Headshot of Amazing

Same procedure as every year: I have just finished uploading a new house mix into the mixes section! As you might know, once per year I try to build a mix, that contains those tracks that I found the most interesting during the course of the year. Of course, the resulting mixes might be a tiny bit odd when it comes to style consistency, but I personally like listening to all my favorites in a row and I thought why not share those with you. This time I called it “In The Sand House” because it has a certain house vibe that I remember from beach parties several decades ago. As usual the mix starts with a soft intro track into the sunset and grows more powerful up until the second half. Then it turns more underground towards the end, where it concludes with a typical sunrise track.

! To The Mixes Section !

“Was immer du hier siehst, verändere das Bild so, dass es stärker wird!” lautete die Anweisung der Google-Forscher an das neuronale Netzwerk. Und so fing das Netzwerk an, die Formen der Wolken auf dem Bild zu interpretieren: Was etwa ein bisschen nach Vogel aussah, wurde noch vogelähnlicher gemacht. So “malte” das künstliche Gehirn allerlei Fantasiewesen und Gebäude, die es zu erkennen glaubte. | Zeit.de – © Google Research

Google made multiple layers of neural networks analyze images and emphasize what they “think” they found in the pictures. The result is really impressive even though some of the pictures they were fed contained nothing but white noise to begin with. One could argue if that’s how AI dreams are made… well, and maybe even our own?

http://www.zeit.de/digital/2015-06/google-neuronale-netzwerke-fs

I came across this road safety ad about a year ago and apparently wanted to post it here but forgot. Now I found it in my drafts and watched it again. I still think the idea is brilliant, since it gets the message across very effectively without the shocking blood and gore – so let’s finally put it up here!

The current weather makes me want to just lie down in the sun and do literally nothing. I wouldn’t move a bit. Neither does this guy…

After 2 years (!) of abstinence I finally found the time to release a new progressive house mix today containing a lot of tracks that i have been listening to while programming these days. This one is very much on the progressive side of house and techno with even a little bit of trance. Just one hour long but packed with energy and hopefully joy for you to listen. Head over to the Music section and download it right away. Feel free to leave comments, questions and feedback! All tracks can be purchased from Beatport. There is also a playlist available if you are interested (giving credit where credit is due). Oh and the picture is as usual from one of my trips, this time: Madagascar. Enjoy!

Take me to the mix!

Normally I avoid posting advertisements, but this time I believe I have to. A video ad for Honda Civic called “The Other Side”. At first I thought I am watching a normal clip for yet another car I won’t buy, but you can hold down the “R” key any time to switch to the other side… and suddenly you are being told a rather interesting story: this guy at night turns out to live a second life… very well done!

Click to play video

Just stunning: How far this animals came in just one second and how the head does not seem to move at all. This is an amazing piece of video. Brilliant on the depth of field too. And at the end is a glimpse on some making-of footage.

This latest mix of mine is a compilation of everything produced in the year 2012 within the ranges of progressive and technoid tracks which I really enjoyed listening to (and still do). Naturally, I began the mix with some minimalistic intro and ended it with chillout… and in between… Yeah, that’s the stuff: I kind of came back to my style of 2006 which was a lot more pushing forward than what I have mixed lately (check it out in the music section).

Well, just kick back, headphones on and enjoy! I hope it gets you inspired and full of energy…

Nuff words. Take me to the download!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpznCSeqMxw

Let me explain: Nearly 20 years ago or something, there was no TV shows during the night in Germany. Statics. Nothing. Space Night started to be one of the few exceptions, which was showing satellite footage of earth paired with downtempo and soft electronical music. It became a great success among party-goers and actually inspired me a lot to produce chillout tracks myself in the years around 1998. So even though I am not watching it anymore (I don’t receive the TV channel BR anymore where I live), I have kind of an emotional connection to this show…

That said, it makes me really angry to hear, that Space Night might get cancelled or at least changed because of the increasing GEMA fees. Something like seven-digit figures per year. WTF!

Some have already suggested, that Space Night should play music that is published under Creative Commons and if this is the step they would like to go for, I hereby offer some of the tracks I have produced to their program for free. I feel it’s the least I can do: giving something back to a show that inspired me so much…

• Neues Konzept fuer Space Night

P.S.: Even the name of my section “auralfloat” is inspired by Space Night.

There is a new mix for download in the Music section. This time, I started out to be very minimal. The first couple of tracks I really love, mainly because of their fresh and unconventional underground feel. The pace increases after about 1/3 of the way and becomes a little more progressive and even a bit big room, taking a few turns into the melodic and then in the last third of the mix it goes down until ending up in my obligatory chill-out zone. It is roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes long, so take your time to enjoy the beast in its whole without interruptions. There are a lot of different styles covered within. It is again a mix of all the tracks I liked listening to the most in the past couple of months. I must admit, it was not easy to get them all working together this time and you might notice the fades are a little bumpy in the last half, but I just wanted to get all of them into one mix because they are just awesome. Hope you enjoy!

Direct download: here.

More mixes: here.