You're Not Alone - Olive

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CFX

Jack Saunders - BBC R1 - Future Sounds [PLUS] 2023 - Grandad Mixes - Moreno J Mix Vol 01 - Moreno J Remixes (The Re-edited) & Pierre J - 1984 In The Mix

I mentioned on the 'Punks Dead' post that BBC ~ R1 Future Sounds has really good music and terrific presenters. All of the BBC music presenters DJ's  and producers including Radio 3 are top notch, but Jack Saunders is the first one to ever make me feel a little older than usual. He's got an extraordinary energy about him on air and it was so much I sort of crumpled a bit and felt I couldn't keep up for the first time in my life.

Later on, as I got to know his work I learned that he's a versatile and encyclopedic music man and one of the most passionate music lovers I've listened to (along with Arielle Free and DJ LaLa). He's technical and has a great range of music and singing vocabulary. When the talents with him in the studio, it's self evident he takes the time to get to know music people, and and asks the best questions. Fresh, sidewinders, genuine curiosity-driven probing and great empathy with a range of guests.

I'm used to him now so he's not always full-on but strap yaself in if he is because it's an unusual ride. Jacks been put in charge of BBC R1 'Future Sounds' and I hope my tweets before I was kicked off X Holdings Corporations' platform proselytising his talents, landed in the right place. He's wearing a black and yellow suit that is the spit of an old Paul Smith suit I was given. Well done Jack. Looking forward to more of your fresh energy and your gift for empathy.

Let's do the second set first. It's Pierre J 1984 in the mix and like Moreno J, it starts with Frankie Goes To Hollywood (FGTH). Both sets are among my most listened 'Grandad Mixes' this year although now I've discovered the Essential Mix - BICEP - 2017 set which is off the charts fresh nearly six or seven years later (to my ears) as I only just discovered it via Pete Tong's Essential Mix back catalogue. Pierre replied to my comments a couple of times talking about his music app and I assumed he was a great amateur DJ find of mine. I have no idea why but I thought he was like me reliving his 80s 90s noughties dance music days, but no. Turns out he's a professional, highly regarded and one of the top European DJ's on one of the industry talent lists. Check out his last name and Q Symbolism on most of his cover artwork. Small world makes a lot of sense when combining AI with the ULTRA information. You're going to be seeing a LOT more about 17 from now on. 

The top music set is Moreno J who is an ongoing enigma in my life, but that set which starts off with FGTH as well, is spot-on if you're about my age of 55. The video must be watched to fully appreciate the times, fashion and music on the floor during the 80s 'and' onwards. I have no idea how he secures some of the dancing footage, but as with the Lipps Inc. - Funkytown (Moreno J Remix) post he (it might be a she or a team) they're using hallucination levels of AI dance choreography on some of his mixes, from at least two years ago. I've kept my opinions to myself about AI since I road tested all the platforms, but I have got a lot to say, share and write about this subject and some is brilliant, and some is mind bending, some is dark and some is terrifying, so it's for the future oriented not those holding on to the past. The fun part is sometimes a synch is just serendipity but if you are familiar with the colour initiation process I was led through online, just watch the Lipps Inc mix by Moreno J and then go check out these two posts because it's very hard to explain why obsessions of mine are contiguous with obsessions of other people, or more likely we're seeing what many others can't, even though millions can. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of colour initiation there's this follow up post as my ongoing education continues.

What I'm Listening To

I've long been a fan of DJ Stewarts mixes from Bed Supperclubs Electrofrequencies in Bangkok on Monday night to his latest sets on UB Radio. To be frank. He's on fire at the moment with some of the best mixes I've heard him make in all the years I've been rating him as one of the finest DJ's in the business. You can download his UB Radio Sets over here. Breaks, House and Tech for those who need some taxonomy (or ontology if like me you're struggling to separate the two).

There's a feed over here you can pop into your iTunes for the cream. It's free..... as indeed "Everything should be (free)"  and which one of the sets (Flamgini at Funky Dojo) asserts.

Darkie

ybboey

It was on my first trip to Burma in 2001 that I knew something was going on in a global cultural sense that I should try to understand. I was traveling light from one military checkpoint state to another when I saw the only sign of dissent in the whole country. It was a gang of youths dressed in cheap baseball hats and basketball vests playing of all things the unmistakable genre of Rap in Burmese. They were doing no harm but for sure they were saying things suck in Burma, and that's a fact because in Burma they really do.

I guess the reason for my incomprehension was that I didn't 'get' Hip Hop or Rap. I thought it was the lowest common denominator of music to dance to. Anyone could do it. A couple of gang gestures, a bobbing head and some Yo Yo exhortation meant that anyone was down with the bad asses. But it wasn't working for me. I couldn't see why people loved it so much and would frequently walk out of clubs in protest, as I always do if the music is rubbish.

Then I got some education.

Some years on from that Burma trip I was with some friends and invited to hang out in a bar on Royal City Avenue (RCA) in Bangkok called Hip Hop. The crowd were an unpretentious and friendly bunch and the music was really rather good when the DJ dropped a Diana Ross Hip Hop mix that blew me away and I knew what the problem was. I'd been listening to bad Hip Hop for all those years.

A conversation with a very smart DJ friend of mine helped also to clarify that Hip Hop was a culture, a movement and not just a genre of music and so now I have no problem hitting a bar for Hip Hop, but like all my music tastes I'm just a bit fussy about what I expose my ears too and need something that makes me think as well as feel.

Well yesterday I came across yet another brilliant Smashing Telly recommendation called The Hip Hop Years. The Origin of Hip Hop. Its on another level and sucked me in for the full 2 hours and 20 minutes 7 seconds. Its completely delicious and to ignore this fine documentary is probably on a par with ignoring the impact that Rock & Roll and Punk had on popular culture. Hip Hop is constantly reinventing, has embraced all genres of music from death metal to classical and brings young people together from the South Bronx to Burma.

But the reason for this post is that I've noticed something while globe trotting and parachute planning in a few countries. I've never come across an African or Afro Caribbean planner. There are plenty of great Indian marketing folk that I've worked with, but I'm starting to get the feeling that planning is predominantly a middle class, Indy music loving, Caucasian pursuit and that is most definitely not a good thing. As I've made clear elsewhere homogeneous advertising is made in homogeneous agencies. As far as I know only two three London planners have expressed an interest in the world's largest and fastest growing music genre and it leaves me asking a difficult question. Are we OK in advertising when it comes to rebranding a toothpaste from Darkie to Darlie but failing abysmally when it comes to black culture? Because if so, we are not representing.

Educate yourself and watch this seminal video.

Listen Discover Share

ScottMacleodLiddle

Hot off the press! CBS have purchased Last.fm. The makers of CSI and David Letterman have shelled out 280 million dollars for the London based music social networking site. I'm a big fan of Last.fm right back from when they were audioscrobbler which was a software addition that listened to what music I played on my computer and then made recommendations. Its become a lot more sophisticated since those days and the website has a bunch of features that are addictive.

My musical holy grail is to construct a radio station that plays random music that jumps from Classical to Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) a bit of Drum and Bass and some Jazz thrown in. I'm constantly feeding Last.fm music to get the balance right which keeps me occupied but there's some other stuff that I really like about this software and website that I want to share.

The killer app is thaty just listening to Last.fm allows me to listen to music that I like. The tastes I have described above are not an easy brief to meet and only Last.fm comes close to giving me that. I think its cool that I can give it a macro taste brief jumping from genre to genre or if I'm in the mood I can listen to early electronic pioneers or some other micro tagging channel. If I have to really concentrate and work hard only intelligent drum & bass works for me but there are a number of moods that Last.fm meets splendidly. The more I know it, the more demanding I get. Its nowhere near listening to a terrestrial frequency radio station where laissez faire listening slips in.

I have friends on Last.fm and I love to be able to find out a little more about them or discover new music if I'm in the mood. I also meet people who come and check me out, are connected to me or I discover completely new folk. Music is a really good indicator and while I can get on with all sorts, the 'taste-o-meter really lets me know if I connect on a deeper bobbing heads level. I have three DJ friends who keep me topped up on the freshest stuff possible. Each of them is a little different and its amazing how their personal radio stations have their own flavour despite us all having highly similar tastes. I have to point towards my chum DJ Stewart from Bangkok who plays electrofrequencies on Monday night at Bed Supperclub along with Saint Vincent. Both are the nicest of people and totally dedicated to their craft. It's not like they are on the other side of the world while I'm in London listening on Last.fm and sometimes I can tell if Stewart's going in a different musical direction like the retro action that seems to be going on recently. The other star is Audiossey from Germany who has a distinctive style that is beginning to approach my top 3 or 4 music DJ's and producers in the world. I met him through Last.fm. There's a few others too that I love including Sushigroove, Russell Davies, Zero Influencer and my latest classical music discovery Chalcemon.

Theres a bunch more too and I listen to them all when I feel that I need to get out of a rut and check out what other friends are into. I also think the recommendation radio station is great although I''m not sure if its based on what Last.fm recommends or if it factors in friends individual recommendations sent to me, which is another feature that I get lots of suggestions from. Either way theres also the 'loved' track function and the 'ban' track button too plus skip if a track seems to be going nowhere.

On top of all that there's a full array of social networking tools like music blogging, shoutouts, tagging, neighbourhood radio, loved tracks radio, history radio and more and this all applies also to other members of Last.fm on the network. I can even listen to friends specialist radio stations that they create. Then there's the widgets, the free downloads, the charts and music events based on my location. I could go on because the site in itself could probably keep me occupied a few hours a day just exploring, but I also like to keep an eye on a few of its competitors to see what's new but the thing I really like most about Last.fm is that it raises a philosphical question which is at the heart of marketing. It makes me ask myself when I know that I don't want to listen to stuff I know, and thus forces me to choose between if I want to listen to what I know I don't know, or if I prefer to listen to stuff I don't know I don't know. If this sounds familiar its another way of expressing Donald Rumsfeld's known unknowns and unknown unknowns which despite its obtuse Yogi Berra nature is in actual fact a stunning example of the business we're in. CBS have gotten this site for peanuts. Its easily worth more than myspace or Youtube in my opinion and I hope it stays that way. Thanks audioscrobbler/Last.fm for a few years of terrific music discovery and like all good radio for being a friend. And here's my latest playlist which is another function I've only just begun to play with.



And here's a hot presentation they did with more stats and facts.