Showing posts with label nightclub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nightclub. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Bolivia: Live at the Pump NightClub, Saint John

This past Friday night, I played at the Pump nightclub in Saint John, New Brunswick. I took some video and recorded my set, which I'll be sharing later in this post.

To give you some background on the set, I told Fred Bissnette that I wanted to bring an Allen & Heath Xone 4D mixer and do an Ableton Live set using the mixer as an audio mixer, but also using the MIDI controls at the same time to control many of the effects/controls in Ableton.

I decided to play a set of classic house tracks. And I'm serious when I say that; I really dug up some older classics, a la Nexus6ix and Tommy Knuckles style (for those of you from Atlantic Canada). Many of the tracks were released between 1995 and 2003. I couldn't find electronic copies of a lot of them, so although a few were bought from Beatport, I actually got most of these by ripping digital copies from my own old vinyl records. Unfortunately, the quality isn't "wave" quality for all of the tracks in the set, but I think that just adds to the authenticity of the set.

As usual, I was running late and didn't have as much time as I would have liked to prep before the show. It was a two-hour drive to get to Saint John, but luckily one of my friends (Ian Allen) was driving, so I had that time in the car to prep for the set on my laptop. I warped the tracks and barely had time to set up some basic effects - enough to get me started. I expanded on the layout of the session once I got into the club and started playing.

Here's a quick two-minute video that roughly explains how things were organized once I first got set up. As mentioned in the video, I set things up to be a bit more complex as I was playing, and added some extra mapping and processing:





To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:


Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!


And here are the track listings from my set:

01. Crystal Waters, "Gypsy Woman" (Teddy Douglas Edit).
02. Alcatraz, "Give Me Luv" (Original Mix).
03. Funky Green Dogs, "Fired Up" (Twilo Anthem Edit).
04. Jungle Brothers, "I'll House You" (Club Mix).
05. Eddie Amador, "Rise" (New York Preacher Mix).
06. DJ Sneak, "All Over My Face" (Original Mix).
07. Deep Forest, "Deep Forest" (Sam Slam Remix).
08. Nuyorican Soul feat India, "Runaway" (Armand Van Helden's Mongoloids In Space Mix).
09. CZR feat Darryl Pandy, "Bed Enough."
10. George Morel, "Let's Groove" (Original Mix).
11. Cheek, "Venus" (Sunshine People Remix).
12. Eivissa, "Move Your Body" (Extended Mix).
13. Bionik Phunk, "In My Head" (ATFC's Timmys In My Head Remix).
14. Deep Swing, "In The Music" (Original Mix).
15. DJ Sneak, "Fix My Sink."
16. Chili Hifly, "Is It Love."
17. Pontiac, "Everybody Dance To The Music" (Carrad House Reprise Mix).
18. South Street Player, "Who Keeps Changing Your Mind" (Club Mix).
19. Joey Negro, "Love Hangover" (Joey Negro Luv 2 Dub).
20. Milk & Sugar, "Higher & Higher" (Montilla 2000 Remix).
21. Grace Jones vs Funkstar Deluxe, "Pull Up To The Bumper."
22. One Phat Deeva, "In And Out Of My Life" (Knee Deep Vocal Remix).
23. Octave One feat Urban Soul Orchestra, "Blackwater" (Original Mix).
24. Joey Negro, "Must Be The Music" (Crazibiza Remix).
25. Soul Providers, "Try My Love" (2001 Classic Vocal Mix).
26. Barbara Tucker, "Stop Playing With My Mind" (Whiplash & Turner Vocal Mix).
27. Bob Sinclair vs Bucketheads, "Gym Tonic" (Thomas Banglater Remix).
28. Back To Basics, "Where's My Money" (Bongo Beat Mix).
29. Shakedown, "At Night" (Kid Creme Club Mix).
30. Jerry Ropero, Denis The Menace, & Sabor, "Coracao" (Axwell Remix).
31. Love Connection, "The Bomb."
32. Max Linen, "The Soulshaker" (Original Mix).

I was going through the tracks a bit faster than I should have. I probably could have played the same music as a three hour set, instead of the slightly-under-two-hours that it was. To be honest, although rushing through the tracks led to a bit more variety and entertainment for the dance floor, I really think the set would have sounded better if I had mixed it over a longer period (less melodic overlaps and disharmonies in the key signatures). Also, the set is FAR more "busy" than I would play if I was playing progressive or tech-house, where I really aim for smooth mixes. The energy levels are high here, and there is a lot of chaos.


I'd like to thank Fred Bissnette (the resident DJ) for setting up this special event, Troy Morehouse (the owner at Pump), and the staff and other DJ's for making the night so fun. 



I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Gabriel & Dresden

Yesterday was the birthday of one of my old roommates, and a former DJ at the club that I ran, so I ended up taking him out to a Gabriel & Dresden show in Las Vegas. It was at the Lavo club at the Palazzo. Nice place.




Gabriel & Dresden took a slight break from touring together in 2009/2010, but they've been pretty busy the last eight or ten months, with appearances in more than a dozen countries. I've seen six or seven of their shows in the past. I was even supposed to see them and do some filming at a show in New York that turned out to be their "last" show before their break, but I missed a flight connection by ten minutes due to snow in Canada, and lost that opportunity. That was one of my most disappointing moments in a long time.

Last night's show at Lavo was the best one that I've seen. They are definitely on their game these days. They've got a pretty versatile set-up - Josh works predominantly on Ableton Live (where he can create unique remixes on-the-fly), and Dave occasionally uses Ableton but is completely at home with CDJ's. The only thing that I thought was odd last night was that they shared the same pair of headphones. Dave usually had them on, but Josh occasionally borrowed them. I would think that they'd use a headphone splitter cord and each have a set of their own. Anyway, I saw the entire set (about three hours) and it was tight. I especially enjoyed the remix or layering of the Eleanor Rigby vocals in their set. The only regret about the show for me is that I didn't think to write down a set list, since I recognized just about every song they played.


G&D are so influential that two of their productions are in the top ten of the 2010 edition of the Trance Top 1000 tracks of all time ("As The Rush Comes" at position #3, and their remix of Above & Beyond's "No One On Earth"). They were also voted as America's best DJ's a couple of times. If you want to learn a bit more about the duo, check out this article on wikipedia, which also has a pretty impressive discography.

Here are YouTube videos for a few of their more well-known songs that have real videos (many of their other hits don't). You'll notice that Dave and Josh sometimes work with other vocalists under different names such as Motorcycle, Andain, etc.






















If you're interested in checking out some of their other music, look for classic tracks such as "Zocalo," "Arcadia," "Summer Calling," "Around You," and more. Or check out some of their many remixes of other artists' tracks, which you can find on their discography page on Discogs (or in the list below).

Also, Dave has a popular SoundCloud page that sometimes has G&D sets on it, such as this one:

Gabriel & Dresden Live at Nocturnal Wonderland 09-24-11 by Davedresden




If you get a chance to see them anywhere, I really recommend that you check out their show!


Partial List of Their Remixes:

2001 - New Order, "Someone Like You"
2001 - Way Out West, "Mindcircus"
2001 - Groove Armada, "Superstylin'"
2002 - 4 Strings, "(Take Me Away) Into The Night"
2002 - Medicine8, "Capital Rocka"
2002 - Balligomingo, "Purify"
2002 - Andain, "Summer Calling"
2002 - Paul Oakenfold, "Southern Sun"
2002 - Tiësto, "In My Memory"
2002 - Weekend Players, "I'll Be There"
2002 - Roger Goode, "In The Beginning..."
2002 - Ils, "Music"
2002 - Jewel, "Serve The Ego"
2002 - Beber & Tamra, "Travelling On"
2003 - Annie Lennox, "A Thousand Beautiful Things"
2003 - Lili Haydn, "Anything"
2003 - Motorcycle, "As the Rush Comes"
2003 - Nalin & Kane, "Beachball"
2003 - Andain, "Beautiful Things"
2003 - Three Drives, "Carrera 2"
2003 - Sarah McLachlan, "Fallen"
2003 - G&D vs. Coldplay, "Clocks"
2003 - G&D vs. Depeche Mode, "Here Is The House"
2003 - Dave Gahan, "I Need You"
2003 - Deborah Cox, "Play Your Part"
2003 - Evanescence, "Hello"
2003 - Jewel, "Intuition"
2003 - Britney Spears feat Madonna, "Me Against The Music"
2003 - Duncan Sheik, "On A High"
2003 - Annie Lennox, "Pavement Cracks"
2003 - Grayarea, "One For The Road"
2004 - Above & Beyond, "No One On Earth"
2004 - Nelly Furtado, "Try"
2004 - Kristine W, "Save My Soul"
2004 - The Engine Room, "A Perfect Lie"
2004 - Dido, "Don't Leave Home"
2005 - Rachael Starr, "Till There Was You"
2005 - Perasma, "Swing 2 Harmony"
2005 - Motorcycle, "Around You"
2005 - Özgür Can, "Changed"
2005 - Nicol Sponberg, "Resurrection"
2006 - Gustavo Santaolalla, "The Wings"
2006 - Robbie Rivera, "Float Away"
2006 - Markus Schulz & Departure with G&D, "Without You Near"
2007 - D. Ramirez & Mark Knight, "Colombian Soul"
2007 - Monochrome, "Pearl"
2007 - 68 Beats, "Replay The Night"
2007 - The Killers, "Read My Mind"
2007 - Shiny Toy Guns, "You Are The One"
2008 - Faithless, "A Kind of Peace"
2011 - Enrique Iglesias, "Tonight I'm Loving You" (D&J)
2011 - Andain, "Promises"



I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:



If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:



Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:
    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia
    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia
    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com
    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca