Can You Hear Me Now?
Many of you have heard of The Official Mechanism Podcast, some of you may even be subscribers, but most do not know who or what is behind the incredibly eclectic mix podcast.
It all began in 1996 when I started my radio show Critical Bass which featured the latest and greatest in electronic dance music. During the 4 years it was on air, a group of friends and I started producing local dance parties in which we all DJ’d. Rather than using the moniker “DJ”, I preferred to use a one-word name that encapsulated the hard machine driven drum’n’bass and hardcore I was going to play at the party. After seeing the word “mechanism” on the back of a drum’n’bass compilation CD, the name stuck, and the rest is history.
Fast forward to 2007 and a friend on Live Journal (remember that site?) started doing a relatively new thing at the time - a podcast. After much investigation and encouragement, I began my podcast on Podomatic.com originally posting my old DJ sets from my radio show and dance parties. The podcast gave me a chance to mix a whole range of music not just dance music. I needed something to distinguish my mixes among the Google search swamp of megamixes, when I saw the term “mechamix” used on an anime picture and thought how perfect – a Mechanism megamix is now a “mechamix” and the legend was born.
I began doing Duran Duran mixes very early on as I always loved the classic Notoriousaurus Rex mix and wanted to create my own mixes for fellow Duran fans. I contacted the admin of the now defunct Duranduran.no who let me post my Duran mixes on his site. This opened up my global audience to a whole new bunch of Duran fans, many of whom have stuck with me since. Due to the huge response, the need to create more Duran mixes increased exponentially. Now heading into my 14th year of the podcast, I have created nearly 930 mechamixes, of which around 18 are Duran specific, including album-specific mixes, 12 inch and b-side-specific mixes and even two Club DJ mixes.
Here are some helpful links to get you started:
In 2019 I got my certificates in photoshop,, and designing t-shirts as another creative outlet. At first it was just a way of practicing what I had learnt on something fun. These days with the pandemic hitting everyone hard and self-isolating being the norm, it’s become a great creative escape.
The response has been overwhelming and the requests for more Duran specific designs came from around the world, including many from Adam of the legendary Cherry Lipstick.
Here are the links to my Red Bubble home page where you explore the Duran-related designs for fan-favourites like:
My Antarctica, Runway Runaway, Playing With Uranium
and biggies like Wild Boys, Save A Prayer and Planet Earth.
(For example, here are my designs for Liberty and Edge of America on some of the available products)
All of this has now led to this official announcement of a great new product to celebrate the world's greatest fanzine - Cherry Lipstick!
Adam and I have collaborated on two new exclusive designs that celebrate Cherry Lipstick’s past as a fanzine, and its colourful new online incarnation. Adam provided the images and the slogan, and I created the designs that are on each of the products.
Available in a range of colours and styles (plus posters and facemasks!) each design bears the legend "For The Discerning Duran Fan - Since 1993." They are available now!
You can listen to The Official Mechanism Podcast at www.mechanism.podomatic.com
Or search The Official Mechanism Podcast on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and Tune In.
The Official Mechanism Podcast is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Mixcloud
