Harold Heath's House Harmony - Spring 2015

Harold Heath's House Harmony Spring 2015 by Harold Heath on Mixcloud

This hour-long selection kicks off with a track of mine. I often try to include at least one of my own productions in my DJ mixes, although I often struggle with choosing which one.  When I listen back to my own recordings, I tend to hear the production, rather than the music; all those hours spent tweaking the EQ on the clap and getting all the elements to sit together nicely, colour how I actually hear my own tracks and I find it really hard to rate, judge and quantify them.  If I listen to a promo I like, I can immediately start to make judgements about where and when I might play it: is it a peak-time track, a slow builder or simply a DJ tool to assist transitioning from one thing to another?  DJs build up the ability to analyse the make up and content of a piece of music in terms of how it would perform on a dance floor. But as soon as it comes to listening to my own productions, I really struggle to hear them - all I hear are the production decisions. 

Listening back to old DJ mixes of mine, I realised that I generally place my own productions at either the very beginning or very end - an unconscious reflection of my own inability to have any kind of objectivity about my own music.  So, the first track on this mix is my remix of Shur-I-Kan's 'Kissing' from last year (released on Ross Couch's Body Rhythm Recordings).  It's the first of three of his tracks on this mix; I'm a fan of his productions so getting a chance to remix one of his tracks was a real treat for me.  It was no surprise that the quality of the parts was excellent. The percussion was superb - perfectly produced and totally non-generic. The bass line was phenomenal in its richness - there must have been some serious layering and processing in the production, I could have it way down in the mix and it was still rock solid.  This track is also great to start a mix as it begins with a sample from an old recording of jazz standard "The Thrill is Gone" which appeals to my sense of a DJ mix having a very definite beginning, middle and end. 

There are two other tracks from Shur-I-Kan included.  'Won't Love Can't Love' (released on Fred Everything's frankly marvellous label Lazy Days) has been a particular winner on the dance floor lately.  When I dropped it in the Arches in Brighton recently it had a couple of DJs coming up the booth sniffing around - "oooh this is nice, what's this 'arold?'

And speaking of Fred Everything, I've also included his remix of Deux Tigres's 'Butterfly' - a track I have yet to play out; its one of those tunes that all DJs have - that they think is great, clever, a little different, nice and moody and that they rarely get a chance to drop.  It's a little different to some of his more club-friendly fodder and aside from striking a great melancholy mood with hints of Underworld's 'Dark and Long', I like the way the tension builds until the huge Reese-esque bass line drops several minutes into the track. In fact, I'm definitely playing this next time I DJ out. 

When I'm DJing a house set, I like to play a few different sub-genres - in my head I categorise the house music I play into vastly over specified micro genres: 

"Deep, in a US soulful way, but with a vague hint of European dubbiness to the mix, and something of a Tribal-in-the-mid-90s-style element to the drums, although in no-way a tribal record. Dancefloor Damage rating: 8.5"

"Percussive heavy tech house, but good tech house, with an originality rating of 0.2 but a funk rating of A++ File under success-guaranteed-only-after-3am"

This DJ mix is no exception and features a few different house sub-genres and moods touching upon deepness, funk, smooth-sophistication and raw energy.  After a few deep and moody records I start to up the energy with a couple of funkers from Stimming & Nick Curly before heading over to the US for some Kerri Chandler, Andrew Emil, Halo etc. then finishing on some heavier tunes from Nacho Marco and Kyle Hall.  Essentially a DJ has three questions to ask themselves, in this order:  

1. What will I play? 
2. When will I play it? 
3. How will I play it? 

Once a DJ has collected together a pile of great music, they then have to decide when to play each track - and in doing so they draw upon their knowledge of genres, of beats and bass, to work out what tracks will compliment each other the most and how they will work together to create a flow to keep the dancefloor moving.  Finally they have to ask themselves how they're going to play the tracks - how they will make the transitions between moods, when they'll change the style abruptly and when they'll create a slow teasing transition that will drive a room crazy with unreleased tension...

Hope you enjoy the mix, if you do then please comment and share, if you don't like it, comment anyway, I'd love to hear what you think. See you on the dancefloor soon...


Tracklisting:

Shur-I-Kan - Kissing - Harold Heath Remix - Body Rhythm Recordings
Kim Kimra - Raise the Dead - Love from San Fransico Remix - Mantis Recordings
Shur-I-Kan - Something In the Air - Lazy Days Music
Deux Tigres - Butterfly - Fred Everything Remix - Mood Music
D-Dub - Deep Blue - Stimming Remix - Tiger
Mark Broom - People - Nicky Curly Remix - 20/20 Vision
Halo - Here Dis Sound - Franck Rogers Remix - Siesta Records
D58 - Ekkohaus - Kerri Chandler Remix - Moon Harbour
Chad Mitchell - I Surrender - Andrew Emil’s San Frandisco Dub - Roam Recordings
Fries & Bridges - Forever This - Phil Weeks Remix - The Factory
Shur-I-Kan - Won’t Love Can’t Love - Lazy Days Music
Ourra - Corralia - Lucky Sun Recordings
Pete Dafeet - Wife - Nacho Marco Remix - Lost My Dog
Cromie - Vines - Kyle Hall Remix - Peach