Most things cycle, regurgitating the ghosts of past freshness every 20-odd years. Becoming acutely aware of the recycling of my nostalgic past brings up a flurry of emotions from youthful ecstatic experience to adolescent angst. I fell in love with house music in my late teens which provided some of my first transcendental/spiritual experiences, leaving me with an endless supply of warm and fuzzy feelings for the genre. House was also the first music to break my heart, as the scene I knew and loved crumbled and died. In the past few years I’ve seen a resurgence of the old house vibe I once knew, bringing out familiar smiling faces looking to catch another ride. This mix doesn’t really do the genre justice, but it’s clearly the catalyst.

A deep wander into a hybrid land of psychedelic 60s/70s and the modern parodiable counterpart. The back room of a Rhythm Society event can get pretty cozy! The recorder stopped half way through the mix - so two parts.

A lightly mixed compilation of some favorite Malian tracks. The mix begins with “Kan Be”, a mesmerizing track by n’goni player Kakanka Sata. The mix concludes with “Tsara”, a deeply soulful and uplifting cut by guitarist/singer Modeste. Ali Farka Toure, one of Mali’s greatest musicians who’s featured on this mix, passed away in March 2006. So this mix is dedicated to the prolific and brilliant guitarist/singer/songwriter Ali Farka Toure.

TechTwerp is a quiet mix of electronic music that skirts the edge between minimal techno and ambient music. The mix begins with Piano Magic’s sea shanty inspired “Haloween Boat”, and ends with my all time favorite Terry Riley piece “Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band”.

My father was the guitarist for the Bay Area psychedelic rock band “The Sons of Champlin”. The Sons are known for their loud horns and high-energy dance jams. Whenever I introduce someone to the group I almost always play one of their lesser known and quieter songs since I feel it’s easier to hear the brilliance of the song writing and musicianship when you’re not getting blasted. This mix is a compilation representing a quieter side of The Sons. The last track, Knickanick, is one of my all time favorite guitar tracks - noodley, psychedelic bliss :)

A magic night with the Rhythm Society. The music was focused and energized all night. This tribal set skirts the edges of psychedelic trance without going there (thankfully).

Dj mix for the Rhythm Society event “Ember” at Cell Space. The set transitions from a high energy breakbeat/tribal set to ambient trance. The volume was turned down towards the end of the mix, so to compensate just turn it up really loud!

<br>, or break if you’re a dork like me, is a mellow breakbeat mix. It reflects my brief dip into the quieter side of early 2000s incarnation of breakbeat. A little complimentary UK garage thrown in for fun.

Outdoor campout festival at Camp & Sons in Willits, California. A mix of trippy house, gypsybeats and progressive tribal. Accompanied by Diana (vocals).

Rhythm Society’s New Years Eve celebration - this retro set brings back some of my early tribal dance favorites beginning with the seminal cut “Papua New Guinea” by the Future Sound of London. Other classics include BT’s first underground hit (IMO) “Nocturnal Transmission” and The Psychic Warriors ov Gaia’s “Exit 23”. A classic booty shaker.

An attempt to map the evolution of regional world music based on the music on-hand. Africa begins with 1950’s field recordings of traditional song and chant and traverses the 60’s, 70’s, 80, 90’s, then ends with an electronic afrobeat fusion track by Tony Allen (Fela Kuti’s drummer).

An attempt to map the evolution of regional world music based on the music on-hand. Africa begins with 1950’s field recordings of traditional song and chant and traverses the 60’s, 70’s, 80, 90’s, then ends with an electronic afrobeat fusion track by Tony Allen (Fela Kuti’s drummer).

The mix begins with some deep tech house and builds to a funky crescendo. Good for driving or lego building.

Blissed out mellow drum & bass mix recorded from the chillout room of the Rhythm Society event “Playtime”. One of my favorite mixes.

Chilled out Indian & Middle Eastern electronic mix. Good with hookahs, sari’s and tikka massala.

Minimal techno and electro set from the Rhythm Society chill room event “Rites of Spring”. Begins with one of jhno’s very own, then meanders through the lands of minimalism, then winds up somewhere a little strange. jhno gave it his seal of approval, so i guess it’s all right.

My first mix of African music and a precursor of the African History mix. Similar in style and energy to the other African mix.

The mix opens with some happy slugs eating thier lettuces ala Orb’s Slvg Dvb. The mix meanders through ambient dub and downtempo, then explores some eclectic ambient drum & bass.

A chilled-out drum & bass mix.

A mix of laid back house with some quirky overtones. Not sure why it’s called Blissed Out - it may have something to do with the cheesy strings in the ambient mix of Chicane’s Offshore or it could have just been my state of mind, but the intention now alludes me. Firesign Theater introduces and closes both sides - a surreal treat.

A double dose of chilled out tunes. Side one is mellow downtempo and side two is mellow drum & bass.

The cushicle is an idea someone had for a nomadic living environment you can wear on your back. I’m not sure how I connected the device to this mix, but there you go. The mix begins with dub and works its way into drum & bass.

This mix is hard to describe. It wanders through many styles of ambient and deep house, then somehow ends up in some jazzy house at the end of side 2.

When I was working with the clothing company Anarchic Adjustment, I had the amazing opportunity to dj at a chillout club in Tokyo. This recording is the first 45 minutes of my set - the rest was not recorded. A mish-mosh of dubby downtempo grooves.

The landscape where funk, jazz, soul, blues, gospel, and rock collide is a difficult one to classify. Rare groove is a loose-knit term which avoids the effort of dissection, but describes a fertile period during the 1970’s when these musics merged in beautiful ways.

My oldest salvaged dj mix. This mix is a time capsule from an early moment of my exploration of djing. When this recording was made I was resident DJ at Mushroom Jazz - playing weekly to 500+ dancing bodies. This mix represented an emerging music and energy that seemed to resonate with every aspect of my musical interest.

My first mix tapes were called “Mushroom Jazz” and I gave some copies to friends. A friend visiting Chicago came back with news that another DJ named Mark Farina also used the term for his mix tapes. We met soon after and started the Mushroom Jazz night. I changed the name from mushroom to “stonie” out of respect for Mark.

I made 100 copies of this mix tape and sent them far and wide as both gift and promotion. 10 years later not a single copy could be found, including the original master. A mass email requesting a copy finally located one in Seattle with my friend Grey Six. It was a copy of a copy of the original, but I was happy to have found one. Grey would often comment that the song titled “The Sun” was one of his all time favorite pieces of contemporary music and would help him get through hard moments in his life. Grey died of terminal illness shortly after sending me his copy of this mix tape, so I’d like to dedicate this recording to the memory of Grey Six.

Peace. Love. Harmony.