The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Digeum Mix Session 04E

Jay Def delivers a third straight drum & bass mix — this time with a take-no-prisoners attitude, full of punchy percussion, throbbing bass lines, and threatening danger.

If you like your breaks heavy and aggressive, but not hyper-active, with a little menace, this is your mix. At just over 71 minutes, it’s just long enough and punchy enough to put it in your ears and get some coding done. Or stomp your workout with enough gusto to set a personal best. Go, Jay!

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 04, Session Echo — Not for the Faint-Hearted. Mixed by Jay Def in Meridian, Idaho, USA, on Monday, March 22, 2010. Running time: 1:11:13.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 04D

I had such a good time with my garage mix last time that I decided to drop another set of two-step tracks into @mix-bin (or rather, weed out the ones I played last time). I checked the microphone, did my little evil voiceover, and got to punching the beats.

There are some really sexy tracks in this set, including Kristine Blonde’s Love Shy, MJ Cole’s Honesty, featuring Niara Scarlett’s vocals, Mark Yardley & Michelle Cole’s Give It to Me, and Antonio & Lee’s Love of a Lifetime. Lots of syncopations and stabby organs. Unh.

We’re just over two hours on this set. I had such a blast on this mix that I had to remind myself not to spin all night. I really hope you like it.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 04, Session Delta — Beginning Bacchanalia. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. Running time: 2:04:17.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 04C

Jay Def, in addition to being my best friend, is one person whose DJ mixes I always look forward to with nearly breathless anticipation. He’s been really going gangbusters on the drum & bass lately.

His new mix is nearly two hours of funky and atmospheric drum & bass. There are vocal tracks here, full of jazz chords and acoustic basslines. There are punchy grooves that make you shake your fist. His track selection is right on the money. What a gorgeous mix.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 04, Session Charlie — Dreaming of Spring II: Unleash the Sun. Mixed by Jay Def in Meridian, Idaho, USA, on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Running time: 1:57:10.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 04B

I wanted to do something a little different today. I’ve really been digging the two-step garage tracks from my library lately. So, I dropped all of them into @mix-bin (the iTunes playlist I drop my “to mix” tracks into), culled duplicates, dropped in a Dubtribe track, pushed the tempo to 130, and went to work.

Some of these tracks are a little cheesy, but they all have delectable syncopated offbeat rhythms. Punchy organs, pianos, and dubby basslines slathered in soulful vocals make me wonder how this particular set of tracks were relegated to the dusty archive for so long. I would love to see how a set like this makes a crowd move.

I had a great time making this mix. I decided to wind down just short of 90 minutes so I save a little mojo for next time. Time to dig around and see if there are new tracks and remixes in this genre, or if the pickings are all from 1993 – 2002.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 04, Session Bravo — March Forth. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Thursday, March 04, 2010. Running time: 1:29:42.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 04A

Jay Def inaugurated the next chapter in the Digeum Mix Session saga today, by opening Volume 04 in peak form.

Jay’s new mix is two hours of lush, ambient jungle and spaced out drum & bass grooves. The music here melts into the background if you want it to, but still keeps a good thump going. In fact, as I write this, I’ve uploaded the mix, but it’s still playing as I work into the night on some other projects I have going. I don’t even want to pause this one to go take a leak.

This tour through the breakbeats is an addictive one. This is going to be interesting tomorrow on the track doing 400 meter sprints with Jay’s beautiful blend in my ears. Jay has some enviable skills as a DJ and his taste in music is impeccable. Now I know I’m going to attack his collection with my portable hard drive at my first opportunity.

Well done, Jay. Welcome to Volume 04.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 04, Session Alpha — Dreaming of Spring. Mixed by Jay Def in Meridian, Idaho, USA, on Monday, March 01, 2010. Running time: 1:58:24.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 03Z

So this is it. The end of Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03. Closing out this set feels really good with a spate of mechanical issues I had this afternoon with my computer crashing a heartbreaking number of times. I have to admit, I was really tempted to hurl my laptop off the roof. After I finished picking out a 52 song bin of some of my favorite tracks, I took the precaution of rebooting before the big mix today.

So, we’ve got 26 songs in this finale. On Monday, Jay Def launches us into the next volume. My mix today ran the gamut from big funky house bumps to some Latin flavor and even a few old dusty UK Garage tracks. There was one stall during a fantastic Freemasons cover of an Alanis Morrisette hit, but when I listened to the playback, I couldn’t tell where it was. There are so many vocal tracks here that I’m pretty sure that if we listen to this in the car during a road trip, you’d get tired of hearing me sing along.

Despite the earlier technical issues and the weird stall in the middle, I had a great time with this mix. I found myself playing along on the flute, recorder, harmonica, and guitar. Someday, when I’m extra confident, I’ll turn the microphone on and add a live element to the mix.

Onward!

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03, Session Zulu — Digeum Volume 03 Finale. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Friday, February 26, 2010. Running time: 2:18:40.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 03Y

We’re closing in on the end of the third volume of Digeum Mix Sessions. I threw down some bumping funky house music this evening and mixed for almost 80 minutes.

No technical issues on this one, except a reminder occasionally that my ears are better for telling that tracks are beatmatched than the meters in Traktor. Sometimes, the meters miscount a 4 beat loop when it’s actually in time. Realizing this helps me avoid the panic moment of second guessing what my ears are telling me is okay.

This was a fun mix. Nice and mellow. I hope you like it.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03, Session Yankee — Penultima III. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Saturday, February 20, 2010. Running time: 1:18:46.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 03X

What a treat. Jay Def volunteered to snag today’s mix, so I eagerly awaited his newest Digeum mix. I posted it after I got home from hanging out with a friend of mine.

Are you ready? This one is just over two hours of seriously thumping electro house grooves in a very interesting mix. Jay always has choice cuts in his mixes (I wish I knew where he found them all) and inspires me to fantasize about raiding his iTunes library.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03, Session X-Ray — Electro Thumps. Mixed by Jay Def in Meridian, Idaho, USA, on Tuesday, February 16, 2010. Running time: 2:15:04.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 03W

In celebration of the 75th mix posted on Digeum, I decided to keep this one short enough to burn to a CD. I set the tempo at 125 beats per minute and lined up a number of electro house tracks. You ready to groove? Me, too.

The 75 minutes of this mix slipped by quickly as I anticipated a stall out or system crash. There were no technology fails this time, which is fairly rare for me. I probably could have gone on for a while longer. This was fun to spin and fun to listen to afterwards.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03, Session Whiskey — Diamond. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Monday, February 08, 2010. Running time: 1:15:30.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.

Digeum Mix Session 03V

Today’s 39-song mix is the longest mix ever posted on Digeum, just a few minutes short of three hours long. I auditioned a whole gaggle of tracks from various playlists in my iTunes library yesterday and this morning, adding more than 130 to @mix-bin. After more culling and an early afternoon library book sale, I headed into my studio, recorded the voice intro, and got to work.

The computer only stalled out during the Miguel Migs track as I was attempting to cue and beatmatch one of my favorite Dubtribe Sound System songs, Nothing is Impossible. For some reason, I find this track a little hard to mix, but I kept on trucking through funky house music and closing with a couple of deeper tracks. Some of the songs here are new (to me), but most of them are classics. I think you’ll get a kick out of it.

I had a great time. The hours just flew by and before I knew it, I was posting the mix and thinking about getting food. I may have to see if I can do a 50 song electro mix one of these days.

Digeum Mix Sessions – Volume 03, Session Victor — Birthday Bumps II. Mixed by Apollo Lee in Sunnyvale, California, USA, on Sunday, January 31, 2010. Running time: 2:55:08.

Go give it a listen and leave a comment with your thoughts.