A friend of mine, Dennis Bobbit, told me about Modyfier as he knows how I love to share music with people and express myself by making mixes.
This time, things were a little bit different. Usually I take the time to reflect on how to organize a mix to best express the mood I'm feeling at the moment. However, that wasn't the case as I was doing two remixes in my studio at the time, one for Sillicone Soul and another one for Chymera. The only chance I had to make this mix was to find some time in the middle of all the production and work I have running my own label, Komplex de Deep. The thing is, I'm really happy with the result as it is a real instinctive mix. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about what I was going to do. I put on tracks that I trust strongly. At the time, I was working on my future release of Chymera's 'The Rumors of My Desire', so I played it live for the very first time here. Enjoy and keep it real.
01. Linkwood – RIP (Original Mix) / Prime Numbers 02. Alain Ho & Daniel Kyo – All Those Frqs There / Composite 03. Joel Alter – Alley Cat / Room with a view 04. Robert Babicz – Astor (Glimpse Remix) / Systematic Recs 05. Chymera – The Rumours of My Demise (Original Mix) / Komplex de Deep 06. Matthias Vogt – Hofats (François Dubois" Remix) / Komplex de Deep 07. Kai Alce - Polyester Static (Original Mix) / Real Soon 08. E S P – It's You / DJ International 09. Chymera – The Rumours of My Demise (Master H Remix) / Komplex de Deep 10. Levon Vincent – Late Night Jam (Original Mix) / Otsgut
My contribution to the wonderful Modyfier blog has coincided with the opportunity for me to create the first DJ mix in my new studio, in my new home, in upstate NY. Having lived in Queens, NY since 1994, I have finally escaped to the suburbs with my family. The heart of NY is not that economically viable for an artist anymore, let alone one with a family who is attempting to carve out a livelihood as a label, producer and DJ.
I decided to record this mix in real time and just let the creative muse spontaneously take me wherever it desires. Generally, most tracks that make it into my “DJ bag” are played at least 3 times, usually on a variety of systems to determine if it’s something that will work for me…and YES, I have purchased many a .wav and then discarded it after a proper listen, but thankfully in most cases it’s now possible to preview tracks in their entirety online.
I gravitated to this set of tracks in the moment because they obviously were fitting to my then state of mind and seemed like the correct choice to go with the flow of the mix. The opportunity to put together 60 minutes of music for me is a chance to escape into a magical world of music and mixing where adventure, joy, a rainbow of emotions in fact, occasionally even pain can occur. My role as the DJ is to spontaneously pull tracks and create a nonstop journey and atmosphere for the listener and myself that will hopefully transport us into that magical world rather than leave us high and dry. The imperfections, strange mixes, occasional errors and experimentation hopefully contribute to keeping it real rather than detracting from the overall vibe and intention. I had fun creating this, hopefully you will have fun listening.
The mix was performed and recorded using Traktor Pro, an Evolution UC-33 Controller, a 15” Macbook Pro, a Gigaport soundcard and a 500GB Glyph portagig drive aka DJ bag! Hope you enjoy.
01. Floating Points – Vacuum Boogie 02. Herbert – Around House 03. John Daly – Do It 04. Ooft music – In Search Of Ecto One 05. House of House – Rushing To Paradise (DJ Harvey Streets Mix) 06. LCD Soundsystem – Bye Bye Bayou (Main Version) 07. St. Plomb – Saturnic Night Access 08. Demdike Stare – Haxan 09. Pete Namlook & David Moufang – Black Sun 10. Theo Parrish – Anansies Dances 11. Billy Preston – Space Race (Beat Pharmacy Edit) 12. Manaboo – Unhuh 13. Frankie Flowerz – It's Funk, It's House 14. Lee Foss – The Edge (Original Mix) 15. Dop – The Genius of The Crowd (Original Mix) 16. The Orb – Styrofoam Meltdown 17. Donnacha Costello – Ten Thousand Hours
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Let me begin by saying that I can't believe the mix is finally done! There I said it. Now let me start from the very beginning. Even though it would be "cooler" to say that I was very pleased when Modyfier asked me to submit something for the Process Series, that's not how it worked. I've been following the blog for sometime and think its absolutely brilliant. So I contacted Rayna and told her that I'd love to be involved. Luckily for me she was already familiar with my work. That being said, I contemplated for a long time whether I should submit a track or a mix. Every track of mine has some crazy story behind it it but I thought since I've been DJing a lot more these days that I would submit a mix. The main reason I chose to do a mix was because I kept being asked to make a demo for local promoters in Dubai because tha0t's the closest place to where I live (Abu Dhabi) that has something that resembles an electronic music scene. I could go into that in more detail but I'm here to talk about the process.
I wanted to finish the mix before my recent trip to Toronto & New York but I never got around to it as I had to finish up some productions. Two days after I got back I had to get ready for our monthly Boogie Box party that I throw in Abu Dhabi with my partner Hassan Alwan. It started looking like it would be difficult to pull this off but I was determined as it was something I was very excited about (still am). I could have done an uber slick mix in Ableton but I felt that it would be too polished. I didn't want to be spoiling people and having them dissapointed when they show up to my gig and come to the shocking realization that I am human! I thought the old school method was the best way to go. Another big part of that was due to my falling deeply in love with vinyl again. Not that I ever stopped loving the black beauty, but just missed the crackle of a record. DJing with Serato has started to become a pain in my skinny ass lately! Looking at text just doesn't seem to be the same as going through some records.
Now since I have a fulltime job it was proving to be very difficult to get the whole mix recorded in one go. Also because it can be quite chaotic around my house sometimes. Like when my sister decides to call every 3.3645 minutes. I might be exagerating a bit.. well.. no I'm not. I started out picking some records and off I went. I compiled the tracks as I went along. I recorded each mix separately simply because I felt like I had so much music at my disposal to just do it all in one go & not have the flow of the mix suffer. What I had to do to keep the mix feeling natural considering I "cheated" a little was to just record the first take of every mix I record. I really wanted to play some of the records I had along with the digital music off Serato but that was a little bit of an issue when it came to the levels. Maybe I shouldn't point your attention to that because you simply might not notice it, but since I'm an honest guy. I have confessed. That is the only thing that makes me cringe a little when I listen back to the mix now. Don't get me wrong. I am very happy that it's done because at one point in time I was about ready to raise the white flag. I stayed focused and marched on like a brave soldier.
I also recently bought a Boss D-7 Delay pedal. It's normally used for guitars but you can also use it as an effects unit when you're DJing. Which brings me to the setup I used for the mix. I made the mix on 2 Technics SL 1210s & my Rotary Allen & Heath Xone 92. Early on, I did want to use the delay pedal on the mix but later decided not to because I don't feel that I've mastered it 100% yet. I also didn't want to get too carried away because its very easy to do that on that thing. So much fun! I was positive that I had to play Silverlining - Pearl Divers track on the mix because I had been looking for that record since 1998 and finally managed to snatch me a copy from Discogs! The amount of excitement I got when I got that record in the mail was unreal. It reminded me of why I do this in the first place. Downloading a track from Beatport is like ordering McDonalds except it won't make you feel physically ill afterwards. Ordering a record is like dining at a fine restaurant where you actually have to wait but you will be treated to a highly orgasmic meal. I'm getting carried away here. Back to the point. All the tracks featured on the mix are ones that I have been playing a lot lately, except for Asad Rizvi's smiling at the sun. Simply because I haven't ripped the record, but that's why I played the record. Which takes me back to my falling in love with vinyl again. That seems to be the theme here. Another very special record that I had forgotten about untill I found the record is Gus Gus - Believe (16B mix). That tune was one that reminds of when I first started to get into electronic music. I had heard it on Sasha & Digweed's very early Northern Exposure discs.
The mix was done over 2 days simply because I was busy. I had played the night before with Hassan for a Charity event to reaise money for kids in Kenya to get an education. The organisers managed to raise 40,000 Dirhams! Just thinking to myself right now, WOW how many records could I get with that much money!!! I'm bad I know. That was a joke, i'm very happy to help these kids and to have been a part of that event. The reason I mentioned the event is because while Hassan & I were driving to return the speakers I was listening to Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album. We were exhausted and didn't say much to each other until Bob Dylan's '115th Dream' came on. It starts off with Bob Dylan playing alone & since the rest of the band missed the cue they all burst into laughter. I remember Hassan & I finding it very amusing. We got such a kick out of it. He then proceeds to say take two and they all get it right on. I didn't have an intro but I usually like to do that on my mixes so I thought with all the different takes I've been doing it made perfect sense to start the mix with it.
Now, I'm sorry if I have bored you but I just realized that I enjoy to write. The problem is that I write the way I speak. If I write the way I speak it would mean that I speak the way I write but I don't. Wouldn't it be odd if someone went around saying things like yours truly & please find attached. Anywho.. I hope you all enjoy the mix & spread the love.
I was never musically trained, but I've come to realize that doesn't mean much when you can grow a good sense of appreciation for music. Making music for me has simply turned into an output for all the musical intake I've been giving myself during the past few years. To me music is a tool. one that allows you to remember past moments of your life or that entices you live the now and then. Therefore, if music is a tool, then sounds are the individual parts of the tool, and as such they must somehow fit together in harmony to make such tool effective.
Now there are many ways for someone to achieve that effectiveness. My approach is simple, build a groove and go from there.
I've been looking for an excuse to work on something a bit more conceptual, and finally the process series has given me that excuse. For this project I have chosen to work with a limited set of sounds, making simplicity the main focus of each piece. I will also use the opportunity to sample one of my favorite youtube bits from one of the all time greats: Herbie Hancock. It's a recording from 1983, where he's sitting in the studio with Quincy Jones and a Fairlight CMI. In the video, apart from having tons of fun, Herbie discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the synthesizer/sequencer, which of course is the foundation of electronic music as we know it.
This discussion is relevant because out of the 10 samples max. I used for each track, most of them came from a Korg Electribe SX, one of the fixtures in my setup for the past couple of years. I've found that without some sort of hardware, music making is not nearly as fun or engaging. Hardware also allows me to record parts from start to finish and gives room for some improvisation (mistakes) during the process.
I usually (but not always!) begin a track with a kick and a couple of bass sounds. From there I move towards the hats and claps and ultimately I dig for some fitting instrument samples to complement the grooves. Then, once I have a loop playing and after moving it around to get some ideas for the sequence, I take a small break and immediately go back to the project to begin recording the sequence. If this doesn't happen in the same session then I will probably never finish the track at all.
The resulting output of this particular project is 3 different tracks done during 3 different sessions, but following the same construction process. Ultimately, no matter what the process is, the key for me is that I have to enjoy what I'm doing and as cheesy as it may sound, music is my passion and it shall stay that way... and remember DON'T BLAME THE MACHINES! and I quote "... how can it be the machines fault? we have to plug it in!"
I listen to the mellotron at different pitches and feel comforted by its tone. There is a lot of nostalgia in this sound.
To begin with the track starts with me obsessing on an audio element, a single note from a mellotron. I listen and listen over again weighing up its form, function and impact on my psyche. The next stage is to develop and sculpt the sound introducing elements that recontextualise the material in a manner that gives me a sense of narrative. I am interested in the manner in which material is conceived, gestated and developed as well as the manner in which it ends and decomposes. I prefer to work alone. There is a stream of consciousness element to my work – an immersion in the material which would be hard to replicate with someone else in the immediate physical environment.
I develop tonal interplay layering different pitches of tone to form a warm changing slow melody.
It is a controlled process. One of sculpture, refinement and distillation. I usually know what I want to achieve, which aspects of the frequency of the sound I want to emphasise and which ones I want to diminish. Whether a sound should move across the stereo field or not, whether a sound is to function as a percussive or a texture. Sometimes the way two or more different sounds come together and form an interesting phrase can come about by chance. It is lovely to use these moments in the composition. However, the way I write and compose means that I thoroughly explore the material from many different angles. This increases the opportunity to find what works and why and provides the opportunity for organic composition to occur.
The image in my head is an open conservatory at the back of an old manse house – the house of my grandfather. I want to hear the sound of birds in the garden and the rattle of someone setting the cutlery for dinner in the adjoining kitchen. Further samples are recorded and injected to form an atmosphere in the background of the track.
My compositional effort is just the beginning of the process in my view. Beyond the production and output of sound there is the role of the listener. I have always been fascinated by the role of human perception. I am aware that different people will make sense of the same experience in different ways. Furthermore, the same person may make sense of the same material presented at different times in different ways. This illustrates the role of the human brain as a receptacle of music and the mind as a transforming force via subjective perception. In my view it is the listener who occupies the position of the final ‘active element’ in a track. The psychological sense they make of the music, what they filter in or out, the external environment in which they listen all contribute to their perception of the material.
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