Life Advice from Underground Resistance & Marcus Aurelius
The DJ Lee Burridge posted this epic 5+ hour mix on his Soundcloud page a little while ago.
Like many good DJ sets, there are a few purple patches where a sequence of tracks come together that make the listener feel they were created exactly that way.
Part of the joy and skill of putting tracks in the mix is that it’s possible to make the weird wonderful, the wonderful weird, average good, the good great, the great… even better.
One of these sweet spots is around the 1hr 40 mark, where a re-edit of a Nils Frahm track is overlaid with the acapella of Underground Resistance’s classic track ‘Transitions’.
Listening to this in my office one afternoon (as opposed to the Tibet mountain that Lee suggests), the ‘Transitions’ lyrics struck a chord, especially as I’m currently reading Marcus Aurelius’ incredible book ‘Meditations’.
One of the magical things about music is you can listen to a track 10,20 or 100 times, and then in a particular place, space, time or mood it’ll suddenly take on a completely different form. That happened this time.
On face value these words may sound a little corny, but for those of us who are trying to instigate change, figure out our next moves, break through a barrier, or make some other kind of transition, it’s probably not a bad idea to heed the words of some of Detroit’s finest electronic music producers.
Ancient Roman stoicism is optional.
> Lee Burridge Requiem for a Daydream Mix
> Underground Resistance ‘Transitions’
Lyrics:
There will come a time to your life
When you ask yourself a series of questions
Am I happy with who I am
Am I happy with the people around
Am I happy with what I am doing
Am I happy with the way my life is going
Do I have a life
Or am I just living
Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength from the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition
Do I spend too much time thinking
And not enough doing
Did I try my hardest at any of my dreams
Did I purposely let others discourage me when I knew I could
Will I die never knowing what I could have been or could have done
Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength in the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition
There will be people who will say you can’t
But you will (you will)
There will be people who will say you don’t mix this with that
And you will say watch me (watch me)
There will be people who will say play it safe, that’s too risky
And you will take that chance and have no fear (no fear)
Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you
Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams
Find your strength in the sound
And make your transition
Make your transition
For those who know
It’s time to leave the house
And go back to the field
Find your strength in the sound
It’s what you gotta do in the first f-cking place
Originally published at howardgray.net on November 25, 2018.
