People travel the globe for a good house breakdown. The Armand Van Helden remix of Tori Amos was the first one of these pop reworkings, but every major pop, indie, alt & vocal heavy track worth its salt has been remixed by some of the most talented producers out there. Some hit the mark, some pratfall really hard, as you find out from that one weird guy who keeps sending you YouTube links. I found Imogen Heap’s remix offerings to be kind of lacking in general. There was a gorgeous simplicity to the original that most producers really couldn’t stay true to, plus it’s really embarassing when your vocalist has better production values than you do. However, JPOD’s remix won me over almost immediately. The funky breakdowns mesh with the synthy vocals & inspire thoughts of dancing to it at a trendy, tiny bar on Rivington somewhere. This is one for the Manhattan & Brooklyn nights if I’ve ever heard one. Head over to JPOD‘s Soundcloud & enjoy the Canadian knows what he’s doing.https://soundcloud.com/jpodtbc/imogen-heap-hide-seek-jpod-remix
Kind of a crazy story here. Apparently someone was cleaning out their garage & stumbled on some old (read 2001) mixtapes from Kanye West. And we do mean old, like markers on a cdr old. This kind of stuff may not appear to all of my readers, but if you’re into hip hop beats & the stuff that made Kanye famous before he engaged Mecha Douche 3000 mode, you might like this. The first CD is in the YouTube video above, & the 2nd one can be found here. Don’t say I never gave you anything :D(via Stamp The Wax)
I don’t know who this Random Globe character is, but they know what they’re doing and have earned a spot in my “bored on YouTube” subscription rotation. This new channel, featuring some of the better liquid D&B that usually slips through my radar is still in the formative stages folks. But the 14 songs up already an the D&B list are solid as are the ~60 video chill list. This B-Complex track is everything you need to punch through the early week slump. A dope breakdown after a full 3:40 of regular drum & bass song? Especially considering most tunes in this genre are only that long, it’s gotta be something you sit up and appreciate, when you’ve got a 45sec legit breakdown in the tune. This is some old school Planet of the Drums vibe, pushed into an “almost” liquid track. The result is a gorgeous two hump track that feels like a classic. The vintage taste combined with the modern production values makes for a wonderful vacation in the middle of the week. Head on over to Random Globe if you agree.
Starting the week off with some fire from Annie Mac. A 21yr old named Huntar pushed out this crazy good track, a mix of pop, indie, future & garage elements coming together in a moody gorgeous way. I’m thinking “producer & vocalist” is going to become the new “singer/songwriter” when it comes to the way we’re going to describe things in the future. It’s a fun, bobbing tune from an up & comer that I totally wouldn’t have heard without Ms. Mac giving me the scoop on this. It’s got a great UK garage’y house feel, with some more of an early Disclosure vibe than I thought it would. It definitely holds up on repeat listenings, so make sure to hit up the page for your free DL. Huntar is young, but the tune hit #1 on HypeM, so don’t count him out just yet. This track surprised me, and it may just surprise you.
(I was lucky enough to chat with the mad scientist behind one of my favorite acts of all time, ph10. A force of nature in NYC back when the word rave meant something, ph10 has taken up residence in Denver, giving his fans an epic show this Saturday at The Oriental. Here’s to hoping everyone who reads this will help me convince him to keep the brutally majestic live d&b train going.)1. How have you been preparing for the show? What can Denver attendees expect? Mostly focusing on promotion, it’s a tough town to get more than a couple hundred people at a show like this and we’re shooting for 400 at the Oriental. Beyond that, Pete and I have a brand new track to debut and I’m bringing some older tracks, some unreleased tracks including some hot fire from Clark of Saturn as a tribute. There’s a handful of people coming all the way from NYC and I’m trying to make it worth the trip.2. For everyone who missed your performance in 2013, Do you think you’d ever put out a set online? Brutal drive that was. I was stuck in Kansas for two days because a snow storm closed I70. You know what’s funny about Kansas? As bad as you assume it’ll be, it always finds a way to be worse. Sure I’ll put out a set online. You want to help set that up? Let’s do it live. (ed. You bet your ass I will)
3. Have you kept up with drum & bass these days, are you a still fan of what’s going on in the space? Honestly, I wish I could say no. I wish I could say “oh i’m way past that, I listen to Hungarian pan flute music exclusively now” but i still love DnB and it still gets me going when i need it to. My favorite artist right now is Amit – especially tracks like The Hunted / Killer Driller / Survivor / Daaku and Human Warfare. Brilliantly simple, minimal, dark and just so well produced – pretty much the opposite of pH10.4. Right now, it’s all about the DJ and the fireworks. What is it all about for you when you’re up there? Really? Fireworks? That’s cool. I love pyrotechnics. I used to have a helmet with two flash-paper guns that i fired at the audience. People hated it. Venues really hated it. What’s it about when I’m up there? Sound. There’s nothing more important to me than filling the room with a full, rich auditory experience. Secondarily I mix everything live and like to tweak all the synths to give a semi-live experience to the fans that might know the records. Beyond that, I just bang my fat head up and down and try to have fun. 5. Do you partake in the Denver scene at all? Would you ever consider showing up and mixing records or messing around with some live production somewhere just for your local fans? Not as much any more but when anyone i know ask me to get involved in a show – even if that just means showing up with a computer and dropping samples into a metal set – I rarely decline.
6. Do you keep in touch with your fans? Are they clamoring for unreleased tracks? I’ve never had anyone clamor for anything from pH10 to be honest. If anyone wants unreleased tracks (and there are a few good ones) just ask. (ed. – You bet your ass there are a couple I’ll be asking for :D)
7. As someone who was there before, any thoughts on what Brooklyn & the NYC party scene has become? I go back to NYC a lot and I stay in touch with the promoters that I used to work with – what I hear is that shit is pretty flat right now. I can’t confirm as I’m not in the scene every day but the guys that I looked up to doing parties every month just seem burned out on NYC and have moved on. Having said that, the last time pH10 played there was the aforementioned show at House of Yes in 2013 and it was an incredible experience – so emotional for me. Many of our NY fans came out to greet us, the venue was very well run and the sound was incredible. I do miss NYC.
8. With the explosion in commercial festivals, where do you think we go from here? What’s a club kid to do? Yeah those parties look terrible to my jaded eyes but if those kids are having fun, good on ’em. What I hope happens is that they are inspired by that scene and start to find indie spots to throw their own parties. All we had in the 90s and 00s in NYC was about 5 good crews, filling venues like Wonderland, Rubulad, Frying Pan, Lunatarium etc. That’s all it took – one of those crews throwing a genuinely good party every week and lighting up the city. I hope we get back there some day. 9. Knowing how it all turned out, do you have any nuggets of wisdom or insight for people just on the precipice of what you created? You know what, It’s finally been long enough to look back and be proud of what we accomplished rather than wonder would could have been. Regardless of the fact that some of the stuff with Pete Miser did pretty well on college radio and commercially with licensing and placements – we’ve sold a couple thousands records total, across our entire catalog over our entire history. Not exactly setting the world on fire. But the shows that we’ve performed – putting us in a position to look down off of a stage and see pleasure and pure joy in someone’s face because of the goofy shit that we’re playing – that’s what I’ll always treasure about this project. pH10 is silly but we fucking rock at the same time – that’s a great combination and all too rare these days. I like to think of pH10 as the electronic Murphy’s Law. 10. No chance we could convince you to keep it going huh? Even maybe just mastering some unreleased material or mixes of your favorite classic tracks? I didn’t expect anyone to bat an eye at the ‘last show’ declaration but it seems that there’s more interest than I expected – especially in doing live shows. The show hasn’t even happened yet so it’s a bit early to renege but fuck it. If someone in our family comes along and asks us to participate in something good, I might not know how to say no. As for releasing new stuff – that’s inevitable. I just need some help making it happen. Hit me up.
This Drug Fact Friday is one of the big champions of the jungle ones folks. This is a concoction of different chemicals that some of your more groovy/hippie friends may have mentioned at a party once or twice. Ayahuasca (sometimes called yagé) is a powerful psychedelic brew. The brew is created because the DMT containing plant needs a vine that has what’s known as an MAO inhibitor in it. If anyone ever tells you Ayahuasca is one thing, hit them. This concoction of a couple of plants allows the DMT to survive what’s known as first pass metabolism and reach your bloodstream. Traditionally, shamans may also add other plants to the mixture, but the DMT & the MAOI are the two primary ingredients. These brews are traditionally consumed during tribal music & shamanistic ritual. It’s not something that has a lot of festival/club use, as many people report severe nausea, vomiting & diarrhea while on it. If you thought you were going to puke when you took shrooms and went to see Ratatat that one time, this blows that out of the chunky water. Some of my friends in San Francisco & NYC have lovingly referred to it as a “bucket & diaper” drug, for this exact reason. And yes, the purging properties the drug has are referred to as “la purga” (guess what that translates to) in shamanic tradition, so get with it.Now that I’ve sufficiently grossed out all the kids, let’s talk about how & why people take this stuff. “Ayahuasca” is a non-indigenous spelling, as the natives of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru & Columbia may prefer ayawaska, and the cultural differences between taking it in the jungle & taking it in a loft in Brooklyn are as striking. Like all other psychedelic experiences, set, setting, goal, community & purpose can mean the difference between a transcendent journey or a nightmarish stumble. The ceremony associated with Ayahuasca helps align people to their goals and can have a tremendously therapeutic, possibly life-changing effect. The plants making the brew, importantly, are not illegal. The chemical, DMT, within the plant is illegal, but the plants from which the DMT is obtained are not scheduled. There are plenty of super positive experiences listed within the Erowid vaults but I’m not going to bore people with “I got so high I saw the galaxy” stories. It’s a much more sophisticated experience, as the research diagram below shows. Even the purging aspect of the drug has a purpose. It was administered traditionally at non-psychoactive doses to vacate parasites & worms from a digestive tract.There’s been a continuing problem of recreational users doing powerful psychedelics in contexts that don’t require them, or in places where their use is very risky. Whether it’s taking the brew without knowing its potency, doing so because some cute girl is doing it, or even because you’re using it to escape from your life, there are plenty of risks involved with using Aya improperly. The most important is possibly an exacerbation of pre-existing heart conditions. With these hugely potent psychedelic experiences, significant increases in blood pressure & pulse rates have been reported. To stress, no one has died from Ayahuasca per se. The deaths associated with the brew may be due to complications because of medication regimens & the addition of problematic plants & other additives to it. This VERY tongue in cheek video (oh my God, please don’t yell at me, plant teachers are important, I agree and there are a ton more serious videos on Aya here.) shows a lot of the dark sides of people calling themselves shamans & abusing powerful psychedelics without proper context or motivation. There have been reports of “shamans” exploiting drug tourists, there have been people who died because they didn’t disclose all of the prescriptions they’re taking during their consultations with the shaman.So, I think it’s important to keep that in mind that what is known about the chemicals clinically is fundamentally different than what is experienced by the ingestion of the brew in a particular place & time. And it can help people in really tangible ways. Ayahuasca has been shown to fight addiction and has a growing following when it comes to its use in processing trauma. A veteran by the name of Ryan LeCompte took a squad of veterans down to the jungle to have a real ceremony, with a real shaman, and work on some real problems. Not “my apartment doesn’t get enough southern light & my boyfriend can’t commit” level problems. Real veterans, who saw some shit, people who have dealt with things that would make the average basic cry. Lisa Ling from CNN went down to the jungle with them and saw what real healing, post-OIF/OEF looks like. There’s a lot of disputation about whether psychedelics can heal in the academic/ivory tower community. Among Ryan’s comrades in arms, I don’t think that’s an argument they’re having anymore. There is a real potential to help people using this brew, and there are wise people who will watch over you when you do it. If you can find them. This drug is hugely contentious for precisely this reason, so join ravelrie, NY DanceSafeStay Safe Seattle & I at 4:30pm EST/1:30pm PST for #ayaFF on Twitter to learn more & join in the conversation about it.
10 minutes of orchestrated & expertly scored hip hop, conducted by JIMEK, a composer who is pretty damn familiar with some of the best hip hop of the last 30 years. Wu Tang, Missy, Dre, and so many more. A whole lot of kudos to the Polish National Radio Orchestra being good sports about this. Gotta say, I prefer this to a lot or over-orchestration that happens when people try and act cute. This is well executed, so kudos to The Awesomer for the tip.
(I was honored to sit down with one of the majordomos in DiSORIENT, NYC’s premier Burner camp & underground party cohort. If you’ve enjoyed yourself at a DiSORIENT event in the last couple of years, you probably have Lady S. to thank for it. Been a fan of their work since 2006 when I hung out in their party dome, while searching for the DiS art car in the deep playa. They’ll be making Glamtech happen again, and as I’ve saidbefore, this is not a party to miss. See everyone on the 13th!)
1. What is your favorite thing about the NYC underground/burner dance music culture? What is your least favorite thing about it? The unspoken and unconsummated relationships. No matter the kind of parties fit your taste in NYC, you will always see the same people. These are the people that love the same music as you and are in it with you for every show and every set. You may not know them or their names or their stories, but you know their faces and you see them every time you are out. You share with them a nod, a smile, a wink, something to let them know that you know they are there and that you are there for the same reasons. That moment, those relationships, that is my favorite thing.
My least favorite would be the posers, the people in it for the money and nothing pure, but parading themselves around as something more. Underground culture was developed to get away from that. I find it a shame to see so many production companies using that culture and what we have created to line their pockets.2. How do you juggle your day-time responsibilities with the “bad bitch corralling Burners” night-time persona that you’re known for? Ha, I didn’t know that I had a persona I was known for, but I can dig it. The short answer is coffee, a lot of it. But in reality, I really have no idea, none of us do. I spend most, if not all of my time, multi-tasking and working as a unit with the rest of our production crew (for Burning Man and parties) to make sure it all gets done.
Most, if not all, of what I do and what Disorient does could not be done without all of us working together, even if it looks like only one or two people are doing things. Disorient is volunteer run, which means that we are all doing this for the party and for that indescribable Disorient feeling. That’s not a big motivator for some, but it is for us, and somehow we all find a way to make it all work, just for that feeling. But, ask any of us how we do it and all we can say is, “I don’t know, we just do.” Continue reading →
Well, this one sure takes me back. Yoji Biomehanika is a hard house/hard dance DJ you’ve probably never heard of, and plays music harder than anything you’ve ever heard. I’m serious, this guy headlined Sensation Black, back when hard trance & hard dance were still genres of music people listened to. For the faint of heart, you’ll want to fast-forward through the first 60 seconds to get to the good part. Yoji, while super heavy & frenetic, can create the most beautiful, trance-inducing hard vibes, unlike anything you’ve heard from a DJ that hails from America, Australia or Europe. Japan has some of the craziest dance music out there, and Yoji has led that charge. I’ve been jamming out to this guy for almost 10 years. The vibe he creates can only be described as “rave in Neo-Tokyo.” There are very few DJs that can keep the energy up like he can, and to celebrate his glorious return, I’m going to be peppering my blog with Yoji related posts this week. If you can’t handle it, run & hide. If you’re as excited for this as I am, his album dropped literally 48hrs ago and you can grab it here and here.
(This interview is a minor dream of mine ladies and gentlemen. As a New Yorker & journalist, The Naked Cowboy is larger than life. Whether he’s got a crowd surrounding him in the summer, or singing loudly & proudly in the dead of winter, he’s a NY institution. We had a quick chat, and he let us in on a fitness & motivational secret or two.)1. Is there any part of being The Naked Cowboy that you like more than the others?
I love everything equally about being the Naked Cowboy, but it is always the greatest pleasure to see when I make people laugh and smile.
2. When did you think, hey, I can really do this for a living?
From the beginning, I knew it was valuable. I didn’t quite know how I would make money from it, but I always moved forward with the intention of making myself the richest man in the world. 3. How the hell do you deal with the cold?
Painfully.
4. Can you let us in on any Naked Cowboy fitness secrets?
Run 7 miles, spectral weight training and eat small nutritionally balanced low carb meals 7 times/day. No white sugar, very little or no high fructose fruit/vegetable.
5. You mention Anthony Robbins as an inspiration. Can you talk about how he impacted your life?
Before AR, everyone told me all the things I couldn’t do, then I realized from reading Unlimited Power, that I could do anything I wanted to do. It was an immediate game changer for me.
6. Do you have any favorite Naked Cowboy media pieces or events that you like being known for?
7. What’s up with the Naked Cowboy Oysters?
They are now the #1 selling Oyster in America. They’re from Blue Island Oyster Company on the West Coast. You can get more info on them here: – Home of Blue Island Oyster Company – West Coast
8. Do you have any thought on the “asking” economy? As popularized by people like you & Amanda Palmer?
I think she is brilliant. I tried to do a few Kickstarter campaigns and they all failed miserably. I guess initially I was the only one who thought my ideas would make me the “Most Celebrated Entertainer of All Time”. It took several Corporate Endorsements for any of my ideas to begin to take shape and create value and recognition.
9. How have you been objectified in your time as the Naked Cowboy? Has it changed your perspective on how models & others are treated?
No matter how dumb it is; I believe that people recognize my success and the fact that I am simply enjoying life, making people laugh and have fun. I suggest anyone who wants to enjoy being a spectacle, should become a Naked Cowboy or Naked Cowgirl franchisee.
10. You’ve spoken about trying to give vast sums of money away, how is that developing?
Perfectly. I give money to the less fortunate every day… Over the years, the amount has already become vast and will increase continually.
Bonus: Favorite Song/Album of 2015 so far?
My most recent favorite song/album actually released in 2014: Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off next to “What The Naked Cowboy Wants To Hear”… I’d sure like her to become a Naked Cowgirl Franchisee!
Now that I’ve sufficiently grossed out all the kids, let’s talk about how & why people take this stuff. “Ayahuasca” is a non-indigenous spelling, as the natives of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru & Columbia may prefer ayawaska, and the cultural differences between taking it in the jungle & taking it in a loft in Brooklyn are as striking. Like all other psychedelic experiences, set, setting, goal, community & purpose can mean the difference between a transcendent journey or a nightmarish stumble. The ceremony associated with Ayahuasca helps align people to their goals and can have a tremendously therapeutic, possibly life-changing effect. The plants making the brew, importantly, are not illegal. The chemical, DMT, within the plant is illegal, but the plants from which the DMT is obtained are not scheduled. There are plenty of super positive experiences listed within the 
1. Is there any part of being The Naked Cowboy that you like more than the others?
Terry Gotham 