DJ Pete Samplist's Music Blog

The brief is the same every session - no planning, follow your gut, act as if you were asked to deejay an hour beforehand. I don’t have the luxury of a second take, so all the mistakes, interruptions, and dead ends are left in. So damn human.

For me, one of the great delights as a music fan is that moment when you discover that a song you really like is actually a cover.

Last night after watching the incredible POINT BLANK (1968) with a friend, I put CAN: The Singles on the turntable and eventually "Mushroom" came on. I love the CAN original, but it always reminds me that for many years the only version I was familiar with was the Jesus and Mary Chain live version from "Barbed Wire Kisses", which I wore out on cassette when it came out in '88.

In looking up the lyrics, I stumbled upon something odd. It seems that in the J&MC version the lyric is:

When I saw her mushroom hair I was born and I was dead

While the CAN original's lyrics are listed as:

When I saw mushroom head I was born and I was dead

Weird.

Compilations have always been a huge source of new music for me. In high school I started obsessively collecting the Sire Records "Just Say..." compilations which led to collegiate collection of the Volume comps. I'm hopscotching through history now, but eventually label and magazine-style comps gave way to artist and deejay curated compilations like Back to Mine and Late Night Tales.

Over the holidays I picked up my favorite cosmic disco connoisseur DJ Harvey's "Mercury Rising: Volumen Tres" on vinyl and dislodged a new favorite track, the slinky disco-fried bossa-funk of "You Know Why (Disco Version)" by Pino Presti featuring Roxy Robinson. Harvey's compilation was released in 2021, but the single was originally released in 2018 as part of a release of unreleased extended disco tracks from Presti's 1977 archives.

As a deejay and record collector, nothing is as exciting as when a gem as pure as this one that's been all but forgotten is unearthed. When I was listening to Harvey's record for the first time and this track came on, it was like sticking my finger in the socket, my body started twitching and soon I was dancing across the floor imagining hearing this in smoky sweaty discotheque with Harvey at the helm.

I couldn't dig up much on Roxy Robinson (aside from some incredible album covers) but she nails the sultry disco diva vibe.

I know it's January 2, but I'm gonna try and post a song a day for the year as a kind of deejay journal experiment.

I'll start with this excellent dance track from Myd that I played at my house-party-for-two New Year's Eve (captured in this mix). After a long year of belt-tightening and zero new vinyl purchases, I allowed myself two splurgy trips to the record store (thank you Sister Kate for your generous Amoeba gift certificate gift!) and came home with "Mydnight", the latest full-length from French producer Myd on Ed Banger Records. I've been a Myd fan ever since discovering his EP "All Inclusive" in 2017 (if you dig this track, check out "The Sun" next).

This track not only has a great beat and hooky chorus, but I really connected to the simplicity of its message, one that I think translates to the reasons I make deejay mixes and love to spin at parties.

I made this song for you To let you know that I care I made this song for you One that you can groove to every day I made this song for you To let you know that I care I made this song for you One that you can groove to every day

Take a listen and let me know if this track moves you. I'll leave you with a pic I took at SXSW in 2023 at an incredible night featuring Myd and disco legend Cerrone.

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