Mixtape: The White Shadow - Live @ The Limelight - New York (1992)

This tape is from another crazy palace of hedonism in NYC. Hedonistic literally cause The Limelight was an old church transformed into a place where anything but religious activities were goin' down, unless sex, drugs, techno, more drugs, House, more sex, and more drugs is your religion. =)

Opened in 1983, and closed in the late 90's because of the killing of a drug dealer named Angel Melendez, the Limelight promoter Michael Alig was convicted of the killing and dismemberment of Melendez. My manager used to say she wondered if some of the people running the place were devil worshippers, but I think it's more likely that they were into a different kinda devil called hard drugs.

A movie named "Party Monster" was made based on the events surrounding the killing, and to get a detailed glimpse into what usually was happening inside The Limelight you can watch the full movie here:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=PatroclusLover&view=videos&query=full+shockumentary

Besides all that, The Limelight was a great place to play at. There was a big main room with a stage and huge dancefloor, and a backroom area with a more regular club feel including a bar area, and smaller dancefloor. The odd thing was that the DJ booth was set up so that you had to play with your back turned to the crowd, but the sound was boomin', and this tape was recorded in the back room.

I pretty much ripped it during my 30 minute guest spot @ the Limelight that night, and I remember Japanese bizness men, and queens alike goin' pretty crazy back there, so it was a fun night, and a great spot to play at.

A little sidenote..if you're young and feel like partying you have got to experience a place like this in your lifetime, or you're missing out...find the city, and the club, and just go there...party...do it...but go easy on this and that so you'll live to tell about it. =)

The music in this one is more on the Techno slash Hardhouse vibe, with a little bit of straight-up House in the mix. Sound quality isn't that good, but it's one for the archives as it's one of the best sets I did at a club in NYC, so the mixin' is pretty much on FIYA!..Enjoy! =)


Tracks:

The White Shadow - Intro
Frankie Bones, Lenny Dee, and Victor Simonelli - I'm Comin'
N-Joi - Adrenalin
Frankie Bones, Lenny Dee, and Victor Simonelli - Alert Alarm
Unknown Artist - House Bonus Beats
Public Enemy - Rebel Without A Pause (Acapella)
Musto & Bones - Dangerous On The Dancefloor
Mike Hitman Wilson - Another Sleepless Night
The KLF - What Time Is Love
Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman
Seduction - Two To Make It Right
Fast Eddie - Yo Yo Get Funky
Hard House - Check This Out
Steve Silk Hurley - Work It Out
Mr. Lee - Let's Get Busy
Seduction - Groove Me
DJ Atomico Herbie - Atomic House
D-Shake - Yaaah
Todd Terry Project - Bango
Black Riot - Warlock
P.O.P. - Theme From P.O.P.
Shawn Shegog - Living In The Dark Side
Adam X - Space Bells
T 99 - Anasthasia
808 State - Cübik
Mory Kante - Tama
The White Shadow - Outro

Download links died. Sorry.

Mixtape: The White Shadow - Live @ The Sound Factory - New York (1992)

People often ask me what the best club I've ever played at is, and it is without a doubt the Sound Factory(pic above) in New York in it's original location on 27th. street.

Why the best?..well first of all a huge club..I'm not sure of the capacity, but probably held about 2000 people, maybe more, and even better the sound system. When the Paradise Garage closed down they moved some of the sound system there like the Levan bass horns into the Sound Factory, and if you don't know about the Paradise Garage you really need to go study right now...but for one that club had the best sound system in any club ever, designed by the great Richard Long (RIP), and it's hard to describe the system at the Sound Factory..imagine being able to actually feeling and touching the sound, and the bass just flowin' thru the whole room, and your body..that's about how powerful it was...and at the same time the sound was so clear you wouldn't have to yell at someone on the dancefloor but could nearly hold a conversation while the music was crazy loud.

Add to that meeting Larry Levan (RIP), and Frankie Knuckles (RIP) outside the booth before it was time to play, and nothing but the best equipment including three 1200's, and Keith Haring (RIP) artwork on the DJ booth wall for inspiration, and what you had was a DJ's dream come true. Where do you go from there?...well you don't..you just have to put that kinda experience behind you, and move on or it will drive you crazy knowing you'll never play on such a badass system ever again in your life! =) There's nothing to top that.

Still, I only played there for about 1-2 hours, and that was thanks to my man DJ Jazzy Nice who was kind enough to let me fill in for him during some of the early hours he was playing before Levan and Knuckles got on to do their thang into the after hours. You see, in New York at the time it was quite common to start playing at 5am in the morning, and sometimes keep goin' for days. Same in Chicago where legendary DJ's like Ron Hardy (RIP) would play for 72 hours straight, and some DJ's now got problems playing more than 2 hours..lol.

This is a very short mix..about 25 minutes cause that's all I managed to tape that night, and is all about Deep House music with some harder stuff towards the end of it. It's not as heavy on the mix as I usually played back then because the Sound Factory had a "No Scratching" policy so when we played there we had to go easy like that because it was not a Hiphop club, and they didn't want that in there...there is SOME scratchin' , and the blends are tight, but that's not the important thing..the music is. In later years I've learned new ways of playing by workin' the crowd musically in ways I knew nothing about when I thought that the best mixer was the best DJ, but trust me it's not so.

I won't spend too much time talkin' bout the Factory cause there's plenty of info online so I suggest you Google it or whatever, but in the early years Junior Vasquez and Frankie Knuckles were the resident DJ's there, and the crowd was probably the closest New York was to the Paradise Garage crowd after that legendary club closed. Factory did seem to attract a little more mainstream crowd during it's later years tho', and changed it's location also, so as far as I know the early years from 89 to about 94 were the best years to play there.

It's very funny cause I'm listening to a Levan mix right now from the Factory, and he just played a record that went "The Shadow Knows"...lol...so I'll take that as a hint to shut up, and let the music speak. It's an honor to have played at the legendary Sound Factory, and to share my performance there with you.

Tracks:

Dread Flimstone - From The Ghetto
Lucky Strike - Body To Body
The Rude Awakening - The Dip
Little Louie Vega - Ride On The Rhythm
Sabrina Johnston - Peace In The Valley
Incubus - The Spirit
Lisa Stansfield - People Hold On (Acapella)
? - Somebody Scream
Lidell Townsell - Nu Nu

Download links dead. Sorry.

The White Shadow - Norwegian DMC DJ Battle mixes 1988 and 1989

In 1988 and 89 I entered the DMC competitions in Norway, and won both years. Didn't make it past the eliminations in the world championships in '88, but placed 10th. in '89.

My DJ name at the time was DJ Fresh.

Winning the DMC's was definitely the start of my DJ career for real, and I have loads of stories to share about those DJ battles, and events, that I'll save for my book.

Instead here's audio of my winning mixes. The first 7 minutes of the '88 routine is my winning mix, and the remaining 9 minutes is a DJ showcase I did at various clubs in Norway as part of my Norwegian DJ Champ tour that year, and the '89 routine is my Norway DMC routine.

Enjoy these old school battle mixes.

Downloads:

DMC 1988:

http://hu.lk/c6gksn56zj5e

DMC 1989:

Link died. Sorry.