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Not so many tracks today – in fact I can only find two from this era!

This particular phase coincided with me getting a regular DJ set doing chillout. I had the slightly naive opinion that I could mix live performance with DJ’ing (armed with a couple of synths and samplers as well as a laptop full of MP3s) mixing with an early version of Tracktor DJ.

In practice, the gigs were a complete nightmare – manually tempo syncing hundreds of tracks (this was before Ableton Live made it a non-issue) and matching keys to be able to swap pieces in and out of the flow meant I spend all week preparing for the set.

The fact is, the average punter couldn’t tell the difference between something played live and some crap played straight off a “Best of Chill Out” CD. The last gig I just put Wish You Were Here on and sat drinking at the bar, still got paid though because the barman was a huge Pink Floyd fan.

The Climate Bass

Troubadours and Fairytales

[audio src="http://ukchill.com/media/mike_kneller_lullaby.mp3" format="mp3"]

Part of the new 4AM set.

This one features Richard Woodling on sax.

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It’s a bit of a shame that I only get limited amounts of time to muck around in the studio, but that is definitely what the Christmas break is for (well, apart from spending time with the family, walking the dog, catching up on paperwork etc…).

Here’s a new jazzy groove with some laid back fretless work.

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Some of you have been asking when I’ll be gigging again – well, I’m taking a break from rock for a while and have a new chilled Acid Jazz set with Dave Carson called 4AM. You can catch us on the first Sunday of every month at the Penn Central – 4 ’till 6 pm.

update – Chris (Croft) came ’round and kindly laid down some cool sax and flute for the track, so I’ve updated the mix to include it!