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Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on a post that would discuss my value system concerning how I find and acquire new music but every time I looked over what I had written it always seemed to come off as overly preachy and a little elitist so I’ve put off posting anything. A couple of days ago a friend of mine sent me a link to an interview that Matt Edwards (of Radio Slave fame) gave to Resident Advisor which gave me an effective springboard to talk about some of these ideas. You can read the interview here.

Edwards starts out by talking about how Hip Hop, especially the work of the late J Dilla, had a big early influence on him, but for the purposes of this post I’m going to talk more about Edwards discussion on the business of making and selling music. Edward’s label, Rekids is on the forefront of the Dance Music scene and boasts a number of innovative and critically acclaimed releases highlighted by last year’s smash, Grindhouse by Radio Slave. With that being the case, it was a bit surprising to me to hear that the label really is not turning any kind of profit. You can imagine how difficult it must be for a new label to get off the ground or for less acclaimed labels to stay above water in the current environment. To those of us that appreciate all the work that independent record labels do to nurture musical talent and then create awareness for and distribute the resulting work the ramifications of this phenomena is pretty scary. As Edwards put it, “Without the labels and the distribution and the music being physically sold, there would be no music.”

Fundamentally, the reason that we bloggers are taking the time to post music we like is because we want to support the artists that we feel are putting together quality work. That being said I feel that I need to do a better job going forward of drawing proper attention, not only to the music, but also to all those that are involved in marketing and distributing the music I love and that I hope all my readers will love as well. That means that in the future all my posts will include information about the artist’s label.

Those that have been following my blog for a while know that I am a huge advocate of purchasing music on physical media, especially vinyl, and supporting both local and online record stores so when at all possible I’ll provide information on where you can purchase the tracks I post on wax.

Now that all that is out on the table let’s get to some new music…

Last week I picked up a new record from the excellent Eskimo Records by Visti & Meyland. It’s more techy than most of the releases that I’ve picked up on Eskimo in the past, but I love techy so it works for me. My favorite mix is by Denmark’s Trentemoeller. I purchased at Juno Records.

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Visti & Meyland – Yes Maam (All Night Long) (Trentemoeller Remix) MP3

In the same order I picked up Annie’s new single, released on Pleasure Masters Records and includes a great remix by a guy who always drops great remixes, Fred Falke. You can purchase here in the US from my friends at Gramaphone Records in Chicago.

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Annie – Anthonio (Fred Falke Remix) MP3

That’s all for me tonight but there is more to come later this week. Good night!

First off, I want to thank everyone that has come to my recent shows. Things have really picked up over the last month and that couldn’t happen without the support I’ve gotten from all my old and new friends that have been coming out to support. If we haven’t met personally and you catch me spinning somewhere please don’t hesitate to come up and intro yourself.

Quiet Village is a collaboration between Matt Edwards (also known as techno sensation Radio Slave) and apparent vinyl junkie Joel Martin. About a year ago the two released an album of balmy, atmospheric tracks in the vein of DJ Shadow or The Avalanches. Great stuff that can be sampled here.

I was reminded of Quiet Village when I picked up a 12″ by the legendary Francois K , a DJ and producer that started playing clubs in New York around the time I was born and is still going strong today. The flip contains a Quiet Village remix that I dig and thought I’d share. Enjoy!

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Francois K – Road of Life (Quiet Village Remix) MP3