Apparently Berghain have replaced their soundsystem. The old one put in 20 years of service, which means, assuming it was running 40 hours a week at an average of 135bpm (always 4 to the floor, obviously), it played approximately 340 million kick drums during its lifetime
Just putting it out there (now that festival season is over) that I do still play small venues for small fees – if you’re a DIY promoter then please don’t be put off by the assumption that I only play for €€€€
In 13 years of DJing I’ve learned how to build up my set to a massive frothy crescendo over 2 hours but am apparently still able to then pull the needle off the wrong record right at the absolute peak moment lol
Every once in a while I remember how my record on Hessle Audio was reviewed twice in the same issue of
@DJmag
, where they gave it 4 out of 10 in the Techno section and 9 out of 10 in the Dubstep/Garage/Funky (iirc) section. Honestly a career highlight
In like 100 years of using Bandcamp I can't believe I only just clocked that those "New release from X" emails are actually worth checking. Filter them out of your inbox and into a separate folder and it's like a personalised record store that only sells music you like. Mad
The “watch me vibin’ to this tune I made today” genre of DJ Content makes me feel deeply uncomfortable lol, like 1. who am I to say that my tunes are gunfinger-worthy and 2. my actual facial expression when listening to my own WIPs is usually one of deep consternation
Just got asked by a promoter if I mind sharing a lift to the airport with another DJ on the same flight home or if I “want my own vehicle” and like.... fellow touring DJs are y’all ok?
I have a new record out today :) It's called Objekt
#5
, named after my last club record, Objekt
#4
See you in another five years for my next release announcement!
Imagine being so productive that in the time it takes you to finish 80 tracks you can only find one artwork image and you have no option but to tile this image over all 8 of your new EPs
In life's latest surreal twist, I’m on the cover of Mixmag as their “DJ of the Year”. Gulp. The issue is out 13th Dec (11th for subscribers) and you can order it here:
Any time I stop drinking and sleep properly and get some exercise for more than 2 weeks in a row I just feel frail and delicate af, then I remember that this is just what it feels like to have even the most cursory awareness of what's going on in my body lol
Feeling very blessed this afternoon that y'all still care about my silly little tunes - not had an easy time finishing music over the last years and I'm glad these are finally out <3
After seeing how well it went down at Dekmantel I'm looking forward to playing SOPHIE - Immaterial approximately every 20 minutes during my 3-hour closing set at Selectors next week
DJ anxiety dreams ca. 2020: you forgot you’re meant to be live streaming from your living room to a massive festival in Brazil in 15 mins. You‘ve no idea how to set up a stream. Your CDJs are missing and you’re still in your PJs. And how is this festival even still happening
Fashions change, seasons come and go, but the one thing that can always be relied upon in these uncertain times is Boiler Room picking the absolute stupidest moment of your Dekmantel set to post on Instagram
What are your favourite propulsive club tracks with no kick drum, in the vein of the recent Barker (
@samvoltek
) EP? Always looking for more of this stuff (and it's not so easy to find). Stanislav Tolkachev another obvious favourite
Never ceases to amaze me how much easier it is to write music when I've actually bothered to get off my ass and plug in a MIDI keyboard. It's almost as if the computer mouse hadn't been designed for playing instruments
Does anyone going to festivals actually get excited about b2b sets from artists they like? Genuine question. I understand promoters wanting to do something "different" but am curious whether there's truly any public demand for b2bs or if they actually sell any tickets
Another note-to-self I should have pinned to my studio wall by now: if you've got more than 10 plugins on a single drum sound then you should probably just look for a better sample
If you’d told me 10 years ago that on 17 January 2020 I’d be with Joe writing EVERYTHING IS TRUE in gaffer tape on the wall behind the DJ booth in Panorama Bar I’d have asked for a drag of whatever you’d been smoking
Feel like every day my brain picks one of the following moods at random:
1) Omg so much innovative music coming out these days I'm inspired af
2) Omg so much amazing music coming out rn how will I ever compare I may as well quit
3) I don't get any of this new shit, am I old,
First time taking a Peli case full of equipment through airport security. Dreaded having to unpack and repack the lot but the woman waves me through without so much as opening the lid saying “it’s ok, you are the first DJ this morning, today we check the second one” lol
#berlin
I always thought of myself as a gold medalist doomscroller but the fact that I still haven’t hit this fabled rate limit honestly makes me worry about some of y’all
Not to detract from the Good Things that they've been doing recently, but damn it would be nice if Bandcamp would donate their proceeds on some other day towards making their website more usable
Fellow touring DJs who also produce – how do you balance travel, studio time, digging, admin and a personal life without bending the space-time continuum? Asking for a friend
Last month I played all night at
@nowadaysnyc
and it was a really incredible experience. And if you're into 9-hour recordings then, well, today is your lucky day
Can’t imagine being a drum’n’bass DJ in the 90s and having to keep track of how many beats and bars there are in all yr intros and breakdowns so you can cue everything up to drop at the right time. With paper and pencil. That level of preparation is more than even I could stomach
Holy christ
@nowadaysnyc
completely scrambled my brain and body last night. Today unforgettable. 9 hour set on 2 hours of sleep and played all my favourite songs and shed multiple tears
Genuine question: why are ppl so against restricting clubbing in the UK to vaccinated ppl, assuming exceptions are made for ppl with a valid medical excuse? Am I missing something obvious here? Like, there are no vaccine shortages and the vaccine is free for everyone
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is one of music's best-known works and the most frequently performed symphony in the world
This is an unusual public involvement during the 4th movement execution by the Noord Nederlands Orkest at the Lowlands Music Festival
My amazing gf got me a gift certificate for a go in an ACTUAL FLIGHT SIMULATOR for xmas and we’re on our way there right now and I am barely managing to contain my excitement
Wish I hadn't spent all these years dying on the "mix down the track as you go along" hill. It's a maddening hill with no clear path to the summit and every route leads you to a swamp – the swamp of overcooked ideas – where creativity goes to die
I stuck gaffer tape over the BPM counters last night for the hell of it and actually had about 30% more fun DJing than usual. Wonder what I should try next
It's
@Bandcamp
fee waiver day again today so here's a selection of personal faves from my last big haul on Juneteenth if you need some inspiration, all (I think?) by Black artists or from Black-owned labels >>>>>
Cocoon Crush is out today - it’s been so long in the making that it’s hard to believe it’s finally out of my hands. I hope you find it a rewarding listen. Very warm thanks to Bill, Raph, Kasia, Joe, Rashad, Isis and Ben and everyone else involved. ❤️
Ok so lockdown for sure hasn’t done anything for my ambivalence towards spending loads of time in intense club spaces, but it definitely has rekindled a naive joyous visceral appreciation of losing myself on a good dancefloor that I must have buried deep in my 20s somewhere
Not me finessing a Python script to scrape my Bandcamp release notification emails and generate HTML pages of BC player widgets for easier browsing instead of actually listening to new music
Every time I set aside a chunk of time to organise my music I procrastinate desperately for like 5 hours before then spending an hour Rekordboxing and actually kinda enjoying it and wishing I'd started 5 hours earlier. Then I run out of time. How do I stop doing this
Eating a deliveroo salad in the DJ booth of a former car maintenance garage using the bar’s ice cube tongs cos you forgot to order cutlery honestly beats most artist dinners
Little story here from our weekend. We played a gig at iboat in Bordeaux, France. After we finished our set this young man from Bordeaux came up to us and said "Amazing set guys, where are you from?" and I told him we were from Ireland.
Is there a German word for when you try to get a proper night’s rest before your 7am set at Berghain but by 6am you still can’t fall asleep and wish you’d just gone to the party instead
I realise this is the most pathetically trivial thing you could possibly get annoyed at, but coming from a science background it always bugged me that “interpolation” became the word ppl use to describe a melody or riff borrowed from an older song
In fairness, most of those DJs probably ONLY played DnB and might struggle with aspects of mixing other genres e.g. tracing a cohesive narrative arc / maintaining a coherent energy contour over a 2+ hour set / mixing tech house on ketamine / locating the sync button
If you’re still waiting for feedback on your latest club destroyer it’s cos I’ve been busy landing a 737 at Heathrow in low visibility conditions soz m8
Walking back to my hotel in London in the rain I am overtaken by one of those corny 8-seater tourist beer bikes, except instead of EDM or cheesy wedding tunes they’re blasting a long and awkward succession of fart noises from the onboard soundsystem
Since a while now I've included an illustrated guide to preventing turntable feedback as an addendum to my tech rider. For the nerds and masochists amongst you
@ResidentAdvisor
have included it as part of their piece on the state of turntables in clubs >>>
My most treasured experiences as a DJ have been playing for independent promoters in small/DIY venues. I can’t say yes to every offer, but budget is rarely a barrier provided it’s a show I actually wanna play
Producers: My sample libraries are a total rat’s nest and finally need sorting this year. How do you organise yours? Do you separate samples from the pack they came from? Do you rename them for easier searching? Do you sort by category or by source? Help
God I love touring in N America so much. Such a positive, receptive and cathartic atmosphere at each of the 6 shows on this run and between them they were some of my favorite gigs in a long time. Thanks for having me 🥰
Still can’t get the image out of my head of Jeff Mills covering his mixer and CDJs with half a mile of fairy lights, to the extent that he could barely get to the faders. Asked his manager what’s with the fairy lights and she was like idk he just likes keeping things interesting
Been watching more music production videos recently as a source of inspo and new ideas… anyone got any faves? In the vein of Ableton’s “One Thing” series,
@MrNedRush
's tutorials on using Ableton to generate crazy sound design procedurally, even FACT’s Against The Clock, etc
Not me spending a day writing a Python script to batch convert all my 24 bit Bandcamp AIFFs to 16 bit instead of preparing for my first gig in 18 months this weekend
If you like music but hate big crowds, well, tomorrow's your lucky day. DJing on the internet tomorrow evening at with
@LSDXOXO_
+ more for United We Stream at Melancholie 2 in Berlin
Here's the recording of my Essential Mix, which was broadcast earlier this year. I didn’t post about it at the time so if you missed it (or wanted a DL), here you go:
I did an RBMA lecture :) I’m not the best public speaker but
@codeinedrums
was amazing and I ended up really enjoying myself even while staring at my feet in mild terror
Listening back to the recording from Sunday I can clearly hear the moment(s) where I evidently had that old Miles Davis quote in my head as I audibly fucked up and then did the same thing another 3 times in an optimistic attempt to call it jazz and not just a mistake lol
Aleksi Perälä really ought to be repurposing his studio for the Coronavirus effort. Imagine how much hand sanitizer he could have sent to Italy by now if he weren't so busy churning out 8 albums of bangers
So it turns out that one fun thing about learning how to scratch records is that if you practise in the evening before going to bed you level up your teeth-brushing game by like +10
London ppl - which venues do you feel most relaxed, comfortable and safe in? I know clubbing in London is an uphill struggle sometimes but wondered if any venues in particular are doing a better-than-average job with security, safer space policy, crowd numbers, seating areas etc
My new kink: being unflappably nice to the solitary "play harder" woman in the front row begging for techno while the rest of the crowd is having a great time at 90bpm
Had some new earplugs fitted this morning and idk when I’ll be able to actually use them but I did enjoy the pang of optimism I felt as the gooey silicone flowed into my ear