Galen

The Sunset Sound System founder turns in an “Acid Summer” mix.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Sunset Sound System, a name that’s become almost synonymous with dance music culture in San Francisco and the wider area of northern California. The name began when Galen, who still runs it to this day along with Solar, started setting up a soundsystem in a city park as a way of playing records when bookings were hard to come by. In the pre-internet era, word spread by old-fashioned means as San Franciscans learned of the open nature of the sessions, and Galen’s reputation grew along with the increasingly large crowds. This was initially confined largely to the Bay Area however, and for many years he remained a pillar of the local scene.

Fast-forward 15 years and the outdoor party reached its logical conclusion with the inaugural Sunset Campout festival, which this year will have been running for a decade. Slowly garnering international acclaim, the event has been a large contributor to Galen’s long-overdue arrival into dance music’s global consciousness, as recent sets for the likes of Beats In Space, and upcoming shows in Berlin and Tisno, attest. With such a long history of playing records and organising parties, Galen has become a formidable force behind the decks, and for those unfamiliar with his work – look no further than his Crack Mix here.

The set, given an “Acid Summer” tagline by Galen, trades in driving house beats, intricate percussive fills, low-slung acid grooves and the occasional intergalactic zap and bleep; all doused in the kind of woozy warmth that hot summer nights are made of. Plug in above, and check out the tracklist below which includes classic cuts from Moodymann and The Other People Place.

Tracklist
E.R.P. – Gleaning Creation
De Sluwe Vos – Sophisticated Topless Raver
Monty Luke – Antons Room
Moodymann – I Think of Saturday
Blue Soul – Everything Is Illuminated
Electropsy – Voice (Watershed Remix)
Perel – Pastarella Al Limoncello
Fort Romeau – Secrets & Lies
dOP – Be The Beat (Instrumental)
Ignition – Love Is War (Chicken Lips Remix)
The Other People Place – Sorrow & a Cup of Joe

Galen plays the 10th anniversary of Sunset Campout, California, 26-29 July