i decided to teach myself how to dj over the past week or so. i've made a lot of progress. one remarkable thing that has happened is i now appreciate listening to dj sets a lot more. i've found it really useful to listen to and watch them, to get a sense of how djs handle transitions and mixing. i especially like the boiler room ones, because they focus on the dj a lot and i can really see what they're doing and how.
here are some of my favorite dj sets i've listened to over the past week!
porter robinson
porter robinson is one of my favorite producers, but i know he got his start as a dj. he's great. this set is fantastic, features a lot of great porter tunes and remixes, and a surprise appearance from lil b. i love how much fun porter is clearly having.
ag cook
a.g. cook is the head of the hyperpop label pc music, and this set is bonkers. it whiplashes between corny y2k era pop music, pc music stuff, and the most horrible noise you've ever heard. in other words, it's exactly what you'd expect from the phrase "ag cook boiler room set."
jamie xx
jamie xx is another one of my favorite producers (when are we gonna get another jamie solo album dammit), and this set is great. a whole bunch of classic uk dance music sounds, sequenced excellently.
james blake
james blake is kind of what got me interested in the idea of djing. previously i hadn't been really interested. but hearing him talk about it, and hearing other people talk about him, and the uk dubstep scene in general, made me a lot more interested. this set is from the year he released his second album, overgrown, but it features a wide range of sounds, including early james blake cuts and harmonimixes.
nicolas jaar
nicolar jaar is a prolific producer both under his own name and under his against all logic alias, and basically everything he touches turns to gold. this set is really wild, a ton of great leftfield dance music performed with two laptops and a radio.
anyway here's my first recorded dj set:
i livestreamed this to some friends via trash dot cloud today. i livestreamed a set on sunday too but the recording came out weird. i've been doing a lot of djing just by myself and to myself, but it's a lot of fun to dj for other people. i'd love to do a real show at a party or something some day.
i would definitely recommend learning to dj if you're a fan of music or a music producer. it's not very hard, but it does change the way you think about song structure and mixing for the better, i think. it's given me a real appreciation for the craft of making good club music, and a deeper understanding of dance music structure and genres.
lemme know what you think and tell me what dj sets are your favorites! i wanna listen to more!
