DJing * Music Supervision & Licensing * Production * Events * since 1997
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UPCOMING EVENTS
THURSDAY 7.22.10 – ThinkLA Schmooze Cruise
SATURDAY 7.24.10 – The Standard Hotel 2p-5p Sunset Strip, Hollywood. El Dopa provides the soundtrack to your sunny-day-chillin', poolside-loungin', cocktail-sippin' Saturday. No cover. 8300 Sunset Blvd. LA 90069.
SATURDAY 7.24.10 – Wurstküche 8p-12ish El Dopa returns to this acclaimed eatery/bar in the downtown LA arts district, not just to eat the delicious sausage and Belgian fries with homemade dipping sauces (like curry ketchup), but to spin great records. No cover. 800 E. 3rd St. LA 90013.
TUESDAY 7.27.10 – Music Makes The Difference with the Magic on Wax with resident DJs Schpilkas & El Dopa spinning the finest vinyl this side of the river Nile. 10p-2a at Verdugo Bar 3408 Verdugo Rd. LA, CA 90065. NO COVER * Full bar * rare craft beers * big outdoor patio
FRIDAY 7.30.10 – Wurstküche 8p-12ish El Dopa returns to this acclaimed eatery/bar in the downtown LA historic arts district, not just to eat the delicious sausage & Belgian fries with homemade dipping sauces (like curry ketchup) & drink European beer, but to spin great records. No cover. 800 E. 3rd St. LA 90013.
SATURDAY 7.31.10 – Spitz 7:30p-12a Enjoy some inexpensive Mediterranean food, beer, wine, an array of sangrias, & gelato to the eclectic sounds of Deejay El Dopa at Spitz's Little Tokyo location, downtown LA. No cover. 371 E. 2nd St. LA 90012.
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June Top 10
- THE BLACK KEYS – "Tighten Up"
- JANELLE MONAE – The ArchAndroid info
- MAKER VS. NOW-AGAIN – Maker vs. Now-Again free download
- KELIS & DJ REPLAY – Flesh Tone Mixtape free download
- AFROSOUND – "Pacifico"
- QUADRON – Quadron (US tour dates & video!)
- THE ROOTS FT. JIM JAMES – "Dear God 2.0"
- WIZ KHALIFA – "Never been"
- SIA – "Clap Your Hands" Diplo remix free download
- MADLIB – "Episode XVI"
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Audio Gallery
The Audio Traveler's Guide to France: 1940s-2000s
The amount of music that exists in the world boggles the mind. It's like stars in the sky. Every time I think I have a beat on much of the quality music out there, I discover a whole new, brilliant subset of music. Recently, thanks in large part to my dad (who lived in France & Montréal) and my mom (who was born & raised in Montréal) and my 81 yr old landlady from Italy, I've been put on to a wealth of amazing music from France. As you'll hear in this mix inspired by that discovery, music from France crosses numerous borders & styles. And the power of some French singers to captivate their listeners is rivaled by none. Listen to Part 1 below, or click here to access the full mix.
The Audio Traveler's Guide to France Pt1 by MusicMakesTheDifference
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Check out this bangin' number by Schpilkas!
FuzzyFro V2.1 (edit) by schpilkas
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El Dopa Live @ Music Makes The Difference, Verdugo Bar 5-22-10 by MusicMakesTheDifference
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A mix to get your blood pumping
It's The Weekend! (live mix) by MusicMakesTheDifference
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There are no words to describe the impact certain music can have on us, resonating with things happening in our lives. Below is a mix I put together of music that has made a deep impression on me lately, featuring Gorillaz, Broken Bells, Quadron, Yeasayer & more.
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An eclectic mix recorded live & improvised, with dialogue from several different movies sampled in afterwards. Listen/download below.
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The magic mixtape collabo 9 months in the making is complete, finito, a done deal. Mastered and ready for your bumpin' enjoyment. Music Makes The Difference is extremely pleased to bring you MILLIONAIRES USING COUPONS vol. 1!!! Chasan the Hot Son on the mic, DJ El Dopa on the decks, and a slew of special guests. It's hip-hop at it's finest – raw, diverse, and fun. As the cover suggests, it's a nod to the roots of hip-hop and those who pioneered it, while also taking you right up through today and on to tomorrow. Not only in the music, but also in the ideas behind this project altogether. Millionaires Using Coupons is also your survival guide for the recession. So get your money straight, and BUMP this wisely.
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Tracklist:
1.Intro
John Coltrane – Greensleeves
Koop – Waltz For Koop
Stan Getz – Samba de Uma Nota So
Vera – Vera Sambinha
2. Chico Buarque - Cotidiano
Friends From Rio 2 ft. Celia Vaz – Os Escravos do Jo
O Povo Canta – O Telefone Tocou Novamente
Jorge Aragao - Preto, Cor Preta
3. Tony Allen – Crazy Afrobeat
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba ft. Harouna Samake – Torin Torin
Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestroes – Dododo (Ekassa No. 1)
4. Jose Feliciano – California Dreamin’
Paulinho Moska - Admiracao
DeBussy – Clair De Lune
5. Duke Ellington - Isfahan
Curumin – Acorda Simpatico
Troubleman – Paz ft. Nina Miranda
Bebel Gilberto – Samba da Bençåo
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daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra ft. Guru "Jazz Thing" free download
The physical world has lost another music legend. Most of you know all about him and Gangstarr (if you don't, please Google). But what I wanted to share here is a project featuring Guru that I produced for Scion back in 2005. This record launched the Scion A/V promotional record label. A car company putting out records (and vinyl records, at that) was a radical concept at this time. We tapped a 70-piece hip hop orchestra known as daKAH (another radical concept) as the band to be featured on the record. They had already been performing orchestrations of Gangstarr songs, a testament to the breadth and influence of Gangstarr's music. Double G, founder and leader of daKAH, wanted to get Guru to actually re-record his song "Jazz Thing" with daKAH performing the music. The fact that Guru was not only willing but excited to be a part of this project says a lot about the person he was. Guru was the hip hop figure who most prominently respected and paid hommage to the jazz legends that paved the way for hip hop music before him. And now Guru can rest knowing that he himself has paved the way for countless MCs and music makers after him.
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Live Your Life Like A Melody
An essay on music, life, and the brain
Music, and the ways in which we experience it, can teach us far more than we realize about life, humanity, and ourselves. Now, I’m not talking about lyrics here. And when I say “the ways in which we experience” music, that’s not referring to whether we hear it in the club, on the radio, or on someone’s cleverly titled blog. I’m referring to the neurological mechanisms at work when we hear a piece of music. And not just actually listening to music, but imagining it as well. This goes beyond clinical music therapy (in itself a new discipline worth further exploration), into everyday benefits, insights, and applications of understanding music’s effect on us.
Music has had a prominent and central role in virtually all cultures and societies since the earliest days of man. This implies that there is something about music that connects to all people and has a profound impact on us, regardless of cultural and sociological meanings that have been assigned to it. Music taps into our subconscious on a primal level, and the main thing that sets humans apart from our apparent animal descendents is the advanced development of the brain. Could one of the greatest results, and benefits, of this neurological development in humans be the experience of music?
It has been speculated that one of the reasons people are so pervasively attracted to music is the element of expectation. When we hear music for the first time there seems to be an automatic sense of knowing or guessing at what is coming next, based on what has come before (a process that combines learning from experience with instinct). This is the essence of expectation, and it’s something we do almost constantly, everyday, not just with music. Usually this process happens subconsciously, without our realizing it. The interplay of expectation and surprise is very engaging, entertaining, and emotional for people. Some of the most effective songs, movies, advertisements, – you name it – are those that do something to surprise us. But in the case of music, even when we hear a song we’re very familiar with, it’s a new experience each time we listen. It can evoke deeper or different feelings, depending on what is going on in our lives at that moment. We listen to it with a “present” ear, so to speak. For example, you may hear a song a few times and not like it, but then you hear it later, and for some unexplainable reason, you start liking it. We say, “it grew on me.” Maybe it’s not so unexplainable, and maybe the same process can be applied to other areas of our lives, at will.
I believe there is great value in being present…living in the moment, and not getting caught up in thought. Often times our thoughts, particularly those having to do with expectation, trick us into thinking we know what’s happening or what’s going to happen. And thinking in a certain direction can actually lead to a manifestation of that thought in reality. To me, this is not just some new age, self-empowerment theory. When we think, we visualize, we play out the scenario in our minds, feeling the emotions. Actually feeling the emotions of what we’re imagining. On a neurological level, this is no different than studying something in order to learn it. We’re training our brain, firing the same neurons that would fire if we actually experienced the very thing we’re imagining. So as we are constantly using expectation in our everyday lives, we tap into this memory that our brain has stored. To the brain, it makes little difference whether the memory was real or imagined. The pathways have been opened, bringing whatever it is you’re thinking about closer to realization.
Often, people talk about feeling like they’ve fallen into a rut. They wake up in the morning and think it’s another day at work, basically the same as before. Or they find themselves bored in a relationship that used to be so fulfilling. They grow increasingly disillusioned and disconnected. But if we can break out of this pattern and stay present in each moment, we will be newly entertained (much like we are when we listen to our favorite songs over and over) and even find (create) new possibilities and opportunities in our everyday activities. It is much easier said than done to shift your perspective and be truly present in the moment. But I believe there is a way we can teach ourselves to live like this, and music holds the clue.
In Dr. Oliver Sacks’ brilliant book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, he discusses the idea that every note of a melody carries with it the past and the future. Indeed, a melody would cease to be such without the full sequence of notes, the preceding and the forthcoming. Yet, it does not require us to think about it. We simply hear it for what it is, with that “present” ear that bypasses the part of our brain that wants to think about, analyze, and make sense of everything. Once we consciously think about it, we lose it. Musicians will tell you that when they are playing a piece of music, if they concentrate too hard on it, it won’t come out good. It will sound mechanical or they will sometimes lose it altogether. It needs to be a natural process, bypassing the conscious to access the subconscious and allow it to drive motor function (motor memory). Non-musicians may be able to relate in situations when they can’t think of a particular word or name. The more you think about it, the harder it is to recall. Moments later, after you’ve stopped trying to think about it, bamn! There it is.
If we can train our brains to treat other aspects of our lives as it treats music – bypassing at least some of the conscious thought, the expectation or prediction that can get in the way, and just tap into our subconscious, our natural selves – I believe our lives can improve greatly, and we can expand our potential to overcome obstacles, do great things, and be happier.