Frustration with fringe DJ products

Ok, so along time ago I jumped on the Final Scratch bandwagon. I was actually the third person in Canada to get the original unit. I had pre-ordered and paid for the unit almost a full year before it was released. When it finally arrived I was in love. This was the hay day of MP3 sharing, so finding the illegitimate music wasn't all that hard... Sure, there were difficulties and Final Scratch was pretty finicky but as time progressed and so did the patches, the software got a little better. Then came 1.5, and then 2.0 and then.... It's been a fairly regular upgrade cycle and each time it seems like they ditch the previous versions hardware and the users end up getting screwed (Ok, we do get a discount to upgrade, but that discount isn't that large).

Plus, Stanton has seemed to bounce the actual hardware/software development and support from company to company and this is confusing for users and paying customers... Who am I going to call this week for support.

Now it seems like Stanton and Native Instruments have parted company and will have competing products... Great for those of us that have invested thousands of dollars in equipment that now neither company will support (NI has already released their new version... I'm sure Stanton will soon enough). It is so frustrating to constantly be finding out that your new hardware is in need of replacing to get support and patches for software to maintain your DJ setup...

Is this the same with other companies and less core components?

Mr Hyde - Rough Around The Edges

This weeks offering is a techno mix that comes in at 143 BPM. I've always loved techno and it was about time that one of us post a techno mix to the podcast. Techno for me has always been a blast to spin. The speed that these tracks are played at just seem to keep me pumping... Don't get me wrong, breaks are great, but there just seems to be something about techno that gets into my soul and just makes me start dancing around.

Tracks for this mix are:

Love Delux - Original Mix by Ortin Cam
Just Lay - Marco Nastic Remix by Elton D remixed by Marco Nastic
Murder Was The Bass - Chris Liebing 'CTTO' Mix by DK remixed by Chris Liebing
The B-East Roller - Ben Sims Hardgroove Edit by Len Faki remixed by Ben Sims
One Legged Disco - Original Mix by Ben Sims and Paul Mac
Julia - Original Mix by Hertz
Move Beyond - Original Mix by Virgil Enzinger
Stick It To The Man - Original Mix by DJ ESP
Invaders - Original Mix by DJ Mika
Africanizam - Original Mix by DJ Mika

This mix comes in at just over 40 minutes and should keep you running, dancing and grooving right up until the end.

Check it out on our podcast or download it directly here.

--Mr Hyde

Good track but a video not really worth watching...

Well, in our previous posting with the Pendulum video we talked about how many electronic music videos just seemed to be an after thought to the music. I thought I would provide an example of just such a video. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the song and I love the sentiment that the video is trying to get across, but for a major artist remix, this just doesn't seem to do the song justice... I could have slapped this together on my PC.

The track (In my opinion) is amazing... I love the remix (And I also like the original), but the video just seems to be a 30 second after thought ("Hey, let's put together a video and throw it up on the 'net and see what people think"). I'm not saying that the videos need to be a big $$ investment, but they need to be creative and well though out and this just doesn't seem to cut it.

Well, check the video out... It isn't a complete waste of time, after all, the track is awesome!

Mr Hyde - The Dichotomy of Drum and Bass

Hey everyone! We have something different here for you all ... Some drum and bass... I know that we've been leaning more and more towards a break beat podcast, but I needed to throw in something different. This is a mix that I put together for someone special and features a nice melodic intro that progressively moves to a dark and darker mix!

Tracks include:

Leaving Planet Earth - Original Mix by Talisman & Hudson
Pair Of Grins - Original Mix by Autumn
Redemption - Original Mix by Autumn
Rainman by Brookes Brothers
American Beauty - Original Mix by Futurebound & Matrix
Black Hawk Down VIP - Sunchase RMX by Milo remixed by Sunchase
Hollywood feat. Elhornet Of Pendulum - Original Mix by Gridlok
Savage - Original Mix by Spinor
Concussion - Original Mix by Noisia
Open Borders - Original Mix by Rawtekk
X-Ray - Original Mix by Sub Focus

You can check this out on our podcast or here (The podcast will be updated January 11, 2007 @ 7PM MST).

Not our usual fare... The iPhone from Apple

Ok, so life is always interesting and yesterday was no difference. For those of you that don't know me, I'm a little bit of a technology freak. I love it! I've had a number of different Blackberries, Samsung, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, etc, etc phones.

Anyways, the latest phone suffered a terrible blow yesterday! I drove over it with our SUV... Twice!!! It fell out of my pocket when I was getting into the SUV and drove over it when I drove away and again when I parked. Well, I was quite dejected to find out that the phone was no longer all nice and shiny. The screen had a huge black spot on it now and I could no longer see what was happening. Other then that, the phone seemed fine!!

Well the search was on... Time to find the latest and greatest phone... I began to search and the more I looked the more dejected I became... I didn't find anything that even came close to what I thought would be a good new phone... Until this afternoon!

Steve Jobs of Apple fame announced today that there will be a new phone coming to market... the Apple iPhone!!! It looks sooo slick and I can't wait to get my hands on this gear. I know that this doesn't conform to what we usually put on the site, but I just couldn't resist!!!

Check out more about this awesome new phone here.

Mr Hyde

Scratch Master Netik - 2006 DMC Champion

A while back we brought you a video of some amazing break dancing... This got me thinking about life back in the day and I started to think about a club night where we had the pleasure of watching Q-Bert scratch it up for an hour or so. This quickly led to a search of youtube for some video of today's scratch masters.

This is a video of the 2006 DMC champion hard at work and man, is it ever inspiring.



If you're interested in more videos and the like from Netik, check out this page (YouTube search results).

Jekyll's 'Best of 2006' Extravaganza!

Another year has flown by at break-neck speed, leaving behind it a wake of dust, and a year's worth of memories. Hopefully, memories of all the good times.

It's already over a week into 2007, but I'm usually about a week behind at any given time anyway. As such, I give you my official BEST OF 2006 list! Keep in mind that these are completely my opinion, and based off my personal experiences this past year, if you have some you'd like to share, I encourage you to post them in our new forum. It's fairly lonely in there right now...


Best Party

Shambhala Music Festival '06 (9th annual)



This catergory is a little bit stacked if you ask me. Without a doubt, Western Canada's Largest annual party. In excess of 10,000 party people hidden among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in beautiful British Columbia. Starting from the 5 themed stages, enormous sound and visuals.. all the way over to sunny days on the beach by the river, a full on week of good times

Needless to say, I have my ticket for '07


Best DJ

DJ Dan
Oddly enough, the first time I had the opportunity to see DJ Dan was in 2004, when we brought him to Edmonton to headline "Metropolis" (along with Cosmic Gate, AK1200, and Capital J. Which was also marked the first appearance of Jekyll and Hyde as well). Dan has been a hot commodity in North America for many years, as well as one of the main driving forces in house music. Dan has moved almost 20 spots this year to land himself at #5 on DJMAG's infamous top 100 DJ list, despite a lesser degree of popularity in Europe. All his insane credentials aside, Dan manages to maintain a down to earth attitude.




He also managed to get me to drink shots of Jager. And I NEVER drink Jager. So that's worth something.




Best Set

The Freestylers @ Shambhala Music Festival

Hands down, the best set last year. If not, the best set I've ever seen. Seemlessly mixing the sickest breaks, with drum and bass, and hip hop. I'll never forget hearing the roaring synth line from Prodigy's "Voodoo People", cut over into the high note hook from Jay Z's "Big Pimpin' ".

Friggin' brilliant.


Best Producer

Lee Coombs

Being a newbie producer has made me think about music in a completely different way. As such, listening to tracks produced by Lee Coombs is more or less mind blowing. Check out the track "Shiver", maybe you'll see what I'm talking about. Also, if you're feeling inclined, a pretty cool interview with Lee Coombs over at Club Planet:

Interview With Lee Coombs


Well, there you have it minions! Another year in the bag. Take care of yourselves!

--- Dr Jekyll

OOOOOOH MAN!! Someone needs to bring this guy to a party

Wow! One of my favorite dance styles has always been break dancing. I love seeing breakers at clubs, parties, whatever... I don't see many out and about these days (Is that because there are fewer breakers, more club kids or am I just lame and staying home more?).

The guy in this video is SICK! If you're going to check one video out, check this one out!!! Man, this guys is amazing!!! Someone needs to seriously get this guy out to a party here! I'd love to see this guy throw down.

Anyways, enjoy the video (Courtesy of youtube.com). Oh, and this Frenchman's name is Junior.

--Mr Hyde