Christmas with the Halifax Classics, 2015

I just discovered the recording of Ian Allen and I playing at the Halifax Classics Christmas event a couple months ago.  I should have put this online immediately after the event, but I guess it slipped my mind, and now I'm having a hard time piecing together the track listings.  This event was all about the house music.

All of the tracks that we played at this show were ones that I edited beforehand, so a lot of them were mashups between two different tracks simultaneously, along with a number of other classic house samples thrown in.  We played this set on a pair of CDJ-2000's.

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/mixes

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

As I said, a number of these tracks were mashed up beforehand, so they may not quite be in perfect order, although I tried to piece together the correct order in which they appeared.  I didn't mention the dozen-odd extra tracks which I sampled or threw in over the top of the main programming.

      Alex Augello - Disco Fruit (Original Mix)

      Afrika Bambaataa - Funky Heroes (Original Orezero Remix)

      Rafha Madrid - Crazy Desire (Original Mix)

      Boris Dlugosch - Keep Pushin' (Purple Disco Maschine Vox Mix)

      Jerome Robins, MC Flipside, & Crazibiza - Like That (Slideback Your House Edit)

      Carol Jiani - Move Your Body (Original Mix)

      Sebastian Roter - Work Me (Roter & Lewis Mix)

      PME - It's Alright (Paperboy & Mike Even Club Mix)

      Garret & Ojelay - Love You Better (Original Mix)

      DJ Diogenes - Now (Original Mix)

      Jason Rivas & Asely Frankin - Bambadam (JR & Funkenhooker Back From Ibiza)

      Crazibiza - Back2House (Original Mix)

      Jay Frog & Dekoze - Uh Huh (Original Mix)

      Mike Newman & The Viron - My Love (Original Mix)

      Angelo Ferreri - Gimme Gimme (Original Mix)

      Crazibiza - My Lips (Original Mix)

      Slideback - Sick Of You (Original Mix)

      Rick Marshall - Fever (Rich B Enriched Dub Mix)

      Hoxton Whores & HXNT - Power (Original Mix)

      DJ Hightech & Khalisa Adila - Fly (Original Mix)

      Ivan Pica - Freak (eSquire Groove Mix)

I hope you enjoy it.  The mixing wasn't always the tightest, considering that it was on CD players instead of Ableton, but considering that we had some sound problems with one of the speakers and monitor, I'm pretty happy with the way this sounded.  This event is, without a doubt, my favorite event of the year ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Christmas with the Halifax Classics, 2014 Flashback

It’s Christmas Eve, 2015, and I’m sitting in my house, listening to some … house.  I’m playing an event (along with Ian Allen) in a few days in Halifax.  It’s an annual house music event at a small venue, with limited capacity.  I’ve been there for most of the past five years, and it’s always my favorite party of the year.  So my goal for tonight is to get some new music ready for that set.  I usually try to play very recently released tracks for at least eighty to ninety percent of each set that I play anywhere (unless I’m playing at a mainstream/pop event), so most of the tracks that I play on Sunday night will be ones that were released today on Beatport and from other sources.  But the nice thing is that the crowd at this event is essentially all of my raver peers from the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, so they appreciate a lot of flashbacks to older tracks too.  I’ll be remixing and re-editing a lot of classic tracks mixed with the new releases tonight and tomorrow, so we should have a pretty interesting set for the crowd in Halifax.

 

In the meantime, I was trying to find a track listing of what we played last year.  I didn’t have any luck with that, although I did find a rough recording of last year’s set.  It looks like I never put it online, probably because it’s a bit rough in places (and has too much flanger in a couple spots) but it’s not too bad.  I think that I never got around to putting it online since I didn’t have time to figure out the exact track listings. 

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/dropbox 

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

Although I don’t have the proper track listings for you, I did look into one of my DJ’ing directories, and found a list of 23 tracks that are time-stamped from the right date, so I think we used most of them for that show, and I recognize some of the tracks as definitely having been included in the set.  So even though this list isn’t useful for being in track order, I’m pretty sure that if you’re trying to figure out all the tracks in the mix, you can use the following alphabetical list to identify them all.  Maybe I’ll try to do that someday.  Or maybe someone who’s a qualified trainspotter can sort it and email me.

     4Peace – Jazzbuggin’ (Original Mix)

     Arturo Silvestre – Once (Original Mix)

     Baseek – Baby (Original Mix)

     Call Me Steve – Turn The Beat Around (Club Mix)

     Canard – Stop Going On (Original Mix)

     Chris Noble – Dance To The Rhythm (Original Mix)

     DJ Baxy – Jungle Book (Orgazmixound Jungle Jive Mix)

     DJ PP – Queen Of Disco (Original Mix)

     Fabricio Pecanha – BeatBox (Original Mix)

     Gordon John – Wake Up The Funk (Original Mix)

     Groove Phenomenon – La Candela Viva (Original Mix)

     Householics – Stomp To This (Delgado Remix)

     Jason Rivas & Asely Frankin – Billie Jean (Old Brick Warehouse Dub Mix)

     JL & Afterman – Black Betty (Original Mix)

     Kim Sanz & Mike Light – Beat Back (Original Mix)

     Luca Debonaire & Matt Auston – Snap (Original Mix)

     Nightcrawlers – Push The Feeling On (John Jacobsen Remix)

     Reza & Peter Brown – Phreak It (Club Mix)

     Souljackerz & Rude Vinyl – Forbidden Love (Funky Truckerz Remix)

     Thomas Brown – Brooklyn (Original Mix)

     Twism & B3RAO – Hips Lips Fingertips (Original Mix)

     Vigo Qinan – Like I Like (Original Mix)

     Vlada Asanin, Yas Cepeda, & Bang Beat – Low Rider (Original Mix)

That 2014 set last year was performed on Ableton.  But the DJ booth area at this venue is pretty tight, and a lot of different DJ’s are playing throughout the night.  We’ll just beat-mix on CDJ’s this year instead, to simplify things.

Alright, it's time for me to pour some eggnog and get started on editing music for this year’s show.  Happy holidays everyone, if you’re celebrating anything!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Live at Reflections Cabaret in Halifax, 2014-11-21

I played at Reflections this past Friday night in Halifax. The event was the Baseline monthly event, a project of promoter Geoff Curtis.






This mix is a combination of tech-house, with a few sections that are more techno-based, and some which have more of a traditional house feel. I did record the set with a couple of video cameras too, so I'll try to edit that at some point over the next week and put it online. Also, you might eventually be able to find a second, slightly different version of this recording online. Obviously, the music will be the same in both recordings, but the other recording was done by Geoff Curtis and includes crowd noise and the microphone feed coming out from the main mixer. My recording came out of my own mixer, and doesn't include the mic-overs.

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/mixes 

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:



Here are the track listings for this set. Note that I brought several of the tracks in and out of the set more than once, so I generally marked down the first time the track became played for more than 16 to 32 bars. Also, there were a number of other tracks (maybe two dozen) that I played short snippets of, but if I didn't play anything other than the basic rhythm loop from the first 32 bars of a track, I didn't include it in the track listings here:

01. Alex Gamez - Darknet (Original Mix).
02. Peter Bailey - Keep On (Original Mix).
03. Carlos Perez, George Privatti, & Guille Placencia - Puente Del Diablo (Original Mix).
04. Jason Rivas & Positive Feeling - La Bamba (Instrumental Club Mix).
05. Yan Krow & Susana Villegas - Massai (Santi Trillo & Eloy Ac Remix).
06. Julio Leal - I Like (Original Mix).
07. Christian Cambas - Increase The Grease (Original Club Mix).
08. Raffaele Rizzi - Norbis (Original Mix).
09. Jose Ponce - ITF (Pfff Mix).
10. Aless V - Deeper (Original Mix).
11. George Privatti & Guille Placencia - Garduf (Original Mix).
12. Kirill Slider - Don't Call Me Baby (DJ Kone & Marc Palacios Remix).
13. David Devilla, Daniman, Sergio Pardo - You Know (Original Mix).
14. Victor Juan - El Baile Oscuro (TecHouzer & DJahir Miranda Remix).
15. Stanny Abram & Rama 7 - Mayanga (Original Mix).
16. Groovebox - Fat Like (Hollen Remix).
17. Roger Sanchez - Troubleman (Original Mix).
18. DJ Dan & DJ PP - Dance, Come On (Original Mix).
19. Jaques Le Noir - Tequila (Original Mix).
20. Angel Heredia - Hecho Con Manzanita (Original Mix).
21. Alan Fraze - Pulsar (Original Mix).
22. Djose Elenko - Que Ritmo (Original Mix).
23. Stefano Secci - Revolution (Original Mix).
24. Blake Jarrell - Roaches (Beauriche Remix).


And for those of you who are DJ's, who are interested in taking a behind-the-scenes look at how I got everything set up for this performance (followed by video of the show itself), check out this video:

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Jay Hamilton

Today, Canada lost an amazing man to a short fight with cancer, and a lot of us lost a good friend. As a DJ, Jay Hamilton started in the midwest and then perhaps made his biggest impact on the East Coast music scene, and more recently lived in Toronto. I think of him mostly because of his years in Halifax, but he and his music were known by many across the country.

There are many positive things that I could say about Jay, but I wouldn't know where to start. I keep remembering the many times that I was at music events and he'd pop up suddenly with a smile and come over to say hello. There were many great conversations that we shared, predominantly about music and production. Let's leave it at that, and let me share some of his music with you:









Everybody dies, but not everybody lives. Jay lived his life as a role model for others, and his memory will live on in a lot of people ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Mix: DJ Bolivia, "Welcome To The Machine"

I've been playing around with my DJ Mixes page on my main site a bit lately, trying to tidy it up and provide better info. Some people are probably curious about track listings for some mixes, and other than the Subterranean Homesick Grooves radio shows, track listing info is generally almost impossible to find for some of my older stuff. So to fix that, I'm in the process of digging up track listings for everything that isn't already available, and publishing them here in my blog so they can be found more easily.

This is an old mix that I recorded during a massive snowstorm in the Maritimes in 2004. At the time, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I wrote this about the mix: "The machine will play almost anything electronica, from trance, to progressive, to techno. Created during 'The White Juan,' Halifax's greatest winter storm in recorded history, this CD at first seems to be dark and oppressive. Listen carefully though, and you may instead decide that the mix is purposely restrained, steady, and calculating. Whether the music is new or old, the beat goes on..."




Mix Name: "Welcome To The Machine"
Details: 63 minutes playing time, 131-134 bpm progressive tech-house.
Recorded: February 24th, 2004.

Track Listings:
01. Marshal Lore, "PlaySound." Written and produced by John Elliott & John-Paul Denton. Published by Copyright Control. Distributed by Intergroove Ltd., Copyright 2003, Harlem Recordings.
02. Echomen, "Spirit." [Mooncat Mix]. Written and produced by Chris Scott & Anton Fielding. Exclusively distributed by Intergroove. Published by Copyright Control. Copyright 2004, Forensic Records.
03. Wintersun feat. Michelle Ward, "Losing It." Written & produced by C. Bickley. Vocals by Michelle Ward. Copyright Control. Copyright 2004, Automatic Records Ltd.
04. Spawn Blond feat. Jimi Dred, "Waterfalls." [The Scumfrog Mix]. Written by Sean Peachy, James Carr, and Stephan Luke Delacotte. Produced by Stephan Luke for Fat Free Music, Inc. Remix and additional production by The Scumfrog. Manufactured and distributed by US Music Corporation. Copyright 2003, Effin Records.
05. Inkfish, "How Can I Believe." [Subway Baby vs. Martin H remix]. White label.
06. P.F.N., "Put Your Earphones On." Appearing on the Communication One [Sasha & Digweed] compilation, Copyright 2000, Sony Music Entertainment Ltd.
07. Fred Numf vs. Etienne Overdijk, "Drifting." Written and composed by F. V. Eck & E. Overdijk. Published by Enormous Music, Strengtholt Music Group. Licensed from Fred Numf Productions. Copyright 2003, Yo Recordings.
08. Ambrozia, "Lovely Lovely Lovely." [Lee Kavanagh Remix]. From the Cox E.P., vol. 2. Written by Hiro Tanaka, Edison & Julianne. Produced by DJ 19 & Edison. Vocals by Julianne. Remix & additional production by Lee Kavanagh. Published by EMI Music Publishing Japan Ltd./Sound Syndicate Inc. Copyright 2004, 19-Box Recordings.
09. Fred Numf vs. Etienne Overdijk, "Disorientation." Written and composed by F. V. Eck & E. Overdijk. Published by Enormous Music, Strengtholt Music Group. Licensed from Fred Numf Productions. Copyright 2003, Yo Recordings.
10. Seishi Ono & Kut Goldcard, "Girl." Distributed by Intergroove. Copyright 2003, Wild Loops.
11. Tomaz vs. Filterheadz, "I Love Techno (United as One)." [Original]. Written and produced by Bert Wilmaers, Maarten Wilmaers and Tomazz. Published by News Publishing. Recorded at Borderland Studio. Copyright 2002, News.
12. Trisco, "Musak." [Wonderland Avenue Remix]. Appearing on the Communication One [Sasha & Digweed] compilation, Copyright 2000, Sony Music Entertainment Ltd.
13. Max Graham, "Tell You." [Original]. Written and produced by Max Graham. Published by Copyright Control. Contains a sample from the recording "Call Waiting," by Zap Mama, licensed courtesy of Virgin Music Belgium. Copyright 2002, Hope Recordings.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

DJ Dan Canadian Tour Video

I just put together some video of DJ Dan on a recent Canadian tour. The footage comes from five different clubs, including The City Grill and Triangles in Moncton, The Palace and Reflections in Halifax, and The Warehouse in Calgary.



Tracks Used in the Backing Audio include:
DJ Dan, "N20" (DJ Dan's Bongloid Mix)
DJ Dan, "Stick Em" (DJ Dan 2010 Edit)
DJ Dan, "Seduction" (Original Mix)
DJ Dan, "Tribute To Voodoo Ray" (Dan's Spellbound Mix)

Here's a link to the video:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJ4i4sU3UI




A big thanks to Dan for being so accommodating with all of the filming in the various locations. For more information about DJ Dan, visit:
http://www.djdan.com

Unfortunately, the footage that was taken on four of the five nights was almost lost due to a major malfunction in the camera used. We managed to recover a small amount from each night, which was used to put this video together, but if you look closely you can still see a few skips and artifacts that we regrettably had to live with.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Felguk Video from Halifax

Felguk is the stage name of the Brazilian DJ's and music producer duo Felipe Lozinsky and Gustavo Rozenthal. Felguk were brought into the Paragon on March 5th, 2010, by a friend of mine, the late Galen MacDonald (GTM Group). Thanks to Felguk, the Paragon, and GTM for their assistance in getting footage to create this video:


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdGlP8ftAp0



Audio backing tracks used in this video include:

0:00 Felguk, "Buzz Me" (Rework 2011 Master).
2:03 Felguk, "Galaxy Traveller" (Original Mix).
4:32 Felguk, "Side By Side" (Felguk Intro Mix).

Click here for a discography of the group.


Unfortunately, the footage that was taken that night was almost lost due to a major malfunction in the camera used. Galen and I talked about it last summer, when I was working out west and initially tried to start editing. He was disappointed that the footage had been lost and it wouldn't be possible to complete the video. However, I rediscovered the tapes again last week and by using some older cameras in the my studio, I eventually managed to recover a small amount which was used to put this video together. If you look closely at the final video, you can still see a few skips and artifacts that I regrettably had to include, since there was so little good footage that I could recover. However, I think that if Galen was still around, he'd be very happy to know that something came together eventually.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Video: Classified, "Oh Canada"

Now that hockey season is heating up, I figured it was prudent to show a bit of Canadian nationalistic pride. Here's a video by Classified, a group from Halifax, which has been a favorite of mine for a while now. It's kind of funny seeing quite a few of my friends in this shoot.



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znejGNjOtmY

Sorry that I had to use this smaller version with lyrics. The original on YouTube, which had a lot more views, just got blocked in Canada by Sony, for reasons which I haven't figured out yet. Probably because of the entire Heritage Council commercial that was also included. Viewers from other countries might be able to watch it though.

Anyway, big ups to Classified & IV for this little bit of Canadiana.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Taylor Mitchell - Musician

Today, Canada lost a great young musician. Taylor Mitchell, of Toronto, was attacked by coyotes while hiking yesterday in Cape Breton, during an Atlantic Canadian tour. She passed away this morning in Halifax. Taylor was a 19-year old indie folk rock singer/songwriter, with an idealistic view on life and a love for music.

While you're reading this blog posting, open up her MySpace page and listen to some of her songs:

http://www.myspace.com/taylormitchellband


Taylor was supposed to play in Sydney, Nova Scotia, this evening. Here's a link to an article explaining what happened: exclaim.ca article

Toronto Singer-Songwriter Taylor Mitchell Attacked and Killed by Coyotes
10/28/2009 By Brock Thiessen

After just recently releasing her Exclaim!-recommended debut album, For Your Consideration, 19-year-old Toronto folk singer Taylor Mitchell has died after being attacked by two coyotes in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

On Tuesday afternoon (October 27), Mitchell was hiking on the park’s Skyline Trail when the two animals attacked her. According to the Toronto Star, another hiker nearby heard Mitchell’s cries for help and called 911.

Mitchell was airlifted to Halifax in critical condition and died early this morning.

"I spoke to her mother late last night and at one point we thought she was stable," manager Lisa Weitz told the Star, "but she had lost too much blood."

An RCMP officer reportedly shot and killed one coyote overnight but officials are still looking for the second.

Mitchell was in the midst of an East coast tour and was scheduled to perform tonight in Sydney, NS. "She had a small break and [she] wanted to go hiking," said Weitz.

While coyotes attacks are rare, the popular Skyline Trail has been closed and barricaded since the incident.


This was a really ironic incident for me. The previous night, I had been re-learning the chords and lyrics to a hit by another Canadian singer, Joni Mitchell. It was an old song that Joni wrote in the 1970's, called "Coyote." Check out the "Last Waltz" concert by The Band, one of the best Canadian music films ever - I wonder if Taylor ever saw it, since she had listed Joni Mitchell and The Band and several other performers from that concert in her favorite influences. I had even changed my Facebook status, just hours before this incident, to mention the first few lines of that song, "no regrets Coyote ..." I've often worked close to coyotes (and wolves) in my forestry job, and the thought that a couple of these animals could act like this is a grim reminder that you can never know what to expect from wild animals.


Taylor played in my hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick, several days ago. She didn't have a big following yet, but she had big dreams. It's tragic that her goals of reaching out to a bigger audience have been realized at the end of her life, without her knowledge.

I hope a lot of Canadian musicians will see this post and share it on their own facebook pages and blogs. Cut and paste, if you want. Despite the tragedy, I think Taylor would have been happy to know that at least her music will, for a brief time, reach a much wider audience than she might have expected.

- Jonathan Clark
Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada



http://www.myspace.com/taylormitchellband





ETA: October 30th article on CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/29/taylor.mitchell/index.html

---

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Halifax Classics Reunion 2009

This past weekend I played at a private event, held in Nova Scotia at a private camping site with a number of cabins and chalets. Approximately a dozen DJ's played in total, and the sets were a lot of fun, because I was playing with a bunch of old friends. Essentially, the guest list for the event included a lineup of DJ's who have all been playing in Halifax and throughout Atlantic Canada & beyond for at least ten years or more, and the attendees at the Reunion (a little under 100 people) were all people who partied a lot in Halifax in the 1990's.

The rules were simple. Each DJ got about an hour to play, and the goal was to try to play on all vinyl, and to use only tracks that were produced in 2000 or earlier. There were some legendary Halifax DJ's playing: Tommy Knuckles, Jorun Bombay (possibly my favorite set), Charife, Nick Nonsense, Mad Mike Mathers, and half a dozen others. In addition, legendary house DJ Terrence Parker flew in from Detroit to play a two hour set as a headliner for the evening.





I recorded my set, and if anyone is interested, it's available now for downloading. Be forewarned: this is old music! And not just old songs, but old vinyl, so the sound quality isn't quite as good as most mixes that would be released nowadays. Some of the tracks that I played were definitely big favorites many years ago, and I've played them so many times that the vinyl was almost worn out.

Here's a track listing:

   01. Echomen, "Substance"
   02. 16B feat Morel, "Escape (Driving To Heaven)" [Omid's Dark Dub]
   03. Trancesetters, "Roaches" [Peace Division Remix]
   04. Halo Varga, "Future" [Original Mix]
   05. Tilt, "Seduction Of Orpheus" [Tarrantella vs Redanka Remix]
   06. Datar, "B" [Tarrantella & Redanka's NYSC Mix]
   07. Jason Downs, "Cherokee" [John Creamer & Stephane K Remix]
   08. Killahurtz, "West On 27th" [A Tribe Called KHz Mix]
   09. Jimmy Van M, "ECIPS" [Medway Remix]
   10. Art Of Trance, "Madagascar" [Cygnus X Mix]


As you can see, the set was mostly very heavy and darker progressive/tribal stuff, although I did end things off with a trance classic, in honour of a good friend of mine, Darin Lee (Thrills), who couldn't make it for the weekend.

Click here if you want to see a small photo gallery from the event.

Enjoy!

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/dropbox 

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Armin van Buuren Photos, Halifax Nova Scotia

This past Sunday night, I got a chance to see Armin van Buuren in Halifax, Nova Scotia, courtesy of Underdog Productions. I wasn’t actually playing on the bill that night, I just went to relax and take some photos. It was my first night using a new camera (a basic Canon XSi digital SLR), but I managed to get a few decent shots. Here's the link:

http://www.djbolivia.ca/photos_armin2009a.html

I owe a big thanks to Armin for being so accommodating with the photography.

Armin has been ranked by DJ Mag as the #1 DJ in the world for the past couple of years. To lend credence to this assessment, consider this: his signature A State Of Trance radio show is listened to by thirty million fans - every single week. Wow. I’ve had my website online for about seven years and I’ve only had around fifteen thousand mixes directly distributed during that time (although I’m sure with pass-alongs, the number is probably a lot higher).

Armin is Dutch. He’s got a law degree, but wanted to give up that career to pursue his love of music. He’s a producer, who has a number of huge hits, both as singles and from the several albums that he has self-produced. He doesn’t use an engineer – he does all of his own production work. He loves his fans, and is always happy to sign autographs and shake hands at the end of his shows.

Some of Armin's well-known hits include Love You More, Blue Fear, Exhale, This World Is Watching Me, Communication, In And Out Of Love, Burned With Desire, Serenity, and Yet Another Day (and a few of the older tracks in this list have only been officially released on YouTube very recently, so they haven't had a lot of views yet). But that's only a very short list of tracks that I could quickly find videos for. For a full look at his portfolio, check out Discogs. The list of work that he has produced is simply staggering.

Check out his website at www.arminvanbuuren.com


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I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

The Tragically Hip

I saw the Tragically Hip playing in Halifax last night at the Metro Centre. It was packed, not surprisingly. And since my blog is read by a lot of music fans who live outside of Canada, I need to do a bit of promotion here. If you’re Canadian, you can pretty much stop reading now, because you’ll already know a lot about this band. But if you want to learn more, carry on.





First, you need to know that “The Hip” are Canada’s greatest rock band. The drummer, Johnny Fay, was once interviewed by Billboard, and when the subject of being in Canada’s best band came up, he said it was, “kind of like being the world’s tallest midget.” In 1989, the band apparently did a show where they opened for Nirvana, and less than a hundred people showed up.

The group has ten studio albums to their credit at the moment (disregarding their first self-titled album, which was only an EP). If I had to pick my favorites, I would recommend their first five albums, starting with “Up To Here,” and with “Fully Completely” probably being my top choice. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent a lot of time listening to any of the albums that came after “Trouble At The Henhouse.” I need to go out and buy the others though, because I know a few of the songs on them, and I know that I'm missing out on other gems.

I’ve seen the Hip perform dozens of times. The first times were in Banff in 1990. I had a few weeks off from my summer job planting trees, so I decided to hitchhike to Banff to wash dishes in a restaurant (The Magie & Stump) to pass the time for a week. During that week, I went with a couple friends to the Silver City nightclub every single evening. There was a band playing, and I thought that they were pretty good. Nobody else seemed to agree, because except for Friday and Saturday night, there were only about ten people in the bar each night. Anyway, after seeing them the first night, I was hooked. I kept coming back, and I watched them from about ten feet away, five or six nights that week. It wasn’t until about four or five years later, when they were starting to get famous and I saw them play at Mount Allison University, that I recognized them and realized that it was the same band. Since then, I’ve seen them in quite a few full concerts, and I also saw them in a small venue in Edmonton when they did their album release for “In Between Evolution,” with just a couple hundred people invited. I have photos from that night online here:
http://www.djbolivia.ca/photos_hip.html

An interesting thing about the Hip is that if I had to pick my favorite five songs, I couldn’t. Not a chance. I might be able to get away with my favorite thirty, but even that would be hard to narrow down. Their music and sound are solid, and even though I’m not usually one to pay a lot of attention to lyrics, Gord Downie is brilliant. The funny thing is that I don’t even know if he writes all the lyrics. I’ve always assumed so, because he is their lead singer, but that’s not necessarily true. His improvisational abilities in live shows though, are legendary.

“New Orleans Is Sinking” was one of their earliest songs, written a decade and a half ago, and it’s one of their best-known songs. However, after Katrina, many radio stations stopped playing it in deference to the residents of New Orleans. The Hip are actually playing a show in New Orleans on October 20th of this year.

Anyway, so if you like rock music, and haven’t listened to this band before, take a Canadian’s advice and check them out. If this is the first you’ve heard about them, you’re missing out on one of Canada’s best-kept secrets.

Benny Benassi

I went to a Benny Benassi show in Halifax last night, at Club Rain. This wasn't really a DJ-oriented trip; I took a bunch of the Pub staff with me and we went down to enjoy the show. Here are the photos:

http://www.djbolivia.ca/photos_benassi2007.html

I've been pretty slack with blog posts lately, since I've been so busy in the past four weeks. I'm leaving on Wednesday morning for a short tour, and I'll be visiting San Francisco, Osaka, Tokyo, Seattle, and Vancouver. I'll try to get as many photos as I can at each show, and hopefully I'll be able to take the mini-disc and record all of the sets for my website.

In the meantime, here's a random stupid JPEG:

  

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Tour-Tech Trade Show 2007

I was at the Tour-Tech show this weekend in Halifax. The show itself was ok. I didn't see as many revolutionary computer products as I did last year, but then again, I concentrated on the conventional audio seminars all day, rather than going to any of the video seminars, which is a field that is arguably advancing much more quickly right now. For instance, I went to seminars on topics such as microphone placement, PSM's (personal in-ear studio monitors), designing sound systems for churches, etc. Nothing really that exciting, but useful sessions.

  

Anyway, even though the trade show itself was fairly uneventful, we had an interesting time the night before. We went out to visit a few bars and have a few drinks. The bar that I work at is being rebuilt in 18 months, so I was asked to take some photos of other venues, to help come up with some design ideas. One of the guys I was with (Darren Wheaton) runs a couple of the other bars in my hometown, so he was equally curious to go on tour.

We walked past a bar downtown called the Seahorse Tavern. Several people had mentioned this place to me before, but I could never think of where it was. When I saw it, I figured it would be a good place to visit, so we went inside. I was pretty surprised to realize that I had actually been in it before, many times: it was the first bar that I was ever in, many years ago, although it was operating under a different name at the time. In fact, I have many funny stories from that very bar. For instance, one night, a few of us got more intoxicated than usual, and I woke up the next morning sleeping on the Bluenose II, in the Halifax Harbour. I have no idea why I was there - maybe an RCN press gang? Luckily, it was still tied to the dock.

Anyway, the bar wasn't exactly hopping that night, but there was a blues band playing, so we stayed for a while. The band itself wasn't bad, although I have no idea who they were. The lead guitarist looked like Wolfman Jack, and played pretty tightly. The drummer was consistent, and made funny faces throughout the show. The bass player looked sort of like Mr. Clean, and he was pretty quiet and unobtrusive in the background, but he was very, very tight in his timing, so I was pretty impressed. He also played on a fretless bass. The rhythm guitarist, however, was the really interesting character. During his first few songs, he didn't seem that notable. His timing was so-so, but he looked a bit nervous, and played some fairly uninspired solos when given the chance. However, after four or five songs, he suddenly warmed up and honestly ended up stealing the show.

What really got me laughing was the fact that he had a wireless pickup, so he was able to walk around the crowd while he was playing. He also had so many effects on his guitar that he didn't really have to strum the strings while he was soloing - he could just push the strings up against anything, such as a nearby table, and get decent sound. As he wandered around, he came up to this "crusty old seadog" - an aging weather-beaten sailor with a greyish-blond beard and a cap slung down low - who was pretty much passed out with his head on the bar. Anyway, the guitarist started playing by wildly rubbing his guitar against the crusty old seadog's head, while the guy was still passed out! The crowd went wild. It was definitely the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while ...

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca