KILL SCREEN

In my perfect world (it’s coming … some day), Kill Screen releases would share some commonalities:

• strive to define time and place
  • what does New York City sound like in 2009 / 2010?
• argue a strong case for meta-creativity
  • did the DJ play all of the underlying instruments?  No, but does the listener detect the DJ’s creativity, nonetheless?
    • there’s a good scene in A Remix Manifesto in which the woman who works at the copyright office is flummoxed because Girl Talk has looped 1.5 seconds of a familiar song and she can’t delineate whether this constitutes legal or illegal creativity
    • Kill Screen is doing a good job if its releases are obviously creative, but not obviously (il)legal
• gimmicky, but seemingly always effective … consider splicing in:
  • funny voice mails left on your phone by friends
  • NYC airport feeds
  • kind of rando, but I always wanted to hear a Yonkers Raceway horse trample in a DJ set, like swirling from the left to right channel as they go into the last turn – this is kind of a bad example – need to find better audio clarity
  • movie excerpts – subtle is good – David Hollands overlaid a Shawshank piano part into one of his mixes – it wasn’t even Robbins or Freeman talking, just the piano line – really effective
• the more genres within a given mix, the better.  When in doubt, just play a Ministry song
• the date of compilation should be as close to release date as possible.  It’s not that older mixes are better or worse, I just think that Kill Screen as a whole will be more coherent if the releases always reflect what was going on inside a given DJ’s ears within the recent days / weeks, as opposed to months / years, prior to the release date

Hey Desim,

Thanks for the link to one of your old mixes.  I thought I would give it a listen and post some, dare I say, constructive criticism.  Considering a) I haven’t listened to it yet as I type this part of the post b) it very well may be flawless and c) no one other than you and me looks at killscreen as of yet, I figured this would be a fairly harmless exercise.

If this goes according to plan, you and I (and perhaps some others) can collaborate and work towards a more perfect mixtape.  Once we’re happy with it, we’ll release it on Kill Screen.  This should prove a good methodology because if we simply released the existing mix as is, then it wouldn’t really have any connection to the label.  With a few iterations, you’ll incorporate some new ideas and compile a more recent mix that dovetails nicely with the Kill Screen concept as a whole.  Tangentially, this iterative process may help our legal case.  Which, is basically – yes, we’re repurposing source music, but we’re doing it in creative fashion and we’re promoting the underlying tracks in good faith.

I’ll send you an email separately, just so you know to look back here.  This only works if you comment on the site.  Also, get one of your friends to offer a comment or two.  My guess is that three iterations from now you’ll be even more pleased with the result.

Notes:

• love the “quatro” intro – starts right in
  • question, though – how was this mix originally conceived?  Was it a demo for club gigs?  So, your rationale was “intro quick” so you don’t lose the ADD club booking agent’s ear?  Makes sense
  • counter-point – your eventual Kill Screen mixtape will be sold as a ~60-70 minute CD or digital download.  Demographically, I would think most people who buy it will either use it for exercise or for a before-midnight pre-game mix.  So, yeah – fuck it – leave the quick intro, just get right to it
• when did you compile this mix?  You mentioned it was kind of old.  That’s not necessarily bad.  In fact, it’s usually better.  But, for consistency’s sake, I was hoping Kill Screen mixtapes sounded very current.  Not necessarily that the underlying music was released on December 8, 2009, for example, but – more importantly – that the songs sounded good on December 8, 2009.  Example, Dungen’s big record came out five years ago and it sounds like it was recorded in the early seventies AND it sounded awesome when I was walking to the library today
• describe a theoretical time and place when you would want someone who bought your eventual KS mixtape to listen to it.
  • summer road trip with friends or commuting or spelunking or whatever
  • obviously, it will be listened to in more than one circumstance, but I think that if you have a specific scenario or two in mind for your listeners, your mix will reflect that clarity
• like the filter effect around 9:45
• like the transition around 12.30
• like how it gets dark around 14:20 – always the best part of a house mix – when it first starts to get nasty
• maybe consider a dark and stark hip-hop track to counterbalance the diva-vocals-spirituality vibe
• maybe include a “my New York” moment.  Example, given your recent Jersey City move, maybe a Holland Tunnel announcement field recording excerpt.  You can grab free sounds at FreeSound and ccMixter
• as an aside, because I’m feeling like a fighter pilot now, I’m going to do a separate post about general mix protocol (that’s my inner A&R dickhead talking)