Whew. Made it. After an exhaustive 3,280 mile trek across the U.S. — which included the southern edge of Lake Erie, the horrid billboard-laden stretch of I-70 in Missouri, the entire expanse of Nebraska and Nevada in the dead of night — we made it intact and with nothing broken. Thanks to everyone who helped us pack up the truck and to Steven Day for helping to drive half the way.

Of course, we had a few parties before we left. The first was a celebration of our old studio at 49 Melcher:

The party featured our Promise DJs Lone Wolf and Kingdom (who was recently featured in the New York Times magazine). Download his “Dance it Off” single here. We also spolighted the Compound 440r collective with No 1 of Big Digits (download their a capellas here) and the amazing Wii-enabled Ableton program of DJ Mark E Moon. Visuals came from Savage Severe.

We also heard from Susanna Bolle and the LEF foundation-funded Non-Event production group, who had three amazing nights at our old loft. And of course, Baltimoroder and the visuals of director Amy Grill.

Then there was the Make It New send-off…

Featuring the final DJ set from co-founder David Day. The span included all the classics from past sets — like this classic end of the night jam from Alyoa, an obscure French House nugget that pretty much sums up the feeling from every DJ set I’ve ever put down:

Alyoa - “It’s Been Too Long”

Careful selection was made for the final track I ever play at Make It New, a night that I spent thousands of dollars and hours on and will always have a special place in my heart. So it had to be something lyrical, something emotive (my style, innit?) and, most importantly, something new.

Ewan Pearson (no relation to Baltimoroder) is a London DJ who has been around long enough to know what’s really good. His productions, including some on sQuare favorite Kompakt Records, have always stood out. Baltimoroder includes Pearson’s work in his total club-fire Lil Keke remix (download that here).

For this track, Pearson remixes Cortney Tidwell, a very elegant country singer based in Nashville. The result is pure gold, and accompanied this writer through a particularly beautiful stretch of Wyoming.

Cortney Tidwell - “Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up (Ewan Pearson Remix)”

The night also included another dynamite turn from DJ Baltimoroder, who at this point is well-established as the best DJ in Boston. The best set that sQuare has ever heard from Baltimoroder came on the next night (our last) in Boston. A super-party at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

With a huge 25-foot screen projecting his visage (by Robotkid and M@tt Boch) over 680 rump-shaking partygoers, Baltimoroder switched from the electro superhits he plays at Hearthrob to the reggaeton and dancehall he plays at PanAm Fridays. It was the best set I’ve ever heard him play and a perfect send-off. Thanks dude.

Now onto the business at hand in S.F. While director Amy Grill is holding down a position at the Emmy-award winning Current TV, David Day (me) is working at dirtybird records and their new label mothership music. Mothership is responsible for “Viktor Casanova,” a worldwide club smash that makes people in Ibiza do this:

Pick it up here.

Being a DJ and in the music business, occasionally you come across an anomaly that allows you to share something special with the world. Recently, dance music producer Mylo was hired to work with Kylie Minogue, the worldwide smash pop star. Mylo is a sQuare productions favorite and was sort-of instrumental to our film’s genesis.

I was given access to a track from this Kylie sessions which I spun at the various events above. It’s a remarkable slice of pop-techno that at once hails the pop perfection of Kylie (who’s responsible for the poppiest track ever — “Locomotion”) but also plays in the club, thanks to the forward-thinking production of Mr. Mylo.

It was supposed to be on the new Kylie album “X” but in the final decision from corporate music company EMI, was dropped from the CD.

We have no idea why.

Kylie Minogue - “I’m in the Mood For Love (Demo)”

Film update in a few days.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 at 12:14 am and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.