Speaking of stuff for RA, my profile on Still Music has been up since yesterday without my realizing it! Still has released some absolute belters, and Jerome is a hell of a dude (and a hell of a deejay as well). Check out that mix he did for the piece of all Still releases, it…

Read the full post →

The last month or so has been a real blur for me. After spending two straight weeks on the beach in (beautiful!) Corolla, NC, I had only one week before school started up for the semester yesterday. This meant that I was nearly completely isolated from music for a couple weeks, which means that I…

Read the full post →

Count Zer0 is one of my boys from back in the pb-cle-raves heyday, we even deejayed 2-step and related shit together for a while back in 00-02. We link to his blog and you may recognize him from the comments section here at ISM as well. Now he is throwing his hat in the ring…

Read the full post →

This one is not a new mix, but one that I have been enjoying so much for two years that I felt it needed to be out there again. Even though they hail from New York City and not Chicago, Drrtyhaze nail the 80’s classic jacking vibe perfectly. From the more obvious classics to some…

Read the full post →

Digging around for a Sun-Ra CD case last night (which I never fucking found!), I happened upon the book that got me thinking about the idea of zen and deejaying a few years back. Entitled “The Unfettered Mind, it was lent to me by my man Chris Schubert who is a big fan of the…

Read the full post →

Summer is starting to get to me, I think. The heat and humidity are beginning to get unbearable, my allergies are giving me a constant sinus headache, and I get to do fun things like go to court tomorrow at 8:30 AM for the trial of the prick who burglarized my house last fall. Hopefully…

Read the full post →

Photo by Nick Gutterbreakz Mr. Carnage (that sounds like a good name for a super-villain!) from ye olde TAPE blog has blessed us here at ISM with yet another sweet guest mix. This one kicks off with a remix of a song that I love very much and continues through slow, hazy, melodic techno and…

Read the full post →

In an interesting parallel to Theo’s comments, my wife sent me this link just now. I for one cannot believe it has been 20 years. The really depressing part is to think of how far black musical artists came in the 20 years preceding that album which surely has to be a pinnacle of political…

Read the full post →

Having not one but two dancey gigs in the same weekend was pretty nice, especially since the past bunch of sets I have played were more like bars where I was playing lots of other types of records. I got to trot out a bunch of different things that I had either never played before,…

Read the full post →

Moodmat dropped what they are calling a “one question interview” with Theo Parrish, and of course he has some interesting things to say about the question of race and gender in dance music. It annoys me to no end that they are not allowing comments on such a piece of writing As per Theo’s request,…

Read the full post →

Scott came through with one of the more eclectic and odd mixes we have had here at ISM for his first guest mix, so you know he had to come even crazier for the second one. And he did. What I find interesting about this one is that he manages to take a bunch of…

Read the full post →

I am still not sure how I feel about Ableton sets in general. I have heard a few good ones, and many bad ones. This one is a little more like a standard deejay set in that the songs aren’t edited/looped into nothingness so it works well for me. Less is more. You can even…

Read the full post →

I have had a couple good days at the local digging spot in the last week or so. First up was the day I found the record pictured above, Mach’s “On And On”, one of the records that was somehow involved in the birth of house music. Check the discogs link for a short version…

Read the full post →

Honestly, I almost feel guilty writing these but sometimes this is what is called for. First up, next week is the debut of the new monthly event I am doing with my man Eric Justin, No Way Back: Brought to you by this here blog and Pittsburgh House Underground, No Way Back will be taking…

Read the full post →

It truly pains me to say it, but Planet E has almost completely fallen off. I only realized just now how many releases I have skipped buying (all of the Saunderson rmxs, Attias, Sebastian San, Jona, the new Buttrich record, and even the underwhelming Kenny Larkin 12″) or regretted buying (Lazy Fat People, first Buttrich…

Read the full post →

You too can join in the fun of tearing down the only true myth present in any of the posts: the idea that Detroit is not the birthplace of techno. Read the mnml ssgs guys’ posts here and here, and then my part here. This is exactly the kind of weird revisionism that is perpetrated…

Read the full post →

I haven’t been giving very consistent reports on my local digging, not for any good reason either. This past weekend though, I had a really nice selection of records so here goes a little round up of those as well as some new things doing the rounds:

I’ve been lazy about doing basically anything for the past week, lazy enough that I almost feel bad about it. The doctor checked out my knee the other day, he said I likely have a slightly torn meniscus that shouldn’t need operated on unless it gives me great pain and irritation, which it hasn’t for…

Read the full post →

Has it really been since February that I did a mix myself? School was keeping me from getting anything done, and since school ended I attempted but trashcanned a few mixes that just didn’t capture what I was going for properly. Yesterday, I finally got it right. This one is for the Trackwerk blog, to…

Read the full post →