Sounds Of The Canyon

One Small Corner of the Canyon Archive...

2007-07-03T03:23:00.000-12:00

A little give and take x

Werewolf

2007-06-07T22:28:00.001-12:00

I made this Cd for a girl.
It's why 99.9% of compilations are made.
Girls are great.

I have a great girl now.
We have a song, this is it >>$<<

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King of the Rodeo

2007-06-07T21:30:00.000-12:00

This is a journey Cd mostly inspired by an email I received in response to 'Werewolf', the previous compilation.
The email:

I really enjoy the werewolf cd> been on repeat for the last few days...i particularly like cat power and my theme song for the moment is trck 17> free..its great, the 1st time I heard it, it woke me from a nap. I cant stop listening to it and playing it while driving around is even better, it gives that king of the road feeling, red robots should stay out of my way.

Red Robots Beware

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Infinite Search

2007-06-07T04:24:00.001-12:00

Infinite Search, the track itself, had me transfixed for about 2 years. I became slightly obsessed with it to the point that I thought it best not to tell anyone. I'd just put it in my mini-disk player, press repeat song and feel ill as if I'd gone on one ride too many. It leads you along mischieviously, opening and closing doors, sending you in circles... "I think we've been here before". I make it sound like a frustrating 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of journey but it's not, it's quite calming. I think my friend Kodwo has become obsessed with the whole thing, he mentions it every time we speak. If you know him and you see him walking the streets, clutching his headphones, mumbling to himself - don't startle him, he may become aggressive.

For Turiya is a song that never leaves you. I sampled it once and actually made quite a good job of it but instantly felt like Indiana Jones desecrating a sacred tomb. So I buried it.

The bird on the cover was rescued by my mum, his name is Tino. He lived with us in France for about 2 weeks sometimes riding on the dashboard of the car. It got to a point where we were worried he would take on human qualities and forget he was a bird, perhaps he would begin to drink wine and talk shit. So my mum (*Buffy*) taught him how to fly and threw him out the window (rather like Prof Levi), he soared across the vineyards searching for his own kind so he could eat berries and talk shit.

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All is well

2007-06-06T22:00:00.000-12:00

"...where I grew up in Brooklyn nobody committed suicide, you know everyone was too unhappy...."

This cd is interspersed with clips from Woody Allen's 'Crimes and Misdemeanors', this is one of my all time 5 star films. I love this film because it's not Woody Allen in slapstick mode, this is one of his 'serious' films. But how serious is he ever really anyway? I think Allen's funny bone is alive and well in 'Crimes' mainly through the prof Levi character, a man so seduced by the beauty of things (also by the study and articulation of this beauty) that he is perhaps overwhelmed and simply jumps from his building to his death. He leaves no explanation other than a note that reads 'I've gone out the window'. Beautiful and simple and funny as hell. Perhaps we shouldn't look too hard for explanations.

I called this cd 'All is well' because in times of transition it's good to pinpoint your state to a statement, possibly a statement of intent rather than one of being. Either way i found it helped.

All is well, I hope.

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Ali Macgraw

2007-06-06T21:09:00.001-12:00

I made this Cd with my friend Graham Erickson in the winter of 2005-2006. It's a Cd best heard in a snowed-in log cabin, a bit like an hour long version of Neil Young's 'will to love' (you can hear the open fire in the background, burning melancholy). Graham was djing at his night 'Soft Focus' (with fellow Dj's/archivists Pete Fowler and Jeremy 'Brill') at the time and this reminds me of drinking cider and talking with beardies in dark corners about pretty girls. Dancing was strictly not allowed except for one girl that turned up on the second night, danced in a circle and took her top off (very '67), we can allow that. I haven't listened to it in an age (or a hot minute depending on your cultural persuasion) but I'm remembering the final Nina Simone track and thinking that if it doesn't evoke some form of emotion in your soul, then you are lost, dooooooomed.

hope you enjoy it

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1974-2006

2007-06-04T00:01:00.001-12:00

I made this compilation with Chris Williams, you probably know him. He's one of those dudes that makes you feel extremely unpopular when walking 'round town with him, he knows everyone. He's a living legend, at least that's what he tells me. He's also the soon-to-be father of my Godson, I'm excited! I guess I'll be making a load more cd's, educating young Williams in the appreciation of good music, guiding him away from Chris's Celine Dion collection. If there's one thing we've shared it's an appreciation for the music of Jay Dee AKA JDilla. What follows is the text from the cd label:

This CD was put together in the year that followed Dilla’s passing in Feb 2006. It is not a compilation of Dilla tracks but more a collection of songs that he might like, songs that maybe would have influenced him or possibly that he had in turn influenced. We approached this CD with the same degree of love that you might do if making it for a friend, because in many ways he was a friend. As much as he has been heralded a legend he was also a very humble person and a real craftsman. And we honour his memory.

Oh and.... Turn it up!

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Welcome

2006-06-20T04:14:00.000-12:00

Hello World

Welcome to my series of Cd's called 'Sounds of the Canyon'.

I've been compiling these for a few years now. They've been a kind of substitute for making music at times when I'm too busy/tired/time-restricted/apathetic to make my own. But they are in no way inadequate an experience to making my own, actually they contain none of the angst of creating your own shit, a pleasure in that respect. The last two have been compiled with close friends and that's been nice, creating a kind of mini soundtrack for our friendship. Anyway all the songs you will hear have in some ways been influential on my quiet little journey through this life. I don't like to think of myself as a music addict or that i am in any way dependent on it but I'm hooked and that's the bare-faced truth. There's not a day that passes that some form of melodic/Beat(odic)/Sonic food type doesn't pass through my being. I consume about 10 new albums a week and like a true junkie I'm never full.

Bon Appetite,

Dan Canyon

p.s. I'm going to start with the most recent and work backwards :-)