DJ Mike

DJ Mike, Party DJ for Santa Barbara, Ventura, Goleta, Isla Vista, Santa Maria, Lompoc and the surounding area

Hello and welcome to my music page. I'm DJ Mike, one of the DJs at Dance Away and Dance Jam Ventura. Below are links to lists of some of the music I play, dance to and listen to. If you want to see when I am playing at a public event, you can visit the Dance Away Schedule to see when I am playing at Dance away or Dance Jam Ventura

While many DJ's specialize in a particular genre or decade, I like to play a wide variety. On any one night at my public events, I may play anything from New Age to New Wave, Rockabilly to Electronica, Waltz to Hip Hop. For more variety, I'll throw in some Latin, African and Asian on top of the American music.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Need a mobile DJ for your wedding, birthday party, anniversary, reuniom or other special event? I am part of EclecticDJs. You can find my contact info at the EclecticDJ's contact page. or you can find me at Dance Away Santa Barbara almost every friday night.

Recently acquired Dance Music music:

Sometimes when I get buy new (or old) music, I'll put a brief review here. Almost all of the music I buy, I buy from a dancer's point of view and my reviews will reflect that. I buy music that makes people move their bodies, not music to sit and listen to or play as background noise. My taste in Dance Music is not restricted to what the music industry calls "Dance Music" nor is it restricted to America/Western Europian

  1. Traveler '03
    Compilation by Six Degrees
    Six Degrees calls itself genre bending and they do come out with some really great, hard to define dance music. The version of Stiff Jazz by dZihan & Kamien on this CD is an example of one of their big hits. Unfortunately, the rest of the CD isn't as good. Most of the rest is so-so electronica and GK² by Karsh Kale is one of the most irritating collections of beeps and squawks you'll ever hear outside of a video game. The bonus CD doesn't have anything to set itself apart
  2. The Orient Beats Back
    Remixes by S. Mrad
    Many thanks to Suzanne for turning me on to this CD. The produce hi tech but the music is all Arab. Hard driving techno belly dance. Every song on it is very good, high energy and highly danceable.
  3. Cover The World
    Compilation by Putumayo
    World music versions of classic pop hits. Most notible are "Hit The Road Jack" by Mo' Horizons, "Magot Tcheri" (In The Summertime) by Faral Mambo and "Ces Soitées La" (December 1963 (Oh, What A Night)) by Yannick.
  4. House Of Blues Swings
    Compilation
    I'm not into dressing up myself, some people might not recognize me if they saw me in a shirt! I'm also not into swing dance but you don't need to be a zoot suited swing dancer to like this CD. Like 50's rock 'n roll and rockabilly? This kind of music gave birth to rock 'n roll and rockabilly. Like ska? New swing has the same bounce and horns. Like pre drum machine, pre sampler music? You won't find drum machines or samples here. Just real people playing high energy music on real instruments. Includes:
    Planet Jive by The Jive Aces
    Feelin' Kinda Lucky by Big Sandy And His Fly-Rite Boys
    Demon Rum by Eight To The Bar
    Prozac by Bellevue Cadillac
    and more.
  5. Tom Petty
    The Last DJ
    First time I bought a CD because I heard it on the radio. I am surprised that I even heard it on the radio station I have on at work because that station is owned by Clear Channel Radio.

    There goes your freedom of choice
    There goes the last human voice

    Sounds like Clear Channel Radio alright. Except for in the morning when the you hear all too much human voice when those jabbering DJs just won't shut up.

    From, "Money Becomes King":

    There Was No Use Pretending
    No magic left to hear
    All the music gave me
    Was a craving for lite beer

  6. Mondo Beat 2
    Compilation
    A sampler of artists on the Narada label. Give Gabrielle Roth's "Downtown" and Brent Lewis' "Journey To JungleMoon" a listen and you'll want this CD. Includes previously unreleased tracks from Airto Moreira and Sikuru Adepoju with Africa Heartbeat.
  7. Afro Tech
    Compilation
    A compilation of club remixes of African music from the Quango label. The remixers don't go overboard with electronica effects and retain the African feel. The best tune is by Tony Allen, ex-drummer for Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70. More than eight minutes of relentless rhythm. Also includes Issa Bagayogo Mory Kante and Baaba Maal.
  8. Galactic Agents
    Human Contact
    Global fusion of electronica, beats, didgeridoo, flute and Asian vocals and more. Try Afro Tech Suite.
  9. James Asher
    Shaman Drums
    A "Best Of" compilation of Asher's work from Sammasati Music. Trance drum music that few pure electonica artists can ever come close to. "Amma" features Indian drummer, Sivamani and "Send In The Drums" is a burning drum and didgeridoo set. Those two tunes are worth the price of a new CD by themselves but must of the other tunes a hot dance tunes as well. If you like Mickey Hart, you'll like this.
  10. Mystic Groove
    Compilation
    From the Quango label, "Music for a global culture." Global electronica from Asia and Arabia featuring Just You And I by Dzihan & Kamien and Talvin Singh's remix of Najma's Ghoom Charakanhna. Exotic trance dance music
  11. Paulina Rubio
    Border Girl
    Her first bilingual cd contains an English version of Y Yo Sigo Aqui (I'll Be Right There) and another high energy dance tune, Baila Casanova in Spanish and English
  12. Issa Bagayogo
    Timbuktu
    This CD debuted at #1 on Europe's World Music Charts and for good reason. Six Degrees says:

    "While some of the songs on Timbuktu practically scream for an enterprising DJ to come along and remix them, that's not the case with "Gnele," an uptempo bit of electronica that already sounds like a dance mix."

    I strongly disagree. I like this CD because it does not sound like generic American/Europian dance music. Mali native, Issa Bagayogo combines the kamélé n' goni' (a six stringed hunter's lute), acoustic guitar the balafon (a wooden xylophone) and traditional drums with synthesized percussion, and horns to make beautiful trance dance music. It is just fine the way it is and most DJs would just ruin it with canned rhythms. Do yourself a favor and escape the mainstream. This CD gets my highest recommendation

  13. Cleopatra Cafe
    Compilation
    The latest compilation by Time Zone Records includes songs from songs from Brazil, Spain, Greece, France, Turkey and Lebanon, all danceable
  14. Traveler '02
    Compilation
    By Six Degrees Records. Includes a track from Bob Holroyd's upcoming CD.
  15. Oojami
    Bellydancing Breakbeats
    Turkish techno belly dancing fusion. The first few songs are great but towards the end, its starts leaning to much towards techno and gets monotonous.
  16. Shabaz
    Shabaz
    Combining traditional instruments and Qawwali singing from Pakistan with contempory western dance grooves. Heavy enough on the Pakistani side to avoid the generic techno house sound that to many global fusion attempts have.
  17. Bob Holroyd
    A Differnt Space
    Six Degrees artist blends African rhythms and chant, Asian flutes, Latin electronics and even Big Band. My favorates are "Drummng Up A Storm" and "African Drug"
  18. Gloria Estefan
    gloria!
    Great dance tunes: Lucky Girl, Oye, Real Woman, I Just Wanna Be Happy, & Cuba Libre
  19. Baila Habibi Vol 2
    Compilation
    From Time Zone Records, the folks that brought you Baila Habibi Vol 1 and World Beat Zone. Gitano and Arabic. If you like Gipsy Kings and Alabina, you'll live this cd.
  20. Primavera
    Compilation
    Latin. Most is not to my taste but I like the version of Oyo Coma Va by Andy Vargas with Carlos Santana and the song Tu Veneno by Natalia Oreiro
  21. Xcultures
    One World One People
    Global Music (The same genre as Deep Forest)
  22. Arabic Groove
    Putumayo compilation
    Rock the casbah with pop music from Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, and Libia.
  23. Afrocelt Sound System
    Volume 3: Further In Time
  24. Moulin Rouge
    Soundtrack
    The remake of Lady Marmalade is nice. The rest of the cd sucks.
  25. Mega Raï
    Compilation.
    Four cd's with a total of 100 songs for $30. Contains Khaled, Cheb Mami, Alabina and many others.
  26. Shapeshifters
    Self titled cd.
    World fusion borrowing from Celtic, Eastern, African, European, and American.
  27. Euphoria
    Beautiful My Child
    Trippy "guitarica". Earthy sounding electronica.
  28. Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm
    Here and Now
    Brand new old fashion rockin' rhythm and blues
  29. Dance Extreme '97
    Compilation
    Generic House music. Got it used for the N-Trance version of "Stayin' Alive".
  30. Diana King
    Tougher Than Love
    Includes "Shy Guy"
  31. Next Generation Swing
    Compilation
    Louis Prima, Brian Setzer Orchestra, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Royal Crown Revue and more.
  32. John Mellencamp
    Whenever We Wanted
  33. Transglobal Underground
    Rejoice Rejoice
    Music from the Asian undergound scene
  34. Royal Crown Revue
    Wings Of Gangster Bop
    90's Swing
  35. Little Axe
    The Wolf That House Built
    Got it for $3 for the song "Day On" that Rob played once as far as I know. Don't know why he never played it more.
  36. Joi
    We Are Three
    Joi fuses the tradtional sounds of Bengali with western Electronica. Some songs are a little too repetitive but some are really good.
  37. Takfarinas
    Yal
    Most music you hear coming out of Algeria is raï. Takfarinas calls his style "Yal". It is an eclectic blend. I like Zaama Zaama.


Links