dylan

Dylan Drazen

Here is the complete collection of my classic mixtapes recorded from 1995 until 2003.  Yes, they were actually distributed on cassette tape!

Classic Mixtapes (1995-2003)

old scooll house

House Music Lovers!!  This Is For You....
Flashback on the best tunes since 1990!
All these titles are vinyl, if there is a problem of sound is quite normal...
That is the originality of vinyl records ;-)

Deep & House Music from 2000

Rosa Luxemburg Platz

DJ AMEER APR 17 2017 SHOW ON WQFS 90.9 FM

DJ AMEER ON WQFS 90.9 FM APR 17 2017 SHOW

DEEPER  FROM 2005 To 2017

This is Dylan's first attempt at creating a mixtape. He was 19 then, fresh and new full of ideas. Even then you could see he had his tastes set out - comparing the mixes from today to this one shows lots in common. Part one is hard and fast, while part two shows his early influences of the detroit style - the melodic and soulful techno sound from the early '90s. 

dd01 - No Hope (Part 1) - 1995

dd01 - No Hope (Part 2) - 1995

My first deep house mix, performed August 1995 at Satellite Studios, NYC.

dd02 - Deeper Than You Thought (Part 1) - 1995

90's techno on 3 turntables, the way we used to do!
Performed October 1995 at Frequency M's Pad, Boston

dd03 - Bottom (1995)

Things were getting hot and heavy in Spain, and the music was getting relentless.

Performed April 1999 in The Cervix, Brooklyn

 side a

Martial - Meteorite Wave - Taka 
Oxia - Fresh - GoodLife 
Grain - B2 - Fat Cat 
Sapiano and the Partycrashers - Body Parts - Klang 
Punisher - Extinction - Seismic 
Chris Jackson - Make 'Em Work - Resource 
Visco Space - Part 3 - Konsequent 
Pitch Invasion - In The Box - Core 
Petter Fripp - Structural Pump 
South Operations - Draining Faces - Evil Deception 
Cari Lekebusch - This Way - Access 58 
Olga + Josef - A1 - OJ 002 
M. Lloyd - The Jump - Sub Octave 
Clemens Neufeld - Impact - POD 10 
Smith & Selway - Thunder - Primate 
Raoul Delgardo - Steelworks - Sheep 

 side b

Alba Patera - Tog - Monoïd 
Umek - Halcion - XS 
Inigo Kennedy - Preliminary Statements - Aesimetrik 
Cio - Talkin' With Juanito - Ongaku 
Oszillator5 - S8084#02 - Planet Pump 
VCO - Mind Test - Thrust 
Stanlee - Klangphase - Planet Pump 
Icepack - Schwama - Solid 
P. Leroy - Outlast - Gelstat 
Tomito Satori - Manalive - Exhibit 
Olga + Josef - A2 - OJ 002 
Clemens Neufeld - Inappropriate Relations - Spiel-Zeug Schallplatten 
Musicolor - Violet - Musicolor 
Photonic - Impact - Universal Prime Breaks

dd19 - The Matrix (1999)

I truly felt bit by the tribal bug in 2003, and had to give a little bit of that here. I tried to include all the genres I like to play in one mix and found it so complete, I decided to stop the "dd" numbering system, since I wasn't making actual mixtapes anymore either. This was also the final CD I mass produced, as the Internet started to become the main way everyone shared mixes.

Performed May 2003 at Tetanus Studio, Brooklyn

Dr. Kucho - It Must Be Love - Bonus Tracks (cuntinued) 
Dr. Kucho - Belmondo Rulez 2.0 - Disc Doctor 
Kay Maan - Got To - Boo 
Magik Johnson - Los Halinos - Blaktrax 
Richard Earnshaw - Joyride - Soulfuric Deep 
Kemit Sources - Bor Dlan (I:Cube rmx) - Versatile 
Triesté - Too High In The Sky (John Ciafone dub) - Junior 
D'Wachman & HD Substance - Jump (Mateo Murphy rmx) - Atlas 
Pulse - Cariño 2002 (Pascal F.E.O.S. rmx) - Frisbee 
Hertz & Hardcell - Electrons - Sway 
Submode vs Basoon - Aibo - Delirium Red 
65d Mavericks - Abstractions - Matrix 
Gaetano Parisio - Norman Expression - Design 
Patrik Skoog - B1 - Mankind 16 
Henry Cullen - Grilled Chicken - :body:art:form: 
Praxis - Roy Rogers - Omniscient 
Dylan Drazen vs Tim Xavier - The Benz - Blueline 
Archae and Grovskopa - Ex - Maracas

dd25 - Tagged (Part 2) (2003)

dd02 - Deeper Than You Thought (Part 2) (1995)

What was originally created as a promotional requirement for a small gig in Budapest became one of my more talked about mixes during the hard techno years.  I don't play like this anymore, but I can still appreciate the insanity.

In 2002, I wrote:
"this little promotional mini mix CD was given to the first 100 entrants into the coldwar party in budapest, hungary on december 14, 2002. it's unsettlingly hard."

recorded at tetanus studio, december 2002 - brooklyn 

AeoX - Nuclear Winter - Null 
Boss - Jahoda - Palica Vonzvreca 
Andreas Kremer - Rock Them (DJ Boss rmx) - Lifeform 
Dylan Drazen - Baba - Remains 
Simon Krach - Current Value - Null 
Polytechnique - Free Mind - Salpeter 
Next Level feat. Dylan Drazen - Doch - Unreleased 
Henrik B - Seven A - Illgo Rhythm

20 Minutes of Hell (2002)

Label bosses Spektre on the mix this episode, recorded live on NYE 2018 at Circus, Montreal.

Mutual Respekt 223: Spektre live at Circus, Montreal

We welcome Beico & MT93 to Mutual Respekt, in anticipation of their forthcoming monster "Addictive Darkness".

Mutual Respekt 228: Beico & MT93

My first live performance in Holland in three years, this set was played on 100% vinyl, comprised of my favorite techno from the last decade. I went through my entire record collection and found the best of the best. Apologies for the crappy sound quality; the turntables used at the event must have been shot, despite having new needles.



Dylan Drazen - Concept - Live at Ahoy, Rotterdam

Portions of this deep mix have had its fair share of attention before I finally got around to posting it.

It's been been featured on Lars Behrenroth's Deeper Shades of House, Spain's Dogglounge, and Trevor Lamont's House is Home of Lexington, KY.

Here finally is the full 2.5 hr set.  This mix was warped, mangled and mashed up using Ableton Live over a week's studio time.  I created a series of YouTube videos explaining portions of what I did, as I did it.  Full tracklisting available on dylandrazen.com.

The downloadable mashup:
http://bit.ly/VkumNR

Video 1:
http://bit.ly/SmAzIC

Video 2:
http://bit.ly/VMlqNr

Deeper Shades of House:
http://bit.ly/Y6Sh48

Tracklisting:
http://www.dylandrazen.com/sets/down-south-2013/

Down South (2013)

DANZA is a voyage of deep, tech, funk and soul, merging electronic cultures from around the globe.

Music by:
Dylan Drazen
Danny Valencia

This set was recorded live on:
Friday, February 22nd / 2013 at Bolivar (South Beach, Miami)

DANZA 1 - 22 Feb 2013 - Dylan Drazen & Danny Valencia

Performed at Club Spazio - Miami, FL - April 6, 2013

Dylan Drazen Presents Miami Sessions: Vol. 1

What happens when the owner of a French restaurant in an exclusive part of Miami calls Dylan in a panic because his piano player called in sick? Chill, Bro!

Chill, Bro!

No discussion of underground techno purism and technical DJ mastery would be complete without the mention of Dylan Drazen’s uniquely remarkable life and career, and the myriad of musical influences it has brought. Conforming to no one person, genre or entity, Dylan has fiercely charted his own path since his sonic journey began over thirty years ago.

With the outset of Drazen’s path arriving in the early 90’s at the age of 18, a crescendo would already manifest by the late 90’s when Spain took note of his visionary methods and pioneering sound during the earliest days of the Internet, and he quickly became an originating stalwart of its nationwide underground techno scene for years, putting in over a million air miles commuting from his New York base, crisscrossing the Iberian peninsula many times over, as fans couldn’t get enough of his relentlessly energetic, organic and authentic rhythms that were so novel to a generation of partygoers.

Yet at the height of all this in the mid 2000s Dylan became swept up in the worldwide poker boom and found himself at a crossroads with dual careers. Maintaining both for nearly a decade, he decided to relocate to South Florida in 2012 to take poker more seriously and music took a back seat. By 2020, Dylan’s poker talent would bring him over $1 million in cash and tournament winnings. Then the pandemic hit, the world ground to a halt and everything was reset as he noticed fans begging for his return, bringing him to yet another crossroads…

So let’s reset.

Dylan’s exposure to multiple forms of music began at the age of 16 getting his first job working at his local record store on Long Island, NY. He quickly gravitated to electronic music, heavily inspired by what New York’s FM airwaves had to offer well before the hiphop era would take over. That summer he would sneak out to NYC and into his first club experience, The Limelight, where he instantly fell in love with its debaucherous environment and DJ booth, which he vowed to get into.

By graduation in 1993 he was beyond hooked. Before heading off to college, he took that summer to intern at a few Manhattan based labels: Todd Terry’s Freeze Records, as well as Astralwerks and Instinct Records. All the while insatiably crate digging through NY’s various vinyl shops, Dylan’s teen self was already swimming in local contacts and influences.

But college awaited, and throughout his time at Boston’s Emerson College (obtaining a degree in audio engineering) he launched a weekly radio mix show called “Underground 88” on WERS 88.9 FM through 1997, working his contacts and continuing to hone his technical skills live on air. During these formative years Dylan maintained working at various vinyl shops in NY and Boston doggedly advancing his exposure to every genre imaginable, thus contributing to his encyclopedic knowledge of electronic dance music and all of the wide-ranging influences it would bring him. As a byproduct, his position enabled him to recommend tracks to and influence the taste of bedroom DJs and a myriad of luminaries alike.

Through these years, he even made good on his promise to play at The Limelight before it shuttered, as well as other infamous New York megaclubs like The Tunnel, Twilo and Save The Robots. And thanks to his stint as assistant engineer at The Looking Glass Studios where David Bowie was recording his latest album in 1997, Dylan was hired to DJ Mr. Bowie’s private 50th birthday party after his sold out birthday performance at Madison Square Garden.

But by the turn of the millennium it was off to the races and Dylan was spending more time on the road than at home, as he found himself in demand not only in Spain, but also in The Netherlands headlining the Awakenings festival three times, as well as other major events and festivals in Germany, Brazil, Japan, and Colombia, spreading his unique form of techno gospel one city at a time. 

Between journeys Dylan made the most of his audio degree by building out his own studio in Brooklyn, releasing a handful of original releases and remixes on some of America’s more influential labels of the era: François K.’s Clicktracks; Ascend; Blueline; Remains; and Ultra Records. Even after moving to South Florida in 2012, Dylan continued to work on remixes for other Spanish and European labels.

Then as Dylan began to go dark quietly diving head first into South Florida’s world of high stakes poker, he made sure to finalize the curation of his life’s work on his website and SoundCloud page, with that nagging feeling he would one day return…

That day arrived in 2021 when Dylan decided to look for work as a local DJ in Fort Lauderdale and its saturation of gay nightlife. His bimonthly residency at the legendary Ramrod helped pave his way back, growing just as comfortable in today’s booths as he did 20 years prior.

After a couple years of this and then launching The Techno Files podcast, he realized it was time for more. So in 2025 Dylan decided to relocate once again, this time to the birthplace of where it all began: Detroit.

Within his first year as Detroit resident, Dylan was already playing events for Detroit Techno Militia & Bang Tech 12, along with multiple appearances at Spot Lite, Spkrbox & TV Lounge.

New York-born, Miami-tested, now Detroit-welcomed: Dylan Drazen is primed and ready to return to the world’s electronic stage showing modern audiences how 30 years of sonic mastery, experience and musical influence can be put on brilliant display in a single set.