On Saturday, Nov. 7, you’ll find me at this year’s installment Seacompression, the Northwest’s regional Burning Man decompression party. If you’ve never been, it’s like taking 3 square blocks of Burning Man and cramming it into a 25,000 sq ft warehouse. In a nutshell, it’s awesome and quite unlike any other party in the entire Northwest. Check out this floor plan to get a preview of the craziness ahead.

In the past I’ve DJed at one of the dance stages, but this year I’ll be keeping it mellow in the sublime H’Art Center chillout dome. This was by far my favorite part about last year’s party, so I’m super stoked to have been invited to play some mellow beats there this time around.

Full event details are here.

Here’s a short, fun video log from Seacomp 2007:

The sublime Seattle-based trip-hop duo, The New Law, laid down this fantastic set at Tost Lounge on Sept. 9, 2009. It’s a laid back mash of loungey hip-hop beats, a smattering of live sax, and vibey synth lines that will ease you perfectly into the weekend.

THE NEW LAW Live @ Tost Lounge, Seattle — 09/04/2009 by thenewlaw

I’ve had the music of The Sight Below on continuous loop all morning, and it has been the perfect companion to the gray drizzly sky outside my window. The bus ride to work this morning was especially dreary, with the Space Needle and downtown just barely peeking through the haze, and it was matched perfectly by the beautiful melancholic guitarscapes and subtle back beats. At times his sound is very reminiscent of Sigor Rós’ more ambient moments, and his bowed guitar style is probably responsible for some of that similarity.

For a sample, be sure to check out “No Place for Us,” a free EP download from Ghostly International. If that floats your boat, then you can’t go wrong with picking up last year’s full length LP, “Glider,” and the recently released “Murmur EP.”

If you like this sort of minimal and moody ambient techno, be sure to also check out Yagya’s “Rigning” album. It’s another stunning example of the genre.

So cool. Check out the Ekdahl Moisturizer. It’s a spring reverb with exposed springs, which means that while it can be used as a traditional spring reverb by passing audio signals through the springs, you can also stroke, pluck, and fiddle with the exposed springs to create liquidy, bouncy audio goodness. If you are looking for a unique analog sound, for only $300 this unique effect/instrument would be a fine addition to your sonic arsenal. More info about the unit can be found here.

Another fantastic Chillography come and gone. Music-wise, this may have been one of my favorites yet, with Eckoe opening with his perfect blend of psychill, followed by Kalpataru Tree’s siiiiiick dubby goodness, Manahan’s midtempo romp and finally Scott Sunn’s deeeeeep techno shplunking. Add that to Jenna and team’s beautiful makeover of the Church of Bass, Cupcake or Dies baked goodness, and the projected Entranced game, and we had all the right ingredients for a superb party.

The entire night was recorded and I’ll be posting the sets to the Chillography site, once I get around to processing the recording. I’m still working on the recordings from 201, but both shows will be available very soon. I promise!

My photos:

And check out this great little Chillography montage from Lara.

We did a lot of setup last night at the Church of Bass and this may very well be the best looking Chillography yet! Can’t wait to see the space after it’s fully decorated, lit, and full of awesome peeps.:) See you tonight.

What’s that you say? Can’t make it to the show? Don’t forget that you can tune in to the live webcast and, at the very least, experience the wonderful line-up we’ve assembled. Tune in here at our UStream channel page.

Here is the Reagenz live set from the Decibel Fest 2009 closing party. I was unable to make it out to this show, and heard amazing things about this set, so I’m super happy to be able to listen to it now. Reagenz is a duo comprised of Jonah Sharp (aka Spacetime Continum) and Move D. I was able to catch Spacetime Continum’s live ambient set at the Pan Cascadia Showcase earlier in the weekend and it was definitely a festival highlight for me. Spacetime atmospherics + mellow techno beats = total win. Enjoy!

reagenz live @ decibel festival 2009-09-27 by Move D

A favorable mention of Chillography 202 appeared in The Stranger’s latest Databreaker column. Nice!

While walking home from the bus, listening to some tunes on my iPod Touch, I was contemplating the mechanics of an audio-only game that I could play while walking and not having to look at the iPod screen. I didn’t get very far, but it certainly got me intrigued by the idea and the usability applications, particularly by blind users. As a long-time DJ and musician, I’ve certainly done a lot of ear training, especially in arena of listening to many sounds playing simultaneously, and picking apart the wall of sound into its individual parts. There seems to be an interesting game nugget hinted at there.

This morning I did a web search of audio-only games and found a site dedicated to the subject, appropriately titled www.audiogames.net. I spent a little time playing with some of the games found here and there is definitely something very refreshing about the combination of simple game mechanics/controls and relying on your ears only. In many respects it reminds me of preparing for a mix while DJing. Your eyes are still seeing but you are not necessarily looking at anything, while yours ears and hands link to make the necessary adjustments and maneuvers.

Now to see if any of these types of games have made it to the iPhone/Touch, which due it’s control scheme, doesn’t seem like a very useful platform for non-sighted users. Not that games like this are for blind users only, but they are an obvious beneficiary of the playing mechanic.

Speaking of blind video game players, check out this kid:

Yup, tonight is the night. A 3 hour set by techno/trace cross-over master, Perfect Stranger, with back-up from Future Nurses, Crispy (<- Hey, that’s me!) vs Coral, and Hendrik.

Full event details here. Get to the Church of Bass before 11pm to get in for only $10.

Get ready for a tranceplosion!!!! (Yeah, I just said “trancesplosion”. Deal.)

Perfect Stranger — Melancholic Fucked Up Weekend ( DJ set JUN2009 ) by Perfect Stranger