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05182008429, originally uploaded by cjn208.

I've moved here for the time being.

At least until the next trendy blogging platform comes along.

A piece I wrote recently for AdWeek.

My pal Justin Carter (pictured on the right) with a nice mix. Dude has taste.

01. Boris - Legato - Careless Records
02. Tokyo Black Star - Game Over - Innervisions
03. Kerrier District - Yesco - Rephlex
04. Luke Solomun - Monsters - Cajual
05. Lavish Habits - Dance Wit You - Select Recordings
06. John Roberts - Hesitate - Dial
07. Murat Tepeli feat. Prosumer - Work It - Playhouse
08. Theo Parrish - Synthetic Flemm - Sound Signature
09. Matias Aguayo - Drums and Feathers - Kompakt
10. Sascha Dive - Deepest America (Moodymann Mix) - Ornaments
11. House of House - Rushing To Paradise (Walkin' These Streets) - Whatever We Want Records

Download it here.

HK

DSCN0239, originally uploaded by cjn208.

It has been quite a while. Apologies.

Me on the new Circlesquare record @ Prefix, here.

Thanks to Rex for the shout out.

Elsewhere, stay tuned for video from last weeks PSFK conference. I had a nice chat with the guys from Hello Health and Help. Interesting insights on the future of healthcare.

See you around.

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05182008443, originally uploaded by cjn208.

DSCN0009

DSCN0009, originally uploaded by cjn208.

The Smiths- There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Schneider TM- The Light 3000 (Smiths cover)

Greetings from a cold, crisp Montreal. It's been quite an hectic October so far, hence the lack of updates.

In late September, I checked out Austin City Limits, one of the best large festivals I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Spiritualized was my personal highlight, though it was odd to catch them outside in daylight. But as I haven't seen the fully electrified performance since the days of Amazing Grace, it was nice to see the bombast and atmospherics compared to the more stripped-down Electric Mainlines tour.

Then, it was off to Singapore in early October for the PSFK conference Asia. I moderated a panel with Mark Dytham of Klein/Dytham and Pecha Kucha as well as Andrew Hoppin of NASA. I'm pleased to say the session, and the entire conference, was incredibly inspiring. It was a painfully short trip to Singapore but I made up for it with excessive amounts of amazing food, from Malaysian curries to black pepper crab and incredible street food.

Switching gears to music, this mix from Dixon has been on constant repeat. After listening to excessive amounts of super cerebral techno, this is refreshing for both the sheer quality of the track selection and overarching emphasis on melody. Dixon plays New York on November 13 on Cielo's amazing sound system. (Too bad about their location/door policy)

Dixon- Innercity Mix

I'm also quite excited for Greg Wilson's forthcoming NYC appearance (Oct 25) at Primetime. My pal Eamon Harkin did a fantastic interview with him over here. I found this excerpt to be quite interesting:

Who in contemporary dance culture do you see as doing interesting things right now?

What I find most interesting and exciting about contemporary dance culture is the way that the internet has connected us all more closely together. All of a sudden a younger generation can go online and explore a wealth of dance music, dating right back to the 60’s, doing this from their own perspective. This has created a fresh dynamic that’s allowed an old timer like me to come back into things after a 20 year absence, without being viewed in purely nostalgic terms, which isn’t something that’d appeal to me. On top of this many contemporary artists are drawing from this dance heritage, to put their own spin on things, whilst the whole re-edit thing has also put a new twist on older tracks.

It’s part of a necessary process as far as I’m concerned, going back in order to move things forward. As the saying goes, to know the future first you must know the past, and this is what I feel is happening, as people look for more than just a surface understanding, needing to truly explore what came before in some depth. What they eventually do with this knowledge is going to be the really interesting part.

A few other things that are worth your time and attention:

The Hotel Gault in Montreal
Anything from Stafrænn Hákon
Jackson C. Frank- Blues Run the Game
The open bars of Anja Schneider's "Safari" as your ring tone.
Commix- Be True
Young Marble Giants- Colossal Youth
The Economist- The World Next Week Podcast
NYT Front Page Podcast
Fareed Zakaria's CNN show, GPS
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins

Creative Destruction


I recently stumbled across this NASA shot from the aftermath of Katrina. Oddly beautiful.

In a fit of sleeplessness last night, I caught up with a few podcasts. Fareed Zakaria's excellent GPS show on CNN was a must-watch this week. I particularly liked the Q&A with Singapore's founding father, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Check out the videos here or download via iTunes podcasts.

Speaking of Singapore, I'll be moderating a panel at the PSFK conference Asia on October 10th. Full details are here. Come say hello if you find yourself in the area.

Elsewhere, I gave a talk a few weeks at the Interesting Conference entitled, "A Brief History of Techno." The conference was a great success overall and I thank David Nottoli and the Open Intelligence Agency for coordinating everything. Really inspiring topics and speakers, and I can't wait for the next installment.

Richie Hawtin 2008 DJ Setup from Dean Koch on Vimeo.

"He's been a governor for three years. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America...It is not a big town...it would be an intensely political choice where you said, you know what, I'm really not first and foremost concerned with if this person is capable of being president."

-Karl Rove, speaking about Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, when he was still under consideration for the VP slot.