DJ Skelp aka JD Pleks

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I love a lot of things about the 80s. I love the fact that all my teen years were spent in that decade – I had a back perm, a Raleigh Super Burner, Sta-Prest trousers, poser belts and the Atari 2600 (Pacman ON YOUR TELLY!). In 1983 Aberdeen won the European Cup-Winners Cup in  Gothenburg (Here we go!). The Beastie Boys had their first UK tour in 1987 which had the tabloids in a frenzy and 17 year old boys like me wearing VW badges and drinking budweiser. It’s no wonder that I look back on the music that was made in those years with a great deal of warm nostalgia – I guess that’s why I now have this alter-ego of Span Decks!

When I first started thinking about djing 80s music, I decided quite early on that anything I did for recordings I should be able to reproduce live, in a club, without too much pre-planning, the same as I do with techno, electro and hardhouse. This I thought of as the Span Decks manifesto, so when it came to my first demo, it had to be named the same. This mix can be thought of as a manifesto of sorts in itself – it’s unthemed (other than by decade) so takes in a bit of funk, rock, electronica and pop. It was mixed in one take using Serato Scratch live with no autosynching and no post-recording edits. There are some loops in there to help make the transitions easier on the ear though – no point having a digital djing setup without using it’s features!

I hope you enjoy this little trip down my memory lane.

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Here’s another mix from the recent past – this one was recorded in December 2008, when I was really just starting to find my feet with a slower, more considered style of techno. I had begun to tire of the very ’samey’ sounds and energy in the ‘nu’ techno scene, and had been, over the previous year, discovering that I enjoyed listening to techno that had less going on, more space between the sounds and tracks given time within the mix to progress and get inside your head.

I guess you could call it minimal, certainly for the first half, but I reckon it’s just techno!

Tracks:

1. Coheed – Nathan Fake
2. Buenos Aires – Igor S Milton
3. Shibuya (Rocha Lewinger remix) – Anderson Noise
4. Pandemonium – A.D.M
5. Hyperbolic – efflle and Jitzu
6. Static (Christopher Manik remix) – Topher Jones
7. Burlington – Bradler Dualton
8. Eclipse (Locodice remix) – Oner Ozer
9. Lost Memory – Oxia
10. Runaway – Ron Flatter
11. Dirty Game – Sinisa Tamamovic
12. Keep It Going (Microdinamic remix) – Igor S feat Lady Brian
13. Pan Pan – Koen Groeneveld
14. Shady Rider – Sinisa Tamamovic

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While sorting out my record collection I was reminded of the time when vinyl was worth something, and in some cases worth quite a lot. I decided to make a mix of tracks that either cost me a lot more than average to buy, were regularly traded for high prices or were considered rare before the advent of legal and illegal digital downloads. As it turns out most of them were hard as nails!

The result is M.D.M. (Million Dollar Mix) – 73 minutes, 320Kbps MP3 file

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did making it – the (hazy) memories came flooding back!

Tracks:

1. D – D2A – D
2. The Project – Meltdown (OD404 Mix) – Chug n Bump
3. Paul King – Odyssey Pt2 – Full On
4. Keiser Sose – Somnium – White
5. RR Fierce – Panik – Fierce Technik
6. Code 21 – Wanna Play House (OD404 Remix) – DP
7. E-Trax – Let’s Rock (Karim Mix) – White
8. Lab 4 – Reformation 2 (OD404 Mix) – Alien Trax
9. Karim – Taliban – White
10. Paul Glazby – Kick It – Vicious Circle
11. Karim – Mass Hysteria – Alien Trax
12. RR Fierce & DMF – Rock Da Spot – Recharge
13. Paul Glazby – Hostile (Nick Sentience Remix) – Vicious Circle
14. Tony De Vit – I Don’t Care ( Karim Mix) – White
15. Karim – Target Locked – White
16. Lab 4 – Reformation – Elementary

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A 60 minute pure techhouse mix that reflects my slower, groovier, housier side. I still love to rinse out funky, chunky techno but this takes a less full-on approach. It’s still aimed at the dancefloor with heavy kickdrums and big bass, but it doesn’t ramp up the BPMs or get too crazy.

The artwork for this mix is courtesy of Jane South, to whom I am grateful for the permission to use it – please visit her website

Tracks:

1. Dark Rain – Markus Schatz
2. Neon Cringe – Simon Beeston
3. It’s not a Zoo – Ludwig Coenen
4. luvenis – Wally Lopez
5. Dusty Back Room – Simon Beeston
6. Dave’s Ghost – John Selway
7. Brute – Sinisa Tamamovic
8. Upper Deck – Markus Homm
9. Hard To Find – Peter Kruder
10. Windrose (Format B Remix) – Funkwerkstatt
11. The Last Time – John Selway
12. Directions (Nordstrom + Villegas Remix) – Psycatron
13. U Can Dance (Carl Craig Remix V.2) – DJ Hell + Bryan Ferry
14. Tough Luck – Simon Beeston

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This is a 70 minute techno mix, recorded in March 2010. It’s a mix that accurately reflects the type of techno that really gets me excited at the moment, which is why I make no apologies for including 5 tracks by Sinisa Tamamovic – he is producing, in my opinion, the perfect marriage of dark basslines, spaced out percussion, eerie, haunting synth lines and good old fashioned groove. Listen to his tracks in good headphones and they really come to life.

The mix takes in a little bit of techhouse(ish) to start, quickly gets it’s techno pants on and ramps up the bass throughout. It grooves along in the middle section and then the finish is pretty dark – just the sort of thing I love to hear at 3am in a sweaty, grotty venue with big bassbins and a heaving dancefloor. Sounds quite good at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon in yer livingroom too, but without the no-top sweaty guy who ALWAYS wants to be my friend!

The album artwork is an original piece by Audrey O’Brien and is exclusive to this mix.

TRACKS

1. Kill Me (Instrumental) – Steffi
2. Dirty Walker – Itamar Sagi
3. Deep Inside Ur Eyes (Abe Duque remix) – Savas Pascalidis
4. Destroy Minimal – John Lagora
5. Photophobia – Noiseprofessor
6. Progresija – Mladen Tomic
7. Bombscare – taster peter
8. Halters – Mladen Tomic
9. Round 2 (Tamamovic remix) – Sinisa Tamamovic
10. Slap – Umek
11. Kick On (Alexi Delano + Tony Rohr remix) – Ascion
12. Bark 1.1 – Sinisa Tamamovic
13. Flip – Sinisa Tamamovic
14. Dirty Game – Sinisa Tamamovic
15. My Religion 1.1 – Sinisa Tamamovic
16. Dragon (Marco Bailey + Tom Hades remix) – Joey Beltram
17. Face of Rejection – Alan Fitzpatrick
18. Remainings III (Jesper Dahlback remix) – Adam Beyer

So this is my blog starting right here – better late to the party than never I suppose! My plan is to use this to publish my own DJ mixes, old and new, along with links to others I have found that I enjoy. It will probably be a bit sporadic, with periods of great activity followed by, well, you get the picture! I imagine that I may also use it to spout forth my opinions on stuff, but I will try to keep that to a minimum, I promise, honest injun.

Right, I’m of to play with the settings of this here blog software thingy – wish me luck!