Soundspin01

Yes!  I am finally posting a mix for your listening pleasure.

I know...I know...you probably don't believe it since it has been what?  3 years?  Well coincidentally that is how old my daughter is so perhaps it is related somehow.

But it's true.  So here it is... Soundspin01 - Mixed By JMo

1. Want You In My Soul (Original Mix) - Lovebirds ft Stee Downes
2. Crowded House (Original Mix) - Karol XVII & Mb Valence
3. Shamba (Sidebum & Redondo Remix) - Wally Lopez & Richard Dinsdale
4. My Baby (Original Mix) - Oliver Klein & Peter Juergens
5. Music (Original Mix) - Claudio Cava
6. Did You Know (Karol XVII & Mb Valence Loco Remix) - BK Dukes & Yves Murasco
7. Vibrate 2011 (Zoltan Kontes & Jerome Robins Mix) - Big Black Boot
8. Back! (Coqui Selection Remix) - Nacho Penades
9. Ocean Drive (Vocal Mix) - David Penn ft Monia Amore
10. Pasilda (Muzzaik Remix) - Mike Polo
11. Wekesa - Alex Kenji
12. Back to the House (David Herrero Remix) - Paco Maroto

Stream it here:

Soundspin01 (Aug 2011) by Soundspin on Mixcloud

Or you can download it here: Soundspin01 (Aug 2011)

This is a housey affair that starts off with a great vocal track in "Want You In My Soul".  Later on "Pasilda" enters the mix.   I've had this remix for a while and love the vocal you should recognize it.  "Back!" is probably the most repetitive song you have ever heard.  But it is sure to get your feet moving! 

One of my favs though is Big Black Boot's "Vibrate" originally released in 2003 which has made a wicked comeback.  It has been co-remixed by Toronto's Jerome Robins.  Listen for the classic vocal "Girl I'll house you...You're in my hut now!" that was added to the track... sweet....

Since I have launched this new website and company logo I am re-naming the mix. Sunday Sessions is no longer. Mainly because I don't record mixes on Sundays like I used to back in the day but more so to keep the name "soundspin" engrained in your brain ;)

So enjoy.  Feedback is welcome.  My next release will be coming soon...no not in 3 years....hopefully.  But my son Mattias is only 8 months...so him turning 3 years old is a long way away... :)

Enjoy the Silence!

Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" is a BIG TUNE.  I have heard countless remixes of this track and I don't think there has been anyone remixed more then Depeche Mode except maybe for Everthing But The Girl (side note...I love EBTG...)

Meet Ian Golden of djtechtools.com.  This guy is a genius!  In this video he is using a brand new Traktor Kontrol S2 which is a midi controller that interfaces with Traktor DJ control software.  Check him out remixing his version of Enjoy the Silence:

Here are notes from his blog:

In the left deck is a dubstep instrumental I worked up for the song.

In the right deck I triggered the acapella using cue points.

each of the 2 jog wheels are sampling and effecting the instrumental and accapella to create fills.

In each loop deck is a different loop that I drop over various sections and effect individually.

I use the same software!   I would need to divorce Tasha and say goodbye to my children in order to spend the rest of my life dedicated to practicing these skills to even come close to the skillset of this guy.

Who says you need two Technic 1200s to be a wicked DJ?  All you need is a laptop and one of these new bad boys and you are good to go...oh and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of practice...

Patio, food, wine and the Bee Gees?

So my wife and I went out for dinner...together...sans kids...and under no pressure to return home...or emergency phone calls...

It was Tasha's birthday and she wanted to go to the Boiler House in the Distillery District in downtown Toronto.  Now we don't normally go out for fancy dinners we usually opt for cheap Vietnamese...mmm spicy Pho at Xelua... and other ethnic restaraunts, the Real Jerk being one of Tasha's favourites.  But it has been a long time for the two of us since having kids.  We were lucky to secure a patio spot on a beautiful Friday night evening! 

The Boiler House in the Distillery District

Anyhow...dinner was fabulous.  Dessert even better.  The restaurant had a jazz trio playing soft music all night...mostly toned down jazzy remakes of new and old tunes.  It set a perfect ambience for the evening.

The singer at one point made an announcement.  It was someone elses birthday (damn why didn't i think of dedicating a song??) and instead of singing happy birthday along with staff members...I guess they don't do that at fancy restarants... he opted to sing "More then a Woman" by the Bee Gees. 

Now I am not the biggest Bee Gees fan...not my era.  But I do love "Night Fever" a track I try to play at any event I do.  I love that song.  If requested I will play "Staying Alive" though it usually doesn't make the rotation...too cheesy I guess.  But we all secretely want to point our fingers in the air and walk like Travolta does in Saturday Night Fever. He can shake it with the best of them.

John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever

But "More then a Woman" is a classic!  Check out this youtube video from the movie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZCtgFmQvjQ  Where did night clubs like this go? Do they even play slow songs anymore?

Anyhow it was a great night out with my wife with some great food, wine and music.  In case you were wondering Tasha is more then a woman too!  But I will blog about that another time... ;)

Silence is Golden...sometimes

Silence is golden or so the saying goes.  But not this morning....

I am on vacation up at my cottage.  So what better opportunity then to  spend some time in front of my dj software and put a mix together.  After years of downloads, two kids and some lost hair since my last mix I decided to hit the record button.

After 67 minutes of recording I thought...perfect...all done...my friends are going to love this mix!

This morning I went to splice two of the wav recordings together since I had to pause last night to feed my son at midnight.  I am sure all superstar Djs have to deal with kids too?!

Cue up wav file one...silence.  Cue up wav file two...silence...

Crap...wrong output settings in the software...

 I guess a few more days won't kill anyone.  Good things come to those that wait.  Right?

Breakdancing...Love, Props and the T.Dot!

I started DJing when I was 13.  A cheap radio shack mixer placed between 2 different all-in-one turntable/radio/cassette stereos with no pitch control was all I had to "mix" the records my partner and I used to scrounge to buy from the local record store.

Years before that though in the early 80s my favorite past time was taking a piece of cardboard from the garage, flattening it, drawing graffitti all over it and with a ghetto blaster blasting... breakdancing!  I can remember a few songs from back then that I loved to street dance to... "Roxanne Roxanne" UTFO,  "Beat Box" Art of Noise, "Jam On It" Nukleus and a few gems by Grandmaster Flash come to mind.  My signature move was the windmill.  I could do it at least 10 different ways...hold the knees, the crotch, arms in, arms out...  Me and my cousins would perform at every wedding we attended as a family and with my cousin living in the Jane / Finch area we would enter competitions at the local community center.  I barely can remember that far back but I think being involved in breakdancing and early hip hop music is probably why I started getting into DJing in the first place.  Plus being the dude playing music at the roller skating rink seemed really cool!

Last night a friend of mine Stevie Whiteshoes posted a link to a documentary on my facebook page called "Love, Props & The T.Dot."  It is a documentary celebrating 25 years of the Toronto Hip Hop scene which talked about the difficulties of local rap artists back in the day had breaking into the hip hop scene in.  It also talked about how these early artists paved the way for some of the world reknown Canadian Hip Hop superstars we have today.

I truely enjoyed watching this documentary.  It brought back so many memories of my early teens and reminded me of so much music that I had totally forgotten about.  In conjunction with the documentary, the CBC also had a concert series called the "Hip Hop Summit" in which they brought all these Canadian Hip Hop artists, old and new, together for a fantastic show.  The documentary included footage from this concert as well as old video footage and interviews with all the major players in the Canadian Hip Hop scene.  Michee Mee, Maestro Fresh Wes, The Dream Warriors, Ghetto Concept, K-Os, Kardinall Offishall, Drake and much more all made an appearance.

Here are the links to the documentary and a page with video links from the concert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52_M2SNI5sI or http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/community/hiphop.html
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20110329hiphop

I only wish I had my old records from back in the day.  I would frame them and hang them all on the wall.  I now live in a digital world and will definitely need to go back and do some track searches to find some of this music! 

Oh and if you see me at a party and I look a little tipsy ask me to do a windmill. I have been known in the recent past to give it a spin...