This edition of W+TWP comes from a genre near and dear to my heart…Ambient music. But this is no e-tard ramble through a Triton’s pad section. This is a bonafide
We here at Wyllys & The World Party thank you for your patience. As most of you know I’m a transient DJ and Lighting Designer currently roaming the world in the name of Prog Rock and Beats – a nice segue into this episode.
I was scanning DJ-Mixes.com and realized we needed a Hip Hop installment with a quickness. I stumbled upon a domestic purveyor of urban sounds. DJ Digital Green started as a lighting tech at a club and decided that turntables were more of a creative outlet and started playing old school Hip-Hop, Techno, Trance and a little House. His lighting background earned him the nod this week, despite some shortcomings.
He is still a little….green around the edges but the intent is all there. This two part mix is a tight jaunt through mid to late ’90s Hip Hop interwoven with today’s Top 40 Rap fare. The tempo holds steady and the track selection is PERF for the Summer, which is why I chose the mixes. HOWEVER…our boy asks for some advice in his bio (shown below) so we here at HT are going to give it to him straight: Without tempo variation it sounds like one big Jock Jams jerk off session. Vary the tempo a bit and you are on your way to more natural sounding Hip Hop. Till then, check out these two entertaining and head-bob inducing mixes. Guaranteed to have the ladies shaking the goods.
Featured Artists: Arrested Development, 50 Cent, Tribe Called Quest, Nate Dogg, Kanye West, 2 Pac, and many other legends
READ ON for Dj Digital Green’s biography…
Welcome back for the third edition of Wyllys and The World Party. As most of you know, I am Wyllys, a DJ beyond classification of genre who plays vinyl all the time and nothing but. A few weeks ago, I had a four and a half hour performance at Summer Camp with my partner Lax Class.
The set could not have gone better, with Lax and I weaving in and out of every style of House and even found some time to remix Thriller and Psycho Killer. Keller Williams sat in Joni Mitchell-a-la-Last Waltz style, singing and doing mouth trumpet behind tapestries. It was an honor to have Keller sit in and I hope we can collaborate more in the future. Jake Cinninger of Umphrey’s McGee also sat in, ripping up some beat box over Miles Maeda’s House classic: Three Easy Pieces. Be sure to keep your eye on the Wyllys MySpace page for all upcoming dates.
In this installment of W+TWP we visit one of the Electronic Music capitols of the world, Montreal. Tiga, remix artist extraordinare, put together a mix for BBC radio that I snagged from www.newmixes.com. This mix is rooted in Techno, but also drops multiple styles of House. Tiga is known for his banging track selection and this mix definately stays in that vein. In this mix he drops remixes from such production giants as Plastikman, Depeche Mode, Moby, LCD Soundsystem, and MGMT just to name a few. Slick mixing and pinpoint timing make this hard mix as smooth as possible, and in turn, make our first Techno mix on W+TWP hard to out do.
READ ON for a list of Tiga’s outstanding production singles and mixes…
This edition of W+TWP features two DJ mixes by up and coming London stalwarts Future Thinkin. Though not new comers by any sense of the word, this crew is still on the rise in the production world with releases on their own imprint Future Thinkin Records as well as Infrared, J Majik’s longtime label. You can grab podcasts by the entire FT crew here.
These two mixes are hilariously titled The First Date and The Breakup. Both mixes highlight FT’s unique take on liquid funk that falls on both sides of the vibe coin (light/dark). FT had this to say about the mix: “Episode 1 was, deep and rolling, soulful and vocal, in contrast The Breakup is an altogether different animal! Think pain, think anguish, think brooding anger, but most of all, think quality BEATS!!”
This is quality, intelligent, flowing Drum and Bass that any fan of electronic music can get into. Perfect for rolling down the car window to show those joggers just how hip you are. Here are the track listings. I will not include any Wyllys Money Marks for these mixes, as every second is a highlight. Check out Shylo MC’s classy vocal stylings.
READ ON for the track listings, to stream the mixes and more…
Here are two fun facts about electronic music: 1) IT’S STILL AROUND 2) IT’S BETTER THAN EVER. But how would you know? If Justice is your gateway to present time
The mythos of Rock and Roll is deep and entangling. A puzzle as sensuous as it is mystifying, the legend seems to grow as each person takes his or her turn trying to unravel what it means to them, to their lives and even further – to people as a whole. The more you dig for answers, the more you want to know, until you come to on a freeway towing a trailer full of used gear to the next gig that doesn’t pay wondering where the last ten years have gone. That’s right, junior…you belong to rock now. There’s no escaping it.
But it’s not enough to want it. It’s not enough to have rich parents. It’s not enough to have connections. It’s not enough to know how to play music.
Sure. No band has ever really made it without at least one of these attributes, but these are all just part of the smokescreen. To truly forge your own voice, to truly get in touch with the spirit of it all, you have to completely disconnect from life as you knew it. You have to put the blinders on. No one can tell you shit. Not your beautiful girlfriend who probably saved your life. Not your parents who raised you and gave you everything, not your teachers, your elders….no one. The only thing that matters is leaving it all out there on that stage every night; nailing the changes and developing the sound. Life becomes those moments and thus imitates art, hopefully often enough to make a living at it.
Enter The Ugly Suit. Together for just four years, hailing from the not-so-happening Oklahoma City scene, these psychedelic warriors bang it out, night after night, forsaking it all for a sound that is anything but ugly. Tube amplified static gives way to thumping bass lines and raging chord progressions. There is a fine line between soothing and blistering and these gentlemen have found the balance. In an age of beaten down indie rock formats they pirouette between grandiose rocking peaks and cricket-like atmosphere that would make Brian Eno blush. The Ugly Suit is your hot, bi- polar, rocker chick girl friend that you just can’t dump because the sex is that good. READ ON for an interview with the guys from The Ugly Suit…
We would like to add to a piece from a few weeks ago. This article featured a mix from DJ Justin Thomas. His full name was Justin Thomas Pelc, as
When I was “coming up”, as the expression goes, as a young DJ and Lighting Designer I had the opportunity to work with a very colorful cast of characters that
Just sayin…….
08/09/04 Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA
Set I: Chalkdust Torture, Bathtub Gin> Runaway Jim, Walls of the Cave, Loving Cup
Set II: All of These Dreams, Limb By Limb, Lifeboy, Crowd Control, Seven Below> Stash> NICU, Bug, Contact, Character Zero
Encore: David Bowie1
1 First Bowie encore since 11.16.97 and only fifth time in history
[All Setlists Sourced From Phantasy Tour]
06/29/95 Jones Beach Amphitheatre, Wantagh, NY
Set I: Runaway Jim, Taste, The Horse> Silent in the Morning, The Divided Sky, Cavern, Rift, Simple, Split Open and Melt, Carolina
Set II: Free> David Bowie, Strange Design, You Enjoy Myself, Acoustic Army, A Day in the Life
Encore: Theme from the Bottom
06/28/95 Jones Beach Amphitheatre, Wantagh, NY
Set I: Axilla, Foam, Fast Enough For You, Reba, Punch You in the Eye, Stash, Fluffhead, Chalkdust Torture
Set II: Sample in a Jar, Poor Heart, Tweezer> Dave’s Energy Guide> Tweezer> Gumbo, Sparkle, Suzy Greenberg, Harry Hood, Tweezer Reprise
Encore: Sweet Adeline, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
READ ON for more setlists from Phish’s last time through town…
Someone once said that History becomes Fiction in the very act of writing it down. When the Phish tour dates were finally announced I thought a lot about that quote and my recent position in life.
I find myself almost 30 and well on the path that Phish themselves sent me on almost 14 years ago. The upside is my career is everything I’ve ever wanted and I couldn’t be happier. The downside is I won’t be able to just run off and follow the impetus for my career in the music business like I use to. A new, younger touring generation will be filling the aisles this summer and that brings up, dare I say… bittersweet feelings. I feel there is a need for the veterans to address the new rats with where we went wrong in order to hopefully not make this Era of Phishtory as destructive as the last.
To You, the New Class of Phishtorians I offer these words of warning and encouragement. It’s great to see that Phish is still scoring young in the demographics and you will be finding a way to tell your parents you won’t be a camp counselor this year, but rather, discarding the trappings of The Machine and getting in your car to cruise the land of the brave and free (thank you Ween).
Here are some pointers from a guy who has been in the trenches, learned from said trenches, and now, am getting paid to live on a tour bus and see great music night in and night out. In short: These words come road tested.
READ ON for Wade’s three tips for post-Breakup Phish fans…
