been used. It´s very usefull if you are aware about the composition of the full track and know for example where the bass drops for the first time. I have now got used to make the transitions using individual channel sliders and using the EQ knobs only to drop certain levels down. This seems work particularly well at the moment.

Overall you have to try to make wholescale compositions with the tracks and it´s usefull to plan the setup in advance. The whole thing turns upside down when the style changes to techno. Now this is real improvisation, all I have to know is that the tracks are basically in the same tempo range. The rest is just picking basslines and percussions from one track and embedding them to the next! And now the EQ turns into a playstation! I can keep two tracks playing at the same time and let the drums fuse into a different sounding mutant of driving monster dancetune! Yesterday was the first time that I thought it would be nice to own third turntable to make transitions easier and still keeping the playfullness alive! I believe that I would be able to learn to use this kind of setup to create nice oldskool techno experience.

Offcourse I´m aware that this is nothing new to anyone deep in the game, but I wanted to share the revelation I got from these recent sessions!

Superstitious Technomix

Here we go again! This time it´s all about rave and hard trance from the 90´s! I must admit that this mix was all but easy to make and there are lots of bad shifts from track to another (I will listen this few times and if it sounds horrible I will record it again). Fortunately all the songs are excellent! And this is yet again 100% vinyl and 0% Digital bullshit !-D (yeah yeah, really wish I could afford to buy cd-players!).

During those times producers used to create very hard, strange and often long atmospheric intros and outros. They sound wonderfull if listened separately but make the continuous mix very complicated to create. The tempo was often pretty hard. I started this mix with negative pitch but still ended up having problems with some tracks that I had chosen. Few songs had also several excellent and actually quite different remixes and I had to make some compromises to manage to create good flow (for example, I would have wanted to use Mijk van Dijk remix of the Hypnotist´s song, but it was way too hard to mix in that point of set). I also had to change the first track to Future. I would have wanted to use Velocity - Lust from the other side of the 12" but it had REALLY weird last half and was virtually impossible to mix into anything with my current skills.

Anyway here is the tracklist:

01 Velocity - Future (Superstition)
02 Jens - Loops & Tings (Remix) (Superstition)
03 Marmion - Schöneberg (Marmion Remix) (Superstition)
04 Paragliders - Paraglide (Blue Sky Mix) (Superstition)
05 Steve Maison Experience Movement - Let There Be Rhythm (Mix To Heaven) (Think Green)
06 Three´n One - Reflect (Misjah Remix) (Low Spirit)
07 Lords of Octagon - Open da House (DMD)
08 Virus - Sun (Jam El Mar Remix) (Perfecto)
09 Quench - Dreams (Sirius Music)
10 The Hypnotists - House is Mine ´96 (Baby Doc Remix) (Rising High)
11 Lunatic Asylum - Meltdown 2000 (Hitch Hiker & Dumontdt´s "Love" Mix (Nebula)

TEKKNO LINK

- edit -
Just listened this once trough and there is some slighly irritating mistakes but nothing too horrible. Bigger problem seems to be that I recorded this a bit too loud. Therefore some clipping occurs and the levels wander little.

Recent activities

It´s all gone, Pete Tong

A co-worker gave this movie for me to watch. I was happy because I have been thinking of checking this out some time already. It was bit of a disappointment though. I´m a huge fan of clubbing movies such as Human Traffic, 24 Hour Party People and Studio 54 and I was expecting something in the similar vein. In a way I got it but the big problem there was that I personally see clubbing as a exceptionally good way to express your self by dancing and trough music and this film was from the beginning only the debauchery of disgusting people in the dirty side of the game. The main character does not change into good person by logic transition. The evolving goes a bit imblausible ways. The best thing however is the producer who has all the really bad and really good qualities tied together. Overall it was ok entertainment but was lacking the credibility for actual change of the characters.

Tuulamon tortut (or Mokkapalat)

I got these pastries for my birthday present and I´m not able to describe how much I love the taste of them! Everyone seems to have their own name for the square pastries topped with cacao and butter cream and nonpareils. This time the nonpareils were citrus flavored to give them a slightly different edge. I could just munch hundreds of these! The big secret here is that you should put the fresh baked things into fridgerator and keep them there for two days. Taste multiplies in this time and the sweetness goes straight to the base.

Mystery videos

Can´t describe what this video is about. It´s way too deep into some insane businesses. The only important thing is that it has music made by Error vs Toshiba (though the videos says that it is solely made by Error which is wrong or even error).

Error vs Toshiba - Green / Purple (Video)

This one is a rare Error vs Toshiba video. Heavily influenced by some german hardcore techno, Green / Purple is part of the more aggressive side of this semi-legendary boy band´s material!



Lego animation has always been big favourite of the ever experimenting posses repertuare. Following short video is also embedded in one of the guys music videos. I will upload that too if I can find it...

Nightmare Helsinki Records

I used to make music with trackers years ago (alone and with some friends). When I did things solo, I decided to create a "record label" to release the results. back then I lived in Helsinki, hence the name. The nightmare part comes from my favourite band C-Tank. Unfortunately most of my trax are now gone since my previous computer broke down and I couldn´t save the songs. I may have some of these backed up in some obscure cdr somewhere and if I happen to find them I will most definately put them available here. Anyway here´s the first seven covers of these releases (I know these are pretty amateurish but I don´t really care).

Actually about the not caring part, a little bit of philosophy: I personally think that it is more important to do things than worry about the quality of the output. If someone doesn´t like the stuff they are always allowed to ignore it. Perhaps I should write a separate essay about this thing and particularly from the music point of view.

I also have to admit that I was more concerned about inventing funny song titles and photoshopping covers than actually producing music. Therefore only part of the releases ever were finalized. I used to get music done only when I was producing it with my friends.

I will write more about the software and equipment we used later if I find at least some of the lost tapes....

Learning the Art of Mixing

Today was yet again time to rehearse my mixing skills. I have been Djing years in various occasions but haven´t ever really tried to enhance my ability to play smooth shifts from track to another mainly because it takes some time and patient to really advance in this field.

Anyway now that I have found the time I´m struggling to get better results. There are some things that make the progress slow. First I have always thought that I have some knowledge about which songs would fit together but at the same time I think that playing should be improvising and not to program your setup in advance. I have noticed now that when my skills to find correct beats is not that good (and especially fast enough) I really should not improvise. Today I tried to make a soft oldskool progressive house mix with lush and interesting beats but in the middle the set turned into a "kiksu" mayhem with no logic and actually wrong versions of somewhat good tracks.

It´s just that when I get the feeling to play tracks I don´t seem to have the patience to do my homework and plan the set ready to play. Todays set was also way too fast because I somehow didn´t notice that the first track was quite upbeat.

I´ve got quite a lot of breakbeat tracks too that I should try to include in these mixes. It´s just yet another thing that would need more training.

The good thing is that my setup seems to work now pretty well. I also have some ideas about dubstep, electro and techno and acid mixes that I should try soon. And it seems that I´m missing some tracks that I have always wanted to own and include in some mixes so I should probably check some of these from discogs...

My Setup

Because music is one of the main reasons to write this blog I hereby present my setup and collection to give some idea in what level I´m on at the "game". My collection is somewhat problematic in terms of form. First of all I collect music in all the possible formats. I have a huge collection of CD:s and particularly CD singles (which is probably the most dead format of all) but I also do have a huge set of vinyls! Here is some pictures to give you the idea.




I have lot´s of MP3´s and even C-Cassettes but those are not the preferred formats at the moment. I have recently updated my setup the way that I hope 12" vinyl would gain advantage in the future.

About the setup: I have two Technics SL-1200 MK2 direct drive turntables. These are the so called industry standard (even though Panasonic announced last autumn that they will end the production of these classics). The ones that I own are real warhorses that have been in a professional use for years. I bought them used from a good friend of mine about six years ago (the joke here is that I have been collecting vinyl way over ten years and didn´t have any kind of turntables before).




Recently I bought new Headshells and Cartridges because the old ones had worn out and actually rusted trough. Both headshells are Technics´s own but the Cartridges are from Stanton and Ortofon. Stanton one is a classic 500-II model. It´s trustworthy and strong and will not brake easily. Problem is propably on the sound side that is not as dynamic and good as some hifi people would like these to be.

Stanton 500-II

The other one is Ortofon Night Club MKII. This one I bought last week and haven´t tried that much yet but it really feels good. I had some other ideas about this cartridge but got this one pretty cheap as it was slightly used.

Ortofon Night Club MKII

Weakest link in the setup is my mixer. It´s quite old Gemini PS-626 Pro-2 model. Here is a short list of problems I´m having with this at the moment: It has a ground noise that comes and goes without any logic reason. It sometimes loses left channel sound from all the main channels. The cross fader leaks from both sides. Most of the knobs feel like they are not properly attached. And the whole feeling is cheepish... I´m probably going to invest in a new mixer soon.



Here is my soundsystem: The old and reliable Technics Rack that I bought over fifteen years ago! I really don´t have anything to complain about this, it just rocks! The speakers could be better but they are good enough.



I also have Sennheiser HD25-1 II headphones. At the moment I don´t have proper cd players but I´m thinking of getting one or two. Anyway, since I bought the new cartridges and such, I have had new kind of inspiration to play with my records. Hopefully this enthusiasm is here to stay!

Rare Exports

I´m not a big fan of Finnish film industry and the last time I went to see a finnish movie in a theater was almost ten years ago. Yesterday we decided to go and check out Rare Exports and damn did my hopes for the better Finnish films increase a lot!

Yes, yes, it´s the different kind of Christmas movie and it has all the elements that a good fantastic film needs! The basic idea is excellent: Coca Cola did not invent Santa or "Joulupukki" that refers more to a goat than a red hooded fellow with sales on mind. Film is trying to avoid cliches and in places where it drifts to these territories it has a different angle.

Rare Exports is combination of horror images, ruffness of Lappland life, extremely beautifull landscapes, a real dramatic course with simple reasoning and therefore genuine feeling of alive people and fantastic sequences of imagination. But the greatest thing is the cast! These actors are definately the greatest that are available in Finland at the moment and Tommi Korpela leads the pack!

I remember years ago when I saw the Maximillian Tarzan and Ukkonen short movies and thought that it would be extremely good thing to let these guys to direct feature films. I was however convinced that it would never happen due to local film industry being driven by such a scheme that was concentrated on copying basic dramatic lines from international blocbusters and avoiding own ideas. It was kind of like the local music industry suffering years of "iskelmä" based music and supporting classical training in, for example singing.

Now that we are seeing movies made in internet (Star Wreck, Iron Sky) and the technique coming closer to the everyday users hands I´m hopefull that the big screen films would get competition from enthusiastic hobbyists that would throw all the assumptions to trash bins and do lots of low budget movies that would be out of the box and have some really fantastic elements tied to them. And form the local and fresh viewpoint too!

All Hooj Choons mix vol. 1

Now this one is the real first instalment of my Old Skool mix series. It´s all about my favourite label: HOOJ CHOONS! The mix is 100% vinyl mix and I´m finally quite proud of this. There were some mistakes and bit too hasty changes but overall it went quite well. Hooj Choons will be my target for several other mixes in the future too...

01 HOOJ 72R Jark Prongo - Moving Trough Your System (Slacker Software System remix)
02 HOOJ 59 Viper - The Twister (DEA Remix)
03 HOOJ 47 Antic - The Ultimate (Original)
04 HOOJ 92 Medway - Airacobra
05 HOOJ 127 Gardner & Thomas - Turn To Try (Full Vox)
06 HOOJ 119R Flash Brothers - Captured (Joshua Collins Remix)
07 HOOJ 120 Echomen - Truth (Original Mix)
08 HOOJ 132R Echomen - Thru 2 You (Original Vocal Mix)
09 HOOJ 111P 16B - Escape (Driving To Heaven) (Omid´s Full Vocal Mix)
10 HOOJ 93 Pete Lazonby - Sacred Cycles (Quiver Mix)

LINK

Power Grid -boardgame

I have not had too much time and opportunities to play board games recently. Fortunately last friday we tried Power Grid for the second time. It´s just incredibly good and addicting game. I had similar thoughts about it from the first time around but now that we tried it again I´m very convinced! This is at the moment the greatest board game available!

The game itself is somewhat complicated at the beginning, but the complex rules are quite intuitive in the end. The idea is to compete against other players about building power plants and to provide energy materials to them.

You are constantly trying to manage your limited monetary resources to buy better plants, to provide fuel for the said plants and also to create a sufficient chain of plants around the map with cities that are connected with power grid. You will also need to count the costs for moving electricity between cities.

The greatest thing in this business is the logic behind buying fuel for the plants. This has been designed following the logic guidelines from the real life system where the costs rise if some material is more wanted that the others. For example in the beginning of the game the coal is very cheap material to use for your plants, but if everyone concentrates to build coal burning plants the prices will go sky high and the availability of the material may diminish or even end totally. At the same time some better materials, like burning carbage, is cheaper in every following turn. And if you manage to get hold of wind turbines, they do not need fuel at all (though they are quite hard to get and the bidding for these plants are furious). Only complain is that the game developer gives bit too much advantage for using nuclear plants.

My player opponent also thought that it would be good idea to create a sales logic to sell the rights to pollution levels.

We have now tried this game with 4 and 5 people and both seemed to work very well. The game play was also quite different both times and there was no straight forward winning method available. Actually the games were very intensive to the final rounds and it was never obvious that someone would be in better position than the others in the end game. The game takes pretty long time, both times over 3 hours, but it was never dull in any point of the game.

More information about the game from here:
Power Grid @ Boardgame Geek