Paulina Taylor - Slam Evil (Side B)

SixEleven DJ MixSeries Volume 1 was my 3rd mix CD. At the time I had just relocated from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and was living in an apartment with my friend Nigel Richards, a fellow dj and owner of the record store and label 611 Records. I was working at the shop during the week and playing shows on the weekends. Nigel decided that he wanted to get into the mix CD market and we conceptualized the idea of a “mixed series” of music that highlighted good DJs that were also personal friends. For me, this was an opportunity to really start learning the ropes of licensing music, doing better graphic design (I designed the artwork for all of the CDs...and yes that's a picture of my turntable) and putting a more personalized stamp on the music I was pushing on these compilations. I had little to no input on the track selections of my first two mix CDs, so this project was my first real foray into total artistic freedom. To be honest, I don’t completely remember how I was able to lock down all of the music for this tracklist! I just remember that it was a pain in the ass dealing with the various labels and artists and artist egos and budget restrictions. Most of the tracks on the compilation were unreleased when it was made, so I had to cut acetates / dubplates of all of the tunes. Sidenote - every time you play a dubplate you degrade its sound quality. I had to make doubles of every tune, practice with one set, and then try and nail a perfect mix with the unplayed set. Talk about stressful! I mixed this thing sitting on the floor of my living room, turntables in front of me and fingers crossed. It was my first time doing a mix on a mixer that actually had EQ and FX (the Pioneer DJM-500). I used the tight flange FX quite a bit in here for a metallic sound. Also, my turntables were modified and pitched up to play faster. That’s why this mix sounds like it is around 190BPM. I always liked my drum and bass extra fast for some reason! Besides “Messiah” from the 6ixth Session, the track “Tough At The Top” is the one I get the most comments about from people that are familiar with my music. Overall, DJ MixSeries Volume 1 represented a very specific touchstone in my musical career. It was a transition point that really helped jumpstart later projects with crazy intros (this one had none), better graphics, more esoteric and unique track selections, etc. A belated super thank you to Nigel for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. This was definitely a fun art project and a big dip into the deep end of music development.

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TRACKLIST

Hoax - The More I See You (Urban Flavour Remix)
DT - Serious
EZ-Rollers - Tough At The Top (Origin Unknown Remix)
Concept 2 - Unlock The Secrets
Dom + Matrix - Foot Steps
Facs - Rupture
Technical Itch - Hidden Sound (Dom + Roland Remix)
Solar Nine - Audio Distortion
Embee - The Power
Secret Methods - Animation
Swift - Mission
Decoder - EKO
Decoder - DHR
Vagrant - Space Boogie
Sharp Scientific - Stratocruiser

dnb

Kevin Scharwath