I’ve been neglecting this website/blog while getting distracted by Facebook and Twitter. Soon I’ll be bringing everything together and making Music is Variable the main attraction. Twitter feeds and a Soundcloud player are coming soon. In the meantime check out my Twitter feed and Soundcloud page. Thanks for dropping by!

Special Inauguration Edition: Here’s looking forward to 4+ years of the change we really need.  From ObamaIcon.Me.

An update to an earlier post: Remixes from KidGusto’s debut album “KG Originals” are available worldwide now on 12″ vinyl on the TrueGrooves label. 

The LP includes five remixes, with two remixes from yours truly (Kaushik M. in case you were wondering).  My two contributions are the blissed-out “Trip to Alborz” and the dubby and funky “Fed Up.”  The latter is a collaboration with Rusty B. of All Good Funk Alliance, with vocals from See-I (Rootz and Zeebo of Thievery Corporation).

Check it out at the following outlets, both in-store and online. Thanks for listening and for your support!

USA:
Groove Distribution (Chicago)
DJ Hut (Washington DC)
Turntable Lab (online)
Turntable Lab (NY and LA)
 
Canada:
Beat Street Records (Vancouver)
 
UK and Europe:
Fat City (Manchester)
HHV Music and Clothing (Berlin)
Juno Records
Phonica (London)
 
Japan:
Calamel.jp
Hi Hat Records
 
Tracklist:
A1  KidGusto - Mini Joop (Marc Hype & Jim Dunloop Remix)  
A2  KidGusto - Sonic Conducer (DRM Remix)
A3  KidGusto - Fed Up (Kaushik M. & Rusty B. Remix)  
B1  Mustafa Akbar - Stop, Drop & Roll (KidGusto Remix)  
B2  KidGusto - Trip to Alborz (Kaushik M. Remix)

Here’s a little something to warm up your ears in this cold December weather.  These are my reworked versions of Jazzanova’s “I Can See.”  The Berlin-based jazz, soul and broken beat crew have a brand new album “Of All The Things.” Here’s a taste:

I love the raw soulful sound of the original track.  Out of about 16 parts (including a glockenspiel!) I picked out my favorite bits for these versions. Enjoy and happy holidays!

Jazzanova - I Can See - Kaushik M. Edit (464) - 5.31 MB

Jazzanova - I Can See - Kaushik M. Instrumental (461) - 5.3 MB

January 2009 Updates: The “I Can See” edits have been popping up in a few places, on radio shows and online. The weekly podcast Friday Favecast included the instrumental edit in its Best Albums Roundtable 2008 podcast… it passed the SoulBounce sniff test in December… Pathaan gave it some warm rickshaw love on his BBC Asian Network show… and finally the edits got the noodle treatment on the Beane Noodler Hotpot show… thanks to everyone for the support!

One of my all-time favorite albums is Peter Gabriel’s “Security” (sometimes just known as Peter Gabriel IV). Here are segments from an almost 50 minute long, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album.  This comes from the long-running British TV program The South Bank Show.

Haunting Ethiopian flutes… field-recorded audio fragments from a local junkyard… the outrageously expensive Fairlight CMI sampler… Gabriel brought together all these elements and much more over an 18 month period. The process of writing and producing the album is truly eye-opening. Lesson learned from Gabriel: Less is more. The often tortuous process he went through resulted in hundreds of hours of studio recordings, which were often stripped down to only a few minutes of material for each track.  But the journey he undertook is inspiring.