RD Xmas 2023 party remix

Dancing in a rave with redlights

For Xmas, like many workplaces we have a staff party. I gatecrashed into my previous teams Manchester xmas party and put my name down for 30mins djing. However I didn’t record the mix but I did keep the playlist and so recreated it twice (2nd time for another work event).

I won’t lie, this is less trancy but is a killer mix or as others have said to me… its a banger!

I am moving my mixes to peertube rather than my mixgarden (1) & (2) for now.

Enjoy and remember to turn it up loud.

  1. Thriller (Steve Aoki Midnight Hour Remix) – Michael Jackson
  2. Punk – Ferry Corsten
  3. Rock Your Body Rock (Mat Zo Extended Remix) – Ferry Corsten
  4. Echoes – Henrik B, Niklas Gustavsson & Peter Johansson
  5. Cafe Del Mar At Night (Beat Service’s Out Of Office Mashup) – Energy 52 Vs Shakedown
  6. Who Freaked Who (Electric Soulside Remix) – Dopefish
  7. Beat (Da Boxx) – Laurent Garnier
  8. Turn It Up (Extended Mix) – Armin van Buuren
  9. Freedom (Extended mix) – ARTY v Muvy
  10. Proper Education (club mix) – Eric Prydz vs. Floyd

My mix garden on the move again, hello peertube!

Digital Italics WebMix

I have been mixing away on the pacemaker device as usual. But noticed my mixgarden is having some troubles. I was using hyperaudio and webmonization to present my mixes. It was good however things changed over the last year.

Webmonization made a number of changes and hyperaudio seems to be slightly broken the configuration I currently have it in.

So with all this in mind and after looking at Peertube and Castopod, I decided to give peertube a try before running my own instance. Similar to what I had planned with Funkwhale a long time ago.

This has worked out well on rankett. Then I heard on podnews last week about music freediverse.

Music Freediverse is a new place for musicians to post their songs as an RSS feed, using PeerTube.

After a email with the sysadmin, about mixes and legality of them. They suggested I check out Split Kit if I have the metadata (which I do), this is something I looked into and now have a lightening address, which you can send sats to on my new mixgarden. I am also interested in the peer 2 peer tech

One of the good things about Peertube is the ability to sync videos over, which I took advantage of, it was a shame the metadata wasn’t copied over too but its fine, as I had it all.

In the short term I’ll keep using peertube but I have a plan to install a peertube instance myself and host it all locally. Then I could syndicate them out elsewhere. (Anyone can recommend a good docker container, do shout)

Another thing for the task list, but likely the best idea for now with lots of room to grow and expand.

Talking of which the next mix is a banger….

Amstel’s thriller chiller mix

Amsterdam canals at night
Amsterdam canals at night

I think of this mix as the evil little child born in Amsterdam during the freaky time of Halloween.

Another travel with Pacemaker mix, this time flying to Amsterdam for a conference over Halloween. It coincides with me djing at a Halloween party just a few days earlier. I started with MK’s thriller and decided it was a great starter for the mix on the plane following.

Originally the mix was a bit longer but I did it again on the plane back and recorded it live using an external recorder. Its likely I could have done it with the Pacemaker device’s own built in recorder but as I was using a later firmware, decided to play it safe.

I have to say, I do love this mix. Its punchy, energy and full of highs. Its even got some songs to sing along to, which my partner would enjoy.

Listen on peertube or on my mixgarden

Here is the full playlist

  1. Thriller (Steve Aoki Midnight Hour Remix) – Michael Jackson
  2. Killer instinct – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
  3. Dolores – Indecent Noise
  4. Decade (Extended mix) – Chris Element
  5. Music is more than Mathematics – Protoculture
  6. Moon Phases (Extended mix) – Raz Nitzan
  7. Louder – José Amnesia feat. Jennifer Rene
  8. Tears (Protoculture Remix) – Markus Schulz pres. Dakota
  9. Like A Prayer (Extended Visual mix) – Gareth Emery, LSR⧸CITY & Annabel

Sinead’s baroque troy mix

Sinead O'Connor stylised

I recently put together a new pacemaker device mix for Sinead O’Connor. Its a short mix and quite deep in parts, but Sinead’s voice is the main point at the start and the end. Its recorded live using the later beta firmware.

  1. Troy (push remix) – Sinead O’Connor
  2. Please save me (push mix) – Push Vs. Sunscreem
  3. Follow Me (Roger Shah Extended Deeper Translation Remix) – Jam & Spoon
  4. Trick – Carlo Ruetz
  5. Club Quake (Oliver Klein Hard remix) – 5 Below zero
  6. Fiction (Extended Mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  7. Panoramix – Laurent Garnier
  8. Troy (push remix) – Sinead O’Connor

You can hear the whole mix at full quality on my mixgarden or on peertube.

Rest in peace Sinead

New Pacemaker device mix: Knights of the new republic

Amsterdam skyline at night

Another recorded live mix due to the Pacemaker’s latest firmware. I was listening to some of my older mixes and the Knights of the old republic recorded while in another conference (republica in Berlin) stuck out to me. So I thought it was time for a redo as I was in Amsterdam at a similar conference (publicspaces).

Of course it includes the tune I’m still loving at the moment, Carl Cox’s Inferno and similar to the last mix, I decided to switch Blaze’s my beat to the Jan Driver remix. Which in my mind is a dance floor disputer.

As its recorded live with the loop feature, there is very few edits just a bit of normalisation.

You can listen to it on my mixgarden in full quality with Webmonitzation or peertube.

The playlist is here

  1. Altern8 – Infiltrate 202
  2. Miki Lutvak & Ido Ophir – Shnorkel (Thank you city remix)
  3. Leftfield – Open up
  4. Tomcraft – Happiness and Loneness
  5. RAM – Grotesque (Alex MORPH & RAM mix)
  6. Blaze – My Beat (Jan Driver mix)
  7. Inferno – Carl Cox
  8. Moogwai – The Labyrinth (part one)
  9. The Prodigy – Charly
  10. Floyd (Extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  11. Home (Cosmic gate remix) – Paul Van Dyk Feat. Johnny Mcdaid

Loop travel isn’t helpful to me, at all!

Settings on the pacemaker device menu

I am still loving my DJ pacemaker device but stuck on the last official firmware for my main device (I have quite a few of them just incase). I always found I couldn’t guarantee the accuracy of the looping feature if I recorded on device, so didn’t use it unless playing live. I did a blog about this a while back.

However yesterday I happened to be doing a mix and it crashed with a 201 error, loosing my currently recording mix. Very annoyed I decided to look at the lack of space left on the device (7gig left) as I don’t actually know how much working spare space it actually needs to run?

Then I started looking at the settings, I noticed loop travel which I always turned on for some reason thinking it was something good.

Deactivate/activate loop travel
This setting disallows/allows loop in-point to push end-point and vice versa.

  1. When in Mix mode, select Settings > Mix control > Loop travel >.
  2. Toggle between Off/On by swiping right

Now to be fair in the early versions of the Pacemaker firmware, the looping was hit and miss but in later versions its not needed for me.

So I turned it off did a test mix and what do you know it looped perfectly when listening back in the editor!

All this time, I avoided looping unless playing live because of this. You can imagine how happy I was going to sleep. It also means I can upgrade the firmware to the latest and get the added features.

Wait for the next lot of mixes!!!

The night life above and under Martim Moniz mix

The night life above and under Martim Moniz

Its a return to Lisbon’s Martim Moniz after the heights of Lisbon mix, always reminds me of how the square is being used by many different people. I learned the old city wall runs right through it and its interesting to sit and watch the different people come, go and gather.

Bit of a moody mix during a lovely holiday in Lisbon but its winter so wasn’t as warm. Leaning on the tech trance side, this mix has a large number of new tunes and some bold choices with the crossfader, which I kept in. Its a mix which gets you bopping that head up and down with some excellent tunes.

Enjoy on my mixgarden or on Peertube!

Only the faithless can jazz (like Maxi Jazz) mix

Maxi Jazz picture

With the death of Maxi Jazz from the popular group Faithless, I had to do a mix in honour of his life & death. I mean what a voice and what incredible iconic songs. Who has not sung the lyrics of Insomnia at some point in the last 15 years? Its a song I have started with a few times and still find stunning when played nice and loud.

Although short and compact, I found the best 3 versions of Faithless songs in my collection and added tunes which fitted with the mode & tempo. Stress test made another show, as it is a tune!

You can listen to the whole mix here enjoy and here!

    1. Insomnia – Faithless
    2. Stresstest (John Askew Remix) – John O’Callaghan
    3. God Is a DJ (Astral Projection remix) – Faithless
    4. Seven Cities (V-One’s Living Cities remix) – Solar Stone
    5. Salva Mea 2.0 X Insomnia Kayba Edition (Above & Beyond Remix) – Faithless
    6. Shnorkel (Dousk gems remix) – Miki Litvak & Ido Ofir
    7. Dalmatia – Estiva
    8. Homeward – Ferry Corsten

Heart in the clouds of Amsterdam mix

Looking out across clouds mid flight to Amsterdam

I have been doing mixes in the car for my partner while she drives. Its one of the big advantages of the pacemaker device. Plugin the audio jack and you can DJ almost anywhere. My partner prefers vocal tunes to my usual style of tech trance, so I now have a case of vocal trance tunes. On top of this was a visit to the world’s first dance music museum with my good DJ friend Dirty Si.

So with all this in mind, here is my new mix recorded while going to Amsterdam recently for my lovely partner. The mix shifts along at a nice 135 bpm, is short (due to the flight to Amsterdam) but is full of hands in the air moments. Enjoy!

  1. Tears from the moon (Tiesto’s in search of sunrise remix) – Conjure one Feat. Sarah O’connor
  2. Drifting away (Large sunset dub) – Large Feat. Skye
  3. Talk to me (Orjan Nelison Trance mix) – John O’Callaghan and Timmy & Tommy
  4. Catch (Martin Roth remix) – Blank & Jones
  5. Daylight (Frainbreeze remix) – Saad Ayub & Cristina Soto
  6. Without You (Dogzilla dub) – Dogzilla
  7. Halcyon (Alex M.O.R.P.H. remix) – Andy Moor
  8. Not Over Yet ’99 (Matt Darey) – Planet Perfecto feat. Grace
  9. The Power Of Love 99 (System F mix) – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Available in full on my webmix garden and mixcloud if you prefer…

Follow me to the big trance sound of summer mix

Train tracks into the distance

During a recent holiday to Lisbon, I of course took my Pacemaker Device to create a brand new mix. This time, I went very trancey. Maybe it was the incredible sunshine, the fun of exploring Lisbon or just being in Europe again?

Whatever it was this mix is a much more pacey 135bpm and frankly kicks those tired legs with some force. I’d say this is a excellent mix and full of hands in the air moments. Its also full of new tracks alongside some old classics.

  1. Blood Angels (Chris Liebing mix) – John Starlight
  2. Catch (Martin Roth remix) – Blank & Jones
  3. Humming the lights – Armin Van Buuren & Gaia
  4. Venture (Nifra Extended remix) – Super8 & Tab
  5. Music is more than mathematics (Extended mix) – Protoculture
  6. Communication (Tomas Heredia remix) – Armin van Buuren
  7. Megalodon – MaRLo
  8. End transmission – ReDrive & Patrick Blanes
  9. Ecstasy – Eddie Makabi feat. Einat
  10. Wonder of Life (F&W remix) – Tukan
  11. Stresstest (John Askew remix) – John O’Callaghan
  12. Airtight (Extended mix) – Rafael Osmo
  13. We are one (Instrumental mix) – Dave202
  14. Arjan – Angelica S
  15. Valhalla (After future remix) – OneBeat
  16. Madagascar (Domi-Nation remix) – Art of Trance

Available in full on my webmix garden and mixcloud if you prefer…

The incidental contact high mix

NHS Nurse with mask and halo
Found on a wall in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, modified by me

My first new mix for 2022 and it comes at a time as Covid19 variant Omnicron has come, peaked and is likely going to move us things from Pandemic to Endemic? Who knows…? Lets hope!

Regardless of this all, I was thinking about the incredible people who helped us all through the pandemic and kind of been forgotten, while also flicking through the new book dictionary of obscure sorrows. I came across the incidental contact high, which is described as “a innocuous touch by someone just doing their job, that you find more meaningful that you’d like to admit.”

Anyway, its really good mix with lots of new tunes, a bit of pace (134bpm-ish) and a good feeling throughout. I’m loving Protoculture’s Music is more than mathematics and the unique remix of Shnorkel.

Enjoy the mix on mixcloud or on my own mixing site.

Here is the full playlist.

  1. Love Technology – Protoculture
  2. Orenida (extended mix) – Gouryella/Ferry Corsten
  3. Collider (Jorn van Deynhoven remix) – Thomas Bronzwaer
  4. Music is more than mathematics (extended mix) – Protoculture
  5. Feel it (extended mix) – Cosmic gate
  6. Shnorkel (Thank you city remix) – Ido Ophir and Miki Litvak
  7. Go (extended mix) – Protoculture
  8. Tiger (extended remix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  9. Tears (protoculture remix) – Dakota
  10. Alone (extended mix) – Maarten de jong
  11. Headliner – Jorn van Deynhoven

The ravers ravenous retro revenge mix

The ravers ravenous retro revenge mix

With my thumb getting better, I’m doing more mixes again on the good old pacemaker device. This one was part of a much longer mix but the start was a bit crappy so cut it off and included the last 80%.

The ravers ravenous retro revenge came about after watching the Matrix Resurrections. There was lots of parts (seen it a few times now and still score it 8/10) but I found this line fascinating.

Morpheus: Nothing comforts anxiety like little nostalgia.

I have a lot to say about nostalgia but I decided to do a mix where it feels like the mix is being taken over by the rave. Does it work? I’ll leave it for you to decide. Maybe I should have called it R4 instead?

Listen to the Ravers ravenous retro revenge mix, on mixcloud and my own cloud.

Enjoy!

  1. Electric Sunrise – Mental Overdrive
  2. Air conditionné – Julian Jeweil
  3. Silence (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended remix) – D-Nox, Baya, Lenn V
  4. I want you (Forever) (Full on mix) – Carl Cox
  5. Opium (Quivver remix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  6. Open up – Leftfield
  7. Sleeper in metropolis (Club mix) – Anne Clark
  8. Rewind (Makkas remix) – Emma Hewitt
  9. Charly (Alley cat mix) – The Prodigy
  10. Feel the beat (JS16 dark mix) – Darude
  11. The storm – Interitus Dei
  12. Back to earth (Rave mix) – Yves Deruyter
  13. Unchainied – Diego Morrill
  14. The sky – Summerland

The endless ambient cold mix

Its been a long time since i put out a Pacemaker mix. Main reasons being in August I damaged my thumb playing Volleyball. When using the Pacemaker device, I use the thumb to grip the device which was painful. I tried using my left hand but its kinda made for a right handed person (due to the positioning of buttons etc). As that took months to heal (its still not 100%) I also came down with a cold which turned into the flu. Luckily it was pre-omicron covid19 variant and I was testing all the way through the month long (as some people have called it) the mother of all colds.

With all this, I was able to pump out a mix while lying in bed one night. My friend Jasmine suggested it should be called “the sick mix.” So taking that notion, I present a more ambient slowed down mix from my usual mixes.

The endless ambient cold mix, on mixcloud and my own cloud.

Enjoy!

  1. Dark star – Delerium
  2. Troy (Push remix) – Sinead O’Connor
  3. A break in the clouds (Main mix) – Holden
  4. Soloris – Andro
  5. Flashback – Laurent Garnier
  6. Subrasumstimulation (Johnson mix) – Oliver Lieb
  7. Running up the hill (Jerome isma-ae bootleg mix) – Placebo
  8. The Storm – Intertus Dei
  9. Rheinkraft – Oliver Klien
  10. Grasshopper (Dance version) – Sander Van Doorn
  11. Raw Cut – Laurent Garnier
  12. Follow me (Roger shah extended deeper translation remix) – Jam Spoon
  13. Anomaly (CJ Art’s underwater tales remix) – Gordey Tsukanov
  14. Dead Cities – Future sound of London

A giant adventure in Ireland mix

Northern Ireland coast I got away for the first time during the pandemic. It was an adventure taken on my motorcycle. I of course took the pacemaker device out for the first time in a long time, so I did a mix while in hotel rooms. I did start a mix with key parts of the journey but it was long and didn’t really work together. Instead I took the Ireland part and skipped a few tunes to make this frankly great mix. Its quite different starting with some classic Orbital and ending at Home. Along the path, there’s lots of new tunes which I haven’t used before. What I like about this mix is the gel of the tunes and mixing.  I also quite like the vocals in the mix which add something special to the whole thing.

Enjoy the mix, which is a new entry in journey with pacemaker mixes on my mini mixcloud (where you can hear it at super high quality and download it.

  1. Belfast – Orbital
  2. Eye – Ma5Haria
  3. Suru (Martin Roth Nu-Style remix) – Super8 & Tab
  4. Pǝsnɟuoɔ (Confused) – Laurent Garnier
  5. A break in the clouds (Main mix) – Holden
  6. Chordplay – Oliver Smith
  7. Are you one of us (Cabriolet Paris remix) – Kyau & Albert
  8. Dust in the wind – Arnej
  9. Laguna – Protoculture
  10. Polarize (Second sine remix) – Snejider
  11. Avenue (Club mix) – Paul Van Dyk
  12. Floyd (Extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  13. Home (Cosmic gate remix) – Paul Van Dyk Feat. Johnny Mcdaid

Updated on Sunday 26th September, a giant adventure in Ireland is now number 98th in the tech trance chart.

Mixcloud chart

I was always scared of tresor mix

Tresor I had the absolute joy to see Laurent Garnier at the Manchester International festival recently (July 2021). During his video there was lots of references to different things in his career including Manchester and also Berlin. There was a distinct moment when I turned to my sister and whispered, I have been to many clubs in Berlin during the first 15 years of the fall of the Berlin wall, but Tresor scared me and I never went because of the fear. I had heard too many stories of this hard techno/gabba club and the crazy things which could happen in the darkness of the disused bank vaults. Do I regret not going? A bit, but it was genuinely a little scary especially with me not speaking German. Maybe this is why Victoria resonated with me. Its certainly a stronger almost techno mix with no let up in pace and heavy beats. Look out for the Acid Trax! Its a classic killer! Imagine dancing in a vault in the dark to the raw sounds of the TB 303!

Enjoy the mix, which is another entry in the locked down, mixing out album of mixes. Also linked on my DJ blog.

  1. Acid drops – Meanwhile, back in communist Russia
  2. M.I.L.F – Laurent Garnier
  3. Trick – Carlo Ruetz
  4. Opium – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  5. Beat (Da Boxx) – Laurent Garnier
  6. Energy Flash – Joey Beltram
  7. Acid Trax (album version) – Phuture
  8. System hack – Carlo Ruetz
  9. Intruder – Armin van Buuren vs M.I.K.E
  10. Shnorkel – Miki Latvak & Ido Ophir
  11. Pǝsnɟuoɔ (Confused) – Laurent Garnier
  12. Rheinkraft – Oliver Klein
  13. Subrasumstimulation (Johnson mix) – Oliver Lieb
  14. Interstate Emperors – Jeffed

Wednesday 18th August

Its been a while but getting some good responses to this mix.

57th in the global tech trance charts