Punging Lars

Just a brief explanation of the CDs received by the Laird today and the Sea Lord sometime this week.

In the blue case, a pundge mix, as discussed here, here, and here.

In the orange case, a CD reconstructing, as best as possible, a set I DJ'd for a friend recently under the most unusual circumstances. It was 2 a.m. on a Saturday night when the phone rang. An old friend, still big in the clubs, had an emergency - they'd brought in some Swedish techno-monkey, and he was making a hash of the scene. After lecturing my friend briefly - I'm a family man, I won't always be there for him - I slipped out of the bedroom, pulled my hidden crate of 12s out of the back closet, and jumped in a cab.

When I got there, it was worse than I'd thought. It looked like the aftermath of a medusa attack. The only discernible motion was DJ Lars (not his real name) bobbing his head to a mix that was somewhere between Kraftwerk and a grandfather clock. Well, that's unfair, there was some melodic thing going on - sort of an "oooob...oooob..." - perhaps inspired by walrus calls of his native land. The saddest cases were the kids who had taken drugs, only to discover that even the finest mind-altering substances could not shield them from the monotonous mediocrity of the nordic mix-monster.

In these situations, as with treatment of cardiac arrest, there is no time for half measures. In the cab I had thought perhaps a bit of Martine Girault to restore clarity, possibly some gentle rebalancing from the Jose Padilla ouevre (as discussed here). But on surveying the scene I realized there was no time for preliminaries. I unholstered my Adam F, my David Holmes, my Groove Armada, and let fly.

Fortunately, this musical defibrillation had the intended effect. Soon the vibe was restored, dancing resumed, and a sense of rhythmic celebration returned to the room. And thanks to a clever sign switch, DJ Lars ended up in the back alley, pounding on the locked emergency exit.

Interestingly, I have shared this experience with several people who questioned certain aspects of my account. I assure you, it is not difficult for a gifted amateur to play this game, as documented on this BBC documentary.