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Brotherhood review @ Musicritics

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Nice guys at Musicritics wrote a review of Brotherhood single. Check it out below.

Also, Flight & Jontey’s remix was chosen as a “featured track” on Trackitdown.net and the original version has now climbed to TOP50 on Audiojelly’s chill-out charts.

Here’s the review – however, I recommend checking it at Musicritics website.

DJ Orion returns to our hallowed blogs, with a follow-up to his debut on Solaris, this time taking the sister label Lost Language for a spin. Brotherhood is a collaboration between himself and one J. Shore, both of whom combined forces with Russian progressive hotshot Mango, to create Raining In Osaka. Along for the ride are Ayelon, Flight and Jontey (New names to me), DJ Taucher (A German veteran of the scene), and Anton Sonin. Read on!

Brotherhood (Original Mix)

This is a simple tune, but it’s simply effective. We steadily slide through, being guided by a piano through waves of strings and french horn. Some barely tangible percussion gives a bit of atmosphere, but really the centerpieces are the piano, strings, and horn. And, ringing in at eight minutes, it is apparent that there is a story to be told (Most chill-out tracks I’ve seen usually clock in at no more than five minutes). It’s earmarked with all the elements of a good organic soundtrack, while being distinctly and synthetically chill-out…On a final note, it’s nice to see dynamics in the waveform, something not too common within electronic music, and even without nowadays.

Brotherhood (Ayleon Remix)

Ayleon appears on on the roster to once again drive us into Finnish goodness. Driving beats and toothed basslines guide us in, but the break reveals the original’s determination, as the bassline unravels and ushers in a breakbeat, which subsequently unravels into piano and strings [guitar(both kinds) and pads alike]…Yes, I just used math syntax. Anyways, the breakbeat winds back in to build us up into that gnarly groove. While Ayleon really does not take this one to the level of atmosphere that the original has, they certainly knock it out of the park on the energy front!

Brotherhood (Flight and Jontey Remix)

These guys are taking the progressive route, judging by their swarthy intro. We are guided forward by the original’s piano and a bleeping arp, which is eventually joined by warm rhythm synths and pads. This one just flutters about, being guided by that arp, which is rather well-programmed; it starts as something bleepy, and morphs into something full and rich. If you are looking for a driving rhythm-based slice of progressive, with atmosphere, look no further!

Brotherhood (DJ Taucher Adult Mix)

DJ Taucher, you say? I say! This mix has a lovely moody intro, complete with an excerpt of spoken-word…No idea where it’s from though. And with that, we plug forward into the darker depths of Taucher’s sound. It starts out with some vocoded rhythm synths and the layers are gelled on gradually, as a riff of acid wolps into the mix. This one is for the darker progressive/techno lovers!

Brotherhood (DJ Taucher Genetic Mix)

The Genetic Mix is quite similar in structure to the Adult Mix, what with the intro with monologue. However, things really take change with the addition of a kick. The bassline is wobblier this time around, bells echo through the fields of stereo, and in general this one is more atmospheric and melody-driven. You still get your daily allotted dose of darker Brotherhood, though.

Brotherhood (Anton Sonin Remix)

Anton turns in a trance remix, but it’s a little broodier than its Ayelon counterpart. We build from the start and casually find ourselves in the piano-driven break. It’s a pretty casual mix, something to wind down to, but it really could use some more energy…But maybe it’s just me.

[Insert “Fins win” comment here]

You’ve heard what we have to say with regards to those Fins, so I need not say it again! I’m offering my nod to the Ayelon remix and the original mix…I love them both! 8/10.

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Review: DJ Hero hands-on.

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DJ Hero is here. Now unboxing...

I received my copy of DJ Hero today. The game is for Xbox – they didn’t have the Wii versions yet – and as I don’t own Xbox the nice people at Kohu-Live borrowed me one for the two-week test drive.

The package wasn’t anything what the final product is going to be (photo above), but unpacking was cool nevertheless. They should have these “sample” and “promotional copy” stickers on all models – I guess they didn’t make enough field investigation to find out that all the DJs are ready to pay at least triple for anything which has something to do with promo, rare or early copy ;)

The intro with Justice’s Genesis was cool, but made me suspicious of the game contents – action-filled start didn’t seem to fit to the DJ Hero image. However the tutorials with Grandmaster Flash made me forget the rather annoying intro and I was pretty fast fascinated by the controls.

The basic gameplay is really easy if you’re familiar with Guitar Hero or you’ve ever even seen a turntable+mixer combo, but as with Guitar Hero, mastering Hard/Expert levels you really need some time with the game, no matter how much you’ve deejayed before. After the first two hours of playing, I found my limits somewhere between Medium/Hard difficulty and found myself playing some of the tracks over and over again to master some of the most difficult spots.

Most of the mashups I’ve played so far are really smart and the use of crossfader + turntable is really well thought. After two hours of gameplay, my favourites are Eric Prydz – Pjanoo vs. Tears for Fears – Shout and a combo which caused massive laughs: Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby vs. MC Hammer – You Can’t Touch This :)

The idea of backspinning the deck to create re-wind effect and playing some parts of the song immediately again to gain points is a nice feature, but the FX knob (which is basically just a filter) feels in most cases a bit dumb, but definitely raises the difficulty at certain points.

Crossfader isn’t completely loose as I expected beforehand, but locks to left, right & middle. It felt really weird in the beginning as it took much more effort to put the fader exactly to the middle after throwing it to left & right, but it reminds me again – this is just a game, and doesn’t even try to be a 100% real simulation.

The possibility to add a guitar and play DJ vs. Guitar feels like lots of fun, going to try that out later. DJ Hero is definitely at its best when played with friends, definitely the pre-party game of the year and the after-party game of the decade ;)

All-in-all, I probably haven’t been this excited of any game after I got my hands all over the first Wii games some years ago. I’m really looking forward presenting DJ Hero at Extremely Miscbehaving event in Helsinki Club on 24.10.2009 – which reminds me of this: If you’re into winning a copy of DJ Hero, head over to www.misc.fi/djhero, check the event details and participate to the contest.

And if you have any questions regarding the game, feel free to ask below.

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Sunburn 2009 review

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Despite the cloudier and more rainy weather than I expected, the atmosphere in Kalajoki was still the same as every year: Loads of smiling, open-minded people with a good sense for good electronic music. You could still see the last red and orange colours of the sunset above the sea in the horizon from the open windows of the club when I started – really a beautiful, classic view – and an unique one, at least in Finland.

I started with a bit more techier/tech-housier tracks like Mason’s Kippschwinger and Sander Kleinenberg’s This Is Our Night and headed towards more proggy & trancey vibes. Both Ayleon’s and Flight&Jontey’s remix of my upcoming Brotherhood track went down really well, Kyau&Albert’s new track “Grrreat” got a really good response and for the full Sunburn experience some Sun was needed, this time from Slusnik Luna, which was probably the track of the night.

A big hand for the audience and the Dyyni staff, you’re the best – it was really a pleasure visiting Kalajoki again. And biggg thank-yous to DJ Kaasi – it seems to the time spent together never fails to be entertaining and full of fun :)

Nike Plus review

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I’ve been running now for a couple of times with Nike Plus so it’s a time for a proper review. For those who are not familiar with the product, Nike+ or Nike Plus or NikePlus is a training gadget which you insert to your shoe and your ipod. It records your run, the speed, distance, calories and finally sends all the data to the web.

Thinking about all the other training devices I’ve used or seen, this one is definitely the easiest and most comfortable to use. If you’re familiar with other Apple designed products this should be no surprise. The user interface is just nice and very intuitive and the Nike Plus web site makes you addicted with everything it offers.

Nike Plus works only with iPod Nano (any generation model) and as far as I know, there is no hack for that. You can use several sensors in one iPod – a thing which neither Nike nor Apple mentions on their website. We are currently having two sensors and one iPod at home and it works without problems.

Nike Plus sensor is supposed to be put into your Nike Plus shoe. There’s a hole for the sensor inside the shoe in which the sensor fits perfectly. I had no interest buying a pair of new shoes for nerdy running and after some googling it appeared to me I wouldn’t need to: you can put the sensor under the shoelaces of any shoe and it works like charm. However – make sure to make a small bag for the sensor, otherwise you’ll kick it out.

You can build your own running playlists to your iPod and have a “Powersong” which it will play when you’re about to reach your goal. Never tried that yet, but I’m confident that “Eye of the Tiger” is the most used Powersong among the users ;)

Anyway, this thing works. I wouldn’t have imagined how easily technology can motivate your training and how much fun comparing your stats online can be. Near perfect, but it still lacks GPS. Nike Plus has a GoogleMaps integrated map solution, but the runs do not appear there automatically. A perfect running device would show where you’ve been running OR would guide you through the path which you would have drawn to the service earlier. Also exporting the data from the Nike Plus website has had some hiccups already for some time – I hope they are working on it. See some exported running data below.

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Pioneer CDJ-400 review

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I’ve had a pair of CDJ-400s now for a couple of days and this is the first hands-on review. Pioneer had some delivery difficulties due to big amount of orders and I had to wait for the players for some weeks.

It’s funny that the change from vinyl to CD took really long and wasn’t an easy step, but leaving CDs behind and going 100% digital feels very comfortable. And the change has been very, very fast.

For now, I haven’t put a single CD inside the CDJ-400s. When I got the package, the first thing to do was to insert the USB sticks and try them out. I tested the players with an old 512mb stick and a new 2gb stick. The device reads the sticks very fast and the playback goes without any problems. You can browse the content of sticks while playing them and easily browse them by ID3 tags (album, artist, trackname).

The screen font size is very big. With a smaller font it would’ve been easier to show longer track names completely. This would be a needed feature especially if you’re having several remixes of one track and you’re seeing only the beginning of the track’s name.

If you’re familiar with Pioneer CDJs, there are not many things for which manual would be needed. However, finding out how to set an automatic loop wasn’t that easy and I ended up browsing the manual. The looping is fast and you can create nice looping effects easily. Entertaining.

The different jog wheel illuminations are a cool feature and I’m definitely going to take the most out of the MIDI features in the near future. The build-in effects feel totally unnecessary, even the much hyped vinyl/scratch effects.

Then, how about the jog wheel feel? I wouldn’t compare the wheel with CDJ-100 (or with CDJ-200, which I deeply hate), but rather with CDJ-800 or CDJ-1000. I would say the feel is closer to CDJ-1000 than CDJ-800. It’s very nice to play and the pitch bending goes without any problems. For scratching the wheel feels a bit too small, at least at first.

All-in-all, I’m very happy of my CDJ-400s. They don’t lack anything which I would have needed and I wouldn’t complain playing gigs with them. If you have any questions concerning the players, feel free to ask.

A couple of CDJ-400 links:
CDJ-400 image
CDJ-400 on Flickr
CDJ-400 on YouTube
CDJ-400 jog wheel illuminations
CDJ-400 review

Korg Zero4 review

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The official tour mixer of Metaverse Album Release Tour is Korg Zero4. After a couple of gig experiences with the device, here’s a short review including the pros and cons mainly from the DJ’s point of view. DJ Orkidea has been using the mixer on the Tour for live gigs only, I’m sure we can read a full live performance review later on his website.

OK, the pros first.

+ The EQ system is very good. You can adjust the EQs – use them as different filters, isolators or normal EQs. As normal EQ the touch is very similar to Pioneer’s. If you’re used to DJM-600/800, you won’t notice much difference.

+ All the knobs are illuminated. It doesn’t only look cool but it’s big part of the experience. You never need to guess your mixer settings, even when the club is totally dark. Let this become a standard of all DJ mixers.

+ The master effect channel is different from Pioneer’s, but much better. X and Y settings on each effect and channel-like strenght/volume slider is very easy to use and the user interface is fast to learn. Pre-listening of the effect is as easy as it gets and choosing the effect just goes very intuitively. Loop sampling and running FXs on it is a thing you just never get bored with.

+ And all this is just the Master FX. You can still run effects independently for each channel and adjust the effects from the knobs placed next to the EQ. I didn’t try this out too much, but you can really have cool combinations with channel and master FXs together. The real difference with DJM-600/800 is that the effects on those are mainly annoying and add-ons for the played music when the Korg effects are mainly designed for (live) jamming and creating new soundscapes, loops and re-designing your music.

What about the cons, then? There are small things which I found not that attractive, which hopefully will be re-thought in the future.

– Booth volume is next to the Master volume. Same size knob, same colour. I’m happy it never happened to me while playing (even though I’m turning the Booth Vol knob on and off all the time) that I accidentally would boost Master Vol with 70%, but it really annoys me to worry about that when playing.

– Cue level isn’t loud enough, even when it’s max. I’m not deaf, my hearing is still 100% (lucky me:) and on live playing situations the Cue Vol on Pioneer is normally at 9 or 10 o’clock. Last weekend, when playing in Joensuu, the Cue Vol was all the time on max and I still had to boost the channel EQs to hear the track properly.

– I would love to see the places of Pan and Gain knobs changed. All you people used to play with Pioneer know why.

– The mixer has firewire input which works like charm (Orkidea can tell more about this). But when you plug in your firewire cable, it somehow resets the mixer, gives a short black-out and breaks the music for two seconds. You can guess our reactions when we experienced this for the first time on the live situation in Rovaniemi…

Anyway, the mixer is great and has very big potential of becoming a standard device on the clubs. If you have any questions concerning the user experience, feel free to ask.

Here are still a couple of links:
Full-res image of Korg Zero4
Official Korg Zero4 site
Korg Zero4 on Flickr
Korg Zero4 on Youtube