FUTURESHOCK REConstructed
Time to share this 2-hour Re:Constructed set with the world.
This year I’ve made a return to the live arena after 3 years hiatus (thanks to COVID and other stuff), and when I returned I wanted to do things a little differently, having spent the past 25 years or more playing on two decks. So I started using Ableton along with several controllers - this gave me a lot more flexibility in terms of what I could do with the music. Initially I was using two or three channels, but it’s gradually spiralled into something way more complex, and at times during the set you’re about to hear I had 16 channels running simultaneously.
So, really, this isn’t DJ’ing in the traditional sense at all. I completely deconstruct hundreds of pieces of music (using some of the amazing new Ai tools where needed) pulling out basslines, lead lines, vocals, drum loops and then rebuild them during the course of the set in an act of storytelling. To honour that process and to mark it out as something radically different from a regular set, I am calling these special mixes Reconstructions … and each one also has some kind of a theme to it.
This particular set was first performed in my new home town of Denver, Colorado, and is called FUTURESHOCK. It's loosely based on sci-fi themes and a retro-futurist aesthetic.
These sets are a HUGE amount of work - this one probably took me close to 150 hours of prep time, but what I have at the end of that process is probably my favourite continuous mix I’ve ever created.
Hope you enjoy listening to it