Audio Arsenal

Orb Audio ‘Mod’ Speakers

• March 3rd, 2006

I have been doing research on super compact speaker systems for quite some time now. It basically started when my wife said we needed to get some smaller speakers for the house. The ones I had previously were Infinity Reference 2000.5 three ways (mini towers at 2.5′ in height). The Infinity speakers took up alot of space and are totally over powered for the small house we have now.

A friend of mine has the Anthony Gallo Nucleus Micros, and I have been keen on the for awhile now. Since I own a house now, price is more of an issue for me than it was in the past. So, I had to find an alternate to the Nucleus Micros.

I found another high end brand called Mirage, they had a compact system called the Nano, this was an intersting setup, as its an omnidirectional system. The speakers fire striaght up and then are deflected in a 360degree spread. Any spot in your home you are listening from you get the same audio fidelity. I listened to them and was pretty much sold. But…

I did have one more more research expedition to make, to Orb Audio in Sherman Oaks. I really wanted to listen to the Orb Audio speakers. I saw them online, and read some reviews in Wired Magazine, so I figured it was worth a shot.

Well, when I got to the demo showroom, it was a very very pleasant surprise. It turns out that the president/founder of Orb Audio, Gary Pelled, was co-founder of Anthony Gallo Acoustics, and THE man responsible for the innovative globe product design for the Nucleus Micros! Gary explained that after years of working at Gallo it was time for him to start his own company.

When I listened to his speakers, I was converted from the Mirage system immediately, the Orbs sounded as rich and saturated as the Gallo Micros, if not even more so! The best part, since Gary sells his product factory direct, its a major savings for a similar high end and deep sounding compact 5.1 system.

I ended up buying a 3.1+ System (4 Orb speakers plus the Super Eight Subwoofer) and it cost me around $700! Still def. not cheap, but compared to what a Gallo system would have cost, a steal!

The Orbs really are amazing in size and sound! YOu can set up a demo for yourself at the site (they have show rooms ins LA and NYC). Check them out!

View: Orb Audio site

ourTunes, LAN Music Sharing

• June 2nd, 2005

This is yet another great app to enable people on a LAN (not the Internet) to Share Music. Its a tiny footprint JAVA app for MacOSX and Windows (only 292k!), and gives you a startlingly similar interface to Acquisition or Gnutella for browsing all LAN users iTunes Libraries and then cueing MP3s for download.

ourTunes Sourceforge Project Page

RoboCop, The Musical!

• June 1st, 2005

Alrighty then, just when you thought you heard all the parody musical numbers you could (thanks Weird Al), they go and do RoboCop The Musical! RoboCop is like my favorite of all time Sci-Fi cult film! Kurtwood Smith is the shiznit as the villain, a far cry from the grumpy dad on That 70’s Show!

“Murphy, It’s You” from RoboCop The Musical Performed by RoboCop and Officer Lewis.

Konono No1, African Electro DIY Dub

• May 25th, 2005

Just got this link from my musical friend Tony Watson via Francois Kevorkians bulletin board… Holy Jeeesus is all I can say!!! Its some of the most amazing electronic spiritual ethnic percussion I have heard… You HAVE to check out the site it has some amazing photos of the gear these guys built to make the music.

KONONO N°1 was founded over 25 years ago by Mingiedi, a virtuoso of the likembé (a traditional instrument sometimes called “sanza” or “thumb piano”, consisting of metal rods attached to a resonator). The band’s line-up includes three electric likembés (bass, medium and treble), equipped with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, and plugged into amplifiers. There’s also a rhythm section which uses traditional as well as makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), three singers, three dancers and a sound system featuring these famous megaphones.

Konono No1 MP3 Excerpt

via Crammed (Belgium)

Buy CD from Amazon
Buy MP3s from iTunes

Oh No Not Stereo, LA Rock Duo

• May 6th, 2005

While trapsing across town from home to work and back I happened upon a large amount of these Oh No Not Stereo spray painted stencils all over the sidewalk. Since I have a Flickr set dedicated to this genre of graffiti, I took some snaps. Upon some further investigation and info from my alternative music guru friend Kent, I found that its a guerilla ad thing for a music group called ‘Oh No Not Stereo’, uhm go figure.

Oh No Not Stereo - Death to the Attitude

via OH NO NOT STEREO

David Mancuso, Shibuya FM Stream

• May 4th, 2005

David Mancuso has a link to an MP3 stream of his show on Shibuya FM in Japan!

SHIBUYA FM 784Mhz 1:00:17, 56mb, 128k

DAVID MANCUSO (THE LOFT NYC)
23:00-23:58 (The Last Saturday of every month)
SHIBUYA FM 784MHz
Japan

“It’s Music” Playlist
Reasons to be Cheerful, Pt.3 / Ian Dury & the Blockheads / Stiff records
Mother Africa / NY tribulation / Slaag records
Revitalized / Babara Jackson / Stride Records
Joy / Yuki / King Street Sounds
Shianne / Antonio Ocassio / Tribal Winds
Dragon Balls / Flying Rhythms / Lustrum
So Glad You Could Make It / Archie Bell / CBS

via The Loft NYC
via Deep House Page

More Informaion on David Mancuso…

Since 1970, David Mancuso has been the DJ of the legendary New York private party The Loft.

David is the parent and progenitor of much of NYC’s dance scene. In 1975 he, along with Steve D’Aquisto and Vince Aletti, wrote the charter for the first DJ record pool. He has also consistently popularised new music, bringing the Barrabas LP back from Spain and selling it at cost in The Loft as well as playing a major role in getting Eddy Grant’s music over to the hardcore dance audience.

He long abandoned the use of either a mixer or headphones, There is no overlaying or re-mixing of records at The Loft. They simply follow after each other as rhythmically as possible and Mancuso’s editorial input is restricted to the narrative of the song’s sequencing and the fidelity with which they are reproduced by the custom-made Paul Klipsch speaker system, Mark Levinson amplifiers, Mitchell Cotter turntable bases and line amplifier and the Koestu hand-crafted cartridges.

via Jahsonic

Palm Pictures, My Last Minute Post

• May 3rd, 2005

Palm Pictures, one of my favorite movie and record labels has an assortment of MP3s from their stock. I have excerpted as there are so many to chose from. Please check out their site for more info on their top notch films and music!

Moving Units - Available
Moving Units - Anyone
Electro Bamako - N’Ka Willy
Lake Trout - Say Something
Spacer - The Beamer
Supreme Beings Of Leisure - Freezer: Dub Mix
Mad Capsule Markets - Tribe: Razorface Remix
Radio Zumbido - Livingston Buzz
Radio Mundial - La Raiz
Sidestepper - Mas Papaya
Supreme Beings of Leisure - Ghetto

via Palm Pictues

Amon Tobin - The Last Minute The Last Minute Soundtrack
I reviewed The Last Minute movie on my other blog here…

Nuevos Ricos, Rock en Electrespañol

• April 22nd, 2005

Now THIS is a mission statement for a record label… “Income doesn’t mean happiness but, who wants to be happy?” Nuevos Ricos was formed in Mexico City in September 2003, the label aims to bring underground Mexican (and Spanish) music to Europe by means of limited edition Vinyl and Poster Art. Their home base is in Lucca, Italy, they distribute music from The Netherlands, and they have regular Art Openings in Spain and other parts of Europe. I linked to some tracks of their stock of mostly Spanish speaking (or singing actually) artists…

LASSER MODERNA - KARABAO
LASSER MODERNA - LA CUMBIA DEL ESTEREO
SILVERIO - EL BAILE DEL DIABLO
SILVERIO - SUPER IDOLO
MIKI - SOY POBRE
MIKI - SOLO ESCUCHO DANCE
FACA - VAFALEFERIFI A FA
FACA - NIGHTSHOT
MARIA DANIELA Y SU SONIDO LASSER - MIEDO
MARIA DANIELA Y SU SONIDO LASSER - EL TUVIERA NO EXISTE
SECRET MEXICAN BAND - UNKNOWN 01
SECRET MEXICAN BAND - UNKNOWN 02
THOM REVOLVER - ON THE ROAD
THOM REVOLVER - INTERGALACTIC PARADE

via Nuevos Ricos

8Bit Peoples, Nullsleep Depeche Mode Megamix

• April 22nd, 2005

While perousing the family of x-dump music acts, I came upon this treasure of a site, dedicated to 8bit audio, old school video games (Commodore 64, Nintendo Super Famicom, etc.) and music mods (I did some on my trusty Amiga 500 back in the day!). There are so many freely available mp3s, I figured I would link to one that really brought me back to the old days.. well, not soooo old, but still a new wave classic.

A monstrous gameboy megamix paying tribute to the bad boys of Depeche Mode, spanning over 14 minutes of nonstop chiplove, and using every last pattern of lsdj from 00 thru FE! Equally suited for use when dancing in front of the mirror alone in your bedroom or rocking the crowd to the ground at your next mega dance party! Tracks 1 thru 4 are offered in a single mp3 to ensure a seamless mix. Bonus track 5 takes the sweetest cuts of the megamix and offers them up in a powerpacked mini serving!

01. Enjoy The Silence
02. Photographic
03. New Life
04. Everything Counts

05. Depeche Mode Minimix

I would take a deep look at the rest of the music on the 8Bit People site, its pretty amazing… I am going to spend some time tonite downloading myself! Make sure to check out Lo-bat, Paza, Trash80, Sabastian Boaz, and Mesu Kasumai.

Lo-Bat - White Russian
Paza - Hjihjihji
Trash80 - Your Funk Is Fine
Sabastian Boaz - Some New Wave Song
Highway Signs (Project 65 Remix)

via X-Dump
via 8Bit Peoples

Funky Do Morro, Brazillian Beats

• April 19th, 2005

After watching ‘Ginga‘ (this is a link to another blog with a good summary of the event) a RES specially screened film from Nike/O2 Films documenting 7 individuals lives surrounding footbal and fusball in Brazil, I HAD to get my hands on the soundtrack. Turns out that as part of the promotional give aways at the RES event, I actually got a CD soundtrack compilation. On this CD are some of the most intense and raw street, percussion and hip hop beats you have heard. I think its safe to assume that Sao Paulo, Rio and Salvador are harder and more rugged places to live than the bronx, harlem or queens or any other hood here in the US? In any case, its amazing to me that in such poverty and disrepair, there are people inspired and equipped to produce this (although somewhat repetative once you listen to a few dozen tracks) primal and spiritual beat focused music.

I got this Brazillian music link from another site, but its basically focusing on the same genre of music presented in the Ginga film. The Funky Do Morro site has a tome of links to quite a few Brazillian Hip Hop, Percussion and Funk Compilations. I have posted a select few here to be concious of their bandwidth issues (since they are on a donation only server plan)…

“Do Morro” translates to “of the hill”, and has been ingrained in brazilian slang as reflection of the culture of the segregated favelas that have firmly rooted themselves in the hills of Rio De Janeiro.

This archive is intended to share the hip hop beat produced in the hills of Rio, the favelas of Sao Paolo, and the streets of Salvador - funky do morro: the funk of the hill.

Much of this music was found with independent sellers, and produced in garages, with not much international distribution. Many of the individual artists on the track may remain anonymous to global audiences…

MC Junior y MC Leonardo - Rap do Centenario (Rap do Brasil)
O Credo (Hip Hop Cultura de Rua)
As Panteras - Descontrolados (Batidao Cruel)
Tigrao - Toc Toc Toc (Batidao Cruel)
Bnd dos Salientes - Genio Saliente (Batidao Cruel)
MC Jaqueline Pocahontas - Vem Meu Bem (Ta Dominado)
MC Catra - Rap Mercenarias (Ta Dominado)
Casinha Da Baixada (As Melhores do La)

via Evil Wire

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