Fly High "Voodoo & Serano Remix" -Ayumi Hamasaki

ATB - See you again

0.57 similar melodies but who cares. I love old ATB music. This one's off his album Two Worlds.

Armin Van buuren - Communication

Notice the difference between modern trance and earlier trance. Notice the low kick drum, the bassline reminiscent of goa trance (ran through a high-pass filter?), and the lead full of energy-building strings. I'm thinking he used an arpeggiator, something utilized less frequently now in his productions.

Armin van Buuren VS. Rank 1 - This World Is Watching Me (Official Music Video)

And so began Armin's trend into harder sounding music...new synthesizers and less intricate melodies, though Armin was never really one for melodic trance or uplifting tunes. More reverb and cleaner, crisper sounding tracks characterize his latest music. Less "epic" strings and more piano (see below) and harder sounding synths and electro-driven bass.

Armin van Buuren ft Sharon den Adel - In and Out of Love (Official Music Video)

Newer vocal trance from AvB

Plummet - Damaged

Here's a clip of the 12'' club mix for "Damaged." This edit was taken from the compilation Trance Nation America Two, mixed by ATB and George Acosta. Other volumes of the Trance Nation compilation were mixed by trance notables such as Ferry "System F" Corsten. Ministry of Sound FTW!!!

p.s. for the sake of cataloging, the proper title for this mix is "Ford's Transcendental 12'' Mix", though it was often referred to as the "Original 12'' Mix" or "Original Club Mix."

damaged

Plummet - Damaged (CDM) 2001

the bassline on the Neo & Farina remix is wicked. hard
I love getting rips of these old gems. holy crap this was a banger in 2001. I was going to buy the CD for this if I had to and rip it myself. The trance that's produced nowadays is nothing like the '99 trance or early '00. Lotta stuff sounds different now. Maybe it just sounds cleaner because of the new technology.

Progressive crap, which I've always disliked, is becoming evermore popular with the rise of electro house. I've ALWAYS hated the progressive genre. No epic buildups or vocals = no fun. Electro, or blog house is a plus for me. I just need a hard bassline. Nu-disco is a favorite also. Funky bass roolz.

Work at the hedge fund starts Aug 1st. What to expect? I'm here this last week all by myself at home. Brother is djing in NYC. Pesitos went with him. Wtf's a homie to do?

P.S. Officially following the new rule. You need two people to "play tennis."

what's a hedge fund?

well i just interviewed for one today. they're mysterious aren't they?...1 billion dollar funds. 200 million kept by the fund. 50m or so in performance fees payed out to the employees; but it's not about the money for me. i just want to learn. you do what you love, and if you do it well, money will come. i'm sure of that. that's just how things work. you do well and you're compensated for it. people want to hire the best, that is, unless you're a DJ in LA. even if you fking suck you'll be brought on.

thank you @shitdj for giving me a heads up on where not to go on certain nights. it really is annoying to hear bad music played poorly. it sucks that good djs don't spin locally anymore since they're all traveling. these fucking amateurs are something else, and i call it like i see it. but my opinion is my opinion and it's not more valuable than anyone else's. However, I always feel i can objectively state whether or not someone and his/her skills blow cock, both literally and figuratively.

am i a dj? no. would i ever dj? no, because i fucking suck and would never provide such a disservice to the los angeles community.

please, don't practice, just stop.

twitter is eriK_m

@shitdj spelled my handle incorrectly. here is his post to clear things up. anyone who thought otherwise is mentally challenged.

Next. @eric_m is not shitdj, but we thank him for the support. actually doesnt hide who he thinks sucks. http://eriklovescake.blogsp...

I repeat, my name is spelled with a "k," however @shitdj is still referring to me. I hope people understand now how dumb they are.

Transmission from @MarshallBarnes

I received a direct message this morning from @MarshallBarnes on twitter. Here it is...

"So your shit dj huh"

For the record, I am not @shitdj, nor is my mate dj squigz. Marshall, you do realize we are not the same person, yes? Thank you anyway for putting my friend on blast.

time to let your fingers do the talking.

good djs

i've either heard live or heard a mix/demo from the following dj's and can say that they are okay or good:

Fashen
Spider
Graham Funke
Stonerokk
Homicide
AM
Vice

eric dlux

djs in LA

i figured i had to update the blog, regardless of what time it is right now. twitter officially took off and killed this blog, kinda.

i wanted to take the time to discuss the djs in LA. Most of them suck. except for maybe 4 at most. here was proof tonight that after some point, it doesn't matter how the dj sounds. a crowd can be so fking drunk they don't know what they're listening to.

Here is a porn actress, Jenny Hendrix, who spent the 4th in Vegas. she went to a club called XS tonight. this was her tweet.

RT @jennyhendrix: Xs is off the hook ! Shots shots I'm in las vegas bitch! *;-) with @dwpoker!

to which i replied
@jennyhendrix how is the dj there?

i asked this because i knew Marshall Barnes was spinning. the kid sounds like he would be an okay guy personally, but as a dj, he's mediocre at best.

here was the tweet before her response to me
RT @jennyhendrix: Blame it on the alcohol!

after which she said
@erik_m amazing


and there is proof that she was drunk because you have to be FUCKED UP to think that @MarshallBarnes is amazing, or anything close to it.

politics in LA are shit. so are the djs. lord knows serato was a gift and a curse when you read things like this.

EDIT
apparently Marshall Barnes wasn't spinning this night? if he wasn't, i stand corrected.