After The Smoke Is Clear 723
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Below this write-up, you’ll find the track list, complete with artists, albums, and the city they represent. If you’re using the Mixcloud app to listen, hit the “…” to check out the track list. Above this there’s usually also a video from the Twitch stream where I slapped the mix together.
Most weeks I go live on Thursdays to DJ on Twitch. Come through and say hi, hang out and listen to music. I’m streaming often on weekday afternoons, either working on ATSIC, listening to the Canadian new releases each Friday or Saturday to make picks for the show, talking with artists for Fly In Formation interviews on Tuesdays, or working on my own music when I can find time. The Making of ATSIC stream where I made this episode is below.
Back at it. This one starts off with an intro Touch182 sent me a while back that I think I only ever used on one show - he has a new album out now, The Scientific Method, so I wanted to bring it back and started the mix with “Y’all Not Him”. He’s going to talk about the album with me on Fly In Formation on Sept 8.
All sorts of other good music on here, and this was the first ATSIC mix where I paid attention to the “key” column on Serato. Shouts to Baggylean for that quick tip - I’d learn a ton if I could hang out in a room with some DJs, but I’m far from Skratcher Edmonton now. Oh well. I think the mixes still bring something beyond what a playlist is gunna give you, and I slowly advance. The songs are dope. It’s less about skills and more about dedication here on ATSIC. Time invested keeping my ear to the internet. I heard another creator this week talking about how he can’t be expected to search the crevices of the internet to find people’s music. He said that if they can’t pay him for posts and attention they aren’t worth hearing, and I gotta disagree hard with that mentality. No one pays me anything for the attention, these mixes are just the music I find and enjoy. If you’re gunna be a “music commentator” you should set some time aside for finding music, far as I’m concerned. You should have some opinions that go beyond “well he has bigger numbers so he’s obviously better” too, but that’s a whole other topic.
Anyways. Enjoy the mix.
Fly in Formation is back for weekly interviews now until December. Last week’s episode 147 with RUNXGUN will be online realquick! Coming up next is the return of Edmonton icon Touch182 on Tuesday, Sept 8. You can watch every interview I’ve done up until this point on Youtube - Leave a comment, hit like, or show some love and run up the playlist - it’ll help the algorithm show this content to more people, which will get more Canadian music in more ears.
I buy every track I play on ATSIC (unless it’s sent to me). Streaming barely pays, so it’s essential to support indie artists by buying their music, tickets, or merch to keep them creating. Listening to #ATSIC on Mixcloud is free for you, and makes sure that each song you hear pays the artist at least SOMETHING. Spotify pays 0.006 CAD per stream, and that’s only if the song hits 1000 plays in 3 months. Assuming a song gets 1000 spins, that means it takes around 125 Spotify plays to earn an artist the same .76 cents they earn from my 1.29 purchase on iTunes. Spotify is also now investing the billions they earn into weaponized AI drones, which is just awful, frankly. Fuck those guys - I use it because it’s the only realistic way to keep up with all these drops from all these artists, but I never listen to anything more than twice on there - because I go buy a digital single of anything I like that much. You could to, and the musicians would thank you.
Shows like After the Smoke is Clearalso need support. If you appreciate discovering new music without the algorithm, or if you appreciate my efforts to get indie artist’s music in more ears, consider donating via PayPal to help me buy the tracks and keep the show going. Every dollar helps indie artists and ATSIC alike.
If you can’t donate, that’s all good — people who can afford it are paying, and you get to enjoy a free show while I earn a living. Do me a favour though, and help spread the word to other people who love Hip Hop! Shoutout to everyone who is already supporting financially, by sharing the show, or by coming through in comments and chat to help build community.
Stay up.
