Hello, my name is ash alwi

Fatboy Slim’s Djs at the House of Commons. Top man this guy is.

Google Glass: Wiring people’s brains to Skynet.

Google finally came up with a sexy looking consumer product, by the looks of it and from the video above, Google Glass is expected to change how we look at things, quite literally.

The glasses, assuming that users connect to a stable and omnipresent WiFi connection, has the ability to record videos, snap pictures, search the web and many other cool features that makes it look and function like a piece of Star Trek gadgetry.

Google Glass is still in it’s testing stage, and you may become a tester or “Explorer” if your’e being chosen.

No word on pop up ads and/or Adsense support yet.

Traktor Dj ipad app sends purists into a raging fit.

From the many Djing apps that i’ve seen and managed to tinker around with, I believe this one has the potential to convince even the most seasoned Djs.

What I really like about it is that it doesn’t look like your typical “virtual decks”, which to me comes off as lame and predictable. This app has been built from the ground up and is set to challenge the conventional design and functionality of Dj apps similar to it’s kind.

The best feature, other than a recommendation engine for other tracks that would sit well in a mix , based on tempo, key and timbre, is the Freeze Mode which allows Djs to “play” the waveforms and use it like a sampler. All this while in sync of the outgoing track. Sweet!

The app also has an in app notification centre with instructions on how to best use the app’s available functions, and for all of you lazy and wannabe Djs, a sync button is thrown in as well! How cool is that? 

At the moment, the app only allows 2 “decks”, but it would be cool if you could link up 2 iPads together and voila! 4 decks for mash-up mayhem. Perhaps this feature might already be in the pipeline for future updates

At £13.99, matching Djay, the Traktor Dj app will be a serious contender in it’s space. 

Nifty Stuff!

The Harlem Shake: The latest craze to hit the internet, could this be the next ‘Gangnam Style’?

The video starts of with a random person wearing a mask or a wacky costume dancing to the song alone unaware of his surroundings, when the bass drops, the camera transitions to a scene where everyone joins in the “dance” wearing costumes and wielding strange props.

As reported by Youtube Trends, this video was started by a group of teenagers associated with the skateboarding culture, later exploded into a viral phenomenon partly due to their internet following, which later spawned 11,000 other versions in the first 9 days, garnering 44 million unique views and averaging 4,000 new variations each day.

Could this knock Gangnam Style off it’s throne as the dance viral supremo? Let’s shake and see..

Dre and Reznor will be launching a music streaming service called..ermm..’Beats’.

The super wealthy producer and NIN front man hopes to launch the service this summer. Apparently the service tries to “marry mathematics and emotion”, so that it is “intelligent” enough to recommend music based on your listening habits. 

The service will also feature curated lists from music aficionados, trendsetters and artists. Complex algorithms will also be used to create personalised playlists according to mood, genre and occasion.

With so many other music streaming services, it’s interesting to see how Beats would compete with giants like Spotify, Deezer or Rdio.

BMW, in it’s awesomeness, decides to design a car as per a 4 year old named Eli’s request. 

This was from a post on Jalopnik from Eli’s uncle calling everyone to contribute ideas and sketches for his nephew’s dream car. After several design sketches later, someone from BMW took notice and decided to produce a Photoshop rendering of the car. 

Eli’s specifications of the car are as follows (in the words of his uncle):

• It’s a BMW
• 42 wheels, and of course 42-wheel drive
• It is powered by 19 Porsche engines, each producing 459 horsepower. I think they will need to be water-cooled turbocharged boxer 6s. This was entirely his own idea, but I commended his choice of using boxer engines for a multi-engine setup since they will stack so well.
• The engines are all linked to a single transmission. He didn’t specify, but I think viscous couplings for the inputs would probably be a good idea.
• Power output is subdivided to all those wheels via a series of limited-slip differentials
• There are seats and three steering wheels, and all three can drive the car at the same time.
• The trunk is full of toys and you can play in it

BMW even left a message for the young prodigy:

“Eli, we think you might be onto something. Our marketing department worked a little Photoshop magic to bring your dream to life. We’ll be sure to pass this on to our product designers. Thanks for sharing your idea and for being a BMW fan.”

What impressed me was not just the design, or that BMW decided to join in the fun, or even how much a 4 year old Eli knew about cars, but what blew me away was the boy’s fearless creativity. 

If Eli stays passionate, it’s possible that he will become CEO of a car company some day, or even an astronaut…

The GoDaddy Superbowl 2013 commercial that gave hope to all geeks worldwide that nice boys will have the last laugh..err..sloppy kiss?

This tasteless but effective commercial boosted GoDaddy’s domain sales up to 40% and brought in a total of 10,000 new customers!

Not bad for a geeky company selling domains and web services. 

Ikea understand Djs! This video made me jump with joy. I’ve been looking for an ideal storage setup for years to organize my records and music gear, and this video gave me some inspiration.

Here is a full list of Ikea furniture involved in Harry’s new setup:

A wall of EXPEDIT shelving units to store his thousands of records 

STOLMEN shoe racks to store his keyboards

KVISSLE cable management box to tame his web of cables

FÖRHÖJA cutlery tray to organise the floppy discs he wants to keep 

Too bad Stanley the cat didn’t get an Ikea cat cave…or did he? Good job Ikea for giving us Djs some hope on how to manage our creative clutter.

Audi’s 2013 Big Game commercial. The internet has been abuzz with Audi’s latest Super Bowl commercial titled ‘Prom’. 

This brilliant commercial is the brain child of Venables Bell & Partners, in an attempt to break into the US market. Centred around the theme #Braverywins, it looks like this year is going to be Super Bowl’s most “social” edition yet.

Good on you Audi, good on you!

theonion:

(via Faceless Reader #1786)

Uh oh.

I would have probably done the same :)

I’ve never blogged about cars before, but this cool video demonstrating Audi’s latest innovation in it’s lighting technology is just too great to be missed. It may be old news to some, but great technology is great technology is great technology.

Dubbed the OLED, short for ‘organic light-emitting diodes’ behaves as much as a “swarm” movement of animals and it reacts to the direction of the car.

It is pretty awesome, although some critics believed that it should just stay as a concept

“Swarmy” tail lights might just be the cure for heavy traffic boredom in the not too distant future.

‘The Shout Out Louds’ may have had a lot of time in their hands to come up with a promo idea for their single ‘Blue Ice’ like this.

A select few were sent a package with instructions on how to make their own record using…well, you guessed it: ice. 

Watch the video and you will know what I am talking about. I would’ve played the record mould and kept it as a collectible instead.

This is the single, for those without the mould and a freezer:

Touring as a DJ can be a pretty lonely experience sometime, living from a suitcase, hopping from hotel to hotel, and you’ll never know which country you will wake up in next.

The video is about Dj Jazzy Jeff’s travelling experience. First country be Hong Kong, the land of “Knick Knacks” and rare sneakers. This video reminds me of Anthony Bourdain’s food travel adventures, only this time from a DJ’s perspective. 

This is episode 1 from hopefully many more. Although many feel that it’s a glamorous job entertaining people in foreign places, but I believe the experience is similar to our jobs:

1- you have a task to deliver

2- please your bosses (The crowd)

3- Collect paycheck

4- Repeat

…Only without artist treatment and groupies. 

OK, back to work.

*Spoiler alert: Snoop Dogg is in this video, among many other interesting characters

Found this video of ‘The Newbeats’ - Bread and Butter on Reddit. Check out the guy with the ultra rare voice. This is pure gold. 

More about them HERE

This remix is THAT good. I have not been following the DnB scene for quite awhile now to be honest, but Andy C’s remix of Major Lazer’s ‘Get Free’ convinced me to start listening to past tapes of Drum and Bass Arena. 

Currently on heavy rotation on my playlist

More of Major Lazer mayhem HERE

Attempting to break the world record with 57 producers collaborating in one dance track, Hakan Lidbo, Swedish House extraordinaire proved that it could be done without spoiling the broth.

Just imagine building a track with 57 samples from 57 different sources, including Mr.Lidbo himself, and the result: A very danceable funky house tune. Crowdsourcing at it’s finest, although I think the mixing process would have been a nightmare.

Oh and the track is rightfully called ‘The World Record Record’. 

One of my personal favorite UKG track played live with a string quartet, details of the recording (MJ Cole was not in sight unfortunately):

At Revolutions In Sound on the London Eye 13/10/11

Curated and Programmed by Benji B

String Arrangements by Grant Windsor

Deviation String Quartet:
Kotono Sato - Violin
Rosie Langley - Violin
Cat O’Hara - Viola
Liinos Richards - Violincello

Hosted by MC Judah

Edited by Jordan Stokes

With Many Thanks To Red Bull Music Academy