With the DJ AM Lives Mixcloud page now fully crackin' with 34(!) mixes (and counting) legally up & available to stream, it's time to start hearing what some of your favorites are... I'll kick it off with mine.
My personal favorites are...
On the random music tip it's Old Navy Part 1 & Nous Modeling Agency Party because they are both really close to Elton mixes in terms of selection and style. Old Navy Part 1 also has the most classic rock of any of the AM mixes.
On the party side of things, the Power 106 mix will always rank at the top for me because I was there that day at the station & afterwards to see how it meant so much to DJ culture and how the recording of it inspired so many DJ's to be more open with their music selection. I've told the Power 106 story before (and in the documentary as well) and I may just post it again up on the DJ AM Lives blog soon for those that don't know it. Anyway, the Power 106 mix was a monumental moment in the mid-00s in terms of reach & effect on the DJ world. Honorable mentions go to the Live at Aura mix & Moomba Part 2 (because it was pre-serato, all vinyl and has a lot of the seeds of what made AM so great as a DJ).
Download the Mixcloud mobile app for easy streaming on the go and you can subscribe easily to the DJ AM Lives Mixcloud page at: https://www.mixcloud.com/djamlives/
Now, tell everybody YOUR favorite DJ AM mix and why below!
Elton 4, hands down
It's always so hard to choose a favorite DJ AM mix, as theres always some form of different magical moment in each set. The Aura one ranks up there for the sheer breadth of what he does in the set, most especially his classic ending going from his wonderwall routine into the rent/tipsy mashup into the cheers theme into the chachi mashup of PIMP/The Joker et al...
You can hear how AM sequenced out his set, switching between segments, like his abrupt switch into the hyphy sequence of lionel ritchie / e-40 or his mix into classic bmore remixes... the famous video of him playing his wonderwall routine really captures [to me at least] his immediacy to the crowd and their energy in the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgptSSGOHM AM always struck me like a classical composer, he seemed to consciously divide his nights out like sections of a symphony, and this one is a masterpiece of realtime performance.
For non mainstream sets, I could really say any of the Banana Split mixes, as those are some of the most creative, innovative sets ever done. His approach to tone and texture was, and still is, ahead of it's time. AM didn't seem to think in terms of musical key, but in terms of energy, the flow, and to me none is finer than his 5/6/07 mix alongside Scottie B. For some context that I found in my studying of it: http://djmikeb.blogspot.com/2007/05/saga-continues.html This mix goes from Bmore to Indie Rock to classic Punk rock. I only wish more mixes of his Banana Split existed as there is nothing in the history of music quite like what AM did at these.
I could write pages and pages about all the nuances I learned from hearing these mixes (and his mainstream ones too). But that's for another time, now back to life, back to reality. Much Love.
Just uploaded the DJ AM "Xtina" mixes to the DJ AM Lives Mixcloud & wrote a blog story on the backstory of them. Check it out here: https://www.djamlives.com/blog/the-xtina-mixes
Hmmm man what a hard choice....I think my favorites are Old Navy Part 2, and Live at Venom - but then again there all so amazing!
on a side note - May be a cool secondary post would be what are your favorite “chunks” or “Bit’s” so to speak. For example the Wonderwall mix, or don’t stop believing/another one bites the dust....just thought
cheers guys! Love the site!
Live at the Do Over is one of my favorite mixes ever. It is so eclectic and shows AM’s amazing taste in all types of music.
But it if I had to pick just one mix, it would be him at Afex with Adam 12. I love the idea of that party and loved hearing what AM could do playing pre-95 hip-hop and breaks.
On another note, the Elton mixes were consistently the 9pm-10pm “openers” before the actual opening DJ went on at every club I ran. I’ve heard each of those mixes hundreds of times and they never get old.