T4T LUV NRG is proud to present “Amen! Vol. 1”, a breathtaking DJ mix tape conceived and blended by Detroit’s DeeJay Beige. In the spirit of label’s prior mix tapes (Eris Drew’s “Raving Disco Breaks” and Octo Octa’s “Love Hypnosis”), “Amen! Vol. 1” is a singular presentation of a sound developed by Beige that is very personal and deeply connected to their history. Beige’s mix is an amalgam of ecclesiastical breaks and gospel house delivered with intensity and soul power like only they can do. Prepare to be enthralled with one of the most exciting DJs currently burning their way through the American underground. From the Holy Ghost TO YOU, this is Beige! Be not afraid…

FREE STREAMING is available through our label’s Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/t4tluvnrg/beige-amen-vol-1

ARTIST STATEMENT:
In the strictest sense, Amen! Vol. 1 is the result of more than a year’s worth of obsessive brainstorming, digging, planning, arranging, re-arranging, and countless discarded takes. And in another sense, this mixtape has been in the works for the six years since I started DJing, the ten years since my baptism as a teenage club rat, and for my entire life, which for better or for worse has been shaped by The Church and church music since birth. 

My mother was a promiscuously Christian divinity school dropout who pushed my family through a run of increasingly conservative churches: Unitarian, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbytarian, Charismatic-Evangelical, and probably a few others I forget. My fathers family on the other hand were career scientists and committed atheists who also all happened to sing in church choirs for fun. I cannot remember a time when Beethoven, Bach, folk hymns, old negro spirituals and gospel were not playing in my house, day in and day out. 

Cutting ties with both family and organized religion in my early teens left a void of community and belonging that wouldn’t start to be filled until my first experiences with clubbing (sometimes with drugs, sometimes without) years later. And when I started collecting records years after that, I gravitated heavily towards any music incorporating the familiar imagery, themes, musical motifs and language of church (especially Liberation Theology) which remained kind of bittersweetly comforting long after I stopped trying to believe. This might sound heretical, but over the last several years “gospel” has become much more of a feeling to me than a genre or even a sound. As far as I’m concerned, the rave, the club, the congregation, the choir, are only different ways to experience a many-sided mystery. 

For this project, I wanted to challenge myself to imagine going beyond just using a little soulful house to end the night or the mix on an uplifting note, and instead program a fantasy “gospel rave” for a thousand of my closest friends dancing in a field on a moonless night. How would I do my best to deliver a powerful, meaningful, salvatory collective experience from midnight until sunrise? Amen Vol. 1 is a snapshot of that imaginary night. 

The need to use contrasting peaks and troughs to create a sense of narrative for your audience includes emotional or spiritual contrast just as much as it does changes in BPM or a kick pattern.  So, it was important for me to try exceeding simply the emotions associated with “praise” music (like joy) because encountering the truly divine should also inspire fear and awe. Disregarding genre as much as possible, each piece of music was chosen for the sensation or sentimental meaning it inspires for me personally: you probably wouldn’t call most of them “rave tracks”, and plenty aren’t explicitly religious at all. Finally, of course I had to make sure that Detroit and Chicago were properly (but not exclusively, that’s for another mix) represented in the tracklist. Where I’ve ended up, grounded by a repeating classic “anchor track” for each side, is an attempt to simulate Genesis and Revelation, the Good News and the Flood, the dark night of the soul and the moment of salvation–whatever those might mean for you. Can I get a witness?