Just a little bit of cover art I cooked up for you folks. It's all photos I took, so that's kinda cool.

An upbeat mix this time. I happened upon a couple of really catchy indie rock dance remixes and did my best to combine them with the techno classics that I had been rewinding through. There are a couple really strong mixes in there. I was pretty pleased with what was basically my first original remix, Lykke Li’s Little Bit combined with New Order’s Jetstream Lover.

Download: Tachycardia (hypertensive mix by mahmoud)

(mp3, VBR ~218kbps, 105MB, 1:07:24 running time, avg. 125 bpm)

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Tracklisting:

1. Seksu Roba – Hesitation
   A throwback for me, Seksu Roba is a high school relic, and an awesome one at that. Theremin dance music, ftw.
2. Claude VonStroke - Who’s Afraid of Detroit
3. Femme en Fourrure – Plump Biscuit
4. Canyons – Apples & Pears
5. Lykke Li – Little Bit
   Check out how this mixes with the next track.
6. New Order feat. Ana Matronic - Jetstream Lover (Tom Neville remix)
   The non-remixed version of this is a surprisingly timeless classic. Maybe I’m in the wrong circles, but I’d say it’s underrated.
7. Flairs - Trucker’s Delight
8. Pantha du Prince - Satellite Snyper
9. Joakim - I Wish You Were Gone (+ JK Dub)
   
10. Boyz Noise - Feel Good (TV = off) (Shinichi Osawa edit)
11. Basement Jaxx – Rendez-Vu
12. Uriel - World of Love (Salman and Nir Azilov Remix)
    
13. Digitalism - Pogo
14. Rubies – Stand in a Line (Shinichi Osawa remix)
    In general Shinichi Osawa deserves more airtime. The Rubies original track is pretty good, too, despite not being dance music.
15. Kisses – The Heart of the Nightlife
16. Cut Copy - Far Away
17. As One - Rumours
18. TV on the Radio - Red Dress
19. Hudson Mohawke - Overnight
20. Oki Dub Ainu Band – East of Kunashiri
    Seriously had about 4-5 DnB tracks after this, but I figured you had partied enough, and the CD would be running out of time by now.

A Pleisure Suit. Yeah, I'm gonna pronounce it that way for a couple days. Rolls off the tongue.

Evening, all. I’ve got a new mix, brought to you by a deep, deep desire to relax and enjoy a weekend. Of course, I’ve probably got an hour or two of work I have to shoehorn in between now and then. Luckily this mix works for that, too.

Pretty much a solid downtempo mix, not too many surprises. I’ve got the new Gorillaz in there, and only one cover. Beyond that, you’re listening to what’s been keeping my focus company. And for album art, semi-formal attire. A leisurely suit, if you would.

Download: Pleisure (portmanteau’d by mahmoud)

(mp3, VBR ~193kbps, 90MB, 1:05:18 running time, avg. 93 bpm)

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Tracklisting:

1. Del Close & John Brent – (sample)
   
2. Velours Perfect - Indian Cowboys
3. Animals on Wheels – Loath
4. Little Dragon – A New
5. Maserati – Cities (Assembly Mix)
   
6. Saru - Subterra
7. Felix Laband - Step Two
8. Calm – Light Years
9. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
   Total coincidence: Last mix had a Gorillaz track at #9, as well.
10. Ticon - On the Rocks
11. Caribou - Pelican Narrows
12. Kruder & Dorfmeister - High Noon
    I can’t help but feel that no downtempo mix is complete without some K&D.
    
13. Cut Chemist - The Garden
14. The Lushlife Project – Soul Reservation
15. DJ Krush (feat. Toshinori Kondo) – Mu-Chu
16. Alpha - My Things
17. Minimatic - Take On Me (feat. Juliette P.)
    Pretty cute way to outtro, I felt.

VZDRSCP (3rd yr. architecture unl) from Matthew Joseph Conway on Vimeo.

Here is the digital presentation for my final in studio this year (Steve Hardy’s 3rd year studio).  This project was a combination of my earlier projects in the semester.  The first project dealt with typologies of office buildings and I decided to focus on fluidity and openness for my building.  I incorporated a lot of influence from my summer in Tokyo.  I was really fascinated with my experiences at the Yokohama International Port Terminal (pictured in boroboro’s second post!) and Omotesando Hills.  both these buildings had really unique circulation systems that dealt with bifurcating and spiral ramps.  For the second project I drew a lot of inspiration from superstructures and science fiction (mostly from M.A.D.’s Mobile China Town project).  I ended up creating a system of towers and platforms that connected the urban scene at every level.

Through countless sketches during classes other than my studio class (I have the notebooks to prove it) I was able to come up with a triangular form that could satisfy the demands for the combination of projects one and projects two: project three.  I really like the structure created in project three and I think the triangle spirals really flow nicely into each other.  Also upon connecting the various triangles to each other I discovered that they created a pattern similar to the pattern rural chinese market towns create.  I liked this so I kept it (it is also a pattern of the star of david).

The voice is provided by Andrew Hover and definitely gives the video its edge, along with the beats provided by Ratatat (One – 9 Beats).

Enjoy the video, right now I am working on the laser cutter in architecture hall trying to finish the physical model for this project.

Matthew

This mix pulls you in with some club appeal and beats, before revealing its true nature; it’s not really club music, because I don’t know if this type of music really appeals to your paying, club-going type. And that’s a shame. I’d probably go out a lot more often if there were clubs playing something more like this.

Download: Ersatz Club Mix (mocked up by mahmoud)

(mp3, VBR ~240kbps, 103MB, 58:30 running time)

Here it is, my first laptop-created mix. I started getting into Ableton a while back, but that dwindled, like most things, because of school. Anyway, this thing took forever to put together, but I’m pretty happy with the result. I’ll be revisiting the tables if I can’t get a better hold on the workflow. But damn if some of the mixes didn’t come out polished as hell.

Still, listening to the mix I sort of get the feeling that I’m showcasing music and not building a mood. I’ve got to put some more work into that. Practicepracticepractice.

Notes inlined in the tracklisting. This mix goes out to Alan for his birthday. I’m not sure why I picked this picture for the cover art. I’ve got to start putting more thought into that, too.

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Tracklisting:

1. Loose Shus – Taurus (Keenhouse Remix)
   32 measure mix, smooth as eff.
2. Guy Gerber and Shlomi Aber - After Love
3. Towa Tei – Risk Some Soul (feat. Luomo)
4. In Flagranti – Business Acumen (Arveene & Misk’s Business Acid Remix)
5. Flight of the Conchords – I Like to Rock the Party
   An excellent transition considering it was like a 30 second clip I ripped.
6. Gramophonedzie – Why Don’t You?
7. Afronaught – Transcend Me
8. Chicago – I’m a Man
   I felt compelled to put this in. The transition in felt nice, but it was hard as hell to get out of.
9. The Gorillaz – Dare (Chab Radio Edit)
10. Madita – Better Brother (Dbn Remix)
11. Muscles – Sweaty (Shazam Remix)
    Sadly this remix is the only good Muscles song, if you ask me, due to the female vocals. Muscles is all-male vocals and the unremixed song just kind of makes me feel uncomfortable.
12. Mylo – Drop the Pressure
    Damn I love this song
13. UNKLE - Reign (feat. Ian Brown)
    I got some requests for more recognizable music (I know right?! ;P). DARE, this one, and LCD Soundsystem all better count toward that.
14. LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations
15. Kings Go Forth – One Day
    This song is way faster than it sounds. I kind of mangled Tribulations to get up to 141 bpm.

My couch, for lounging purposes.

A short mix for you today, heavy on the acid/future jazz. And songs in French.

Download: Future Divan Groove (foretold by mahmoud)

(mp3, VBR ~221kbps, 71MB, 44:56 running time)

For this mix, I set out to create something a bit more uptempo, but still chilled. I only ended up using 2 of the tracks I had planned to use. I also threw in a little surprise at the end, found in a rummage sale back in Nebraska.

As a whole, the mix is probably a bit too upbeat and bouncy for my sitting and working purposes, but it would be perfect in a chatty room. Especially if you want to sound classy (wink).

Umm, technical notes. Track 1 (Bibio) was not mixing with Track 4 (Manu Chao), mostly due to the upbeat, jazzy brass clashing of 4 a bit with the deeper bassline of 1. I tried to compensate by bridging with Track 2 (Flying Lotus) and Track 3 (Herbalizer). So the transition went (bass)->(simpler bass)->(bass+brass)->(brass+vocals). It turned out ok, I guess. The mix kind of started heavier and slowed down. I’m not sure why I put The Smiths in. I suppose I just wanted to hear some Morrissey. Track 9 (Plastyc Buddha) has some technical issue, maybe. See the tracklisting notes.

I think I’m going to start keeping my mixes shorter than 74 minutes. You know, in case someone needs a demo CD. Stay tuned, I have plans acookin’.

Stream

Tracklisting:

1. Bibio – Fire Ant
2. Flying Lotus – Beginners Falafel
3. The Herbalizer – Worldwide Connected
4. Manu Chao – Le Rendez-vous
5. General Elektriks – Tu M’intrigues
6. dZihan and Kamien – Stiff Jazz
7. A Forest Mighty Black – Everything
8. Bonobo – If You Stayed Over (reprise)
9. Plastyc Buddha – Clear Day
   I have no idea what is going on at 4:40 in this song. 3 versions I’ve downloaded, all have 4 measures of random house. I completely spaced this and had to go back and chop it out.
   
10. Astrud Gilberto – Who Needs Forever
11. Quantic – The 5th Exotic
12. Funky Porcini – Venus

I took this an evolved it, creating a structure that literally takes its form and material from the earth.  The buildings roof seems to flow down from the hill and peel back revealing the nature sanctuary inside.  The roof was intended to be covered in native Nebraskan prairie grasses and become an extension of the surrounding area.

Enjoy, someday I hope to design a building in my native Nebraska and I will undoubtedly use this as my jumping off point.

Also, my current professor recently came to my architecture college from the Architectural Association in London, and informed our class that the midwest is the only place that still uses wood, weird I know.

I will steep you and drink you.

I got up extra early (think: 4am), drank a pot of tea (think: kettle of earl gray), and managed to stay up this morning (I’ve been up for 11.5 hours and it’s 2:30) to finally deliver on my promises of mixes. Without further ado:

Download: Loose Leaf (long cut by mahmoud)

(mp3, VBR ~220kbps, 128MB, 1:24:31 running time)

For this mix I basically grabbed a handful of music with which I’d been meaning to mix and threw it on my decks. It starts out with some downtempo, but quickly gets into some funky and house-y stuff, even mixing in some indy with one of my faves, Pipas. Pipas, quick note, since you’ll probably read this blog post (nope): your songs are all great, but they don’t have enough repetition and as a result are short and hard to mix.

It wasn’t all haphazard, though. A while ago I read about harmonic mixing, using the key of the song to make a smoother transition without using special effects or techniques. If you listen to the mix, you’ll actually hear that I didn’t a significant amount of filter or fx, letting the music speak for itself. Also, I’ve been playing with making the big tempo changes during the transitions instead of on beats during the track. This shows in a couple cases, but it doesn’t sound out of place.

Also, I was distressed that I used 2 Towa Tei songs, neither of which was the one that I had intended to use. You guys will just have to wait for that track. What do you guys think about me using the same artist multiple times in a single mix? It’s tough to listen to whole albums and then only be able to use one song, not just from the album, but from the whole discography. Oh the challenges of being a DJ. I actually had an idea of taking really good albums then rearranging and mixing the songs the way I’d like to hear them. Hit me with some feedback on that, too (in addition to the question about using the artist multiple times). Oh, and I recorded using an optical cable followed by normalization, so let me know if you notice any improvement there.

Well, this was fun. I hope to do it again real soon. Image credit linked. (I’ll get my photos up soon.)

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Tracklisting:

1. Tosca – Suzuki
2. The Blackbyrds – Future Children, Future Hopes
   (I should have trimmed the brassish stuff at the start, I mainly included this for its awesome old school synth/keyboarding goodness)
3. Kid Loco – Relaxin’ With Cherry
4. Sounds From the Ground – Marshemello
5. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
6. Goldfrapp – Koko
7. Kings of Convenience – Little Kids (Ladytron mix)
8. Towa Tei – Obrigado
9. Stretch – Why Did You Do It?
10. The Bird and the Bee – What’s in the Middle?
11. Pipas – Barbapapa
12. New  Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
13. Gui Boratto – No Turning Back
14. DHS – House of God 2000 (DHS remix)
    (Being DJ buds, Matt and I will occasionally “steal” from one another)
15. Mateo & Matos – Journey Beyond
16. Carl Craig – Frustration
17. Juno Reactor – Nitrogen (Part 1)
18. Grace Jones – Williams’ Blood (Aeroplane Remix)
19. Towa Tei – Congratulations!

Final mix from the land of the rising sun, Mix Fix #3:

Download: MIX008 (Mix no.8)

(mp3, 55.8MB, 1:00:55 running time)

Be sure to check out my other mixes: mix no.5 and mix no.7. First proper lounge session, very relaxed, minimal and downtempo tunes for when you just want to sit and have a drink with  friends.  I wanted to show the side of DJing that’s more than just top 40 hip-hop-pop tracks, and that not every DJ needs to have a raving dance floor; I much prefer a room filled with chatter.  I was mostly inspired to do this from my visits to Tokyo’s Pecha Kucha night.

For those of you not in the know, Pecha Kucha is an event where designers, artists, and anybody who has someting interesting to talk about is given 20 slides for 20 seconds each and a room full of eager listeners with a drink in their hand.  Pecha Kucha is held in over 219 cities, so check their website to find the city nearest you, I promise you will be inspired.

Until then, kick back and enjoy this soothing mix.  (*note: so far these mixes have focused on song selection, cohesion, and progression, mixes after these will focus on more technical aspects of mixing, the song selection will still be thought out as always though, no worries). Image courtesy Mahmoud, who will be making his first post any time now, he assures you.

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Tracklisting:

1. Asem Shama – Kinderspiel
2. Djulz – Fleurette (Tobias Remix)
3. Maetrik – They Love Terror
4. Johannes Moses – Handsome
5. St. Germain – Pont des Arts
6. DJ Cam – I Don’t Know Why
7. Lemon Jelly – ‘75 aka Stay With You
8. Beat Pharmacy feat. Ursula Rucker- Pieces
9. Beat Pharmacy feat. Paul St. Hilaire – Hot Spot Splash
10. Bebel Gilberto – Bring Back The Love (Remix)
11. Telepopmusik – Breathe
12. Dzihn & Kamien – Smile (Eddy & Dus Remix)
13. Chateau Flight – Superflight (Maurice Fulton Remix)
14. Luscious Jackson – Nervous Breakthrough (Thievery Corporation Remix)
15. Dzihan & Kamien – Before (Herbert’s After Dub)
16. A Forest Mighty Black – Serpentines
17. DJ Cam – Stress (Deckwrecka Remix)
18. Lemon Jelly – Space Walk
19. Bebel Gilberto – Cada Beijo (Thievery Corporation Remix)
20. Dzihan & Kamien – Homebase (UFO Remix)
21. A Forest Mighty Black – Everything (Freakniks Remix)
22. Del The Funky Homosapien – Naked Fonk

I wanted to create a space for students to relax and be used everyday of the week as the campus was somewhat dead late at night.  With the passing of a smoking ban for the entire city, I decided to create a shelter that could function as a smoking area, while adding a space for broad student interaction. I designed a hookah bar, as smoking from a hookah is a multi-person activity and would add to the student interaction and an increased capacity for socializing.  For my concept I looked back to my favorite childhood story: Alice and Wonderland – The Caterpillar.  The Caterpillar caused Alice to question, I wanted to create a space that would allow students to do the same.  I believe are institutions have focused on memorization and left-brain functioning, while our ability to create and use our right brain has been suppressed.  Through the contrasting of object and location (a black glass tube that lights up at night in the middle of a grass field surrounded by typical red brick collegiate buildings) I created a context that would start students down the path of questioning and discovery.

After spending many sleepless nights and then finally catching up on sleep and feeling my brain bounce back (along with reading articles on the correlation between sleep and learning)  I was left with what you see, an easily accessible relaxation space.

Were I to rework this project today, I would create a totally different design that is more eco-conscious and mixes better with the university campus instead of creating such a contrast. I would create ripples or waves of grass within the campus’ existing green spaces.  These would function not only as a beautifully unique aesthetic addition to the natural environment, but the ripples would provide an adequate ledge for varied postures for students wishing to use the green space from studying to napping.  Within these ripples, I would place small sculptures that would be sun capturing devices, providing the areas with solar-powered lighting after dark. This project will have to wait for another day.

(photo courtesy of Mahmoud, we’ll start posting flickr albums or something soon)

Above is a detail of an envelope sent to my boyfriend Ben in the summer of 2008, when he was living near Redmond, WA for an internship. Completely covering an envelope with a design became my preferred aesthetic, although for a time I continued to use envelopes rather than sketch pads or scratch paper, resulting in a lot of random stuff like this next one lying around. It’s based on a design from a lintel at the ancient Mayan site of Yaxchilan, where some pretty bonkers stuff is going on.

I’ll continue to post more of these as they’re completed; I’m also doing some work on a portfolio, which I’ll link to when finished, so keep an eye out for that in the upcoming weeks.  This last illustration was inspired by a line from a beloved childhood movie, The Secret Garden.