Ben Annand at Tropical 23-Year Portland, OR Oct 1 2021

On Friday, October 1st, Tropical Events turned 23 in Portland, at our 90th in-person event since October 1998! Third in the order was Ben Annand, Tropical's resident DJ and founder From Ben, this was my favorite set I've played so far in 2021. I've been playing selectively at just 1-2 parties a month since things re-opened, and have been enjoying the chance to focus on each one more. It is truly my goal to make each set unique and and the very highest-level I am capable of. Striving for perfection we always fall short but still achieve a higher result than if we settle for mediocrity. Every chance to share music with dancers counts, and I feel that even more after the pandemic wiped all gigs out for a year and a half. My favorite compliments on my set on site were one that it was varied, and the other that I don't wait around for tracks to end to mix. Regarding variety, I used to take dancers on a more linear journey from here to there, but the last few years I've been celebrating the diversity of my music collection and have been changing styles up more. Main thing doing this is to keep the overall energy level relatively steady through tracks of different styles with subtle bumps up and down - and I am very pleased with the results from this night. Musically this set starts off soft and vocal, then gradually goes back and forth between vocal and more techy and acidy tracks with energy a bit up and down towards a more energetic, rave-influenced finish ;) Regarding not waiting for tracks to end to mix, that's usually true I don't play most tracks al the way out, with some exceptions of course. I just find it absolutely boring both as a DJ, and as a dancer to hear 7 minutes of a track, with the last 30 seconds mixed out as a loop into the new track. I'm more moved by a skillful blend of two tracks that creates something more interesting and dynamic in the blend than heard separately, so I try my best to mix that way. And let's face it, I'm there to work :) Track Listing: 1 Glow (Steve Banks Remix) Matt Prehn, Marcia Alves 2 Back In Time (Jay West Remix) Timothee Milton 3 What We Do (Original Mix) Sven Tasnadi 4 Our Love (Christian Burkhardt Remix) Giorgio Moroder 5 Tunnel Vision - James Dexter, Arkady Antsyre 6 Can't Keep Up - Redondo, Sideburn, MC Chase 7 Ohh Do It Too - Ray Okpara, Jørge 8 Keep It To Myself - Boris Werner 9 Culture - James Dexter 10 Simplicity (Mihai Popoviciu Remix)- SEDDON (UK) 11 Difference - Mihai Popoviciu 12 Galaxy - James Dexter, Leonardo Gonnelli 13 Fiducia (Mihai Popoviciu Remix - Pornbugs 14 You've Got Me (feat. Linda Axelsson)Linda Axelsson, Col Lawton 15 Pupsik (Boris Werner Remix) - David Gtronic 16 Make You Whole (Smokin Jo Dub) - Andronicus 17 Who Got The Power - Col Lawton 18 Corktown - Marlow 19 Escalateher (Terry Francis Dirty Boy Rerub) - Hive71, Jake Beautyman 20 Hola - Christian Burkhardt You can check out Ben Annand's Soundcloud at @benannand Follow Ben on IG here: www.instagram.com/benannand/ Like Ben's Artist Page at: facebook.com/benannandmusic Pictures from the event are here: tinyurl.com/trop23pics Tropical's next up is our most decadent event ever! 18-Bedroom Mansion Party in Palm Springs, CA Oct 28-31, 2021. For info please request to join the group here: facebook.com/groups/torm2019