Ngoma, Balkan Hot Step, and South Rakkas Mixes

After all this bike-related stuff, here’s three DJ mixes that I’ve been listening to all the time recently:

Ngoma CD cover

DJ Zhao of the Ngoma Afro-Asian soundsystem seamlessly blends eighteen different flavors of international dance music into one eye-opening and utterly delicious mix.  It takes the world music sounds purveyed by folks like Diplo and Nicodemus to another level where you probably have never heard any of these songs before but will love them all.

Read more and download the mix & tracklist at DJ Zhao’s official blog.

balkan hotsteppers

The Balkan Hot Steppers are responsible for the best Gypsy dance mixes I’ve ever heard.  Their DJ the Typsy Gypsy presents the best of usual suspects like Balkan Beatbox, Gogol Bordello, and Shantel along with lots of obscure and wildly fun sounds.

Grab the mix and check the tracklist here.

south rakkas

The South Rakkas Crew is creating the most forward-thinking and exciting new reggae dancehall riddims, remixes, and mash-ups in the whole scene right now.  They are already famous for riddims like the Chinkuzi and Clappas, and for working with dancehall heavyweights such as Elephant Man, Sizzla, Capleton, Lady Saw, T.O.K. and more.  This DJ mix is from the 2008 World Riddim Cup, held in Japan this year.

Get the mix and the tracklist here, via Mad Decent’s blog.

Bianchi Volpe touring bike

Volpe side view

Another day, another bike post!  This is my geared touring bike that I built up from a 1998 Bianchi Volpe frame. I wanted to build a geared bike for century rides and other rides where a single-speed wouldn’t be the best choice.  I also wanted to try out a bullhorn handlebar setup, which I enjoy.  It’s very stable and perfect for when you really want to go fast.  This bike is still sort of a work in progress; it’s comfortable and fit to me but I’d like to replace the stem to match the rest of the white & blue theme.

More details and pictures after the jump…

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Trek Soho S – tarckstar style

my soho

This is my current city bike, a customized Trek Soho S single speed.  It’s a 2008 model I bought last spring at Bike Habitat.  Since then, I’ve done a lot of upgrading and adjusting to the bike to make it faster and more comfortable.  Not that the Soho S needs it; out of the box it’s a great all-purpose commuter.  It’s lightweight, super stable, and has almost no toe overlap.

Upgrades and more pics after the jump…

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Vintage “Townie” single-speed

townie side shot

This is my third bike build, a vintage “townie” style bike built on a 1970’s-era Schwinn frame.  The frame came with leather-wrapped handlebars, which inspired me to build it out as a classy around-the-town bike.  I replaced the heavy steel 26″ Araya wheels with lightweight 700c deep-v track wheels, and put Nashbar’s “Duro” tires on them.  The dark brown sidewalls match the leather nicely.

The seat is a riveted leather Brooks copy, taken from from a Masi Soulville bike.  I installed a 68x107mm Miche bottom bracket, red KMC single-speed chain, and built the single-speed crankset from a new 170mm Campagnolo Mirage set.   It has a 42-tooth chain ring up front and a 16 tooth freewheel in back, with a flipflop hub & fixed gear cog & lock ring.  Pedals are MKS Syvlan touring, brakes are new Tekro side-pull calipers, and I added a set of Planet Bike “Hardcore Road” fenders for all-weather riding.

Full story and more pics after the jump…

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My first custom single-speed bike build

side view

This bike started out as a rusty old Royce Union 10-speed, a steel frame Japanese bike from the early 1970’s.  I picked it up on Craigslist as a project to learn how to work on bikes.

I joined Time’s Up, an environmental action bike co-op in NYC, who offer free lessons and a workspace with tools and instructors.  Over the course of 2 months, I put a lot of sweat and even some blood into this build.  I learned a lot (thank you Mark, Luke, and Izumi) and now the finished product rides like a dream!  The steel frame is pretty forgiving of the rough NYC streets, and the mountain-bike style handlebars give it great handling in traffic.

Full story and pics after the jump…

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Ravetrash Summer 2008 Collabo Mix!

Ravetrash Summer 2008 Mix cover

I’m proud to present a new DJ mix for your enjoyment – Ravetrash’s Summer 2008 “collabo” mix.  This DJ mix was put together by several DJ’s who are members of Ravetrash, an electronic-music message board I run.  Shapeshifter kicked it off with two tracks, and then each DJ afterwards added two more tracks until we had a complete mix.  Participating DJ’s were Mowgli, Phrenzy, Identity, Digital Psykosis, and me.  The style is electro / mashup / techno / retro with cuts by Kid Cudi, Pase Rock, Crookers, Lil’ Mama, Starkey, LFO, Alexander Robotnick, Trevor Lovey, Spank Rock, Fischerspooner, Malente, Bird Peterson, and more.  Check out the tracklist after the jump!

Listen here:

Download here:

Ravetrash DJ’s – Summer 2008 Collabo Mix

right click and “save as”

77mb mp3 //// 65min 36sec /// 160kbps 44khz

Click here for the back cover with full tracklisting:

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