The last mix I released under my Terrahertz alias, Haole Nyahbinghi came together so quickly that I still associate it with a particular time and place. In the summer of 2004 when I was putting this together, I lived across the street from a large antebellum cemetery in Baltimore. I would take breaks from this mix by walking around the cemetery, picking wineberries and pears that grew on the grounds. My ancient and poorly insulated second-floor apartment had a single window AC unit which would struggle during the heat of that summer, so the walks weren’t much hotter than staying inside, and the numerous mature trees throughout the cemetery provided effective shade. Listening back to this I can still recall the feeling of barely clinging to comfort in my bedroom studio, perched in front of my clunky laptop setup on an old primary school desk pushed against the wall. The blends into and out of Gift of Gab’s Flashback stand out for me.

You can download here.

Tracklist:

01) fula visboken – brittas fitta
02) amit – roots
03) krs one – uh oh
04) squarepusher – massif (stay strong)
05) the gift of gab – flashback
06) brothomstates vs bill yard
07) acen – window in the sky (monolythikmaniak mix)
08) clouddead – dead dogs two (boards of canada mix)
09) aphex twin – alberto balsalm
10) jega – gemini
11) kick the can crew – saga continue
12) fun tourist – smoking brain & a journey
13) k – trackspill
14) mr. dope america – tom sawyer
15) muziq – my little beautiful
16) pharcyde – frontline
17) klute – survival
18) amen andrews – jungle bunny
19) black uhuru – slaughter
20) souljah – fade 2 black
21) lfo – nurture (surgeon mix)

Another 2003 mix that I originally released in 2004, Ready, Set, Data! has been remastered for 2022.

The Bill Cosby in the intro is what it is — the rumors were unknown to me at the time and would be until many years later. I like to think the Bruce McCulloch bit from Brain Candy neutralizes the Cosby creepiness.

Somebody else did a mashup with the same Coil track before I did and I loved it so much I had to bite that a little with my own DNB version featuring a solid backing beat from Klute and TGM.

Download it here.

Tracklist:

1. boards of canada – mansel
2. plaid – miamivice
3. klute – ambient hell
4. modjo – lady (white label dnb remix)
5. aphex twin – vordhosbn
6. opium jukebox – unbelievable
7. plug – argos
8. ed.m.x. – can’t understand
9. gescom – gosheep
10. quant – intestinal sound
11. chaos ad – psultan (squarepusher mix)
12. precenphix – iccir
13. prefuse 73 – perverted undertone
14. fun tourist – yeah tell them
15. klute – oshima
16. amen andrews – fast and bulbous
17. rjd2 – 2 more dead
18. klute & tgm vs coil – dark chirashi river (terrahertz mix)
19. boards of canada – buckie high

Trans Am is one of my favorite bands of all time. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen them live. The first time was a semi-aborted performance at the end of the 1996 Indie Rock Flea Market in Arlington, VA where a still-dreadlocked Jon Theodore joined them. I say semi-aborted because they were playing last on their stage, the band performance schedule had gotten farther and farther behind as the day progressed, and the event time was about to run out. But I caught about 15 to 20 minutes of impressive stuff and was hooked.

I made this mix in 2003 but it didn’t see the light of day until 2004. While the mix is not really all encompassing in terms of Trans Am’s sound because they made a bunch of awesome and different sounding records afterwards, and because I leaned towards tracks with a mixable beat, I’m still proud of a couple of the transitions. Koln to Cologne at 15:25, and Illegal Ass to Illegalize It at 37:45 came out well.

You can download here.

Tracklist:

01. Cold War
02. I Want It All
03. Runners Standing Still
04. Koln
05. Cologne
06. Party Station
07. Asian Taste
08. Positron
09. Cocaine Computer
10. Illegal Ass
11. Illegalize It
12. Nazi Hippie Empire
13. Monica’s Story
14. Cold War (War Is Stupid)
15. I’m Coming Down
16. American Kooter

After Gabe Koch (the founder of Merck Records) had become acquainted with some of my earliest mixes, he asked me to put one together and make it exclusively from the label’s tunes. The plan was for Gabe to burn some CDRs of the mix and take them to the 2003 Winter Music Conference in Miami as promos. Apparently Gabe liked the mix enough that he decided to press up 1,000 legitimate CDs, and thus the Merck Mix series was born.

When I got my personal batch of discs and label swag as payment for the job (because neither I nor the label was in the position to talk about cutting a check) I could swear that the mix sounded better than when I uploaded the WAV files to Gabe’s FTP server. Apparently Gabe didn’t touch a single bit of the audio though, so it must have just been me glowing about finally being a “real” DJ.

You can check this one out on Discogs too.

Download here.

The tracklist:

1. Lackluster – haloaw (Merck 015)
2. Adam Johnson – sensible imposter (Merck 016)
3. MD – fres core (Merck 002)
4. Machine Drum – Vim’s one more record to bits and pieces mix (Merck 011)
5. Machine Drum – uptown (Merck 012)
6. Blamstrain – linja (Merck 013)
7. Proem – negative reinforcements (Merck 006)
8. Esem – square lamp (Merck 014)
9. Adam Johnson – autopop (Merck 016)
10. Kristuit Salu vs Morris Nightingale – dope soft intake (Merck 009)
11. Proswell – jasmine my serious flower (Merck 002)
12. Syndrone – ifni (Merck 002)
13. Blamstrain – alive in arms (Merck 013)
14. Lackluster – strateface (Merck 015)
15. Adam Johnson – traber (Merck 016)
16. Kristuit Salu vs Morris Nightingale – ethno cen (Merck 009)
17. Esem – upward instlr (Merck 014)
18. Sense – 250600 (Merck 004)
19. Blamstrain – etkno76 (Merck 013)
20. Machine Drum – riveurs enjienrd by Brothomstates (Merck 011)
21. MD – untitled [Ilkae packing slip remix] (Merck 003)
22. Machine Drum – hello my future [Tstewart remix] (Merck 011)
23. Machine Drum – yo what uh yeh [Secede’s dirty indian mix] (Merck 011)
24. Esem – cee (Merck 014)

The second mix I ever released, originally in 2003 as an mp3 and on CDR audio in 2004.

Download here.

Like Rat Poison, this was born from a live routine I had started on CD tables. Also like Rat Poison, sharing this mix helped me land the one and only professional DJ mix album release I would undertake. That happened in the Spring of 2003 and it was called “Merck Mix 1” — more on that later…

I’ve remastered this mix in 2022 to address some engineering shortfalls from 2003 when I was only beginning to understand that audio production choices matter. Here is the tracklist:

1. squarepusher – rustic raver
2. squarepusher – i wish you could talk
3. plug – a subtle blend
4. klute – three of us
5. lamb – little things (klute remix)
6. we – vulpecula
7. squarepusher – do you know
8. nightmares on wax – date with destiny
9. congo natty – bladerunner b1
10. squarepusher – mask500
11. klute – splendor
12. beaumont hannant – psi onyx (autechre remix)
13. afx – arched maid via rdj
14. boards of canada – 1969
15. ozomatli – dos cosas ciertas
16. asian dub foundation – culture move (adf vs mc navigator dub)
17. prefuse 73 – love you bring
18. palmskin productions – the beast (autechre remix)
19. def leppard – pour some sugar on me
20. arcon 2 – the beckoning

This is a mix that has evolved a few times over the years.

Download here.

The first version was under an hour long and was circulated online as a 192 kbps mp3 and as CDR audio in late 2002. It was simply named “Rat Poison” and was based on a live routine I had been building on CD tables.

The second version added more tracks and I improved the mixdown quality. This was titled “Rat Poison (Now With Extra Killing Power)” and I released it online in 2004 as a 192 kbps MP3 and on CDR yet again.

The third version is a remaster of the second version that I completed in 2007. I made some more audio engineering improvements here based on prior experience and it finally started sounding OK in its lossless versions. Apparently I made an MP3 of this but I don’t even know if/when I circulated the MP3.

Today I encoded the mixdown of this 2007 remaster to FLAC and have posted it here for your listening pleasure.

The tracklist:

1. techmaster PEB – bass by numbers
2. fingernail – a song by fingernail remixed by bochum welt
3. fuschimuschi – super sexy lady (time machine mix)
4. mandroid – jammin’ on my old piano (dmx krew remix)
5. quant – slide
6. perspects – desire and efficiency
7. lfo – psychodelik
8. colonel abrams – trapped (hell interface remix)
9. squarepusher – mind war electro
10. i-f – rage of aquarius
11. d’arcangelo – diagram vii (80’s mix)
12. anthony rother – biomechanik (larry mccormick remix)
13. fischerspooner – the 15th
14. wagon christ – suspension breakdown
15. datathief – night raid
16. jedi knights – dance of the naughty knights
17. bochum welt – saint tropez (remix)
18. 808 state – flow coma (afx remix)
19. whodini – freaks come out at night (jackal and hyde remix)
20. the hacker – fadin’ away
21. lowfish – cadmium red
22. the ace of clubs – 124.2
23. staubsauger – 7
24. dan the automator and dj shadow – third world lover
25. the dylan group – the girl from ipanema