Friday, October 30, 2009



Vinyl junkies stand by
Couple of events coming up for you...
Leading hiphop DJ (and Rip It Up editor) Sirvere is having a record sale, November 14 and 15, 10am-6pm both days. He's selling Hip Hop, RnB and soul vinyl from his extensive collection - 1000's of 12"s, EPs and LPs. The address is Askew's Studio, 13 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, which is near the corner of Great North rd and Ponsonby rd. (See photos above., below)




Also coming up, the next installment of the Record Collectors Fair is happening on Saturday the 21st of November 2009, this time at a new venue. Kelston Community Hall, Just off Great North Road, Awaroa Road, Next to Waikumete Cemetery. This venue is bigger and better with more stall holders than ever before, more parking and a nicer location.


And on tonight, The Turnaround, the monthly club night full of vinyl delights from Manuel Bundy, Cian  and Submariner - this month they have "succumbed to the siren’s song and invited some laydeeeez to step up to the plate for this Halloween special. Aroha, Wendy Douglas, Maiden Hong Kong and Lisa From Down The Road will be concocting and mixing up a wicked brew of sonic sorcery for your musical enjoyment.  Ahem!!!" 

Any rumours that Manny, Cian and Subby will dress up in full drag are groundless, apparently, but I bet Manny would look the best of those three boys. He'd give Buckwheat a run for her money! (Kidding, Manny, kidding.) Kick off is 10pm, at Toto Bacco Room, 53 Nelson, st, only $15 on the door.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Quick hits
1. Alice Russell drops 32 remixes of her latest album Pot Of Gold, grab Mr Scruff's remix over here for free DL.
2. DJ Craze tears it up at the Roc Raida tribute in NYC (via P-Money's blog)
3. Grab this tune from DJ Center featuring Samia Farah (who was on the latest Lee Scratch Perry album, the Mighty Upsetter).
4. Universal Robot Band - Barely breaking even (club version) go get this. "This 13-minute extended club version has never been heard before now, and is being released as part of a collection of legendary disco producer John Morales’ mixes for disco stalwart Salsoul, amongst others."
5. DJing with one turntable and an iPhone. Mental. Watch this video.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Oct 24
James Brown  -The bose (Geisha boys remix)
DJ Vadim - Hidden treasure
Beverley Road allstars - I'm still in love
Various - Got to be at that party
Justin Hinds - The higher the monkey climbs
Skatalites - Beardsman ska
Dawn Penn - No no no
Carlton and the shoes - Love me forever
Chaka Domu and Lady Yolanda - Mash up (Dancehall mix)
Andrew Weatherall - Fail we may, sail we must (off Pox on the pioneers)
DLT - Liquid skies (Ultraneon mix)
Innerzone orchestra - bug in the bass bin
Jah Batta - Informa (Watch it)
Joe Ariwa - Bouncing with Joe
Manasseh  -Skenga 12" mix
Noiseshaper - Bushmasta
Lee Perry - Venus
Ragga Twins - 18 inch speaker
Quantic and his combo Barbaro  -Mas pan
Chico Mann - Sound is everything (Rich Medina remix)
Nicolette - No government
Kashmere stage band - Superstrut (Kenny Dope remix)
Orgone - Be in here
Troublefunk - Drop the bomb
Ticklah - Answer me
Dubblestandart and Lee Perry - Respect the poor dub
The Wailers  - Put it on
Umod - Just4funksake
Andrew Weatherall - Pox on the pioneers

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Quick hits
1. New music from Doom (aka MF Doom) over here. "Unexpected Guests is a compilation album of old Doom tracks that the Gold Dust imprint has gathered up an thrown on a single record."
2. Musician Rex Visible (member of NRA, Headless Chickens soundman) is in trouble. From the Manawatu Standard (ignore the reference to Vizible producing How Bizarre - the producer of that record is Alan Jansson).
3. Skream and Benga live set from RinseFM's 15th birthday party for download here, and new from Mad Decent (Diplo's label) Jovi Rockwell with Killing Dem (Free DL here)
4. Stinky Jim's Stink Inc blog has a great post about the new Andrew Weatherall album A Pox On The Pioneers, go have a read here. As Jim says "... the whole thing has a ring of 'Sandanista' era-Clash about it amongst many other flavours, not in a slavish way, in a way that puts a huge grin on my boat when driving around to it." 
Bonus - some Weatherall mp3 action here, with an interview, via The Fader.
Pretty Purdie hitting it
Link... from Crate Kings. "The master Bernard Purdie breaks down drums, rhythm, and, of course, ghost notes.  It’s difficult to decide which is better, Purdie’s drumming or his commentary and reactions to the sounds."

Monday, October 19, 2009


Quick hits
1. Oddisee dropped a wicked ep of funky, laidback beats a while back, called Oddsummer. The follow-up is out now, Odd Autumn. Grab it here
2. New LCD Sound System single has come out, cover of an Alan Vega (Suicide) track, Bye Bye Bayou. Grab it here. You might find the original there too.
3. There was a killer comp from legendary NY label Ze Records that came out earlier this year on Strut; now a bunch of dance producers have been let loose on their catalog for a series of re-edits, including the likes of Todd Terje, Greg Wilson, and Pilooski, who is always good. Zevolution: Ze Records Re-Edited comes out Nov 24, but get a sneak preview for free here...Aural Exciters- "Spooks In Space" (Luke Howard & Felix Dickinson Filthy & Foolish Edit) (zshare) (mediafire)
4. Via Crate kings: "Tom Ashbrook of NPR’s On Point interviews RZA to discuss his new book The Tao of Wu and his personal ideas pertaining to spirituality and growth.  The hour long conversion includes a number of interesting stories about ODB and other Wu-Tang members, an explanation of RZA’s fascination with kung-fu, and insight into the future of musical sampling."
Listen to the complete interview.
5. Stinky Jim interviews Jahdan Blakkamoore over here. Great stuff. 
6. One more... Wu Tang meets dubstep. Yup. Album is called "Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep" More here.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Saturday Oct 17
 Bit of a CTI/Kudu theme running thru todays show, with Grover Washington Jr, George Benson, Esther Phillips and Lalo Schifrin, thanks to some new vinyl goodness from Dusty Grooves, delivered by Owen H, cheers fella!

Mayer Hawthorne  - The ills
Grover Washington Jr  - Knucklehead
George Benson - Good king bad
UBB - I know you got soul Inst
Aim - Birchwood
DJ Vadim - Hidden treasure
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Put it on
Reggie Stepper - Drum pan sound
Chukki Star  - Praise my creator
Prince Fari and Errol T - Different dagger
Havana boys - Paul's dub
Wheedles groove feat Calvin Law - Fools gold
Romanowski - Strudel strut
Nightmares on wax - Damn
Boozoo Bajou - Night over Manaus
The Cougars - I wish it would rain
Esther Phillips - Use me
Lalo Schifrin  -Quiet village
Melvin Jackson - Cold duck time pt 1&2
Ken Boothe - The one I love
Bigga Bush and Ventoux - East Africa dub stylee
Little dragon - Come home
Fulgence - Sour soca
Cooly G - Love dub refix
Eric Lau - Let it out
El Michels affair - Detroit twice / Shaft

Thursday, October 15, 2009

The vinyl revival is here! (story #262)
The latest installment in this long-running series of media articles on the return of vinyl. "May The Circle Be Unbroken – The Continuing Success Story Of Vinyl".(NME)

Best bit is this quote from Roger Daltrey of The Who: “With a CD, you start with a nice plastic box and end with a scratched plastic box. It has no character whatsoever. But with vinyl, we threw away an art form that was so much more than the record… Sometimes the covers were more important than the music. The more fingerprints you got on it, the more it was a part of you.”

The article notes that vinyl sales are up 50% from 2008 and rising. In hard numbers tho, not so impressive... "Vinyl sales have risen from 700,000 in 2008 to 1million this year. And in 2009, 121.8million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2million digital albums, compared to 151.01million CDs and 27.52million digital albums for the same period last year."

Hat tip to Alan P for the link.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Vinyl Flashbacks - P-Money part 2
In part two of this interview, P-Money talks about some record shopping adventures overseas, how Serato has changed his music buying, and some of his favourite music blogs.  Read part one here.





There's some diggers i've read about in the States, who say that it doesn't matter what the record is, they'll never pay more than 8 bucks for it or something. Do you feel like that?

Well, for me, if I want it badly enough, I'll pay whatever, you know. But that comes around now, cos I make some money, Djing and stuff, so I do alright so I have the cash to spend. I love records so much, that I don't mind shelling out for them.

But definitely when I was coming up, I never bought a record over ten dollars, a second hand record. I couldn't justify it to myself. I could spend 15 on this one record that might not get that many plays or it might not have anything useful to me, or I could take that same $15, and spread it across 15 of these dollar bin records and my odds are just so much higher, that I'm gonna have more things to use,, whether they be samples or just good things to listen to.

That was my rationale back then , but once I finally did get some money and I spent a bit, more, I was like “Hey these more expensive records often have better music”, cos the reason why theyre expensive is cos other people want them, cos they're good.


Do you have list of wanted records?

Yeah, it changes daily. I've been digging on Kiwi stuff lately. Trying to find bonafide Kiwi breakbeats that are legit. Dragon's first seven inch, has a song called Rock N Roll Ponsonby, and the first five seconds of that is this solid uptempo breakbeat, and I want that record. And its just a bside, not on their greatest hits.

The Screaming Mee Mees have an album, ah, (goes to check his list...) I keep my wants list on by BlackBerry. I'm a technological nerd, its so good man! If this is paradise, I'll take the bag. There's like three breaks on that album, but I want to get that on vinyl. I found some other stuff – you saw me in the store that day. I found some good stuff, Chants R'n'B. Cool energy, and that just suprise me that that was recorded here. I hadnt heard any NZ recordings with that kind of feel, or energy.




One of the most interesting record stores I ever went to, but I wasnt in the right frame of mind that I am now, to really appreciate it, but I knew it was special was just off Hollywood Boulevard, not far from Mann's Chinese Theatre, and it was called As The Record Turns.

Its in a little shopping arcade, and its quite a small store, And they just had crazy shit. Everything is in nice plastic jackets, and marked up, like expensive records. They had things like The Transformer movie sound track on vinyl, the original cartoon, all these odd TV things, deep crates of soul, funk.. While we there, with my friend DJ P-trix, a DJ from LA, he took us there, and he told us this is where all the guys come to get their samples, and the old guy there has sold records to Q-Tip and Pete Rock, and this is where they come.

While we're in there, this guy, Mel-Man who co-produced The Chronic 2001, he came in, and he was high-fiving the old Phillipino guy that runs the shop. And he was like, “I need to get this and that”, and he was discussing his wants list. I was like “Wow, this is really the spot”.

Then we found out after we left there, my friend told me that their store is kinda like their shopfront. What they do have, where they let all the big time producers go, is a warehouse. They claim to have a million records in this place. I think Slave went there for Mo Show, and he walked down the aisles, but they didn't get to dig thru it. They have a catalogue, and any album you're looking for, chances are, this guy has got it,.

The folklore was that people like Pete Rock and Dre, instead of buying the records, its a library. You pay like a members fee, and you have access. So you pay your annual fee, like $5000 or something, and you can come in, you can borrow the records, take them out, sample them, do whatever you want, and take them back. I don't know how much truth there is to it, but it's the best story ever. There's this vault of records, like a secret underground producers club. And I've been finding out about more and more of these kinds of things.

I have another friend, he was in the original lineup of the Beatnuts, his name is Vic (Mighty V.I.C). He did a lot of the beats on the first Beatnuts album, and lot of the things that are credited as produced by the Beatnuts are produced by Vic.

Hes got an amazing record collection too. Over the last few years hes gone quite digital, with his process, and he realised he didn't need all these records, and he had like 40,000 records or something. He put them on E-bay, but the Dre's people called, him, like saying “We want your records”.

Cos they knew hes the guy, hes got all the breaks. Its funny that Dre wanted them cos the Dre record next Episode on Chronic 2001, the same sample was flipped by a group called Missin Linx, about a year before that Next Episode came out and Vic produced it.

So I was thinking maybe Dre's always been watching his samples, like “You've got the right samples” and just like sampling the same things, and then he just comes around and is like “I just want your record collection. Instead of stealing ideas afterwards, I'm just gonna take them from the source.”







How big is your record collection now?

Its funny cos I just got half of it back from storage, under my dad's store. So I basically doubled my collection in the last month. But I thinned it out a bit,. It must be around 4000 or thereabouts. Its a fair bit of records., I have a spare bedroom which is my studio, and one wall of that is taken up with vinyl, mostly hiphop stuff, and then downstairs I have about the same again, and that's split between breaks samples in various genres and a little bit of hiphop stuff as well.

There's about three crates of stuff that I really need to get rid of, that is, like trash. You now how New Zealand has a huge wealth of old show tunes and classical, all the second hand and Salvation Army stores around the country.

When I was a kid, I used to buy those as well, cos I just wasn't sure - maybe they might have something interesting. By and large, they don't have anything cool. The classical ones are always good if you need string samples, you can always lift them unless you're taking a few bars, its pretty hard to determine what symphony they come from. So, I've got that to get rid of, lots of random bad stuff!


You use serato when you're Djing - has serato changed the way you record shop?

Yeah, completely. I don't really shop for new music on vinyl any more. I'll get it on CD, so I can rip it at a really high rate and its quicker than recording the records in, in real time. I was doing things at 320, and I've just recently switched to doing it at 16 bit, 44.1, CD-quality WAV files.

The reason I was doing the 320s was purely for storage space, but to future proof myself, hard drives are gonna get bigger, so storage is not gonna be such a problem. Right up til about 05, when I got Serato, I was spending about $200 a week on records, cos a 12 is $25, so if you're buying doubles, that's only five songs! So it's not that much.

As soon as I got comfortable on Serato, and decided this is how I'm gonna DJ from now on, I stopped buying records, just didn't need to any more. I started ripping CDs, whether it was promos, or old catalogue I already had - I took a lot of records and traded them, and took the credit and bought cd albums of all the albums that I had on vinyl, like all the Def Jam LPS, just lots of catalogue stuff. Then I just started ripping like a mad man.

Then with any new stuff coming out, I'd be on like the Digiwax DJ service, and now Serato has White Label, and then there's a billion blogs that you can get stuff that;s not being serviced to you directly.

Instead of going to the record store two or three times a week, now it's every morning while I'm having breakfast, I check all the blogs, and all the latest songs are right there. I'm downloading them while I'm having my breakfast.

So I've got five or six songs a day to digest and add to Serato. And I was doing digital digging as well. I noticed thats a thing, especially with young hiphop producers, round 19 or 20, even 23, you don't have the experience of going to a record store. Its probably not part of your background at all. All you know is getting music from Limewire or something like that. So when they're looking for breaks and samples, they just go straight online.



P-Money sent me some of his favourite music blogs, check em out below..
http://edufunky.blogspot.com/
http://www.djanonymous.fi/
http://kevinnottingham.com/diggin-in-da-crates/





This record is an example of the things I would pick up from Beat Merchants over that four year period when I was there every week spending $200. This is Paula Perry, independent female MC, I think she was out of Brooklyn, and she used to roll with Masta Ace. (Listen to it here)

This [record] is significant cos it's a DJ Premier production, and I used to hang out for any single that was produced by Premier, have to have two copies - it's just fundamental as a hip hop DJ, and the other side is produced by Easy Mo Bee, so you couldn't really go past something like this, at that time.

And now, this doesn't look too special, but it would be pretty hard to come by.It came out in 98, but still a really strong track, the instrumental still works, and this one was really cool, cos the opening two bars is just like, really clean drums and a little James Brown vocal stab, so, [it's] awesome for Djing with and doing tricks, so I used this in some of my DJ routines at that time, and it was really my practice record.

The week it came, out, I guess they would have sold somehting like 20 copies out of Beat Merchants, which was kinda good for a hiphop 12 inch at the time. And they would have reordered it a few times, probably sold a couple of hundred. Her career never took off, I don't even know if anyone picked up the album – it says on the 12 that the album was coming out, and I don't remember seeing it. And its funny, this is on Motown, so it's incorrect to say she was independent, but in my mind she was always independent, cos it never took off, you know? It wasn't like a big commercial release, even though she was on Motown. I guess she got dropped after the single didn't connect, poor girl.




But there were so many stories like that. There's a quote in that movie Scratch, I think it's from DJ Shadow, and he's going thru all these records, and he says “when you look at it, I kinda see it as a field of broken dreams,”and in some ways maybe it is. Its these people whose careers maybe didn't progress beyond one album or two. Whether those people had the dream to make it big or they just had talent and someone else wanted to record them, who knows?

I don't like to be doomsday about it, but its a little bit scary to think that with everything now being recorded digitally, and the vast majority of recordings ever being pressed on such a permanent format as vinyl, that it'd be really hard to keep a real solid library of all these things, cos its so easy for them to be lost, or deleted.

Put it this way - a record collector who was buying records thru the 70s, 80,s maybe 90s, and stopped in the 90s. Their record collection is physical; if they decide they don't want it any more, they have to physically give it to someone else, to a second hand record store or another collector. With digital files, you go oh, I need more space on my hard drive, I've got these 10,000 songs – best case scenario they're gonna move it to another drive - worst case scenario, they're just gonna hit trash. And who knows what could be in there? It's a bit crazy, aye.


My thanks to P-Money for his time.  (P-Money's blogmyspace pages). Next interview in this series coming soon! More vinyl tales from... ah, you'll have to wait and see.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Saturday Oct 10
Beat pharmacy - Rooftops
Congos - Mackaback
Fink - Sort of revolution (Sideshow dub)
Hypnotic brass ensemble - Flipside
Baker brothers  -Lady Day and John Coltrane
DJ Day x Miles Bonny - What's life like
Chancha via Curcuito - Bussitpondem feat Jahdan
Toots and the Maytals - 54 46 was my number
Jojo Bennett  -Canteloupe rock
Alton Ellis - You're the one to blame
Major lazer - Can't stop now
Mayer Hawthorne  -The ills
The Pharoahs - Somebody's been sleeping
King Midas Sound - One ting (Dabrye mix)
Lee Scratch Perry - Yellow tongue (Kode9 remix)
Lee Scratch Perry - Lucky charm
Beverley Road allstars - Danger in your eyes
Lightning head - Bokoor sound special
Kormac -Join together
Jean Jacques Perry and Luke Vibert  -Schwing
Yellow magic orchestra - Tong poo (The Orb remix)
Jay Z  at Studio One - Dirt off your shoulder
Betty Harris - Mean man
Lefties soul connection feat Flomega - Have love, will travel
Dixie cups - Iko iko
Johnny Hammond Smith - Tell me what to do
Chico Mann - Sound is everything (Rich Medina mix)

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

 Vinyl flashback #1 - P-Money
 I recently had a discussion online with a bunch of Auckland music folk, about record shops we remember going to when we first started buying records. Various names popped up, like Rock N Roll Records, Record Warehouse, Revival Records and others.

It got me thinking, and I decided to start a new series on my blog, talking with local music fans about some of their favorite memories of record shopping, and of fave records and where they found them. First up, I was lucky enough to get P-Money to talk about some of his formative record shopping  experiences. P-Money is currently winging round the UK as part of Zane Lowe's DJ tour and doing very well for himself. Enjoy his vinyl tales. Thanks for your time. Pete!
(P-Money's blogmyspace pages)



What was the first record shop you remember going to?
There was some little store, I must have been about 7 years old, maybe younger, [I went] with my dad - he had a shop in the main street in Papakura and he knew all the shopkeepers in town. We'd go in there to buy whatever was out, I guess, and my parents were buying music. But I remember that Woolworths had records in it, when it was a department store before it was just a supermarket.

But the first one that I frequented to buy my own stuff, was when I was a bit older, probably 12 or 13, and it was one of the Sounds chain, the Papakura store, where I grew up, and then it changed into Truetone. I used to buy records from there. I got this, one, BDP, from there, cos they used to have clearance [bins].

My friend, Toni Cooper, he used to work there, and I think they would order records they knew weren't gonna sell, so they could mark them down and buy them cheap! They had so many copies of this album, and I swear that nobody in town even knew what it was, and they marked it down to three bucks for me. Cos I had no money, I'm like a little kid [then].I used to go in there after school every day and just look at the records, and look thru the clearance bins and whatever was in my range, if it was under five bucks, I'd snap it up.

So they'd mark things down , “Make that three dollars, man, make that seven”, and I was like, ah, I can get that. … I think albums back then were about $15 to $18, maybe $20 for imported things. So three bucks was a score.

The first big store that I remember was Real Groovy. I'd heard about, cos I didn't grow up in the city, so I didn't know about the bigger stores they had in town, all I knew was my little local one. My friend came back from town, and he had, like, an Ice Cube album on vinyl, and the Source magazine. I was like “where did you get these things?” cos they weren't in my local record shop. He was like “Real Groovy” and I had this vision of this magical place that had everything that I wanted.

I finally made the trip, I took the train, 45 minutes on the train, walked all the way uptown from the town station, finally found the place, and it's this massive store, and it's so big, and I just couldn't believe it. And I didn't have much money, and I could only afford one record and it's this one...




Ultimate breaks and beats compilation. This is number nine. Because I had read about this compilation in the Face magazine, cos my art teacher gave it to me in art class, and it had an article on the producers Marley Marl, and Hurby Lovebug – he was producing Salt N Pepa, and I read the article and they mentioned that series of records, and they were saying it's easy to get the breakbeats now because they're all on these complilations. So I knew of it, but I'd never seen it.

I was sifting thru Real Groovy, and I found it, and thought this is the record they're talking about. So I bought it, of course I only had one copy, and took it home and didn't really know what to do with it. Five seconds of the music is really good, and the rest is crap.

But then I learnt about breakbeats thru finding the record, that what flicked the switch for me, like, "right, so there's random songs that have really cool parts that you can sample and loop up and make hiphop songs", which just opened my brain up again. Like, okay, now maybe I can find these on any record, I don't have to buy the compilation, I can find the originals.




I went back numerous times after that, of course,.. I'd rock up to the second hand desk and just talk with those guys, and every now and then I'd bring in promos that I got sent I didn't want any more and trade them and pick up a bunch of records. There was definitely a rapport, but I had that more with my local store. Especially growing up, all thru my teens, I'd be there every day after school. They didn't have a huge vinyl selection, but I'd order in things that I knew about, and they'd get me my twelve inches and double copies of things that I needed to DJ with.

My friend Kersham, our whole friendship was based around that record store. He used to work there and I would see him every day. To me, as a kid, he had this huge knowledge of music, which I didn't have that, and I learnt from him, and I learnt from Toni – he gave me the first Public Enemy album, Bumrush The Show. They're like my favourite group of all time. Toni said to me you can borrow this – this is mine, but take it home and have a listen to it, I think you'll really like it”. I was blown away. I was like “wow!”, and from then I was sold on them.

I ended up working in the store for a while as well, for school holidays. I would do stuff like wash the windows, just so they could give me like a free album and stuff. Its funny how it all connects, cos it was Peter Farnon - he started Beat Merchants – he was general manager of Trutone and he came to visit the Papakura store, when I was cleaning the windows, and so he gave me the records, and couple of years later when he opened Beat Merchants, I was a regular customer there. That was another store that I frequented a lot.

With Groovy it was like, cool this is an outlet where I can get the information that I need, not just the music, but the added benefit of being able to get all these records and put the pieces of the puzzle together, and they had books and magazines as well.




What about when you started getting some overseas trips and hitting up record stores?

Beat Street in Brooklyn was like Mecca. I couldn't believe it when I first walked in there. The space was not that big, like Groovy, much much smaller, but just dense with stock, so many records. And I'd never seen so many copies of each release, whether it was the latest thing or a reissue, like an old EPMD 12 inch, they've got 20 copies, sitting there, so people can come in and just pick up doubles, whereas here, you;d be lucky to find one, let alone two.

The price used to trip me out. When I went, they were averaging about $5 US for a 12 inch. So I could get two, for less than the price of buying one here - $25 for one 12 inch single. So would just go mad. And i was coming back with like a crate of records, maybe 80 records. That's 23 kilos of extra baggage. You have to pay for it!

I was doing all kinds of tricks, I had a back pack full of maybe 30, 40 records, I could fit as many in there without it looking like I had this really heavy thing on my back, so I'm trying to stand up real straight, like its not straining, me, and then I've got plastic shopping bags either aside, with another 20 records in each one, so I'm physically carrying about 20 kilos on me, plus I got the 20 kilos in my luggage, and you just do whatever you can to get it home without paying excess baggage.




Beat Street had a DJ in the store too, who would be playing all the latest stuff. So instead of having to go and ask to hear a record, hes already playing it. And then you're hearing thing s you might not have picked up off the shelf. Its a really great environment. You rub shoulders with other DJs and music fans, which is a huge thing I miss, and I think .

That's the biggest downside - I'm not so sentimental about physical vinyl, but the community aspect of DJs and music fans all convening at one spot, cos they know all the new records have just dropped, and they're all discussing the recent finds, what they're looking forward to, and a real face to face human interaction and getting a vibe for records and it made certain songs more special amongst communities, or in my experience, where as now you can still discuss things with a much broader group of people online, it is the same kind of thing, but you re not actually in the presence of those people.

That's one of the greatest things about record stores – I used to love going there when I had no money, to hang out with the clerks selling the records, or the other guys who were buying things. I'd be in the record store 3,4, 5 hours just to socialise. And I'm listening to every record in the store getting vast knowledge of music, and I'm putting stuff aside when I have some money, and that's just gone. Its completely gone. So I am sentimental about that, the experience.

It used to be a hangout, especially Best Merchants in the city, for me, and my scene, around like, 99 to 2002. That was a really good time for hiphop music in general, with good record coming out, cool indie labels like Rawkus and similar, were consistently dropping good records.

There were a lot of DJs that were involved in scratching and the turntablist thing was going on, and the store was like a hub. You had Sirvere [Phil Bell] ordering all the latest stuff, making sure we're as up to date as possible , even tho we're this far from where the records are being made. I've still got tons of friends from those years.

I love the convenience of being able to get online and at the very least being able to stream any song I can think of, even if I cant find the file to download. I'm talking about rare things that you think nobody else knew about, and you can find it on youtube!



The other store I really used to like -cos I used to think of Real Groovy as your mainstream, obvious, record store – if you wanted to dig for records, you could go there and find cool stuff, but everyone else is there too, and not so far off the beaten track was the Record Exchange on K Rd. For some reason, to me that felt like thats where you go if you really know whats up, for digging for records. I really enjoyed that place when it was open, when it was in St Kevins Arcade, and then it moved to 123 K Rd.

I remember the first time I discovered that place; it was upstairs there. It was a reasonably small room, and no-one had told me about it -I just saw this sign on the street and wandered up there, this dusty-as place, and it kind of felt – and I might be wrong and forgive me if I got the wrong impression - but I kind of felt a little bit of snobbishness from the staff there, kinda looking down their nose, like you don't know anything about music”, which was definitely common amongst many record stores.

Some staff were great, very open about their knowledge of music, others were like “This is just for me, you have to earn my respect in order for me to share my information”. It was all part of the fun really. But I felt a little bit intimidated in there, I didn't know enough about music, but I liked what I was seeing when I was digging thru their records.

I discovered my love for Isaac Hayes there. The To Be Continued album, I found that in there. All I knew of Isaac Hayes at that point was the Shaft soundtrack. But that record just looked really interesting, the cover, his face. I just thought it looked really cool. So I bought the record, took a chance on it, bought it home, and I heard Ikes Mood, on side two – it's an amazing record, for a start – and it's got the little piano breakdown which has been used countless times in hiphop songs, but I didn't know it was from there.

So it was like “Wow, I found this break that other people have used”, so I went back to get every Isaac Hayes album I could find. Cos I loved the music -let alone the novelty of someone had sampled it – but the music itself really spoke to me.

Record Exchange was the spot – they had a good selection of Isaac albums at the time, so I cleaned them out. And then a couple of years later, they had reissues in Beat Merchants, for like $40, $50, and I was like, I picked all these up for under 8 bucks, sweet! It's all timing with records too.

Now, go read PART TWO.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009



New post over at Dust and Grooves
This time they visit a record collector by the name of DJ Shame, in Worchester, MA. Check that photo! Click here.


Career retrospective from Ethiopian Jazz musician Mulatu Astatke
"On the heels of his extremely successful Inspiration Information collaboration with The Heliocentrics, Mulatu Astatke teams up with Strut once again for the first complete overview of his career, including many rare sides which have never before been compiled for worldwide release."

If you haven't checked out the Mulatu/Heliocentrics album, do so at once, Easily one of the finest albums I've heard this year, and it will be on a lot of Best Of lists at the end of the year (ie 12 weeks from now!)

"Vibraphone and keyboard player, master arranger and bandleader, Mulatu Astatke is one of the all time greats of Ethiopian music, and the creator of his own original music form, Ethio jazz. Through the acclaimed Ethiopiques album series and through featuring on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers, his music has belatedly reached a global audience and a new, younger generation of fans.

In November of last year, he recorded an inspired new album with London psych-jazz band The Heliocentrics for Strut’s Inspiration Information studio collaboration series. Now, Strut are proud to present, for the first time anywhere, the definitive Mulatu career retrospective covering his landmark ‘60s and ‘70s recordings."

Tracklist
1. ASIYO BELEMA (feat. Frank Holder)
2. MASCARAM SETABA (with Ethiopian Quintet)
3. I FARAM GAMI FARAM (with Ethiopian Quintet)
4. SOUL POWER (with Ethiopian Quintet)
5. GIRL FROM ADDIS ABABA (with Ethiopian Quintet)
6. SHAGU (Mulatu Astatke Quartet)
7. MULATU
8. DEWEL
9. NETSANET
10. YEKATIT
11. ENE ALANCHIE ALNOREM
12. YEGELLA TEZETA
13. YEKERMO SEW
14. TEZETA
15. EMNETE
16. YEKITIR TEZETA
17. LANCHI BIYE with Tilahoun Gessesse
18. FIKRATCHIN with Menelik Wossenatchew
19. EBO LALA with Seifu Yohannes
20. WUBIT with Muluken Melesse
21. KASALEFKUT HULU with Tilahoun Gessesse
 
Out October 27 .


Top 10 Reasons Vinyl Records are Better Than MP3 Downloads
from Turntabling.net: Vinyl records vs. MP3s? I own them both. Why are album versions of records better than their MP3 counterparts? The digital Black Flag vs. the original SST Black Flag recordings? Naked Raygun on your iPod shouldn’t sound much different than the vinyl record of the same album, right? Can you find Big Black on MP3? Here’s a a little list:

10. You can’t accidentally delete a vinyl record. However, your cat may urinate on it. That won’t affect playback…unless you have friends over.

9. You don’t get the nice big cover art off an MP3 download. This doesn’t matter much for modern releases, but for those old, elaborate LP releases or soundtracks to sexy Italian horror and “sexual awakening” movies, big covers are nice. Especially for those Piero Umiliani soundtracks. There’s nothing more fun than a cheesy sexy 60s era album cover, is there?

8. Nobody tries to sue you for making a CD-R burn of some old dusty record in your collection. They’d love to try, but the RIAA would get laughed out of court faster than Rod Blagojevich proclaiming his innocence. Nice try.

7. Unlike an MP3, you can shatter a vinyl record and use the pieces to gash somebody in face when they make fun of your pants.

6. In Shaun Of The Dead, the heroes tried to kill zombies using 12-inch singles. Try doing that with an iPod and you’ll join the ranks of the undead faster than a screaming teenage girl in a filmy white nightgown.

5. George Carlin comedy albums just plain SOUND BETTER on vinyl.

4. You can actually clean a record album with soap and water. You can clean an iPod by…BUYING A NEW ONE.

3. Stores with high theft issues should stock vinyl. You can hide an MP3 player in any body cavity. An album tends to stick out of the most obvious places. Painful, too.

2. Vinyl records are better than MP3s because you can play them backwards and get the messages Satan wants you to hear. Try doing THAT with a downloaded version of Ashford & Simpson’s “Solid as a Rock”.

1. When you get bored, you can safely microwave an LP, put it on the turntable and play it for laughs. Put an MP3 player in the microwave and it will explode. Need we say more?

Monday, October 05, 2009

DJs that sell their records after converting them to MP3 are breaching copyright law?
Earlier today, one of the local hiphop folk I follow popped up on Twitter with this interesting wee question... "Do DJ's that sell their records after converting them to MP3 realise they are breaching copyright laws?" (from Sen Thong aka Khmer1 - thanks for bringing this up!)

I did a quick Google search  (and asked on Twitter) and uncovered section 81a of the current copyright law (as passed in late 2008), which says that you can copy say, vinyl to MP3  but "You must retain ownership of both the sound recording and any copy". This also applies to you if you sell off your CDs after digitising them for your iPod.


Prior to this becoming law in October 2008, it was illegal in NZ to copy your cds/vinyl to MP3.

Now, here's the interesting part  - "the copy is used only for that owner’s personal use or the personal use of a member of the household in which the owner lives or both".

So, say you're a club DJ, and you've digitised your vinyl and then sold it, and are playing in a club one Saturday night, are you breaking the law?

Sure, you're no different from the iPod-toting hordes who bought the Apple device, digitised their CDs then sold them at Real Groovy (I asked on Twitter if any of the folk following me had digitised their CDs then sold them - they had mostly kept them as a backup, although a few regretted just how much space their music collections consumed). But as a DJ, you're not using those MP3s for personal use only.  Does APRA/RIANZ PPNZ performance fees from venues cover this?

Curious to find out more on this one. Any music lawyers care to weigh in?

ADDED Have put in requests for information on this to APRA and RIANZ/PPNZ.  Stay tuned. It may take a while to get a response as the NZ Music Awards are on this week.

UPDATE 1: This response is from Mark Roach, General Manager Licensing, at Phonographic Performances New Zealand (PPNZ). Thanks for the prompt reply, Mark.

"PPNZ has always taken the approach that DJs format shifting for the purposes of effciency and backing up large music collections, especially vinyl, is a legitimate part of being a DJ and does not require licensing.

Premises should have a PPNZ Public Performance Licence which would cover them for the playing of all music on their premises, i.e. whether by a DJ, by the premises’ own background music system or other. This licence is the responsibility of the premises – not the DJ. If DJs have any concerns about a particular premises, they are always welcome to check the premises status with our licensing reps (info@ppnz.co.nz or 0800 88 PPNZ).

The only proviso we have is that DJs are only using music for their own DJ sets, i.e. if they are servicing their music collections to premises for use as a regular background music system, or to other DJs as a business service then they would require licensing as a music service provider.

I’m not sure the same rule applies with AMCOS (who look after the reproduction of musical works) but they can better advise you this themselves.

One small correction to the blog also – licensing of sound recording copyrights is the domain of PPNZ, not RIANZ (the two organisations are not the same thing)."

UPDATE 2: This response from Rebekah Nolan at AMCOS/APRA...

"Any copying of music over and above the personal use is not covered by the [Copyright] Act and needs to be licensed...

... there are two copyrights that need to be licensed: the underlying musical work (or "publishing" rights); and the sound recording (or "master" rights). APRA|AMCOS represents songwriters and composers so we can issue licences for the publishing rights, whereas PPNZ can issue licences for sound recordings.

APRA|AMCOS has a Casual Blanket Licence for compiling and supplying audio recordings for the purpose of providing a background music service. If you are transferring music from one source (e.g. vinyl, CD or digital download to a hardrive or mp3 player) then you will need this licence.

If you are simply playing existing CDs/vinyl on a turntable, or your downloads are going directly to the hardrive or mp3 player that you use for gigs, then you won't need this licence as there is no actual format shift involved."




UPDATE 3: So the answer to the question "you're a club DJ, and you've digitised your vinyl and are playing in a club one Saturday night (public use as opposed to personal use), are you breaking the law?" No, as long as the venue has paid its relevant performance licences to APRA/AMCOS and PPNZ.

As for my original question (in full) "you're club DJ, and you've digitised your vinyl and then sold it, and are playing in a club one Saturday night, are you breaking the law?" The copyright law is pretty clear on that. "You must retain ownership of both the sound recording and any copy". Boom.


UPDATE 4: Okay, I've crossed out the first part of update 3, as it's been pointed out to me that it's incorrect. I'm still seeking further clarification on the answer in full from AMCOS/APRA.

So to the question "you're a club DJ, and you've digitised your vinyl and are playing in a club one Saturday night (public use as opposed to personal use), are you breaking the law?"

There's a few parts to this. The performance rights are covered by performance licences paid by the venue to APRA (songwriting rights) and PPNZ (sound recording rights).

On the copying for public performance, Im still awaiting clarification. But, it appears that AMCOS/APRA require you (the DJ) to pay a licence if you want to transfer your vinyl to MP3 and play it in public.

More soon.


UPDATE 5: I've got further clarification from APRA/AMCOS on this. AMCOS/APRA do require you (the DJ) to pay a licence if you want to transfer your vinyl to MP3 and play it in public.

From APRA/AMCOS: "A DJ who digitises their vinyl to mp3, then goes and DJs at a bar or club, needs to get a licence to do so, as they have made a reproduction of the works from one format to another and are then using that system in a commercial venture (not just for personal use).
 
If they are currently playing in a club using mp3s digitised from their own vinyl without a licence, they are in breach of copyright. APRA/AMCOS follow up and have the authority to issue infringement notices, and educate.
   
If you are copying music from any format to any other system or format for commercial or business purposes, then you do need a licence for the reproduction of that music. This includes DJs copying their vinyl to use as mp3s."

This position is in distinct contrast to PPNZ's more pragmatic take , which is that "PPNZ has always taken the approach that DJs format shifting for the purposes of effciency and backing up large music collections, especially vinyl, is a legitimate part of being a DJ and does not require licensing."

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Quick hits
1. Spotted via Real Groove on Twitter:  It's not file sharers killing music it's majors illegally selling mp3s. eg: Edwyn Collins. Read it here
2. If you're from NZ and are new to Twitter, Real Groove have out together  a list of some of the folks from the NZ music scene who are using Twitter.  Check it here.
Journalist Bill Bennett has compiled a similar list of NZ magazines and media people on Twitter, over here.
3. DJ Ian Head drops his October 2009 mix entitled Good ‘Ol Soul (For Carlos), which is dedicated to Carlos Alvarez. (Via Crate Kings)
4. Stay tuned for a new feature coming on my blog, early next week. It's all about record fans and their favourite record stores. First up: one of our top hiphop DJs.
5. I know it aint music-related, but I dig this: Sesame St does Mad Men.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Saturday Oct3
Brother Culture  -Warning
International observer  -The international pt 1&2
Jah Batta - I dont want to wait
Pinchers - Bandolero
Julian Marley feat Damian Jr Gong Marley - Violence in the streets
Tenor fly - Mind weh u seh
DJ Vadim - Soldier feat Foreign Beggars remix
Quantic and his Combo Barbaro - Linda Morena
Baker brothers - Shack up
Breakestra - Show you the way
Fulgence - Tribute to Masekela
Jackie Mittoo - Wall street
Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes ectectera
J Period and K'Nann - My country/small axe (Messangers remix)
Unitone hifi - Sneeze off
Cesaria Evora - Angola (Carl Craig remix)
Tony Allen/Jimi Tenor  -Selfesh gene
Black velvet - An earthquake's coming
Lord Newborn and the magic skulls-  Dime bag conspiracy
Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte (DJ Kentaro remix)
Ernest Ranglin and Jungle Bros - Funky Bond st
Kenny Dope and Madd Racket - Supa
Rebel MC feat Tenor Fly - Wickedest sound (Don Gorgon mix)
Dub asylum - Ba ba boom!
Tony Allen - Ole (Moritz von Oswald remix)

Friday, October 02, 2009

Conch Records on sale!
Kicks off tomorrow, Saturday. "Just letting you all know about our sale on this Sat 3rd Oct. Up to 75% off selected items including Vinyl, CD's, T.Shirts, Books and more.We will also be putting out a whole load of records for $5 - new and second hand. Be early!!"