• Quasimoto – The Unseen
• Panacea – The Scenic View
• A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
• Fat Jon – Afterthought
• Fat Jon – Lightweight Heavy
• King Geedorah – Take Me to Your Leader
• Bonobo – Dial ‘M’ for Monkey
• The Orb – Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
• Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030
• Nujabes – Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection
• Koop – Koop Islands

Until about a week ago I knew nothing about recording and production technology but felt a sudden, insatiable urge to learn how I could get up and running. So I did what any resourceful, 21st-century digital boy would do: I went on a lengthy Wiki/Google quest, reading up on such basics as mixing, sampling, synthesizers, sequencers, MIDI, turntables, DAWs, etc. I still only have a basic understanding of each, but enough to know what I need to get started. I also searched various shopping sites and checked out what kind of gear and software is out there and what kind of prices I can expect to pay. I found quite a bit of good stuff, though even the low-end gear is quite expensive.

My research has coalesced into a vague plan, which is as follows:

1. Because I’m broke, I’m going to start off with the cheapest stuff possible. This will also force me to learn the basics.
2. I’m going to scour thrift stores, record shops, libraries, and yard sales for equipment. What I’ll need is turntables, speakers, a cassette player, CD player, microphone, and later on, a sampler.
3. At the same time, I’m going to start collecting records, and continue collecting CDs.

I’ll post updates from time to time, but this is going to be a long process, especially with how busy next year is going to be. Much farther down the line, I hope to get a nice keyboard and Logic Express and do all the advanced, digital stuff that goes along with it. But until then, this starving student is going to begin at Humble Beginnings.

The interviewer says:
Now, I’m asking this question in connection to an instrumental album that I just received: When I listen to it, to me it seems that it’s not completed by just listening to it, but that it’s more something to inspire you to do something else, that you need to rhyme over it, break to it, or paint sketches to it. How about your music?

To which he responds:
I agree. It’s thought activated. You do have to think to it, you have to wash the dishes to it, or something. It’s there, but it’s not there to stand alone. It needs interaction. It needs human participation. And whatever you do to it, that’s what completes it. If people like rapping, they wanna throw it on in the basement, and make some tape, or whatever. That’s cool, that’s what it’s there for. It’s a product out there, you can do whatever you want to do with it. And that’s what completes it, whatever you chose to do with it. That’s what makes it complete.

I couldn’t have said it better. The reason electronica is, for me, often more pleasurable than other kinds of music is that it’s minimalistic enough to stay in the background of whatever you’re doing at the moment, yet stimulating enough to tickle the mind. The quote above really struck me because just a couple weeks ago I actually was washing some dishes while listening to one of his albums, and thinking the exact same thing. When I listen to music, I empty my mind and fill it with music, getting lost in the sound, so I tend to be drawn toward music that facilitates that kind of almost meditative experience.

1. The Roots – Do You Want More?
This is my first experience with The Roots. “Distortion to Static” was the first track I really liked, but I quickly discovered that with a few exceptions, the rest of this album is also amazingly chill, with excellent flow and musicality. I think what sets The Roots apart from other rap groups is their insistence on instrumental performance rather than sampling. There’s so much talent between Questlove, Black Thought, Malik B., and Rahzel. What I most enjoy about Do You Want More? is the seamless fusion of jazz and rap. Whether for those nighttime walks down the alley to Poquito Mas, or burning the midnight oil doing last-minute calculus homework, The Roots deliver the perfect vibe. I can’t wait to get my hands on their third album, Illadelph Halflife.

2. Blu & Exile – Below the Heavens
I was drawn to Blu & Exile from his eye-catching album cover art. As superficial as that may be, emerging Los Angeles MC Blu’s debut effort is nothing to scoff at. Blu’s freshness makes for some quite original work, uninhibited by the norms of mainstream rap. The best way to describe it is to take a younger Common with way more flow per track and a more down-to-earth message, and set it to a colorful backdrop of soul samples and original beat work. While this album is immature in places, standouts like “The Narrow Path,” “Soul Amazing,” and “Coldhearted” are some of the most impressive and heartfelt tracks yet to come out of the 00′s rap scene. I really hope Blu gets the fame and respect as he deserves.

3. Bonobo – Animal Magic
I heard of Bonobo on yet another mp3 blog, put it on my Amazon wishlist, and forgot about it. I saw it again on a Facebook discussion board a few weeks ago and decided to give it a listen. Sadly, it wasn’t quite as exciting as I remembered it, but is still quite good. Bonobo (in real life Simon Green) is a one-man electronica/chill-out/trip-hop act who brings some outstanding instrumentals and production quality to an often stale genre, and for that I commend him. I can’t begin to explain the ecstasy I felt upon first hearing “Sleeping Seven” and “Shadowtricks.” It’s remarkable the complexity created from such simple parts. Animal Magic is short and sweet. As only the best electro can, Bonobo immerses you in a far away world of mysterious, unearthly sound, only to pull you out just as quickly when the music stops.

• Desktop effects not enabled. See previous post.
• Desktop effects slow down scrolling, switching Firefox tabs, etc.
• Backspace in Firefox does not cause browser to go back to previous page. Change the browser.backspace_action value in about:config to “0″.
• The location bar search feature of Firefox still doesn’t work!
• I can’t change the kernel VGA mode.
• I can’t edit ID3 tags for AAC files.
• I can’t convert said AAC files to OGG (I already tried using SoundConverter).
• I don’t know how to install NetBeans.
• I don’t know how to change the login screen resolution.

And some of the more obvious ones:

• No Flash plugin. Install the Flash plugin when Firefox prompts you to do so.
• No Java. Run sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-sdk.
• No MP3 playback. Install the “GStreamer extra plugins” and “Ubuntu restricted extras” packages.
• No DVD playback. (I know there’s a way to fix this, I just haven’t gotten around to doing it.)

Users of ATI Xpress 200 (or other low-end integrated ATI cards) do not despair: your card can do Compiz Fusion. To get the desktop effects (that should be enabled by default, but which don’t work at first) to work, you need to:

1. Install the proprietary drivers. Open the restricted drivers manager and check the box for the ATI driver.
2. Enable compositing. Change the “0″ after “Compositing” in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to a “1″.
3. Install XGL. Open a terminal and enter: sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl.

Redeeming praise aside, I still have my peeves. There’s that terribly annoying bug that keeps the Firefox location bar feature from working. Also, Rhythmbox needs the Ubuntu restricted extras package to play mp3s. And, though I don’t believe this is particular to Ubuntu, it is mysteriously impossible to edit the tags of AAC files. What up with that?

Rhythmbox has gotten slightly better, so I don’t think I’ll need to use Amarok anymore. Amarok is great, but it alone doesn’t make KDE worth installing for me when I can otherwise use something nearly as good. I just wish I could move the info columns around so that “Genre” isn’t before “Artist.”

In conclusion, thanks, Ubuntu team! If I ever get a MacBook I really hope I can continue using this great distro on that too!