Internet, virus

By JACK OATMON

With numerous dilemmas of choice in musical entertainment and little in the way of resolution-inspired sobriety, January was not the solitary hibernation it might have been. This has been unfortunate for my health, however, as repeated nights of trudging in the cold have left me tired, snotty and wheezing, if rather sated for spectacles. But even had I been mired away musing about music in the warmth of my abode, I would not nearly have been starved of club content. This comes thanks to the generally greatly improved quality and quantity of podcasts, mixtapes, digital remix releases and suchlike available on the Internet of late. On that note, let’s review a few examples of such excellent portable content, plucked from the rosters of party bills just this week alone.

The first thing I’ll bring to your attention is the source of numerous funky, freaky house, disco and R&B mixes that have been toning my thighs and stretching my calves lately. The podcast, namely Attitude City (attitudecity.com/blog/) has become a workout staple chez moi, with locals David Shaw and Davey Lahteenmaa of Loose Joints spinning soulful beats spanning the decades alongside some of their sonic interlocutors in Minneapolis. There are also some groovy links and graphic design eye candy there for you to feast your ogling gogglers on. Get a load of that and then hear them Saturday night with Fan Death at Zoobizarre.

HOLLA FOR MASALA: DJ Khiasma

Next, you know the overpass-overloading block parties, the various tropical tunes, synth-garbling rap discombobulation and suchlike, but the Bridge Burner folks do plenty more than that, as you will see. Internet beats vet Khiasma has been blogging and podcasting more steadily than pretty much any other local DJ I can name, and he continues to turn up bucketloads of baile funk, cumbia, dancehall and dub gems from all over the map, via his CISM show Masala and accompanying blog (masalacism.blogspot.com). Likewise, Rob Squire, aka Sixtoo and Speakerbruiser, has a plethora of dope remixes, mixtapes, custom software plug-ins and other such digable digital dosh kicking around on his Weapons House Web site (weaponshouse.com/). That’s likewise packed with interesting graphic design ideas. Check them both at Coda on Saturday night.

In a related vein, the gentlemen at the controls of Super Aqua Club have plenty of remixes, links and vids posted on their blog (www.manybrain.blogspot.com). Check them out at the Machinedrum show at Zoobizarre on Friday night. Rooftop Fistfights (rooftopfistfights.wordpress.com) also have plenty of pop news, remix links and technological chatter to go along with their Friday nights at Salon Officiel. Also, for a few fresh tidbits from Jokers of the Scene, this week’s guests at the Fix at Coda on Friday night, as well as a grab bag of other interesting listens from the Fool’s Gold crowd, check out the downloads section on the Fool’s Gold site (foolsgoldrecs.com/blog/category/downloads).

That should keep you downloading for a minute. On the other side of poring through all that, make sure to get out and warm your butt on the dancefloor at a couple of those jams this week, so you can put faces to the names and props to the producers. Meanwhile, I’m going to make an attempt, likely destined to failure, to take it easy in the midst of all that madness and get a bit less phlegm-soaked.

KEEPIN' IT CONTAGIOUS... jack.oatmon@gmail.com