DJ Paisley Babylon Now Booking: RetroMod Nights

DJ Paisley Babylon is now booking dates for RETROMOD, a unique blend of British Invasion, 80′s era Manchester sounds, Melodic punk, Shoegaze and much more. If you have a club night, special event, or private party in need of a DJ night full of sounds by The Fall, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Velvet Underground, The Zombies, Charlatans U.K., Stone Roses, Kinks, X, and other similar sounds, contact me for additional details. See the contact details below for more information. You can also listen to a sample mix of what this night would sound like.

Booking information for clubs: RetroMod features both vinyl and CD mixing. If you aren’t equipped with turntables, they will be provided. Please get in touch by phone or e-mail to discuss booking.

Booking information for events, parties, individuals: DJ Paisley Babylon has PA gear suitable for a medium-sized room approximately the size of a hotel ballroom or convention area. If you need additional sound reinforcement, please mention it plus the anticipated size of the event. DJ Paisley Babylon is available for private events but a minimum of three weeks advance notice is required. Rates are negotiated individually based on the event. We do select work for charity, fundraisers, etc. Please submit as much detail as possible when booking.

DJ Paisley Babylon Spins at A Walk Through The Dark, Friday April 13 2012 6-10PM

I’m spinning, mashing up, and creating unique sound design for the OhNo!Doom Gallery opening A Walk Through The Dark on Friday, April 13 from 6 to 10 PM. Here is a pre-mix sampler of some of the things I’ll be doing at the event–this mix/mashup features Goblin, Ennio Morricone, the Rhythm Devils Apocalypse Now sessions, and a bit of original Paisley Babylon music written especially for this clip.

The gallery is located at 1800 N. Milwaukee in Chicago. Do not miss this unique event!

Paisley Babylon Soundtrack Music “Hallucinations In Space”

This Paisley Babylon soundtrack clip is composed for a sci-fi/horror film that doesn’t exist. Synopsis:

In 1975, the CIA and NASA were involved in research and testing of psychotropic drugs. The CIA wanted to know if certain hallucinogens could be used for advanced interrogation techniques, but NASA officials also wanted to know if such drugs could be used to combat the claustrophobic effects of long-haul space travel.

The most advanced space travel simulators were used, but NASA scientists could not be satisfied until two volunteers could be tested in an actual space environment.

The Paisley Babylon soundtrack clip here is heard during the sequence when the drugs are administered to a test subject in space. The test subject ingests the hallucinogens and tries to maintain control enough to report his experiences, but his mind is soon overwhelmed by nightmarish visions with freakish religious overtones…

Experience the hallucinations, download the Paisley Babylon track Hallucinations In Space.

Paisley Babylon Presents “TV Party, Radio Riot”

This MP3 collage is a combination of found sound, interviews, mash-ups, Paisley Babylon music, and other material. There’s a definite group of themes, messages and and artistic intent on this piece, titled “TV Party, Radio Riot“.

Mixed and produced by Joe Wallace (DJ Paisley Babylon) in 2001 & released in a limited fashion in 20o2, this longform audio experiment (over an hour) tells several true stories including the narrative of a tragic police standoff recorded live in a central Illinois housing project, and clips of an interview with a participant in a central Illinois pirate radio station who experienced an FCC bust.

Download TV Party, Radio Riot mixed and produced by DJ Paisley Babylon for a limited time. This file is hosted at Turntabling.net, which is a repository for all things vinyl-related.

(This link may be removed within 30 days of posting but feel free to try downloading it after that point–it may still be live, depending on workload and travel factors)

Contemplating Sound

I’ve been pondering the nature of sound and its artistic uses quite a bit lately. In today’s digital landscape, it never ceases to amaze (or please) me that audio-only projects are still of great interest in spite of YouTube, Netflix, cable television, etc. Like books, audio-only media isn’t going away, it’s just mutating, evolving, moving to more specialized audiences.

Print isn’t dead by a long shot, and neither is the audio-only format. Not all interesting media is visually oriented.

I started professionally in radio but transitioned into television and video. I spent a lot of time there but still love the audio-only format. I enjoy DJing, talk radio, podcasts, NPR, audio collages, mashups, musique concrete, found sound, audio surrealism, much more…but how to combine, collide, mash up, repurpose and reapproach audio in interesting ways using these formats not as the ends themselves, but as techniques? Sound is the canvas, but it’s also the paint.

I plan on exploring this problem with a series of productions in the near future. Something all at once old, timeworn and done before, but at the same time new and interesting. Collisions of the old and new. Part audio blog, part podcast, part mashup, part DJ, remix, etc.

The first steps will likely be a bit tentative–I’ve got some old material along these lines I only broadcast once or twice, but new material is being worked and coming soon. Over the weekend I plan on posting the first of a series of sonic experiments as a first step towards a regular series that will likely define itself and take on a life of its own as the concept develops.

This is all a bit murky–and not just to you, the poor reader stumbling upon this rambling for the first time. But as the journey unfolds, it will become clearer what the destination is to be. Here’s to the experiments!