Step to the Music

Beats and Grooves and Random Left Turns

Episode 192: We Lose The Night

I am quite proud of this episode, by and large. I gave it another listen recently, and the tracks flow together nicely. There’s one transition that I feel like I messed up (see if you can spot it!), but for the most part it really works. This one aired three weeks before Halloween, and I…
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Episode 191: Who’s Nest On Tha Flow

Here’s another 160 BPM episode! As is usual with 160 eps, it features a lot of footwork and jungle and footwork/jungle hybrids. It also includes some underground club and pop-techno. Notably, I accidentally included two jungle tracks from the same producer (Pulse), and for some reason the BPM reverted from 164 back to 160(?!) and…
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Episode 190: FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 150 BPM EXTRAVAJAMZA!!

Holy crow! This episode marks FIVE FULL FRIGGIN’ YEARS of me doing this show! I wasn’t quite sure what to do… in the past special episodes have generally been extra long. One anniversary episode was the first I recorded using Traktor instead of put together in Ableton (which is now my usual method). Another anniversary…
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Episode 189: Law of Averages

Another ~130 BPM episode unfolds with another mix of dance rock, house, techno, and club music. This one, I suppose, distinguishes itself by an even higher than usual genre agnosticism, incorporating hip hop and Damaged Bug’s trash rock, as well as SWAN MEAT’s avant gardism, wandering almost directionlessly through the various genres on its pallet.…
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Episode 188: It Ain’t No Use

I Wish That I Could Wish You Well Looking back, episode 182 featured Drum’n’Bass, began with a song by The Beths and ended with a song by BestiƤrio. This episode, in a striking contrast, features Drum’n’Bass while it ENDS with a song by The Beths and BEGINS with a song by BestiƤrio. Totally different, as…
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Episode 187: MDK Code 187

A few weeks before this episode, Brian Musikoff aired episode 138 of his always excellent Radio NOPE program Musicon With Musikoff, which consisted of 138 minutes of covers of the Misfits’ “We Are 138.” It got me in mind of times gone by, when I’d do episodes based on their number. SttM #23, twenty-three being…
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Episode 186: Texan Levee Grime

Aloha Amigo-San While largely based in grime, this episode ranges quite widely, from Pottery’s wild Texan (though Canadian, actually) post-punk rave-up, to London for Silkie’s posh Dubstep and sinister instrumental grime from Terror Danjah and Johnny East… then to Portland for Modern Melodies and their slowed down take on Juke. Then we head back to…
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Episode 185: My Other Car

StayInYrHouse Party Here we have an episode that was originally 124 BPM or thereabouts, but I misjudged the playlist and it ended up going quite long. Therefore it’s absurdly sped up to fit its hourlong slot. If things seem at all frantic… that’s the reason. To my ears, this is especially true of the first…
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Episode 184: Unstoppable

Wotcha! It’s another Footwork/Jungle episode here at Step to the Music Incorporated. This one dives right in and doesn’t let up, straight juke madness until El-P and Killer Mike drop by for some jewel running. The final third of the mix is then more of a mix of jungle, footwork and drum’n’werk tunes, until Fever…
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Episode 183: I Tried

Grey Area Experiment #04 As I mentioned in the description for the previous one, this episode was partially inspired by a chatbox discussion on Grey Area’s use of polyrhythms to create two simultaneous tempos– usually 127 BPM and 171 BPM (though I’ve recently discovered that producers have expanded into other tempos… a subject for a…
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