I should be enjoying a hangover right now - I would have been DJing last night.
Two months since it came to an end and it was a pretty fitting night.
I couldn't find anywhere to stay over so I decided to come home the next morning (via an after-party).
On warm-up duties, as usual, but with the hope and expectation of more people there than usual I had decided that I would try to get to a party style by the end of the set.
No time to practice, I had about 4 hours of tracks that I really, really wanted to play - I wanted to fit a couple of favourites from over the years in, I had some new tracks that I was really keen to play too.
But I also wanted to express my annoyance and upset at the night coming to an end - so I wanted some darkness in there too. Not too much, but enough.
The darkness came from tracks like Geometry Engine from Monolake - something I recently bought on vinyl and have played a few times. I did manage to fit in quite a few dark tracks, quite bassline-led kind of techno - but not techno.
I sneaked in some techno and trance - one of the curiosities of the night is that the only requests I had were for techno - the crowd was actually a pretty good crowd, enhanced by a good amount of friends being out.
It wasn't without difficulties - the mixer kept cutting out the bass when mixing...at the time I concluded (after a panic) that it was a problem with the monitor speakers so wasn't too fussed about it...only after did I realise that it was the mixer not recognising changes in the bass levels.
If you listen to the recording, then you'll notice a few times where the bass comes in at odd moments.
I only played around 30-40 minutes of minimal before going into house music - and even the minimal had a moment of recognition. I do love my minimal - but the crowd at the Turtle were never that into it.
Apart from the bass levels issue, I was quite proud of my work...it wasn't perfect, one or two tracks I wouldn't have played with hindsight.
Will I DJ again?
I hope so. I haven't got the urge to even have a mix right now, but it will come back.
My priority by a long way is making a success of my new career. If I have spare time then I'd rather be practising coding than DJing.
We shall see.