Well, the show goes on even if the website doesn’t get updated as often. Trancendance has been on the air now for 9 years! Before that, on a sunny February afternoon back in 1999 (if I remember correctly) there was a little ol’ gathering in Pemberton at the base of Mount Currie. This is the home of the Lil’wat Nation, and it was there that we entered into the Spirit Circle for an epic night of celebration.

There is no question in my mind that anyone who was there will remember being so — you all know who you are.

This past Sunday Caddyshack and I had an exceptionally good show and I couldn’t help but wonder if the Spirit Circle had a little something to do with that.

dj Smiley Mike set:

Blank & Jones – Miracle Cure (Progressive Mix)
Union Jack – Papillon
Union Jack – Triclops (Club Mix)
Starsign – Taurus
Nicholas Bennison – New Power
Christopher Lawrence & John 00 Flemming – Beyond the Limit (SAN Remix)
Christopher Lawrence – Interceptor
Nicholas Bennison – Spirit Chamber
Nicholas Bennison – Exocet (Bennison Rework)
Fabio Stein & Claudia Cazacu – Crazakisein (Original Epic Mix)
Shadow K meets She DJ Spree – Music Is… (DJ Tatana Remix)
Danny Loko – Somos Nozes (Fabio Stein’s Electric Nuts Remix)
Fabio Stein – Stroboscopic

I even put a little thought towards which records I should bring for this weeks set – but I think the first hour got off to a bit of a shakey start. I’m not sure, because I haven’t given it my usual Monday morning second listen yet, but I’m pretty sure the second hour was mixed a little better than the first hour. Some nights the mixes really pull together and other nights I just can’t hold the mix right to the bitter end – and believe me, more often than not I push the mix as long as it can go. Not always in my best interest, but short mix DJs never really earned my respect the same way a long mix does. 

I’m working on building a solid base of records to work with right now, so you’ll probably hear some of these tracks again. I’m trying to work in a couple Platipus Records and a Couple Eve Records – which often have such distinctive sounds that it’s hard to mix them seamlessly with tracks from other record labels. 

Sure enough – I’ve only listened to part of the first hour but I’m not very thrilled about it. Right from the get-go I started with a bad mix and that just set the tone for the first hour. It’s too bad because the first mix was going quite well for 3-4 minutes. But all it takes for a great 4 minute mix to go bad is the last 15 seconds. Growing up as a kid I used to hear ‘Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades’ and sure enough – it’s easy to get close. 

I’m also not very happy with the phrasing of the first set. I’ll maybe post something more in-depth another time – but basically (and I’m not even sure if phrasing is the right term) after you get good at matching beats and have it figured out that you have to line up the down-beats – you extend that whole concept to ‘phrases’ of a song. It’s like lining up the first beat of a 32 or 64 note segment on both records. If you can do that then magic can happen!

Here’s an example of what proper phrasing sounds like. Download this week’s podcast and listen to the mix between 1:35:23 and 1:37:35. Once you can phrase your mixes like this it’s practice, practice, practice until you can do it every time. (Easier said than done!)

Well, I thought last nights set went a lot better before giving it a second listen. I was a selfish DJ to begin with, always playing the tracks I wanted to hear. I get bored of the music easily, so if I’ve played the same records a few weeks in a row I tend to mix things up, but unfortunately that means playing on the fly with little or no practice before the show. Before starting a family I used to play at least a couple hours a day. Now, I play a couple hours a month! It’s like riding a bike, but I’m pretty wobbly if I haven’t practiced much – and it shows. I always had an appreciation for DJs that pulled off long mixes – with at least two records playing more often than not. I’ve been able to do it before, but without the steady practice I should probably stick to shorter mixes. But like I said – I’m a selfish DJ. Part of the reason being, when you hit the mark and two records peak together the result is 1000 times cooler than any short mix will ever be. It’s consistency that demands the practice.

I will work on introducing a rating system, both for me and for you guys, so that good sets can be separated from some of the derailed locomotives.