This is going to sound pessimistic or jaded, but it’s really not.  I’m just ready to expand and I’m excited about it.  I’m ready to move beyond trying to promote these kiddie shows and catering to 47 types of crowd at once without selling my soul (that’s impossible, by the way… at least in a small town).  I’m done trying to recreate any particular scene and just do what it is what I want to do… and that’s a liberating feeling.  If people start picking up what I’m putting down, fantastic… that’s a lot better than trying to cater to everyone and gaining the interest of nobody because of it.

I’m ready to re-visit making a solid Internet presence for myself, so that if someone wants to find what I have to offer, they can… rather than going through established routes to convince someone to listen to me amongst the thousands of other people screaming for attention via the same route.

I’m ready to start treating everything like art again, instead of trying to put my own twist on established genres, methodologies, scenes, or ideologies.  I’m not stopping anything, just changing my approach… and I’m excited.  I will still play shows/clubs/events, I will still make dance (and other) music… maybe I will throw the occasional one-off show.  I am, however, backing out of the game of promoting weekly/monthly shows, though.  That’s something I fell into because of a lack of options, not because it’s where I want to focus all of my time and energy.  People know who I am now and they know how to find me.  I know who to talk to if I feel like I need to share something musically.  Now that I have options, it’s time to get back to why I’m in this in the first place… the music.

I think I want to start a regular podcast or radio show, for putting together mixes so I can still get that out of my system.  But I don’t want to do it with the intent of scoring gigs that don’t exist (“well I really want to share Track X, but I better include Track Y, which is dancier… else I’ll lose interest on the dancefloor”)… just for sharing amazing music with people who are feeling it.  As I mentioned earlier, I want to put it together as if I were putting together an artist album.  Get really down into the nitty gritty and spend a lot of time programming them, adding/removing, cutting up.  After all, I got into this because of music PRODUCTION, right?  Why shouldn’t I PRODUCE mixes instead of just mixing them?

The thing I enjoy about this whole thing is sharing a piece of myself to a receptive audience.  I don’t want to lose sight of that.

Of course I’ll still play dance music, especially at dance-oriented gigs.  In fact, I’ll still put together full-on 4×4 dance mixes, too.  Just, now, I don’t feel forced to.  I still want to rave out sometimes.  But lately, the most fun I’ve been having is playing special events… such as the Bachelor Auction for PUSH I played a while back.  There were no expectations, they just trusted me on a professional and musical level.  And I delivered, and they were happy.  And I had them dancing by the end, anyway.  But, I got to just share some damn music with some open-minded people who were really receptive to it.  Granted, I had the benefit of having someone who knows and trusts me in that department to book me, who knows I’m very professional and I play to the venue and crowd at hand.  But, it just feels good to go in somewhere and set a mood rather than do what people expect you to do.  After all, what is the point of a live DJ as opposed to an iPod?

So, all this to say… time to start making music for me, playing music for me, maybe throwing events for me… and sharing all of this with people who like it.  If you build it, they will come.  Or not.  But I’m gonna enjoy myself, so either way I win!  At a certain point, you realize that you’re trying to force things that aren’t happening into what you want to do, instead of just doing what you actually want to do.  That’s where I’m at… and hopefully some of you will be here with me on this journey!

Ahhh, that feels good to get off my chest.  Time to have some fun.

Tracklist:
01. Chymera – These Jagged Shards
02. Efdemin – There Will Be Singing (DJ Koze Remix)
03. Gorge – Erotic Soul (Marc Romboy Remix)
04. Christian Burkhardt – Chanel
05. Jamie Woon – Night Air (Ramadanman Refix)
06. Roberto Palmero – So Well
07. Johnny D – Orbitalife
08. Pantha Du Prince – Stick To My Side (Efdemin Version)
09. Andreas Saag – Dragons feat. Ernesto
10. Maya Jane Coles – What They Say
11. Maya Jane Coles – Humming Bird
12. Tovar – Give Me More
13. Gavin Froome – Sunsets

| Download Here |

This mix is intended to serve as my summer promo, so that’s why it’s listed as such (even though it’s not quite summer yet.) I named it “Eventide” because, after listening it through, it really reminded me of being outside as dusk is turning into night, when the sun is almost set. This is probably both due to the fact that two of the track names are “Night Air” and “Sunsets”, as well as the mood these tracks portray.

I strive to find tracks which I feel fit “my sound”, which is a slower (but very danceable) house groove with slight trance overtones… stuff that I find truly hypnotic and easy to get lost in, but still makes you want to move. I believe this mix portrays that sound well. One thing I like about this sound is that it is very versatile, in that it can work well when cranked up on a dance floor, or as listening music at your desk. I include a nice handful of little vocal surprises to keep things interesting.

Hope you enjoy. 

This was a very difficult project for me, as I always have trouble coming up with “favorites” for anything and I could have easily put together a 4 hour mix to get everything in. My approach was to try and give a good demonstration about where my influences come from. There is so much more that isn’t covered here, but alas, I had to keep it to 80 minutes. I know that this is more of a “mixtape” approach, but I would be lying if I said that the idea of which tracks would flow better into each other didn’t give me a method to help me narrow it down.
My taste is quite all over the place, and I don’t say that because I want to seem open-minded or overly accepting… I just like a lot of music. There are a few known favorites and a few more obscure ones to keep things interesting. I hope you enjoy!

Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky
Pink Floyd was a band that definitely needed to be in this mix. Choosing a track was difficult, but I knew it needed to be from “The Wall”. I spent a little time playing this song on the piano. As a child, I remember my father inputting this entire song, note-by-note, into a simple piece of music composition software and hearing it back in all it’s SID-chip glory many times… this may have helped spawn my interest in “computer music”. 

Chicane – Offshore (Ambient Mix)
This type of sound is what I really started to get into when I first discovered what I considered “trance” (though it was often progressive breaks or other genres). Honestly, most of my influence came from amateur artists (I actually wanted to include Echano – Imagine (2003 remake) in this mix, but it was unavailable to me at the time of mixing), but this is one of the bigger names.

Fear Factory – Timelessness
Though I used to listen to a lot of metal, and this is a metal band, this is actually a slow and emotive song from the album “Obsolete” that I used to listen to over and over again.

Project 86 – Star
Honestly, I wish I could include the whole “Drawing Black Lines” album of this little-known band, as really I just like it as a whole. This isn’t even my favorite track from the CD, but I had to pick one, and the DJ in me made me pick this one since it transitioned well from Timelessness. I couldn’t help it.

Madonna – Frozen
Though I’m not a huge all-out Madonna fan, the tracks I do like I REALLY like. This is one of them. Love the strings and percussion, and the dark atmosphere .

Enigma – Principles of Lust
Yeah, it’s a bit of an overdone attempt to be “ethnic”, but my father listened to a lot of Enigma when I was growing up and I took a liking to it (especially the MXMXC a.D. album). Could’ve included Sadeness, or this one.

Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again
Annie Lennox has such a cool voice, and the synths in this are great. It’s 80s-tastic, yet not over the top. I can literally remember hearing this song while sitting in my child seat in the car. So, it obviously made an impact. 

Kraftwerk – The Robots (1991 “The Mix” Version)
Another album I used to swipe from my parents was “The Mix”… essentially a bunch of remixes of Kraftwerk hits. Kraftwerk pretty much introduced me to the world of EDM and electro. My cousin and I would walk around singing this song.

Delerium – Innocente (Tiesto Mix)
I can’t believe I have a Tiesto song in here, as I’m honestly not a huge fan. But, there’s just something about this track that always did it for me. Always loved the filtered pads.

Bone Thugs N Harmony – Days of our Lives
And now for something completely different, lol. Hip-hop was a huge part of my musical interest (and, honestly, still is). I could have picked any number of artists for my “rap” inclusion, but I always loved the sing-song, cadenced approach that Bone portrayed (especially back in these days). Part of me really wanted to pick “Notorious Thugs”, but this song just felt better for this mix.

Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation
Aww yeah. This song gets me pumped and makes me wish I had a whole army of people behind me dancing in concert. DIAF if you don’t like this song.

Garbage – Hammering In My Head
Energetic yet not over the top… emotive yet doesn’t take itself seriously… this song really has a little bit of something for everyone. I borrowed the “Version 2.0″ CD from a friend and liked the whole thing, but found myself listening to this one on repeat.

Parliament – Flashlight
Funk. Damn this song makes me feel good.

Morris Day & The Time – Jungle Love
Continuing the funk theme… my parents had this on vinyl and used to play it for me. I can remember singing “oh-e-oh-e-oh” as one of my earliest memories. Couldn’t get away with not including this one. 

Peter Gabriel – Big Time
Heard a lot of Peter Gabriel growing up, and “Sledgehammer” seemed too easy. “Big Time” is a really cool track, and I love to get my 80s on to it.

Skywind – O2
A very heartfelt rock track that is very personal to me. This is a barely-known band from the States and I don’t even know if they are still together. I actually found them on mp3.com (back in the day when it was an awesome place to find music) and started following them. Had the pleasure of seeing them in concert once. This track helped me get through some rough times.

Download Link: http://www.dmichael.org/Music/classics.mp3

Recently recorded this mix the other night after the beautiful weather succeeded in it’s quest to put me in a good mood.  I realized that this recording is truly representative of the way I actually play out (which I seem to have trouble doing when putting together a “studio” mix), so I decided to use it as my new promo.  I have this whole dance-inducing groovy/loopy deep sound with airy overtones thing going on lately, and I’ve been rather happy with it.

As always, feedback is much appreciated.  | Download Here |

Tracklist:

Jacob Thiessen – I’m An Unimmigrant [Minimal and Melodies Music]
Roberto Rodriguez feat. Max C. – About This Love (Crazy P Vocal Remix)  [Compost Black Label]
Saccobros – Remember Afterqwality [Elegant Bit]
Matthias Meyer – Tout Va Bien (KiNK Remix) [liebe*detail spezial]
Tovar – Give Me More [Candy Music]
The Runners – London Thing (Soul Minority Remix) [Dirt Crew Recordings]
D. Ramirez & Matt Tolfrey – Bounce To Me (Lauhaus Remix) [Phonica Records]
Hermanez – Soms [Leena Music]
David Pher – Harare [Glückskind Schallplatten]
Jooris Voorn – Blank [Green]
Bent – As You Fall (Guy J Remix) [G&E Analogue]
Jooris Voorn – Blank (Reprise)

Winter 2009 Promo Mix

My latest continuous DJ mix, “Two Space Heaters and a Garage”, is now available for download and serves as my Winter 2009 promo.

Click here to download (right-click, save as…)

Considering that I live in Midwest Ohio, my goal is usually to put together a set that is somewhat “accessible” while still playing tracks I would enjoy playing out. I believe that I have accomplished that here. It is intended to show fairly broad/eclectic tastes, without really starting much of a scarf party.

The name derives from a quite literal scenario… I recently moved and don’t have my studio and DJ booth set up yet. I mixed this set in my garage in the freezing cold, and initially my two space heaters kept tripping the breaker. I eventually had to switch to one.

Mixed on a combination of Vinyl and Traktor Pro/Macbook Pro.

01. Damian Lazarus – Memory Box (Damian Lazarus Club Remix) [Get Physical Music]
02. Lee Foss – Turning Tricks [Culprit]
03. Mirko Loko – Tahktok [Cadenza]
04. Kraftwerk – Radioactivity (1991 “The Mix” Version) [Elektra]
05. Reboot – Caminado [Sei Es Drum]
06. Cesar Mereville, Pablo Cahn-Speyer – Tribute [Cadenza]
07. Saeed Younan – Backroom Honey [Viva Music]
08. Jooris Voorn – We’re All Clean (Extended Mix) [Rejected]
09. Shiha, Dr. K, Nii feat. Sarah Blacker – Am Alive (Martin Roth Home Is Where We Belong Remix) [Frisky Records]
10. Camille Jones feat. Abdullah S – Difficult Guys (Lulu Rouge Remix)[disco:wax]
11. Knee Deep – All Nite [KD Digital]
12. Mihai Popoviciu, Markus Homm, Jay Bliss – Bis Co [Diynamic]
13. Hook The Captain – Temple (J-Punch Tribal Mix) [System Recordings]