Patrick Bateman

Kompakt founder Wolfgang Voigt has a shiny new website which handily collects together his numerous artworks from down the years.

http://www.wolfgang-voigt.com/

Over at the lmgmblog, I found this funny post about clichés in DJ biographies. Take a read, it’s quite funny.

http://lmgmblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/the-dj-anti-profile-how-not-to-write-a-dj-bio/

Our Berlin based London-man, Mark Henning, recently released a great 4 tracker on US label, but also Berlin based, Clink Recordings run by Camea and Insideout.

The 3 tracks are all in the minimal genre and especially the track ‘Sweet Atom’ has been very popular and am currently number 2 on the minimal top 10 on Beatport.

Anyway, the release also got a very nice review on Resident Advisor, so go check the review and then head over to Beatport for digital files or decks.de for vinyl version.

I stumbled over this article which I found quite amusing….

http://londonist.com

I have just signed up to the webservice Gigatools, that (yes you guessed correct) will be the place where I manage my gig calendar in the future. It will be published automatically to my Facebook page, MySpace and on this website under ‘Gigs’.

In the future, use the link in the header ‘Gigs’ to see my upcoming gigs.

The widget looks like this:

It’s August again, and that means it’s time to the yearly Kompakt Total compilation. Kompakt (and most of their sister labels) used to be some of my fave labels, but over the last 3-4 years we have slowly moved in different directions. I rarely find myself buying any tracks from Kompakt these days, sadly.

Anyways, you can stream all 26 tracks from the 2 CD’s that the compilation is spread over at the Resident Advisor site, so I thought I would check it out.

As usual the compilation spans widely in the genres, from electronica, obscure indie, straight up pop, tech-house to a few techno tracks. Out of the 26 tracks, I found only these 6 to be quite good:

Jatoma – Helix
Wolfgang Voigt – Robert Schumann/Clara Wieck
Thomas Fehlmann – Wasser Im Fluss (Soulphiction Remix)
Michael Mayer – Pucanha Frenesi
Gui Boratto feat Iggor Cavalera – Pile
Robag Wruhme – Rollmoff

but out of these 6, I would probably only buy the Wolfgang and Robag track.

So for myself personally it is business as usual with Kompakt these days. Not much my style anymore, but anyway, if you’re still into the mixed sounds from the Cologne based label, then you can buy it at their site kompakt.fm

Some wise words from the ‘no sleep’ man.

Scion Radio 17: Made To Play Interview from Scion A/V on Vimeo.

First of all, I have been a super fan and a heavy user of the Sony MDR7506 headphones for more than 10 years. I am on my 2nd pair. This might not sound like a lot to you, but I take good care of my headphones and rarely let others use them. The MDR7506 have been my absolute favorite in headphones, but since my friends from Tartelet got involved in doing a new DJ headphone, I of course wanted to try them out, especially after I saw the first 3d animations of the design.

So last week I finally got my hands on a pair of TMA-1 headphones from the Danish company AIAIAI. Together with the Danish techno label Tartelet, they have developed a pair of headphones that focusses on a super lowkey design and fantastic sound.

Right from the beginning it is easy to see that this is a quality product, coming in a great package.

After getting all the contents out of the cool designed box, I now have the following on my table:

a booklet
a carrying pouch
2 sets of earpads (1 leather, 1 extra soft)
a 6.3 mm stereo plug converter
a 1.7 meter cable
and of course the headphone it self

The booklet tells a bit about the headphones, the design ideas, the people behind, the testers, the technical specs and how to change the earpads. All in all, short and to the point.

Especially the earpads are a great move on the TMA-1, because they are so easy to change. You have 2 choices, 1 leather (seems to be perfect for the club because it’s keeping other sounds out and giving you great bass, and 1 extra soft which for some people might be nice to use a home).
Check here how smart they made it:
You simply click them on!

The carrying pouch is nothing special, but it does it’s job and keeps in line with the design of the product, even though it reminds me a little bit of something from the gym bag (because of the inside color. Why not keep it 100% grey?).
The stereo plug converter is the typical gold plated converter, good quality again.

But then we come to the cable, and here I have some critics. The way that you connect it in the headphone cup is quite smart, no problems, but the cable itself feels of low quality. It’s very stiff and doesn’t feel right when wearing the headphones. I felt this right away when I put the headphones on the first time, and also thought about it several times during my gig at Tresor the other night. On my Sony headphones, the cable is longer and way softer and feels much more comfortable to ‘use/wear’. The one on the TMA-1 just feels like a low-budget cable compared to the Sony’s, sadly. Anyway, maybe it will change with time as I use them more and more, if not, I might go out buy a softer cable myself.

Finally we come to the complete product. It IS a fantastic headphone.

I love the design which is so lowkey (read interviews on the internet to learn more about the design process) and the sound is really great too. It seems to color the sound quite a bit, but I like it, it’s very bassy and bold and super loud, but still also very clear. I don’t have to turn up my volume control more than half of what I usually have to, when playing in a club.

They are very comfortable to wear and even though I’ve been using the MDR7506′s for 10 years, I quite fast found the right angles to put the TMA-1′s on my head when playing in the club. Exactly this thing takes some time to get used to, but I’m almost there already after only 1 gig.

The great thing about this pair of headphones is, that the guys have been focussing on the important things and not tons of extra features and this is probably what I like the most. It’s a pair of super great build headphones, great lowkey design and fantastic sound quality. I think if the cable had been softer/of better quality, I would have rated the TMA-1 -> 9/10, but now we keep it on a 8/10 which is still very good.

Link:
http://www.aiaiai.dk/headphones/tma-2/tma-1.html

Tic Tac Toe & Connect Four goes digital

Since the Danish labels Tic Tac Toe & Connect Four were launched in 2004 and 2007 they have been bombarded with demos from producers from all over the world. “And much of the received material has been terrific”, as Kenneth Broxgaard, owner of Tic Tac Toe & Connect Four, describes the music.

The increasing amount of high quality tracks made the label owner think about the future. If he could provide music lovers with even more great electronic music, then everybody would be happier, and more artists would get inches closer to their big breakthrough.

The solution became digital releases. By going digital Tic Tac Toe & Connect Four are able to increase their release schedule, and thereby meet the customers inquiries. “Digital releases are an easier way to provide our customers with the newest and the best of electronic music”, as Kenneth Broxgaard puts it.

Even though the two labels will be focusing on the digital market it does not mean that they will drop the vinyl productions. “We want to help the vinyl stay alive by making limited 12″ compilations with the best tracks from our digital releases”, informs Kenneth Broxgaard. By doing so the two labels are still able to provide DJ’s and vinyl enthusiasts with their beloved black wax.

The first 2 releases on Connect Four and the first on Tic Tac Toe following this new concept are already out and features Dana Ruh, Matthew Burton and Miro Pajic. Among the upcoming releases coming soon are Mathias Mesteño, Liapin, Maetrik, Benjamin Fehr, Blagger, Berkant Suer, Patrick Bateman, James Teej and many more.

The first vinyl compilations on both labels will be out in January 2010.

New AKA AKA is out now, including a remix I did of the track ‘Alfred’, available here:
https://www.beatport.com/en-US/html/content/release/detail/195607/Dampfloch%20EP

Release 26.09.2009
Artist aka aka
Name dampfloch ep

We’re happy to announce AKA AKA’s first release on Pentagonik with their ‘Dampfloch’ EP, including a remix by Tic Tac Toe’s label head Patrick Bateman.
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