Adam Stolz has been doing his thing for over a decade. And his new live mix from the Electronic Music Festival in Kona, Hawaii doesn’t disappoint. After listing to it twice this morning, its literally one of those “every track is dope” mixes. A constant hook, with continual hard not to dance to bass lines. I’ve know Adam for almost as long as he’s been at this, and like his new live Mix, he always brings the hot shit.

Adam is inches away from releasing more new tracks, and celebrating the opening of a brand new label called AUTEM in collaboration with a variety of super talents from around the world. Cheers!

” New Chicago based label, Autem Audio, is the brainchild collaboration of five friends: GVK, Sarp Yilmaz, DJ Da, Adam Stolz and Hearthug. All of them internationally acknowledged artists in their own right they have each enjoyed great success on different labels, now they join forces to establish a new fresh platform to release their own music with soul and passion. The concepts behind Autem are to develop each artists individuality and help push them creatively to new levels while still keeping the sound dance friendly with an underground spirit. The focus and attitude will be driven by a backing of quality production and researched sounds, while keeping the feel deep and yet also with a sense of humor. The Autem camp takes pride in their work and wants listeners to enjoy their productions, especially if that means losing it on the dance floor with smiles on their faces.”

In the months to come we’ll be doing an interview with Adam to discuss his career as an Electronic Music Producer, and DJ, along with the goings on with the new label.

Visiting Houses have released their remix of The Cyclist track “An Abyss Part 1″ This is the bands first release of material under the name. We have to point out who they are because frankly they have dedicated their lives to all things Indie, or better yet DIY. The project is from Liz and Dwight Pavlovic, undoubtedly a wonderful couple whose creative dedications find them starting a new magazine/webiste called Decoder, with long time friend and originator of the now defunct Get Off The Coast music blog, Jheri Evans. Its really a perfect union of artistry, which creates a massive amount of content on a daily basis. When they are not covering indie acts, the three sign bands to their popular Tape Label, Crash Symbols. The Pavlovic’s also own and operate Fig + Fox, a freelance design company that has in recent months, released some amazing cover art for bands and music projects around the world. Later this year we’ll learn all about their endeavors with a lengthy interview, and a artist mix that will be part of our series on iTunes. For now lets focus on their first musical release under the moniker Visiting Houses.

Visiting Houses “An Abyss Part 1 (Visiting Houses’ Creamed Corn Remix)” Off The Cyclists Remix Album by Twilight_Frequencies

Their Creamed Corn remix is filled with shades of dawn, or the stroll through an indifferent revelation about what to do next. This is a song you might find resting somewhere, nestled within the in between. When listening to the tune, which is nothing if not a tad bit on the scary side, you do find some flutters of hope, even if they come wrapped in angst. In a weird way its an epic struggle to find your way through, to find something other than, to find something. I have had many days like this one, the fog and misty ambience of nature that implies a greater good, but the lack of know how to find it. Think about all the lines that cross around you in life. The plants that grow or die, the water running from the rain, the rock slide in your main entrance. This song is impressive for a first release, not because of how much is going on musically (its quite minimal), but how much comes through the way in which they deliver it. On this one, Visiting Houses paint cinematic pictures for you to ruminate on.

The remix is off the new release on Crash Symbols called Rending Brass, The Cyclist Remixes. Its a nine track album you can download for free, or purchase the limited edition tape for five bones -  A dynamite deal indeed!

There’s a certain charm to this band, a care free yet dedicated act whose music reminds me of something out of a romantic coming of age tale, where the couple is running through the city trying to find one another. Tomahawk of Praise LP/CD January 17, 2012 on Fork & Spoon Records!

Those Lavender Whales – Growth in Question from Lunch & Recess on Vimeo.

Directed by Jacob Boyd, ‎”Vines is the most gloriously addictive three and a half minutes of psychedelic pop you’ll hear this year.” -Josh Dalton, Crack in the Road, Look for the Nomadic Firs first album on Crash Symbols in March of 2012!

Digital music download service now available from online electronic music magazine Resident Advisor. RA publishes electronic music news, reviews and has become an immense resource for club nights, events and of course, their DJ charts; where each month, roughly 3000 DJs, from 80 countries chart 30,000 tracks. They’ve now enhanced this service by making digital music available to purchase directly from RA as MP3 or WAV music downloads.

Download Digital Music, New Service from RA

If a track shows up on an artist’s chart (and it is in fact available on digital release and been verified by RA) you will be able to preview and purchase the track directly from the chart page. RA has not let any insight into exactly what digital music vendor they have partnered with to provide the music downloads. The charts are powered by digital music dj software Traktor (more than likely just a sponsorship deal or organization/formatting engine for the dj charts). RA reviews are powered by online dance music store Juno, giving you the ability to preview tracks through the Juno Player and either add the release to your wishlist or purchase directly from the player. They also provide a link to the Juno Records (for vinyl releases) or Juno Download (for music downloads) pages to purchase directly from the Juno websites.

Music downloads purchased this way more than likely earn RA a commission for each sale. We’re assuming the new music download service directly from the RA charts may also be provided by Juno on a commission base – it just makes the user experience a little easier by not having to navigate to several websites to make a purchase.

In addition to the artists charts, RA says it will also be adding digital music downloads from account users favorite artists and labels in the coming weeks and months.  I think it’s a great addition to the site. Though, for me, purchasing digital music really comes down to the functionality of the website I purchase from. Can I store music for download later? How is the download process? How is the price? What music, artists, labels are available? How are the files named and what information is encoded?

Whether these questions can adequately be answered by RA’s new music download service remains to be seen. The RA site and system is undoubtedly a great resource for finding new music and connecting with the electronic music community and artists. This may just be a great opportunity for a few impulse buys – which I’m sure is what they’re counting on.

Neon Indian “Polish Girl” from Dot & Effects on Vimeo.

About to get back on the plane and go home. Sitting in the Kalamazoo Airport, reflection is a must of course. First off I’m just glad my friends are as down with something and love a culture the way they do. It made the festival easier to enjoy, and a sense of security was prevalent indeed.

I enjoyed the whole trip, and the festival was bangin as they say. We spent most of the weekend at the Underground stage, seemed that was were the best Techno was being played. Especially the minimal stuff coming out of there. I want to write more about it all, and I might later. But I’m pretty tired, I’m sure Detroit is as well.