Here is the second half of my set from Minneapolis on Sunday April 12th!

I will make the full 3+ hour Journey available in a few weeks on Dayfunk's SoundCloud - but for now I wanted to put the peak part of my set up on my own SoundCloud - because it's time for something fresh there :)

This is my favorite party I've played this year due to the high energy, diverse crowd of several hundred dancers that turned out on a beautiful day in Minneapolis

If you are in MSP be sure and check out this awesome event which takes place at Eat Street crossing, generally on the 3rd Sunday of the month - next up with Lori Branch on May 17th.

Minneapolis is a special city and within that, Dayfunkers are a special group of people that really get down. Huge thanks to Nick and Liz for bringing me out & allowing me the extended 3 hour set.

Having a long set definitely allowed me to take this crowd on a journey - I chose my vocals carefully to honor a city that has put up such a beautiful resistance.

Hope you enjoy it!

**Mix Cover photo and slide 3 by Jade Patrick. Other Photos by Farah Frayeh

Here's my first mix of 2026! Dropped it a couple weeks ago at Shift's Playhouse at Pachi Pachi

Except for a little section between 40 minutes and 60 minutes, the music was all brand new to me.

Like so brand new that I downloaded it right before I went to the party. Having new music makes it fun for the DJ ;)

Shifta's Playhouse had a disco theme, and that's not a main style for me, but I wanted to lean that way so that is reflected in my selections.

Pachi pachi is a super fun little place you should definitely check for food drinks and dance whenever you are in Vegas.

Many thanks for Tony Gadachy, Brendan Powers and the Pachi team for making me the first repeat headliner at this fantastic new venue, and to DJ Shifta for hosting the night <3

Will let ya know soon when I will be back ;)

What an amazing party Off the Grid Campout 2025 was! I think my Sunday evening set there was my best flow of the year <3

My set started a bit weird as I lost a lot of the crowd right away, without a style change or much reason.   Sometimes people see a DJ changeover as a good break time so I did not take it personally though it's still not the direction we like to see things go lol.

Fortunately I stuck to my game plan musically and didn't go experimental to try to crowd please.  I hear about how DJs should be flexible and adapt to the crowd but that can go either way tbh.  It also takes strength to stick to your concept instead of overthinking it.

21 or so minutes in, from about when the super funky bassline from Huxley's track - "Monie," kicked in, I had the dance floor back. About 10 minutes later I mixed smoothly into Skiziz's remix of Deee Lite's Call Me. 'Why don't you get call waiting or something' - that dated reference always cracks me up. Playing either a remix or a familiar track is a rarity for me, but it worked of course.  

I was super happy with the flow all around, and especially from the moments described above,  to the end of my set here.  The dance floor responded too -  fully locked in and ultimately doubling from when I first took over. 

After my set, with my deck duties done, I finally got to let loose! I popped about the party having way too much fun til 5am when it was time to go.

Huge thank you to Mikey Made, Jovie, and the OTG team for a spectacular experience, to Jiramanat, Zach and ChinoSound for dialing audio in just right as usual, and to Conscious United to welcoming this Oregon orphan into their amazing camp! <3

One of my most powerful sets in so many ways, though totally beatless - this was the second time ever I played a fully ambient set, and is the first one I've recorded and released!

Recorded approximately 5:30-7:00am Saturday morning at Tropical 27-Year Hot Tub Oasis Retreat, this is actually the second part of my complete set, which started at 4:30am and spent 1 hour wonding down from 132 BPM to 110 BPM before going ambient - which is where this offering begins.

As a whole, it was the most unique set I ever played and it will be released in its entirety on the Tropical Soundcloud later so you can also get the full journey

I wanted the ambient portion to stand on its own on my personal Soundcloud because it is its own thing, and I have nothing like it online.

If you are looking for music to do yoga to, relax to, fall asleep to, etc, this is where you'd want the journey to start. Don't try to drive to it tho, one thing it's not going to do is keep you up

In loving memory of Jared <3

One of my most powerful sets in so many ways, though totally beatless - this was the second time ever I played a fully ambient set live, and is the first one I've recorded and released!

Taking place approximately 5:30-7:00am Saturday morning at Tropical 27-Year Hot Tub Oasis Retreat, this is actually the second part of my complete set, which started at 4:30am and spent 1 hour winding down from 132 BPM to 110 BPM before going ambient - the point at which is where this offering begins <3

If you are looking for some music to put you to sleep, this is the first set I've ever released that was designed to to just that. It's also great for yoga or atmosphere.

In loving memory of Jared <3

Thanks to DoLab - Jesse, Dede, Megan and all for producing another amazing festival that I'm so honored to be regular at, and to the Junkyard- Patricio and Chino for the amazing stage and sound!

Edit July 16 - Track List just added! A million thanks for the artists represented here for their dedication to making interesting electronic music in a world with limited interest in that. There are those of us that care!

1 - State Of Mind - Andromo (@andromo)

2 - Burning - Zetbee (@zetbee-1)

3 - Versace - Jorick Croes, Enrico Chirchiello (@jorickcroes, @enrico-chirchiello)

4 - Special For Me (Extended Mix) - Michel De Hey (@michel-de-hey)

5 - Space System - Nick Dare (@nickdare)

6 - Bonjour Tokyo - M.ono (@m-ono)

7 - Gorgeous (Oscar Barila Remix) - Oscar Barila, Vasily Umanets (@oscarbarila, @vsiliyumanets)

8 - I Can't Lose You (Pete Moss Remix) - Mo'Cream (@petemosstracks, @mocreamproductions)

9 - Control (Gorge & Nick Curly Remix) - Hank (@gorge, @nickcurly, @hankkorsan)

10 - Grow (Joel Mull Remix)- Paul Brtschitsch, Malte, Mrrod (@joelmull, @paulbrtschitschofficial)

11 - MOOG Hero - Joel Mull (@joelmull)

12 - A Feeling (Instrumental) - Jasper Street Co., Nicole Moudaber (@jasperstreetco, @nicolemoudaber)

13 - La Petite Faveur (Fsk24 Remix) - DJ W!ld (@chris-carrier-841295497, @djwild)

14 - Cami's House - Hector Couto (@hectorcouto)

15 - New World - Tuccillo (@tuccillo)

16 - Celestiarp - Vini Pistori (@vinipistori)

17 - Indignation - Kevin Yost (@kevinyost)

18 - Nothing 2 Me - Jorick Croes, ØN.THE.RUN (@jorickcroes)

19 - So Good - Supernova, Thomas Newson (@supernova, @thomasnewson)

20 - Daydream (Extended) - Archie Hamilton, Sadie Walker (@archiehamiltonmusic, @sadiewalkerband)

21 - Urban House (Leo Portela Remix) - Luis Caballero (@leoportela, @luis-caballero)

22 - Frunky (Ray Okpara Remix) - Berami (@rayokpara)

23 - What U Need (Marco Grandi remix) - Moe Turk (@marco-grandi, @djmoeturk)

There are just a couple of parties that I play enough times to make a completely specific set for each time, and make it my absolute best.

One is Lightning in a Bottle, which I'm not a resident of but have played 7 of the last 8 fests.

I've prepared for many different time slots at LIB, always looking at this large and spectacular festival as one where people primarily want to dance and have fun.

So I ramp up my funk and vocals (usually playful but i did have one protest lyric in this year's - you can't miss it).  

I lean on the uplifting side, spend a lot of time choosing music and organizing a playlist so i can play appropriately for my time slot and come back thinking it was one of the best sets I've ever played.  

Something that was different for me this year is I took a year and a half off from buying new music prior to LIB in order to reporganize my collection, which now spans 30 years.

Sometimes it's better to understand better what you already have before adding to a massive music collection.

But I never intended my break to be that long!  It just kept going.  And I had a couple of hard drive farts in the middle which didn't help.  

But anyway,  I started buying music again about two months ahead of LIB because I wanted to play an all new music set,  and I also wanted to to  take the time to understand the new music very well.

The problem with playing all new music at a gig is that I don't always take the time to understand it well enough to know if it's as good as the music I already have.  It's fun because it's new... but is it really adding something?

So this time I really took the time to select tracks - I was picky AF!  

This time I spent a lot of time also to play with my tracks, mix them in different ways and really try to only include tracks that were blowing my mind, so that I could give that to the dance floor.

Also spent a lot of time on tagging producers in this description - hope it helps you to discover some great new artists and music!

Re-releasing a vinyl mix from 22 years ago today as a Tropical Throwback, and modern day mixtape giveaway for the upcoming Be My Tropical Valentine Party in Hawthorne, CA on 2-22-25.

Along with the digital mixtape here, free late-night smoothies are back at Tropical! Tickets are sliding scale $5-$20 at:

tinyurl.com/BMTV2025

With a heavy heart for my friends affected by fires in Los Angeles this week, I release my set from just a week ago when we started the year with hope and optimism at Subtract and Moon Kitty's super fun shindig to open 2025. 

First of all, big thanks to Treavor and Anton for having me.  It was so, so fun to play this party.  I knew close to half of the people there, had many great conversations and much fun dancing after.  Moontribe DJs are no joke!  So much talent :). Sarkis was great too!  I was happy with my set and am excited to share it.

I lived in various parts of LA for 36 of the 38 years between 1980 and 2018. It is not the world's most beautiful city by any means, but I always tell my friends not from there how special and thriving the underground music scene has always been in LA.  It's a city where you have to know someone to have a good time I think -  one of the least digestible cities as a tourist.

But all it takes, or ever took, is to experience one good LA underground event and a whole world opens up to you.  If you are bored in LA, it's no fault of the music scene. 

For me this one event was 1995's Big Wig Thumper at what was then called the Orange Showgrounds.  Though technically my 3rd rave, the other two were in 1991 when I was just about to graduate high school, and appreciated it but wasn't really ready for it.  Let's just say I hadn't found my dancing shoes yet. But in 95, I was ready and I never looked back.  I've thrown a hundred parties and DJed hundreds in LA since.  

This is a hard mix description to write because my favorite US city is in flames.  Many of my friends have lost their homes, and several venues I've hosted Tropical at have been destroyed.  It feels inappropriate to promote events there with the fires raging, and I've struggled to even post this mix.

But... it is music.  And music can only help.  

I am here to help in other ways too!  I'm not in LA, but super connected so reach out if you need help.  Also have space in my home in Oregon for friends who want to get away to clean air for a bit.

Hoping for safety for my friends, squashing of fires asap, and then hopefully a hard look at how prepared we are for fires like this, and how we can improve on that <3

This is my personal favorite set I played at Burning Man 2024 due to it's uniqueness and the vibes of the camp.

It wasn't a huge crowd but it was contained nicely and people were down for the musical journey with me :).

Musically it's varied and pretty hard to put into a genre but leans techno with some bubbly, melodic, progressive, and ravey energies

Thanks much to Jack Donevan for having me play, I had a blast!

Hope you enjoy, and hope to see you on the Playa in 2025!

This second set release come from my Home Camp, Deaf Granny's Kitchen

This was the best camp! So glad I stayed here ❤️. We had one of the best sound systems on the Playa thanks to @Antontumas Danley power. And 90% of the camp was deaf. What a unique experience!

It was really inspiring and interesting for me as a 15-year English Second Language teacher, to have this experience. It was at times like living in a foreign country where I didn't speak the language, which I have also done. Enhanced the feeling of Burning Man being like a different planet

Certainly motivating me to make ASL my 3rd language. The universality of it is very appealing.

But for this time being in the DGK camp where most could understand each other but not me was an extra trippy time, and I had to rely a lot on my smile and workarounds when more detailed communication was important.

Beyind that, everyone was super sweet and the camp was very well organized. Shade was plentiful and it did not hurt at all to hsve one of the best sounds systems on playa there. Kitchen was on point. It was a pleasure to keep the camp caffeinated.

I'll be back in 2025 and will be hosting a night here as well!

Also be sure and check my first BM 2024 set from Vomiting Sparrows the day before:

https://soundcloud.com/ben-annand/bm2024-1