I am not a DJ I am a DJ
by Clint on May 14th 2013
This morning I did a DJ set as part of the Together Festival in Boston. Performing electronic music for most people is sort of a hybrid of playing things, and DJing. (my rant on this). You could never play all the things on the recording, but you also try to play, or remix them, as much as you can.
In some sense then, I've never DJed before and today was my first time. Of course I have performed countless times exactly the same way I did today, but never with (mostly) other peoples music. I'm so used to performing my own music that, in a way, it feels disingenuous to DJ. I didn't just press play (mostly) but I loaded tracks into Ableton Live and made loops of different sections of things, and performed a sort of live mashup type of thing. Combining tracks together, and adding some of my own yet unreleased material. But even still it felt weird, like i was "getting credit" from the people there for music I didn't actually record. Interesting feeling. Not important I guess as I was SUPPOSED to be DJing other peoples music, but as a musician it sure did feel weird.
The DJ setup was outside in a parking lot. They had a nice setup with a canopy thing over the booth to minimize glare for the performer. I realized part way through the set that I have never performed electronic music in any way outside before. I've performed outside many times as a guitar player when i was a teenager. But since getting into electronic music, not once (that I can recall) was it outside. It was actually quite fun. Its' a completely different experience to essentially be sitting right off of a busy street (Massachusetts Avenue) with all the hustle and bustle of city life all around me, and cranking ambient drones and glitchy beats. In full sunlight. The wind blowing against my face and the PA speakers pointed at my head. Come to think of it, it wasn't really the performing that was interesting in this setting, it was the listening. Hearing these sorts of tracks at loud volumes outside in the city on a spring day was quite amazing. Someone else clearly agreed with me as they walked over to a bench next to where I was performing and sat down and closed their eyes in full bhudda position for a while.
What a great experience. I shall listen to music loud and outside again. Thank you to Pat DiPaola and the Together crew for booking me.
I recorded the entire set (resample feature in Ableton Live).
Here's a link to download it, and the full set list of things that i used in somewhat this order to make the set.
Download the full set (it wont always be here...): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18262281/synnack-Together-DJ-Set-05-14-2013.mp3.zip
01. StartFragment:000001 by synnack from v2.5
02.
03. Dissociation by Attack Sustain from Create.Destroy.Rebuild
04. V4641 Sgr (2nd Approach) by Ghosts in the Clocktower from I Enroute
05. capture this (II) by Byetone from death of a typographer
06. März (vs. Newt) by Hecq from 0000
07. From a Distance by The [Law-Rah] Collective from Field of View
08. Pure (Ena Remix) by Architect from Upload Select Remix.2
09. Virta 1. / Current 1. by Pan Sonic from Katodivaihe
10. Wurzel by Pole from the Waldgeschichten single
11. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground by Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld (ANBB) from Mimikry
12. Eleven Eleven Eleven by Sul.a from Ink Spot
13. Whitesuperstructure by Robert Lippok from Redsuperstructure
14. St0minux by 3tronik from Anpassung
15. Dowry by Cepia from Dowry
16. Recurring by Bonobo from Recurring, the Live Sessions EP
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