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.
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.