Dubwise dreams and groovy percussive house with the low end dwelling Moonshoe producer @angusmills Q. What can you tell us about the mix? A. Thanks so much for having me on the series, I've been a big fan for over a decade now 🙂 So the mix has been curated with my interpretation of the MDC spirit in the front of my mind. I’ve loved how so many mixes over the years have danced thoughtfully between home listening and warm fictional dancefloor settings. I wanted the music to reflect some of the sounds and feelings that I love and which you’ve touched upon in your next question. Hopefully the music translates back to the listener in whichever setting they happen to be in. Recently I’ve been listening back to the mix at home while standing in our light filled kitchen making dinner, looking over at our whippet Olive while she snores on her bed. Some of my favourite tracks in the mix include Erzulie (Temple Dub Mix) by Mind Over Rhythm from 1992, Tranquillity by Bamboo Curtain, Nick Kelly’s Track – Dew U Feel Me from Trip ‘N Spin Recordings from San Francisco and the track I close out the mix with is a song that really resonates strongly with me, Soundtrack to a Dying by Phil Western. Q. You’ve clearly got a real appreciation for deep hypnotic rhythms, tell us about how you became entrenched in this sound, and how long had you been refining things before your debut Moonshoe release came out? A. Thanks Myles, that’s very kind of you to say. Yeah, I’m pleased with how that release turned out and am just starting to get back to writing some new music again after a busy work period which feels exciting. Shoutout to Jackson as well who heard a couple of early iterations of those tunes and decided to take a risk on working towards a release for me, couldn’t have imagined a better home for the music than Moonshoe. I’ve been producing music since the start of 2011 and released some stuff under a few different monikers over the years but wasn’t completely confident with my productions until about 2020. I started studying architecture in 2018 and during the degree, didn’t really have much capacity to work on my own music. I was still heavily listening to music throughout the degree and found that having a break from producing during this time helped me to relearn to love making music again. Perhaps there was something about shifting some creative energy away from music for a period? Q. On your Moonshoe affiliations, I know you have been working with the label for a little while now, tell us about that experience and what have you got in the works? A. Yes so, Jackson/ Cousin and I have known one another for a while now through going out to parties around Sydney, I used to go and see him and Brad play a lot around town. He met my partner Claudia years back before we’d even started dating and funnily enough, she suggested that we’d probably get along well. I was sending Jackson a bit of music around 2018/2019 and one of the tracks, Transient ended up coming out on the second Limbs compilation, From Inside Out. Jackson ended up getting a job at Sydney University with me in the AV team which hilariously employs many creatives from the Sydney music scene, and we just started hanging out more and regularly grab lunch together. One thing led to another, and he started helping me put Alva together, doing an excellent job of A&R, giving me regular feedback and suggestions for improving the music. I was also giving him some feedback on his own releases for some other labels, which kind of shifted organically into helping him narrow down some music for his upcoming EP on Moonshoe ‘Wake the Town’ which is a 6 tracker coming out in the next couple of months. In the meantime, Cousin has some individual tunes that didn’t quite make the EP coming out through the Moonshoe bandcamp over the next couple of months which I’ve done some mastering work on. Definitely keep watching this space for music coming out on Moonshoe over the course of next year!

300 mixes! What a journey. Big respect to those still listening since it all began back in the late 2000s, and a warm welcome to those who might just be tuning in for the first of hopefully a few more to come. Thought it must be about time for another episode from Deepcast HQ, with Myles Mac & DJ Possum back in the mix for a relaxing journey guided by the eternal balearic breeze of the 90s. Two and a half hours of smooth summertime groovers with plenty of vocoders, utopian dream states and moments of total rave nostalgia. Dancefloor chillers for the deeply inclined and/or reclined. Here's to 300 more :~) @myles-mac & @djpossums

London’s Customs duo are connoisseurs of finely crafted garage music, two life long devotees to the sound’s deeply swung rhythms and unifying dancefloor vibrations. Finessing their take on all things garage (not garage) through their regular spots on Kiosk Radio and at London's Giant Steps, the guys join us with a swinging smorgasbord of 90s and early 00s records from the UK, dabbling in top notch garage and some of the sounds that anticipated broken beat and early grime productions. @customs_ldn Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when combining for this mix, and what kind of setting might you imagine it being enjoyed in the most? Guy: Firstly, thank you Myles so much for sharing this mix. Longtime fans of MDC! Both of us answered “driving” as the best setting, which is funny since neither of us drives. So maybe “riding” rather than driving. Lots of thoughts percolated for me on night drives to inner city Manchester a few months back. Definitely inspired by the All Bad Boy & All Good Girl archive work of Death Is Not The End, resurfacing the sound of Moss Side blues parties like Soul Control. Reading Ed Gillett’s new-ish book Party Lines also gave a push further into alternate UK dance histories, specifically Black club scenes and music that ‘swings’. Tom: I’ve been bingeing on a bunch of old club recordings from the ‘speed garage’ era lately - sets from places like Club Koo and The Colosseum - and I think some of the energy from that early blend of UK and US sounds has definitely bubbled over into this mix. Q. With the mix showcasing your shared appreciation for deep garage music and its many adjacent styles and offshoots, could you give us a brief insight into your journeys with the sound, and what years, artists or labels have you found to be responsible for the most timeless cuts in your record bags? Guy: It was a nocturnal radio sound for me as a young teenager I guess, largely mysterious, coming largely from London when I was growing up in the north west. But the sampling of R&B vocals from stuff I knew made it immediately accessible. In more recent years, digging in London, I’ve tended to get most excited by either one-off/ white label riddles that are sometimes garage-not-garage, and also alias stuff from bigger name producers across bigger labels in the genre - G-Spot Records, Nice ‘N’ Ripe, Unda-Vybe etc. Tom: I actually started out as a bedroom garage DJ, so it’s a bit of a full-circle moment for me. I had a mate at school who wanted to be an MC, and on Saturdays we used to hit up Music & Video Exchange to pick up whatever white labels we could find before heading back to his flat in Ladbroke Grove to practice a set that nobody would ever hear. Shout out to Nick The Greek, wherever you are! Twenty-something years later, I’m still finding exciting stuff from the same producers we loved back then - guys like Jeremy Sylvester and Mike Millrain who have these unfathomably deep back-catalogues. Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your hearts, and what is it about these tracks that resonate with you so much? Guy: I’d call out 2. Artist Formerly Known as PP - When I’m Down, from 1998. Bit of a private press oddity from a producer who’s prolific but mysterious (the PP = ‘Persian Prince’). It’s a kind of rolling, morphing megamix type cut that samples Brandy - Best Friend but also features raw toasting style MC bits the likes of which you hear from the live party recordings in All Bad Boy & All Good Girl. The other is Colour 3 - La Femme, a beautiful, melodic white label that’s been so versatile for me since I picked it up from Crazy Beat in Upminster. Has worked a treat on sound systems like Giant Steps and after parties alike. Tom: The penultimate track, Drivers Anthem, is a special one for me. Super deep and melodic production, but with that trademark UK bump on the bottom end.

Raised in Shibuya, Tokyo and now calling Naarm/Melbourne home for the past year, Kamome cut his teeth playing adventurous extended sets as part of the Tokyo based Vinyl Youth DJ collective, with close mentorship from local legends KEITA SANO and Yamarchy from the notorious Shibuya small club, Mitsuki.
 Kamome brings his unique and playful musical stylings to the table for the latest episode with a mix as deep and immersive as it is quirky and acid-groovy, primed for late night smoky dancefloor indulgence! 

 @kamome-8787 Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when putting this mix together? Is there a sound, feeling, time or place that connects all the different elements in one way or another? A. The inspiration for this mix comes from my upcoming one year of being in Australia, and I created it with the hope that the local people will get to know me. As a Japanese person, this mix is largely composed with sounds from the Japanese community and those of my seniors and friends. Q. Are there any songs in the mix that are especially close to your heart, and what is it about these tracks that resonate with you so much? A. All the tracks in this mix by Chida, Keigo Okazaki, Daichi, Yamarchy, ifax!, Dj Himitsu, and KEITA SANO are important to me, but the one that stands out the most is the debut track "Got to be real" by DAICHI & Yamarchy, which will be released at the end of August. This edit seems to be a re-edit of a past track from the label Clue-L, run by Kenji Takimi. Q. I know you’ve featured some incredible unreleased Japanese records in this mix! What Japanese artists/labels are responsible for some of your favourite sounds of late, and who should we be watching out for? A. An artist I'm keeping an eye on is DAICHI, a member of my collective "Vinyl Youth." His recent release from MM Disco, based in Berlin and Barcelona, is still fresh in my memory, and I can't wait for what's next ! An artist to watch is KEITA SANO, and although not Japanese, Lunatic Music, based here in Melbourne, is also noteworthy. Keita is like an older brother to me :) and he releases works in a unique style at an incredible pace. (He has released five works this year alone.) Bart and Jack, who run Lunatic Music, have been invaluable friends since I came to Melbourne. Their label features Japanese artists, and all their releases are excellent. Be sure to check them out!

We're beyond thrilled to welcome French house music pioneers Alan Braxe & DJ Falcon who share with us with their recent set from Golden Plains Festival! Fasten your seatbelts for a high-octane genre bending encounter, packed with plenty of cult French house classics mixed with the duo's signature blend of indie pop, disco and techno with some special edits they made just for the set. @braxe1 + @djfalconofficial Q. What inspiration did you both draw upon when planning for this set at Golden Plains? How would you describe the feeling in the crowd, and what kind of a story were you hoping to tell with the music that night? Alan Braxe: Weeks before playing at Golden Plains many people and friends told us this one is going to be special, you’ll love it! So we were very excited. When we arrived on the site we immediately felt very good energy with a big crowd focusing on the music. All these lights everywhere made it quite unreal, a bit like in a fairy tale. When we played we tried to be quite eclectic covering a wide range of the music we like. We even prepared some special edits backstage before the set when we realized how good the atmosphere was. DJ Falcon: As Alain said we were already excited to play there as we had tonnes of great feedback from our Australian mates weeks before the show. We knew this festival was going to suit us well as we’re constantly flirting with pop, rock and electronic music. Honestly we simply play the music we love and tell a little bit of our story, some of our French classics combined with a selection of tracks we like from the moment. Q. What were some of your favourite moments from this particular set, and how do you guys find the right balance between the nostalgic classics and the newer French house sounds when preparing for your sets together? AB: As said above we love to play eclectic with a bit of techno, house, French house, indie pop, we don’t really prepare the set, it’s more an improvisation based on our respective selections. It doesn’t really matter to us if the music is new or made 20 years ago, it’s more about playing tracks we love 100%. My fave moment was probably when I played the 1st track “I Saw” by Young Fathers that I edited a few minutes before the set. On stage, when I saw this very enthusiastic crowd, I felt like wow we have full freedom to play whatever we want. DJF: Favorite moment, for me, is when you arrive at the place and you instantly know that you’re gonna have a good time. Also after 10/15 mins of our set we were able to know that the audience is super receptive, that’s a good satisfaction for us. Talking about the right balance between classics and newer tracks is mainly dictated by the energy of the audience. I feel like we’re simply going with the flow, we’re somehow just some kind of energy sensor… Q. Now having completed this long awaited Australia tour, how did you find the experience of returning to the country after so many years, this time as a duo, and where are you hoping to take the Braxe + Falcon project next? AB: It’s been a very pleasant tour, we did other festivals with also a very positive reaction from the people, touring as a duo is also very exciting as there is this common excitement backstage before playing, and also my son is now living in Sydney so I had the chance to spend a lot of time with him. Next for us is studio time to release more music, our next single is set to be released on July 10th on Smugglers Way / Domino, and there will be more to come later in 2024.

A radiant beacon of light and energy, Naarm's longtime curator, tastemaker and worldly dance music selector Adriana steps away from the d-floor to serve us a delightful blend of soulful hip hop, r'n'b and neo soul, moving between vintage and contemporary cuts with complete ease and steeze! Opa! @goodlucktoyourdad Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when putting this mix together? Is there a sound, feeling, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different elements in one way or another? A. This mix has been inspired by what I’ve been listening to as of late which has been heaps of rnb, neo-soul, hip-hop and afrobeat. Thrown in the mix are some real classics from the 90’s as well as some contemporary jams that have really impressed me. I think it’s too easy to get caught up in having to play only what is considered to be “underground” when in actual fact there are some fire mainstream releases as of late. Q. Are there any records in the mix that are especially close to your heart, or old favourites that you’ve been keeping up your sleeve for the right moment? A. The last jam ‘Come Dance with Me’ by Sleepy Brown definitely takes me back to my childhood and ignites a fire in my heart!! I wasn’t too sure if bringing up the mix by another 10bpm to finish was a wise move but I’m so glad I did! Q. A massive winter edition of your ever evolving Spasta party is happening this June with an mega lineup just announced (Jex Opolis, Ruf Dug & Adi Toohey to name a few), how long has this one been in the making, and what kind of vibes might we be able to expect over the two stages? A. This Spasta is our biggest one yet and the enthusiasm behind it has been mind blowing!! People are so keen for a day festival in the Winter - especially when the lineup and location are undeniably amazing! As always, Spasta will emphasise my Greek culture - this time with a Florinian band to welcome guests upon arrival, Greek statues projected across the convent walls and ouzo to be catered at the bar. We also really pride ourselves on the artists that we book - this time mixing it up between fan favourites and underground figures who deserve a spotlight on them because they’re so damn incredible! Spasta prides itself on not being pretentious which is why it feels so welcoming. I am proud of the community that I have created alongside Finding Figaro, and am grateful that people are so trusting and receptive to our vision and values! We simply cannot wait to do it all over again with them this June! :D

With a remarkable fourteenth season of their Mister Sunday open air parties just around the corner, @mistersaturdaynight's @misterjustincarter shares with us a special excerpt from his NYD sunrise set at Nowadays back in January, pulling out some definitive house and disco classics with heartfelt nods to NYC's deep-rooted dance music history. Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when recording this mix at Nowadays? How would you describe the feeling in the room that day, and is there a sound, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different moments in one way or another? A. I know Nowadays' indoor dance floor intimately, and this slot in particular, starting around 5am on New Year’s Day, is one I’ve played for the past four or five years, so I came in with a very specific idea of what to do. I knew that the party would be in full-tilt New Year’s Eve energy and that I’d want to hold the pace but move into a more liminal space, so I played records that are propulsive but dreamy. Once I established that headspace, the sun started to rise, so there was a natural energy shift, and I leaned into that. I stopped mixing and played Loft-style for about thirty minutes. Letting records play from beginning to end, playing music with vocals and live instrumentation, it’s grounding, makes it feel like a house party, reminds us that we’re connected with each other. That felt important to me, knowing that the dance floor had been in a more driving mode for eight hours. After that interlude, I built it back up, because there was still like twenty hours to go! In general, I’m piecing together a few elements in my sets these days: deep, soulful elements that first drew me in when I arrived in NYC in the late 90s; psychedelic, minimal music that was coming from Europe in the 00s, when I first started to DJ; and then that Loft thing I referenced above. Q. Are there any records in the set that are especially close to your heart, or old favourites that you had been keeping up your sleeve for the right moment? A. I hadn’t played my 45 of “Be There In the Morning” by Renee Geyer in years. (It’s a record I found on my first Australian tour in Melbourne, at Licorice Pie, back in 2015, actually!) Good sunrise record, obviously. “Will you be there in the morning?” Yes! Here I am! Q. With the winter months in NYC now behind you, how are preparations coming along for the return of your legendary outdoor Mister Sunday parties? Will you and Eamon be planning to do anything different for your fourteenth year? And after doing it for so long now, how do you guys continue to keep yourselves inspired? A. We purposefully try to keep Mister Sunday consistent. Of course we’re always digging for music, and we always invite a couple guests who’ve never played, so there’s something that feels fresh for every season. But the consistency that comes from having a weekly party that’s been happening for such a long time, it’s something we consciously try to maintain – it’s one of the main ingredients for the community that has developed around the party. No one has to wonder where the party will be this week, whether it’s happening this Sunday or not, etc. That said, we’re going to be throwing our 500th(!) party this season, and we’ll do something special to commemorate that.

Dipping into warmer waters with the Life Classics mood masters tapped into a soul defining well of exquisite late 90s and early 00s house music. Dreamy, techy, jazzy, groovy, this one has it all. Deep house at its absolute finest. @sanctuary3 Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when putting this mix together? Is there a sound, feeling, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different elements in one way or another? A. We’ve always had our heads locked into the deeper shades of house from the late 90’s to early 00’s, in particular those nostalgic tracks that tap into that spacey special place. The mix is shaped around a bunch of records that resonate that feeling for us, a nod to those dance floor dreamers found late into the night with stars in their eyes. Q. Are there any records in the mix that are especially close to your hearts, or old favourites that you’ve been keeping up your sleeves for the right moment? A. The opening track is from Ronin's Night Grooves EP. A firm favourite of ours that we've kept on rotation over the years. And also the last track from Aurora Borealis on FNAC, this one has been on the shelf for long minute, but don't often play it out so it felt right letting it run here. Q. What’s the latest with your Life Classics parties in Berlin? Do you have some fun nights planned at OHM once again this year, and who have been some of the guests that have blown your minds in recent years, and why? A. We just had a banging start to another year's residency a couple of weeks back with Telephones. Next month we've got Antal coming through again, he has been a staple of our nights since the A.S.E days and it's always a wild one. Red Greg was definitely a recent highlight, treated us all to a master class deep into the wee hours.

We return to NYC where the wonderful @lycheefrut has us fully submerged in a wobbly world of ambient techno moods and grooves. Restorative mind state hypnosis for the early morning acid dreamers with moments of total serenity! Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when putting this mix together? Is there a sound, feeling, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different elements in one way or another? A. There are a few recent moments that I drew from: I had pulled a lot of dreamy tracks to close out the intimate Sunday evening queer party I throw with my friends called Antidote, and for a b2b with my friend threehz at their party dream/self. I usually spend a lot of time planning a tracklist for studio mixes, but this time, I was struggling to sequence or choose between the tracks I had pulled. On New Year's Eve, a few friends came over to my studio to pass some time before going to a rave where I was working the door at 8am, and they all ended up dozing off while I was DJing. I was trying to play music that was both energetic enough to keep me awake, but not too intense for people who were sleeping. A few days later, I ended up recording this mix in one take with no strict playlist, drawing from that moment; it was a fun experiment in trusting myself to find a more organic flow. Q. As someone who’s actively involved in a number of interconnected projects and events within NYC’s underground dance scene, tell us about the idea behind your Spontaneous Affinity outlet for zines, mixes and long form interviews that regularly feature important insights from DJs, producers and organisers alike. A. The series has been on a bit of a pause / slow paced moment lately as I focus on getting some other aspects of my life together :) but the idea was to use the interviews to draw connections between different nodes of people working to build scenes in different places. Everyone gets the same set of questions to choose from; it's always fun compiling it all into a zine and seeing what kinds of commonalities emerge. I hope to find time to work on another zine before the end of this year! Q. And finally, I really enjoyed your set opening up The Grove at last year’s Sustain-Release! Tell us about how you found that whole experience, and how did you approach a set like that where you could seemingly take things anywhere over the three and half hours.. A. This set was a heavy one for me – I've been to every Sustain, and it was a formative part of my journey deeper into DJing and music. This summer also came with a lot of big losses and transitions. I spent as much time journaling and meditating as I did organizing music, and wanted to make space for others to process difficult things before diving into party mode in a psychedelic environment. As far as the musical approach, I thought of the set in 7 or 8 "chapters" that could expand or contract depending on the energy and vibe. I've played a lot of opening sets over the years and lately have wanted to push myself within that; here, instead of the standard ambient → techno type opening set, I wanted to play with a structure where the set built into a mild frenzy and then settled back down before the live acts that played after me.

Extending a warm welcome to our good friend P.Bud! A wicked producer of swirling deep cuts and the solo brains trust behind the NYC based @aroniarecords, Philip's leanings span the intersecting vibe-sphere of groovy, dubby 90s house, early 00s tech house and prog with subtle deep hypnotic trance nods for the early morning inclined. Get set for two-hours of classy digs and exquisite blends from one of the realest out there! @p_bud Q. What inspiration did you draw upon when putting this mix together? Is there a sound, feeling, or time/place in dance music history that connects all the different elements in one way or another? A. I moved to New York from Berlin a couple years ago and I’ve been so impressed and inspired by the North American scene since coming here. It’s so welcoming, inclusive, and community oriented, and is pushing really interesting music forward. This past festival season in particular was amazing. I attended Sustain Release for the first time and it totally blew my mind. Best Out Of Town, a festival organized by some friends in Canada that I played at, was also just next level. I definitely drew on those musical experiences when putting together this mix. I also love digging, so a lot of the records in this mix are ones I picked up in NY record shops–shout out to A1, Human Head, Boom Service, and Academy. I’ve been really into 90s / early 00s tech-house and progressive lately so that’s definitely the throughline in this mix. Q. Are there any records in the mix that are especially close to your heart, or old favourites that you’ve been keeping up your sleeve for the right moment? A. In terms of records close to my heart, I’ve been obsessed with The Age Of Love Suite (Neverending Voice Mix) by Unity 3 for a while now, such a beautiful vocal trance track. I also just adore Groove Control by Variable Frequency Technician–when the pads come in it gets me every time. Those are both tracks I’ve had on repeat while cruising through the city on my bike and I’m glad I found places for them in this mix. I love making edits of tracks that are almost perfect but just need little tweaks to get them there. For example, Only When I'm Dancing Do I Feel This Disco by The Mighty Dub Cats is cheesy in the best possible way, but the breakdown is just too much so I took it out. Storyteller by Urban Clockers has an amazing groove but the arrangement was lacking so I worked on that. Groove Society - Push Upon It has been stuck in my head nonstop since I found it, but the pitch was drifting too much so I smoothed that out. Q. What’s the latest with your label Aronia Records? We’ve been treated to a couple of seriously deep, hypnotic and at times experimental dance records from yourself and the Toronto based producer Emissive in the past couple of years, is this the kind of direction you’ll be looking to explore even further with the label and your own production going forward? A. Thanks for the kind words! I’ll definitely try to keep things ‘seriously deep’ haha :) I want to focus on dancefloor material–it’s so rewarding seeing people move to Aronia tracks–but I’d also love for Aronia releases to work in different contexts too. I’ve been very lucky to collaborate with Evan (Emissive) in that regard, whose music ticks both those boxes. Resounding Yes for example is an amazing, hypnotic track that works both on headphones as on the floor. I’m lining up some releases for 2024, mainly my own productions so far. I’m always keen to put out other people’s music though, so please send stuff my way if you like our sound! I’d also love to get Aronia more involved in the NY scene, so I’m looking for ways to do that. I’m partial to vinyl as a format, but it’s so costly and time consuming, and I’d really love to put out more music. So on top of vinyl, maybe there will be some digital only Aronia releases too. Maybe some Bandcamp or Nina Protocol exclusives? We’ll see.

@myles-mac's annual MDC Review is in, blending some of his favourite mind massagers from 2023. Tracklist: Eivind Vullum & Telephones - Changgu-Satturnu (Telephones' Mind Meld) // Vibrasjon Radart - Soli Test // Companion A.S.O. - Falling Under (Cousin's Dive Dub) // Low Lying Records Anthony Naples - Scars // ANS Rings Around Saturn - Lansky's Vision // Best Effort Beta Librae - Bodhicitta // Incienso Frank & Tony - Agitate // Pacific Rhythm Pilgrims Of The Mind - My Baby Likes Rum // Heels & Souls DJ Popup - MLK // NES Adam Pits - Spreadable // Kalahari Oyster Cult p1LL - Touch My Soul // Serenity Now Recordings Fantastic Man - West Coast // Superconscious Patrick Holland - Fog Wall // Verdicchio Music Publishing Sean La'Brooy - 140 to the Pin (ft. Greg Carleton) // Analogue Attic Jex Opolis - Catalytic // Bad Timin' DJ Central - Person // NES Retza - Division (Too Sexy Mix) // Retza Angus Mills - Wet // Moonshoe Lew E - Teardrop // Basic Spirit Thurlow Joyce - Lemon Citrus // NAFF Sleep D - Planet Waves // Butter Sessions Caldera - Dolphin Skii // Nummer Music ANF - Technique // DustWORLD