What is Galaxy Express 999?

A direct musical transmission of FUNK from the not-so-distant past to the not-so-distant future, as intercepted and transmogrified by DJ Phsh and DJ Apt One.  They believe that in the past and the present, funk is the feeling of the future.

Where is Galaxy Express 999?

The Dolphin Tavern.  Broad and Tasker Streets. Philadelphia.

When is Galaxy Express 999?

Tonight. 10PM.

I wanted to hip DBJ family to a site called Legitmix.  This is a site that lets you sell edits and bootlegs through a pretty simple and equitable model.  The buyer purchases the bootleg but, incorporated in that purchase price, is a purchase of the original source material through iTunes.  The buyer gets the edit and the OGs.  This way, the legal obstacles that made bootlegs necessary kind of disappear and the original artists don’t get cut out of the transaction.  Pretty slick.  At the risk of sounding like a shill, I think this is a really useful tool to get some older artists money that they deserve by closing a loop in the ass-backwards world of the sample-based music business.

Lots of DBJ favorites like Kon, DJ Platurn, J Boogie and more are already working with Legitmix, and as far as I know it is growing pretty steadily.

Legitmix reached out to me to give them my catalog, and a lot of my older material is up there, as well as some stuff nobody has heard, like this edit of the Shuggie Otis / Brothers Johnson classic “Strawberry Letter 23.”

I have so much unreleased music. I really don’t know what to do with most of it. Some of it will be out soon, some of it may never come out. I play some of it out, some of it I have never played for anybody. Some of it was written for Calvin Klein commercials that never got made. Some of it is from a weird soundtrack music project I have been working on for three years. Some of it has featured artists. Some of it is remix work for other artists on Young Robots.

I got on the turntables in the studio last week, hit record, and made a one-take, slapdash mix of some of it to give you a little taste of what’s to come.

Last month we put our first EP up for free download, and as promised, here are some more freebies from the RCMP back-catalog.

I feel like this record got a bit lost in the shuffle, relative to the first EP, but I think it is every bit as good. By the time it came out in 2011, I think that the digital music world was much more crowded and peoples’ attention spans were much shorter, so I’m happy to give it a second whirl around the internet.

This one has funky joints, dark spacy joints and all the detuned euro-vocals you have come to expect from RCMP.

Soon we will be putting out our remix EPs and singles, which have work from Pumpkin Patch, Cousin Cole, Rob Threezy, Shawn Rudiman, Burnso, Fifteenth, DJ Ayres, Pink Skull, Elvis Suarez and more.

Enjoy -

RCMP – RCMP II by DJ Apt One

I have a new remix out today for Philly-based One Era. I got hit up out of the blue to do this one and couldn’t say no after listening to the original material. Really good stuff from a group that is gonna go places. This one is kind of a dark number – a long, spacy groover. Good headphone music. You can stream it on soundcloud here:

Please support independent music and go buy a copy!

One Era – The Ocean (DJ Apt One Remix)
iTunes | Amazon | Juno

Really excited to be rolling out to Calgary and Winnipeg this week for shows with some of Canada’s best talent. Here’s what’s on the docket -

Thursday, May 9, 2013
Hai Karate Presents
DJ Apt One, Smalltown DJs, Ivan Rankic
Hi Fi Club
219 10th Ave SW, Calgary, Alberta

Friday, May 10, 2013
The Turn Out
DJ Apt One with DJs Co-Op & Hunnicutt
Green Room
108 Osborne St., Winnipeg, Manitoba

First Friday is right around the corner, and that means that it’s time for another installment of Hot Mess. The rappinest, ass-shakinest, ratchetest appointment you can pencil into your dance card for this Friday.

As always, it’s free until 12 with RSVP to hotmessphilly.com

Friday, May 3rd, 2013
Hot Mess
DJ Apt One & DJ Dav,
Silk City
5th and Spring Garden
Philadelphia, PA
$5, Free til 12 with RSVP to hotmessphilly.com

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Saturday, I’ll be teaming up with my good friend (and yours) Shawn Ryan for his long-running Hurrah! party. Best part is – it’s at Medusa Lounge, the home of so many wild parties in the Philadelphyinz days. Really looking forward to getting back to a club that has always felt like MY room.

Friday, May 4th, 2013
Hurrah!
DJ Apt One & Shawn Ryan
Medusa Lounge
27 S. 21st St.
Philadelphia, PA
No Cover

A few weeks ago, Daft Punk put out the first of two teasers ahead of their May album Random Access Memories. God damn if it wasn’t funky – a really organic, warm groove. What does the rest of it sound like? Where does it go from here? For lack of a full song to listen to, I decided to imagine it for myself, just for fun – trying to meld my feeling for Daft Punk’s sensibilities with my own musical tendencies.

Over the last year or so, there have been various rumors about Daft Punk working with Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and other classic dance music luminaries. The first snippet is no doubt Nile Rodgers, the way he dances around the chords – chunking and interpolating at once. Intimidating to say the least. As I sat down and got the most Nile-like Stratocaster tone I could make, I just couldn’t quite figure out what he was doing, so I called in an expert.

James Hart is one of my best friends going back to our days growing up in Pittsburgh, and it just so happens that he is a bit of a guitar savant himself. He is one of the lead singers and song-writers in The Harlan Twins – a sort of Progressive Americana rock outfit that is bumping up against the Pittsburgh scene’s glass ceiling – the go-to local opener for Wilco inclined big venue acts.

James was able to improve the chops and he got in the lab with Pete aka Nice Rec – a producer with credits as diverse as Wiz Khalifa and Pittsburgh Track Authority. We worked out the Rhodes electric piano lines, and just like that, we had our groove.

Everything from then on out was mostly a thought experiment – melding our touches and tendencies with some respectful sketches of Daft-esque sounds and structures. The result?

Credits:

James Hart (of the Harlan Twins)
Guitar, Bass Guitar, Electric Piano

Michael Fichman (DJ Apt One)
Arrangement, Drum Programming, Synthesizers, Vocals, Additional Guitar, Additional Bass Guitar, Clavinet, Electric Piano, Accoustic Piano

Peter Mudge (Nice Rec)
Keyboards, Percussion and Additional Production

Recorded in Philadelphia, PA and Pittsburgh, PA, March, 2013.

Busy week coming up. This Friday in Philly is the night that always manages to live up to its name, Hot Mess at Silk City. As always, it’s free until 12 if you RSVP to hotmessphilly.com. We’ll have DJ Dav and my Philadelphyinz co-pilot Skinny Friedman on hand as always.

The next day I kick off for some West Coast touring –

I’ll be playing a vinyl-heavy set of disco classics at the long running GoBang! night (some awesome Dollar Bin Jams afficianadoes) on Saturday.

Monday is the 8th Anniversary of the long-running San Francisco and worldwide Motown on Mondays series.

Then I wrap up next Wednesday with Bond at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (with Tegan and Sarah at the Boulevard Pool no less). Be glad to catch up with my Left Coasters – take a look at the sidebar for details on all the gigs.

PLEASE CALL 303-253-8077 FOR INFORMATION REGARDING OUR FIRST MEETING, LOCATION AND ASSOCIATED PRESENTATIONS. MEMBERSHIP OPEN TO GENERAL PUBLIC.

UPDATE:

BOOM ROOM STUDIOS, APR. 19, 2013. FRONT & THOMPSON ST. TEN DOLLARS FOR MEMBERSHIP. BYOB. PARTY GOES TIL APPX 4AM.

MUSIC BY PAT LOK (VANCOUVER). DJ APT ONE. DJ BRUCE.