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MIX NOTES

My homey Amu Ptah reached out to me earlier this year and asked if I could join the esteemed ranks of folks that have made her a DJ mix for use in her physical training. Though she relocated from The Bronx to Jamaica a few years back, she continues to train daily as an Ironman Triathlete. Amu has set some pretty big goals for herself that I truly admire. Not only does she intend to master the 2.4- mile swim, 110-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run required by The Ironman, but she is also using her journey as a means to connect with other triathletes of color around America, “transforming lives through fitness and healthy lifestyles”. This last part really spoke to me, as I feel communities of color, particularly in the over-40 age range, are in desperate need of healthier habits. The number of people, black men in particular, that we have lost in the NY club community alone in the last few years would alarm anybody. In short, we all need to take better care of ourselves and each other. So I say “Run Amu RUN!”. You can follow Amu’s progress at https://www.instagram.com/teamamuptah/

This mix was also inspired by a recent marathon of my own, out clubbing in NYC. I hadn’t been out dancing in a minute, and there was much to see and hear that night. I left the house around midnight and got home at 3pm the following day. On this adventure I traveled from Brooklyn to The Bronx to Manhattan, and managed to hear DJ sets from Sam Hyde, Ron Trent, Beast 621, Kev Dot Cruz, DJ Romain, and Timmy Regisford. It was an EPIC night, and I came home eager to finally make a long overdue mix for Amu, who I used to often see at these very same type of loft parties and clubs, years ago. Whether or not I should be out partying for 13 hours then going directly to brunch, followed by a baby shower, on no sleep, at my age, is another topic of discussion…

Want You In My Soul – Though this came out in 2011, I had never heard it until Beast 621 played this at the Just Right Loft Party in the Bronx. Or was it Kev? Anyway, it’s dope. Though my own tastes have veered away from a lot of vocal house as of late, a night out in NYC with the right DJs will change that. Lovebirds is Hamburg DJ and producer Sebastian Döring, who’s been putting out tracks since about 2000 on labels like Teardrop (Hamburg), Freerange (London), and Razor N Tape (Brooklyn). Stee Downes is a Dublin-born, Amsterdam-based vocalist, producer and DJ who put his foot in this track.

Untitled Love Affair – I put this Mr V dub of a Demarkus Lewis song on THIS MIX back in 2006. It’s simple and clean and makes for a great background record for blends.

Found You – The morning before my Saturday night marathon, my girl Marjona posted this Da Capo track on FB hoping Beast 621 would run it that night in the Bronx. It was my first time hearing it and I was hooked. Da Capo is Nicodimus Mogashoa, a South African DJ And producer from Limpopo who has made a real name for himself over the last decade. Zimbabwean singer/songwriter Berita, lends her lovely voice to this track and the result is something really special. Peep her acoustic version she posted on Youtube.

Track 1 – Martin Iveson aka Atjazz released an album of deep house instrumentals in 2017 called Mix 1. Like those DJ Tool beat records of the 90s, there are no song titles, just Track 1, Track 2, etc. This is Track 1, and it really puts me in a trance. Maybe you too.

Aliquindoi – This song has been kicking around my hard drives since it came out in 2015. Sometimes I listen to it and I don’t hear much. Other times it’s just the sort of sparse, minimal, deep house I’m looking for. Carlo is Carlos Álvarez, a DJ and producer from Málaga (Spain) who resides in Berlin but plays all over.

Supreme – American-born, South African-based vocalist Jonathan ‘Ziyon’ Hamilton was one half of the wildly popular deep house duo Liquideep, formed in Johannesburg in 2007. He has since gone solo, returning this year with a 4-song EP called Clear Skies. This is the lead single and I’m feeling it.

Watch Them Come (Jazzanova remix) – I can never get enough of this track, be it the original, the dub, or this Jazzanova remix that I never really heard that much in clubs, but it BANGS. This was the dream team of Peven Everett and Roy Davis Jr at their late 90s peak, and the world (and this mix) is a better place because of them.

Love & War – Another song I never get sick of, Detroit keyboardist, vocalist, P-Funk alum, and all around badass Amp Fiddler, produced incognito by Moodymann (who, I believe, borrowed the beat from his own track that first borrowed it from Incognito). This record caught the ear of every discerning club head in NY in 2003, and inspired bootleg remixes and entirely new tracks. There was just nothing quite like it, then or even now. I layered in the drums from the next track on top, just to give it a little more momentum.

Mototronic – A Shelter staple from 2007 that my man Beast 621 likes to slip into his sets as of late. Percussion-heavy and with a slightly techy foundation underneath vaguely reminiscent of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. BLVD East was Christian Perez and James “Rican” Rivera, known for collaborating with Louie Lou Gorbea on tracks going back to the late 90s.

Sync – More dopeness from South Africa, this time from young buck Durban-born Siyabonga Ziqubu aka XtetiQsoul, a member of the Afro-house collective Iklwa Brothers. He released his first album at the age of 23 and has been turning heads and ears ever since. I came across this on this Aluku Records compilation, released this past summer.

TB Or Not TB – Deviating into more techno territory for a bit, this is Brooklyn’s own DJ Spinna channeling OG Chicago and Detroit. Simple. Repetitive. Hypnotic. This is a much shorter edit than the original track. I ran an old dub poem from Mutabaruka over the top – a song called “Say” from his 1983 LP “Check It!”.

Get Up – I’m pretty sure Get Cozy is just an alias for Claude VonStroke. He maintains his own very specific niche in house music – striking a perfect balance between deep house and techno and EDM-ish electro, and I love him for it. This shit just has a great bounce to it. And I thought the vocal hook of “get up” might motivate Amu on her training runs through the Blue Mountains of JA.

Dark Society – German legend Timo Maas has been putting out techno records since 1995. I don’t always love his stuff, but when he hits me just right, I can’t resist. The bassline in this shit is bananas. This came out just a few weeks ago and there’s already a Loco Dice remix, but this version is where it’s at.

Andalusian 2.0 (Traumer Remix) – a really stripped-down techno joint from Camille Rodriguez. Basically just drums, but it seemed like a good foundation for an acapella – a recitation of the 1931 poem “Strong Men” by Sterling A. Brown. I got it from the Shadow Kings “Get Stronger” record from 2002, which I used to play at Bang The Party at Frank’s Lounge right around that time. I believe this voice is actually Sterling Brown himself, who was a folklorist, poet, literary critic and tenured professor at Howard University until 1969. Some of his students included Toni Morrison, Kwame Ture, Kwame Nkrumah, Ossie Davis, and Amiri Baraka. Talk about leaving your mark on the planet. Some might say poems like this are a bit serious for a dance floor, but we househeads see things differently. The roots of global dance music are inextricably intertwined with 400 years of The Black Experience in the United States, and the suffering and trauma which begat so much human creative expression in its wake. These roots can’t be ignored nor should they be forgotten. You can dance and think at the same time, nahmean?

Glide With me (Abicah Soul Tekmo Mix) – slowly coming back from the techno side of things, This Abicah Soul remix of Bokamoso Kenosi aka Zico House Junkie seemed like a good middle ground. Bokamoso is from Botswana and demonstrates a clear affinity for South African cats like Black Coffee. This came out just a few weeks ago and it’s a banger.

Manhasset (Larry Heard space mix) – This is once of those records that immediately transports me back to the early 90s in NYC, when vocal house like this would just make a room explode. This is probably in my top ten from that era, and it still works to this day. It was the magical lovechild of UK DJ Frankie Foncett and Chicago legend Mr Fingers aka Larry Heard. They released it in 1992 on the UK label Black Market International, which was run from the record store of the same name where Foncett worked. Both his tenure as buyer at the store and his residency at Ministry of Sound are credited with having a huge influence on the rise of house music in the UK, and for that alone we should all buy him a pint. Why he wrote this song about a boring suburb of Long Island, I can’t remember, but I’m sure somebody knows. Fun fact: when I was an ignorant kid, I thought the chorus was saying “to a place called man haaaaaaas sinned”. I was a weird kid.

The Music Got Me – New York lost its godfather this past February, house music legend Boyd Jarvis. I only got to meet him once, but I heard him play a few times over the years, and he could be spotted up in the booth at Shelter from time to time. Despite my own peripheral connection to him, his passing deeply affected a great many of my personal friends, so we all felt the loss. Boyd was making an entirely new kind of dance record in the early 80s, and this sound became enmeshed in the DNA of the house music that was to come out of New York and New Jersey on the heels of Chicago’s innovative leaps and bounds of the same era. The New York Times did a nice piece on him when he passed, which you can read HERE.

That’s a wrap. Peace!