What a great night of debauchery. Thanks to Lexx for putting it all together. So good to catch up with old faces and reminisce about a simpler time. When we were all much younger and better looking. Mind you, maybe it’s just me that was better looking at the time. You all seem pretty hot….

Check out the pictures from Friday’s show! And rest assured that the baceblog booth *should* be at the Guv for the next show with Dirtyphonics & DJ Bailey!

Hope everyone enjoys the pics. There’s a friggin lot of em.

Hope everyone enjoys the pics. For those that are expecting an e-mail with a high res image, I will be sending them out Wednesday evening! Thanks for supporting!

Paul

Great little jam. Thanks to XI for the hookup!

Started getting sick that night, and it didn’t make for the greatest pics ever, but had a good time regardless. Sound issues made earplugs a massive bonus. Looking forward to the next installment by Destiny though…

Chase & Status – The Guverment Main Room – June 18th

Click Here to Purchase Tickets

Hey kids!

Long time no see!  It`s summer time again and you all know what this means. Continuing with my 7th year of “black market“ versions of Pete Tong`s “Essential Mix“ series,  a radio show that has been influencing me musically over the past 13 years , I bring you Essential Mix 2010.

From the early rave breakbeat, house and techno to drum`n`bass to trip hop to trance to psy-dub to electro to dubstep etc, music has really made a full 360 over the past few years. After the separation period of mid 90`s when everyone started labelling themselves and splitting into camps, it is so refreshing to see that the new generation is back under one umbrella – music. That includes producers, label owners, promoters and crowds. Boundaries are getting pushed like never before, genres are being crossed like never before. I`m sure other music enthusiasts like me who have been there from the beginning and have stuck around for the love of the tunes would agree with. I`ve witnessed the progression of the electronic music scene and as great as “things used to be“, I can proudly say that the scene is so much more well-rounded these days and some of the best music, as much as we all love the classics, is being produced right as we speak. This is evolution.

Yes, I`ve long given up on promoting, DJing, producing and running a label but the flow of the beats and the bass still pumps through me like that of an excited kid in a candy store. The days, the best I can do is summarize my musical, life and travel adventures into annual 1-2hr mixes that tell a story. I always have a vision when it comes to music and every mix I make represents a soundtrack to a certain chapter in my life.

The theme of this edition of the Essential Mix is Coachella – a festival that happens every year in the California desert near Palm Springs.

Even though I love and appreciate all kinds of music, and the odd time out I`m caught listening to or playing out the most chill stuff ever, I tend to keep my mixes full of energy and hype. Ever since the earlier editions of my Essential Mixes which were mostly drum`n`bass, I haven`t been able to step away from the 4×4. In any shape or form. Whether it`s mainstream house or the most underground filth, techno, electro, mashup, dubstep or whatever….I`ve tried looking for explanations and the best I could find is that I hear so much influences from jungle and  d`n`b in today`s house music where as it was the other way around as recent as 6 years ago. Like I said, it`s almost as if it`s come full circle.

Back to Coachella. This year, 4 of my boys and I have decided to visit probably the biggest and most organized festival on the planet right now. I`ve been hearing about it for years and since giving up on trying to push my own music, parties and label out there, a lot of time has freed up.  It`s all been festivals, festivals, festivals. It only made sense that we paid a visit to this monstrosity. We initially booked for only 2 out of 3 days because everyone was of the collective opinion that partying for 3 days at a festival is just too much these days. Boy, were we wrong. Coachella is organized so well that it caters to attendees of any age group or status. Celebrities mixed with 16 year old shirtless enthusiasts, parents, kids, 20`s party crowd, people in their 30`s and 40`s and even 50`s chillin` in the back and having a great time – it`s a giant pool of awesome. We tried to catch as many bands and DJ`s as we could but unfortunately that is simply impossible. If 10 years ago, you would have caught any one of us not leave the dancefloor for 8 hours in a row, it just doesn`t work anymore.

But what did make sense and created a new phenomenon for us, was rave watching. Maybe 200 meters away from the main dance stage, in the VIP rose garden (cheers to Turbo Recordings Thomas and Proxy for the hookup!!!) we`ve witnessed the most amazing scene known to anyone who loves and appreciates the music and enjoys seeing people having a good time. The strobing lights, the perfect weather, the chill gazebos, blossoming trees, bushes and flowers, people sitting on the neatly cut green grass, sipping on drinks and simply witnessing the world war 3 happening 200 feet away for countless hours in a row. Regardless of whether the DJ was the most mainstream artist known to man or the most underground solider, the sea of hands in the air, energy, stomping, clapping and singing along was incredible.

It`s 2010 and I have never seen the rave so alive. When Danny DeVito is front row bumping his head to deadmau5 – you know the rave has made it! We all came to the same conclusion that while 20`s were all for being inside the eye of the storm, 30`s are definitely a great time for festivals. Coachella, we will be back.  Just one more festival to add to the collection of WEMFs, DEMFs, Ibizas`, Mykonos`, Kazantips, Dance Valleys, Lolapaloozas etc. I don`t know how long it will last and whether we will be swallowed by separate family lives in the near future, but the pact is – to continue to enjoy life while we can because not many get to do so….there are more Coachellas, Burning Mans, Glastonburrys, Exits and others to come.

Now, moving on to the actual mix and the story behind it – Coachella is definitely a huge part of the influence. Another influence was meeting up with my old time friend Chris Kowalski who I haven`t seen in 9 years since he moved to LA. Chris & I go back to the heyday of DJ`ing, producing, running a label and partying. He was the 2nd artist who put out a release on my former label Gamma Ray Music under Chris J. The man influenced me musically tremendously and these days he works as a sound effects engineer for one of the LA video gaming companies. Also, finding out from him that Orion (John O`Brien), who I haven`t connected with in years and was the 1st release on my former record label is now 1 half of a huge production duo LA Riots. They have been taking the scene by storm in the past few years so it was refreshing to hear and I’m extremely happy for John. Meeting up with Clancy Silver, now a video effects producer for blockbuster Hollywood movies, the man who was the corner stone of the Toronto Jungle scene for 10+ years was also epic! I dedicate this mix to all 3 of them, as well as Proxy, the man from Moscow, Russia who has blown up into one of the most original, energy driven talents on the scene right now.

From the synthpop-ish steppers at the beginning, to bassline contaminated thumping house to the devastating neo-rave to electro and ending with some epic trancey festival vibe of Ibiza, this is so far my favourite mix I`ve recorded in years, simply because of the inspiration factor alone. A year and a half since what many of you told me was their favourite Essential Mix to date (2009) – I think I`ve outdone it

This is also the year when I retire my long handle Wiz0rd/Wizzy/The Wiz and from now on will be known as Simplify.

I hope you all enjoy this 1hr and 20min journey and bump it in your cars, stereos, headphones, boomboxes, ipod docks, cottages etc throughout the summer.

Without further ado and in the words of Chemical Brothers and 2ManyDJ’s:

“Hey Boy…Hey Girl…2ManyDJ’s..HERE WE GO!!”

Wiz0rd – Essential Mix 2010!

Download here [right click, save as] or Click to Stream:

Simplify [ Wiz0rd ] – ESSENTIAL MIX 2010

1.            Peaches – I Feel Cream (Proxy remix)

2.            Hot Chip – One Life Stand (Drums of Death Remix)

3.            Riot In Belgium – La Musique (Adamsky Remix)

4.            The Streets – War of The Sexes

5.            Tiga – Shoes (Mr.Oizo remix)

6.            Mikix The Cat – Down To The Floor

7.            Dubbel Dutch – Trollsta

8.            Digital Manges – Manges (Dubbel Dutch remix)

9.            MSTRKRFT – Heartbreaker (Laidback Luke remix)

10.          AC Slater ft. Ninjasonic – Take You (Drop The Lime remix)

11.          Dubbel Dutch – Deep Underground

12.          Mikix The Cat – Like That

13.          Drop The Lime ft. Carrie Wilds – Set Me Free (Christian Luke Remix)

14.          Stafford Brothers ft. Seany B – Speaker Freakers (LA Riots Remix)

15.          Timbaland ft. Soshy – Morning After Dark (Wolfgang Gartner remix)

16.          Yolanda Be Cool & DCup – We No Speak Americano

17.          Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire – Ghosts`n`Stuff

18.          Kirill Infinite & Lady DJ – Toronto (Zam Remix)

19.          LA Riots – Blau!

20.          M`Black – Heartbreak (Felix Baumgartner remix)

21.          Arsenal – Estupendo (Gui Boratto Remix)

Cheers!

All the music from the main room of Wall of Bass, Toronto, 12-02-2010.

Great quality recordings encoded in 256kbits MP3′s.

Thanks to all the DJ’s for allowing these to see the light of the interweb!

Barletta

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XI

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Tasc

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Facebowler B2B Bace

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-aXion