RA.872 Mix + Q&A
My mix and Q&A for Resident Advisor was uploaded a couple of weeks ago. I chose to synthesise my last year of DJing and dancing into a mix, which means any of you who have been reading this newsletter or seen me play will find much that is familiar. When I listen to it I feel like it’s populated by the people and places that brought me to this point, and by memories both happy and sad and in-between. I hope it evokes all of those feelings in anyone listening.
I talk about the recording process a little in the Q&A but I thought it might be interesting to give more insight into a handful of specific moments in the mix. Not exactly full liner notes (though I would have little trouble writing an entire booklet), but some fun facts about what you’re listening to. And the tracklist follows at the end with links to buy the newer music.
Thanks so much to everyone who’s given me kind feedback. I’ve been surfing on good vibes since it came out.
04m55s
Every time I hear it, the silence between the opening two tracks — both by friends — feels like the holding of breath before jumping off a 10m diving board. With hindsight, I see this little gesture as an affirmation of dynamics, in both music and friendship.
30m50s
There are two measures of ‘Catman (Dub Version)’ here where the quality of the track suddenly dips horribly. This was because, for some reason unknown to me, I recorded the mix on my old laptop, and when I hit ‘stop’ on Audacity I got that dreaded dropouts message. In the past I’ve had this ruin entire recordings, but to my relief this time it only affected one short section of this track. Out of the many ways in which I could have fixed the problem, I chose one that left a small but noticeable trace of the almost-calamity.
47m30s
Here I mix from one of the fattest sounding records in recent memory, GIDEÖN’s ‘It Does Not Burn’, into the tinny ‘Nights Like This’ by Stacey Q, whose Rob Gordon production is sorely let down by being an LP-only pressing. Cracking the code of maintaining energy between such disparate-sounding records (and between vinyl and digital) has been a priority of mine this past few years, and I think I’m finally getting somewhere.
69m00s
I fought hard to find a place in the mix for Spoonface & Colonel Red’s ‘Move Up’, a record I bought in KIMCHI a couple of years ago and played in my first gig at Panoramabar. There’s no sugar coating it: this record sounds like it’s been pressed through a sponge and the kicks are cheerfully off-grid. But that’s why it’s so good, and it was important to me that its message came through somewhere. Despite some CDJ assistance, the mix into it from Rafiki’s ‘Varied Sciences’ is a bit of a bumpy ride, but in this case I think that complements the two tracks rather than detracting from them.
82m20s
If you want to know why I mixed out from Jocelyn Brown and Martha Wash’s glorious ad libs on ‘Keep On Jumpin’ so rudely, just listen from 4m45s onwards in the full Kenlou remix here and tell me you wouldn’t do the same.
89m45s
An interface moment between two utterly monumental tracks. The first was sent to me by a friend after I commented on it in a mix they’d done: “this is unique-sounding and amazing”. Since they labelled it with a name that has zero trace on the internet, I have no idea what it is, and I never felt like asking. So now, every time I play it, I actively indulge in the feeling of not knowing, and never knowing. The second is Ramu’s ‘Mist Or Cloud’, which I’m not going to spill more words over here, other than to say it has been responsible for some of my more memorable moments of dancefloor/DJing ecstasy since it came out.
104m30s
Sometimes things fall into place, and sometimes things need a little push. This mix as a whole involved a combination of those two things, and this transition in particular is emblematic of the process. Lean into it!
Tracklist
Dana Kuehr – Great Lakes Empty Branches [Basic Moves, 2022]
Out Of The Blue – Dokkaebi [Nottetempo, 2023]
Tape_Hiss – Glass Voice [Darker Than Wax, 2023]
Ali Berger – The M 6 Motion [Trackland, 2020]
Michael Zager Band – Like A Tiger (Uptown Mix) [Mosaic, 1986]
Shinichiro Yokota – Interested In It [Sound Of Vast, 2021]
Paloma – No Seu Tempo [Gop Tun, 2022]
Melina Marks – Tease Me (Sub-Club Mix) [Bigshot, 1988]
Vermelho Wonder – Catman (Dub Version) [Gop Tun, 2022]
Stephen Howe – Midi Maze [Welt Discos, forthcoming]
Joe Morris – Astral Visions [2sox, 2022]
GIDEÖN – It Does Not Burn [Homo-Centric, 2022]
Stacey Q – Nights Like This [Atlantic, 1989]
Stevie B – Searching For House: Part B (Non-Stop Mix) [BCM, 1989]
K-Roc – Turn It Up (Bongo Mix) [Jive, 1988]
Björk – Ooops (Eric's Kup Of Hysteria Remix) [Tommy Boy, 1991]
Phyzikal Flex – Seventh Heaven [Magic Carpet, 2020]
Rafiki – Varied Sciences [Welt Discos, 2023]
Spoonface & Colonel Red – Move Up [Faada, 2005]
Roska – Mission Complete [Roska, 2022]
Basement Jaxx – Jump N Shout (Nite Dub) [XL, 1999]
Todd Terry – Keep On Jumpin’ (Kenlou Jumpin' & Pumpin' Mix) [Manifesto, 1996]
1OO1O – Shades Of Pink (ft. Ranma Entero) [1OO1O, 2022]
Unknown
Ramu – Mist Or Cloud [Magic Carpet, 2021]
Sfire – Sfire 6 [Ultramajic, 2015]
Photocall – Flying Tiger Of Love [Photocall, 2012]
Fingers Inc. – Never No More Lonely [Jack Trax, 1988]
The Persuader – Vasastaden [Svek, 1999]
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