Transgressing genre borders in patient, psychedelic style, Marco Sartorelli alias Marco Shuttle has always been an artist preferring marathons over sprints. Be it as a producer, releasing tracks like the ten minute epos „The Vox Attitude“ and, most recent, MSP02 on his solo label MSP, or as a DJ, literally going to great lengths to convey his vision of uncompromising introversion behind the decks.
His contribution to our podcast series, a 195 minutes recording of a gig in Amsterdam in April, is a prime example: Sartorelli elegantly intertwines the artificial and the organic, weaving in horns, whistles, and unsettling, proggy undercurrences along the long but rewarding way.
What did you have in mind when recording this mix?
I didn’t have anything particular in mind, this is a live recording so I was just playing and going with the flow of the night. My only thought was to create a connection with the fantastic crowd I had in front of me.
Where did you record it and which setup did you use?
As I partly said on the answer to the previous question, this mix was recorded live at Pax Romana at Radion on April 11 in Amsterdam–really great party. I played on 2 Technics turntables, 2 CDJ’s and a Xone 96 mixer, but I basically played only records apart from a couple of unreleased things I had on my USB.
What’s the most memorable gig you played so far?
It’s basically impossible for me to answer this question. There have been so many amazing ones and each of them is special and unique in their own way. I’m very lucky because my audience is very music oriented, has a strong awareness and understanding of what they’re coming for. That is a crucial factor regarding the quality of a show, and in the same way the clubs or festivals I play for are run by promoters that care about music and approach the production prioritising sound and putting the crowd in the best possible condition to fully enjoy it.
I could maybe mention some of this year’s highlights so far: For sure Pax Romana, the party where this mix was recorded, Bonanza festival in Colombia where I played in February. I had a great little intimate show at Laut in Barcelona a few weeks ago, Ritmo in Granada was great, too. Lux in Lisbon b2b with Jane Fitz was a lot of fun and I’m also fresh off a wicked one at Tillatec in Amsterdam. Sorry if it’s too many, but as I said above: I’m very blessed to almost always play great gigs. And it’s quite hard to pick.
Can you name a secret weapon that you use frequently?
I don’t really have a proper anthemic „secret weapon“ because my sets evolve quite a bit over the time and I don’t really like to get stuck to specific tracks for too long. But there’s this Jeff Mills record that has kept coming back for the last 25 years. Sometimes it’s not in my bag for some, even long periods of time, but you can be sure at some stage I’ll drop it again. It’s not one of his famous ones like „The Bells“ or „Gamma Player“, it’s just a crazy, quite obscure groover many people don’t even know, called „31J564#01“ from his EP From The 21st Pt. 2. Never heard anybody else playing it apart from myself, really.
Three recent releases that caught your attention?
Barker – Stochastic Drift
Space Drum Meditation – Yarra
Feral – L’Aube Rouge
What do you have coming up?
I have a couple of exciting projects I’m working on, but it’s not the time for announcements yet.
