**soppy post incoming**
So there we are – 300 mixes. Or around two weeks of non-stop music. Some special shoutouts are in order:
1) to Doc Sleep for putting together such a mesmerising mix for the occasion. She’s been a Mantissa favourite for quite some time now, so we’re chuffed that she recorded 300.
2) to every single one of the artists who have taken the time to contribute to the series. It’s genuinely getting a stream of top quality mixes week in week out that keeps us motivated to do this. Would love to tag all of you but insta caps tags at 20, and also tagging 300 accounts would take quite a bit of time!
3) and finally (if anyone is still reading), a big thanks to the listeners for listening (obviously), sharing or commenting things like ‘
‘ or ‘ID on this bangerrrr?’ on soundcloud.
Many more exciting things are on the way (including mix 301, mix 302, and so on), but until then, please enjoy Doc Sleep’s masterpiece mix and a lovely Q&A that you can find below. Thanks again for the support, it really means a lot to us.
Hi Melissa, how are you doing and have you been up to anything fun recently?
Hello! I’m doing well, hope the same for you 🙂
Lately I’ve been chasing a baby around, cooking up a storm, exploring parks with my dog, catching up on films/tv (Yorgos Lanthimos and Lucretia Martel, also Painting with John are current obsessions), reading Ursula K. Le Guin, and making music. I’m having a great time
Congratulations on your album! It’s an amazing release and has rightly received a lot of praise. What was the inspiration behind it and how did you find the process of putting it all together?
Thank you 🙂
A few years ago, I was struggling and turned to making ambient/abstract music as a way to calm my mind. To my surprise, I liked the music and decided to just keep going.
I love to sketch out ideas, but like many producer friends and interviews I read, I find it very challenging to switch to arrangement mode. Transforming my jam band noodling into more polished pieces requires a lot of effort.
Lets take it back to the beginning…Can you tell us a bit about some of your favourite music and bands growing up, and what led to your discovery of electronic music?
Where I’m from, there was no alternative culture, and it was pre-internet so I was pretty isolated. I loved Top 40 radio, though, and would spend hours sitting in my room recording every song I liked onto cassette so I could listen to the songs over and over. I decided to add my own audio commentary to the tapes and started to mail them to a few kids I met at basketball camp, but they didn’t write back! It wasn’t until I heard Michael, Prince, and Janet that everything changed for me. Out of all the childhood albums, Prince’s ‘Around the World in a Day’ remains my favorite.
When I arrived at college, a friend introduced me to Stereolab, Low, and Ornette Coleman one night, which completely changed my musical direction yet again. It was also around that time that I heard dance/electronic music at a gay party inside a bowling alley in Fargo. I started driving to Minneapolis on the weekends to dance and hear bands, and started record shopping at the Electric Fetus, a well-known shop there. It was at that shop that I discovered both the Global Underground and DJ Kicks mix series, and they really bent my brain. The first time I heard someone DJ and realized they were telling a story and that a set could have a narrative arc, just like the books I was reading or films I was watching – total eureka moment. I realized that DJing could be art. I wasn’t surrounded by any sort of DJ or rave culture at the time, so this was pivotal. To that end, it was actually Sasha’s San Francisco Global Underground mix that planted the seed in my brain to move to the Bay Area – lol.
What led to your move from San Francisco to Berlin and how does the electronic music scene differ?
I moved to SF in 2001 and lived there until 2015 when my partner and I realized we couldn’t afford to stay. Luckily, she got a teaching offer in Berlin, and I was also able to find work here. We’ve been in Europe for 8 years, which is much longer than we initially planned.
The Bay Area scene is much smaller in comparison, but it’s weird and DIY with queer, political, and psychedelic roots so even though it’s horribly expensive, you will always find interesting music and art coming from there.
We absolutely loved your mix – can you tell us the ideas and themes that were the inspiration behind it?
So glad you like it! 🙂 It was a really long Winter for myriad reasons and I thought I would freshen things up for myself by recording something light and airy, and with all the energy and possibilities of Spring.
Who are your favourite DJs, producers and labels at the moment?
I’ve been listening to a lot of music while puttering around the flat lately. Alfa Mist, Nivhek, Pursuit Grooves – 100 Seams, Raven’s 3-hr improv set at Cone Shape Top in Oakland, Glenn Astro presents Nothing is Real, Fashion Flesh – Rubber Mountain, Anthony Naples, Pépe – Reclaim, Steffi – The Red Hunter, Nala Sinephro, Maria Somerville’s morning show on NTS, Dania – Foreign Body, The Orb, Pauline Oliveros, Mary Lattimore, Later Version, Deity Presents the Psychist, Don Cherry, Sam Valenti’s Herb Sundays playlists, VisFX – Download to Oblivion, anything Tony Fairchild recommends in his Press Test Substack, always Cocteau Twins
What plans do you have for the remainder of 2023?
We’re moving to the US in June so the remainder of the year will probably be a whirlwind. Before I leave, Hypno Discs/Glenn Astro and I are putting the finishing touches on our latest Beats Unlimited release. I’ve also been collaborating with John Talaga/Fashion Flesh on our debut album as Collectibles, which is signed and set to release later this year. I’m working on finishing some solo EPs that I’m really excited about, too. I’m making a lot of dance music and also continuing with making ‘not’ dance music – I feel excited by all the possibilities. Once I get settled in the US I will have space to set up a small studio and explore how I want to present a live set. I’m also hopeful that Collectibles can perform live this year now that we’re both living in the same country.
Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy your label and mix series – happy to be a small part of the story 🙂
Interview By: James Acquaye Nortey-Glover