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Alex Whalen

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Turkey Dancing

Turkey Tailfeathers (Funky Breaks)

November 25, 2015

Your annual Thanksgiving mix, and this year it's funky breaks. This one was originally going to be White Chocolate Volume II, but by the time it was done that didn't quite seem right. As you'll see in the tracklist below, this one is even more heavily mashed and edited than usual. Big thanks to whomever it was that released that Molded Breaks set - you are a truly fantastic individual!

1. Isaac Hayes vs. Skeewiff + Cab Canavaral - Dr. Groove’s Breakthrough (Whalen Remash)
2. The Honeydrippers - Impeach the President
3. Coconut ’74 - The Gold Coast
4. Kool and the Gang vs The Funk Ferrett - Give It Up and Apply The Pressure (Skeewiff vs. Whalen Remash)
5. James Brown’s Brownout - Give It Up or Turn It Flaximus (Renegades of Jazz Bboy vs. Whalen ReMash)
6. Dave Gerrard vs. The Headhunters - God Made Me Rip the Funk (Whalen ReMash)
7. Skeewiff + Stephen Gray - Scissors Paper Stone
8. Groove Armada vs. James Brown - If Everybody Looked Like the Same Funky Drummer (Whalen Remash)
9. Skeewiff - A Man of Constant Sorrow (Whalen Remash)
10. Rhythm Warfare vs. Hi Tension - There’s a Reason James Has Two Notches (Whalen Remash)
11. Colombo - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast! (Original Mix)
12. The Quickest Lafayette Afro Rock Band Bob Jones and Alvin Cash Were Never In - Take Me to the Tick Tock Hihache Mardi Gras, Baby Stone Thing! (Whalen Remash)
13. Colombo - Heep Hoop (Whalen’s Quickest Way To Hihache Remash) 
14. Evil Nine - Crooked feat. AESOP Rock (Whalen’s Tick Tock Afro Rock Remash)
15. Arrested Development - Fishin' 4 Religion (Whalen’s Quickest Way to Lafayette Remash)
16. Scuba - NE1BUTU (Original Mix)
17. Ian Brown - Kiss Ya Lips (No ID Version)
18. Mary J Blige vs. MC Duke - Percolating (Luke Fair vs. Whalen Remash)
19. Emeli Sandé vs MC Duke - I’m Riffin Off Heaven (Whalen Remash)
20. Way Out West - The Gift (2010 Remix)
21. Sub Focus - Last Jungle
22. Danny Byrd - We Can Have It All
23. Lionrock vs. MC Duke - Packet of Peace (Whalen Riffin With the Chems Remash)
24. Hardkiss + God Within - The Phoenix (Riverandrain version)
25. Prefab Sprout - If You Don't Love Me (Future Sound Of London Mix) 
26. E’VOKE - Runaway (Biff 'N' Memphis vs. Whalen Remash)
27. Massive Attack - Unfinished Symphony 

As always, all tracks legally purchased and then very heavily edited by me in Ableton Live.

In Breakbeat, Old Skool + Classics
Candybox of Pretty Views (Downtempo) →

The House Music DJ

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My Story So Far...

A flyer found. A map point located. A warehouse discovered. A threshold crossed. One night. One moment. For me, nothing would ever be the same again.

What is it about electronic music that captures us so? Why is it that, once found, it grabs hold and refuses to let go? And why is it that nearly all of us sharing this scene together can name the exact moment when it made everything change? For me, December 31, 1991 is that moment. Before, the path of my life had been headed one way. After, well....

In the beginning, I was nothing more than a dedicated punter, one of the East Coast faithful, traveling hundreds of miles each weekend in pursuit of the perfect beat. Thursdays at Baltimore's legendary Fever. Fridays at DC's immortal Buzz. Saturdays at one-off's with names like Catastrophic, Storm, Ultraworld, or Primary. We were in the right place at the right time - the birth of a scene, a music, a movement.

Along with the flyers I collected the music. Guerrilla. FSOL. Limbo. Cosmic Baby. Stress. Leftfield. Platipus. The soundtrack of the weekend became the soundtrack of my life, and at first it was enough to let others arrange it, but then...

This was the era of the mixtape, a time before the Pro Tools perfect, studio session solid CD. Sets were played, recorded, and trade - passed hand to hand among the faithful, with no DJ too big or small to be worth a listen.

Although I loved the dancefloor, I started someplace that might surprise you: downtempo. Yes, downtempo. Back then no event was complete without the "Chill Room", and it was there I found my first source of DJing inspiration. One tape, two tapes, three tapes, more... I only gave them to a few friends, but these things, they have a life of their own. It started small - gigs in Richmond , DC, Baltimore, New York. I was paying my dues. And then....

April 16, 1996

Washington D.C.'s Buzz presents Supersting. The greatest collection of talent that had ever been assembled on a single night in these United States. Sasha. Carl Cox. Scott Henry. BT. Laurent Garnier. LTJ Bukem. And in the Cloudwatch Chill Out Tent, among others, Babylon - a.k.a. Alex Whalen. I wasn't on the main stage. Far from it. And yet I had to ask myself: "is this DJing thing for real? Could it become my life?"

Truth is, if you ask anyone who knew me, it already was my life. From that first night in '91, sharing this music with others had been the thing that mattered most. Whether it was making mix tapes, opening my own mail order record shop, or spending countless hours trainspotting tracks, nothing mattered more. But somehow, until that summer night in '96, the idea that it could happen to me, it was something I didn't even allow myself to dream.

Newly inspired, I poured myself deeper still into the music, shifting focus from the chill room to the main room. The scene grew, expanded. Nightclubs became superclubs, DJ's superstars. The underground was going global.

With my turn towards the dancefloor I knew there would be yet more dues to pay, and pay them I did. More tapes changed hands, more connections were made, more sets played, and then...

July 30, 1999

A return to Washington, D.C.'s Buzz. Only this time it was the main floor. Me, my records, and 2000 of DC's most devoted. Eight years chasing the beat and it was here. And an amazing thing happened: what was meant to be an opening set suddenly became much more. The headliner's records were lost en route, and I was asked to stand in her stead. Sounds like the stuff of legend, I know, but it's true. 4 hours later and my career had begun. Honestly, I can still remember that moment as if it happened just last night.

Over the next few weeks offers to DJ  came fast and furious - from Buzz and beyond. And then, soon after, an offer that would once again change everything: the Deep Dish boys were looking for someone to manage their new record shop and web site, and my name was on their short list. The dream of living this music full-time suddenly became a reality.

Over the next three years I spent all of my days and nights working to build The Yoshitoshi Shop and Yoshitoshi.com. In Washington D.C., together with the seemingly unstoppable Buzz, our shop became synonymous with everything dance. On the Web, our shop went global - and I went along for the ride...

East Coast. West Coast. Hawaii. Ibiza. A residency was offered, and then a second. The first came from D.C.'s Club Five, a new purpose built venue looking to build a night. Together with DJ Buster I took over Saturday nights, for over a year playing to the faithful, a thousand strong and up for anything. As a DJ, it was my chance to stretch my wings, to make a night my own, to define my sound. Club Five was a turning point, one that prepared me for...

...the second offer. Buzz was offering a monthly residency to Dave Ralph, and they were looking for someone to share the bill. A DJ who could set the night, establish the sound, prime the crowd. Dave had his list of names, Buzz had theirs. In the end I was offered the slot, and for the next two years our monthly was one of the highlights of the DC clubbing calendar.

More importantly, perhaps, it also became the launching pad for a close musical partnership, one that lasts right up to this day. With the success of our night at Buzz firmly established, we took to the road, touring North America in support of Dave's 'Naturalized' CD. Soon after we hit the studio, producing several tracks under the Ralph + Whalen moniker.

April 29, 2002

It was time for a change. DC, Buzz, Yoshi - they'd been great to me - more than I'd ever hoped for, in fact - but it was time to go. 100 boxes of records and 3000 miles later I found myself setting up shop deep in the heart of San Francisco. Throughout my travels I'd been blessed to meet a number of amazing people, but SF has more than its fair share. It was the only choice.

Over the next two years I added syndicated radio to my arsenal as a resident for Thump Radio, helped launch a new house music venue for Blowfish Music, and headlined for both Spundae and Release - quite an accomplishment if you know the SF scene. With two like-minded musical souls, Kramer and Nicholas Baker, I started a new monthly called Arrival, an ongoing night dedicated to breaking new talent in SF's progressive house scene. And of course, throughout the world, I continued to travel and spread my brand of progressive house.

June 3, 2004

Us DJs, we're nomads, never content to stay any one place very long. SF had been great, but it was time to move on. The legendary Avalon in Boston was calling with a new offer. A new residency. A new dancefloor. A new sound.

Boston does clubbing differently: Open at 10, close at 2. Bring it early, bring it often, and above all else, bring it hard. Open right and they'll reward you. Make one false move and you may never live it down. But Avalon wasn't my only home in Boston. In a twist for a DJ, I decided to take on a new role - a PhD candidate in Boston University's Department of Political Science. What can I say? I'm a kid fom DC. Politics must be in my blood.

For three years I tried to keep things in balance, but eventually something had to give way. And then...

October 1, 2007

Everything changes. Everything comes to an end. For Boston and for Avalon, that day had finally come. After a 15 year run the club had been sold, its doors closed for good. What now? What's next?

Every challenege presents an opportunity, and for me it meant a chance to find balance. That's right, the unthinkable happened. The DJ chose to put books before choons. I passed my classes. I aced my comprehensive exams. And now I'm knee deep into my own research, working hard to determine how and why communications technologies drive change in the political world.

Summer 2012

That itch. It's back. Time to deliver a new sound. Is Drum & Bass the new progressive? Is progressive the progressive? And woah... check out what the downtempo world was doing while I was looking the other way. I may not be playing out as much these days, but what with this magical Internet thing, that doesn't mean I have to go silent. And thank god for that. Because I'll stop DJing just after I stop breathing. And no, not a moment before that.