Playlist for House Party Mixshow #69 (2/26/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #69, first aired February 26, 2010:
- Goldfrapp – Rocket (Grum Remix) (Mute)
- Morgan Page – Strange Condition (Inpetto Vocal Mix) (Nettwerk)
- Pixit Lott – Gravity (Cahill Club Mix) (Mercury)
- Chicane – Hiding All The Stars (Club Mix) (Universal)
- Samantha James – Waves of Change (Kaskade Extended Remix) (Om)
- Mimo – Will You Be There (Seamus Haji Big Love Club Mix) (Ministry of Sound)
- Sash! feat. Tina Cousins – Mysterious Times 2009 (Spencer & Hill Remix) (Tokapi)
- Lifehouse – Halfway Gone (Jody Den Broeder Club Mix) (Universal)
- David May feat. Moises Modesto – Superstar (Phonatics Remix) (ABKCO)
- Lemar – The Way Love Goes (Cahill Club Mix) (Epic)
- Tommy Fredvang – Wake Up Call (Ruben Nyborg Original Mix) (Omerta)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment March 2, 2010
Playlist for House Party Mixshow #68 (2/19/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #68, first aired February 19, 2010:
- Madonna – Liquid Love (David Guetta Mash) (Bootleg)
- BWO – Sunshine In The Rain (Soul Seekerz Club Mix) (EMI)
- Gathania – Spinning (Extended Version) (Ministry of Sound)
- Kaylah Marin – On the Floor (Oh Baby Please) (Josh Harris Club Mix) (Epiphany)
- Carol Hahn – Into the Night (Wesley King Club Mix feat. John Herdt) (Beagle Boy)
- Eva Simons – Silly Boy (Dave Aude Club Mix) (EMI)
- Sunstroke Project – In Your Eyes (Original Mix) (Burn)
- Fragma – Forever and a Day (Original Mix) (Positiva)
- Fawni – Serious (Soul Junkie Remix) (Warner)
- Bananarama – Love Comes (Wideboys Club Mix) (Interscope)
- David May feat. Moises Modesto – Superstar (Marquito Remix – Extended Version) (ABKCO)
- Pixie Lott – Cry Me Out (Bimbo Jones Club Mix) (Polydor)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment March 2, 2010
Playlist for House Party Mixshow #67 (2/12/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #67, first aired February 12, 2010:
- M’Black – Heartbreak (M’Black Extended Mix) (Robbins)
- Dash Berlin feat. Emma Hewitt – Waiting (Vocal Mix) (Armada)
- Lemar – The Way Love Goes (Cahill Club Mix) (Epic)
- Stunt – Fade Like the Sun (Extended Mix) (Zoo Digital)
- BWO feat. Velvet – Right Here Right Now (Cahill Extended Vocal Mix) (EMI)
- CyberSutra feat. Marcia Juell – Fly Away (Rossko Club Mix) (Kult)
- Nebraska – Better (7th Heaven Club Mix) (Solo Trader)
- Mini Viva – I Wish (Cahill Club Mix) (Polydor)
- Sugababes – Wear My Kiss (Wawa Remix) (Universal)
- Ben Coen – Check This Out (Wesley King Club Mix) (Sirenia)
- Michaela Wright – Never Gonna Give In (Riffs & Rays Club Remix) (Cubit Recordings)
- Elek-Tro Junkies feat. Therese – Neon Lights (Bassmonkey Club Mix) (Positiva)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment February 17, 2010
Playlist for House Party Mixshow #66 (2/5/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #66, first aired February 5, 2010:
- Gathania – Spinning (Extended Version) (Ministry of Sound)
- Michael Mind Project – How Does it Feel (Club Mix) (Kontor)
- CiJay – Let it Be (Julian Marsh NRG Remix) (Sirenia)
- Jade Ewen feat. Bashy – My Man (Cahill Club Mix) (Geffen)
- Goldfrapp – Rocket (Grum Remix) (Mute)
- Rikah – Day After Day (De-Grees Club Mix) (CAPP)
- Fragma – Forever and a Day (Original Mix) (Positiva)
- Carol Hahn – Take Me and Dance (Wesley King Club Mix) (Beagle Boy)
- Pixie Lott – Cry Me Out (Bimbo Jones Club Mix) (Polydor)
- Romain Curtis and Seamus Haji feat. Awa – I’ve Been Looking (Seamus Haji Vocal Mix) (Red Stick)
- Route 33 feat. Alex James – Looking Back (Extended Mix) (Apollo)
- Nic Chagall feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn – This Moment (Prog Mix) (High Contrast)l)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment February 17, 2010
Playlist for House Party Mixshow #65 (1/29/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #65, first aired January 29, 2010:
- Nebraska – Better (7th Heaven Club Mix) (Solo Trader)
- Kaatchi – Be Free (Klubjumpers Club Mix) (ISV)
- In-Grid – Les Fous (Extended Mix) (d:vision)
- Mini Viva – I Wish (Cahill Club Mix) (Polydor)
- Fawni – Serious (Soul Junkie Remix) (Warner)
- Kaylah Marin – On the Floor (Oh Baby Please) (Josh Harris Club Mix) (Epiphany)
- Alphabeat – Hole In My Heart (Wideboys Stadium Mix) (Polydor)
- Michaela Wright – Never Gonna Give In (Almighty Club Remix) (Cubit)
- Elek-Tro Junkies feat. Therese – Neon Lights (Bassmonkey Club Mix) (Positiva)
- Basshunter – I Promised Myself (7th Heaven Mix) (Warner)
- Vincent Medugno – The Reason (Wesley King Extended Mix) (Casa)
- Northern Beat feat. Angie Brown – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Extended Mix) (Universal)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment February 17, 2010
Playlist for House Party Mixshow #64 (1/22/2010)
Here’s the playlist for the DJ Wesley House Party #64, first aired January 22, 2010:
- Lemar – The Way Love Goes (Cahill Club Mix) (Epic)
- Andrew Spencer – Video Killed the Radio Star (Extended Mix) (CAPP/Mental Madness)
- Tommy Fredvang – Wake Up Call (Ruben Nyborg Original Mix) (Omerta)
- Owl City – Fireflies (DJ Strobe Remix) (Universal)
- Velvet – My Destiny (Pitchline Dance Extended Mix) (Bonnier [Denmark])
- Carol Hahn – Into the Night (Wesley King Club Mix feat. John Herdt) (Beagle Boy)
- Pepper MaShay – Freeway of Love (Dany Wild Club Extended) (CAPP)
- Tony Moran feat. Frenchie Davis – You Are (Klubjumpers Mixshow) (Dance Music Prod.)
- BT – Suddenly (Cicada Mix) (Nettwerk)
- Morgan Page – Strange Condition (Inpetto Vocal Mix) (Nettwerk)
- Fragma – Forever and a Day (Original Mix) (Positiva)
- Marija Neskovski – End of the Day (Soul Seekerz Retro Vocal) (King of Clubs)
Consult my web site for information about when and where you can tune-in.
Add comment February 17, 2010
American Idol contestants and bad attitudes
Embarrassingly, I’ve been re-hooked by American Idol this season. Maybe it’s Ellen, maybe it’s Simon’s departure after this season, but I figured after skipping several seasons of the musical nonsense, I’d re-engage. As you read this, bear in mind I just got through the auditions; television is always DVR-delayed for me—often by several weeks. In any case, these comments are largely about the auditions, and somewhat about the first “Hollywood Week” episode.
To begin, American Idol has uncovered some genuine talent. Most of it has come and gone rather quickly, but some linger on, most notably Kelly Clarkson, who seems to have grown well past her humble beginnings on Idol’s first season. And who doesn’t like (or perhaps lust after) a classic Cinderella story… Someone pulled fresh off the farm, thrust into the limelight, showered in fame and theoretical fortune, etc. Stardom isn’t all it’s cracked-up to be, but lust after it we do, wishing for our 15 minutes of fame, as Warhol suggested.
But what sort of galls me about Idol, and more accurately about Idol contestants, is the prevalence of what I’m just going to call “bad attitudes.” Let me see if I can pseudo-quote some of the contestants:
- “I’m 28, and auditioning because this is my last chance to make it.”
- “This is the third season I’ve auditioned for. I sure hope I make it this time; music is my life.”
- “My son is autistic, and it’s very expensive to get him the help he needs. I’m auditioning because my family could really use the money that American Idol success will bring.”
- Fighting tears after being sent home during Hollywood Week, “I guess a music career just wasn’t meant to be.”
None of these is an actual quote, but they embody the notions many contestants did say on-air. And the common thread, if you can’t see it, is that contestants at Idol seem to almost universally believe that success on American Idol is not only a fame and fortune given on a silver platter, but it’s the only possible route available to them to achieve either financial success and/or a music career. The way most of them act after getting the yellow piece of paper (“You’re goin’ to Hollywood, baby!”), you’d think that piece of paper was the same as winning the season.
Of course, the real objective here is to create good television, and while you could argue that the Idol franchise is dwindling in importance and popularity, in the grand scheme of things, it’s still a runaway television success.
But as for the contestants and their success? Well, I wish I knew what happened to hard work and sacrifice for achieving success in life. I also wish I knew what happened along the way that we started defining “success” as financial and material trappings. Is that more important than the music for these young men and women? It would in many cases seem so.
If music was truly the first love of some of these people, they wouldn’t need American Idol to pursue it. If some of these people were truly interested in bettering the financial standing of their families, they’d be finding a way to make improvements with a method other than scratching a musical lottery ticket.
But the pursuit of one’s 15 minutes of fame (“Yay! I’m on television!”), or the dream of instant success and bypassing actual work and effort by buying lottery tickets (literally or figuratively) is too much for many people to ignore, I suppose. I just find it more than a little sad to see people figuratively spending their last dollar gambling—hoping and dreaming about change, rather than working to make it happen.
Sad or not, I’ll keep tuning-in at least this one more season. Maybe it’s the sadistic joy of seeing so many of those dreams crushed like candy in Simon’s fingers, or maybe it’s the allure of seeing what sort of talent actually does get uncovered. It’ll be interesting in any case.
Add comment February 13, 2010
I don’t have the answer, but this ain’t it
Bob Lefsetz, music industry blowhard and blogger, is a smart guy, and I happen to agree with a lot of what he says. Earlier today, in his newsletter (the guy writes his blog, but sends the latest out to his subscribers, and then later posts it to the archive) he was talking about Warner Music, and what Edgar Bronfman, Jr., its CEO, had to say on a recent investor call about licensing of music. Interesting things were said, but I think the part that snagged me the most was where Lefsetz said, “Actually, it’s not as bad as it appears. Because Bronfman is for licensing at the ISP level,” implying that Lefsetz himself was supportive of this idea.
For those out of the loop, the general thrust of the idea is that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Comcast, Verizon, Qwest, etc. would collect what is essentially a private tax on consumer broadband connections to the Internet. The funds collected would then be redistributed to licensors of music, namely Warner, Universal, Sony/BMG, etc.
The idea is not without precedent. Blank CD media designed for audio use ostensibly have a fee slapped onto them for a similar reason; surely if you’re burning an audio CD, you must certainly be doing so to pirate music, right? Just like anyone with an Internet connection is, by definition, stealing music by the armful, and and therefore, should pay for the privilege.
Whether the notion has any legs is anyone’s guess, but the fundamental assumptions offend me. Maybe most home Internet users do steal music; I really don’t know (or particularly care). But the idea of assessing every Internet user in the country a fee and then giving the money collected to music labels makes about as much sense to me adding a fee to hammer sales and giving the money to major hospital chains because someone might use the thing to beat someone senseless who doesn’t have health insurance, and by God, somebody’s gotta pay! (Right?)
My big question is how Warner’s Bronfman proposes distributing the money that would be collected. Let me guess—every penny goes to Warner, Universal, and Sony/BMG? So people are then free to steal my music, because of course the legal right to do so is bundled with their Internet access, but I’ll never actually see a dime, because the major record labels get all of it. Do I understand correctly?
I get that music on major records labels account for the vast majority of the action—sales, piracy, Grammy awards, sync licensing, and everything else. But if small labels and indie artists are completely locked-out from the party, then basically all we accomplish is consumers having their theft justified and “paid for” and the majors get to stop whining—while the rest of us just get to bend over and take it like a man.
If that’s not really what Lefsetz or Bronfman have in-mind, then how would they propose it be handled? If we essentially legalize theft, it’s only fair that small labels and indie artists get their share too, since their music is also now being “legally stolen.” But how on Earth can that really happen? Is someone at each ISP going to examine every file transferred over their network and keep some sort of log? Let’s be real.
Of course, what I think doesn’t matter, and neither does fairness. If this idea is allowed to have legs, only the major labels win. The artists on those labels rarely see a dime as it is, and as for small labels and independents, they won’t either. But I have no doubt that Warner, Universal and whoever else thinks this is a great idea will have no trouble lobbying congress to make it happen if they’re sufficiently motivated.
Hopefully, however, that won’t happen. Hopefully we won’t legalize theft. And hopefully we won’t screw the small players in the process of dealing with an acknowledged problem that has no easy answers.
Add comment February 11, 2010
Brief news update
Hey everyone, I figured I’d give everyone a very brief update of news on the production and remix front, as it feels like I’ve been locked in my studio for weeks!
The next remix to drop will be What You Do To Me, from Tania Mashay. I don’t have a release date yet, and last I spoke to the label, they were still waiting on some of the mixes from other producers to get wrapped-up. As soon as it’s out, I’ll post the links on my web site, and mention it on Twitter as well. (Follow me on Twitter!) Tania’s vocal is reminiscent of Rozalla, and she wrote the song. It has an interesting structure, and presented some unique challenges (each project does). But I loved the song the first time I heard it, and it was a pleasure to work on.
Soon after, look for my treatment of Ben Coen’s Check This Out. The song has already been released by Ben’s label, Sirenia, but my remix will be part of a follow-on batch of mixes coming in the next couple of weeks. I really like how it came-out, and I hope you do as well. Ben’s a good looking guy, and he’s got a unique, distinctive voice I really like. Again, I’ll post info as soon as I have it.
There was another remix nearly complete in here too that I’ve made reference to in tweets, but unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to remain unfinalized, and unreleased. If that situation changes, I’ll update you.
On the horizon is another remix (too early to talk about), and three other projects that are my own. It’s way premature to talk about any of them much, and it’s to be determined which of the three might get wrapped-up and released first. I will say that one of them will feature my own vocals, and one of them is with the incredible Court Clark, a fellow Denverite, and talented vocalist. We’ve spent some time together in the studio, and after some necessary hardware upgrades (the PreSonus channel strip I cryptically mentioned on Twitter recently!), we’ll be attacking this some more.
Court, my friend Carol Hahn, and I have something in-common… We’ve all said that we can’t imagine anything we’d rather be doing than working on music, and it’s so very true. In fact, I think I’ll go do that now. 
2 comments February 3, 2010
Ableton and Serato announce a very disappointing “Bridge”
Note to Fans: This blog posting is of interest only to DJs.
Over a year ago (October 2008), Ableton, the makers of my favorite production software (and perhaps one of the most amazing pieces of software ever developed, right up there with Adobe Photoshop) announced a strategic partnership with DJ software company Serato that promised to extend Ableton Live farther into the realm of DJ’ing.
It’s already possible to DJ with Ableton, and those who do can leverage Ableton’s primary focus (production) and blend it with live DJ’ing performances, elevating mere “DJ’ing” to a higher artform. In fact, it’s precisely what I’d like to migrate to myself in time. So the announcement was exciting to me, because I hoped it would address Ableton’s numerous shortcomings in the DJ’ing department.
In conjunction with Winter NAMM, Ableton and Serato announced their love child—called The Bridge—and I don’t think I could possibly be more disappointed.
Ableton’s announcement about The Bridge calls it, “…a powerful fusion of DJ and production tools, opening a world of opportunities for DJing, remixing, and live performance.” In my view, it’s anything but. According to the announcement (disclaimer: I’ve not used the software), it does primarily two things:
- It allows you to use Serato and timecoded media (or ITCH controller) to control the transport in Ableton Live.
- It allows you to record your Serato live performance into Ableton Live for editing and tweaking.
How can I put this nicely… Big f***ing deal. Essentially what’s been announced here is a sort of DJ-oriented, proprietary version of ReWire. ReWire has always been a kludge at best, and I haven’t actually met anyone yet who uses it regularly. Don’t get me wrong, the idea—getting two disparate pieces of software to work in unison—is a great one. But creating a communications backchannel between a pair of software applications completely overlooks the actual logistics:
- Which application must be started first? (Ableton and Serato have made this concern a non-issue with The Bridge.)
- What happens if one of the applications freezes or crashes?
- How do you physically and operationally interact with two different applications at the same time?
- Do you really want to constantly switch focus on a single monitor computer? (Alt-Tab, Alt-Tab, Alt-Tab, Alt-Tab, Alt-Tab…)
- What about different user interface paradigms? (Ableton is elegant, and Serato looks like something from 1992.)
I don’t personally believe that anyone truly wants, dreams and aspires to strap together multiple software applications with duct tape and string to achieve some amorphous end-result. What people really want is all the functionality in one place, and the fact they can’t have it, and the fact that they want it so badly, drives them cobble stuff together with things like ReWire… And now, with The Bridge. It’s not the desired solution; it’s accepted only because there’s no alternative offered.
Now, The Bridge is a little deeper than the two bullet points I offered above (which are the same two summarizations offered by Ableton on their web site this morning). But is this revolutionary? Useful?
- Controlling Ableton’s tempo and playback with a controller, even a virtualized one (decks + Serato) isn’t particularly revolutionary. There are already myriad ways to control Ableton’s transport. But if you really want to do it with turntables and coded vinyl, I guess now you can.
- Serato gets a sweet “Ableton View,” where a stripped down version of Ableton’s Session View is shown right in Serato’s UI. This basically allows you to trigger clips from Serato in your DJ set. But what problem are we trying to solve here, exactly, that isn’t already solved by just DJ’ing from Ableton in the same, relatively poor way you always could?
- Recording your Serato DJ set into Ableton for tweaking also looks like a solution in search of a problem. It’s referred to as “the ultimate mixtape production tool.” Recording a DJ set and manipulating it later is a bit of a yawn for me. Admittedly, The Bridge also records a (very) limited number of control movements from the Serato side, so you can fix both audio issues and certain control issues after-the-fact. But if I was really looking for “the ultimate mixtape production tool,” one already exists, and it’s called MixMeister. My point is that mistakes happen in live performance, and if you want to erase them all and make everything picture-perfect, then don’t perform live in the first place.
The fact is, Ableton in its current incarnation isn’t a great tool for DJ’ing, and rubber banding it together with Serato doesn’t change that fact, nor does it address the real shortcomings, which exist primarily around metadata—not vinyl or CDJ based virtual MIDI control, not recording and tweaking DJ sets, not triggering clips during a set.
The reason people use Serato, Virtual DJ, Traktor, etc. for DJ’ing is partially for control (which Ableton does as-is), partially for beat alignment help (which Ableton does as-is), and partially for metadata management (e.g., track naming, selection, tagging, filtering, rating, etc.)—which is what Ableton doesn’t do at all.
That is the shortcoming that Ableton should be working to address, not gluing the software to Serato with a backend kludge. It strikes me rather like putting a trailer hitch on a Bugatti Veyron, hooking-up a pop-up camper, and calling the result a tour bus. Unfortunately, given whatever agreement exists between Ableton and Serato that produced The Bridge (can you say “non-compete clause?”), we’re unlikely to see Ableton do DJ’ing any better than this non-solution, anytime soon.
Ableton, I love you guys, and I love your software. But wow… What a disappointment.
1 comment January 19, 2010
