2005 seems to be off to a strong musical start, and I’m quite pleased. Some fine music has already hit my ears. Gonkyburg is back in fine form with a new player; Mad Mats and his labels continue to lead the way in terms of quality music; Finland is representing and showing its jazzy true colors; London is doing just fine with the inviting music, too. All of this and more are part of Urban Landscapes Radioshow 8.1 (05-01-14), which is now online for listening. You can check the playlist for the show on the home page.

The latest issue of XLR8R has been delivered in my mailbox. My reviews of future jazz singles in the issue includes two singles from the Woodland label (Perry Hemus and Bryan Corbett), Delgui (Gerd and Pablo Delgado), and Afronaut (better known as “Afronaught). It’s Issue 84 featuring a lovely woman called Mu on the cover. If you get to read the review, please let me know your thoughts.

I was very happy today to have received a promo copy of Louie Vega’s “Elements of Life Extensions” album in the mail. It’s not due out until next week, but I’ve been looking forward to it since I’ve heard of its impending release last December. I’ve really enjoyed the original album immensely, and was impressed by the production that Vega did. “Extensions” does the original justice not only with some of the tunes from the original album getting remixed, but there are also new tunes on it too. I hope to eventually get my hands on the vinyl.

Time to shoo for now. The live show this week will feature the first Urban Landscapes Guestmix of 2005 from Compost recording artist/producer Ben Mono. This will be his third guestmix, and I look forward to airing it this week. For now, thanks for reading. Be sure to tell your friends about the show if you enjoy what you hear!

Those of us DJs who are dependent on using turntables have been suffering grief over the past few months with some of the faulty equipment at our radio station. Turntables that aren’t properly grounded (making a low-frequency audible “hum” sound over the air); a mixer whose headphone cue no longer worked (meaning we can’t listen to the next songs that we are trying to play before you hear it over the air and, therefore, can’t blend beats seamlessly into the next song); other things that makes us wonder if people treat said equipment like toys.

In any event, the equipment seems to be close to being fixed. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a setback for me. I was planning on doing the seven-year anniversary of Urban Landscapes with a special old-school funk/soul show. All of my planned music were on vinyls, which was why in the end I’ve had to cancel the show. The plan now is to the do the show outside of the live confines, then post it online in a few days’ time. So that’s how I shall do it. I would have brought in my own gear had I known that we are still in the grips of that particular issue, but so it goes.

My live Saturday mix show, Wheels of Steel, is also back for another quarter. Due to plans, though, the show will start one week from this evening. I also plan on starting to archive the show online this quarter, and hopefully I’ll figure things out very soon.

Not many people know of this blog just yet, but in the weeks and months to come I shall shake things up a bit. For now, it’s time to start my day (however late it is…that’s why there’s sleep-ins). Stay good!

This is what I keep asking myself as the show approaches its 7-year anniversary this weekend. What started out as a show that developed during the days of ambient and trip-hop ended up evolving into a show that features jazzy and soulful club culture from around the world. Exciting musical scenes have developed that has infused fresh new takes on jazz, soul, and world beat music. I’ve been privileged to showcase such sounds during the course of the show, and I’m pleased that the show’s web site has been feeding listeners appetites throughout the world. Some of the very artists and producers for whom the show represents are, too, fans of the radio show. If you’re feeling the need to expand your musical knowledge from outside of the spoonfed radio that has saturated the airwaves, then feel free to check out the show. Every week is a different flow, as we play a variety of music from nu-jazz to old school funk; from Latin sounds to dubwise grooves,from broken beat to drum n’bass, the show continues to follow the beats of the world. The last five shows are always online on the Urban Landscapes website, where you can listen online or download the shows for listening. I hope you do have a listen, and let me know what you think. Be sure to tell your friends about the show if you dig it. That’s all I have to write for now, but more will be added to this new blogness in the future. Have a great week!

It’s the second day of 2005, and I welcome you here to my new area of cyberspace. I’m still trying to get a grip on how best to utilize this mechanism known as a blog, but my hope is that I can point you to people, places, and things that are related to my love of music and DJ culture. it could be a new song, an article about the state of dance music, information about my radio shows, my future DJ gigs, and the like. This will start off slow, but hopefully the pace will pick up by mid-year. For now, have a safe and prosperous 2005. Oh, and please give what you can to aid the victims of the horrific tsunami in Southern Asia.