Dave 1 (David Macklovitch) and P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) is the French-Canadian Electrofunk duo named Chromeo. Probably the only constellation where two in-real-world hating nations meet to collaborate; or quoting themselves: “the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture.” Growing up as childhood friends, they truly nurtured their talents into what now has become a worldwide success, with their latest tour in 2010 followed by 2011, lasting for more than 18 months. Dave 1, which is the older brother of turntablist DJ A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch), has come a long way since the single “She’s in Control” and the hit song “Needy Girl” which I clearly remember listening to back in 2005. Their actual true exposure to music production came in 2002 when they started the band. It’s actually notable that Dave 1 has worked with Tiga in a record store in Montreal, where he later was asked to work on a project on his label Turbo. (Note: Tiga, as in Tiga & Zyntherius – I Wear My Sunglasses At Night)

Their music has that grungy analog sound to it (which P later has explained is partly arranged on his collection of vintage synthesizers). I recall from a studio tour where they had an old x486 computer loaded with old beats and mixes. These guys are definitely old-school in the sense of studio equipment, but they are also seen with newer synthesizers and vocoders (P-Thugg once explained in an interview on Studio Q (hosted by the Persian broadcaster/musician Jian Ghomeshi) that they [Chromeo] are constantly looking for new additions to their studio equipment, and his [P-Thugg's] vintage collection is an ongoing project).

Business Casual (album cover art to the left) has been their most recent album that was released on 14 September 2010, on which the tour was based on. They seemed to have been working a lot more on the depth of the tracks as well as the lyrics, making it lighthearted, yet rich, with cool guitar riffs and solos combined with really funky synths and vocoder choruses. I now understand why their hit track is named “Hot Mess”. It’s most likely an inventive reflection of all the years of tacky 80′s songs. Not to forget their very first french lament “J’ai claqué la porte” that really shows off Dave 1′s talent for linguistics (he’s working towards a Ph.D in French Literature).

Chromeo ended their 18 month-long world tour with 4 gigs (London, New York and Los Angeles). Watch the Thank You video below.

Chromeo on stage at Denver’s Ogden Theatre

P-Thugg on the vocoder

Dave-1 doing the 2-step

P-Thugg playing on the (Swedish) Nord Electro 3

Chromeo @ Austin City Limits Music Festival 2011

photos from From The Hip
last photo (with permission) by Robert Scoble

The 16th Annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC 2012) is due this summer on June 8-10 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2011 lineup was pretty astonishing, with genres ranging from psychedelic trance to progressive house and dubstep. The 2012 arena will once again be the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and there will most likely be 6 stages for this three day event; kineticFIELD, cosmicMEADOW, circuitGROUNDS, neonGARDEN, bassPOD and the heinekenDOMES. Based on previous years, I would assume that the party goes on till sunrise for this vibrant and colorful carnival weekend.

Artist lineup

As to date (February 2012) there have not been any official lineup announcements for the Electric Daisy Carnival 2012, but here is a list of my personal prediction for the lineup:

• Dada Life
• David Guetta
• Afrojack
• DJ Tiesto
• Röyksopp
• Swedish House Maffia/Steve Angello
• Avicci
• Paul Oakenfold
• Laidback Luke
• A-Trak
• Infected Mushroom
• Bingo Players
• Sander Van Doorn
• Ferry Corsten
• ATB
• Kaskade
• Robbie Rivera
• Knife Party

That list is not so overwhelmingly rich in flavor as my want-list for the EDC 2012 lineup:

• Chromeo
• Markus Schulz
• Designer Drugs
• Boris Brejcha
• Bahramji & Mashti (maybe in co-op with Infected Mushroom)
• Daft Punk
• Deadmau5
• Oxia (long time no sonido!)
• Julian Jeweil
• Gabriel Ananda
• Shlomi Aber
• Aril Brikha (Persian-Swedish represent)
• Pryda a.k.a Eric Prydz

Taken from these lists, there are only a handful artists that would’ve made me overly ecstatic to see on stage. These events actually tend to be a bit mainstream focused, and EDC is not a exception of this. Especially when the artist sets are just arbitrary rather than based on the crowd and mood. They are usually limited on their time on stage, and therefor forced to have a preset setup to play. I have seen several A-list artists play the same set on different events (both clubs and festivals). My most memorable event was the Fuengirola Beach Party and at the well-known nightclub Dreamer’s in Marbella on two different occasions (both in southern Spain) where an A-list UK House DJ played the very same tracklist three times during the same month. That’s when you feel ripped-off.

Trends

EDC has seen some trends over the years. Most recently, it has been shuffling. The art of shuffling that originated from the Melbourne Shuffle used to be the askew way of doing the disco dancing (prepare yourself for a laugh) and Irish stomping for the kids with extremely latent form of hyperactivity (non-scientifically speaking) that was danced to various breakbeats. Shuffling became a phenomenon that was revisited by the Californian duo called LMFAO that brought the shuffling back on the streets in 2011. It has been a common dance style at the Electric Daisy Carnival the past year(s), and will most likely be even bigger as it  breaks new ground during the spring 2012. To many people’s surprise, the EDC is older than Coachella as well as Bonnaroo and the event has over 100k visitors per day, with the peak on Saturday!

Tickets

Tickets for the 16th Annual Electric Daisy Carnival is up for sale on their official website, and prices start at $275.

http://electricdaisycarnival.com/

It’s quite interesting and fun to see that Karl Bartos is back on stage after a decade of absence (well, not really a decade). Karl is the former Kraftwerk member of the renowned line-up of Kraftwerkians: Hütter-Schneider-Bartos-Flür that used to plink the little electronic gadget in the song “Pocket Calculator” (Taschenrechner in German, Mini Calculateur in French, and Dentaku (電卓) in Japanese and Mini Calcolatore in Italian) with that awkwardly awesome hip movement back in the early 1980′s. Yes, THAT Karl Bartos. I never really understood the context of the lyrics in the song “Life” that was released in the early years of the millennia:

So glad we made it!
Time will never change it!
But, finally, I have to get on with my life.

I would assume that Karl was over with Kraftwerk, and realized that a new era was to arise from the fallen pioneers of electronic music. After all, he left the band in 1990 after the secret tour in Italy where he later got replaced by Fernando Abrantes, which in fact never really filled his shoes other than being a douchebaggy personality that not even couldn’t replace Karl’s talent for the Deagan Vibraphone. Let alone all other aptitude Karl possessed.

Karl has been an inspiration for many musicians, me included. I saw him live at Kulturbolaget in Malmoe on May 19th 2001. Even though I was followed by an adult [my dad]  (I was under 18, so it was a requirement) to this once-in-a-lifetime venue, it couldn’t have turned out any better. My idol was performing live on stage, and I was right there surrounded by likeminded people with a burning heart for this odd old weirdo that was playing electronic music and singing with a robotic voice. His recent performances are more nostalgic and entertaining rather than unique and musical. We’ve seen and heard his entire performances either through Kraftwerk, or through him as Karl Bartos himself. Do you remember 15 Minutes of Fame? (with the classic lyrics “all you need is another hit’go, oh celebrities”). Most people would consider it as 3:40 minutes of torture – but it’s still nostalgic to us, the hardcore fans. Nearly all the electronic music and sub-genres of electronica is derived from this guys’ musical creations, as well as Kraftwerk’s – so he certainly deserve all the props he can get for his legacy of being the innovator of synthesizer music, which I later referred as “Sonido Electronico”.

At an age of 60, Karl Bartos still is an outstanding performer and artist and I hope that he will continue doing what he does best; revive Kraftwerk and all their classic tunes. This kids, is what I used to call electronic music when everybody else was listening to Alarma.

Photo by ElectroNic0

Remember who you are and where you come from; otherwise, you don’t know where you are going. ♥

Stay strong. Live long.
~Sina

Photo by Sina

[via The World's Best Ever]

I know, I know. I am sorry for my absence, once again. I thought silencium would be the best way to lead the way for you guys. It’s time to be cryptic, once again. You remember the track “Columbian Soul”? Yeah, I love that one as well. D. Ramirez is a crazy fella’, I am telling you. I remember Erick Morillo to be the same calm guy that suddenly makes the sudden turn to the dirty electro B-side on the 12″. Oh, right… the 12 inch vinyls are from a past saga, long forgotten.

So, I tweaked down my hi’s and lo’s on the mixer, and faded in the ultimate track, “Columbian Soul” – the original one. I remember how the strobe was flashing. Sampled a short loop from my long time favorite “Bleeep” by Mr Ten Velden the Dutch. The bleeps started with a low pitch, and I had a flanger effect to make the experience a bit “out of this world”. Stump stump, and my heart was pumping as the song came to the climax, you know the 1 minute climax that we all progressive lovers call “the minute crunch”. Here, my friends is the critical moment to make the move. A MIDI signal tweaked to a wired box we all know as the “groove box”. Hell yeah, sure it knew that the time was coming, and within milliseconds it responded with a full blast of pounding bass.

Once you feel the groove coming, you don’t have to think what the next step should be. The past and the future are fused together and will tell what you feel at the very moment. The present.

Selectivity is a prime function in our universe. Gravity attracts the same way a ligand binds to a receptor, and humans make their moves into what they believe is a socioemotional selectivity; to narrowing down their social interactions as a part of their growing knowledge acquisition – which at a first glance can contradict to what most people believe is a introvert behavior. Knowing the fact that our lives are futile without the social interactions in society, we still make choices depending on what our guts tell us to do and we forget the essentials for a succeeding state of mind. We make ourselves to believe that our choices are what were intended, and we grow new relationships and slender down our own needs to depend on what others need, forgetting the big chunk of dignity that will remain with our souls when we leave this earth and enter the unknown.

What do you want to achieve in your life, and what do you intend to share with your community?
Do you have anything to say, and do you know how to say it?
Do you know when devotion becomes vocation and vice versa, and where are you getting your inspiration from?
Are you sure this is what you want to do, knowing the fact that it is your final call and other people are depending on your decisions?
Can you put up your case against someone else, if or when that happens?

I’ve been asked these questions, and have taken my time to – harshly but mostly heartily – explain my view on depleting interactions. I am not advocating my case, but it has been a real face-off to confront my case with prominent people that could’ve smoked my case in two quick flicks – but did not, just because I had a fundamental cause to raise what is believed to be a sentimental issue, which happens once in a blue moon to some people, but quite often in my life.

Just be prepared and believe in what is the right way, and move along with your deepest feelings – and remember the fighter spirit:

You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! ~ Stallone in Rocky Balboa

All the best,
Sina

Let me give you a brief background to this post. While browsing one of many forums I visit daily (a potpourri of knowledge), I read a post from a Swedish forum member, asking whether he should buy Mixmeister Control, Numark CM200, Numark DJ/io or Roland SP-404, to start his Virtual DJ career. Holy Guacamole, I said, and took my keen temper to a level of “glorification of the good old days”. This was back in 2008, and my attitude is nevertheless the same. Like Raymond, my pilot friend once said a late night in NYC, “Airline pilots are people too”, I would like to recite and say that Musicians are people too, so try to understand our feelings. By the way, I used to own a Roland SP-303 myself, so don’t get me wrong here.

Det finns alltid “någon” – så skulle jag vilje inleda…
Jag är en old-school’are som kört på klassiska Technics 1210:or, modellerat på Juno, D50 och Moog osv. Och om vi ska se det som att “alla” old school’are kör klassiskt stuk and never looks back – då kommer det alltid en person, oftast av den yngre generationen och säger “ja, men Nils-Åke (DJ-världens Zappa, Marley, Lennon eller annan legend) kör ju numera serrato a.k.a virtualDJ stuff. “Eh okej?!” – tänker jag
“Ja, men om HAN kör virtual, och tjänar multum, står på top100 listan, varför ska det då vara så lågt att köra en sån setup?” – frågar färskingen.

Det är lite pissigt att man uppfann sånt, och det finns ju säkerligen andra som delar samma åsikt som mig. Att säga hur pass bra det var förr, det har man ju hört många gånger men i det här fallet har det påverkat hela industrin på så sätt att riktiga talanger ödslar sin tid åt sånt som inte längre anses som talang.
Det handlar inte om att ta med sig ett gig-bag med 80 vinylskivor som väger 20 kg för att visa att man kör “the real shit” för Nils-Åke kan säkerligen få till riktiga tunga cuts och scratch med sin serrato. Enda skillnaden är att han slipper kånka på 20kg vax, slippa leta efter just “den där” skivan osv.

Men när det kommer till att lägga ner sin själ på musiken, på vaxet, på modelleringen eller vad man nu vill säga – då lever man för det man gör och går in för det. Och det finns ju INGEN som kan beskriva känslan att ha en Casio CZ101 eller Commodore64 i knäet och leka med den. Att sitta med sin Moog och koppla trådar hit o dit, pilla och skruva. Även om samma “råvara” finns i mjukvaruversion så är det svårt att beskriva känslan av att känna doften av oscillatorerna från “the real shit”. Det är därför jag är så pass anti.

Jag lirar mycket keyboard, och gav mig in i Korg-världen och köpte mig Pa800 (från att ha varit Roland-supporter to the bone). Har man följt dess historik så vet man att PA-serien är riktigt tunga, men ack vilka problem de haft med hårdvara och mjukvara. Det ena har inte hunnit i kapp det andra, och man sitter där och försöker trixa med en importerad sampling via USB-minnet och tänker på den goda tiden då det bara vara analogt och problemfritt. Nu väntar man ju klistrad vid datorn på deras site för att erhålla senaste OS som ska fixa buggarna. Bugfixes – “my ass” har en grupp av Pa-användare sagt efter att ha tröttnat på hur nya problem dyker upp med de nya OS-uppdateringarna…
Så sitter man där med en tjugosextusenkronors-klaviatur som egentligen bara hade kunnat vara en tusenkronors-MIDI klavve kopplat till Logic/Ableton/Cubase/you name it… Kicka igång en softsynt, sampla på ett naffs, och dessutom slippa besväret med att behöva uppdatera OS på ett instrument som kostat alldeles för mycket. “det finns alltid någon”

Ja, det finns alltid någon som lägger 26 lax på en keyboard istället för att skaffa sig en riktigt bra mjukvaru-setup (softsynths osv). Och ändå sitter jag här och klagar över hur pass eländigt det nya är samtidigt som jag motsäger mig själv och säger att jag är en idiot som lagt så mycket pengar på en usel produkt som jag VET hade kunnat ersättas med mjukvara och en dator. Men det kommer ju alltid finnas någon som gör något…

Därav ville jag börja det här med “det finns alltid någon”, och avslutningsfrasen kan du säkert klura ut
Och nu när jag tänker efter så har jag inte svarat på din fråga, men läser du mellan raderna så förstår du att jag inte har emot dator-DJ’s men jag tycker då förvisso inte att dessa individer har talang, och att de aldrig kommer förstå känslan av The Real Shit. Men, “det finns ju alltid”… ja, precis…där sa du det.. “någon”

What if we all could gather and contribute a small donation to third world countries. A small donation for the deprived, a bit of sharing for the sake of our self-consciousness and a boost of buoyancy to our self-centeredness. Or shall I say; what if we could gather the geekiest Web 2.0 community and make a united contribution to our planetary fellows?

Commiserated, and still privileged. That’s what lies in my hideous mind. Still, I wake up every morning and contribute to people in need. Okay, I am almost touching the final deceptive punch now, so hang in there. The fact that I have a daily routine for processing a heck load of patient blood samples, through a magical (and very secret) process from a paper-like membrane with DNA (which initially was delivered as a whole blood sample by UPS or FedEX), to the final stage where I decide whether a patient has the right genetic formula for an organ transplantation. Surrounded by efficient technology and two pioneers, we do magic and we liberate many many many people from their daily grief. Daily. Seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Not revealing too much, but we are a world class company with a prime position, and with tiny insignificant competitors around the world that simply doesn’t have the knowledge or the technology to accomplish the great task of high resolution HLA typing, fast paced and streamlined processing with minimal hassle (I repeat: minimal hassle).

So getting to my point by this nice rhetorical segway: On February 12^th I will join the Charity: Water gathering here in New York City, along with the tweeting community around the world, we will donate $20 each (or $100 for the highly generous Le Sacré-Cœur’s) to help the 1.1 billion people that (quoting from Charity: Water’s website) “don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water”.

Yes people, it is time to step forward and lend a share to our mates, just for the sake of our karma and whatever you may believe is considered as a good cause for the humanity. I am going just to satisfy my social-addictive musical needs, and not to mention – for the free drinks that will be served! Followed by a LMAO

I’ll see you there, 7:30 PM on Thursday February 12th  – sharp!

Charity: Water
http://www.charitywater.org

NYC Twestival 2009
http://newyork.twestival.com/

I am so excited about the Fitbit Tracker!

Although I haven’t yet received the device, nor tested it (by wearing it 24/7), I frankly believe that it will be a smashing product! And the fact that I will be one of the first to test and wear the device makes it thrilling! Yes, I pre-ordered my Fitbit in early Fall 2008 and have been counting down for its official release.

I first heard about Fitbit at the TechCrunch 50 conference in San Fransisco in September 2008. I then immediately contacted James Park (CEO) and started a conversation about the product. James is a very nice guy and replied me in person. I was (at that time) wondering about their licensing in Europe, whether they were going to sell it overseas and if the website (which the Fitbit integrates to) will be working in Europe. James responded in an e-mail:

Hi Sina,

The website will work outside of the US, but at launch we will not be
shipping outside of the US.

We have to pass government certifications for wireless and product
safety in each country and we are focused on passing the US tests
first. We plan on making the Fitbit available for international orders
a few months after our US launch. We will let you know when that
happens.

best
James

James also wrote a blog post on Christmas Eve ’08 about their trip to Singapore where the Fitbit production prototypes are made, along with the post came some awesome pictures of the assembly line (see Flickr stream above).
According to their previous product launch announcement (and the current Fitbit website), the device will be shipped in Q1 2009. I’ll let you know when I receive my very own Fitbit!

Phil Schiller just announced their new products at the Macworld 2009 keynote (sorry, but no Steve Jobs this time. Thanks for the time being, Stevie.):

- iWork ’09
- iLife ’09
- 17-inch MacBook Pro

plus… DRM-free music in iTunes (w/ 256 kbps AAC encoding),
and
3G music download over iTunes,
and
iTunes Plus (upgrade to non-DRM on previously purchased songs on iTunes)

Thank you Phil, but not good enough. What happened to the iMac and Mac mini?

Now, heading off to CES in Vegas baby!

Edit [11:17 PM]: Apple Inc. (AAPL) stocks stumbled around 10PM this morning, just about the time where all major products were introduced at the keynote. Now, around 11PM it is going up. As a comparison  HP, Microsoft, Dell and Google all went up until now. Oh yeah, AAPL is keeping up.

Edit 2 [1:05 PM]:  UPDATE 2-Apple disappoints–no Jobs or big news at Macworld

Apple shares slid 0.7 percent, lagging by far the Nasdaq’s 1.7 percent gain, reflecting frustration over the lack of news from the trade conference that had previously introduced the iPhone to the world.

Happy New Year!  Feliz Ano Novo! Saale No Mobarak!

The hard rock trooper is here to stay. Nueva York will never be the same again. Goodbye 2000eight and Oi 2009. Thanks to ALL S4S supporters for hanging out in my (our) neck of the woods. 2008 was a “holly molly guacamole” year for all of us, wasn’t it?

1st – the introduction of IAM which has been under development by a bunch of masterminds all around the world since early 2008. The idea of IAM came back in the days when I started with sound modeling.  Great success!

2nd – the EP mixes which has been downloaded by you out there. Thank you!

3rd -  Future development of Sound4Sina, Limited Infinity and other projects I’ve had in mind. Yes, there will be a very intuitive Web 2.0 concept over the website in which I have been working late nights to accomplish. A reasonable time for the public site release will be decided as soon as our team has gathered and planned the future of S4S and LI. I am planning to use a wide variety of Web 2.0 (and Web 3.0) features. I’ve been coding and experimenting with CSS3 (which is not yet fully developed by W3C) and jQuery in my spare time (that means late nights after work). Implementation of Social Media is an essential key for bringing people together. Will be added for sure.

The consistent popularity of mainstream music is a chapter long forgotten. Being an extremely tech savvy person myself, I still neglect a variety of mainstream sources and solitude myself to what I believe is the future of the internet. A subcultural off-peak in technological terms is just about to happen (actually, it already happened). Web 2.0 is a continually evolving “technology” with a progressive interconnectivity infrastructure which is highly embraced by web strategists, thus the technology benefits from a continual content aggregation from users and henceforth not depending on static information input.

So what does this mean?

Well, I reckon the feed aggregation from a wide audience rather than narrowed information input from one source. This is what the general idea of Internet was from the early days. If we consider Internet as a bilateral aggregator, we’d end up with a single arrayed conversation between the source and the audience. Opening up one port, let’s say a comments field; it will give feedback, however only for those that visit that specific post and not the majority of people outside the community. Now, if  a XMPP client is deployed on the site it will not only attract the frequent visitors, but also give notice to the world wide web and let it know that the post about XYZ is available and has been posted.

By summarizing the concept, it will give us the acronym SLATES

1. “Search: the ease of finding information through keyword search which makes the platform valuable.
2. Links: guides to important pieces of information. The best pages are the most frequently linked to.
3. Authoring: the ability to create constantly updating content over a platform that is shifted from being the creation of a few to being the constantly updated, interlinked work. In wikis, the content is iterative in the sense that the people undo and redo each other’s work. In blogs, content is cumulative in that posts and comments of individuals are accumulated over time.
4. Tags: categorization of content by creating tags that are simple, one-word descriptions to facilitate searching and avoid rigid, pre-made categories.
5. Extensions: automation of some of the work and pattern matching by using algorithms e.g. amazon.com recommendations.
6. Signals: the use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology to notify users with any changes of the content by sending e-mails to them.”

I have received e-mails from people wishing to see more content on the website. I hope this post has given you the hint. One very common asked question is why I very often use aliases on my releases. Yes, there is a lack of information out there about us; me and the S4S crew. But let us say it with simple words that our idea is to make music and develop our ideas into artwork. My passion is music, technology and the human/computer interaction. My professional background (what I do for living) is somehow not related to music, but takes up alot of my time. The coin has two sides (you’d say that, wouldn’t you?) – But I see the crossing which people usually forget to mention. There is a slight chance that the unfathomable and infinite side is a loop of sides. Is it possible to see both sides of the coin from one point of view?

Well, that is what makes S4S unique. Depicting artwork into waves. Art is creativity, waves are sounds. Mix this and a rock-steady flock of harmony will surround you.

Happy New Year and may the wise mind be with you!

TRNSTN 8 – February 31st ’09 // don’t miss it!