Music Selections Expanding

The first couple of days writing and contributing to this blog have been both exciting and fun! Although on my bum, it has gotten me off my bum and digging through my amazing record collection. I hope that you are finding it amazing, too, and I hope that you are discovering new music although a lot of the music you will listen to on this blog isn’t exactly out of the new release section!

For me music isn’t about having all the latest, most popular tracks. It’s about having timeless music that can be listened to day after day after month after year. The diversity of a collection, to me, is equal to the diversity of the emotions that can be felt through that collection of music.

From Tribal, Acoustic, Jazz, Soul, Rock, Funk, Bee Bop, Reggae, Disco, Pop, Hip Hop, Electro, Techno, House, Jungle and beyond – there is a place and a time for all music! I like to think that by expanding our love for music we expand our love for other cultures while, at the same time, expanding our minds and our consciousness.

Music brings people together and, in this day and age, can also separate people. My hope, through music, is to bring people together by playing sets that are influenced by all types of music. This blog is only a small representation of what can happen when we have the rhythm of life on our side. Music is on our side!

When I was about fifteen years old I remember hearing, for the first time, a DJ mixing music on the radio. I recall being captured by the sounds that were coming out of the speaker. I remember really feeling music for the first time. I thought to myself, “I want to do that!” “I want to mix and share music!”

It was “BF Groove” Sunday nights on Guelph’s campus radio station CFRU 93.3FM. “Chris Shephard” on “Pirate Radio” 107.9FM and “Deadly Headly” following in a similar fashion, playing all the Classic House grooves of the early 90’s. It was amazing, mind-blowing and a path I had no choice but to follow.

Time went on. I attended my first “rave.” In fact, it was Deadly Headly that got me going wild on the dancefloor! DJ Roo, now a veteran of twenty years behind the turntables, performed that same night and I fell in love with House music. I simply loved how it adopted elements of so many different kinds of great music and put it all together into one genre. The bass, the clap and the high-hat. I was addicted.

From those early years onward my aim has been to take one song, the best song that I hear, from every DJ set that I am a witness to and purchase that track to add to my collection. The aim is to follow each amazing song with another amazing song and mix them all together, flawlessly, from beginning to end. The listener must be taken on a journey, impressed and, at some point of the set, fall in love with music that they have never heard before!

Continued Music Selections

To end off the first official day of my first official blog I have uploaded two more songs from my vinyl collection (although right now they are being viewed and heard via YouTube). The idea is to share music with you strictly from my collection of treasured wax.

“Sleep Tonight” by one of my favourite Canadian bands “The Stars” gets the remix treatment by Hamilton duo “Junior Boys.” A slow-tempo acid line backed by a deep, repetitive bassline with the sultry vocals of Amy Milan add up to quite a wonderful track to rest your head to. You could dance really slow to it, too, although the hypnotizing loops may have you sleepwalking in no time. Basically, it’s a beautiful track to be mellow to. Perfect for the beginning of the night to get the soundsystem warmed up!

Next is a track that I first heard while on a car-ride with a couple of good friends on the way to Guelph Lake. “What is this track?!” I exclaimed to my friend, Sasha, sitting in the back seat of the fast moving BMW. “Blue” by “Plej” remixed by none other than Montreal’s own “Akufen.” This man can do no wrong with his signature sampladelic style of smooth House music sounds. He takes the original Swedish Leftcoast electronics and splices them up into an even deeper gem that is, as well, perfect for the beginning of an evening in a classy nightclub fueled by sweet vodka-based martini’s. There’s no way you can feel “Blue” when this track comes on!

Music Selections

As I stand here, in the compact living room of my apartment, in front of the precision-engineered Technics turntables I look around at my twelve crates of records for some music to select.  The first thing that comes to mind is Iron and Wine “The Shephard’s Dog” EP on Sub Pop Records.  In my mind, automatically, the song “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” is selected so I delicately move the needle to the location on the record and let the track play aloud in an amazing fidelity which can only be heard on such a lovely medium as vinyl.  I am surrounded by sweet acoustic sounds and nostalgic voices singing out the most beautiful of lyrics.  I bask in it until the song ends and the next record must be chosen.  “I Wanna See You Come Down” is the next selection I throw down on the plate.  Produced by DJ Rork featuring C Minos Alexander on vocals, the track oozes out a luscious bassline atop smooth House rhythms.  Serial Records in France originally published this track in 1998.  It was later released as a compilation put together by DJ Mark Farina on Om Records called San Francisco Sessions.  Have a listen and stay tuned for more Music Selections from my vinyl collection care of, yours truly, Deeno.

Welcome To A Fresh New Life!

Life is all about learning…  Learning can be fun…  Fun is expression…  Expression is music…  Music is medicine for our soul.  Spirit and soul are the essence of life.