Four drummers and one cosmic space explorer produced this rhythm in 1970. Each drummer focused on a single element of the drum kit. Percussion heavy fusion, but a beloved sample resource for 4 on the floor lovers everywhere.

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I have no idea what happens on a PC.

Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Boogie Back

A slow and dirty jam from the Roy Ayers Ubiquity album Change Up the Groove. Laid down in 1974 by drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdy. The shuffle can be lifted and used in a different manner, or looped as a polyrhythm alone. The kick, hat and snare are priceless resources and sound exquisite.

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I have no idea what happens on a PC.

Bobby Byrd – Hot Pants

Produced by James Brown in 1971, Hot Pants became a James Brown Classic. Bobby was the original bandleader of the famous flames, and remained James Brown’s partner and friend for many years. This loop has been sampled, used, abused and demolished by everyone from Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, to Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock. Presented here from vinyl, in it’s original pitch and time.

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I have no idea what happens on a PC.

Incredible Bongo Band – The Apache

Originally released in 1973 at track 6 on the album Bongo Rock, the Apache loop was lifted, shifted, time stretched, chopped sliced, diced and demolished by everyone from Grandmaster Flash to yours truly…

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I have no idea what happens on a PC.

The Winstons – Amen Brother

Performed by G.C. Coleman, Amen, Brother was the b-side of the Winstons’ 1969 hit Color Him Father, which won a Grammy as R&B song of the year. The break then slipped into history as a forgotten break. Revived in the 80’s and again in the 90’s, this loop single handedly drove hip hop harder, moved the rave higher, and literally invented acid jazz, break beat, and drum and bass.

amen brother
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I have no idea what happens on a PC.

Further Resources:

There’s a fantastic piece on this loop produced by Nate Harrison

Download 40 unique variations of the Amen Break (only for the headstrong.)

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I’ve been having some serious trouble with my midi control surfaces in Traktor DJ Studio 3. For about a year now I’ve been packing up one little bag with my laptop, the m-audio Conectiv interface, an X-Session Pro DJ style control surface, a Mic, and a Boss DD-20 foot pedal delay unit and having a blast mixing digitally in some of the finest clubs in the world.

M-audio are not known for their quality products, and I knew that going into this. I bought devices which did not need drivers, and could easily and quickly be replaced. It was, this digital DJ thing, simply an experiment and nothing more. I fully expected to hate it, and return to vinyl and occasionally CD’s immediately. Much to my surprise I have had more fun mixing music, relooping, dubbing on the fly, re editing in the mix, and going pretty well insane with all that can be done to a 320kbps mp3 file in front of beautiful dancing people.

I noticed the faders begin to go on the X-Session Pro. The pitch slider began to become a little shakey, and the cross fader crapped out entirely, but I went with it. I accepted that this under $100 USD piece of plastic wasn’t meant to last, and I was having fun, so it was ok. Until last sunday night.

I was mixing my weekly radio show, Sunday Soul, and it was going nicely. Suddenly I lost control of Traktor. The pitch slider seemed to awaken and I was no longer able to control it. I bungled a couple of mixes, tried to stay with it, but eventualy pulled the USB cable out of my laptop and tried to complete the broadcast using the trackpad only. This was unacceptable mainly because with a control surface the DJ can touch many things at once and really mix, but with the trackpad, and pointer we are limited to one operation at a time.

I reset the device, restarted the computer, and managed to mix fairly painlessly for my Pacific broadcast of the show. I like a little difficulty to keep me on my toes, and this one had me reaching for the ceiling like Emma Livry on opening night.

The next afternoon I called m-audio and sat on hold with them for hours hoping to find out that there was something I could do to repair the device. After three or four two hour + waits, I still hadn’t spoken to anyone. Again, I knew I was in for the shaft when I went with M-audio in the first place, so it was no big deal. I searched google and came up with how to reset your X-Session Pro to factory default settings. Splendid. Well, sort of.

Resetting the until seemed to introduce a host of new problems:

1. The faulty faders were still faulty.

Even if you can reset your device, a funky fader is still funky. So no crossfader, and the pitch slider is still janky, and the volume slider for channel B wouldn’t reach 0.. it was awake and hovering around 10.

2. The buttons are no longer immediate.

After the restoration, buttons which demand crucial timing like “start” and “loop,” required double clicking to make them work. This was entirely unacceptable.

To try to fix this, I went into Traktor’s midi control settings and wiped them out. I began again. I re wrote the entire settings file for every control on the X-Session Pro and the results were exactly the same.

I trashed the midi settings for Traktor and re wrote the settings file again. Same result.

Finally I tried to use a completely different controller. I connected my Novtion ReMote SL (which I don’t like very much either actually) and began some simple testing. At first it worked quickly, and without issue. But soon, as I added more and more controllers to the midi setup file within Traktor we were back to double clicking, and sluggish response. I’ve been looking with lust at the Vestax VCM-100 and VCI-100 interfaces for Traktor and I may still go this way eventually, but after a couple of days of trying to simply exact basic operations from a control surface with Traktor (and I am a little obsessive, so you know they were 18 hour days) I was fed up.

Finally I had to do something. I am working on several mixes right now and needed the process I have chosen to DJ with…

So I simply set the audio setup to External Mixer, connected the two pair of RCA outs from the Conectiv into my Allen + Heath XONE:92, connected up all my other items (delay unit, headphones, mic, etc.) and returned to my beloved DJ console.

What I found was that this beautiful, elegant DJ mixer is once again the love of my life. I can’t believe I actually forgot how amazing it is to use, how beautifully it sounds, and how much fun the filters can be, and the ability to effect each channel as well as my vocals, all from the center of my DJ booth is simply amazing.

I am again, inspired, and delighted with the results of completely abandoning the use of a control surface.

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Essentially the bad news about Traktor is that you simply can’t return the external audio into the system for recording, or broadcasting when you want to send the audio out of your computer into a real world situation.

This can be because you want to use an external mixer instead of the internal (virtual) mixer, or because you want to bring audio into tractor via the external mixer.

This was confusing to me because I can route turntables, CD Decks, and other sources into Traktor by connecting them to the Conectiv interface, and switching between A and B using the big rotary knobs on the front of the Conectiv interface. Simply connecting rca cables between my turntables, and the interface, and choosing line, mic, or phono on the input source selector makes this totally simple to do.

But you can’t return the main mix from an external mixer. It simply isn’t something which Conectiv does.

I had a lot of trouble with this because I couldn’t work out if it was the software, the hardware, the driver, or me just being stupid. In the end, it is a severely short sighted limitation to the Conectiv interface and Traktor’s input and output routing scheme.

Here’s the work around:

The diagram above is a little too small to really make much use of, here’s a full size image you can use to better see the illustration.

Using a simple audio input device, I am using Griffen’s iMic interface, I can simply return the main mixer’s output from the mixer itself, in my case, the Allen and Heath XONE:92, back into the computer for recording, or broadcasting or both.

I broadcast using NiceCast, and so I grab the returning stream from the input device (iMic) and create my broacast archive within this application.

Thus, I am lightening the load on Traktor, and can continue to archive (record) the program even in the unlikely event that Traktor unexpectedly quits on me. NiceCast will just keep on archiving until I ask it to stop.

Results:

I am now able to include vinyl, Cd’s, external effects, and a mic into my DJ sets. I could do this before, but it was a live only situation. There was no way to return the audio back into Traktor for broadcasting or recording internally.

Using this method, detailed above in the diagram, it’s simple, and it works.

Tonight’s Sunday Soul program will be my debut using this technique, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Hope this illuminates and assists anyone who might have been stuck like I was…

love,
s.

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First some history:

My first experiences with “underground” parties go all the way back to the 1970’s. Punk rock had no home apart from a precious few clubs in San Francisco. To list them makes it sound like a lot, but for the most part you had to be 18 in those days to get in. I was only 12, and that made things difficult. Until Paul Rat and a few other people opened off site venues where age wasn’t exactly the criteria. The people’s temple (church of Jim Jones,) Rat’s palace, the hell hole, the a hole, and for a few years, a continually rotating sort of warehouse, or storefront type of club rose up out of the lack of places to play and go. Of those, only the tool and die really lasted for more than a summer. But they were dark, dodgy, and a lot of fun. By the 1980’s much of the creativity put into finding places to have these new musical experiences had run dry. Not that the shows didn’t improve with more established and varied venues, because in some ways they did, but the freshness of an odd space, in a neighborhood you didn’t know, where a few hundred punks would descend at about 10 o’clock and trash the place was magic.

In the early 80’s I went with a friend to a garage in the western addition to hear “some music.” I had no idea what I was in for, but what I found was a 4 car garage packed with rastas going crazy to a local reggae band. It didn’t get started until midnight, and wasn’t over until almost sunrise. The cops never came, the music was mind opening, and i danced beside a tall, thin dread who was swirling his beautiful loks in all directions all night without stopping, clapping his hands, singing along. I was changed, shifted in a new way from this experience. I went back every week until they stopped doing it, got my first taste of plantain there, and knew in my heart that i’d been traveling the wrong road up until now (during this time i removed my sid vicious swastika t-shirt and never wore it again.)

Shortly afterward, a series of parties called ANON parties began to happen. They were art student get togethers, where tiny little flyers would be handed out on your way out of one party, with information on how to get to the next party. Never clear, always cryptic, getting the invitation to the next party was like being in a secret club. The parties themselves were mainly gay, and new romantic-like. The few post punks who attended them at the beginning would burn incense, and practice their terrible dancing to the electro, rap and motown being played. These parties were held in old discotheques, cultural centers, and many of the same places early punk shows were held. The will to create a space, and design the idea of an evening was almost the most important part of the party itself. Like punk rock before it, these parties grew quickly in popularity, and soon the magic was lost. They chose permanent locations, and as the 80’s got going, the music changed from post disco, post punk into more of a new wave sound.

The in-between years were filled with various types of events that tried to embrace fashion, design, modern music, and vice. The party SEX from southern california was interesting, as were the pajama parties at 55 natoma, the Glashaus organization tried to accelerate the idea of the anon parties to a haute couture/fine art level, where Ira, an actual collaborator in the original anon parties opened a permanent location at 1015 folsom and gave opening up a full fledged night club a try. Some of these pushed the limits of all decency, and ended up as a dark room full of strangers having sex while Mantronix played through the lousy sound system, others were less exciting and either never got going, or didn’t last long.

Finally rave happened. Similar to the anon idea, where map points, and off site locations were used exclusively in the beginning, the rave was something else. less about any one element, and more about the entire experience. You know the history of rave, and there’s no point in my laying it out here.

Core values:

I don’t think the actual details of any of these parties are essential to my point here. The music, the intention, or even the outcome per se. What seems to be the common thread of this micro histoir is that during times of friction, or boredom, someone got an idea and decided to take it to the people. the people liked the idea, and went along with it. The craft seemed to be more a matter of gathering people from the margins, and bringing them together in a fresh space where they were free to do their thing.

For some this was sex in the dark, for others it was radical dress up, and for others it was about a departure from what had come before. But in each case, it was the commitment to makeup, crazy hair, buckle boots, and undertaking the difficult task of locating the party itself that gave it an air of danger and excitement.

Most of my peers and I knew heading into this decade that we were in for ten years of a re hashing of the last 50 years of music. We felt, collectively, as the decade of the 1990’s closed that this was the end of something. Not for sentimental reasons, but because 15 years is a long time for anything to stay new, underground, and continue to reinvent itself with any degree of fury. We had, in the united states succeeded in avoiding the pitfalls of the mainstream, but in so doing we had also succeeded in avoiding the incomes of the mainstream. Now approaching 30 (or older) a different set of needs, and aspirations began to set in. Reality alone is enough to diffuse this energy.

So where is the magic?

Outline for something new:

The premise here stems from the notion that there’s really nothing healthy in fighting the flow of the people. Unless you see a gaping hole to fill in the cultural landscape, the uphill battle of insisting that a deep house night of emotionalism and drums is going to be it for you no matter what, that’s where you are going to stop, is exhausting and unrealistic.

However, we have learned so much over the last 15 years or more that it’s sad to waste these lessons on rehashing the past in the same old way on a new generation, or worse, enduring the law of diminishing returns as you sadly watch your great idea hemorrhage old friends who love you, and love the music, but just can’t make it out anymore.

Embrace the future:

The trends of the moment are decidedly rehashes of the 80’s. Rock is struggling to make a beck-like come back, dance is still something people want to do, oldies only go so far, and the combinations of drum and bass, 2 step, and even house with the vintage low fidelity music of the past may have a degree of novelty for a moment, but as we learned from electronic music, this fancy is a passing and transient thing. It soon fades, and the next combination is embraced.

That said, if something new is coming from the past, then why await the invention? Why not open your laboratories to experimentation today? Begin to explore the sounds, production techniques, and applications of what might be the logical step in the new music?

I suggest that to begin with a seamless hybrid of the music from the past, currently in vogue, and the concept of beat matching and music mixing.

Embrace the past

I say embrace the fascination with the past. Exploit it. Encourage dress up, play, and environment. With this new musical hybrid that has only the basic rules of house, and the content of anything from computer music to pop music as its sample source, set out into a new location, paint the walls bright pink, and in rude boy caps, bright white hair, yellow eye liner, and plastic bags for your disco dress, invent the new art object. Be a situationist, and deplore the ordinary.

There are any number of interpretations, here is one of them…

Apply the theory:

Create a series of events. Never have them in the same place twice. Theme them by year, or by era. Collect a dedicated crew who are 100% into this concept. Be that era on the night. The music is strict, and while beat matched and produced by you and your crew, it is restricted only by the criteria for the event itself.

An example:

Party:

1979

Atmosphere:

Take on a Post punk/Reggae’s rise theme.

Code:

all staff will wear rasta caps and rude boy hats (buffalo style) with mirrored cop sunglasses. Stove pipe jeans and bright t-shirts for men, buffalo skirts, and pile up head wraps for women.

Music:

the music will be restricted to reggae, post punk, and the sound of ‘79. This music can be played from the source material (not recommended) or re edited and mixed as if it were house music (highly recommended.)

Emphasis:

A strong political, protest, and theme of awareness is needed. Leaflets, preachers, and ministers are essential to provide this street corner rally feeling.

Vice:

the spliff, quaaludes, reds, beer. Definitely a downer night.

Physical Environment:

the banner behind the DJ should be the entire wall if possible, a crude spray painted stencil of the RAR logo (rock against racism.) the colors should be red and black, some yellow is ok too. Lighting should be dim at best, and lit by way of the vintage par can strictly. Think red, always red. When in doubt, paint it red.

The criteria for the night is not to present a fancy dress party, rather a theme. You shouldn’t forget that by design you are doing something new. This is a synthesis. Theme participants are rewarded. Those who come in the dress of the night are rewarded with easy entry, or even free entry. Those who do not wait in line. Anyone who demonstrates real creativity and takes the theme seriously, perhaps makes it their own and goes way over the top is celebrated, brought to the front of the line, given a free quaalude.

Finally, have your next party’s manifesto prepared on the night. Hand out the information to the people as they leave in the morning. Do not flyer the town. Do not give them to the apologetic types who leave early. Wait until the end, and only advise those who were in it to win it.

This is just one idea. there are so many possible combinations including this diy, secret, amalgamate theory of gathering and building.

Take it, make it your own. And I’ll see you in the next phase of our development.

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As someone who has decidedly side stepped his local community in favor of mental health and emotional ballance in recent years, I see and hear most everyone I have known and loved over the past 10-15 years finding themselves lost with one degree of happiness or another. So I very much to catalog the points I have acquired on the subject of what we did right, and what works for the benefit of those who may wish to continue, or wash up and try something new.

There’s no point in regret, or sloshing about in the quagmire of what used to be. The past is gone. Let it go.

In talking with a dear friend last night he said he had been walking a path for a very long time and finally came to the end of it. I asked him what he will do now, at the end of this path? He said he wasn’t quite sure, but in a way he found it liberating. I understood and suggested he climb a tree and survey the landscape. We laughed… and then smiled because neither of us had thought of it that way before.

Suggestions for what actually works:
1. Have a tight group of friends who create the party, and make the music at it.
2. Don’t have guest DJ’s (famous or locals.)
3. Think small, humble, and honest.
4. Stick together, no matter what.
5. Have dinner together before the party.
6. Be yourself, try not to play other people’s records, develop your own sound.
7. Never talk shit about eachother. Be quick to ask the person doing so to “please shut the fuck up right now.” as soon as you can.
8. Love the music you are playing.
9. Evaluate your success based on how well you moved the dance floor (however small) and how effectively you communicated what it is you have to say.
10. Don’t rely on your friends to populate your night.
11. Let your audience fall in love with your music.
12. Try not to let your audience know you too personally (a little mystery is a very good thing, and it’s disappointing when they find out how boring a dj really is.)
13. Keep the door charge under $20, but keep it over $5.
14. If there’s no door at the party, then there really shouldn’t be a “door charge”
15. Loose lips sink ships (faster than you think)
16. Carry your own speakers
17. Make your own flyers
18. Never promote your party at someone else’s party
19. Try not to be mad, or hurt when someone wants to do what you’re doing so badly that they book your co conspirators on the same night as your party, and they take the gig. Everyone wants to spin well, and be more productive. Celebrate their success, refocus your energy on your own party.
20. Tip the bar staff and the door person.
21. If you use a 3rd party sound company, pay them first. Split what’s left.
22. Every three weeks or so, with a degree of irregularity and surprise is much better than every week, every other week, or even every month.
23. Celebrate what you have.
24. Nevermind what you don’t have.
25. Never give up: move the party, rename the party, keep trying different things.
26. Do it yourself
27. Don’t forget to say thank you.

These virtues have gone into creating the most wonderful parties I have ever been involved in. Whenever and wherever I have let any of them slide, even with a new person, or an excited group of people who really want to help it has all fallen apart.

That said, we arrive back at the begining… Nothing lasts forever. What’s done is done. And when it’s time to pack up and move on… Well, you better just pack up and move on.

Hope that helps.

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I can’t agree with anyone more wholeheartedly than Ms. Goldman. And yet, in giving this some serious thought I have to examine myself, and inspect my lazy mind’s desire to point fingers, spout platitudes, generalities, and essentially make everyone else the cause of my problems. With a mind like this, how in the world will I ever amount to anything more than a capitalist pig?

Human nature, it seems to those who acknowledge the existence of human nature and consider it a substantial influence within any given society, seems to be a natural advocate against clear thinking, right action, and liberty. That’s a mouth full isn’t it? Well think it through, as I am currently attempting to do, come with me for a minute.

My hopes and dreams and desires would have me free, working hard on meaningful causes, doing good work, and working for change in the world. I would use all of my skill set, music, art, writing, communication, and organization to bring a better life to everyone (or, anyone who was interested.) I have a lion’s heart, and my appetite for political, social, intellectual, and spiritual things is insatiable.. I make little time for the mundane, quickly shuffle off all hassles, and oppression, strive to keep my mind free of worry, fear, doubt, and the neurotic types of self reflection which can so easily occupy the human mind completely, thus removing all capacity to actually be effective.

I do this by treating the symptoms of my mental shortcomings. this means that I “trust my heart” or use my emotions as the guide to my self-repair. While there’s nothing more tedious that an emotional pulse taker am I ok? am I ok now? ok, now am I ok? oh my god I’m not ok! in order to be present, and honest with myself regular, and orderly periods of reflection and meditation are essential.

For example, it’s easy for me to go off on a spending spree. I have, more than once, felt myself a little down in the dumps. Without serious reflection I begin to snack a lot, or drink more coffee than is healthy. Quickly I become irritable, and simply can’t work. Then I realize that I haven’t attended to my shopping, and instead of calming myself, or investigating what I’m actually thinking, feeling, or doing, I am magically transported to some electronics, art supply, or hardware store where I’m grabbing at things which seem affordable, and are valid parts of potential projects. Perhaps this begins with buying milk, or fruit. Perhaps it is practical at first. Perhaps… But it always seems to end with me broke, considerably more irritable, and feeling pretty bad about myself for putting all my hopes onto objects.

What’s really the problem here? Am I an idiot? Am I a lazy, selfish fool? Do you see? That’s the self abuse as a means of placation in action baby Am I a victim of the human condition? No. None of these things are true. I have treated the symptoms of my condition, and not paused for a moment to consider the actual cause. But what’s the actual cause? And who are you to be telling me anything about what to do after all that shameless behavior you just copped to?

There are many rules of thumb, handy guides, and helpful tips on how to live a more practical life. It’s been said often that it is far easier for a creative mind to tighten up than it is for an unreasonably uptight mind to loosen up, but that’s usually been said by people with extremely uptight minds, and so I’m sure it’s not true. We are all at a relative disadvantage in my opinion, and our nature has a way of overcompensating for itself, which may be a potential cure for our cause, but in the end seems to do little more than produce the same effect (in force, or in reverse, it almost doesn’t matter.)

Guides like Time management for Anarchists are amusing and fun. but if you’re anything like me, either your mind has wandered off and you are again thinking negatively before you’re half way through the article Oh God! Not this article? or you are in the other room by the time the flash movie is done playing. Perhaps worst of all are the many books bought in hopes of taking the time to undertake the self-improvement suggested, only to grow bored and set the book on the shelf where it serves as a beacon of shame until you put it out of sight somewhere. Last of the great efforts are the ones begun, and then abandoned. woe is the flabby mind of the ordinary human being.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. If you can relate to what I’m talking about then you are in excellent company. I’ve found some degree of effective growth has come from serious reflection and meditation. Yes, I meditate in the morning and in the evening and throughout the day I am willing (at least) to reflect in any moment and strive to accept myself as I am, in a moment, while I am being that way. So rather than “improve” myself, which suggests that I am bad or somehow imperfect or less than other people, I practically seek to accept myself. Now I’m no buddhist, I don’t believe for a moment that the injustice of the world is something to lay down and accept like a tank crushing my torso, I believe in proactive, and assertive revolt. I want the world to break free of oppression, domination, and self destructive forces, popular as they are.

Now that’s all well and good, and awesome, and neat-o and everything, but doesn’t this begin with me? As soon as I say that my brain screams “Oh Noooo! Dude!” Not because it’s unthinkable that I might have to change, of course I have to change, but because nearly 100% of the people I have considered my comrades throughout my development and experience as a man in the world have, at one time or another said something like “You know…” and sadly it always starts off with a long, breathy, and quite whiney you know… “I can’t really do anything about that right now…” Here you can see the brain of the speaker searching their resources to recall the encouragement of their therapists, and remember the exact words she told them to say “I need to work on me first.” Well, the work we do on ourselves is never done. Thus, the comrade has departed from the cause, and it’s over. Nothing I have ever been able to do or say, or which has been said to me, or done to me, has re ignited the flames of movement. These are the last words, parting comments, the end.

And so what of dance, liberty, relaxation, celebration? If the work we must do on ourselves never ends, and preaching to choir is not an effective means of maintaining one’s self discipline, and shopping sprees only seem to serve as self-destruction, then isn’t opting out and stopping for a non-fat, decaf mochachino the only logical conclusion?

I say that if your cause is so oppressive that you have no room to dance, then you may want to pack up your ballet slippers and head west. I’ll be at ocean beach on warm evenings in time for sunset, I’ll be at the cafe table, writing, smoking, laughing and talking with friends, I’ll be walking down the street with a song cluttering my head, and hanging out in the park feeling the sun on my face. West is where it’s at. Sure, sure… but what of my cognitive distortions? And what about yours?

Let’s talk about them, shall we? Let’s admit them first, and then watch for them with love, like beauty or distant balloons in the cloudless sky. Let’s live effective lives of joy and leave the quiet desperation to the capitalist dogs, shall we?

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