05162008387, originally uploaded by cjn208.

DSCN0023, originally uploaded by cjn208.

For those of you in New York, a few handpicked recommendations for the weekend:

Friday:

Craig Richards doesn't travel stateside as much as we'd like. It's understandable, though, because as a weekly resident at London's Fabric, he gets to play music on one of the world's best sound systems. So when he does make it to these shores, it is a special occasion — one that brings out even the most jaded electronic-music aficionados. Richards doesn't follow the file-sharing, right-clicking herd when it comes to sounds and styles. Rather, he has a nose for under-the-radar cuts and producers, does the record bin due diligence the old-fashioned way, and has a masterful touch when it comes to arranging what he finds.

Sunday:

Barriers to DJing are getting lower (read: iPods, blog house). As such, it's important to remember that playing records can be an art form. Nicky Siano, who's recently re-emerged in NYC via a successful residency at Santos, was one of the most influential figures in New York's early dance scene. Through his curation of the Gallery and early DJ sets at Studio 54 and Mancuso's Loft, Siano honed and refined a sound rooted in house and disco with soulful emotional resonance. Today, he hits the Yard for one of the summer's best parties, the appropriately titled Sunday Best.

Two very Gursky-esque images from the mindblowingly good opening ceremony:

Some bits and bobs:

-The most mammy CNN headline ever: "Russian tanks and troops on way to troubled region."

-A good Fader article by Jace Clayton aka DJ/Rupture on the new cumbia scene. For a taste, check the Bersa Discos site, co-run by my old friend Gavin Burnett (DJ Oro11). Tropical, latin and psychedelic is right.

-Been digging out from a promo backlog lately and I'm surprised to see a lot of familiar old names: The Orb, Bomb the Bass, Red Snapper and Nightmares on Wax. Need to digest properly these but the Bomb the Bass record already sounds quite promising.

-My friends Anna and Todd randomly stumbled into a moving sale in Williamsburg the other day. The vendor? None other than William Basinski, creator of one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard, The Disintegration Loops.

From Hauntedink:

William Basinski's four-disk epic, The Disintegration Loops, was created out of tape loops Basinski made back in the early 1980s. These loops held some personal significance to Basinski, a significance he only touches on in the liner notes and we can only guess at. Originally, he just wanted to transfer the loops from analog reel-to-reel tape to digital hard disk. However, once he started the transfer, he discovered something: the tapes were old and they were disintegrating as they played and as he recorded. As he notes in the liner notes, "The music was dying." But he kept recording, documenting the death of these loops.

Here are some photos from their adventure, taken by Laura Heyenga.











This is my favorite loop, the first track in the fourth series. Music for swaying kelp beds.



William Basinski- Dlp6