The Good Life Is Here

DSD 008 June asked a lot of me. This mix is where I put it all down. Recorded through the darkest stretch of the year — the winter solstice on 21 June marking the longest night — 008 is the sound of the turn. Heavy at the start, working through it, then lifting track by track as the light comes back. What began as a release became something hopeful: the first pull towards Ibiza in August, and everything waiting on the other side of a hard month. The longest night is behind us. From here, the days only get longer. 🎧 Part of DSD — a podcast of music and art. 🌑→🌅 Recorded July 2026

Sun-soaked and salt-kissed, 007 is a love letter to the island before I get there. Recorded ahead of my August trip, this one channels long sunset sessions, white-walled terraces and that loose, hypnotic groove the island does better than anywhere else. Rolling basslines, warm Balearic textures and just enough heat to keep you moving from golden hour into the night. Pour something cold, find a view, and let it take you west.

Some goodies from the year 2025 that never made it out — back when DSD was just an idea in my head and a folder I kept promising I'd share "soon." Well, soon is here. These are the ones I couldn't sit on any longer. Finance pays the bills, but this is where the good life actually lives. Joburg-born, no trust fund, just a guy who takes his mixes far too seriously. Press play, pour something, and let the good life find you. — Louis.Pfeiffer 🎧

Recorded in Johannesburg as a dedication to those who made the pilgrimage to Quaggafontein for AfrikaBurn 2026. This year's theme was Through The Prism — an invitation to look at identity, perception and presence as an incandescent spectrum, light bending and refracting through the dust of the Tankwa Karoo. From outside the playa, this set is a sonic gift back: sixty minutes at 127 BPM, melodic textures threaded through warm low-end, refracted synth lines, and the kind of slow-building tension that mirrors the long arc from desert sunset to the nightly burns. For the burners, the builders, the gifters, and the ones who packed a week of water and left no trace. For Tankwa Town — temporary, radical, gone again until next year. The Good Life Is Here.

A harder cut. One hour of current progressive and melodic techno locked at 127 BPM — tighter grooves, more drive, less drift. This set leans into the percussive side of the genre: relentless basslines, urgent synth work, and builds that don't let up. Still melodic. Still DSD. Just with more teeth. Ideal for runners, gym sessions, or anyone who needs an hour of unbroken forward momentum. Made in Johannesburg for everyone's listening pleasure. 🎧 Progressive Techno / Melodic Techno 📍 Johannesburg, South Africa 🏃 127 BPM — built for movement

Recorded during a bush break at Mabalingwe Nature Reserve with my daughters. Just over one hour of melodic techno and progressive house shaped by wide skies, birdsong at dawn, and the stillness between the trees. This set trades concrete and neon for red earth and open air — slower to build, warmer in tone, grounded in the kind of quiet that only the bushveld delivers. Proof that the good life isn't always on the dancefloor. Sometimes it's barefoot on a stoep, watching the sun drop behind the Waterberg, with the music doing exactly what the landscape does — making everything else disappear.

"The Good Life Is Here" is a sonic meditation on presence — the radical idea that everything you've been searching for is already underneath your feet. Built across layers of melodic techno and progressive house, this set moves through tension and release the way life does: not toward some distant destination, but deeper into the moment you're standing in. This isn't background music. It's a one-hour argument that the dancefloor — right here, right now — is the only place you need to be.

"The Good Life Is Here" is a sonic meditation on presence — the radical idea that everything you've been searching for is already underneath your feet. Built across layers of melodic techno and progressive house, this set moves through tension and release the way life does: not toward some distant destination, but deeper into the moment you're standing in. This isn't background music. It's a one-hour argument that the dancefloor — right here, right now — is the only place you need to be. From Johannesburg. For everywhere.