Rotophonic

A geeky blog discussing the world of music, technology & politics.

Archive for category Dance Music

Wicked Andrew Kelly mix available for download

Jul 21

Posted by rotophonic in Dance Music | No Comments

Andrew KellyHailing from the UK, Andrew Kelly is a brilliant dj and producer with tastes that range from the experimental beats and clicks to main room burners. A brand-new mix from Kelly, Oslo Nights, is posted on Hybridized.org that leans towards the latter. In his mixes, he frequently is the producer or remixer of many of the tracks contained within the mix. This mix is no exception, containing four Kelly productions (at least):

1) Andrew Kelly – Sometimes I’m You (Intro Edit) – CDR
2) D-Nox – Seven Hours (Martinez Apocalypse Now Remix) – Electribe
3) Andrew Kelly – Not Responsible – CDR
4) M’Ocean feat Michelle Chivers – Vertigo (Andrew Kelly Mix) – Feralcode Records
5) Bjorn Fogelberg – A Brand New World (Andrew Kelly Mix) XAKK Records
6) Nick K – Who Needs Vocals Anyway – Gangsta Audio
7) Slok – Lonely Child (Satoshi Tomiie 3D Remix) – Saw Recordings
8) Musgrove & Mcgrath – Rollerdiscoking – EQ Records
9) Silver City – Shiver (Ewan Pearson Remix)

It’s available for a free download from Hybridized.org, but consider buying a cheap subscription to get access to Hybridized’s faster downloads. You won’t regret it. In particular, the subscription is worth it just to get Kelly’s mixes and mixes from the best, most prolific DJs you’ve never heard of, Shiloh (the Moreh brothers).

The killer of dance music record stores unmasked

Jul 12

Posted by rotophonic in Dance Music, Technology | 1 Comment

BeatportMuch to the shagrin of record stores around the world, the digital revolution has nearly completely taken over the dance music industry. The culprit? Online stores like Beatport. Of course, it’s not all their fault: the advent of DJs distributing promo CDRs probably played a major part as well. Even so, Beatport has certainly revived my excitement about new dance music.
As a bedroom DJ who once crawled through record bins looking for the latest, greatest tracks, Beatport has completely changed my world. For one, I’d never find the latest tracks in the stores. I reverted to ordering from brick-and-mortar stores in New York or even Toronto in trying to get a track that was newer than 6 months old.

Beatport provides a Flash interface, which at first might seem annoying, but later proves to be pretty cool as you flip through tons of music while your currently playing preview track plays along in the background. Without using an ugly frame-based HTML site, this would be pretty difficult.

Every week, their store seems to get more and more labels on-board and the track selection is far superior to any brick-and-mortar, or even online, store I ever frequented. Now obviously you can’t “spin” an MP3 directly, but by burning the downloaded tracks onto a CD for your CDJ-1000 or simply downloading and spinning them with Stanton’s Final Scratch, you can freshen up your record box in no time, anytime. I’m a fan and even if you don’t buy anything, it’s fun to just flip through and listen to their generous song samples while killing time at work.