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 Hitmann" 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...
A good portion of this time and under this arrangement, I worked as a direct understudy for Karson Douglas "Chuck" Tager - radio, studio, club, mobile - he'd done and was doing it all at that time, and I was very fortunate to have worked and roomed with him during a time when I was trying to figure out how to wrap my head around the damned thing as a whole, in a highly competitive club environment, but if it weren't for my friend Eddie Gurley having confidence in me, a lot of what I'd learned might not have rooted firmly as it might have otherwise... Thanks Eddie.
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 Austin DJs Scot Gray, and Michelangelo, and just being in the area and having the opportunity to just observe Rob Vaughan at work... with whatever he choose to play... being amazed, not understanding... just soaking it up...
Also, 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, and by words passed down, "Herb says..." or "so-and-so said that Rob says...." whatever... but made me feel connected to what, by then, had become a Texas tradition, or traditions... of working and continuing to work with themes of skill and styles and professionalism, and a bit of humility, and of creating a culture that's enjoyable, works and has been, for the most part, very respectable... which has created generations of new talent and more work and so there's a certain tone to the profession that's hard to ignore, just popping into the state, or emerging from one's bedroom... Good standards are fairly well in place for a newcomer... and it's not simply personality driven...
So I left Texas with a sound imprinted in my head, but was never able to rediscover what I'd call that Texas 'sound', anywhere else I've ever traveled...
For me, Breaks have just always been better in TEXAS... That's no joke... Now why is that? It's not a rhetorical question... It's the fucking groove and track... Tracky ass breaks!!! and the way they're interpreted... I don't know how else to describe what made such a musical impression outside of the individuals...
After I left Texas, I never could find anything I Really liked, like I liked Texas breaks... Sorry rest of my friends, rest of the world...
That's the fucking breaks... and you can (or could) find them in TX.
Maybe it was the records I was finding on the East Coast - mainly Satellite Records in NYC, from Justin Johnson, who has become one of my very best friends over the years, and ended up being my Best Man at my wedding in LV (between gigs) and still currently one of my best friends (and did the best he could... :-), and also from Kimmee "DJ Storm" Drakontitis from West Palm Beach, who's a cool mofo, and I appreciate him hooking me up w/ some badass shit back in the day... Won't forget it...
But I just never could get back to Texas with the music, or find anything like it elsewhere...
So, this (now very old )mix is that Texas feeling I had inside me at the time, yet with only one record purchased in Austin from Alien, and it was an import. ?? Hell, maybe they all were - that I was hearing pre-exodus... Could have been for all I know...
So, this has become as much of a bio as a description for a mix, but with the mix, I wasn't trying to represent or re-create, necessarily, a certain sound, rather, 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... Rob Vaughan... Mike C, and I guess possibly any and all that came before... and my pure, dumb luck... To all the people I've mentioned:
THANK YOU!!!
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, but you couldn't call it that for another year officially...
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 many times not from California or Florida... CA and FLA are represented fairly well in this compilation 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
