Lost Track of Time: Xes Xes Loveseat and Friends’ 10 Magical Afterparty Tracks

By JUICE Malaysia  •  in Features
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source: Eirik Solheim

Image Eirik Solheim

Only because the clubs shut at 3am doesn’t mean that the party has to stop – god knows how many afterparties we’ve done at random people’s houses, hotel suites, and unknown bars. Oftentimes we found that afterparties were our favourite part of the night. We call it the magical period, roughly sometime between 5am and 7am. David Mancuso, borrowing ideas from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, calls it the reentry to the world, the last transitional phase of three Bardos. The way you wind down the night will determine how the night went – and the music played in this phase are the ones people will remember, most of them have a nostalgic feel-good vibe.

Here are ten of our most cherished after party tracks.

Moomin – Loop No 1 (Closer, 2014)

At the afterparty, what we aim for after a hectic night out is a soft landing. We usually pick something simple and elegant, and for that, ‘Loop No 1’ is a fine specimen. This track, as the name suggests, is just a loop, but one that could go on forever.

Soul Capsule – Lady Science (NYC Sunrise) (Trelik, 1999)

We are not going to roll out names of DJs who had closed their sets with this track, it’ll be too long of a list. Instead, read this YouTube comment that captures perfectly the mood of this spiritually cathartic end of night track:

“After three straight nights of going out and partying, not sleeping the whole time, etcetera, me and my two mates were sitting in the car in a quiet street while the sun rose. It was raining slightly too. I put this song on and we were all sitting in silence having the most nostalgic feelings. The vocal sample “let it go” was really affecting me emotionally. So much suppressed pain over a relationship breakdown, and how I’ve been trying to distract myself from the pain. Powerful music.”

New Jackson – Having A Coke With You (Permanent Vacation, 2014)

Just before his death in 1966, the American writer Frank O’Hara wrote a delicate poem titled ‘Having a Coke With You’. Fifty years after, it became the inspiration to this track, and what beauty it is. Listen to this track at 7am with a loved one and melt together into the sunrise.

KZA – Le Troublant Acid (Endless Flight, 2010)

An acid rework of the haunting voiceover classic by Paul Martin done by one of Japan’s most celebrated crate diggers, KZA. If you spent your night to the sounds of acid house and squelching TB-303s, then this would make a great send off.

Westbam & Nena – Oldschool Baby (Piano Mix) (Low Spirit, 2002)

Michael Mayer had this piano-trance anthem in his Fabric mix, Ryan Elliot closed his Movement set with this, and this track is probably played at Panorama Bar every other week. Original physical copies of this track are very rare, RaySoo had one but I think we lost it at a crazy afterparty at this house by a lake that we called the ‘happy house’.

Mount Liberation Unlimited – Clinton Space Funk (Junk Yard Connections, 2014)

A bit of a sleeper until Running Back boss and underground hero Gerd Janson had this in his XLR8R podcast, after which the thing sold out in a couple of days. This is the sound of deep techno funk. If you hear this at an afterparty, you’d be in the state of deep techno funk. If you don’t understand what we mean by the state of deep techno funk, then watch the video.

James Yuill ‎– This Sweet Love (Prins Thomas Sneaky Edit) (Moshi Moshi, 2008)

This is how you do a disco edit of an indie track with perfect afterparty lyrics. We play this every time late into an afterparty, sometimes twice. We think it’s our most played afterparty track, works fantastically well around 8am. We love this too much.

Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan (Poolside Re-work) (White Label, 2013)

A dreamy edit of Black Sabbath, once we played this after two nights of partying, a friend remarked that that he was ‘transported’ to his late father’s house listening to Black Sabbath on his father’s nice stereo when he was a child. The only problem was that his father never had a stereo and was never a fan of Black Sabbath. Epic.

Kölsch – Der Alte (Kompakt, 2011)

Rune Reilly Kölsch, this Danish producer has sold millions of records for the likes of Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, Steve Aoki, and Deadmau5, but this track – we must say – is the right kind of cheese. There’s just something about piano riffs and end-of-night nostalgia. We forgive you Kölsch, if only for this great late night smile-inducing track.

Pachanga Boys – Time (Hippie Dance, 2011)

Well, the last recommendation has to be this. Too obvious a choice as an after party track, yes, but we wanted to include this track for the non-house/techno music-listening readers. Like all great afterparty tracks, ‘Time’ goes on for quite a bit and this one is 15 minutes of suspended reality. Majestic, spellbinding, and awe-inspiring, people are basically pleading on Discogs for this $500 Sufjan Stevens-sampling record to be re-released. This is probably the greatest house/techno afterparty track ever created, because we can’t think of a better one.

Follow Xes Xes Loveseat on SoundCloud here and Mixcloud here.