Brainwaves~The Art of Track Selection
Brainwaves is a series that unpacks the art of DJing for hobbyists. Its central message is to more deeply connect with music. The series was inspired by the conclusions of an earlier post found here.
There are various synergistic elements that harmonize in producing lush musical experiences. The overall effect of each element is determined by various conditions such as the physical environment and the state of mind in which the experience is witnessed. Imagine the inebriated mind of a club attendee in good company. That mind, along with its companions, may experience an endorphin rush when suddenly presented with an unexpected throwback. However that very same mind might be thrown ajar if the same piece of music unexpectedly made its way into a playlist meant as background for sexual intimacy. Unless, of course, a striptease to 90’s techno¹ is what they fancy. Questionable striptease aside, the most important element of all musical experiences is music selection.
On Track Selection
There are various ways track selection can be explored and it entirely depends, unsurprisingly, on the conditions of which the tracks are to be experienced. Live DJs in clubs not only adapt on the fly via requests from the audience, but also may change their selections in response to how the crowd is reacting. The depth of analysis goes further. In particular, a DJ with a known name can show up and play what they want, often challenging the crowd to progress. Likewise, crowds can often appeal to the authority of a respected DJ. It’s not entirely uncommon to understand a track as popularized by a particular DJ that was either the first to play it or to drop it unexpectedly during a well-received set. As an example look at Mall Grab’s utilization of “Baby Love” in the below video.
On the other side, lesser known resident DJs are often driven entirely by a combination of the crowd and club owner. A bold move may cost them their job in the rotation as their main purpose is to keep regulars in the club buying drinks. This sometimes entails purposefully cooling the dance floor in order to give dancers a chance to cool off with a shot (or two).
In contrast to live DJ sets, prerecorded radio broadcasts have no means of obtaining crowd feedback in real time. Their set is largely finalized before record is ever pressed. Their refinement process is one that utilizes weekly ratings, fan comments and self reflection. In some cases a show has a stated mission (such as playing tracks from a certain range of years) that restricts how selections can be made.
Regardless of the situation, it’s clear that track selection exists in a context; the tracks in and of themselves matter as much as when and how they’re presented. In the example of Mall Grab’s Boiler Room, “Baby Love” might not have had the same effect had it appeared in the middle of the set. Thus the track isn’t cool simply because Mall Grab played it. Rather it’s cool because Mall Grab started a vibe from it and demonstrated how 90's house² is still referenced in modern deep/lofi house³. It was an invitation to have fun and to start dancing — an invitation that’s (hopefully) not needed halfway into a set.
Given that most of us aren’t club DJs or radio broadcasters, we’ll explore the art of set creation for personal and hobby endeavors.
The Axioms⁴ of Selection
As of two decades ago, most people had created at least one mix tape or CD at some point. Unfortunately that’s no longer true and although those born of the digital age use services like Youtube and Spotify⁵ to make playlists, they lack the crucial constraints of a tape or CD. With analog there was a finite amount of time. Once a mix was created it could not be changed. You had one chance at delivering the perfectly crafted mix to that crush or judgmental music junkie friend.
The digital age brings with it this overarching theme of the s t r e a m whereby everything flows endlessly. A Youtube playlist can be thousands of tracks long, constantly set to shuffle. Even then, Youtube may start auto-playing if the end of a list is ever reached. We are forced to cope, thereby accepting the infinite size of the stream and the resulting cheapness that accompanies the ubiquity of music. The stream follows us throughout our various travels. Smartphone in hand, we periodically join the stream at the press of a button. Sometimes during a stream we save a track to a collection which is like a dedicated sub-stream in the cloud labelled as ‘ours’. Except it’s not actually tangible. Rather it’s just there to further stream from.
Selecting a set of tracks completely dismantles the paradigm of the digital age. Not only is a finite limit placed on the stream of tracks, but the value of each track suddenly spikes. The set becomes a showcase of a listener’s ability to parse value from an endless web. The set has heightened contextual meaning, personality and emotion. It’s no longer cheap, but rather precious and tangible as it is to be distributed and consumed under particular conditions. It also exists as one complete object. During a stream, the listener can pause, skip, change stream frequencies, rewind etc. By contrast, in the perspective of the set there are only two actions: start and finish⁶. Without delicate track selection the consumer will choose to finish in close proximity to the start, well before the intended finish.
Hopefully this perspective of selection yields some insight into the mindset we must adopt. It is quite likely that you already have collections of music somewhere, whether it’s an A-Z organization of vinyls or a Youtube playlist titled punk etc. But the set is much more refined than the collection for many reasons, the first of which being its size.
Axiom 1: A set of tracks usually sum to ~30–90 minutes
It is also true that our collections contain items we don’t quite like enough. This may be a track on an album, or a track we saved to a collection for a more thorough re-listen. Sometimes we hold onto tracks we once liked and no longer do, but cannot yet bring ourselves to remove. The set, however, must be composed of tracks we value.
Axiom 2: Each track of a set is valuable
On our own or through the magic of iTunes and similar services, we can easily keep a “top 25” playlist. This playlist quite clearly fits axioms 1 and 2. Yet it’s not a set, because each track of a top 25 do not necessarily have meaning in relation to one another. The tracks could consist of various genres, tempos, or might only be there because we listen to them in certain situations such as commuting or studying. The items of a set, by contrast, share a meaningful context.
Axiom 3: The set is a cohesive whole with personality, meaning and context
Finally, our collections, much like the streams from which they are made, are meant to be paused, skipped, shuffled and modified. The set, however, is one final tangible object.
Axiom 4: The set is meant to be consumed as a single Object, all at once
Corollary: A finalized set in and of itself can be considered a very long track
Strategies for Selection
There does not exist a universal methodology for making track selections within the context of the axioms. Ultimately, every individual who engages in the process will come to realize their own unique ways of selecting. Some DJs that spin for certain crowds or venues quite literally visualize themselves playing the track and are able to instinctively determine whether or not it suits their context. Some meticulously analyze a track’s length, key, progression and how well it mixes with tracks they already own. They may even compare the track to existing hits for patterns. In other words they attempt to determine a track’s worthiness of selection through some kind of mathematical system. In my opinion, both of these methods demarcate those who select professionally for pay. Let’s instead explore how hobbyists and non-DJ’s may make selections.
Intended Audience
A therapist once brought to my intention that we produce public artifacts, such as articles on Medium, for consumption. I resisted this outright, as I believe works can be a duty to self or a demonstration of possibility in and of themselves. But upon further inspection, I came to realize that sometimes one is the audience. It may sound obvious or mundane, but for those of us that don’t exist in the most pragmatic of realms, it’s perhaps worth the mental effort to attempt to understand ourselves as a consumer to our own productions. Even in extreme cases whereby one’s work attempts to push the limits of humanity, there is an underlying internal cause.
As stated in axiom 2, each track is highly valued by the selector. The word value here is purposefully ambiguous. A professional DJ likely determines value using many parameters such as how a track fits into the sound they’re known for, or if it’s a track people can easily dance to. Clearly, an important factor is the intended audience. As hobbyists, we are somewhat more free in our selections. However, we still have an intended audience even if it’s solely ourselves.
Whether the intended audience is yourself, a crush or a subset of your social network, its entirety has to be taken into account. We must try to finely balance our own interests with that of our audience. However it’s also desirable to push an audience’s expectations; one should try to be progressive in some of their selections (see Venn diagram below). In the case of a production for a crush, it would be particularly unflattering to send someone a set of tracks each of which they already know and love. They may even have those exact tracks saved to a collection in the cloud. Instead, we might try to select just one of those tracks and progressively work around it, extending their listening experience.
If you’re making a production for yourself, you may wonder what demarcates self as a listener from self as a producer. If such a question arises, I propose the following: do you want to eat all of your favourite foods every single day, at precisely the same meal? Open yourself and examine what you’re craving.
In essence, a selector has to create a new world for their audience to explore but in doing so must also provide them a bridge to that destination.
Emotions and Feeling: Active Listening
Without a doubt, some tracks have a sole purpose to get our bodies moving and these may be great selections for dance-focused sets. However that’s far from a complete perspective of what music offers even in the context of dance. The next time you listen to music try to do so actively. Listen as if you’re at a counselling session and an internal therapist is probing you to express yourself. The questions can be as basic as how does this make me feel, although you should try to work in some of the tougher questions like what’s the artist’s intention or what was the artist feeling.
Next, ask questions about the particular elements of the track. Perhaps there’s a unique timbre or hook. Often, it’s a mere motif such as the ring of a percussive overlay. Have you heard a similar sound/hook/motif anywhere else before? If so, take note. With an ear that’s even slightly attune to musical key, this process alone can help one realize tracks that pair well together.
I’ll provide an example that made its way into one of my sets. The track Joyless — Swedish Sisters (UVB remix) has a motif that starts around 1:00, a sort of background call-and-answer chug. There’s also this horn that breaks out periodically, and can be heard around 1:26. Together, these motifs reminded me of a syncopated horn in one of my favourite tracks Tin — Ansome(Clouds Remix), which can be first heard around 00:40 (again at 1:25). In fact I started listening to Joyless wishing the motif from Tin would appear. Furthermore the cymbols throughout Tin have a similar feel to the hi-hat in Joyless (appears at 1:55).
Beyond asking questions, a perhaps more focused activity is to visually draw on a mental canvas (or, should you be endowed artistically, a real one). Process the music as if it were in a movie scene — what does this scene look like? Notice as much as you can about the elements your mind draws: shape, contours, colours etc. Do they remind you of any movies, comics, games or any other art form you’ve encountered previously? What kind of emotional tone does the scene evoke?
The tracks we enjoy engaging actively often end up becoming our most deeply cherished tracks, particularly because we have established emotional connections to them. Furthermore, they’re the ones we’re able to group into sets or sub-sets that create a cohesive focus. As such, you should start to make playlists or groupings based on the results of active listening. These sub-collections aren’t usually in and of themselves finalized sets, but they provide a foundation to understand music in a broader context. Of notable use is the groupings column on iTunes. If you have a physical vinyl collection, you may start to organize them by this kind of emotional grouping, rather than in alphabetical order.
Reverse Engineering
An understated technique is to use the emotional strategy in reverse. Start with an event in your life, a game, a picture of art that moves you — anything. One of my favourite starting points is a video game on mute. Where does the scenery take you? How are the events in your life making you feel? Start to deeply think about any music that speaks to the events or clarifies the narrative of what you’re feeling.
Entire sets are sometimes created from this process. The selector starts with an image, a motif, an idea — and selects to portray that idea. As an example, I have previously created a set that had a running motif of trains (available here). I’ve also created sets while playing Outlast and Doom without audio (here and here, respectively).
As an exercise, the next time a meaningful event happens in your life create a playlist that conveys your emotions. Your goal is for the (imagined) audience to be able to understand exactly what you’re going through just by listening to the playlist.
Pay Attention To Music Embedded In Other Contexts
Sometimes some of the most notable music can be found embedded in other media. Examples include background music in a movie, game or ad. Pay attention to how the production uses the dynamics of the music for effect.
Here’s just one (classic) example: Trainspotting’s use of Born Slippy. Picture this ending without that track, or attempt to answer for yourself how it works in this specific context, a black comedy. Personally I feel the track has a clever sense about it, much like Renton’s smirk as it blurs to his coming of age monologue. It seems to bring a sense of adventure to an otherwise absurd, morbid situation. In other words, I’d find it to be a suitable theme for Sisyphus and the eternal boulder⁷.
Selecting By Dynamics and Constraints
Sometimes we have to select tracks with a specific dynamic. Usually this is bpm, although it could be a particular instrument or sound/style that’s present. For example consider the bpm constraints for sets produced for yoga versus that of a spinning class.
Depending on the type of set we’re building, we may also limit ourselves to certain years or music labels. However, for the purposes of the hobbyist, I suggest refraining from imposing unnecessary restrictions. The goal should instead be to ultimately forge deeper connections with music and from there make selections.
Creating Sets from Selections: An Introduction
Arguably, making selections is a more consuming process than ordering them into a coherent set. However, there is still much to be said about producing a set from selections and it shall warrant its own article in the future. The topic will be introduced here, however, to give a proper conclusion to what’s been discussed in the present work.
Before you’re ready to make a final set from selections, make sure you have enough selections. A heuristic⁸ is to make approximately twice as many selections as the length of the intended set. In other words, if you’re producing an 8 track set, select 14-16 tracks. If you’re creating a 60 minute mix, select approximately 100-120 minutes worth of tracks. With an average of about 15-20 tracks per hour, this works out to about 30–40 selections.
The type of set you’re creating will be the main factor in how you arrange the tracks. A set that tells a story, or is perhaps meant to be accompanied by visual graphics, may have to be arranged in the frame of reference of the story being told. A mix for dancing may start out with a way to invite people to dance and progress.
Here are a few things to consider, many of which will be covered more in-depth in a future article:
- Use Pairwise comparisons⁹: what tracks truly belong next to each other?
- Are there any conflicting bpms or key changes that should be avoided next to each other? In other words, try not to put tracks next to each other that are drastically different, unless, of course, that’s the desired effect.
- Be wary of dynamics: do you want your set’s bpm, intensity etc. to progress? There is no one way to structure an overall dynamic, but it is usually wise to make sure the entire set is not monotonous, just as tracks in and of themselves have a flow or structure.
A helpful tip based on the first point above is that longer sets are often composed of mini-sets or phases, much like orchestral movements. Find groups of tracks that belong together, and then work on arranging those groups. Professional DJs often keep an array of transition tracks, tools and samples particularly for this reason. These tracks either have known changes in bpm, intensity (often a ‘drop’) or, in the case of a tool, have a minimal and accommodating harmony that blends well with many different styles. If they’re running 3+ decks, these tracks are hardly ever heard in isolation.
As an example, let’s watch and closely listen from 30:30–35:30 in Dax J’s boiler room.
There’s a banging acidic e.b.m tune playing at 30:30. Around 30:48 we see (notice his work on the mixer’s faders + deck cue) and hear the second track enter the mix very clearly.
Meanwhile, he layers a seemingly unfitting choice Vofa — PI05.2 (link) on a third deck. It comes in on the lower end a bit aggressively, perhaps as a mistake, around 31:35. Regardless, at this point he’s toggling 3 different tracks. The Vofa track is never heard in pure isolation but rather as a bridge (the closest it comes to isolation is ~34:15). The Vofa track doesn’t have much of a melody (unlike the acid loops). However, it adds a completely different feel and dynamic to those acid loops because of its percussion. In particular the vibe, because of this track, changes around 32:57. There would not have been as great an impact without the percussive booms. Listen to how these tracks mix together, noticing that a new one comes in around 34:30. At about 34:50–35:30 notice the bouncing bass motif that’s developed as a result of the mix. This is the new vibe that was attained as a result of the 3-deck layering. Altogether, the Vofa track was primarily used as a tool for a more interesting mix.
Summary
We live in a world whereby music is ubiquitous, cheap and often freely streamed. Many of us collect, categorize and group our music. A set is a very refined collection with a finite length composed of carefully selected tracks. It is intended to be consumed as a cohesive whole and provide a high value experience. Sets are constructed for many different contexts such as mindfulness, dance, exercise and sexual intimacy. Regardless of the context, the key to an effective set is the selection process. In order to make selections that match the criteria of a set we have to emotionally connect to our music, other art forms and the audience for which we are selecting. Furthermore selections have to be carefully arranged to ensure a set has an effective flow.
Bonus: Sets To Explore
- Paula Temple, Movement Detroit 2015
- KiNK’s infamous Boiler Room Moscow
- Karenn & Neil Landstrumm Boiler Room Live Set
- Dax J’s Pumping Boiler Room
Footnotes
- The buildup in that track is very much like Darude’s Sandstrom which is what I had in mind while writing this block. While listening to it for nostalgic purposes, I recalled this scene from American Pie and I had to triple check that the strip song wasn’t a remix of Sandstorm.
- See https://www.discogs.com/Dannii-Minogue-Baby-Love/release/656456.
- This isn’t my area of knowledge. I simply used Mall Grab as an example because personally I consider it demonstrates with clarity the (toxic) relationship that vain fans have with a hip DJ.
- A statement that is assumed to be true without proof.
- Please consider reading about Spotify lawsuits, its data tracking and criticisms of its algorithms. Wiki has a great entry summarizing most of it.
- Whilst writing this section, I listened to this set in its entirety.
- There’s a wonderful video that analyzes the philosophy of Bojack Horseman. In particular, here is a segment discussing Sisyphus.
- Any approach to problem solving, learning, or discovery that employs a practical method, not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, logical, or rational, but instead sufficient for reaching an immediate goal.
- Essentially, try various combinations of tracks side-by-side and determine which fits the best. See wiki.
