monday night mixes

summer is drawing near! with temperatures here in chicago expected to reach the 70s in a few days, perhaps a few sets of some sexy sunny tech-house in order... as well as a slamming set of hard techno to bring us back to the reality that it's still just the end of march and temps are still in the 30s here in the windy city...

martinez - live at 'save the day' off sonar, barcelona, 2009
one of those sets that i should have seen while i was in barcelona... alas, i was getting a few hours of sleep and meeting up with a friend before arriving at this party later. 'save the day' was a party in a big rented-out room in a mall with balconies overlooking barcelona harbor, showcasing matthias tanzmann and some of his moon harbour label friends... the slow-burning beats of this afternoon set seem like it made an excellent warmup for the higher-intensity sets later that night. while i'm not completely familiar with martinez's work, it's interesting to contrast this and late 2008's organic theme EP with his LP from late 2007, a chemical imbalance, which definitely seems to cater to the then-in vogue style of 'minimal techno'. anyhoo, this isn't anything spectacular, just a nice mellow hour of low-bpm grooves.

argenis brito - 2009-8-22 barcelona live PA
another set from barcelona last year but later in the summer. argenis brito has a small portfolio of edm releases, perhaps most notably on luciano's cadenza label... so if you like luciano and his brand of lush, tribal-esque dance music, you'll probably dig this. lots of interesting cut-up vocals and horn samples... a bit more peak-time, with some intense break-downs. funky and fun!

seth troxler - 2009-12-26 boxing night, belfast

it's seth, you should know what's up. if not... well get a clue and check this out. fun, emotional, weird... all put together with excellent mixing skills. go seth!

sleeparchive vs dj pete - 2007-02-03 @ club transmediale
a master of bleeping, looping electronics + one of the founding fathers of dub techno = two hours of unrelenting techno destruction! i'm honestly not quite sure if this is both sleeparchive and dj pete (it might just be sleeparchive, according to one source, and indeed there are some sleeparchive tracks sprinkled throughout), but i do know both these musicians occasionally dj together. regardless, this is *the shit*. this mix starts off a bit weird and disorienting, but be patient: this develops a razor-sharp edge, fast and hard-hitting. if you can keep with it, this mix should burn holes in your face. i don't need to dig up a picture to accompany this one... just do it!

so there you go - a few dashes of summery beats, and a techno bullet-train aimed straight at your forehead. get to it!