Well, as I expanded the office space and added phone lines to accomodate the
Eighth Dimension office, I actually believed the phone company when they said
that I would only be down three days to do this. Nope- my phone line here in the
studio/office has been disconnected for a gruelling week and a half, so I've
been off line for that entire span of time. Naturally, my mailbox filled up a
week ago, so anyone trying to mail me just got the message sent back to them. My
apologies. So, if you have been trying reach me, try again. I'm back on now, and
there should be no further troubles from this point on (knock on any available
hard surface). Also- I want to hear from the Toronto crew about what happened to
Dion/Bodhi... let me know!
In the meantime, DJ Smash visited Orlando and did an incredible set at Phat N'
Jazzy. If you haven't seen this guy do his thing, here is the basic rundown: He
is obviously a musician before a DJ, and attacks his DJ sets as if he was a
performing musician. Other DJs say they do this, and they do, but not like Smash
does. He had two turntables and a DAT working overtime, cutting back and forth
between two copies of an instrumental hip hop jam, while popping in vocal drops
from the DAT. This was done speedily and numbingly- I watched all this standing
right behind him- as he would scratch in a measure on one turntable, play the
DAT vocal with that hand immediately afterwards (and on beat), and would then
cue and scratch in the second part on the other turntable with his other hand
before even two measures had passed! Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I got a
headache just watching. Totally new songs were created all through the set by
his doing this.
And, as you'll be happy to know, Smash was one of the coolest folks in this
'acid jazz' business I've ever met. He hung out in the store for hours, just
chatting with me about how he started New Breed, his experiences and travels,
'acid jazz' gossip, etc. This guy has some great stories! I was intimidated at
first, as I was meeting the New Breed founder who has been in the business for
over 15 years, but his calm and friendly manner immediately put me at ease. This
phrase is used again and again but here I truly mean it: "Much respect!".
Tonight, King Britt (formerly of Digable Planets) is DJing at Phat N Jazzy...
I'll let you know how that goes.
Glad to be back on... I've missed you guys!
PEACE
Michael
BAD MOOD RECORDS / SOUL POWER MAGAZINE