Here’s a mix recorded live at a fantastic club night called 5uinto in Brasilia, Brazil. This happened a little over two weeks ago in the midst of my busy three week South American tour. Hot and heavy; a refreshingly energetic dance-floor for the entire 2 hours … and I was greeted with birthday cake right after my set (it wasn’t my birthday).
To see a photo gallery of this gig click HERE
For more information on 5uinto click HERE ?To listen to other DJ sets by a multitude of 5uinto guests and DJs click HERE
I’ve always been into exploring others’ methods of creativity, those being the tricks and things one does to spark their artistic urges. In fact, when I was a teenager I helmed a photocopied punk rock fanzine called Plague On Wheels (bonus points if you know the reference) and every time I interviewed a band one of my questions would be “What are your methods of creativity?” Not very punk rock, I know, but I was really interested … and I still am.
So it’s no surprise that I really dig the blog Modyfier which basically asks that same question, and only that question, to a number of electronic music producers. The idea is that the musician contributes an original track or a DJ mix and then it is explained how this work came about. My friends Pezzner and Brett Johnson have been past participants and I’m pleased to announce that my own contribution just went live. You can read it HERE.
I chose the Balearic Version of the track “Chainsaw”, culled from my recent EP on EIGHT-TRACKS. I thought it was interesting how this version came about, as it’s almost a non-satirical parody of the original song. I talk about this and then, as an added bonus, Modyfier and I are giving the reader a free download of the song at the bottom of the post.
The label and I plan on commissioning remixes and re-edits of this version of “Chainsaw” to be released in the fall, so stay tuned. In the meantime, be sure to bookmark or add Modyfier to your RSS reader feed. It’s totally worth keeping up with for some continued insight into the creative process.
Here’s another “blast from the past” DJ mix. There are at least 3 tracks in this set that have become all time favorites. It was fun for me to hear this mix again and I hope you enjoy it as well:
The bulging eyeball of, one can maybe assume, Scott Hardkiss portends some serious “Beat Freak” action. It’s a freewheeling cut on Scott’s Technicolor Dreamer album enthusiastically giving shout-outs to folks of all shades, no matter how neon, because, when it comes down to it, we all dig freakin’ to beats (yes.).
Scott hit me up to remix “Beat Freak” and I happily obliged. There was an original version of my remix that I toiled on for 4 or 5 lonely days. Long story short, I decreed it “not freaky enough” and in a calm tantrum erased all evidence and started over from scratch. 24 hours later I had the remix you hear below:
I liked the implications within the synthesized vocal and visualized it as a bullhorn announcement. A sort of world music bounce is applied for a global “everybody’s in the club” feel. The beats and bass line are kept overly simple, serving as anchors for everything around them. The keyboard solo and emulated fretless bass were last minute ideas and make up my favorite section of this. Celebration time. I’m into it.
Upon completion I immediately had an idea for an alternate version of this. Thus we have the dub:
The plucky arpeggiated line from the first remix becomes the bass here (so much for the simple bass line) adding some dance floor motion. The energy is slightly increased, in general, with a few added synth parts and, at Scott’s welcome urging after he heard a rough draft, a rising field of ‘acidy’ synths in the key moments.
I’ve been playing both of these out in my sets and they seem to work really well for the floor. I rarely have tracks of my own that I enjoy playing out (I know … it’s a producer/DJ thing. It’s very silly.) so this is fun. I hope you dig it as well.
There are other cool remixes of “Beat Freak” by Paul Woolford, Fort Knox Five, and Scott Hardkiss himself. You can grab it now from Beatport, Traxsource, iTunes, and many other digital shops.
OK, my brand new EP, which is the first non-remix music I’ve released in about 5 years (I know, right?) is out now exclusively on Beatport. It’s called “Chainsaw,” and you can listen to it in its entirety below. I hope you like it. On a side note, I promise it won’t be another 5 years until the next EP … I’m prepping an even newer one this month with a very, VERY special super surprise remixer on board.
This is a remix out just now via Beatport, a little re-twisting of a gorgeous track by my good friend Brett Johnson. Maybe the ante gets up’ed when working with good friends as this turned out to be one of my personal favorite remixes I’ve ever done. I’m crazy about it.
The press release for this describes it best: “Imprisoned studio warlock Q-Burns Abstract Message was on hand to complement “Missing You” with a suspiciously spacious remix. Drawing inspiration from a pile of broken King Tubby records, Q-BAM’s version rattles within a moisture-soaked cell block, building into an analog epiphany further enhanced through a steaming, dusty spring reverb box. Totally slinky for the dancefloor, it aims to beguile the rarely hypnotized.”
As stated above this is out right now on Beatport and will be available everywhere else on March 2. It’s been released by the exquisite deep house label EIGHT-TRACKS. You should also check out Brett’s original on the release (as well as other remixes by Alland Byallo and Brett himself) … you can do so by clicking HERE.
On April Fools Day 2002 I set out to record a simple DJ mix for some friends. Things got a little out of hand and I ended up with a marathon four hour mix spanning all the cool tracks that I was playing at the very beginning of this century. Other sections of the mix will be posted on Mixcloud as well, so look for ‘em. Enjoy!
In the late 90′s I did a 2 month US tour with the Icelandic band GusGus. This was my first big tour, doing shows every other night, living on the tour bus, the whole deal. Good fun. A year or so later the second GusGus album This Is Normal was released and my newfound friends in the band asked me to remix the track “V.I.P.” Here’s the result:
A few fun facts (to me, at least) about this remix: I had just discovered the program Metasynth and the repeating sound loop that opens this is the vocal line manipulated through that. This mix started my predilection with recording fake stand-up bass lines which I still sort of have to this day (see my “Mouth” remix from a couple weeks ago). The second part of the mix was meant to be a ‘bonus beats’ version but it’s timed so it can be played as an epilogue to the actual mix (and appears like this on the UK vinyl version). When I later did my live shows (on the Meat Beat Manifesto and Lo-Fidelity All Stars tours) I would usually do this ‘bonus beats’ bit as the last song of my set. The weird little ambient ‘crackling’ noises that are on this mix (and pretty much all my remixes from this period) are from a preset on a Roland JX-8P that was purchased from Dave Allen (of Shriekback/Gang Of Four fame).
I don’t think this was ever released digitally … as far as I know it’s vinyl only, folks. The UK 12″ version with my mix complete with bonus beats can be found on Discogs.com HERE. There was also a US version which has the shorter version of the mix, sans bonus beats, which you can find HERE. This second 12″ is quite the curiosity in my career as I share remix credits with Francois K. and Masters At Work. So cool.
I’m still in touch with some of the members of GusGus. Their new album, titled 24/7, is quite good.
The 8DPromoRadio show is changing its name to Invisible Airwaves. With the change, the format of the show will bend to focus more on the mix and flow, making each episode more like a new 2 hour Q-Burns Abstract Message DJ set.
Here’s the first one. Cool tracks within that I’ve been enjoying this month. I hope you like it.