9th St and Ave A Mix

This is the inagural mix for the my blog. I threw this together a couple weeks ago without much forethought, save maybe just solid songs/tracks. It may come off as a little disjointed in terms of genre transitioning but the overall selection I feel is strong and sometimes that’s all I really want in a listening experience. Too often I get bogged down in perfection for programming and mixing that the resulting mix sounds too homogenous after 3-4 listens.

Additionally I am planning a trip back to NYC next month and had been thinking about my late Aunt, Carol/Carsin, who clung ever so tight to her rent-controlled lower east side apartment (on Ave A to be exact) and realized how much I missed her. Therefore I wanted to dedicate this mix to her, a little bit discombobulated herself but all the better for it. She always supported the arts and was a strong believer in my djing/music direction from way back, always trying to connect me to likeminded people when I came to visit her.

I’ll never forget a dance production she took me in 1995 to that profiled the history of breakdance/hip-hop culture through movement. A live DJ on stage spun the songs and the choreographed routines where more expressive than anyhing I had seen before (and as teenager in the ’80s I had been mad into breakin’ and hip-hop). Now I was seeing this from a new perspective, matured and beginning to see the interconnectedness of what artists where achieving from different vantage points. The moment that blew me away was a segment of pop-locking style movements performed in slow-motion to the Art of Noise’s “Moments in Love.” I had heard the song before when I was younger but this was something new altogether. The context, the emotion, the juxtaposition of fierce breakers finding solace and funk in something so delicate and melodic, as if they were doing a futuristic waltz. I left that show with some new feeling, an experience that I owe to my aunt’s unwavering embrace of cool artistry no matter what form. This mix goes out to you Carol…R.I.P.

01-9th-st-and-ave-a-mix

Tracklisting:

1. Art Bleek – Euphorized (Connaiseur)
2. Mr. De’ – Please Believe It (Submerge)
3. Juju & Jordash – Used to Hate Fusion (Rope-a-Dope)
4. Dublee – Body Talk (Mule Electronic)
5. Scott Ferguson – Gate To My Soul (Deep Vibes)
6. The Black Dog – Virtual (Soma)
7. NY Housin Authority – Fort Greene House (NuGroove)
8. Daniel Mehlhart – Der Tonkopfreiniger (Karmarouge)
9. Motor City Drum Ensemble – Raw Cuts #2 (Faces)
10. Eddie Flashin Fowlkes – One Dance (Global Cuts)
11. Virgo Four – In A Vision (Trax)
12. Donald Byrd and 125th Street NYC – Love Has Come Around (Elektra)
13. Kirk Degiorgio – 4D Harmony (New Religion)
14. Gene Hunt – Living In A Land (Clearwater)
15. Frivolous – Forget The Funk (Background)
16. Hauke Freer – My Beat (Real Soon)
17. Model 500 – The Passage (Metroplex)
18. Passenger – Broken Drive (Sula Muse)