Man!  It took me a little bit but finally found this hard to come by physical package (not so hard, digitally).  Hell I didn’t even know it existed until last week.
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THE 4-TRACK ERA COLLECTION (1990-1992) (Info page @ djshadow.com)
- This set is as deep as it comes, collecting Shadow’s earliest radio and megamixes from 1990-92 and 18 completely unreleased productions circa Endtroducing, original artwork, shirts, stickers, buttons, etc. limited to 200 copies.  After reading about it, I’m quite anxious to hear; Shadow was a big deal to me when I started digging (“Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” is like a manifesto, feel me? Not to mention Psyence Fiction).  Hearing some of his earliest work will definitely be interesting/throwback.
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LINKS:

The 4-Track Era Volume 1: Best of the KMEL Mixes (1991)
The 4-Track Era Volume 2: Best of the Remixes and Megamixes (1990-1992)
The 4-Track Era Volume 3: Best of the Original Productions (1990-1992)
The 4-Track Era Bonus Disc KMEL Mix #4 (1991)

Source: Baran’s World (SWE. also a nice source for a lot of indiestuffs ie. new Animal Collective)
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- Review (Pitchfork)

- No, I don’t feel too bad about distributing this, since Vol 1 & 2 will be next to impossible to hear unless you find someone who has the physical set.. (does anyone have it?).  Close to being underground, this way, non?  Like the recent DWG issue of the Juice Crew EP (song history knowledge here).

Music, for those who like Nujabes, Krush, Mo Wax, Ninjatune, Stones Throw, ie.  hip hop instrumental, headnod, boombap, trip hop, Mushroom Jazz, Acid jazz, funk, downtempo, tablism, idm.
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Websites (info only):

Ninja Obsession
- Ninjatune fan site, but very complete. check the bottom set of links = they pose as a soft agency, interesting):

Def Beat Remixes (index)
- DBR are bootlegged compilations of often rare or hard to find remixes (or simply notable, according to compilers) by certain DJs: Coldcut, UNKLE, Cut Chemist, Krush, Shadow, Magic Mike, Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, LCD Soundsystem (slightly odd inclusion)
…

Downloads (mostly Rapidshare >> sign of the times hm? beware of dL limit):

Krush, Def Beat Remixes vol 4
Mr Scruff – RBMA Podcast (RBMA = Red Bull Music Academy, an imprint of RB fostering forward thinking music in a strong way)
Tablism (via sanpasquale)
JDilla (via sanpasquale)

Antipop Consortium APC 1996 97 98
- link is alive for only couple days.  APC is like a predecessor to SA-RA, in being a Black crew combining glitchy/techiness with hip hop, but is more traditional underground in the experimental, Anticon way (indicative of their time period, pre-”bling”), whereas SA-RA draws from Afu-Ra/Parliament Funkadelic/Sly Stone, hypster fashion, and the hip pop format (post-”bling”).

Daedulus – Retrospective
- LA glitch man.  Earlier on was very idm/ambient/electronica, but now has hit the crazy lazers and explosions incarnation of ‘glitch-hop.’  Look for his work as “Adventure Time” though, as that was a VERY well done project.

Deodato (via sanpasquale)
- Deodato is in the same era and musical league as David Axelrod, Joe Bataan, Mizell Brothers, and Giorgio Moroder.  Learn.

…

Look up anything by (especially remixes by):

Cinematic Orchestra
Quantic

theCulprits present Hird & Yukimi Nagano @ Pink, 07/22/05

HIRD (DNM) & YUKIMI NAGANO (KOOP)
(live PA)
plus theCulprits Djs:
Hakobo – Fresco
Eug – PublicRelease
TokyoComponent – Codec

- Raised in Gothenburg Sweden by a family of musicians, Christoffer Berg (aka HIRD) is fast becoming the producer/musician to look out for. Already well established in Europe and finding home at the mighty DNM label, this will be HIRD’s first time in front of an SF audience. Joined by old friend Yukimi Nagano, who gathered much critical and popular acclaim from her vocals on Koop’s “SummerSun” and her latest work on HIRD’s “MovingOn” LP, this is sure to be an extremely special night.

HIRD

DNM: Dealers of Nordic Music

Koop – SummerSun feat. Yukimi Nagano (video)

…

I. can’t. believe. I. Missed. This.

Called Out Update:

Since the last time I blogged about this, the teams have been announced, flyers have been produced/spammed, and a trailer has been posted on youtube. It’s so on. Comments follow the listing.

TEAM 1
BIONIC (MACHINE GONE FOWNK | ROCKFORCE | SOUL SECTOR)
ODIE (FLO-OLOGY)
CHAZ (GROOVMEKANEX)
MAPPY (PHOENIX DANCE CO.)
SLIM (FUNKANOMETRY SF)
JUDEE (SICKS | SICKSYDE)
SHANNA (GEN TWO)

TEAM 2
JARDY (SOUL SECTOR)
JAYPEE (GROOVMEKANEX | ROCKFORCE)
LEE LEE (KHAMAI)
MILES (5150)
CHONG (UNKNOWN)
DANCER 6 (NAME NOT YET RELEASED)
WILDCARD (NAME NOT YET RELEASED)
…

The greatest single comment I have to make:

I’m surprised this Shanna is on Team 1. I don’t know enough about her individually, so to me, its a sudden shift in the ranks, as if I’m totally sleeping on the scene. And admittedly, I have been. Lets not try to big up her relationship to Bionic or anything, though, lest this become a tabloid. I just hope it will prove a testament to his influence. Or is it her influence on him?

In the end, there is an immense amount of talent in many of the dancers in the Bay, but what separates the CO competitors is their established presence, longevity, creativity, and discipline to the forms, with talent being merely a prerequisite. So its not a big deal about whether certain people got picked up for it. They just better prove they were worth my intrigue and therefore recognition. She’s really that dope? And I sat next to her and didn’t say anything.

Regarding distribution of members, in theory, I’d say its pretty effing even. Here’s how:
Team 1:
Bionic represents funkstyles and popping at the highest level, with Chaz probably being a stronger locker, while Odie solidly represents house/bboying as one of the best in the Bay. These three are prime examples and active practitioners of the foundation styles, whereas the rest utilize these styles as foundations with application in nuskool, with nuskool breaking down into hip hop freestyle and “studio.”

Slim reps bboy, Judee seems to rep bgirl, but both have solid choreography experience, each distinct, as shown by their crews; I think Slim has more pop influence, if we can call it that, while I don’t really know Judee enough to comment. But while they are on the bboy hip hop tip, Mappy and Shanna are on the studio hip hop tip. Personally, I think Mappy is the most well rounded of the group, with popping and house foundation leading to smoothed hip hop choreo. I have to assume that Shanna’s freestyle/foundations are developed (hooked with Bionic, come on).

Overall, there is plenty of foundation to root all of them together. Plus, these heads have danced together in some form already — Slim, Odie, Mappy, Bionic, Chaz — whether in circles, clubs, or in crews (Slim & Mappy, that I know of, and Bionic, Shanna, and Gen2 by association).

A group like this is a testament to the evolution of street dance. And I’m being real and sincere about that statement. The freestyle is going to be insane, that’s all I know. Straight EFFED up. It will truly be a pleasure to see all of them battle.

to be honest, because its so comprehensive. I can tell that Jardy and Jaypee are there to battle Bionic and Odie. Lee Lee and the secret heads MUST comprise the choreographed side (meaning the secret heads must be strong choreographers), or else Mappy, Shanna, and Judee have the edge.

I’m interested to see the GroovMekanex go head to head.

>> Pingmag, Tokyo based site on Design and Craft

Mitsukoshi’s Interaction Design experiment has proven interesting, especially when teaming with Hitachi for mobile device scanners. By allowing customers access to stock information, a retailer allows a customer to make more efficient use of their shopping time. And while the traditional state of ’sales’ and ‘business’ is believed to occur when the verbal conversation between customer and salesman is initiated, this is too idealistic a view than for such details as availability, cost, and variety. Servicing the customer to their best interest should always be the end goal.
…
Meanwhile, Tokyo Art Beat does it proper by letting everyone at home and abroad know about design and art life, which revolves around gigs, venues, and yes, jobs! Big ups.

Disclaimer: This post about the 2nd Plug Independent Music Awards was stuck in my drafts for two years because I felt it was a little too incisive and personal to post.  But right now I’m posting it because it was a damn good sentiment and well written at that.  We’ve come a long way since 2006 – networks are intermingling more intimately than a soggy night at the Transfer, and even the Grammies are saluting Hot Chip, Daft Punk, and the like now (motherfuckers aren’t even from the US…).  The following post serves as a marker of the times (and as proof that I was keen enough to point out the flaw of this award, and perhaps a little too selfish to help make it broader).

11/26/2006

So I’ve just been tipped on the PLUG Independent Music Awards, dedicated to — you guessed it — our fair and burgeoning scene of hipster cream, electro-folk nostalgia, rebellious Caucasian dreams. Supported by the oft self-effacing blogosphere, myspace, and massive multimedia festivals in dehydrated desert terrain. The two basic umbrellas: Music and Media, both of which are broken into ‘General’ and ‘Obsessive’ (clever indeed).

Familiar 2006/2005 winners include Bloc Party, Clap your Hands Say Yeah, Dangerdoom, Coachella, Wax Poetics. However, 2007 Nominees leave me puzzled; I am nearly clueless about many of these non hip hop/electronica names. And with an incredulous (and yet pitifully admissable) slap to the face of my electronic/dance/hip hop/deep-house/broken beat world, I realize how heavy indie rock/folk is held in the grand spectrum of a community that worships Coachella as its darling savior and Pitchfork as its godlike messenger.

[Sigh] Suffice to say that the breadth of musical knowledge shown by the PLUG Awards criminally ignores the efforts and evolution of independent (and largely electronic) soul, funk, jazz, broken beat, and deep house exhibited by Sonar Kollektiv, Ubiquity, BBE, Brownswood/Gilles, among others, including KCRW (up for best non-commercial station) and Wax Poetics (up for best Zine). Hasn’t it long been cliche to define Electronica/Dance with Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk, Crystal Method, Fischerspooner, Goldfrapp, Ladytron, etc? In my opinion, the bias is far too British and Northern European, while disappointingly deaf to German and even Japanese output. In some cases, when seen from the perspective that PLUG’s idea of ‘independent’ doesn’t include the artists that make it on KCRW and Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide (or only includes the big ones), then it would seem the bias is not British enough. On a related note, where the fuck is Red Bull Music Academy? That concept does more for music education than PLUG could ever aspire to.

The problem is that while the definition of independent music, heralded as “independently produced, marketed, consumed without major label support,” implies the exploration of new voices in music, it doesn’t account for the prevalence of independent production of traditional styles, nor does it cover the range of truly innovative non-techno rooted electronica. In straight up terms? Much of the electronica (as well as non-hip hop nominees) are Anglo/Aryan in development and subsequently consumed by these audiences, while much of jazz/soul and its electronic derivatives come from African/Latin roots, consumed by a more diverse audience. And while this is just a personal (historical) observation based on years of listening to music, studying its cultural contexts, and watching its branches of evolution, I have a suspicion it is very true, if even just from a socio-cultural-cognitive standpoint. The West has traditionally been a bastion of the mind, with the South and East revelling in spirit and soul. My suggestion is that PLUG’s nominations are musically limited because one realm of sound honestly does not hear the other.

You want examples? Breakestra produces the most authentic funk in the modern music scene to date, and is entirely independent of commercial labels; Quentin Harris, Masters at Work, Osunlade/Yoruba, the most deeply primal and soulful dance music; Vikter Duplaix, Dwele, King Britt, the most excruciatingly sensual and romantic.

And yet where is the recognition for these artists, let alone their disciplines? There isn’t any, because (I suspect, anyway) the indie set, powered by an eccentric youth devoid of an education in music’s roots, has not yet developed a broadly mature enough ear for beats like these. I said it: this shit is grown-up music and kids don’t have the soul for it. The closest that PLUG gets to the global (aka cultural) realm of music is Amp Fiddler and that was two years ago.

True, the indie kids get their roots from hip hop, no question, and they recognize 9th Wonder, Danger Mouse, Dilla, Madlib, and RJD2. The irony is that they don’t see where these men come from, what their sound has developed from, and how those original forms have evolved in the hands of SA-RA, Waajeed, Prefuse 73, Quantic, and 7 Samurai, to name a few mindblowing examples.

If independent music is about self-exploration, self-promotion, and self-preservation, then it should be a crime to leave out those whom innovate on a regular basis. Think about it: Rock, Folk/Americana, Punk, Hip Hop — these forms are more than 20 years old, and arguably didn’t even originate in the US. Jazz, Funk, Soul, rest in generations prior and parallel, and to include the former set and not the latter, would be inaccurate, inconclusive, and most of all, unjust. PLUG is an example of how independent music sleeps on itself.

The term “indie,” applied in its current context, (to me) refers more to the rock sound than hip hop, only including the latter in recent years when it was realized that hip hop hustled its shit into existence way before the dancerock-screamo set ever took to the stage. Rap and Hip Hop are the definition of “independent,” and lets not forget that. Moreover, we shouldn’t forget that many of the children of the first Hip Hop generations went and funneled their upbringing to create their own styles, their own channels, their own success.

Yo La Tengo “I am not afraid of you and I will Kick your Ass”

I’m interested in discussing these with anyone, because cmon.. Girl Talk? I honestly don’t see/hear it. DJ, sure, their mixes are complex and party happy–mashups aint easy. But artist of the year, what? If anything it’s a nice guide to dive into new music. I’ll slsk some/all of these, pass em on so we can do some real balanced voting. Takers?

Music Categories:
(General)
Album
(New/Male/Female) Artist
Indie Rock/Metal/Hip Hop/Americana/Punk/Dance-Electronica/DJ/Avant Album

(Obsessive) (and if you can accurately vote in all of these, you ARE)
Artist
Live Act
Song
Record Producer
Music Video
Album Art/Packaging
Record Label
Live Music Venue
Music Festival

Media:
Music Website
Music Blog
Magazine
College/Non-Comm
Record Store
Music DVD

(Obsessive):
Zine (small distro mag):
Specialty Show (Commercial Radio)
Podcast
Internet-only Radio Station
Online (Terrestrial counterpart) Radio Station
Online Record Store

First of all, Zion I & Grouch kick off their tour tonight at Slims.

…

>> Flavor Innovator

Spectacular design, Nam of FI has really caught my attention, insofar as graphics in a nightlife world are attention worthy. Even in our transient rituals of discarding gloss papers and backseating the rest, FI’s pieces tend to stay on the passenger seat or the desk for reference and reminder, thus effecting some credit and success for the events they market. Strongly graf influenced, the work is often reverential, clean, with a hint of [cue Gregorian choir hitting a high C]; further, the elements of paint splat and drip support the main images and type with a fresh and finite finish.

Rspkt:

…

>> Bboy Hodown (Houston, TX)

With site work done by Robot Agency, I hope this event’s execution is up to par to its concept and planning.

Straightforward and structured, BBHD is well organized because it:
1. Pays attention to a comprehensive foundation (Kool Herc, Cope2, Otrip, Jr. Boogaloo, Freshest Kids, Soul Sector) while looking ahead to new forms (Gamblerz, Saul Williams/Slam Poetry, Adam Mansbach)
2. The judges represent a bit more of a global view (FR, Can., Den.), with KR and Bay Area performing
3. Provides fairly diverse media of dialogue that isn’t often brought cohesively in one event (panel discussion, dance and graf battles, film screening, poetry slam, club event), with the non battle events in one day in subsequent timeslots. Plus, the panel includes what seems like a varied cast (incl. DJ/Historian/Pioneer and published writers, hopefully some of the older dancers as well). Discussions are more common these days and that’s a damn good thing.
4. Has good sponsorship (from the bboy set as well as Beat Riders) and importantly, a proper website/jump off.
5. Recognition for House as a prize battle style!

While looking for information on the 2007 Puma x Marcel Wanders collabo, I came across these oddly interesting looks:

Designtaxi

For all things design, branding, advertising, arts, and fashion, both for news and community (portfolio hosting). DT even outlines Puma’s primary and secondary campaign objectives a detail which, while not impossible to have due to press disclosure, is still appreciated.
…
D&AD Global Awards 2007

There are number of reputed ‘epitome’ organizations/publications and awards/annual reviews and sometimes I don’t know one from the other. However, UK collective D&AD’s breakdown into 3D; Ambient; Print & Editorial; Broadcast; Integrated; Branding; Direct; and Digital, coupled with the fundamental award criteria of
1) original and innovative idea;
2) execution of craft; and 3) relevance to context,
as well as their 2 Billion Pound non-profit investments, make it all a bit more interesting and credible. Further, their 2006 Pencil Winners are nothing short of spectacular. Plus, the Flash is nice.

Rspkt due to:

Cartlidge Levene

JWT Shanghai

Lowe London

Samsung

…
Photo Plus Expo

Touted as the largest foto and design expo. NYC. [shrug]
…
Rodarte

Two sisters, both Cal grads, went and started a dress line out of their fam’s SoCal cottage, apparently ripping the NYC set with some flave.
NY Mag: “The Look: Dresses dripping with the sort of sophistication expected from Paris, not Pasadena.”

And not being the total Met that I’ve recently called me out as, I’m drawn more by the Bay/Socal connection, coupled with the designer-cum-entreprenuer phenomenon. Designers Perish Makin Dollahz! Plus, the sisters are taking part in a fashion industry panel discussion at AAU on Thursday (which I was googling to see if I could sneak in).
Catwalk drippings: 2006 2007

I pretty much slept on letting people know about the recent Tarfest AF-TAR party held at A+D Museum (across from LACMA) in LA last weekend. Mark Rae (of Rae & Christian fame) was spinning out also, what a dope connect! I only just looked at the B/D mailer that publicized it, but after checking out Lee + Mundwiler online, I would have been interested in seeing their groundfloor ‘design.’ Curatorial things are always curious to me from a compositional point of view. Regardless, its no wonder that L+M won an AIA award for their ‘monster,’ the Coconut House.

>> Lee + Mundwiler

Urban Beach House
…

Yesterday I received a postcard from Juli staying in Taiwan. I suppose she was running around Bangkok looking for him-hers and she-males. She wrote saying that Thailand is the ‘champion of creative advertising,’ and that I would appreciate the creativity of the card despite missing the show. What a damn sweethaht.

Anyway, the postcard-flyer is for the latest volume in Bangkok Fashion Now & Tomorrow, a promotional magazine series produced by Bangkok Fashion City in the Ministry of Industry as the primary tool to bigup Bangkok as a player in the world fashion scene, leading up to their official Fashion Week. Initiated in August 2005, it has gained world attention.

The series has titles Scream (for high fashion), Street (for ready to wear), Spun (for textiles), Stone (for jewelry), and Skin (leather and footwear). I received the sixth and latest card, Speed, representing new talent and trends in fashion. 6 cards for the 6 main areas in their vision for fashion. Explanation here. In my opinion a well planned distribution to express their focus, coinciding with a visible growth illustrated by the time between Fashion Week 2005 to 2006.

The concept, mission, and aesthetic of the BFN&T book series is obviously top-notch. The production is highly detailed, culturally proud, and photographically aggressive, while the flash content is nothing less than intriguing. Game Recognize.

>> Bangkok Fashion Now & Tomorrow

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[Click here to skip this asinine copy and jump to the tracklist and files.]

I was googling for info on the Nelly Furtado cover of ‘Crazy’ (VT, you’re a goddess) and followed a lead on Cee-Lo’s The Heart Attack/Lovestink project with Plantlife’s Jack Splash (one of three left-coast, electronic-heavy, soul-funk-hip hop-derivative notables (sensations, if you’re enthused) of 2004/2005, which include Platinum Pied Pipers and Sa-Ra Creative Partners).

Meanwhile I’m searching for an old compilation by Nicola Conte featuring a surprisingly organic jazz-rinsed remix by Micatone (one of my favorite finds of the last year), and end up finding two other superb remixes by Tiefschwarz and Maurice Fulton. (Tiefschwarz gained notoriety with me when they remixed Kelis’ ‘Trick Me’ and ushered in the powerful and novel use of rhythmic (aka urbanized) female vocal with electro-prog sounding beats, seconded by Trentemoeller’s remix of Sharon Phillips’ ‘Want 2 Need 2′.)

Anyway, broken page on Pitchfork led me to track reviews, where Peter Macia writes like a mutherfucker with synth daggers in his back pocket, hallicinogenic machetes in his spit, and a scathing (and ultimately amusing) pity for emo-postpunk-jailbait the world over. Entertaining shit though:

“What ensues for the final two minutes is what Cobrasnake photos are made of: sweaty, blacked-out pogoing with boy-girls and girl-women wearing so many fucking pink bandanas you think you’ve died and gone to grit Valhalla.” cracks me up. Like I said, I’ve never gotten so hyped for dance-rock after reading a review, especially when I couldn’t tell whether it’s critical hubris decimated a track into its core hermaphroditic wrist limp or hid its disdain with the best fake praise this side of the AVN awards.

Instantly after finding the Lovestink track on slsk, I chatted with the source and he/she said he/she was feeling Switch (whom I’ve also noticed) and SebastiAn, who was coincidentally reviewed by Macia on that PF link above. This SebastiAn guy, on his Smoking Kills EP (“Produced by SebastiAn at home”, haha) is crazy. Hardcore electro style on ‘Dolami’. And so I copped ‘Ross Ross Ross’ as well. Of note are his remixes of Kelis’ ‘Bossy’ and Uffie, a barely legal girl from Miami who couldn’t sound any more like an American transplant in France, quoting Audio Two through a vocoder as if reading from Berenstein Bears. Luckily for us SebastiAn chops her vocals from an odd and perfectly (aka: oxymoronically) anunciated rap into a chunkily evolved tech-hoppish breakbeat loop.

[Aside: The problem with music blogs is that they often use free filesharing sites and these links either die or are complicated to get the actual file. So I got the Lovestink/Heart Attack tracks on slsk within 10 minutes. I'm sure if you searched the blogroll you'd find at least 30 others on the pop jock, linking to the same files or sites instead of hosting it themselves. Oh, like this entry, right?]

Interestingly enough, along with the Crazy cover, blogs also referenced ‘Maneater,’ either for the acoustic version also performed on the BBC Live Lounge show or for the contrast of new Nelly and old Nelly. After I took a listen to the studio version, I’m pretty keen on it. I found it immediately catchy, as catchy as Gnarls’ ‘Crazy,’ no joke, the chorus giving me that carefree head bob reminiscent of Pet Shop Boy’s London (the Westbam mix). It pulses the fem-power vein of ‘Hollaback Girl’ with the spunk of Lady Sovereign and MIA, like a soft, cuter version of Peaches and a near repeat of ‘My Hump.’ It has the makings of a FunkanometrySF anthem (if they’d only learn how to work a 4/4 beat that isn’t Daft Punk), even citing the enthral of a Bday declaration with the melodic sympathy of ‘I’m in Love with a Stripper.’ Or maybe I’m just excited to throw all these names into one description.

As I drown in its proclamation of that penultimate woman, I’m entirely reminded of the bgirl ‘Tsunami,’ whom I had a ‘run-in’ with down at Tokio (oddity: Tokio’s site music playing over the intro of SebastiAn’s ‘Dolami’ ain’t half bad.). I don’t see why upscale clubs like Roe in SF can’t throw down jams like this instead of tired ass late 90s club hits. At the very least, it would make me overlook their trainwrecks, $8 whiskeys, and Redwood sized Caucasians. I can only stay awake for so long during a Fat Man Scoop hype up, I swear.

Finally, after locating the most genuine of acoustic covers of Crazy by Ray Lamontagne, GvB again links me to Pitchfork (the dominating force in niche music blogging now) for an “exclusive” Teddybears remix ft Annie (because blogs as magazines have that clout), whose vocals sooth with the coolness of grapple soda (yee!) until it jacks a string of flaming chinese firecrackers stuffed with pop rocks into your inner ear (ok so I’m exaggerating, but you love the prospect).

I do like it best when a blog links to its own favorites and not just obligatory news. Hence the pleasant discovery of the softly distorted and introverted rock of Menomena. Has DJ Shadow been around here lately? Kidding. Coldplay then? Kidding again. But seriously I haven’t done this much blog-crawling since Winter when I dove in the developing incarnation of ‘mashup’ via Hollertronix, Diplo, Spankrock, Optimo, Lemon Jelly, and the White midwest’s fascination with Eurythmic’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ over David Banner’s ‘Play.’ Best digg of course was Three 6 Mafia’s ‘Stay Fly’ (cmon, track of the year!), whose intro > climax > fluorish, with faux choir, strings, and prodigious use of the vocal cut off made for a pleasing–if not reverent and hype–example of Southern krunk.

I’ll close out here. Final notes:

–Ed Banger is the new upstart label it seems, following in the good examples of Kompakt, Sonar Kollektiv, and even Stones Throw in having everything done in house with their own family of producers and vocalists. Like Kompakt, however, they’ll be relegated to a niche, namely the stuff that NYC/East Coast hipster cream seems made of.

–I was never an avid fan of Pitchfork but they have exceptional writers, at least, on the track reviews. Dombal (1 2) and Roque Strew to be exact (‘Futures’ really is one of the most sensually soothing downtempo tracks of 2006). Reminds me of a kid that worked with me at CPC. But of course, as a New London, Connecticut audiophile I met says of PF: “often the writers tend to really analyze the music, getting down to the most odd phrasing and word pairings that when you’ve gone and searched for the stuff, listened to it, it doesn’t even compare to the hype that these writers have meticulously curated for us readers.” Most important is that writers are still creative and not immune to engaging in imaginative semantic narcissism. Hey like what I did in this oversaturated imitation of a music blog. Enough links for you?

–After 2 hours and 15 songs tonight, I’m more satisfied than all the 2gigs over the weekend. This is what happens when a good digg session occcurs for me, regardless of its relevance to the world populace. In fact it very much could be a waste of time as it took me nearly as long to write this. I hope you’re happy.

Here’s the tracklist developed from this midnight sesh. dwblthnkradio in full effect.

Get files here: dwblthnkradio_091206_pt1 (1-8):

1. Nelly Furtado – Crazy (Live Lounge,BBC)

2. Micatone – Plastic Bags and Magazines (Tiefschwarz Remix)

3. nicola conte – Arabesque (Vocal version) (Micatone remix)

4. Micatone – Nomad (Maurice Fulton remix)

5. Sebastian – Dolami

6. Lovestink (Plantlife & Cee-Lo) – Gangsta Boogie

7. Nelly Furtado – Maneater

8. Depeche Mode – John The Revelator (Dave Is In The Disco Tiefschwarz Remix)

9. Sebastian – Ross Ross Ross

10. Justice – Waters Of Nazareth (Justice Remix)

Get files here: Pt 2 (11-18):

11. Teddybears ft Annie – Yours to Keep Remix

12. Filterfunk – SOS (message in the bottle) (Delano and Crockett remix)

13. New Order – Regret (Tocadisco Remix)

14. Menomena – E is Stable

15. The Heart Attack – Right Now

16. Ray Lamontagne – Crazy

17. Menomena – Shirt

18. Pet shop boys – Sodom (trentemoller remix)

Extra: Kelis – Bossy (SebastiAn Remix)