The holiday season is well underway, made abundantly clear by the onslaught of Christmas and end-of-the-year mixtapes in submission. Not necessarily the best time to submit new music, but just like Christmas for electronic music bloggers and fans alike. Artists from every genre, subgenre, third cousin once removed make either a holiday mix or some grandiose two hour recap of the year. It’s pretty rad that the electronic community celebrates through a sort of ceremonial exchange of mixtapes. Philadelphia might even still have some oldheads that gather for an actual mixtape exchange. As in, cassettes.
So many mixes are released in these two weeks; it is astounding. So much new music that some bloggers may not be so cheerful about the manner. On the other hand, there are those bouncing to the very classically classy sounds from Wolfgang Gartner’s, “Nightmare After Christmas Mix.” Gartner takes us to the house, his house which is heavy with holiday cheer. By holiday cheer I mean bass and beats and writhing synths mixed radically and smoothly for an hour of music having little to do with Christmas. After a few minutes that becomes irrelevant. The music is all that matters.
The season for mixtapes is here. Only the most elite of artists puts out a mix worth listening from beginning to end.
We would consider Wolfgang Gartner within that category.
To think he created this mix in part with his performance coming up in Chicago is fantastic. Be sure to check out the mix below and if you’re thinking out checking out his show where he will be playing along side both Bingo Players and Tommy Trash at the Aragon Ballroom on December 27th, go check out our giveaway for the event here.
“This mix was a cool way for me to play some stuff I normally don’t get to play in my sets. At gigs I’m thinking about the crowd and keeping the energy up and at a certain level, but at home I was able to pull out a few housier tracks that I wouldn’t play at most of my shows but I still think people ought to hear. This is kinda like a combination of what I would play at a normal show or a festival, and a bit of what I would play at a more chilled out pool party during the day or something on that tip” – Wolfgang Gartner
