I feel like a lot of folks don’t “get” Reggae, but I really believe that it is one of the most compelling musical forms to hit planet Earth in the last century. It is a unique amalgam of Caribbean, African, and European rhythms and melodies. When listening to Reggae one can hear the musicians summoning the whole of those various musical cultures and melding them together so succinctly. On top of that, and this is the kicker, you had hundreds of musicians in on this tiny little island (4,444 square miles to be exact) in the 60’s and 70’s who had all mastered that melding. That melding became the baseline – the standard. So, then they did something truly magnificent and somehow collectively pushed each other even further. And as if that wasn’t enough, then you had the genesis of the entire DJ culture and the fascinating advent of “studio as musician” with the introduction of technology to capture and more importantly manipulate sound. Perhaps it’s easy to take all that for granted if your under fifty or for it to go over your head if your over fifty, but I can’t stress enough how significant this movement was/is to human’s relationship to music and sound.

So yeah, I hope you’ll come out if you live in NYC or Dallas. Dance a little bit and rejoice in that revolution in sound. Although if nobody shows up to Matt’s night in Dallas that will just be one more arrow in my quiver proving that he should move to NYC.

Foundation Rockers Soundclash
DJ Franco Nero & The Diamond Age
@ The Doublewide
3510 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX
Tuesday, July 27th 2010
10-2 *Free*

More info here: http://thediamondage1.blogspot.com/2010/07/foundation-rockers-diamond-age-mix.html

And then on Thursday, I’m going to be continuing my DJ residency at The Counting Room with one of the guys who really turned me on to the whole of Reggae, Jon Bless.

DJ sets by Jon Bless & Brad Loving
@ The Counting Room
44 Berry Street
Brooklyn, NY
Thursday, July 29th 2010
9-2 *Free*

Diamond Age – JAMAICAN RECORDs 2:

1. Sir Lord Comic, Skatalites – Four Seasons
2. Upsetters – Night Doctor
3. Eric Frater – Venus
4. Roy Shirley – Dance Arena
5. Larry Marshall – Run Babylon
6. The Revolutionaries – M.P.L.A.
7. Toyan – Spar with Me
8. Mikey Murta – Rude Rock Dubplate Mix
9. Big Youth – Screaming Target Version
10. Barry Brown -
11. General Echo – Follow Fashion
12. Shinehead – Billy Jean
13. Leroy Wallace & The New Establishment – Far Beyond
14. Jackie Mittoo – Juice Box
15. White Mice – Tallawah
16. Prince Jazzbo – Pepper Rock
17. Ranking – Chatty Chatty People
18. The Gladiators – Tallawah

I sent out a big year-end email to a lot of folks a few weeks ago.  It was nice to meditate a little bit about 2009 since it was such a unusual year for me.  It was great to hear back from friends and catch up on the latest. My buddy John sent me a reply and happened to mention a few links that I sent his way.  I thought I might take a second to include a few of those links in this post as well as a few others that caught my attention.  Websites are good like that.

I like this youtube video not only for its action, but also its arc as a short film.  I love the initial ambiguity and the move towards clarity.
This is an old music video, but it still makes me laugh.
This also makes me laugh.
Here are links to two of my favorite short fiction stories from the New Yorker’s podcasts series.  One is by Tobias Wolff and the other is by Denis Johnson.  I really love this Podcasts by the way.  Highly recommended.
On a more serious note, my friend Azita posted this on Facebook.  I think it’s an important piece of journalism. It’s from Salon.com and definitely worth a read.

The new version of this website is just around the corner.  Please point your browser back this direction on January 21, 2010 to see what my good friend Mike Perrone has put together.  I think some really good things are in store.

I’ve got a DJ gig coming up this Thursday at Zebulon.  My roommate Bob Jones is going to play live as well so it should be a really nice evening. It’d be spectacular to see you out.  I made a little video to pimp the gig from some footage I shot at the Mori Museum this fall in Tokyo.

Diamond Age – Tunes about a Girl:

1. Armando Sciascia – Occhi Nella Notte
2. Ennio Morricone – Ninna Nanna per Adulti
3. Broadcast and The Focus Group – Ritual/Looking In
4. Armando Sciascia – Circuito Chiuso
5. The Visitors – Visitors
6. M. Ashraf feat Nahid Akhtar – Good News For You
7. Adriano Celentano – Prisencolinensinainciusol
8. Puccio Roelens – Caravan
9. Stelvio Cipriani – The Killer Whales’ Games
10. Caetano Veloso – O Leaozinho
11. Paulo Bagunça e a Tropa Maldita – Olhos Risonhos
12. Ennio Morricone – Scusi,Facciamo l’Amore? (From Bed to Worse)
13. Donovan – Sunshine Superman (Full Version)
14. Françoise Hardy – Voilà
15. Piero Umiliani – La Ragazza Dalla Pelle Di Luna
16. Armando Sciascia – Assonanza in Me
17. The Zombies – Conversation off Floral Street
18. Little Beaver – Party Down pt. 1
19. Little Beaver – Party Down pt. 2
20. Piero Piccioni – The Rendezvous (Take 3)
21. Bruno Nicolai – Psycho-Meeting

Oh and if that’s enough Matt’s got a new blog himself.

I’m moving to Bushwick and going to Japan this week.  I do not have my shit together. I’m flipping out.

The two MP3’s posted above are the individual mixes.  The ZIP is both of the mixes with all the track info.

sUMMEReNDS mix Disk 1:

1. Caravan – Asforteri 25

2. Dorothy Ashby – Soul Vibrations

3. Módulo 1000 – Curtíssima

4. Som Imaginário – Ascenso

5. Ananda Shankar – The River

6. Ray Cathode – Waltz In Orbit

7. Os Brazoes – Espiral

8. Bwana – La Jurumba

9. The Byrds – So You want to be a Rock’N'Roll Star

10. The Equals – I can See but You don’t Know

11. Hasil Adkins – The HUNCH

12. Mustafa Ozkent Orchestra – Dolana

13. Gareth Williams – Anger or Fire

14. Piero Piccioni – Babylon I’m Comin’

15. DIAMOND AGE – HELEN 12 TREES

16. The Troggs – I Want You

17. Love – My Little Red Book

18. Jacques Dutronc – Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont Flous

19. The Creation – I Am the Walker

20. Pink Floyd – See Saw

sUMMEReNDS mix Disk 2:

1.  The Index – Eight Miles High

2. Dara Puspita – To Love Somebody

3. Prince Jazzbo – Fool of Love

4. Fábio – Lindo Sonho Delirante

5. Piero Umilani – Dynamique en Tension No. 1

6. Ennio Morricone – Un Altro Mare

7. Sophie Daumier – Femme Femme

8. The Moments – Ride Your Pony

9. King Tubby – satta dub

10. Soft Machine – Dada was Here

11. Embryo – Hackbrett-dance

12. Venus Gang – Evil Times

13. Family Fodder – Savoire Faire

14. Usha Iyer & Asha Bhosle – I Love You

15. Liliental – Wattwurm

16. Broadcast – Pendulum

17. Tonto’s Expanding Head Band – Riversong

18. Armando Trovajoli – Vedo Nudo (diva waltz)

Once upon commenting on how large my friend Drew’s record collection was he said something about wanting to have the right music for whatever the occasion was.  I like that idea: that life can be enhanced by the music that we surround ourselves with, and, conversely, that music can be more meaningful when played at the right moment.

The Diamond Age’s new mix is made up of music mostly from film scores.  Matt said he made to play between sets at rock shows, but I’d say it makes for a perfect soundtrack to life in general.

There’s a TON of good music going on in Chicago tonight.  Four Tet at Sonotheque,  Baby Allright at Ronny’s, Josh Abrams & the Colorist at the Viaduct, and The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International at the Bottle.  Choose wisely friends.

I’m leaving to go to Mali in a couple weeks.  If you have any suggestions of places to go while I’m there, I’m all ears.

The Diamond Age – Catacombs Mix:

1. Ennio Morricone – Dialogo N.1
2. Komeda, Krzysztof – Alfred In The Crypt
3. Nino Rota – Main Titles Toby Dammit Theme
4. Technical Space Composer’s Crew – Boat-Woman-Song (edit)
5. Ennio Morricone – 1970
6. Ennio Morricone – Le Fotografie
7. Komeda, Krzysztof – Vampire Corners
8. Nino Rota – Toby Dammit Theme Slow Fox
9. Ennio Morricone – Il sogno
10. Nora Orlandi – Obscure Remembering
11. Ennio Morricone – Astratto II
12. Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra – Love In Space
13. Piero Piccioni – The Trap
14. Nora Orlandi – Descending
15. Nora Orlandi – Body Fox
16. John Barry – My Love Has Two Faces (Instrumental Demo)
17. Nino Rota – Ninna Nanna
18. Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier – Teen Tonic
19. Ennio Morricone – La Bambola
20. Piero Piccioni – Con o senza sole
21. Goblin – Sighs
22. Nino Rota – Aria Di Roma – Main Titles
23. Ennio Morricone – Il Clan Dei Siciliani

I think both Jaytram and The Diamond Age’s mixes stand up under this criterion. [Editor's note: I broke these two mixes into different posts with the new format but you can find Jaytram's mix here.] Delighted to share their selections with you.
Some of you may recall Jaytram made it to Chicago to play at the last Bird & Whale Showcase with the mighty Epstein. Killed it. Had a good time sharing some Chicago with those guys. There’s usually a fair amount of pestering that takes place on my part for people to get a mix together for this site, so it was a pleasant surprise to get an email the other day out of the blue from Jaytram, “sending you a lil mix…”
The Diamond Age continues his catalogue of musical conquest. I’d say this mix is a little more delicate than some of his previous entries. Maybe a little less emphasis on stumping the listener in favor of the jams.

It’s raining like hell in Chicago right now. I walked about two blocks to get breakfast this morning and got real wet. I’ll take it over snow though. Noticed a couple bulbs coming up out of the ground on the way there. Maybe this winter will walk away.
I saw Let the Right One In last night at the Music Box. Not a movie for everyone. A lot of blood, but I thought it was brilliant. 5 stars.

I almost forgot, I’m sitting in for Selina doing video projections at Rodan on Tuesday again. Should be a good time. I think I got some good ideas in the works.

The Diamond Age – The End of the World Mix:

1. Roy Budd – Goodbye Carter!
2. Embryo – Abdul Malek
3. Assim Assado – Rock Blue
4. Aphrodite’s Child – End of the World
5. The Kinks – King Kong
6. Erasmo Carlos – 26 Anos De Vida Normal
7. Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley
8. CAN – Pnoom
9. Sir Victor Uwaifo – Dododo (Ekassa Number 1)
10. Serge Gainsbourg – 69 année érotique
11. Silver Apples – Ruby
12. The United States Of America – Cloud Song
13. Robert Wyatt – TO CARAVAN AND BROTHER JIM
14. Nelson Angelo e Joyce – Comunhão
15. Nirvana – Take This Hand [Original Stereo Mix]
16. S. Brugnolini – Polyphony
17. Kevin Ayers – Girl On A Swing
18. Komeda, Krzysztof – Sarah In Bath
19. Bob Marley – I’m Still Waiting
20. Caravan – Ride
21. The Pretty Things – What’s the Use
22. Lee Perry & The Upsetters – Bad Walking
23. White Noise – The Visitations
24. Paul Giovanni – Willow’s Song
25. Ron Wood – Mystifys Me
26. Tim Buckley – Song to the Siren