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Starting a new show on Radio NRJ Finland

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Happy news. I’ve just confirmed I’ll be starting a new radio show on Radio NRJ Finland, the most popular domestic hit music radio channel. The show runs for one hour every second Saturday of the month at 23:00.

I’m very excited about this, especially when having a possibility to host two shows, “DJ Orion” on YleX and “At the Club” on Radio NRJ. This gives possibilities not only to provide and play very wide scale of quality electronic music but also to support our club culture and give even more interesting producers and artists a good push.

Hear soon :)

No more Technics SL1210

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Panasonic Corporation
Image via Wikipedia

Technics is dead. No more Technics turntables SL1200/1210. Kind of a sad day, but also one more sign that electronic music is heading clearly towards 100% digital future. See the full article below.

The DJing community and the greater dance music scene mourns the loss of a clubbing staple today. No, Steve Aoki hasn’t hung up his record bag, but rather news has emerged that iconic turntable manufacturers Technics will be stopping production on their universally loved Technics 1200s and Technics 1210s.
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DJDownload.com closes (or does it?)

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DJDownload.com closes its doors. That’s sad. Here’s an email I got into my hands:

“Dear Label Partner
It is with great regret that we have to inform you that DJdownload Limited has been placed into administration by the Directors of the company effective today.

The Directors have worked extremely hard over the past few months to try and save the company: overheads were reduced and attempts to increase revenues were made but ongoing efforts to raise further finance were unsuccessful. Despite their best efforts the company was not able to continue to trade.

We would like to thank you for your support and business over the years and we wish you all the best in the future.

If you have any questions with regard to UNPAID ROYALTIES from DJDownload Limited please contact:

Marguerite Webster – Case Administrator at Bridge Business Recovery
E-mail: marguerite.webster@bridgebr.co.uk
Phone: +44 207 025 6139

Yours sincerely
Justin Pearse”

Now let me predict – Beatport.com will raise their prices within one year.

Edit (06.11.2009): It seems the story is not over. About 24h after the first news, Juno has acquired DJDownload. If anyone has an official link, please post it below. Here’s the official link (thanks to Homegrove!): http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2009/11/06/juno-steps-in-to-keep-dj-download-online/

New kid on the block!

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New kid on the block

New kid on the block! Amazing and happy news. Last Saturday, 29.08.2009 my dear wife Melanie gave birth to a healthy and small baby boy, our first one. The first days together have been really, really unforgettable and magical – they don’t say in vain that getting a baby changes everything.

We haven’t decided a name yet, but Armin van Wendland is not in the top of the list (thanks for the suggestions, anyway… ;) and despite the subject, we try to avoid Jordan, Jon, Joe, Donnie and Danny, too.

Big thanks to everyone sending your congratulations and greetings. These are the happiest days of our life :)

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DJ Taucher remix + gig in Germany

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Just a short note before leaving Finland for one month.
It just got official – Brotherhood will be remixed by DJ Taucher, an oldskool German trance talent, who also visited Finland back in the day, playing at Labyrinth Summer Sound System.

I just got a preview of the track and it’s really something you could expect from someone who is one with his roots: the remix sounds like ’94 Eye-Q trance, it’s hypnotic, bubbling and energetic – something you’ll rarely hear these days – a combination of fresh and 15 year old sound. Needless to say – this puts together the package really well: a trance remix from Ayleon, prog house from Flight&Jontey, prog trance from Anton Sonin and an oldskool interpretation from DJ Taucher.

Some other good news, too. I’ll be playing at Parktheater, Kempten, Germany on 25.07.2009. I’m really looking forward to this – Parktheater is among the biggest and best looking clubs in Allgäu area, I’ve visited the place a couple of times and the place never failed to impress me. Check the video for a better look of the interiors.

If you’re interested in reading more, I recommend you check the Summer 2009 Newsletter.

DJ Orion newsletter, summer 2009

By Radio, UncategorizedNo Comments

Hello hello!

The famous Finnish summer has started (famous for not being sunny and warm as summers usually are:) and it’s a good chance to put together a newsletter of some sort. It’s been an incredible 2009 so far and there are plenty of interesting things to come – here are some selected newsbits.

*** Coldplay – Viva La Vida (Flight & Jontey meet DJ Orion bootleg remix) ***

Early this year I joined Flight & Jontey, a Tampere-based house duo, to make an exclusive bootleg remix for this year’s Labyrinth // Laserpoint event. After the event, a couple of copies were given out and the response was really nice. By now not only for example Tiesto and Jaytech have given thumbs-up for the track but over 100 Scandinavian DJs are playing it regularly. A summer tune for sure :) Thanks for all the nice feedback we’ve gotten for the track – and if you happen not be familiar with the tune, you can check it at YouTube.

*** In the studio with J.Shore and Flight&Jontey ***

Talking about Flight & Jontey, we’re still getting together in the studio this June. Their house & dnb background combined with a bit more proggy influenced taste of mine resulted in nice combos last time and I can’t wait to share the much talked Tampere-fiilis with them again :)
A week ago I finally found time to share a studio with my brother, J.Shore, and continue the chill-out project we started last year with One Sunday and Brotherhood tracks. The result was three new chill-out tracks, which still need some days of work, but I’m hoping to have some samples online by the end of June.

*** DJ Orion – Brotherhood ***

The remixes of Brotherhood, a sequel for One Sunday are now ready. I was really, really happy with the One Sunday remixes and once again the remixers went beyond all the expectations. Ayleon, Flight&Jontey and Anton Sonin deliver their interpretations – something for everyone: Ayleon’s trancey remix, Flight&Jontey’s house&proghouse version and Anton’s progressive trance remix are available for listen at http://orion.reaktio.net/2009/02/dj-orion-brotherhood/.

*** Mango, DJ Orion, J.Shore – Raining In Osaka ***

The Russian-Finnish co-op track “Mango, DJ Orion & J.Shore – Raining In Osaka” climbed the Beatport prog house charts after its release and got very nice feedback. The last version, “Raining In Osaka (DJ Orion & J.Shore remix)” will be released on Mango Alley Recordings sampler in August. Available for listen here: http://orion.reaktio.net/2009/03/mango-orion-jshore-raining-in-osaka-mango-alley/

*** Love ***

After last year’s Metaverse tour, we at Misc. Management have been working together with DJ Orkidea & Jack club, running nights at Redrum with guests like Nick Warren and Matthew Dekay.
Over half a year ago we started planning a new concept called “Love” and to keep it short, you can read more here: http://orion.reaktio.net/2009/05/theres-something-about-love/
We’ve been really busy with the Love opening night, happening on 5.7.2009 with Pete Tong (BBC Radio 1, UK) headlining. Busy or not – it’s anyway been great to be a part of the concept and share the Love to music and club culture :) If you feel like looking, the website is now open at www.lovehelsinki.fi

*** Schedule ***

Despite of all the fun described above, lately I’ve needed to say to “no” to several interesting possibilities, projects, gigs and events. I’m having a short gig break until October, 2009 and concentrating on something which has been by far the most fascinating experience of my life. I’m becoming father in early September – and needless to say, I want to save some quality time to get most out of the days before (and after) the birth :)

*** YleX Tiistain Tanssi-ilta ***

Even though I’ve reduced the amount of gigs, the beats at Tiistain Tanssi-ilta will be served regularly every second Tuesday on YleX at 21:00.
One of the most exciting upcoming shows is on 21.7.2009 when we’ll be having the Tom Middleton retrospective, a show presenting Tom’s whole career in one hour. Not an easy task, but luckily we got help from Tom himself, who will be hosting the one-hour show personally. This is a very, very rare occasion and really worth listening.

Thanks for reading this far – you can catch up with the latest stuff on my blog or download the latest mixes via the podcast, both available at http://orion.reaktio.net

edit: For more news about DJ Taucher remix of Brotherhood & the upcoming gig @ Park Theater, Germany, see here.

Cheeerio! :)

DJ Orion / Juska

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Luomo article

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Good article about Luomo, with stuff of which I had no clue. For example this:

“Nonetheless, the [drug related] lifestyle had serious repercussions. Canceled tours, jail time, and failed relationships were nothing compared to suffering two heart attacks in his early 20s, which resulted in two serious heart operations that remain a low point in his life.”

And yeah, there are two free Luomo / V.Delay mp3 downloads in the end of the article. Scroll down, impatient :)

Luomo: Micro Macro on XLR8R

New Prodigy album

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Some news just out.
Prodigy’s new album is now ready. 11 tracks and the name is Invaders Must Die. No guest vocalists, but Dave Grohl appearing.

From Liam’s update note:
“its a band album mostly so we can play all the tunes live if we want. didnt want to have any guest vocalists on this record even though we did do 3 collabs but they didnt feel part of this record — they may come out later. dave grohl plays on run with the wolves, what a top lad he is . he approached me and we pulled that tune out the bag at last minute, fast ferocious tune with evil big electronic riff with keef on vocals.”

Misc news from the scanner’s lair

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Suosikki4-1985-GrandmasterFlash@Vanha-728468

I just realized it’s been one year since I joined Misc. Management team. It’s been an incredible year with Peled brothers and the artists we support (and who support us :). Even though the year has passed unbelievably fast, it’s been full of good moments – and hard work. Big thanks for everyone making this possible.

At the moment we are working on DJ Orkidea’s album release tour, starting early next year. I’s going to be a tour to remember, loads of new add-ons, fresh, trendy & cool supporters, interesting artists and venues. In addition to the tour, I’m also looking forward to Misc revealing the new foreign artist on the roster. He’s cool, classic and very oldskool. For the upcoming updates, see www.misc.fi – and while waiting, download a couple of mixes, there are some new ones around.

The flyer scanning project is over and it was time to grab some new stuff to scan. Not that I particularly love scanning, but it’s more or less cool to digitalize part of the electronic music history in Finland. I got Orkidea’s techno article collection and scanned over 150 news articles and old magazine advertisements starting from 1993. They are just awesome – the grand old men of techno looking like school boys, talking very serious about this new thing called techno music and guys like Sam Inkinen ranting about machines and techno philosophy. They’ll be published on Orkidea’s site first and then right here. While waiting, check the online Flyer Collection which just got bigger and exceeded the limit of 1600 flyers.

P.S. The article up there is a story of Grandmaster Flash visiting Finland back in 1985. The original story was released in Suosikki magazine. Mad, isn’t it? :) Found the article from DJ Anonymous’ blog.

News for week 6

By MusicNo Comments

Wednesday 7.2.
Orion’s two hour set at Supercool, Uniq, Helsinki. A warmup set (22:00-00:00) for Estonian DJ Dhagor.

Thursday 8.2.
Opening the website for Jack at www.jackthehouse.org.

Friday 9.2.
Jack – the Grand Reopening at Kuudes Linja, Helsinki.
Also the premiere of the automatic JACKbooth, of which I wrote earlier. The photos taken in the booth will be automatically presented as a slideshow at www.jackthehouse.org in real time.

Saturday 9.2.
Another round on Laserpoint radio. 21.00-22:00 (+02CET).

The first news from Helsinki

By Blogs & Podcasts, Civilian life, In English, Music, Photos & VideosNo Comments

The week has passed incredibly fast. It’s been all about moving, doing the infamous vinyylijumppa to the second floor without any elevator and piecing together new furniture.

I guess carrying the music collection around was some sort of a last temptation to forget the vinyl, convert everything to CD-format and save your back from breaking before your 30th anniversary. I’m sure there was someone whispering to my ear “How much would that weight in mp3-format…?” when I climbed up the stairs with the 40kg vinyl cases.

Now after four full moving days quite much everything is done and we’ll be heading to Germany for nine days on Monday. I managed to finish most of the stuff on my todo-list despite the hurry:

First of all, after building up the new DJ-setup (which must be the best I’ve ever had what comes to sound and comfort) I recorded Spinni’s 10 Year Anniversary Mix. Spinni celebrates their ten year old way through the Tampere club history (more info here) and this “official” mix more or less describes the sound of the event’s second day. Techy progressive, breaks and trance in spirit of the oldskool, with a couple of fresh exceptions. Those who are subscribed to the podcast should get the mix any time soon, but you’ll find the link on the forums and Spinni’s website a bit later, too.

I visited Danceteria, DTM last night. Good way to get the first touch to Helsinki clubland – the place was crowded and atmosphere high. I shot restlessly a couple of photos while meeting new people and I have to say I felt pretty welcome – there were really nice people around.

Wait

The future looks bright. In October I’ll be heading to Northern Ireland for a week and before that I’ll hope to have some announcements to be made about some club and music related things. Oh, and nearly forgot – New York City based fitness radio station Exercise Radio starts to air some mixes of mine on their exercise related shows. It seems that vinyylijumppa isn’t the only way to get fit with vinyls ;)

And as a postscript: It’s never too late to start to love music. Or too early…
Heavy music has young fans...

Teosto & Gramex suck on this.

By DJNo Comments

Alkaneen vuoden myötä iso määrä ihmisiä on noussut vastustamaan uutta tekijänoikeuslakia ja vaatimaan muutoksia ja selvennyksiä siihen. Tekijänoikeuslaki kuitenkaan ei tuonut mitään kovin merkittäviä muutoksia DJ-toimintaan liittyen – tilanne sen suhteen on ollut tukala jo pitkään.

BBC uutisoi perjantaina digitaali-DJiden olevan täysin pihalla copyright-asioista. MP3-biisejä keikoillaan soittavat DJt joutuvat tästä lähtien maksamaan 200 punnan vuosimaksun, jonka jälkeen he saavat soittaa levyiltä tehtyjä digitaalikopioita sekä nettikaupoista ostettuja MP3:sia julkisesti.

Suomessahan maksu on ollut olemassa jo pitkään. Gramexin sivuilla kirjoitetaan:

Äänitetiedostokaupoista (esim. www.biisi.fi ja www.cdon.com) ladattuja äänitteitä saa käyttää ainoastaan yksityiseen käyttöön. Mikäli äänitteitä halutaan käyttää ammattitoiminnassa, esim. DJ:nä esiinnyttäessä, tarvitaan erillinen kopiointilupa Gramexista. 

Käytännössä siis: jos ostat mp3-kaupasta biisin, joudut maksamaan sen saamisesta käyttöösi, mutta joudut vielä maksamaan uudestaan Gramexille sen käytöstä mikäli haluat soittaa sitä julkisesti.

Myös Teostolla on näppinsä pelissä:

Kun tallennat musiikkia julkista esityskäyttöä varten, tarvitset tallenteen tekemiseen Teosto/NCB:n luvan. Tallennuskorvaus maksetaan jokaisesta uudesta tallenteesta silloin, kun tallenne tehdään. 

Teosto tarjoaa myös DJ-sopimusta (.pdf), jotta rahan maksaminen Teostolle olisi mahdollisimman helppoa.

Missään ei kuitenkaan kerrota, pitäisikö minun siis verkkokaupasta ostaamaani mp3:sta soittaessani maksaa Gramexille vai Teostolle. Vai peräti molemmille?

Idioottimaista tässä on myös Teoston ja Gramexin suhtautuminen oman musiikin kopiointiin. Pystyn ymmärtämään, että brittien royalty collection agency haluaa rokottaa 200 punnan maksulla DJitä, jotka soittavat vertaisverkoista ladattuja MP3-raitoja ja kutsuvat itseään DJksi. Minäkin haluaisin. Enkä edes noin pienellä summalla.

Mutta jos yli vuosikymmenen ajan kaiken ylimääräisen rahansa musiikkiin käyttänyt DJ haluaa kopioida itselleen tärkeästä vinyylistä digitaalisen kopion, seuraa vain ongelmia: Jos DJ haluaa suojata sadoilla euroilla ostamansa harvinaisen asetaattilevyn puhkikulumisen ja tallentaa biisin MP3:ksi julkista soittoa varten, hänen tulee maksaa siitä. DJiltä viedään tällä tavoin määräysvalta oman levykokoelmansa hallinnasta ja kokoelman käyttötapoja rajoitetaan.

Teosto ja Gramex eivät varmaankaan ole huomanneet, että etenkin elektronisen musiikin piireissä DJ:t tekevät hitit. DJ:t määrittelevät, mitkä biisit ovat hyviä, DJ:t julkaisevat chartteja ostamistaan kappaleista, suosittelevat niitä ja puhuvat niistä eteenpäin.
Tekemällä työtään DJ:t herättävät kiinnostusta uuteen musiikkiin ja lisäävät musiikin ostamista. Vaikeuttamalla merkittävästi tämäntyyppistä promootiotyötä Gramex ja Teosto puukottavat lopulta vain itseään selkään.

Jos artisti tai DJ ottaisi minuun yhteyttä kotisivuillani esiintyvän miksauksen vuoksi ja toivoisi sen poistamista koska siinä esiintyy hänen musiikkiaan, ottaisin miksauksen välittömästi linjoilta. Kunnioitan artistien mielipiteitä ja toivomuksia heidän musiikkinsa promotoinnin suhteen viimeiseen asti. Kuitenkaan siitä huolimatta että miksauksillani on esiintynyt koko joukko suomalaisia artisteja, minuun on otettu yhteyttä vain positiivisissa merkeissä. Verkossa jaettava DJ-miksaus on monelle tunnetullekin artistille helppo ja uskottava tapa promotoida pian julkaistavaa materiaaliaan.

Kulutan satoja euroja kuukaudessa musiikkiin, maksan keikkapalkkioistani kiltisti verot ja teen järjettömän määrän ilmaista työtä promotoidakseni pienten labeleiden ja artistien musiikkia. Mutta en maksa penniäkään Teostolle tai Gramexille oman laillisesti hankitun musiikkikokoelmani vapaasta käytöstä.

Music news from Germany

By In English, Music, TravellingNo Comments

This must have been one of the longest breaks with writing this blog, happy to be online again – there are lots of things to share.

Once again, the 10-day trip to Germany was more than successful. When it’s about record stores, Germany seems to be THE promised land for finding hard-to-find rarities and oldskool classics. After browsing through three of my favourite stores in Augsburg, I was sure to have problems with bringing all the vinyls back to Finland. Nevertheless – they never check the weight of your hand luggage and that’s usually the only way to smuggle 20 extra kilos of records to Finland.

This time I found some old Hooj Choons and Zyx classics, a couple of old Perfecto promos, old Sasha, some new remixes of Guru Josh’s Infinity, Bizarre Inc, Grace, Mandala, Joey Negro, BT, Program 2 Beltram and really huge amount of old Tilt/Quivver/John Graham productions and remixes.
One of the funniest of these remixes is Mozaic’s The Hallelujah Song, which samples – surpriseee!! – Dr. Alban’s Sing Hallelujah. Quivver’s Dirty Dub is really entertaining, but can’t definitely be played on any serious taken club night :) Was this stuff really played in 1995? :D
Better John Graham productions include for example remix of Lazonby’s Sacred Cycles and h-u-g-e co-production Funky Summa. Great records.

Just when leaving the last store, I decided still to listen the long player of Mylo – Destroy Rock ‘n Roll. I was aware of the hits (who wouldn’t?) Drop The Pressure, In My Arms and Destroy Rock n’ Roll so I skipped them and listened shortly to the other tracks on the LP. I really have to recommend this album – all these “hits” are definitely the least interesting tracks on the record. It includes great funky tracks such as “Rikki” (“Broken” in Finnish, funny co-incident), melodic yet electronic house tunes and really atmospheric chill/deep-house tunes such as the last three tracks. Check it out – I should have found the album earlier – I seemed to judge the whole album by just hearing the Chart tunes. Anyway, I’m happy to get it now.

In case you didn’t know, I’m a huge fan of Underworld. There couldn’t have been better a better homecoming gift than hearing that they’ve released a new album. Underworld’s live recordings have always been great (Everything, Everything and incredible online unofficial double CD-release Bootleg Babies, which seems to be offline at the moment – make sure to download it if you’ll find it. The original version was available in dirty.org but I didn’t find it there anymore.)

But back to the subject – also the new Underworld-album is an online release. Or can you even call it an album – it’s a series of two mixed releases, both including 6-7 tracks.

“the idea is to give us the chance to stretch out into areas we have only been able to touch on with traditional album releases, and give you the listener an underworld experience over the time it takes to listen to one side of an old vinyl album.”
-rick and karl

Underworld’s “lovely broken thing” and “pizza for eggs” are available at http://www.underworldlive.com/index/shop.html. The price includes the music, covers and hundreds of photographs shot by Karl. Previews available.

Aaaand – last but not least. I found an interesting podcast – Beatfreakx.nl podcasts many of their radio shows. Finally a podcast which releases new music often and with big variety of genres. To subscribe, copy this feed to your player: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Beatcast
If you own iTunes, just click here.

Here’s all for now, catch you later :)