Mixes
I’m going to try and collect some of my mixes here. New ones (or just those that have been added to the site) will appear as and when.
A brief word about my mixing style – I annotate all my tunes with both BPM and key (I’ve got perfect pitch) and try to mix things in key as well as tempo. Without wishing to come across like the woeful sleeve notes to Plastikman’s Mixmag mix, this helps to make a new track out of two separate ones, in melody and rhythm, instead of just “Woo! The snares are in time!”
I also like to mix new tracks in as fast as possible, though I’ve nothing against keeping some blends in for a long time, once they are up and running, if they work well. It’s hopefully rare to hear 30 seconds of a single track in my efforts, though they’re also a bit ramshackle as a result, which I’ve grown to like.
I can scratch only in the most elementary way – baby scratches and truly mediocre fader work, plus scratching tracks in.
These days I use Torq, which, despite not being as bulletproof as Serato, has a program that I vastly prefer and was cheaper to boot.
Most DJ mixes bore me to tears. Slow fade in, nothing to really bind the tracks together, slow fade out, play your hardest tunes at the end, yadda yadda yadda. I try not to roll that way.
Newest to oldest – click on the title for the file.
This is a podcast for Clash magazine, for whom (declaration of interest fans) I used to write. You can check the track listing here, plus there’s some guff from me all about it.
The point was basically to encapsulate the range of sound that constitutes ‘Ghost Tracks’ and to generally aid in the promotion of the EP. Marketing 101 came in handy after all…
It’s got lots of samples from this – the purpose was just to unify the listening experience and draw out some of the inherent musicality in speech, much like this but not as profound/effective/good. If anyone complains about spoilers because they didn’t previously know what the skies were actually like, that’s just tough.
I massively over-prepped for the mix, so there’s a ‘Second Door’ all ready to go. Not sure what’ll happen with it yet. My fingers are in several pies…
This is a fairly downtempo mix I made to sate my enjoyment of the newfangled collapsing hip hop sound, and because all my DJing seems to be in pubs these days meaning that the way of the doof doof is not apropos. The tracklist is here.
The first half or so was featured on Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel show, which pretty much made me priapic for about a week. The whole Ninja/Big Dada axis has been a touchstone of mine for the past 14 years (sheesh, how old am I?) and Coldcut’s Journey’s By DJ set, 70 Minutes Of Madness, is, and will forever be, my favourite mix.
For the anally retentive, be warned: it features lots of samples from The Wire, and having listened through it specifically to check for spoilers, I don’t think there are any as such (unless you count “At one point, two characters that were friends appear to have cross words”). TV in general is bland, crass disraction, but I found The Wire to be watchable all the way through and to actually have a serious message, so it must have been doing something right. Bodie Broadus ftw – his character really resonated.
First mix since parting company with Numbers too innit. I did this one digitally on Torq with my trusty Nocturn to control, as one of my decks was being fixed by the venerable Rubadub institution.
Not meant to be taken seriously, this mix was made because a friend of a friend asked for some recommendations for DJ mixes along the lines of the stuff Ruaridh and I had played at Bryan from Marcia Blaine’s wedding. Not really being able to think of any, I made one. Nosebleed it ain’t, but it’s probably usable if you need to appease a gathering of people under 50 who still think they’re a bit cool. Including you.
Find the tracklisting here.
Second and last of my official Numbers podcast mixes (though I’m told I may be guesting on one in the future). The back of the couch was my analogy for the space between dubstep and techno that I felt was just coming to the fore at the time, though to be honest the notion that such a hybrid could be nouveau now seems kind of quaint.
Tracklist here – 28 tracks in under an hour! All mixed live on two decks and a CDJ. I sent a link to the godlike techno genius Surgeon and he was very nice about it.
This was my overt homage to 70 Minutes Of Madness, again mixed live in one fraught session. It’s really varied but gives an almost complete overview of the music I love (foregoing maybe postrock and early 90s metal). I has one extended clanger of a mix due to me getting all harassed and almost bringing in the wrong side of a Scorn record.
This was the mix I had wanted to make all my DJing life, so while it’s not perfect it felt like something I had to get out of my system. In a way it’s the one I’m most proud of. About 50 tracks in 80 minutes. One day I’ll make a tracklist for it, but until then here’s a picture of my Facebook doppelganger for the week. Lucky you.
Website Samsons Miscreat were asking for mixes in 2006. I had a jones for making one. You can work out the rest. It was called ‘Gentleman’s Mix’ because it seemed like it was full of boy-techno. I had a doomed plan to make a Ladies’ Mix to follow, but then realised that girls like Madonna and pink things. In retrospect it’s not all that effulgent, testosterone-wise.
Tracklisting be hither. I had just got an effects unit and worked it like a horny monkey’s pizzle over Rhythm & Sound at the end. I think we all learned something as a result.
Hairy Palms And Eyesight Problems
This mix is pretty ancient; I think I made it before Numbers started and perhaps in some small part it got me the gig. It was a first draft at a solo, multi-genre mix, after Ruaridh and I had made our School Disco volumes one and two. It’s mostly successful, despite what was later to become my traditional one clanger per mix.
