z33z notes on a set

october 19 2024 — brooklyn, ny
the land to sea set
it's time for a shibuya-kei DJ set...

michelle and i were playing mahjong at this cafe called "land to sea". it's a very cute cafe with asian-inspired coffee drinks and pastries. you should def check it out if you're ever in east williamsburg. while we were hanging out, michelle asks the manager if they had any DJ opportunities and they actually had a 3 year anniversary event going on in a couple of weeks. she asks me to join her in the 2-hour set, she takes one hour and i'd take the other.

i was thinking of the space and it's a cafe vibe so i was thinking of playing something very chill but not "go to sleep" chill. more like "bouncy chill". i'm also trying to play something asian inspired (but i'm also a weeb so i'm playing shibuya-kei).

shibuya-kei is like if hyperpop was invented in the 90s in japan. it's a blend of those popular genres back then -- jazz, bossa nova, indie-style rock, mellow electronic music and quirky samples. so "hyperpop" but jazz. this album is the best one of that time: "Fantasma" by Cornelius, close second for me is "Sine" by Cymbals. i've included a few tracks from those albums in the set so def check both out, Flipper's Guitar and Fantastic Plastic Machine if you wanna give the whole genre a try.

now onto the theme...

i was thinking to myself: "things are looking up". i wanted a super happy set. i think RGB just doesn't fail to make me smile and dance like no one's watching. you can find me dancing through the streets just jamming to this song. i thought a bit more about starting song choice and ending song choice for this one. i started off with "the micro disneycal world tour" for something that felt whimsical and free. and then i ended with "higher than the sun" because the vocals in it are super pretty, bright, ethereal. it really lifts you up. the lyrics actually have some visual imagery which i like:

Hold my hand, breaking the sound barrier, tear up the sky
See the world, all the dots turn into lines
Let me now, take you to stratosphere, where's eight miles high
Do you know, how to go across the milky way
...
Hold my hand, 'cos speeding up, fly away

it's been 1.5 years of DJing so far and i never woulda known that i'd have TWO public events in NY under my belt after moving here in January, not too shabby given i took a big risk to move here. things really are looking up.

track list: the land to sea set

z33z · the land to sea set (( shibuya-kei ))
july 19 2024 - brooklyn, ny
the aquacore set
(blog post and re-recording of the set coming soon™)
march 01 2024 - brooklyn, ny
the night market set
it's two weeks before the end of march and i'm thinking about what i want in my next dj set. justin asks me to dj for his "night market" event. the event had some pretty cool rules:

RULES OF THE MARKET
1. Bring a bag of goodies
2. Trade, barter, & haggle (anything but money)
3. Enjoy a lineup of 6 deadly DJs
4. First trade happens at the door!

i traded some solar eclipse glasses and various flavors of mintia and ended up with a casette tape (i still gotta find a casette player), an MW hat (from the movie Beau is Afraid), an origami crane, a sticker and some stick on jewels for my arm. rachel got a newspaper-like thing with some junji-ito esque drawings (i havent read his stuff myself but i remember the style). idk if someone there drew that but whoever brought that, that was so amazing. i can't believe they traded it.

➡️ 🤝

now onto the set...



i remember walking through the night markets on my post-grad summer trip in asia. i also discovered mintia on that trip and thought it was the best damn mints in the entire world. in that moment, i didn't realize that trip was probably one of my favorite memories of my life. the vacation of a lifetime. and then i set off to my first full-time job and the ~reality~ of really becoming an adult. but back then it felt like there was nothing to worry about, feeling free. this set is a reflection of that reality, the aftermath of experiencing life as it is associated with the difficulty of growing up and moving on past old memories, not holding onto them too tightly, but recalling them sometimes.

in my past dj sets, i've mostly been focused on the technical aspect of the music -- the groove, the harmonics, making loops that sound good on top of other loops and the transitions between the songs. this time, i made this set with the intent of focusing on the emotional aspect of the music and feelings that i have longed to express in a way that words cannot. everyone interprets, feels, and reacts to music differently but i wanted to guide the listener on a journey by incorporating a theme. this set reflects some emotions that i felt in the past and sometimes feel like i experience them again and again and again and again and again and again. i also wanted to make something that felt more profound, substantial and personal.

i've chosen songs with super expressive synths. i also like using spoken word and vocals in songs that are almost like synths. you can barely make out the words but they carry a powerful undercurrent of emotion. i also experimented with slowing down songs a bunch to see if i could transform the sound into something synthy with some reverb applied.

i start out with ambientish, melancholic songs. i think "debold", "limerence", and "i just want to love you" tell a story of its own as a trio. i then transition into "modern bliss", where there's pause after the wallowing in sadness. it's a track that feels self-actualizing. gotta pick yourself up after all that wallowing. "fleeting frozen heart" has a very nice piano riff mixed with some chill drum and bass, which i wanted to use to represent a sort of trance-like happy state -- caught in a daze. "comfort zone" i didn't really feel like the lyrics fit the theme but the synth pad is great. "loving is easy" - i included this track because it gives confusion and a bit of despair to me. there's a bit of discomfort that i wanted in the set. this glitchy pop track really fit that. there's also a "ponponpon" sample, a beloved, nostalgic song for me but how it's represented in this song is slowed and robotic. kinda feels like recalling a favorite memory, but it's distorted from it's original form. the memory is not quite the same as when you first experienced it. following that up with "comes home", brings the listener back to a sense of calmness from the craziness of the previous track into a steady, minimal techno beat. then i follow that up with "us ephemeral" but slowed down. the drums in the beginning sound soooo good. and i like how the synths sound a bit dissonant -- a wavering feeling, uncertainty. the vocals kinda recalls some uneasiness from the beginning and i return back to a sense of normalcy into its original key when i'm speeding the song up. it's injecting a burst of euphoria after a slow burn. then slowing it down again into "halo flip" -- it represents a sense of comfort and security. "little by little" teases in haziness and floatiness, a sense of relief. now im leading into "dhollandia" which has some remnants of those melancholic feelings from the beginning, despite being a bit higher energy. this track locks in a more upbeat, yet lightly pensive energy. i really like the vocals, the lil zaps and the accents near the end. the descent in notes could loop us back into the beginning of the set, ready to experience the journey. all over again.

so what's the theme, kat?

this set is about the feelings of love, limerence, loss, uncertainty, introspection, all things that remind me of people i've met, the memories that we shared together and the fluctuations in relationships. it's about reflecting back and wishing you could replay some of your favorite memories - live in them once again - just wanting to be trapped in that feeling forever. but a good kind of trapped -- secure. the climax of the set ties it up with a feeling of being okay with everything feeling ephemeral. nothing truly lasts forever.



z33z · the night market set


track list: the night market set
oct 14 2023 - san francisco, ca
the 335 shotwell set
i didn't record this one, unfortunately. it's the first show that i played that had an art show, flash tattoos, and they were also selling clothing too.

if you're in sf, check these guys out:

concretecut.live

tell benny i sent ya.

track list: the shotwell set
july 22 2023 - san francisco, ca
the shake house set
have you ever been to a techno rave? i went to one a couple months ago and i was honestly surprised there was something going on until 7am in SF. i went to the show and it was on the second floor of this house. i hadn’t really listened to much techno before. i went to the show with a couple friends. it felt like i was in a dark box of repetitive music. was kinda ehhh. i feel a bit diff about techno now.



fast forward to july. jake tells me he wants me to play a techno set and make it `apocalyptic trancey powerful` `like music that will make people shut up and dance` `and not network` i hoped that exploring outside music genres that i was comfortable with would help me find my style and i just wanted to give techno another chance bc maybe my initial feelings about it had changed im sitting in jack's living room and we’re working on our techno DJ sets together. i realize that my setlist is absolute garbagio. and jack is pretty good at mixing even tho he just started learning not too long ago. i went back to my place and actually CRAMMED/SPEED-RUN listened to a bunch of techno sets to build my set. not sure if i wanna work this chaotically before a show every time but i felt like i had a lot more focus this time and it felt amazing now we’re at THE SHAKE HOUSE, which is really just jake's hacker house but he spent a good amount of time decorating it and it looked hella SICK there was fog machine. the smoke alarm went off a couple times. the DJ controller was set up on top of a pool table and we got massiv speakers. and we got red m00d lighting. i ended up improvising a bit bc we were running late on our DJ schedule and i was getting tired of my own set while i was playing it lol. i was also getting physically tired, idk my leg was cramping while i was standing up there lmao. i started stretching during my set 🙃

i should eat more bananas 🤔



here’s my set:

z33z · the shake house set
july 08 2023 - san francisco, ca
the chill summer rager rooftop set
i was watching a video of my most recent fav electronic music duo http://bodysync.world playing a set in new york city and then i heard this super catchy eurodancey riff… and that was the beginning of the inspiration for this set. i kinda wanna get a mini dv camcorder now after watching this vid. also, bodysync is playing tonight in SF, pls go if you’re there :’) i will enjoy it vicariously if u do and wait patiently for the next bodysync set near me or will just go try to find them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RTfGWyuUfU i shazamed the riff and it lead me to “Work It” by Dance System and off i went to building the set. i went through allllll the different songs (remixes) that had this same sample and ended up choosing “Let Me Show You” Klubbheads remix by Camisra. this set was part of a lineup that i hosted for my other DJ friends. i hosted a rooftop party and had a lineup of 5 DJs!!! for extra spice, we added a PROJECTOR to the live set and projected it on the half-wall behind the DJ table. was definitely a vibe and all the videos went nicely with the music that was playing.

(at this point pls listen to the set before reading the retrospective bc spoiler, or don’t! do whatever u want but there may be some bias from reading this thing below ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

a bit of a DJ set retrospective, i was a bit (~~baja~~) blasted during this set since this set was performed live on the rooftop of my apartment building and i was just having a fun time with some friends. so some of the transitions are superrrr rough. but listening back to this i can definitely still learn from it and get ideas for the next set. i kinda like the busy sections a bit more now, kinda reflects a more chaotic sound. i shouldn’t just cut to vocals with no bass when transitioning from the chaotic sounds tho. it kinda sounds like an anti-drop which is underwhelming. sometimes my volume mixing is wack lol. also, i really did just straight up play songs and stopped them mid song bc they were really not the mood when i was playing it live.

lessons learned: pls enjoy my set on SoundCloud paired with a deep-fried picture of the view outside my SF apartment. i hope you found some new songs you like or enjoyed being on the vengabus and let me know if ya did!

z33z · the chill summer rager rooftop set
june 17 2023 - san francisco, ca
the ocean beach set
RECORDED THE LIVE SET THIS TIME hell ya but also… I watched this reel on instagram of a classical painting on top of an iPad playing subway surfers and I thought the juxtaposition was kinda absurdist funny. I was also influenced by this one tiktok where someone’s on a date and the person is not paying attention so the person pulls out their phone with a video of subway surfers 🙃



I didn’t want the set to be like alllll memes bc it might be too cheesy or boring. At least I haven’t figured out how to make it sound good yet. I think I just wanted to put something in the set that would remind me of what part of culture was influencing me at the time. So I put a super crazy hyperpop song next to subway surfers theme. The first part of the set I’m pretty proud of because I tried to see how long I could loop the intro to Flim into Sleeves Touch My Elbows. The loop changes mood when you bring a more upbeat sounding song into it, kinda hard to describe haha. Just listen to it. I want to learn how to build layers and tension into sets to control the mood shifts and grabbing people’s attention with the shift. The rest of the set are just songs I really like. The WOBS in the mAAd city remix sends me and ofc gotta get that gec 2 ü remix, love the cellphone sounds, energy and lyrics. Just kinda random haha. DJing has helped me realize which songs I really love and the ones I don’t like as much. It makes me constantly question: “I know what I like but **what do I love**?” “What’s missing in the sets I’m listening to today and what do I want to hear?” “What music really makes me feel something?” Lessons learned: let the moods change, i press the play button too soon sometimes or press the cue button with the volume all the way up haha, don’t take yourself too seriously, it’s ok to get bored of your own set bc that just means you’re figuring out what you don’t like and you’re getting closer to your personal sound and style.

z33z · the ocean beach set
june 14 2023 - suzhou, china
the suzhou hotel room set
this is the first set I’ve posted on SoundCloud but the 4th set I’ve made since starting my DJing journey. I had failed to record the other sets 🥲. For this set, I kinda wanted to focus on a specific m00d since the sets before felt more like I was focusing on transitioning from one song to the next without an overall mood in mind. In my past sets, I was just trying to see if I could fit Ray Volpe’s “LASERBEAM” into any set (it’s an absolute banger tho). As I listened to more DJ sets, I realized that the playlists I was making that would eventually turn into a set was getting further and further away from what I felt was “me” and just a bunch of songs I liked but still not “me” if that makes sense. I was listening to Mura Masa’s remix of “It’s Euphoric” and fell in love with the super bouncy bass and its upbeat, euphoric sound so I wanted this song to be the anchor of the set. I kept this as the anchor and made my best attempt at filling the emptiness of the set that could revolve around that vibe. There are definitely some transitions in this set that I wished I could’ve done better but the goal of this one was to at least keep some sort of vibe without toooooo crazy genre and BPM transitions. In the end, I think it was important to focus on mood and not so much the transitions, which I know I can get to later. But it was interesting to try to just focus on one aspect completely. Another thing I was focusing on was my perfectionism. I think it prevented me from shipping a lot of things from the fear of the perception that “I don’t know what I’m doing and the stuff I’m making is bad”. One DJ inspiring me lately is Nikki Nair, he talks about “you don’t need to know what you’re doing to do this stuff” hahah and that made me feel better. So now I dread the thought of re-recording the set just because I was a bit off on the transition. I’ll get it next time 😀. Just 🚢 it. https://youtu.be/i5Lp44zsfUc?t=131 listen to my set on soundcloud and i hope u enjoy, let me know if u did (or didn’t haha 🥲)

z33z · the suzhou hotel room set