My reviewing of music and related stuff has run its course. That’s not to say this site is going away but if you come here looking for bass music / dubstep / etc, that’s not going to be the focus here anymore. All the old content will remain, nothing is going away – just not looking to keep this thing going at the same speed it was during most of 2011.

Thanks to everybody for their patronage. I had a lot of fun putting it all together. If you know me personally you might still enjoy frequenting this from time to time. I will still make periodic updates / posts / rants, but on a bit different vein than focusing solely on club music.

With a lot of traveling and stories this year I felt it would be good to take a look at my feed from the past year, and pull out a few favorites and compile a short gallery of photos showing some highlights.

Click below to see the complete collection, and if you’re on Instagram – feel free to add me @shrtstck

Click on any of the photos to get the larger resolution page hosted via Instagram’s website

Click to read the full text, which is not a terribly long read [via Phish.Net]

Economy is a trait I admire in my influences. Bill Evans, probably my most important jazz piano influence, plays an entirely different style than Basie yet he incorporates economy: “He has worked unceasingly to arrive at a clearer, less cluttered jazz conception, one with no false starts, no side issues, no merely showy licks.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, and are looking for something to do tonight, I would highly suggest putting US$15 towards checking out tonight’s live broadcast of Phish’s performance from New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Get ready to sing along!

A Partridge In A Pear Tree

Two Turtle Doves

Three French Hens Pt. 1

Three French Hens Pt. 2

Four Calling Birds

Five Golden Rings!

Six Geese Laying

Seven Swans Swimming

Eight Maids Milking

Nine Ladies Dancing

Ten (Time-)Lords A Leaping

Eleven Pipers Piping

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Skriptah’s sound keys on deep, so-called ‘eyes-down’ or the particularly loathsome term ‘dungeon.’ Perhaps resulting from his oft-cited hearing loss, his productions and selections call for the tracks you feel before you hear.

Skriptah has provided a mix for us, available for streaming or download via Soundcloud below. For the full track-list of the mix and the short Q&A we got with him check beneath the fold

Skriptah [ Soundcloud | Twitter | Facebook ]

Shortstack: Tell a bit about yourself for readers who are not familiar with you yet.

Skriptah: I have produced for around 7 years now. Back around the 8th grade I wanted to be a drummer really bad, but I am -50dB deaf and my parents knew I would shred too loud.

Shortstack: Who are your main influences when it comes to production, what was the stuff that compelled you into the sound you’re on now?

Skriptah: Would say back around ’05 that I was really into Dillinja, Phace, Spor, Noisia, and Evol Intent.
I produced a lot of DNB; it was really one of the only genres that really interested me. The default project bpm of FL Studio is 140, and I use to love doing half time dnb in FL Studio…one day I forgot to up the bpm, ended up doing half time 140 and it felt right. Don’t get me wrong, this was when dubstep had been around for a while – I just hadn’t heard it yet.

Shortstack: Now that you have been listening a while, where do you see your sound?

Skriptah: Pushing the more deeper darker sound — the whole “dungeon” sound is growing now, I like this fresh take on older sounding dubstep.

Shortstack: Favorite food for inspiration in the studio?

Skriptah: When sitting down to make a grand tune, I enjoy eating a Philly cheesesteak slathered in Frank’s Red hot sauce. It gets the juices flowing.

Large up to Skriptah for taking the time to answer some quick ones and put together this mix for us. Pass it along, share with a friend. It makes a great stocking stuffer.

Tracklist:
Skriptah – Deep Breath
Skriptah – Mean Disposition
Perverse – Glacier
Reamz – Untitled
Distance/Icicle – Exhale
Skriptah – Rollerz
Skriptah – 1234
Skirptah – Untitled
S-X – G Shock
Will Dirt – Cuddy Snatch
SP:MX/Lx One – Hunted
Sleeper – The 2nd Step
Skriptah – Emergency
Soap Dodgers – No 6
Truth – Birds
Biome – Pum Bum
Skriptah – Untitled 808

I assume most everybody reading this blog is well aware of Africa Hitech, the combination of Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek pushing the boundaries and bpms ever higher. I would suggest you also get to know The Drake Hotel, which I was fortunate enough to visit and stay in earlier this year. It’s a small spot with about a dozen rooms, incredible drinks and food and obviously a nightclub downstairs (The Underground) that pulls in some cutting edge talent.

Check the performance below posted in two parts, share it with a friend, and plan yourself a visit to The Drake Hotel next time you’re in Toronto!

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

At the behest of many, Whistla takes a short respite from the swivel vibe to put together an essential collection of classics of deeper and darker tunes well fitted to the colder weather and shorter days ahead. Full tracklist beneath the fold, but be sure to pick this one up. Really, he plays ‘Plate,’ that’s all you need to know. If I was going to put together a ‘best of’ set, this is pretty close; ‘Plate,’ ‘Nomad,’ ’1st Dynasty’ were all tunes I fell in love with when I first discovered the genre. If you appreciate real dubstep, you will appreciate this. If you are one of these Johnny Come-Lately’s to the dubstep scene, well… here is some culture for you. Know your roots.

Whistla has this one up on Mixcloud recorded strictly off vinyl and recorded in 320, presenting these tunes in the quality the deserve to be heard in. Big up to Whistla and all the Sub.FM DJs and fans supporting a good thing.

Whistla – Dubstep Classics Vol. 1 Mix [via Mixcloud]

Dubstep Classics Vol 1 by Whistla on Mixcloud

Tracklist:

Digital Mystikz – Anti War Dub
Quest – Hardfood
Distance – Nomad
Forensix – 1st Dynasty
Scarecrow – Exorcist
Gravious – Temple Ball
Tes La Rok – Lick Shot
Digital Mystikz – Earth A Run Red
Loefah – Voodoo (Omen Remix)
Bob Marley – War (Matty G Remix)
Richie Spice – Burnin’ (Coki Remix)
Skream – Midnight Request Line
Scuba – Plate
Cyrus (Random Trio) – Paradise Dub
Skream – Rottun

A short bump promoting the app is below

Purchase Charlie Brown Christmas (via iTunes App Store)
…also for Android, lol.

A free release today from the enigmatic Old Apparatus. It is a bit difficult to expound on Old Apparatus; information is hard to come by, and that should point to the strength of the project.

Download the free single ‘Hand To Mouth (Pay To Play)’ available via Soundcloud and Mediafire, whichever you prefer.

Sonic Router comes correct on its latest mix this time supplied by one of my favorite up comers in the grime scene now Splurt Diablo. The VIP remix of his tune ‘The Return’ always gets a wheel-up request when I’ve played it. Splurt brings all originals here on this mix, a complete tracklist after the bump as standard.

Splurt Diablo – Sonic Router x Uncle Albert Mix

Splurt Diablo [ Facebook | Twitter ]

Tracklist:
Skull Candy RIP
Dance
Last Summer
Lesson
Sad
J3
Purple Haze
Lamped
Beep
Moon Glasses
Booster
Skittles
Guiness Punch
Lead
Room 2
Stone Cold
Whisky In A Bokkle
War Remix
£200
Wifey
Sofa
Westlife

All tracks produced by Splurt Diablo for Family Tree Records/Woofer Music

This one has been making the rounds lately, and it has been a while since my last update – I felt something a little more light-hearted would be a good segue back into some new content.

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa and the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km. All credit goes to them.

An ambitious release reaching around one hour, the album is versatile – not completely being on the side of headphone listening or completely dancefloor centric Unity shows the ability to have crossover appeal without resorting to being a self-referencing caricature.

The highlight for me on the release is undoubtably Ridin The Hype, a collab with vocalist Trim, however Unity will bring appeal to fans of Girl Unit, or the lighter side of Starkey’s most recent output. Available now in all finer shops you can get an album sampler, or preview the albums closing track Don’t Cry In My Bed on Soundcloud.

Damu [ Facebook | Twitter | Download Unity Sampler ]

A bit of a different sound than expected from these two; the self-titled full length from Author brings smooth late-night vibe to contrast the usually upbeat and energetic productions from Sparrow and Ruckspin. Replete with soulful brass parts reminiscent of Good Looking Records’ Cookin’ imprint.

No attention to details spared here; the two producer’s alternate lives crafting sound-system focused tunes is not lost here. With strong focus paid to the soundscapes each track paints, the tracks are undeniably deep however, hardly any would seem out of place in the mellower hours of the dancehall.

In preparation of the full-length’s release on 14 November 2001, the group has made the studio mix below available via Soundcloud.

Jack Sparrow ( Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud )
Ruckspin ( Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud )

Author – Self Titled LP [Tectonic Recordings]

Tracklist:

1. Turn (ft. Ed Thomas)
2. Sun
3. Revolutions
4. Green & Blue (ft. Ben Glass)
5. Dashiki
6. Mothership
7. Fix
8. Drain