Artwork borrowed from an illustration by Madelon Vriesendorp.

CF: how and where was this mix recorded?

I made this mix in my apartment on a pair of bad Numark turntables and a budget mixer – in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY.

CF: tell us a bit about your background. how did you first get involved with music and production?

I’ve been playing guitar since I was like 10 or 11 and so I did that whole thing – play in ‘bands’ with friends while in high school , and eventually progressed to making ‘noise’ music with all sorts of pedals and whatever. I got a laptop when I was 16 and downloaded some free software to make beats, but I didn’t produce anything of any quality whatsoever ’til I made my first ‘track’ which was “Mad Disrespect”, four years or so later. I couldn’t grasp the whole technical side of things, so it took years of looking at the same empty screen to realize how to make things work on a very basic level.

CF: you’ve just released the first record on the Mister Saturday Night label, a seminal New York house party, how did your relationship with them come about?

I’ve been going to their parties for a while, and they put out an email to their mailing list asking for demos for a label they were going to start up. Long story short, I sent them music, they liked it, and asked to put some stuff out on a 12″. They’re a pretty big deal for me as DJ’s and curators, so for them to be as into my music as they are, means a lot to me. We’re friends now, so it’s all good.

CF: what do you normally listen to at home? which are 3 of your favorite albums past or present?

At home I listen to all sorts of stuff and so it’s hard to say what the norm would be… three favorites currently are:

Actress – R.I.P.
Lust For Youth – Growing Seeds
The Flamingos – Flamingo Serenade

CF: what is your favorite thing about living in New York?

How much of a lowlife it makes me feel like on a daily basis. This way, the only way forward is up!

CF: you have a forthcoming remix on Four Tet’s TEXT label; what else can we expect from you in the future?

Another remix should surface soon, an EP soon(ish) I don’t know yet really, hopefully just some interesting records. I have monitors now so I should be able to mix my tracks better than before, which is a relief to say the least.

Tracklist & Liner Notes

Black Dice – Endless Happiness 

This band is a huge deal to me. My friends and I would sit in our shitty cars growing up and blast these jams out of 6″ speakers in parking lots all over South Florida. I will see this band every time they play because they are that amazing and life-changing.

Hype Williams – Untitled 1

I don’t even have to say it but this is the most introspective track on the face of the earth. Theres a video on youtube of a member of the band(?) bathing in slow-mo for 10 minutes or so. The whole thing is pretty amazing for sure!

Panda Bear – Carrots 

The second half of this track is one of my first encounters with ‘Dub’, and just the general repetition of the song… it’s so hypnotic and dreamy, but not in some pop sense- it’s drifty or something.

Bola – Abayctidu Ma

Is this Soul music? What is it? I bought this album after hearing it every day for three months and it’s still fresh because nothing else on earth sounds like this.

Arthur Russell – That’s Us/Wild Combination

Word on the street is Arthur would walk around lower Manhattan with his walkman on for hours and hours and just listen to jams,… Every single day. In an ideal world, I would do this too, but his is the music of great long walks around my neighborhood and so I’m sure anyone unfamiliar to his stuff would enjoy this song. He apparenly has hundreds of mixes of each of song he made…. spooky.

Four Tet – Tangle

Kieran is one of my favorite producers, and so for him to be into my music and let me remix one of his tracks is a huge honor. When I was 13 or 14 I would listen to this song on the school bus on the way home in middle school. It was weird to know it was made completely off of samples and with a computer but have no clue how those kinds of things were done… my first introduction into organic sounding electronic music and still one of the coolest headspaces from music I’ve ever been in.

Donald Byrd & The 125th St. NYC – Love Has Come Around

The first Disco song I fell in love with. I heard it in the Fabriclive 36 mix with James Murphy & Pat Mahoney while driving with a friend… That mix and this song changed a lot for me in terms of getting into good disco and earlier house bits. Big track.

Mobb Deep – Survival Of The Fittest (Remix)

I still don’t know who made this remix… but I do know that it sounds like Flying Lotus done ten years prior to 1983’s release… Still fresh as ever. First record I bought upon moving to NYC. I got it at academy, and by got, I mean a friend bought it for me because I had 100 dollars to my name. It’s probably the best song to listen to when you first move to New York because while it’s a really, really depressing song, it’s inspiring to think that one day you could be eating off a platinum plate if you try hard enough.

Dro Carey – Get Rid Of This Guy

Didn’t know what to think of this track when I first heard it, but I constantly find myself going back and listening to Dro records because they are so unsettling, but in a familiar sort of way.

Daft Punk – Revolution 909

That stillness in time feeling of house music that I guess I really wish I could one day achieve. Only a few songs have it I feel, Moodymann’s “I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits” is another. I wouldn’t necessarily NOT try to DJ this in a club one day, but for some reason no one ever does because I guess it’s one of those things that’s just played out at this point.

Dj Mehdi – Tunisia Bambaata 

MEHDI FOREVER AND EVER

The Streets – Has it Come To This 

I heard this guy on TV when I was like 11 or 12, and my cousin and I thought it was really strange hearing what we considered ‘rap’ done with a different accent and rhyme scheme… a few hours later I had my mom bring me to the store to purchase my first CD ever. Original Pirate Material is still one of the biggest things in music to me!

VÅR – In Your Arms

What kind of music is this? I don’t know. My favorite song of the year so far.

Actress – Jardin

This number has been in my head for weeks now, but I don’t know why. I just constantly have it playing because it’s so unassuming and inoffensive… not to say the rest of his work is like that but I think he really hit this cool mark between inorganic sounds acting in a really organic sort of freeform way. Actress is the the one.