"On a moonless night, we watched the stars..."

February 13, 2013 2:34 AM

This week's Essential Mix features the 23 year old musical prodigy Mat Zo who takes you on a 70-track tour through almost every genre of uptempo dance music over the course of two hours, beautifully tied together with poetic quotes from Carl Sagan's Cosmos.
posted by empath (24 comments total)

(There's a download link on the soundcloud page)
posted by empath at 2:46 AM on February 13 [5 favorites]

Baby Come Back! awesome
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:57 AM on February 13

Exceptional.
posted by nickrussell at 5:16 AM on February 13

I love it when Pete Tong says "of course," because it means that whatever he's about to say is something I've never heard of. Of course.
posted by 1adam12 at 5:24 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

this was a phenomenal mix. Great to hear some old school liquid drum n bass in there... made me nostalgic for my late teens.
posted by rattleandhum at 6:25 AM on February 13

This got me through the workday yesterday! We'll see how today goes, likely I'll be "spinning" it shortly.
posted by obscurator at 6:38 AM on February 13

Yet another in a series of long-form DJ mix posts here on MetaFilter which move my feet and my soul.

Thanks for this. Others have a better eye and ear out for these things than I do, but thanks to this kind of sharing, I am dancing inside and out.
posted by hippybear at 6:44 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

I'm so excited to listen to this. Mat Zo is great.
posted by milestogo at 7:05 AM on February 13

Yeah. this is fantastic.
posted by effugas at 7:40 AM on February 13

Carl Sagan, filtered to sound like an alien from ... um ... that movie. Damn, I'm drawing a blank, but he doesn't sound calm and reassuring, he sounds like he is presenting the preamble to declaration of war against Earth and all its people.

Which totally doesn't jive with the excellent mix of dance music.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:44 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

Great to hear some old school liquid drum n bass in there...

May I point you to LiquidDNB.com mixes, which may not be as old school as you like, but you can probably dig around and find some mixes with older tunes.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:13 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

On related BBC mix show note, the latest 6 Mix has Four Tet playing a selection of rare vinyl. I haven't listened to it yet but I suspect it's awesome.
posted by Erberus at 11:12 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]

I liked the first half of this mix quite a bit, but the second half got too elctro-house for my personal tastes. This guy must be pretty great live though, the progression is great even if it isn't for me.
posted by cell divide at 11:32 AM on February 13

This was great to listen to while I was writing a speech for an upcoming benefit this morning. Thanks!!!
posted by Elly Vortex at 11:36 AM on February 13

No thread about Carl Sagan and drum n bass is complete without a link to Telemetrik's Cosmos.
posted by Uncle Ira at 12:24 PM on February 13

If you want other 'space' themed Essential Mixes, I strongly recommend that you track down Tom Middleton's Star Wars Special Essential Mix from May 2005.
posted by gen at 3:46 PM on February 13 [2 favorites]

This guy must be pretty great live

AFAIK, he didn't really have much of a reputation as a DJ, mostly as a producer. This mix will probably change that, though.
posted by empath at 7:07 PM on February 13

So, are these just something you listen to before they disappear? or can I buy or download an MP3?
posted by mmoncur at 9:10 PM on February 13

The soundcloud page linked in the first comment of this thread has a download link. It's an icon right under the waveform with a downward pointing arrow, toward the center of the screen.
posted by hippybear at 5:49 AM on February 14

gen: If you want other 'space' themed Essential Mixes, I strongly recommend that you track down Tom Middleton's Star Wars Special Essential Mix from May 2005.

I'm having no luck finding this. Anyone have any tips on where to look? Thanks.
posted by shortfuse at 10:08 AM on February 14

Orrents-tay, one might say, if one were to come from the land of Pig-Latinia. I found it this morning in an archive of Essential Mixes from 2005, and it's fairly fun.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:39 AM on February 14

Tom Middleton's Star Wars Special Essential Mix in mp3 (direct link)
posted by bdz at 11:54 AM on February 15

Oh man, this is great. Thanks for posting it, empath.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:39 PM on February 16

Tom Middleton's Star Wars Special Essential Mix in mp3 (direct link)

I've tried countless times to play this streaming through iTunes and also countless times to download it. It never has allowed me access for the full duration of the file, either way.

No idea what is going on there, but frustrating doesn't begin to describe it.
posted by hippybear at 3:12 PM on February 20