Category: Uncategorized

Tonight, I moved this site from MovableType to WordPress.

The transition is a bit ridiculous and easy. WordPress has made a mockery of the MovableType installation process – there is pretty much no comparison.

The first time I considered moving away from MovableType was when the owners of the company (6apart) started charging for personal blogging licenses. That was obviously a mistake – and it was around that time that WordPress was taking off. All WordPress needed at the time was users and 6apart provided the perfect impetus for MovableType users to make a mass exodus to WordPress by charging the very users who helped build MovableType itself.

I was an exception because I had other things to do at the time besides install a new blogging system. The repeated trauma of installing MovableType made the idea of installing and moving fairly unappealing. I was happy to skip that idea.

Over the years, MovableType has been adequate in many regards, inadequate in many others. One of the most glaring examples lately has been the lack of an app for the blogging system itself, and the lack of commitment by the company that owns the platform to develop for it. It had a good run. It’s over.

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Update: Some trickery was required to swap from the subdomain for installation – 1-click installation has to occur on a domain which has no files existing within it (for whatever reason.) Had to reinstall and reconnect the DB this morning – even though it was working last night.

A week and a half ago, I played the main stage of the Victoria Electronic Music Festival (VEMF) on Sunday, from 4 PM – 5 PM. This is the set that I played on that day – dedicated to the volunteers of VEMF and our dear friend Nigel Haze. Enjoy!

Download: AFK – Live at VEMF 2011 (mp3)

Photo by Andrew Dodd Clippingdale.
You can also see video on the Livelab page.

Yesterday, Nigel Haze passed away. I don’t know the details of his death, but I do know some important details about his life. So indulge me for a moment, I’m going to get into them.
Nigel Woodward AKA Nigel Haze was not just a fantastic person, but also the first person to show me how DJ mixing actually worked. I remember walking into this house party near McKenzie and Interurban and I was going to do one of my ambient-mixing sets. That’s pretty much all I had been able to figure out at that point. I had played one party before and folks there would beatmatch but not quite at the level that Nigel displayed that night. He locked two records and would create something new out of both of them by cutting and manipulating bass and hi-end sounds – it was the real deal.
Of course, I my jaw was on the floor because I had never been this close to a display of talent like that. We were in my friend Jay’s basement kitchen, turntables set up on the countertop. I bothered him with flattery but he would have none of it. Instead he shoved the headphones in my hands and said “It’s easy – you try it!” I did. It was not easy. But with a little help from him and Tim (who I also met at that party – and eventually started 3 radio shows with), it became second nature soon enough.
My friendship with Nigel evolved after that – we would go on to headline raves under the Etheric Link banner, share a club residency together with Yoseff at Neptune, and of course share the occasional beverage at the Rooftop patio. He was always upbeat and knew how to make jokes work at seemingly impossible times. Nigel will be missed dearly, but will live on through his influence as a musician and a genuine, real person.
I’ll keep playing tracks with woodblocks for ya bud.

This edition of Sunset Sessions was mixed in the settings of two planes, three countries, two hemispheres, and varying times of day and night. I started on it on a midnight flight to Houston, flying over lightning storms, clouds flashing silently, and otherwise illuminated by the moon. I picked it back up in Trinidad for a couple evenings, and then spent an evening in Toronto refining it. Finally I returned to Victoria and reworked it until I came up with this mix, which I think you’ll find is a pretty special one now.

The photograph was taken a few weeks ago in San Juan, Trinidad. I ought to mention that my latest remix – of Kenneth Thomas – is a third of the way into the session. This mix went through many iterations and contains a lot of hard work by a lot of very talented artists. If you enjoy this, I encourage you to find and follow them. As always, I have provided the means to do so below.

Tracklisting:

1. Spooky – What Are We Waiting For (Dub mix) [Stella Polaris Music]
2. Tone Depth – Rumblefish (Ambient mix) [Bedrock Records]
3. The Emissary – Synapse (Fretwell remix) [Digital Sensation UK]
4. Kenneth Thomas – Gunnin’ (AFK remix) [Morphosis Recordings]
5. Faskil – Blow Up (Original mix) [Silk Digital Records]
6. Solarity – Essence (Claes Rosen remix) [Silk Digital Records]
7. Way Out West – Surrender (Eelke Kleijn remix) [Hope Recordings]
8. Ivan Nikusev and Wave-E – One Day Before (Dynamic Illusion remix) [Mistiquemusic]
9. Que and Alex Monakhov – Hola (Proff remix) [Anjunadeep]
10. Max Graham – Dusky 2010 (Does She Know Yet) [Armada Music]
11. Oceanlab – I Am What I Am (Lange remix) [Ultra]

Download:AFK – Sunset Sessions: August 2010 (mp3)

Right click and Save As, or option-click the link on a Mac to automatically download