&ru profile picture

&ru

Life may not always be a party but we may as well dance while we're here!

About Me


Hey there. I'm a happy bloke living in sunny Brisbane, Australia generally trying to have a fun time of things. My life is pretty much taken up with work, music and family/friends. So, things are good! :)
By day I'm a mild mannered computer game producer and lawyer. By night I'm a house music DJ (I go by the name of &ru - "and-roo") and love to spin quality tunes that get people moving and grooving. Have a look at ampersandru.com for more info but I feel kinda like this about house music...
In the beginning, there was Jack.
And Jack had a groove.
And from this groove came the groove of all grooves.
And while one day viciously throwing down on his box, Jack boldly declared, "Let there be House!"
And House music was born.
I am, you see. I am the creator. And this is my House.
And in my House there is only House music.
But I am not so selfish, because once you've entered my House,
it then becomes our House, and our House music.
And you see, no one man owns House,
because house music is a universal language spoke and understood by all.
You see, House is a feeling,
that no one can understand really,
unless you're deep into the vibe of House.
House is an uncontrollable desire to Jack your body.
And as I told ya before, this is our house, and our House music.
And in every house you understand, there is a keeper.
And in this house the keeper is Jack.
Now some of you might wonder, "who is Jack and what is it that Jack does?"
Jack is the one who gives you the power to jack your body.
Jack is the one who gives you the power to do the snake.
Jack is the one who gives you the key to the wiggly worm.
Jack is the one who learns you how to walk your body.
Jack is the one that can bring nations and nations of all Jackers together under one house.
You may be black,
you may be white,
you may be Jew, or Gentile.
It don't make a difference in our house. And this is fresh!!!
- Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers
Top 5 hits for May 2007

As the days are getting shorter, the late night sessions are getting longer. Joy ;) With this in mind, I've chosen some techie tracks that are good for those wee small hours.

    16 Bit Lolitas - Non Verbal Language (Loafer Remix) on Hope Recordings -- A nice dark track on the Hope label to kick off proceedings. This one's a mix of prog and tech house with interesting samples (about non verbal language oddly enough) and good drops after a long build up. Trentemoller - Moan (Trentemoller Remix) on Poker Flat -- The Trentemoller boys once again bring forth a wonderful Euro house piece. Understated, dark and quite mellow to begin with, the track grows adding instruments and percussion to complement the distinct female vocals before finally dropping a strong dubby electro baseline (that my mum, bless her, thought was a loose wire on my car stereo! ;) ). Booka Shade - In White Rooms (Neo Mix) on Get Physical -- Mr Booka shows off his skills with deep electro here. The track works equally well in small underground clubs and big superclub main rooms (hat's off to Rikki Newton for gracing Family's main room with this beauty). For something a bit more understated check the Elektrochemie remix. Koop - Drum Rhythm A (Christian Prommer Remix) on white -- A great track that has a deep feel but infuses an array of latin percussion and jazzy melodies. Really catchy and suits many settings. Fairmont - Gazebo (Sebastian Leger Remix) on Border Community -- A bit of a flashback to 2005 here. A lost track that I randomly happened upon. Still awesome! A pushing techie track with quirky electric melody and dubby electro baseline.

Find past months' listings over at www.ampersandru.com

My Interests

DJ'ing, music production, inline skating, computer games (yeah, I'm a geek really.. aren't all DJs???), chilling with mates, dancing all night long like a crazy person, singing along with dodgy 80s songs, having lazy Sunday lunches and the odd spot of golf to annoy myself.

Music:

Oh there's just too many to name but pretty much any producer who makes or DJ that spins quality house. The likes of Andy Caldwell, Marques Wyatt, Ben Watt, Miguel Migs, Chuck Love, Max Graham and Chab get big wraps. Locally I take huge direction from Freestyle and Rikki Newton (go Aussie!).

Television:

I don't watch much actual TV but the TV shows I watch (on DVD or on computer) are: Aqua Teen Hunger Force (give it time, it grows on you), Arrested Development (a new fave), Simpsons, Family Guy, Scrubs, ReGenesis, American Dad (just getting into this one), Seinfeld, Boston Legal (Denny Crane!). The latest on the list is Weeds - gold and mate, she's got the MILF weed and Snoop named it perfectly!

Books:

I mainly read non-fiction books and don't get much time to do that.. probably because I'm an even slower reader than I used to be (eye operation saw [no pun intended] to that!). I read before I go sleep. Just finished "Catch 22" (I still reckon that it wraps up way to fast.. yes, I know it's a classic but, there you are) and "Inside Little Britain". Not sure what to try on now but some suggestions from www.librarything.com look interesting.

My Blog

Moving house.. I have a plan

Yesterday was my "day off". As many of you know, I've been working pretty hard as Fury (http://www.myspace.com/furythegame) has started up it's testing phase. Anyway, I worked the weekend (some very o...
Posted by &ru on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:10:00 PST

My MySpace birthday

To all my wonderful friends who called, emailed and posted MySpace comments wishing me a happy birthday... you're all awesome! Seriously, this is why you guys are my friends :D So thank you one and al...
Posted by &ru on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:50:00 PST

My MySpace birthday

To all my wonderful friends who called, emailed and posted MySpace comments wishing me a happy birthday... you're all awesome! Seriously, this is why you guys are my friends :D So thank you one and al...
Posted by &ru on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:50:00 PST

Tunes for April are up

Hey!I've got off my butt and posted my top 5 for April.. it's actually a top 10 as I was too busy (read: too slack) to do a March top 5. I'm going to be putting some of these into a mix really soon. I...
Posted by &ru on Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:44:00 PST

I HAVE NO HAIR!

Hey allJust so there's some sort of record of when I really started down the path to full blown senility, here's a blog statement for the ages: On Tuesday, 20 March 2007 I shaved off all my hair!Check...
Posted by &ru on Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:45:00 PST

spinning is fun

So wrong but so funny.. I just can't resist posting this :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXRH50fvHWA
Posted by &ru on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 05:18:00 PST

Opening Pandora's box..

Firstly, a big happy 2007! Let's hope 007 is well and truly Bond worthy. I think it will be. It has that great ring to it :)Now, just a short blog to plug Pandora - an offshoot of the Music Genome Pro...
Posted by &ru on Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:30:00 PST

Melbourne fun and Mr Watt

Just a quick note to let you all know I had a sweet weekend visiting my good mate David in Melbourne. Nice and chilled with plenty of vino to be had. Just what the doctor ordered.The weekend also coin...
Posted by &ru on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:56:00 PST

Sandy Rivera

I am getting around (even if it is a month late) to do my quarterly blog. But, I just simply have to let everyone know that I got a review of Renaissance's "Sandy Rivera - The Masters Series" and it i...
Posted by &ru on Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:47:00 PST

A new review.. as good a reason as any for my first blog

I 've been trying to do a bit more for Tranzfusion.net of late so have been reviewing some CDs. I have a couple reviews up on the main "Music Review" page now and I'm pretty happy with the one I did f...
Posted by &ru on Wed, 24 May 2006 10:07:00 PST