FMB MIXTAPE 146 | NITE FLEIT (iTUNES)
FMB MIXTAPE 146 | NITE FLEIT (320 DOWNLOAD)
FMB MIXTAPE 146 | NITE FLEIT (MIXCLOUD)
For this week’s episode of the FMB mixtape series we welcome Nite Fleit to contribute. The Australian-born, London-based DJ & producer has already had a string of releases this year including one on DJ Haus’ Unknown to the Unknown Dance Trax series, followed by another release with Steel City Dance Discs and with plenty more to come! As usual, we asked a bit about the selection & what she’s been up to lately…
Where to begin? Over these past 3 months I have been working most waking hours for my job at the University of London under lockdown which has been taxing, but I hesitate to complain as:
a) I am incredibly lucky to have a side hustle during the COVID-19 pandemic and;
b) There are so many things going on right now in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the decades/centuries-long prejudice, inequality and brutality that POC face on a daily basis; not unique to America, but rampant all over the world.
I’m quite emotional and tend to by hyper-empathetic, and I want to be clear; this is not some kind of humble brag or flipping the script to make this about myself. Sitting with the discomfort and tears that fall whilst reading, watching, listening and discussing the structural constraints on the life chances of POC is nothing compared to living life in a system that structures opportunities and assigns value based on inane physiological characteristics such as skin colour.
As an abled, cis, straight white woman, I automatically experience benefits for no good reason and if I feel uncomfortable and heart-broken by reading or watching these atrocities from the safe haven of my privilege, so be it. Because with discomfort comes change. While I am hopeful real change will come soon, the least we can do is keep fighting, not for a week, not for a month but every time we see/hear about injustices occurring, whether it be through educating ourselves and others (a start), protesting, signing petitions, speaking up and against any form of discrimination (especially to friends and family and not just when people are watching; behind closed doors, when people unfortunately and disgustingly think it’s ok to make discriminatory ‘jokes’ or remarks) and simply spending time thinking about the inherent biases you likely have (highly recommend taking all of the Project Implicit tests).
So, while I’d like to have answered this question with “recently I’ve been busy making music and DJing”, I’d be lying. I do hope I get some time to do some of my beloved said passions, but at the moment I am just unable to. I will say that when I have tried to work on music over the past few weeks it’s resulted in plenty of chord progressions that have turned into sad piano tracks to put you to sleep and/or cry. I am not sure what to do with these, but I do think they are an apt expression of how I’m feeling at the moment, so maybe one day they will go somewhere. Not the club though.
I recorded this mix on the floor of my bedroom after working a 30 hour day in a state of sleepless lockdown isolation hyperactivity with my 2 XDJ100’s and temperamental DJM-400 through Camtasia rather than as I thought it would be nice to film it but really, it was a little boring because I was too tired to make it exciting/interesting. While I’d love to be a plant-person, I inadvertently kill every plant I buy so I couldn’t dress it up with greenery. So, my exhausted brain was like cool, no frills, just me on da floor altering my usual leg-jig to a cross-legged version, but alas, that footage goes straight to DVD.
Usually the idea behind my mixes are “play what you’d play in a set” as I’ve never been too great at conceptual mixes, so that’s what it is! Gosh I am not really painting an interesting or profound picture of myself today, am I? No, ok so I play quite a few of my own tracks (out and forthcoming) and some tracks by friends and some recent discoveries and some old favies.
Up next…
I have a few releases coming out over the next few months; most exciting for me is the Return To Disorder release out in July and another one soon to be announced shortly after that and two VA’s I’m very excited about. I also have a few projects I was working on prior to lockdown which will come to fruition soon. I have an abundance of tracks that I have either finished or almost finished, so will soon start looking for homes for those too. Re DJing, I had a few tours planned for this year (Japan, Aus, the US), but all are rescheduled to later this year (wishful thinking/fingers crossed/pandemic-pending) and next year (also pandemic-pending!).
