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15th of the month and, after a long break, it’s time again for Pottz Panned – a monthly live video of one of my tracks.

As always, this is the first take, no going back to ‘get it perfect’, or even ‘get it a bit better’. This one I wrote last year for the Strawberry Fields Festival competition (1st prize got to perform at the festival….I did not!).

Pottz Panned – Edition 7 (June ’16) – Field of Dreams – Original mix released October 2015.

June’s collection of new music is coming along nicely, so keep an eye out around 1 July for the new stuff.

10 tracks hand-picked from the 10,000  May releases

Ok, I’m back with my monthly mixes.

Definitely pushing a strong techno sound this month, Dark City (Original Mix) by DJ Dextro and the Mihalis Safras Africano Remix of Joeski’s Babylon, are my favourites for this month.

Each month, I trawl through all the releases, without a bias for the producers, and already DJ Dextro has come up 3 times over the last year.  Clearly he has a sound that works for me (and hopefully you).

Enjoy.

 

Good Habits….take time to reinstate.  I should remember from the last time I came out of Corporate Rehab!!

The month has already started and I’m a day late with Pottz Posts, and still no sign of any new music. I have been busy, just not nearly as productive as before I took my earn-a-buck ‘break’ for 6 months.  It’s as if I need to relearn all the habits and skills that were contributing to the good momentum I had around November last year.

So, instead of rushing out the 2 tracks I have been working on since I kicked off again from mid-May, I have decided to hold them over to June and cut myself some slack.

I have also been working on my next 10 track mix curated from all the releases throughout May.  10oo10k May will be out on the 7th, I’m just putting the mix together now.  In the meantime, here’s a taster of what will be in May’s selection.  Mondo Di Romboby RocCyjoes. Enjoy!

Also out later this month (15th) will be the next Pottz Panned video, the first with my new Ableton Push 2 controller.

That’s it for now. I’m off to rewire by brain to remember all the Good Habits and kill those bad ones.

 

Starting 2016 on a high, 40,000 feet high to be exact. No flash NYE party for me, just took off from LAX, en route back to Sydney.
So, flying high – a sign of things to come in 2016? I certainly plan it to be. Here’s what’s planned for the year:

Live Work: the biggest focus for the year is going to be getting my live show up and running and happening at a few venues. A tough one this, to crack, but a vital cornerstone to what I’m doing musically, so watch this space for news of my first gigs.

Fine Tune Records: will still be putting out new releases. First up will be a single due out in March – Mannenberg (Steve Pottz Deep House Mix), a rework of the classic Abdullah Ibrahim Cape Jazz classic. That will be followed by further EPs later in the year. The end of the year will time for an album release.

The usual Pottz Posts will be back online from January. Pottz Panned will kick off on 7 Jan with my first video clip for 2016, and my monthly mix series, 10oo10k will be with you on 15 Jan. And, of course, there will still be the occasional free track giveaways.

So, a packed year, with plenty musical missions to accomplish, but right now I’m going back to my inflight entertainment – last rest before all this work (play) starts!

Happy New Year

PS. No new music his month due to demands of cash-earning work at the end of 2015 (an excuse not allowed in 2015), so thought I’d post a link to a track from April 2015 (just so I can play with posting tracks in the plane on my iPad…enjoy!).

https://soundcloud.com/stevepottz/like

 

7th of the month again, time for Pottz Panned.  Something a little different this month. This track was created completely by doing a live jammed composition straight into Ableton Live (my live music app).

This was actually the combination of 2 projects, the first was from Project Godard – the ‘find your distinct musical voice’ project I am doing with Mike Monday. The ‘game’ for this week was write a track that only uses 4 elements (other than drums).  And also make use of metaphor to depict 3 questions about ‘my sound’.

I took it step further, and combined this exercise with my monthly live video (Pottz Panned) , and created a track completely live, composed in one take.  The full prep before I pressed record was about 10 minutes, to:

– select a kick sound from a loop
– select a perc loop, and make a few clips that looped different sections of that loop
– chose the 4 elements I was going to use:
– select a bass sound, just chose the 1st one from deep bass on Albino 3
– found a vocal loop, and made a few clips that looped different sections
– selected my usual EP sound (Lounge Lizard)
– took the first sound that I had in my live template – a stabby piano sound

…and press record.

This is the most ‘live’ I’ve ever worked on a track and pretty happy with the results.

The metaphorical answers I was trying to convey at the same time were – The Steve Pottz sound:

What colour or colours is it? Purple with Orange spots
When is it?                         Sunset, dusk
What does it mean?             Frivolous, hedonistic i.e. = nothing meaningful

(Excuse the shaky side cam…which also gets way out of sync!!)

Well, the first of the  month has rolled around and usually I would have a bunch of new tracks for you.  A few changes this month…

Firstly, the big news is that the 1st release has dropped.  Sydney Summertime EP – Steve Pottz is now available on all major distributors.  This represents a major milestone for me, and Fine Tune Records.  Look out for news on the next release to follow.

Download links:
https://itunes.apple.com/…/sydney-summertime-s…/id1043800144
https://pro.beatport.com/release/sydney-summertime/1616544
(Also on all other major distributors)

So, it has been a busy month, and I did have 5 new tracks lined up….BUT, I have just taken on a contract role for the next few months so am facing a few challenges in getting the time to complete everything.  So, instead of rushing them out, I’m holding them over for the next few months.

Here is one new track that I produced as part of Project Godard (PG) – A creative coaching program I have been doing.  This one was an introspective delve into our own characters…enough said:

https://soundcloud.com/stevepottz/pg6-all-of-me

I also had a lot of fun Jamming with Kanye West, another PG track, this time complete with video:

10 tracks hand-picked from the 10,000 Beatport September releases

15th of the month once more and here’s my latest mix.

I started off intending to do a deep house collection this month, but found myself swayed back into techno land.

Another Miguel Bastida track this month with Whitness, I just can’t seem to go past his music. I can’t make it, but any Sydney-siders can still catch him this weekend.

The Groove by Andy Lee delivers with a particularly funky track.

I close out with Amaranta by Dcore, which is a great minimal track.

Time again for Pottz Panned – the monthly live video of one of my tracks.

This one features a classic live break i.e.. everything just stops – check out 5:35.  This track is one I put out a few months back, called Deep Dote.

Again this month, excuse the sync on the side camera… it wanders a bit.  The perils of amateur studio recordings.

7th of the month again, time for Pottz Panned – a monthly live video of one of my tracks.  Ok, it’s a day late!  The challenges of technology – I spent a day wrestling with my laptop.

So, with the usual caveat of everything is just as it comes out in the first take, here it is – Jazz Hound.

The sync on the video gets a bit creative at times…hope it does not detract from the Jazz Hound Jam.

I’m playing at the Yoke Magazine 3rd Edition Launch in 2 weeks – so watch out for some more live techno/jazz.

Also here’s a link to my August music, just in case you missed the 1 September release.

10 tracks hand-picked from the 10,000 Beatport July releases

The 15th of the month rolls around again – time for my monthly mix of fresh new July releases.

Again, I have some Miguel Bastida magic in the mix with his and Salero’s remix of Britalian from Ant Brooks & Raffaele Rizzi.  (Sydney-siders can catch Miguel Bastida here on 17 October.  Get your tickets)

Also some Steve Pottz snuck into the mix with the July track Undertone.

My firm favourite for the month is something a little more tech house – Suga by Technasia & Green Velvet serves up a tasty blues rocker… on a techno mix?

Dehagz takes the mix home with a crunchy stomper in Something.

To get these mixes and all my original music posts and news, send me your email to receive Pottz Posts here.

Want to know what these 10oo10k mixes are all about, have a look at the 1st release in February.