#ace decade

Bella looked at Butch, then at Alex. While all three of them had softer facial features then their father, there were still similarities.

"Yeah, you are DEFINITELY my half-brothers." she said, still having trouble processing everything.

"If Da-I mean Ace, never told me about Alex, it makes sense he never told Alex about either me or you. I never even knew you existed until now." Butch stated, trying not to let his bitterness towards his father show.

"Yeah well, he's the same guy who dressed as a Kiss-reject to scare people out of exposing his record bootlegging scheme. You'd think he wouldn't need to do that because of how rich he is or his connections to Mr. Decade." Bella spoke, in a matter-of-fact tone. Unlike Butch and Alex, she never even knew Ace. She may have seen him once or twice, but they hardly if ever interacted, so she wasn't close to him, and so the news of him being a criminal didn't really have the impact on her as it did Butch and Alex.

"You'd be surprised what people can do when they get greedy." Alex said, hints of both bitterness and sadness in his voice.

"Alex, I'm sorry about everything that's happened to you. About Lila and Roger's betrayal, about you, Ray, and Deek inadvertently getting caught up in this case, and most importantly, about our so-called Dad. And I'm even sorrier Bella had to be caught up in it as well." Butch replied, a mix of sadness that his half siblings were now caught up in another one of their dad's messes, and anger at Ace.

"To be honest with you Butch. I was never close to Ace, so I really don't care about him being subject to investigation again. But I am worried about you and Alex. I've seen the toll that Ace has put on both of you." Bella sadly said.

"No Bella, it's not fair to you or Butch that Dad had to ruin everything. And him working with a sketchy group in an attempt to get rid of Mystery Inc as revenge? He's gone too far." Alex stated, in a rare show of anger.

[Clip from The Scooby-Doo Show, “The Diabolical Disc Demon”]

More years than I care to count ago, I had received a gift from a good friend, in the form of (POSsibly) the most enthralling instrumental mix tape I’ve ever owned.  It was called Music in the Air, and was put together by a man that has (in my opinion) never gotten enough recognition for the things he’s accomplished as both a visual and musical artist.  At the time, he went by his long-standing and well respected moniker Take5, a staple in the exalted ranks of the graffiti writers of old.  Of course, that’s a little on the sentimental side, and maybe even a little dramatic.  But at the time, as a teenager coming from the same hometown he had hailed from, seeing his art and hearing his music inspired me to grow as an artist and as a person.  His graffiti consisted of the stuff legends are made of, and his mix tapes became the soundtrack of life as a teen feeling like a big fish in a little pond.  It gave me hope that, I too, could accomplish great things in my lifetime, no matter where I came from.

Again, sentimental, but not bullshit in the slightest.  I had actually thought he had disappeared for a while, as I wasn’t big on the whole MySpace movement.  However, in recent years, with the aid of more modern and useful social media, I had rediscovered his talents.  His latest release was actually a promo mix for Futureproofing Vancouver, under the new alias of Ace Decade.

Usually the new name thing makes me think of crisis and desire to move on, somehow, without retaining the stench of despair about them as an artist.  However, I’m delighted to say that the mix is just as beautiful and emotionally invocative as some of his previous work.  Definitely keeping to some of the subtleties of his previous mixes (that I have on cassette somewhere - giggle), the newer tracks and mixes I’ve had on repeat for the entire evening are very much in the same vein as the tapes that put him on a podium for myself and so many other kids from Small Town, Underground Hip-Hop-Ville, Canada.  That being said, don’t go down this tunnel looking for hip hop, older fans might compare this release to an older album by the name of Inner Kingdom, released by his original alias, Take5, some years ago.  Only better.

Find the goods below, enjoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?k77rbmkd755akd0

For more:

http://soundcloud.com/djtake5

And even more:

http://takefive.bandcamp.com/album/exit-151

And you thought we were done: