Los Angeles- Back in 2002, a young aspiring documentary film maker by the name of Valida Carroll, armed with a grant and a vision, set out to capture the essence of the emerging US DnB Scene. With hops in LA, SF, SD, and NYC, she takes viewers on a 60 minute ride across the country and grabs a great slice of American DnB history along the way.
I remember when Valida was in NYC filming and I always had wondered what happened to the footage. For me it was great to see so many of my friends and people that I consider family, so young and ambitious, telling the world why 170-180BPM beats make their worlds go round. Towards the end, there’s also a VERY interesting prophecy about the future of DnB and the re-entry of 140BPM in the scene- see if you can catch it…
Big shouts to everyone that has came, went, stayed in the scene- holding it down proper, I love you all! (and super big shouts to Dave (aka Eecue from JungleScene.com) for posting this up and sharing it with the world!!!)
If you’ve ever felt like the default UI options that AbletonLive offers left you wanting for more, well my friends, you now have some options!
With the release of the Ableton Live Skin Editor, users can tweak the UI to their heart’s content and set up a myriad of different skins to meet different purposes. For example, you may want a lighter screen for when you are working in your studio, but when you play out in the clubs, that light & bright screen really sucks, so now you can setup a new skin to allow for black, grey, etc. so that you can dim that bad boy down when you’re rinsing out the latest tunes.
If that sounds like a lot of work for you, no worries, I found this reskin pack in the Ableton User Forums that will be sure to please.
Massive shouts to Will Marshall for sharing this & all of the developers and skinners out there that are busily cranking out new, DOPE UI’s for AbletonLive.
San Francisco- That’s right kids, the Wu-Tang Killa Bees are gonna swarm once again! The RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killah are invading San Francisco for one night at Mezzanine SF.
The tix aren’t cheap ($40 for general, $55 for VIP), but when are you EVER going to get to see the Wu in a smaller venue where you can get up close and personal!
Perennial party fave and recent Blackberry commercial star, Diplo is back with another mix to keep your head nodding and fill with bass heavy goodness to help celebrate his latest release “Blow Your Head Vol 1 – Dubstep“. While the mix may not appeal to the hardcore trainspotters, we think this one helps illustrate why the dubstep sound has so much crossover appeal.
Big shouts to the family over at Mad Decent for blessing us with another banger!
London- After 2 months of rehearsals and preparation and without the use of a single musical instrument, T-Mobile dropped one hell of a commercial on us and gave folks in London’s Heathrow International Airport a welcome that they’ll never forget.
Check out the commercial and let us know what you think:
San Francisco- The Bicycle Film Festival is celebrating their 10th Anniversary this year and they’re making sure that urban cyclists around the world get to partake in the festivities. With stops throughout the U.S. and international hot spots like Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Paris and Tokyo, the BFF’s mission to celebrate cycling culture is a driving force worldwide.
The BFF-San Francisco kicked off a slew of events & got the party started Wednesday night with the Festival Kick-Off Party at The Knockout and last night Mike Giant ( Rebel 8 ) hosted a group ride from Dolores Park over to The Sports Basement where everyone partied down at “Bikes Rock“.
Tonight the film begins to fly and folks will get a chance to view shorts “On Time”, “Belle Epoch”, & “An Apology” as appetizers to get them ready for the screening of “Empire“.
EMPIRE USA 2010 | HD 55 min. Dir. Christian Thormann & Luke Stiles
The long-awaited urban cycling feature following the city’s best riders as they take to the streets of New York City. Riders profiled include Tom Lamarche, WONKA, Dwaine, Yatika Starr Fields, Dagga, John Prolly, Kai Perez and surprise guests.
Peep out the trailer:
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 10 BFF Kick Off Party The Knockout | 3233 Mission St.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 11 Pre-Party Ridewith Mike Giant| Dolores Park
Bikes Rock Sports Basement | 1590 Bryant St.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 12 Program 1: EmpireMission Workshop | 40 Rondel St. After Party Bender’s | 806 South Van Ness Ave.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 13 Bike Movies Victoria Theatre | 2961 16th St. After Party Sports Basement | 1590 Bryant St.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 14 Bike MoviesVictoria Theatre | 2961 16th St. After Party Zeitgeist | Valencia and Duboce
San Francisco- One of the city’s longest running weekly DnB events, Shelter, is kicking off November by bringing DJ Squake up from down south in Nashville TN, along with local support from DJ Sharp (Compression SF) and I’ll be handling mic duties for the evening.
Squake originally came up in San Diego but moved out to Tennessee back in 2005 and in ’08, he teamed up with Hunter of Legion to start the “Represent” Drum & Bass weekly in Nashville. In the Summer of 09′, Squake launched his weekly show “Represent Radio” on Bassdrive, which he hosts every Friday from 5-7PM CST.
While he spends most of his time doing A&R and Design, he has been busy in the studio working on his Debut EP since being signed to the Sine Language imprint back in 2009.
Look for Squake to step up onto the decks around Midnight.
With Local Support from:
DJ SHARP
[Compression/BADNB]
ZEZO ONE
[Konkrete Jungle Worldwide / Compression / Bassline Rumble]
Brooklyn, NY- Dave Gee and MC Diggadee have teamed up to form Heavy Weight Division and bring you “Round 1.” While they are known to perform together live, this is the first official mix from these partners in grime. “Round 1″ is a high speed ride through a dark world of bass and powerful beats. It consists of various unreleased tracks from some of the genres most prolific producers as well as the Cops remix by Dave Gee & Trigon ft. DZ.
The DJ/MC Dubstep duo have had a busy year between playing dozens of shows up and down the East Coast including Winter Music Conference and Starscape and making their way out to Puerto Rico and Paris in the last several months but when they’re at home in Brooklyn, they hold down a residency at Brooklyn’s premier dubstep monthly, Dark Room.
With residencies at Dark Room and Dub Nation, original tunes in the works, and a rapidly growing show schedule, this is an act to keep an eye on heading into the new year.
Dorechester, MA- Used as a slang term, giving a girl a “pearl necklace” has been around for a long time, but you definitely wouldn’t normally wear it around on a night out on the town. So designer Leah Piepgras took it upon herself to create an accurate one. The blob shaped sterling silver piece is based off the real thing and retailing for $420 directly from her site.
Leah Piepgras- Pearl Necklace #1
As a guy, I get the reference and find humor/wit in this piece, but it begs the question, would any ladies really rock this piece as part of their day-to-day or is this a really expensive gag gift (no pun intended).
Cupertino, CA- Apple continually seems to have its thumb on the pulse of the creative community and since the release of the Apple iPad, music producers and hobbyists around the world have been feverishly coming up with new innovations to take advantage of the multi-touch screen and the portability that comes with the device.
The latest announcement that iOS 4.2, the OS release said to finally bridge the gap between Apple handheld and tablet devices, will be able to take full advantage of Apple’s Core MIDI framework and give users 2 new uses:
WiFi MIDI, via Apple’s proprietary implementation, which should allow communication with other Apple handhelds and Macs, though it probably won’t support other devices. (WiFi is a common standard, but the way MIDI is transmitted over it is not necessarily so.)
USB MIDI support for class-compliant devices, using the iPad Camera Connection Kit’s USB adapter.
So enough of the tech-speak…WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT?!
Well, for starters, we’ve been covering the use of OSC to do cool stuff like this for some time and apparently companies like guitar FX company, Line 6 with their MIDI Mobilizer (that also supports iPhone) are also starting to enter the fray with their own interpretations of what can be done with this technology.
If any of you out there get a chance to experiment with this stuff, we’d love to hear your feedback!
