Guest of 2021: Dillon Riley
Noise Floor marks the end of another strange year by welcoming some local guests to reflect on 2021.
Editor’s Note: Last summer, I opened the gates of my solitary blogging castle to welcome outside contributors for the first time in Noise Floor’s decade-ish existence, and had a great time doing so! If you’ve been following along this year, you’ll have noticed that the whirlwind reopening of the live music world sort of took over here, and I hit the big pause button on commissioning and editing submissions. As year-end season rolled around this month though, I was glad to hear from a couple of good friends and bright Boston music minds about un-pausing. Thusly, today Noise Floor is proud to present a year-end mix and rumination from Allston’s esteemed DJ Denim Dill. -Ben Stas
What a year amirite? But seriously folks I am both so glad this year is almost over, and also very not glad that it’s ending how it started: with us on half-assed lockdown while yet another COVID variant tears through the world. Kinda crazy how music and arts communities are the ones leading safety precautions huh? Almost as if those sorta things naturally attract empathetic and community-oriented people right? Not to say that being into music or art on a local or otherwise left-of-center activities inherently makes you a good person with good politics or whatever, but you get the idea.
ANYWAYS, while I definitely struggled at times to really get into the groove during the all-too-brief time when it felt ok or even marginally safe to go out and dance with the people, one bit of solace I’ve had in the past year has been listening to dance music at home. Something about the forward momentum that came from the untold amounts of excellent music from that realm in 2021 brought me some sort of peace (especially while working at my very great, but far from eventful job in my small office in the corner of my bedroom). As I stare down the barrel of my late 20s I have openly wondered whether I still have it in me emotionally to go out and dance til the sun comes up like I used to. It’s not really a question of stamina so much as it is desire. Do I wanna ruin my sleep cycle for a whole week? Can I relate to the people around me anymore enough to wanna stay out? Why are all these people so bad at being a body in a space? And most importantly, am I getting worse at tuning out the bullshit and just letting the room take me over?
I do not have those answers and that’s ok I think! And for now it’s not really an issue! I’m gonna keep being a bedroom DJ for a while because I love doing it and it keeps me plugged into the most important part of nightlife culture (to me at least): the music. My god there was so much good music this year, here’s just under an hour and a half of it. There are many, many more releases I loved, but let’s call this a survey of my faves of 2021 in dance, cheers! -Dillon Riley
TRACKLIST:
Doss- On Your Mind
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ- Be Ready
Eris Drew- Quivering In Time
Octo Octa- Find Your Way Home
p4rkr- imma ruin you, cunt
Logic1000- Medium
UNIIQU3- Microdosing
Black Cadmium- I Need You
Kasper Marrot- Mini Trance
Ben Hauke- Spare Change
India Jordan- And Groove
Anz- Inna Circle
Bored Lord- Gender of a Generation
LSDXOXO- Sick Bitch (VTSS blend)
ZULI- Keen Demag
~Daria on smiling~
leroy- S3 E2 her head is soooo rolling!! love her
AceMoMA- 1 Million Breaks
Tim Reaper- Lights Off, Heads Down (Sully Remix)
SHERELLE- 160 DOWN THE A406
Chippy Nonstop & DJ Genderfluid- Straight To Hell (Gendered Dekonstruktion Remix)
Danny L. Harle & MC Boing- Boing Beat VIP
DJ Girl- Temptress
100 gecs- mememe (Killin’ Void & Glitch Gum Remix)
Space Afrika- Indigo Grit (feat. guest)
pink pantheress- break it off (extended mix)