languages, Sweden, and music

I love languages and I very much enjoy learning about them and their evolution. But I also think it is one of the worst punishments G-d ever inflicted on man. Think of how great it would be if we all spoke the same language. Then again, languages and diversity are two beautiful things. You decide.

I started thinking abut this tonight after watching an interview of Tim Berling aka Avicii:



I saw this and the light bulb finally went on. "Why do so many good music producers come out of Sweden?" Because it's cold and there's nothing to do!! Why not produce and dj instead? You can make it out of Sweden and travel the world. Is this why they are so inspired to make great music...to get out of Sweden?

I feel like I need to go TO Sweden to get inspired and be thankful of how great LA and the US is with regard to the rest of the world. I know a place like Sweden has its advantages also. There is beauty in everything, but if I got there, I would have to learn Swedish, which is doable for me I think because I like learning languages. But why can't we all just speak the same language?!

And I also thought: Avicii is 21. This kid is killing it. Why did I even bother with college? This is a question I actually have a response for, but that is for another time.


nothing but love for you

Doheny Sessions 1

Artist ............ : VA
Title ............. : Doheny Sessions 1 (Mixed by Erik M)

Genre ............. : House

Source ............ : WAVE
Quality ........... : 192kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Playtime .......... : 01:05:20 (90.MB)
Release Date ...... : 2011-04-06


[Track List]
1. Deadmau5 - Strobe (Full Length Version)
2. Deadmau5 - Strobe (Club Edit)
3. Sultan & Ned Shepard - Call My Name feat. Nadia Ali (Spencer Hill Remix)
4. Fedde Le Grand feat. Patric La Funk - Autosave (Original Mix)
5. Third Party - Release (Original Mix)
6. Kaskade vs Alex Guadino - I'll Never Dream I'm In Love
7. Tim Berg - Bromance (Avicii's Arena Mix)
8. Tim Berg - Seek Bromance (Avicii Vocal Radio Edit)
9. Alex Armes - No Reasons (Laidback Luke Edit)
10. Mord Fustang - Super Meat Freeze (Original Mix) / Spankox - To the Club (Acapella)
11. John Dahlback - Back To The Dancefloor (Disfunktion Remix)
12. Freefire - Dataloss (Darth & Vader Remix)
13. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso Remix) / Pocket808 feat. Nathan Hudson - Ghostship (Hook N Sling Remix)
14. Martin Solveig Ft. Dragonette - Hello (Original Mix)
15. Thomas Gold - AGORa (Original Mix) / Junior Jack - My Feeling (Acapella)
16. TV Rock - In the Air feat. Rudy (Axwell Remix)
17. Nicky Romero - Solar (Original Mix) / Swedish House Mafia - One
18. Steve Angello - Monday (AN21 And Max Vangeli Remix) / Swedish House Mafia - One
19. Pendulum - The Island (Steve Angello, AN21, Max Vangeli Remix)
20. 2000 And One - Spanish Fly (Butch Remix) / Calvin Harris - Flashback (Original Version)
21. Funkerman Feat. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside 2010
22. Adrian Lux - Teenage Crime (Axwell & Henrik B Remode)
23. David Guetta feat Rihanna - Who's That Chick (Afrojack Remix)
24. Robyn - Hang With Me (Avicii's Exclusive Club Mix)


[Release Notes]
Session 1 of the series entitled "Doheny Sessions" mixed by Erik M. Recorded April 2011 in Los Angeles, CA.

www.erik-m.com

MP3
RAR file with Tracklist and CUE sheet

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and DJ Q-Bert

I think it's amazing that with the advancement of technology and "the scene," I've been able to listen to and play My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Black Ops, respectively, well before either of their official releases. Crazy, eh?

I've been listening to Ye's album so much that I've put it on pause for a minute so it won't get played out. This album is a masterpiece and definitely reignited my support of him. I thought his last album was garbage (even though it went platinum) and personally thought he lost it after his mother passed. Wrong. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy establishes Kanye as a COMPLETE artist. I always knew he was a rapper and a producer, but this album goes well beyond rapping and producing. Pieces on this album are well orchestrated and arranged. There's a great balance between hip-hop and more instrumental, classical influences. Could any other artist produce an album like this? No, not in my opinion.
95/100

If you read my twitter you may have seen that I recently expressed my disappointment with Medal of Honor: Tier 1. I think the problem with that game was that it was excessively hyped and was too realistic. I applaud the realism and accuracy that the developers were going for, but sometimes you just want to dual wield some pistols and bust into a room guns blazing. You couldn't do that in MoH, which is why is was boring at most points. The storyline wasn't there and it was too short. It was too realistic, and the problem with that is people play games to escape reality. CoD stands out were MoH fell short, at least in the single-player campaign. CoD's story was historical in nature and well-written. The weapon availability was somewhat impressive...the cut scenes were top-notch...good voice acting and great visuals. I must say, however, both games had really crappy flying missions. I think what put CoD over the top was the cut-scene at the end with JFK, Castro, and Nixon. And then you can play as the President and kill zombies. What???!!! amazeballs. I have unfortunately not played the multiplayer for either of the games, so perhaps MoH makes up for its shortcomings in the single player campaign.
CoD 93/100
MoH 83/100

This past Monday at Teddy's I had the pleasure of meeting DJ Q-Bert, the grandmaster. He introduced himself to me in the booth and was extremely humble. The humility he carries himself with isn't something one runs across frequently in this town, or in the nightlife scene. He was a great guy and signed my friend's vinyl. His skills are epic and world-class. It was a privilege to watch him perform. His presence alone was worth tolerating all the damn bums that crowded the dj booth. Here's to Q-Bert, a selfless, class-act (from what I experienced).
100/100

Cheers

Who Will Survive in America? Who Will Survive in America? Who Will Survive in America? Who Will Survive in America? Who Will Survive in America? Who Will Survive in America?

Swedish House Mafia - Until One (Soundtrack)

EDIT: If you really want to hear what SHM sound like live, listen to their Essential Mix at Creamfields. That set is amazing.


I will say that right from the jump I was surprised with this album because I was under the impression that it would contain A: new material from SHM, and B: strictly music by SHM. I also assumed it would be an unmixed soundtrack to the documentary of the same name. Perhaps I was misconstruing statements by the boys, or my reading comprehension is not up to par. Either way, I was a little disappointed when I took a look at the tracklist.

I must confess: throughout the album, I found myself fast-forwarding through a lot of the tracks. About 75% of the records is music I had already heard, so at certain points I was just listening to hear how the compilation was mixed and to support the group. This wasn't because the records were bad. It was just because, as I mentioned, I had heard a large amount of the tracks already. The production quality of the album is top-notch, with Axwell's works, in my opinion, clearly standing out from the rest. All the tracks are "phat", wide, and warm-sounding. The mastering is great. The individual tracks are all composed and produced professionally and do not disappoint in that regard. Collectively, unfortunately, I found the mixing to be bland. This is a combination of the characteristics of the house music genre and the dj's choice of programming.

Though I only gave it a quick listen, I noted that much of the album plays like a roller coaster. It's my preference that a dj set should slowly build up and increase the energy throughout the set. Maybe this was not SHM's intention while putting together this soundtrack. They, instead, let each individual track build and breakdown, play out, then mix in the next track. This sounds like a decent enough blueprint on paper, but when executed live it just seems like an energy killer. I thought at times while listening, "Would this work in a club?" At that point I realized that, as is the case with many other big names in music, SHM have reached a level where they can do whatever they want and people will eat it up. I have never seen either of these gentlemen live, so who knows? Maybe crowds do like this mixing style. I would argue that to enjoy this album, you have to appreciate the progressive genre and the mixing style of the Mafia. Otherwise, you may get bored when fillers are played.

I would also like to briefly mention that SHM likes to play mash-ups in their sets. I'm not a mash-up man myself, but if they're done live, I can respect that.

All in all, I would give this album 82/83 out of 100. Deciding factors were tracklisting, programming, and production/mix quality.

Looking forward to the documentary

Long overdue update

Rather than try and catch up on errthing that's happened in the past months, I'll get right to it. I've been taking my production a lot more seriously. The majority of my free time is spent on ableton. It was crashing on me a decent amount last night. It might have been because of Melodyne actually. I just tried out iZotope's Ozone again for the second time. It seems very powerful. I would prefer to use Waves, but there are still issues running it on a 64-bit system, and I don't feel like jumping through hoops to convert new DLLs. That said, I'm learning to get the most out of Ableton and the new soft synths that I've come across recently (i.e. Gladiator and the Predator). They are costly but are good for what they do. Nothing can replace hardware, though. I'd like to thank Steve Angello for giving his advice. He's been really responsive and helpful with his recommendations on headphones, software, synths, and demos. Sounds strange but I've learned a good amount from him and the boys (Ingrosso and Axwell) (Shout out to Future Music). They've all really blown up, and their 2010 DJ Mag rankings reflect that. Though, I don't quite get how all three received rankings higher than SHM. I mean, I get completely how things are computed but it doesn't seem logical.

For some reason producing electronic music has always been the easiest to me. Specifically trance. It really shouldn't be that surprising seeing as how trance is what I first started listening to. It's no coincidence that it was also the first genre I tried to produce. I'm now trying to hit more hip-hop and club-worthy R&B tracks. The advantage of having a brother for a dj is knowing what exactly hits in clubs. You also get a lot of groupies, but I've never been into leftovers or second hand shit. Neva dat!

I almost forgot to mention that, along with hip-hop, I'd very much like to produce pop music. If it hits in a club then I want to make it. Max Martin and Dr. Luke where you at? Unfortunately producing electronica is a lot easier for me than producing pop. So, I'm trying to embrace that. As such I'm returning to my roots and listening to Armin, Above and Beyond, and Tiesto's radio shows more frequently. I might even throw some EDM on my ipod. Right now I'm listening to Roger Shah's new double disc The Beach Side Of Life. It's out now on Armada. good stuff.

There's loads more to be said. I'll leave it for another time.

Now listening to: Roger Shah presents Sunlounger - Acapulco Waves

Happy Birthday...

...to me. I'm now 23. So this is the age when you realize that you're starting to reach mid-20's. I need to accomplish a lot more within the next couple of years.

For the past couple of years, I can't really remember celebrating my birthday. Probably because I never really did. It always fell towards the end of the year, which meant lots of work and exams. I was also away from my family, so I never got to throw down that hard. I would usually celebrate the next weekend after I had flown home. Well, today was a little more of the same. I use my birthday as more of a reflective day to think about where I've been and where I want to go. I'm not the party kind of guy. I also don't really like cake that much, mostly because it's not very healthy for you.

Today was pretty awesome. We rolled to church early as usual (a must) and then went with my mother to Gyu-Kaku. That place is amazing. Whenever I step inside that restaurant, I put on my game face. It's like a battle that I must win. My goal is to eat as much as possible without puking. If there's one thing I like spending my money on, it's food. I destroyed that place. I think I took out about 3 orders of chicken, 2 beef plates, noodles, vegetables, and 2 bowls of bim-bim BAP. I DID WORK. The Korean dishes always bring back memories of my Korean teacher from Georgetown, Prof. Marshall. She had me conversational within a few months. Writing was hard but, ... Ahh memories.

After eating and watching the Lakers defeat the Jazz, I opened some of my presents. I got a gift card for groceries, SICK, and a new juicer, RAD. I told you I like food right? I love getting practical gifts. My gifts were really cool.

In other news, after a year of off-and-on reading, I finally finished Dr. Drew's "The Mirror Effect". It's a quality book that's very applicable to today's celebrity-driven, media-heavy culture. He paints a portrait of narcissists, describing how they come to be (childhood trauma), how they function (sexual acting-out, addiction, destructive behavior), and their main characteristics (entitlement, superiority, authority, exhibitionism, exploitative, self-sufficiency, vanity) . He concludes by offering his insight as to how to avoid becoming a full-blown narcissist yourself. Good book!

I ordered myself a bookshelf just now for my birthday. It was 50% off on Staples.com! Cherry-wood FTW!

Finally started my forex account. FXCM Micro accounts FTW.

Will start studying for the GMAT soon.

Still producing

New cologne: Lacoste Redzone, still testing. So far so good for a casual cologne. Smells very good.

Amazon.com is my lifelong friend.

Dealsea and Slickdeals: for all your dealshopping needs.

HauteLook, JackThreads, Gilt, Rue La La

My new computer is a dream. Go Dell

Great birthday today. Did I forget anything? Probably. I have internet ADD.

God bless.

Aventura - Dile Al Amor

y aqu'i est'a la canci'on que o'i en el restaurante cuando com'ia con mi familia. que maravillosa. pura calidad. puro partyyy. gracias a Shazam!

me fui de vacaciones, lejos de los amores.