The San Francisco electronic and dance scene is an infinitely complex one. Compared to many other US cities, the City of Love boasts just as big of an underground warehouse scene as it does a proper club venue circuit. Because of this, fans are treated to an exorbitant amount of different styles, from dirty Grime-Trap sets to glitter-filled Nu-Disco. A lot of this derives from the city's strong Burning Man influence, which originated from and is headquartered in SF. This unique festival culture provides the cities aspiring DJs to branch out from the one-dimensional music that tends to limit many cities and openly explore the far-reaching corners of the music spectrum. I witnessed a strong example of this at a recent underground event thrown by a Burning Man collective and art car known as Icarus, where one of their resident DJs, Alastair, laid a mix that roamed around various forms of house and techno in such a whimsical yet purposeful way that it truly exhibited the complexity of SF's multi-faceted electronic scene.
Originally from Glasgow Scotland, DJ and musician Alastair paints an audible Claude Monet style piece with sets that incorporate smooth Deep House, rolling melodies of Tech House, dirty synth-driven Techno and unique flavors of Indie Dance/Nu Disco. That's a lot of different styles to attempt when you look at it up close but if you step back and view the full set from afar you begin to see the rich cohesiveness that it creates.
The dark, sweaty club scene, mixed in with the giant rainbow clown statues breathing fire from Burning Man really has allowed DJ's in the Bay Area to incorporate their own eclectic music tastes. It's become this beautiful safe ground for DJs to freely discover unique blends of funky new sounds mixing euro synths all the way to old jazzy vocals. Alastair has explored many of these BPM cocktails and EARMILK has the opportunity to share that unique sound with an exclusive mix, check it out below.
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"This mix consists of dance floor tested secret weapons and unique precious gem tracks that I had to dig deep to curate. It starts out with a slow building, smooth vocal tune good for sunrise or sunset hours and evolves seamlessly to more gut-wrenching, fist-clenching deep house with a nasty and progressive edge. I favor tunes that sit comfortably around the 120-124 bpm range and have complex yet complementary layers. To me, the empty space between notes is every bit as important as the notes themselves." Alastair Prime
Alastair can be found at numerous Icarus Art Car events and festivals around North America, additionally, he has releases on deep house labels; Damn Son!, LTHM, D_rty Business Records and Perception.
Connect with Alastair Prime: Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter
