Podrunner
Nonstop Music Mixes for Any Fast-Paced Workout
"Finish Big" (134 BPM) - New Mix Online
This mix marks the end of a chapter for Podrunner. It's the last mix that will be available before we acquire sponsorship November 1 and the Podrunner archive goes offline (see "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" below for details).
Podrunner isn't going away by any means — in fact, we're going to become even more visible while staying true to what we do. But it's still the last mix I'll be doing under a very wide-open set of circumstances. I wanted to celebrate that with an emotional mix that felt as if it was saying goodbye at the same time it was celebrating the new journey Podrunner is setting out on. On listening, I was surprised at the degree to which I felt "Finish Big" accomplished that. It's only going to be available for a week, so I pulled out all the stops, including making it an hour and 16 minutes long and playing the entire "Song for Shelter" ending track (see "Gimme Shelter" below) for the first — and last — time.
Gimme Shelter Fatboy Slim's "Song for Shelter" is what got me DJing. I had been going to hiphop clubs for about a year, but it seemed to me even then that hiphop had grown static. I wanted a new music. One night I was at my friend Adrian's apartment in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. (Y'all have met Adrian; he's DJ Beatsmith, who guest-hosted with the killer 153-BPM "Hotfoot" mix.) He put on this album by Fatboy Slim called Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. I thought it was great, but when it got to "Song for Shelter," I went mental. In 11 minutes it astonishingly captured the club experience, from arrival to peak to filing out into the gray dawn. "Is there more music like this?" I asked.
He grinned — and set me on a path I've been following ever since. When I began composing electronic dance music, Adrian helped me with technical issues and dealt with my frustration at the learning curve. I'm not the most patient guy. When I said I never wanted to DJ, he laughed out loud. When I started learning to DJ, he was there for me again. We swapped mixes and collaborated, talked for hours, went to clubs, and immersed ourselves in the scene. Through it all, "Song for Shelter" was a kind of anthem. Its "You guys just keep on rolling" refrain became Podrunner's unofficial motto.
Because of Podrunner's new music-licensing arrangements (see "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes" below), this marks the last time I'll be able to play "Song for Shelter" here, so I've dropped the whole ball of wax, cool-down and all. I hope it moves you even a tenth as much as it still does me.
And this mix is for Adrian, aka DJ Beatsmith, because none of this would have happened without him.
Beatport Playlist
The Original, High-Quality, Non-Mixed Tracks Featured in Podrunner
High-powered and emotionally charge grooves in this week's Podrunner playlist at Beatport.com! From haunting & gentle (Michaela Melian, "Stift"; Mango, "She Was Here [Kinta Mix]"), to tribal and irresistible (Thomas Penton & Alyson Calagna, "Drawn to the Rhythm"; Tribu del Sector 9, "Tribe from Sector 9 [Main Deep Space Mix]"), to full-out epic burners (Delphinium Blue, "Baby You're A Big Star Now," DJ Cor Fijneman, "Final Round,") to a lush farewell (Mora & Naccarati, "Sunset [Buga's Frosty Water Mix]"), Podrunner presents one of its best playlists ever to mark the joyous end of its full and unique childhood.
Groovelectric
Welcome to the New Old Funk
"Taken By Storm" - New Mix Online
I really like the feel of this mix, but I'm not sure I could say what that is. It's very moody and doesn't try to build to a furious peak; it feels more like driving in the rain, or sitting in the comfort of a beach house and watching an offshore storm roll in. In fact, it feels so much like that that I ran some storm effects throughout the mix. (Thank you, BBC Sound Effects Library.)
If you're a Groovelectric listener but not normally a Podrunner listener, give this week's Podrunner a shot. It's got a thematic, club-night feel, and I'd put it up as a Groovelectric mix in a New York minute.
Run Time Exclusive Download!
Groovelectric - "Wish Fulfillment"
Flavasauce @ Wish Bar, San Francisco, 10-12-07
This was an early set at Flavasauce at Wish in San Francisco last week. I wish I could have recorded all the DJs — the whole night was a nonstop barrage of what I call New Old Funk, and it was a joy to behold.
Vegas, Baby, Vegas
Thursday, November 8. The Joint @ Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas. Blogworld Expo Opening Night Party. Me. Music. Loud. Booze. What more do ya need?Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Ooh, Look Out, You Rock & Rollers
On Thursday night, November 1, all the Podrunner mixes currently available in the archive will go offline. Here's why, and here's how we'll be rebuilding a new foundation of mixes for you.
As Podrunner has grown, it has become more expensive to make available, but I could not legally or ethically earn revenue from the intellectual property of other artists and labels without their permission and participation. In fact I had to turn down several sponsorship deals because they would not have covered revenue for artists & labels. We worked very hard to come up with an unprecedented process for licensing independent dance music under conditions of sponsorship, until we achieved a situation where everyone who participates in the deceptively complicated process that is Podrunner can benefit. An unavoidable result of this new licensing is that, with the advent of our first sponsor on Nov. 1, Podrunner mixes containing tracks from labels that have not yet granted such licensing (and all of the mixes do) will have to come down, and only mixes containing content licensed under the new terms can go up from that point on.
Truthfully, other than the absence of the current archive, you won't notice any difference. Podrunner will still come out every week (after the 7 mixes during the 14 days of Speedweeks, that is). Tracks will still come from my budz at Beatport.com. New mixes will still remain available as archive mixes. A huge amount of labels are on board (many of them already appearing quite often in Podrunner), with an enormous pool of great tracks to draw from, and this will only grow.
I hope you will welcome our new and future sponsors. They're making it possible to bring Podrunner to you for free every week. Podrunner has become so big that we couldn't afford to continue without them. Not only that, their sponsorship allows us to turn our focus from mere maintenance (simply maintaining Podrunner is a full-time job, believe me) to growth, improvement, and diversity. In addition, we'll be working with some of our sponsors to help make even more people aware of Podrunner. There will be website improvements, freebies, prizes, appearances at sporting events, and other, extremely cool things I can't talk about yet.
Change involving growth is usually painful. Podrunner's growing pains have occurred mostly behind the scenes. Now that real change has finally arrived, I'm excited. My goal has never been to change Podrunner itself. It ain't broke, and I don't wanna fix it. But I have always wanted to make more people aware of it, make it available in the easiest and most appealing way, make sure that the artists & labels whose work I love being able to present will benefit from Podrunner's growth, and make sure that I can do all this and keep bringing it to you for free every week without messing with your experience of it. All of that is happening, and I'm delighted you're along for the ride.
--Steve Boyett
