I picked up New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War),the new album by Erykah Badu, the other day and I am really feeling it. I’ve had the 12″ for “Honey” for a while now, and while I love it (especially the video, it’s like she made it just for vinyl heads!) it was definitely more…

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The ISM Mix Machine has been in high gear all year, and today we hit you with yet another dope selection. This one is by our man Richard Carnage over at the TAPE blog, whose coverage of techno, house and nu-disco (check their detailed “Top 100(!) of 2007” post!) make them a favorite of mine…

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The idea for this mix has been floating around inside my head for a good long while now. I wanted to have something more akin to a mixtape than a deejay mix for bedroom purposes, both sleeping and otherwise. Don’t expect much in the way of mixing, I mostly just segued between jams in the…

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I know everyone has heard about it by now, but the auction for the stock from Record Rama (a Pittsburgh area record shop/personal collection) just ended today. I love records, but to be honest, I don’t love them that much. I take great pride in knowing basically every single record I own, to have that…

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Man, life has been crazy the past month or so. School has been killing me, Pittsburgh has had some fantastically awesome bad weather (which I would actually like if I could miss school ever and have that be alright), and the record store I work at just moved locations which meant much heavy lifting and…

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Here we go with the ISM exclusive second installment of Noleian Reusse’s Black Tekno mix. This mix was recorded live in January, and it features more of the same kind of stuff that made Vol. 1 so popular. Noleian has politely declined the requests for a tracklist (he kicks it old school like that), but…

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Mathematics Recordings has been busy the last few years issuing new material from some of the old school Chicago house originators, remixing and reissuing classic jams, and banging out some new jacking tunes by current Chicago cats. One of those new producers is Noleian Reusse, who releases tunes on Mathematics and Crème Organization with Jamal…

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It’s been a while since I talked about new records on here, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been getting plenty of them! In actuality, I’ve been getting a bunch of nice things and just haven’t been writing about them due to my temporary craziness (which has been eradicated by my decision not to write…

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Ron Murphy, the mastering engineer at NSC and a true legend in Detroit techno and house passed away today. A message posted by Mike Grant to the 313@hyperreal.org e-mail list this evening said this: It is with a heavy heart and great regret that I announce the passing of Ron Murphy. I was called with…

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Word on the street is that Syntax Music, a longtime dance distributor in the US, is going under. This is of course in addition to the closing of Watts and Nemesis over the past few years. Anyone who spent lots of time in dance record shops in the 90’s and 00’s should know these names,…

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The cats over at the TAPE blog asked me to do a guest mix a little while back showcasing US house and techno artists. It took a couple tries to get it right, but I like the way it turned out. Check out the post with my commentary here, where you can also find the…

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For me, 2007 ends about three blocks from where it began. Fortunately, those three blocks were the three blocks to the ocean. Looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the ocean right fucking there is what’s up. Big ups to the Baltimore crew for the hookup, it’s always a good time chilling with those…

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In an interesting turn of events, the form of techno that used to irritate me in its ubiquitousness has also been eclipsed by the mnml fad. The ADATT technique (“all drums all the time”) of the hard techno scene has been replaced with the more urbane but no less limited in scope mnml. Hard techno…

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The links sections here at ISM is meant to act as a dependable place to find MP3s, interviews, blog posts, and basically any good resource for music and record related sites. Every blog that is on there is in my personal reader, so that is the highest reccomendation I can give (and let me just…

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AKA “The Pen Is Truly Mightier Than The Sword.” Whichever Batman quote you prefer. One of the reasons behind the inception of ISM was the lack of coverage this music received in the dance press. XLR8R went hipster, Straight No Chaser went out of business, blogs were overwhelmingly about mnml and electrohouse, and the big…

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I mentioned Trevor Combee as one of the inspirations for my recent “Now THAT’S What I Call Techno” mix, but really he is as responsible for the music i listen to now as anyone else. Trevor owned and operated HyperVinyl Records in Pittsburgh starting back in 1997 and later started the label of the same…

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In the continuing tradition of trying to post some things while being hectic with holidays and the end of the school semester, I have a few reccomendations for various media that have helped me keep my wits about me…. First up is a nice deephouse mix by the man like Rick Hopkins, one of the…

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Today my wife and I attended the wedding of a friend of hers who lives in Akron, Ohio. I’ve had the displeasure of deejaying there in the past and let’s just say that it is not exactly a bastion of great dance music (although this was really my first time there in the daylight and…

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Two of techno’s biggest icons are currently featured in a couple high profile magazines, and the differences between them highlight a divide that occured in techno music that seems to be more relevent now than ever before.

So, it has been a hot minute since our last post. It is that time of year when school gets insane in the run up to finals and it is killing me yet again. For fun, the lab report that my lab partner and I had spent at least 15 hours on over the last…

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