Purple Turtle Aftermath

It’s been 3 months since my previous DJ set.  I was a tad downhearted about the situation but at the same time not overly fussed – my recent priority has been studying as opposed to DJing.  DJing costs money, needs a lot of preparation and brings a hangover – totally incompatible with trying to study JavaScript.

Part of me was wondering why I was bothering to try to be a DJ, I even vaguely considered giving up the dream - yet I spend all day listening to new music, dreaming of playing and what reactions certain tracks would get.

So I couldn’t refuse the offer to DJ for two of my absolute most favourite people in the whole world.  Let’s face it – if it weren’t for Martin & JP giving me an opportunity and still believing in me, I would still be scratching around trying to persuade someone to give me a set.

And it was in the basement of the newly-refurbished Purple Turtle.  The mixer still didn’t have any missing knobs, the CDJs worked (2000’s no less) and the soundsystem was more than decent enough for the venue.  Things worked!  Other clubs take note.

Martin & JP did the first hour – I remember the times that I used to go support them but couldn't stand their music.  I was most impressed and a tiny bit surprised at just how underground their music was.  I was planning on playing some techno but I couldn't follow 120bpm underground house with Marcel Dettmann.

So I started my set with some proper deep house – I like to plan and practice my first two tracks to make sure I have that confidence boost for the rest of the set – I had two different beginnings planned, I wish I had had a third!  I didn't even practice my more underground music.

The rest was off the cuff – a fair proportion of the tracks I had played when practicing during the week before – a few I had played back in August.  But there was no plan as such in place.

There was quite a crowd of dancers that JP & Martin had built up – I did lose a few after a while so decided to dig out a little 80’s surprise in the below form:

 

I followed that by the deliciously dark After Dark by &ME – one of my favourite tracks of the year.

 

Much of the rest of my two-hour set I went into house-mode, quite jacking at times with some glimpses of musical recognition for the crowd – and I managed to sneak in some warm-up Sven-style techno, including Get Together by Gary Beck – my favourite tune of the moment.

I am really happy with my mixing – I do recall one reasonably bad mix, though it was more a case of a bad timed fade – the 2000’s do seem to be easy to beatmatch on.  But apart from that I thought I showed more confidence and ideas than previously – cutting tracks and teasing the crowd occasionally, dropping out the bass, playing two tracks in full at once with different EQs, etc.  I tried things that I normally only have the confidence to do at home.  And they worked.

There was a second set too though lots of beer had flowed by this point.  I sent it about as dark as I thought I could get away with.  Overall I played for probably not far off 3 hours.  And loved every single minute of it.

Nobody told me to turn it down, nobody told me to turn it up, nobody asked me to play Prodigy - though one girl did tell me my music was boring.  I told her I love boring music.  I did have to tell one rather hard-looking dreadlocked dude that there was no MCing tonight.  He gave me a short glare but I stood my ground.

Being self-critical that I am, I do feel that I tried to play too many of my favourite tunes and too many differing styles of music though I am probably being overly harsh.

I wanted to see what people would dance to – and they would dance to pretty much anything – minimal, techno, dark and light music – though particularly the more jacking style of house music that a large proportion of my music was.  I even flipped a couple of tracks into reverse for a bit – they still danced.

I think probably because I haven't played for 3 months and I had so much different music to play, I did find it more difficult than usual to stick to one style - the lesson I learnt was that I need to work on my set-building technique - something quite glaringly obviously to me when put together with just how brilliantly JP & Martin had put together their set.

Hopefully there is not only the potential for the night itself to be a regular occurrence, but also for me to play for them again.

I know I am biased but I really think something special could grow down there.

If you don't already then please do follow me on Mixcloud and/or Facebook to make me look more popular so I get more bookings ;-)   And more importantly please follow my friends at Dark Matter to find out when the next event is.

That should be enough arse-licking to get another set ;-)