The Ocarina of Time!

Back in the 1998 for whatever reason I visited my cousin's home and for the first time saw the game "Zelda - The Ocarina of Time" for the Nintendo 64. I was so impressed I went out that week to Toys R Us and purchased the N64 Entertainment system...I had to have this game! The game was unbelievable with most gamer magazines giving it a perfect score. I played it so much that my wife (GF at the time) pretty much memorized all the melodies in the game and could hum and sing along the soundtrack while working on a puzzle or reading a book...she's not much for video games...music a different story.

Symphony of the Goddesses

A few years later I found a copy of an orchestral recording of the Ocarina of Time soundtrack and to this day still have a listen. The whole Zelda score was composed by Koji Kondo a sound designer / director employed by Nintendo and who's known for not only his work on Zelda, but the Super Mario Brother series as well. Probably the most memorable melody in the game is "Zelda's Lullaby" Check it out here:

Anyhow a few months ago my wife found tickets (was a difficult task) for the showing of "Zelda - The Symphony of the Godesses" a concert dedicated to the 25 year history of the Zelda franchise held at the Sony Center for the Performing Arts. The show was completley sold out, filled with a number of fans dressed as Link or other famous characters. For the record I was wearing designer jeans and a nice dress shirt. The concert featured music from many of the different Zelda games along with footage from them played in behind the orchestra. What made it kind of neat was the footage was actually taking from parts of the game that were the most memorable...ie collecting certain items, boss kills or some of the more frustrating parts. The crowd found those most amusing.

For the most part the crowd picked it's moments to be loud and boisterous, and were polite for the majority of the showing.  Shout outs from the crowd, not normal in orchestral shows, were done tastefully and drew smiles from the conductor and members of the orchestra.  However, when the conductor Eimear Noone pulled out the "Windwalker" and used it as a baton to conduct the Windwalker movement everyone went nuts!

Anyhow...I have to say we both enjoyed ourselves. The music was beautifully played and brought back many frustrating memories playing that game.

Here was the programme:

Legend of Zelda Medley
Creation of Hyrule
Kakariko Village
Ocarina Medley
The Ocarina of Time
The Wind Waker

Intermission

Great Fairy's Fountain
Twilight Princess
A Link to the Past

Encores:
 Link's Awakening
Gerudo Valley
Majora's Mask

Such Sweet Vocals...

I have to say that I just love female vocals that kind of wrap you up in a nice cosy blanket and make you feel all warm inside.  Of course a lot can have to do with the production itself but for the most part I can listen to some of these tracks over and over again because I am just drawn to the voice.

 

If I purchased "Fumbling Towards Ectasy" by Sarah McLaughlan on vinyl I would probably have had to replace the album several times due to overuse.  I never really listened to her before that release but for some reason that album was a go to for me if I was in a chill out kind of mood.  I just loved it...lots of emotion.

 

About the same time I came across an LP called "Walking Wounded" by Everything But The Girl a duo out of the UK with Tracey Thorn on vocals.  You may know some of their more popular work on this side of the ocean in "Missing" and "Wrong" two great tracks.  The album was released in 1996 and to this day I still listen to it.  Her mellow soothing voice over some minimalist drum and bass sounds makes for an awesome combination.

 

 

The first time I heard Dido's voice in the song "Stan" by Eminem I had to find out who she was.  Sure enough she was already a star in her own making before that track came out and the lyric used in that Hip Hop song was from her single "Thank You." Once again I was drawn to that soft soothing voice.  "Don't Believe in Love" on "Safe Trip Home" another one of my favs.
  

On the electronica side of things there are several tracks that I just seem to play over and over again.  Deadmau5 and Kaskade have calloborated on several earlier projects and found a gem in a vocalist named Haley Gibby who performed "I Remember" & "Move for Me."  Haley is an electronic music vocalist and has done many collaborations with Kaskade. Check out this cool acoustic version of "I Remember" that I found on youtube:

Recently Kaskade released a track called "Room for Happiness" featuring Skylar Grey (real name Holly Brook Hafermann).  Hafermann is an American singer songwriter who co-wrote "Love the Way You Lie" by Eminen and was featured as a guest vocalist on  "Coming Home" a Hip Hop track from Diddy Dirty Money.  She has her own album called "Like Blood Like Honey" which I have to check out and looks to be releasing a new album in 2013. 

 

 

Out of all the commercial EDM crap that seems to be hitting the airwaves these days I can't get seem to get enough of these three tracks by Deadmau5/Kaskade....mostly because of the voice and the chords used to compliment them.  

 

Anyhow...if you feel like wanting to sit by a cosy fire place and drink a glass of wine and just chill then I would suggest putting a play list of some of these artists together and enjoy.
 

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Halloween is fast approaching!  Decorations...costumes...and most importantly taking candy from my daughter's stash!   Our street gets right into it usually decking out the front entrance of their home with mini scare houses.  Its great to see the enthusiasm by everyone and the reaction by the kids... well except two years ago when my daughter was petrified at one point and daddy errr... she couldn't get more candy because we cut the night short.

Anyhow, this Saturday I am going to DJ a Halloween House party.  So what better time then to post a few musical treats with the Halloween theme in mind.  Will definetly give these tracks a spin at the party.  

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson (1982)

2. Monster Mash - Bobby Boris Picket (1962)

3. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr (1984)

4. A Nightmare on My Street - Jazz Jeff & The Fresh Prince (1988)

5. Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)



This is Thriller!



Special mention has to go to Mike Oldfield and the track "Tubular Bells Part 1".  I just read that this is actually the theme song from Exorcist!!??  I have to go check this out now.  I remember my dad listening to these guys...I thought it was weird when I was a kid and had no idea this song was the theme song from the most disturbing movie ever until now. 

That reminds me though...funniest parody scene has to go to James Woods in Scary Movie II in which he plays the priest and tries to exorcise the girl.  I almost pissed myself laughing watching this scene!  You can watch it on youtube below:  (carefull....explicit language)

Happy Halloween everyone!

Making Beats!

Many many moons ago a friend of mine gave me a copy of Reason (music production studio software) to try out.  I was so overwhelmed and quickly realized that I would need to dedicate waaaay too much time learning the software to be somewhat competent in creating music.  When Native Instruments, a few months ago, dropped the price of their Maschine - Groove Production Studio I started thinking...do I want to give music production another go??  Let's just say there was months of deliberation until I decided to go for it on the last weekend of the sale.  BTW little did I know it was nearly sold out everywhere!

NI's - Maschine (picture curtesy of djworx.com)

If you've never heard of Maschine you can read about it here... http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/?category=1773 But basically it is a combination of software and hardware used in the creation of mainly four on the floor dance and urban music.

Reading about Maschine and how it works and using Native Instruments Traktor DJ software as my DJ software solution it only made sense to give it a go.  The producer and DJ these days are becoming one entity so why not come up with my own remixes or songs for that matter?  Perhaps I could be the next Deadmau5 or Avicii?  Well scratch Avicii, I'm not Scandinavian but I did go to Ryerson....

Now I am not going to say that with Maschine I am not overwhelmed!  The software comes with over 6,000 samples with all sorts of snare hits, bass kicks, piano sounds, bleeps...bloops and countless other instrument sounds.  Just going through and seeing what you like is a task in itself...and that is before learning all the ins and outs of the software/hardware itself.  Luckily I found a wicked website: www.maschinetools.com  - lots of tutorial videos at a very reasonable price.

Native Instruments also just released the 1.8 upgrade to the software which adds even more sounds as well as "Massive" NI's synthesizer solution creating even more possibilities.... infinite really.  I watched some guy on youtube creating a nice deep house sound from scratch and realized you could dedicate your life fooling around with Massive.  On a side note  I really need Tasha to start teaching ME how to play piano....

Anyhow last night I wanted to play around with making a remix...instead of learning how to use the software. I looked to find an acapella online and the first one that came to mind was "Been a Long Time" by The Fog, a classic house track from the early 1990s.  Not sure why that came to mind but I love the vocal. I loaded it up into Maschine and assigned sections of the acapella on the drum pads, added some effects, drum beats, chords and a baseline and voila...a new track.  Well an idea anyhow....

"Got to Have It" arranged in Maschine

Listening to it in the car this morning put a smile on my face.  It was something that I could throw down in my next DJ gig.  If people moved and grooved to the track how cool would that be??  Instant gratification.  That would take DJing to a whole new level watching people get off on your remixes or even own productions.  Of course this concept is not new...but it wasn't until last night when playing with this software that I realized that hey I could do that!  I think...well that and it is just fun as hell.

So for now check out this track I made last night.  It is a work in progress...my first test so to speak in the world of music production / remixing.  It will probably change 50 times over until I am happy with it and move on to something new but in the meantime I can pretend it has gone platinum!





Enough writing...I am going back to Maschine and making Test 2!!

I Love House Music

Well what a summer!  I can't remember the last time being so busy... August was insane and September proved to be just as crazy.  No wonder I haven't posted a blog in long while.

Well hopefully I am back at it.   Gonna be lots to talk about in the coming months...  Lots of upcoming parties... starting a new weekly gig at Jakes on Main in Unionville, some new gear, making beats with NI's Maschine, concerts and of course a whole wack load of music to talk about. 

In the meantime I leave you with a cool little graphic I saw on a pair of sun glasses worn by DJ Murse C.  I think they make T-shirts too...

Yes I Do!

BTW...this is my 50th post!  Not so informative I know...but just wanted to kick start soundspin.ca up again after a 2 month hiatus.  Been getting lots of hits over the months and have had fun writing stuff for the blog.  So got to keep on going!

Talk soon...

DJ Marathon!

This past weekend I was asked to come into the Dragon Bistro on a Saturday afternoon a lot earlier then normal to play tunes on the patio.  Markham was holding its first annual...wait... know one seems to know...Unity Festival.  Mainstreet Unionville was closed down...food sold on the streets and bands playing at the band shelter. 

Mike at the Dragon Bistro thought it would be good to come in and play some good patio tunes and get some people into his restaraunt...or he just wanted to here some good music while he manned the bbq on the street for several hours!

Dj Booth with a View!

I was vacationing at the time at my cottage...well still am as I write this.  So after 4 days of beautiful sunny weather lake side I headed into Unionville to hang out on the patio with a full bar at my disposal, good food and of course great staff down at the Dragon.  Sounded good to me!

I started playing at 2pm and by 9:00pm...7 hours later I had played 115 songs with only three tracks played twice...by request I might add!

It was actually a bit of a challenge since it is not a dancefloor.  It's a patio where people are eating and drinking and enjoying themselves...and singing along very loud on occasion.  So what do you play?  A whole wack load of stuff I guess but let me share with you some of fav patio tunes...on a nice hot summer day and a cold beer in hand...

1. Patio Lanterns - Kim Mitchell
2. Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
3. Bobcaygeon - Tragically Hip
4. Every Morning - Sugar Ray
5. No Rain - Blind Melon
6. Wheat Kings - Tragically Hip
7. Stuck in the Middle with You - Stealers Wheel
8. Listen to the Music - Doobie Brothers
9. Cherry Bomb - John Cougar Meloncamp
10. Angel - Shaggy
11. Peace Frog - The Doors
12. Chicken Fried - Zac Brown Band.
13. I Love This Bar - Toby Keith
14. Mustang Sally - The Commitments
15. Love Me Do - The Beatles
16. The Joker - The Steve Miller Band
17. Just A Gigalo - David Lee Roth
18. All Summer Long - Kid Rock
19. Toes - Zac Brown Band
20. New Orleans is Sinking - The Tragically Hip

Everyone seemed to have so much fun so will look to do this more often come this August!!

I've Died and Gone to Vinyl Heaven!

Way way way back when I was a teenager I used to spend every last penny I made at my part time job on vinyl.  DJing in my teens was an insanely expensive hobby...especially since the returns playing at local parties and roller skating rinks gave back very little.  Even when me and my partner Marlon got a gig at Club 404 in Brampton I think we did it for free.  Kind of crazy since every record (back in the early to mid 90s) cost around $10-15!  And that was for one song!!! Kids these days are so spoiled....

Unfortunately, at the end of my high school years and into University somehow or another my vinyl disappeared.  Mostly sold by my DJ partner at the time I think...but I was not really bothered about it at all since I stopped spinning.  Sad.

About 6 years ago I met a friend of my wife she went to high school with.  One day at his home while taking a tour I stumbled across a pile of old milk crates filled with musical joy.  They were filled with classic house, hip hop and top40 tunes from the late 80s to late 90s... I drooled ever since.  

Then...out of the blue last week I received a call from him and surprisingly he asked me if I was interested in taking his vinyl.  I almost fell off my chair.  He came across a facebook picture of me and my 1.5 yr old son playing with the "DJay" app in which I captioned "gonna upgrade him to the 1200s soon..." or something to that effect.  He thought about selling them... but seeing that picture made him think that it would serve a better purpose in my hands (yes they would....)  Plus he just moved around the corner this way they are still within reach for some future jam sessions!

For a DJ like myself who has moved away from CDs and is completely digital it was like finding a gold mine.  I still have my 1200s and use them to play some house music records that I purchased after my university years b4 digital downloading became the norm.  But to go thru that collection and find many of the records that I purchased back in the day brought back so many memories!  I was giddy as I went thru each crate one by one sampling the tunes.

His one stipulation was that I could not sell the records.  Well...have no fear since they have instantly made family heirloom status to be past down from generation to generation of little Moerman DJs.  If not I will come back from the dead...collect them...and take them back upstairs to rock the heavens...

It looks like I am forever in his debt (my wife thinks I'm nuts) and I am super grateful for his generosity.   

This is going to make for some fun 'Vinyl Recycle" segments on the blog and I will also def have to play some future parties spinning the wheels of steel again :)