U:Move

    Varying members of the Los Angeles-based electro-hop crew, Glitch Mob, have done shows in Lawrence (edIT and Ooah), but never the whole group.  Friday, May 28th, Kansas City’s growing experimental dance following will have a chance to catch da’ Mob at the Conspiracy Room inside the Uptown Theater on Broadway.  And this show is no conspiracy.  This is no grossly-delayed April Fool’s joke or anything like that, we assure you. 

    With their debut full-length album, Drink The Sea, slated for release on May 25th, we couldn’t resist poking their brains to find out more about the record in this quick Q&A.  But what should you expect at the show?  When you hear Glitch Mob’s post-digital, remix-on-the-fly sound and think something is wrong, just remember the old saying - “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The only thing you’ll need to worry about breaking at this show is your own neck.  I even overheard a rumor that the doorman will be handing out free neck-braces after the show is over…

Who is Glitch Mob? Some online sources list differing numbers of people in the crew.
The Glitch Mob is Justin Boreta aka Boreta, Ed Ma aka edIT and Josh Mayer aka Ooah.

What’s the significance behind the title of your guys’ new record, Drink The Sea?
With Drink The Sea we were telling our story. We put a lot of thought into every aspect of the record from the song titles to the mixing, melody, tempo, mastering, length, etc. There’s a story in there but we’d rather leave it up to the listener to decide what it means to them.

Concerning your guys’ upcoming Drink The Sea album, what is it about electronic music that makes good full-length albums so difficult to come by? Would you even settle with that statement?
I think there are plenty of good full-length electronic albums—some of my all time favorites, in fact. It’s challenging to make a good album that works on the dancefloor and in the headphones, but it has been done a lot. Dance music and DJ culture are not focused on the overall listening journey as much as rocking the dancefloor, and those can be very different aesthetics.

How is Drink The Sea going to compare against most of the tracks you guys have released over the past couple of years?
Drink The Sea is a full listening experience and is meant to be heard from start to finish, preferably loud. In the past we’d focused more on individual dance tracks and singles.

How would you describe the live sets you guys do? Is it DJing? Controllerism?
We’re just playing music utilizing technology. It’s not really DJing at this point because we aren’t playing full mastered tracks. We are playing songs like a band, although there is an element that is being played by the computer.

Would you rather play a big festival or a medium-sized city?
There’s benefits to both really. In general we prefer small, intimate events though because of the way we can feed off of crowd energy.

Hailing from Minneapolis, DJ, Vocalist and Multi-Instrumentalist Chuck Love is known for his live ‘on-the-fly-produced’ performances.  This year Chuck launched his label, LOVE NETWORK, and has teamed up with Colette for the first release - UR EVERYTHING (with Remixes by Santiago & Bushido). His productions range from downtempo to minimal electronica to head-bopping 4/4 house - all infused with his signature soulful, jazzy flavor influenced by his Minneapolis roots. You can find his releases on Love Network, OM, Great Lakes Audio, Shifted Music, Salted, Onethirty, Celebrity, Lingo, Large and Tango.

U:Move’s Andrew Northern caught up with Chuck for an exclusive Q&A session.

Where do you personally envision as the next big trend in dance music?
That’s a pretty tough question. I got into music as a producer and have been kind of focused on my own stuff.  I’ve Always been a little bit on the corners of dance music in the first place because I got into the dance music world as a producer and performer, more so than as a DJ or a crate-digger. I am a little more familiar with the direction I am going personally than where the world is taking it. Continuing to expand media. The collaborations and the various things with video and audio is what I am really cranked up about.

When you record, what do you use?
I use logic on Macintosh

You play a lot of the instruments yourself right?
Yeah, I play all of the instruments myself. I play guitar,  trumpet, melodica, hand percussion and do vocals while I spin so it’s a live-hybrid cameo sort of show.

You just started up your label recently Love Network, right?
We are just about to release our first track with Collette.

What else can we expect to see on Love Net?
We are exploring down tempo stuff as well. There is an artist from Minneapolis named Alicia Wiley that I’ve got some remix stuff on and I’m anxious to release as well.

How do you feel about sample culture?
I was making music back in the 80s when sampling became a thing.  If you track it back to dj culture or hip-hop culture for re-purposing, it can be very exciting.

What words best describe your sound?
Eclectic and leaning more towards smooth and sexy.  I think I am best known for the smooth stuff, although the party doesn’t always call for that so I play for the party.

When you DJ do you play only your own music, or other people’s as well?
I spin about 85% of my own music.  I basically became very interested in DJing when the Pioneer CDJ-1000 came out. I could go out and play my own track that I made that afternoon, where other people had to wait for it to be pressed to vinyl.  This opened up my style of dj’ing. The fact that I could present digital media that I had just made with the appropriate parts missing in order to present in my live hybrid set.

So would you consider yourself more of an artist who happens to Dj rather than a Dj who is also an artist?
Definitely an artist who happens to DJ.  An artist that happens to go to work in the same place as a DJ I think is a better way to put it. DJ’s that are taste-makers, that knows what everybody wants to hear and that can ID the songs from ten miles away are an entirely different discipline. Big ups to anybody who does that.  Because I am not in that mode really. I am trying to get more and more in that mold with my own label where I need to cultivate peoples’ interest and interact with people’s charts and making my own charts. I have to know what they are releasing and know what my DJ buddies are doing. So that will be a new focus - getting that taste maker thing hooked up again.

Any hot tracks you are particularly into right now?
I am really liking Atnarko’s new stuff. He’s got a new release Lazy Days called Solid Ground.

Cake or pie?
Cake, as chocolaty as you can make it and make it a double or triple.

Umove.net is looking for a freelance music writer.  Writer will be responsible for conducting artist interviews and submitting short news articles to the site editor for publications on umove.net.

Requirements:
- Excellent writing skills
- Deep understanding and passion for music
- Knowledge of all styles of electronic dance music.

This is a paid gig.  If interested, please submit a brief resume and two writing examples to billpileatumove.net

Norrit - You Were Just Callin Official Music Video from francosis on Vimeo.

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Mark Farina’s musical legacy dates back to ‘88, when he befriended Derrick Carter while digging in the crates of a Chicago record store.  His trademark style, Mushroom Jazz started as a San Francisco club night in the early 90’s.  The popular club night spawned a series of mix CDs that influenced a generation of DJs. Touring the globe, His house sets combine chunky-funky rhythms, deep underground house and jazzy grooves that has been an attraction to over a million club goers each year. Mark has recently released a 6 Track EP on Great Lakes Audio titled Geo Graffiti. It features new productions by this creative and inspiring DJ/Producer.

On assignment for u:move, Michael Campbell met up with Mark for a Q&A session before his most recent gig in Kansas City. Listen to the interview live on u:move’s Rotation Podcast 006.

Michael:  What worked for you when you were starting up your career as a DJ?

Mark: For me i’d say, you find a club that you want to play at and you get in there.  I would go to a place that plays the kind of music that I liked and find people who are into the music you are into.  You have to find out who has that crowd, be it a club or a promoter, or if you have to get the crowd together yourself then so be it.  For example if you see a DJ rocking a crowd you might say, “Hey I think this crowd would really get into my set.“and then you focus your energy on them.  If you like a record label and the parties they are throwing, try to get in with them.

When you first started with OM Records you were pushing the acid jazz sound.  What’s it like pushing a sound that was so different and alternative, and seeing it catch on?

Well, its a good thing.  There was a big acid jazz scene in San Francisco at the time which doesn’t really exist anymore. There was also a really happening club scene going on.  We took that element and said, “Well if its working here, it should work everywhere else.”.  OM records took that idea and brought it to other places.  The sound eventually became popular.

The first CD I ever bought of yours was a live recording with Derrick Carter, whats been your involvement with Derrick and how did you meet?

Derrick and I are old buddies, I met him when I was a freshmen at college in Chicago.  He was working at a record store by the university.  He was one of the buyers which meant he supplies the record wall with all of the latest cuts.  I just kind of went in and it turns out that I liked his selections.  Back then each worker of the record store got their own section of wall, and that section would have their picks on it.  I just started talking to him because i really like his tracks.  From there we got our first apartment away from our parents together.  It was me Derrick Carter, Chris Nazuka who is a keyboard player on Classic Records,  and a hip hop guy named G Most.  We called the space “Red Nail”.  Our phone number spelled out ‘red nail’.  From there we worked at Gramophone records while Derrick was working at Casual. 

Whats the transition like from being strictly a DJ to a producer?

Well I’ve always dabbled in tracks from the start.  I just never made tracks as a way to get gigs.  It can be a good route for new DJs to bust out by making a lot of tracks, but I didn’t get too prolific in it.  I sort of stuck on the DJ tip for a long time.  I still love making records, I just never put out as many records as say Derrick.

Were DJs more respected in the past or are they more respected now?

Well some places its more and other places its less.  You know a lot of things have changed since the days of just playing vinyl and that sort of medium.  Now I’d say its a little more abstract with Djs performing with computers.  A lot of people cant tell weather someone is spinning with their computer program or performing with a program say like Ableton Live.  The lines are a little more blurred between when someone is djing, or using technology to play their own tunes or even cheating.  Now you might see a laptop or you might not. Same thing with turntables or you may not, and all of this can potentially lead to more or less respect for the DJ.  Some people might say “Oh play a record.” or “Oh they aren’t playing records, its wack!”, but that’s kind subsided a bit. You know they might be like “Whats he doing, he’s been looking at his computer for two hours, is he checking his email?”  They don’t know if your mixing, but on the same point a DJ can put on a whole show and a computer can really enhance that live performance.  I also think its genre specific, some genres hold the DJ to a higher standard than others.  A lot of its geographic too depending on what your local DJ’s are doing, what they are playing and how they are playing it.  The older club heads have a lot of love and respect for mixing, so its about teaching the younger kids about what its all about.  I think its still a performance, but a lot of its just rocking the party.

What gear are you using to DJ these days? Are you still using the crowd pleasing visual aspect of the turntables, the performance enhancing aspect of a computer, or CD decks?  Whats your favorite thing to use?

I still like to use the Pioneer CDJs.  The vinyl thing is fun.  I did that for 15 years.  Its just the science of vinyl and parties doesn’t always go together.  I hate skips, and vibrating decks.  The mechanical workings of the turntable and parties sometimes don’t work well together.  People would be surprised how hard is to set up turntables properly.  For me I feel that the CDJ can handle the adverse conditions of a party better.  Generally as long as you take care of your CDs, everything works.  Computers aren’t really my cup of tea, but a lot of people like them.

How do you feel about the relationship between musicians and DJs?  Is there a level of disrespect there?

No I don’t think so.  I think they work kind of hand in hand.  Well if you are like a classical musician you probably don’t care what I’m doing, but if you are into electronica then yeah there is a kind of relationship there.  Production is easier than it was 10 years ago.  You used to have to rent out a whole studio. Now people can produce their own stuff at home.  It’s great for self promotion, especially with CD technology.  It used to take a lot longer to get people to listen to your demos, having to burn acetate records and all that.  Now there is a close relationship between up and coming artist and DJs.  If you are making dance music of some sort, you want the DJ to play them so there will be that kind of deep connection between the two.

What do you have coming up? Big projects DJing etc..?

I have a new release coming out on my label Great Lakes audio called Geograffiti. Its like geography and graffiti together.  I have a six track EP coming out on that, some remixes and other things like that.  Mushroom Jazz 7 is in the works for spring and touring all up until December.