These Hopeful Machines is the name of the album. These Humble Machines is a dubious and possibly fraudulent copy. These Re-Imagined Machines is not BT’s work—it is remixes inspired by BT’s melodies and songs off of the current album.

I look as music as a DJ, in a long-form, like someone such as BT does. The Side A and Side B are meant to be consumed in one sitting, not a song at a time. It’s not necessarily the songwriting that makes BT a brilliant artist, it’s the production work. In this album, it’s really about what he does between the songs.

For that reason, I chose the album that had two long mixes of his work: Side A and Side B, with lots of remixes by other artists. It’s the best of both worlds. You get what he was driving at, and you can see how other people have interpreted his genius. By the way—there are BT remixes in the bunch that are included; you just have to understand what he’s driving at to know which ones are his.

The two-side format is exactly as BT wanted you to hear it, as if you were in his living room listening to his latest art.

Go for the long mixes; if you find you have a favorite song or two, they’re there in the remixes. Or you can ask me to slice and dice it from the mix, or recommend a comparable remix.

Anyway. Probably way more information than you wanted.

Go for the ‘Side A, Side B’ format. That’s how you’re supposed to listen to it. Buy the individual songs/remixes later if you like what you hear.

TK

RSS Feed: TK’s Hits and Beats

Setlist follows the cut.

Setlist:

aNYway – Duck Sauce (Armand Van Helden and A-Trak)
The Boys – Dragonette
Hush Hush; Hush Hush – The Pussycat Dolls
More – Usher
Let Me Think About It – Fedde le Grand (feat. Ida Corr)
What a Feeling – Alex Gaudino (feat. Kelly Rowland)
S&M – Rihanna
I Want Your Sex – George Michael
On the Floor – Jennifer Lopez (feat. Pitbull)
I Know You Want Me – Pitbull
Till The World Ends – Britney Spears
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Judas – Lady Gaga
Walking – Mary Mary

Part B:

Rolling in the Deep – Adele
Good Girl – Alexis Jordan
Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Firework – Katy Perry
Rocketeer – Fast East Movement
Indestructible – Robyn
The Sound of Missing You – Ameerah
Keep This Fire Burning – Freemasons
Derezzed – Daft Punk
Unprepared – Marco V
Automatic – Ultra Naté
Call My Name – Nadia Ali
Raindrop – Carmen Reece
Up n’ Down – Britney Spears
What About Us – ATB
Touchin’ On My – 3OH!3

Fallout: New Vegas Character Planning

When I’m on the hamster wheel, as my former roommate liked to say, I always retreat within and start processing my thoughts and emotions in solitary pursuits. As such, video games have proven to be the perfect retreat to my more insular side, providing countless hours of reflex and mental challenges in a wide array of settings and genres. The move to online scoreboards and internet multiplayer provide anonymous competition, in which I find I thrive most; as I’ve learned through my storied video game career, no one, not even the best of friends, likes to get their ass handed to them repeatedly and consistently pwned.

There are limits to what one can achieve, however. There are stories of Korean gamers passing out and dying after obsessively playing StarCraft for over 30 hours straight without a break. Though my gaming never really got to that extreme, I have definitely played through the night, realizing only when the sun comes up that I should have been in bed four hours earlier to get a better start on the next day. For many years, I questioned my own escapist tendencies. I finally stumbled upon a koan of sorts: What if I spent as much time “playing” my life in the physical world as I did in navigating someone else’s virtual reality? Could I be at the top of the leader boards? Could I be ranked in real life? SPOILER ALERT: The answer is yes.

The final straw for me was when I watched my last boyfriend repeatedly sink headlong into multiple digitally-based alternate realities while suffering a major bout of unemployment and depression. He spent hundreds of hours in some of the very same games that I had enjoyed in relative moderation. Understanding the trappings of escapism so well myself, I could hardly cast blame for his dogged pursuit of 100% completion as the full and happy real life he had carefully constructed for himself was on the verge of collapsing. Thankfully, he’s much better now, and hopefully, lesson learned—for both of us.

These days, I have a much healthier attitude toward video games. I’ve dramatically pruned back the amount of time I spend behind the controller, but not in the number of trophies that appear on my personal Facebook profile. But the time that I do spend there is more sacred now, more productive. In turn, I’ve become more involved in my own life as well as in my digital life. Over the upcoming weeks, I’ll start posting more musings of how video games have related to real life and helped me through some tough decisions and some scary moments. There’s even extra lives and continues after the game over screen; you just have to know where to look for them. Above all, you still have to play to win. It’s time to learn how to approach life with my game face.

TK

Direct from the dance floor, TK’s off-the-board recording of his live set at Tavern on Camac, Philadelphia, PA, March 19th, 2011. Part 1: Mostly original pop, transitioning into pop remixes. Part 2: All vocal house, slightly progressive, occasionally dirty and with a heavy trance influence. Lots o’ pop remixes.

RSS Feed: TK’s Hits and Beats

Setlist follows the cut.

Setlist:
Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Raise Your Glass – P!nk
F**k You – Cee Lo Green
Get Outta My Way – Kylie Minogue
Only Girl (In The World) – Rihanna
Firework – Katy Perry
Hold It Against Me – Britney Spears
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Blow – Ke$ha
S&M – Rihanna
Tonight (I’m F**kin’ You) – Enrique Iglesias (feat. Ludacris & DJ Frank E)
On The Floor – Jennifer Lopez (feat. Pitbull)
More – Usher
We R Who We R – Ke$ha
Higher – Taio Cruz (feat. Kylie Minogue)
Don’t Hold Your Breath – Nicole Scherzinger
Till The World Ends – Britney Spears
Take Over Control – Afrojack (feat. Eva Simons)
Animal Rights – Deadmau5 and Wolfgang Gartner
The Time (Dirty Bit) – The Black Eyed Peas
My First Kiss – 3OH3!
Sanity – Hannah
Indestructible – Robyn
Dog Days Are Over – Florence + The Machines
All the Lovers – Kylie Minogue
Telephone – Lady Gaga
What A Feeling – Alex Gaudino (feat. Kelly Rowland)
Happiness – Alexis Jordan
Born This Way – Lady Gaga
The Emergency – BT
Kick Us Out – Hyper Crush
F**kin’ Perfect – P!nk

Since then, it’s been on constant rotation on my playlists and sets, often leading the charge early in the night when moods are mellow, waiting for the big business and beats to kick in. There’s something about the organic, sateen production that sets me in just the right sort of electronic mood for a well-paced evening of good tracks. I also appreciate the forward momentum of the chirping organ, and whistful happiness conveyed in the track, which counterbalances the complex emotional weight in the lyrics. Sometimes, you just have to move on, no matter what your heart says.

Vega – No Reasons [YouTube, unofficial video]

Why haven’t I had something to say? Words really don’t express much when there’s no truth, no meaning behind them and sometimes honesty isn’t the best medicine. I’ve been going through some rather turbulent times financially and personally, which has accounted for a significant degree of escapism over the past seven months. During that time, I’ve had my head down, learning what I can about becoming a regular DJ, finding a nice blend of music that’s venue-appropriate and that also suits my personal tastes.

I recently emerged this week with catharsis via a new pop DJ mix demo, and an inescapable urge to win a remix competition being held by Masterbeat.com. At the moment, the DJ mix lies in two places: On SoundCloud as a track listing, and in my public Dropbox folder. This mix was the culmination of nearly 60 gigs at a Hell’s Kitchen hotspot: Bar-Tini Ultra Lounge (642 10th Ave, b/w 45th and 46th St.) The owner, Ted, hired me while I was distributing copies of my last DJ mix, Liquid Lounge.

I happened to call at the right time, when he had a Thursday night open—the very next evening. I walked home, and prepped myself for a performance/audition. The next night, a couple of hours into my set, Ted offered me a regular position, specific weeknight to be determined pending some upcoming schedule changes.

Then, I think it was either the first or second gig, but Ted offered me two nights in the then relatively new venue, and I was floored. Since then, with the exception of one dispiriting week in the early spring, I’ve had two regular nights there, remaining on the entertainment roster through multiple changes of shows and drag acts. Sometimes, Ted has offered me to fill in on nights when there’s been nothing planned, making some weeks three nights at a popular neighborhood venue.

Through my nights at Bar-Tini, I’ve met a significant number of people, many of whom are friendly, supportive and complimentary towards my DJing style. These people have had a huge influence on me over my time there and are inescapably part of the DJ mix.

There’s Shawn, the bartender on my first few weekly nights, who took an active position in getting to know me, my taste in music and—best of all—requesting songs that he was enjoying that he thought I might appreciate. He changed my opinion on artists like Rihanna and Robyn, and for that, Rude Boy appears on the mix.

There’s Tom, also a bartender at Bar-Tini, who is strikingly handsome and new to the city, hailing directly from Chicago. His enthusiasm for The Ting Tings and Lady Gaga, specifically Teeth, nets him two tracks on the mix.

I also have to thank Ralph, Anthony and Chris for their continued input of what they’re listening to, and exposing me to great classics and new hits from their musical point of view.

And then there’s Yara. Yara was exposed to my music through her coat check shifts at Bar-Tini in the cold and snowy first days when I got hired in late January. She loved my particular brand of modern and classic house, and requested a number of songs from me and made visible her excitement when I would play a favorite of hers unbidden (usually because it also happened to be a favorite of mine).

Though Yara has no tracks to specifically credit her for their inclusion on the mix, she was instrumental in letting me know what kind of music would ensure my longevity at the bar. She often harangued Ted about making sure to keep me on during the frequent schedule changes over the course of  the various seasons of New York nightlife. The DJ mix is a direct result of the sound that I’ve developed over my seven months at Bar-Tini. To her, I owe her so much more than can be expressed, and therefore, I dedicate the entire mix to Yara. Dirty, Dirty, Dirty Pop is yours, baby!

I’m in a good space now. There’s a lot of work ahead, but I’ve found my focus again. And there’s nothing like focus to help you see only the most important things in your life, such as the company of good people, and the benefit of a little escapism at times. Were it not for those two things, I wouldn’t have the pop mix demo that I release to you today.

Oh! And I’m still spinning at Bar-Tini, of course. I’m spinning there on Monday nights, starting at 10:00, with the fabulous Paige Turner Show and just this week, I’m starting Friday nights during happy hour from 6:00 to 10:00, setting up the room for DJ Steven Paul. Come by and say hi!

djtk – Dirty, Dirty, Dirty Pop – DJ Mix Demo – v1.2f

For a high-quality audio file or demo CD, please contact djtk (Trevor Kuprel) at 917.520.2432 or djtk@tkomusic.com.

FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY; No rights reserved by djtk. All rights reserved by original artists and record labels.

Setlist:

• Woohoo – Christina Aguilera (feat. Nikki Minaj)
• Teeth – Lady Gaga
• Single Ladies – Beyoncé
• That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings
• U & Ur Hand – P!nk
• Toxic – Britney Spears
• Music Makes You Lose Control – Missy Elliot v. Les Rythmes Digitales
• Rude Boy – Rihanna
• Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z (feat. Alicia Keys)
• TiK ToK – Ke$ha
• California Gurls – Katy Perry (feat. Snoop Dogg)
• Commander – Kelly Rowland (feat. David Guetta)
• Make Me – Janet Jackson

Dedicated to Yara Sanchez.

It’s been difficult finding people willing to give me a chance to prove my skills as a musician. However, when I have found opportunities to spin, the patrons, the employees and my friends have all expressed significant enthusiasm that I am doing well and on the right path. Behind the decks, I feel myself growing and understanding more and becoming confident in my own abilities to provide the service that I sell. Payment, however, has been difficult to acquire—a hard lesson to learn—and I’m still on the quest for my first regular gig to build the following that so many owners and managers seem to demand more than musical taste.

It’s the classic chicken-and-egg conundrum: Which comes first? The medium and larger clubs won’t let you spin because you haven’t proven yourself at the lower levels, and their consistent and frequent clientele deserves a modicum of assurance that the music is going to be liked. The smaller places are willing to take a risk with someone unknown, but they demand that you bring an entourage in order to encourage more business for their bar. The problem is that I can’t have my friends pay for every night that I spin, and without a regular position, it’s nearly impossible to build a consistent fan base from which to draw numbers.

Despite that paradox, I am resolved to be successful. Being a DJ is valuable experience in determining the viability of artists, styles and songs when later producing your own music, and it provides, what is hoped, a consistently adequate stream of income that I can live on while I go through the process of creating and refining art. It’s been discouraging to have the experiences I’ve had of late, yet I’m slowly learning how to network and form relationships and agreements with people that have the power to provide me with opportunities.

I have just posted Liquid Lounge, a new mixtape which encompasses a number of different electronic music styles firmly rooted in dance music but bringing a lot of pop-sensibility and artistry to what can occassionaly be a monotonous and somewhat “beige” genre of music. Take a moment and have a listen, I promise you’ll enjoy the majority of what’s there to offer, and possibly be intrigued to explore a couple different genres and artists that you may have otherwise missed.

Liquid Lounge - a setlist by djtk

And, by all means, if you know a professional and serious agent, or a bar genuinely looking for a well-educated, professional DJ and future music producer, put them in touch with me:  djtk@tkomusic.com.

Persistence and friendliness have paid off in a Friday, November 6th debut gig at G Lounge, a hot spot down in Chelsea. Many thanks to Gustavo for giving me the chance to spin my first gig at a well-known and local bar with an excellent customer base. I’m going to make sure that everyone grooves through the entire night, from customers to bartenders! I’ll be sure to post pictures and impressions of my first DJ gig as a follow up to what I’m sure will be a fantastic night. The set list is looking impressively fresh and I’m definitely geeking out on being in the DJ booth. If you’re in the New York area for that night, be sure to stop by.

In further news, tonight the fourth episode of The Variants will be released, with music composed and produced by me over the course of about 48 hours. I had the opportunity to meet the writers and actors in the show during a visit to a close friend while in Dallas, Texas about two years ago. I’m really glad that I went to visit Nolan, as that little mini-vacation weekend has turned into two very fulfilling original composition gigs for me. Who knows where else it may lead! When the episode goes live, you can check out the short here: The Variants Episode 4 (YouTube | Variants Website)

Closing out the good news is a lead on a potential regular Saturday night dance party at a well-known club within the city. The opportunity was brought to my attention by a lovely drag queen I’ve met during my scouting missions in the city, Jackie Dupree. She’s a fabulous lady who actually sings her songs instead of just lip-synching. I can’t wait to establish a regular gig for the two of us and start working on our own remixes; I already have a few ideas. I was hoping to move quickly with the gig, but it might have to wait until the new year. Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, the pizza’s here. If you want to help me get some street cred and snag a few gigs, be sure to become a fan on my Facebook page so I’m more than just a pretty face with a hot demo CD!

Being self-employed and a company of one is difficult, because you have to motivate yourself. There’s no boss to issue a disciplinary memo when you consistently arrive late to work (or don’t come in at all). There’s no team that’s expecting you to get your work done so they can finish the project. There’s no co-workers to gossip around the water cooler. For me, it’s always been difficult to motivate myself to get out of bed in the morning. I found that I enjoyed staying up quite late into the night, and I often got to see the sun peeking, then gradually rising over the horizon. That often meant just a few hours’ rest, far short of what my rather slumber-prone body needs and enjoys. Just this week, I’ve finally set myself to a weekly schedule that allows me to get everything done I need to get done, while also getting the correct amount of rest and going to bed on a fairly consistent basis. The catch? I sleep from 5:00 AM to around 1:00 PM.

So far, however, it’s been great. Since I expect many of my gigs to stretch until 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, I need to make sure that I’m still going to be energetic and at my peak attention level at the end of the gig. I’ve been able to get the things done I want to get done: transcripts, going out and scouting bars, hanging out with friends — and the best part is that I still get the alone time during the night and the wee hours of the morning without feeling guilty about staying up late. It seems a simple solution to just adjust your actual bedtime, but it’s taken me a long time to see that it would work and to accept that particular solution to the problem of finding enough time to rest.

The reason it’s taken a long time for me to personally accept this schedule is because the vast majority of society wakes up as my head first touches the pillow. Societal pressure can exert itself in the weirdest ways, eh? However, now I feel individuality is an integral part to being an entrepreneur. You have to be able to break out of the norm and accept that your ideas are viable. Does it work? If it does, then someone will buy into it and you’ll be a success. It’s these small successes that all lead to larger ones, building upon each other. Even if you’re not an entrepreneur, have you thought about how being an individual could help the company you work for? You might be surprised at how much more satisfied you’d be with your job — and since you probably work for at least eight hours a day — yourself.

Do I have a gig yet? No. But I have succeeded in setting myself up for success by giving my body enough rest, by forging connections that I hadn’t expected and that could very well help me achieve a higher level by cooperating and combining my efforts with others. I do have two strong leads, and about six or so other places where I know who to talk to. Some things can’t be forced — you just have to be in the right place, at the right time — but as I’ve come to understand that phrase for myself, it means setting yourself up for success. Being out, being friendly, being yourself, finding out how you fit in with the crowd, how you can aid others and bring your individual voice and efforts to make the world a better place. You’ll suddenly start seeing more opportunities, more chances to succeed. And eventually, you get good enough at it that you’re running your own show and making your own dreams come true. I’m pretty sure I’ll get there one day, where I could call myself “successful” by societal standards. But for me, the personal journey so far has been rewarding enough; it makes me want to travel even further down the path I’ve planned.

Now, if I could just write more blog entries…

Years ago, DJs used to go to gigs with milk crates and dollies full of vinyl to play their set. If you were going to do a four-hour gig and wanted to have a reasonable amount of music to choose from during your set, you were looking at tens, if not hundreds of pounds of plastic to lug around. Today, software is available that allows us to reduce the weight of carrying songs around almost to nothing — all since the invention of MP3s. For DJs, there is software that allows them to harness the power of the MP3 and digitally replicate the analog scratching and mixing of vinyl, making it possible to DJ a gig with merely a laptop and some sort of controller, like the vinyl control records I use with Scratch Live.

One of the best aspects of music is its temporal nature. The reason why live performances are so much better than recorded sessions is because music itself is about “the moment.” Since the time of tribal drumming, people have sought to increase the number of “moments” by finding a way to record and play them back. First, we developed a system of writing, championed and codified in the baroque era, but that always relied upon gathering people together and re-performing the piece, a sometimes monumental task in the case of such things as operas. Another disadvantage of this method of “recording” is the fact that it relied upon the performers for its quality, meaning that if a specific part had been written for a specific singer, when it was re-performed any time that singer wasn’t present, the character of the moment would differ, especially if the new performer was less than spectacularly skilled.

Later, in the modern era, Thomas Edison finally discovered a way to record the actual vibrations of sound. This meant that not only would we be able to record the idea and concept of a piece as in notated music, but we would also be able to capture the specific performance — the specific moment. As this technique has become more and more refined, we can now conceptualize and record pieces in pristine condition. It also means that any sound is an instrument, a color to be painted by the aural artist. The variety and scope of recorded sounds has expanded to the point where musicians today are creating music and soundscapes with instruments never imagined, in combinations physically impossible to coordinate. Combined with resources such as the Internet, this can all be done in your living room, if you wish, as was the case when I recorded music for The Fall of the House of Usher in early winter, 2009.

Modern rock recordings started with very large instruments such as reel-to-reel tape machines, later miniaturized all the way down to ADAT cassettes. However, there was always a large difference between what one could own at home for a reasonable amount and what one could pay a professional to record. For an artist to put together a demo tape, it would require hours and hours of expensive studio rental time, and mounting pressure as resources ran thin, or hours grew short. Though I did invest a considerable amount of money in my gear, I would imagine that the costs associated with their purchase, from which I’ll be able to produce a virtually limitless quantity of demos, is roughly equivalent to what an artist used to pay for a single demo recording.

Furthermore, until very recently, the equipment needed to translate that recording into something easily reproducible and professional-looking has been cost prohibitive. For quite some time, one has had the ability to burn a CD in your own home. Still, there was a problem of professionally labeling or branding it; black Sharpie isn’t particularly eye-catching or professional. Enter the photo-quality inkjet printer capable of printing on CDs. (I won’t even go into the amazing ability to reproduce pictures as I did with sound.)

The culmination of all of this technology means that today, I am capable of producing a completely professional-sounding and professional-looking DJ demo in the confines of my own home, so I can demonstrate to the world that I can conceptualize those moments humanity has been striving to capture… the ones where your heart races as the thump of the bass drum drives you to move your body, the uncontrollable smile as you realize what song the DJ is playing next, ready to dance right into it because of the seamless blend. I can conceptualize those moments, and I am proud to provide it to you in the form of Disco Candy v1.2.

If you want to live one of those moments, however, you’ll have to hire me.