Playing My Sh*t

Burningmax

Pitti Uomo Video Soundtrack 2

2012

Another music production work commissioned from a fashion show, the soundtrack for a 1 minute 30 seconds fashion video.

I created three variations in my proposal, and this is the variation #2. None of the tree version has been accepted for the video soundtrack.

Which is great for me, so I can use now my tracks as much as I want, otherwise I would have had to forget about my intellectual property rights, I couldn’t even include the track in this mix. All three tracks are a bit short, but they all fitted perfectly in the mix.

Recorded in 2012, all three tracks have been recently re-mastered.

Burningmax

Spooky Rave

2015

This 15-minutes long track is a journey to a rave in the woods. It starts with the assumption that you are wondering in the woods, hear some scary and spooky sounds, but then you hear the pulsing beat of a rave in the distance and walk straight to it. A real experience that has happened to me a few times, and I guess also to many ravers around the wold.

As the artwork cover says, Spooky Rave is “a dark techno remix/mash-up by burningmax, featuring samples from spektre + tom laws (whores and hangovers), spartaque (razor), m.a.n.d.y. (twisted sister), pig + dan (mr. mojo man), all mashed up on traktor remix decks“.

Hence Spooky Rave is more a mash-up/remix than a production per se, but the way I used the Remix Decks loops to create the track doesn’t make it a remix of none of those original sources neither, so I’d like to claim Spooky Rave as one of my “early rave productions“, while still giving credit to the original tracks right there, in the cover’s artwork.

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: Helsinki

2012

Back in 2012, I provided digital and multimedia services for top fashion shows and fashion brands. It was normally web stuff, but it has also happened to get music commissioned, like in this case of the soundtrack for a fashion video, shot in time-lapse mode.

So I created a 2-minutes track that I provided in 6 variations, inspired by the international music scene. They picked one for the video soundtrack… guess which one?

This is the “variation” inspired by the cold electronica sounds from Scandinavian producers, which I dedicated to Helsinki. 

Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered.

Fur Coat

Inner Circle (Burningmax Remix)

2018

There’s a specific reason that brought me to remix this killer track from Fur Coat. I love this track and I used to play it live a lot back then when it was released, but for the way I craft my live sound, the track was “missing something”.

When playing it, I always felt the need to add extra layers of noise, effects and the occasional extra loops, so I decided to save myself some work and get a Burningmax version that I could have played directly in my gigs…

It didn’t helped, as I was still adding extra layers also to the remix. But that’s just me, I must somehow create disturbances in my sound, so I’ll be always manipulating the track, be it an original track or a remix.

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: Marrakech

2012

Born as a proposal for a soundtrack needed by a fashion video shot in time-lapse, this is my 2-minutes “variation” track inspired by African sounds from the hectic moroccan town of Marrakech.

This variation didn’t make the selection for the video soundtrack. Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered.

Phonique

Vincent Price (Burningmax + Aladin Remix)

2020

Andrea is a great creative mind, a good friend, and an amazing artist, you can check his artwork on Instagram @aladin. I’ve known him for more than 20 years, and since then he’s been in a beautiful relationship with another great friend of mine, Antonella. For Antonella’s 50th birthday Andrea reached out to me, and proposed to work together on his idea for a surprise gift to Antonella.

Antonella loved this track from the French producer Phonique, and Andrea wrote an amazing love poem dedicated to Antonella, and wanted to “drop it” in the track.

So I created a remixed version of the Phonique track mixing in Andrea’s spoken words, and I love the final result.

Andrea/Aladin also created the artwork for the remix cover, which is dope. He also designed pretty much all the covers for one of my radio shows / podcasts, you can see all the cover artwork by Aladin following the link.

Humate

Three Point Three (Burningmax Infinite Rework)

2017

Around 2015-2017 I was experimenting with Traktor Remix Decks, mostly played from my Traktor controller (Kontrol S4), until I included in my the set-up an extra module specifically designed to manage Remix Decks, the Traktor F1 mini controller.

The F1 is a sick tool, and gave me plenty of creative freedom when mixing. I kept using it until I got the latest Traktor S4 controller, that has now included an easy way to create Stems “on the fly“, and manage and play Remix Decks.

This remix from a classic ’90s trance anthem by German producer Humate is one of the first remixes I created by playing with Traktor F1.

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: Ibiza

2012

Another 2-minutes “variation” track I created as soundtrack for a time-lapse fashion video. This time the track gets inspiration from the island that is a Mecca for dance music, Ibiza.

Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered. Neither this variation made it to the video soundtrack.

Caribou

Sun (Burningmax Remix)

2017

I’ve been following the Canadian producer Caribou for many years, and I often play his tracks in my DJ sets.

Sun is by far one of his most powerful tracks, also pretty dark and psychedelic, yet a killer track for the dancefloor.

And guess what? I couldn’t resist, I had to make a Burningmax remix out of this track too!

Ginix

Beta (Morphinauts Groove)

2012

Ginix is a friend from the Burning Man community. A creative genius, a bit nerdy, a visionary engineer, and also a DJ and musician on his spare time. We used to be roommates, sharing a villa with swimming pool in Castelldefels, outside Barcelona. Posh life. And plenty of parties.

Andrea (Ginix‘s real name) produced “Beta“, a minimal and hypnotic track, while we were room-mating, back in 2012, and I couldn’t resist to remix it. Not once, but three times, with a “Burningmax Rework” version, a “Burningmax Never Fucking Stop” remix, and a third “groovey” version, that I put out using my other DJ moniker name, Morphinauts. This is the “Morphinauts Groove” remix.

Recorded in 2012, all three tracks have been re-mastered.

Because Of Art

Astral Travel (Burningmax Rastafari Wisdom Dub)

2023

I wanted do create a track with a reggae/dub vibe, and I have been mixing and remixing for days, but I was going in the wrong direction. At a point, I tried remixing Bill Oswell’s remix of Bob Marley’s Rebel Music giving it a techno edge (it was OK, but nothing special), or adding Rastafari vocal samples on breaks and drum’n’bass, which has been done thousands of times… I wasn’t satisfied.

Until when, while driving, iTunes randomly picked a track from London-based producer Because Of Art, who I been following for years. The track is Astral Travel, a great techno dub track that is hypnotic enough to be dub, but also has an active beat that gives the track a warehouse edge with an acid crescendo.

That was it – I really didn’t do much for my remix. I just twitched and twisted the track until I radically slowed it down and also changed the key. Then I added some delays, reverbs and stuff, and some Rastafari vocal samples. I initially used quotes from Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Buju Banton interviews. None of them were really fitting the remix.

While searching on YouTube, I accidentally bumped into a little treasure, the Rastafari Wisdom video, published more than 10 years ago by Duke Ngozi, a regular Jamaican dude, not a youtuber. The guy only has a couple of videos and playlists on his channel, but he managed to record some pearls of Rastafari wisdom from two old local rasta fellas, and it’s gold. So it went straight in my remix. Here’s the story, and here is my remix track, I hope you like it.

Actually, there’s a bit more to say about this remix. When I sent the track to Alex (Because Of Art’s real name) he literally replied “Nice, never heard it this slow before. Sounds super trippy“. Rastafari. One Love.

Burningmax

Birds+Trains (5.30am Sunrise Field Recs)

2023

This track is called “Birds + Trains (5.30AM Sunrise Field Rec)”. The title kind of says it all. It was 5.30AM, sunrise time, and I was on my terrace, doing some field recording of quiet morning birds… when it all suddenly got disrupted by the passage of the fist early morning trains.

I was annoyed at first, also because the trains scared the birds, and their sounds were not so quiet anymore… but I didn’t give up…

I manipulated the samples anyway, and the result is a deep dark hypnotic track that wanders somewhere between experimental ambient noise and a distant dark rave.

I love it, I hope you’ll like it too. Enjoy the sunrise.

Burningmax

Pitti Uomo Video Soundtrack 1

2012

The first 1 minute 30 second track of the three variations I was asked to create for the soundtrack of a fashion show video.

This is the soundtrack variation #1, which also was rejected during the selections for the video sound score.

Recorded in 2012, the track has been re-mastered. 

Burningmax

Pitti Uomo Video Soundtrack 3

2012

The last 1 minute 30 seconds track of the three variations I created as a potential soundtrack for a fashion show video.

You already know that none of the three proposals made it to the video soundtrack. 

Recorded in 2012, all three tracks have been recently re-mastered. This is the soundtrack variation #3.

Camilla Pisani

Techno Drama (Burningmax No Drama Remix)

2023

Camilla Pisani is a great music producer and multimedia artist, with a “career” that has been skyrocketing over the last few years. Camilla is also a friend, and we collaborated on one of my art installation projects (H2O, 2018), for which she created an experimental track as soundtrack of the H2O installation, a sound triggered by the interaction with visitors.

This is my remix of Camilla Pisani’s single “Techno Drama”, a great experimental track with beautiful ambient synth textures and a beat that goes a bit on a secondary plan, before disappearing into the ambient coda of the track.

My remix pushed the track in a more decise dancefloor direction, while still playing, overdubbing and manipulating the original synth tracks created by Camilla. I also brought in a pulsing and “wormholing” beat, and I slapped it upfront, while pushing the tempo to 136 bpm from the original 130 bpm.

I also experimented at various speed before getting to this final version, and I have to say that another tempo that was also sounding great, but with a different loops and overlays setup, was 142 bpm. Maybe one day I’ll release it as a “more drama” version.

Laurent Garnier, Pig&Dan, Alberto Ruiz

Scalextric (Burningmax Evercrispy)

2015

The original track that I have used as a base for this remix is Scalextric, a massive groove by techno killers Pig+Dan, this time partnering with Alberto Ruiz for the job.

As soon as I have heard this tune, I have immediately pictured in my mind as a perfect groove base for Laurent Garnier’s 1993 classic Crispy Bacon. A few loop cuts on my Traktor S4 and the new Evercrispy was born! I hope you enjoy it.

One note: this is the very first take of my Evercrispy remix. I tried other versions at various bpm speed. One at the original Crispy Bacon’s 130 bpm, another one veeeeery slow at 120 bpm, and several versions at 125, 127 and 128 bpms, all different also in terms of loop jamming.

But at the end I decided to stick with the first recording, at 126 bpm. Love at first beat, I would say.

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: Berlin

2012

Another 2-minutes track I created for a time-lapse fashion video, with a variation that takes inspiration from Berlin’s dark industrial dance scene.

Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered.

Neither this variation made it to the final video soundtrack.

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: New York

2012

More Time Lapse Variations with another 2-minutes soundtrack for a time-lapse fashion video. This variation takes inspiration from the glamorous New York dance scene.

This is the variation that has been selected for the video soundtrack, and it fitted pretty well in the final video editing.

Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered. 

Burningmax

Time Lapse Variations: Tel Aviv

2012

Last of the Time Lapse Variations, soundtrack for a time-lapse fashion video. This 2-minutes track takes inspiration from the psy-trance dance scene of Israel, and it’s dedicated to Tel Aviv.

Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered. This variation didn’t make it to the video soundtrack.

Ginix

Beta (Burningmax Never Fucking Stop Remix)

2012

The first of my three remixes for Ginix’s “Beta“, a minimal and hypnotic techno track. There is also a “Burningmax Rework” version, and a “groovey” one, the “Morphinauts Groove” remix. This is Beta (Burningmax Never Fucking Stop Remix). Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered.

Note: The “Never Fucking Stop” posse was born at the Italian Burning Weekend 2011 (a local regional Burning Man gathering in Italy), when myself and my good friend Dr. Malaka (great Dj, king of Balkan and folktronica beats) decided we didn’t want to stop playing when the generator of the main stage was turned off at 7am.

So we connected our gear to a portable generator, and played until we run out of fuel. At that point, we connected our decks to the speakers of my Fiat Panda, and kept playing until mid-afternoon, with a sign that said “Camp Never Fucking Stop“.

Since then, there were a couple more NFS moments (short for Never Fucking Stop) at various festivals, and an actual Never Fucking Stop party in Paris that lasted an entire weekend.

Ginix

Beta (Burningmax Rework)

2012

By now you know everything about my three remixes for Ginix’s “Beta“, a minimal/hypnotic techno track.  he produced while we were room-mating (villa-mating?) in Barcelona.

This is the Burningmax Rework version. Recorded in 2012, the track has been recently re-mastered.

The image used for the artwork of the three Beta remixes is Black Rock City, the mecca for the Burning Man community in the Nevada desert, seen from above.

Scuba

If You Want (Burningmax Remix)

2012

Scuba didn’t really need my help with his dance floor banger “If You Want“, but as it happens with many of the tracks I love, I end up sooner or later “modifying” them to my specific taste. Which is what happened with this remix of the Scuba track.

I still think Scuba’s original version is much better than my remix, but I feel more confident playing my remix when I play live gigs, also because I “stetched it“, making the track longer than the original version. I haven’t play it in a while, but one day I will pop it out like an “oldie but goldie” tune. Promised.

The track, produced in 2012, has been recently re-mastered.

Laurent Garnier, Piou-Piou

WTF 01 Jinglex (Burningmax for Deli Radio feat. PiouPiou)

2018

If you explore my website you figure out that there is an entire section dedicated to my passion for radio (and podcasts). One of the last radio shows I created, for the Rome-based Deli Radio, was “WTF – Wonderful Techno Frequencies”.

When I started the WTF show I decided that I wanted to have some long tracks with jingles that I wanted to use for the show’s intros and outros, while i was talking over them.

To create the radio jingles I used loops of various Laurent Garnier’s dance tracks as a background, then I asked several friends to record voice message for me on Whatsapp, so I could use the relative audio files. Among the best Jinglex (Burningmax Jingles, with a final X) were the ones with audio from Rachele (Rome, in Italian and English), Cecilia (Madrid, in Spanish) and from Piou-Piou (Paris, in French).

Unfortunately I cannot find Rachele and Cecilia’s Jinglex in high-resolution quality, but I found the one with Piou-PIou’s voice cameos. It’s built on top of a loop from Laurent Garnier’s “It’s Just Muzik“. The audio quality is not perfect, but it worked for the radio show, and I wanted to drop it also in my “Mixing My Sh*t” playlist. 

Piou-Piou is an artist and performer from Paris, and a good friend. She’s also part of the original core members of “Never Fucking Stop Camp” at Italian Burning Weekend 2011, and the organizer of the Never Fucking Stop party in Paris, alongside many other events, including the iconic Burning Night Paris at Le Chateau du Moulin Rouge, in the heart of Pigalle, Paris.

Laurent Garnier

Multiple Tributes (Burningmax Everything is Music Rework)

2023

For as much as I’d love to consider “Everything Is Music” as a track of mine – there’s my voice on it, and I also crafted the Detroit/Chicago-inspired driving beats – truth is that the song is built around a loop originating from a track on Laurent Garnier’s last album.

It doesn’t matter that many artists create (and sell) “new music” by stealing a sample (or more) from other artists. Not my style, so I needed to rectify it, relabelling the track from “Burningmax Production” to “Burningmax Remix”, and giving full attribution and credits to Laurent Garnier.

“Everything Is Music” is one of those remixes that totally change the nature of the original track, in this case also the lyrics. Yet, still falls into the remix category, for the use of that loop. I can be stubborn sometimes about this things…

So, forget “Burningmax – Everything Is Music”, and welcome “Laurent Garnier – Multiple Tributes (Burningmax Everything Is Music Rework)”. The track is still the same, but I changed the cover… Thank you Laurent for being a constant source of inspiration!

The__Fuzz

The___Fuzz – Fallen Lord (Burningmax Unauthorized Remix)

2022

Federico is a friend who lives in my neighborhood, and a great rock singer / songwriter, performing with the name The___Fuzz (with 3 underscores). I file his style under “American psychedelic desert blues rock“, somewhere in between Calexico, Mark Lanegan and The Doors. The___Fuzz often plays live gigs in rock clubs around Rome, and has an active studio recording activity.

At a point, in 2022, Federico told me he had a new single out, “Fallen King“, so Y asked him permission to remix the track, but I went beyond the extra mile, creating 6 different remix variations; too many, as when I presented them to Federico he couldn’t decide which one he liked, so we waited, waited… until we both forgot about it. I’ve met Federico a few times recently, and we never talked again about my “old” remix.

Then I recently found a hard drive with many of my old remixes, and there was “Fallen Lord”. Which is currently “unauthorized” (until I meet Federico again) and also a bit incomplete. Also, like Federico, I wasn’t able to pick “one” remix out of the 6, and I ended up choosing the “ambient remix” – which is not ambient at all, riding at 128 bpm. Listen to my remix right below.

To discover Federico’s music with The___Fuzz, follow him on Instagram at @the___fuzz/

Schaltkreis Wassermann

Lux (Burningmax Aeternal Remix)

2023

Lux is an electronic post-experimental track created in 1982 by German producer Schaltkreis Wassermann.

Since then, several remixes of this song have been created, including remixes by InFlagranti, I-Robots, Daniele Baldelli & Dionigi, Benedikt Frey, Beppe Loda, and two re-issues of the song by the same Schaltkreis Wassermann, as “2020 Remaster” and a “Remake of 2022“. In 2023 it was my time to give the tune a remixing spin.

My version of Lux (Burningmax Aeternal Remix) gets loops from all the above mentioned remixes and versions of Lux, and creates an epic sound journey (36 minutes) across all the evolutions of Lux over 40 years of time since its first release. This is why I see it as an “Aeternal Remix“.