Tag: dj

Never fading to grey mix

Man standing on a platform in the distance as a storm gathers around him
One man on a lonely platform

I recently got some new tunes mainly for the party mix I last shared. While checking out a number of new tunes, I discovered the amazing Tell nobody by Basil O’Glue and instantly thought this driving tune is tech trance at its best. I needed to mix it along side Follow Me (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended Remix) by Jam & Spoon.

Of course Tell nobody is just one of a few new tunes in this mix, expect them to pop in future mix for sure.

I recorded this mix on a very long train journey in the UK and it includes all the subtle crossfader mistakes. However this is one heck of a mix and it will get much better as I learn the new tunes.

Enjoy!

Listen on peertube or on my personal mixgarden.

The tunes used…

  1. Fade To Grey (Moreno J Remix) – Visage
  2. Rhienkraft (Full original mix) – Oliver Klien
  3. Melodemon (Extended Mix) – Mrphlindr
  4. Turkish Bizarre (DBA Remix) – Art Of Trance vs POB
  5. Tell Nobody – Basil O’Glue
  6. Running up the hill (Jerome isma-ae bootleg) – Placebo
  7. Follow Me (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended Remix) – Jam & Spoon
  8. Aluminium (Extended Mix) – Robert Nickson
  9. Tears (Protoculture Remix) – Dakota
  10. Theme For Great Cities (Revisited & Extended Mix) – Paul Oakenfold
  11. Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten de Jong
  12. Interstellar (YORK’s Back In Time Extended Mix) – Torsten Stenzel
  13. You’ve Got The love (Sonny Noto Remix) – Florence + The Machine
  14. Anahera (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella

R&D advisory and labs winter party dance to this mix (2024 edition)

People party in a underground bar

I recorded this mix live on the Pacemaker device’s build in recorder/editor while mixing at our work end of year do. Its a little ropey in places but its all mixed live and with new tunes that I wouldn’t normally mix with. This is similar to the Amstels thriller chiller mix in some of the tunes.

As it goes out on Peertube, I need to mark it as explicit because it contains one swear word in the first tune – Animals (Christmas remix).

Some will enjoy this short mix, we only had 30 minutes to play and went over that even. But I certainly could redo it into something better, now I know the tunes more.

Listen on Peertube or my mixgarden

Is DriftDJ the new Pacemakerdevice?

Its my good friend Si who sent me a message saying simply this…

Pacemaker for the next generation?

Drift DJ

Of course I checked it out and thought wow its almost exactly what I’ve been thinking about since the Pacemaker system has come to an end. Although the Pacemaker device (to which I have 3 or them) keeps going with some repairs and 3rd party upgrades.

Djing live with the Pacemaker device at EMF Camp 2022
Djing live with the Pacemaker device at EMF Camp 2022

I still love the Pacemaker device and its survived a long time but its reaching its end of life. There is only so much you can do without being able to hack around with the kernel or change the hardware. Its been a incredible piece of hardware and my bet on it in 2007 was absolutely the right decision.

Mixing live in Skopje

17 years later and over 500+ mixes later, including live performances and a ton of house parties. Its time make the jump? My only issue with the DriftDJ is the device doesn’t exactly exist right now. I did sign up for the beta programme, but not being in Chicago might be a big disadvantage?

Who knows it would be great to get my hands on it and see how far it could go? Be great to do a #DjHack around a new device!

Midsummers nights beach dream mix

A midsummers evening beach in the UK

I have been listening to my latest set of mixes and there is a selection of tunes which has gotten me rewinding and playing out loud. With this, I decided to create a mix using just those tunes with a few tweaks and some reordering. All done on the Pacemaker device as usual.

Planned and recorded while on holiday on the beach in the UK. Listen on peertube or in full quality on my mixgarden.

Turn it up loud!

The playlist…

  1. Sacrosanct (Extended Mix) – Mark Sherry
  2. Stresstest (John Askew Remix) – John O’callaghan
  3. Killer Instinct – Sneijder & Bryan Kearney
  4. Inferno – Carl Cox
  5. Dolores – Indecent Noise
  6. Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten de Jong
  7. Stealth bomber (Chris schweizer remix) – Bryan Kearney
  8. Erase – Brooks Alexsander
  9. Whites Of Her Eyes – Simon Patterson
  10. Silver Bath – Plastic Boy
  11. Predator – Predator
  12. Telescope – Will Atkinson

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

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

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….

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

A beat that seems out of time (with the one you feel in the metronome of your mind) mix

Metronome in full swing
Metronome in full swing

Another mix using the Pacemaker device. However this time I have been experimenting with the later beta versions of the Pacemaker device firmware, which includes beat aware looping. It’s great but I find the native digital recording of the Pacemaker device unreliable when using it. I thought I had found the solution. But in the end I recorded the output directly using the analogue output.

The result is a completely unedited mix. Not quite as smooth with the cross fading but its just such a raw mix, I had to put it out.

First put together in Barcelona but the digital recording was all over the place, later I re-did the mix. This mix moves at a heavy pace and is fully of lovely progressive/tech beats with little lyrics. Perfect for hitting the treadmill, scooting down the motorway or what ever you fancy doing at a pace. Look out for the my beat into Inferno long mix, simply can’t stop bouncing my head to that section.

As always you can listen to it on my mixgarden or via peertube.

Here is the complete tracks used.

  1. [00:00] Fall to Pieces – Jonas Steur feat. Jennifer Rene
  2. [03:40] M.I.L.F. – Laurent Garnier
  3. [08:35] My Beat (Ambassador extended remix) – Blaze
  4. [11:10] Inferno – Carl Cox
  5. [16:18] Interlinked – Thomas Schumacher
  6. [23:02] Predator – Predator
  7. [26:40] Fiction (Extended Mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
  8. [31:04] Shnorkel (Thankyou City Remix) – Ido Ophir, Miki Litvak
  9. [35:42] Pǝsnɟuoɔ (Confused) – Laurent Garnier