Hair

I've just dyed my hair brown and for some reason that has put me in the mood to DJ wayyy more.

Fleetwood Mac

So...this blog has been pretty neglected.

Mainly because I haven't been doing a lot of DJing as I now have three jobs and my life is hectic. I've also realised that it's now June and September is three months away...

Negatives aside, I do have flashes of inspiration every now and then. I am not ashamed to say that I am a massive Glee fan and have discovered how amazing Fleetwood Mac are through a couple of recent shows. For those of you who don't know, the music on Glee is mainly comprised of covers from various artists-some legends, others contemporary. A recent Glee episode involved each member of the Glee Cast picking a song from the Fleetwood Mac album 'Rumours'. The few songs that I heard were pretty amazing and I decided then and there that I needed this album.

It came in the post a few days ago and I have been playing it, not on my classy Technics, but on the family record player downstairs. I thought I would share my new found inspiration. My parents are delighted.

Having a sort out...

I thought I would be productive today and organise my vinyl according to their music genre. Turns out there are over 10 categories...and my floor is a bit of a mess...

AM Record Cleaner

So I decided to go for the cheaper option and buy the AM Record Cleaner.
It cost around £15 including postage, which I thought was a little unfair seeing as it's just a sponge. On the plus side, it's actually not bad. The sponge is a lot more effective than the silly carbon brush I have (which reminds me I need to throw that away). It comes with a little bottle of cleaner which smells so much like vodka that it makes me want to drink it. It's pretty good for a cheap option.

Simple to use. Spray a dusty record and wipe with sponge. The sponge is reversible. I don't know whether it's washable though? Probably not but I'm going to try it anyway.

a dusty, dusty record is sprayed

wiped

result: nice and shiny

In fact the records come out so shiny that you can see all the scratches :) It's true what people say though: after a record has been cleaned, the sound is sooo much better. I'm not saying that the cleaner leaves the records completely dust-free. It doesn't. However, if you want your records completely dust-free, you will need money and therefore a job. I don't have a job. So for those of you who are unemployed like me....the AM record cleaner is a pretty reasonable buy.

Thanks for reading x

Cleaning

Ok so I've been flicking through my records, giving them a play and seeing which ones I like and which ones go together.

However, it has occurred to me that my records are actually filthy. I've got a rubbishy carbon fibre brush which barely makes a difference to all the dust. I thought there would be a simple solution on the internet...a better kind of brush for example. It transpires that actually if you really want clean records, then you need to buy a machine! Yes, a MACHINE, costing around £500 at the cheapest. Well I'm not paying that.

I've found a couple of cheaper options which involve giving your records a sort of bath here and wow the second one is really oldddd!

Also found a half decent looking brush. Whether it works though is another question. It's hard to find reviews of any of the cheaper cleaning methods. Everyone seems to be bigging up their million-pound cleaning machines. They don't seem to consider poor graduates like me.

There's some youtube vids too, so think I might have a browse of them...

Music

I LOVE Music. It's the reason why I started DJing and I'm sure that's the reason for many others. I guess you would be pretty screwed if you were a DJ and didn't like music. Going to a club with your friends and dancing to a DJ who is hurling out floor-cracking tunes really does make my night. I've had a few chances to experiment with different music genres. When I first started to browse the different categories of music on record websites, I couldn't believe there were so many. Even when you click on a category it parts into subcategories.

I was told to start with Drum and Bass. There's so much going on in DnB, that you can just merge the tunes together and nobody will notice the difference, I was also told. Well that was a lie. It's hard. And also I decided that I didn't like DnB. It's ok. I just get a bit bored of it after a while.

Sooooo, I've been struggling along with house music. I bought a massive crate of Positiva records for quite a bargain (also on ebay) and absolutely love them. Some of them go ok with each other...they do sound pretty much the same though. Got to love those all time classics though...Fragma 'Toca's Miracle'...Alice Deejay 'Better off Alone' etc.

One of my first records was Crookers 'Knobbers', which I absolutely loved. I haven't heard many other tunes that are so unique and jumpy and just so exciting. I believe it's classed as fidget house...whatever that is. It would be good to find some similar stuff, if anyone knows of any?

I've also been getting into hard dance.....I will let you all know how it goes once I've had a good listen :)