After The Smoke Is Clear 726
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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: working on ATSIC on Thursdays; listening to the Canadian new releases each Friday or Saturday to make picks for the show; or talking with artists for Fly In Formation interviews on Tuesdays. I’m trying to do some streams working on my own music when I can find time. The Thursday Making of ATSIC stream where I spun this week’s mix is posted under this.
This week’s mix was a nice one I think. I thought I might have messed up a few remixes and needed to go back to correct my mistaken explorations.. but upon review I decided it’s really good, fuck it. You can always go hear the standard edition of any of these songs in any number of easy to find places. The live element is the fun of these mixes really. Could I have went back and done the transitions a bit smoother here and there? Sure. But then there’s another week of new music to listen to, I don’t feel like I have the time to be practicing each mix. The songs are the important part, and there’s a lot of good ones here.
Canada’s scene can stand on it’s own, and I stand on that.
There’s a new album called Gary out from Smoothie Lou - I bought a couple of tracks and haven’t heard the whole project just yet, but like what I have heard. I played one off there to start things off that features fellow Hamilton emcees The Emsee & Lee Reed - and then Lee Reed makes another appearance as a feature on a track later in the mix as well. Lee is one of my favourites, and he consistently drops truth bombs on every feature I hear from him - good to see him working with these guys - I think when we talked on Fly In Formation he recommended I check out The Emsee, but I can’t recall if he knew Smoothie Lou back then, it might be a new link.
We “Keep It Thorough” with a full “Photo Dump” because “Nothing’s Impossible” on a “Green Day” in a “New Aristocracy.” Yell “Woo Haw!” when you realize “Who’s Directing It”, but soon it’s “Citywide” that “Yolanda” did the “Centipede” with “Pero & Emmo.” “GNTRFCTN” is in full effect - the people who “Run The Country” have total “CNTRL” - but the “Return of the Zulu Beat” leave the people feeling “Unbothered” and “High on Life.”
Or something like that. Listen to the music. Go buy something.
Fly in Formation is back for weekly interviews now until December. The week to week schedule is still a surprise usually announced just before the interview happens - but I’ll always be talking indie Hip Hop with someone worth talking with. 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.
