The mix is mostly beatless. It’s filled with lots of weirdo new age music and electronica that we love. It’s something to trip, come down or even drive to. It’s very different from our usual mixes, but definitely reflects a lot of the music we’ve put up on the blog over the years! Enjoy.
Each mix I do has a theme. The theme may, frankly, be tenuous on occasion, but there is always some sort of over-arching, high-falutin’, poncey idea behind it. For this mix, I returned to downtempo territory. Over the past 15 years or more, I’ve become slightly obsessed by the 95-115bpm range and for this I kept it no faster than 110bpm. I must admit, I like the late night electronic feel of that speed. Maybe it’s because I’m getting old; or getting awkward (I often get people coming up when I’m DJing and asking me if I’m going to speed things up, as though they’re on a bus and late for an appointment). Most of the stuff on here came out this year, with a few oldies thrown in the mix and a couple that have yet to come out. No rhyme or reason for why they’re there, other than I like them and it all seemed to fit together.
So, anyway, yeah, it’s slow. Get over it and enjoy 🙂
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road
A large number of examples of this type survive. It certainly existed in the later 13th century, and perhaps considerably earlier. The subtype XIIa (originally classified as XIIIa) probably designed to counter the improved armour of the time.
I often drive home from gigs and nothing beats slowing the pace down to sub 100bpm. This is a mix containing a selection of songs from an ever-evolving playlist I use for the car when coming back late at night.
“What to say, I’ve love being in the city, any city that is. There is something about the buildings, the space between them and how they work together late at night that has always fascinated me. This music is for your city wherever it is, whenever you wish to walk there… But do go out there at night… Look up around and between the buildings.”
Soundtrack to some new age lysergic body horror b movie. Last scene shot on location at a ’92 jungle night. (Maybe).
Putting this mix together i was drawn to tracks that evoked some inner personal feeling of calm, hope and reflection. Interlacing mood and emotion to bring together something worthy of listening to when one feels open to the greater presence that connects us all. Sit back, relax and have a listen
The set is created from strictly 80’s Israeli new wave rarities and gems. From low fi DIY ambient tracks of lost forgotten bands to timeless downtown Tel Aviv old clubs (penguin-Kolonoa Dan-Liquid) anthems the special sound that was created here through the 80’s carries a unique kind of vibe that always push our buttons
When traveling abroad, splashing in the local water is, in my book, a must. In Japan, travel to a countryside onsen. In New York City, you have to try the Turkish or Russian baths. In Rio, head to an out of the way beach. Find the water. The water will open your mind much faster than you’d expect.
This mix is all wax which often goes without saying these days. Made after a difficult winter in Berlin at the cusp of Spring. I hope it expressed a number of the strange mood swings I’ve been having lately.
This is a two hour journey of songs that mean a lot to me. It’s for driving late at night or maybe kicking it by the lake in the midst of a psychedelic camping trip; inspired by many summers spent in the mountains of BC. These are songs that I often find myself listening to alone in moments of solitude. All of these songs were discovered during several different parts of my life – some were introduced to me by my parents, while others I collected over the years leading up to today through friends, travels, and digging. It was a highly therapeutic process putting this together and I hope you enjoy it.
This mix is for napping and/or riding public transportation. Listen to it attentively and/or passively; late at night and/or early in the morning
Thanks to White Light for reaching out, this was right up my alley. I filled the mix with tracks that have inspired me, moved me and taken me somewhere else. Fasten your seatbelt and journey into the unknown.
I’ve relocated to London for a while, and before I left NYC, I recorded Taxi Drivers on my rides home after DJng club nights and afterhours. This mix of ambient and textural music is an ode to the nocturnal beings out after the club, and the late nights I spent in the Big Apple before heading overseas. In the recent tragic passing of a big musical inspiration to me, I open this mix with Edgar Froese leader of Tangerine Dream. This is the music that breathes both at dusk and sunrise.
When I was in college I became lightweight obsessed with Stereolab. Once I even took the Path Train to Hoboken all by myself, hoping to get into a sold-out show of theirs at Maxwell’s. I couldn’t get in, but they let me listen to the whole thing from the hallway where they collected the money. Afterwards I ran up on the drummer and tried to convince him that they should do some rap stuff with me (obsession).
While recording this mix I ran across a great article, ‘stereolab and the ninties art of influence’, by Sabrina Tabuchi. It made me realize, exactly why I like this group so much. Growing up, all of my favorite records were being made with samplers. Stereolab was the first band I encountered that were attempting to (and succeeding at) recreating the aesthetic of sampling using live instruments and studio gear. The result was something entirely new, music that was meticulously patterned after what had informed it.
Anyways… I love them and felt they would make a great subject for a White Light Mix. All the other trax are by artists whom Stereolab have switched me on to over the years. Enjoy!
Miss you Marry Hanson.
Click through to read a personal and intimate track by track explanation from this legendary producer, and main inspiration for the series.
For the past six years we’ve been driving around with La.Ga.Sta. through cities, roads and lost highways listening to music, new stuff and road testing things for the site. Making the mix for one of our favorite mix series, White Light Mixes, felt exactly like driving to our favorite destination with the songs we’ve always loved in mind. For this particular mix we had to also travel through decades of music to pick the songs that are tailor made for a car drive through the night. Enjoy the ride.
“I really enjoy creating mixes to a creative brief, I think its really interesting. I have a very broad interest in music (not just club stuff) so it’s nice when i get an opportunity to do something a bit different. So yeh thanks for that. Also NB dodgy mixing throughout, its mainly vinyl, and old at that and my neighbour complained about the noise so i was monitoring super slow. Selections on point though!â€
The first half of the mix is more on the housier side and the second half more twisted and deep techno. Kind of like i play my longer sets in a club. I start with groovy house and play a bit harder later on. I also wanted to make sure the the vibe is positive and that you are able to listen to it at home but also workes in a club.
“The universe collapses inwards, reduced to two small pools of light.
Oblivion slides around the lights, casting stroboscopic shadows across our
faces. In deep darkness solitude becomes boundless. Emotion becomes fluid,
flowing from tranquility to unease and back again. The endless asphalt
slips away beneath us…â€
“We live in overstimulated times. We crave stimulation for its own sake. We gorge ourselves on it. We always want more.†– David Cronenberg, Videodrome (1983)
Passarella Death Squad for White Light, a 60 minute soundtrack of original material.
Includes an exclusive collaboration track with C.A.R. Written by Danny Passarella. Produced by Danny Passarella and Tom Wegg Prosser.â€
For the end of the end of the night. All from vinyl.
I moved into Apt.103 about a year ago. I quickly discovered that the guy who lives above me wasn’t gonna live with me working on music at loud volumes. I started working on all of these at night when I got home from work and surprisingly didn’t receive any complaints while writing these particular songs. I think I just wanted to make something I could do nothing to. I take a lot of naps and just recently started listening to music while sleeping, I enjoy listening to these songs when I lay down or feel anxious. These songs are a 12 month retrospective of living in Apt.103 Thanks for listening.
No rules and getting to pull weird, chilled out records is what our White Light mix is all about. Both sides are all vinyl and full of lush vibes. Typically we record to tape, but for White Light we wanted more runway to take advantage of the free format, so we ripped each side in one take to a digital recorder. Which means you’ll still hear the cracks and pops and mistakes… and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
My earliest musical memory is drifting in and out of sleep whilst my Dad played the radio downstairs. I hoped to emulate this semi-concious state in this mix – trying to find a place somewhere between lucid dreaming and wakefulness, half way between the here and now and another world.
As promised, something special! We already ask the artists involved for an exclusive mix, and a small piece of their soul, in mixtape form, but when we put the call out to White Light alumnus requesting tracks and edits for our big #100 extravaganza, we were touched to receive overwhelming support, and some incredible contributions. The goal of this collection was to showcase some of the many talented artists who have taken part in the series thus far, and we’re thrilled with the results! Some truly magical tracks here, many of them exclusive to this collection. We’ve also linked you to their mixes for a bit of a refresher. You’ll notice a few name changes; DVAS is now known as Jex Opolis. Ajello have disbanded and DJ Rocca remains. And while we got a mix from Runaway, our edit below is from Jacques Renault. It should also be pointed out we have 3 incredible original tracks in the package from Jokers of the Scene, Earl Grey and Avenue – all of which were included on the White Light 100 Mix. So please, download this collection. Play them often and play them loud. And don’t forget to look into the light!
It’s taken over 5 years to get to this point, but the ride has been smooth. What’s a road trip without a good co-pilot though? We have to sincerely thank each and every artist that has committed their time, and a little bit of their soul to the series. We initially had a plan to call it quits at the hundredth mix if we could get Cut Copy to deliver a mix like those that so inspired us to turn this idea into sound. We’re not ready to pull over, however. In fact, we want to keep driving deeper into space. These mood pieces, we hope, are timeless and there are still a great many heroes to contribute, and thousands of records as yet unplayed that need to be shared. Now what is the story of this mix? Well, it’s just music to make you feel. Many of the tracks used are from The Centennial Collection, an album of tracks and edits submitted by past guests of the series, which can be acquired on the website. Huge thanks to all artists who contributed tracks and mixes, and to you, for joining us on this journey
“This mix is about the night and more specifically, the memories it both creates and resurfaces. The night is a time when we seem to feel, create and live more. This collection of tracks is the soundtrack of the memories and experiences that we ingest throughout the late nights of our lives. This mix captures what I think to be the collective nexus of emotion that is produced during the night; bliss, love, frustration, confusion and clarity. These songs are bound not by genre, but by these qualities alone.”
The last year, I’ve been working on (and finishing) my label debut album, “Dry Humping Eternity”. I really wanted to create a mix that embodied where my head had been during the creation of this album, and the more I thought of it, the more I realized I had no clue what the hell I was thinking about. I stopped listening to anything that could have influenced me in hopes to clear the ol’ noggin during the process and that led me to dig deeper and deeper into my record collection. I dusted off a few favorites and bought a few new copies as well. And at the end of the day, it ended up influencing me more than i thought, and that’s A-OK. Here’s some spiritual, some fusion, a few ballads, and all the lush you can handle. Thanks for listening!
It feels like ages since I did a mix tape for someone, and to get asked by White Light was a green light for me to play whatever I wanted and not have to worry about “mixing/ beat matching”. This mix is about what I listen to when I’m relaxing and mostly when I’m rewiring a studio, most of the tracks on the mix I was playing recently while deep in a rewire as I have moved studios so the records were already on the floor. It’s an all vinyl mix, plenty of scratched records and a lack of overall compression means levels do jump out in the mix but i like that. I tried to plan out the mix but decided to just simply play records and record them on the fly. Doing this mix has captured a moment in time and that’s what its all about.
The past two years have been pretty immersive for us in terms of composition, making our album involved many commutes at night in the city. On the subway, on our bicycles, walking, sometimes in a car when we’d have to go outside of Paris. These rides were often an opportunity to take a step back from our own music. A well-tailored mix can be so personal that you seem to come back to it time and time again for inspiration and just plain distraction. We tried to make a mix like that, for when you’re feeling tired and looking for something just a little out of time to escape to.
This mix is a meditation on the seasons and the emotions they evoke. Earth’s orbit and the physical principle of conservation of energy philosophically are at a disconnect with my ideas about life’s linearity. The White Light mix I did with RCMP explored the cold conflict between the technological human and the cosmos. Now, I want to bring things back to Earth and musically detail the more immediate and tangible – the dark and the rosy, as well as the organic. This mix also contains the debut track from Michael the Lion, a new alias of mine. The program is in five movements.
I really tried to create a mix based exactly on what I would want to listen to on the drive home from a concert. Whether the songs are new or old the main theme was utilizing songs that incorporated a large range of instruments and sounds, all with a particularly high level of production quality. Beyond that you’ll just have to listen for yourself.
For this White Light Mix I chose selections from my record collection based on different interpretations of the word “space” whether it be the head space the song puts me in, the space I remember first hearing the song, the space the song was recorded in, the space the players give each other, or the sense of physical space it maintains or creates either sonically, lyrically, or both.
This mix is dripping with nostalgia for me. While touring across Canada in bands I would often take the night time driving shifts specifically to get to listen to music like this. It put everyone else to sleep but for some reason kept me wide awake and focussed. So this mix is for me, 10 years ago, driving through the Rockies at 4am so we could get to our free hotel room in Golden, BC.
Recently we’ve been immersing ourselves in some of the more esoteric movies from our youth. Whether via late night cable TV or multi generational VHS dubs, these are the soundtracks embedded in our subconscious emerging here and inspiring us to complete our debut album. Stay tuned…
Welcome to the mix. My personal soundtrack to an acid soaked space voyage, through our very distant – and not so distant musical past. A discerning selection of black hole jazz, galactic afro vibes, psychedelic soft rock, astral dub and inter-stellar synth jams. Lovingly sourced from my personal vinyl library, recorded, edited and overdubbed for especially for you. Come with me deep into the night… set your mind free.
I rooted the idea of this mix in ‘the ghost in the machine’. Are synthesizers and processors autonomous entities that act as one under a human touch, or are each unique to their own character regardless of the man at the helm? Is music made by the machine or the man.
A journey from one of the earliest electronic tunes I love to some of the latest – just not in a straight line.
I love the mixtape format and tend to spend forever working on them with tons of layering and edits, in an effort to create something that feels like one block of music than a playlist. This one started in 2010 and wasn’t finished until 2013, while I was laid up from foot surgery. Good to start around 4:30 am and have the light coming up for the last 3 songs.
“Patchwork skyjuice anthems and iceberg earcicles. End songs for heading home with windows open, memory floating out the moonroof.â€
A crimson sunset falls over the desert creating an extraterrestrial landscape. A car drives through the neon mist as night falls and an unknown journey begins. Our favorite films have soundtracks which, combined with their images, create a world only experienced by watching them. Music, with the right life experiences, creates cinema out of life. This is our soundtrack to a late night journey.
Whenever I travel to a new city, one of the first things I do is search out a part of that city with a great vista so that I can soak up the rhythms of the place before exploring it’s specific delights. Quite often this first encounter is accompanied by a playlist very similar in tone to this mix so that I have a soundtrack to instantly transport me back whenever I feel the need. So often when dealing with the drudgery of public transport having something that can instantly transport me a thousand miles away not only removes the tedium of the journey at hand but has me plotting new vistas to explore at some point in the future.
This is actually a musical compilation of the mileage I’ve put on desert roads and highways over the years. At different points in time, these tracks have kept me up or put me in an entirely different place while hours into long, night drives. The genres change over the course of traveling, and I mostly travel at night, mostly…
We put together this mix in a 60 minute crescendo; A soundtrack to a burnt out 4:30 am ride home from a gig. We even have a couple of detours thrown in for good measure: the rest stops, the toll plazas, the final push on the home stretch and the subsequent fleeting cat nap before work.
There are often errors, flaws and roughness in the tracks that I mix. That’s what defines humanity. I don’t like to play a track only made for dancefloor, they need to have something more. Music is a strange art.
In the early 2000s NYC institution, Turntable Lab, coined a musical category called “HGSOB†which translated to “Hot Girl Singing Over Beats.†This mix for White Light started to take shape under a category that I like to call “DWOB†or “Dude Weeping Over Beats.†I guess one could argue that the history of modern music is a dude weeping over some type of beat. My listening tendencies are fairly beardo, so it wasn’t a stretch to find the many variations of the theme either through lyrical content or instrumentation. ’nuff said! Enjoy the weep!
I really wanted to portray a beautiful soundscape and mix that will provide for a long journey around sunset, preferably to or near the beach.
When exiting a club after a long night, i like to give my ears a break and listen to something totally different from the usual party music. This is a journey through some of those soundscapes. Many of these remind me of the great nights and parties i’ve enjoyed in the past few years. Perfect for the drive back home / hotel.
After going out for the night you might head to an afterparty… and after the afterparty maybe you head home with close friends and relax… this mix is made for just those moments… the time between 3am and 6am when morning is approaching but you can’t sleep. The first half is the soundtrack for when you just arrive home… when you still want to hear something with movement but you certainly dont want more music you would hear in the clubs. In the second half the mix moves into stranger places and slower tempos before preparing you for sunrise with songs that foreshadow the coming day with a sense of redemption for the night.
I picked these tracks during a trip between Barcelona and a small village on the Costa Brava called Cadaques. It was dark, I was really tired but those tracks helped me driving by the Catalan sea side. Between New Wave , Psychedelic rock and afro tunes this mix show you what I like to listening to during this moment of my life.
Creative flights of fantasy into new musical dimensions, played by robots such as the Fairlight CMI, Minimoog and Synclavier II. Contemporary themes and moods for industry, space, computer age, science, research and technology. SCIENCE FINDS – INDUSTRY APPLIES – MAN CONFORMS.
“And if one gazed down from here through the fast-flowing, crystalline water to the dark, indistinct river bed, one could see here and there something with an enticing, muted gold sheen flashing and sparkling… All true secrets, all true images of the soul, it seemed to him, were like this little watery secrets; they had no outline, no shape; veiled and ambiguous, they permitted only a vague perception as of some distant, enchanting possibility.”
Herman Hesse from ‘Narcissus and Goldmund’
The selection process started for this mix while I was on my honeymoon. my wife and I got into really airy beautiful listening music and started a playlist to make a mix together. The mix never really happened, but the selection was the perfect beginning to my new year’s day mix. it’s kind of cliche at this point, but after a night of raving, who doesn’t want to go back to a homie’s house and get deep, especially after the craziness of the biggest party night of the year. lot’s of djs talk about it, but for our fam it’s a way of life and this selection is another glimpse into how we do it when we’re just hanging. This isn’t really a mix for sunny beaches, it’s a mix for a cold, snowy, cozy afterparty with your friends. oh yeah and it’s dedicated to my wife, Bambi
We are not sure how to describe the music we make, least the records played here. Is there a real point, beyond arrogance, to such descriptions anyway? We are sure you will be able to deal with the silent track list though: we did not want hide things, we just wanted you to look for them.
Imagine zapping through your memories, feelings, moments, events, just like switching the channels on your car radio. A night drive like a dream with memory flashes poured into the sounds of your soul and your cosmos. It starts off with some real recordings of the steelworks Völklinger Hütte from my hometown, now a world cultural heritage of UNESCO, I heard these noises all day when I was a kid…pretty eerie…got freaked out when I saw Kraftwerk perform The Robots on TV, then I bought the first Depeche Mode album, then I heard underground Italo Disco at the club, bought “Psychocandy” from the Jesus and Mary Chain…then italo/shoegaze/synthwave history reinvented itself since 2005, adding a great creative edge to the old ideas….there was always this strong man-machine connection in my life, all about love vs. the robot, all about people and music, both, nailed down, simple wave functions, electromagnetic frequencies…resonating with each other…I really like the many ideas in all these songs…their energy, complexity, harshness and beauty…just like life itself, just like me. Listen to my soundtrack on a ride through the night.
The DJ set after the party is possibly as important as the DJ set at the party. While its less about technicality and more about song choice and flow, it can make or break a night. Enjoy our afterparty.
This mix is a collection of songs that all resonate strongly with me outside of my usual “dance” oriented settings…not so oddly though, I was absolutely dancing around the room while recording it! These are pieces I’ve played late at night / early in the morning after the party’s over and I wanted them to be as “pure” as possible, so there’s no post-recording mastering or EQing while in the mix. Just the songs doing what they do best here. I hope you feel and enjoy them as much as I.
This is a loosely meteorological and nautical-themed mix based upon personal memories of sea fishing trips to Dungeness – a small coastal village near my place of birth. Dungeness isn’t your average beach – it’s technically Britain’s only desert and houses a fully-functioning nuclear power station, lighthouse and a few small homes (including one previously inhabited by Derek Jarman). This is a mix of old music, new music, starkly obvious music, non-music… and is dedicated to my late grandfather who taught me how to tie a slipknot, catch sea bass and fix my bike – RIP, good man.
This is a collection of music that has been cultivated from my late night drives back from gigs across the wind and rain swept Pennies along the M62 (Britains highest motorway) , so for the most part the music tries to reflect that. Hopefully it translates into anybody’s living room in the early hours or just an afternoon staring out the window..
A moment of infatuation with Africa dictated this selection. And that led to some random results. Being played side by side you will find UB40, Dr John and Steve Reich. Sounds like heresy. Maybe not as astral as some of the other mixes in the series, but I think there is plenty of space to tune in and zone out.
I grew up on Vancouver Island, which if you are unfamiliar is a very large island off the west coast of British Columbia. On this island you drive everywhere, and everything is pretty far apart. I spent a lot of time driving in the middle of the night, up and down the coastal highway going from town to town. My favourite music for this activity fell between melodic 80s cinema synths and the dark pulses of modern electronic music heard on CBC 2 in the middle of the night.
This mix ended up being a lot of different things. They are mainly influences of mine, but arranged in a way that would flow. After a night out, the last thing I want to hear is more noise. These are my favorite sparse, moody and beautiful songs. This is what I’d want to listen to.
We build machines to protect us from the brutality of nature. But we
cannot. The circuits that allow us expression in ways undreamt endow
us with the capacity to annihilate. Beware your own hubris. Beware
the immensity and power of the natural world – it cannot be conquered,
only leased. To find peace, one must use technology for spiritual
elevation. We believe music is an example of such a use.
Being part of The White Light mixes was an opportunity to delve deep into my crates and pull out some of the tracks which give me inspiration as a DJ, producer and label owner. I wanted to stay away from the relentless 4×4 beats, leave the tracks unwarped, unedited and in their original glory….allowing the tracks breath in a loose mix that has more in common with a radio playlist than a club set. My mix goes from jazz to funk, from post-hardcore to pre-grunge, and whilst the tracklist is seemingly all over the shop the selection is still somehow linked by a melancholic and sombre feeling.
We choose some beats from our vinyl collections: electronic, soul, dub, disco and jazz…eclectic stuff that we never get tired of listening. Experimental timeless music that brings up the feeling of our past learning. Not a selection for dancefloor, but not only to listening it before sleeping, a sort of journey into what makes us feel good.
In a world between dreams and reality, this mix was intended to conjure the feeling of a night cruise down some lost highway draped in a tapestry of stars. Enjoy
Here’s a selection of immersive, introspective cuts that I have turned to over the years for some deep sonic healing…. the whole thing kicks off with an unreleased piece of spoken word recorded during the Mountain Of One 1st album sessions that fits so well on top of Steve B-Zet’s Jazzy…. then we’re off into a landscape of trippy pastoral flavours with Chic and Labi Sifre then some deep sea diving with Eno, Lanois, Sven Lidaek and the Cocteaus…. all the cuts are like old friends of mine, who’ve been with me through life’s ups and downs.
Through dark streets and highways, night drives become some of the most cinematic moments in life when set to the right music. Everyone has their nightdrive soundtrack, this is ours. This mix is made up of a collection of songs from artists we admire, some we’ve worked with and some we are working with now.
“I’m a big fan of that ‘post club’ moment with friends. I have discovered so much music from people excitedly digging through their collections at 7 in the morning: “Hey, do you know this track??.” I wanted this mix to portray that feeling. Putting a record on and letting it play to the end. “
Travelling music… taking the scenic route. Put most of it together while on the road / on a train / in the air.
These songs are some of the dearest and most influential to me for lots of different reasons..
I don’t drive but I spend a lot of my life being driven about late at night which can have quite a transcendental effect. I wanted to reclaim the trance word from years of misuse and bad associations and create a mix of what I term pure trance. I knew right from the start the kind of tracks to look out that would evoke the feeling I get late at night, being driven between cities when the conversation has ceased and everyone in the car is lost in their own thoughts, slightly spaced out.
The brief was to create a mix specifically tailored for The White Light Mix Series that would live outside of “club†hours.
The result is a diverse array of music and sounds that don’t quite fit into your average box. Perhaps, the mix is for some kind of long voyage or maybe a late night drive?
This one’s for the after hours after hours. This one’s for the kids who are still going on Monday and need to calm down. This one’s for the people who lost weight on the weekend and for the one’s who gained some. This one’s for the people who have to drive back to Munich after a weekend in Berlin, it’s for the kid taking the subway back to Queens drunk in the morning. This one’s for the loner. This one’s for the stoner. This one’s for that place where you need to escape to for an hour once in a while when you’ve been patient, when you’ve been good, when you’ve had enough…. It’s for the ones who dance alone at home and for those who don’t dance at all.
This mix is inspired by dusk fading into dark and the pulse that continues to move that energy forward. Fading light gives way to darker thoughts and peaceful contemplation transforms into raw energy driving you to your final destination before the sun rises once more.
When we put the first few mixes together, we never thought it would lead to a series. It was the DJs and the listeners who were so inspired by them that kept us moving forward. Now, as we hit Volume 50 we look back with pride, while looking forward to the next 50. Trust us, you won’t believe what we’ve got lined up! For 50 though, we wanted to work together on a mix that captures 2 of the main approaches to the series. The slow groove, spacey, new wave shit (first half), and the infectious, driving, vocal approach of the 2nd half. Whatever your preference, we thank you for listening. Look into the light!
Normally, we seek out our favourite producers for the series; those we think can really do the concept of the series justice. But when we got this email from The Slow Waves telling us the series was one of their main inspirations for their productions, we had to listen. We did, and were absolutely blown away. They have compiled close to 70 minutes of original material exclusive for us! Not much is known about them, but I think you’ll agree the tunes speak for themselves. We are honoured to bring you the first listen of The Slow Waves!
In keeping with the White Light ethos, this mix is all about driving at night. We live in London, so neither of us own a car. We do travel a lot together though, and next time we’re being driven from the airport to a gig 100 miles away, this is what we’ll be listening to. It’s unlike anything we’ll be playing in the club that night, but having done monthly chart mixes for some time now, it was a pleasure to explore some of the other music that influences and inspires us.
The beginning of the mix is a personal musical reincarnation of exiting a k-hole and realising that somewhere (back there in that hole) you had an epiphany. You were connected to all the worlds fibres, and could touch the air and feel its texture and even control gravity and time – you had mastered this to deliver back to reality. The (probably) un-noticable thing is after the beginning we go backwards. And that is what this mix is – a trip back down into that hole… where futuristic alien melodies and nostalgic confusion sit sluggishly on the lap of uncontrollable mood-swings
With this we wanted to keep the feel of the clubnight, so it covers a range of genres and sounds, but rather than dancefloor bangers this is all about music to listen to AFTER the club. Relaxing at an after-party, watching the sun come up. Darker spacier sounds, always about melody and groove.
This is a mix through various periods of time. For me they all have something in common. It starts off early 80’s and goes all the way thru the 90’s. This is how I imagine the soundtrack to a long hot summer!
Some of the past White Light mixes rank amongst my all time favourites, and I really thought a lot about what made the good ones great whilst putting my mix together. I wanted to incorporate lots of different genres, sounds and emotions in my mix whilst making sure everything I included was high quality and sounded great. I was also strongly influenced by the Dr Peppers mix series by Gus Da Hoodrat, and wanted my mix to follow a similar journey to those mixes. I’ve put a lot of thought into this mix so I really hope you all enjoy it and on a final note I’d like to add that (as with all music) this mix should be listened to on a high quality sound device. So make sure you’ve got some good earphones, headphones or speakers!
…tripping, loving. growing. falling.
driving. sliding. rocking. rolling.
turning. yearning. jumping. touching.
floating. hugging. dancing. flying.
healing. screaming. dreaming. feeling…
come on, let it go & ride with us!
Hallo, this is the White Light mix from The Love Supreme and it’s divided in two parts. Part one is for when you are heading toward something that interests you. this will prepare you to enjoy. Part two is for when you come back to your place after this big night. this will prepare you to dream away.
A night drive into the light: The soundtrack to a journey we never made
“The culture we are exposed to as children exerts an extraordinary power over our imaginations; it leaves a heightened impression of something, which is not quite what it was, or is perhaps the essence of what it was in a way that becomes only partially retrievable through memory. Every childhood will then create a store of memories to haunt the adult world; a series of entities out of time which, like paranormal hauntings, operate under a potent but mysterious logic.” – Tristan Eldritch
Only through darkness can we truly appreciate the light. Life is a two-sided coin, and only through our understanding of sadness can we truly appreciate happiness. Hopefully this mix can take the listener upon that ride.
5am BQE spaceship jams: oohs, aahs, lasers, echoes, R&B, freckles, cowbells, drum machines, diva chords, anticipation, slap bass, black holes, underwater breakbeats, Sofia Coppola rave, “mood music.”
This mix is really a love letter to those great journeys we make with each other throughout our lives, filled with music that has soundtracked some of those experiences for me. Love is the answer. No question.
White Light will always be about night driving, introspection and taking the time to listen from start to finish.” When I read this, I knew exactly the kind of mix I wanted to make. While going to college, I had to make many long road trips across state lines. I tended to listen to a lot of Minimalism on those drives (Steve Reich, Philip Glass, etc), which to my ears completely embodies introspection and time. So I decided to make mix that bridges my current career in dance music with the simple, introspective qualities of music I listened to on those drives. This mix might be a little unexpected based on the music I’ve released, but I really wanted to showcase some of my influences and music I listen to for pleasure. Enjoy!
Loving all the White Light mixes, listened to them many times over. Its a mix series where dj’s can really dig into their crates and put down a set that wraps you up like a warm blanket. I tried to stray from the path a bit and let the beat drive my set, but still letting the tracks breath and bringing in those lush synth lines and harmonies. After seeing alot of the world in ’10, it was a pleasure to go back through my music and put this together with a fresh musical outlook.
ACT 1
It’s 1985, I’m in a nightclub in Berlin dancing,
when i return from the bathroom, i spot my wife with someone else, she sees me and leaves with him
ACT 2
I stagger out in to the night heartbroken and distraught
i get into my Mercedes and drive…i don’t know where i’m going just round and round Berlin
ACT 3
with my head clearing I head out on to the autobahn
daylight is breaking, i pass through Nurmberg and Munich, I just keeping going towards Italy as the music builds faster and faster, Towards Hope, towards a new start, towards a new gold dream
I had a dream when i was getting ready for this mix. i cracked open a stone egg and lynx with peg legs came out, which kinda describes this mix: one of the fastest slowest animals on earth. Musically, its some new psychedelics and some cosmic classics. Hope you dig it.
You could say what strings this mix together is a general feeling of analogue warmth. Moments of dancefloor euphoria spread within a framework of late-night driving music. Music for dark and empty highways and red-lit basement parties, alike.
White Light Mix Haiku
by Cosmic Kids
For you, a mixtape.
Listen to it in your car.
Cosmic Kids love you.
The timing of the mix couldn’t have been better, as we were about to take a road trip through the Catskill Mountains of New York. Our idea was pretty simple…string together a set of records that we wanted to listen to during our drive. Starting off slow and dreamy and gently gravitating toward repetition.
We chose not to include a track listing, to mimic the old mix-tape style. Years ago, if you wanted to listen to a particular song from someone’s mix-tape, you had to put in that tape and find it. Today’s disposable music through Youtube or likewise gets instantly and tragically forgotten.
I grew up listening to a lot of obnoxious music (rap, punk, and rave tapes, mostly). But on Sunday nights I always listened to the Hearts of Space show on public radio. When I was younger, I listened in bed, on my headphones, but once I was driving age, I would listen in the car, driving the hour and a half back to Natchez after debaucherous weekends in Jackson, the closest “city” where anything was going on. The host would play an hour of what he called “experimental electronic compositions of a contemplative nature” but it was really just highbrow chillout music. I can’t really say why, but for my White Light mix I was pulled back to that place. Maybe it’s from listening to Untrue so many times.
Hello there – Here’s our interpretation of the white light theme as part of the series. We hope you enjoy it…
I don’t like to talk about anything I do too much but I will say I tried to create a mood of some kind with this mix. Music that would sound pleasing on the road, early in the morning I suppose. I don’t have a driver’s license but if I did I would listen to this kinda stuff in the car. I didn’t put a track list because I really appreciate the element of surprise and I think it makes the listening experience a lot more rewarding.
“The White Light mixes are, ultimately, about two things: music and space.” Thats what the website tells me. In that case white might be the color of music, because going through my record music collection – everything seems to go about music and space. At first i had a playlist of over 4 hours of music, I started over again, inspired by the second theme. “White Light will always be about night driving” I read. So i made three categories: Landscape Driving, Autobahn Driving & City Driving. Upload your ipod, take your car and join us on this ride.
I really wanted this mix a be different from anything I’ve done in the past. With my radio show (One Day Later) I’ve been fortunate enough to share the music I love for the last 5 years, so doing a mix series like White Light was not a huge departure from mixes I’ve done in terms of musical freedom. With that in mind I decided to take a more literal approach to the theme’s of space, night driving and introspection. I wanted to go deeper musically and tell a story at the same time, try to think of the cover art as a poster to a film you have yet to watch. I hope you enjoy it, thanks for listening!
Made in a windowless room on a sunny afternoon in London with two turntables, a box of records and little regard for beatmatching. Contains drum machines, 80s extended mixes, squealing synths, soundtracks and lashings of analogue delay.
There’s something magical happening right before the end of a summer day.. that golden hour just before sunset, when things are tired, shadows become longest and the world is laid back, waiting for the night to come. These tracks belong to this very hour.
I’ve been a big fan of the White Light series since very early on after its inception, so naturally, I was pretty excited to get cracking on my contribution. The hard part was whittling it down to something that wouldn’t have you in your golden years before the halfway point. In the end, I wound up with a couple of classics; some newer stuff; a couple weird dollar-bin finds from Recordland in Calgary, and even a couple that I made. I tried to do a mix that would sound as good in your white Miata as it would at your next séance. At any rate, I hope it’s something you can get down to. So lick your lips, and have a listen ’cause I like you a lot.
The tracks on this mix have been percolating in my consciousness for a while. I wanted to make a DJ mix that I could listen to on my commute. Problem is, I don’t drive, I work nights and I spend nearly three hours a day on the subway here in Toronto. This mix is gritty when it needs to be, sexy when it wants to be, and dreamy when it has to be.
When Matty C first told me about the White Light series, he kept coming back to a description of listening to music while driving at night. Since most of us in New York City don’t drive, traveling music has to be approached differently. So I set out to make a mix from records I never get a chance to play out that would provide the perfect soundtrack to the walking, turnstile hopping, dude-selling-his-beat-tape-out-front-of-Fat Beats-avoiding, taxi-hailing, dollar-van-riding, slice-grabbing, coffee-on-the-run-drinking, and then walking a little more that is getting around the Rotten Apple.
This mix was a pleasant departure from all the commercial gigs i’ve been taking on lately. It’s sorta paced like a movie / square rpg; little peaks and valleys, a few bittersweet melodies, a cathartic finish and then the credits roll. It’s also makes for decent listening while you’re doing crossword puzzles.
It’s been amazing to see this series blossom into what it has become! My last White Light mix (Vol 5) was one of my favourite mixes that I’ve ever done, but I wanted to go deeper on this one to really catch the ‘Night Driving / Zone Out’ vibe. This one is much less vocal, way more mind trip, and features some very strong productions from acts who are really pushing this sound. This is pretty heady, moody stuff, and the vocals that were picked resonate strongly with emotion. I hope this mix strikes a nerve and is the cosmic soundtrack along your ways. Look towards the light!
We’ve been excited to do this mix for sometime now, and spent a really long time working on the tracklist. Rarely do we get to play such an eclectic mix of lesser-known pieces of music to the blood thirsty dancefloors of the pop music scene – we really wanted to take advantage of it. Once the songs were picked though it was really easy. We knew in our mind that we wanted to be a latenight journey, complete with ups and downs and curves in the long road ahead. So all we had to do was press record, let the songs take their course, and get lost heading towards the light…
Epic selection of big city house music, some italo and other things we’ve liked. Also contains both sides of our debut single (out now, available on Turntable Lab), an unreleased remix for Zebra & Snake and a track from forthcoming EP by Koobra’s who is one half of Helsinki 78-82.
It’s been raining here for months it seems, making everyone dream of summers past. But sometimes all you need is to get in the car, turn the ignition and it will take you to a warmer place, even if the rain continues to beat down outside blurring the lights of the city behind you . . .
This mix is my interpretation of “cosmic”, as outlined in the parameters of the White Light series. The mood is laid back and somewhat contemplative with a theme of traveling and returning home. With all of the various feelings that electronic music, disco, techno, house & other forms of “dance” based music can convey, I was excited about showcasing some more emotive songs. A mix for the headphones, the after, after party or bathing……….in the white light!!
When doing this mix, I decided to take it a little slow. I have been running low on energy due to our weather up in Alaska. This could be perfect for a slow day or when you are not done partying at 5-6am in the morning!
Staying within the White Light guidelines, this mix was about about night driving, introspection and letting the songs breathe. It’s packed full of tasty jams both new and old, from many sub-genres. Some tracks are over 13 years old but most are recent finds. Disco, Deep House, Acid House, New Electro, Rock… It all found it’s place in The Light. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
There can be huge difference between the music a dj gets to play in the club and the music a dj wants to play based on whatever mood they are in on a given night. Also the party atmosphere in clubs doesn’t always cater to everyone’s different moods, but a dj has to walk the line and offer something for everyone. Some people want to smash bottles and break things, some people want to dance with a cute thing, and some people want to forget their problems. It’s hard to put together a deeper mix and still make it really fun, but that’s the goal of White Mix Vol. 11. Anyways – what is this a curatorial statement? Just put this shit on at your party or in your car and go kill it in life! Thanks for listening.
Volume 10 starts off in the series’ usual style, building in intensity until it reaches stadium rock territory before returning to that classic White Light sound – it’s a bit of a detour from the blueprint, but reminds us that different roads can ultimately lead to the same destination, so click your seatbelt, turn the ignition and enjoy . . .
Been collecting Italo Disco for about 10 years now. No better way to drop them than into a mix series like White Light which combines both old with the new. Quality mixes being put out on this series.
Something about being approached for a White Light mix go me really excited, and I immediately knew what songs to choose, and what vibe to have. I feel like the only underlying requirement for my song selection was to have that airy / spacey synth to them, which luckily is right up my alley. Out of all the mixtapes I’ve created, this was by the the easiest, quickest, and most natural to put together, and I would love to make another one.
Matty C had trouble putting this magic into word form.
This mix is supposed to represent a “Summer Twilight in Outer Space” vibe. I tried to pick these tracks carefully to allow the listener to understand the vibe I tried to create. While doing so, I had a lot of fun. I hope that the listener(s) will too! Well, that’s what I am hoping, at least.
After I had finished White Light 3, I was itchin to put together another mix. I dug a bit deeper for tracks, and searched out ones with a similar vibe. Each track here has some sort of epic lushness that really flow together well, infecting your psyche with each listen! I’m very proud of this mix, truly timeless! I’ll be listening to this for years to come. Hope you enjoy this mix!
The pure melodic greatness of this genre inspired me to do White Light four. After Listening to the first 3 back to back for months, i was glad to be part of the series. Airy synth choons, some hip hop inspired choons, and a couple of dancefloor choons with uplifting feel good times.
This is the mix that really turned an idea into a series. We had a great night called Fastlife at Republic in Vancouver. We’d set up at 9pm and play a warm up mix to get us ready for the night. 9 times out of 10 we’d start with White Light 01, which grew to be one of my favourite mixes of all time! So smooth! I was determined to make a mix along those lines, and also show another side of my diverse musical tastes. This first one was a collection of songs I HAD to have on this mix. They flow nicely, but a few had to be forced to make work in the mix. Overall I’m still quite happy with it, a timeless collection of amazing tunes! Thanks to Rhek for the cover art!
About 6 months after I did the first White Light mix, Neoteric and I were talking about how it would be fun to start a series of mixes from ourselves, as well as some of our DJ friends that we’d met over the past couple of years who we knew enjoyed this style of music, and from there it basically took of, I did this one and Neo did #3 within a few days of each other and we launched the White Light as a series . . .
When I first recorded this mix, I had no masterplan for it to become a series, or even do another mix in the same vein. Really, it all came about in the early hours of a weekly “mainstream” club night my friend Trevor Risk and I played every Saturday night. For the first hour or so when the club was still quiet, Trevor would play the most amazing disco, balaeric, melodic dance stuff with a real vocal side to it – I would freak out to pretty much everything he’d drop during the warm up, but as he plays off CDJs I couldn’t nerd out behind him and copy song names onto my phone. So I’d constantly bug him to record a mix to listen to while driving – I like to drive alot. One week he turned up with a zip file of all the tunes and said, “here, you make the mix instead” – so I did, sprinkling in some classics here and there. And I guess the sound resonated with alot of people, which is cool in this post-everything day n age – it’s nice to know that good music is still good music, and sometimes people want to hear a whole song rather than 30 seconds of it. I hope the series continues to develop as it has over the past year, building momentum and sparking the interest of other DJs who I really respect to do their own take on the White Light sound . . .