NEW TRACK - Ghost in the Machine

Something new and long overdue.

Ghost in the Machine (Main Mix) by Chef Napalm

Main Street

It's been quiet. Too quiet. Here's something new and thumping.

Chef Napalm – Main Street by Chef Napalm

Wolf Whistle

Wow, January 26th and this is my first post of the year. That. Is. Sad. In my defense, I have the annual record round-up and a post on the recent dusting off of all the Detroit and Chicago music legends. Even though both are written, neither feels quite finished. Anyway, I promise to do better. With luck this will be the first of many tracks previewed on this site.

My eldest daughter got a keyboard for her birthday two years ago, played with it for a month and lost interest. Typical, I know, but that's not the point. The point is that I discovered it's MIDI capabilities while messing with the internal sounds over Christmas. So, I hooked it up and promptly wrote the groove at the heart of Wolf Whistle. Throw in a guitar sample, rhodes organ, and some spoken word wisdom from Howlin' Wolf, and voila!

In the end, what was intended to be a house track turned out to have more of a bigbeat vibe. In order for the groove to really work everything had to run at 140bpm, so it's a bit on the quick side for a house set, but would likely fit nicely beside some old skool breaks.

Let me know what you think.

Chef Napalm – Wolf Whistle by Chef Napalm

Soundclouded

For some time I have been frustrated by the lack of upload/download options available to the semi-pro* DJ/producer. Sure, you can upload mixes and tracks to a third-party upload/download service like Megaupload or YouSendIt or ZShare, but their interfaces are annoyingly time-consuming, unless you happen to be a PREMIUM member, and are chock-a-block with Google adds for online poker and porn. Plus, by forcing you to enter authentication codes, these services preclude the use of embedded music players in you blog/forum/myspace. It’s hard to look like a professional when you’re distributing your promos at the internet equivalent of a road-side yard-sale.

Speaking of myspace, are they ever going to upgrade that crap-assed music player? How can you strut your stuff when your tracks sound like they’re playing on a tape-recorder you bought at the Dollar Store? Honestly, my myspace page is more of a placeholder than a real marketing tool.

So, with my new-found impetus for production, I began exploring other options. Along came Soundcloud. Soundcloud is to myspace what an art gallery is to a page of thumbnails. On Soundcloud you can upload full-length tracks AND mixes, while on myspace you’re stuck with limits on track length and file size. Soundcloud has coding for embeddable players; myspace only allows a link to you page. Soundcloud allows for comments on specific tracks and even comments linked to sections of a track or mix; myspace has a general comments section on the page.

Believe it or not, this is not an ad for Soundcloud, I’m just so excited by the prospects that I’m having difficulty containing my enthusiasm.

Anyway, my inaugural upload to Soundcloud is a remix I did for DJ Bolivia’s remix contest. The contest closed yesterday, so I think I’m safe posting it here. If you took the time to download the sample pack, what you heard was a spoken-word story about a Midwestern girl who discovered electronic music and subsequently moved to New York in an attempt to connect with the scene. The track is called “Global Underground” in honour of the seminal mix CD series that figures largely in the story. The inspiration for my remix came from a couple of different places. Firstly, I’ve been re-reading Simon Reynold’s “Generation Ecstasy” (aka “Energy Flash”), specifically the chapters on the dark side of rave culture. The cheese in the vocal sort of annoyed me anyway, and so I decided to focus on the grind of raving rather than the honeymoon. At the same time I was given two crates of Detroit Techno records, mostly Plus8. This remix is my attempt at a Detroit sound.

DJ Bolivia - Global Underground (Chef Napalm's 212 to 313 Dub) by Chef Napalm

I can’t let you download it until the winners have been announced, but please let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Keep watching, because there is much more to come.

*By “semi-pro” I mean that I have been paid for my work in the past, but have yet make a living off of it.

Sorta Siesta

With the cancellation of both the "Repo-Men" and "Solid Sessions" shows, my August suddenly freed itself up almost completely. Then the proverbial fecal matter contacted the rotary ventilation device and I found myself putting in extra time at work on Sundays. That's good for the bank account, bad for my sanity.

The bad news is that I'm going to take the majority of the next four weeks off from the scene. That means no Open Turn Tables and no shows. Sorry.

The good news is that I'm taking the free time I have to focus a bit more on productions. Hopefully by the time the Terrence Parker show rolls around on September 19th, I'll have a bunch of fresh remixes, re-edits, and original tracks to play. And what better way could there possibly be to celebrate my birthday than with a top notch DJ in a great venue. Make sure you sign-up at the facebook event and invite all your friends to score some free passes.

See, it's all good news really.

Home Bass

This show was announced a while ago, but with everything else going on I just haven't had the time to post it. For future reference, you can always see what I'm up to on the Schedule of Events in the sidebar.

I really excited about this show in large part because I'll be debuting a number of my own re-edits, remixes, and original tracks. If you want a sneak peak of what's been happening on the production side of the Chef Napalm omelette, you can check out the Chef Napalm myspace page. If you're a member, feel free to add me as a friend.

Saint John Sound

What is it? What is the Saint John Sound? Fred (Nexus6ix) and I had a conversation last week about finding the sound of our city. Neither of us had any idea what it might be, but we are looking for it. We agreed on one thing: it is NOT electro-house.