Am Ende hats knapp gereicht, die Tracks einmal durchzuhören und die wichtigsten Stellen zu markieren, um mir das Mixing zu vereinfachen. Für eine Übungssession hats leider nicht mehr gereicht und, oh dear, wär das gut gewesen. Ich hab wieder einmal gelernt, dass jede Art von Sound etwas ganz Eigenes ist zum Mischen und dass es für jeden Stil etwas Übung braucht. Spass gemacht hat es aber auf jeden Fall und ich hab sehr viel dazugelernt, wie diese Art von Techno gemischt werden könnte und wie die Selection gestaltet werden könnte, damit es den gewünschten Effekt erzielt, hypnotisierend, aber nicht langweilig zu sein. Wie es zu erwarten war, haperte es im Hinblick auf Vieles: die Selection hätte bessere Kenntnis der Tracks vertragen, beim Mixen hätte ich mehr Übung gebraucht und meine Konzentration war ziemlich am Ende. Trotzdem mag ich den Mix und sehe ihn als Teil eines Prozesses. Ich glaube, dass ich nun, nach ziemlich genau einem Jahr, in dem ich auflege, die Stilrichtungen gefunden habe, in denen ich mich vertiefen will. Darauf freue ich mich mega.
Euch wünsche ich viel Spass beim Hören und ich freue mich über Rückmeldungen und Verbesserungsvorschläge, wenn ihr reinhören mögt. Ich finde, dass es sich trotz meiner Versäumnisse lohnt.
******** English *********
'This time, I'm gonna be playing some techno music' is what I thought before this edition of Stromstoss residency. But what kind of techno should I be playing? I've never played strictly techno music and I have also been bored by most techno recently because it has either been too hard and/or was lacking the groove I'm looking for in the music I select. Inspired by a set by the Italian legend Donato Dozzy, I then decided that I want to play rather melodic and hypnotic techno or music from the psychedelic end of techno and acid. So I started looking for this kind of music and, oh dear, that was a challenge. What I normally do when I'm looking for music that I do not yet have any access to is listening to sets which inspire me and write down some tracks that are played and so some research of the labels these tracks originated and of the artists and their connections to other labels and artists and so on. However, this time around, this strategy didn't work because I didn't find a tracklist and Shazam only rendered awfully wrong answers. After two days of extreme frustration with the horribly boring music you find when you don't know where to look, I found at least some promising labels and artists. The only problem I was facing now, was the lack of time I had until I had to play the set. Hitherto, I could always use some tracks I already had and, more importantly, had already heard and played but, this time around, I had to do it all from scratch. On top of this, my week was already fully scheduled and I only had very limited time to prepare the set. That was especially stressful since I have never mixed a techno only set so far and I wanted to do a rehearsal set before I would play the final version.
In the end, I only managed to skim through the tracks I found and mark the most important changes in the tracks I selected, so that I would at least make the mixing a little easier. I couldn't record a rehearsal set and, oh dear, that would have been very useful. I have learned, yet again, that every kind of music makes for a different kind of mixing that needs to be learned and practised. It was still fun to play the set and I learned a lot during the process. One crucial insight was just how difficult it is with this kind of music to play a selection that is hypnotic while it does not become boring. As I expected considering the circumstances, many aspects of the mix are unsatisfying to me: the selection would require better knowledge of the tracks, for the mixing I would have needed more practise and I was lacking focus because I was tired and stressed. However, I'm still happy with the mix because it taught me a lot about mixing this kind of music and also because I'm pretty sure that I have now, after pretty much exactly a year of DJing, found the styles of music which I want to play and which I want to get better at selecting and mixing. In other words, I see it as part of a process that I'm keen on continuing and finding out what it will bring.
I hope you enjoy the mix despite its shortcomings and I'm very happy about comments and critique if you like to listen in.
Tracklist
Immortality - Zaliva-D
Dr Raw - Poperttelli
Mono No Aware - Avsluta
Subtle Bodies - Carmen Villain
Spiral Falls - Valentino Mora
Endurance 4 Re/Edit - Cannibald Records
The Drunken Ghost - Donato Dozzy
Magnetic Acid Two - Pye Corner Audio
11f Elevator Code - Nic Arizona pres. Anjuna Niv
2.7 - Karamika
Climate (Marco Shuttle's Moody Samba Treatment) - Giraffe
Bronze Object - Guan
Aurora - Donato Dozzy
Blind Spot - Terrain
Cosmic Creed - ORBE
Fluids In Motion - Azu Tiwaline & Forest Drive West
Ekpyrosis - Eric Cloutier
Scorpion - JXTPS
The Perfect Lover - Gabriella Vergilov
Muta 5 (Donato Dozzy Remix) - Leo Anibaldi
Oviraptor (Marco Shuttle Remix) - Space Drum Meditation
Alvaret (Logos Remix) - Pelican Company
Reasons Unknown - Feph
Nylon (Mike Derer Remix) - Materielle
Blonde Dimension (Jason Patrick & Mike Derer Remix)
Tempos Multiplos - Allana Letm
Ojo De Las Grayas - Animistic Beliefs
Midi Message - Cannibald Records
La Ketamine (Album Version) - Front de Cadeaux