A few notes I jotted down on the songs I chose for my latest DJ mix, SPARBER x OAK:
1. Back Way, by Cham ft. O - I've been a huge fan of dancehall producer Dave Kelly ever since the early 2000s when I learned that he wrote Foxy Brown's
Tables Will Turn track (2001) as well as Ms. Thing's 2004 debut album,
Miss Jamaica. Back Way is so slow and infectious and yet hard to mix with, which is why I challenged myself to build a mixtape beginning with it. I added the Hot 97 airhorns to get around Soundcloud's copyright blocker and because who doesn't love a Hot 97 air horn?
2. Fire (Urban Shakedown Remix), by Prizna - When drum and bass first came out, the ragga tracks with Jamaican vocalists were always my favorite. I bought
Toasted: Massive Ragga Jungle on CD when it first came out (
awesomest packing ever too) and Prizna's track was always my favoite.
3. Renegade Berberse, by Venus X - Venus' tracks is such a brilliant mixture of middle eastern sounds with drum and bass, though I only used a small snippet of it because the sound quality wasn't so great on the rest of the version that I have.
4. Wine and Stomp, by Kingdom - I've known Ezra/Kingdom since college and have watched and listened to him grow into an incredible producer over the years. This was just a quick intro he threw onto a 2009 mix he made for Discobelle and I've always wanted to reedit it / extend it / listen to it on repeat ever since I first heard it.
5. Cook Cook, DJ Mowgly - Much like Prizna's track, I found this track infectious for its mixture of drum and bass beats with dancehall vocals. I remember seeing the video for this tune late one night on MTV's electronic music video show, AMP and thinking whoa! I need this NOW.
6. HOLLUP (Rizzla's Around the World Remix), Nina B Blanka - Brooklyn-based producer Rizzla is killing it right now with his dancehall / soca / hard house mixes and this is just one example of his brilliance. How can you not love a soca beat mixed with a sample of ATC's Around The World?
7. Eve, by Eve ft. Miss Kitty - I've always loved Ruff Ryders' first lady and her newest single/album dropped just as I was making this mix. She also did a surprise performance at Frankie Sharp's short-lived Friday party earlier this year, which I thought was pretty cool of her. Not much else to say except that I'm still Team E.V.E. after all these years.
8. Still Speedin' (Doorly Remix), by Sway - Loleatta Holloway Love Sensation sample. Need I say more?
9. What To Do, by French Fries - I've been following the career of up-and-coming producer French Fries for a while years now and he seems to know just how to mix the perfect amount of house, booty and cuntiness into a number of his tracks.
10. Couture, by Rushmore - New York DJ superstar Michael Magnan turned me on to this track, which borrows its stab from Michael Jackson's Bad. Sonically, it's so simple yet so fantastic in the way that the sounds grow and bounce around to keep you listening and dancing.
11. Work This Pussy, by Go Bitch Go - I recently inherited a ton of records from a friend who had danced his way through New York City's Sound Factory era and discovered this gem, which mixes a ton of popular samples I had previously heard but never in this particular arrangement.
12. Fajah Lourens, by Sonidos - I've always enjoyed tribal drumming sounds of all sorts yet the genres of tribal and progressive house have always scared me. This is an example of a newer tribal sound that I've been getting into: simple and rhythmic without a lot of the unnecessary progressive noise.
13. Serve, by C/V/N/T TR4XXX - A new genre of ballroom / vogue house has been emerging in the past few years with an abundance of samples from the Masters at Work classic The Ha Dance. This particular track is a throwback to
Miss Fernando's Serve but with a cuntier and more acid house slant, both of which I love love love.
14 . Big Boob Bitch, by Murder Mark ft. Dai Burger and TT The Artist - I love me a Baltimore club track and it seems that B-more's Murder Mark has been stepping it up and following in the footsteps of Baltimore heavyweights Scottie B. and DJ Technics. Also, much love for NYC's Dai Burger and TT the Artist, both of whom I've been loving.
15. What is Guru, by Renaissance Man - a Sparber classic. This track has been out for a few years now but never seems to bore me or get old.
16. Sexy War, by Coyu - Such a major peak time slash I'm-ready-to-take-you-there-NOW kind of track. Coyu's follow-ups have also been promising so I can't wait to see what the rest of 2013 holds for him.
17. Edge of a Vortex, by Vin Sol - I DJ in San Francisco quite often and one of my DJ/production buddies named RJ turned me onto the music of his friends Vin Sol and Matrixxman. Both have been turning it of late, especially this track which serves a funky bassline and a sick trumpet simultaneously.
18. Forever (Prosumer's Hold Me Touch Me Remix), by Murat Tepeli - I ordered this vinyl-only release from Europe a few weeks back but only got around to ripping it the same weekend that Prosumer and Murat Tepeli came to DJ in New York City. The day after their gig (which I missed), I played this tune at Paradisco and multiple ran up to me asking, WHAT IS THIS?! HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS?! PROSUMER PLAYED THIS LAST NIGHT!
19. Horsey, by DONKEY - this is an unreleased DONKEY track that I made from Tony's Bitch Track by Frank Ski and some instruments of my own. I've always loved all of Miss Tony's lines on all the songs I've heard him sing on but this is my favorite by far. I only wish he had put out more records with more lines like "Oooooh bitch, that ain't fair, give that horsey back his hair!"
20. The Ha Dub Rewerk`d, by MikeQ - After hating the overuse of Ha Dance samples in ballroom house tracks, I began to love them again, especially the opening one on this track, which came to my attention when the Carry Nation began playing it over everything and anything and it all sounds great.
21. Elevated, by Vjuan Allure - Vjuan Allure is one of the vogue/ballroom kingpins when it comes to production and has now released an EP on Diplo's Mad Decent record label. Apparently this isn't the only use of the "elevator up and down" sample but it's simple, catchy and cunt.
22. Do Da Do (Hardhouse Dub), by Robotman - I ripped this one from a vinyl that I had tracked down after watching a Youtube marathon of The New Dance Show, where a ton of early 90s house, techno and electro from Chicago, Detroit and beyond is still waiting to be rediscovered. Robotman is one of Richie Hawtin's early aliases and I marvel at how simple and fantastic this song still sounds 20 years later.
23. Y? (The Fuzzy Fruit Mix), by Kiwi Dreams - A classic, though I have my own edit of the second half of this song (which is the part included on the mixtape) since it's all I ever want to listen to. What better way to close out my mixtape for OAK than to remind listeners that it's ovah for me (for now).
Check out OAK's photos and write-up of me at their blog over HERE.
