Pardon the extra dose of stream-of-consciousness as I am up to my neck in things to do. It would be nice to live the stress-free life of a cis girl insta influencer bankrolled by dad and poetically flesh out this day, but given my limited time, this will have to do.

Sonic Garden 4 was put on by a sweetheart of a guy named Dan Edwards and I confess: although I have met the other folks involved, I can’t name all the key players off top – they’re just a bunch of nice folks whose names I know when I see them online or in person. Maybe some are gay, straight, cis, nonbinary, trans or none of the above. I don’t really care: the Sonic Garden series has always stood for free musical expression and a gathering of like-minded and kind spirits.

I had two visitors in tow who’d never been to Glendinning Rock Garden. I’d not really explored the place myself and this was my second visit. I hadn’t moved here when the first SG happened. SG2 was a purifying pressure wash, if you wanna hear that mix. SG3 I was getting my surge on and couldn’t play. And then, the indisputably hot as hecc day that was the Ides of July, I barely had time to grab a stack of 2023 jams, some other records I hadn’t played out before, and the closer was a 2021 bootleg I played on WKDU’s Electronic Music Marathon from Brewerytown Beats, but never out at a party. I obtain music as if I have three residencies – mostly new releases on physical formats – but my life is busy, private, and there’s 309 new human jukeboxes spawning daily, so I mostly play when I am asked to. If I had the time and spoons to network, I would. Surprise: I’m autistic and loathe the mostly-phony networking part of underground electronic dance music culture. Sometimes I think I can work on that a little more.

I arrived (honestly) just in time for my set. Ben Johnson played the prior set, warmed it up beautifully, and recorded all our sets and… may I just give praise to Ben for recording what turned out to be a set that I am rather proud of for just pulling a bag of records and playing everything on the fly? Ben is awesome.

Everyone seemed pleased with my aLl-ViNyL set, I received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback, and I am ecstatic to share the audio diary with you. These things are the impetus to keep me exercising, to get myself out there more, and believe that the true spirit of this culture is still there. I got peer-pressured into this 33 years ago and never set out to be a DJ. The other kids knew I had records and I merely wanted to be invited to middle-school parties, not talk too much, and share my life via sound because the words don’t always come easy. This set does just that. I’d like to spend more time writing about each of these tracks and it’s blasphemy I don’t have time to do that tonight, but here we are. And here is the sleeve. I’ll make 25 2xCD “mixtapes” even though we’re not all on the CD-resurgence bandwagon yet. But I love CDs. CDs are [3 A.M.] eternal to me.

01 Radio Slave – Wild Life (Disco Mix) 02 Radio Slave – Strobe Queen (Eric Kupper Remix) 03 Rex The Dog – Change This Pain For Ecstasy 04 Jam & Spoon – Stella (Kölsch Remix) 05 Radio Slave ft. Nez – Wait A Minute (Dixon Extension) 06 Carl Craig – At Les (Christian Smith’s Tronic Treatment Remix) 07 Sasha ft. Poliça – Out Of Time 08 Mike Dean – Can’t Slow Down 09 John Summit & Parachute Youth – Better Than This 10 Jessie Ware – Free Yourself (Eats Everything Remix) 11 JT Company – Don’t Deal With Us (Dusky Edit – Extended Mix) 12 Mephisto – State Of Mind (Gorgon City Renaissance Remix) 13 Shadow Child – Neptune 14 Innershades – Summer Love 15 Because Of Art – Lost In The Sun (Simon Doty Remix) 16 JT Company – Don’t Deal With Us (Dusky Edit – 4×4 Mix) [excerpt] 17 Tommy Farrow – Between Two Planets 18 Cygnus X – Superstring (Trance Wax Remix)

Enjoy with an open mind and your summer libation of choice.