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ARGENIS BRITO
Normally the first step I take to create a track is to imagine in my head the kind of sound I want, the type of beat and the intention behind it. Once I have a clear idea of what I am looking for, I start by searching for sounds to construct the beat. In general, I prefer more raw and acoustic sounds, even if I want to make something clean and rounded. It’s is very difficult for me to get away from the type of sound I normally use.
I don't have much equipment in my studio. I mainly use my laptop and a couple of machines to make my tracks. I use generally more software than hardware for my productions. It’s not that I don't like hardware, it's just that only now I'm starting to collect gear and use it.
Back to the track. I always try different approaches to begin. Sometimes first it will be the beat, other times the bass or the melodies. This helps to have different results at the end, because when you find a formula or a system to do things, normally the final sound tends to be similar and that can be boring with the time
I use Ableton and Logic as main editors. I start by putting together loops that could work. Lately I haven't been using many external loops whereas before I used to do it very much. Currently, I enjoy making the loops and designing the sounds myself. After I have enough material to build the track I go to the next step which is the arrangement. This is the trickiest part for me (my favorite part is the jamming). The arrangement is hard work and is a very important part because even if you have excellent material, if the arrangement is not dynamic and interesting enough, the track can end up loosing its power.
The arrangement process is the longest in my case, because I like to take my time to listen to it and digest it within a few days. This gives me a more definitive feeling about what the track is going to sound like when ready. I don't finish all the ideas I start. I apply a very strong filter before finishing the ideas and if I consider some are not good enough, I drop them and start from scratch. This way I don't have too much material but the ones I have remaining, I'm satisfied with. I believe in quality before quantity.
In the past two or three years I've been fully dedicated to dance music. I enjoy very much the feeling of making people dance and the feedback between the audience and the person playing the music. In general, I get easily fed up with a sound and need to be evolving continuously in order to keep myself interested. I also have a very strong tendency to Latin sonorities (of course, I'm Venezuelan!) and that's always reflected in my music. At the moment what I'm doing is a mixture of house, techno and elements of Latin music like congas, bongos and percussion. This creates a warmer sound that I mix together with funky-groovy beats that are my main intention: music for dancing, for shaking the body, for stimulating the sex appeal and the eye contact. I sometimes think that electronic music, and more specifically techno, can be very cold and individualistic and that for me doesn't make it.
When I think the arrangement grooves and I'm satisfied with it, then comes the process of mixing it. That means finding the right level and the right effect for each element, then the mastering and compressing, and when all that is done, it comes the next step (very important for me), and that is to get the new track on my live set and play it in front of people. This can be very interesting because many times you have an idea of how the track will work when played, but it can be very different than expected and you get a totally different feedback. I think it is very important to do this because when you are in the studio by yourself and make a track, your opinion can be not impartial enough.
I believe every single person has very specific influences and characteristics. It is only a matter of hard work, like everything else in this life, you need to love what you do and invest a lot of time and energy in order to achieve interesting and satisfying results.
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QUIRKY
My first gigs were 12 hours long. Every Sunday from 1pm to 1am. "Afternoon Tea" it was called - in a bar in Cork called "The Roundy".
That seems like a lifetime ago now. I just became a Dad and barely have time to complete my two hour monthly mix for Proton Radio. I was really looking forward to doing this mix as a kind of "what does music really mean to me kinda" thing. It started off very personal - tunes that aren't even that good but just meant a lot to me - more about times and places than quality. I really enjoyed going through my old precious records and remembering the times when I played this or heard that for the first time. After I snapped out of my nostalgia it made me think more about the here and now, the difference between the two and the choices I've made.
So I made this mix with mostly unreleased or recently released music (except for 1 or 2 tracks, like the DFA & Marathon Men) to show where I am right now. Music is important to me. Very Important. I taught myself how to DJ in order to share music with people. But nothing is more important to me than my wife & son. I guess, in the end, this mix is for them because I wouldn't be where I am without them.
(I wonder if he will like Ame when he grows up.)
01. Loco Dice - M train To Brooklyn // Desolat
02. John Daly - Solitaire // International
03. Still Going - Still Going Theme // DFA
04. Marathon Men - Sweet Exorcisr // GAMM
05. Manuel Tur - Deviate // Drumpoet Community
06. The Mole - Smiling & Running // Wagon Repair
07. Soultourist - Coming Soon // Drumpoet Community
08. Robytek - Luna Africana (Roland Appel Mix) // Rebirth
09. Henrik Schwarz - I Exist Because Of You (Dixon Mix) // Innervisions
10. Solomun - Deadman // Four Twenty
11. Gui Boratto - Tales From The Lab (Sian Mix) // Defrag
12. NuFrequency - Go That Deep (Charles Webster Mix) // Rebirth
13. Ame - Doldrums // Innervisions
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DJ RIPLEY
To the Party Members:
Comrades, fellow travelers and committed members of the party, I present to you:
The aftereffects of a sustained indoctrination of my breakcore roots with four-on-the-floor and 125-140 beats. Infiltrators of my brokenbeat, amen-pure mental state included: Donna Summer, Com.a, Passions, DJ Family, David Last, Curses!, Starkey, Bird Peterson, Dj Deeon, Switch and the 2step/UK Garage pirate radio broadcasts that reached me in a weakened state as I returned from squat parties in 1999.
Yes, I confess to you all, I was sucked kicking and screaming back into house music. The inevitability of history (guilty late nights in 1994 at the Paradise gay bar basement in Boston, hopping to Cajmere), and my continuing admiration and uncontrolled body manipulation by the aforementioned characters sent me in that direction: falling backwards from the po-faced dubstep and the skrewface/drooling breakcore, wiggling up from the 2step sounds.. here it is in all its glory. A party manifesto.
It wasn't easy. The melodic charms so much more prevalent in this style, the square beats that encourage smooth tweaking rather than the rough cutting I favor, all of these were obstacles. My tone-arms weakened by 12 years of hard use in the interest of the Party, occasionally sent Serato wonky and resistant. But I soldiered on! The last hurdle: my preference for swung time/triplets mixed with backbeat 2step - a shuddery-juddery boogie that can't be made too clean. Hopefully you all will agree.
Onward the party!
01. Mutamassik - We-Do Featuring Cyra Unique
02. Stumble - Wuz Up Break (Sb2 Version)
03. 8 Frozen Modules - Stagnating The Process
04. Frikstailers - Dabadaba 05. RS-232 - Ping
06. Grievous Angel - Move Down Low (feat. Rubi Dan)
07. Bird Peterson - Broke
08. M.I.A. - XR2 (Tigerstyle Remix)
09. Lil Mama - No_Music (Starkey Refix)
10. Rustie - Diwali Boom
11. Monster Zoku Onsomb - Pump It Hottie
12. Bird Peterson - Bring The Noise
13. DJ Donna Summer - Push It (Dj DS Remix)
14. TS7 ft.Tdot - Ding Dong
15. Basement Jaxx - Jump 'N' Shout (Stanton Warriors Remix)
16. Bombaman - Alter Ego (Fuckingham Palace)
17. Cruel Culture - Fuck The Truth
18. Kode9 - Magnet City
19. Timeblind - Buzzed
20. David Last - Track 04
21. Worthy - Crack-el (Justin Martin's Stoopit Crunk-Ill Hyphy Mix)
22. I.Cube and RZA - Deal with that
23. Smalltown Djs - (Mu) Strike a Badman
24. Mz. Thang - Club Muzik
25. Yo Majesty - Club Action (Chris Bagraider's Sailing to Baltimore Edit)
26. [S] Mann - Summer In the City Dub
27. Com.a - Ghetto Magic
28. Mochipet - Hyphee Step Remix
29. Erbs - Mysterious
30. Sunship feat. Warrior Queen - Quits (Sinden Remix)
31. Stuff Sister Label - B2 Lean Wit It
32. Dude n Nem - Watch My Feet (Pop Rawkus Let Me See You Juke Remix)
33. DJ Q - Shottas
34. Math Head - Do Damage (Passions remix)
35. Christina Aguilera - Aint No Other Man (Blaerg Oral Fistfuck Remix)
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SCRATCH MASSIVE
Last week end we were back from a gig in Barcelona...arriving to Charles de Gaulles Airport, Paris, after 14 hours. Friends were waiting for us at the gate and took us for a trip to the country side, to a nice farm house.
There was beautiful weather, lots of friends, drinking, dancing and sleeping in the sun. Turntables and sound system were put into action and we began to spin. 3hours later we were still playing and a friend recorded the last hour of the dj set. There was something in the air, something like happiness....
01. Risk Assessment – Plastikman
02. 1000 Bugz feat Blimp – Jichael Mackson
03. Blood on my hands – Shackleton – Ricardo Villalobos remix
04. Shonky – Time Zero – Mathias Kaden remix
05. Comité Central feat Mannequin- Horny 08 – Scratch Massive remix
06. Maetrik - The light
07. Bouquet - Jerl Pierce
08. Cuvee – Jerl Pierce
09. Maetrik – Kamtron
10. Brazil to Detroit – Daso & Pawas
11. Mango – Sascha Funke
12. In the Morning – Junior Boys – Hot Chip remix
13. Nude - Radiohead
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CASPER CLARK as SCHADENFREUDE
Making a mix that means anything to me requires somewhat of a cosmic alignment of free\down time, an empty home, a fresh wave of records (old or new), and an angle. I'm as neophile as they come, but it's always been important to me, as dj or a booker, to see a mark of reference and of personality in a good mix.
I don't think my selections win any prizes for obscurity or exclusivity, but I believe an ethos of timelessness remains in most of the tracks. Bonafide pop stars of the 80's rub shoulders with the sounds of future dancefloors through the unsubtle intrusion of 'wonky' strains. Analogue warmth holding hands with cold minimal. The paranoic soundscapes of the modern world grapple with moments of pure light, euphoric trance. An uptight english boy nods his head to strains of funk and soul, and greets marshall jefferson like an old friend, with a toothy grin.
Beauty in sparseness, repetition and tension. A dressing gown, a green tea, and a macbook. Creativity has never been so mundane. So instant. New love.
01. Roland Appel - New Love Innervisions
02. Alter Ego - Beat The Bush (Ewan Pearson Mix)
03. Prince - Erotic City Sony
04. Discodeine - Ring Modulation Dark & Lovely
05. Depeche Mode - Sinner In Me (Riccardo Villalobos Mix) A Major
06. Moloko - Sing It Back (Herbert Mix) Echo
07. The Mountain People - Mountain People 003 Mountain People
08. Marshall Jefferson/Noose Heads - Mushrooms (The Salt City Orchestra Mix) Airtight
09. Mara trax - Let Goose Oslo
10. Pitto - Sexvibe Arearemote
11. Milton Jackson - Ghosts In My Machine Freerange
12. Rozzo - I Wish I was A Cat Trackdown
13. Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts - Mederico Oslo
14. Audio Werner - Still Jackin' Hartchef Discos
15. Stimming & H.O.S.H - Radar Diynamic
16. Format B - Bad Beat Opossum
17. Style Of Eye - Fickmaster Pickadoll
18. Dantom Eeprom - Face Control Fondation
19. Worthy - Les Tard Dirtybird
20. Marascia & Dusty Kid - Plumbi Boxer
21. Jamie Lloyd - Say I (Quarion Mix) Future Classic
22. Burial - Archangel (Boy 8 Bit Mix) White
23. Zeta Lemon - Traum Unknown
24. Thomas Bangalter - Rectum (From The Motion Picture 'Irreversible') A Major
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