It’s no secret here that we are unabashed fans of DJ Shiftee, the current DMC World Champ. Shiftee is one of the few turntablists out there that is not afraid to bring his own unique personality, style and humor to the art of DJing.

DJ Shiftee has embraced YouTube for a variety of fun How To videos – often involving food – but now he is utilizing the medium to campaign for Shiftee In 2010, a tongue-in-cheek, campaign love letter to himself.

Shiftee gets definite points for scratchin’ in a suit, but some deductions for poor art direction (do we really need to see your Post-It Notes and bag lunch?). However, the man certainly has our vote for bringing technology, skill, and most of all, fun back into the art of DJing.

Vote for DJ Shiftee! More information on DJ Shiftee.

The hype surrounding Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 is picking up steam again thanks to a couple of clips from the Swedish House Maffia. The first clip below showcases Maffia “performing” on a OP-1 in their pajamas. The video certainly isn’t going to drive Maffia concert sales, but their music video demonstrates some of the OP-1’s potential.

A new documentary on Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has been announced. Johnny Depp has been tagged to direct the video bio, which begins next week. Depp and Richards have been friends for more than a decade, and the guitar legend even played Depp’s father in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

Depp last directed 1997’s “The Brave,” starring Marlon Brando. He’ll be seen next in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Richards agreed in 2007 to pen an autobiography to be published by Little, Brown & Co. in the U.S. and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in Britain in the fall of this year.

Part of the documentary will center on Richards’ punishment-defying biological makeup, which has enabled him to keep on going like the Energizer Bunny despite the man’s repeated efforts to do himself in…

Ableton and Swayzak are offering a free Live Set for download that demonstrates how the dubby electronic band from the UK constructs their live shows.

“We take a fairly unstructured path to making a Live Set. Clips are grouped by type (beats, bass, percussion etc) but we don’t usually split a track into stems in order to replay it. We assign key commands to mute each track plus key commands which turn the global effects on and off (on the master channel). We have two sends (reverb and delay); this provides some space and, of course, “dubbiness.” It’s important to really know all the sounds—we usually go through and listen to each one on solo during preparation for a gig (we also delete or transform them if they are boring).”

Swayzak describe how they use Ableton in the video below:

“Then it’s a process of improvisation, as we build up songs using the clips. The aim is to keep the music as fluid and organic as possible—we’re not trying to reproduce an existing piece of music, rather to create something new and unique in real time. Sometimes, of course, there are mistakes or rather “unintentional deviations” that take us off into new directions. Overall, it feels best when we just play without thinking too much and arrive at a point where we don’t know how we got there. After all, it’s supposed to be LIVE.

More information on the Swayzak Ableton Live Pack.