I am really heavy into this archiving vibe, because I’m deadly about getting super organised and sorted out. EVerything needs to be sorted and organised that’s what business is all about, but archiving is good, managing the information and items that are your responsibility in an effective way, without friction.

On one hand it’s an extention of the stuff science concept, that owning and monitoring and maintaining and navigating more physical possessions and digital possessions

But you get a little bit wrapped up, I know it’s important to maintain focus, but when I start focusing on stuff like piles of CD and DVD from years of jobs gone past, or devoting energy to your worst songs when your best are probably still in front of you. To even be spending nights sorting out computer files while people are out living seem a little bit at odds to what I’m trying to achieve.

But here I am, I’m not sure what the true worth of getting pissed and wandering around really is, but I’m like all in on this Low Key video which is really uping the amount of original content in our soul science drum and bass music videos, and I see that this is good, but it’s also good because I’m out there, wandering around with the camera, boiling down all the old bones to get a nice broth of vibes going, just from wandering around with a shitty $100 mini camera.

But anyway I’m staying focused on the goals, grinding out the low key clip which will defiinitely be a jump up I reckon because of the original footage pervading the mix, even though it’s shot really crappily on my gshot camera. I’m getting all the giveaway stuff loaded up to the site so my designer has got everything he needs to build a sweet little box where you can cycle through the mixes available.

Make Believe, my best dj mix, and Decks and the City, probably not my best but one that would have gotten a lot of play, probably the hardest one I pushed, and you never know nostalgic cats may download it if they were into it at the time. Make Believe, Tough Love, Gentleman Caller, Decks and the City, and Who Loves Ya? Are my 5 official studio mixes. So I’m giving away 2 of those, and the others will be for the newsletter.

You can have a lot of good stuff, but if you want even more, you need to join the newsletter. You can have the Such Heavy Wings producer mix because then you get a nice chunk of my stuff to listen to at once, even though it’s old. You can have the Down and Out Chill out mix, because it’s a great mix to enjoy for everyone, so a good thing to get out. The Make or Break mix is 100% unsigned NZ electronic music so has got made obscurity, and connects with one of my other markets – local underground electronic music enthusiasts, local underground producers, beat dungeon family. So that’s what my little free bundle is all about.

What’s not free is Oceanic Chill and Soul Science releases obviously, to me Dojo Inspectors should be available, but not for free, maybe keep that as a treat fro special soul science fans. I want it to be a testament to our depth that from 2009 you can check we had 31 solid tunes, a few of which came to be released in 2011. Dojo Inspectors is like our version of our early live recordings, I want to leverage them because it’s not worth selling but it’s too notable to just give away. BUT because it’s 80 minutes of music you want to give fans access to something they can listen to again and again rather than a song that cycles clumsily a few times around the ipod, a song is designed to find it’s way into other DJ’s sets.

So now this is the thing, if our next music video is getting done and the website developments are being shuttled along, then we’re left with 3 directions.

- Continue deep into the archiving, living like a race of dwarven trolls under the mountain of data and various hoardings. We have to ask where this is seriously heading, is it really something to get done with, or is it meant to be something you do as you do, that beyond practicality you’re just taking stock for the sake of busy work and because it makes me feel all cosy to spend an hour sorting out something that wll only ever give me the odd pleasures now and again when I go over them, rather than having any true artistic merit or contribution to make to my overall development.

- the pirate thing, it is going huge,we need to fill in to the vibe here and get it set. We need to get this photo shoot done. Both of these things are being

- Tax. How boring. But it has to be done. The sort of thing to be done, that just needs to be done and sorted and forgotten, but again, what after tax? Tax and the business set up to be done in about a month.

I’m trying to get business intelligence here, I’m trying to look at my analytical and systemic processes.

The philosophies on display here are:

- We need to have everything processed because better organisation is a more efficient and creative environment for the business.

- We need to plan the execution of sophisticated strategies that will contribute to growing our business, even if we are only ensuring some aspect of our brand meets a perceived market standard.

- We need to be diligent and active in areas that could raise potential issues slowing productivity and causing stress

Which statement do I most agree with?

I dunno. After Low Key I need to get the video for Pure Juice happening. I got songs I gotta do, Kingsland Dawn, It’s Done, Hang em High, we want tunes that are done coming down, and we need Dark Matter back coming entering the fray.

Are you gonna talk about what the end of archiving means, I mean really get into it? Well, no not 1000 words in, if it even isn’t just getting on with videos and tunes anyway, I mean 20 tunes later, a dozen videos later, videos piling up, archives all stacked up on the site, ads sending people through to get in, you get your 1000 fans and you feel people care about the music you’re doing, people want to buy it. You start writing decent tunes and you’re in. People want you to play around the world even if you never make any money. You get cheques from labels so you can buy yourself some thoughtful purchases, you get $200 to play in your home city and $500 outside, and there’s plenty of offers.

But of course when you get there, it’s no longer a dream. Well that’s why the dream is modest. I think my material needs are somewhat modest in context, and I should hope with some work in the same way as i have with my business, the recognition I get for the work I try to do in earning the appreciation of people who like drum and bass, and strange youtube stuff, and rambling journals of expressions will be enough for me to simply enjoy it.

Just time for a round up of links, news, free mp3’s and such. Need to do this more often because well, it’s what people want, and I have been peeling through a few articles and blog posts recently.

You may have heard after 13 years and one location shift, Fu Bar / Zen Auckland’s home of drum and bass, dubstep, and a fair few hip hop internationals and such is to close. That’s gonna mean a few changes in my approach to what I’m doing around town, it’ll certainly make for a few changes, there’ll be a vacuum, so who’s the first sucker ready to get sucked in and spat out because they think they’re a player?

Is it my time to step up some, or play my cards close to my chest and see what develops – one thing for sure, bass culture in Auckland city will never be the same and is for some interesting shifts.

Check out the press release here.

Also in drum and bass related news, Sub Focus has signed with Mercury Music for 600,000 pounds. That’s a fair old amount, good to see there’s still some money floating around in drum and bass.

FREE MUSIC

Experimental / Minimal Drum and Bass artists Instra:Mental’s “No Future” remixed by ASC and local lad and former Fu Bar employee Consequence

This free tune from Julien Dyne of Open Souls is a ripper and well worth grabbing on the soulful beats tip. When I moved into Richmond Rd taking Evan from Concord Dawn’s old room, Julien had moved out previously also but there were a lot of music connections in that flat.

If you’re after some chewy and tasty free soulful / funky / afro beats check out the label love 3 compilation for free download I grabbed a soulful new vocal tune from local Mark De Clive-Lowe.

Classic New Zealand experimental / ambient / shoegaze band HDU have put their catalogue up on bandcamp – it’s not free, but it means you can finally stream some of these tunes at leisure, something I’m often key to do living out the memories from when I saw them play at the Mandalay in Newmarket. Cool gig.

Here’s their big tune Lull.

Also some Garagey business from White On Rice. Who’s this DJ Import? There was a DJ Import from Wellington who dissed the fuck out of me a fair few years back in the Data:Bass days, sending me abusive emails, I don’t even know who the hell he is, but I would gladly return the favour by taking the opportunity to make him uncomfortable should the opportunity present itself. Hope it’s not the same guy.

BRAINFOOD

Man I’m glad I did this to realise how few links I actually have of all the reading I’ve been doing recently. Need to tweet that out more, so I can come back and find the articles.

Psychology article on Narcissism

Was the agricultural revolution the worst mistake the human race ever made?

The philosophy of Viagra raises some interesting questions – “When the appetites relax and cease to importune us,” explains Cephalus, “we escape from many mad masters.”

I’ve said it before, as much as I want to be hooking up with multiple hot models, would it make the world a better place? I don’t think so, somehow.

On the UK riots, just adding my favourite article from Telegraph political editor Peter Orborne – funny, I heard later that the Telegraph is the tory paper.

You can see a map representation of areas of social deprivation overlaid with locations where riots broke out.

UK riots in combination with the disdain and cynicism of corporations in New Zealand such as coca cola, adidas and fonterra has got me wondering about middle class activism.

The ruling class relies on our education, our skills, and our complicitness in being paid off with big money to behave ourselves and not agitate against the systems of oppression.

Refusing to work for fonterra doesn’t help me, it hurts me. They just go to somebody else, who is more ignorant and greedy than I, and what does that achieve?

Beat Dungeon Radio show with Romantech 100% NZ electronic dance music

chill out, funky breaks, dubstep, nz drum and bass, chill out, house, chillstep

Sola rosa, opiou, state of mind, tim richards, dose, upbeats, chromatic, truth, ollie bassweight, tiki and more

I just saw this on twitter today a few local DJ’s I follow were tweeting about this, so I decided to head to bandcamp and check out the album, I only listened to the first 3 tunes but they were awesome.

The beats were awesome, and the flows were also really top notch, maybe a bit heavy on the local kiwiana references.

Paradox Vol.9 Radioshow – July 2011 by PARADOX

gonna put my picture here, right?

DJROMANTECH2010MIX-MAKEBELIEVE by romantech

JUST SLIPPED MY NEW DJ MIX UNDER THE TREE FOR YA!

http://dnbshare.com/download/DJROMANTECH2010MIX-MAKEBELIEVE.MP3.html

It’s Romantech’s “Make Believe” DJ Mix for 2010 – just in time – no fancy packaging – yet.

Catch me playing with Soul Science Dec 31st and Jan 7 at fu bar – dates for A-Sides forthcoming . . .

Deadhouse – Black Sun Empire
Ill Behaviour – Danny Byrd
Behind Time – Alix Perez
Thieves in the Night – Lenzman & Redeyes
Come Over – Er.ic
The Touch – Shapeshifter (Camo & Krooked Remix)
How Could I Love You More? – Blue Motion
The Touch – ASC
The Space Between – Concord Dawn
I Have You – Commix
Whispering Words – LSB
Is Anybody Out There? – S.P.Y. & B.CEE
Night on Earth – Zyon Base, Hobzee, Brother
Open Page – Lenzman ft. Riya
Dream Love – Big Bud, Soul Connection
Daydreamer – Komactic, Technicolour
Brothers – Redeyes
Don’t Want Your Love – Calibre
Forget – Mutt ft. Kevin King
Together – Disaszt (DC Breaks Remix)
Three’s a Crowd – Artificial Intelligence, D-Bridge
Stars – All Thieves (Zero T Remix)
DJ Friendly Unit Shifter – Rockwell
Falling Through – Noisia, Spor
I Heart U – Well Being

Following on from an episode featuring the failed inspection . . .

I’ve always said, since I packed kiwifruit in the kiwifruit land packhouse, realising there were mysterious lost feelings, that music and art was an opportunity to rediscover and resolve lingering emotion.

I don’t know if it’s as simple as saying that was then, this is now, and there will always be a disembodied sense vying between connection and loss of connection.

There’s some meaning in the feeling.

This is all true but I have lurched off now on a macro tangent. The point I was making was that it’s not about being the best, it’s about getting better, and in growing, understanding the nature of growth.

It’s a macro tangent because getting signed is a step along a path which I don’t yet comprehend the destination. From my experiences with money, I understand that the further you get, the less you’re really going to value it.

The journey of fame and recognition, even if it’s just the kids round the local scene or getting reasonably popular in New Zealand, is limited. With art it’s a journey into the soul. It is just like telling tales around the fire in the days of prehistory.

I share my story, so that others may learn, and the best stories get told again.

Beyond becoming somebody art is the journey to find out who that somebody is.

With each step moving further away from the need for recognition, vindication and closer to discovering the true nature of what and how things happened to make you who you are.

The idea was to put something out.

That was the idea behind the inspection, to put something out that we could promote and say we’d done.

The idea was to put something out but we didn’t we failed immensely, and again our journey of perserverance reaches along the path of redemption.

With each step moving further away from the need for recognition, vindication and closer to discovering the true nature of what and how things happened to make you who you are.

The need for attention and recognition is the young mans game. The desire for true self discovery is true art.

My first Drum and Bass track ever was called “Recognition” (you can check it out/download)

My first track ever was called “recognition”. I even sampled the smiths and the pixies, “let me get what I want this time” so I could “Fucking die”, what I wanted of course being . . . recognition. It almost makes me feel romantic about it but that’s just it. I’ve changed from the person who just wants to make a drum and bass track so I can be in the bfm top ten and get a little article about me in the front section of Pavement magazine.

Rosebud.

Maybe I can pay for a special edition of pavement to come out so I can feature as a new up and coming producer with a fresh sound.

That’s the funny thing about reality compound is expressing that desire to hang on to the past and be romantic. Reality Compound is the secret code which is a drama about me trying to recapture those vibes is ridiculous way, while in my serious romantech music, I go in.

I travel through time to the moment.

Working on “Recognition” using rebirth and importing into samplitude, down in western springs.

I saw Evan Kiljoy from Concord Dawn and he said he would master it. Except I only had it on a cassette tape recorded from running my computer through my stereo.

I didn’t have a CD burner.

Those were still flash.

Haha it’s taken me 10 years to get my act together and get $150 so he can master a tune.

But documenting stuff like that and being all manic on it like a caricature of myself will go to expressing that point, you’re only young once. You only learn once, you only find it out once, you only experience it once.

What it is is what it is.

You can’t change it. You can’t have regrets, you’ve got to own your story.

So I have 2 stories the Reality Compound which celebrates fumbled, bungled and forced efforts to resuscitate the vibe, only to learn the lesson of your 20’s – that there’s more to life than partying and bouncing from one hope to another. You’ve got to find yourself, as with that quote a few posts back, it’s in relinquishing the freedom of possibility for the few outcomes you can hold on to.

But there’s another story of the time travelling Romantech who appears in the moment from the past to see and understand what it really is.

He appears to revisit the kiwifruit packing line.

He revisits the slug in the kittens food bowl

The jumble of tour moments on short circuit tours, what the meaning inside really is.

We knew that the kiwifruit line was the essence of change, memories like vapours coming over you, but seeming so lost, so detached, the feeling that can be sensed physically and emotionally, of change.

I saw the slug and how it’s slimy way spoke to me of disease and death and so we turn away from the truth of our own fate, rotting, to be blissful in our ignorance.

The tour that promises so much, to every boy and girl who longs to be recognised, to live the dream, nothing is easy. The fanciful dream of pursuit must be thrashed out of the young, romantic and idealistic musicians.

The young people with their dreams and their shallow impatient longing, that goes so often unfulfilled, the ultimate negotiation must then begin.

That’s what Reality Compound is about, the negotiation of accepting the dream is just a dream.

But in Romantech’s time travels, we come to understand how these moments define who I am, what I see.

In the kiwifruit, the slug, the tour, there is meaning in the feeling.

It’s okay to want things to be the way they were, but the fact they never will be is what makes them so beautiful to watch.

It comes back to one thing, you’re only young once. You’re only that stupid once, and that’s your story. You can have regrets or you can craft something beautiful for others to see, feel, understand, experience and know what it is to get older, reduced to a single moment when an idea shoots through your head and you see things for what they finally are.

Understanding brings knowledge and wisdom, an understanding of why you do the things you do.

I write because it brings me this knowledge.

We just wanted to put something out, to take one significant step toward a dream. But we failed, failed inspection. The name represents the fact that we tried, that we failed, and the story continues.

A story in which by revisiting places, vibes, emotions in narratives and art I can break open fresh meaning in the feelings I am left with from these experiences that made me who I am, that made these things, this art, chapters in the story of what I discovered.

FREE DRUM AND BASS Mp3 – my first ever drum and bass tune from the year 2000!!!

10 years of producing drum and bass in the rear view!!!

My first Drum and Bass track ever was called “Recognition” (you can check it out/download)

FREE DRUM AND BASS Mp3 – my first ever drum and bass tune from the year 2000!!!

10 years of producing drum and bass in the rear view!!!

My first Drum and Bass track ever was called “Recognition” (you can check it out/download)

Wouldn’t it be good news to be signed.

To be getting your tunes regularly picked up by modest smaller labels so that they would provide a platform, doing all the administration and getting your name out there on the lists, to ferment interest for a few years before you hit your stride, that would be good.

To me it would be a massive boost of recognition that might get me motivated, get me moving to the place I want to be with my music.

A part of me wants to be recognised in Auckland, to have the other guys who make tunes take me seriously, to be included in the line ups when they pay tribute to the local guys who make tunes. To be able to relate to other creative people on a creative vibe, because you know I’m not into the technical stuff, I’m into art and expressing and exploring ideas, and where emotions feelings and experiences come from and how they resonate.

But the recognition isn’t why I’m doing this anymore. My first Drum and Bass track ever was called “Recognition” (you can check it out) So you can see there was a time where I just wanted people to know that I could do something good.

I wanted it for so long, for so long I poured so much effort into it, so much effort for such a little reward.

Of course getting signed now isn’t like getting signed before. It’s not a big deal, if I see a single cent then I’ll be impressed. I think I already compared it to the money situation, not to belittle it, but the fact that once you reach a certain point, your perception changes.

When I was broke, becoming a millionaire seemed important. When you’re nobody, earning recognition for your music seems important.

But then you get $100,000 in the bank. And some little label puts out your tunes, and people no longer respond to you like you’re nobody.

And you suddenly gotta wonder if making a million dollars and being a big shot on the local scene is necessery or even what you want. Is that the essence of life, a meer number? The fact that a dozen people told a dozen others that your music was alright and now they don’t ignore you in the club?

It doesn’t change the fact that clinging onto money to make you happy won’t end well and nor will looking to a bunch of young kids hoping they like you.

I’ve always said, since I packed kiwifruit in the kiwifruit land packhouse, realising there were mysterious lost feelings, that music and art was an opportunity to rediscover and resolve lingering emotion.

I don’t know if it’s as simple as saying that was then, this is now, and there will always be a disembodied sense vying between connection and loss of connection.

There’s some meaning in the feeling.

This is all true but I have lurched off now on a macro tangent. The point I was making was that it’s not about being the best, it’s about getting better, and in growing, understanding the nature of growth.

It’s a macro tangent because getting signed is a step along a path which I don’t yet comprehend the destination. From my experiences with money, I understand that the further you get, expecting shallow solutions to solve deep unresolved issues, the less you’re really going to value it.

What’s a million bucks when you’re 60. Do you still want to write music that’s meaningful or revolutionary when you’re 60?

The journey of fame and recognition, even if it’s just the kids round the local scene or getting reasonably popular in New Zealand, is limited. There’s also the flimsy foundation of these young kids thinking you’re cool because they’re young and they live their lives like clubbing is everything there is, that it’s all about your connection with the cool people and your status. That’s not the journey of music, that’s something else.

And it’s no good: You invest yourself into a value system where value is only distributed to people who are charismatic and have credibility, then once you lose credibility, you have no value, a lot of it is to do with the fact that you’r edealing with dudes in their 20’s who still have a lot to learn about life, and showing respect.

Who wants to connect deeply with people who only value the fact that you make art? It’s too flimsy and shallow, and so for me, the recognition is flimsy and shallow, outside of the real connections you can make.

Art goes deeper than that.

With art it’s a journey into the soul. It is just like telling tales around the fire in the days of prehistory.

I share my story, so that others may learn, and the best stories get told again.

Anyway we’ll take that up elsewhere.

Getting better, growing, recognising the state of matters from a new perspective. The one that opens beyond having the local guys treat you different and girls want to meet you and hang out with you.

Beyond “becoming somebody” art is the journey to find out who that somebody is.

And if having some other guys willing to give you approval and the benefit of their efforts to put your name out there helps us to go deeper and further on that journey, to understand the reality of people thoughts towards you and what that means, well then it’s a very good thing.

If it makes me write more songs and put more effort in then that’s good.

If it makes me feel like I’m respected and appreciated and this art I’m doing is values, then that’s good.

If it starts the chain of events that leads to your name getting out there so you can play more and better gigs in further away places and possibly get paid larger sums, then that has got to be good in terms of what I’d like to do.

Time Travelling episode to the inception of the Dojo Inspectors:

Goddamit feeling square as. It’s always something isn’t it?

Actually I’m not feeling that old.

Okay so now this is where I’m supposed to take my fiercely analytical streak to visit some of the themes being embraced with the Dojo Inspectors mixtape release.

Bigger questions, smaller questions.

How do you think I’ll go? Boy I’m glad no one continues to read this blog – I don’t blame them, but it would be embarrasing if they did.

My hope of course is that I’ll look back and wonder what I was so worked up about and it will be kind of quaint and yet reassuring and it will be also a document to my art.

Or, y’know, people will come here to learn about the Dojo Inspectors and discover how indulgent and obsessive I am, but hey, that’s me, I’m quite unrepentant these days I guess simply because I’m an okay businessman and I make cash it means I think I know everything, or at least, I can work it out. Eventually.

I can work it out by myself. I had to sort my money out, so I did. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. Now I’m back to my art, and I can see now I have my money it’s going to make doing art easier, in fact my art might just hopefully arrive at another level.

The idea is to put something out.

The idea was to put something out . . .

but we didn’t, we failed immensely, and again our journey of perserverance reaches along the path of redemption.

And yet the story continues, the legend lives on.

Inspection: failed . . .

Painted Smile is an absolutely gorgeous deep Piano tune but this new one that’s just gone up “Cold Kiss” is also very very good and worth a spin.

http://soundcloud.com/metalheadz/commix-painted-smile-metalheadz

http://soundcloud.com/metalheadz/commix-cold-kiss-ft-logistics-dub

also for a jazzier sample driven early alix perez type thing check out the remix of Avalanches “Tonight” very very sweet all free downloads right now!

http://soundcloud.com/commix/avalanches-tonight-commix-remix

In good news today, work is going well, and Sali released a free song featuring m.i.a called toldya, it’s grimey and cheeky and has a fruity, psychadelic snakecharmer indian vibe.

download the track from:

http://www.salimusic.com