“Part of the weekend never dies.” This bit of genius commentary comes to us by way of an extended version of “E-Talking” by Soulwax. For the last few years it’s been my signature on www.mercuryserver.com from whenever I first heard the track until now. It’s obviously catchy and semi-ominous sounding and I’m sure part of it’s appeal to me is that it conveys some sort of higher purpose to what often becomes a slew of bad decisions and overspending.

Recently though, as I continue to try to sort a life for myself out of the music we play and produce as Holosound I’m finding more and more truth to this statement. I didn’t get to where I am today by just chasing the party, the madness of all night dance sessions or after-hours filled with disposable conversations and pictures that make us regret bringing photography with us into the digital age. I got here by refusing to accept the fact that the quality of dance music I could enjoy was subject to the whims/mood/amount of sleep/level of intoxication of whichever big DJ happened to be swinging through my city that weekend.

Although this had been the case since I’d fallen in love with electronic music around ’93, it wasn’t until I was at Trinity College in Hartford, CT in ‘98-’99 that I really began to rebel against this situation. In the days before full-on Internet (2.0), accessible dance music outside of clubs/Raves in America was ostensibly controlled by GU Compilations and jaded record store employees who hoarded anything of worth to themselves.

When I purchased my first Technics 1200 Turntables in ’99 I religiously hit the record stores every week trying to get a hold of fresh, forward-thinking music that expressed what I felt was exciting about dance music at the time. I was buying underground stuff and the big tracks (at the time I admit it was all trance) I’d heard out at clubs but I had a difficult time conveying the sheer joy and utter abandon I’d sometimes feel on those nights when you felt the DJ was communicating only with you.

In these cases I was the DJ so not being able to effectively translate these vibes to my friends at school was frustrating. Stringing bombs together worked well enough at the smaller east coast raves and college frat parties but I kept wanting to elicit the kind of responses I’d given people like Josh Wink after a particularly mind-blowing set at Axis in Boston during some year that was pre 1997. After a couple years, a few thousand dollars and more records than my roommate and I could rationalize being in the “common area,” I started to see a clearer path through my record crates.

The secret, I was finding, was that every venue and party I played demanded a truly objective perspective when it came to choosing what records to play. It’s clearly not rocket science that your sets couldn’t be carbon copies of one another but I was starting to realize I’d never consistently have good results if I, as I’d tended to do in my first few years, favored my newest purchases at the record stores at the expense of something a few weeks older that may have better suited the situation or environment.

Combining proven records with newer, untested tracks limited the risk of losing the connection I’d generally work so hard to build with the people on the dance floor. Even though you’d know what a track sounded like in your bedroom or on headphones, it could often be an entirely different story when it came to the varying caliber of clubs and sound-systems I was having the opportunity to play on. Certain spaces were drastically over or under powered with regards to the lower bass frequencies and others had arrangements that strongly (read: painfully) favored the higher ones.

Regardless of which particular insufficiency of polar frequency response a particular venue suffered from, the mids almost always fell prey, resulting in a muddy sound that I personally hold partially responsible for the formation of the “it all sounds the same” theory with respect to dance music as a whole. In the current climate of dance music proliferation some of these conclusions may seem obvious, but back in 2001ish, in the absence of any accessible mentor figures or online recorded examples of how to tastefully play dance music live, this was a notable learning process.

This realization could not have happened without the ability to record my practice sessions at home. Listening to your sets, as I’m sure most DJs will tell you, is always a bit stressful because you’re always your own worst critic. You’re also infinitely more qualified to determine the effectiveness of a mix, track selection or filter sweep than the girl hugging everyone on the dance-floor who just gave you a thumbs up.

Some of the tricks I used to think were awesome live actually seemed to diminish the emotive potential of certain tracks upon re-listening. I found myself wanting to not hear an echo I remembered putting into a mix because I knew just how great the song could sound on it’s own. After all, when we make tracks as Holosound, we’re not hoping some DJ is going to reverb the hell out of a breakdown…

Restraint became more important to my playing a show that the audience AND I felt good about. Sometimes when you’re up in a booth playing records and the adrenaline’s brought all the hairs on your body to attention, impulses to show off or do something “incredible” start firing. I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline, the massive wattage a club system can put out or the minor differences between beat up pieces of club gear, but the results of most of these efforts sound a few clicks short of “incredible.” Don’t get me wrong, I still do certain things with effects if the mixer or gear is something I’m comfortable with, but I apply significantly more judgment into the decisions to do such things than I once did during the “early days.”

All of these discoveries that I’ve made about my own DJing, with regards to record store strife, programming tips, effect usage moderation and the importance of listening to one’s sets are epiphanies that came about from Monday to Friday. Initially these began at night after school, then at night after work and now 9-5 week in-week out I’m putting the groundwork into to making the weekend everything it can be. It also bears noting that even in the absence of a boss or cubicle, my desire for the weekend to arrive is still as strong as ever.

My theory is that the personal validation we all get or (in my case) got on a daily basis from our day jobs or academic performance is vital to maintaining a balanced sense of well-being. Having great friends and family is equally important but there will always be a need, certainly within myself, to constantly evaluate my progress as an artist within larger and larger sample populations.

It’s through constantly testing my ability to adapt to the unrelenting series of changing environments, crowds, and musical genre preferences that accompany a DJ’s lifestyle and job requirements that I can go to sleep each night, satisfied that I’m still learning and growing more effective at my chosen craft . Although I revel in the day-to-day creative process involved in laying the groundwork for the next show, I only truly relish and am spiritually satiated by the feeling that accompanies contributing to our society on, wait for it… The Weekend.

Download (left-click and unzip):
Holosound - Holologic 2.0 Promo - pt1 - July 08
Holosound - Holologic 2.0 Promo - pt2 - July 08

It’s been a struggle getting this column off the ground. I’ve been hanging in underground clubs for almost nine full years and have seemingly a lifetime of DJ culture and partying to shoot my mouth off about. Over that amount of time I’ve accumulated an abundance of in my opinion’s, making brainstorming for v.1 super confusing.

However, Alex’s stellar debut of Holologic was motivation enough to just get started and see what flows out of this annoyingly overactive brain of mine. I’ve broken the process’ success down to bottling up a little of the passion (aka obsession) so that I don’t come off sounding too bitter and / or pretentious.

Because being misunderstood is always what I’ve been afraid of when posting reviews or making any type of critical comment on the web. I honestly love the scene more than most other aspects of my life; nevertheless, the club industry has become an incredible nuisance in so many ways. So much so that when I get on about my experiences, I too often find myself speaking in a very unbecoming tone. I definitely don’t want negativity to be the basis of my conversations and most certainly not this website.

But on the other hand, for the sake of my sanity and the longevity of my involvement in the underground scene, it’s imperative I let out some of this pent up frustration. I figure there’s no better place than the space we pay for to go off about all the shady and just plain ignorant moves I see taking place in the club world. For way too long I’ve watched the powers that be do very little to nurture the credibility of dance music.

It’s all the nagging behind the scenes bullshit that fuels this criticism. I guess to some extent it’s the disappointment we feel for the current state of the club scene that has us still working so crazily on the entire bringthebeats project. Because trust me, we’d all much rather be the crew that just shows up on the dance floor each week, drink in hand, smile on face, stress left at the door… oh man I miss those early Breathe days.

But the unfortunate truth is that the widespread perception of our culture is most certainly not underground. And its the businesses at the top of the scene who are th most to blame. Who would have ever thought bottle service and house music would be found under the same roof? That dudes with less CDJ skill than my girlfriend would be headlining festivals with their farting basslines and cheese ball electro? What happened to tight mixing? Fluid programming? Proper journeys on the dance floor? To club promoters who are actually into the music?

Our motivation to create something special on the web and in the clubs stems from the mainstream’s warped impression of what true EDM lovers do. However we’re CONVINCED the magic isn’t lost forever, and we know this scene can appeal to the mainstream without becoming commercial. We download two to three sets each week that blow our mind. If the clubbing corps would just give the new breed a chance again, the fresh talent on the peripheral of the industry would drive dance floors absolutely crazy. It would be a true house.music.re-evolution.

Instead, almost all the gigs continue to go to the legends. The ones that simply work through the motions to collect their fee. Promoters have stopped making it about the music and have concentrated soley on who can get the most people through the doors and into a drunk immediately. The same circuit of DJs dominate our clubs and it kills me. If I wanted to hear the same music over and over again, I’d listen to rock and roll.

So if you continue to read this column, think of it as constructive hostility. It’s my way of telling it like it is, under the pretence that it’s absolutely, 100% my opinion and nobody else’s (some days it seems that way). But if you do happen to agree with what I write here, please come to our parties.

So…
my name is Alex Fish, I’m one half of Holosound and we’re based out of New York City. Holosound is a DJ/Production collaboration between myself and Noah Becker. I’ve been DJing since getting my first set of belt-drive turntables back in 98 but only really decided that it was the way I was going to live my life in 2004.

In August of that year, I drove cross country with barely enough $ for gas, moved in with my mom in Boston (at 25) quickly saved enough for two months rent in NYC, and headed down. For months I rocked an Aerobed, clothes in piles on the floor and two turntables and a mixer set atop two Rubbermaid trashcans and a roommates’ bedboard.

Since then it’s been a long and hard road accented by some of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve ever had. I happily submit that small aspect my ghetto background because I personally am very happy with how far I, and Holosound, have come from those humble beginnings.

At least that’s what I tell anyone I speak with that isn’t directly connected to this “scene” in one way or another…

The truth is, that the aforementioned “unforgettable experiences,” as tremendous as they may be, share an unfortunate analogous nature with the most addictive substances on the planet. As with anything extremely fun, or mind-blowing, your tolerance raises proportionate to how often you do them and the more opportunities you get to share your vision of great dance music with people all over the world, the more you’re on the lookout for that next big fix-err gig.

It’s not quite as melodramatic as that I guess… on the surface. On the surface I’m very lucky to have built a network of colleagues (DJs/Producers/Promoters/Veterinarians) that thrive on honesty about each other’s work and mutual respect. It’s by chatting, watching and listening to them do what they do, that I chart my course nearly every week.

We trade tracks, sets, stories from the road and a common desire to shape the course of dance music. Yet, as much as I enjoy some of the similarities that I hear in the sets played by myself, my close friends in the scene and even some of my Top 100 heroes, being this close is also like walking along a precipice of obscurity.

You never know when your next step might send you hurtling downward, erasing all of your hard earned progress in one fell swoop. In a world of rising gas costs (read: airfare) and where anyone with a laptop can be a DJ-and, seemingly is, I feel that one of the biggest struggles we face is how to keep things unique without jeopardizing one’s core audience.

Holosound currently finds itself with a following that is loyal and informed, but also not without its own prejudices and thoughts on how this music should be played. Nearly every time we release a promo mix I get at least an email or two mentioning something someone liked but also something they thought we should “stay away from.” Of course, I wouldn’t be sharing this if those emails weren’t accompanied by more from people we’ve never met in various parts of the world saying how glad they were that someone was playing exactly what they wanted to hear.

Getting my head around the concept that you cannot please everyone 100% of the time has probably been one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned since beginning with Holosound. It wasn’t that I hadn’t already mastered the concept with regards to my personality, appearance and career aspirations, but musically I thought those rules didn’t apply.

I was convinced I could work harder than anyone and find that perfect combination of tracks that would, regardless of one’s musical background or preference, transmit that eureka moment we’ve all had with this music directly into EVERYONE’S consciousness. If I could put that together, show all the people who thought it “all sounded the same” that it didn’t…then naturally all the chips would start to fall into place.

Once I brought what I’d grown up hearing my parents listen to on the radio and combined it an alarming amount of electronic music awareness and love, I knew that we could bring this underground music out into the light. As much as I’ve always relished the bond you share with people on the same dance floor in a dark club, I always wanted to know what that bond would feel like with 100 or even 1000 times as many people.

I guess it’s fair to note that growing up in America, where dance music represented an even more striking minority than in Canada or overseas, probably had a lot to do with this quest to bring it out into the open. I found it deeply frustrating that as I got older and was drawn into DJing I increasingly had to choose between the music and certain friends. Why couldn’t it be for everyone? Why couldn’t I be the one to make it so? Time and experience have been the two most contributive factors in my personal enlightening.

I now know this music that gives us goosebumps, watery eyes and sore legs will most likely never be for “everyone.” Everyday on the streets of New York from the vantage point of my ipod and earbuds, I see just how different we all are and am constantly reminded that there’s no possible way this shit could resonate as powerfully with everyone.

Just as a store-bought suit can only look its best after a trip to the tailor, the best house music will always take a little extra work to find. After all, the thrill of the hunt is often as much a part of enjoying it as dancing to it. That extra “work” may be standing in a line around the block at 3:30 in the morning or entering captcha codes on a Russion filehosting site. But once you enter that main room with pounding beats and flashing lights-or download that special set you’d been chasing for ages, you know that only the people who’ll go the distance deserve it.

The best part is, and one of the things I find most validating about electronic music, is that while “the scene” is an exclusive group, it’s one that is open to any and all who’ll work for it. It’s also one of the few congregations I know of where the internet geek who trolls the message boards for new sets, gear or DJ gossip is as much a part of it all as the gorgeous girls you may have seen cut the line on your way in…

The fact I’m writing this review in mid January is a sign of how extremely busy ‘07 was and ‘08 will seemingly be. bringthebeats has never had so much going on and I don’t think we’ve had a year as motivating, exciting or challenging. Of course it all took place in the never ending quest for good times. Here’s what went down in our underground in 2007. (more…)

When I look back at all the places I have traveled I’m always reminded that Toronto has one of the best scenes in the world for electronic dance music. The T.O. scene is kept alive because of people who are passionate about the music, including DJs like Isaac S, who is continuing to champion a solid, steady Progressive House sound with this latest In Demand exclusive.

I first heard of Isaac S six years ago when I was attending the University of Waterloo. During that time I worked at a restaurant beside the Revolution nightclub, where Isaac held a five year residency. During my late-night breaks I would sneak out to the venue’s House space, the Purple Room to catch some of Isaac’s high energy sets.

Since that time Isaac has kept himself very busy both as a DJ and in the production side of EDM. DJing Isaac has spun at many of Toronto’s most well know and beloved clubs such as System Soundbar, Roxy Blu, Element, The Docks and the Guverment. He’s also been booked for some of the city’s most high profiled one-offs including the world renowned Fashion Cares benefit.

On the production side, Isaac has released several tracks and remixes both internationally and domestically and has recently established his own label, “Dirty Deluxe Records” with his new production partner Jeff Hurst aka J-Groove. His production is such high quality he’s had tracks featured on John Digweed’s Kiss 100 UK based radio show.

Isaac started DJing during the early Toronto rave scene when he was 18 and now 13 years later I think it’s safe to say Isaac is a veteran! Within seconds I knew this exclusive In Demand mix was going to be a great one. Right from the intro beat I wanted to clap my hands… you`ll hear what I mean. So turn up the volume because what you’re about to hear is full of chunky build ups and killer vocal tracks; it definitely has a big club feel!

Carrying on with the In Demand tradition I survived a Japanese typhoon to sit on my porch and find a wireless connection so that Isaac and I could have a chat. What came out of it is really very entertaining…

Inside the IM with Isaac S & littlemissbluedress

More about Isaac S

Download (left-click and unzip):
Isaac S – In Demand – July 2007

I figured I spare you another one of my completely bias takes on Luke’s work and offer another - completely biased - review of Balance 11 from Luke’s best friend. It’s one of the coolest pieces I’ve ever read and thankfully he’s prepared it exclusively for bringthebeats.

Luke Fair - Balance 11 - reviewed by Neil Rosenthal

To say that Luke Fair has a style all to himself would be an understatement. Over the last few years his unique tastes in funky organic, instrumentally enriched and melodic deep house and grooving progressive has ballooned into what makes his mixed sets and compilations truly a Luke Fair sound.

The release of Balance 011 gives fans of his style the opportunity to hear the two personalities of his music. Where Luke can seamlessly wind you through sly, sultry, atmospheric, and even haunting deep house, like in CD1, he can also lay down chugging, funky, bass-rich and tripped-out progressive electro, as he does in CD2. All along displaying flawless technique and maintaining his distinctive brand of sound. (more…)

2006 was a pretty awesome year for bringthebeats. But I honestly don’t think it was that great for the rest of the EDM scene in Canada; at least in my opinion.

Our nightlife in Toronto saw the end of an era and the beginning of another definitely not custom-made for our underground tastes. And unfortunately, our club trips to Montreal have just simply come to an end.

Globally we’ve become tight with a crew that is sure to be a force in the industry for years to come and we’ve been introduced to some wicked talents that we need to get into Canadian booths pronto.

It’s been a year of incredible ups and less than deep downs – all of which I’ll sum up in this review of 2006 (which is full of great downloads by the way). (more…)