Turntable Radio - April 2008 podcast

Following on very swiftly and quickly, for once, from our recent special live podcast as part of the 5th Anniversary series, we return to a more normal broadcast with our April show.

This show was originally supposed to come with a special reminiscing mix to replace the show Trick and I were going to do, but continuing a very unfortunate series of technical mishaps and problems, I haven’t had the time to do this, so instead we just bring you the usual hour-long serving of new and exclusive material from around the world.

Up this month we’ve got some great new tracks and material from a whole bunch of people, keeping it worldwide as usual. In no particular order, we have new stuff from 2tall, ADS, Ill Insanity, Baku, INSIDEaMIND, Naoki, Ken One, Quest, Red, Kwote, Faust, Morse and B-Ju. Most of these are all taken from just released or forthcoming releases, so as usual if you like what you hear check the links and go out there and support the artists.

We also start the show with a very rare and sought after track from DJ Krush and DJ Klock, taken from a Nike sponsored 12″ entitled ‘Cage’, which came out in 2001. The 12″ features Krush collaborating with Klock on one side and Baku on the other, on two interpretations of the same track. This track goes out on the first year anniversary of Klock’s sad passing away, and our thoughts go out to his family at this time.

That’s about it, check the tracklist for full details and linkage as usual, and stay tuned for the next 5th anniversary podcast which will be videos from our Japanese session and should be incoming in a few weeks.

Subscribers should already have the file waiting on their desktop, or on its way. For those who haven’t subscribed yet, it couldn’t be easier: either use any of the shortcuts on the top left corner of the blog to add the show’s feed to any podcatcher, or visit our feedburner page or launch iTunes and find us in the podcast directory where you can subscribe automatically. And for the really lazy ones there is a direct download link at the bottom of the post as usual.

April 2008 podcast - Tracklist:

DJ Baku - Turntable Radio intro
DJ Krush & DJ Klock - Cage Oddisey - Nike
B-Ju - Soja Extra - Equinox records, taken from the 5inch series compilation, available for free download on the Equinox site
2tall - Grazing on Empty - Content, Turntable Radio exclusive, taken from forthcoming ‘Softer Diagram’ LP, dj2tall.com
DJ Baku feat. Itouseikou - Dharma Dance - POPGROUP, taken from ‘Dharma Dance’ LP, out now
INSIDEaMIND - The Tiniest Spy - INSIDEaMIND, taken from forthcoming LP
Kwote - Have You Been Here Lately? - Kwote Music, taken from ‘Journey To Somewhere’ EP, out now
Ken One - Mind Rain - Unreleased, Turntable Radio exclusive Ken 1 myspace
Naoki - Neoluxor - Unreleased, Turntable Radio exclusive
DJ Quest - Submarine Thump - Zq records, taken from ‘Questolous’ LP, out now
Red - Seen (Kids in Tracksuits remix) - Dealmaker Records, taken from the ‘Seen’ EP, out now
Faust - Sudden Death - Decon, taken from ‘All Pro’ by Z-Trip, out now
A.D.S ft. Paura and Gemon Science - Mowsqua - Relief Records, taken from the forthcoming debut album
Morse - Bouche Cousue - Unreleased, taken from forthcoming self-produced EP, Morse myspace
Ill Insanity ft. Excess - P Bounce - The Ablist, taken from ‘Ground Xero’ LP, out now

Direct Download Link (right click and save as)

Quest album update

Quest album cover

Just got an email from Quest updating us on his LP, which apparently was leaked a little ahead of time. As such the cover artwork we displayed in our previous news was not the final version, however the one you see above is.

So if you do want to buy the proper album, and not a bootleg or pirate copy, then head over to the Giant Peach page where you’ll be able to put in your order.

And keep em peeled on Quest’s myspace for previews, tour info and more. Also look out for the next podcast, online in a few days featuring a track from the album.

5th anniversary podcasts - Turntable Radio live from Shibuya

Records

As announced earlier, we continue our 5th anniversary celebrations with another very special podcast, our second Japan live session.

This time we headed out to Shibuya, for the POPGROUP offices where DJ Baku, Exsample (Ken-One, Naoki and Shige) and Miyajima came together for the occasion. As with the first session, back in September, the idea was simple - ask the guys to come together, put them in a room with lots of gear and just record the outcome. With less space this time round, but still bags of enthusiasm, we took over one of the rooms in the POPGROUP offices and got down to business.

Unfortunately, Miyajima had to leave early as we had some delays in setting up (as always) and so he only appears on one of the tracks. For the rest, what basically happened was that Baku and Exsample jammed together for the best part of 3/4 hours and what you’ll hear on this podcast are edited takes from the jam session. Pretty much everything you’ll hear was done unrehearsed and off the cuff, with the guys chatting in between takes, bouncing ideas and just discussing a rough direction for what they would do.

The session also coincided with the release of Baku’s second album, Dharma Dance (check the recent news item below for more on that), and so Baku, who was using Serato and a Pioneer 909 mixer, primarily used sounds he had made and produced for his album, including drums, guitar melodies and synth lines. For the majority of the tracks you’ll hear in the podcast, Baku provided the backbone for the track with the Exsample guys adding on top, with melodies and vocal cuts. On a couple of tracks the roles were reserved with Naoki and Ken-One taking the lead on drums, and everyone else filling in. So for those who haven’t yet heard the album, this session should give you a pretty good idea of some of the tracks’ moods and influences.

In addition to all this, Ken-One also premiered a new loop routine for us and there is, as I said, a 3 way session between Baku, Ken One and Miyajima, as well as an Exsample freestyle.
Read more »

DJ Baku new album, Kaikoo compilation and Japanese music download shop

Dharma Dance cover

Update: I’ve just found out today that you can buy the POPGROUP compilation, ‘Kaikoo Planet’, from Play Asia of all places! Click on this link to be taken to the page where you can place your order for worldwide delivery, it’s a little more expensive than you would normally pay for it, but it’s all hassle free, and Play Asia are a reliable shop as any gamer will tell you.

Lots of exciting news from Japan this month, mainly from DJ Baku and his label POPGROUP.

First up is the release of Baku’s second album, ‘Dharma Dance’, which came out earlier on this month on POPGROUP. Following from 2006’s ‘Spinheddz’, the new album shows Baku’s musical maturity with a sound that is a lot more cohesive than in his first outing (not that this was a bad thing first time round mind), and aims square for the dancefloor and getting your head bopping. Baku keeps its short but concise, not wasting any of the 12 tracks. His rock and heavy influences still shine strong, as do a lot of inspiration from dance music, without forgetting some straight hip hop numbers. There are only 2 guests this time round, including the legendary Doseone who puts the vocals down on ‘Void It Out’.

What struck me most on the album is the quality of the production, especially the drums. It seems Baku has been working hard since his debut, and in a strange way the drums on this album remind me a lot of those on DJ Krush’s recent ‘Self Remixed Best of’ compilations - hard hitting, crisp and packing a serious punch. Considering how the album is a lot more upbeat than his previous, the drums form the perfect backbone for the melodies and keeping the energy of the tracks. The album is a definite grower, which only gets better on repeated listens, and on a loud system too preferably.

I’ll be airing a couple of tracks from the album on the forthcoming podcasts (which will be live in the coming week), and you can also check his myspace page for more previews.

Read more »

Turntable Radio Fifth Year Anniversary line up

TTR 5th logo

Just a quick update on the line up for TTR’s fifth year anniversary celebrations, following on from what was announced in the December podcast.

We’ve unfortunately had some more hiccups but also some recoveries. The main thing we’ve had to pull out of the schedule is the reunion show between Trick and myself, due to the fact that we had planned to do a show each looking back on our respective times at the helm of TTR only for me to realise that my archives of the shows I’ve done since becoming presenter are in a storage room in the UK, with no way for me to access them. So that show is indefinitely postponed, until I get my stuff out of storage. In addition we’ve also had to postpone a special contribution from Mr Henshaw, as he unfortunately had a hard drive crash with all his audio on there (spare a thought for the man as there was apparently five years worth of work on there, we hope he sorts it out cos we wouldn’t wish that shit on anyone).

However on the plus side we’ve managed to sort some previous technical issues and we’ve rescued the footage of D-Styles and Shortkut in Tokyo, including a video interview.

So as it now stands the fifth year anniversary podcasts will be as follow:

- April podcast with special reminiscing mix (this one takes the place of the reunion show)
- Turntable Radio Japan Session 2 featuring DJ Baku, Ken One, Naoki, Shige and Miyajima
- Turntable Radio Japan Session 2 videos
- D-Styles and Shortkut video interview
- D-Styles and Shortkut showcase at Vestax Extravaganza 2007 video

And last but not least as part of the anniversary celebrations we will be re-issuing the first 50 TTR shows as podcasts. That’s right, pretty much the entirety of our archived shows, which were originally and still are available in Real Media streams, will be made available as podcasts one at a time, starting in April. We’ll post the exact details of how these will be made available closer to the time but they’ll be available from the normal feed, likely at a rate of one every two weeks or so. So no need to rip the old Real Media streams anymore.

As for the other anniversary podcasts these will be made available over the coming months until September, likely at a rate of about one a month or so. Stay tuned for more information on each but you can expect the second Japanese session to be first after the April podcast.

So that’s it, as usual subscribers just have to sit back and wait for the content to land on their desktops, and for those who aren’t susbcribed yet then what are you waiting for? See the shortcuts on the top left corner of the site, or previous podcasts posts.

Oh yeah and look out for a little site redesign coming in the Spring too.

Peace

Laurent & Mr. Trick

‘Questolous’ - New album from DJ Quest

Quest album cover

Now this one has been a while in coming but it’s finally here. DJ Quest, legendary Bay Area tablist for various reasons (and if you don’t know even one of them you need to fix that up sharpish), is releasing a new album, titled ‘Questolous’. I’d first heard of this back in late 2005 when I had the pleasure of meeting the man at the DJs for Life conference in the UK. A good two years later and the project is done and dusted and ready to drop.

The official release date is April 1, on Zq records. And no by all accounts this isn’t an early April’s fool. The album features a bunch of guests, most of whom should also need no introduction, including T-Rock, Sniper, the also legendary Bas 1, DJ Marz, Dust One, and Eddie K. It’s nice to see so many familiar names from the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters / Space Travellers as well as other Bay Area usual suspects, especially since the likes of Billy Jam and co have seemingly gone quiet (on the internets anyways). The package itself is also pretty sweet with some larvely artwork by Herms 1.

The album itself is described by Quest as a synthetic fusion between drum-machine and vinyl, drawing on influences reaching back to the 80s all the way to the present day. Which is a pretty good descripion by all accounts. Across its sixteen tracks, the album definitely has a strong ‘classic’ feel to it, in some of the beats and Quest’s trademark cuts. But there’s also quite a few tracks which are lot more forward thinking, including the awesome bass-led ‘Submarinethump’. Production is a mix of live elements, scratching and drum machines laced with cuts, from Quest for the most part.

Fans of the classic Bay Area tablist sound will definitely find a lot to please them in the album, and there’s still plenty in there too for those who might think it’s deja vu and nothing new. Personally, the album took me by suprise, being a lot more varied and grabbing than I expected it to be and I can’t recommend it enought for those who want a change with a throwback to the older days too.

I’ll be airing a couple of tracks from the album on the forthcoming podcast (more details on that in the next post) and you can already pre-order the album from most big online stores, or check the label’s myspace page for details of distributors as well as Quest’s myspace.

Quest is also touring with Apostle throughout the rest of this month, more details on his myspace.

And for all official Quest business and more, peep the official site as well as the Scratch Hamsters site.

All downloads now back online

Hello all, Trick here -

Just a quickie to let you know that all downloads are now back online. The technical issue - aka “Trick didn’t settle his bills” - is now resolved and the hosting is all back up and running. So, go grab what you missed and as ever, please spread the word about TTR…

peace!

Mr “Don’t Call Me Mr Think, Motherfucker” Trick

p.s. I’ve now added a ShareThis link that will appear on all posts. Click it and you can share the story on most social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace etc), or alternatively you can just email the story to your mates. Go ahead and try it - makes spreadin’ the word easier!

Server temporarily down - feed not working and files unavailable

It seems the server which hosts the podcasts for Turntable Radio is temporarily unavailable, meaning the feed isn’t working properly and none of the files are currently available.

First I heard of this was a few days ago, and assumed it was just a little downtime but it seems to have been continuing.

We’re looking into it and soon as we know we’ll update the site, hopefully it’s just an error on the host’s end.

In the meantime we apologise for those of you who’ve been trying to get access to the files on the feed and not been able to.

Back when we know more.

5th year anniversary podcasts - Ken One live at Module, Shibuya 2008

TTR 5th logo

As we announced back in the December 07 podcast, this year marks the fifth anniversary of Turntable Radio, and to celebrate the occasion we’ve put together a series of celebratory podcasts regrouping all sorts of things which have made and continue to make TTR what it is.

Over the next 7 months we’ll be releasing these out, including a double show presented by myself and Mr Trick which will look back onto our respective times as TTR presenters, the music, the good and the bad. Other things to look out for include some additional video podcasts, which have unfortunately been delayed due to technical fuck ups, as well as another special Japanese session and some other bits we aren’t going to tell you about just yet. Believe us though, it’s going to be worth sticking around.

So to start it all off, we look at my current country of residence, Japan, and Ken-One. The man should need no further introduction now, as I’ve featured his music in the last few shows and he was responsible for helping put together our first Japanese session back in september 07.

Ken has been nice enough to give us some footage of a recent showcase of his, held at Module nightclub in Shibuya, last month. We’ve edited it down and are podcasting it as a video, as we did with the CoC 2 videos last summer. As we did then, the file has been optimised for iPod and iTunes viewing, but will also work on any other device that can play video files and with most players on a PC or a Mac. See the recommendations and specs below if you’re having a problem.

Unfortunately, as it’s a live recording, the sound is a little distorted in places but it takes nothing from Ken’s performance, which we hope you’ll enjoy as much as we did.

Once again massive thanks go out to Ken One for hooking this up. A big thanks also goes out to Ed Rooth for editing the video and coming up with the fresh new intro.

The next installment in the 5th year anniversary series will likely be a ‘normal’ podcast of sorts from myself, with a bag of fresh new music as well as a short selection of favourites. After that we’ll be airing the double show from Trick and myself, sometime around the first two weeks of April.

Until then, sit back and enjoy.

Subscribers to our podcasts/feed should already have the file on their computers, or on its way. Those not yet subscribed, you can do so easily and using any number of podcatching programs, from iTunes to Odeo, by clicking on the icons located on the top right hand corner of the site. You can also access the feed directly via http://feeds.feedburner.com/turntableradio and find us on iTunes, in the podcast directory under Turntable Radio. Lastly, there is also a direct download link at the end of this post.

File is 119mb, .m4v format - best viewed in Quicktime and on iTunes and iPods.

The file will also play with Windows Meda Player, Divx player and most other video players on both PC and Mac.

Direct download link (right click and save as)

Scratching still hot with corporate bods

It seems scratching is still considered cool enough by corporate types. I just received an email pointing me to a couple of youtube vids by a guy called Red who’s just released a 12″ on Dealmaker records. The 12″ features a track called ‘All From Scratch’ which as you can guess is produced on turntable using a loop pedal. The kicker is that Sony have picked it up and asked him to do a version for the latest PSP advert, which I assume is a UK advert.

Following the trusted adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, it’s nice to see that scratching still pulls the interest of big companies. We all remember the Rob Swift and Shorkut gap advert. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an advert using scratching so obviously, especially a more composed piece rather than token scratch sounds.

You can check the videos below. As for Red’s 12″, it’s out now on Dealmaker records as I said. It features four tracks,: the original, a Kids in Tracksuits remix, the full-length version of the PSP advert remix, which is a lot more upbeat, and the Full Fat remix, which is essentially a version that blends the all-scratched original with a live band backing.

Full Fat is Red’s band and you can actually hear a live session from them at the BBC Maida Vale studio, check the link on the Dealmaker site. You can order the EP from the Dealmaker site and find online in most decent shops.

While people have been making tracks using loop pedals for a long time now, it’s been a while since tracks like that garnered this kind of interest. If you like the whole all-scratched thing than this will definitely be up your alley, and if you don’t I’d still recommend checking it for the remixes which are a lot more interesting and stand out nicely on their own, especially the Kids in Tracksuits one.

You can also expect to hear a couple of tracks on the next podcast, which should be incoming in a month or so.

For more on Red, you can check his myspace.

Red - All From Scratch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMVX0SiRHSc

Playsatan Version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEwajX2WH_4&feature=related