Something different!
That was the idea behind "Live Sets Chicago". I thought more could be done with these sites that post tons of D.J. sets and mixes and that's it. But how to start? I've been a fan of electronic music since the late seventy's going from Sci-Fi movie soundtracks to House, Techno and on to recording my first underground show in 1994. In 1997 a promoter friend of mine held an Underground event (Direct Drive Chicago, check the archive) and wanted to use my D.J. equipment for the night. While there, I met a fellow music lover who everyone knew as the "Datman" who was recording the night for him. Being that we would see each other at the same events and shows after that night, we started sharing music, recording ideas and eventually started working together on recordings for both private and commercial release.
Over time we went on to recorded shows and events across the city and sometimes around the Mid-West. In 2000 I was recording a show at Red no.5 in Chicago for friend D.J. Jes-One when a producer from a television show talked to me about recording sets for an DJ based TV series they were working on. With that venture the list of artist's grew from local hero's to international heavy weights from here in the U.S. and around the world. As the time went on, venues closed, the television show got canceled, underground events got shut down or management changed at clubs so it was getting harder to record certain nights or it was just getting harder to make it out as often as we did before. But being that all the sets we recorded over the years were on DAT tape, we keep all the masters as backup and that's where we are getting most of our classic mixes from for the blog.
As the Internet become a bigger part of our lives, I started to see bootleg or classic mix sites pop up with sets that had poor sound quality, no history or story to the set or give support for those who had mixed them. That's when I started to think about what we could do differently considering all the sets that we had collected over the years, many of which had never been released. I spoke to the "Datman" about all this and In 2008 I thought it was time to set free what we had collected over the years but do it a bit differently than what was already available on the internet.
With that we started "Live Sets Chicago". A site to share these mixes and do it in a way I felt would promote the artists, reflect on the era it was recorded in, tell the story behind it and have a quality sounding mix. In many cases we have photo's and flyers from the event to go along with the posts so with all this we feel we can add a little more personality or warmth to our posts that go along with a great mix and offer more than what some others sites were doing.
With hundreds of hours of recordings on file and from time to time new audio being recorded, It would be impossible to write about every set we post so we broke it down like this. We share special sets with info and links to the artist's on our blog and Mixcloud site. Share other great but maybe not our own recordings on our Mixcloud page and then tie it all together on our Facebook page with links to other mixes, classic party flyers albums and photos. Share event links to shows we're supporting or recording and more! I might be wrong but I feel we have something special here and a I'm glad we're able to share it with you all.
I hope you all enjoy listening to these great mixes and reading the history behind them and I look forward to reading all of your replies!
Hope this finds you all well.
That was the idea behind "Live Sets Chicago". I thought more could be done with these sites that post tons of D.J. sets and mixes and that's it. But how to start? I've been a fan of electronic music since the late seventy's going from Sci-Fi movie soundtracks to House, Techno and on to recording my first underground show in 1994. In 1997 a promoter friend of mine held an Underground event (Direct Drive Chicago, check the archive) and wanted to use my D.J. equipment for the night. While there, I met a fellow music lover who everyone knew as the "Datman" who was recording the night for him. Being that we would see each other at the same events and shows after that night, we started sharing music, recording ideas and eventually started working together on recordings for both private and commercial release.
Over time we went on to recorded shows and events across the city and sometimes around the Mid-West. In 2000 I was recording a show at Red no.5 in Chicago for friend D.J. Jes-One when a producer from a television show talked to me about recording sets for an DJ based TV series they were working on. With that venture the list of artist's grew from local hero's to international heavy weights from here in the U.S. and around the world. As the time went on, venues closed, the television show got canceled, underground events got shut down or management changed at clubs so it was getting harder to record certain nights or it was just getting harder to make it out as often as we did before. But being that all the sets we recorded over the years were on DAT tape, we keep all the masters as backup and that's where we are getting most of our classic mixes from for the blog.
As the Internet become a bigger part of our lives, I started to see bootleg or classic mix sites pop up with sets that had poor sound quality, no history or story to the set or give support for those who had mixed them. That's when I started to think about what we could do differently considering all the sets that we had collected over the years, many of which had never been released. I spoke to the "Datman" about all this and In 2008 I thought it was time to set free what we had collected over the years but do it a bit differently than what was already available on the internet.
With that we started "Live Sets Chicago". A site to share these mixes and do it in a way I felt would promote the artists, reflect on the era it was recorded in, tell the story behind it and have a quality sounding mix. In many cases we have photo's and flyers from the event to go along with the posts so with all this we feel we can add a little more personality or warmth to our posts that go along with a great mix and offer more than what some others sites were doing.
With hundreds of hours of recordings on file and from time to time new audio being recorded, It would be impossible to write about every set we post so we broke it down like this. We share special sets with info and links to the artist's on our blog and Mixcloud site. Share other great but maybe not our own recordings on our Mixcloud page and then tie it all together on our Facebook page with links to other mixes, classic party flyers albums and photos. Share event links to shows we're supporting or recording and more! I might be wrong but I feel we have something special here and a I'm glad we're able to share it with you all.
I hope you all enjoy listening to these great mixes and reading the history behind them and I look forward to reading all of your replies!
Hope this finds you all well.
Cheers!
Gus "Audio"
The "Datman"
