This was to be my third year mixing at the Linux Conference Australia, one of the largest conferences of Free and Open Source Software developers in the world. The 2005 (1 2 3) and 2006 conferences were different for two reasons. The first was that the venue was a small cafe or club - it was an informal party for anyone wanting to come along, either to perform or listen. The second was that I mixed music that, strictly and legally, I had no right to use.
In 2007 those two things changed. In 2006, Pia had set me the challenge of mixing music that was licensed under a compatible Creative Commons license. I was aiming for a mix that I could not only legally perform and give away, but that other people could use in their own material - background music to podcasts, video dubs of the party, whatever. Magnatune has a large selection of music licensed under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license, which is pretty much what I wanted; there are, of course, other places such as PodSafeAudio and Kahvi that have similar licensing schemes. Armed with $125.04 AUD worth of Magnatune music, I was ready to give this a go.
After nearly missing the boat of LCA 2006, Google made a big splash this year by paying for and hosting the Conference Party at a big venue on campus. I've heard that the bar tab was up around $12,000. This also changed the nature of the evening; gone was the 'come along and play us some of your work' format, in was the 'here's some live music from people using open source software, enjoy!' and 'here's a video of the Computing Science and Engineering faculty's revue, which we're going to play with no soundtrack' format. I'd emailed, messaged and spoken to the organisers on a number of occasions, asking if they wanted me to mix on the night, but had received no formal reply either way.
In the end it became academic. For a variety of reasons detailed in my blog, I couldn't get MixMeister working in time to actually do any mixing at the conference. I was sad at this. But I wasn't going to let it die; the Monday after I returned from the conference and had some time, I put together this mix. I hope it captures some of the more fun, funky flavour of the conference party.
Use this link to download this mix using BitTorrent
| Track | Title | Artist | Track length |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Goa Life | Ambient Teknology | 5:52 |
2 |
Euphorbia | ABA STRUCTURE | 8:02 |
3 |
Jang | Indidginus | 5:31 |
4 |
Untitled | Strojovna 07 | 1:24 |
5 |
Mekhanix | iNTROSPEKT | 5:24 |
6 |
Talk Box | Belief Systems | 8:06 |
7 |
TBD | iNTROSPEKT | 6:07 |
8 |
Starbase Lounge Music | Belief Systems | 6:26 |
9 | Illusion | ABA STRUCTURE | 12:24 |
10 |
Terra | ABA STRUCTURE | 10:02 |
11 |
Trance of Life | Memories of Tomorrow | 7:05 |
12 | Lydfabrikk | Memories of Tomorrow | 4:19 |
13 |
A Trip Beyond the Universe | DJ Markitos | 7:42 |
14 | The Beholder | Ambient Teknology | 10:13 |
This mix is available under the Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license - usage in whole or part is acceptable as long as you attribute the original artists (and myself as the remixer), don't charge for it and share your work under the same conditions. If you want any of the original music, I can share it with you; but you're better off going to Magnatune yourself and buying it - you'll be supporting the artist and you can get it in whatever format suits you.
I welcome feedback of any description about the mix, especially if you have recommendations of tracks I might like. My email address is at the bottom of the page.
I welcome any suggestions, criticisms and recommendations for new music to listen to. I will consider doing specific mixes for people, but this is only a hobby. Hope to hear from you!