Stay strong. Live long.
~Sina

Photo by Sina Nedadahandeh

[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

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!

- 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!

In a previous post I picked a mix session (Sundeck Silvertejp) by DJ Laszlo. Visited his website (blog) the other day and found out that he had released another awesome session with a bunch of personal favorite tracks. The mix is smooth and starts very downbeat and deep, then find its way to some more progressive tracks. Oxia, John Cutler, Dahlbäck, Leger… and YAZOO! Coincidence or simply a great track? Yazoo – Don’t Go! (yeah, I also mixed it in my latest EP19 Mix). Check it out, I highly recommend this mix. Sonido Electronico baby!

DOWNLOAD

Tracklist:

01. Télépopmusik – Love can damage your health (Abicah Soul & Dennis Ferrer Mix)
02. Nufrequency feat. Sarah Nelson – Go that deep (Skylark Vocal Mix)
03. Manuel Tur and Dplay – Deviate
04. Filur -You and I (Trentemöller Remix)
05. Oxia vs. Ginos and Snake – Seven (Sarah Goldfarb Remix)
06. Skylark – Too much information (Manuel Tur Remix)
07. Jon Cutler and Matthias Heilbronn – 640 (JCMH Original Mix)
08. Little Louie Vega feat. Mr. V – Jus dance (Cosmic Ritual Dub)
09. Dennis Ferrer and Jerome Sydenham – Sandcastles (Pete Heller Filter Re-edit)
10. Miguel Migs – Fine what’s mine (Mig’s Yoshi Moody Dub)
11. Son of Raw – A black man in space (Sax mix)
12. Ane Brun – Headphone Silence (Henrich Schwarz Remix / Dennis Ferrer Noizy Edit)
13. Christian Malloni – On our way (Manuel Sahagun Remix)
14. Giano – Wjsd (Fred Everythin & Jt Donaldson Remix)
15. Jon Cutler feat. E-man – It’s yours (David Penn Dub)
16. Skylark – Who cares (Stryke’s Respect Remix)
17. Yazoo – Don’t go (Re-re-mix)
18. John Dahlbäck – Pyramid
19. Sebastien Leger – Bambou
20. Pryda – Rakfunk

The backlash came when she asked me for a redeemed salvation. Years of solitary ambiguity, months of back-tearing work, and days of endless loneliness. The day had come to an end where we shoveled out all aggravation, and we had to face our destiny. A “happy thanksgiving” broke the silence, and I zoomed in the “ROFL” artwork on my newly updated iTouch. “Are we supposed to keep quiet when so many words are buzzing around in our minds?” she asked, and continued “I was hoping for more quality time with you”. Now was the time to strike, like a force majeure announcement from an airline. I replied and said “Do you think this is negligence from my part, or is it a mutual horrifying fact that the time is the breakpoint between us?”.  Seconds passed, and I gasped for breath. A spine-chilling silence eased my headache for a split second, and I simply had to continue with the strike. “Listen to me, have you heard of that quote…you know… ‘If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more’? You know the state of my mind; it’s simply waste of time to discuss over such thing”.

Yes, it was a response that easily could relieve her pain, and it worked very well I must say.  The enervating mood was soon transparent when I gently passed the letter which I had received the day before. I tried to hold my breath like the day I suppressed my mind to pass through the post-op fixator removal on my hand. The letterhead met her eyes. Her eyes read the title. Her eyes blundered like swirly Perl arrays. With her eyes literally mounted to the text, she fumbled her words and said “Shit, this… this is why I cannot stop loving you…” – reading further, she continued “this is… I mean, how…” – Oops, I almost felt like I have PTSD’d her, or perhaps just fulfilled that salvation she was asking for – “I can’t find any words, but… I just want you to know…”, and the letter just slipped away from her hand, and ultimately hit the new hardwood teak parquetry as she continued – “j’adore, forever and ever”.

We had the time of our lives. We’ve been inspired, we’ve been cultivated and we always stay strong. Running for better things to achieve, we find new ways to differentiate from others. Our business culture is about mutual benefits and 100 percent accuracy in our performance. Our strive is to obtain efficacy and making an exponential business growth overseas.

Let’s say I am a part of this cultural ramble. Can I be liable for any fortcoming failure as much as I (indeed) can benefit from the success we are seeing today?

Todays’ mix pick (read: the smash hit) is solely based on my personal (modest) appreciation for the opposite sex behind the X-fader. So hot, and so intelligent – honesty in a “cherry picking” way of (not so randomly) playing a session that is, far far better than “the other” disposable session I was supposed to post.

Footwork opening set for Steve Porter (July 2008)

DEEP bumpy techy house – DJ Aleksandra

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