As many of you know, in 2019 I ventured to Albania to take a workshop from visual artist Elena Dorfman. Elena and I have been friends for many years but had never crossed paths, so to speak, in the field. She had been venturing to Albania since the country opened up in the early 1990s and I knew she would provide me an opportunity to learn and explore. 

The workshop, my first in nearly twenty years, was eye-opening as well as educational and was my first real field foray in many years. After the class, we began discussing the idea of working together on an upcoming workshop. Then came C19 and the world took a moment to pause. 

However, as we learn more about the virus and how to take precautions we are, once again, planning our Albania venture. In addition, she and I have pitched an online class to the Santa Fe Workshops. (Stay tuned for more information on this.) 

Elena has had a very interesting career. She and I have a similar background in linear, reportage style photography, but she has gone on to adapt and evolve in many ways I did not. From this, we can all learn a thing or two. 

This is one of the best interviews I've done in regard to learning about how this industry works, how someone can and should adapt and evolve, and how one person has overcome the demands of the industry to blaze a personal path of singular vision.

Shifter: Dispatches Elena Dorfman

2011, Alexandre, Abortion Rights, قسمت, April2010, Azzza, يعد, Bigboy, 소년, “Badman, A.G.Cook, American-General, Coaching , Aranje, America,Sede, 鋼之鍊金術師, Evangéliser, نظر, Avicii 3d , Intrumental,, 애쉬아일랜드fall, Composivenewsic, منكَ, 2022 Nye Party, Ana Wel Hob, معاملة, Bewafaa, فاتحه, مهرجان_نور_البرنس,  Chocky,, Come Back, کمتری, Algorithmicism, 영웅, Black Odyssey, فاطمة نسومر, Boyd Holbrook, Almightytgc

مظلوم عبدالله السعايده background music sb music 🤔FREE DOWNLOAD

A few moments with British photographer Allan Jenkins recorded during a "Blurb Dispatches" shoot. 

Dispatches: Allan Jenkins

A few minutes with photographer Claire Rosen recorded during a "Blurb Dispatches" shoot. 

Dispatches: Claire Rosen

Dispatches: Lawrence Fodor

The vaunted techno producer discusses the connections between visual art and music, balancing a full-time career as a fine artist and how he creates his signature sound.

There's a connection between visual art and dance music that's seldom explored on our channels. Mike Parker is well known in the underground techno scene for minimal, hypnotic and beautifully executed sound design that sits somewhere at the edges of club music. But he also received his master's degree in fine art and teaches drawing and painting at Daemon University in Buffalo, New York. Fans of Parker will recognise his visual trademark: monochromatic prints that adorn the covers of the records he puts out on his label, Geophone.

In this Exchange, Parker sits down with Chloe Lula to talk about how he balances his art- and music-making practices and how they inform each other. He also opens up about the long process of sticking to his sound and finding an audience rather than catering to the demands and suggestions of labels and distributors. His 2001 breakout album, Dispatches—which he reissued last year—is a meditation on the act of living far away from any listeners or immediate influences, and he discusses the ongoing drawbacks and rewards of balancing the Eurocentric pursuit of DJing with day-to-day work that's so geographically removed. He also opens up about his longtime collaboration with Donato Dozzy, his love of mid-20th-century sci-fi movies and how free-form radio shaped his approach to music and art. Listen to the episode in full.

EX.761 Mike Parker

The vaunted techno producer discusses the connections between visual art and music, balancing a full-time career as a fine artist and how he creates his signature sound.

There's a connection between visual art and dance music that's seldom explored on our channels. Mike Parker is well known in the underground techno scene for minimal, hypnotic and beautifully executed sound design that sits somewhere at the edges of club music. But he also received his master's degree in fine art and teaches drawing and painting at Daemon University in Buffalo, New York. Fans of Parker will recognise his visual trademark: monochromatic prints that adorn the covers of the records he puts out on his label, Geophone.

In this RA Exchange, Parker sits down with Chloe Lula to talk about how he balances his art- and music-making practices and how they inform each other. He also opens up about the long process of sticking to his sound and finding an audience rather than catering to the demands and suggestions of labels and distributors. His 2001 breakout album, Dispatches—which he reissued last year—is a meditation on the act of living far away from any listeners or immediate influences, and he discusses the ongoing drawbacks and rewards of balancing the Eurocentric pursuit of DJing with day-to-day work that's so geographically removed. He also opens up about his longtime collaboration with Donato Dozzy, his love of mid-20th-century sci-fi movies and how free-form radio shaped his approach to music and art. Listen to the episode in full.

Pete Souza, official photographer for both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, stops by the Blurb office for a chat about the life and duties of a White House photographer.

Shifter Dispatches Pete Souza

3 artists, each with their own massive contribution to drum and bass. This was put together quickly don't expect genius mixing but do expect genius tunes!

Photek (4 tracks)
Droppin' Science (very very hard amen track)
Hidden Agenda (revolutionary at the time!).


1994 - 1996 Drum n Bass Classics

Available here: https://backl.ink/dispatches

Back in 1996 Hidden Agenda put out their 4th and perhaps one of their most well known Metalheadz releases. 24 years on and we're proud to present the remastered release featuring the 2017 version of 'Dispatches #1' from the 'Bass Camp' compilation, and a brand new, never heard before remaster of 'Dispatches #2'. This is cutting edge drum and bass from a duo that played a big part in shaping the genre from the mid-90s onwards.

Follow Metalheadz
‣ www.metalheadz.co.uk
‣ www.facebook.com/metalheadz.music
‣ www.twitter.com/metalheadzmusic
‣ www.instagram.com/metalheadzmusic
‣ www.youtube.com/user/TheMetalheadzTV

Available here

Hidden Agenda - Dispatches #2 (2020 Remaster)

Demos and contact: info@metalheadz.co.uk

Upcoming events: www.metalheadz.co.uk/events

The Metalheadz back catalogue features almost every major figure in the history of drum and bass, and is one of the most innovative labels out there, consistently crossing boundaries with its releases since 1994. The labels output continues to showcase a maturing genre of music that displays influences from reggae, hip-hop, house and techno with highly-sophisticated and intricately-produced tracks, contrary to the image of the music that is typically presented by the mass media.

Releasing music from some of the biggest names out there whilst at the same time pushing and letting new talent break through are the reasons why Metalheadz continues to stay at the forefront of electronic music.

The Metalheadz label was also the driving force behind the seminal Sunday Session Club Nights, which achieved legendary status at London's Blue Note club. Today, Metalheadz club nights are often sell outs with the label also regularly hosting stages at some of the biggest festivals across the world.

Daniel Milnor is currently “Creative Evangelist” for Blurb, Inc. the world’s premiere print-on-demand publisher. He splits his time between the smog-choked arteries of Southern California and the spiritual landscape of New Mexico.

Milnor is a former newspaper, magazine and commercial photographer who now works primarily on long-term projects. His work has taken him from the rural corners of the United States to Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

He has taught at Art Center College of Design, Academy of Art University, The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, The Julia Dean Workshops and the Photo Experience Workshops.

An early adopter of select technologies such as print-on-demand books and magazines, Milnor has created and published over one hundred unique titles, including the recently released “Manifesto Magazine,” which showcases the world’s best documentary photography.

Milnor’s writing and photography has been featured in Camera Arts Magazine, Black and White Magazine, Life Magazine, Zone Zero, Flash Flood, Finite Photo, Resolve, Hasselblad Gallery as well as many others.

Additionally, Milnor is the author the blog Smogranch which allows him to speak his mind, post his mother’s poetry and bring together like-minded people around the globe.

He is currently working on a series of classic photo-essays which revolve around Blurb users who are living artistic, creative lives.
His work is in the collections of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The George Eastman House and The Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

I begun DJing in 1990 back in the day when people were producing tracks in their bedroom and it seemed as though there were more bootlegs on the market than general releases. The labels didn’t have a clue what was going on and D-construction was a small dance label that was signing acts like N-Joi rather than Kylie. I did two years in the smoke playing sets to crowds of 2,000 party people that really knew their music.

If you were a DJ playing old records, you’d get booed off the stage, or the crowd would leave the room and go upstairs. I kept it close with my crowd, people would come up to me and ask if I had this tune, if it wasn’t in the box I’d play it next week. But it wasn’t a case of these people making jukebox requests but rather that they wanted to feel a part of the scene and know that they had some hand in making the night.

Out of the club into another, the nights were long and people just kept on going. 200 cars in convoy going down the A1 that was a real feeling of unity. You’d end up in a field with or without a generator, but someone would light a fire and, in the end, you might be dancing around a car stereo but it still sounded good, people believed that they were part of a new expression, a new movement.

Roll that musical clock forward and by 2011 what remained was a shrink wrapped corporately packaged scene that got its kicks from re-releasing and remixing tracks created from back catalogues of labels from the 70s and 80s snapped up for next to nothing. The majors took over distribution and the public channels of expression for independent producers has got even harder. Take a trip down the lane of the tracks that defined our genre and you won’t find too many happy faces. From Rappers Delight, through to Grandmaster Flash - Larry Heard, the man that gave you Fingers Inc - went off to become a programmer. LARRY HEARD!!! 

Back in the day a DJ would take two tracks and blend them to make a third with a mix that could last up to 4 minutes. That for me has always been a part of what a DJ should do. It's much easier now as all you have to do is push a button to beat sync it, whereas if you were mixing over the quartz lock crest of the 1210s you'd be moving it over and below the green light as you were mixing it up!

Music has today become much more disposable in the digital age, reducing people’s creative art to a click. Skip through it, break it down to a stem, no sleeve notes, no artwork visual dimension to the artists creation. All you get is track01 - 4.5MB! Do you want to download? That's today, but for me sleeve artwork for dance music has always been something special too.

DJ equipment is now cheap much more accessible – my Numark 1762 cost me nearly £400 back in 1990. My current Xone32 is still stupid money but you can’t beat the analogue circuitry inside.

The period 1988-1994 was to dance music what the 1960s was to free love. Either you were lucky to have been at just the right age to have been a part of it, or you missed out. We were the last generation to get a youth culture before the smartphone made the youth look inside instead of the world outside.

Music will take centre stage once again at some point in the future, but for all of use that were part of it we know we were part of something special, and this idea of one love guides us to this day. 

My thanks to the following people:
JJ Slide at St. Matthews Church in Brixton
Goa Nights at Tyssen Street Studios  in London
Global Dance 3,4 and weekly nights of Exposure at the Stour Centre in Kent
Buzzbys on a Friday night
SpiralTribe Sound
Chocki and the boys
Nicki Blackmarket
Ratpack
Fabio and Grooverider
Ellis Dee
Truelove productions
Heavenly Recordings
Blapps Posse
Break the Limits
Reinforced Recordings
K-Klass
Zoom Records (Camden)
Horace, (Camden Market)
Resistance D
P. Slaghaus (rip)
Leigh303 (for showing me the dance light)
K-Alexi Shelby....to understand means a way of life...

Keep listening.....to everything

The weekly RA Exchange is a series of conversations with artists, labels and promoters shaping the electronic music landscape.

Popular tracks tagged #dispatches