Judy Russell dies. Clone Records to release classical music. Djax Up gets a documentary. ALM/Busy Circuits drops the Squid Salmple.

RIP Judy Russell. Judy Russell, who co-founded the Nu Groove imprint and the Downtown 161 label and distribution firm, has died at age 63. Russell co-founded Nu Groove Records with Frank and Karen Mendez. The label signed tracks from Bobby Konders, Joey Beltram and the Burrell brothers over the years, and its legacy in house music is indelible. Russell herself was also a key player in New York’s nightlife, and through Downtown 161, she helped release records by the likes of Kerri Chandler, DJ Sneak and Romanthony. According to Ben Goldfarb, AKA DJ Scribe, who first reported Russell’s death, she became ill after Downtown 161 shuttered in 2013. Unable to work, she was illegally evicted while in hospital. Russell received tributes from across the dance music community, with Tony Humphries describing her as “my advisor and protector.”  

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Bronx girl helps Brooklyn kid.

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Help Will Tramp. After “much loved” Manchester DJ Will Tramp was robbed, a GoFundMe has been set up in his name. “Literally took everything,” Tramp said via Facebook. “My beloved bike, hard drives, Passports, big bag of my records mostly old rare bits, money, keys, Mac, MacBook Pro, massive tv and remote, iPad, phones, suitcases, jewellery, trainers, jackets, beers from my fucking fridge, sunglasses, headphones, Speakers and cables,” he continued. Tramp was also forced to cancel his appearance at Love International, losing out on gig money.  The fundraiser is asking for £3,000 to help Tramp get back on his feet. If you’d like to donate, head here. 

Work in Abbey Road Studio 3. Ok, maybe not quite, but the latest release from Waves, is as close as anyone will ever get without blowing a hole in the bank account. Aptly named “Abbey Road Studio 3”, the plug in (and it’s stressed that this is different to Sonarworks) brings the acoustic listening environment of Abbey Road Studio 3 to your headphones. The Waves team have recreated the spatial referencing of studio 3 and combined with their Waves Nx immersive audio technology, users can attach a head tracker to really get inside the ‘mind of the room’. It’s an interesting concept which has divided opinion so far. Watch the video below to get a feel for it.

Maceo Plex gets inspired. In a tweet, Maceo Plex said he might be opening a studio in Barcelona for young producers. “Might be putting a ton of my gear into a studio for aspiring new producers to use and be inspired.  In BCN.  more details later on,” he tweeted. Obviously details are still preliminary, but Maceo is known for his love of gear and music production, so a studio for talented young artists featuring some of his equipment would likely produce serious results.   

Squid Salmple. What is it about squids and pro-audio this year? Anyway, first revealed at 2018 Superbooth, the Squid Salmple from ALM/Busy Circuits is out now. Capable of sampling up to 11 seconds with its eight tracks, each channel has controls for parameters such as bit depth, playback speed and direction. Samples are stored in on-board RAM for low latency playback, and a USB input allows for saving and loading sounds and banks during playback, allowing you to swap kits during performances. The Squid Salmple is shipping now via ALM/Busy Circuits for £399. Demo video below. 

Dozzy does One. Italian techno DJ and producer Donato Dozzy has written an album using only one instrument, the EMS Synthi AKS, a sought-after 1970s suitcase synth. The album will be released on a label called, fittingly, One Instrument, which is run by  composer and producer Grand River. Dozzy’s One Instrument Sessions will be presented as a 40-minute improv session split into two tracks, “Slow Train Part 1” and “Slow Train Part 2.” Learn more about One Instrument here.

Bitwig 3. The growing popularity of Bitwig can in some part be accounted to the legendary development of the endlessly modular “The Grid’ announced earlier this year. The clever team at Bitwig have finally announced that The Grid is available and impressively kept to the proposed Q2 release deadline. It’s a free update for all Bitwig Studio customers with an active Upgrade Plan. Check it out below.

Clone goes classical. For the first time in the label’s history, Rotterdam’s Clone Records will release non-electronic music via a classical music sub-label called Edit.Futurum. Clone’s label boss Serge announced the news via Facebook on Tuesday, and said the label will feature classical pieces “executed by some of the best musicians and conductors,” and that the “First white labels have been approved… more info following soon.”  “The never-ending curiosity for great music that I share with so many of you made me discover a lot of amazing classical music over the last 20 years,” he continued. “So here I go….”  Find out more about Edit.Futurum here

Not so social…media. Social media is “meant to bring people together” however these ravers found that promoting on Facebook had the opposite effect. Officers alerted by advertisements on social media last Saturday evening later found about 600 people, at the Norfolk rave. They made five arrests and shut it down.You can read the full news piece here on the BBC. To read how social media is changing music you can read this piece.

Djax Up documentary. Dekmantel has released a documentary on famed Dutch techno imprint, Djax Up. Djax Up was founded in 1998 by Miss Djax, and initially released hip hop by groups like 24K before moving on to Detroit-inspired techno from producers like Terrace. Djax was also a prominent DJ, touring heavily around Europe in the ‘90s. Her travels connected her to Chicago artists like Mike Dearborne, who sent Miss Djax a demo tape and became the first artist from that city to release on the label. Miss Djax eventually visited Chicago and Detroit, and returned with demos from some of those cities’ most prominent producers, helping to establish Djax as one of the most influential techno imprints out of the Netherlands. Watch the documentary below.

DJ shooting suspect arrested. After the fatal shooting of Israel’s DJ Perplex in Mexico, a suspect has been arrested. The shooting took place in the early hours of Saturday 29th June, as multiple gunmen opened fire inside a crowded club in the city of San Luis Potosi. Along with Perplex, real name Ronen Dahan, one other person died and four more people were injured. Media reports suggested the shooting was cartel related, and it’s now been confirmed that the suspect has a previous murder conviction. It is not believed that the 45-year-old psytrance artist was the intended target of the attack. 

Space Oddity anniversary. To mark the 50th anniversary of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” comes a limited-edition 7″ EP box set of the classic. The spaced-out jam was originally released on July 11, 1969, and the reissue will arrive with a “Space Oddity” print advertisement poster from the initial ad campaign, a Ray Stevenson shot of Bowie captured on stage at the 1969 Save Rave concert in London, as well as an information card and print featuring an alternative short by Jojanneke Claassen. Learn more here.

Legal weed and teens. Something the team at Attack has thought for some time could happen but now a new study suggests that in American states where marijuana is legal, teens are less likely to use the drug. Published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, the study analysed reports

about marijuana use between 1993 and 2017 from more than 1.4 million US high school students, which was collected by the Center for Disease Control. 27 states legalised medical marijuana in that time, while seven states legalised recreational cannabis for adults over 21-years-old. While medical marijuana didn’t have much of an impact on teen use, in legal cannabis states, teens who said they’d smoked weed in the past 30 days fell by eight per cent, while the number who’ve claimed to have used it dropped by nine per cent. No definitive answers are given for the drop, though the study’s author suggests that as dispensaries have replaced drug dealers, it’s become more difficult for teens to access illegal marijuana. Read the full study here

12th July, 2019

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