New Homepage

I decided to change my DJ name and feel it's time to start a new website. The reason for this name change is a kind of 'stepping to a new level'. First, now I have the experience of my first gig under my belt, and second, I finally moved from low-budget equipment to *almost* second-to-none gear. The third and most important reason is that 'Progetto Paperino' is annoyingly long name to write again and again and again… Anyway, the first step of my "progetto" (=project) is now taken and the homepage of DJ Sam-El sees the daylight:

DJ Sam-El Official Homepage

The First Gig

It seems I haven't posted here in ages, which is mostly caused by my time-consuming summer job. So there hasn't been much any DJing activity. At least not until today, since I played a set this afternoon on the Pyynikki beach in Tampere :) The Romance Event and 33100 organize every sunny summer Sunday some cool relaxed music on the beach and today I was invited and honoured to start the show with approx. 1,5 h set (thanks to DJ Flight for the chance).

As the scene wasn't filled with extremely enthusiastic party people but about 200 sunbathers enjoying the fine weather, I left the most banging tunes home and went with a bit little slower and relaxing house music. I don't remember 100 % accurately what I played (I was so nervous...) but this tracklist must be quite close to the truth:

Progetto Paperino @ Pyynikki Beach 27.7.2008

1. Kaoru Inoue - The Secret Field (Todd Terje Remix)

2. Echologist - Wonder

3. Mark Knight & Funkagenda - Shogun (Mark Knight & Funkagenda's Average House Band Remix)

4. Motor Mouth - Horses, Cars & Stars (Marcello Giordani Just In Time Remix)

5. Elastic Sound - Moscow After Autumn Rain (Blacksoul Remix)

6. Ian Pooley - My Thing

7. Marcello Giordani - Respect Yourself

8. Ferdy & Matt van Wyk - Miami 8:06

9. Paul Keeley - A Sort Of Homecoming

10. Arthur Deep - Friends (Mango Remix)

11. Mango - Handelskai

12. Pryda - F12

13. Melon - Nitzi (In My Mind, So Fine)

14. Sultan, Ned Shepard & Maher Daniel - Itajai Vibes (16 Bit Lolitas Remix)

15. Ian Pooley - 900 Degrees (Tom Middleton Cosmos Deep Dub Edit)

Paperino Feels The Vibe

¡Hola!

As summer is closing in every day, and I am only a couple of exams away from my summer holiday (which I spend working, though), I played some summer-minded tunes. I happened to record the set, and it turned out to be a very good one for me. Almost all mixes were flawless (not the last one, sense the irony) and its overall mood is very warm and joyful.

I would really love to play a set like this in some club! And this set puts my ideals of dance music in a two-hour nutshell: progressive house, slash of techno, fluid Balearic melodies and fairly uplifting trance in the end. However, once again I provide this one online, so everyone is able to decide on his own whether it's a success or merely a failure ;-)

Tracklist:

1. Nina Simone - Here Comes The Sun (François K Remix)

2. Ferdy & Matt van Wyk - Miami 8:06

3. Michael Cassette - David

4. Pryda - F12

5. Komytea - Soldiers Of Karkadu

6. Solaris Heights - No Trace (Quigley Pacemaker Vox)

7. Mario Più & Alex Catalani & Claudio Maura - High Performance

8. Pagano - My Religion (Andy Allder Balearic Mix)

9. Jaytech - Pepe’s Garden

10. Komytea - Tomb

11. Mike Litt - Hard Times (Lützenkirchen Remix)

12. Jody Wisternoff - Cold Drink, Hot Girl

13. Sunlounger - White Sand

14. Ahmet Ertenu - African People

15. David West - Stuck In Friendsville (Allende Remix)

16. Sultan & Ned Shepard - Eye Spy

17. Andy Moor - Halcyon

18. Francis Davila & Alex Hentze - Visions Of You (Gabriel Batz Mix)

19. Maor Levi - Shapes (Oliver Smith Remix)

20. Maor Levi - Lital (Daniel Kandi Remix)

Straight download link

Laserpoint 2008

I visited Laserpoint for the first time in my life last Saturday, and it was quite unbelievable experience. The lasers were very spectacular, I haven't seen something like them live ever before. Although most main arena artists didn't get me into mood (for some reason, I felt very tired from the very beginning), the night was super because of the last two performers.

John '00' Fleming played a very interesting and 'kick ass' set, which I later discovered to be so-called 'psy trance'. Something new once again for me! But the real 'worth-for-the money' was DJ Orkidea with his own 'producer set'. It was simply breathtaking 70 minutes in pure trance bliss at the end of the night! (And forgot my tiredness almost completely :-D)

The next day I was still very enthusiastic with that set, and decided to record my own 'Orkidea producer set'. And it was completed today, so here is the result: LINK

And the tracklist looks like this:

1. Lowland & Orkidea - Masochrist [AVA]

2. Andy Moor & Orkidea - YearZero (Andy Moor’s First Light Remix) [AVA]

3. Orkidea - Free Dreams [AVA]

4. Solarstone & Orkidea - Slowmotion [AVA]

5. Way Out West - Killa (Orkidea vs. Dallas Superstars Remix) [AVA]

6. Tiësto - Flight 643 (Orkidea’s Wintergalactic Remix) [Black Hole]

7. Aalto - Rush [Anjunabeats]

8. Orkidea - Beautiful (Alt+F4 Remix) [Sential]

9. Pagano - My Religion (Andy Allder Balearic Mix) [Iberican!]

"Winter Funked Up" out and alive!

Here it is! My latest mixtape "Winter Funked Up" is now completed and online. It took about a month's time to be designed and planned, but I'm very happy with the result. Definitely it is my best work to date. The file can be downloaded here (straight link this time, folks!). And the track list turned out this way in the end:

Progetto Paperino - Winter Funked Up

1. Chicane - Arizona pt 2 [Modena]

2. Pryda - Frankfurt [Pryda Recordings]

3. Myers Briggs - Forever [Sentient Sound]

4. Morgan Page feat. Lissie - Longest Road (Deadmau5 Remix) [Nettwerk]

5. Pryda - Pjanoo [Pryda Recordings]

6. Electrobios & Interplay - With You (Jaytech Remix) [AnjunaDeep]

7. Above & Beyond pres. Tranquility Base - Surrender (Jaytech Remix) [Anjunabeats]

8. Sultan & Ned Shepard - Eye Spy (Matthew Dekay Remix) [Harem Records]

9. Jody Wisternoff - Cold Drink, Hot Girl [Distinct’ive Breaks]

10. 16 Bit Lolitas feat. Jennifer Horne - Feel I’m Falling [Cr2 Records]

11. Junkie XL feat. Lauren Rocket - More (Matthew Dekay Remix) [Nettwerk America]

12. Tim Davison - Spark (Jay Lumen Remix) [Baroque Records]

13. Steve Mac & Mark Brown - Bells Of Brighton [Cr2 Records]

14. Ahmet Ertenu - African People [Baroque Records]

15. Super8 & Tab - Helsinki Scorchin’ (Michael Cassette Remix) [Anjunabeats]

Straight download link

Spring is coming!

Finally I have got some time to focus on DJing, and the result is going to be a brand new mixtape. Although it needs some planning before I can hand it out. Anyway, the theme is (of course) about spring, and the tape name "Winter Funked Up". The name means that winter is going to be beaten by spring (yeah, it happens every year but it's still the best moment of the year anyway).

The tape is going to continue my movement towards progressive house and some flashes of techno, but I ain't certain about the accurate tracklisting yet. Pryda is going to have a couple tunes in the mixtape so expect to find some groovy electro house on it. But just wanted to add some update on this page, since I haven't touched it in over a month. I try to have something to add here a bit more often. Stay tuned!

The Idols

Many of us have musical influences, although some claim they don't have any but they create their own sound. I consider it to be rubbish, we all are affected by other people. Nobody can create something completely new, it's all influenced by someone or something.

I could tell something about my musical influences. My "listening history" is quite random one. Somewhere in the end of the millenium I started to listen more music than just some random radio listening. At first I was interested in Finnish rock. But is was mostly because my classmates listened to it too, and I was just going with the flow. And when they moved to heavy metal, I went along. But I have to admit that I still enjoy "opera heavy" what e.g. Nightwish released in the beginning of this millenium. And I think wide music knowledge is a strength, also in composing music. One can be inspired by such weird and surprising things.

However, the revolution of my music taste was to be unleashed in 2002. I heard a tune of Apollo FourForty's, "Stop The Rock". To my knowledge, it isn't completely electronic tune but it sounded so fresh and different from what I used to listen, I wanted to know more about this group. Then I borrowed their album "Electro Glide In Blue" from the local library and immediately fell in love with tracks like "Krupa" and the title song. And little by little I became aware of another British act, Chicane. I downloaded a Formula One video (I'm still a fan of the sport) which contained "Saltwater" by Chicane as background music. And what a lovely tune it is! I still haven't bored with it, although I have listened to it for six years.

My knowledge of electronic music grew slowly but steadily. I had already discovered Faithless, whose musical work I appreciate very much, before Chicane and then I was introduced by coincidence with BT. Since my friends didn't listen to electronic music, my living environment didn't offer these "hot artist tips" for free. Getting familiar with BT's musical works was a real pleasure, and I think he definitely is one of the most talented composers ever. While still wondering BT's magnificient skills, I, once again, was coincidentally brought to a legend of electronic music, Kraftwerk. These silent men from Düsseldorf fascinated me with their minimalist sound. I even went to see them live in Tallinn in May 2004!

For two years I listened almost only these four acts, Kraftwerk, Chicane, BT and Faithless. I still had no clue where to find quality electronic music (watching MTV didn't really help my task). But this was notorious time to study some old progressive rock bands, e.g. Pink Floyd. In spring 2007 I finally came across with Paul van Dyk's "The Politics Of Dancing 2". It was like a religious experience, I immediately became interested in trance. And from there the snowball really began to roll.

And by now I feel I have somewhat good knowledge of trance acts (far from perfect, I admit). Since I have a constant passion to learn something new, I have slowly started to explore techno and house (whose widespreadness amazes me). But with these two genres I'm a complete novice. Who knows, maybe I'll move to drum 'n' bass when I feel I know house and techno well enough! In my opinion, a versatile knowledge of music is essential if one wants to be a successful composer/DJ. To know is always a benefit, not a loss.

Electro Melodies

My latest mixtape, "Electro Melodies" is now online. I added the link to the right-side column. But for certainty, I'll add a duplicate here. Since I don't have any regular web space, it's rather difficult to find place for these mixtapes. Of course I could use Rapidshare or something similar but operating with them is quite annoying.

Anyway, this mixtape isn't like my usual work, it's an expedition to a bit deeper and darker sound than I tend to play. The tracklist reminds a bit "who's who in progressive house" -list but I think that won't affect the quality in a negative way.

Tracklist:

1. Ridgewalkers feat. El - Find (Andy Moor Remix)

2. Deadmau5 - Faxing Berlin (Chris Lake Edit)

3. John Digweed - Gridlock (Digweed & Muir's Stereo Club Mix)

4. Shiloh - Cafe Del Mariachi (Nick Warren Mix)

5. Sasha - Mongoose (Original Mix)

6. Jaytech - Pepe's Garden (Original Mix)

7. Underworld - Beautiful Burnout (Mark Knight Remix)

8. Ferdy & Matt van Wyk - Miami 8:06 (Original Mix)

9. Andy Duguid feat. Leah - Don't Belong (Original Mix)

10. Michael Cassette - Shadows Movement (Original Mix)

Hope you enjoy! And feedback is very welcome!