In the search of the perfect beat

In the search of the perfect beat.

By: Rafael A. Revilla Romero.

Photos by: Beatrice Macias.

Ray Dub is a local artist dedicated to screen printing and is also a DJ. His music is different than what we may normally hear in the electronic local scene. In modern times, when the majority of the DJ's play electro or house, Ray is going in the opposite direction creating his music the old fashioned way; with vinyls, turntables and rhythmic rare grooves of Soul and R&B. Some may consider him individualistic while others may see him as a lost cause, but words are useless when when his music is heard through the speakers.

Nowadays, as big record labels slowly disappear, the efficient way to distribute music is simple. That is why Ray has collaborated with fellow artist Miguel Ibarra to create Maintain, a company that functions as a recording studio, boutique and graphic design agency. In it are created T-shirts, stickers, pins and mainly, it is used as a spotlight that lets local dj’s share their music. A few days ago I had the chance to talk to Ray about his multi-task "offices", mainly about the music part of it.

This is what he had to say:

FUSION: why do you play House and Downtempo

RAY DUB: well it’s just what I gravitated to. As a kid I was into a lot of hip hop and r&b stuff, whatever was on the radio, and as I got older I started listening to harder electronic sounds, trance, hard house...etc. So I guess it just evolved from there.

F: why don't you play electro, like most of the dj's these days?, lots of dj’s wants to play like Steve Aoki right now.

RD: that’s exactly why; I'm not trying to sound like anyone else. That’s not the crowd i'm trying to connect to. Not everyone goes out to clubs on a Friday night with their sunglasses on.

F: what are your influences?

RD: as far as music influences go, it’s pretty broad. I’m into a lot of different things. Some current favorites I'm into right now…Chris Carrier, Wasted Chicago Youth, Jesse Rose, Brett Johnson…Flying Lotus, Chico Mann, Quantic, Mr. Scruff…on and on. Probably the dj’s that influenced me most in the beginning were Mark Farina and Dj Sneak. When I heard Farina’s San Francisco mix and this obscure live recording of Dj Sneak playing in Toronto with Derrick Carter, i was hooked on that house sound. Something about it.

F: what kind of music is rotating at this time in your iPod or your stereo?

RD: hmm...let’s see...I don’t have an iPod yet and I still play cassettes in my car.

F: cassettes?

RD: jaja, yeah!, most of the cd's i have are dj mixes from friends and other locals from around, live recordings, and stuff like that. Usually just going through tracks, always looking for new music to play.

F: I have heard your mixes, it seems that your music is a blend of electronic music, kind of easy listening and lo-fi with a blend of soul, do you agree with this?

RD: I would definitely call it “Electronic Soul”.

F: Two of your mixes are "Hand me Downs" and "Broken Stereo-type", tell me about these.

RD: "Hand Me Downs" is a mix, I did with Dj SystemAddict. We’re into the same sounds, so it made sense to put something together. It’s a blend; smooth, lo-fi, experimental, jazz, hip hop beats, something to chill out to. Planning on putting out Volume 2, so be on the lookout for that.

"Broken Stereo-type" is an experimental house mix I put together. I threw in some vocal bits from an old movie (guess which one) to add to the overall mood of the mix. It’s a progression of deep and moody house sounds.

F: can you tell us a little bit about the Tree House and Maintain?

RD: the Tree House is my homebass. It's where I live, record and put everything together (aka my apartment). Maintain is a creation between Miguel Ibarra and I. We were working together at a print shop a while back and we just started printing our own shirts and giving a few out to friends, so more people started asking about them and wanting one, it kind of just stemmed from there. Miguel handles the design concepts and I take care of print production. We also co-lab with forward minded artists, and designers. Tim Razo, Matt Poe, and Zeque Pena have all contributed to Maintain. I feel that with what we are doing with Maintain, we can get into anything really: art, design, clothing, print, music and shows.

F: where you do you regularly play?

RD: right now I don’t have a residency anywhere, but here and there you can find me spinning at the Black Market alongside dj SystemAddict on a random Thursday or Saturday. Art showings, house parties, local shows. Also spin frequently on the Outside the Box radio show in Las Cruces, NM with Ash and Los. Wax Wednesday at Soho once in a while.

F: what new projects are to ray dub in the future?, new mixes, tours?

RD: just keep doing what I keep doing. Put out quality mixes, keep digging for records, work with like-minded individuals, and put together gatherings of my own…Push Maintain as far as it can go.

F: where can people hear more of your music, web page, MySpace?

RD: main-tain.com…also myspace.com/doublethink1984, and epconnect.net. Stream them, download them, burn them, and upload them to your mp3 device. Whatever spread the word.

F: thank you for your time Ray.

RD: no, thanks to you.

Name: Ramon Torres Cardenas.

DJ Name: Ray Dub .

Age: 25.

Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Music Genre: House and Downtempo.

Foto seleccionada

Ahora revisando mi Flickr, me doy cuenta, que tengo un correo, al leerlo, me avisan que una de mis fotos tomadas en un viaje a L.A, ha sido seleccionada para aparecer en la guia de mapas virtuales Schmap, el uso se basa, en que mi foto tiene una licencia de Creative Commons, entonces se pueden utilizar y publicar las fotos, pero dando crédito al que tomo la misma, si este es el futuro del internet, no parece tan malo.

Shmap: Los Angeles Photo Short-list Hi Rafael, I am writing to let you know that one of your photos with a Creative Commons license has beenshort-listed for inclusion in the eighth edition of our Schmap Los Angeles Guide, to be published early October 2009.

Best regards, Emma Williams, Managing Editor, Schmap Guides.

RAMONES LP

Como lo comentaba en un post anterior, no sé porque los viniles son tan llamativos, es como tener un mini poster, de las portadas que más te gustan, y aparte con sonido, sumémosle que no tienen las desventajas de la compresión de audio del formato MP3, que hace que muchos discos se escuchen horribles. El otro día me comentaba el Tan, que el disco Andorra de la banda Caribou (muy recomendado, una obra maestra de estos tiempos), era “una delicia” al ser escuchado con audífonos, yo también creo que los viniles se escuchan mejor, pero creo más que nada, que su verdadero secreto radica en el dedicarle su debido tiempo a oír el disco, sin estar haciendo otra cosa, sin presionar pausa para escuchar a alguien que te habla, unicamente percibiendo los ritmos sonoros y esas pequeñas sutilezas que traen los LP's, tal vez tambien influye el tomarse el tiempo para darle vuelta al disco, por lo pronto ya tengo otro vinyl y este es de mis discos favoritos de todos los tiempos, el primero de los RAMONES, llamado homónimamente, este me lo trajo el Tan, de una tienda de NY. Sin palabras, gracias totales Johnny!!.

Sofía Alfaro

Por azares del destino me tope con el arte de Sofía Alfaro, fue una casualidad, de esas que pasan solamente cuando los astros se alinean, yo andaba buscando un artista local, para la sección de arte de la revista FUSION, y de repente apareció en la tienda MOOD, con algunas de sus obras bajo el brazo, fue una casualidad no cabe duda, pero primordialmente, siempre tengo el requisito, que la obra en sí tenga algo visualmente agradable, que aportar al publico que lea la revista, y así crear un interés por el artista.

Sofía Alfaro es una artista nacida en nuestras tierras, pero curso la carrera de arte en UTEP, en El Paso, Texas, actualmente se encuentra en un estado nómada que la ha llevado a Dallas, Texas, y de regreso a El Paso, donde prepara una expo, en la galería de UTEP. Estas son algunas de sus obras que no alcanzaron a salir en la revista FUSION de este mes.