Melbourne Deepcast

The supremely talented DJ Plead launches us into a mind warping world of percussive pleasures and dexterous genre bending, with his trademark agile club rhythms and pacy low end palpitations on full display in episode 303! @1djplead Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when planning this mix, and what type of listening environment could you imagine it being easily enjoyed in? A. I actually looked through my rekordbox history from a recent Animalia night I played in Naarm and drew some inspiration from that. When listening back to the mix I can imagine it being played for a semi-casual game of Futsal or something like that. I feel like there are some light-footed tracks in there that would be useful to some nimble futsal players. Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your heart, and what is it about these cuts that resonate with you so much? A. Mata by Nidia & Valentina It's taken off a truly sublime Album that I draw lots of inspiration from. It's simultaneously organic and loose and club-playable, which is a tough one to get right. It's something I’m constantly trying to achieve but they seem to have done it effortlessly. Dotted by Cliques I actually tried to google to see if I’ve ever put this tune in another guest mix before. I probably have, so I’ll apologise for that now. Cliques has always had a big influence on me since I started producing music. They’ve since stopped producing themselves which is a shame but I always play their old tunes out if I can. RIP Cliques.. Q. One of the things I’ve been fascinated with in your DJ sets (the Sustain-Release set for example) is your mixing of polyrhythms to seamlessly bridge tempos throughout a set. How did you first get inspired to experiment with this style and what are some of otherwise conflicting genres/sounds that have blended nicely? A. My DJing style is at times an extension of my music production. I think this might be a good example of that. The sustain release transition from 150 to 100 is using a tune that I produced years ago in a 3/4 time signature. I’ve produced a few tunes over the past few years that are able to do that. It just allows me at times to bounce around to different worlds and stops me from feeling stuck in a tempo-range. I haven’t done it so much recently but I’d like to get back into doing it. It can create a really strange feeling for the audience. At Sustain-Release, a lot of the audience were on hallucinogens so it felt appropriate to get trippy in that way. It's harder to pull off in a nightclub environment. I’m no longer sure what the original inspiration for experimenting with this style was. Playing a lot of tunes that have a polyrhythm in them can often make you feel like you have the option to dance at two different tempos.

Command D summons the gods of the deep to have us completely submerged in a world of interdimensional dub techno, traversing us through an hour and a half of infinitely looped reflections and subaquatic soundscapes. @commandd Q. This certainly feels like one of your most immersive mixes to date, deeply contemplative and full of dreamy dub techno atmospherics. What inspiration did you draw upon, and what type of setting or situation could you imagine it being enjoyed in? A. I started to get into this sound when I was putting together my mix for the Moonshoe mix series. I didn’t know what to call it at the time but I found all of those tunes and tied them together with a certain feeling that was really inspiring me then, it was very organic and that is still one of my favourite mixes. You can hear dub elements scattered throughout that whole mix. As I started incorporating more dub elements into my productions I discovered artists like Stephen Hitchell and Rhythm & Sound that had created a kind of music that was really extremely satisfying for me to listen to, especially considering my developing love for hi-fi and larger sound systems. I incorporated those artists into my FHUO mix which was a much more considered exploration of the style. Looking back on the process of making the mixes and how much I enjoyed them really assures me that the deep and contemplative sound is a big part of who I am. For this mix I’ve taken inspiration from the MDC series itself which I’ve been listening to for years. I wanted to add little hints of deep house sounds as a nod to the mixes of the past. I personally think mixes like this are the best to listen to when you’re travelling and looking out a window, otherwise maybe sitting at a desk on a rainy day doing some work. I’d like people to listen to this in a time where they won't be distracted by something else or feel the need to skip forward, I’d want people to just throw it on and let it play, drifting in and out of the tracks and their own thoughts. Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your heart, and what is it about these tracks that resonate with you so much? A. My favourite tracks in the mix are Saftig Komposition by Rasmus Hedlund and Sedlec Ossuary by Persuasion. At a base level I love these tracks because they take a more modern approach to a dub techno track with tight production. Going deeper, the thing that really resonates with me is hard to put into words and best left unsaid. I think this kind of music (along with many other kinds) allows the listener to feel emotions that aren't able to be put into words, part of why I love it so much. I find that dub techno specifically can feel sad and happy at the same time like lots of jazz ballads. That to me is a really beautiful sound that kind of encapsulates life in general. Q. Tell us about the development of your live set, and where things are currently at with it? Do you feel like you’re able to explore different shades of your sound when playing in a live setting? A. Putting together my first live set was an awesome experience. I got to play it all around Australia from clubs to rainforests. I’ve put the current live set to bed for now and am starting to work on a new one with a slightly different setup. Although it was a challenging experience, I loved making a live set because often when I would dig for tunes to play out I’d think ‘I wish I had a song like this’ and writing a live set meant that I could bring those ideas to life and curate a set exactly how I wanted. I think I’m really starting to settle into ‘my sound’ in production and DJing, but there are creative limitations in both like finding new music or learning new skills. Overcoming technical barriers in production allows me to get closer to my most true form of expression when it comes to what’s coming out the speakers so I’ve been really working on that recently. Hoping the next live set will be bigger and better : )

Dubwise dreams and groovy percussive house with the low end dwelling Moonshoe producer @angusmills Q. What can you tell us about the mix? A. Thanks so much for having me on the series, I've been a big fan for over a decade now 🙂 So the mix has been curated with my interpretation of the MDC spirit in the front of my mind. I’ve loved how so many mixes over the years have danced thoughtfully between home listening and warm fictional dancefloor settings. I wanted the music to reflect some of the sounds and feelings that I love and which you’ve touched upon in your next question. Hopefully the music translates back to the listener in whichever setting they happen to be in. Recently I’ve been listening back to the mix at home while standing in our light filled kitchen making dinner, looking over at our whippet Olive while she snores on her bed. Some of my favourite tracks in the mix include Erzulie (Temple Dub Mix) by Mind Over Rhythm from 1992, Tranquillity by Bamboo Curtain, Nick Kelly’s Track – Dew U Feel Me from Trip ‘N Spin Recordings from San Francisco and the track I close out the mix with is a song that really resonates strongly with me, Soundtrack to a Dying by Phil Western. Q. You’ve clearly got a real appreciation for deep hypnotic rhythms, tell us about how you became entrenched in this sound, and how long had you been refining things before your debut Moonshoe release came out? A. Thanks Myles, that’s very kind of you to say. Yeah, I’m pleased with how that release turned out and am just starting to get back to writing some new music again after a busy work period which feels exciting. Shoutout to Jackson as well who heard a couple of early iterations of those tunes and decided to take a risk on working towards a release for me, couldn’t have imagined a better home for the music than Moonshoe. I’ve been producing music since the start of 2011 and released some stuff under a few different monikers over the years but wasn’t completely confident with my productions until about 2020. I started studying architecture in 2018 and during the degree, didn’t really have much capacity to work on my own music. I was still heavily listening to music throughout the degree and found that having a break from producing during this time helped me to relearn to love making music again. Perhaps there was something about shifting some creative energy away from music for a period? Q. On your Moonshoe affiliations, I know you have been working with the label for a little while now, tell us about that experience and what have you got in the works? A. Yes so, Jackson/ Cousin and I have known one another for a while now through going out to parties around Sydney, I used to go and see him and Brad play a lot around town. He met my partner Claudia years back before we’d even started dating and funnily enough, she suggested that we’d probably get along well. I was sending Jackson a bit of music around 2018/2019 and one of the tracks, Transient ended up coming out on the second Limbs compilation, From Inside Out. Jackson ended up getting a job at Sydney University with me in the AV team which hilariously employs many creatives from the Sydney music scene, and we just started hanging out more and regularly grab lunch together. One thing led to another, and he started helping me put Alva together, doing an excellent job of A&R, giving me regular feedback and suggestions for improving the music. I was also giving him some feedback on his own releases for some other labels, which kind of shifted organically into helping him narrow down some music for his upcoming EP on Moonshoe ‘Wake the Town’ which is a 6 tracker coming out in the next couple of months. In the meantime, Cousin has some individual tunes that didn’t quite make the EP coming out through the Moonshoe bandcamp over the next couple of months which I’ve done some mastering work on. Definitely keep watching this space for music coming out on Moonshoe over the course of next year!

300 mixes! What a journey. Big respect to those still listening since it all began back in the late 2000s, and a warm welcome to those who might just be tuning in for the first of hopefully a few more to come. Thought it must be about time for another episode from Deepcast HQ, with Myles Mac & DJ Possum back in the mix for a relaxing journey guided by the eternal balearic breeze of the 90s. Two and a half hours of smooth summertime groovers with plenty of vocoders, utopian dream states and moments of total rave nostalgia. Dancefloor chillers for the deeply inclined and/or reclined. Here's to 300 more :~) @myles-mac & @djpossums