So for the past couple of weeks, I've been jamming out to Jon Rust/Reecha's Boiler Room set (#55 to be exact) from like 3 weeks ago. I'd just so happen to stumble upon their set live via ustream when I was at my station's studio practicing. I mean, just completely blown away by their selection choices. I don't really feel like they're caught up on trying to perform a set, rather than just selecting tunes for the crowd to bounce to, which at the end of the day is most important. Of the tracks/artists that stood out: Toasty, Joy Orbison/Boddika, Maxsta, Kode9, Dom Perignon, Steve "Silk" Hurley-- all of the tunes were sick.
I don't know about you, but something I do a lot, especially with my ongoing interest in UK/DJ culture, is whenever I download podcasts, DJ mixes, etc-- I cherrypick certain parts of the mix that just go perfectly together. Rarely have I snatched a mix that was all-around perfect from beginning to end. But mixes that have small little 20-minute nuggets of just badass selection choices feel a lot like when casually listening to an album and running into a really awesome song. It's as satisfying as taking in a proper album, with as bulky a musical investment as taking the time to listen to it. Those moments for me lately:
-the above-mentioned set at around 34:00 (where it transitions from the So Solid tune to the Dom Perignon/Dynamite tune "Got Myself Together") until essentially the end. Though, the nugget kinda ends after the Maxsta "East London is Back" tune at 47:33. But the Weeknd tune at the end "The Morning", which is probably the best tune they have, worked perfectly as the closing-set clincher.
-also the Starkey/P-Money/Elijah & Skilliam Rinse FM special from January. I feel like it's already penned as one of the more memorable Rinse FM episodes. I mean it's just all-around sick grime tracks. Specifically from Starkey, whose set starts at 39:00. And he pretty just much charges through all of his catalogue and Seclusiasis tunes for like a half-hour in OG-form. Melodic wobbles, grime-synths-- Starkey pretty much goes hard and bulldozes through that entire set with bravado and no rewinds, except for the Trim collabo.
Anyway, I mention these little nuggets because my listening habits lately consist mostly of the amount of time I'm either at the gym, driving in my car and in bed. And it's weird because when you come across a really great song, you want to share it. Unfortunately my fascination with dubstep and all-things UK electronic are only shared by me. So none of my friends are that into it. Dubstep is casual for them, and my girlfriend is as big a music geek as I am, but she doesn't gravitate towards dubstep like I do. Not to say she doesn't like it, because she does. Just her relationship with that kind of music can falter with repeat lessons, enough to make her go nuts.
God forbid I put a Oneman podcast on in the car, because she will freak if it's the same one I've been playing for two weeks.
It's cool, though. Because sometime I find that nugget, and I cherrypick it before I pick her up from wherever. I scroll to the exact time within the mix before she gets in the car. The nugget has been in my head all day, so I'm pretty stoked to replicate the exact bit of surprise I had when coming across the nugget earlier. Though, I play it cool as if the mix had been playing since before she got inside the car and she serendipitously came in while this awesome-ass nugget in the mix was playing.
And then I wait, and try to not attract too much attention to the music, and use my peripheral vision to see if there's any sort of reaction I'd hoped for. A lot of times there's no reaction and that kinda sucks, but it's not a HUGE deal. I understand, especially if I'd been playing DJ podcasts all week in my car. But sometimes there's a reaction and she asks, "Who is this?"
"Oh I think it's Ben UFO's Boiler Room set from March," I say.
"Shit, it's good. I like it. A lot actually."
Those words trigger like a combination of a billion feelings. You found someone that is as into a piece of music as you are. That's not even on a relationship level-- that's on some Darwin shit. Another feeling is that the nugget is actually universally awesome enough for someone else to have dug it. Meaning you're not the only one that is cosmically into this specific moment within a DJ's music selection. And then above all those feelings, within the relationship bubble, you've met eye to eye on musical terms with a girl you love a lot. Win, fucking win.
It's a crazy extra-natural act of cohesion, that makes you just "get it". By it, I mean a lot of things. Music, people, girls, relationships, what we like/dislike, the world. Everything. I'm into those moments a lot. Doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it's enough to make you pinpoint it back when you're writing a blog about it.
