Specter is, like Rick Wilhite whom I wrote about just a few weeks ago, one of these underground cats who is a brilliant DJ and producer but not known for releasing a high volume of music. Even a full solo single by Specter would be cause for celebration, but what we have here in Built…

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Rick at his shop Vibes in Detroit, April 2008 I’m going to save the whole story for a forthcoming “Record Store Memories” post, but I first met Rick Wilhite in person at his shop Vibes all the way back in May 2004. Ever since that day he has been one of the biggest inspirations for…

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Big Strick, Teflon Dons, Jay Simon, Generation Next, Pipecock, James Duncan, and Jwan Allen at the end of The Summit Festival weekend in Detroit is always a good time, but for whatever reason over the last few years I wasn’t getting the same satisfaction from it that I had in the past. This was at…

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Chilling I spent my Sunday afternoon listening to new records and one of the highlights was the compilation The Barbershop which drops on vinyl today (and digitally in three weeks) on the great label Perpetual Rhythms, which is co-owned by Victor Aguinaga and Nick Marshall, the latter of whom is the subject of this edition…

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This article is an interesting read and it made me consider the aspect of djing that was always the most captivating part of the whole operation. I think that being a dj (at least used to) put one into an inherently critical space by its very nature. Sure, you were kind of expected to “have…

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I’m starting something of an organization of my record collection. First and foremost is weeding out all the shit that needs to be sold (something I highly recommend doing every few years as it becomes much more of a pain if you wait longer, especially if you have a lot of records), thus freeing up…

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ALERT ALERT!!!!!!! Hey frustrated DJ…. Do you often find yourself in the discogs comment section for a recent release that came out only a few months ago saying things like “REPRESS PLEASE!!!!”, begging these ungrateful labels to just press a few more copies so you can get your greasy hands on one and be the…

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Volcov in the mix Enrico Crivellaro aka Volcov is a cat whose music and labels I have been buying for basically my entire time in dance music, stretching back nearly twenty years. Neroli is in my opinion the strongest house music record label in Europe, and usually ends up being the trigger that forces me…

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Over the years, our interviews have been some of the most revisited posts on infinitestatemachine. As much as I loved doing those extensive phone chats, the transcription and editing of them was truly one of my least favorite things I have ever done in my life. After doing a little ten questions email interview with…

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These jams are where my mind is residing in early 2018…. Marcellus Pittman “Revenge For Nothing” Unirhythm 12” Marcellus Pittman “Can’t Forget About You” Unirhythm 12” It’s been a hot minute since Marcellus dropped a new record, and here come two within a month of each other. The “Revenge For Nothing” jam fits into the…

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I’m kind of combining some of my tweets from this morning into this post. If you don’t follow me on there I am @pipecock not surprisingly. I am more consistent in posting there than here even now so follow me if you don’t. Read this transcription of an interview with Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman is kind…

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Fall of 2017 marked twenty years since I first purchased turntables, and sometime earlier in the year, twenty years of buying dance records. This year will be two decades since my first gigs playing records in front of the general public. Thanks to starting a LONG overdue organization of my records (they have never been…

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This is the first of a new series on infinitestatemachine called “Record Store Memories”. It’s a highly subjective account of my relationship with various record stores over the years, and will appear appropriately infrequently until I’ve covered all the important ones. For the first one I had to choose the record store that changed my…

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And it never really got straightened back out again. I was just reminiscing on how I really got into house music thanks to the homie Rick Wade posting about his first release on Harmonie Park over on Instagram. I’ve been kind of in this mindset for a little over a year and combined with my…

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This was a weird year for me and music. It was the first year I didn’t release a record, either on a label of mine or as an artist, since 2009, and honestly I really needed the break. I also formally announced my separation from the old labels and PTA, which has given me time…

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The golden era of dance music blogging generally coincided with the start of this blog you are currently reading circa 2007, alongside some of the other blogs that went on to help define the past decade of dance music such as Little White Earbuds and mnml ssgs. There was an explosion of writers taking things…

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Despite all his activity over the past few years, Darshan Jesrani is still best known for his Metro Area collaboration with Morgan Geist. This is far too bad, as he has been behind much great music, especially on the Startree label where he explores more song oriented disco under the aliases Funn City and Cylinder….

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A long time friend of mine, brother in music, and former Pittsburgher Vincent Intrieri has been busy over the last year. After living in Hawaii for a while, he relocated to San Diego and is now setting up shop in southern California to bring some of that Midwest style of dance music to the area….

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2016 has been an interesting one. And by interesting, I mean shitty. And that’s just on the music tip, not even touching on all the rest of the nonsense. I needed long breaks from music, social media, and especially music journalism this year. The music journalism break will likely be permanent, judging by the little…

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The man who goes by C Powers first came to my attention a few years back thanks to a nice grip of records I received from CGI Records’ owner Matt Weiner. Of the many highlights of the CGI catalog, one that stood out immediately was the C Powers EP entitled Up Neck, especially the track…

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