The Apartment Dance Party
The best house parties aren't planned, they only exist through some combination of kismet and blind chance, like the origins of the universe or an unwanted pregnancy. The crowd organically swells as the music rises beyond the building's thin threshold for noise. People use the washroom in pairs, and in the kitchen there is more alcohol than mix. People you normally only dance with in clubs are dancing on the living room floor, it's the difference between seeing animals in the wild versus those living in captivity. Some don't dance, they just take photographs. It's their way of wishing the night would last forever.
This is The Apartment Dance Party.
Track List
The Shy - Invisible/ Amenaza
Navid Izadi - Feelin' Purple - EP
Blood Orange - Uncle ACE
Laid Back - Cocaine Cool (Soul Clap Remix)
Soul Clap - Gator Boots - Track 3
Nadia Ksaiba - Virtual Lover
Gramme - Too High
Bush Tetras - Snakes Crawl (East Village Mix)
Gang of Four - Damaged Goods
Childbirth - I Only Fucked You as a Joke
N.E.R.D. - Don't Worry About It
Nas - Made You Look
Public Enemy - Don't Believe the Hype
ESG - Dance
Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless
TV Baby - New York Is Alright
Max + Mara - Unseen
Rockets - On the Road Again
Playgroup - Overflow (Optimo Remix)
Justus Kohncke & the Wonderful Frequency Band - Unaufmerksamkeitsblindheit
Total - What About Us (Remix)
Aaliyah - Try Again (Timbaland Remix)
Mewzic Monsterz - Champ
Nate Dogg - Music & Me
Pitbull - Go Girl (feat. Trina & Young Boss)
The Internet - Dontcha
Crazy P - Burning
Larry Heard Presents Mr. White - You Rock Me (Long Version)
Man Friday - Love Honey, Love Heartache (Larry Levan Mix)
Arthur Russell & Steven Hall - Some Say
Jamie XX - Sleep Sound
Jessy Lanza - Fuck Diamond
Moodymann - No
Prince - Purple Music (Unreleased)
Another Apartment Dance Party
Our collective expectation for how good a house party can be is surely exaggerated by the movies we've seen, with the house party firmly established as a ubiquitous set piece in teenage comedies. The scenes seem to blur together: bong water mishaps, beer keg stunts, cinematically white-washed depictions of date rape. At the center of it all is the obligatory packed dance floor, with the raucous and well-lit crowd jumping up and down in time with the music.
In real life, amazing house parties are about as common as two yoke eggs, threesomes that don't end with somebody crying, or successful military interventions in the Middle East. Often what promises to be a proper house party ends up just being a handful of people you don't know half-heartedly drinking wine over the remnants of a ravished cheese platter with the music playing at a low enough volume to allow for awkward silences and to make the exit you're planning all the more conspicuous.
Unlike at a club where a dance floor is all but guaranteed, a house party dance floor represents a perfect storm of social factors; the easiest of which to control is the music. An effective house party selection should make us all think we're in one of those movies, ideally the kind where the character gets some action at the party, and not the kind where he gets beat up.
Track List
Etienne De Crecy - Hashtag My Ass (Miguel Campbell Remix)
SBTRKT - New Dorp, New York
Planningtorock - Let’s Talk About Gender Baby
Moodymann - I Got Werk
YACHT - Works Like Magic
Bastedos - No Smoking on the Moon (AM Edit)
Mungolian Jet Set - Moon Jocks N Prog Rocks (Montezuma’s Revenge Version)
LoneLady - Groove It Out (LoneLady Michigan Dub)
Kill Frenzy - No Panties
Flairs - Better than Prince
Latryx - Lady Don’t Tek No
Para One & Jaw - When the Night (DipodaVne Remix)
Baauer feat. AlunaGeorge and Rae Sremmurd - One Touch
Etnik feat. Mykki Blanco - Unclassified
Prince - Funknroll
Aaliyah - If Your Girl Only Knew (The New Remix)
Tweet - Call Me
De La Soul - Baby Baby Baby Baby Ooh Baby (Unreleased Long Version)
Midnight Magic - Pick Up
David Bowie - Fashion
Joubert Singers - Stand of the Word (Hot Coins Remix)
Gramme - It’s Magic
Zazu - Captain Starlight
Los Massieras - Allrighty
The Wild Magnolias - (Somebody Got) Soul Soul Soul
Christy Essien Igbokwe - A Man
Eddy Grant - Nobody’s Got Time
