STS-120
Minimal Techno with a bit of texture...

TRACKLISTING

This was my first mix after I moved back (home) to AR from NC, after having worked residencies at several clubs there while under a two-year apprenticeship with Mark "The Hitman" Pezzella, who ran Quality Disc Jockeys and HittMix Studios, which were both subsidiaries of Quality Sound and Video - which had the entertainment contract for these clubs that I mentioned...

I'd moved to NC from Austin, TX, where I'd gotten involved with DJing and heavily involved with breakbeat... Texas Breaks, rather...

In Texas, having been tremendously inspired by DJs Scot Gray, and Michelangelo, and having the good fortune of being befriended by Mike C, who was a mentor and a prime force in helping me get my feet off the ground as a DJ, which has led to many other good things...

I left Texas with a sound imprinted in my head, but was never able to re-create (or even rediscover) that Texas Breaks sound........

Possibly because of the records I was finding on the East Coast - mainly Satellite Records in NYC, from Justing Johnson, who has become one of my very best friends over the years, and was kind enough to be my Best Man at my wedding in LV (between gigs) - and also from Kimmee "DJ Storm" Drakontitis from West Palm Beach, who also has become a good friend and a is a very enjoyable person to be around in general. If you've never been around him, you should make it a point...

So, this mix is that Texas feeling I had inside me, but with only one record purchased in Austin from Alien, and it was an import. ??

While I wasn't trying to represent or re-create, necessarily, a certain sound, the feelings that forced this mix into existence were the lingering effects of a high that was gained from spending 93 to 95 in the Austin area.

It was a very special time there, and none of the above work would exist if it weren't for the incredible talent and presence of Scot and Mike and my pure, dumb luck... To all the people I've mentioned: Thanks Guys!!!


I put this mix out originally around July '97 or thereabouts. It has a gap in the middle from having a cassete tape as a a master, but I don't think it hurts it that much...

This mix is pure breakbeat, electro-funk, acidic mayhem, D&B at 33, some other shit I don't know what to call, and some Nu-Skool sounding tracks, however, Rennie Pilgrem hadn't named the genre yet.

Some people around me called the stuff I was playing at the time (in Little Rock, mind you...) "Experimental Breaks", but not to my face, and of course they were not "experimental", they were just grungy and not from California or Florida... CA and FLA are well represented throughout, however...

BTW, this mix never had any original artwork, so I've substituted a photo of my Mindwarp (Too) sleeve from Stress Records, a record that was given to me by Mike C. has been greatly appreciated, and kindly signed by John Debo...  Thanks for understanding...

Fun times...

Enjoy!!!

BR