DJ Spen Mixes Double Cheese #100

This is how you do it with style: Release #100 for some labels is a reason for a press release, for blogs that will cut and paste it and throw out platitudes and flattery like a cheap currency that numbers a baleful to the dollar. Double Cheese laid out a few bucks of their own and in lieu of a press release is a reissue selected not by the label themselves but by DJ Spen. The Baltimore impresario’s selection of 15 tracks from Double Cheese Records’ catalog is probably different from the label’s and that would probably be different than mine – and that’s okay, because while both Spen and I play records, the key difference is that pay him thousands of dollars for it.

DJ Spen’s selection actually brings to the fore a few tracks I wasn’t familiar with – among them, Kerri Chandler’s “Love Will Find A Way” and Booker T’s remix of Vittorio Santorelli’s “I Am” featuring King David, as well as N’dinga Gaba’s remix of Max Marinacci’s “Superlove” featuring Hazel.

The thing I’m drawing from this (and I think this is the entire point): it’s pretty easy to be a “label boss,” releasing your own tracks isn’t hard, keeping it to a small clique is probably emotionally satisfying and makes all of them like you. There’s something more to being brave and open and aspiring to not just flatter the community of music lovers but to contribute to it, to shape it with your actions and selections. So here’s to #100, and hopefully a hundred more.