I’m excited to release my first set from Burning Man 2024! What a wild ride it was!

Vomiting Sparrows camp was just 2 ‘blocks’ away from the camp I stayed - Deaf Granny’s Kitchen . So I decided to walk over

Halfway there, crossing 8:00 and B, the street had been watered down and I slipped in mud and ate shit. Laughing, I picked myself up properly playafied and continued to Vomiting Sparrows at 8:30.

I found Holly and Chuck quickly, and they were super friendly and hospitable, feeding me tacos and drinks.

Yes, it was Tutu Taco Tuesday there, and yes I wore a Tutu, and yes I ate some great Tacos.

Now I am one to take themes very seriously, and so my set featured lots of Spanish vocals and latin vibes to match the tacos.

And yes the camp was reality called Vomiting Sparrows, but no, I did not vomit :) I don’t take themes that seriously!

This set was played 1-2pm and was on the slower deeper side but with plenty of soul and funk. It was one of my favorites I played in BRC this year, and also one of my favorite crowds.

Hope you enjoy! Please like and Repost if you do!

Selfie with my friend Keisuke Shingu, who played after me <3

It was so great to be back at Full Moon Gathering to celebrate 31-Year Anniversary!

26 of those years I have been an active Moontribe resident DJ, but it had been almost 2 years since my last visit. Living in Oregon makes things difficult, the stars have to align just right... and they did!

This is one of my favorite sets I've played! I dug hard through my music, taking advantage of a months-long process of organizing and labeling my entire music collection.

Many thanks to the artist for producing the beautifully hypnotic tracks I wove together on this mix! Without you, there is no mix, and there are no DJs <3

1 - Tribal Dance Pt. 2 - Einzelkind, Christian Burkhardt

2 - Little Helper 403-2 - Butane, Greg Ah Ree

3 - Stars Flames During The Apocalypse (Rmx) - Highest Sound Levels

4 - Vorsprung durch Hektik - Extrawelt

5 - Frog on the Run (Extrawelt plane Remix) - Fuzzion

6 - Old Giants - K-Fel

7 - Algodonles Blue Sky - Circulation

8 - Crunch n Munch - Twist3d

9 - Ceza - Clone Kent, kallin

10 - Minimal Habit (Damolh33 Remix) - Miguel Serrano

11 - Mathematical Symbols (Al Bradley's 3am Deep Remix) - Al Bradley, Swaab

12 - Go Home and Get It (Alexi Delano Remix) - Majak, Diego Knows

13 - Neverhood - Dip

14 - Levitation (Monarc Remix) - Christopher Hermann

15 - Ambition - Milos Pesovic

16 - Twilight - Robert Babicz

17 - Rotational Orbit - Spiros Kaloumenos

18 - The Tunnel (Under the World) - Staffan Linzatti

19 - Kreatur (Hd Substance Remix) - Deepnaut

20 - Reset (DJ Emerson Remix) - Diego Negretti

21 - Dot - Noaria, Asio

22 - Early 69 - Damolh33

23 - Slob (Nick Curly Remix) - Zoo Brazil

24 - Stage 49 - Epi Centrum

25 - Nurk - James Ruskin

26 - Mr Machine - Carl Finlow

27 - Hydrogen - Hallow

28 - Space Owl - Paul Ritch

29 - Lyd - D. Diggler

30 - Lunar Phase 04 - ZRK

31 - EGO - Danniie

32 - Reality Surpasses Fiction (Cari Lekebusch Remix) - Nima Khak

33 - Bizarrism - Jonathan Calvo

34 - Disidrose - Daniel Sbert

35 - Underrated - Dani Sbert

36 - Simulation (DJ Dextro Remix) - A.Paul

37 - Beats And Pieces 24 - HD Substance

38 - Pattern 001 - Hollen

39 - Andromeda - DJ M.A.X

40 - Miner - Orion, Cari Lekebusch

41 - Dimension - Dani Sbert

42 - Machines (A.Paul Remix) - Cave Djz

43 - Cruise Control - Paul Ritch

44 - Not There (Chris Liebing Remix) - Anfisa Letyago

45 - Lava - Daniel Sbert

46 - Riddle feat. Claudio PRC - Claudio PRC, Blazej Malinowski

Photo credits: Corazon Landeros

This set from 04-14-24 really exemplifies my deep house curation and mixing style. 

For 6 months I've been digging through my collection, resisting the urge to buy new music and instead learning my 29-year music collection better.

Over that time, I went back through and labeled thousands of tracks by energy and feeling and created playlists from there. 

The overall energy of this mix is uplifting and dreamy, starting and ending more vocal.

You won't know many, or perhaps any, of the tracks.

The tracks were mixed on CDJ 3000s.

Never synced, never looped, never wasting time with filters and effects with just one track playing.

Fully concentrated on blending two tracks together beautifully with subtle EQ-ing only.

It's so weird, I was thinking this was the best I'd ever done with my levels on a live mix, perhaps because I was being a good boy, carefully watching the decibel meter at Mars Bar :)

I added the fade in and out in Logic and gave it a light mastering in LANDR. There I got a message that my mix was lacking in dynamic range - meaning there might not be enough difference between the high and low levels of the mix - which on a live DJ mix, I am taking as a compliment 100% :)

Ok enough geeky DJ talk...

As always, I'd love to know what you think in comments <3

Huge thanks to Chris Phleck and Ryan Stubbs (Duserock) and the Watch Our Step crew for bringing me to San Francisco, it's such a fun and friendly crowd.

Another big thanks to David Kiely of Mars Bar for providing a safe and lovely space for people to dance.

Final thanks to Anne Plehn for the great photo capture! IG: anneplehn

My most varied and ambitious set to date!

Hope you enjoy AnnandEdance - I put a lot of thought, time and energy into this interpretation of Ecstatic Dance.

From 0 bpm to 67 winding up to 126 and then back to stillness

Ambient - Downtempo - House - Techno - Broken Beat - Progressive - House - Ambient

It's an extended journey just over 3 hours so longer then normal Ecstatic Dance formet. And more 4/4 than most Edance but there is broken house and downtempo and evena Drum and Bass track in the mix

Mahalo to Simon Smith, Paul Sykes, and Garden Temple for the opportunity!

And now for something completely different!

132 BPM Progressive-leaning techno mix :)

I wasn't expecting to be left at quite this fast a tempo but I'm glad I was :) Only my Moontribe mixes tend to get over 130 like this, so it was a rare chance to spread my wings.

Deseract puts on a really cool party and the space, sound, lighting, and deco were all on point here. It felt super underground and all my friends had a great time here.

Hope you like the mix! I'd love to play more sets like this :)

This is one of my best set recordings so how come I never released it?

Only because I had released a set with similar vibes right before playing.

This was a really fun winter party - in fact I had a rather sketchy drive home to Eugene in a snowstorm...

Been meaning to put this one out there for a while. In 2024, I'm dedicated to putting out more mixes so here ya go!

Something a little different for ya.  Me at my moodiest.  In more recent years I apply tags to my tracks of different vibes so that I can organize my massive music collection better.  One of the biggest categories is 'Moody.'  

Of course a lot of people going out on Friday and Saturday night to my gigs are out to celebrate, so this category doesn't get as much play live as more funky upbeat rhythms.  As such it's somewhat underrepresented on my Soundcloud.

Well not anymore :). I'm dedicated to releasing more sets this year and I see this one as the start of a series.  Welcome to Ben Annand Moody AF :). 

The opener of this series is an opening set I played on a Sunday night from 9-11pm. It's actually just the first hour, 9-10.  It's ok to be moody when people are settling in :). It was also November just after the time change and loss of light... the beginning of the moody season in Eugene :)

An opening set is always interesting musically (or should be) because you get to start from scratch, and set the tone for the whole night.  So it's always a set that should be played with intention.

In this particular case, I was in a sensitive space because I had taken some really nasty criticism from the organizer of an event recently before.  I won't go into detail but it was very tactlessly and cruelly delivered.  So of course that affected my headspace both in terms of insecurity, and in terms of wanting to deliver a great set since I didn't entirely disagree with the criticism so much as I was hurt by the tone from a supposed friend.

So why am I telling you this?  Because this set is moody as fuck!  It opens with a lush vocal track that really spoke to me when my marriage suddenly went up into smoke. I find this track really intense so I haven't played it much but at home.  

The mix stays deep and moody, gradually building energy then wavering then building.  It's super trippy, a little dark/melancholy for me, but still house and totally danceable of course :)

So with all that said, I hope you enjoy this one and I will keep em coming!

Recorded live midnight to 2am at Tropical's 25-Year Anniversary in Santa Monica

I need to out more sets out, here's a start <3

Tropical celebrates NYE in a hilltop mansion in LA, and is also preparing for April's total solar eclipse in Mazatlan, Mexico. Holla if you need info :)

Excited to release my set from LIB 20-Year Anniversary!  Every LIB experience for me seems to top the last.  

This year was special as I hosted Camp Tropical for the first time and had my daughter, Cerise, there for the first time since 2019.  And it was LIB's 20th year, and a brilliant one!

Huge thank you to the Flemming Brothers - Jesse, Dede and Josh and team for producing the Fest, to Patricio Motta for producing the Junkyard Stage I played on, and to Todd Anisman for the ChinoSound!

I always put a lot of effort into my LIB sets, and this year no exception but with the extra challenge of extra responsibility x 2 - organizing a Tropical group camp, and caring for my daughter, who made a few visits to the DJ booth during this set as well.

Honestly I did feel a little less focused that normal up there and wasn't sure how I was going to feel about my set when I got the recording.  I'm a harsh self-critic but I actually love this mix as much as any of the 6 others I've played at this lovely fest :)

Many thanks to the brilliantly talented producers whose tracks I mixed - here is the complete listing, tagged, so you can check their work <3

1. @Undo - Aliens Go Home

2. @Matthias-tanzmann, @francisco-allendes - Disco Mike

3. @Ddigglerofficial - Sunset

4. @Le_bigz (Big Al) - Smiling in the Sand (@tim-barnett-5 [Tim Tonal] Remix)

5  @A_los_martires (Cienfuegos) - Around You (@col-lawton-d90 Dub Remix)

6. @Okain - Locked

7. @Mihai-popoviciu-1 - Emotion

8. @Dinyadalonzo - Can't You See (@jameshopkinsuk Remix)

9. @kevinmckay, Notelle, Eppers - On My Own (@Joe-vanditti & Kevin McKay Extended Remix)

10  @Tuccillo - It's Not Over

 

11. @Francisdesimone - Efdies (@Kevinmckay Extended Remix)

12. @Djqmusic, @Finnmccorry - Speedy Gs

13  @Ralphsession - Rize (@homeroespinosa Remix)

14. @Petebandit-f2f - Computer's Creativity

15. @Milos-pesovic - Pam Pam (@Juan-dragster-viveros Remix)

16. @Format-b-2, @Royrosenfeld - Human Dynamo

17. @Paulcpaolomartini (Paul C, Paolo Martini) - Modulator

I definitely play with a certain aesthetic at LIB, which is to honor the crossing of the underground and mainstream in my own way.  I describe this set as banging and uplifting, with carefully chosen vocals.  I mean a festival is a celebration, and this just year 2 out of the pandemic I'm definitely favoring uplifting over dark.  

Ok, I do favor that generally, but same time I am processing some darkness over the past 2 years as I've experienced huge losses.  Last year's LIB I was processing the recent demise of my marriage, while this year I was processing the loss of my mom last September.

Recently in our West Coast underground music community we have lost some very special people and there's been a lot of sadness over that, especially this past week.  

One of the very best tools for processing loss is of course music and dance - I hope this set brings you light and joy in these challenging times <3

Please give this set a listen, a like, and a repost if the spirit moves you. Your comments are always welcomed, and usually answered <3

I had a short but sweet time at Bug Out Campout 4: Garden of Dreams on day 8 and 9 of my Spring Break roadtrip with my daughter, Cerise.

This set went down at midnight on a pretty frigid desert night, did my best to warm people up with some break and then some techno. Ok, fine, there's. little house in there too :). Something for everyone, hope you enjoy!

Overall one of my faster sets, starting at 130bpm and creeping up to 132 by the end.

Many thanks to hosts Neil Bombshelta Black, Jason Deyarmin and Julia Daemia Styczynski for putting together a lovely event ♡

Definite highlight having Cerise bopping around to my breaks - she really has quite the dance moves! She got cold tho and came and chilled for the rest of my set in back of the DJ booth while I moved more into techno.

Speaking of DJ booth, it was on point and I could hear great! Sound system was proper for 1000, and decor and visuals were great too. A lot of care was our into this little party, which of course is close to my heart ♡

Bug Out was intimate and fun! I wish I had more time there but the time I was there I got to connect with some friends and some new people, all good vibes 🙂

I hope to be back next year and stay longer- but it also worked perfectly in this Spring Break adventure this time tbh.