:: DREAMDAZE ::

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:: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 ::

Got a "hit" from Cosmic Flux Musiq, a record label in San Francisco, but they wanted more "dance floor friendly" music then what was included in my demo CD, so I've put them together a "rough demo" (not pretty like my other one) and will be sending that out to them tomorrow.

Songs on that CD-R include:
Eleanor, Again and Again
No Longer Meditative
Automobiling Jazz Dancing Nightlifers

:: DJ 9:31 PM [+] ::
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Sending a demo to the radio station of my alma mater. Hope they play my stuff...

:: DJ 9:14 PM [+] ::
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Organic River is now available on my site.

Organic River is my latest down tempo song and features very mellow pads, a relaxing bass and some nice electric piano bits.

Very relaxing. Enjoy.

:: DJ 8:11 PM [+] ::
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Well, this is the first time Miasma has charted in recent history.
I wonder why it's charting now...

Chicago Electronic
93. Fisches Nachtgesang
97. Miasma

:: DJ 6:50 AM [+] ::
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Quick rankings (as usual)...

Chicago Electronic
62. Understanding The Breakdown Of God
69. Eleanor, Again and Again
87. No Longer Meditative

:: DJ 7:49 AM [+] ::
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Wait for me...

:: DJ 10:46 PM [+] ::
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I'm a teen idol!

:: DJ 10:30 PM [+] ::
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Who steals a monkey?

:: DJ 10:14 PM [+] ::
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Well, he certainly looks insatiable.

:: DJ 10:10 PM [+] ::
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Quick rankings...

Chicago Electronic
32. Eleanor, Again and Again

:: DJ 6:02 AM [+] ::
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Here's something cool. Not only did I get 41 listens in Afghanistan (how cool is that), but I had 260 listens in Vatican City! I guess that demonstrates that my music cuts across culture, region and religion - yeah, or something like that... I'm just imagining some mullah or priest bopping along to Understanding The Breakdown Of God.

Premium Artist Stats for the week beginning 2003-7-14

Listens By Region
Afghanistan 41
Andorra 2
Austria 3
Canada 141
Chile 2
Czech Republic 1
France 13
Germany 1
Greece 15
Italy 3
Japan 1
Korea, South 1
Lithuania 5
Malaysia 2
Slovenia 1
Spain 4
Switzerland 2
United Kingdom 86
United States 965
Uzbekistan 1
Vatican City 260

Average Age of Listener 30

Listens By Gender
FEMALE 12.24%
MALE 87.75%

:: DJ 7:50 PM [+] ::
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While at the Squarepusher/Luke Vibert show at the Empty Bottle last Friday I did a LOT of promoting. Had a friend handing out business cards. I handed out free CDs. Looks like it finally had an effect Monday. Went from an average of 40 hits a day to over 80 on the web site.

:: DJ 7:01 AM [+] ::
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I'm always surprised when old songs that never do anything suddenly get listens. See below:

Chicago Electronic
44. Chill
75. Diffuse
89. Down

:: DJ 6:11 AM [+] ::
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Random review...
A&L of Miami, FL, gave my Venus Hum Soul Sloshing DREAMDAZE Remix a 9/10.

:: DJ 5:37 PM [+] ::
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My music will soon be available on itunes and Rhapsody. Pretty frickin' cool. I love CDBaby!

:: DJ 10:40 AM [+] ::
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Chicago Electronic
61. Eleanor, Again and Again
76. Placid Abstraction

:: DJ 10:31 AM [+] ::
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Went to see the Squarepusher/Luke Vibert show at the Empty Bottle last night. Good show! More on this later.

:: DJ 9:22 AM [+] ::
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These 2 songs keep hanging around on the charts. Someone must like them...

Chicago Electronic
67. Placid Abstraction
76. Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff

:: DJ 9:13 AM [+] ::
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I've got a kickin' dnb song going if I can find some nice pads to fill it out. Right now I have cool bass, awesome breaks, some nice one shots (bass, triangles and cymbals), but I definitely need some pads still...

:: DJ 9:13 AM [+] ::
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Have been short on postings lately (outside of simple rankings) due to the fact that I'm in AZ on business. The good news is: the hotel has fast internet. I'm going to start making it a point to only stay in hotels with fast internet. This rocks.

During my airport/plane/travel time, I remixed an old song (Lugubrious) - tightened up the production, still need to cut about a minute off it. Also worked on another down tempo song (about 1/4 done with that) and started a new d'n'b song (about 1/8 done with that one).

:: DJ 9:09 AM [+] ::
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Quick rankings.

Chicago Electronic
20. Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff
26. Placid Abstraction

:: DJ 9:07 AM [+] ::
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Big day on the charts yesterday! 11 of the Top 100 Chicago Electronic songs!

Chicago Electronic
17. Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff
20. Placid Abstraction
26. No Longer Meditative
38. Chthonic Cerumen
39. Brevity
45. The Birth Of Liquid Desire
46. Simple Non Linear Melancholic Swirl
48. Automobiling Jazz Dancing Night Lifers
49. Premature Ossification
50. Morphological
87. Wretched Bliss

:: DJ 9:05 AM [+] ::
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Eleanor, Again and Again was accepted for publishing by Raw42 yesterday. That's my 21st song published, if I'm counting correctly!

:: DJ 8:04 PM [+] ::
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Chicago Electronic
52. Bayou

:: DJ 8:02 PM [+] ::
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Did my publicity photos yesterday. If you ever need any done and you're in the Chicago area, check out www.mrpchicago.com. Matt does great work. He does corporate events and publicity photos mainly (his site reflects the wedding side of his business right now - he's in redesign mode).

:: DJ 6:04 AM [+] ::
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Chicago Electronic
43. Fen
90. Bog

:: DJ 5:57 AM [+] ::
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Chicago Electronic
46. Fen
99. Zarathustra

:: DJ 7:47 AM [+] ::
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I do believe this is the first time Diffuse has been on the charts - good selection of loops in an average song.

Chicago Electronic
54. Bog
67. Placid Abstraction
69. Diffuse
76. Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff

:: DJ 2:39 PM [+] ::
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What forms have my sources of caffeine taken today?

1) Red Bull - Sugar Free
2) Cappuccino
3) Tea
4) Diet Pepsi
5) Chai

:: DJ 6:04 PM [+] ::
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Ordered my self a mug and a t-shirt from my own store and just got them in yesterday. They're pretty cool. Features cover art from my CD. I like the mug especially. Drank tea from it this afternoon. It worked great! I didn't even spill any...

:: DJ 4:00 PM [+] ::
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The other interesting thing (to me) about Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff is how I work the drums.

I've taken separate snares, high hats and kicks and layered them. So "snare 1" starts, "high hat 1" comes in, "kick 1" comes in - everything plays together then "snare 1" drops out and "snare 2" starts, then "high hat 1" drops out and "high hat 2" starts, then "kick 1" drops out and "kick 2" starts, then everything "2" plays together and the process repeats with "3", "4", etc.

On top of that, I do my trademark "chopping" of the loops in a certain pattern that repeats itself over each loop (snare, high hat and kick). Basically:

(1) the loop plays once straight (its 1st iteration), then
(2) I chop out the 3rd section of the loop in its 2nd iteration, then
(3) I repeat the first quarter of the 1st section of the loop 4 times where the 3rd section of the loop would be in its 3rd iteration, then
(4) I repeat the last half of the last quarter of the loop twice in its 4th iteration - after which I drop the loop and don't reuse it.

:: DJ 2:35 PM [+] ::
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I realize now that I haven't talked much about Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff.

A couple weeks back I sat down with a couple of CDs of new loops (electrolounge, drum'n'bass) and pieced the song together on my laptop by candlelight while enjoying a cool summer evening on my back porch (thus the name of the song).

The song uses d'n'b style breaks but has a bit of a world music feel to it.

:: DJ 10:15 AM [+] ::
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I had grits and cappuccino for breakfast.

Is that weird?

:: DJ 8:46 AM [+] ::
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Well, it looks like the interest in Placid Abstraction is seasonal. Last year it spent a few days at number 1 on the mp3.com Ambient charts and peaked at number 46 on the Electronic charts. Currently, Placid Abstraction is number 35 on the world Ambient charts again. Cool!

World Ambient
35. Placid Abstraction

Chicago Electronic
6. Placid Abstraction
26. Bog
39. Suburban Summer Evening Back Porch Riff

:: DJ 5:59 AM [+] ::
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Bog is still up there at number 19!

Worldwide Down Tempo
19. Bog

:: DJ 8:16 PM [+] ::
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Are you dandy?

:: DJ 8:04 PM [+] ::
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This is pretty cool. 387 listens from the Russian Federation last week! Awesome!

Premium Artist Stats for the week beginning 2003-7-1

Listens By Region
Argentina 2
Australia 9
Belgium 9
Brazil 32
Canada 10
Chile 1
China 74
Colombia 1
Denmark 2
El Salvador 1
Estonia 1
France 2
Germany 6
Greece 3
Hungary 1
Iceland 1
India 5
Iran 1
Israel 1
Italy 1
Japan 3
Korea, South 2
Malaysia 4
Mauritius 1
Mexico 5
Morocco 2
Netherlands 2
New Zealand 1
Pakistan 2
Peru 2
Philippines 1
Poland 4
Romania 1
Russian Federation 387
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1
Spain 2
Sweden 3
Switzerland 5
Turkey 2
United Kingdom 15
United States 1591
United States Minor Outlying Islands 1
Vanuatu 1
Venezuela 5
Virgin Islands, U.S. 8
Yugoslavia 4

Average Age of Listener 29

Listens By Gender
FEMALE 21.34%
MALE 78.65%

:: DJ 5:53 AM [+] ::
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What's funny is that I thought mp3.com didn't update their charts, but I guess they did judging by the movement of Interrupt, The Path, and Frost. Bog is hanging in there nicely though!

Worldwide Down Tempo
19. Bog

Chicago Electronic
5. Bog
86. Interrupt
87. The Path
94. Frost

:: DJ 5:59 AM [+] ::
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I do believe this is the first time my average trance has made it to the Chicago Electronic charts. I don't know who would be listening to it or why...

Chicago Electronic
5. Bog
87. Interrupt
88. The Path
95. Frost

:: DJ 7:23 PM [+] ::
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...the primitive relationship to ambient reality...

:: DJ 6:27 PM [+] ::
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Bog is number 19 on the Worldwide Down Tempo charts today. Not bad. Not bad at all.

:: DJ 6:01 AM [+] ::
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Short Version Rankings:

Worldwide Down Tempo
20. Bog

Chicago Electronic
5. Bog
64. Absolutely Modern
66. Chthonic Cerumen

:: DJ 5:56 AM [+] ::
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SalesLogix is awesome. Using it to keep track of what CDs I've sent out plus all my follow up activities. Very cool. Should give me a very professional image simply due to my follow up abilities, etc. Sweet.

:: DJ 8:02 PM [+] ::
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Finally got off my butt and am getting out demos to Astralwerks in NYC and 404 Music Group in Atlanta. Also, sending demos to WXRT in Chicago for their Local Anesthetic show and to WEFT in Champaign for their electronica show. Figure I'll do 2 labels and 2 radio stations every week. I call it trickle marketing.

:: DJ 6:26 PM [+] ::
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Big cool thunderstorm getting ready to move through right now. Awfully dark in the middle of the afternoon...

:: DJ 3:53 PM [+] ::
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Ok, so I've done nothing music-related at all today. And barely anything music-related this weekend. I've had a bbq. I've attended a party. I saw a movie ("28 Days" - highly recommended). But, I've done nothing music-related. Sure I've looked through my Musician's Atlas and my Indie Bible. But that's it. I started working on a new song. But only spent about 15 minutes on it. That's it. Oh, well. The week after next I go out of town. Will try and do more then. Alone in a hotel. What else is there to do?

:: DJ 1:09 PM [+] ::
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Quick ratings...

Chicago Electronic
38. Bog
94. Placid Abstraction

:: DJ 9:08 PM [+] ::
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Preparing mailings to radio stations today. Maybe some labels too.

:: DJ 10:50 AM [+] ::
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'This Is How Flat The World Is' (my new EP) is available online at raw42's store!

:: DJ 8:21 AM [+] ::
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Chicago Electronic
86. Brevity

:: DJ 5:54 AM [+] ::
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And don't forget to look for my new CD - even if it is an EP.

:: DJ 9:08 PM [+] ::
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Being a computer geek, I'll be using SalesLogix as my "band management"/CRM package for D R E A M D A Z E. I figure, if I start with the best, I can't go wrong. Even if it is overkill.

:: DJ 9:06 PM [+] ::
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"Man's life, as required by his nature, is not the life of a mindless brute, of a looting thug or a mooching mystic, but the life of a thinking being -- not life by means of force or fraud, but life by means of achievement."
- Rand

Just a little political philosophy to mix it up a bit...

:: DJ 9:21 PM [+] ::
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Got my copy of The Musician's Atlas yesterday. Cool resource. This weekend I'll be putting together mailings and making my call lists for record deals and gigs, respectively.

:: DJ 5:34 PM [+] ::
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Picked up DJ Shadow's "Entroducing" this weekend. Classic.

If you like electronica, I highly recommend it.

:: DJ 5:24 PM [+] ::
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