Melbourne producer extraordinaire, Blinky, has just uploaded a very special live mix, recorded at Kiss My Grass 2010. Showcasing original tracks and remixes that will be appearing in the coming months on labels such as Epsilon, Baroque and his own label, BeatGeek Records.

Blinky is of Melbourne’s most promising young producers.  Running two record labels (BeatGeek and Highly Evolved), one of the founders of the successful Interview club nights in Melbourne, and half of Def Funk (a collaboration with Def Deigital), Blinky has been going from strength to strength.

It’s shaping up to be a massive 2010 for him, so if you want to support a local artist, and you dig your deep progressive and techno sounds, check out the set.

1. Alva Noto – Xerrox Monophaser 2 & Tommy Four Seven – Surma (T47 Tool) (Hawtin Tsugi100 Intro)

2. Jamie White & Kyle Bourke – Native Origin (Blinky Remix) | BEATGEEK RECORDS…

3. Fiord – Keen String (Blinky Remix) | OPEN RECORDS

4. Blinky – Dance Like Deaf… People | EPSILON TRAX

5. Blinky vs Def Digital – deFUNK | BEATGEEK RECORDS

6. Blinky – Kant | BAROQUE RECORDS

7. Metadeko – Dxpression (Saucy’s Kid To The Rebound Mix) | BELLARINE RECORDINGS

8. Blinky – Loopy | BAROQUE RECORDS

9. Blinky – Kiss Not A Kiss | EPSILON TRAX

Blinky Live at KMG (63) (Right Click, Save as)

Want to know more, follow him on twitter, or check out the profile done on Blinky on The Healthy Party Girl

Down

I pity the guys who have to deal with this on a daily basis.

“Where do you DJ?”

I would get asked this question at least a couple of times per week. Working in the job I’m in, that is to be expected.  I sell DJ equipment, of course customers are going to ask. Funnily enough, i’m not employed because I DJ, I’m employed because I’m organised, can speak to people, and can sell things. So you can imagine the “Where do you DJ?” can get a little bit awkward.

When asked, i usually reel off a few gigs that are coming up, that i help run a night called Substance, or if it’s quiet, just say that I’m busy with uni and can’t do many gigs right now.

With my DJ workload increasing, I’ve been mentioning that I’ve been doing a few bar gigs (nothing massive, but it’s extra cash) and most people kind of brush that off as not real DJ work. If you’re not playing in front of thousands at a festival or a packed club, you’re not doing anything right?

Even I originally brushed off bar work as “easy”.  You just turn up, play commercial cheese right, people love it right? The mixing is like 15-30 seconds, not massively long transitions, that’s easy.

I could never have been more wrong. Bar work is the hardest gig you will ever play. Period.  You try and work with a crowd who are sitting down, and for them, music is only part of the atmosphere.  They aren’t there to see a DJ play, they just don’t care about you. When playing a “club” gig, if you play a track people don’t dig, the dance floor empties, but you’ll find everyone getting a beer rather than rocking out.

You play a poor track at a bar and everyone just fucking leaves. Fuck Me.

This week was a steep learning curve.

Honestly, it felt like a cleared the place.  I played similar tracks to last time, tried to cater to the crowd, but nothing worked.  I don’t know if it was just that night, but no one was into it.

Closing time came, and had I ended up playing to a few peeps who had basically come down to see me. (Cheers @jpoh and @techydude). The whole night was a total eye opener, it takes much more than just great tunes and good skill to gel with a crowd.

Next time you’re at a bar and there’s a DJ who is rocking the place, buy him/her a drink, it’s a fucking hard gig.

I’ve been a big fan of Tarekith for a couple of years, not only does he give a lot of time to the the ALDJ forums as well as free effects plugins for Ableton, but he’s just posted what is possibly the best possible online guide to “playing live”.

It’s a great overview about what is required if you are about to play your first laptop/Ableton/fully live gig, and covers a lot of the things that many first timers forget and fuck up (and a lot of things i still get nervous about!).  This kind of advice only comes from experience (and you know what they say about only having experience right after you needed it right), so read up and take it on board.

It’s probably the best bit of free advice you will ever get.

Tarekith’s guide to playing live V1.o

Got plenty of gigs coming up, and as the summer silly season cranks into full drive, hopefully there will be plenty more!

This Friday, I’m playing Little Peninsula, dropping breaks, electro and house. Ditching Ableton this gig in favour of Serato, so I’ll be rocking it on ACTUAL TURNTABLES. hence I’ve been digging hard into the tunes to work out exactly how I’m going to fill 2 hours, but I’m sure it will be loaded with great tracks i haven’t played for a while

The Details:

Little Peninsula

Friday 23rd October
From 8pm til late.
Drink Specials inc $7.50 cocktails – perfect for getting loose after the 9to5
Playing with my housie MsStylz
Not to mention it’s free

I’ll be back on the Ableton action for Substance, playing heavy tech house and progressive sounds.

Substance

Saturday 31st October
Highlander Bar – Melbourne CBD
From 8pm – 3am
Shitloads of drink specials until 11pm
Playing with the usual suspects from Substance
Free before 9, $5 after.
Fast forward another week and I’ll be back on the records again playing funky breaks to the awesome chilled Sunday arvo vibe that is Regrooved Sundays at Tryst in South Yarra.  If you’re ever in need of a Sunday unwind, chilling outside in the sun with a few beers, it’s hard to go past Regrooved

Sunday 8th November.

Regrooved Sundays – Tryst

4pm til 10pm
Bring 5 people down and get a free bottle of bubbly (which isn’t half bad either )
Playing with the Regrooved boys
Totally free

Totally can’t wait to be behind the decks again

–Rich

It’s a dark and scary town this Melbourne place, with lots of scary corners its a wonder John Brumby hasnt already jumped out at you dressed as Jason from Friday the 13th. Keeping this in mind the substance crew invites all you trick or treater’s to get your ass down to highlander bar for a single room night of pure EDM halloween madness!

Our feature set this month comes from Substance’s own Mouka. If you have been living in a cave for the last 12 months the run down on this guy is simple; Imagine Electro beats meets your high school disco meets abelton slammed on an APC40. This guy has been burning up the local scene with his eclectic tune libary and mad love for preformation.

We also welcome two new comers to the Substance fold – the lovely MsStylz who’ll be busting out the breaks like no other female can, and an opening set from one Pantysnort, whom after missing out on our last Substance will be rearing and ready to get the night off to a rollin start.

The irregular residents are also primed and ready – Simon Murphy is getting his tech very much armed and ready, Taran M is all glitched up, J-Slyde is ready to prog-bomb all over the place and Rich OK is about to breaks the place apart.

So we know what you did last summer and it doesnt even to compare to how horrifically awesome Halloween is going to be with the the Substance Krew, so get yo ass to Highlander and prepare to rock yoself!

Special Guests:
MsStylz
Pantysnort

With Added Residents :
Taran M
J-SLyde
Rich OK
Simon Murphy
Mouka (LIVE Ableton APC40 MASH set)

When: Saturday, 31st October
8pm – 3am

Price: FREE Entry before 9pm
$5 flat entry fee thereafter.

Drink Specials: From 8-11pm – $4 Carlton Draught, Coldies & House Wine + $5 Basic Spirits

Where: Highlander Bar – 11A Highlander Lane (Off Flinders St, Opposite the Melb Aquarium)

Facebook event: HERE

Discussion thread: HERE

Related Links:
http://highlanderbar.com.au

Can’t afford an APC? Want an awesome pad style controller for triggering clips in the same way? Novation has you covered with the new Launchpad.

Featuring 64 multicolored pads, with color feedback depending on the status of the device or clip you’re controlling, dedicated transport controls and an additional column of scene play buttons, it’s a great option for people who don’t need the rotary controls on the APC.

Pair this up with Novation’s automap, and you can assign any of the pads to a combination of key presses, making this a seriously versatile controller.

I’m already thinking about how I’m going to incorporate this into my Ableton setup!

They will be on sale from the start of November, for RRP or AU$299.

Check out the full details at http://www.ableton.com/launchpad

Time to get some funk on.

Been listening to this in the car for the past few weeks, totally love it for Friday tracks.

Mixed by ex-Sydney sider and now Melbourne local Paul Master, this blend of nu jazz, funk and hip hop is total drink beers in the sun kinda music. Any mix that starts off with something sampling James Brown has got to be good right?

If you like the tracks, get on down to Regrooved Sundays at Tryst, check out Paul plus other residents Nick Thayer, Agent 86, Paul Master, Matty Blades, Citizen .com, Rhythm Organism, Mr Nice, Zander, Ides, Paz, Mr Brown.

Get the mix here (right click save link as)

Tracklist

You’ve spent a number of hours selecting tracks, arranging your mix, recording it.

Then re-recording it because you weren’t totally happy with it.

Then re-recording because you dropped a track in at the wrong time.

Then re-recordi….

You’ve got the picture right?  You’ve spent hours making sure your promo mix is perfect, and then you’ve fucked the whole thing up by using a shitty upload service, such as Mega Upload where the end user needs to wait for 45 seconds before downloading, or Sendspace, which i’m currently being forced to download from.

Great, you’ve succeeded in totally shooting yourself in the foot (Sorry Wavemotion)

To be honest, when i download mixes, and i see an external link that i know is going to be a pain, i avoid it.

So what  should you use?  Something that fits the current budget ($0)?

Personally, i use either my MobileMe and publicly share the file, or Drop Box, which gives you 2gb of online storage plus direct linking.  I’m not trying to plug something just for the sake of it, but i took that screen shot at the start of the post, and this is the current progress.

So, if you want people to download your stuff, don’t use a shitty service that’s frustrating for the user.

EchoKinetic Podcast – Edge of Dusk by RichoKinetic

Tracklist:
Strahovski - Warning (Original Mix)
Alterbreed – Shadow (Original Mix)
Duran & Aytek – Just the 2 of Us (Original Mix)
Riktam, Bansi – Green Space
The Good Guys – Get Freaky Feat. Marshall (Jeremy Olander & Andres Cabrera Remix)
Lish – Dirty Feelings (Manuel Duego Remix)

(all tracks can be purchased from Beatport)

You can download from Soundcloud, using the above player but it’s only a 128k/s MP3, or for the High Qual (192k/s) you can grab it here

Hope you enjoy!