Hey all, greetings from Los Angeles.

I will be doing a guest set tonight on KCHUNG, broadcasting on 1630AM straight out of Chinatown. DJ Egroeg was kind enough to extend an invite to his program CDS Digest, which airs from 9-11pm.
I’ve been working in the trippy ethnic Disneyland that is LA’s Chinatown since I relocated here late last year, and I’ve heard many good things about it’s little homegrown basement-level AM transmitter, nestled in amongst the first generation tchotchke distros and second wave art galleries.

I’m excited to spend my first time DJing out here at a noteworthy local institution, plus my record collection arrived on it’s pallet only a few weeks ago, meaning its high time for some cathartic release.

Stream KCHUNG here.

—— UPDATE ——–
download the archived show here

I will be returning to my one-time digs at WNYU tonight for a special Quiet Storm episode of A Downtown Affair, tonight from 10:30pm – 1am, hosted by my longtime discofriends Tackleberry & Mike McGill.

Tune in to 89.1fm in the tri-state area, or the web stream anywhere else.

Though ADA has a rock solid disco / boogie / modern soul format, we were inspired to do this 100% slow jams episode in part by the last time I was on the show, when Tackleberry, Mike, myself, and our other discofriend Josh Dunn hit a collective nerve when we pulled out all our mellow jams and ballads for a collaborative last set. Review my mix Wine Coolers from 2009 for more context for tonight, and certainly we’ll hear some tracks that are on the perpetually-forestalled follow up to that one.

Sit back and relax.

UPDATE: The archived show is here, or direct download; Part 1, Part 2.

Stream | Download

When Josh Dunn came to do a guest set last year on Awesome New Place, he pulled Manual Gottsching’s E2-E4 (1984) out of the record library walls, and recounted to me how Finland’s DJ Anonymous used the record to pre-heat parties, letting Side B play out it’s proto-techno while he set up his second turntable, went to the bathroom, smoked a cigarette, got a drink, and settled into the booth for the rest of the evening.

Learning more about Gottsching was the real genesis of this mix, the impetus to finally listen to Ash Ra Tempel and the nucleus of other mainstay Krautrock bands that I had known were influential, but beyond that, hadn’t really known at all. After a glut of Kraut downloading and record library perusing, I definitely gravitated towards the albums like Zuckerzeit (1974) and Music von Harmonia (1974) that pivoted from the noodling rock band format towards synths, pop, and the ‘Kosmische’ vibe.

When I interviewed Ashra percussionist Harald Grosskopf and his collaborator Axel Heilhecker on Awesome New Place, right out the gate they name checked Mickey Hart and spoke about how kosmische musik was essentially their generation’s attempt at complete, formless, utopian free expression. But the 90s saw their albums reissued on CD with ‘New Age Music!’ stickers on the shrink and their honest hopes for enlightenment redirected towards the mass market for self improvement via a number of vaguely spiritual consumption practices; diets, mellow breathing exercises, Enya soundscapes, pastoral meditation retreats, candles, crystals, rainforest/ocean sounds sleeping aids, etc.

On this mix the co-opting continues, of course, and that now nostalgic 90s pallet of synth pads, slow beats, and reverb is being used by young musicians like Maxmillian Dunbar to conflate memories of New Age and House sounds. The kosmischen probably chose simple loops and patterns in part because synths weren’t exactly plug-and-play back then, but their minimal, pianissimo, electronic compositions became an important touchstone for both modern composers like Arp and the stripped down thumps and clicks of Detroit and acid techno. Germany also had a vibrant, cassette-distributed home recording culture in the late 70s and early 80s, bootlegged and collected early on the the Kassettentäter LP series. That tape hiss has cropped up again with artists like Peaking Lights, Autre Neu Veut and YOU. taking advantage of a splintered record industry and home computer recording technology to press weird, small run releases with tiny, questionably profitable record labels.

The internet’s connectivity has flattened music in a way. A new track could have been made five minutes ago, and is only five minutes away from minting a new niche, when it’ll get Liked up into the iCloud and neatly filed one click away from the YouTube rip it was sampled from. Conversely, Grosskopf recorded his recently-reissued Synthesist LP (1980) alone, at a friend’s house in the woods, in a deep meditative state. It seems difficult to try to make one’s own music (or any art, really) these days instead of getting caught up in the process of watching, organizing, and sampling media. But when I interviewed Clams Casino, he reminded me that the internet has also made us profoundly alone. His sound isn’t the heads nodding in the studio, its the glacial crawl of you and a computer in a bedroom, lost in the reverb settings just to keep from getting bored.

Artwork by Bobby Houlihan (thanks dude).
Thanks also to Bobby, George, Johnny, Marty, Cory, Bryce, Jacob, and the WFMU New Bin for all the music tips on this one.

Tracklist:
# Artist – Song (Year Label)

1. Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark – Almost (1980 Dindisc)
2. YOU. – Loose Joint (2010 Blind Prophet)
3. Lebkuchen – Der Blaue Traum (reissued 2002 no label)
4. Cluster – Heiße Lippen (1974 Brain)
5. Bitchin Bajas – Zone 2 (2010 Important)
6. Peaking Lights – All The Sun That Shines (2011 Not Not Fun)
7. Harmonia – Watussi (1974 Brain)
8. Arp – St Tropez (2007 Smalltown Supersound)
9. Maxmillion Dunbar – Original Soundtrack Flutes (2010 Ramp)
10. Clams Casino – All I Need (Instrumental) (2010 no label)
11. Silk Flowers – Small Fortune (2009 Post Present Medium)
12. Sexual Harrassment – If I Gave You A Party (1983 Heat)
13. Le Car – Audiofile 10 (reissued 2002 Ersatz Audio)
14. Baron Zen – At The Mall (PBW Remix) (2007 Stones Throw)
15. LA Vampires meets Zola Jesus – Bone Is Bloodstone (2010 Not Not Fun)
16. P.D. – Progressive Disco I (1980 Wahrnehmungen)
17. Alan Shearer – Sons of the Snake (reissued 2008 Permanent Vacation)
18. CH-Rom – Never-Ending Love Transmission (2011 no label)
19. Autre Ne Veut – Demoneyez (2010 Olde English Spelling Bee)
20. Jan Hammer – Night Talk (1987 MCA)
21. Suzanne Ciani – Love In the Waves (1982 Atlantic)

I will be speaking on a panel about “Remix culture, music, and the arts” this weekend at the 2011 Students for Free Culture Conference here in NYC.

Also on the panel will be Ben Sisto, Laurel Halo, DJ Ghostdad, and Games (the musicians), all moderated by Aram Sinnreich. A cool mix of musicians and artists, and definitely internet power users one and all. Full program for the weekend here.

I’m pretty psyched for this because my artwork, money work, and volunteer work are spread across a lot of different outlets, too many blogs/twitters/facebooks/DJ nights to draw a though-line, basically. But then Kevin Driscoll wrote to me and said that “My goal is to bring together folks who work across boundaries and can talk comparatively about multiple modes of making: cutting up videos, DJing, writing code, etc.” So for the first time I feel really qualified!

I’ll try to speak about my history with GRL and FAT, web appropriation on Double Happiness and in my own work, and music efforts of WFMU and the Free Music Archive. So much panel, so little time!

2011 Students for Free Culture Conference
‘Remix culture, music, and the arts’ panel
Saturday Feb. 19th 2011, 10am – 11:20am
Cost: Pay What You Want
at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University
251 Mercer St, New York NY 10012.

UPDATE: Video of panel here: http://livestre.am/D5KC

A big shout to the homies Josh Dunn and Jon Kirby who each came through this fall and dropped gems of sets of the WFMU airwaves.

Each of these guys sets was like a wedge of the Trivial Pursuit wheel that is the vibe of my show.

Tip of the cap to Kirby, who, besides authoring the above simile, really came though with the mic-break pleasantries, which I had promised in the listing for the show. We spoke much of regional food options. John’s set was a great blend of boogie soul, thrift store classics from both ends of the spectrum; cheap classics, and cheap unclassics. Rare records too, no doubt. There was a distinct voice-modulation bent to his picks, as he just drove up from his homeland of NC coming straight off a book tour afterparty date for Dave Tompkins new tome How To Wreck a Nice Beach. Ended it all with an all Carolinas sunrise set. I was really impressed how Jon would jump off the decks mid-song just to set up his next track with some introductory patter that showed how well researched my man truly is. Check out the rest of his writings at CarolinaSoul.org, and listen to the show right here.

Josh, as always, played a masterful set filled with small-run offbeat 80s electronic music. From more straight house to angular art-school tracks and crossover post punk. I have learned a lot about Detroit techno by following Josh’s gentle influence over the past few years, but the problem has always come down to “yeah cool but where can I find this?” He usually shrugs and sites his time spent combing record stores of the greater Detroit area, taking in stories from the old timers coming through. Also getting tips from long lost artists and their families reaching out when Josh ultimately finds their records and puts them in mixes on his well-crafted website, 100 Limousines. Josh pays a lot of his bills as a talented graphic designer, and lets his visual sense guide him as much as the music’s history, so definitely take a look at the playlist for his show where I tried to get pictures of his myriad album cover gems.

Much thanks to both the fellas.

I was invited to make a new mix for Fully Fitted, which, for the unfamiliar, is the web home / casual record label of DJ Ghostdad, Chris Devlin, XXXchange, and others.

The Live at Home is all about Sunday afternoon vibes, one take, no edits etc. The series has thus far included such heavy hitters as Jayceeeoh, Frank of Voodoo Funk, DJ Ayres, and the members of Fully Fitted themselves, so I’m flattered to be a part of the deepness!

Check out the original post here
http://fullyfitted.blogspot.com/2010/11/live-at-home-31-bennett4senate.html

tracklist:

James Asher – Cosmic Dust
Charanjit Singh – Raga: Bhairav
Alex Cima – Rocket’s Cat
Chris and Cosey – Morning
Cybotron – El Salvador
Neil Young – Computer Cowboy
AnIta Feldman and Michael Kowaiski – Riffle
Piero Umiliani – Antiche Tradizioni
Ten City – Suspicious
Jef Barbara – Larmes De Crocodile (Fresh Version)
Kyle Hall – Ghosten
ROTFLOL – Wish U Were Here
The Samps – Yellow Jacket
Washed Out – New Theory
Nobody – One for all Without Hesitation
Cerrone – In the Smoke
Azymuth – Amazonia
Alan Silvestri – The Ship Beckons (from Flight of the Navigator Sdtk)
Lil B – Robots Forever (Based Freestyle)
Moodswings – State of Independence
Gold In the Shade – Over You
Larry Lewis – Concordia

my musings on the mix:

I know this mix series is supposed to be “things I can’t play live,” but mine ended up being kind of backwards. I’ve been doing my show on WFMU for the past six months or so, where freeform is the norm, so the weirder the better, and I’ve barely stepped into a club in that time. I think everything on here I’ve played on the show, but when I’m in there I’m not beat matching or anything, so my Sunday afternoon vibe is actually a chance to dust off the Serato and try to get a more proper continuous mix going.

I’m pleased with how this came out, its a lot like what I’m aiming for with my show, but pared down for more focused consumption. Both beat-heavy sections and synth pad scenic atmospheres, a mix of old records and new WAV files (lossless son!). Sounds like lots of synths of course, library music, vocoder Neil Young, acid techno ragas, a couple soundtrack cuts, 90s Lion King feel good vibe house, ambient album cuts from disco LPs, a splash of r&b… also a bunch of new material, which has been the refreshing surprise of being on a radio station that gets tons of new independent music every week. The record industry may be a big ? right now but contemporary music is still inspiring. So this mix has some new Detroit house, “chillwave,” even some autotune.

if you don’t feel like clicking any further, just stream and/or download it right here.

p.s. also wanted to say that some of this stuff is available for free online, specifically on the Free Music Archive, Ubu.com, and Digital Dripped.

Here’s a few pictures (courtesy of Eyebeam) from the Mixer performance at Eyebeam from September.

DJ Ghostdad and myself provided live visuals on the big three-screen background for Dam Funk and DJ Reverend Shines’ sets. We used Dadeo, a “single channel video switcher/distorter/pixelator w/ midi, osc, and wiimote control” built in Jitter by Ghostdad himself. (Keep an eye on this space as Dadeo will go public (once G-dad has time to finish it foreal .) Ghostdad on the WiiMote, me on the Midi Fighter.

Videos included lots of rare YouTube digs, lots of not-so rare YouTube digs, and a couple of new animations that I made in Google Sketchup just for the show.

Thanks as always to Paul Amitai for organizing, and all the performers – Rev. Shines, Dam Funk, and Extreme Animals (who provided their own visuals for a trippy / amazing journey of a set that definitely resonated with my own New Age Syndrome.)
Lots more pics on Eyebeam’s Flickr.

(p.s. I did the flyer illustration too!!!)

The 2010 WFMU record fair starts today!! If you’re a reasonable distance from Manhattan, and looking for vinyl, it’s worth your trip. Sure, its a chance to lay out your cash for “nice pieces,” but the dollar bins are stellar too. I was pretty broke last year but still had a great time. Yes, record dealers are a strange breed, but there are so many in one place for this event that chances are you can find some who are decent conversationalists and will put you up on good records. Networking is free baby!

I’ll be setting the mood on Sunday, DJing in-house from 11:30 – 2pm, playing themes for sore hunched backs and music to crouch over milk crates by. If you get tired of bargaining, come vent with me – I’ll be volunteering at the LP destruction / collage area the rest of the day.

All record fair info at http://www.wfmu.org/recfair/.

As a way of promoting the Record Fair, pretty much all the DJs at the station, myself included, play only 7″s in the week preceding. Check out my playlist here: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/37772

Also of note, I joined Marty McSorley on Trent’s show for the third annual 45s and 40z, three hours of irresponsible radio this year packed into just one hour, celebrating malted beverages and Trent’s inability to drink fast, and testing our ability to censor ourselves saying the kind of things that we’re not going to remember saying in the first place.

I edited together some video I shot of Critter and Guitari, aka Chris Kucinski and Owen Osborn, when they came through to Awesome New Place.

Download the full songs at the Free Music Archive.

Javelin did a live set on my radio show last month, which was recorded, licensed with Creative Commons, and posted on the Free Music Archive. I blogged it there, reposted here:

Genre Judo Throw: Javelin

Javelin developed their sound in Providence, a small town with a scene that they say encouraged people to not wait around for recording budgets, and instead grab the closest 4-track and start putting something down; shoot first and then edit, maybe come back to it. This high-volume production process seems to be how they developed their signature eclectic thump. Where other producers flip beats, Javelin’s style is judo throw, re-directing the momentum of pitched up disco, soca, and r&b records back into fun percussion-driven vignettes. With a healthy skepticism for both band and DJ culture, the duo sucessfully created a show that avoids the trappings of electonic musicans forced to “go live”. Surrounded by tables of MPCs, mini mixers, and pedals, George paces out the shows in deep concentration, sweating over an electronic drumpad, with Tom meandering around the stage singing a mix of his own lyrics and earworm pop hooks, ocassionally noodling on the keytar or kazoo. The rest of the music is playing itself, sequenced by the machines.

The net result has rappers wanting to drop verses on it, other producers wanting their remixes to sound like it, and just about everybody wanting to dance to it. A triple threat. Their tastes do not sit still, and this thirty minute session mirrors the variety found on their new album for Luaka Bop, ping-ponging from r&b to country in an effort to keep themselves entertained. Buying thrift store records like they listen to the radio on tour: whatever’s local.

The performance is presented as a continuous mix, complete with live incidentals and interludes.

Setlist:

1. Cowpoke
2. Strawberry Roan
3. Barrell Roll
4. Harpo
5. On It On It
6. C Town
7. Lindsay Brohan
8. TWYCE
9. Yogurt Beach
10. Dee (live version)
11. Off My Mind
12. Suzie Cues
13. Mossy Woodland

From Awesome New Place with Bennett4Senate on 8/26/2010.