Month: March 2022

House Music is like high school, although don’t bother trying to get those who love it to admit that. There’s drama, and commotion, and of course, traditions. More than anything house music has traditions, ones we hold close to our hearts. That’s how I feel when I say the next few words to you.

‘It’s Mark Farina week.’

Maybe in other states or other cites those words don’t mean as much since maybe Mark plays there all the time, or maybe house just isn’t big in that city, although I don’t believe that’s true at all.

Mark Farina is one of those acts that no matter how many times you see him, and no matter how many environments you see him in, you still get that feeling when you know you’re seeing him again.
It’s sort of like the prom or maybe homecoming.

All the cliques and groups of New Mexico, all seem to gather and celebrate once a year in the same way we’ve always done, and we do it for Mark Farina. He’s the reason we always all come together again. And he’s coming back. Playing the Electric Playhouse on April 2nd with The Rev and Eldon doing a b2b to start the night.

The first time I saw Mark Farina was at the Soundstage on Cutler. At least, that’s what I think it was called, since it never actually had an official name at the time.

I was maybe about 18 years old, still young, and naïve, but not as much as I was when I was fifteen and at my first rave. The three years since I had discovered raves had given me a lot, but up until that night, it had never given me as pure an evening of house music as I was about to have.

I had known what house music was, and I had heard it many times, but never like this. Never in a way that would change me so completely forever. That’s what Farina did that night. He changed me forever.

Over six hours of pure and uncut house music at its absolute best. I suppose it would be like doing cocaine in Columbia, or maybe smoking some weed from the Emerald Triangle.

The most natural of the most natural just for us. I wonder sometimes if I was the only one, he altered that night, and then I realize that isn’t the point.

On that night, for me, it was wonderful, and funky, and groovy, and magical, but maybe he had already done that to other people before. Maybe he still is. Maybe that’s just his job. Especially because when I actually start to think about, every time I’ve seen him has been memorable.

There was that time in El Paso when we saw him at Club 101, and everybody else was playing hard house and scratching and just going crazy, until Mark went on.

Completely out of place and yet still completely in control of the crowd and the sounds.

There was also that other time at Sister Bar when somebody pepper sprayed the dancefloor and everybody cleared the building, with Mark hardly even noticing.

As we stood outside waiting for the room to clear of the poison, Mark just stayed there playing straight through. So locked into the music that he didn’t even notice anything had changed.

Then there was my very first time at Meow Wolf, where from the dancefloor I could hear him slowly bring in the disco song ‘Ring My Bell’, and yet never let us hear the hook and vocals. Just the buildup. Just the expectation.

Just the feeling that we knew what was coming, and yet always changing it before we could ever fully feel the song we knew so well.
Sometimes the Dj’s job is not to play the song you love, but rather to keep your attention long enough just to flirt with your expectations. And when you are ready to hear that song, they simply move on, allowing you a chance to love something new.

I honestly can’t remember how many times I’ve seen Mark Farina live, and frankly I don’t want to. As time goes on, I know deep down it just doesn’t matter. What matters is that we have this moment, and we have it together, and every so often we’re allowed to have it again. Just like the first time.

I think of that first time a lot, and I am grateful to have had that moment. A stretch at the soundstage I don’t think I’ll ever forget. At that one place I saw DJ Rap and Dieselboy, and Kimball Collins, and of course, the previously mentioned Mark Farina.

There were these little periods during our rave days when the scene would continue to have Raves at the same place, but it would be different every time. The DJ would be in a different corner, the decorations would be different, and so would the Soundsystem.

We must’ve gone to at least ten raves at that same place, spaced out over about a year or so, and I don’t even think Mark Farina’s long set was my favorite night. Coming second to the night I saw DJ Rap and Dieselboy in the darkness.

For Farina they had a wall of speakers and Farina was on the floor in front of us. Playing a combination of records and CD’s. Which were still a new form used in Dj’ing, with us still years away from the CDJ culture we are in now.

He was still a pioneer then. Still a maverick. Still just making stuff up. But not much has changed, has it? He’s still a traveling DJ, we’re still a city in love with House Music, and it’s still that time of year again. That time for us to gather, and dance, and celebrate the one’s still here, while remembering the ones who aren’t.

We have lost many of the people we used to share the dancefloor with when Mark Farina first started coming to New Mexico, and yet, the one thing I can assure you is that if the tradition lives on so will they. House Music is what will keep them alive.

So please, go and dance, and celebrate love, life, house, and the memories we will never have back. Celebrate the Soundstage, and Meow Wolf, and the One-up lounge on 3RD and central. Where the stock exchange used to be. Or that time he played one of the Galactic Portals for the Cosmic Kidz. Or maybe the Sunshine Theatre, or Sister Bar, or the Blue Rooster, or finally the Electric Playhouse. All the places we’ve been together. All the places we saw Mark Farina.

‘It’s Mark Farina week,’ isn’t just my way of telling you to go to the fuckin show. It’s also my way of asking you to join our tradition. Come help us keep this feeling alive. Not just for each other, but also for the ones who can’t dance anymore.

I’ll see you on the dancefloor.

Or not.

Event Page Link

A Disco is not what you’re going to expect it to be. In our heads we picture the lit-up floor, and the disco ball, and the model’s doing cocaine in the corner, and we say, ‘now, that’s a disco’. And don’t get me wrong. Those places exist. All over the place. Often times right under your nose. You just don’t see them. Or maybe you just don’t want to.

The same goes for all dancefloors, though. You don’t find them until it’s time to find them, and I suppose that is the point in my writing about our night out at this disco in Albuquerque, NM. We just wanted to go to the fuckin disco.

This disco wasn’t like the one in our heads, though. This disco was at Still Spirits, and it was on a cold night in February just far enough from downtown to convince my love and I to finally go out again. We had gone out the weekend before, but that was different. We went to see a headliner at a club, and that was fun, but it didn’t quite scratch the itch we needed it to. Or is it itch the scratch? I don’t know.

Anyways, this story isn’t about that. I’ll talk about that after I talk about our night at A Disco. One we desperately desperately needed. Going out and dancing to House Music is like medicine, and we needed it bad. Life, work, family, the dramas of the world, they all start to get to you, and if you don’t have that release you may very well go insane. In fact, you’re probably gonna go insane either way so you might as well have fun and enjoy it for a bit.

We have always had a bit of a love/hate affair with New Mexico, and for a while we believed we’d never go out in town again, but that’s the thing about love and hate. If you have the ability to still feel one, you also have the ability to feel the other as well. The Yin and the Yang. The House and the Techno. If you hate me now, it means you may have loved me once, and also that you may love me again. That’s my constant struggle with this city. Eternally I am yours. Even if I fight it so horribly.

Which is why, there I was, sitting in our car, taking shots from the bottle, smoking weed, and giggling with my Albuquerque girl, just like we’ve done so many times. Just like we did when we were still sixteen. Although, everything was illegal then. And now it’s the opposite. Isn’t it crazy how life works like that?

I feel, I should also admit something about this night that Is embarrassing, but also a comical part to the rest of the story and whatever happens next. Although, I hope the organizers don’t take it so personal.

We snuck in. And it’s not because we didn’t wanna pay, or even that we didn’t have the money but simply that we knew it was probably the only way we were gonna get in. So, we made a decision and we acted on it. I don’t think you’d blame us if given the context, but I’ll explain it anyways.

So, we get there, and Still spirts is a very cool place, but also a little small, so there was a line to start. No big deal. But then they were saying they were at capacity and they weren’t letting anybody in. At first, we said, okay, we’ll wait. And we stood out in the cold and danced a little to the funky disco house we could hear inside, to keep us warm, and we said, we’ll get in, eventually.

But then came more people and more people. And then we were out there half an hour, and then forty-five minutes. And still they said the same. Nobody can come in. On top of that, we kept seeing people leave, and the general idea was they weren’t letting people in just cause of capacity, although we still stayed optimistic that we’d eventually be let in.

Then an hour came, and we were out there in the cold, and our buzz was wearing off, and so was our high a little bit, and still they weren’t letting us in. It was then they also opened the back up a little. Not a door, but a little bit bigger. So people can sit at the bar and look outside, but right now all they’d see is us freezing our butts off waiting to be let in. We were starting to wonder if we’d ever get in at that point.

It was nearly midnight now and this disco closed at 2am. It even got to the point where there were more people waiting outside than there were inside, and man, it looked wonderful inside. The lights, the music, the people having so much fun. It felt like I was the kid outside the birthday party who wasn’t invited. Not cool, right?

Well, that’s when it pays to have a partner. As I was upset about not getting in, she was slowly creeping towards that opening by the bar. And when she got there, I looked over just in time to see her give me the look. You know the look. The eyebrows raised, the twinkle in that eye. The biting of the lip a bit. She want’s me to get into trouble with her. She’s done waiting. She’s ready to sneak in.

Without a word she motioned over to me, and I suppose I listened, because in an instant we ducked under together, and now found ourselves clearly inside, and feeling the vibrations of the music immediately.

We laughed a bit and agreed to stay away from the front door for the night, but success. We were in. Now, all that was left was to enjoy the music and each other. So, we did.

She ordered us this amazing drink that was citrus and maybe like a margarita, that they served in a mason jar, and it got me so drunk so fast, because I’m such a lightweight, and she just kept feeding me drinks, and before you knew it, we were in the middle of A disco again. It just happens like that sometimes.

This disco was special. Adobe Disco was playing for the night, and what makes them unique is they are four DJ’s who sort of do a carousel on the mixer. One will go, then another, and so on. And they’ll just keep going around until it just doesn’t matter who’s playing but rather what, and what they make is a sound you can only find here. Tonight, they were also including the Rev into that mix, so what we had was a night of house music completely unique to this moment and this place.

I have been all around, at least enough to know that what we heard that night we could not have heard anywhere else in the world. It was a level of house and disco that it takes years to gain the knowledge of, and I know this because I am still on that same path as well. It’s a journey that never ends. House has no beginning and no end.

For example, there was a moment during the night, when the booze had given us that feeling again, and we just let go, which is why we found ourselves on the dancefloor. It was a small one, and packed, of course, but a solid dancefloor, no doubt. And deep in that dancefloor I began to hear the sounds of a song I had heard before. And now I was hearing it again. But not like this.

The song was “The Devil in Me” by Purple Disco Machine, and although this was the first time I heard this version of this song, it wasn’t the first time I heard it at all.

There’s this thing about house music where with each generation there will be a new remix of a song that has been around for a while. And it’s not even that they’re doing it over, it’s simply that every generation is gonna have their own version and style that they want to show, and that was what was happening right there.

The first time I heard the version of that song from my generation was maybe around 5 or 6 years ago, give or take. It was the first time I went to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. It had just opened a few months before and we had finally gotten tickets for a show there. We were going to see Mark Farina. An amazing way to have my first moment at such a place, and the night delivered.

My love and I wandered that place, and danced to house music, and did some molly in one of the hidden rooms, and went outside and smoked some weed, and we just had one of the best nights of our life. Mark Farina will always be one of our favorite DJ’s and on that night he played a version of Devil in Me, although it didn’t have the guy singing. I used to remember what that song was called, but I forgot and now I just can’t find it again.

I actually had not thought of that song at all for a long time, until I heard it playing again on that dancefloor that night at the disco. It was coming back to me, and with it all the memories that went along with that song. The memories for me, at least. And it was then I had the thought I feel I was meant to have.

We, as the children of house, are a part of a world that has been destroyed so many times, that home just doesn’t exist anymore. We’re just wandering through this world, looking for a place to call our own again. That’s what house music is for us. It’s our place to go. It’s our story. It’s our history.

When I hear this song, I don’t just hear this song. I hear the song before it, and the one before that, and the one before that. We have come to a point in our culture where our history has layers and generations to it. Which can be heard in every song. We are a living representation of the history of house because we know how far it’s come, and how far it has to go.

We are all a remix of a remix.

We danced for maybe two to three hours that night, but it could have been forever. It mattered not who played, but rather what they played, and most of all, where they played it. They didn’t play it at a festival, or a warehouse, or even a nightclub. On this night, they played it at A disco, and I never want to let this feeling go ever again. Don’t you feel the same?

Thanks to the DJ’s for the music, the bartenders for the strong drinks, the pretty woman for being mine, and to House Music, for being the soundtrack to our history. See you on the dancefloor.

The Lobo Theater first opened on August 19, 1938, and apparently, it’s the oldest standing movie theater on Route 66 still to this day. I didn’t know that the first time I went there, though. I just knew there was a fuckin rave, and I was still in that beautiful period in my life where missing the rave was considered a major sin.

We all have that feeling at one moment, and yet, when we’re having it the last thing, we want to do is acknowledge that’s what it is. Like magic. Like a secret. Like a rave.

Being young, careless, and just naïve enough to go into the kind of random places they usually have a rave, is a feeling you can’t have back, and yet, again, you struggle to realize it while you’re in the middle of it.

It’s a wave, and you’re just riding it, hoping it doesn’t end, hoping for another moment in the sunlight. Or the warehouse. A moment to be you. Or at least to find who you’re really meant to be.

But that’s not what the Lobo was. It was something different than what ravers were used to. It was a landmark, and yet one I never thought to see the inside of, until the night we went to Jammy Jam 2 on October 20th, 2000.

I had just turned sixteen and wanted nothing more than to rave. Rave all day. Rave all night. Rave in my sleep. Rave at school. Rave in the car. Rave Rave Rave. It was my life, and I wish I could say things have changed, but still, I know, my connection made to this insanely unique culture during that moment in my life is still as strong as ever, and the Lobo represents that to me, in a way.

It wasn’t the first place I went to a rave at. Or the second. Or the third. In fact, by then we had been going to raves so often, you just stop thinking about it. You just go. You don’t even remember the name, or sometimes the place.

You just know you have to be there.
It wasn’t even about who was ever playing either. I don’t believe it ever was. I mean, there was definitely a lineup, and set times, and all that other jazz, but everybody knew that only mattered to the DJ’s so they wouldn’t miss their moment. We’d all follow a schedule, but it never had anything to do with outside influences.

The idea was always the same. You show up when you show up, and you leave when you leave. And whatever moment you have during that time frame is the moment you were meant to have.

I see so clearly, looking back, we were far more serendipitous than we wanted to admit. The Raver is an eternal optimist and believer in the existence of fate.

I also remember everybody had to dress up in relation to the name of the Rave. Granted, our time at the Lobo didn’t start that, but in a way, it was the last place I remember seeing it on a normal basis. After that everybody changed just a bit and started wanting to look smooth. The theme of the party wasn’t important anymore. At least not as important as who was actually there. Things where different after the Lobo.

The memories I have of the Lobo, and that slanted dancefloor that I hated so much, and that alley in back where we always went to smoke cigarettes, or that morning where we all hung out up front under the sign while we waited for our ride to finally get there, I will cherish forever.

We sat and felt the cool air caress our skin as the pill we took showed its overwhelming strength and euphoria. We were young and in love with the music. In love with the friendships we made. In love with the moment.

I think of all of that, and I smile at the memories, while still acknowledging there are still new moments to be had. Moments with each other. Moments with the Music. Moments with the Lobo.

On Friday April 29, 2022, Donald Glaude is playing at the Lobo, and you have no idea how great it is to say that.

Not just because it means the Lobo is open again, but also because of who’s playing there. Donald Glaude has always been one of my favorite DJs, and I can still remember when he had his bleached blonde hair, and he’d lower the music every now and then just to scream “Get your fuckin hands up.” No mic or anything, though. Just his voice reminding you, he’s there too.

Donald never played at the Lobo back then, though. He played at club 211, he played at the Sunshine Theatre, and he even played at the Prophecy, out in the Santa Fe Mountains, although we never found that one. We just spent the whole night driving in the desert looking for the rave we could hear in the distance. I suppose that’s another story, though.

I don’t think Donald screams over the music anymore, although, I also don’t think it matters. His sound is timeless. Funky but heavy and full of that west coast sound New Mexico loves so much.

Combine a talent like Donald Glaude with a proper list of New Mexico house DJs, and what you have is a chance for New Mexico to have a moment with the Lobo, maybe like I did, during that period I loved so much. But in a new way. In a proper way. The way our younger selves would’ve wanted.

Please go early, stay late, and celebrate a night at a historic and unique spot that now has a chance to make a new story. This isn’t a walk down memory lane, it’s a continuation. A reminder that the story isn’t over, and neither is the Lobo. Neither are those fun, carefree nights, where all we need are the desert sky, house music and each other. See you on the dancefloor.

Event Page

https://soundcloud.com/djcaldme/call-mes-set-for-thiswav

The mix starts with a slow rhythm and in a way that says, this is only the beginning. Followed by some solid breakbeats and a sample from one of my favorite movies when I was younger called Heavy Weights. “Don’t worry, I have them on the buddy system.” A nice little touch not just to show that this DJ wants to be unique and different but also that he is willing to throw in effects and sound samples to create his own remix on the fly.

The art of using sound samples and acappellas is one I feel DJ’s have lost a bit of over the years, which makes it immensely refreshing to hear a DJ doing that again. That’s the first thing I’ll say about Call me Caldwell and his musical taste. Refreshing.

I feel it fair to admit that at times Rave culture gets stale in what it likes and doesn’t like, and yet, we also will always have the advantage of progression. Who we are at the beginning of our first rave is not who we’re going to be somewhere down the line. This is a lifestyle that will change you, but only if you let it. I can see and hear that when listening to Call Me on his most recent mix. Who he was when I first met him is not who he is now, and I’m happy to see how far he still has to go.

Now, don’t get me wrong, John Caldwell is still the friendly, kind and honest person I met years ago, but what has changed is his commitment to the music itself and his ability to show that when it’s his turn to mix. I can hear the different stops he’s made in life and how they have influenced his sound, and in my opinion, that is the most important aspect of being a DJ.

Many in the DJ profession are obsessed with the best sound, or the best mix, or even the best set up, and don’t get me wrong, Call Me is as focused on these aspects as anybody, but what I also like is I can hear his personality in the music he plays. He’s a bit of Dirtybird, and a bit of Techno, mixed with Desert Hearts, and that subtle progressive house sound you only get from playing in New Mexico. He’s not just showing you what he likes, but also where he’s been.

What I’ve also noticed about Call Me is his commitment to the technical side as well as the natural side. He wants to use all the tools he has at his disposal, and to him, playing a mix is like building a house. He’s a carpenter.

You’ve got to build from the ground up, and use everything you can to do it right, and to share that ultimate respect to those around you that you are putting every bit of effort into this moment with them. It’s not so simple as putting some songs together and Call Me gets that. Any chance to infuse your own style and your own alterations is an opportunity to show a side of you as a person. This DJ understands that balance.

The middle of this mix is my favorite part since it reminds me of a high-speed chase in some dystopian movie, and frankly, that’s always the sound I favor. I want to close my eyes and picture myself on some dark and crowded highway, running from some futuristic cyborg who’s trying to stop me from saving the one I love.

As dramatic as that sounds, that’s just what goes through my mind when on the dancefloor, and thankfully Call Me gives me a stretch where I can picture that, moving straight into one of my favorite samples ever, “If you’ve got to believe in something, why not believe in me?”

The first time I heard Call Me DJ was in a Motel 6 in Santa Fe, the morning after we partied at Meow Wolf all night. The standard with any event in our Culture is not just the show itself, but also the moments you spend with people after the show into the morning hours.

When the rest of the world is asleep you are up making connections during a moment you will never have back, and in a way you will never have again. That was the environment when Call Me’s career as a DJ started in my eyes, and now I am so excited to see where it goes from here.

Above all else, I like that Caldwell is still growing and evolving. When I first met him we were just two party people on the dancefloor, following the beat, seeing where it takes us next. From there we saw Detroit together, and even Chicago as well. For whatever reason, on these monumental trips that have changed my life, Caldwell was there too, and I believe it matters who you’re on the trip with as much as where the trip is.

With every moment that changed me I can see that it changed him as well. It’s a grand reminder that we’re all on our own paths, but if we’re lucky enough to have them walk along one another for a bit, all we can do is be grateful and enjoy the ride.

He’s funky, he’s got that heavy sound, and this mix shows that. Covering as many styles as anybody playing in New Mexico right now, and constantly making tweaks and enhancements when he can. It keeps you on your toes and makes sure you’re still listening.

The groove is the most important and strongest part of this and any mix. Can he keep it? Can he change while still holding that power? It’s far simpler than I describe it as, and yet I feel that’s what separates DJs from one another. Can you ride this wave and this groove to the end?

The mix ends with a journey through the many sounds of house, and it includes another sample I recognized immediately as “Mushrooms” by Marshall Jefferson, a classic I heard years and years before I ever met this DJ, and yet that is the beauty of music. It spans across generations, and cities, and even time itself. From there a song I heard in Chicago that’s about California that will always remind me of the elrow stage and a crazy weekend we will never have back.

Finally finishing with a killer track and my favorite of the mix, Touch My Body by DiCi, a vocally progressive and powerful way to bring everything to a close. By the end you’ll find that you were taken on a full and complete journey through sound waves in the air.

Be sure to find Call Me playing all around the state this summer and bump this mix while you picture the lasers that go with it. I look forward to the continuation of Call Me’s progression and evolution, and I can’t wait to see him again on the road somewhere down the line. See you on the dancefloor.

I met Xkota aka Raven, in a warehouse in NYC at about two o’ clock in the morning. I was in the middle of a very intense trip, and she simply appeared to me in the middle of the dancefloor, as if it was the most natural place for her to be at that moment and that time.

The strangest part about my meeting her, though, is that we are both from the same city, Albuquerque, New Mexico. But that city was hundred of miles away from where we actually stood on that cold November night.

Later on, she’d mention how she could tell I was in the middle of something outrageous at that moment, and still she understood, which I appreciated immensely, even though we still always have a good laugh about it every time we see each other.

Who we are on the road isn’t always who we are back home, and when you cross paths out there you seem to remember the ones who value those brief moments as much as anyone you may have back home, which I suppose I learned from my interactions with Raven.

After that weekend I wouldn’t see her again until she agreed to let me interview her over a year later, and after that I wouldn’t see her for at least another year in El Paso. Or maybe it was in Santa Fe? Honestly, it’s so hard to say sometimes because part of this life revolves around the fact that everybody is always either coming or going, and Raven is somebody who always has something on the horizon, with her future as a DJ being the best example of that.

In my conversations with Raven, I have found somebody absolutely and completely committed to the underground sound that we value so much more as time goes on. Sometimes you hear a DJ, and you know they understand even without speaking to them, and that is the feeling I get when listening to Xkota. Whether its as one half of the Housekeepers or when she’s playing some bangin’ techno on her own, you can hear the commitment to playing the sound right.

She represents the next generation of quality DJs in New Mexico that are ready to take over because she is more willing to play the right sound rather than the one that tops the charts. A DJ must remain true to their sound, and Xkota knows what she wants to play, she just simply needs the rest of the world to catch up.

I feel I should also admit that even though that warehouse was the first time I met Raven, it was not the first time I ever heard her DJ, and I’ve always been a bit embarrassed to admit that to her face, so I will now in print.

The first time I heard Xkota play was at Somos, a local festival held here in New Mexico, that I went to with my wife and three kids. A friend had given us tickets and the kids got in free, so we really had no excuse not to go. Plus, it was a chance to support Albuquerque and New Mexico, while giving our children a taste of our music, so we loved the idea, which became a special moment when we got to the dance stage.

As I arrived at the stage with my two daughters next to me, they noticed something before I did.

“Dad, the DJ’s a girl.” They said with excitement and joy.

“Of course, she is.” I replied as her logo flashed across the screen behind her.

XKOTA

“Girl’s can be DJ’s too?” I heard them ask.

“Heck yeah, they can.”

Now, to the rest of the world, this is a pretty basic conversation to have, but I see so clearly looking back, my daughters had never seen a Woman DJ before. In fact, this may have very possibly been the first DJ they ever saw live, so it was so monumental that Xkota was the one behind the decks.

She gave them this moment. My response was secondary to them because they were seeing the answer right in front of them. I could sense this moment giving them the confidence to do it as well.

They smiled and we danced, and it was a moment I can still remember clearly to this day even after I now know this person and have spoken with her many times. She gave my daughters something that evening that I never could, and I appreciate her so much for it.

She showed them what a woman can do, and she stood tall and confident both then and now. I am in debt to Raven for giving them that moment, and I know it was about so much more than her just being a DJ and yet, because she was living her truth and her life, it carried over onto the dancefloor and it inspired those of us in the crowd.

I don’t want you to think she’s just this inspiration, though, because when I listen to Raven DJ, I hear an authentic sound that many other DJ’s will never have. It’s something you just can’t fake. I have never viewed the DJ profession as a competition and yet you can’t deny there are layers to it, like a song. Raven is one of the strongest and most powerful layers.

I hear her and I know House and Techno will be okay in New Mexico as long as they follow the DJ’s who know what they’re doing. Raven knows what she’s doing.

What I like most about her DJ style, is that it’s constantly changing, along with her sound. I actually managed to find a recording of that Somos set she played, and in it you will find her House side was still the major sound, and yet there is no denying the intent and confidence in what is being played.

I sense a sound inspired by some of my favorite Chicago house DJs like Gene Ferris and Green Velvet, but I also feel a connection to Night Bass as well. That bounce, and pop, and of course the drop we love so much. It’s funky and upbeat, but still keeping that solid rhythm that is needed to rock the dancefloor.

I know this is not how she plays now, though. She has evolved and where she is now is not where she will end up. The best thing I can say to DJ Xkota is stay true to your sound. Believe in your sound. Have confidence in your sound because that will always be a valuable contribution to the New Mexico rave scene.

I look froward to seeing where this DJ is going and I am excited to hear that she is even playing far more techno now, which is always going to be the sound that drives this, and many other typewriters around the world.

This summer will be very busy for DJ Xkota as she will be playing multiple shows across multiple cities and multiple venues. Find her somewhere and show some love, and until then listen to her mix and tell her what you think. House music is alive in New Mexico, go out there and feel it’s heartbeat for yourself. See you on the Dancefloor.