New Year's Eve at 111 Minna went off without a hitch, with gallons of champagne poured, hundreds of balloons dropped, and many a fine tune played. Nobody's hair caught on fire, and only one person had to be escorted out of the club in a headlock. Not bad for the biggest amateur party night of all.

Followed that up with an underground party hosted by our pal Rooz. It was packed, a little difficult to enter the building in fact, as they had everyone funneling through a six inch wide corridor. After a rocky first mix (nope, 2nd CDJ is on Channel 4, *not* Channel 2) Spesh and I got into a great tag-team groove and played a mix of hard tech, techno, and progressive. After widening our horizons to include everything from minimal to electro, I have to say we are both loving progressive music again. Perhaps that because it's getting better again, in general, lush drivers as opposed to epic wankers or boring plodders. The party was still going strong but we didn't stick around past 4:30 or so. Give me a break, a new dad and turning 40 this year! ;-)

Back in the studio, Spesh and I are brewing up a new batch of prog drivers. I'm applying my independent study from The Mix Engineer's Handbook to make these sound as tight as possible, in terms of mixdown and mastering. We've also got a start on Episode Five of the most controversial radio show/podcast in the dance music world. Fun times.

Family life is good, getting much easier now that Tesla Rose is approaching one year.

Here's to good fortune and good times for *you* in 2009. May the cosmic tribal pulse be with you.

Picture by Felix, from his cellphone