3rd Room Collections, Vol. 7

Well, here we are again…only six months since I last put out a mix! How time seems to fly sometimes. Okay, so it’s not like six months just flew by without me noticing, but I’ll just say that there have been six months of “decent” excuses for not putting out a mix. However, they’re just that: excuses. So I finally said no more of that and got down to putting together another mix. I’ll describe the mix in a few, but first, a word about “flow”.

Back in the day, I used to be the guy who would put mix tapes together for my friends and family members. Something these people used to credit me with, and something I was always proud of, was that my mix tapes had a great “flow” to them. Now, “flow” can mean different things to different people, but what it meant to my friends and family was that when you got a mix from me, it had a beginning, a middle, and an end. It was, if I may wax poetic, a “musical journey”. This convention sticks with me today whenever I DJ or put together a mix. There’s usually a warm-up period, the “floor filler” or bigger tracks, and then a cool-down segment. I think the “cool-down” segment is a bit unconventional in the DJ realm since typically you just keep people going until they can’t go anymore or until the lights come on, whichever comes first. But that tends to be my style, and it may be relevant to this new mix more than any other that I’ve put out so far (though I think you can go back to some of my other mixes and notice this convention in action more than you might have before). I figured I’d go ahead and explain this “flow” concept so that you can understand why I put together the tracks in this new mix the way I did. Anyhow, on to the mix…

This is a liquid drum & bass mix. You could also say “liquid funk”. And while that wasn’t the term used when I was introduced to the genre, if you follow the etymology of the term (here), you can see that they are one and the same. At any rate, my first real introduction to this style was a track by High Contrast called “Racing Green”. So, appropriately, I’ve decided to start off my mix with this track. And while I could have probably done a whole mix with High Contrast tracks and remixes (since I like the guy’s work so much), I decided to be judicious and only included one track from his latest album. So if you like High Contrast, you’ll probably enjoy this mix. Also of note, this mix will probably expose me as fairly amateur at mixing DnB tracks. To be quite honest, I can’t say I’ve listened to a ton of DnB mixes in my time, so I’m not even sure if I’ve got the right technique for it. Maybe if you know more about DnB mixing strategies, you can contact me and give me some pointers. On the whole, though, I feel pretty good about what I did. Here goes…

DJ eXb
3rd Room Collections, Vol. 7
7/21/08
Length = 74:43
(All tracks are Original Mixes)

1. High Contrast - Racing Green
2. Danny Byrd ft. Brookes Brothers - Gold Rush
3. Sigma - All Blue
4. Brookes Brothers - F Zero
5. Brookes Brothers and Futurebound - Dawn Treader
6. Metrik - Your World
7. Morebeat ft. Gabanna - Goodnight
8. Matrix and Futurebound - Womb
9. Mistabishi - No Matter What
10. Quivver - Chasin’ A Feeling (WHITE)
11. High Contrast - Eternal Optimist
12. Bachelors of Science - Song For Lovers
13. Bachelors of Science - The Ice Dance
14. Paul Sg and Madmen&Poets ft. Keri Greenaway - Rainy Day
15. Infuzoria - Affection
This is an all Beatport mix (except as indicated).

DOWNLOAD HERE (right click, save as…)

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Minc Lounge Residency

Here’s the lowdown on where you can see me and my DJ partner, Tony, every Wednesday night. I’m very excited to have a residency at my favorite bar/club in Dallas, and I hope that you have a chance to come on out and enjoy the big beat, electro, and breaks that we’ll be playing. Make sure you say hello if you come by!

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LIVE GIG: March 23, 2008 - Minc Lounge

UPDATE: Here’s the flyer for the event.

Work sucks. Well, not so much that the work itself sucks, just that my work tends to take up a lot of my time. So unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to listen to new music or put down a new mix as of late. However, I do have a live gig to announce, which I’m very excited about.

My DJ partner, Tony, and I (collectively, we are known as “The Fourth Floor”…inside reference, we can explain later) will be playing at Minc Lounge (Website, MySpace, Map) on the night of Sunday, March 23rd, from 9pm-2am. Yes, that is the night of Easter Sunday, but we’re hoping for a couple of things:

1) People will be sick of family and what not, and would like to get down to something “less religious” that night.
2) People will have Monday off.

But even if you don’t fall under either of those categories (or don’t think you will), we’d still love to have you out for at least a little while. Minc Lounge is one of my absolute favorite bar/club venues in all of Dallas. The vibe is great, the room is great, the patio is great, the bartenders are great (hello, Swanson!)…everything about the place is wonderful. Just make sure you park in the dirt lot behind the place so you don’t have to pay…save the money for the drinks. :)

If you’re not familiar with Minc, take a look at this GOOGLE MAP. The bar is on the corner of the building just southeast of the “A” marker on the map. You can see a parking lot with a few cars in it, and that lot is directly adjacent to the bar. However, DON’T park in this lot. It is a pay lot. You can see the dirt lot that I was referring to, which you can enter from 1st Ave.

Bring yourself and bring your friends. We’d like to have a great showing this first night so that we can turn it into a regular monthly night. Sunday nights can be a bit of a struggle for Minc when they don’t have things scheduled, so let’s help bring a great venue some good business together. We look forward to seeing you there!

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3rd Room Collections, Vol. 6

As promised, here is the latest version of the 3rd Room Collections series. It’s a Progressive mix, a little more on the “melodic” side than the “deeper” side. I’ve been wanting to put together a mix like this for awhile, and I’m happy with the results. Let me know what you think… Enjoy!

DJ eXb
3rd Room Collections, Vol. 6
1/24/08
Length = 75:48

1. Matt Darey ft. Tiff Lacey - Sum of All Fears (Matt Darey Mix)
2. Talisman & Hudson - Leaving Planet Earth (Dousk Remix)
3. Vibrasphere - 102 Miles From Here (Jerome Isma-Ae Remix)
4. Pryda - Europa (Original Mix)
5. Deadmau5 - Not Exactly (Original Mix)
6. Ercola & Heikki L - Deep At Night (Adam K & Soha Remix)
7. Fragma - Toca’s Miracle (Inpetto Remix)
8. Reeves ft. Alanah - Lonely (Original Mix)
9. Trafik - Your Light (Luke Chable vs Trafik Re-edit)
10. Adam Freeland - Silverlake Pills (Gui Boratto Remix)
11. Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life (Original Mix)
12. Micah - Greenstone (Sad Mix)
This is an all Beatport mix.

DOWNLOAD HERE (right click, save as…)

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Happy Wednesday After MLK Day!

(For those of you who saw the old title of this post…don’t ask me why, but I have been confusing MLK Day with President’s Day for the past few weeks. I’m clueless as to the reason. Anyway…)

There’s always an excuse for not posting, right?

Anyway, I wanted to wish all my blog readers a happy 2008. I’m very much looking forward to 2008 myself, and have set some goals concerning my DJ career that hopefully will get me out and performing far more than ever before. Stay tuned.

Back to my excuses…I’ve had a lot of projects going on since Christmas, and most of them are finally wrapping up. On that note, I’ve finally laid down another mix, and it will be posted by tomorrow. You guys are way too patient with me. :)

DJ eXb MySpace!

And the promotion train keeps chugging along…woo woo!

Without getting too caught up in the “viral marketing” fads that comprise today’s Internet, I have done something I said I’d never do: created a MySpace page. Granted, this isn’t a “personal” MySpace, rather more of a “promotional” MySpace for my alter ego…so I contend that I’m still holding true to my principles. At any rate, here’s the link:

www.myspace.com/djexb07

The idea behind the MySpace page is to get the DJ eXb name out to a larger group of people, and then once the live dates start POURING in…*cough*…I’ll be able to keep people abreast of performances and/or upcoming mixes/releases. As with all of this stuff, it’s a constant trial-by-fire, so we’ll see how this bit pans out. Add me as a friend and let the fun begin! (Note: I initially screwed up the “adding me as a friend” process, but it should be fixed now. If you still have problems, post a comment and I’ll address the issue as best as I can.)

Christmas Mashup Problem in iTunes

For anyone that may have been trying to download my Christmas mashup, “Frosty Don’t Play That,” in iTunes prior to today, there was an error in the feed that was making iTunes link to “3rd Room Collections, Vol. 5″ instead of “Frosty.” I had incorrectly linked to “3RC v5″ when I made the original Christmas Mashup post, and it kept creating the media enclosure around “3RC v5″ instead of “Frosty,” even after I corrected it in the blog. So, I had to delete the old Mashup post and create the new one below (hence the December 10 date instead of November 25), and now it works properly. I know that there aren’t a ton of people subscribed via iTunes, but I figured I’d give an update that all is now well on that front.

My Christmas Mashup

Now that we’re done stuffing ourselves with, uh…”thanks”…we can now move on to the season of sleigh bells, Furbys, and Tickle-Me-Elmos. Yes, it’s Christmas-time, or maybe just “holiday-time” if you’re worried about being PC. At any rate, I feel like it’s time to share my second “original” work with the world.

[As an aside, my first original work was a trance track called "Rainstorm" released under the artist name "eXperimental breakdown". It was housed at the old Mp3.com, which means it was "lost" when the site got bought out by CNET. At the time of the buyout, I was no longer using the old email address I had registered under, so I didn't receive an email about what to do if I wanted to keep my old information online. Either way, I wasn't keeping track of the song anymore, so it ultimately didn't mean a whole lot to "lose" the website. I obviously still have copies of the song, and the original Cakewalk Express (!) arrangement file. Although I liked the track, the final production was not as good as it could have been. If I find the time, I may revive the track with a few changes and some better production value.]

This second “original” work is actually a mashup. The primary basis of the track is an old recording of “Frosty the Snowman,” artist unknown. The voice is familiar enough, but the file I had of the track did not have the artist with it. It was just a “found” track. If you can identify the artist, please submit a comment and let me know who it is. The rest, I’ll leave to you to discover. Needless to say, the title of the track, “Frosty Don’t Play That,” ought to give you a clue about the era of the rest of the music. (The one track that doesn’t entirely fit is “I Wish” by Skee Lo. However, the sample from “I Wish” serves as the main drum track, so it’s kind of important to the song.)

I put this track together 4 years ago when I was home for the holidays. I don’t even remember why the heck I decided to do it, but I just sat down with the laptop one day and decided a Frosty mashup sounded like a good idea. It only took me a couple of evenings to put it together, so it’s not the most perfect mashup production you’ll ever hear, but it was fun to make and it still brings a smile to my face. Feel free to spread it about if it does the same for you.

Enjoy…and happy holidays!

DJ eXb
“Frosty Don’t Play That [Mashup]“
December 2003
Length = 4:15

DOWNLOAD HERE (right click, save as…)

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Thanksgiving

Since we’re in a time of giving thanks, I’d like to express my thanks for the following:

- For everyone who’s visited my blog and taken the time to listen to my mixes
- For everyone who’s told a friend about my blog/mixes
- For everyone who’s enjoyed a song or two out of my mixes, and then purchased the music rather than downloading it illegally
- For everyone who’s made comments on the blog. I don’t always get around to responding, but your feedback makes it all worth it

I’d also like to extend a special thanks to someone who I meant to thank a long while ago.

On my very first mix, I used a song called “Please Call Again” by the artist, Andy BopH. Being that it was basically my first “published” mix, and essentially my first foray into the blogosphere, I wasn’t sure how many people would listen, or how many people would comment, or how it would be received. After my good friend Kacey, the second comment I ever received was from Andy BopH himself. While this is a seemingly innocuous comment, it represented everything that I wanted out of the blog/podcast in the first place. Here was an artist/DJ, far more established than I ever might be, taking the time to say thanks for using a song of his. When I saw the comment, I was so giddy it was shameful. But either way, I was even more motivated than when I decided to do a podcast in the first place. So, out of my gratitude, I encourage you to visit Andy’s MySpace, listen to his mixes and his music (his bootleg of Ian Brown’s “Fear” is particularly good), and if you live anywhere near Norwich in the UK, go and see him play.

Thanks again to Andy, to my close friends and supporters, and to everyone who takes the time to read and listen. It’s all for you!

–Mike

Artist Spotlight - Fine Taste

I’ve decided to break from the “3rd Room Collections” convention and try something a little different. Way back in 3rd Room Collections, Vol. 2, I used the Fine Taste remix of Nick Hogendoorn & Eelke Kleijn’s track, “Where Are My Goggles?” So the other day, while looking for some new tracks, I decided to take a look at the music of Fine Taste since I liked the style of “Goggles” as much as i did. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. It turns out that Fine Taste create just the kind of music that I’ve been into lately: a solid mix of progressive and electro. Throw in some nice big beats, and they’ve become a bit of an inspiration. Based on my enjoyment of the Fine Taste catalog, I’ve decided that I’ll be creating the occasional “Artist Spotlight” to showcase the work of one artist/group at a time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to show you the scope of work of an artist or two that you might not otherwise have discovered.

Originally when I came up with the Artist Spotlight concept, I thought about doing all tracks in chronological order. However, when putting together this first one, I realized that it just flowed better putting the tracks together in a more “stylistic” fashion, if that makes sense. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

DJ eXb Artist Spotlight - Fine Taste
Catalog w/Release Dates: Discogs Page
Myspace
Beatport Catalog

10/31/07
Length = 42:37

1. Fine Taste - Sidewalk Chalk (Original Mix) BP
2. Fine Taste - Superficial (Original Mix) BP
3. Nick Hogendoorn & Eelke Kleijn - Where Are My Goggles (Fine Taste Remix) BP
4. Fine Taste - More Grey Than Blue (Original Mix) BP
5. Fine Taste - Break The Lock (Original Mix) BP
6. Fine Taste - Midnight Clash (Original Mix) BP
7. Probspot - Stalker (Fine Taste Remix) BP

DOWNLOAD HERE (Right click, save as…)