Before I get into the main part of this newsletter, I’ve got two upcoming gigs in Lisbon:

24/04 Moga Begins @ Those Who Dance (RA)
This Friday, I will be warming up Those Who Dance for a party connected to Moga Festival, which happens in a month’s time on Costa da Caparica. I’m playing from 9pm, before ISAbella, Jennifer Loveless and Moxie! The vibe is HOUSE.

29/04 All night long for Carpet @ Rumu
Wednesday after next, I am playing all night at Rumu for the Carpet & Snares series of midweek parties. I’m bringing a full record bag so expect a trip down memory lane…a bit like the subject of this newsletter.

I’ve only ever been to these venues to dance, so I’m curious to see what they’re like from the other side of the decks. Hit me up if you’re in Lisbon and want to come but can’t afford a ticket.

And now to the main topic of this newsletter, the mix and Q+A I did for Peach’s lovely Sixth Sense series. My goal was to record something that captured the experience of getting home from the club and embarking on a silly-fun-CK-fuelled sesh. You can read our chat about that here and listen to the mix:

I love all the records here so much that I wanted to do a track-by-track, so here we go..!

The Exile Missile - ‘Sidewinder (Fabrizio Mammarella Remix)’ [Brontosaurus, 2006]

I got this at the new Sound Metaphors when I was in Berlin last November and figured I’d be playing it chuggy bar sets. Testing it out, I discovered it key matches perfectly with the Charles Webster record, so into this mix it went. It’s not on youtube, sadly.

DJ Profile - ‘Batoblues’ [Sound Of Barclay, 2000]

Simply an all-time favourite deep house record, and up there with the White Powder EP as one of Charles Webster’s best. My friend Andrew introduced me to this EP many moons ago when he put the track ‘A Pair Of Fools’ in a mix, and that one remains a staple, but ‘Batoblues’ is more suited to the warm-up. I once played this at the sister restaurant to Lux Frágil while Kerri Chandler was having his artist dinner there, and I feel like I saw him nodding in approval.

Low Top - ‘Party Balm’ [Inner Sunset, 2007]

One of two records I own on Homero G’s fabled Inner Sunset imprint, I first heard this in a mix by my friend António, on a Portuguese mix site he ran with a couple of friends in Porto. This was years before I even thought of moving here. I’m not a fan of the other tracks on the EP, with their dissonant xylophones and nagging vocals. But ‘Party Balm’ is basically a perfect track, every element exactly where it should be.

Note: there is in fact a version of this track on bandcamp but it’s 1) mistagged and 2) part of a mix CD so doesn’t have the proper intro and outro. Do with that what you will.

Spencer Kincy - ‘Soho’ [Cyclo, 1998]

Since recording the mix, I heard this track in ISAbella’s set on The Lot Radio back in February, so I guess it’s having a bit of a 2026 renaissance? Good, because there’s always time for more Gemini.

Though if you listen to the track in her recording, starting from 22 minutes, you’ll hear it has this unexpected open hi hat running through it. My initial assumption was she was having fun layering something over the top. Well, it turns out at some point along the way D’Julz decided to edit the track, as far as I can tell simply adding a tss-tss-tss to make it more tech housey. Do I approve of that? What do you think!

Mazi - ‘Living On The Edge’ [Underground Construction, 1998]

This is an amazing proto-UKG US house track that I only discovered in late 2023 and have had trouble playing ever since. By that I mean I always want to play it, but something about the balance in the track throws me off, and the long intro section with the feathery drums that, to be frank, sound pretty thin until that HUGE bassline comes in…not to mention the intensely swung groove and specific harmonies in the stabs. It’s a delicate one to deal with and I don’t think I did a very good job of it in the recording, but I’m happy I put it in regardless because the track itself is really immaculate.

Mijangos - ‘Harmony’ [Aqua Boogie, 1995]

Funny that I took a track called ‘Harmony’ and decided to execute a suspiciously unharmonic mix into it. The balance on this track is so wildly different from the Mazi one (it’s basically all mids, the bassline pathetic) that I had to fight like hell for this transition to make any kind of sense. I can’t remember which record store I bought it in, and to be honest it’s been hovering around the get-rid-of pile for some time now. Why did I try to put this in the mix again? Well, I guess the breaky feel is kinda fun.

Grey - ‘Doma’ [Fair Park, 2004]

Discogs tells me I’ve owned this record for 12 years but I think it’s longer that. It was a very on-trend record in London back around 2013, mainly for the slinky, beguiling B-side track ‘L9 House (Muse Mix)’ by Chakaharta. That’s the cut I thought of when pulling records for this mix, but on a whim I turned the EP over (which I’d literally not done in all that time) only to find this brilliant Music For Freaks-style banger on the other side. Records, eh!

John Tejada - ‘Western Starland’ [Palette, 2001]

I’m pretty sure I got this in A-1 Records in NYC three summers ago, as I played it in my set on the beach at Dimensions that year. This track is an intensely silly bit of tech house and I love it. The rising string motif at the end of each two-bar phrase always really reminds me of another track that I did actually once identify, but have now forgotten again…maybe I’ll remember further down this newsletter.

Billy Jack - ‘Dark Pink’ [Welt Discos, forthcoming]

No youtube, no bandcamp, no nothing because this is still on its way… It’s a brilliantly wonky track from Billy Jack’s new EP on my label, which will pop up again later on in the mix. I am utterly obsessed with this tune, that incessant clipped vocal stab paired with a ‘Sharevari’-like bassline and switch-up kick drums. Not much else out there sounds like this, which is why I think it’s special. More on the EP release soon!

Plankton - ‘Shaka Attack’ [Transfusion, 1997]

Obviously this is the first big ‘hit’ of the mix, the one that people on soundcloud have reacted to. It’s just so huge, that warped opening lead line and dub-echoed drum fills signalling we’re in for something special. I love how the track just does its no-nonsense thing for five whole minutes before going off on a cosmic journey for another two. If you see a record on Transfusion in a shop, you should always listen to it.

(Side note: how unexpected that this track was uploaded to youtube by the uncontested king of bland-to-the-point-of-offensive deep house, Sascha Dive. If you like music as expressive and energetic as this record, Sascha, then why is your “definition of house music” still so dull two decades later?)

Bozo - ‘Groove Melon’ [Skinnymalinky, 1996]

One of the best records I’ve bought in the past five years, I got this after finding Rumpus’s ‘Feel Free’ sometime in late 2021 and then following the Discogs breadcrumb trail. I’ve played out Rumpus’s tune ‘Hypnotize’ on the flip a few times, especially at parties where I felt like something BIG was required, but ‘Groove Melon’ is the one that is basically my platonic ideal of house music. Light and garagey with a quirky extended breakdown, it kind of sits alongside Conemelt’s ‘The Last De-Icer’ in my mental library. Incredible that this tune was made in 1996, it really sounds ahead of its time.

Billy Jack - ‘B.L.U.’ [Welt Discos, forthcoming]

The title track of Billy’s upcoming EP, it actually comes in two versions: this more 4/4 one, and a 2-step take that I’m still trying to find the right moment to play out. The “I didn’t know there were boys like you” vocal sample is actually one of my heroes, Stacy Q, from her 1983 hit ‘Shy Girl’ produced by James St. James. But shhh, don’t tell anyone. I love how carefree this track is, upbeat and even euphoric but with a kind of naivety to it that helps it avoid cliche.

Colfax - ‘Bump In The Night’ [End, 2001]

This record really tested my Ortofons. I would actually be worried about trying to play this out in a club, the needle was so unsteady. Unfortunately there isn’t a digital version. Again, this is a record that had a ‘moment’ in London circles c. 2012, primarily for the B-side tune ‘Hookworm’, but it’s this 8-minute roller on the A that does it for me now.

Overmaster - ‘Certified’ [Iniquity, 1996]

I mention these Overmaster tunes in the Q+A with Peach, but just to retell it here: I found these records on an Australian record store page, one of those shops (they’re often Japanese) that kindly invests an inordinate amount of time into putting samples of obscure records on their listings. I can’t remember the name of the store and it doesn’t show up in any google searches for these records, so who knows. Ever since, I’d thought of these EPs as Australian and even filed them in the ‘Other countries’ section of my shelves. But on recording this mix I actually read the labels and realised they were produced by a guy called Gareth in London. This tune is one I’ve basically never played out because I find it completely OTT. Which is why, in this mix, it represents the precise moment when the sesh all gets a bit much.

Yes Guitarist - ‘Owner Of A Superstylin’ Heart (SH Edit)’ [Welt Discos, 2026]

This deserves to be the song of the summer and I’m going to carry on playing it until that happens.

Overmaster - ‘Rhythm’ [Iniquity, 1996]

In contrast to ‘Integer’, above, this tune represents the moment when the afters goes from “too much” to manageable again. Whatever substance in your system that’s been pranging you out finally decides to let you breathe a bit and you melt back into the fray. That’s what the breakdown in this track makes me think of, especially when that big warm bass tone comes in.

Lazy I - ‘Kettlefish’ [Slalom, 1998]

Well, once again we’re back in London in 2012 and someone somewhere at an afters is playing the B2 (always the B2!) ‘Hoover Manouvre’ off this EP. Branching out once more in this mix, I opted instead for the B1, this crafty and crunchy hyped-up tune that also really reminds me of Conemelt, and sounds fantastic slowed down to -10.

Modified Starch - ‘Acidity Regulator’ [Slalom, 1998]

The most sought-after record on Slalom? It might also be the best, though it has competition from the Lazy I EP (above) and the other Modified Starch EP. Anyway, ‘Acidity Regulator’ avoids all of the brash nu-skool breaks pitfalls of the other Slalom EPs I’ve heard, slipping into a more evasive, involving and ultimately satisfying electro mood. Again, this sounds fabulous slowed down, which certainly can’t be said for a lot of breaks tunes.

Module Werk - ‘Awakening (サイボーグの夢)’ [Helena, 2017]

A deceptively simple assemblage, the groove in this track floats in space yet slaps at the same time. Like a balanced chess position, it has its own beautiful interior logic. When I wrote the promo blurb for this record back in 2017, I said ‘Awakening’ was “the kind of contemplative analogue electro to put on at an afterparty at your place, once you’ve changed into your comfiest pyjamas”, and that’s precisely why I chose it to close this afters-themed mix.

Thanks for reading and listening!