7 DJ Sets To Dance To In Isolation
By Christina Karras
For lots of us, this period of social distancing might be the first time in a long time where we are looking at a calendar of empty Saturday nights. If like me, you’ve become accustomed to a weekly Saturday night boogie, filled with dance floor hugs and bathroom chats, you might be feeling a little lost in lockdown.
With clubs forced to close, electronic dance music is struggling under the suffocating cloak of COVID-19. Industry champions like Resident Advisor are running online initiatives like “Save Our Scene”, streaming Club Quarantine events. Meanwhile local label Untitled Group recently hosted a virtual day party to give people their iso party fix.
So to keep you busy this weekend, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite DJ’s sets to dance to from your living room. Or kitchen, or bedroom.
Ross From Friends Boiler Room London Live Set
The comments have aptly billed this set from British producer Felix Clary Weatherall and friends as “the most wholesome boiler room set” and they aren’t wrong. Listening to this is like lo-fi hug from friends who are incredibly good at what they do, and are having a lot of fun doing it. Complete with fresh live arrangements, warm synths and a guitar solo (played sitting on someone’s shoulders, no less) it’s the chaotic good of parties.
Bicep at Printworks 2018
Bicep is techno music at it’s most euphoric. The Belfast duo have become notorious for their live light shows and this production at Printworks in London is a prime example. The pair manage to nail the perfect mix of heavy beats layered with lighter vocals and accents. This live set featuring remixes of their most beloved tracks will make you feel some type of way, and miss the dark embrace of the dance floor.
Honey Dijon Boiler Room x Sugar Mountain 2018 DJ Set
This video has become one of the most watched Boiler Room’s of all-time, with over 4.8 million views and for good reason. She delivers unbridled joy and energy in a way only good house music can, and it’s written all over the crowd’s smiling and sweaty faces. With a Stevie Wonder intro, a MLK voice over and retro dance tracks, it’s unbelievably good. As someone who was there live two years ago and watched it countless times since, this set doesn’t age.
Folamour Boiler Room x Fly Open Air 2019
Jam packed with high-energy disco and funk classics, it’s the perfect at-home boogie to lift your mood any time of day. The Frenchman has everyone up and about and ABBA’s Gimme Gimme proves to be one of the most iconic dance floor moments of ever. Pure fun.
FJAAK Pitch Music and Arts 2020
If you want to hear some techno that will get your heart-rate up, you can’t go past FJAAK. Recorded from the RA stage at Pitch Music & Arts in March (only a week or two before the shutdown began) it’s hard, fast, dark and heavy enough to make you want to punch a wall - but I’d recommend a fist pump in the air instead. Listen to the full RA Pitch playlist and you can pretend you’re at a festival for bonus fun.
Peggy Gou’s Cover Mix: Mixmag
This set is like a mixed bag of lollies from Peggy Gou, in the best way possible. It was near impossible to pick just one of her sets, but this one recorded in 2018 might be one of her most unique mixes. She comes in hot with a remix of an Abdulla Rashim & Henrik Bergqvist track featuring an impassioned speech from Charles Bukowski, and ends high with characteristic Gou-filled melodies.
Fatima Yamaha Boiler Room x Dekmantel 2015
It’s difficult to find the right words to describe the wash of emotions you feel from Fatima Yamaha’s tracks. ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ remains one of the most enigmatic dance tracks of all-time and his melancholic productions have a way of touching people’s hearts, in a way you don’t quite expect from dance music. Seeing him work his magic in this live set is 51 minutes of isolation well spent.