Ending with some rolling dnb this mix continues where I left off last week and where I will begin next. Simply good beats that avoid the pop charts. And the people seem to be liking it as well. No longer am I getting (many) requests tunes I would never have

1. Energie Du Verre: Rockin Habenera  2. JoAsh: Salome 3. Trotter: La Magnifique 4. Quantic: An annoucement to answer 5. Palov & Mishkin: Theme from backslam 6. 4DZ Turn in up 7. Frank: Full 8. The Herbaliser: Just dont stop (feat Yungun) 9. Erik Rico: Wonderful 10. Marcel: Solitude 11. Chuck Love: Soul symphony 12. Stephanie K: Listen love 13. Opaque: Crossing 14. Atlantic Connection &Makoto: Grapevines 15. Atlantic Connection & Redeyes: Cant hide 16. Survival: The Jam 17. Donny Dubson: Rolling home

Some barrroombeat mixes are better than others. This is one of those. Enjoy.

1. P’taah: Surrendering 2. The Herbalizer: Karma feat Jean Grae 3. Mr Scruff: Fish 4. Arch Type: Slide technique 5. Lopez: Barrio 6. Quantic: Fresh rhythm 7. Mike L: The word for this is cool 8. Erik Clifford: Publish this 9. Buddy Rich: Big swing face 10. Tape Five: Club de cigale 11. Soul Bossa Trio: Naima (Stockholm Cyclo rmx) 12. Aphro Pzyco: Guerillero 13. Solo Moderna: Oompah Improvisations 14. Giano: WJSD 15. Povo: Shihab’s Habit 16. Shazz: Your love 17. P’taah: Become who you are

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Today I played KRS One, one of the first rap characters I really loved, in the days of BDP. Who would have believed the tune out for fame is over 10 years old now!?, and that BDP was over 20. Yipes. Aside from that my favourtie track in this mix is 10. MOP MOP: I Wish I was in hell.

1. Triosk meets Jan Jelinek: Mis-leader 2. Catalism: Dream maker 3. Mark Farina: I fall (Jay’s Urban mix) 4. James Brown: The Lodown 5. KRS1 Out for fame 6. Minus 8: Circles Blurring 7. JoASH – Salome 8. LTJ Bukem: Cosmic interlude 9. Briskey: Galactic Jack 10. MOP MOP: I Wish I was in hell 11. Tape Five: Bossa reloaded 12. Aphro Pzyko: Lo Bailo 13. Trotter: Faixa Preta 14. The Auratones: Samba for Letty (Phil Martin rmx) 15. The Herbalizer feat Yungun: Just dont stop 16. Verb T & The Last Skeptic: Broken Window 17. The Herbalizer feat Roota Manuva: Lord Lord

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This place really is starting to get packed out now, and as a result I somehow feel the need to play more bumpin beats and less slouching sounds. Anyway, this was a section from about 10.30 till midnight, when the place was at it’s fullest. The dilema for every bar DJ is what to play to encourage people to stay and not to disappear to the closest club, but I’ve given up trying to second guess poeple, they do what they want, I just try and place good tunes.. here are eighteen, all packed into 77 minutes. Which, incidently is the first and last time I will go over CD length of 74 minutes.

Anyway, here’s the tracklisting:

1. The Herbalizer: Geddim 2. Odessey: Submerge 3. Quintet Plays: The chase 4. Marcel: Solitude 5. MOP MOP: I wish i was in hell 6. Soul Bossa Trio: Naima: (Stockholm cyclo rmx) 7. Tenorio Jnr: Nebulosa 8. The Dining Rooms: Phunky 9. Kamisshake: Dark Beat 10. Minus 8: Neverland 11. Special One: Soulstance 12. Tape Five: Bossa for a coup 13. Aphro Pzyko: Lo Bailo14. Aphro Pzyko: Guerillero15. Maddlinsky: Side B 16. Sleep Walker: Resurrection 17. Al Davenport: Could this be the love 18. Henree: So Nasty

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Roll your cursor over the graphic above to get 74 minutes of bumpin music.

1. Morcean Worker: Shamma lamma ding dong 2. Jestofunk: Fly love song 3. Mark Rae: Mind, body and soul 4. Tom Central: Donde 5. Minus 8: Cold Fusion 6. Connie Price: Sticks and stones 7. Stockholm Cyclo: VSOP (Beatanatic edit) 8. DJ Format: Im Good 9. Lowkey & Cardinal: Mamoth (Popof & Noiak Sinn rmx) 10. Hint: Snake Patrol 11. Soopasoul: Soopasoul theme 12. Dr Rubberfunk: Beats working 13. Sugerbeats: Tickled Zine (Adders rmx) 14. Ohm Guru: Heart & Soul 15. Tape Five: Bossa reloaded 16. Drawbar: Broken & battered 17. Sleep Walker: Resurrection: (Tokyo night rmx

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This mix is lo slung, ok it gets funky in the middle.. but the groove is summery unlike the weather

1. Emphasis: Rockin Bird 2. People under the stairs: Suite for beaver 3. People under the stairs: Schooled in the trade 4. Future sound of London: Lizzard crawl 5. Sam Sparro: Black and Gold (acoustic) 6. The Bamboos: Black foot 7. Kahunn: Batteri 8. Briskey: Galactic Jack: (Buscemi rmx) 9. DJ Vadim Got to rock (Aaron rmx) 10. The Houdini’s: Brads fest 11. Tom Central: The World (Tom Central rmx) 12. Natural Self: I dont need this trouble (inst) 13. Ralph Ripshit: Most colourful years 14. The Pinker tones: Beyond Nostalgia 15. Rae & Christian: Spellbound 16: The Pharcyde: Running 17. The Beatles: Strawberry fields 18. The Herbalizer: Noneother 19. Zero Tolerance: Refusal

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Opening with someone’s nuts interpreatation of jazz music, some honest funk beats and finishing with thirty minutes of music that is as close to a house set as I’ll probably ever play.

I even found time to get King Bee’s prehistoric hip hop party anthem ‘Back by dope demand’ in the mix.. I used to do my jiveing to this in school. Nice.

Barroombeats 12. 75 mins.
1. Free the Robots: Session Two 2. JuJu Orchestra: Thirty Three 3. Aim: Phantasm 4. The Bamboos: Pussy Footin’ 5. Witness (Smoove remix) 6. The Bamboos: Trascend me (feat Alice Russell) 7. Solid Roots: Samba Sun 8. King Bee: Back by dope Demand 9. Jurassic 5: Lesson 6 10. Troublemakers: Get Misunderstood 11. Mike L: The word for this is cool 12. Povo: Shihab’s habit 13. Giano: WJSD 14. K Alexi: Mothers Child 15. Shazz: Your Love (feat Micheal Robinson) 16. Erik Rico: Wonderful 17. Sam Sparro: Black and Gold (acoustic version)

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Roll your mouse over the green image above to get the 11th mix from Laguna, it starts with some sweet old blues breaks from the grand masters of the style, moves into some latin rhythms, and finishes with 20 minutes of  deep drum and bass. Zap. 

1. Bobby Bryd: Never get enough 2. Sisters of Soul: Im your lady 3. Eddie Bo: Down by the river 4. The Honeydrippers: Streakin 5. Kormac: Mr Soft 6. Kormac: Harry’s record machine 7. Quantic: An annoucement to answer 8. Los Tres Brothers: Marbles Latin time 9. Tom Central: Donde (Lopez remix)  10. Random Heroes: Gold Block 11. Solo Moderna: Kokujazz 12. St Germain: Rose Rouge 13. Donny Dubson: & Stunna: Forever 14. The Jam: Survival 15. Kubiks & Lomax: Trading Places 16. Bcee & Lomax: Changing Faces

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As I post the tenth mix from Laguna Bar, it seems a good time to reflect on my current djing style. I use Torq and Trigger finger, no turntables, no external mixer, no vynil. It’s a real talking point and divides opinion. After I explain what’s what in the digital age, most people leave looking impressed and certainly are more knolwedgable about the way things are being done today.

But, am I a better dj than I was before I switched? I can certainly do more things, i.e loops, effects, adding samples… but has my mixing improved?

Nowdays, I seach for tunes on my computer by opening folders and seaching.. mostly by tempo.. so in some respects my mixes have become more fluid. It is however, hard to emulate the level of control of an external mixer with Torq’s (admittedly very good) internal mixer.

Another downside to not having vynil is that I became expert at beatmatching and adjusting the tables if the tunes went out of sync. Torq’s internal beat matcher is reasonably accurate, but I’m not mad keen on adjusting the mix while in the mix by clicking a button on the screen, it’s just not the same. I do program my Trigger Finger to control this, but again, it’s not a record platter.

The upside is that i can use loops, effects, and cue points.. all very powerful and creative.

I could talk all day about this, if anyone is reading (and stats say there are a handful of visitors a day) please pass comment. My conclusion is I’m probably not a better dj since I switched, just different… but this is a nice little mix and at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

Roll over the graphic at the top of this post to stream, or right click here to download

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Barroombeats nine is shorter than normal, just 55 minutes and 14 tracks boiled down from the four hour session. Nothing particularly different this week, I must be wary not to become formulaic, but the bar is consistanty busy and i’m not getting any more requests for bland pop music.

Roll your mouse over the coloured banner to stream, or right click here to download.

Heres the trakclist: 1. The Jazz whisperer: Believe all 2. Deadbeats: Pick me up (rmx) 3. Deadbeats: Pick me up (original) 4. The Bamboos: Rockin it 5. Funk Arsonist: Gravy train 6. The revenge of the Bomberclad joint 7. Dazzafact 8. Blueboy: Remember me 9. Keno: Heavy heavy heavy 10. Ed Seven: Oh hayce 11. The Bamboos: Tongan Steel 12. Jay Z: Encore (inst) 13. Jay Z: Encore 14. Quantic: Ticket to know where

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