DJ Exercise MAKE A SET WITH ANOTHER PERSONS RECORDS
I was asked to be guest DJ on Dublin’s Radio Na Life recently and wondered if I could manage to subvert the experience. I decided that restricting myself to using another persons records was a way to go. The challenge threw up a lot of questions for me like how many potential ways a set can really go and which one was I going to follow, picking the opening track is always the most important thing in this regard with each record following on from it and each other.
Depending on the size of the collection I would compare it to playing someone else’s guitar. Which is something in the past I was always intrigued and sometimes shocked by. I would now be very interested in how another would respond to my collection.
The Rules
1/ Do not use records you also own.
You have to approach it very open minded as far as style goes, there would be no point in a DJ accomplished in one genre just trying to do what they normally do, I overcame this problem somewhat by not allowing myself to use any records I also had.
2/ Pick your records in 2 hours.
I picked the records like I buy them, dropping the needle on each track and within seconds deciding on gut reaction whether I liked them or not. I got through almost every record this way in 2 hours. This should be the allotted time, any longer and you start to second guess. Here’s where the second guessing comes in, as it always does anyway. You can pick as many records as you like but you will have to whittle it down to whatever the time allows. I brought about 25 records with me on the night but managed to squeeze in only 10 to my 40 minute slot.
3/ There should be no more than a week between picking and playing set.
I only had a week and didn’t think too much about it till the last day. I familiarised myself with the tracks again at home a few hours before the set but choose not to practise any mixes. Do what you like but the spirit of this enterprise should be undertaken as spontaneously as it began. My mixes went surprisingly well and I played in a markedly different style than I normally would.
The records belonged to Sarah Pachonick and were the following…
Paul Kalbrenner……… Zeit………(Bpitch Control)
Akufen …………….Psychometry 2.2 ……..(Trapez)
Akufen …Moon Over Plateaux ……..(Background)
Red Loafen ………..Swamp …………………(Traum)
SCSCI 9 ……………. Go To Freeze ………..(Trapez)
Broker/Dealer ……Can’t Believe It ……….(Traum)
St. Plumb ..Let Me Be Your Fan….(Mental Groove)
ASCII.DISKO ..Einfach(Rokkmix) ……(L’age D’or)
Kotai .Sucker DJ(Marcin Kozlow mix)…(WMFREC)
Fault line …… Biting Tongues(Riten mix)……(EMI)
