Category Archives: DJ Set

Gabriel & Dresden’s Mixed for Feet Vol. 1

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Today, Gabriel and Dresden’s new double CD mix Mixed for Feet is released.  The title could not be more fitting.  Reunited after three years on solo projects, Gabriel & Dresden are now in the middle of a North American and European Tour.  This weekend, in fact, they are headlining New York’s Electric Zoo festival on September 4th.  That’s good news for fans of house music–a trance influenced direction of the house sound has taken hold of popular taste.  The call of the day continues to be genre-crossing, and Gabriel and Dresden are on the pulse of the moment with this mix.  Along with tracks from Gabriel & Dresden themselves, there are tunes by Tiësto, Umek, Felguk, Dada Life, and Fedde Le Grand in the mix here.  That type of range in selection is the surest sign of the current era of electronic music.
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Tech-house Slices: Marco Corona & rEJEKTS

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Its been forever. But its summer again, and content is king so its time for some updates. I figured that it would be best to get things going with some upcoming brilliance of the tech house variety. A little while I had the pleasure of catching Marco Corona on Ustream.tv when Ritchie Hawtin flashed the news on Facebook. It was a remarkable set to watch even if beamed through cyberspace. Glad I saw it. Recently I’ve had the pleasure of grooving to Corona’s Tech House ’70 vol. 1. . .Spectacular tunes on that one! Here’s one of them:

http://soundcloud.com/marcocorona/marco-corona-jack-black

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Summer Series part 8: Kyau & Albert

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Kyau and Albert are among the most popular DJs in the world right now with avid fans everywhere. Hailing from Germany, this mix is a massive set of progressive house interwoven throughout with elements of trance and techhouse. Recorded on July 10th, this mix is in support of their new song “Painkiller” released on their label Euphonic, which releases some of the most exciting progressive music today.

If you’re a fan of Kyau and Albert, the sound of this mix is what you’d expect: big, swirling synths; bouncing bass-lines; hard hitting beats; strings sailing in and out of the ether. If you don’t know these guys, then you’re in for treat–the set begins with a big sound, and grows without a pause. Definitely a fine and satisfying addition to the Summer Series!

-Set and video inside!->

Summer Series part 6: Tommie Sunshine’s Summer Soundtrack ’10!

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Tommie Sunshine at the decks!

Tommie Sunshine is amazing. If you don’t know that already, then you are in for a real treat. This Summer Soundtrack mix has made the rounds on-line because it’s excellent. Brooklyn remains one of the brightest and most vibrant centers for dance music of all stripes and Tommie Sunshine represents all the best reasons why! I should note that hearing Tommie Sunshine’s spring mix is part of the idea behind doing a summer series of my favorites mixes at all! Tommie Sunshine has been a fav since I heard his mysteriously sad track “Runway Runaway” on the classic Misery Loves Company compilation in ’02 from Ersatz Audio. Eight years on he’s even better and continues to be both astoundingly creative and productive. Enjoy this mix!

-Tommie Sunshine’s Summer Soundtrack inside!!->

Summer Series pt 5: Don Rimini- NLarge Your Street Tease Mix

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Don Rimini’s new Nlarge Your Pants EP is one of the best releases of the summer. I’ve already written about it over at NoVegans, so I won’t repeat myself here. I will say though that while every song on the release won’t be to everyone’s taste, Don Rimini’s impeccable blending of influences does make his EP standout affair. Rimini adds to the Summer Series this week with a mix dropped in support of the EP. With some of the best material from the EP here, the mix showcases Rimini’s electrifying vibe. Can a hard-rocking set have charm? I don’t know, it seems like an oxymoron to me, but I think that particular balance is exactly what Rimini strikes in this mix. It gets going, and doesn’t stop, and along the way there is an awful lot to like here! Listen to it once, and you’ll definitely want to get back to house!

-Mix and setlist inside!->

Summer Series 4: Tevo Howard at Roof.FM

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It’s another week, and I’ve got another mix out of Chi-town for you. . . A while back, I bought Tevo Howard’s vinyl pressing of “Passion Sounds,” “Inter-Tribal,” and “Dreamer’s Reason.” A fantastic group of songs, the record quickly began appearing regularly on the playlists of the radio show I was doing at the time. I didn’t know much about Tevo Howard, but wanted to hear and know more. Surprise, surprise I ran across his mix on soundcoud.com for the website Roof.fm. Turns out there’s a reason his tunes were so polished and surprising–he was a well know DJ in Chicago in 1990, making rounds in clubs throughout the city and on the radio when only fourteen years old! Wow! That was 1990, and now the wunderkind is all grown up, and making remarkable music.
His twenty years or so years of experience on the decks shows in the precision of this pop-inflected mix of deep house. The sound is distinct and the set satisfying. Over at soundcloud, they’ve promised to post a setlist, so keep you eyes peeled because some of these tracks are so delicious they are almost edible. Almost.
-Take a listen inside!!->

Summer Series part 3: Randy Seidman at House of Blues Chicago

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Chicago has a long and distinguished history in American music–once a center of American blues music through the storied Chess Records, one of its most recent claims to fame is as the christening place of house music. Rising out of the dynamite and steamrollers of Kaminski Park, house music is now one of the truly global forms of music. In fact, many of the Chicago pioneers–Frankie Knuckles, Jesse Saunders, and DJ Pierre–continue to tour the world as legends who have managed to remain fresh and cutting edge.

Like all forms of music house is as much about its present and future as its history. Randy Seidman work behind the scenes of the music industry has gained him as much attention as his work behind the decks and in the studio. His career as a DJ and producer has paralleled one as a tour manager for artists across a range of musical communities from hip-hop to dancehall to psy-trance.

-set inside!->

Welcome to the Summer Series. part 2: They Came from Planet Turbo

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Planet Turbo is one of the biggest and most exciting artist tours going on right now. The rotating lineup will troop across the glob featuring, among others, Brodinski, DMX Krew, Felix Da Housecat, Jesper Dahlbeck and of course the head honcho of the Turbo Recordings label, Tiga. The tour has been going on for a while now, and has already ready gone through Rotterdam, London, Berlin, Sydney, Madrid and Montreal. . .Ibiza, Liege and second stop in London are to come. Being the generous spirits that they are, Planet Turbo has recently been posting some of the incredible sets from the tour on soundcloud, one of my favorite sites. Check out all of the sets at the Turbo page on soundcloud–some from the tour, others from different events.
-downlable sets inside!!!->

Welcome to the Summer Series. part 1-Kitsuné Ponystep Minimix

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So…I’m a huge fan of the Kitsuné series, and its always a delight to get to write about it now that I’ve started blogging. I wrote about the last compilation, The Cotton Issue, over at NoVegans as part of my spring collection series over there. It’s only fitting now that I’m starting a series of posts here at my own blog, that I start with Ponystep, the tenth in the series. So here’s the Minimix by Jerry Bouthier. By the sounds of things Ponystep is going to be a real pleaser. Even better than the rock-tinged idie dance sounds of The Cotton Issue. Anyhow, its a really short mix, but it gives an idea of the what to expect.. . .enjoy!
-Minimix inside!->

James Teej-Indecent Descent, The Spring 2010 Mix

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“Evening Harvest,” the debut album from Toronto’s James Teej is out now on Rekids Records. Recently, Teej was touted as the protegé of Rekids’ label honcho Matt Edwards, best known for his work as Radio Slave, and that influence is palpable throughout Teej’s release, but the Canadian’s blend of minimal techno and soul has a singular quality. The deep atmospherics of this sound are part of the mix Teej has released in support of “Evening Harvest.” He calls his spring 2010 mix “Indecent Descent” and showcases the dapper mode of deep techno and house to which Teej’s work belongs. The entire mix runs just short of an hour, and throughout the propulsive drive of the tunes never falls short of emotion. Like the album it supports, Indecent Descent is a sleek and tasteful slice of electronic sound.
-Hear the mix inside!>