On December 9th I returned to the Trolley Barn to DJ again for my friend Valerie Young. This time around my goal was to have a better mix of high energy and lower energy “groovy” tunes, and I wanted to be better prepared for tying in endings at any time, no matter how many times through the caller requested.

Prep

While I still prepped by marking each time through the dance with whether it looped cleanly or not, this time I (mostly) marked it with a cue instead of a 64 beat loop. I also named the cue based on what other cues I could jump to cleanly from it. For example, if I were on the last time through the dance I would mark if it looped cleanly itself, but also that I could jump backwards 3 times to cue 6 (or whatever the case may be). This way if I’m nearing the end of the dance but the caller is running it a bit longer I can reset without a single 32 bar phrase starting to get repetitive. I can also plan ahead by seeing that cue 6 lets me jump back to cue 8 or 9 afterwards (let’s assume these are the last two cues), which means that if the caller immediately calls 2 more times through I know that I can cleanly jump back to 2 more times without incident. I also mark a handful of things in the music such as if this time through the dance is a big recognizable build up (which I might not want to repeat even if technically it sounds okay), or if I shouldn’t jump back before a cue because the energy is significantly lower and we don’t want to kill the energy that had already been built up on the dance floor. This made it much easier to always follow the callers instructions and not have to scramble to wrap up the song or ask if we can do 4 times through the dance instead of 2 or what not.

The Set

I started out the set with a slowed down mix of “ Whelan’s ”, “ Baghad Gus ”, and “ Congress Reel ” all by Wild Asparagus. This was a medley that I had planned for my previous set but hadn’t managed to use, but it worked quite well to “ Whoever is Right is Right ” by Jim Hemphill. The only iffy moment I had in this medley was in one of the transitions where I thought I executed it perfectly, only to have the tune I was introducing jump half a beat ahead, breaking the rhythm. I had left the Quantize option on (which locks the two beat grids together even if you’re a little bit off) and unfortunately the beat grid on the song in question was about half a beat off at the point I was doing the intro.

Lesson learned: pay more attention to what options you’ve got selected (and reset them between songs, this would be a problem several times during the evening) and in a song where the beat grid can’t be right through the entire song (ie. because of tempo changes), make sure it’s correct at the point you’re going to mix in.

Whelan's / Baghad Gus / Congress Reel by Wild Asparagus, DJ mix

For the second dance Valerie picked “ Made Up Tonight ” by Erik Hoffman. This dance is relatively easy and in some ways similar to the previous dance so I decided the dancers could handle a little bit higher tempo and energy level. I did a mix of “ Bus Stop! ” by The Free Raisins and “ Rec Hall ” by Kingfisher. This is another mix I had prepared for my previous set and one of the ones I was most excited about performing. Unfortunately I completely broke the transition by just forgetting to bring the volume up on Rec Hall, so I ended up killing the music entirely for a few beats before I realized what was happening and brought it back in. It sounded terrible, and this one the dancers couldn’t help but notice, but Valerie kept calling so they were on beat still when I finally realized what was happening.

Lesson learned: go ahead and beat match and mix in a few bars early, then do the transition by bringing the volume up instead of just hitting play, or just remember to have the volume up first.

Bus Stop! / Rec Hall by The Free Raisins and Kingfisher, DJ mix

At this point Valerie decided to take the evening in a different direction from the modern, improper and becket contras that the Trolley Barn normally asks callers to stick to. She called “ The Steps of Waterloo ”, a traditional Sicilian circle, which I’ve never seen done at the Trolley Barn before. Since this one is both easy and a bit silly I used “[Flying Ice Cream]” by Giant Robot Dance which starts out very slow and groovy, then ramps up dramatically in the second half. Once the dance ramped up I mixed it with “ The Randomainians ” by The Great Bear Trio to make it last a little longer. This was the one mix and dance combo of the night that I was mostly extremely pleased with, when the tempo and energy ramped up half way through the song the dancers cheered and started frantically rushing to try and get to the basket swing in the limited time the (normally too fast) music allowed which was a lot of fun.

Lesson learned: prepare about twice as much music as you think you’ll need for the evening (to be fair, I already knew this, I was just struggling with the preparation for this set and didn’t end up with enough time to finish the other mixes I was considering).

Flying Ice Cream / The Randomanians by Giant Robot Dance and The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

Continuing Valerie’s theme of not doing modern contras she picked “The Hand Jive”, a proper ceilidh, by Colin Towns next. Because this dance is a bit more “fun” and contains some patty-cake like hand games I decided to do a simple but fun mix of “ Raccoon ” by Wake Up Robin and Disco Snails by Vulfmon and Zachary Barker.

Unfortunately I hadn’t considered that, easy as the hand clapping is, it required Valerie to do a significant amount more calling than she normally would do and never drop out, so picking a song with lyrics was a bad idea. A few people still got a chuckle out of the “Disco Snails” cameo though.

Lesson learned: make sure to pay attention to how much the caller will have to talk and ask if they plan on dropping out before introducing something with lyrics.

Racoon / Disco Snails by Wake Up Robin and Vulfmon and Zachary Barker, DJ mix

We took our mid-dance waltz break at this point for which I played “ Waiting for Landfall ” by Julie Vallimont, “ Indifference ” by the String Beings, and “ Norwegian Reinlender / Schottis From Idre ” by Wild Asparagus. I’d hoped that some of the dancers would know the schottische for the second part of the medley, but mostly it just confused everybody who kept trying to waltz even though it was no longer a waltz.

Coming back we were running a bit late so I decided to drop the show-stopper for the evening, a mix of “ Rainy Night ” by The Dam Beavers, “ Tween Spirit ” by Giant Robot Dance, and “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ” (which, of course, the previous tune is a cover of) by Nirvana. This was paired with “ Birminghams ” by Gary Nelson.

I played the first two tunes as a normal medley, then when Valerie indicated that she was ready for three times left through the dance I mixed in the actual Nirvana version just for the ending. I was worried this crowd wouldn’t care for it, but when the tune first came in (as “Tween Spirit”) a lot of the dancers started singing along, and when actual Nirvana came in at the end the energy really ramped up and there was a lot of cheering and stomping, so apparently even the younger members of the crowd were still excited about 90s grunge!

The only real problem with this dance is that I had one moment where I had a clean loop that I wanted to repeat but as I did so some of the dancers, knowing what came next in the song, started singing the next verse and then had to stop when the music wasn’t what they expected.

Lesson learned: when doing a pop song don’t do transitions that would break the progression of the song that people are already used to, even if they sound okay.

Rainy Night / Tween Spirit / Smells Like Teen Spirit by The Dam Beavers, Giant Robot Dance, and Nirvana, DJ mix

At this point I realized that I hadn’t prepared enough mixes for the dance and I was more or less out of material. For the next one Valerie asked to do a very short square dance, the “ Cumberland Square Eight ”. Since it was going to be so short and timing didn’t matter I played “ Heather’s Concussion ” by The Great Bear Trio without mixing it into a medley.

This tune is itself very short (only three times through) and far too fast for a normal contra, so I slowed it down (though still keeping it too fast) and sped it up slowly through the dance to mess with the dancers. They looked like they had a good time!

Heather's Concussion by The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

This left us with just enough time for a no-walk-through contra. I had nothing else prepared but wanted to send us out on an easy-tempo dance after the various fast shenanigans from the rest of the night, but still have some good energy. I dug around in my library and ended up playing “ Apple Blossom ” by Great Bear. Since I didn’t have anything to mix this with I just played it through and looped once or twice near the end to keep the high-energy ending going. The dance Valerie picked was an easy ending dance that is unfortunately called “Unnamed Contra” and she didn’t know who wrote it.

Apple Blossom by Great Bear, DJ mix

We then closed down the evening (very late, much to the chagrin of the organizers) with “ Mending ” by “The Little Mercies”.

Stuff I Learned

A recap of the things I need to take away from the evening:

• Be thoughtful about resetting all controls, levels, mixing, effects, etc. between tunes. Possibly write down the initial state for each song so that you can re-set the board at a glance.
• Beat match early then use the volume sliders for transitions, don’t just start playing immediately at the entry point (or just remember to turn up the volume as you approach the mix point).
• Consider how much the caller will have to talk in any given dance and how soon they’re dropping out before mixing in vocals.
• For pop songs, don’t violate the order of the verses or breaks that people expect, even if the final result sounds okay. It’s jarring for the dancers who are used to it being a certain way.

And finally: relax and enjoy it! While I spend the entire evening worrying about how the sound dropped out for a moment, or my transition was a beat off and I saw the dancers stumble and catch back up, or whatever other disaster might have befallen, no one remembers any of that. I got a very nice message from the organizer the next day telling me how excited everyone was and how many conversations she’d had with people telling her how much they enjoyed the music!

Other Links

• The set list on MusicBrainz
• Recordings of the evening can be found on the Internet Archive

On December 9th I returned to the Trolley Barn to DJ again for my friend Valerie Young. This time around my goal was to have a better mix of high energy and lower energy “groovy” tunes, and I wanted to be better prepared for tying in endings at any time, no matter how many times through the caller requested.

Prep

While I still prepped by marking each time through the dance with whether it looped cleanly or not, this time I (mostly) marked it with a cue instead of a 64 beat loop. I also named the cue based on what other cues I could jump to cleanly from it. For example, if I were on the last time through the dance I would mark if it looped cleanly itself, but also that I could jump backwards 3 times to cue 6 (or whatever the case may be). This way if I’m nearing the end of the dance but the caller is running it a bit longer I can reset without a single 32 bar phrase starting to get repetitive. I can also plan ahead by seeing that cue 6 lets me jump back to cue 8 or 9 afterwards (let’s assume these are the last two cues), which means that if the caller immediately calls 2 more times through I know that I can cleanly jump back to 2 more times without incident. I also mark a handful of things in the music such as if this time through the dance is a big recognizable build up (which I might not want to repeat even if technically it sounds okay), or if I shouldn’t jump back before a cue because the energy is significantly lower and we don’t want to kill the energy that had already been built up on the dance floor. This made it much easier to always follow the callers instructions and not have to scramble to wrap up the song or ask if we can do 4 times through the dance instead of 2 or what not.

The Set

I started out the set with a slowed down mix of “ Whelan’s ”, “ Baghad Gus ”, and “ Congress Reel ” all by Wild Asparagus. This was a medley that I had planned for my previous set but hadn’t managed to use, but it worked quite well to “ Whoever is Right is Right ” by Jim Hemphill. The only iffy moment I had in this medley was in one of the transitions where I thought I executed it perfectly, only to have the tune I was introducing jump half a beat ahead, breaking the rhythm. I had left the Quantize option on (which locks the two beat grids together even if you’re a little bit off) and unfortunately the beat grid on the song in question was about half a beat off at the point I was doing the intro.

Lesson learned: pay more attention to what options you’ve got selected (and reset them between songs, this would be a problem several times during the evening) and in a song where the beat grid can’t be right through the entire song (ie. because of tempo changes), make sure it’s correct at the point you’re going to mix in.

Whelan's / Baghad Gus / Congress Reel by Wild Asparagus, DJ mix

For the second dance Valerie picked “ Made Up Tonight ” by Erik Hoffman. This dance is relatively easy and in some ways similar to the previous dance so I decided the dancers could handle a little bit higher tempo and energy level. I did a mix of “ Bus Stop! ” by The Free Raisins and “ Rec Hall ” by Kingfisher. This is another mix I had prepared for my previous set and one of the ones I was most excited about performing. Unfortunately I completely broke the transition by just forgetting to bring the volume up on Rec Hall, so I ended up killing the music entirely for a few beats before I realized what was happening and brought it back in. It sounded terrible, and this one the dancers couldn’t help but notice, but Valerie kept calling so they were on beat still when I finally realized what was happening.

Lesson learned: go ahead and beat match and mix in a few bars early, then do the transition by bringing the volume up instead of just hitting play, or just remember to have the volume up first.

Bus Stop! / Rec Hall by The Free Raisins and Kingfisher, DJ mix

At this point Valerie decided to take the evening in a different direction from the modern, improper and becket contras that the Trolley Barn normally asks callers to stick to. She called “ The Steps of Waterloo ”, a traditional Sicilian circle, which I’ve never seen done at the Trolley Barn before. Since this one is both easy and a bit silly I used “[Flying Ice Cream]” by Giant Robot Dance which starts out very slow and groovy, then ramps up dramatically in the second half. Once the dance ramped up I mixed it with “ The Randomainians ” by The Great Bear Trio to make it last a little longer. This was the one mix and dance combo of the night that I was mostly extremely pleased with, when the tempo and energy ramped up half way through the song the dancers cheered and started frantically rushing to try and get to the basket swing in the limited time the (normally too fast) music allowed which was a lot of fun.

Lesson learned: prepare about twice as much music as you think you’ll need for the evening (to be fair, I already knew this, I was just struggling with the preparation for this set and didn’t end up with enough time to finish the other mixes I was considering).

Flying Ice Cream / The Randomanians by Giant Robot Dance and The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

Continuing Valerie’s theme of not doing modern contras she picked “The Hand Jive”, a proper ceilidh, by Colin Towns next. Because this dance is a bit more “fun” and contains some patty-cake like hand games I decided to do a simple but fun mix of “ Raccoon ” by Wake Up Robin and Disco Snails by Vulfmon and Zachary Barker.

Unfortunately I hadn’t considered that, easy as the hand clapping is, it required Valerie to do a significant amount more calling than she normally would do and never drop out, so picking a song with lyrics was a bad idea. A few people still got a chuckle out of the “Disco Snails” cameo though.

Lesson learned: make sure to pay attention to how much the caller will have to talk and ask if they plan on dropping out before introducing something with lyrics.

Racoon / Disco Snails by Wake Up Robin and Vulfmon and Zachary Barker, DJ mix

We took our mid-dance waltz break at this point for which I played “ Waiting for Landfall ” by Julie Vallimont, “ Indifference ” by the String Beings, and “ Norwegian Reinlender / Schottis From Idre ” by Wild Asparagus. I’d hoped that some of the dancers would know the schottische for the second part of the medley, but mostly it just confused everybody who kept trying to waltz even though it was no longer a waltz.

Coming back we were running a bit late so I decided to drop the show-stopper for the evening, a mix of “ Rainy Night ” by The Dam Beavers, “ Tween Spirit ” by Giant Robot Dance, and “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ” (which, of course, the previous tune is a cover of) by Nirvana. This was paired with “ Birminghams ” by Gary Nelson.

I played the first two tunes as a normal medley, then when Valerie indicated that she was ready for three times left through the dance I mixed in the actual Nirvana version just for the ending. I was worried this crowd wouldn’t care for it, but when the tune first came in (as “Tween Spirit”) a lot of the dancers started singing along, and when actual Nirvana came in at the end the energy really ramped up and there was a lot of cheering and stomping, so apparently even the younger members of the crowd were still excited about 90s grunge!

The only real problem with this dance is that I had one moment where I had a clean loop that I wanted to repeat but as I did so some of the dancers, knowing what came next in the song, started singing the next verse and then had to stop when the music wasn’t what they expected.

Lesson learned: when doing a pop song don’t do transitions that would break the progression of the song that people are already used to, even if they sound okay.

Rainy Night / Tween Spirit / Smells Like Teen Spirit by The Dam Beavers, Giant Robot Dance, and Nirvana, DJ mix

At this point I realized that I hadn’t prepared enough mixes for the dance and I was more or less out of material. For the next one Valerie asked to do a very short square dance, the “ Cumberland Square Eight ”. Since it was going to be so short and timing didn’t matter I played “ Heather’s Concussion ” by The Great Bear Trio without mixing it into a medley.

This tune is itself very short (only three times through) and far too fast for a normal contra, so I slowed it down (though still keeping it too fast) and sped it up slowly through the dance to mess with the dancers. They looked like they had a good time!

Heather's Concussion by The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

This left us with just enough time for a no-walk-through contra. I had nothing else prepared but wanted to send us out on an easy-tempo dance after the various fast shenanigans from the rest of the night, but still have some good energy. I dug around in my library and ended up playing “ Apple Blossom ” by Great Bear. Since I didn’t have anything to mix this with I just played it through and looped once or twice near the end to keep the high-energy ending going. The dance Valerie picked was an easy ending dance that is unfortunately called “Unnamed Contra” and she didn’t know who wrote it.

Apple Blossom by Great Bear, DJ mix

We then closed down the evening (very late, much to the chagrin of the organizers) with “ Mending ” by “The Little Mercies”.

Stuff I Learned

A recap of the things I need to take away from the evening:

• Be thoughtful about resetting all controls, levels, mixing, effects, etc. between tunes. Possibly write down the initial state for each song so that you can re-set the board at a glance.
• Beat match early then use the volume sliders for transitions, don’t just start playing immediately at the entry point (or just remember to turn up the volume as you approach the mix point).
• Consider how much the caller will have to talk in any given dance and how soon they’re dropping out before mixing in vocals.
• For pop songs, don’t violate the order of the verses or breaks that people expect, even if the final result sounds okay. It’s jarring for the dancers who are used to it being a certain way.

And finally: relax and enjoy it! While I spend the entire evening worrying about how the sound dropped out for a moment, or my transition was a beat off and I saw the dancers stumble and catch back up, or whatever other disaster might have befallen, no one remembers any of that. I got a very nice message from the organizer the next day telling me how excited everyone was and how many conversations she’d had with people telling her how much they enjoyed the music!

Other Links

• The set list on MusicBrainz
• Recordings of the evening can be found on the Internet Archive

On December 9th I returned to the Trolley Barn to DJ again for my friend Valerie Young. This time around my goal was to have a better mix of high energy and lower energy “groovy” tunes, and I wanted to be better prepared for tying in endings at any time, no matter how many times through the caller requested.

Prep

While I still prepped by marking each time through the dance with whether it looped cleanly or not, this time I (mostly) marked it with a cue instead of a 64 beat loop. I also named the cue based on what other cues I could jump to cleanly from it. For example, if I were on the last time through the dance I would mark if it looped cleanly itself, but also that I could jump backwards 3 times to cue 6 (or whatever the case may be). This way if I’m nearing the end of the dance but the caller is running it a bit longer I can reset without a single 32 bar phrase starting to get repetitive. I can also plan ahead by seeing that cue 6 lets me jump back to cue 8 or 9 afterwards (let’s assume these are the last two cues), which means that if the caller immediately calls 2 more times through I know that I can cleanly jump back to 2 more times without incident. I also mark a handful of things in the music such as if this time through the dance is a big recognizable build up (which I might not want to repeat even if technically it sounds okay), or if I shouldn’t jump back before a cue because the energy is significantly lower and we don’t want to kill the energy that had already been built up on the dance floor. This made it much easier to always follow the callers instructions and not have to scramble to wrap up the song or ask if we can do 4 times through the dance instead of 2 or what not.

The Set

I started out the set with a slowed down mix of “ Whelan’s ”, “ Baghad Gus ”, and “ Congress Reel ” all by Wild Asparagus. This was a medley that I had planned for my previous set but hadn’t managed to use, but it worked quite well to “ Whoever is Right is Right ” by Jim Hemphill. The only iffy moment I had in this medley was in one of the transitions where I thought I executed it perfectly, only to have the tune I was introducing jump half a beat ahead, breaking the rhythm. I had left the Quantize option on (which locks the two beat grids together even if you’re a little bit off) and unfortunately the beat grid on the song in question was about half a beat off at the point I was doing the intro.

Lesson learned: pay more attention to what options you’ve got selected (and reset them between songs, this would be a problem several times during the evening) and in a song where the beat grid can’t be right through the entire song (ie. because of tempo changes), make sure it’s correct at the point you’re going to mix in.

Whelan's / Baghad Gus / Congress Reel by Wild Asparagus, DJ mix

For the second dance Valerie picked “ Made Up Tonight ” by Erik Hoffman. This dance is relatively easy and in some ways similar to the previous dance so I decided the dancers could handle a little bit higher tempo and energy level. I did a mix of “ Bus Stop! ” by The Free Raisins and “ Rec Hall ” by Kingfisher. This is another mix I had prepared for my previous set and one of the ones I was most excited about performing. Unfortunately I completely broke the transition by just forgetting to bring the volume up on Rec Hall, so I ended up killing the music entirely for a few beats before I realized what was happening and brought it back in. It sounded terrible, and this one the dancers couldn’t help but notice, but Valerie kept calling so they were on beat still when I finally realized what was happening.

Lesson learned: go ahead and beat match and mix in a few bars early, then do the transition by bringing the volume up instead of just hitting play, or just remember to have the volume up first.

Bus Stop! / Rec Hall by The Free Raisins and Kingfisher, DJ mix

At this point Valerie decided to take the evening in a different direction from the modern, improper and becket contras that the Trolley Barn normally asks callers to stick to. She called “ The Steps of Waterloo ”, a traditional Sicilian circle, which I’ve never seen done at the Trolley Barn before. Since this one is both easy and a bit silly I used “[Flying Ice Cream]” by Giant Robot Dance which starts out very slow and groovy, then ramps up dramatically in the second half. Once the dance ramped up I mixed it with “ The Randomainians ” by The Great Bear Trio to make it last a little longer. This was the one mix and dance combo of the night that I was mostly extremely pleased with, when the tempo and energy ramped up half way through the song the dancers cheered and started frantically rushing to try and get to the basket swing in the limited time the (normally too fast) music allowed which was a lot of fun.

Lesson learned: prepare about twice as much music as you think you’ll need for the evening (to be fair, I already knew this, I was just struggling with the preparation for this set and didn’t end up with enough time to finish the other mixes I was considering).

Flying Ice Cream / The Randomanians by Giant Robot Dance and The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

Continuing Valerie’s theme of not doing modern contras she picked “The Hand Jive”, a proper ceilidh, by Colin Towns next. Because this dance is a bit more “fun” and contains some patty-cake like hand games I decided to do a simple but fun mix of “ Raccoon ” by Wake Up Robin and Disco Snails by Vulfmon and Zachary Barker.

Unfortunately I hadn’t considered that, easy as the hand clapping is, it required Valerie to do a significant amount more calling than she normally would do and never drop out, so picking a song with lyrics was a bad idea. A few people still got a chuckle out of the “Disco Snails” cameo though.

Lesson learned: make sure to pay attention to how much the caller will have to talk and ask if they plan on dropping out before introducing something with lyrics.

Racoon / Disco Snails by Wake Up Robin and Vulfmon and Zachary Barker, DJ mix

We took our mid-dance waltz break at this point for which I played “ Waiting for Landfall ” by Julie Vallimont, “ Indifference ” by the String Beings, and “ Norwegian Reinlender / Schottis From Idre ” by Wild Asparagus. I’d hoped that some of the dancers would know the schottische for the second part of the medley, but mostly it just confused everybody who kept trying to waltz even though it was no longer a waltz.

Coming back we were running a bit late so I decided to drop the show-stopper for the evening, a mix of “ Rainy Night ” by The Dam Beavers, “ Tween Spirit ” by Giant Robot Dance, and “ Smells Like Teen Spirit ” (which, of course, the previous tune is a cover of) by Nirvana. This was paired with “ Birminghams ” by Gary Nelson.

I played the first two tunes as a normal medley, then when Valerie indicated that she was ready for three times left through the dance I mixed in the actual Nirvana version just for the ending. I was worried this crowd wouldn’t care for it, but when the tune first came in (as “Tween Spirit”) a lot of the dancers started singing along, and when actual Nirvana came in at the end the energy really ramped up and there was a lot of cheering and stomping, so apparently even the younger members of the crowd were still excited about 90s grunge!

The only real problem with this dance is that I had one moment where I had a clean loop that I wanted to repeat but as I did so some of the dancers, knowing what came next in the song, started singing the next verse and then had to stop when the music wasn’t what they expected.

Lesson learned: when doing a pop song don’t do transitions that would break the progression of the song that people are already used to, even if they sound okay.

Rainy Night / Tween Spirit / Smells Like Teen Spirit by The Dam Beavers, Giant Robot Dance, and Nirvana, DJ mix

At this point I realized that I hadn’t prepared enough mixes for the dance and I was more or less out of material. For the next one Valerie asked to do a very short square dance, the “ Cumberland Square Eight ”. Since it was going to be so short and timing didn’t matter I played “ Heather’s Concussion ” by The Great Bear Trio without mixing it into a medley.

This tune is itself very short (only three times through) and far too fast for a normal contra, so I slowed it down (though still keeping it too fast) and sped it up slowly through the dance to mess with the dancers. They looked like they had a good time!

Heather's Concussion by The Great Bear Trio, DJ mix

This left us with just enough time for a no-walk-through contra. I had nothing else prepared but wanted to send us out on an easy-tempo dance after the various fast shenanigans from the rest of the night, but still have some good energy. I dug around in my library and ended up playing “ Apple Blossom ” by Great Bear. Since I didn’t have anything to mix this with I just played it through and looped once or twice near the end to keep the high-energy ending going. The dance Valerie picked was an easy ending dance that is unfortunately called “Unnamed Contra” and she didn’t know who wrote it.

Apple Blossom by Great Bear, DJ mix

We then closed down the evening (very late, much to the chagrin of the organizers) with “ Mending ” by “The Little Mercies”.

Stuff I Learned

A recap of the things I need to take away from the evening:

• Be thoughtful about resetting all controls, levels, mixing, effects, etc. between tunes. Possibly write down the initial state for each song so that you can re-set the board at a glance.
• Beat match early then use the volume sliders for transitions, don’t just start playing immediately at the entry point (or just remember to turn up the volume as you approach the mix point).
• Consider how much the caller will have to talk in any given dance and how soon they’re dropping out before mixing in vocals.
• For pop songs, don’t violate the order of the verses or breaks that people expect, even if the final result sounds okay. It’s jarring for the dancers who are used to it being a certain way.

And finally: relax and enjoy it! While I spend the entire evening worrying about how the sound dropped out for a moment, or my transition was a beat off and I saw the dancers stumble and catch back up, or whatever other disaster might have befallen, no one remembers any of that. I got a very nice message from the organizer the next day telling me how excited everyone was and how many conversations she’d had with people telling her how much they enjoyed the music!

Other Links

• The set list on MusicBrainz
• Recordings of the evening can be found on the Internet Archive

As we close out our “Meet the Team” series for 2025, we’re delighted to introduce Camjar Djoweini, Business Development Manager, Nordics, at Erlang Solutions. Camjar shares what drew him into his new role, the excitement of working within Trifork’s global ecosystem, and the ambitions driving him into 2026. He also reflects on his favourite winter traditions and the personal routines that help him stay energised and focused throughout the year.

Can you tell us about your new role at ESL?

I’ve joined ESL Nordics Fjällräven as Business Development Manager, Nordics, where my focus is expanding our market presence into new greenfield areas alongside Erik. The mission is clear and energising: outbound, outbound, outbound.

Which part of your new role has sparked the most curiosity or excitement so far?

It’s a mix of working with exceptionally talented and experienced people and having access to the opportunities that come with being part of Trifork globally. I love that I’m within one of 71 companies in the group yet still feel connected as if we’re operating as one large organisation. We’re agile like a startup but strong like a Fortune 500. That breadth of access and innovation keeps my curiosity alive every day.

Looking ahead to 2026, what are you most looking forward to achieving?

I’m a high pressure performer and set ambitious expectations for myself. My goal is not only to hit the targets we’ve set but to exceed them, to make the whole team proud. I want to help shape our future, open new doors within the organisation and contribute meaningfully to our long term vision.

Ahead of the holiday season, are there any traditions you’re particularly looking forward to?

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I love the darkness and the cold. There’s something beautiful about how snow lights up the darkest hours. Winter helps me focus with routines, deadlines and structure, all leading to one of the cosiest traditions of the year. Good food, warm decorations, time with friends and family and the chance to unwind for a week. Christmas is my favourite tradition and we go all in.

When you’re away from the office, what brings you the most energy and joy?

I really value being able to structure my own productivity. I can work out during lunch without feeling like I need to rush home, and if something is better done at 7 pm, I can do that and still be productive at 8 am the next morning. Having the freedom to optimise my hours while maintaining strong internal connections with colleagues is incredibly energising.

Final Thoughts

And that brings our 2025 Meet the Team series to a close. A big shoutout to Camjar for sharing his energy and perspective, and to all the fantastic colleagues who took part this year. Their stories, passions and quirks are what make our team such a great place to be.We’ve got plenty more to share in the new year, so keep an eye out for fresh profiles, behind the scenes insights and more of the people who make Erlang Solutions what it is. And if you’d like to chat with our team or get involved, please get in touch .

The post Meet the Team: Camjar Djoweini appeared first on Erlang Solutions .

As we close out our “Meet the Team” series for 2025, we’re delighted to introduce Camjar Djoweini, Business Development Manager, Nordics, at Erlang Solutions. Camjar shares what drew him into his new role, the excitement of working within Trifork’s global ecosystem, and the ambitions driving him into 2026. He also reflects on his favourite winter traditions and the personal routines that help him stay energised and focused throughout the year.

Can you tell us about your new role at ESL?

I’ve joined ESL Nordics Fjällräven as Business Development Manager, Nordics, where my focus is expanding our market presence into new greenfield areas alongside Erik. The mission is clear and energising: outbound, outbound, outbound.

Which part of your new role has sparked the most curiosity or excitement so far?

It’s a mix of working with exceptionally talented and experienced people and having access to the opportunities that come with being part of Trifork globally. I love that I’m within one of 71 companies in the group yet still feel connected as if we’re operating as one large organisation. We’re agile like a startup but strong like a Fortune 500. That breadth of access and innovation keeps my curiosity alive every day.

Looking ahead to 2026, what are you most looking forward to achieving?

I’m a high pressure performer and set ambitious expectations for myself. My goal is not only to hit the targets we’ve set but to exceed them, to make the whole team proud. I want to help shape our future, open new doors within the organisation and contribute meaningfully to our long term vision.

Ahead of the holiday season, are there any traditions you’re particularly looking forward to?

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I love the darkness and the cold. There’s something beautiful about how snow lights up the darkest hours. Winter helps me focus with routines, deadlines and structure, all leading to one of the cosiest traditions of the year. Good food, warm decorations, time with friends and family and the chance to unwind for a week. Christmas is my favourite tradition and we go all in.

When you’re away from the office, what brings you the most energy and joy?

I really value being able to structure my own productivity. I can work out during lunch without feeling like I need to rush home, and if something is better done at 7 pm, I can do that and still be productive at 8 am the next morning. Having the freedom to optimise my hours while maintaining strong internal connections with colleagues is incredibly energising.

Final Thoughts

And that brings our 2025 Meet the Team series to a close. A big shoutout to Camjar for sharing his energy and perspective, and to all the fantastic colleagues who took part this year. Their stories, passions and quirks are what make our team such a great place to be.We’ve got plenty more to share in the new year, so keep an eye out for fresh profiles, behind the scenes insights and more of the people who make Erlang Solutions what it is. And if you’d like to chat with our team or get involved, please get in touch .

The post Meet the Team: Camjar Djoweini appeared first on Erlang Solutions .

As we close out our “Meet the Team” series for 2025, we’re delighted to introduce Camjar Djoweini, Business Development Manager, Nordics, at Erlang Solutions. Camjar shares what drew him into his new role, the excitement of working within Trifork’s global ecosystem, and the ambitions driving him into 2026. He also reflects on his favourite winter traditions and the personal routines that help him stay energised and focused throughout the year.

Can you tell us about your new role at ESL?

I’ve joined ESL Nordics Fjällräven as Business Development Manager, Nordics, where my focus is expanding our market presence into new greenfield areas alongside Erik. The mission is clear and energising: outbound, outbound, outbound.

Which part of your new role has sparked the most curiosity or excitement so far?

It’s a mix of working with exceptionally talented and experienced people and having access to the opportunities that come with being part of Trifork globally. I love that I’m within one of 71 companies in the group yet still feel connected as if we’re operating as one large organisation. We’re agile like a startup but strong like a Fortune 500. That breadth of access and innovation keeps my curiosity alive every day.

Looking ahead to 2026, what are you most looking forward to achieving?

I’m a high pressure performer and set ambitious expectations for myself. My goal is not only to hit the targets we’ve set but to exceed them, to make the whole team proud. I want to help shape our future, open new doors within the organisation and contribute meaningfully to our long term vision.

Ahead of the holiday season, are there any traditions you’re particularly looking forward to?

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I love the darkness and the cold. There’s something beautiful about how snow lights up the darkest hours. Winter helps me focus with routines, deadlines and structure, all leading to one of the cosiest traditions of the year. Good food, warm decorations, time with friends and family and the chance to unwind for a week. Christmas is my favourite tradition and we go all in.

When you’re away from the office, what brings you the most energy and joy?

I really value being able to structure my own productivity. I can work out during lunch without feeling like I need to rush home, and if something is better done at 7 pm, I can do that and still be productive at 8 am the next morning. Having the freedom to optimise my hours while maintaining strong internal connections with colleagues is incredibly energising.

Final Thoughts

And that brings our 2025 Meet the Team series to a close. A big shoutout to Camjar for sharing his energy and perspective, and to all the fantastic colleagues who took part this year. Their stories, passions and quirks are what make our team such a great place to be.We’ve got plenty more to share in the new year, so keep an eye out for fresh profiles, behind the scenes insights and more of the people who make Erlang Solutions what it is. And if you’d like to chat with our team or get involved, please get in touch .

The post Meet the Team: Camjar Djoweini appeared first on Erlang Solutions .

Erlang Solutions launched SAFE, a Security Audit for Erlang in the fall of 2023. We extended the analysis for Elixir in the spring of 2024 and now, SAFE officially supports Phoenix Liveview, which means a SAFE scan is now looking for vulnerabilities common in Phoenix web applications.

What is SAFE?

SAFE is a security scanning tool for Erlang, Elixir and Phoenix (LiveView) codebases. It works by loading and analysing your code, without running it. SAFE conducts an in-depth analysis of codebases, which can help you and your company to elevate your cybersecurity.

Supporting Phoenix LiveView

Now, as of the 1.3.0 release of SAFE, we support Phoenix LiveView, which means we can check for the following vulnerabilities:

• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
• Cross-Site WebSocket Hijacking (CSWSH)
• SQL Injection (with Ecto support)
• Denial of Services (DoS)
• Session leakage (unprotected session information)
• Session fixation (session ID renewal issues)
• Session hijacking
• Content Security Policy (CSP)

On-Prem report visualisation

With the release of the new SAFE version, a new SAFE product flavour was also launched, called SAFE OnPrem. This solution allows companies to host a centralised security report viewer that engineers and security specialists can access via the web interface.

Overview page of an example report:

User management:

Running SAFE

If you are interested in running SAFE on your code base, please check out our Quick Start Guide and contact the SAFE team . You can also drop us a message if you maintain an open source project, as you may be eligible for a free SAFE license.

More information about Open Source licensing can be found in our announcement blog post .

The post SAFE for Elixir: Phoenix LiveView appeared first on Erlang Solutions .

Erlang Solutions launched SAFE, a Security Audit for Erlang in the fall of 2023. We extended the analysis for Elixir in the spring of 2024 and now, SAFE officially supports Phoenix Liveview, which means a SAFE scan is now looking for vulnerabilities common in Phoenix web applications.

What is SAFE?

SAFE is a security scanning tool for Erlang, Elixir and Phoenix (LiveView) codebases. It works by loading and analysing your code, without running it. SAFE conducts an in-depth analysis of codebases, which can help you and your company to elevate your cybersecurity.

Supporting Phoenix LiveView

Now, as of the 1.3.0 release of SAFE, we support Phoenix LiveView, which means we can check for the following vulnerabilities:

• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
• Cross-Site WebSocket Hijacking (CSWSH)
• SQL Injection (with Ecto support)
• Denial of Services (DoS)
• Session leakage (unprotected session information)
• Session fixation (session ID renewal issues)
• Session hijacking
• Content Security Policy (CSP)

On-Prem report visualisation

With the release of the new SAFE version, a new SAFE product flavour was also launched, called SAFE OnPrem. This solution allows companies to host a centralised security report viewer that engineers and security specialists can access via the web interface.

Overview page of an example report:

User management:

Running SAFE

If you are interested in running SAFE on your code base, please check out our Quick Start Guide and contact the SAFE team . You can also drop us a message if you maintain an open source project, as you may be eligible for a free SAFE license.

More information about Open Source licensing can be found in our announcement blog post .

The post SAFE for Elixir: Phoenix LiveView appeared first on Erlang Solutions .

Erlang Solutions launched SAFE, a Security Audit for Erlang in the fall of 2023. We extended the analysis for Elixir in the spring of 2024 and now, SAFE officially supports Phoenix Liveview, which means a SAFE scan is now looking for vulnerabilities common in Phoenix web applications.

What is SAFE?

SAFE is a security scanning tool for Erlang, Elixir and Phoenix (LiveView) codebases. It works by loading and analysing your code, without running it. SAFE conducts an in-depth analysis of codebases, which can help you and your company to elevate your cybersecurity.

Supporting Phoenix LiveView

Now, as of the 1.3.0 release of SAFE, we support Phoenix LiveView, which means we can check for the following vulnerabilities:

• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
• Cross-Site WebSocket Hijacking (CSWSH)
• SQL Injection (with Ecto support)
• Denial of Services (DoS)
• Session leakage (unprotected session information)
• Session fixation (session ID renewal issues)
• Session hijacking
• Content Security Policy (CSP)

On-Prem report visualisation

With the release of the new SAFE version, a new SAFE product flavour was also launched, called SAFE OnPrem. This solution allows companies to host a centralised security report viewer that engineers and security specialists can access via the web interface.

Overview page of an example report:

User management:

Running SAFE

If you are interested in running SAFE on your code base, please check out our Quick Start Guide and contact the SAFE team . You can also drop us a message if you maintain an open source project, as you may be eligible for a free SAFE license.

More information about Open Source licensing can be found in our announcement blog post .

The post SAFE for Elixir: Phoenix LiveView appeared first on Erlang Solutions .