Vinyl Thoughts

CMJ unofficial Broklyn Beats showcase went mellow, too mellow, but great tracks from Trouble & Bass using Serrato Scratch. More and more firends are rocking digital DJ systems leading a label guy like myself to worry. Mind you, it's no surprise to me that this is happening, especially after trying the new Torq system which goes for only $300, or more simply put, the price of 20 new Dubstep 12"s shipped from the U.K.! I do think vinyl and maybe CDs have a legit future on a specialty market level and Broklyn Beats has always been a noisy niche relatively unfettered by market impulses. Nonetheless, our audience (that's you!) have been a broke lot with amazing computer skills and more often than not, amazing computers. How will we fare making vinyl for this market? Well, we have plans for many less releases next year and are currently close to selling our entire catalog digitally. Maybe we can sell vinyl by having mp3 links etched in the inside groove of the vinyl?! I better stop here before a large rant begins... let it be said, however, that I don't fetishize vinyl, only the machines used to produce the sounds. The mediums will always change. I think vinyl will persevere...

Beginnings, The First Entry

Beginnings, The First Entry
Tonight we're hosting a CMJ label showcase for the third straight year at Subtonic. Two years ago, I left all of the T-shirts on top of the car and we had to drive back through the neighborhood finding them all (all were intact!) Then our car broke down (timing belt) a block after the bridge and 2 joggers scooped up behind us and pushed us around the corner to Tonic. Meet our entourage!
Subtonic, if you don't know has practically been the home-away-from-home for Broklyn Beats for the past 7 years. Our first NYC roomate Chris Sattinger (a.k.a. Timeblind) co-hosted the first weekly there. Doily's worked there for years (I have been filling in as well) and we've hosted three separate nights there, Barreled, Breakdown and the current night, Pure Fire. Doing a weekly in New York can be a thankless job or a sweet self-employed dream. Usually it's somewhere in between the two, cheaply drunk on something and immersed in your own choice of music. Wednesday night is not a big party night and one of us is always liable to upset that delicate dancefloor balance which keeps girls dancing, guys buying drinks and both coming back.
I bring up our weekly because it reflects a lot of other doubts I've had about music, age, direction... you know, my life... Maybe I need to pull it back to a monthly and have more time to promote? Maybe we need to put more time and money into the weekly and elevate it? Maybe we need to pull the plug and give the night to a retro-80's Brit-Metal night as previously transpired with Breakdown?! Ah decisions... and now there's a blog to outsource those decisions to you, our lovely Broklyn Beats fan.
If you're interested, the Pure Fire residents have 2 items for sale: the Summer '06 Megamix CD and an interesting "Grmo Crnko" 12" of grime instrumentals mashed with crunk a cappelas. Both are available at our Broklyn Beats shop. Of course these same anxieties repeat themselves constantly as in the case of our shop, which we are renovating to include a proper name (Applecore) with images and mp3s at a point when one wonders if vinyl and CDs have much of a future... Alas... these are our beginnings...