Back in the early 2000s I was keen on starting a label.  I had about 12 or so releases lined up of my own material and other artists as well that were up and coming.  Sadly, I never really did make a hard launch for Tortoise Shell Recordings and only licensed a few tracks to various compilations.  The tracks I managed to sign have sat unreleased until now.

Cardboard was a project of Birmingham-based DJ and producer, Mic 'Blue Haze' Burns.  He had been releasing several tracks to rave reviews and I managed to snap up this track from several other labels that were vying for it - which was a bit of a coup for a label that didn't even have any releases yet... And a very poor move for Mic considering the circumstances!  I had several of my roster producers remix this, including myself.

This is from about 2001.  The ideas are great, but the production leaves a lot to be desired.  It's free to you after all of these years!

Cardboard - A Dreamt Reality (Jay Kaufman's Thick Stock Remix) Final


I've always loved the more lush, jazzy and melodic forms of drum 'n bass on labels such as Certificate 18 (Photek's label), Hospital Recordings, Looking Good/Good Looking, Shogun Audio and artists like LTJ Bukem.  

As a result of that, I've always wondered if I could produce this genre.  A few years ago I tried and this is the end result.  I must say I don't think it turned out too badly either!

Jay Kaufman - Skeleton Angel

This starts off on the whole bass house/London garage sound that I'm really into at the moment and moving more into the progressive sounds that fit into that scene as well.  This set is big on oomph!  Enjoy.

Jay Kaufman presents Late Night Sessions Volume 4 - November 28th, 2014

ARTIST - TRACK TITLE - LABEL - CATALOGUE NUMBER

1.  Jad & The Ladyboy - The Bill Collector - Step In My Direction E.P. - Exploited Digital 061
2.  Jad & The Ladyboy - Early Wurli - Step In My Direction E.P. - Exploited Digital 061
3.  Kele - First Impressions - Trick - Lilac CD001
4.  James Welsh - Sent - S E.P. - Hypercolour Digital 033
5.  Lxury - J.A.W.S. - J.A.W.S. E.P. - Method Records 004
6.  Jacques Greene - No Excuse (Fort Romeau remix) - Phantom Vibrate Remixes E.P. - Lucky Me 021 B/W Ador - The Renagade Master (Acapella)
7.  Huxley - Reassign - Blurred - AUS Music CD005
8.  Huxley - Cobourg - Tsuba Loves... Huxley - Tsuba CD108 B/W Apogee - This Sound (Acapella)
9.  Kry Wolf - Citrus - Citrus Education E.P. - Food 014 B/W Jam Hot (Accapella)
10.  Jason Bye - Charles Da Bouncer - More Terry's
11.  Jaymo & Andy George - Ice Cubez - In My Way E.P. - Moda Black 032
12.  Kele Okereke featuring Jenny Bastet - To Me - Candy Flip E.P. - Crosstown Rebels Music 124 
13.  Huxley featuring S-Man - Callin' - Blurred - AUS Music CD005
14.  Jay Lumen - So Long Sunshine - So Long Sunshine E.P. - Off Recordings 073
15.  Kele Okereke - The New Feel - Candy Flip E.P. - Crosstown Rebels Music 124
16.  Dusky – Akebono - Yoohoo E.P. - 17 Steps 002
17.  Dusky – Yoohoo - Yoohoo E.P. - 17 Steps 002

Jay Kaufman Presents Late Night Sessions Volume 4 - November 28th, 2014

It's probably not a surprise, but I've really been digging the whole Bristol/London bass house/garage vibe that's been happening over the last couple of years.  Those influences have clearly rubbed off in a production that I did for the first time ever in Logic X - or even on a Mac for that matter.

I'm new to the Mac world, so I wanted to see how well something would turn out in a program I had really no experience using.  

This is unsigned.  It's a new direction for me.  It's also the first track of many that I have been working on after several years away from production.

Jay Kaufman - Garage City

UNSIGNED!  Please get in touch if you're a label and interested.

I'd actually forgotten I completed this track.  This track focuses largely around an oscillating bassline from the rather dashing Anode Meeblip synth from Canada.  Coming in a rather convincing $170 CAD, this synth - while monophonic - carries a whallop and unique sound like no other synth I have in my reasonably vast collection.  When I got it in the post, I was inspired to write this.

Jay Kaufman - Boom Bap

Kweku Saunderson is the nephew of Detroit techno legend and pioneer, Kevin 'Inner City' Saunderson of the infamous Belleville Three.  The other two producers being of course the equally legendary Juan Atkins and Derrick May.  

Kweku has followed in his uncle's footsteps and started in the world of production at a rather young age.  Although not quite the same as remixing his uncle, I was proud to be a part of this project with a young and upcoming artist.

That said, there's some projects as artists you wish you could do over, and this was one of them.  Frankly I think the remix sucks, but it's out there and on Beatport, so it should be on here too!

Seeing as I don't feel this remix is up to par, it may go up as a free giveaway shortly.  Let me know if you want a copy!

Kweku Saunderson - Instinctx (Jay Kaufman's Deep Instincts Remix) - Sounds Of Juan 130

This was licensed to the independent film 'Rolling'.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469966/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I believe the film is available on Netflix in some parts of the world.

Anyway, the film never received a wide release and pretty much went straight to DVD.  In an effort to beef up the script, content and so forth, the soundtrack was recut and my friend Kevin Bazell (AKA Kazell) happened to be the music supervisor of the film.  He also starred in it too.  ARP is from the scene in which he stars.  That can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFxfbIeYP0I  When I saw this for the first time I literally lost my mind as it's pretty much the pivotal moment in the movie.  Totally an ego moment!

I also licensed another track to the movie called 'New Flava' that is forthcoming on Soundcloud.

Jay Kaufman - ARP - Tortoise Shell Recordings

I was working on a track that was using a large chunk of my anlogue synth hardware.  Upon closing my DAW, a note got stuck and all of my synths starting doing crazy things at once.  This inspried me to jam away live without any form of a sequencer.

This is totally improvised, live and was recorded as you hear it.  It's entirely imperfect, but perhaps that's the beauty of it?

The pads and bell sounds are all provided by my Roland JX-8P.  The bass sounds are my Korg MS-20 Mini.  The oscillating synth sound is the Arturia MiniBrute and finally, the whine sound is my Oberheim SEM-Pro.  They're all going through a Spirit FX-16 mixing desk that has an amazing built-in Lexicon reverb on it.  Sadly, my MS-20 kept cutting out, so you get to hear that too!

Jay Kaufman - Imperfect Ambient Noodling Jam (The Stuck MIDI Note Effect)

This was originally released back in 2005 on a Canadian label run by an old DJ friend, Matt Lok.  Matt and I frequently played together in the early 1990s and were some of the 'original' house DJs in the very small Kitchener-Waterloo rave and club scene.

A long story short, this is my first and last released track featuring me singing.  I wanted to prove I could do it.  I did.  I don't think I'll go down that road again, but I know better than to say never.  

Sadly, this was also the last thing I released on vinyl before the bottom end of the 12" E.P./singles and DJ-focused vinyl market fell out.  I believe 1000 copies of this were pressed.  Now you're lucky to see 200-300 copies of house tracks being pressed.  Such is the state of things.

Word on the street is that this will be seeing a re-release at some point that will include a remastered original mix and new remixes from myself and others.  Stay tuned!

Jay Kaufman - Fade To Black - FullBodySoundSystem Recordings 001

Here's a collection of tunes that helped shape my early teenage years.  These tracks were pumping out on the radio and also on the speakers of the all-ages disco/nightclub that I frequently went to.  It's largely downtempo and has a bit of an Ibiza Balaeric vibe to it as I suspect it was when these tracks were out.

Jay Kaufman Presents Classics - Balaerica Session - September 5th, 2015

I no longer actively monitor this page.  For bookings, please make contact via Jay's Facebook page or through Instagram.

Jay’s bio spans twenty-five plus years of DJing in dark rooms with bright lights.  Twenty or so of those years have been spent developing a hardened and very pale studio tan.  So it goes.

Jay’s early days were spent in his bedroom trying to paste together ‘pause tapes’ of new wave bands he heard on late night Toronto radio.  That would all change with the rise of house and techno music in the 1980s from the close-by cities of Detroit, Chicago and New York.

By all accounts Jay was a strange kid.  At the age of 13, Jay had already amassed a record collection envious of the most avid adult collector.  In 1987, he heard house music for the first time on the radio and it all changed.  Early acid house classics like A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Voodoo Ray’ and LNR’s ‘Work It To The Bone’ laid down an addiction that has never been relinquished.

His early days were spent honing his skills on the job at the various events he helped throw in his native Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada area.  Dodgy raves held in loft and empty warehouse spaces, free parties down by the local river, house parties, club nights and even the odd cheesy top 40 nightclub or wedding gig helped shape his sound today.  As Jay became more involved with the thriving rave scene in his surrounding area, his love for the sounds of the underground grew.  In turn, this saw him rising up through the ranks from a local DJ to a DJ/producer with a more global outlook and reach.  

Being a DJ and producer are almost synonymous these days, but Jay's love for throbbing kick drums naturally lead to music production at a time when computers and the Internet were in their infancy.  

Jay’s tracks have been released on vinyl, CD's, mp3's and DVD/BluRay.  His tracks have been used as backing music for the movie ‘Rolling’ (2008), licenses to DJ mix compilations like UK-charting ‘Slinky Trans:Atlantik’ (2004), and even oddities like a Japanese soft-porn DVD.  His productions have had airings from many of the world's better-known DJ glitterati.  Signings and remixes for labels like Sonambulist Recordings (UK), Bellarine Recordings (Australia), L2 Music (Germany), Park Limited Muzik (Japan), Unrivaled Music (UK), Endemic Digital (UK), Stripped Digital (UK), Fullbodysoundsystem (Canada) and even his own Tortoise Shell Recordings (Canada) have helped attain recognition for Jay’s music production skills. 

His DJ mixes have aired as a featured artist all over the radio dial in places like Canada, Colombia, Germany, Panama, Northern Ireland, Russia, Peru, France, Argentina, Mexico, Australia, Aruba and as well as on various Internet radio stations and blogs.

That’s all old news though. After a lengthy hiatus from DJing, Jay Kaufman is back on the decks fusing DJing with live production.  His production has started back up as well and you should be able to find his music through all good digital download retailers like Beatport, iTunes, Amazon and many others with releases anticipated throughout the remainder of 2016 and into 2017.

Jay Kaufman

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