Our homie Matt Ford, AKA Project Matt, has been a part of NYC nightlife for over ten years. He put together a perfect mix to get us through these grey days and cold winter nights—and since I don't speak house music, I hit up my friend Mr. Sam Hockley-Smith to help me out with an intro:
Sometimes, house music feels like a game of patience. Tracks unfold and change leisurely, and, in the hands of a skilled DJ, can work as parts of a whole instead of individual entities. Project Matt's OC mix covers plenty of new songs and future classics, moving from up-tempo jams to late-night, last-dude-on-the-dancefloor melancholy. It's a mix informed by house music's history, but it's also unafraid to push toward new territory. Take it as a snapshot or story of a single night, either way, there's plenty to love here.
OC Mixtape #31: Project Matt by OpeningCeremony
Tracklist:
Wilderness (Genius of Time Remix) - Trickski
Switch Back - Black Light Smoke
No Dilemma - Patryk Molinari
Glad to Know You - Dimitri From Paris, Los Amigos Invisibles
Yellow Magic - James Curd
Gravel Pit - Jascha
Kackvogel - Solomun
Boiling (Medlar Remix) - Disclosure
Confessing (Dub) - Homework
Terell (Bicep's Brooklyn Shuffle) - Medlar
Vision of Love - Bicep
Breaking - Kyodai
I Get Deeper - Late Nite Tuff Guy
Danielle Melisse: Fill in the blanks. My name is Matt Ford and my mixtape for OC is meant to be played at top volume. Tune in and zone out!
DM: I remember seeing "Project Matt" on flyers for Lower East Side hip-hop parties in the early 2000s. Where did the name come from?
Project Matt: In 2004, I was doing a monthly party called Pay 2 Cum with some friends. For whatever reason, the DJ couldn't make it, so I hopped into the booth to take over (I wasn't a DJ). Matt Kaye, the bartender extraordinaire, heard the music (Southern rap and 90s hardcore) and asked me to play as a resident on Mondays at B-Side in the East Village, where he worked. He asked me what my DJ name was and since I wasn't really a DJ, I didn't have one. So he gave me the name Project Matt after the Memphis rapper Project Pat.
DM: You had rap and hip-hop beginnings—what changed?
PM: I still have a tremendous amount of love for rap music––Southern rap especially. After my residency at the Lower East Side staple Home Sweet Home came to an end, a lot of things changed in my life and I started listening to more disco and dance music. From there, I realized that I wanted to play music that women would want to dance to, rather than music that makes a bunch of dudes want to fight. There's nothing wrong with that, right?
DM: What would you play in a typical hip-hop set? Top 5 songs?
1. Juvenile - HA Master
2. P - Make Em Say UgH!
3. Z-Ro - I Hate you B*tch
4. Big Tymers - Oh Yeah!
5. Too $hort - In The Trunk
DM: What are your top five songs for DJing at the moment?
Sometimes, house music feels like a game of patience. Tracks unfold and change leisurely, and, in the hands of a skilled DJ, can work as parts of a whole instead of individual entities. Project Matt's OC mix covers plenty of new songs and future classics, moving from up-tempo jams to late-night, last-dude-on-the-dancefloor melancholy. It's a mix informed by house music's history, but it's also unafraid to push toward new territory. Take it as a snapshot or story of a single night, either way, there's plenty to love here.
OC Mixtape #31: Project Matt by OpeningCeremony
Tracklist:
Wilderness (Genius of Time Remix) - Trickski
Switch Back - Black Light Smoke
No Dilemma - Patryk Molinari
Glad to Know You - Dimitri From Paris, Los Amigos Invisibles
Yellow Magic - James Curd
Gravel Pit - Jascha
Kackvogel - Solomun
Boiling (Medlar Remix) - Disclosure
Confessing (Dub) - Homework
Terell (Bicep's Brooklyn Shuffle) - Medlar
Vision of Love - Bicep
Breaking - Kyodai
I Get Deeper - Late Nite Tuff Guy
Danielle Melisse: Fill in the blanks. My name is Matt Ford and my mixtape for OC is meant to be played at top volume. Tune in and zone out!
DM: I remember seeing "Project Matt" on flyers for Lower East Side hip-hop parties in the early 2000s. Where did the name come from?
Project Matt: In 2004, I was doing a monthly party called Pay 2 Cum with some friends. For whatever reason, the DJ couldn't make it, so I hopped into the booth to take over (I wasn't a DJ). Matt Kaye, the bartender extraordinaire, heard the music (Southern rap and 90s hardcore) and asked me to play as a resident on Mondays at B-Side in the East Village, where he worked. He asked me what my DJ name was and since I wasn't really a DJ, I didn't have one. So he gave me the name Project Matt after the Memphis rapper Project Pat.
DM: You had rap and hip-hop beginnings—what changed?
PM: I still have a tremendous amount of love for rap music––Southern rap especially. After my residency at the Lower East Side staple Home Sweet Home came to an end, a lot of things changed in my life and I started listening to more disco and dance music. From there, I realized that I wanted to play music that women would want to dance to, rather than music that makes a bunch of dudes want to fight. There's nothing wrong with that, right?
DM: What would you play in a typical hip-hop set? Top 5 songs?
1. Juvenile - HA Master
2. P - Make Em Say UgH!
3. Z-Ro - I Hate you B*tch
4. Big Tymers - Oh Yeah!
5. Too $hort - In The Trunk
DM: What are your top five songs for DJing at the moment?