Love is...

...mix (36 meg mp3!!!)

After a long hiatus, I am finally back on line with a revised template (thanks Becca) a flickr feed (so cool), some new online collaboration over at the Riddim Method and a new/old mix from the vault.

I had to take some time off to do a few things (like getting engaged to this gal) and getting some work done on my back (which finally caved in after years of lugging junk around)! Sorry for the long silence.

More recently, I have been planning the wedding and doing a lot of thinking about the meaning of LOVE. One of my best ruminations on the topic has to be a mix I did for Carey's birthday just after we met. It documents the circumstances of our meeting and courtship. Its a mix about the interconnected web of dance, rhythm and LOVE that joined us. Once called the Blue Moon Tango (the "title" of an early date we had), I recently changed the name to "Love is.." when I realized that I had been trying to answer the question posed by the strange male voice in the Deee-Lite track, "What is love?" (B side from the "Groove is in the Heart" single pictured above).

The mix begins with a selection from an amazing Folkways Release called The Rhythms of the World narrated by Langston Hughes. (Some of this later appeared on a Smithsonian CD compilation called "The Voice of Langston Hughes"). Throughout the mix, I include lots of other strange spoken word (and sung) elements that ruminate on the endless connections between music, rhythm, dance and imagination. It took a fair bit of pre-production work to get all the elements together (figuring out keys and tempos and spoken word pieces) but then I basically just did it live in a couple of chunks. (As usual, I have included all the wacky blends and cuts that naturally occur when you are winging it.)

The mix itself is pretty ecclectic (including Thomas Dolby, Deee Lite, Mr. Scruff, Cheech and Chong, among others). If there is interest, I could try to recreate the track list (which somehow never got recorded). When I was working on it (Aug '04) I was certainly thinking of the abstract side of the "experimental party" vibe made famous by my beat research colleagues and other members of the Toneburst diaspora.

I hope you like listening to it as much as I liked making it.