z33z notes on a set

the lavacore set

About a century ago (2 years ago), there was aquacore. About a century later, there was lavacore. For this set, I had the beginning and the end planned — but boy, full ((p aaaa nik)) mode, no clue how to get from 93 to 188 bpm by the end. I thought it was cooked.



It's about two days before lavacore night and I still don't have my whole set figured out. So, I do what I do best in that situation – avoid difficult things and just do something completely different: visuals with touch designer. With the power of FABLE 5, I rigged up visuals in a night. It was kinda awesome. I ran it off my MPK mini MIDI controller, the pads switching up the scenes. I literally just told Claude "make the knobs do something" and it really did. I used the keyboard keys to add random effects to the whole visual. I also wanted to cycle through "LAVACORE" text so I was using the "Enter the Void" title sequence as inspo.





I initially wanted to play a whole documentary on volcanoes called Fire of Love. It's insane how close they got to where volcano explosions happen. They add some French New Wave flair to volcano documentation so that's just really really stunning. Just two people being extremely into volcanoes and they made some beautiful art along the way. But yeah, couldn't play it because it was DRM blocked! Bruhhhhh.



I was listening to the soundtrack of the movie and orcamore stood out to me. I kept digging through this artist's songs and I found Orca – Nicolas Godin. I've been thinking about incorporating elements of rock in my DJ sets but this song had a surprisingly glitchy classical element to it. I thought it was beautiful, tense and just the right fit for preparing you for something that feels like a symphony of feelings and this flute-like sound just feels so fantastical. I only learned after the set was over that this guy is 0.5 of AIR. WOW.

Hot Caramel – Soulwax Remix - The Peppers, Soulwax This track is from the a b s o l u t e l y LEGENDARY Despacio. If you haven't heard me talk about DESPACIO yet, well lemme tell you about despacio. Despacio Despacio Despacio. So I'm looking at the Portola 2025 lineup and I see this: "DESPACIO ALL DAY" and I'm thinking to myself "Why the hell is Justin Bieber playing Despacito for 24 hours?" Like that's super weird. Someone later tells me that it's a MILLION DOLLAR soundsystem backed by James Murphy. Hooooly shiet this makes so much sense. The audiophile in me is screaming. Fast forward to Portola Saturday and we enter the Despacio tent. Right when you enter, it's pitch black and then you enter the Stonehenge of Disco. There's just a huge circle of people and an absolutely massive disco ball in the center. No DJ. The DJ is actually James Murphy and the DJ is off to the side where you can only kinda see the top of their head. You can't really see them at all. Perfect. The place is rigged up with a bunch of spotlights that shine at the disco ball but it's actually a coordinated light show. Just like in DJ sets where there are moments that contrast other parts, at some points in Despacio, you're almost in complete darkness and the disco ball isn't shining that brightly at all. Beautiful. My friends and I are dancing on this white and black checkered floor, no thoughts just dancing. Most of the songs played at Despacio were around 100 bpm, which absolutely BANGED. Holy fuck it renewed my interest in disco and it's actually soo sexxxyyyyyy at 100 bpm. Sheesh. Ok done z33zing all over Despacio.

At the festival, when some sets weren't hittin, my mind kept drifting back to Despacio. That comfortable little "can we just go back to Despacio?" — and this time, we actually could. Back to the garden of Eden. I'm glad I skipped out on the closers for Portola and never looked back because spending your last moments of Portola 2025 at Despacio WAS THE MOVE. They played some Kraftwerk (listened to them for the first time at Coachella last year) and of course hearing that on this sound system is pure bliss. The setup is fully vinyl btw which I think is crazy to deliver such a high-quality performance for the whole fest. Sheesh. The night finally ends with… hold on, I can't just tell you about it. Just watch this part. Trust trust.



Damn. The spooky ambient moment, kinda feels like we're in a failing spaceship leading up to the moment the disco ball turns into the sun… pure frisson. Like hooooly sheeet. What a way to end the night. Actually bliss. Nothing else, just me and my friends and this big ass disco ball sun god and 100bpm groovy music. What can I say, Despacio has left an indelible mark on my memory of what a great dance floor feels like. I wanted to transport that feeling.

That's why this song is here and that's why LAVACORE opens at 93. Though it has a watery opening, not quite lava yet. We're still trying to find the volcano. Swimming, swimming. Where is it?

Ecstatic Descent - Ayesha I just found it digging around in my spotify, which led me to find Fluo V This is crazy good. The intro is so watery. Wonderful. The whole compilation is bangers front to back. MUST LISTEN.

I wanted to take the listener from that dizzying flourish to the grimey growly yet smooth bassline of Tidal Bore - Ma Sha We finally found the volcano, time to climb it.

Nightfall in Neo-Tokyo – Nathan Micay We're now sitting on the top rim edge of the volcano. But it's dormant right now. Chillin. You get to chill for a bit before I put on Octopus (Man with No Name Remix) – Art of Trance A cult classic (the cult being my group of friends). Discovered through the also infamous Minna no Kimochi. I just don't hear trance like this in the club today but it's oh so good. I saw these guys TWICE live in Montreal at Palomosa Festival (which is a semi-rare occurrence to see them play in North America so of course the squad had to HAUL ASS over to Canada). They're from Japan and it's just hard to see them live.

At this point, I'm looking at the time and I've only played like 20 mins and I'm like oh god I only have my last section left and that's definitely not 40 minutes. So I'm looking looking looking. I'm searching. Searching for a feeling. It's not quite hype yet but I want it to be but not all at once… not toooooo fast. Quickly my memory jolts back to THE SHAKE HOUSE SET – my second to last set in San Francisco before I moved. That set was super hype. I played Born Slippy into Emotion 1 and I knew I wanted to play Friends at the Pigshed smack dab in the middle of my set right before the super super hype part. So let's play the Emotion 1 remix into Underworld (but really Brutalismus 3000) this time. I got this song from Courtesy, a DJ that my friend Justin showed me wayyyy long ago, prehistoric to aquacore even. This song stuck out to me the most. The title is simply named "Emotion 1". Emotion 1 (Ibon's Dizzy Stomp Remix) – Reece Cox Emotion. As a junior-level astrologist, I know my Capricorn moon is basically astrology for "emotionally locked up." Guarded, always holding back. But somehow this song's piano frees me. The dream. The idealized version of everything at the root of my desire. I'm dizzy with the kicks this remix has which the original doesn't. Which reminds me that I love the kicks in Underworld's production. They're just boomy and fucking good. The acid bass line in this is also absolutely unforgettable. It feels trancey and as whimsical as acid techno can get.



The song ends with no kicks and just a piano melody line which I thought would fit perfectly with Friends at the Pigshed (with Underworld) – Brutalismus 3000 The lore on the pigshed is that Underworld turned an actual pigshed into their studio and Brutalismus 3000 named this collab track after it, in homage to that same space. Brutalismus 3000 🤝 Underworld. What a collab. Brockhampton are my idols. I can't believe Kevin posted on the internet and then this massive group formed wanting to make music together. That's kinda the dream. The small and tight group of people, collaborating on something to make something beautiful. That's kinda the essence of it all for me.

Karl Hyde is speak-singing these words in this track and it is pure poetry. I just love how he delivers these lines. He talks about nostalgia being a downer and I've said it's something that's comfortable to hold onto but it holds you back. The comfort, the ball and the chain. It's a safety prison. Keeping you from being free, you might not ever see the clouds cuz you're just so chained down. Then when you let it all go, you get to see technicolour jesus. Then it was time for me to show you technicolour jesus in this set and see all the clouds with the colors and shapes you never thought were possible. You woulda never saw it if you just stayed inside. Hurry, hurry. The sun's going down, you better come out to see it.

But we still do the comfortable thing anyway, because prison can be nice (haha). It's predictable, no risk. So I take you back to the nostalgia anyway, the Shake House set tracks because that's what was comfortable for me. I knew they played so well there and so I played them again. This section that follows is me telling you that it's time to absolutely rage and let it all out on the dance floor. Juicy - Julian Muller takes us there. It's one of my favorite tracks for this feeling. It's demonic and menacing into Moments of Extasy - Marlon Hoffstadt into Mein Kopf ist Leer – Lenny Fuck, ZORRRA. These three are ripped directly from the Shake House set. Mein kopf ist leer means my head is empty in German. Indeed. No thoughts, just lava. Hell yeah we got like 10 minutes. I cannot wait any longer. No more head empty time. It's time to obliterate the dance floor with immense lava. So yeah, I did yeet the next song in but yeah that's totally fine just because 😎

The floor is melting.

That night I decided the floor MUST be lava. Get rid of that fucking ball and chain. We're leaving the prison. It's LAVA TIME. IT'S TIME FOR THAT GOOD GOOD BON BON SUPERIOR HARDCORE BABYYYYYYYYY. LET IT FUCKING RIP. I discovered this genre called frapcore which is basically just French hardcore. But I like it. Honestly hardcore can be kind of an eardrum killer with the crazy screechy synths, but this section is my fav. You can't just have too much of it though. It's like candy – so sweet, but you have too much and you end up with a toothache. I wanted to deliver something sweet but with some rough edges. And thus the floor turned to absolute lava. I couldn't see it myself but that's what I heard at least. Total eruption. That's what I like to hear. So these three, Du Bon Onss - Evil Grimace, J'TAIME - SYSTAIME, Salut a Toi - SYSTAIME I picked because they sound GOOD and FUN and HYPE. Du bon onss means good untz untz, j'taime means I love you and salut a toi means hello there. Untz untz I love you, hello there. Glad these are adding to my French duolingo repertoire. I really like the guttural pronunciation of the R's in fRRRRench. Words with R's just have that feeling for me. I'm so glad du bon onsss had a breakdown, I forgot that it did but I think it was necessary. I was starting to sweat. The song carries a type of swag with it that just feels kinda sexy. Makes me feel like vogueing. The next song J'Taime was chosen because it reminds me of Indira Paganotto who I saw play an insane set at Coachella. It was my first time experiencing the Yuma tent at PEAK. WAH. You can get lost mentally, spiritually, physically in that tent. What an experience. I was levitating beyond the plane of existence. These three songs are me telling you that I love you and I want you to experience that moment in that Yuma tent with me (even though you might not have been there) but on the lavacore dancefloor. They even say Mahal Kita (I love you in Tagalog). Congrats now you know how to say I love you in a bunch of different languages. Salut a Toi gosh this guy is just yelling out a bunch of drugs and I honestly don't know what the lyrics mean and I'm not even gonna look up the translation. But I kinda like to have a laugh during my sets and this is my 3 minutes of comedy. Congrats, now you know a bunch of drugs' names. WOH AH YA YA YA YA YA YA YA. SALUT A TOIIIIIIIII. At this point, the dancefloor should be reaching pure absolute sublime sublime ecstasy raging raging sublime sublime.



I climb down the DJ crow's nest ladder and double-hit both my Geek Bars. I'm feeling great and the floor is lava.

until next time, z33z

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

the aquacore set

(blog post and re-recording of the set coming soon™)

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.





track list: the night market set

z33z

i changed my dj name to z33z. finding a new dj name was pretty tough. i went through a lot of ideas and i was really indecisive and had a fear of being cringe.

i'm an internet kid. i grew up on the internet.
punk_flip93 was my first online name that i can remember.
then it was xagent001
then xunderground
stolenpens (ppl really did steal my pens when i was in elementary school)
exmachina47
k-pez
kdashpez
machinablaze
katsudotsh / katsu.sh
katsubi
i didn't really want my dj name to be tech related because i was feeling a bit disconnected from it at the time
i quickly wanted to change my name. anything but katsu.sh. i didn't want to be dj kat, the shell script.
i was thinking about stuff i loved and i thought about chicken katsu, my fav food of all time. shoutout to saku (vancouver) and demiya (cupertino). katsu was taken. ugh. so i thought of another food i liked, which is musubi and combined the two. katsubi.
and so i continued to dj and i started to feel like katsubi didn't really fit the music i was playing or how i even felt. i was working on my 4-track demo tape and i wanted to release it but not under the name katsubi.

the letter z, it's the last letter in my name. it's also the last letter of the alphabet. symbolizing the end. i also wanted to symbolize a heart in there -- the heart that grows 💗 and pay my respects to my internet origins which gave me such affliction for naming myself. <33 is kind of an annoying symbol to have in your name and i thought -- how would people even pronounce that? so i made the heart with a z33. i wanted to symbolize a bit of asymmetry. so i added another z. and there we have it. z33z. zeeeeez. what's z33z? zeez nuts (ok i'll leave now)

it may be cringe in 5 years but u know what? don't kill the part of u that is cringe, kill the part that cringes.

until next time, z33z

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

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:

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:

• the crowd gets pretty tired after three ~150 bpm songs back to back lmao
• projector at night 🔥🔥🔥
• this is the last time i put laserbeam in a set i promise
• not that good at DJ if blasted ✍️
• i don’t think this set reflects the style that i’d play if i were playing a DJ set at a nightclub but it’s one that I thought that was fun and something my friends and i would enjoy
• at the end of the day, i DJ’ed and shared some songs i really liked and that’s all i could really ask for

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!

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.

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 🥲)