Episode 279: iLLya & Richie Haynes @ Mark Farina Close Up 07/12/24

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This mix is a recording from a recent event at the Civic Underground club in Sydney.
It was the gloves off set for Mark Farina who had just done a four hour harbour boat party for Mushroom Jazz earlier that evening.
I was asked if I wanted to do the closing set, and who would I wanted to go b2b with.
Two names immediately came to mind, Ritmiq, a deep and minimal house DJ who I rate highly and iLLya Cooper a well known Sydney legend. In the end I went with iLLya, because of his long standing friendship with Mark, having played alongside him on many previous tours.
A lot of people thought I was brave and a little crazy trying to play b2b with such a skilled DJ, but I wanted to be challenged.
I had iLLya come onto my radio show a couple of days before the event to see how we could sound together. You can check out the show here.
The atmosphere in the club was pretty special, the crowd was very knowledgable and a real mix of ages. Mark got them fired up good and proper and before we knew it, we were up.
iLLya started our set off and played for the first 15 minutes. We then went back and forth for the next hour and a half. As you can hear iLLya drops acappellas and vocal hits all through the mix, scratching and chopping. It was a wild experience but so much fun.
I dropped my latest track "London Nights" and was blown away by the response. Everything seemed to change on the dancefloor, different people were suddenly at the front of the dancefloor in front of me and they were giving it some. It felt amazing seeing people connect and enjoy something you have created.
I really hope to get the chance to play b2b with iLLya again. A longer set would be magic as we were just getting into our stride.
For anyone in Sydney you can catch me at Tatler tomorrow night where I have the whole night to myself!!! Four hour set where I can stretch my legs and play some incredible music from the last 35 years of house.
The following Saturday (21st), I am back at the Civic again for Night Safari. I'll be picking up where I left off.
Finally, on NYE I'll be playing for Boogie at the Ivy Ballroom supporting none other than DJ Spen and Dave Lee (Joey Negro)!
It's been a great year for DJing out for me, fingers crossed that 2025 continues in the same direction.
Enjoy!