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Music

On DECK: DJ New Jersey Drone

The New York producer's manic, 160 BPM rave excursions are turning him into the face of an emerging strain of totally bonkers, post-apocalyptic club music.

DJ New Jersey Drone isn't just one of the sickest DJ names of all time—it's also perfectly sums up what the mysterious New York-based producer sounds like: jacked-up Jersey Club fed through the cybernetic whirr of a military drone. Club music has been somersaulting through some wacky, dystopian permutations recently, with recent standouts from Endless' Kamixlo and Blaze Kidd, Classical Trax, and DJ collective Track Meet (Ynfynyt Scroll, Shooknite, and AiR DJ). But DJ New Jersey Drone's manic, 160 BPM excursions through rave, techno, juke, ballroom, and grime are buzzing in their own universe—like an alien death-ship, half-lit byflickering neon lights, both ominous and thrilling. All synapses firing at the same time.

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Coming off a string of buzzy releases—including 2014's Energy EP (which had Murlo and Rabit on the remix tip), this summer's Espresso SYN EP on Bootleg Tapes, and a guest spot on NTS Radio—DJ New Jersey Drone and his Mind Club label are quickly becoming the faces of an emerging strain of totally bonkers, post-apocalyptic club music.

Excitingly, his contribution to our ON DECK mix series is full of unreleased original cuts; as the producer himself puts it, this is a mix that "gives the feeling of being in a club space and having the capability of turning gravity on and off." Read our interview below—and if you're in Brooklyn, don't miss his set at the local label Swim Team's party (also with THUMP fave Juliana Huxtable) tonight.

DJ New Jersey Drone isn't just one of the sickest DJ names of all time—it's also perfectly sums up what the mysterious New York-based producer sounds like: jacked-up Jersey Club fed through the cybernetic whirr of a military drone. Club music has been somersaulting through some wacky, dystopian permutations recently, with recent standouts from Endless' Kamixlo and Blaze Kidd, Classical Trax, and DJ collective Track Meet (Ynfynyt Scroll, Shooknite, and AiR DJ). But DJ New Jersey Drone's manic, 160 BPM excursions through rave, techno, juke, ballroom, and grime are buzzing in their own universe—like an alien death-ship, half-lit byflickering neon lights, both ominous and thrilling. All synapses firing at the same time.

Coming off a string of buzzy releases—including 2014's Energy EP (which had Murlo and Rabit on the remix tip), this summer's Espresso SYN EP on Bootleg Tapes, and a guest spot on NTS Radio—DJ New Jersey Drone and his Mind Club label are quickly becoming the faces of an emerging strain of totally bonkers, post-apocalyptic club music.

Excitingly, his contribution to our ON DECK mix series is full of unreleased original cuts; as the producer himself puts it, this is a mix that "gives the feeling of being in a club space and having the capability of turning gravity on and off." Read our interview below—and if you're in Brooklyn, don't miss his set at the local label Swim Team's party (also with THUMP fave Juliana Huxtable) tonight.

THUMP: What have you been up to?
DJ New Jersey Drone: Always searching for the next big high. Working on new sounds, texting sound ideas to myself, thinking about installations, trying to meet new people... I have been working on eating healthier as well.

How and where was this mix recorded?
Took all the MIND CLUB files I could find and burned to CD-R. Then recorded from CD turntables and Ableton and a mixer straight into Logic with some bonus features added on top.

Can you tell me about some of the ideas behind the mix?
I try to create a mix that gives the feeling of being in a club space and having the capability of turning gravity on and off. There would ideally be construction equipment, soft moldable rubber-like furniture, exotic birds and espresso in the club space. You get this visual of things floating and bouncing off one another and then all dropping chaotically at the same time.

I love watching an audience get into a groove and then get disrupted suddenly. Black Hole-type bass drop. I am always looking for new sounds that have a textural quality that you could rub on your body. Almost all of the music on the mix was made either by myself (besides Thugger and an Aguirre soundtrack remix by Russell Haswell and Florian Hecker), or with other MIND CLUB artists.

How would you describe this mix with one sentence?
Sewing together aerogels with other synthetic materials to form the figure of a ghost.

That's incredible. And lastly, what are you up to next?
Releasing my first vinyl with Purple Tape Pedigree in early 2016, working with RLX ASSASSYN to finally release the Strong EP digitally with the MIND CLUB stamp. Maybe I will actually finish some remixes... s/o to Bootleg Tapes, Track Meet, GENG, Tom Nook, Sol, Birk, Joey B and everyone else <3

Tracklist:

1. No Syn Blays Island
2. Fiend (w/ Birk)
3. 204 Murdok - Venom Break
4. DJNJD - Syn Stair (no fountain)
5. Worm
6. Thugger - no way
7. RLX ASSASSYN - Fix Synphon
8. EC+DjNjD - HydroTest
9. CPU LUV (DJNJD edit)
10. DjNjD - SYN555 Zone
11. Blunt Study 1
12. DJNJD - Syn Stair (wherr u at )
13. Blunt Study 2
14. Aguirre 1 (Russell Haswell and Hecker edit)
15. DjNjD - 10 Cones

THUMP: What have you been up to?
DJ New Jersey Drone: Always searching for the next big high. Working on new sounds, texting sound ideas to myself, thinking about installations, trying to meet new people… I have been working on eating healthier as well.

How and where was this mix recorded?
Took all the MIND CLUB files I could find and burned to CD-R. Then recorded from CD turntables and Ableton and a mixer straight into Logic with some bonus features added on top.

Can you tell me about some of the ideas behind the mix?
I try to create a mix that gives the feeling of being in a club space and having the capability of turning gravity on and off. There would ideally be construction equipment, soft moldable rubber-like furniture, exotic birds and espresso in the club space. You get this visual of things floating and bouncing off one another and then all dropping chaotically at the same time.

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I love watching an audience get into a groove and then get disrupted suddenly. Black Hole-type bass drop. I am always looking for new sounds that have a textural quality that you could rub on your body. Almost all of the music on the mix was made either by myself (besides Thugger and an Aguirre soundtrack remix by Russell Haswell and Florian Hecker), or with other MIND CLUB artists.

How would you describe this mix with one sentence?
Sewing together aerogels with other synthetic materials to form the figure of a ghost.

That's incredible. And lastly, what are you up to next?
Releasing my first vinyl with Purple Tape Pedigree in early 2016, working with RLX ASSASSYN to finally release the Strong EP digitally with the MIND CLUB stamp. Maybe I will actually finish some remixes… s/o to Bootleg Tapes, Track Meet, GENG, Tom Nook, Sol, Birk, Joey B and everyone else <3

Tracklist:

1. No Syn Blays Island
2. Fiend (w/ Birk)
3. 204 Murdok - Venom Break
4. DJNJD - Syn Stair (no fountain)
5. Worm
6. Thugger - no way
7. RLX ASSASSYN - Fix Synphon
8. EC+DjNjD - HydroTest
9. CPU LUV (DJNJD edit)
10. DjNjD - SYN555 Zone
11. Blunt Study 1
12. DJNJD - Syn Stair (wherr u at )
13. Blunt Study 2
14. Aguirre 1 (Russell Haswell and Hecker edit)
15. DjNjD - 10 Cones