Dance-minded reflections from Melbourne’s Wael-X.
It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome underground legend and all-round good guy Wael-X for the 12th instalment in the Theory Therapy series. The Melbourne-based selector and promoter was a central player of both the Inner Varnika and Sound Of Thought crews for a number of years. As a DJ, he doesn’t compromise. His sets are an unnameable hybrid of mind-altering sounds informed by Lebanese dabke, Nigerian Afrobeat, soul-sampling hip-hop, progressive house, ‘70s dancehall and much, much more.
His Theory Therapy mix delivers everything we’ve come to love about Wael and more: groovy Lebanese rhythms, house and percussion-led club belters seamlessly mixed together. It begins light and subdued with a number of reflective, personal selections, before Wael introduces Black Light Smoke’s ‘Friends’ around the 40-minute mark to pick up the pace. From then on out, the Melbourne DJ unleashes some serious dance numbers by the likes of DJ Vadim, Manmade Science and Randall Jones. “Similar to a good night, the mix starts somewhere and ends somewhere else completely”.
How are you today?
I'm good. Apart from the whole navigating a global a pandemic, the George Floyd death and the spectre of racial profiling still haunting us, Lebanon (my home country) about to declare default and the subsequent looming economic collapse, plus the planned further annexation of parts of the West Bank of Palestine; all of which are souring the spirit somewhat, I'm still doing good today, actually real good. My thoughts go out to communities who aren’t as comfortable as we are here in Australia and to the communities here in Australia who are doing it tough.
Can you tell us a little bit about the mix? What were you feeling when you made it?
The mix is an emotional mix, given the title of the podcast series I envisioned it as a personal therapy session in the sense where I wanted to express what I was and am feeling through the records chosen. I envisioned myself sitting in a chair and being asked, ‘so, what’s on your mind’, and my response was the flow and narrative of the records mixed. First we start polite and subdued and then we work towards an expression of an underlying tension and/or a frustration with the way in which things have crept up on us the last 5 months, of which I mentioned above in the previous question. So as the set starts out with more softer sounds which are personal to me and my background, it ends up on a more a grittier/edgier note with more clubbier sounds, akin to a little catharsis in trying to shake off that frustration. I usually save those records for a peak time club set though I felt like playing them as it’s how I was feeling when I was mixing. So it’s a solid representation of a range of emotions, trying to find a balance and the beauty in a pretty brutal world.
Where did you record the mix?
The mix was recorded in my bedroom, on a set up which I have refused to upgrade since I started deejaying, two turntables, a CD player and below average yet workhorse mixer (the only mixer I have ever bought) and the first set of headphones I bought 12 years ago, one of the cups is no longer working so I had to really strain with my right ear. As a result there are some transitions which aren’t the smoothest yet I feel that imperfection is more than fine as it resembles the imperfect nature of humans and also the reality of ‘one-take’ mixes. I refuse to go back and edit errors out, so it’s there with all it’s rushed transitions, dusty/popping vinyls and even some static which came through towards the end. Did I mention my mixer is particularly old?
The bedroom itself is located behind a Milk Bar in Melbourne and the room itself is closest to the street, the last few weeks entailed a lot of music spilling into the shop and outside the windows, some (neighbours/customers) would say it was annoying, I would argue otherwise and claim it was good for business.
What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?
Before going out to dance, though as club land is closed for the time being one has to use the imagination, so personally I imagine the ideal setting for this mix to be listening to it while I was having drinks with friends on a balcony in summer time Beirut before we head out to dance. Similar to a good night, the mix starts somewhere and ends somewhere else completely, which is how I like to play anyways.
Are there any tracks you’ve used in the mix that are special or significant to you?
Without sounding flippant or stating the obvious, they are all pretty special tracks to me personally. They move me either through the aesthetic of the vocals, the drum arrangements, the melodies and the message that they convey. I usually just use, buy and play records which I think are timeless and or beautiful in their own right regardless of when or on which label it was released.
Though to be specific, the Lebanese Dabke Orchestra record ‘Ya Ain Moulaytein’ which I use early in the set is significant to me personally, when I was studying high school in Beirut I used to hear this song played a lot, at weddings, in taxis, my grandparents house and in the Village also, so to find a version of it which had some electronic sounds and synths was pretty cool, it’s a folk Dabke classic over there and I think it just sounds beautiful, a mix of big drums and powerful melodies.
Also ‘Cultural Assertion’ by Randal Jones is pretty special to me, I love that phrase in itself, growing up as a migrant/ethnic outsider in Australia there was always that conflict between assimilating to the dominant culture or asserting ones own culture, hence cultural assertion. I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it like that though I’m happy to imbue my own meaning to that record and run with it, plus any tasteful combination of horns and percussion, and I’m all yours.
What’s on the cards for 2020?
Trying to avoid the news for the rest of the year, I know what we are facing is serious though damn the media outlets have become so click-baity with their headlines, so no more news for 2020. Also, I may buy a new mixer and headphones, haha. It was tough going there with this mix.
Tracklisting:
Solo de Flute par Hayri Tumer - ‘Taksim’
Aouf Machaal - ‘Matar (Bouzoq)’
Said Slam - ‘Takassim Nahawand’
Jaubi - ‘Lahore State of Mind (Al Dobson Jr Remix)’
Aquarian Foundation - ‘Saturna’
Susso - ‘Ansumana’
Gyae Ahudwan Yi - ‘Kyeremateng Atwedie Stars’ (Vocal: Amoakoh)
Seifu Yohannes - ‘Mela Mela’
Lebanese Dabke Orchestra - ‘Ya Ain Moulaytien’
Jus Ras - ‘An American Poem’
Omar Khorshid - ‘Drums’
Black Light Smoke - ‘Friends’
Cottam - ‘Untitled (Luv 4 The World Edit)’
Manmade Science - ‘Just Tell Me When (Vox Mix)’
Adesse - ‘Justify’
Bjorn Torkse - ‘Kan Jeg Slippe?’
Dan Quin - ‘At The End of The World’
Will Saul - ‘Animal Magic (DJ T Remix)’
Omar S - ‘Striders World’
Randall Jones - ‘Cultural Assertion’
SW - ‘Reminder’ (Burriddim Mix By DJ Sotofett)
Muslimgauze - ‘All The Stolen Land of Palestine’
Bjorn Torske - ‘Vonde Vane’
DJ Vadim feat. Deuce Eclipse - ‘Like The Wind’
Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley - ‘Welcome To Jamrock’
J Whitfield - ‘Transition’