So, here is the next video I decided to upload, continuing on my uploading of my videos here rather than Vimeo and Youtube, thou it appears my Vimeo block has been removed… least for now… but it seems to make sense to post them all up here, so I will continue to do so
Anyways, this is an R&B mix and as you can see the video quality is much better and the look of each video and transition is a lot tighter now that I have got a proper feel of how to fine tune the editing process
Anyways, enjoy!
DJ Blaze – Unleashed Video Mix 4 – Song List
1. Mike Posner – Bow Chicka Wow Wow
2. Katy Perry Feat Kanye West – ET
3. Baby Bash Feat Slim Thug – Swanananana
4. Chris Brown & T-Pain – Best Love Song
5. Keri Hilson – Pretty Girl Rock
6. 50 Cent & Jeremiah – Down On Me
Ok, its a new week so time to throw up another old mix, this time its one of my video mixes, this is the first one in the ‘Unleashed’ series I did and prob my second video mix (that is longer than 5mins, my first one was about an hour long, I need to dig it up and post it online at some stage)
The idea for these mixes was to make short 12min long vids of 5 or 6 pop songs just basically mixed together in video format. I kept them short so that the file sizes woldnt be to large and people could watch the on their cell phones (least that was the idea, in the end they ended up being good short tracks for bars to use when there is no DJ…)
Anyways, the way I would do these mixes was to pick 6 songs that were similar and that would mix well together, then I would record the audio, fix up anything I didnt like, then in Vegas I would add the video tracks for each song and do the mixes and transitions there. The reason why I didnt record the video live was because even in live video recording, its hard to get the video side perfect (or near enough to) on the surface it might look ok, but when you look at it closely, there is always going to be random frames etc that you just dont want. Beig the first one, it isnt perfect, there is a few things in the editing process I later managed to fix up and change to make it render more smoothly (as you can see in later videos)
And lastly this is a bit of a trial, uploading these kinds of videos seems to piss of the record companies (they are fucking idiots anyways but thats another story) so youtube and now vimeo basically has copyright filters on them, so things like this are deemed to be in violation of copyright… that shit annoys me to no end, so I am trying the video option here on wordpress and seeing how that goes…
DJ Blaze – Unleashed Video Mix 1 – Song List
1. Flo Rida – Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1..)
2. Chris Brown – Yeah 3x
3. Jay Sean – Hit the lights
4. Busta Rhymes & Tiesto – C’mon
5. Pitbull & T-Pain – Hey Baby
6. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
So, thought its about time again to post up another set list, it was from Saturday night just been at bar fly, honestly I thought it was going to be a rubbish night but it actually ended up being ok. Set wise it was ok, there wasn’t enough people there to go of on to many tangents so ended up playing a lot of tried and tested song combos etc but managed to throw in a couple of different ones in there as well as jumping a lot of genres as per usual
Set time 1.30am – 4am (2.5 hours)
New/Re-up/Decided to Play Tracks
Serebro – Mi Mi
LMFAO – Shooting Star
Joel Fletcher – After Dark
Lorde – Royals (Caked Up Trap Remix)
Craig David – Walking Away (House Remix)
Set List Saturday August 23rd 2014
Calvin Harris Ft. Tinie Tempah – Drinking from the bottle
Robin Thicke Ft Pharrell & TI – Blurred Lines (Justin Sane Rmx)
Bruno Mars – Treasure (Cosmic Dawn Rmx)
Pitbull Ft Ne-Yo & Nayer – Give Me Everything (Throwback Intro)
Rihanna – Only Girl (ext mix)
Flo-Rida Ft Ke$ha – Right Round
Psy – Gentleman
Timati Ft Kalenna – Welcome to St. Topez
Pitbull Ft Jump Smokers – Now You See It
LMFAO – Shooting Star
Hanmin Ft Ingram Jones – Show Me Your Bba Sae
Savage & Joel Fletcher – Swing (Combo Rmx)
Reece Low & Lefty – Monk Funk
Static Ravenger Ft Kay – Back Off Bitch
Daft Punk Ft Pharrell – Get Lucky (Starjack Rmx)
DJ Cassidy Ft Robin Thicke & Jessie J – Calling All Hearts (Frankie Knuckles & Eric Kupper Rmx)
Craig David – Walking Away (DJ Shtopor & Alex Menco Rmx)
Serebro – Mi Mi Mi
DJ Starjack – Move Your Feet 2k13
Redfoo – I’ll Award You With My Body
Joel Fletcher – Afterdark
TJR – Eat God See Acid
Klaas & Bodybangers – Freak
Scndl – Gypsy
DJ Snake & Lil Jon – Turn Down For What Transition
Punjabi MC – Beware the Boys (Trap Remix)
Lorde – Royals (Caked Up Rmx)
Kardinal Offishall & DJ Snake – Slow Down
Far East Movement – Bang It To The Curb
2NE1 – CL Solo
DJ Scene – Damn
Nicki Minaj – Boss Ass Bitch (Rmx)
Chainz – Im Different
Memphis Bleek – Like That
Macklemore – Thrift Shop
Trey Songs Ft TI – 2 Reasons
Chris Brown – Strip
Beyonce – Love On Top
VIC – Wobble
Chris Brown Ft Lil Wayne – Loyal
Sean Kingston – Beat It
Drake – Hold On
John Hart & Iamsu – Who Booty
Next – Too Close
Craig David – Time To Play
Musiq Soulchild – Anything
Akon – Belly Dancer
Mohombi – Bumpy Ride
Major Lazer – Watch Out For This
Staying Alive/ Da Funk Remix
NERD – Lapdance (Mombah Rmx)
Chemical Brothers – Block Rocking Beats (Rmx)
Skrillex – Bangarang
Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby Transition
Jay Z – Encore Electro Mix
Showtek – Get Loose
Swanky Tunes – Blood Rush
Anthem Kingz – PSA 2k13
Kanye West & Jay Z – Niggas in Paris (Satisfaction Rmx)
Asap Rocky – Wild for the Night
Kanye West – Mercyy Trap Rmx
Lil Wayne – Lollipop (Trap Rmx)
Anthem Kingz – Birthday Song (Trap Rmx)
SHM – Don’t You Worry Child (Trap Rmx)
Just Blaze Ft Baauer – Higher
Wiz Khalifa Vs DJ Khaled – Black and Yellow Wins
Tae Yang – Ringa Linga
Shop Boyz Vs LMFAO – Party Rock Like A Star Transition
Yeah its a little late… but thats ok, I been busy…
So, last time was my Marvel rant, this time its prudent I show DC some love, but honestly I haven’t been as huge a follower of DC except for what’s in the main stream, so yes, seen all the batman and superman movies etc and some of the cartoons but haven’t delved much more into it than that, however I did read a the following review which I feel sums it up perfectly, so I am sharing it with you, and yes, Marvel might be on top in the movies… however in other media, DC def got game!
Seriously, read this article, it is very much on point
My two cent views…
The original Batman movies had some of the best characters and some of the worst ever seen in the movie industry, having such extremes definitely didn’t help but the films were good.
Then along came Nolan and gave us a really good origin story that just worked and gave us an amazing joker
As for superman, well we know that has been all over the place, Christopher Reeve was always amazing, Smallvile was meh, Lois and Clark… well yeah you get the picture. The new reboot however was good as an origin story; so glad that is out of the way.
Green lantern was a fail, sad given the characters looked pretty good and the made his powers appear really cool, however was also disappointed they went with a white Green Lantern
The cartoons are definitely where DC shines, I haven’t watched any of them religiously but the ones I have seen, eg Justice League, Batman: The animated series, young justice, Teen Titans etc, are just awesome. And the animated short movies are even better
Arrow: Finally started watching arrow and have to say, I am hooked. I really liked how they kept it dark, gloomy and serious, even thou it’s a little different to how he is portrayed in the comics, I like this take on him better
Flash: Not out yet but I am looking forward to this
BvS: I am worried about this, thou the pictures and premise sounds good so far, it still feels like this movie is here to play catch up to Avengers and might try to much too fast. I am hoping the other characters who might appear in this movie are mere ‘cameo’ appearances and that the movie mainly focuses on Sups and Bats. I am extremely interested to see how Lex Luthor is, controversial casting call there but it makes a lot of sense and I think could end up being a genius move
What I want from DC
I want DC to take their time with their movies like Marvel has managed to do, but also at the same time I don’t wont to be over loaded with too many origin stories etc So I am hoping they will find a good balance. The other thing that has me worried is they have said there wont be a cross over between their tv series and the movies… Um so what does that mean for flash? He is one of the original justice league members… DC has the content, but it really depends how they use it. As that article said, DC needs to look at how successful their other media has been and make sure their new cinematic creations don’t fall flat… again…
Recent Sad News
Studio Ghibli closes… the studio of some of the best animated movies of all times is over…
Robin William passes away, a fellow geek and provider of smiles all around the world, it is sad to see him go
Recommended Anime
Log Horizon
Log Horizon was one of the big surprises last year, another anime based on an MMO story line. With the success of SAO and the prevalence of other MMO type Anime, Log Horizon was almost caught in no mans land between all the others being constantly released, however the story line and the premise for Log Horizon really blew a lot of people away and quickly has become a fan favourite and personally speaking, way better than SAO! The story follows an Enchanter named Shiroe as he as well as thousands of others are suddenly trapped within the world of Edler Tale, a popular MMO that has just recently received a major update, drawing a lot of older players back into the game. The story follows Shiroe as he and others try to make sense of what has happened and what it takes to survive in this world. It really does well at tackling the emotional side and possible trauma associated with being trapped in a new world and also their impact on that world. The players trapped within the world are known as adventures while the NPC’s are known as the people of the land, the thing with Log Horizon is the world which they are trapped in, your not sure if its the video game or the actual world and this is where things get tricky trying to figure it out but in a good way as the show teases you in various directions. Shiroe quickly teams up with his old friends and acquaintances as he tries to figure things out, we get to know his friends pretty well (I wish they would let Akatsuki loose more often, she is the boss!) and it is their interactions along with Shiroes strategic mind and just genius intellect that really drives this anime forward, but it is also the playful interactions as well that still manage to keep the show light hearted and entertaining, along with a few love interests thrown in at times for good measure. But also the political element that is introduced gives a real feel of reality to the show too. Overall Log Horizon is a great anime, I love it and there is a reason it is no. 2 on my favourite list. Also season 2 is almost here!
Animation 9/10 It jumps at times from animation drawing to almost 3d cgi at times which is a little weird since the animation itself is fine and doesn’t need that extra kick, its not mind blowing but its perfect for what it is
Characters 8/10 All are great and explored well within a short time (the short time always is the killer)
Plot 9/10 It’s a more realistic take on the MMO genre and it just works
Overall 9 It doesn’t have the same following as other anime’s but it is one of my all time favs
No throwback character this week, its been a messy few weeks with things on, but am getting back into my routine again so will start my throwbacks up again next post 🙂
So I was looking back thru my DJ bio and promo stuff and thought I should re-share some of my older stuff as well as touch up and sort out some of my more recent stuff. So will try and post up a mix from either one of the comps I have been in here over the last few years or some of my other mixes over the next few weeks
And we will start with the first DJ comp I entered since coming to Korea, and of course that was Redbull Thre3style back in 2012. It came about at a good time for me, I had just finished my residency at the loft so had a few weeks to throw together and entry set and a few weeks after that to plan out and practice my performance set if I made it thru. But of course being an expat, I wasn’t even sure if I was allowed to enter, but after getting in contact with Redbull they were more than happy to allow me to enter and of course I ended up being one of the 16 qualifiers.
As you might know, Thre3style is 15mins per DJ and you must use at least 3 different genres of music (thou often this is hardly the case) and is a crowd and skill based competition. In Korea the top 16 were divided up into 2 groups of 8 with the top 4 going thru to the final, and yes I was the only expat to enter and the only one to make it to the top 16 so I was in an interesting position.
After arriving late and missing sound check on the night, I got to watch a couple of DJs before laying down my set, it went well enough, but honestly it was kinda funny watching the crowd’s reaction to the fact I wasn’t a Korean, I knew this would be the case thou so didn’t plan much crowd interaction or anything instead sticking to music selection, flow and skill. My set went well without a hitch so I was happy with that. To me this wasn’t about winning but about putting my name out there, and that’s exactly what happened, thou I didn’t qualify, there was a lot of people who came up to me afterwards who said they thought I should have got thru, so that was enough for me. During that time I met a lot of local Korean DJs and made some good friends and very important connections as well as showcasing myself as a DJ here.
I have always been the kind of DJ who has let my playing speak for itself so having this competition to showcase that was a great step up since being here in Korea and allowed me to properly get into the DJ scene here and away from the expat DJ trap which is Itaewon bars and clubs.
Sorry for the break, holiday and then waiting to see GOTG and see if there was any big aftermath from SDCC… So this weeks post is looking pretty long and will focus entirely on Marvel, will resume my normal schedule next week 🙂
So lets get down to business. SDCC as always was packed with a lot of goodness and with Marvels dominance of late, its not surprise to see them come out with some awesome footage. Unfortunately there wasn’t any big reveals save that Josh Brolin did turn up with the Infinity Gauntlet, maybe an obvious hint as to what Phase 3 will build up to for Avengers 3? At this stage its to early to tell (till at least Age of Ultron hits), however below is what is looking like the current movie line up so far (the confirmed ones at least)
Avengers – Age of Ultron May 2015
Still trying to get a look at the release footage, but it sounded epic! Also how about that poster they have with all the avengers fighting Ultron and his Hordes?! I’m excited that Vision will be in it and I am very interested to see how they tie in Scarlet Witches powers and how the portray Pedro after the impressive display in X-men DOFP. Needless to say I am super hyped for this movie! Oh, and we see the hulk buster armor, oh hell yeah! Also it is rumored but most likely, Loki’s staff has an infinity gem in it, I guess we will hear more about it in the movie, making it the fourth one to surface
Ant Man July 2015
Same again, still trying to get a look at the footage that was released, but by the descriptions again it sounds interesting. We know Ant-man has had some production issues, but we wont go into those, needless to say I am just hoping the final product is going to be a solid one. The interesting thing to note is that Ant Man wont actually be Hank Pim, but it will be Scott Lang being the ‘superhero’, also noting that this will come after Ultron, so again Pim doesn’t create Ultron in the MCU. This will most likely be an origin story
Cap 3 May 2016
So, can they do better than Cap 2? I hope so, but its a hard act to follow as Cap 2 is regarded as the best movie so far and boy did they nail it. The talking point will be does Cap 3 start setting up Phase 3? Or does it deal with any Shield after math’s or what happens at the end of Ultron, or maybe more Hydra? All that has been revealed so far is that it will deal more with the winter soldier and the political spectrum of that, but no idea as yet if it will cross over to other things or not
Doctor Strange July 2016
After the bomb was dropped during Cap 2, this movie is most def going to be a risk similar to Guardians esp now stepping more into the realms of supernatural, thou we have been slowly feed some of it with The Thor Movies (thou magic is more shown as better tech, thou Loki has some cool abilities) and also in Agents of Shield (blackout), and the twins will obviously touch more on it in Ultron. So it really does leave the space wide open for Marvel to tackle this movie with no restrictions. I’m expecting the 5th infinity gem to show up here even thou it should be an origin story
Guardians 2 July 2017
Honestly without seeing the first one, I got nothing
Interesting that Guardians 2 gets a date before 1 has even hit the theatres.
Update: I have seen Guardians… yeah that was frikken awesome! Except Thanos… I was a little disappointed with him, but can cover that a bit more another time. There is a lot here to tie into the greater MCU, the major one being another infinity gem/stone being revealed as well as more about the history of them. The next one is obviously Thanos. Another one is the Kree, which has another tie in with Agents of Shield, then there is the question of who is Starlords father. So GOTG 2 could focus on many different things, but I am picking that there will be another infinity gem here at least (the final one) and maybe an introduction to the Skrulls, more on Thanos with maybe some avengers tie in (Im thinking either Thor or Iron Man)
So there are still other dates yet to be filled, the likely ones are Thor 3 and Iron Man 4, however rumors abound make popular mention of Ms Marvel, Black Widow, Loki, Hulk or my personal hope, Black Panther. Contract issues will start to come into play esp with Iron Man (and with a lot of the others given that superheroes dominated the top 10 highest paid actors the previous year) But here are my predictions
May 2017 Iron Man 4
I’m not sure what story line they will follow but if the previous films are to go buy, it will be an Iron Man one, however I would like to see it branch more into the MCU, maybe more to do with Shield or even space (maybe a Skrull set up plot) would be interesting, or a vibranium story arc (possibly paving the way for Black Panther)
Nov 2017 Thor 3
Im picking it will be to do with Loki (since he has done something with Odin, and also the infinity gauntlet to come into play here as well, maybe a cross over with GOTG)
May 2018 Hulk (either a verses/team up or Solo ‘ish’ Movie)
Its really about time again for them to take another gamble on Hulk, however with Ruffalo, I think a hulk movie would be great, however a team up would make it interesting esp since Marvel hasn’t done this yet, but as long as its based on Hulk Smash rather than Hulk don’t want to smash, then it will be a winner
July 2018 Black Panther
It has to come, for too many reasons, this movie has to be made, the question really is when
Nov 2018 Ms Marvel – Or maybe Captain Marvel (Or Avengers 3 part 1, but my pick either way, we will see Ms Marvel)
We have already been introduced to the Kree, also there is the Agents of Shield story line with the blue body (most likely Kree) and Sky being an 084, this could be brought together in a movie with the Kree visiting earth to find out what happened etc, this will also be a lead in to Avengers 3. This is a difficult one to predict because the next movie will be the biggest to date
May 2019 Avengers 3
While not confirmed, this is the likely date, and with the other movies having set things up, expect Thanos to be rocking the Infinity Gauntlet and the Avengers and GOTG to team up in something ridiculously huge and awesome and an obvious headache for whoever has to write it!
So in summary
2015 May – Avengers Age of Ultron
2015 July – Ant Man
2016 May – Cap 3
2016 July – Doctor Strange
2017 May – Iron Man 4
2017 July – Black Panther
2017 Nov – Thor 3
2018 May – Hulk
2018 July – GOTG 2
2018 Nov – Ms Marvel
2019 May – Avengers 3
With Marvel moving to 3 movies a year, Phase 4 and onwards is going to start getting very complicated and will be interesting to see how they tackle it going forward after Phase 3 and Thanos
As for the Infinity stones
Tesseract – Space Stone (Cap 1 and Avengers)
Ether – Reality Stone? (Thor 2)
Orb – Power Stone (GOTG)
Loki’s Staff (Speculation) – Mind Stone (Avengers 1 and 2, end of Cap 2)
Infinity Gauntlet (Thor 1)
Soul Stone (I think Doctor Strange)
Time Stone (GOTG 2)
Infinity Gauntlet (Thor 3, will play some part in this movie)
So thats the movies, now for the TV shows
Agents of Shield Sept 2013, loved the first season, im kind hoping the second season focus on the rebuilding of shield, thou with Ultron on the way, I’m sure there will be some show altering tie in coming up again. (also the 8 week break in the mid season for Agent Carter will be interesting) There is a lot to go on with the destruction of shield and the reveal of hydra and even more with Coulson and what we are pretty sure now was a Kree body in the lab and his lovely drawings at the end. Also with the Hydra reveal, there are a lot of once locked up prisoners most likely on the loose, including a mention of abomination early in the series, Blizzard, and most importantly, Graviton. So who knows just how the show will go, but to beat someone as powerful as graviton, they are going to need an avenger or 2 to help and at least Hulk to take out Abomination.
Defenders (Netflix Series)
Daredevil
Jessica Jones
Iron Fist
Luke Cage
Its hard to know how these are going to go, with a netflix release it seems like a good move, but the question is, how will they tone these different shows. The idea of having four shows running like this separately at first to then tie together in what they are saying will be a mini series as the defenders, its risky as hell but I love the idea
One Shots
I like this idea, short little shows covering some back stories, I would like to see this expanded more into maybe like a special 2 part mini series or something to tackle some of the bigger characters or come up with some interesting team ups. Hawkeye needs one of these! Hawkeye and Widow would be awesome, they need either their own movie or a team up one shot
In Conclusion
So, the MCU is basically this huge ass entity that marvel has created, and is continuing to expand, much like the comic books its great to see the same kind of work adapted to the big screen, thou the work behind it must be enormous but the pay out for Marvel and fans alike is well worth it. It really is just an exciting time for comic book fans and this isn’t even touching on the cartoon series and the comics themselves!
The thing I love about the MCU is how everything ties in together just like the comics, I like how that the effect of one show has a bearing on the other. The original writers for marvel comics had created such a huge and diverse world, but often you only get to see that world from a single viewpoint or a certain angle, what MCU has done is provided many stories and multiple view points into this world. This is where I feel a lot of good stories have fallen apart, to detailed for their own good and you cant fully explore it, but Marvel is fully exploring every possibility here. It is a shame that Spider Man and the X-men cant be part of this, and given the way both franchises have been treated, it is really annoying to see such good characters portrayed terribly, but one day, hopefully they will just give up and we will finally see Hulk and Wolverine battle it out!
Keeping with the Marvel Theme, here is my recommended anime
Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes (AEMH)
Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes followed up the momentum marvel had already created with the MCU and this release of 2 seasons worth of cartoons was very well timed. (There is also a new season/series even more recently released which is just as good) If you old or new to the Marvel universe this show is still worth watching, it kind of acts like a recap of a lot of the major villains in the universe as well as giving some deeper insights into various characters so if your new to Marvel I would def recommend watching it to at least have some idea what a lot of fan boys are talking about when it comes to the MCU. The first half of season one focuses on each avenger individually and how they came to be apart of the team, the second half progresses the story towards a major story arc that I wont give away, needless to say it is enjoyable to watch. Season 2 does the same and progresses ahead while introducing more characters into the universe. Each episode is not necessarily stand alone as they all contribute to progress the story line in someway but each episode does tend to have its own conclusion. Overall the show makes pretty good use of multiple characters in what is already a big universe that can be extremely confusing, but they have managed to keep the story lines focused enough throughout the series to make it an enjoyable watch. It is nice to watch the dynamic of the team thou, you get to see it a bit in the MCU but obviously not to the degree you get to see it on the small screen and this show really does give you more of the personal insight into each character. Also it really shows how Hawkeye is as a character too who annoyingly seems to have been neglected a lot within the MCU, grr!
Animation 8/10 It really does bring the comics to life
Characters 7/10 Superhero’s are hard to depict at the best of times in short shows, it does attempt to give them more depth in a short time, but skips a lot
Plot 6/10 The plots aren’t wildly complicated, but enjoyable
Overall 7/10 It works, but it really acts as more of a beginners guide to marvel, but given the success of the MCU, people need an enjoyable catch up and this provides that
Well that hapened! And now that I am over it, I can start to get to work on my next projects but I guess I should do a recap of the event first, this is trying to run it off while its still kinda in my head, but I am sleep deprived… so bear with me… hope I didn’t forget too much…
Well I arrived in Busan on Sat afternoon, and the weather, straight tropical storm blowing thru, rubbish!! Had a lot of the DJs worried abut the next day since obviously DJ equipment and rain don’t play well together. Anyways Sunday the weather somehow magically decided to hold off and play ball so we were treated to a night rain free! Also note, the photos I borrowed from someone, Im sure better ones will appear soon
Sound check was a crack up, all the other DJs are fun loving easy going guys so we enjoyed joking around and trying to keep our energy levels up as most of us had travelled and were runnning of little to no sleep which is pretty standard for the hard working DJ. After sound check we all parted ways for awhile before coming back together before the start of the evenings prcedings which saw Hanmin kick off the night with Krispy Crunch banging out a fusion of EDM and Hip Hop and finishing off with Hanmins smash hit Bsa Sae. Now with that out of the way, it was time for the 7 DJs to hit the stage and see who will come out on top.
First up was Paul Antoni, I have met him a couple of times and he is a nice dude, has some good tracks that he has produced, I have never heard him play before thou but I know he is a trance based DJ so was interested to see how he would handle a competition like this. He started off with a nice intro then proceded into his set which was nice, but as expected he struggled to really engage the crowd with his style. I did love his end throwback track thou
Next on the decks was last years winner DJ Ferry, a very good producer who has done a lot of dope K pop edm remixes but not what I would call a DJ (he reminds a lot of the top tier DJs, he is like a producer who plays his own music) anyways he started off with a mash up and then proceded into his set playing a lot of his own remixes but his set felt pre recorded, he did however dominate the crowd
Third on the decks having to follow up a good act was DJ Sir, I saw his entry video which was… ok… but he did do a nice little tone play at the end which I liked. Unfortunately he didnt drop any during his set, he tried to get the crowd on his side but came up a little short, painfully obvious when he transitioned into ‘this is how we do it’ he had obviosuly planned a bit of call and response but Koreans just dont know that song… which is a shame cause I love it. He hit the mark a couple of times with a few tracks but just couldnt keep it the whole way thru
4th up was Ecky Thump!, coming from a land down under, otherwise known as the west Island of New Zealand haha! He went into his routine without too much fanfare and proceded to do a nice solid mix of newer tracks, spending most of his set keeping his mixing tight with the occsiaonal crowd shout out, but he was keeping busy most of the time, since I was up next I didnt pay huge attention to details of his set but it sounded solid, not hugely crowd pleasing thou, propbably going over their heads with the music selection a litte but I enjoyed it
5th up was me… So kinda hard to talk about my set from an outside perspective but here is my take. Managed to start off ok then quickly progressed into some crowd bangers to get them going, then dropped it down and actually rapped on stage with the mic to Jay Z PSA, then it was just a mix of crowd calling with popular tracks, a couple of scratch breaks while jumping inbetween mixing and the mic was keeping me really busy, scratching wasnt as tight as I would have liked it and almost screwed up a mix but kept it inline, the 2pm and DJ Doc tracks were crowd killers, all I could see was people waving their hands, and then crooked at the end I had everyone screaming. I had a lot of fun on stage and managed to shake my normal competition seriousness away towards the end and just had fun with it like a normal set, so yeah, shit was mean as! Thou thanks Chad for the awkward question hahaha but all good, that just cracked me up!
6th on the deck having to follow up me was one of the DJs who I was keeping an eye out for because he has skills similar to me and also a mate of mine, Kiredmik, unfortunately he got off to a bad start not realising one of his channels was on thru mode, but he recovered well and got stuck into his set. He went down the play as many bangers as I can in 9mins route, which in theory wasnt a bad option, but track selection and lack of time to work the crowd or to let some tracks develop hurt his set and didnt really get a chance to show off any of his skills
Finally was DJ Rell, last is often the best time to jump on, if your set is right for it, Rell like a few others were at the disadvantage of not really knowing what to expect, and while being a good DJ in his own right, competition DJn and festival DJn is a lot different to normal club DJn, while he got up there and did his thing, he def fell into his comfort zone I think by playing a club style set, he was def enjoying himself up there and played some cool jams but not the kind to get the crowd really going
And that was that, San E graced the stage with DJ Pandol to a very enthusiastic crowd, and they were a great crowd, they were there wanting to be entertained and they showed the DJs a lot of love, but they did have to be directed and lead most of the time which made it hard on a few of the DJs. As I said before, competition DJn is very different from club DJn, the calibre of expat DJs in Korea is very broad, there are a lot who claim to be DJs but are really just music players and then there are some who are the genuine article, then there is the level where everyone else is floating around, not ready for the big leagues but good enough to be out there in the scene. The other problem is Korean DJs are pretty good, not quite world class good, but the top DJs here are a big jump apart from most expats. Thre3style is an example, out of the DJs who entered in BeFM the last 2 years, I am the only one to have entered and done well, 1 other could have made it and 1 other might have made it depending how many of the good korean DJs decided to enter (there is only a handful of expat DJs in Korea who I think could legitimately enter and compete but if every good DJ in Korea entered, I would say only 1 or 2 might have a chance). So, basically what I am saying is while its great that there is a forum for expat DJs to shine, the calibre of the DJs is lacking (for this type of DJn) which is not surprising when you really think about it however I digress… (and this isnt a dig at expat DJs, just trying to point out some of the reality, most of us are over here teaching so its not like we are all DJn full time etc there are obvious issues we face, not to say Koreans dont have their own issues, it just is what it is)
So in the end, the results looked like this
3rd Place – Ecy Thump
2nd Place – DJ Blaze
1st Place – DJ Ferry
The competition overall was really well run, the hosts were great (except Chad, he sucks lol love you bro) and the crowd and venue were simply awesome… however, the result… while I should be happy with second, Im really not, nothing against Ferry who came first, he did his thing, so props to him and to all the others as well. My anger and frustration goes towards the result which means the poor judges, both friends of mine too, Im confused how a set like his won compared to my set which while showman ship was pretty much similar, I showed more variation in skill and technique. Thou my guess is he has the producer card, the fact that a lot of his tracks were his… but then that begs the question, is this a DJ competition? Do you need to actually show some DJ skills for a DJ competition or not (I had this same problem with last years result as well) Now without talking to the judges and getting reasons behind their decisions all I can do is speculate, which in reality doesnt help anyone and just makes me out to be a sore loser, Im an annoyed loser, ill admit that, Im competitive so of course I want to win, but I dont hold anything against the winner or the judges but this is an issue that I think needs highlighted, at what point does producer credits and showman ship outshine skill and technique. This question however as we all know can be directed at the world of DJn in general… which is sad to say but true. The other problem with a DJ competition is the winner is determined by opinion, its not like a race where there is a clear winner, each person has their own opinion and it may differ to others, its human nature and cant be avoided, but it makes the judges job a lot harder, as I said they are both friends and I have a lot of respect for them, so Im not having a go at them, but would love to sit down with them at some stage and understand how they saw things. But at the end of the day the result is in and there is nothing that can be done about it, just hope at some stage I can get to understand it. (and its not easy being a judge!)
Here is my set, its not what I did on the night but close to it, this was one of my practices that I decided to record
But hey, I did have a lot of fun, met some awesome people and got to rock the shit out of a beach full of party people and walked away 800$ in hand, not a bad days work really 🙂
Ok, so its Saturday night, the night before BeFM comp, its pissing down with rain, like crazy stormy outside so Im sitting in my hotel room and thought I would post this up since I have been sitting on it for awhile. This is my set list from a party I did at Venue with Pinn and Dante. It was a mean ass night, I had a lot of fun, it was a really good crowd who were really getting into it, was a shame I had to run off after my set and go DJ at Bar Fly. But here is my set list, as you can see, this is vastly different from what I play week in and week out, and it is the kind of music I love. It was a 2 hour set, also I played quite a few MJ tracks as a bit of a tribute to the great one. I will be posting up D’s Horizon next week since I am still catching up on SDCC and I have been away on holiday. Anyways here it is
Koffee Brown Ft. B-12 – Weekend Thing
Mark Morrison – Return of the Mack
Mary J Blige – Real Love
MJ – You Rock My World
T.I. – Why You Wanna
The Notorious BIG Ft 112 – Only You Remix
Shade Ft Nate Dogg & Kurupt – Where I Wanna Be
Brian McKnight Ft Nelly – All Night Long
Toni Braxton – Making Me High
Baby Bash – Short Doowoop
Blackstreet – Good Life
Color Me Bad – I wanna Sex You Up
Musiq Soulchild – Fortnight
Gerald LEvert – DJ Don’t
Ideal Ft. Lil Mo – Whatever
Craig David – Time To Play
Musiq Soulchild Ft. Swizz Beatz – Anything
Highland Place Mobsters – Let’s Get Naked
Joe Public – Live and Learn
Tony, Toni, Tone! – If I had no Loot
MJ – Remember the Time
Jagged Edge Ft. Run – Let’s Get Married Remix
Temptations – Treat Her Like a Lady
Cherl Lynn – To Be Real
De Barge – Rhythm of the Night
Nesian Mystik – It’s On
MJ – Black or White
MJ – Rock With You
MJ – Billie Jean
MJ – Thriller
MJ – Starting Something
Whitney Houston – How Will I Know
Earth Wind and Fire – September
MJ – PYT
Earth Wind and Fire – Let’s Groove
KC & the Sunshine Band – Baby Give it Up
Salt-N-Pepa – Push It
Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
Run DMC – It’s Tricky
Tag Team – Whoomp! There it is
Freak Nasty – Da Dip
69 Boyz – Tootsee Roll
2 Live Crew – Hoochie Mama
Ghost Town DJ’s – My Boo
Quad City DJ’s – C’Mon & Ride It (The Train)
LA Snow & Pla Ya Poncho – Whatz Up, Whatz Up
Montell Jordan – This is How We Do It
Wrexx N Effect – Rumpshaker
ODB – Got Your Money
2 Pac Ft. Nate Dogg – All About You
To Be Continued – One On One
PM Dawn – Moving On Up
Naughty by Nature – Holiday
Heavy D & The Boyz – This is Your Night
Flava Flav – Shake Your Booty
Salt-N-Pepa – Lets Talk About Sex
LL Cool J – Phenomenon
K7 – Come Baby Come
Kid N Play – Ain’t Gonna Hurt Nobody
Bobby Brown – My Perogative
Kelly – She’s Got That Vibe
Bel Biv Devoe – Poison
Keith Sweat – I Want Her
Kurtis Blow – The Breaks
De La Soul – A Roller Skating Jam
C&C Music Factory – Do You Wana Get Funky
MJ – The Way You Make Me Feel
I really should start recording these one day, but in the mean time here is an old skool mix I did that you might enjoy
Since this week we are basically on the eve of Comic Con and the Guardians of the Galaxy hitting theatres I am going to keep it short since there is going to be a lot of news coming out in the next few days esp regarding DC and Marvel, so yup, next episode I’ll be dedicated to them! Also I have the BeFM DJ comp coming up soon as well as a trip to Taipei so yeah, its a busy time!
Short News
But for now, Naruto is back this week and the new movie has a release date scheduled this dec titled Naruto – the last Naruto, name is a little confusing, is it the last Naruto movie (prob not) or just a play on it
Bahumut, the popular card game has been rumored for an anime series for a while and seems to have been in the works, looks like it might come this Autumn season
Macross new series is ‘being planned/in the works’ basically meaning, dont hold your breath
Episde Briefs
Summer season is starting to get more intense now, coming up to episode 4 this week, I still think Akame Ga Kill and I would say Aldnoah Zero are my picks of the bunch. I know some people are a bit on the fence about Akame Ga Kill, mainly because the mood/tone jumps around so quickly, from being dark and gruesome one second, to being light hearted and comedic the next, however personally I like that, it kinda brings in the gore that you wish other animes had yet still has that fun side about it. I just wonder if it’s going to be as brutal as Shingeki when it comes to killing off people
One piece… Sanji is about to take on Dol Flamingo? Didn’t see that one coming, I wonder if he is still injured after that fight with Vergo and will Law intervene as well or will it be one on one, and will Sanji get his ass kicked… Kinda hope not but I’m guessing it will go that way
Mahouka, finally get to see Tatsyua let loose a little more and get to figure out more of his abilities, he is portrayed as such a bad ass
SAO seems to be taking a diff route to the first season, they have actually taken time out for some decent character development… maybe, if they have then I am def happy but I wonder if they will keep that up
Back into Fairy Tale, up to the next Saga, seeing Natsu take on an S rank quest, and now are about to run into all kinds of problems, this is also serving as Grays back story, and now Erza is on the way to bring them back… I sense more destruction is imminent
So that’s the news and anime recaps in a very small nutshell… as I said, it’s still a work in progress… But for now, here is my recommended anime and throwback character
Recommended Anime
Moretsu Pirates (Bodacious Pirates)
Moretsu Pirates is an interesting but fun take on what a future pirate might be like. The show is set far in the future as humans have colonized space and after the process of colonisation, independence and war has ended with a long term peace, pirates who were basically used as privateers during the wars are now little more than show pieces trying to make a living by ‘performing’ pirate raids and doing whatever other work they can manage. Enter Kato Marika, a first year high schooler living in an ‘outer’ colony who suddenly finds out her father who has recently died was in fact a pirate captain aboard the ship Bentanmaru and that she is set to inherit his position, not to mention she also finds out her mother was a very famous pirate as well. The story follows her as she comes to grips with this situation as well as deciding whether to take on the role as captain. Like most manga’s the story focuses on a young person taking on the lead role and in this case it does feel a little strange when you really look at it to think that a 1st year high school kid can become captain of a pirate ship, but other than that the series does handle this relatively well and it is nice to see the girls taking the lead in a more positive way than other animes which just tend to focus on sex appeal first rather than skill, Moretsu pirates tends to look at skill first, thou that’s not to say there isn’t a fair level of sex appeal thrown in there (just wait till she puts on a space suit… where did those come from?! and also there is the random high school girl scene where the other girls are trying to look at another girls breasts as well, kinda expected these days… disturbing) Kato Marika thou is often portrayed at times as an airhead who is actually really smart, not an uncommon theme among anime. The show does try to act serious on some levels with well thought out narratives explaining how the pirate works in their time as well as some light explanations of the current political climate and how they fit into that, but given its only 26 episodes long, there is only so much you can cram into such a short period. While there are obviously questions left unanswered, it doesn’t do a bad job of being cohesive enough to make it interesting and worth watching. The animation itself is pretty nice and mostly well thought out including ship designs, except for the stellar military ships, having the ship the shape of a knife?? I know its space but it just doesn’t seem that practical.
Overall the series is solid and finishes at a nice point for a first season leaving the viewer wondering about what could be next as it leaves the world at a very open stage, and a few big bombshells added in as well however there is no news on a second season and seems doubtful there will be one anytime soon. So if you can handle that annoyance then it is worth a watch
Animation 7/10 It is nicely drawn but has some weird design quirks
Characters 7/10 Some really likable characters but some others suffer at the expense of the main characters due to the short series length and are introduced to us out of nowhere at times
Plot 7/10 It has enough thought to it and just enough added mystery at times. The relationships between insurance company and pirates as well as the political climate makes for some interesting themes if they were able to be expanded on
Overall 7/10 It is solid and interesting, I like the details and the atmosphere it creates but it’s a shame there isn’t more episodes, feels like its nicely set up to be great in the long run only to have it short at one season
Throwback Character
Panthro
General to the Thundercats
Superior strength and figthting skills as well as technologically capable
Weapons: Nunchuku, Armour Spikes and the Thundertank (Extendable arms in the rebbot)
Panthro is one of the more badass Thundercats, weather you are looking at the original or the reboot of the series they have still kept his demeanour the same which is good and why I like him as a character. He is a noble and a general in the Thundercats and regarded as one of the best warriors around. While there are some small differences between the original and reboot, fundamentally he is the same character. He is strong and loyal, gets angry easy and is brilliant when it comes to technology. He is what you would describe as a heavy fighter, using his strength and skill to great effect during combat. His weapon of choice is a pair of fighting sticks that mimic nunchaku that have cat paws on the end. In the reboot he loses his arms and ends up having them replaced with extendable mechanical ones which give him more power. If all else fails you can also find him driving around causing chaos in the Thundertank which he is also very protective of
Thundercats is one of those childhood shows that many people will remember; the famous sword of omens was many a child’s favourite. The cartoon itself was pretty good, it had a solid toy line to accompany it and was animated pretty well for its time. The story would often progress as the Thundercats adapted to their new home and made friends while also trying to overcome Mum-ra and his evil forces. There was a reboot of the series in 2013 that I also really enjoyed but unfortunately didn’t do very well. They took a slightly new spin on the history and the characters bringing them into a more modern era I guess however it didn’t gain the popularity the original show did, my guess is due to lack of awareness and now people will prob be annoyed with it because it’s a tale left unfinished, but then again the original was also left pretty open ended which is common for most of the earlier cartoons with very few only ever reaching a somewhat definitive ending. The original Thundercats is like 100 something episodes long and is hard to find in good quality but if you’re feeling nostalgic I’m sure you can find it, however I would recommend trying out the reboot, it is shorter but it does add an interesting take
With summer season in its second week can finally start to gauge a little how the new shows will/might turn out. But first, some news
New Initial D movie to be released in Japan Aug 23, looks like its going to be part 1 of a new trilogy
Real G Next Project – Yup they are going to try and make that 18m tall Gundam statue they have in Tokyo actually move and do shit, prob wont be able to do much but still, sounds interesting, real life Gundams maybe not so far away as we might have thought..
Assignation Classroom anime to hit 2015 Winter season, live action film date still to be announced, not sure why but I like the sound and look of this
New DBZ movie is coming our way next Spring 2015
Street Fighter might be finally getting a V in front of it, I still wish they would do a decent movie or at least an anime reboot
Summer season recommendations
This week I am going to skip the episode briefs, I am still figuring out just what angle to take on those briefs, so instead I’ll go with the summer season here, this is a list of the summer shows I am wathcing and quick briefs on them
Akame Ga Kill
This is probably the most hyped new anime this season and after watching the first 2 episodes I can see why, what at first seems like your usual adventure anime quickly becomes something much more darker yet it still manages to maintain that childish anime comedy about it, will be interesting to see if it can keep that up. It revolves around a group of assasins who are trying to take down a corrupt country and at the moment it looks really good
Argevollen
Well this feels like another typical mecha anime, two sides fighting, one normal kid who stumbles across a more advanced mecha and does some damage with it… Hope there is some kind of twist to it, at the moment it feels like its been done before
Aldnoah Zero
So earth has been split into 2 almost different species, one group still on earth and the other living in space who have discovered technology far beyond their own giving them a huge evoulutionary step up. Thus enter the diplomatic talks that never start as the princess on a good will journey to earth gets blasted and the space fearing ‘knights’ basically use it as their excuse to decend to earth and start a war with their ridiculosly over powered army that they had been plotting to do since for ever anyways
Rail Wars
Well this looks a little different from the norm, but yet so similar too… Anyways the story revolves around a group of kids who are recieving training to work for the rail company. A job that is taken very seriously and also is a great career move. They end up working security and have to deal with the happenings of Tokyo station. It looks like a bit of fun
Tokyo Ghoul
This starts of a little dark as a couple of ghouls cross paths, but then traves back into familiar anime territory. However this story does turn out interesting. Basically the main character becomes half ghoul after he is attacked by a troublesome ghoul and they both are severly injured, and the ghouls organs get implanted into the boy. It seems like the story is going to follow his life as he comes to terms with what he has become and the new world he has suddenly entered
Tokyo ESP
Well this isnt the first esper based anime, the Zettai Karen CHildren series along with the OVA I really enjoyed (mostly) so to see a new esper based anime caught my attention to see if they could offer something different. At the moment only the first episode has come out but it seems different so far which is good but still looks like its going to deal with the whole human acceptance thing, along with good espers and bad espers, world domination etc etc But at least the powers look pretty cool
I would also include SAO Season 2, but I decided to make it my recommended anime this week so read below
Recommended Anime
Sword Art Online (SAO)
SAO was propbably the first MMO based anime to really get the attention of mainstream anime fans. Its interesting take on the characters being stuck inside an MMO game with the same rules in place made for an interesting story. Like most anime it tackles bigger issues of the human psychi as the players who are trapped within the world battle to survive. The story is based around the nerve gear system which allows people to enter into MMO games via virtual reality, basically full emergnce within the game, so you think it and your avatar does it. In SAO a new game just being released, on its opening day thousnads of players log on only to discover that they can’t log back out. Eventually they are all told that the only way to exit the game is to either complete all 100 levels or die, however if you die inside the game, you die in the real world. The main protaganist is Kirito, an accomplished MMO player who quickly progresses thru the game alone while other people stick to the safety of forming guilds and parties. However after awhile Kirito finds himself teaming up with others ans things begin to get worse in the world.
SAO is a great adventure story, it flows really nicely and the character development is smooth, but it does suffer a bit from having an overpowered hero at times thou as the show progresses it does show that even an overpowered character has his limits. While it builds well as an individual story, this also limits it I feel as there is a lot of interesting things that get left out, esp with regards to other characters, the guilds and as the story progresses, the different races. Sao has set up a really indepth and imaginative world, however I really feel we miss out on a lot of it because of the focus being soley on Kiritos struggles. Some of the boss battles or epic struggles on the front lines could have been awesome to see (thou we do see Kirito going HAM on one boss which was pretty cool)
Overall it is a great anime and well loved by many people, I just wished they would explore the world more
Animation 9/10 It is really well drawn and just looks beautiful
Characters 8/10 They are a little annoying at times but they have depth
Plot 6/10 It is really solid and well written but it kind of works against it because it jumps forward too often and we miss out on too much
Overall 7.5/10 It is a great anime and very popular but I just feel like it moves forward to fast and misses/skips over too much, while some people like this, I don’t, I would rather get the whole picture
Throwback Character
Bots Master
Ninjzz
Male
Robot/Boyzz
Fighting style based on martial artists, added strength, speed and agility due to being a robot as well as enhanced ninja weapons and skills
Silent bad ass type, unspoken second in command
Ninjzz was the first robot boyzz to be made during the program to help deal with the crissis of fighting LM corp. ZZ was in need of a bot with specific fighting abilities as the other boyzz were not made specifically for combat all thought they are profecient fighters. He ended up basing Ninjzz on earths greatest martial artists thou he does seem to have a predominantly bruce lee feel about him. He is the silent type who only speaks when he has to speak. He is also a capapble leader, acting like a general and has taken over leadership before when ZZ and Blitzy were incapacitated (Twig would prob be Ninjzz second in command)
Bots Master was one of my favourtie childhood programs, who doesnt like theidea of having their own robots. The show was really well worked with a decent story line, weekly plots that added to the overall plot, interesting and crazy yet likeable characters and of course lots of action and robots fighting. Bots Master did come after transformers era but they gave it a different feel that I felt really made the cartoon work, its just a shame it stopped after the first season. It didnt help that the toy line was only limited because these toys would have helped propel it forward more but looking at the toys, it seemed they just werent a match for what was in the cartoon whch is prob why they didnt sell as good. An interesting thing to note was the shows use of 3d scenes, using the old red and blue styled 3d glasses you could wathc the actions scenes unfold in a much clearer way which was very forward thinking for its time
akadjblaze 