It is true, I have been a neglectful, terrible blogger. Ooops, muh bad. Have no fear though, I am redoubling my efforts make get good music, art and a slough of random thoughts up here. Bring back the Friday Mix Down and maybe twist a few arms to get the other fine folks who click keys to clack away a few things to make your RSS feed jingle with merriment and your download manager buzz with excitment. Can we do it? Yes we can.

Item One:

Seeing Colors Mix Tape
This has been out for a bit, but I’m just getting to giving it a listen. Thrown down by Ghostly label head Sam Valenti IV (SV4) and Michna it is well worth your time.
Tracklist =
Orbital - Halcyon & On & On (FFRR)
Joey Beltram - Enegy Flash (R+S)
The Persuader - What’s The Time, Mr Templar (Svek)
Sascha Funke - Safety First (Kompakt)
Pantha Du Prince - Suzan (Dial)
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk (Zanza)
Gino Soccio - Remember (Atlantic)
Giorgio Moroder - The Chase (Casablanca)
Der Zyklus -Elektronisches Zeitecho (Gigolo)
I-F - Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass (Interdimensional Transmissions)
Kraftwerk - Numbers (WEA)
Air - Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi (Dopplereffekt Mix) (Source)
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts (Maxi Single Live Version) (Mute)
The Smiths - Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before (Rough Trade)
The Cure - Close To Me (WEA)
The Cure - Close To Me (Closest Remix) (WEA)

Item Two:

drewfunk and artist now residing in Melbourne is doing some excellent excellent graffiti inspired work. Have a look.
drewfunk’s website
drewfunk’s flickr photstream

Item Three:

Akina, out of Australia is re-imagining fairy tales and making hand made books to illustrate them. I think it is brilliant and I want one, badly.

Well that is all for now, there will be more to come on a more reliable schedule. I promise.
xo

Here is a really solid mini-mentary from the Ghostly Camp

Ghosts of Techno: Ghostly International from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

I have been a loyal subscriber to the Blogariddims podcast from damn near the start of their impressive run. They have constantly provided some of the most diverse, compelling, at times challenging and always entertaining podcasts with thoughtful prose to accompany the mixes. So it is with heavy heart that this week ushers in the end. Playing host to such disparate ‘mixologists’ as Driod + Slug, Dj Flack, The Heatwave Collective, Gutterbreakz, Wayne and Wax, John Eden and SO many more (*editors note: most of those links will take you to more personal eulogies for Blogariddims by those fine artists who have staked claim to it’s shores.)

I urge you to visit Blogariddim’s home on the web if you are unfamiliar with this monster of an online institution and sink your ears into some serious music. I PROMISE you will not be disappointed.
Some of my favorite mixes over the past few years are these:

Belated bigups for this excellent contribution to the series courtesy of Boston based DJ Flack. A multi-genre maelstrom, and another Ableton masterclass (following Wayne’s and Paul Autonomic’s contributions last year), this episode is a real labour of love which spans multiple styles and decades in consumate style. As Flack says:

In the spirit of “Beat Research” I made it a point to switch genres with each new addition and was particularly open to playing tracks at odd speeds. Another thing I wanted to do was include some of my favorite songs that are outside of the hip-hop/electronica world but that mean a lot to me personally - I was psyched to include tracks from two of my all time favorite records; “Double Nickels on the Dime” by the Minutemen and “Remain in Light” by the Talking Heads. I like to take advantage of the fact that we have the entire history of recorded music at our fingertips and put older music in a new context…

Get the mix here. Read the notes here, check out the tracklisting here (theres a nice little extra when you rollover it), and leave your comments here. Things are heating up with an excellent start to this years contributions, and heres hoping the next episode (from yours truly) keeps up the high standards!

We’ve always had an interest in local talent and from when we started buying records in the ’90s we were drawn to rappers like Blak Twang, Rodney P and Roots Manuva, whose lyrics described life in urban Britain and made reference to the peculiarities of British culture. The received wisdom then was that MCing could only be done well by Americans and at the time many UK rappers seemed compelled to adopt mid-Atlantic accents. We felt, and still feel, that one of the best ways in which British MCs can really and fashion their own identity was and is to draw on the unique relationship that the UK has with the Caribbean.

Read the rest and grab the mix over at Heatwave.

There is really SO much more but that gives you place to start. It was a good run Blogariddims thanks for all the music!

Part 2 if you want to see more
’nuff said.

What’s up bitches? My apologies to Nate for not posting in a while, I have no excuse, but I will try make up for it tonight. The RNC ran thru our twin cities a couple weeks ago and brought a lot of shitty people to the area, but also brought a lot of good music in protest. BlackSanta and myself got to see all 4 original members of the Pharcyde, Mos Def and Atmosphere, and 2 days later got to see the concert of my life so far in seeing Rage Against the Machine for the 2nd time. We also had a show in between those 2 where Matisyahu and Dead Prez played, and Rage made and appearance but weren’t allowed to play cuz the police were scared. Someone did give them a magaphone tho and they did a little improv performance…

The copper presence in Minneapolis/St. Paul for the week of the RNC was ridiculous. If you’ve ever played Metal Gear Solid, you will know what this is about -

- it was like this all over both downtown areas….minus the exclamation points. The night of the Rage show it just got worse, riot cops were surrounding the target center getting ready for what turned out the be a peaceful night for the most part. Inside the pit however, it was not so peaceful. I was about 30 ft from the stage for the entire show and I paid for it, I still have bruises and was sore for about a week afterward but it was well worth it. This video shows the majority of the show with a minute or so of each song…

Moving on,  but still on the subject of politics, check out this dope Obama shirt…available at 5 and a Dime.

For my Wayne track of the moment, I’m gonna have to go with the Cookin Soul remix of A Mille. Nextly, a couple tracks from the d-block boys Jada and Styles P….D-Block and the Lox crew are back, they’ve been puttin out a lot of good shit lately….my 2 favs recenty have been Jada and Hova - Who Run This? and some hotness from Styles P - The Gunman.

Next we have the classic battle of printer vs. cat….guess who wins…

I’ll leave you all with a little clip showing you how much I love you all. I’ve got chubbs for you

they’re mini - mini chubs, for you….all of you. Word to your motherrrrrrrr!?