Morgan Geist – of Metro Area / Environ / Unclassics fame – dug deep into the recesses of what must be a record collection the size of a mountain to weave together this dustily beautified journey through abandoned early 80s NY. Geist’s selection of late 70s / early 80s electronic tracks exquisitely captures a moment in time when the prevailing disco sheen hanging hazily over the city was being overtaken by the throbbing pulse of murder, drugs, and dirt that ran a heavy current underneath. All in all it’s a mix that captures a certain brand of austere beauty. If that all sounds a little too ‘grown’, we’re almost 100% positive that Mr. Geist threw in some chopped and screwed Arthur Russell for the new jacks towards the very end.
Download audio file (We-Make-It-Good-Mix-Series-Vol.-10.mp3)
“Barry’s Apartment”
This little mix is obviously inspired by the original Cosmic DJs (Baldelli) and innovative DJs of (or nearer to) my own generation, like DJ Harvey and Daniel Wang. I made sure to include some records that I thought I “discovered” on my own, only to hear them played by other (better) DJs who probably knew about them a lot longer than I did. Parallel evolution is a bitch, but I didn’t want to abandon these beloved tracks just because they were “marked” by another DJ. For example, most DJs who know the Transfer Station Blue track associate it with Sarcastic Disco, the infamous and beautiful Harvey mix – yet I believe I got my first copy of it from my departed friend, Barry Lederer, and associate it with digging and listening and learning in his dusty old apartment on 24th Street in Manhattan. I find Harvey inspirational, but don’t want my own Barry-nostalgia supplanted. I realize it sounds corny, but sometimes you have to reclaim music that is important to you, and that’s what a lot of this mix is about for me. – Morgan Geist (Environ, Unclassics, Metro Area)