We've been here before, haven't we? It's been a good 3 or 4 years since I was committed to this thing so I don't blame you if you doubt my commitment to it this time. Time and again, I've made a half hearted attempt to get the ball rolling and post more often to my blog. I don't even know myself how committed I will be to it, but why don't we just take it a post at a time, and we can see where this runs.
The blog side of things fell by the wayside a few years back because I've had a lot going on with family and health issues. I still do. The thing is, I really need something other than the 'stuff' I've been dealing with to focus on because that 'stuff' in itself isn't healthy to have as my sole focus. So, that's where I'm at. I'm giving this another whirl to see how it might act as a kind of platform to improve how I feel about life, but at the same time, get back to sharing some nice music that I discover/listen to and maybe connect with some good people through that.
The first format of the blog was lost a couple of years ago, along with all the many posts and hours of work that had gone into it, due to having been hacked and everything being deleted. That was disheartening and took a while to get my head around but eventually I tried to resurrect the blog over on Wordpress. This probably wasn't my greatest of ideas. The Wordpress platform is probably superior to the Blogger platform I've come back to, but it just wasn't for me. Everything cost money which I don't really have (nor want) to spend on hosting and extra features for this, that and the next thing. So, here I am, back at Blogger, having wrestled with the technical side of things to re-map my domain and try to get my head around the Blogger platform once more.
During my hiatus there have been a few changes in the music world that I previously tended to gravitate towards and make use of on a regular basis. Soundcloud has become less enjoyable to use for me, not only because of their efforts to make life difficult for DJ's and Editors/Remixers, but also because of the changes to the functionality of the site. That said, it's still the best of the bunch, which is a real shame. Hearthis seems to be the main contender to pick up the slack, but the uptake and numbers just aren't there, at least not yet anyway. I'm going to keep plugging away with Soundcloud for now, but I fear it is only a matter of time before it's just another Spotify, so I'm going to have feet in the camps of Hearthis and Mixcloud too.
Another change for me over the time I've stopped posting is that I've gone back to picking up vinyl and ripping it to my hard-drive, rather than buying digital music. The idea behind digital is great but I just cannot for the life of me figure out why those who market and sell digital products think that consumers are going to willingly move onto an inferior product and pay the same as they would (or near enough) for a physical product. Anyway, that is a grumble for another day and perhaps another post. The reason I mentioned it because I wanted to mention the fact that I am in the process of trying to move away from using the CDJ's and have started to try and get my head around using Traktor and a Kontrol S4. I'm not the most technical minded, so for me, it's a big step. Well, more of a leap really, because even when I moved onto CDJ's from 1210's, I never fully explored their functions and basically continued to use them as I had been using my vinyl.
Going forward I hope to be able to share the odd mix of my own, perhaps post some music from the vinyl that I pick up and possibly post some mixes from people that I enjoy listening to. I'm sure I'll get around to posting all the previous mixes and tracklists I've done, and those that others have kindly done for me whilst I was involved with Box Frequency. The blog was previously affiliated with Juno Records in the UK as I attempted to monetise the work I had been putting in, but in the few years I worked on promoting them I never received any payout, so that won't be happening this time around. I'll still aim to post links for where to legally pick up the music that is featured on here but there is no affiliation. As I have already said though, let's just see where the blog goes from here on in. No firm commitments and no pressure. I'm just doing it for the love of the music.
Tracklist
Jack J - Atmosphere (Future Times)
Maurice Aymard & Sasse - Backwards (Luvless Mix) (Apersonal Music)
Unknown Artist - Unknown
Jan Ketel - Walking Away (Luvless Remix) (Tieffrequent)
Unknown Artists - Unknown
Moodymann - Shoes Of Jae (Bangin' Edit) (White Label)
Afefe Iku - Mirror Dance (Yoruba Records)
Harvey Sutherland - Oscillate (Voyage Recordings)
HNNY - No (Puss)
HNNY - Boy (Puss)
Saine - Daze (Fourwalls & Funkyjaws Remix) (Shadeleaf Music)
Tee Mango - Into The Wild (Crumbs)
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