Downtown Selector Year Two

My third year in the city was a challenging one wherein I saw Cataclysm and Nirvana, Death and Rebirth. I’m finally getting the hang of piloting my Ship of Theseus just as the winds are beginning to pick up. See you on the East River, ahoy!

Physically mixed live for the third anniversary of my move.

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Tracklisting

  1. Zounds – Subvert
  2. This Moment in Black History – Paint Me a Picture
  3. Jimmy Eat World – The Authority Song
  4. The Long Winters – New Girl
  5. Blonde Redhead – Melody Experiment
  6. Bear Claw – Romantic Period
  7. Packs – Melt the Honey
  8. The Berries – Prime
  9. Wombo – Overwhelming
  10. PJ Harvey – Good Fortune
  11. Fine – Days Incomplete
  12. Telekinesis – I Saw Lightning
  13. A.S.O. – Love in the Darkness
  14. Minks – Araby
  15. The Cure – The Upstairs Room
  16. Darwin Deez – Radar Detector
  17. Beach House – Rough Song
  18. Matt Berry – Farewell Summer Sun

Downtown Selector Year One

I wanted to celebrate my second year of living in Manhattan with another mix that pulls tracks from my entire life so far (now that I have a significant portion of my record collection here). Songs that I discovered this year sit back-to-back with songs that I loved jamming in elementary school, mixed with a little bit of everything else in between. A summary of the past as a mirror held up to the future to shine a light forward.

Mixed live on the second anniversary of my move.

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Tracklisting

  1. Brave Irene – No Fun
  2. The Dickies – Nights in White Satin
  3. Cheap Trick – Oh Caroline
  4. Velvet Gentleman – Consume
  5. No Age – Depletion
  6. Reagan Youth – USA
  7. The Drums – I Need Fun in My Life
  8. The Cure – Jumping Someone Else’s Train
  9. The Radio Dept – You’re Not in Love
  10. The Magnetic Fields – The Village in the Morning
  11. Carla Dal Forno – Mind You’re On
  12. Cranes – Jewel (Robert Smith Remix)
  13. Pickle Darling – King of Joy
  14. Yumi Zouma – Hey Now!
  15. Culture Club – Time (Clock of the Heart)
  16. Lavarr the Starr – Glass Top Roof (The One)
  17. Free Nationals – Beauty & Essex (feat. Daniel Ceasar & Unknown Mortal Orchestra)
  18. Surprise Chef – Spiky Boi
  19. Real Bad Man – Dig It Up (feat. Boldy James & Kool G Rap)
  20. Freddie Gibbs – FBC
  21. House of Pain – On Point (Lethal Dose Remix)

The Quiet Hours

I began collecting music into compilations in high school and, since then, it is a background process running in my brain at any given time. I enjoy weaving song threads together that feel naturally sequenced and lead the listener down a path. Often there is a general theme but sometimes I also just want to collect a bunch of hot tracks together so that I don’t forget about them.

A lot of music passes through my ears and the vast majority of songs never leave a trace but occasionally one will stand out and get caught in my mental nets where it starts forming crystals of ideas around itself, collecting other like-minded songs into clusters of thought & feeling. Sometimes these idea clusters knock loose and drop out and I refine them and make “finished products” and distribute to friends. I’ve found that, for me, these compilations are a form of emotional time capsule. A humorously “me” way of journaling, if you will.

Massive thanks to Dustin for the reminder on this particular one (as well as providing the tracklisting and files as I no longer had either). Half my lifetime later, returning to it with fresh ears for the first time, I was stunned by that time capsule effect. I’m still parsing through my present-day reactions to it but it has been a fascinating experience to revisit something which I had imagined to be completely lost to time. There are artists on here that I never listened to before or since and yet, nearly 20 years later, I still remembered every lyric and chord change as if I’d been listening on repeat for weeks.

There are a number of songs on here that aren’t available on streaming sites which only serves as a warning about digital-only art disappearing in the winds of time. Most of my favorite tracks on this fall in that category, which is a shame. The Shawn Smith one is just absolutely mind-blowing and it only ever existed on a CDR of a live show that I ordered off of his website at some point. The best art is the hardest to find I suppose. The quality of vocal performances across the board here are all extremely high – I must’ve been on a kick of some sort at the time. Two of these are covers that are maybe better than the original versions? I mean, I don’t really know how you could better “Once Around the Block” but KoC’s extremely minimal rework takes it to those levels for me.

The rush of memories and feelings left me wondering if I somehow sealed away some sort of psychological virus in the compilation’s creation and now that I’ve cracked the seals of time and have been breathing in that ancient air, my body is reacting to it with its current-day defenses. Some songs I understand in new ways and can appreciate from an alternate perspective. Some sting twice as hard and some now soothe instead. So fascinating! I hope that you, too, have similar psychological milestones that you can leverage in order to reorient yourself in the stream of time…

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View PDF of the cover & insert

The Quiet Hours Cover & Insert

Tracklisting

  1. Death Cab for Cutie – Title Track
  2. PJ Harvey – One Line
  3. The Cardigans – 03.45: No Sleep
  4. Kings of Convenience – Once Around the Block
  5. The Long Winters – Unsalted Butter
  6. Blonde Redhead – For the Damaged
  7. Shawn Smith – Suffering (Live)
  8. Mono – Where Am I
  9. Iron and Wine – Such Great Heights
  10. Rogue Wave – Man-revolutionary!
  11. Josh Rouse – Knights of Loneliness
  12. Clearlake – Just off the Coast
  13. The Walkmen – Hang on Siobhan
  14. Cristina Donà – Goccia
  15. The Red Thread – From the Divide
  16. Doves – Last Broadcast

Archived Radio Show: The Subset – April 28, 2009 (10PM – Midnight)

Archival recording of a radio show originally broadcast on 88.1 FM WRFL Lexington on April 28, 2009 from 10PM to Midnight (EST)

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Tracklisting

  1. Kid Cudi – Day & Nite (The Widdler Remix)
  2. Brackles & Shortstuff – Broken Harp (Geiomix)
  3. Sully – Duke St. Dub
  4. Droid – Father
  5. Unknown – Deep Within
  6. Cyrus – Dirt
  7. Slaughter Mob – Treachery
  8. Loefah – It’s Yours
  9. (WRFL STATION ID)
  10. Joker & Rustie – Play Doe
  11. Gemmy – Bass Transmitter
  12. Sub Scape – Tomahawk
  13. Toasty – The Knowledge (Untold Remix)
  14. L-ow – Throbs
  15. The Lazarus Project – LFO
  16. Benga – Killers About
  17. (WRFL STATION ID & Safe Harbor Announcement)
  18. The Widdler – We Ready
  19. Orien – So Far Gone
  20. The Others – Light Up Your Spliff
  21. Matty G – West Coast Rocks (Caspa Remix)
  22. Kromestar- Devil
  23. Darqwan – Last of Nine
  24. Kryptic Minds – Six Degrees
  25. Loefah – Rufage
  26. Skream – Love Don’t Come Easily
  27. Shackleton – Shortwave (Pole Remix)
  28. Pinch – Punisher
  29. Darqwan – Wear the Crown
  30. Unknown – On & On
  31. Kutz – Tarantula
  32. Goth Trad – Flags
  33. Mala – Blue Notez

Downtown Selector Year Zero

One year ago, I moved to Manhattan and, as a lifelong DJ, my heart was broken when I was forced to leave my decades-old record collection in storage and make my move with only my turntables. Over the past year, I have slowly added to my new collection here, but the cost-of-living increase meant that I’ve had to become very selective about these additions.

Not all of these records came out over the past year but they are some of the ones that I chose to pursue and collect during that time.

Mixed live on July 10, 2022, exactly one year after my move, as a love letter to my new record collection, home, and life.

52 minutes of the best music representing the best 52 weeks of my life so far.

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Tracklisting

  1. Angel Du$t – All the Way Dumb
  2. Bad Brains – Destroy Babylon
  3. Pop. 1280 – Noncompliant
  4. Surprise Chef – Deadlines
  5. Seaworthy & Matt Rösner – Spencer Creek Pt 1
  6. Widowspeak – Unwind
  7. Black Marble – Try
  8. Joy Orbison – Runnersz
  9. Gimmik – Form2
  10. Erika de Casier – Friendly
  11. Warpaint – Like Sweetness
  12. Fennesz & Ryuichi Sakamoto – Kuni
  13. Yumi Zouma – Honestly, It’s Fine
  14. Pickle Darling – Achieve Lift!
  15. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Mariella
  16. Matt Duncan – Beacon

5 AM Power in the Dark

The endless echoes that surrounded me led me to believe it was all a dream but also something desperately worth remembering upon waking.

Separate instances in the vault

Now and forevermore, coming soon

Some of that real-deal right-path shit

The extra layer of dazzle

Riding the dynamic vortex between The Sirens and Ulysses

The friction and grit of cosmic incoherence

My ticket to the hyperstation spoken of in Daydream Nation

All facets, all faces, across the arrow of time

The startup chime of father circuitry

I conjured you out of darkness to lay waste to this reality

Cantor Dust

Our progress report through the veil

Soft undulations of humming and focused breath

The subtle but mindful shift that finally brings it all into alignment

Twelve rudeboys say hi

The Finest Needle in the Haystack

Still searching but I did find some of these along the way…

Residual wreckage

The third choice for a shotgun assassin

Charisma behind shark eyes

Hunger for candied apples

Days of long thought

Directions dug up from the memory banks

Swimming atop fearsome depths

Interzone commute

The paths grown too wild to maintain

Puzzling flirtations over Fangoria

Structural integrity of sandcastles

Correct before collapse

Pizza stutter-step

Satiated but starved by dreams too small

The momentum to keep you aloft

Maximal efforts toward opening boxes and checking in on cats

Raw numbers

Bending reality with observation

The beautiful smile at the edge of oblivion

Days lost to malaise

Shifting computation to a more efficient domain

Translation along an axis

The calculatory system overlying everything

The untethered diving bell plumbing the depths of solitude with no intent to surface

Keeping the basket mesh free of debris

Indulging the ecstasy of destruction

Ridiculous but not pathetic

Follow the fractal down

Snuggle visions

Archetypal Magick and Image Loading Techniques

Everything can be art if you stare long enough.

Ludicrous machinations

Fish oil and positive thinking

Autopilot to the bottom of the sea

Crisp and gentle Tokyo air

Lonely fantasies, your specialty

Hope more

Grains of experience form islands of repetition

The sun on the other side of time

Reason vs Romance

Frequency receptors attuned to her sonic touch

Monet’s garden was prettier than his art

Lips and fingertips channel magic between mediums

Delicious reverie

Pulse train brain

Opening up the sensation limiter

Action removes obstacles

Each day, it becomes more habit than chore

Unconscious Orchestration

I can’t see the conductor but it sounds fantastic.

Occupy reality generation

Low-key high productivity

Skin collaboration

Mode set to chill

Transition artist

Intuition : Cognition :: GPU : CPU

Meta-cognitive nurturing

The varied paths between 0 and 1