Exit Festival, Novi Sad Serbia – early Saturday morning on the 9th of July 2016. I had an epiphany. According to Google, an epiphany is defined as:

1. the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12)
2. a moment of sudden and great revelation or realization.

Now I had drunk a fair amount of rakija before getting there, and had also been availing myself of the surprisingly decent local red wine on offer inside the festival (served in plastic glasses, from a plastic bottle – I didn’t think it would be drinkable, never mind dangerously tasty!) but it still wasn’t enough for me to have the first kind in the definition! No, it was a realisation that I had lost my way as a DJ, and that by indulging my love of many styles of music in my DJing, I was confusing myself and also not progressing my skills with my new digital setup.

Let’s rewind a little bit. I am THE most annoying person to be at a DJ gig with. I am constantly analysing (more accurately criticising) the music, the mixing, the EVERYTHING, and I like to share my valuable(!) insights with everyone who is with me, especially the extremely patient Mrs Skelp. On the night of my epiphany, where we were enjoying sets by Dasha Rush, Moritz von Oswald, Zadig and Psyk as part of a ‘25 Years of Tresor’ celebration at the No Sleep Novi Sad stage, the aforementioned Mrs Skelp turned to me and said ‘You must be REALLY enjoying this’ – I agreed with her, and asked her how she was so sure – ‘You haven’t been giving me the usual running commentary’ was the reply. A spark went off in my wine-soaked brain. She was, of course and as always, correct. I was in my musical element – everything was in the correct place – the energy, the layering, the progression, the EVERYTHING. At this point I remembered that nothing (in the world of DJing for a dancefloor) hits the spot for me quite like well put together, well produced, hard techno.

So what, you may ask. Why am I waffling on about this? Well, on my return to Glasgow, this realisation stayed with me, and came to the decision that I was going to act on my epiphany, and concentrate my efforts into a single style for the next while, returning to the methodology I had when I was playing out regularly – following the releases of the style I play on a weekly basis, and recording regular mixes of only this style. This is the first in this series – it is all tunes that I have purchased since returning from Exit, and it is a set that tries to capture a little bit of what it was on that warm night in Serbia that made me just shut up and dance!

A 56 minute techno mix, recorded in July 2016.

Right Click Here and ‘Save As’ to download The Illusion of Truth

Tracks:

1. Intro
2. Devil Inside (Yannick Fuchs Remix) – 80 Doppel D
3. Cubic Psycho Eighteen – Master Master
4. Silhouette – Psyk
5. Ropets & Knots – V111
6. L3 – Psyk
7. Avadon – Psyk
8. R-Mx – Cave Djz
9. Riot – Psyk
10. Root Destruction – Unidivixion
11. High Rise – Kamikaze Space Programme
12. Planetary Interface – Silentcell
13. Perfect Storm (Dkult Remix) – A.Paul
14. Message from Mars – Silentcell
15. Pacho (Deh-Noizer Innerview Version) – Pucet
16. Mutter – Konstantin Sibold

 
I never seem to find the time to make new mixes nowadays – the weekends fly by and then it’s Monday again, and time to head back to the real job. I was listening to some of my old techno mixes and thought that I really wanted to record something new, something that starts off a bit harder than my most recent output and was maybe a bit closer to the kind of techno I used to play at Dan-Sin ‘back in the day’. So I booked a day off of work and set about creating something – and here it is! It’s exactly the kind of set I was imagining – big kick drums, dark basslines and just a touch of rave madness. Play it loud!

A 64 minute techno mix, recorded in January 2016.

Right Click Here and ‘Save As’ to download All In A Day’s Work

Tracks:

1. Firewire – Maxime Dangles
2. Opa – Kölsch
3. Broken Fridge (Patrik Skoog remix) – HD Substance
4. Full Contact (D. Diggler Remix) – Michael Knop
5. Brabant -Marco Bailey
6. Jealous (Ferhat Albayrak Remix) – Gabriel Ben
7. Wire State – Octave
8. Ignition – Peja
9. Glitch – Player
10. Iron Nerves – Marco Bailey & Tom Hades
11. Set Them Free – Industrialyser
12. Fire (Paul Mac Remix) – Ritzi Lee
13. Player 12 B2 (Adam Beyer Remix) – Player
14. Quadrophobia – Player
15. Duke Street Fleet – Clouds