Your DJ, in the mix

Bonus beats

Who is this doin’ this synthetic type o’ alpha beta psychedelic funkin’?
Elektrobank by The Chemical Brothers

Live at Hair By Mark Dancer (Jun 2017)

A video livestream DJ set recorded in Oxford

As the cost of bandwidth and computing power continues to decrease, it was inevitable that live video streaming would become as ubiquitous as the humble smartphone photo. So, for the second time now, I’ve put myself in front of a camera because it seems people are quite keen to get up-close and personal with their DJ.

Hot on the heels of Boiler Room, many a project has taken to the live video streaming of DJ sets, not least the cool and geeky, figurine-festooned Hair By Mark Dancer, a local salon for male grooming in Oxford.

Now, this was meant to be a live stream in every sense, but the powers at Facebook put a temporary block on Mark’s Page meaning we couldn’t go on air as scheduled. We suspect it automatically detected copyright protected works in our soundcheck moments before, but we can’t be sure. Another phone was able to start a live stream on a different account, so it wasn’t the Internet connection.

So, I understand a consequence of the failed livestream and retrospective uploading of the recording meant the video had to be chopped up before Facebook would accept it, coupled with some apparent sound issues. Technology, eh!:D Do not adjust your set, the video does skip forward several minutes at 29:02 and 59:21.

The mix starts out melodic and funky, moving into the tribal sounds of one of Pezzner’s many pseudonyms, Motel Express, and then into my usual jackin’ style with some Daft Punk for Mark, finishing up with some of my classics. The last bit, starting with Alcatraz, is an homage to ‘95-era Sasha; basically what turned me on to House music. I think my only red-faced moment is when I fluffed the drop of the Raw Power acappella, but you didn’t notice that, did you ;)

For the technology heads, I was performing on my preferred setup of Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS players (borrowed from Simple) with tracks prepared in rekordbox from a 17x12mm 64GB USB. I’m a bit mixer-agnostic because I’m not too bothered with FX (the music speaks for itself), so I was happy to play on Mark’s Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol Z2 through line inputs. I mixed in my headphones mostly because it wasn’t too loud from those speakers.

Track list

Buy and/or download tracks featured in this mix

  • 0:00:00 Shenoda - Streak (Aus) download
  • 0:06:15 Ponty Mython - I Wish (Swedish Brandy) download
  • 0:11:54 Motel Express - Automobile (Hunt & Gather) download
  • 0:16:00 Motel Express - The Trees (Hunt & Gather) download
  • 0:19:51 Kitchen Disco - On Off (Food Music) download
  • 0:22:24 Lrusse - Extra Time (The Nite Owl Diner) download
  • 0:27:47 Roland Clark - Resist [Jason Jinx’s soul power mix] (Fluential)
  • 0:29:01 video blip
  • 0:29:41 Peace Division feat. Dan Diamond - Club Therapy [Magik Johnson mix] (NRK)
  • 0:35:52 Daft Punk - Digital Love [Boris Dlugosch remix] (Virgin)
  • 0:41:16 Uneaq - As Long As I’m With U (Jump) download
  • 0:45:53 Neil Parkes - Loco-Motive (Underground Audio) download
  • 0:51:00 Hologram Lo’ - 96 [Borussia remix] (Caroline International) download
  • 0:54:28 DJ Simi - Breakfast Of The Champions (Jump) download
  • 0:57:17 Natural Rhythm - Saturdays (Guesthouse) download
  • 0:59:20 video blip; missing: Natural Rhythm - The Joint (Panhandle) download
  • 0:59:21 Jesse Rose - Black Twitter (Play It Say It) download
  • 1:00:34 Chuck Love - Beatdown [Troydon floor shaker] (Om)
  • 1:05:11 Armando - Sasha Point Of View [JR From Dallas ghetto beatz mix] (Myriad Black) download
  • 1:10:34 Daft Punk - Burnin’ (Virgin)
  • 1:15:50 Zero B - Lock Up [monolith mix] (FFRR)
  • 1:21:20 Natural Born Grooves - Forerunner (XL) download
  • 1:22:41 Apollo Four Forty - Raw Power [Matthew Roberts a cappella] (Stealth Sonic)
  • 1:26:30 Outlander - The Vamp (R&S) download
  • 1:30:12 Alcatraz - Giv Me Luv (AM:PM) download
  • 1:31:18 Kidstuff - Alright [acappella] (Fluential) download
  • 1:36:29 BT - Tripping The Light Fantastic (EastWest)
  • 1:41:10 New Order - Blue Monday [Hardfloor mix] (London)

Disclaimer: free dj mix downloads on this site are strictly for educational use in order to audition James’s technical ability, style and selection as a specialist underground House Music Disc Jockey.  The files on offer are not meant as a distribution of copyrighted works and are presented in such a way that individual tracks cannot be extracted.  Track lists here serve to credit and promote the featured artists’ work, and encourage the legal purchase of individual tracks.