March’s Mix of the Month winner is someone who has been a familiar presence in our submissions inbox for a while now. Aqueous has been a runner up on several previous occasions, and each entry has reinforced the same thing: this is an artist with a genuinely refined ear and the technical fluency to match it.
Drawing on more than two decades in electronic music, Aqueous works across a broad but cohesive range of sounds, from Autonomic and Microfunk through to Dubby roots, Drum and Bass and IDM. His sets tend to foreground his own productions alongside selections from artists who share a similar sensibility, and the result is something that feels considered rather than compiled. Subtle, intricate and patient are the qualities that come through consistently.
His winning mix this month sits squarely in that territory, with the atmospheric drum and bass and chillstep elements that have characterised his previous entries very much intact. What stood out to us this time was the track selection and how naturally the mix moves, each element feeling like a deliberate choice rather than a transition. It is a strong piece of work and a well-deserved win.
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Âme release new album "Love Is The Dance”Congratulations to Aqueous on taking the top spot, and a genuine well done to this month’s runners up: AJME, Akira, Barnowsky, DJ ÖVER:TONE, dj WARCHILD, Delsand, HTAR/HHR / Demo, Ilectro-Evidence / R2DX FDIE, Martin Jenkins and SULTN. Several familiar names in that list too, which is always encouraging to see. Keep them coming.
How did you approach your mix from a creative and technical standpoint – what story were you aiming to tell, and how did that influence your selection, sequencing, and transitions?
This mix is actually a lightly touched up version of a live set I did at the Autonomous Mutant Festival at the 3RDKLTR stage in 2024, I’ve been going back to selecting songs live in the moment vs making premeditated mixes, especially in familiar environments. I had some technical difficulties with my old laptop and the Pioneer DJM T-1 that I was using and ended up accidentally recording the set thru the laptop mic, which is still kind of fun to listen back to since I can hear the conversations I was having with people as I was playing.
Were there any particular production or mixing techniques you used to maintain cohesion or enhance dynamics across the mix? For instance, did you favour long blends, harmonic mixing, or any custom edits to help the narrative flow?
I’m a very strong believer in music theory and harmonic mixing. I individually check each song I play for the correct key and mode. I also try to keep the pitch relative to tempo on as many songs as possible, it works really well at 170 BPM since + or – 10 BPM equals a half step. One sneaky thing I’ve done in other mixes is use songs that are 2-3 BPM away from each other in the same key and same master tempo to transition microtonally from let’s say the key of E to F over 4-5 songs to make that 10 BPM difference. I also try to produce songs in 12 specific corresponding tempos to keep the songs free of pitch/tempo change artifacts when blending different tempos.
How have your musical experiences and influences shaped your sound?
It’s been a journey but I’m very thankful to pretty much live off of music, my day job has been music/DAW instructor for over 10+ years.
I’ve been a musician my whole life, mostly leaning towards percussion. As a young kid, I would listen to my parents’ Devo records on 45 rpm instead of 33, and after hearing Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers and Roni Size in the mid 90’s when I was in elementary school I knew I wanted to create and play similar styles of electronic music. I started using Fruity Loops 3 and Atomix as a preteen around Y2K and did enough lawn mowing by age 14 to buy my first set of belt driven numark decks and some liquid funk DnB records. By the summer I was already starting to play out.
The other half of my musical experiences come from marching bands which I have been consistently playing with since high school. My main group is called Chaotic Noise Marching Corps, we just played in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and are gearing up to do some new recordings. I also do the band leading and arrangements for the local fire conclave that precludes the man burn at Burning Man as well as other stuff for various shows and festivals. I can’t give all the info out yet but there’s a good chance I’ll be doing my first tour in Europe this summer, maybe even playing Glastonbury and/or Isle of Wight!
Many thanks for choosing my mix and having me blab on a bit!
Tracklisting:
- Tellus – Irukandji
- Heron Flow – Be Forgotten
- Synkro & Arovane & Marenn Sukie – Get Together
- Oliver Yorke – Totem
- Dissident – Soteria
- Hidden Turn – Follow
- Skeptical & Kid Drama – Versus 1
- Bop – The Backbone Flute
- Kuttin Edge – Any Part of You
- Skeptical – Loophole
- Oak – Chizra
- Commix – Underwater Scene
- Bop – Space Abyss
- Dissident – Overself Archipelago
- Jodey Kendrick – 8Tandie
- Tellus – Robo Groove
- Code 3 – Living Proof
- Kid Drama – For All Of Us
- DYL – Mechanism
- Darkgray Heart – Green And Red
- Kid Drama – Diazedaze
- Dominic Ridgway – People Dub (Kit Curse Remix)
- Mark Kloud – 52.30
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About the Decoded Magazine Mix of the Month
Our Mix of the Month competition is open to DJs worldwide, regardless of profile or experience.
For more information, including rules of entry and where to submit, head here.
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