I'M IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Soooo..... Robb G and Andy Poolhall decided to launch their Monday nights Reboot with a DJ Competition.  The prospect of this was really exciting to me but I felt really unprepared and inexperienced... However, after a shitty couple days of work i turned the negativity and sad energy into a mix.  I made some notes on my first rough mark up of it.  There were definitely some good blends in the first draft, but DEFINITELY some shitty things too haha.  Anyway, the next day after an even SHITTIER day of work... I churned all that into a really productive evening! 

I submitted it with an hour to spare to the deadline!

Two days later, my friend Aviva and I are driving to visit Wals in London ON and I have been checking my emails and facebook on and off all day Friday. Still no word.  It's Saturday.  As we are approaching Ingersoll, I check my email from my phone once again. 

The @ sign in the nav bar indicates a new email... OH DEAR GOD.

false alarm.  LUSH Cosmetics wants me to buy their christmas products on sale.

but soon enough, another email comes in from the REBOOT contest and it says:

Hey Jasmine,

Congratulations, you're in!

The 16 contestants names will be announced once I've communicated with
everyone personally. Who competes on which night will be announced before
the end of the weekend.

Thanks for being a part of this.

Robb
Reboot Mondays

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cried.  I won't lie.  I actually cried. I told Aviva and she told me she wasn't surprised :D.  I immediately called up Amber and told her and I cried again.  It feels like everything happened so quickly!!

I feel really in over my head now to be honest, because I saw a couple others who entered the contest on facebook... and they've got some serious gigs under their belts :( i'm just a tiny little DJ from my living room...

So now what?

The Cunning Mix available here for stream.

Tracklist below:

1. Manman - Avicii
2. Bubblegum - Afrojack
3. Less Go (Porter Robinson Remix) - Spencer & Hill
4. Pondo (Chuckie & Silvio Ecomo Remix) - Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano
5. Animal Rights - Deadmau5
6. Cool (Afrojack remix) - Spencer & Hill
7. Nasty Dog - WoNK
8. The Thirteenth Skull (Original Mix) - Cold Blank
9. Acid Drops - Asle
10. Proper - DJ Fixx
11. No Pants Dance - Robb G

INSPIRATION!

December 31 2010  5:30pm

Hey! There's a great party going on at a cool downtown bar in Toronto! One of your favourite DJs, Robb G is playing along with some others. Wanna go?!?!

YES!

Hey... so party's cancelled.  Cool Bar lost their liquor license... it aint nobody's fault.

NO!

Hey! Our super awesome friend is going to host at his swanky downtown condo!  COME!

So what could have been a bad time turned out to be an intimate, FUN, energetic DISCO THEMED party at a stone's throw from my home.

Robb G still behind the decks (in this case, a Numark mixdeck) as well as HOOKER and some friends rocked the night with Breaks, Electro, Techno, Nu-Disco and all that good stuff.  It was amazing to get a chance to talk to Robb about his first setup, how he got into DJing, and his cute lil kids!

Here's what I've learned... Apparently the best way to save from a trainwreck... is NOT to touch the platter!  Although I use both the platter and the pitch control to adjust... I suppose I will take Robb G's advice and try to ride the pitch more.  My question is, for small adjustments... am I still to wang the pitch fader up/down and then back into place again?  When I get caught in a situation in which the songs begin to drift... I will push the platter in the appropriate direction and THEN nudge the pitch accordingly in order to keep the beats aligned. 

Understandably there may not be a rigid "right" and "wrong" way to go about this... but Robb G is pretty much a god... so what can I say?

That being said, last time I was at FLY nightclub in Toronto, I was being pushed up against Deko-ze's booth and as I  shamelessly stared at him working, I noticed him nudging the platter and then instantly adjusting the pitch fader.  I was actually shocked at how FAST he could do it! Literally it was like one movement.  He kept one of his giant palms on the edge of the CDJ-1000, used his fingers to nudge the platter, then instantly with thumb and forefinger, nudged the pitch fader.

And I mean... Deko-ze is pretty much a god as well... so *shrug* the Jury is out kids.

Back to NYE... A new friend, Garnet got behind the decks and rocked us with some dirty breaks and electro.  I was also happy to see him using Traktor... for some reason it reassures me that other people use it too...

All in all, I came home at 5am tired and delirious.  Amber and I conked out for most of the next day... But today I had the urge and inspiration to record a new mix.

My first attempt was ... well bad.  I was trying to re-create a freestyle mix I had recorded a couple weeks ago by following the tracklist.  This was terrible unsuccessful and felt restrained.  So I ditched it and did another freestyle mix going for more of a dirty electro (sans the dirty dutch for the most part), and well.... I'm actually pretty damn happy with the results!

Here's the link.  Tracklist is below.  Constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated.

Moody Electro

1.  (0:00)    Disco Decay (Felguk Mix) - Neelix

2.  (4:26)    Disco Ballistic (Original Mix) - Lazy Rich

3.  (8:40)    WTFIH (Cyberpunkers remix) - Haezer

4.  (11:34)    Zombie Barbie - Aniki

5.  (14:40)    Nobody Listens to Techno feat MC Flipside - Funkagenda

6.  (19:00)    Sorry Mofo - MALO Remix - Robb G

7.  (21:41)    It Is Not The End Of The World - Laurent Wolf