How I learned to mix out of Aphex Twin records... (or How to turn a dj mix flub into a triumph... sort of)

After playing a series of house parties in my early DJ years, I finally landed one of my first public DJ gigs from a mate during my radio days on 91.7 FM KVRX in Austin, Texas.This is around 1997 I believe.

The party was a park party during the daytime, which seemed to be the thing to do during the mid-to-late 90s in Austin. Plenty of beer, BBQ and delicious slices of electronic platters spun on the Technics 1200s. Thanks to the likes of Waterloo Records, a whole bunch of passionate DJs, punters and promoters, and also later Alien Records, the Austin scene wasn't playing second fiddle to the coasts.

My good friend, Coy West, who was on the bill for this particular event, once told me Texas DJs had to work harder to stand out and prove themselves to the coasts (not to mention Europe), hence why everyone was so tight with their blends and beat matching. Folks spent alot of time practicing.  Some of you older cats will remember giving the spindle knob a twist, or dragging the platter to slow down a record to pull it back into phase. Now you hit the 'Sync' button and off you go, but I digress.

I was on the bill along with DJ Dionysos, Coy West, Twist-1 and Merrick Brown of the 626 Soul Crew. I chatted with Dionysos earlier today to get some background for this drop, and he filled me on some of the details that sound all too familiar to us who worked as promoters at one time or another. He recalls, the sound guy was 90 minutes late, the flyers were photocopied at KVRX studios to save money, the cops shut the party down two hours before the permit ended because "they weren't 'bout having any raves in Georgetown".

But none of that compares to the best method ever to get out of an Aphex Twin record, which I have since patented and am willing to share with you here ;)



I was playing Aphex Twin 'Isoprophlex' and because not only was it my first public electronic music gig, but because DJs I respected were playing after me, I wanted to put on my best. So I was spending an inordinate amount of my time beatmixing and beatmatching for the next record as 'Isoprophlex' played. Back and forth I went, dropping it in, tweaking the EQ, getting ready for that glorious mix that would show everybody how dope I was. I had timed it perfectly, dropped the needle and let the record go.... only to have it skip.

The Aphex track ended, and there was dead silence.

I yelled out "OH SHIT!" loud enough that everyone heard, and the next cut dropped in perfectly one bar after 'Isoprophlex' ended. The only way it could have been more perfect, would have been to have had a mic with echo-delay for my voice :)

The dense throngs of the crowd smattering of people attending cheered, and I learned an important lesson that day. Ever since then, I yell out "Oh Shit" after every Aphex Twin record that I mix out of........ just in case.