Nineteen Ninety Never

In the comment section of io9 a few months ago, someone suggested that t-shirts be made depicting a quote attributed to George Orwell:

“Back in the 1900s, it was a wonderful experience for a boy to discover H.G. Wells. There you were, in a world of pedants, clergymen and golfers…and here was this wonderful man who could tell you about the inhabitants of the sea, and who knew that the future was not going to be what respectable people imagined.“

Its a wonderful quote, and I completely agree with the commenter that shirts should be made, so I’m offering my design above, paraphrased from that quote (clicking on the image will give you the layered, PSD file should you wish to use it - I can’t remember where I got the template).

I’m certainly not a graphic designer, so if you make your own version, let me know in the comments or via email. It’ll probably be better than what I’ve come up with.

Keep the sci-fi dream alive, my friends…and while you’re at it, grok these future tracks:

Cut Copy - Future

Futurecop! vs. Ciara - Fast Forward 1 2 Step (props to Trash Menagerie for posting that one)

If you liked this shirt, check out more sci-fi shirts themed shirts on 199x

It’s not everyday that a Chicago DJ emails you to tell you that your write-up on Juke was great and that he’s stoked that the music he loves has reached such a global level:

“I think that juke will not end up like a flash in the pan style of music since there is a huge culture that is tied in with it (foot working, Midwest Loyalty, etc)…nothing is more diversifying and mass appealing as Juke music, its all about the rhythm and booty shakin’, and lets face it, fotworkin’ is exciting to watch!”

I don’t really know what he’s on about “midwest loyalty, but his name is STARFOXXX, and he also dropped me some choice Juke cuts. Check ‘em below and file them under Partying All The Time:

DJ Clent - Bounce

DJ Clent - K-Swiss Juke

Crucial Conflict - Hay (STARFOXXX Remix)

STARFOXXX - Work It

Anyways, STARFOXXX is also one part of the YAWN music collective - check their website or dig them up on Hype.

I pretty much spent all of last Saturday ballin’ in a nice hotel room drinking champagne and watching BET with my special lady. When the video for Rich Boy’s “Throw Some Ds” came on a few times, I was hooked.

Just listen to it: Nothing says celebrating success by spending obscene amounts of money on novelty rims for your car. He isn’t out to change the world, or rap about how he feels. He just wants people to know how much he has to throw down on car accessories.

The best line of the song is when he says that the reason for not putting tint on the windows is so that those motherfuckers can see its him driving.

Rich Boy - Throw Some Ds

Say what you will about his music, you’d at least think a guy spending that much money on car accessories would invest a little green in the design of his MySpace page.

No, actually you know what? A guy ballin’ as hard as Rich Boy probably doesn’t care about his MySpace page. Not when he’s so busy Tweeting as Cartier Benjamin.

(And while you’re peeping his Tweets, check out 199X on Twitter)

After listening to Dj Tuco’s all-Juke mixtape about three times today, I’ve fallen in love again with the music I know so little about.

I mean, what’s not to like about “minimal use of analogue synths, and short, slightly dirty sounding (both sonically and lyrically) vocals samples, often repeated in various ways. Also common are 808 and 909 clap sounds, and full “rapped” verses and choruses.”

Reading DummyMag’s love letter to Chicago Juke didn’t help matters. Pure Juke lives in the bedroom production studios and gymnasium dance-offs of Chicago’s high school kids. It’s constantly changing, and while it might just be a cultural blip it’s one that I can’t get enough of right now. Being a white guy in Canada probably means that I won’t ever even get real juke, either - just the scraps that I can pick up off the interwebs. And nothing says juke scraps like that Die Antwoord track, a Dutch/South African electro jam re-worked by a Prague-based DJ.

Catch these juke tracks, and don’t ever confuse them with jook music: the latter is from Trigga City, the former from the Chi (am I allowed to refer to those cities like that?).

Die Antwoord - Beat Boy (DJ Tuco Juke Remix)

DJ Gant Man -Juke Dat Girl

Props to Salacious Sounds for the Gant Man track.

At first glance, Dr Hollywood and The Girls Can Hear Us come across as pretty similar -they both produce totally danceable, electro-rap and they pretty much look like the same guys in their promo shots.

I guess the major difference is that while Dr. Hollywood is from the sunshine state, The Girls Can Hear Us rep London, Ontario.

Dr. Hollywood - We Run LA (Dance Remix)

The Girls Can Hear Us - I Know This Song

Although I’ve been listening to that We Run LA track on my iPod almost non-stop this week, I think The Girls Can Hear Us edge them out for having also done a remix of Wouldn’t It Be Nice

The Girls Can Hear Us on Myspace and their official site

Dr. Hollywood on Myspace

You gotta hand it to Adult Swim. First they brought us the Mouse & The Mask, an album by MF Doom and Dangermouse that was heavily influenced by Aqua Teen Hunger Force and other adult swim shows. And now they’ve dropped ATL RMX on us, a free album featuring southern hip-hop tracks remixed by electro artists. Young Jeezy? Check. Young Dro? Check. Two (count ‘em) Li’l Jon tracks on the mix? Check.

Lil Jon feat. Kee - Give It All You Got (Drums of Death Remix)

Young Jeezy - I Got This (El-P Remix)

OJ Da Juiceman feat. Gucci Man - Good Night (HEALTH Remix)

Grab all the ATL RMX tracks here.

Sean Yee writes an awesome little blog called Key Of Grey, and its all about audio production.

Anyways, Sean was good enough to hook me up with a track he produced called Grandfather Clock featuring a couple of friends of his. Part of the track is in Japanese, and he’s done a cool write-up of how he actually put it together.

Sean Yee - Grandfather Clock (f. Yoshi and Cynthia)

The image above is from Sean’s other website, where you can read all about his recent travels to Japan.

I’d say that half of the music I like is pure, decadent electro that doesn’t really require much thought. The other half is music that tells a story, and that’s why I like this track from Oddioblender. Give it a listen and let the story play out.

Oddioblender - Psychics Don’t Need Hooks

After listening to it, I totally started remember Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid. Remember how he read your memory card, and the only way to beat him was to unplug your controller, and plug it into the other port? Truly a memorable moment, and definitely some fourth-wall breaking shiznit right there.

You know who else doesn’t need a hook? Jay-z, that’s who.

Jay-z - No Hook (Team Teamwork Meeting the Owl Remix) (from their nerdtastic Ocarina of Rhyme album)

Man, nothing says “hustler” like spending the entire day hanging out at the train station wearing a white suit and talking to hot chicks.

And that’s all these guys in the photo above ever did. I used to see them all the time at my local train station in Japan, and the funny thing is that they weren’t the only ones like that. Pretty much everywhere you went, there were guys like them. Apparently, they are called “Nampa men,” with nampa being the Japanese word for hustler.

I don’t know if they drove a van like in that other picture, but it would be awesome if they did.

Anyways, here’s my salute to hustlers:

Rick Ross - Hustlin’ (DiscoVillains Remix)

MC Plus+ - Still Hustlin’

Jay-z - Can’t Knock The Hustle (Borracho! Remix)

Clipse - I’m a Hustla

Pharrell - Show You To Hustle

There has been a lot of talk lately about the connections the Jigga might have to secret societies like the Masons.

It makes me wonder what these theorists would make to Jay-Z’s connections to German electro-pioneers and avid cyclists Kraftwerk. In the track “Sunshine,” it definitely sounds like he samples the Kraftwerk track “Man Machine” from their album of the same name.

Jay-Z - Sunshine

Kraftwerk - The Man Machine

I remember first realizing where Jay-Z got that sample from and being blown away. Probably more blown away than was warranted. Someone needs to do a mashup of these two songs.

And remember: its not a crazy conspiracy theory if it actually turns out to be true.