Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz 5 - March 22

[nbpgt]

soon to come.. got it on my wishlist @ cduniverse.com

im super psyched about this one... along with danny howells the following week.

[lmmadic]

tnx for the heads up, looking forward to this aswell

[peloquin]

looking forward to it for sure, he's playing here march 11th, def. gonna go even tho i saw him a couple of months ago. should be a good cd, although the mushroom jazz series has been hit or miss for me

[Garrick]

!!! hell yeah. i had no idea he was coming out with a new one. i am very much looking forward to this.

[nbpgt]

i cant say hit or miss for any of them except for #1.. i didnt dig it much but the rest all have their own flavor.. marks da man.

[buckman]

yeah cant wait for this.Mark Farina is in Boston Tomorrow.Fred Everything at Rise.cant get any better than that.

[Garrick]

i cant say hit or miss for any of them except for #1.. i didnt dig it much but the rest all have their own flavor.. marks da man.

part 1 is my favorite

[DreamGirlie]

looking forward to it for sure, he's playing here march 11th, def. gonna go even tho i saw him a couple of months ago. should be a good cd, although the mushroom jazz series has been hit or miss for me

same deal here pretty much i saw him late summer and now he is back tom night which i cant wait, fred everything too

[Troklo]

Re: mark farina - muchroom jazz 5 - march 22

I've never heard farina live is he really thatt good?????

[DreamGirlie]

yeah cant wait for this.Mark Farina is in Boston Tomorrow.Fred Everything at Rise.cant get any better than that.

haha i didnt even notice you said the same thing.

[Garrick]

i think he is in atlanta next weekend. not sure how he is live, i have never heard anything he has done live. does he play downtempo stuff or what?

[peloquin]

on the mushroom jazz tour (here at least) he is playing a downtempo set, most of the time its straight up house musakkk

[buckman]

mark farina live sets are completely night and day compared to his mushroom jazz stuff.Him live is more jackin up tempo house music.

[DreamGirlie]

on the mushroom jazz tour (here at least) he is playing a downtempo set, most of the time its straight up house musakkk

not necassarily. read this article/interview from yesterday with him, he says even though it his mushroom jazz tour he wont be playing that stuff primarily.

Mark Farina
VIP DJ
Andy Barrett

If you read past interviews with DJ Mark Farina, one thing that becomes clear is his reliance on immediacy or, as he puts it, ?feel.? This may come as a surprise, considering the man has been behind the decks since house meant, to most people, that thing you lived in. Twenty-plus years in the game suggests anything but an immediate approach, but over the course of those years, Farina has refined his ability to operate almost entirely in the moment, while skirting the consequences of such rash spontaneity. He comes off as hyperaware of everything that is and has gone on in his fractured genre, while simultaneously maintaining a level of naivete (and/or indifference) that suggests he may be on to something more important and worthwhile than many realize.

?I guess it?s just that I try to focus on what?s going on now, rather than what happened then or what will happen next week,? he explains. ?If you dwell on something for too long, it can completely change what you were going for in the first place, often in a bad way.? In conversation, Farina cites enough specific facts and figures to remind you he was in fact there?but also manages to quickly size up your own level of knowledge and respond accordingly. If you mention Chicago house phenom Derrick Carter, he?ll probably recount a story about when the two lived and DJed together in the late ?80s. If you mention Medusa?s, he?ll probably talk about his formative years as a resident there and the nine-hour marathon sets he often played at the Chicago all-nighter.

A serious case of right-place-right-time could explain just how Mark Farina, a slightly nerdy white guy with glasses, managed to become a centerpiece in an almost exclusively gay, black form of underground dance music. But that would be entirely discrediting the countless hours he spent listening to early DJs work the decks on local college radio or the myriad of influences Farina himself eventually brought to the dance floor, thanks to an eclectic musical upbringing.

The truth is, if changes occurred within the house music (or more recently, downtempo) scene, Farina is aware of them, because he may well have been in part responsible. Once reserved primarily for elevator sound systems and whack lounges where people in berets commingled with balding ponytailed dudes, downtempo seems to have finally found its strut, partly by way of Farina?s Mushroom Jazz series (OM Records). The fifth installment of this series (which drops March 22) is rich with comfortable sounds: airy, soulful vocal snippets, snappy 100 bpm breaks and subtle synth pads. It?s a sound that occupies the end of the downtempo spectrum opposite Kruder & Dorfmeister?one that naturally (if unfortunately) elicits terms like ?chill? and ?good vibes? without making you want to punch a hippie in his dumb fucking face.

Accurate as it may be, the above description leads to one question: Why the hell, then, is Farina?s Mushroom Jazz tour coming to Avalon, the mother of all superclubs and not, say, something more lounge-y and horizontal like the Enormous Room? The answer goes back to Farina?s ability to read a party and rock it accordingly?a skill he?s been developing since the early days?the ?feel,? as it were.

He breaks it down: ?Each show, I don?t go into it with a planned set list. I just bring a bunch of stuff and check it out when I get there. For something like Bonnaroo or Coachella, obviously I?m playing to a much different crowd than if I?m playing a more specific club. If I?m in Chicago, I?m going to go deeper into the vaults of house; whereas at Avalon, I know people go there expecting to hear a certain sound, with a certain energy?and something at 105 bpm isn?t necessarily going to provide that. If a night has a reputation for being more progressive, I might play a little harder, but also know that I can change the tempo up a bit, and people will respond. I know that in most cities, the Mushroom Jazz shit isn?t a peak-hour type of thing; but I can use it to really rock the dynamic of a peak-hour set.?

Playing whatever it takes to get the party going is what Mark Farina?s approach boils down to?which explains both his dedication to a genre having surpassed its second decade, and his exploration and proliferation of something entirely different. It also points to why Farina may well be the perfect, if most unlikely, host for Avaland?s 7th birthday party this Friday. His objective is to make people dance and feel good, not tend to the strict genre lines that currently fence in most club nights. And thank God; we could use it.

[Garrick]

good article. i might have to venture to eleven50 and check him out.