Diary of a Disabled DJ — Entry 2
If Ya Wanna Cook on the Decks, Act Like a Professional Chef
Sometimes it helps to listen to somebody who finds the right ways by also recognizing they did things the wrong way along the journey to expertise. That’s my lead in, and any aspiring Rekordbox / CDJ user who wants to maximize the experience for their listeners will due themselves a solid and check out the following video…maybe in a new tab please? I do hope you’ll read my latest entry, it does relate to what Chris is pointing out!
The Very Real and Brutal Curse of Having Great Taste in Music That Pops Off
Maybe that comes off as arrogant, but after 30 years of exploring music from the past, the present, and staying in the know via industry publications to get intel on the future where possible, I have a really good track record with picking out hits. Not singles for Top 40 particularly, nope that’s way, way too easy because Max Martin and the decades old RIAA algorithm projects that try the Sweet Swede Sound basically are a given. All that industry really needs is the marketing push…
Top 40 Pop charts are dictated by what 14 year old American Girls think is cool.
I’m not sure where I first heard that quote but I love it. What I mean by picking “hits” is stuff that simmers up naturally through the “indie” or “sub-label” systems often given press by Pitchfork, Stereogum, and MusicRadar.
While Pitchfork goes through so much stuff and so many genres they can’t possibly have a long-term positive success rate where their Critical Acclaim helps “break” a band or talented solo artist, they often agree just often enough to end up with a Julien Baker as a consensus up-and-coming-artist-to-watch.
Though I’m limited by budget — and I don’t f-with streaming services at all, not a single one — I still find ways to pick up new releases over the years. I only buy digital tracks from Beatport and rarely from the “Top XX List of XX Genre” go-to pages. My “feed” has been built over 10 years of picking artists, labels, and sub-genres that tickle my dancing bones or sound like bank robbing music.
There’s RARELY cross-over with mainstream outlets like the ones name checked above, but some “Electronic” acts they review would get lost in the Beatport volume that comes out weekly…I mention this because EDM has an incredible appreciation for pushing sound dynamics — stuff like SubFocus or AndyC or Best Of Hospital Records will absolutely put a sound system through its paces y’all.
One of the finds from the past decade through industry press announcement was Bomba Estereo. I think I received my CD of Amanecer within two weeks of its release, no preview tracks, just the Pitchfork review. When I put it on, I knew the thing was magic. Why?
Indigenous Ingredients, Michelin Star Kitchen
Growing up in the 1990s, major label records pretty much had a lock on “studio quality sound” outside of very, very few talented geeks like Trent Reznor. Yes, some home-grown power houses like Dimebag and Vinne Paul Abbott recording in their Dad’s studio could keep up with LA sound in the hair metal days, almost, but the quality of “Cowboys From Hell” versus “Great Southern Trendkill” is night and day. Surprise, surprise, Trent Reznor had a hand in that too…
Anyway, back to Bomba Estereo…
Amanecer, as I learned from the liner notes and some additional research, was basically an LA Studio Producer/Engineer bringing his toolkit of big bass, thumping rhythm samples, and becoming like a “musical medium” for what the artists brought from their Colombian sound and dreams. That album got extensive play right out of the gate. I studied it with headphones. If you listen closely, I think there’s an Easter Egg of a vibrating mobile phone in one of the tracks. Clever, kind of a little sneaky, but hey, their album and I respect their choices, all of them.
Then tracks from Amanecer started showing up in TV commercials. Target was using “Soy Yo” for a while I think. My reaction? GET THAT MONEY!
On the other hand, when I heard what Will Smith did to “Fiesta” I wanted to slap the shit out of him. Backhanded. He totally bit on their popularity to try and make his nothing without DJ Jazzy Jeff big mechanical spider fighting corny-ass relevant and it was a punk move because, as the record clearly shows, Your Honor, he’s a Punk in a Man Suit.
Did you hear Will Smith released a new album in 2025? You didn’t? GOOD BECAUSE IT SUCKED AND YOUR LIFE IS BETTER BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T SUBJECT YOUR BRAIN TO THAT TRASH.
However, despite the big-name collaborations, the album sold just 268 physical copies in its first week in the UK, with only 36 digital downloads reported, according to The Sun.
In looking through my library of tunes collected since release from jail last year, I felt lucky to come across even MORE Bomba Estereo tracks, from BEFORE Amanecer, which makes them, in my opinion, prime territory to work the EQ and mix into a set and surprise people with something familiar, yet foreign. Here in Texas there are lots of native Spanish speaking people. Mexicans don’t speak the same Spanish as Colombians. The music styles are as different as the cultures that create them. I dig Bomba Estereo. Not a fan of Valentin Elizade by comparison…
CDs Still Exist and I Mock Your Inability to Digitize Those Expensive Vinyl Records Without Spending An Oil Tanker’s Worth of Time You Could Use For Other Things
Today was interesting because what was initially a Win was followed by what I thought was a lay-up, but it missed and I had to find an alternative way to recoup my gas and time.
Basically I went to get a record from the Dallas County Courthouse right next to where JFK “finally got it through his head he wasn’t welcome in Dallas,” per Mike Rhyner the Sports Talk Jock, and I lucked into a parking meter spot within 25 yards of the entrance. By being close to the JFK memorial site, I also got to see a TON of World Cup Tourists walking about. That was pretty awesome.
Well the “flagship” Half Price Books location didn’t have the one newly released book available for purchase that I want very, very much. I’m curious if they did it as a political kind of move, because if so, it shows they’re ignorant AF because the last one by the author is amazingly deep and reveals that how public perception can be extremely manipulated, and in this instance, one can use it to worm through a broken system and get into position to actually do good in the world by walking a razor’s edge.
I’ll have to try again at a different retailer, but yeah, I said “might as well spend 1/2 as much money on music then” as a cope.
Soundtracks. One by the London Starlight Orchestra. The other is a compilation with two discs and some genuine diversity — Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone and Apocalypse Now in the same kit? Yeah buddy!
Catch the WAV
Because I’m really not very good as a music producer beyond using loops and recording guitar and sometimes virtual instruments, I respect my limits. What my years of being okay with this approach means is that I actually have a pretty decent library of WAV files. Loops, Hits, and Sound Effects!
My efforts are underway to learn how to maximize, and potentially modify the MIDI mapping, for my DDJ-FLX4 controller with Rekordbox and the STEMS capabilities.
I’m coming into this rather ignorant and fresh, highly motivated, and willing to do the grid fixing, BPM adjustment, and other technical sweat equity to get over the learning curve in the coming months. I would say weeks but that’s way to ambitious — I’ve got legal things which rank way higher on the priority list…and kind of a pretty savage Fortnite habit right about now.
Finding a balance between mature responsibility and the simply joys that cross generations — like video games — is as individual as taste in music. I definitely did NOT enjoy GTA5 and threw it in the trash and don’t recommend it.
Though I wanted to like War Thunder, I was garbage and it was frustrating how it basically was set up to be “Free and Suck” or “Pay and then Pay More and More and Maybe Be Competitive” so I deleted that too. Fortnite is scratching the itch, clearly, and though I’m enjoying it for now, if I burn out and get bored, well, the Rekordbox subscription is $30 a month so make the most of it is my attitude.
My habit of defaulting to feeling guilt is over. I live my life with eyes wide open, mind at ease; now decisions guided by a strong moral compass means I can live with the consequences of my actions. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a lot of things the hard way, and eventually the most important lesson is one that came just in time:
No matter how bad my worst days have been, my survival rate is 100%, so whatever may come next, it’s not as hard as where I’ve been and nobody can tell me otherwise.
