I picked this track for this week because it ties in with a previous post on chiptunes and 8bit sound hardware. (See Chiptunes and Demoscene and 8bit Nostalgia …) I also picked it because it’s a really great track. I’m attaching the Extended Mix which clocks in at a hefty 7:48, but that’s no surprise for Tiësto. There has also been a release comprised of various remixes of this track (including a Bart B More remix, which I haven’t heard yet. Considering his track record, it should prove to be an interesting Baltimore house fix of 8bit goodness.)

This track is being heralded as the “return” of Tiësto. Many of his fans feel that, as of late, Tiësto had departed from the edgy, darker, almost downright scary production value that he was known for (think Flight 643). They decried his “commercial” appeal and felt they may have lost their beloved king of trance to the lure of mass appeal. Frankly, I don’t think Tiësto has never had to worry about finding appeal to the masses. We’re talking about the first DJ ever to be asked to play at the Olympics. We’re talking about the man who has a statue of his likeness in wax at Madame Tussauds museum in Amsterdam. We’re talking the man who has topped almost every DJ list ever made at one point or another.

Mass appeal is hardly a problem.

I think Tiësto suffers from the same struggle every DJ (or artist in general for that matter) will: growing. It’s easy to be typecast or pigeon-holed by your own fans and to bring upon yourself certain expectations of what your DJ sets or your own productions should cater to. As popularity rises, there becomes a dedicated “core” of insiders that segregates themselves and tends to look at all these new “intruding” outsiders as a threat to their sense of what’s “theirs”. The DJ or artist is forced to deal with the changing demographics and tastes of their constituency. Any shift in methods or deliverables comes with the risk of backlash from the “ones who have been there all along” that have come to expect the McDonald’s experience from the artist. They came once and they bought a McRib. And man, they liked it. Now, next time they come in and buy a McRib, it had better taste just the same way, be wrapped up in it’s familiar wrapper, and delivered with a smile that says “It’s because of you I have my job. Thank you.”

My feeling is that “Louder Than Boom” is an attempt to bridge two previously explored paths: The early, dark, epic trance path and the later, more matured, “I just needed to try something different for a while” path. “Louder Than Boom” reminds me a lot of Flight 643. It also reminds me of some of Tiësto’s more recent material that sent some of his original fans packing. It reminds me of…Tiësto.

Loud. Epic. Dark.

But also Minimal. And Fun. And Bright.

Boot up your Commodore 64, kick back in your Reebok Pumps, and say “welcome back” to the man who defined Trance as a genre.

Tiësto – Louder Than Boom

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I’ve posted another mix on the Mixes page. While the tracks used may be dusty, this mix is near and dear to me.

Why?

Because it’s the first time I ever took a mix that I had recorded live from the decks and went to town afterwards with a scalpel.

Some DJ purists will tell you it’s a sin to fudge with the results of a session on the decks. They’ll tell you to leave well enough alone and deal with the imperfections of a live mix. I bought into that for a loooong time. And then I really listened to the material that well-known, established, popular, well-selling and well-represented DJ’s were offering.

Polished. Concise. Clean. Pristine. Exciting.

Those words describe the critically acclaimed works of Richard “Humpty” Vission and DJ Dan and many others. Those words are the hallmarks of expertise, sensibility, and appeal.

I was a fool.

I originally recorded this mix straight from the decks and it clocked in at an obese and bloated 2 and a half hours. I went around the day after recording the original and handed people the first 80 raw minutes of the mix; unedited. The reception was underwhelmingly lackluster. Back to the drawing board.

After going through the process of teaching myself how to edit out portions of audio that were poorly developed, unnecessary, redundant, boring, sloppy, etc…I did what was necessary. I opened the source file up in Cool Edit, now known as Audition, and I hacked the ever-living crap out of it. It was painful at first…to lose, no, destroy parts of your baby. To hack out motionless sections of transitions that you had rehearsed for hours. To surgically remove unexciting breakdowns that went on for just a bit too long. To tidy up your mistakes. To…wait a minute. This shit sounds GOOD.

It’s clean. It’s polished, pristine, and concise. My GOD….it’s exciting!

I returned to the same people I had given the originals to. This time it was a different mix. It was a scant 63 minutes.

They loved it.

It was a breakthrough for me. It was everything I wanted my mixes to be, and not to be. Mortal sin? Hardly. I did myself a favor. I did my listeners a favor. Besides, who in the hell has 150 minutes of their life to dedicate to a musical jalopy anyway? I put the jalopy back in the garage and took the Z06 for a spin.

Listen up. Listen closely. See if you can hear what you’re missing. I can’t. And I continue to apply a little “Audition Love” to all my mixes.

To all the “purists”: Sue me.

I’m motivated as hell. It’s been over 6 months since I sat down a really pounded out an honest mix. I’ve been resting on the laurels of my work from this past summer.

I’m very happy with that mix. It’s a solid, fun, and appealing mix. It’s designed to be liked by a lot of people. I’m confident that it is. But I have a confession:

I’ve been lazy.

There, I said it. No more resting. No more coasting. No more hoping people like material that was cool 6 months ago.

You all deserve better.

So far…making appearances on the upcoming mix: MGMT by way of Sebastian Ingrosso, Fatboy Slim by way of Mixin Marc, Miami and Atlanta by way of Eric Prydz, Will.I.Am and Akon by way of David Guetta (pronounced Get-uh, not Gwet-uh…FYI), and all sorts of hand-clappin’, foot-poundin’, singin’-along-in-your-car goodness.

It’s in the works. And it’s strapped to missile called motivation.

And it’s going to be posted here for you. To download. For free.

Merry Christmas! =]

It’s 12:05 AM local. I work in 7 hours. But you know what?

I have something to share.

My brother and I discussed and shared (to exhaustion) chiptunes tonight. 8bit demoscene “Robocop on Commodore 64” type stuff.

Tonight.

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

That.

That’s what I’m talking about. SID chip 8bit opus-type stuff.

“Not important” you say. And you think you’re right. But you’re wrong.

DJ Tiesto says you’re wrong. He says “Louder Than Boom” will prove you’re wrong.

Timbaland says you’re wrong. “Ayo Technology” has proved you’re wrong.

In fact, Timbaland will steal shit to prove you wrong.

What’s old is new. What’s defunct is funky. What’s obsolete is renewed and neat.

Why is 8bit hip? Why is there a cult of loyal video game music elitists that insists that a Nintendo is the ultimate music making device?

Because emotion tied to music that’s tied to gaming that’s tied to memories is priceless.

We all grew up playing Sonic and Mario and Megaman.

And the artists that grappled with the limitations of the hardware they had at their disposal made amazing things happen. Despite how things have changed in the gaming hardware world, I contend that some of the most evocative music ever made was made in 8 bits.

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If you’ve listened to the radio, been to a mall, have a teenager or a twenty-something in your household, or fancy yourself a new music buff, chances are you’ve heard MGMT at some point in the last 6 months or so. They’ve garnered a fair amount of radio play and critical acclaim thanks to the power of 2 singles from thier “Oracular Spectacular” album; “Electric Feel” and “Kids”.

If you’ve been to a nightclub, listened to a Ministry of Sound compilation, visited a house music blog, or fancy yourself a dance music buff, chances are you’ve heard Sebastian Ingrosso at some point in the last year or so. A member of the Swedish House Mafia, Ingrosso is undeniably one of the most influential, innovative, and entertaining EDM artists around. One of Ingrosso’s recent offerings is centered around the catchy and infectious melody of MGMT’s “Kids”. Dubbed “Kidsos”, this club banger just has that “something special” that I look for in a track. Ingrosso manages to successfully reinterpret a hip, playful, unembellished theme, adopting it as a key constituant of a powerful, churning, club-friendly composition. A powerful energy is quickly built at the outset of the track. This energy isn’t lost during the breakdown, where Ingrosso enlists the help of a high-pass filter to slowly introduce the instantly recognizable theme that will have your dancefloor screaming and clapping as the song builds into a crescendo. That’s when fun really starts.

As the break approachs the climax, Ingrosso shows off his savvy and credability as an experienced producer and DJ by slamming the pedal the floor. In an all-out mind-blowing drop, reminiscent of an Indy car screaming past you at 185 miles per hour, we say goodbye to “Kids” and again say hello to the furious shuffle and groove that we last experienced immediately before the break.

What I love most about this track is that instead of throttling back and slowly rebuilding the energy after the break, Ingrosso meets the listener’s expectations of a satisfying release from the tension built in the break. In what seems to be a rather popular but annoying trend in most electro-house tunes lately, producers insist on bringing listeners to plane of energy, after a break, that falls far short of what had been developed before the break. From there, the producer attempts to rebuild the momentum and energy, eventually matching or exceeding the heights to which the listener was brought earlier in the track.

I find this to be a frustrating, unsatisfying, and counter-intuitive method to engage the listener. Nothing, to me, is more disappointing than an epic build-up to a climax that fails to deliver on a promise of satisfaction.

Sebastian Ingrosso gets that. He understands it. And man, does he deliver with Kidsos.

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Must hear:

_BT.

Leave your thoughts.

In my eyes, BT is mainly responsible for two things:

1. One of the most innovative and inspiring electronica albums of all time, This Binary Universe

2. One of the best nights of my life, courtesy of a DJ set @ Soundbar in Chicago a year and a half ago. When his set opened with the acapella from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On”, I knew I was in for a very special night.

It appears he’ll be adding to that list of accomplishments with what promises to be another genre-busting album. Read about it here on Nettwerk’s blog:

BT Returns With Long Awaited Sixth Album ‘These Hopeful Machines’ On Feb 2; New Single “Suddenly” Out Jan 12 | Nettwerk Press Blog.

From the write-up:

There are also multiple collaborators on These Hopeful Machines, like Rob Dickinson vocals on “Always” and “The Unbreakable,” Jes, (formerly of Motorcyle) on “Every Other Way” and “The Light In Things,” and The Police’s Stewart Copeland who lends a drum breakdown to “Every Other Way.”

If you’ve heard “As The Rush Comes” by Motorcycle, then you know that having Jes as a collaborator on this album is reason enough to be giddy.

I am.

As promised, I will continue to add content to this site. The main focus here will always be music, both my own and the music I think is worth sharing with the world. I’ve added an additional handful of my own mixes from the archive to the mixes page.

Go to :: Mixes

That DJ Music Blog – House, Fidget, Techno, Minimal, Dirty and Filthy Electro » Hansolo in the Mix & Promo.

WICKED Mix from That-Dj.com. Do yourself a favor and download!

Head on over to the Originals page to download two Dj FREQ original productions!

Mash Ups are COOL!