Hey Doc! How do I find a list of the tunes you're spinnin?

since i was small, i found meaning through music. first i combed my parents records, listening for something that stopped me. when i had money of my own, i asked them to drive me to the city so i could buy my own. every dollar went there. when i saw my first walkman, and realized i could listen to music anywhere, i moved from LP’s to cassettes.  until i could get one, i bungee-corded a boom box in front of the tractor’s steering wheel, and blared it louder than the engine. everyone within a mile knew that it took a nation of millions to hold us back. or at least public enemy. 

i am not exactly clear where the obsession came from. my parents put on a record here and there, but there lives didn’t revolve around it (ha) like mine did. though i eventually ended up in toronto to study medicine, its music scene is why i stayed, and as i grew into the person i am now, how i found my friends. we met at shows, on dancefloors, record stores, subway parties, block jams, festivals around the world. 

in 1999, a neurology resident asked me to “watch” his technics-1200 record players. you can’t WATCH record players; you must listen to them. i started visiting play de record in toronto, found a scene of ever greater music nerds, and graduated into the role of DJ, not from any particular skill, but from record buying compulsion. before cdj’s, to be a dj, you just needed to be a person willing to spend $20 on one song. i was that person. 

medicine, as you might imagine, greatly interfered with the rising star of my musical career. in the end, i liked helping people even more, and while i might train-wreck a mix if i was half-paying attention, i couldn’t do the same with a person’s care in the trauma room. i decided to devote my life to that, and remain music’s biggest fan.  

dj’ng is so different now than it was those many years ago. people play mostly in tight bpm’s, songs match with the click of a button. you don’t EVER spend twenty dollars on a track. the art has moved on, and with more available  equipment, the skill level of the average person is remarkable. one thing remains the absolute same: when you are enveloped by a song, something deep within you starts singing too. time falls away, and you become part of the reckless beauty around you. 

i’ve seen a bazillion shows, live and dj’d. if i could choose one that influenced my dj stylings, it was in queen’s new york, at PS1’s first warmup, around the year 2000. after an hour of house or disco or whatever, miho hatori, from the band cibo mato, threw down a stevie wonder track, then a guns and roses one, then cypress hill. all records obvi. i was, like: that’s the type of dj i will be. 

i’ve made these mixtapes since about then. i made them for friends or lovers, party people, but mostly i made them for me. it meant devotion to a handful of songs, listening to them again and again, rearranging them. since they were so different, i couldn’t mix in, say, key. i would need to find a hook or a melody, link up a thought or emotion. arrange, rearrange. don’t make the listening too easy. provoke, release, stop the listener with something unexpected or new, and just when they want to press FFWD, move on.

above all, i get to fall in love with songs, like i did that first time i heard one, carrying through my mothers loving skin, into the soft nest of her womb, shaking me, letting me know that there was more to this world than i could ever get to, but there would always be a place for me. 

and you. i’m glad this beautiful commotion put us together. hope you like this music, and if you do, share it with people who might too. love.

*image - electron microscopy of a mouse’s inner-ear

2023 - this temple bell eats flowers - mixtape

What an honor to play the very last set at Fusion Festival at Panne Eichel Bachstelzen. I have so many amazing memories and i am so grateful for every second we shared together. I think it was the most challenging set i played i wanted to make it special and perfect and i put a lot of pressure on myself. doesn't need to be perfect but it should be fun and it comes from the heart!
Thank you all for the energy and support.

Love Britta

Britta Arnold Fusion 2023 @ Panne Eichel Bachstelzen

I made a mix. it is mostly machine, but a little bit human. if you want to cut right to machine, jump to 17' or so, but the human comes back. we will always come back*.  love. 
***
*once upon a time, two friends read an ad for a robot war in the defunct toronto weekly, "NOW magazine". imagining clashes between robots with saws and ones that spit fire, the two friends wrapped themselves in tin foil, and with salad-tong hands, ripped the antennae off their tv. that afternoon, they traveled to the space science centre to both cheer on the robits and study their vulnerabilities for any advantage in the inevitable upcoming robot war*. 

the organizers of the event saw the friends robot-walking from the parking lot, ushered them in without them even needing to pay the entrance fee, then on to a stage of a large auditorium where the war was occurring. 

there were no saws. there were no metal lassos, or swinging, crushing winches. there was only a group of nerds, a few in white coats for some reason, standing around a circle the size of kiddy pool, seeing if one little robot car the size of a deck of cards, could push the other little robot car out of the circle or onto its back. 

the small audience turned to the two friends. so too the white coat nerds, cars forgotten. it was by far the most exciting thing to happen since the thing started. one friend turned to the other. 

"we gotta fight. it's what people came her for."
"you're right."

but the friend hesitated. the other one too. they had put a whole 40 minutes of work into the costume. 

a little car finally flipped its opponent onto its back, and the wheels whined. the nerds turned back to the circle. the moment had passed. 

it is my only true regret.** 

anyway, I made a mix. it is mostly machine, but a little bit human. if you want to cut right to machine, jump to 17' or so, but the human comes back. we will always come back. love. 

* a piece of advice: if you are on the street or whatever, and see a robot building a robot that's building another robot, run home, unplug as many things as you can, and I'll meet you in the woods. 

**the two friends have had several opportunities since that time to robot war for real, have had nothing to regret since, and are living happily ever after.

manXmachineXmachineman

PSK - Streets are for dancing - Part 2024

obscura 24 taste

The favorite story I tell myself about humanity is we are just waking up, shaking the cobwebs from a million years of dreams, shielding light from our eyes while they adjust to the forever day before us. Soon, we will learn how to crawl, then walk, stand, know our connection to each other as single cells of one human body. The marvel will slake any sorrow about the damage we wrought before we knew.

Music is medicine for the days when it seems we’ll never get there, and for ones right on the verge. I have been infatuated with songs since I was a child. The first dollars of my first job went towards them, and since, in their thrall, for the last two decades or so, I listen like a fiend for a year, then scramble at its end picking song new to me, then put them in an order that soothes my fussiness. Like the year that begets this end-of-year mix, I never really know how it will sound until it is through. Some years, jazz and classical, techno noise or dub, this year, none of those really. In their stead: a bunch of dirty guitar (which is the way, IMO, it’s best had). I was also able to mumble incoherently through this one too, which I would fix, but I only had the one chance to get it down before I left on a plane. Like life, there is just the one run.

On a second listening, it seems a more solitary experience than some previous years, more for headphones you know, swinging to and fro you know, on a chairlift above evergreens caked in snow while a shadow of a crow shows in the cloud on high then goes. 

See you soon.

2025 (best of) - the end of the beginning

First mix of 2025. Starts off smooth and mellow builds to a nice fun peak and then brings you back down smoothly. Recorded live at @consciousnessexplorersclub virtual retreat.

Stasi
Artist: Populous
Instagram: @populous

Eastern Sun
Artist: Ayla Nereo
Instagram: @aylanereo

Centre (feat. Sridaya Srivatsan)
Artist: Alysha Brilla
Instagram: @alyshabrilla

2 Steps Forward - Moonlight Ride (feat. Bluey Moon)
Artist: Isaac Chambers
Instagram: @isaacchambersmusic

Mangüeiro (feat. Aliboria)
Artist: Baiuca
Instagram: @baiuca_

Darbu
Artist: Sapajou
Instagram: @sapajoumusic

Ya Llego (Captain Planet Remix)
Artists: Willie Colón & Mon Rivera
Instagram: @williecolon (Mon Rivera does not have an Instagram account)
Remixer: Captain Planet
Instagram: @djcaptainplanet

Players (David Guetta Remix - Extended)
Artists: Coi Leray & David Guetta
Instagram: @coileray, @davidguetta

Kyrenia (Extended Mix)
Artists: Sllash & Doppe
Instagram: @sllashanddoppe

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Freejak Remix)
Artists: Sgt Slick & Freejak
Instagram: @sgtslick, @freejakartist

Earth Groove (Extended Mix)
Artists: Vijay & Sofia
Instagram: @vijayandsofia

God Gave Me Feet For Dancing (feat. Yazmin Lacey)
Artists: Yazmin Lacey & Ezra Collective
Instagram: @yazminlacey @ezracollective

Ocean
Artist: Ayo
Instagram: @ayo_music

Mogoya
Artist: Oumou Sangaré
Instagram: @oumou.sangare

This Feeling
Artist: Alabama Shakes
Instagram: @alabamashakes


56 Minute Musical Journey Featuring Populous, Ayla Nereo, Sllash & Doppe, Vijay & Sofia & Notte, Yazmin Lacey & Ezra Collective and more

In the Ravine

Mike Servito's closing set from 10:30am until noon at No Way Back, May 25, 2025, Day 2 of Return to the Source at Tangent, Detroit. 

"Mike Servito is an artist intertwined with his Detroit origins. No matter how far he travels and how long he lives elsewhere, the essential imprint of this city remains in everything he does.

If you asked where this mix was recorded, I would say "Detroit" without hesitation and if I thought about it for a bit, I would guess that it was most likely one of Mike's legendary closing sets at No Way Back at Tangent Gallery. The level of care and reverence that go into these sets is very evident in this mix from start to finish. The track selection moves effortlessly from past to future playing with darkness and light, depth and joy, tension and release. It's a remarkable demonstration of taste and skill but also a paean to Mike's personal artistic history that calls to the creative power center that Detroit comprises. This mix provides a true glimpse into Mike's long-term dedication to the art of working in tandem with the dancefloor, creating a shared journey where the challenge is to let go and just trust the DJ." 
– Michelle Erfer, Beyond Booking / The Bunker


Buy Cassette

IT.podcast.s14e05: Mike Servito closing No Way Back 2025

the future sure is a crazy fucking place and its getting ever futurer. i dedicate these techno sounds to my agent-provocateur digtial homie @veteze in honour of his born day and his nostradamus-like ability to chart an increasingly rapid descent into an all-encompassing technoracy. all hail robot.

Technocracy - Junction Underground - Toronto - aka HBD Veteeeeeeeze -  Nov 15 2025

This a mix of songs that struck me like an arrow in  2025  and follow me, quivering. This time around, as I chose the tracks and order, I kept on coming back to a vision of being outside in the snow, cold wind cutting my face like a lash, but my body was warm, was in fact, ever more-stoked, and kept climbing. 

It matches the feeling that I'm leaving this year with.  It's almost hard to admit, so trained am I to watch for the worst, but there it was,  a tiny, indestructible thread of fucking hope. Couldn't believe it either, but here we go.  

Love you. Miss you. Hope this finds you deliciously hungover.  xx. 

ps. the photo is of pollen in a spider's web.

2026 - The earth is not an echo.

medicine is music. dub, psychedelic techno, rock.
tension, release, recover, repeat
forever and ever, 
amen.

2023 - this temple bell eats flowers - mixtape

MSKLK

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