All Things Chill

My watch reads 4AM.

It’s late. I still have some groove left in me… so I hit up the twilight after-hour spots in the Chi with my deep house familia. Smartbar always comes to mind… so we try and pack everyone in two Jettas that amazingly still smell of crayons. We greet the boucer with buzzed salutations while the ladies check their coats. **PLAY**. As we make our way to the underground, the bass shakes the stairwell under our feet… urging us to hit the floor as soon as we possibly can. We nod to the dj, who gives me a west coast shout out in the form of Mark Farina’s – Cali Spaces (6:15). We head over to the bar, grab as many gin and tonics as we can before last call… and head out on the dance floor.

We’re in a different world now, our bodies moving in a sea of music pulsing from the speakers. And as if by magic… we all stop what we’re doing and proceed to sway back and forth and take in all the melodic highs and mids during the breakdown (12:45). We hear the blend come in (15:15) and nod our heads to the harder “For the Music” by Fred Everything (16:15). A constant baseline, a hard “2″ and “4″ beat snare, unresolved chords, funky electronia. That’s what we came for. The dj teases us with a little old skool flavor (19:10), and if you’ve done your homework… you’ll know where we’re headed.

It drops, full force. Armand van Helden – The Funk Phenomenon (Extended Mix) (22:50). Ghetto house… but with with enough jazzy “twang” to keep things moving. The track only stayed for a moment, since Soularis’ – Taste was brought in to bring back the deepness.

The club is still packed, but we notice that a lot of the lightweights are headin’ home. We’re still dancing unapologetically… we’ll leave when we’ll leave… but for now… we’ll celebrate the night until dawn. Then cool down track cuts in: Hacienda- Quiet Nights (30:25)… with an afro-cuban beat to support it enough to keep our arms flailing and are feet kickin’. We’re already halfway… but I feel like I could dance here forever.

Then, as a final jesture to the ones that stuck it out ’till the end… we hear a crazy buildup of sound from Erro - Change (Martin Solveig Remix) (35:25), a couple electro-esque grooves, Spiller – Pitch (48:45) and Salif Keita – Madan (51:45 tune!!!) to close out the night. **STOP**

We head upstairs to an almost deserted Clark Street, finding ourselves and those like us… saying their “goodbyes”, “see you laters” and “come home with meeees.” We hug those that are leaving our group… and make our way into a car with unforgettably cold, cold leather. My watch reads 5AM. My stomach grumbles…

I can taste those tacos already.

You can download the mixset here (Right-click and choose Save As…) via the Dogglounge, or sample the entire mixset using the audio player below:

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Special*Dark – Chicago An After Hours Memory Mixset
(Runtime 57 minutes)
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~Spec

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under Audioblog, DJ Culture, Mixes & Playlists, Music Culture, Streaming Conciousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.