Alright, this week’s setup and show were actually rather uneventful. I had zero stress when preparing the show, zero stress while setting up, I didn’t forget a single thing (even though I felt like I did), and during the show? Zero stress! I could get used to that… 😀
So now the only trouble I have is that I have to pick a Favourite of the Week and once again it’s not easy. I still like “Futuro” by Giuseppe Ottaviani and Ilan Bluestone, “Mirrored Soul” by Metta & Glyde is great as well, and then I was also quite smitten with “Hit Me” by Shugz so I guess it’s the Favourite of the Week now. 😁
As usual, please don’t rely on my judgment, there may be many more tracks you actually like more than I do! 😄
Will there ever be a week again where all setting up for this show is completely, 100% uneventful? I really hope there will be because I’m not sure how much more of this stress I can handle…
But I really should start from the beginning. I have small collection of shell and Python scripts that collect HTML, extract JSON from it, and convert that to CSV. This collection is situated on my server, and runs several times a day.
On my workstation at home I have a project with the chart generator tool and it needs the JSON data generated by the script collection. For easier handling, I rsync all the data files from the server to my workstation when I want to generate the charts for a new week.
So, on monday I rsync’ed all the files, ran the tool, and was met with an exception. A short investigation yielded the result that the JSON file had a length of 0 bytes. Well, that’s no good!
I took a look at the accompanying HTML file and it was full of data… and it looked different, like, structurally. It finally happened, Beatport changed their website! (On a sidenote: the website now is actually usable, before you had to wait forever for pages to load but now it’s way faster than that!)
The script that extracted the JSON lived on the server so I hopped over there and changed the script to match the new format of the HTML. It’s way easier to work with now! Easy change.
I had to change a whole bunch of files, though, so I whipped up a bit of shell:
for h in *.html; do j="${h/html/json}" ./extract-json-from-html.py < "$j" > "$h" done
This script will extract JSON data from an empty JSON file and write the results (which will be empty) to the HTML file.
Sounds wrong? That’s because it is wrong. It is even maximally wrong, the kind of wrong where you not only waste time and other resources but also lose the possibility to fix your mistakes because you mangled/deleted your source files.
I didn’t notice, though. I fired up the rsync script on my workstation, restarted my chart generator and was expecting different results — but… nope. The JSON was still empty. What?
Oh… oh, I see. Fuck.
FUCK.
“Fuck.” – Geralt of Rivia
Not only did I manage to delete the HTML files on the server, no, I went right ahead and removed them from my workstation as well! 🤦
I was angry and frustrated after that and had to step away from the computer so instead of shredding everything that uses electricity I went to have some dinner. During dinner not only did I feed my body, but apparently also my mind. “Hmm, didn’t I add a new disk to my NAS a couple of weeks ago? Yes, I believe I did!”
How is that relevant? Well, you see, the NAS is where Time Machine makes its backups to. And before I added the new disk the space on the NAS was full and I couldn’t make any backups but since I added the new disk I can finally make backups again! (You really, really should have backups.)
The directory where I rsync’ed the files to regularly was also being backed up so at this point it was a breeze to go back to earlier in the day and restore all the HTML files, saving the day and the show. I regenerated the JSON files, changed the chart generator to parse its data from the new JSON structure, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Phew, what a story! Anyway, Favourite of the Week? Easy! Time Machine! ❤️ Oh, I have to pick a track? Oh well, Nhato it is, then… 😁
The rest of the Nhato EP is also still in there, and it’s all in one single, easy-to-listen-to block! 😄
Alright, second week with the new setup (under conditions of having to work) and today everything was very relaxed, and I had plenty of time to spare. So I’m not sure why exactly I forgot to connect the most important thing: the console’s master output! 😅🤦
This week’s show was heavily overshadowed by Nhato’s “Colour Trance EP” which gave us four (4!) tracks, and they are all great! So… I guess the only possibility is to pick the whole EP as Favourite of the Week? No, that’s weak sauce! I will choose one!
There you have it. From the four tracks, this was my favourite but don’t be fooled by this, every single one of those is a banger. I guess you have to hear for yourself, not only for the great Nhato tracks but also for all the other good tracks!
This week marked the first week where I had to go to work before I could put up the DJ table and all the equipment I need to start the show. The schedule was tight but I managed to get it all done in time!
And the show itself was nice as well but I really need to remember to put up the yoga mat for my feet next week, our floor is simply too hard.
Like every week we had a bunch of great new tracks by many old and new names. The beginning was made by “Vertigo” by Gareth Emery and Sarah de Warren, we had a new track by Ørjan Nilsen (“Amnesia”), the wonderful track “Started a Fire” by N-sKing, Metta & Glyde had Susanne Teutenberg sing on their track “The Universe You Need”, Ehren Stowers delivered a banger with “Supernatural,” and Simon Patterson’s “Up” hit home with me right away. However, as Favourite of the Week the goth in me simply had to pick the Aly & Fila remix of Schiller & Heppner’s “Leben… I Feel You” and I’m not ashamed of that! 🤗
However, it’s still important for you to make up your own mind about the tracks I have played and that is why I have recorded it so you can listen to it whenever you want. How nice of me! 😀
This week’s show went way better than last week’s; the tracks had been analyzed correctly, I pressed the 🔴 button, the second camera was back in the game, and I got to show off my new DJ table thingy. It has the perfect height, it’s way more stable than the scratching post and I discovered that the scratching post quite lived up to its name by scratching the underside of the DJ console. Screw that screw!
I also changed the setup a tiny little bit; previously the main output signal of the console (i.e. what you have been listening to) went into the mixer using two dedicated audio cables but as I was changing things around anyway and packing all of the tech for the DJ setup into a box and I had another Dante audio adapter lying around, I decided to put it into the box as well which gave me another two channels I could simply have available in my mixer without messing around with long cables going through half the room. Definitely an improvement!
And then we had a whole bunch of great new tracks! We heard a remix by Aly & Fila of “Leben… I Feel You” by Schiller & Heppner, David Forbes gaves us “Dreamstate,” we had another classic remixed with “Fine Day” by DubVision, two more tracks with male vocalists (Gid Sedgwick & Roman Messer’s “This Is Real”, remixed by Christopher Corrigan, and Giuseppe Ottaviani & Richard Walters’ “Keep You Safe”, remixed by Cold Blue), the new project of Nitrous Oxide and Simon Gregory called Digital Drift contributed their “Tension,” and Daxson finally turned everything up to 11 with my Favourite of the Week, “Before It’s Lost:”
And because I didn’t fuck up the recording, here is your chance to listen to it all again:
So, the room I’m currently working out of is currently being rearranged because my wife does a lot of work from home and she doesn’t want to do that on the dining table in the living room anymore so she got us new desks (standing desks, even!) and now we have to put them somewhere! That led to many cables being disconnected, and long story short, I nearly didn’t manage to get them all reconnected correctly in time for the show.
I did manage to connect most of them properly but other things fell a bit short; prep time for the new songs was at a minimum and as a result of that the first two tracks were being played at -15% which in a track with vocals is almost painful. I changed tempos up and down quite vehemently before the third track or so was finally back at where it should be… so I guess it’s almost a mercy that I forgot to press the record button so that these shameful moments will only live in my memory and the memories of those who witnessed the massacre live on stream but they will never have to be shared by anybody else. “Glück im Unglück,” as we Germans say.
While a recording would be nice, I can still tell you about my Favourite of the Week! There were a bunch of nice tracks, e.g. by Chris Jennings & Kenny Palmer (“Nerve,” a close 2nd place for me this week), Solarstone’s “Solarcoaster” was remixed quite nicely by Maarten de Jong, District5’s Dirty Remix by Technikal’s “Cubik” still kicks, and Andrew Bayer’s & Farius’s remix of Andrew’s own “Under Pressure” was lovely as well. This one managed to take the cake, though:
“Rattlesnake” by Audorn. Well done!
Anyway. Next week’s show is hopefully going to be on Wednesday again (as it should be) but maybe it will have to be pushed to Thursday. We’re going on vacation tomorrow and will only come back next week on Tuesday, and then we’ll immediately begin ripping this room apart for some deep cleaning (because it’s necessary) and recabling and rearranging and reeverything to make it exactly as nice as we want it to be. Until then, have a good week!
The defining thing of today’s show was a bluescreen right in the middle, followed directly by a lot of audio problems while the network hardware was getting back into its groove after the reboot. I hate that hardware seems to simply break after a year or three and everybody (including me) simply goes out and buys replacements, instead of visiting the company’s CEO’s home and setting it on 🔥.
Anyway, the show starting off with a banger that I immediately wanted to make Favourite of the Week but then there was this other track which was already in its second week and the other track was in its first week and would surely be with us next time as well so here the Favourite of the Week which we won’t hear again next week: “Strikefast” by James Dymond!
Other tracks that you may want to give some attention to are “Under Pressure” by Andrew Bayer, remixed by the man himself and Farius, the afore-mentioned contender but there’s also “Wasp” by Above & Beyond which has grown quite a lot on me since last week so you should definitely give that one a listen, too! Greg Downey has also been delivering with “Zenith,” and District5’s Dirty Mix by Technikal’s “Cubik” is great as well!
Anyway. Next week’s show is going to be on Tuesday because I will be on holiday starting Wednesday and I don’t feel like packing all the stuff I would need to play a show from there… not after the disaster of last time. 😂
Here’s the show in its completeness, to enjoy on your own time:
The next show will happen on Tuesday, June 20, at 🕖 19:00 CEST/UTC+2.
Today’s show was even quieter than last week’s show! I guess summer is finally catching up with other parts of the world and people are either not at home to watch some guy on Twitch play cheesy music, or they are completely spent from their day at the non-climatized office that they simply drop down in their favourite chair and don’t get up for nothing. As it should be! 🥰
Or maybe I’m just projecting here! I admit, I had a hard time paying attention to the tunes tonight and I’m not sure why. I did manage to pick a Favourite of the Week though:
And while “Spicy Broth” by Craig Connelly is a really nice track, you should really listen to all the other tracks as well; do so right now! Push the button!
The next show will happen on Wednesday, June 14, at 🕖 19:00 CEST/UTC+2.
Today’s show was very quiet. The chat was mostly empty, everybody was lurking, and it was all good. 🥰
The tunes, however… oh my, the tunes! 🔥, I’m tellin’ ya!
So many banging tunes but only one gets to be the Favourite of the Week! It was not an easy choice, let me tell you… Greg Oakland? Hel:Sløwed? Driftmoon? Ben Gold & Maarten de Jong?
It’s tough to pick a single artist so I simply picked four! Please, enjoy the Favourite of the Week: “Breathing” by Boom Jinx, Einar K, Nitrous Oxide, and Vintage & Morelli! ❤️
For the rest of the wonderful tunes, click some button in the thingy below!
The next show will happen on Tuesday (watch out, this is one day earlier than usual!), June 6, at 🕖 19:00 CEST/UTC+2.
I have been playing a lot of Death Stranding this past week and I really had to tear myself away from it in order to prep this show but all is well that ends well, I have heard!
Once again, I had a hard time picking a Favourite of the Week; we had many cool tracks, by Above & Beyond, Chris Element, Daxson, Sean Tyas, John Askew, Giuseppe Ottaviani, and so many more… in the end, I decided on this track by Peetu S: Mental Component!
Give a listen to all the other tracks I played, right here from your browser window!
The next show will happen on Wednesday, May 31, at 🕖 19:00 CEST/UTC+2.
