Posted by: Cor

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another “retro” set. Today’s is another one of my own: Rhythmic Trip from 2003… which I believe marks my first and only use of the cliché ‘music-as-journey’ metaphor. This was also my first venture into “nu skool breaks” territory, though to be honest it really doesn’t venture too far. I’ve never been able to take those aggressive wobbling basslines for 70 minutes straight. Anyhow, it has all the basic trademarks of any of my old sets…

- A few mixes I’m still proud of. (The first two.)
- Some tracks I still love. (The last one in particular.)
- A token pop reference (The Madonna remix.)
- At least one track I wish I hadn’t put in there. (The Madonna remix.)

All in all, a very solid set, and one I’m happy to finally have up here. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

DJ Cor - Rhythmic Trip (right-click to download)

Tracklist pending (I have to look all these old records up.)

Posted by: Cor

It’s Friday, which means you can count on the Beatery for another set of booty-shakin’ beats to kick start your weekend. For this week’s retro set I have an old live set of mine from almost three years ago. This is the second in the Standford Sessions series*, recorded on the Big Love show on KZSU 90.1, Stanford radio. Despite the roughness of the set (it’s the radio, I was a bit nervous) this is a great one, working it’s way from kitschy electro house to progressive breaks at the very end. I still really dig the mix of Put your Hands Up for Detroit and White Horse at the beginning… wish I hadn’t smeared my way into that one. You two diehard DJ Cor fans out there may note a lot of similarities between this and No Excuses, which I recorded a few months later. Sue me, tracks cost eleven bucks back then and I was working at startup. **

Hey, speaking of Stanford Sessions, you know who also has a sweet backlog of radio mixes? Our own Beatery resident, Mr. Matt Haegen. I bet if you ask real nice he’ll put them up. For now, enjoy this one from way back in 2007, when vinyl was still around, when Trentemoller was the new Timo Maas, and when Mylo ruled electrohouse for a few minutes before disappearing into complete obscurity.***

Cor - Stanford Sessions II (4/23/07)(right-click to download)

* I’m working my way backwards here. For the third installation, click HERE.
** Soundflavor, R.I.P.
*** Seriously, where IS that dude? Anyone seen him?

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Posted by: Matt

I can’t quite remember how I came across Apparat’s music, but damn if it didn’t excite me. He managed to blend glitchy beats, bass, and distorted organic textures so well; it hit just about every button I had. He’s naturally evolved over the years as artists do, but once you are familiar with his sound you know it, particularly the droney washes he loves to drape delicately over everything.

As long as I’ve been aware of him, I’ve never heard of an Apparat DJ set. All his performances are of his own work, either solo or with accompanying musicians. I was fortunate enough to catch him at Conne Island in Leipzig a few years ago with Telefon Tel Aviv, and he spent half the night playing guitar with an organist/vocalist, and the rest rocking harder beats with his laptop and controller.

This live recording here is a little over six years old at this point, and though it doesn’t seem like much, that can equal several lifetimes when it comes to electronic music. It’s certainly a little busy and noisy, but it is pure Apparat. Though he’s refined his compositional practices, his signature elements are all here and can be heard to this day in his tracks (including his collaboration with Modeselektor, Moderat). I love that someone has such an unavoidable fingerprint on their work.

Anyway, it starts out watery and slow but be sure to stick with it! He really goes for the full range here, and it’s a totally worthwhile trip.

Apparat - Live @ Fad, Barcelona (2003)

Posted by: Cor

Wouldn’t you know it. As soon as I kick off our As Heard on TV feature several months ago, like clockwork, I stop hearing decent electronic tracks on TV. Maybe it’s because I skip 90% of the commercials. Maybe I haven’t been watching enough TV recently. What I have been doing, what I’m always doing, is playing video games (yes, I’m man-child, leave me alone.) So, for the sake of continuing our little feature here, I’m going to cheat a little bit and post this track from the latest BioWare space opera masterpiece, Mass Effect 2. After all, I still heard it on my TV, right?

If you’ve been playing the game, you’ll recognize this track from the nightclub Afterlife on Omega. The song is called Callista, by Canadian producer Saki Kaskas, and has a bit of that early “electronica” sound … like mid-90s Orbital. In the game it’s used to great effect, filtering out everything but the bass when you are outside the club, then cranking up the volume when you step inside. It lacks the same punch on it’s own, so just image you’re making your way through a moody, neon-pulsing alien nightclub. Or if you’re a hopeless lifelong gamer like myself, just do yourself a favor and play Mass Effect 2. It’s fantastic.

Saki Kaskas - Callista

Posted by: Cor

Alright! We’d like to welcome DJ Derek Ryan as our first guest podcaster to the Beatery. Derek is a good friend and an awesome DJ and for this first podcast he’s been kind enough to donate some truly epic progressive breaks and trance to our humble little blog.  But enough from me, I’ll let him explain the set… well, kinda. - cor

Having Darth Vader start out your night isn’t always a good thing, but in this case it is, because you get to use the force back, or at least have a psychic experience. True, no one hands you a lightsaber, but with a healthy dose of acid blaster and some rolling bass you aughta be able to destroy the Death Star. Yay! Rejoicing and pretty melodics!

But then, some mofo has gone and built ANOTHER damn Death Star. WTF? Off to get activated and fly out and blast the fracker out of the sky, flying through a trench on the way and then finally - pwnage. Little ewoks playing melodic nu skool. A happy ending, but not that kind.

This mix is a space battle and an underground party night all in one. Where’s my wookie?

DJ Derek Ryan - Empire SF (Right click to download)

Reminder: You can get this set and new ones automatically downloaded to your itunes every two weeks by subscribing to our PODCAST.

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