amsterdam – Cubicgarden.com…

Freedom frequency in the Netherlands mix

Looking out the window of a flight at the Netherlands

I started this mix following the one in Malta, It’s been kicking around on my phone for a while but didn’t sound quite right. With my flight from Amsterdam I got time to redo it and decided on the fly to give it more tunes, which just worked.

I use freedom, as its my first mix now being free from the BBC and although nervous, gives me a lot of freedom which I’m starting to fully understand. I feel like I’m on a different frequency.

This was done during the flight and slightly edited at the end because the air pressure in my ears made it more difficult to hear the mix fully. I won’t lie this mix kicks and is full of highs and deep tunes, hope you enjoy it too.

Enjoy on Peertube or my own mixgarden

Gouryella (Alan Fitzpatrick Tribute to ’99 extended remix) – Gouryella & Ferry Corsten
Aluminium (Extended Mix) – Robert Nickson
Fade To Grey (Moreno J Remix) – Visage
Inferno – Carl Cox
Seven Cities (V-One’s Living Cities Remix) – Solarstone
Killer Instinct (Original Mix) – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
Erase – Brooks Aleksander
Whites Of Her Eyes (Original Mix) – Simon Patterson
Inferno (Space 92 remix) – Carl Cox
Emotions Of Colour (Extended Mix) – Cosmic Gate
Tell Nobody – Basil O’Glue
Floyd (extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
The Girl With Her Head In The Clouds (Ellie’s Song) (Extended Mix) – Factor B
Adagio In G Minor (Extended Mix) – DIM3NSION
Outlaw (extended mix) – Fatum

Isolation but not Inactive in Amsterdam mix

Amsterdam Nemo museum colourised with clouds — Nemo Amsterdam

Following on from my time in Berlin, came a number of conferences in Amsterdam. Between a number of excellent conferences, time in a theme park and lots of time on the Amsterdam metro system I caught Covid for the second time. Although not so bad as the first time, I isolated in a hotel room to avoid infecting others. I was very aware there was no need to self-isolate, I couldn’t bring myself to infect a number of people. Hence this mix a late entry into the locked down mixing out era of my mixes.

In between working, sleeping and watching a lot of media, I was able to craft and record this mix then redo it on the aggressive hour plane back to Manchester.

Recorded live and it leans on the Berlin Donnerwetter mix with another swift 136ish BPM plus a real interesting bag of old and new tunes. Originally longer but the hour flight set a better time of under a hour.

Enjoy here or on Peertube or in full quality on my mixgarden

Dark Side Of The Moon (RYDEX Extended remix) – Susana
Opium (Stan Kolev Remix) – Jerome Isma ae Alastor
Back to Earth (rave mix) – Yves Deruyter
Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten De Jong
Stealth bomber (Chris Schweizer remix) – Bryan Kearney
Erase – Brooks Alexsander
Silence (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended Remix) – D-Nox, Baya, LENN V
The Wave 2.0 (Extended Mix) – Cosmic Gate
Labyrinth (Paul Keyen Remix) – Lee Cassells
The Legacy 2.0 (Alphazone remix) – Funabashi pres. Saltwater
Headliner – Jorn Van Deynhoven
Home (Cosmic gate remix) – Paul van Dyk feat. Johnny McDaid

Endemic Covid-19

Mozilla keep cup, positive covid tests, mug, paracetomol and other mdedication on a wood table

Just recently I caught Covid19 for the second time. It was once again while in Europe working (never caught it in the UK funny enough). This time I didn’t get the awful Covid toe, which was a big relief!

It is super strange, I caught it between attending the PublicSpaces conference and getting setup to run the ethical dilemma cafe at Mozhouse Amsterdam. Now to be fair I did spend a lot of time on Amsterdam’s public transport,went to a Dutch castle with lots of tourists and had a great time at Walibi.

Regardless, I did feel a bit tired from the lack of decent sleep over the last few weeks (Not spent much time at home recently) but I also felt cold but didn’t really think about it. The Mozilla team decided to take Covid tests and I did so not really thinking I would be positive.

Then it happened, 2 very red lines – a total surprise!

That was the moment I decided not attend Mozilla house Amsterdam because its a place where you talk to a lot of people and felt deeply responsible for passing on Covid on to others. I also decided to stay in my hotel room and only venture out for breakfast and to a supermarket which was about 15mins walk away. Both with a mask, which I happen to have in my laptop bag since 2021.

Looking from Amsterdam station to North Amsterdam — As close as I could get to Mozilla House Amsterdam

After a few days and a second covid test, I changed my plans and took a earlier flight back to the UK.

I did find it strange how people reacted to me wearing a mask, although I was trying to be a responsible person (No judgement on anyone else). I had assumed people would think I was protecting them as I might have Covid? There was one instance in the hotel lift when I informed a man they might want to wait as I have Covid. He decided to not worry about it but commented it was really good I was wearing a mask and most people don’t bother?

I know all the Covid policies have pretty much gone and we have moved from pandemic to endemic. Like myself, there was no way of knowing I had Covid till I tested. I wouldn’t have tested if I didn’t have access to tests and had a reason to test.

Its all quite a interesting catch 22…

How am I? I’m tired, slower but active. Cough has gone and I found my out of date Covid tests are still picking up on my positive Covid, although a year old. But I do have the new ones to confirm when I do believe I’m negative again.

Not that it matters I guess?

I will be at PublicSpaces conference 2024

On June 6 and 7, PublicSpaces and Waag Futurlab will organise the annual PublicSpaces Conference. This year’s theme is ‘Taking Back the Internet!’ We’ll all be thinking and working towards a internet where we determine the rules, rather than it be dictated to us by the existing gatekeepers.

PublicSpaces conference with people sitting looking at a panel of speakers on stage with a large screens behind them all

Of course I’ll be there again and looking forward to getting right into the weeds of the technical stack to enable the vision. I’ll also be talking directly with someone quite special following their keynote speech.

Tickets are on sale now and keep an eye on #PubConf2024 for much more.

Amstel’s thriller chiller mix

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

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

Society 5.0 Festival: Creativity, Care, Connect

Its been a busy time but I have the pleasure of going back to the Amsterdam once again for the conference/festival Society 5.0.

The tickets are all sold sorry to say but it looks great and its good to see a festival with core themes at the heart of it.

We are on the verge of a fifth societal revolution, driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotisation and extended reality. How can the creative industry help to guide these innovations towards the well-being of the planet? And what role can creative professionals, like designers, (policy) makers, artists, technologists, hackers, and researchers play to ensure a society based on public values and positive impact?

I’m also hoping to drop into the Impakt festival too, there are still tickets!

New Pacemaker device mix: Knights of the new republic

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

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

Not so easyjet

I have just spent 15 days in the Netherlands, on the whole it was great but after 5 hotels and a generous friend it was hard work. A bunch of things happened which are hard to explain without a lot of detail, which I can’t go into. However…

There was a bunch of problems with my flights which had a knock on effect.

Sunday 18th June, I was booked, packed and had my boarding pass ready to get on my evening Easyjet flight to Amsterdam from Manchester. I just got back from the Northern Quarter after having brunch with a friend. Funny enough she asked me when my flight is and I joked it was 90mins from that moment.

On the walk back from brunch, I received a text message fr0m Easyjet.

We’re really sorry that your easyJet flight 2167 from MAN to AMS on 18-06-2023 has been cancelled due to poor weather. We understand that this will be disappointing news and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to make new plans.

What the hell I thought then when I got home I saw the email. 3 options were available.

Switch to a new flight for free.
Choose a voucher for the full value of your ticket
Request a refund

I picked option 1 but there were no flights available to Amsterdam till late the next day. Meaning I would miss a lot of the first day of Mozilla House. With some authorisation and time running short, I triple checked KLM were still flying and booked that one for about a hour or so later than the original Easyjet one. I can’t even explain how stressful this was because I couldn’t leave till I had the boarding pass on my phone & gdrive. With a small amount of time I could only get a Uber to the airport check in with my cabin luggage (I can’t do 2 weeks with a small amount of luggage), get through security and board the plane.

When I finally got to Amsterdam, the hotel was completely automated by email, which I never answered due to the change of flights. Luckily one of the team saw my signal messages after midnight and let me in so I could actually check in.

2 hotels later and a great Mozilla House event in Amsterdam (more on this in another blog post). My plan to visit a friend in Rotterdam was thrown into chaos with Rotterdam upgrading its railways. This meant booking another hotel very last minute but I did end up going to Walibi Holland still.

Goliath x8 (not steel dragon 2000, but similar in construction)
Untamed x10 (first time I been on a RMC steel converted woodie and it was brutal)
Speed of sound x3
Loss of gravity x15 (not the smiler, but same maker and track style, not enough inversions)
Xpress platform 13 – x1

As I wasn’t spending 4 hours getting back to Rotterdam, I got to do a bunch of other stuff including watching the Flash with Dutch subtitles.

Anyway back to flights and travel. On my return to Manchester on Easyjet, I got to the Airport with plenty of time. My partner had joined me after the Publicspaces conference in hotel number 5 and we had booked flights a long time ago just incase. I spent a long time (30+ mins with the messaging system) cancelling my part of that flight and then moving my new flight seat next to my partner on the return. Worth noting Easyjet wouldn’t cancel my extra luggage, although I wouldn’t be on that booking any-more.

I get to the Amsterdam airport and try to check in to find my boarding pass isn’t valid. We try different ways to check if I’m on the flight but none of them work. I call Easyjet and the company who booked the flight. Its a long story but by the time I understand what happened, my options to leave were fading away to zero. I even considered the Eurostar and almost booked one of the last business class seats on KLM but they couldn’t guarantee I would make it to the plane in time.

Luckily my good friend Si had offered following me a room after having to book a hotel due to Rotterdam.

Finally after 15 days, 5 different hotels and 2 conferences; I was back in Manchester again.

The thing I learned is Easyjet cancels both flights even if you request to cancel only the outgoing flight.I gather this isn’t true for every airline but I don’t think they are the only one. Easyjet insists they sent emails to me but as I wasn’t the booker, it didn’t get to me. Although they did have my mobile number and email address. Right now we are going through this all to see what went wrong.

Dont get me wrong I had a amazing time in Amsterdam, worked really hard throughout but got the right blend of work and pleasure. However my credit card looks pretty damaged although I will get back the flights, some hotels are on me.

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!

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

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

Mozilla Festival’s call for proposals ends 5th November

Mozilla Festival - Dzifa Kusenuh - MF Studio Host

This weekend is usually Mozfest weekend when it was in London. It was always a special time full of wonder, joy and great people.

Its now moved to a March date since moving to Amsterdam. However its still well worth not only attending but also participating in.

Every year there is a call for proposals to join the many great sessions in some fantastic spaces at Mozfest 2022.

Submit A Session Idea for MozFest

MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world.

There are 9 Spaces created by the Wranglers that address urgent issues such as: digital privacy; neurodiversity and wellbeing; intersectionality in tech; and climate and sustainability. MozFest is looking for collaborative, participatory and inclusive sessions, workshops, skillshares, immersive art projects, and more that interrogate these issues and drive forward the conversations around Trustworthy AI.

Excited about leading a session? You can learn more here about the process here.