new mix! d.J presents >> 20:::21

It's been a while since i've created a mix, mostly due to a lack of material. I'm not sure why, but the last couple years have displayed a real dearth of quality material in my opinion. I've learned over the years that electronic music seems to ebb and flow with creative bursts, almost as though each sub-genre grows tired and longs for a new direction. And then some savvy new teenage producer emerges from an anonymous basement with something fresh and brilliant, and suddenly a new sound is born (as are a pedigree of imitators).

Here though, I suspect the pandemic quieted many producers. Electronic music is made for the masses; it's played in sweaty clubs and festivals, dripping with emotive, social intent. With that pulse of humanity muted over the past fifteen months, there was little commercial incentive to release new material. This is just a theory, and there still have been quality tracks slipping through the grips of lockdown, but I have noticed a sudden uptick of releases lately to quickly fill my gigabytes enough to warrant a new release; hence, "20:::21".

This mix is dark and melodic with less vocal tracks than previous releases of mine. And that's fine. While I'm a sucker for washed out angelic voices coaxing dopamine from every last neuron, I'm not going to force it. The electronic music I follow and enjoy is always reflective of the moment and the future -- but never the past. And the moment and immediate future seem to be dark and melodic. The vocal tracks that are included here though are among my favorite tracks in the entire mix.

In all, it's (pun intended) a transition mix of what was to whatever's next. 2020 seems like a blur -- a fast-forward in slow motion, however paradoxical. And I think and hope this mix reflects that. There's a primitive nature to it, especially the opening tracks, that, to me, depict the primal nature of humanity that is still very much a part of us, including viral-induced lockdowns that have been plaguing humans for eons. Yet, there's a rapid acceleration towards to the future where technology is both the tool that saves and dooms us. It's jarring and discordant, and it's reshaping how we see ourselves, from our biology, to our governments, to our society, to even our species -- we did just witness the first civilian flight of humans to space this week! Whether we're ready or not, or even whether we want it or not, the future is here. Perhaps it only seems like the transition was in slow motion because of our collective resistance to accept it. I hope this mix reflects this transition. If not, you know, i hope it's at least a good mix of songs that you can enjoy.

Download >> HERE

Future Passed, and Tense

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated time movement, and will likely continue to usher us briskly into the future. As someone who has always been frustrated with the sluggish state of societal development (or retardation), this comes with welcome enthusiasm, albeit with some pangs. For example, many, if not most of my friendships have disintegrated over the past year, and one even died. But perhaps that's just the future trajectory of events playing out in fast-forward; perhaps the lost friends were already on their trajectory into the past, and my friend that died was certainly on his trajectory towards death from cancer. I'm not one to necessarily argue for a prolonged life in such a painful scenario.

Alas, a sudden jolt into the future can cause whiplash, but it's not necessarily going to leave one crippled. On the contrary, it can provide a needed alignment of sorts -- a reanalysis of our encrusted, ignorant personal and societal inertia that so often stymies progress. I think humanity was due for a jolt, and for all the death, pain, and loss from COVID-19, I prefer it to the outbreak of a new world war happening in my life, which was arguably the last major jolt the world experienced. That jolt, World War Two, was far beyond an "alignment;" it was near mass suicide. I've arguably lived among the best times to be alive in human history, and in one of the best places: the wealthy, relatively stable United States of America from 1980 to 2021. Given alternative realities of different places and times in human history, I'd say I've been very lucky thus far. For one, I've lived a very healthy life to age forty! That alone is a rarity worth celebrating given the statistical history of human experience. In other words, every generation has their major events and struggles, personal and societal. And given what I know of human history, COVID-19 may not be a bad card to draw from a corrupted stack with many bad cards.

But I don't want to get ahead of myself (to be meta about it, of course). I'm formulating a focused writing on this subject soon. If not for irony's sake, I wanted to share something from the past -- something that seems like it's from another life in another era: playing a show in a crowded bar. Oh, how I miss such revelries! I've started writing music again and am in the process of recruiting a new band and potentially recording a new album by the year's end. But before I go back to the future (oh, just STOP with these puns!), I'm enjoying a glimpse of the past. Watching and listening to this, I both yearn for, and scoff at its naive innocence. Evidently I'm already a grumpy old man post-COVID-19.

dKOTA // "saved" >> white eagle - pdx 06_11_2010 from dKOTA on Vimeo.