💵 Middlelakes Festival, Trumansburg, NY

June 16, 2024 | Work: 2024-02

Background

Not to bury the lede, this set was probably the best technical execution I’ve had yet.

The tragedy is that, while I did record the set, my recorder got jostled, momentarily lost power, and this led to the file getting dumped (and thus lost). After trying (unsuccessfully) to recover the file, I resolved to do a single attempt in my studio at the same performance. It’s attached below.

THAT ASIDE.

In my previous post about planning a set, there was some hand-wringing about what to play for this event. I had put literally weeks of effort into planning my set for the MIND BLOWN event (which as of Friday was postponed, possibly indefinitely), and not enough time for this one. On Thursday and Friday nights, a set started to coalesce, first with a 3 or 4 record sequence, and then finally by the end of Friday, a full hour long sequence. On Saturday, I ran through a few iterations and eventually settled on one that flowed well.

Not wanting to repeat past mistakes of insufficient preparation, I practiced the cue points and blends for some of the trickier mixes, to make sure it wasn’t too muddy or busy, and that the breaks / layer changes lined up correctly. There was one mix (Qattara -> Breeder) that was particularly challenging because there is a 16-bar segment that is beatless but has a looped synth motif playing. I considered mixing out early but thought it sounded really cool when they played together.

Clip: Moogwai - Viola (Tek^tonik mix). Video by jacob.yatsko

Setlist

Recording of set (post-event)
  1. Sunday Club - Winds of Change (part 1)
  2. Bit Crusher - Reverse Situation
  3. Art of Trance - Mongoose (tek^tonik mix)
  4. Qattara - Tear Drops (remix)
  5. Breeder - New York FM
  6. Joshua Ryan - Thunderclap
  7. Moogwai - Viola (tek^tonik mix)
  8. Deepsky - Cosmic Dancer
  9. Conjure One - Redemption (Max Graham’s Dead Sea Mix)
  10. Tekara - Breathe In You (Matt Darey’s M+M Dub)

Reflection

I was so nervous leading up to it. A 10pm slot is really good, and I appreciated Nate hooking me up like this. During the event, he told me that he was glad he could finally give me a prime slot, since normally with a single stage he needs to put me earlier in the evening (understandable!)