WEEKENDMIX 7.19.13: GETAWAY

Music is a subjective medium. There is nothing objective about it. When a song gets into your head, heart, spirit, body, it becomes personal. Surrounded by music all day and night long can make it easy to take the embodiment of music for granted, forget how much goes into developing a sound, creating a mix that gets more plays than Monopoly, blending seamlessly from one song to the next. It can be easy to forget just how personal the message is for the DJ creating that mix. So, in turn, I take my DJs very personal. This brings us to Inti J., DJ and founder of 1200Dreams.

I have the privilege of working with this ambitious man. This Bronx, NY native is always driving and striving to get better, to keep it positive and to stay a step ahead of technology, marketing and the curve. Part of his bio reads “I’m a creative, constantly improving, open minded, passionate, loud mouthed romantic. If you don’t like those qualities please ignore me.” Trust me, you can’t ignore him. There’s just too much great energy that emanates from him. You can sense it in his passion for DJing, writing, creating, and life in general. In a January 2013 interview with Nate Fuller of Satellite EDM, Inti J. shares his knowledge of the dance music scene. The opportunity to feature him (without too much objection) finally presented itself in a recent 1200dreams.com article, “Music & Social Networking: What’s After Facebook? 1200dreams Makes It A Reality”. So, here we are again, going against the grain and focusing on someone who would prefer to, in his own words, “let the music speak for itself.”

Let’s talk about what went into his most recent mix, Summer’s Rescue. In this mix (that took months for him to be happy with) Inti J. manages to fit in Luciano, Daft Punk, Chris Malinchak, Ralf Gum and Todd Terry, among others, weaving them along in such a way that you actually feel as if you’re being rescued from the drudgery of the grind into a sweet summer getaway, convertible top down, sunglasses on, heading out to meet the horizon, leaving all your worries behind.

If we were to follow a theme here, and we usually do, we’d take advantage of the “getaway” idea. So, off to Ibiza we go. Joey Negro, born Dave Lee, is a UK native who began his production career in 1988. With a slew of monikers including Jakatta, Akabu, Doug Willis, Raven Maize, The Sunburst Band, Sessomatto, and Z Factor, Negro has been involved in well over 200 productions, countless albums and hit singles like ‘Must Be The Music’, ‘Make A Move On Me’, ‘Can’t Get High Without You’ and Jakatta’s ‘American Dream’ and ‘My Vision’.

The name Joey Negro came about in 1990 when Dave released ‘Do It Believe It’ on US cult house label Nu Groove. Lee took the name from two records in a pile next to his desk – one by Pal Joey and another by J Walter Negro. Little did he know that over 20 years later, he would still be largely addressed as Joey Negro. As a DJ Lee strives to reflect his extensive love of music through eclectic sets, which go from rare disco to vocal and classic house often into more electronic techy deep sounds.

His sets showcase the many re-edits and updates of old and obscure tracks he’s become famous for. “I’m forever chopping up both new and old records in the studio to make them work better within my sets’ he explains. “I can’t help myself, I want dancers to experience the very best highs a records has to offer, even if it means I have to spend a few days in the studio re-arranging something. I couldn’t be a producer without being a DJ and certainly DJ’ing would be a whole lot less fun if I didn’t get to tweak the music I was playing out.”

In this live one hour out of a three hour mix, JOEY NEGRO Live At Soul Heaven Pool Party Ocean Beach IBIZA July 2013, you get a real sense of being taken away on a journey that touches on Disco, House, Deep House and NuDisco. He gets it all in, including Peven Everett’s recent release “I Just Wanna Make You Happy.”

So, even if you can’t escape the daily grind physically, hit play and release your mind.

Inti J.

Summers Rescue

Summer’s Rescue by Inti J. on Mixcloud

Joey Negro

Live At Soul Heaven Pool Party Ocean Beach IBIZA July 2013