During the beginning of the pandemic, everything was online. I remember watching a bunch of live concerts and performances from ARTE. But there was one thing that didn’t change much. That was live DJ sets. See, many DJ’s do streaming or pre-recorded sets for an assortment of labels and online distributors. Channels like Boiler Room have hundreds of set videos and they’re just one of many many channels for this content.
So, when the New Year was approaching and everyone was still being advised to stay indoors, a recorded DJ set was really the only option for locals. All of the underground shows were canceled which meant my friend Chris Miranda was not going to play as planned. I wanted to deliver our friends a nice set from Chris to listen to during their NYE parties, but I was so tired of the same ol’ DJ set videos. I had to change it up a bit.
I had Chris send me the track list a couple days before we would record. This gave me some time to research each producer and get good material for visuals. I already had a projector and screen in my living room, so that would be his background. Reading about each song’s creator helped me then find a bunch of cool video clips to play behind Chris. I threw them into a video editor, with each song, and properly timed them for each track (assuming he would transition at the predetermined points in each song). All Chris had to do was make no mistakes and it would be perfectly timed to his set…
I set up two cameras, my audio recorder into his mixer, and gave him the go-ahead. As planned, he mixed into each song where he previously told me and the video followed suit! It was cool to see the idea come together and made it feel much more like a live performance with the added visuals. Below is each song and the research that came along with them. The full one hour set is included for your viewing and listening pleasure as well.
soopertrack – extrawelt (skated | graffiti artist | iraq war influence)
chord rhapsody – a.d.m.a (Detroit techno influence)
animistic beliefs – Ojo de las Grayas (“Supaman” tribal influence)
20000v – hidden empire ( proclaims for soundscape)
The Tenant – Dettman Klock (Started inn Ostgut | Tresor)
so dirtry – munfell (san juan)
visions of nothinig – priorato band (metal)
moan – trentemoller (loves the swedish countryside)
secrets and lies – fort romeau (brighton england)
acamar – frankey & sandrino (sang in choir | butane club influence)