Life Force - DJ Nick the Record "It'sbeenafestivalofsummers"

This week's Ransom Note Mix comes courtesy of vinyl addict and disco connoisseur Nick the Record. Frankly, what he doesn't know about crate digging isn't worth knowing. Unsurprisingly, his mix is jam packed with obscure gems and incredible sounds - we've had it on in the office all morning and now it can be the perfect accompaniment to your day as well.

Nick The Record: The Ransom Note Mix

In the first week of September we're heading to the beautiful scenery of Tisno, Croatia, to celebrate the first edition of Dekmantel Selectors. In the run up to the festival, we've launched a new temporary podcast-series where we invite ten of our selectors from the festival to dig deep in their unique collections. The idea behind the mix is to create a Time Document, focusing on a specific period of time with the artist being free in choosing this period. This period could in fact entail anything: a certain decennia, the time he or she fell in love, The Cold War, November ’92 – March ’93, or the rise of Nigerian music. It’s up to the Selectors to choose and tell us a story based on their music collection.

Selectors Podcast 008 comes from an established and respected record dealer based in the UK, who has been the go to guy for rare music for many years now. But if you don’t know Nick The Record, that probably is because he has focused on a DJ-career in Japan for the last decennia’s. It’s in the magical country where he started a series of parties with a Japanese crew called Lifeforce and eventually became the resident DJ. After throwing their first rave party in 1993, their alliance lasted for almost twenty years. Nick: "There was already a strong established club scene in Japan at the time, bringing lots of name DJ’s from the USA. The idea with Lifeforce was to add a little of the UK rave culture to the mix. It was a very grass roots, friends of friends type affair which grew organically. The music we played was mostly house and acid with some disco thrown in too."
 
With his Selectors Time Document, Nick travels back in time and takes us on a typical Lifeforce night trip. Nick: "So this mix actually spans two decades but focusses on a specific time of night. Lifeforce was usually held in a studio or warehouse space and was always an all night party going until six or seven in the morning (except for the outdoor parties that would always go longer). So within this mix, we zone in on the last hour of a typical night like that and the encore tunes. There was always still a good amount of people at the end of the night and they would always demand at least three encores. 

 His typical way of mixing is recognized within this mix. No proper four to the floor mixing, but good records and great vibes is what matters the most. Nick: "After a long night of high tempo dancing to house and disco, I always like to gradually slow it down a little with some slower house, disco and then gradually stop mixing and just play great records. It can be something super soulful, jazzy or trippy. Depending on the feel of the party, it can be something slow, deep and meditative, or something high octane to send the crowd home on a high. It will always be something highly emotive in the end. As a result of all this, there isn’t too much mixing within this mix. Just the first thirty minutes to slow you down and open you up to that early morning vibe."

Selectors Podcast

Selectors Podcast 008 - Nick The Record

► Closing out a lovely evening overlooking Shibuya was Tokyo's finest – Chee Shimizu. Out to Lighthouse Records for having us and Dommune for helping make this From The Counter happen!
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Life Force - DJ Nick the Record "It'sbeenafestivalofsummers"

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