Thomas Brinkmann - Tanks A Lot
Free with the Tina/Argo ep, this mix of Brinkmanns back catalogue is an important release in its own right (and by important, I mean, stuck in the walkman, on the playlist for several months, in that class of freebie that gets more attention than the release it came with).
Paula Temple Mix Sept 2003
Currently available here, this is apparently (it's not made totally clear, and the mp3 was tellingly finished off in Acid 4) done with a magic music box, and possibly some decks. Software is increasingly becoming part of the DJs arsenal, as processing power increases, and what was rendered offline, becomes available real time. Add a box of knobs and faders, and any open minded DJ can suddenly out-manouver Richie Hawtin. Final Scratch was just a stepping stone, a teaser that did nothing for those without the investment in deck skills. Hmm, I wonder if we'll get a luddite backlash this time. Probably not, it's too soon. Maybe a few fanboys (but if you don't mix it with your hands...). Not soon enough to my mind. The code to do this has been out there for a while now.
The thing is, these magic boxes currently require more work up front than a traditional setup. You have to rip, prep, slice and dice your track before it's useable, otherwise it's all trainwrecks, all of the time, and you don't have the option of laying hands on the spinning platter. Still, nothings stopping you from running decks in parallel.
Oh, the mix? Yeah, it's pretty good. I don't think it's quite up to the standard of the suade mix that was on the Overload site before it wasn't, but then again, maybe it is. It uses that 'right to get down' speech, which is rapidly becoming played out, layered over a couple of tracks I know, but can't name. Finding something like that a while back would really have wet my whistle, but I think the problem now, is that I know what is possible. The gates have been bust open, and (ooh, Seawolf, this should be interesting, I tried to prep this a while back, and it drifts all over the fucking place, ahh, well done, and carefully ditched before it went mental), err where was I? Bladerunner? Ah yes. It's a new thing, it's going to be a little cheesy for a while, as people work out quite how much they can do, and the software adapts to fill the gaps. I wonder just how mental it's going to get. (and how quickly playing five Mills tracks at once is going to get old.)
...but I'm getting ahead of it all, download the mix, taste the future. (when I'm not in the process of pulling it all to bits, it is rather good)
PS I remember why I preferred the suade mix. It's less obvious. Paula packs her set out with big classic techno anthems, suade still uses a few, but nowhere near as many.
Posted by inpHilltr8r at September 30, 2003 11:07 AM