Miki, born Michaela Inglis, is a 24-year-old DJ of Fijian, Indian, and Caucasian heritage. She was raised in Sydney, Australia but she’s currently based in Melbourne, which is where she first took a serious interest in dance music a few years ago. “I’ve always loved going to dance music events for the sake of tapping out mentally and going crazy on the dancefloor, even prior to getting into DJing,” she tells XLR8R. I” think it’s such a beautiful way of bringing together a diversity of people with a common interest that is music and dance.” She’s since become a regular around Melbourne’s clubs and parties, supporting artists including Floating Points and Alec Falconer when they’ve been on tour there. She purveys ’90s breaks and groovy baselines but for this week’s XLR8R podcast, Miki has delivered something a little different. It’s a reworked set from local party series Paper-Cuts, where she performed in September, but she’s taken that recording and sprinkled a handful of Arabic and Palestinian tracks that she’s been listening to throughout the mix. Dial in for 75 minutes of high-energy house with a twist.

01. What have you been up to lately?
I mean the past month has been super different to normal life in terms of what’s happening in Palestine. I’ve been trying to mainly focus on contributing in the ways I can to support: rallying, emailing local MPs, etc. It’s hard to go about normal life amongst such atrocities, and I think it’s super important to use our privilege and our voice to help others who lack such privileges. I will continue doing this as much as possible until meaningful change occurs beyond a ceasefire. Alongside this I’ve just been finishing my university semester, working and playing gigs here and there.

02. What have you been listening to?
I’ve been listening to a variety of stuff recently. Lots of mixes from local artists here in Australia, as well as some Arabic albums and compilations like Hurriya for Gaza album on Bandcamp, which is epic. I’m also always sporadically listening to my all-time favourites like Prince.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix a few days ago at my partner’s house. I don’t own a DJ setup at the moment so I’m a bit of a nomad when it comes to recording mixes!

04. How did you go about choosing the tracks?
I reworked a set from a Paper-Cuts gig a few months back. I really enjoyed preparing that set, so I worked on it a bit, incorporating some of the recent Arabic and Palestinian tracks I have discovered, as well as a new intro and outro with a bigger build.

05. What can the listener expect?
It’s a pretty high energy set. It definitely has a build at the start and slows back down at the end, which is something I love doing with my mixes. It’s super varied in terms of genre which I also love doing.

06. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
To be honest it’s pretty similar to what I’d play out, but I’d say it is a bit more thoughtful and has a bigger build up and down than my usual sets I play out. It also has a bit more variation of genre than what I’d usually play out, as I do usually play mostly house and ’90s breaks.

07. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m going to be in New York for the first six months of next year for a university exchange so I don’t really know in particular what to expect! I am keen to explore more of the music world there and meet like-minded people and just go with the flow.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Alexandra Spence “The Well” (Paralaxe Editions)
02. Sleep_D “From Village to Empire” (Butter Sessions)
03. A.b.u.303 “Habibi” (Paryìa)
04. French II “Hytune” (Intercept)
05. Das Bierbeben “Neigt Eure Köpfe” (Shitkatapult)
06. Chicago Transit Authority “Being There” (Rescue Recordings)
07. Gideon Jackson “Give a Little” (Teddy’s Dirtfrog Remix) (Rescue Recordings)
08. DJ Mouse “Romana” (Red Ant Records)
09. Fibre Optixx “C’est Magnifique” (KANN)
10. Al Wootton “Temple Ball” (Al Wootton)
11. Cutkachi “Bouzid” (Self Released)
12. Tsepo “Perc Track” (Intercept)
13. De Loren & Colors “Pervert” (Solar Recordings)
14. Dannii Minogue “Put the Needle on It” (London Records)
15. Carl Finlow “Blue” (Green Light Recordings)
16. Rynosaurus “Drunk at the Treedoor” (Zenobia Records)
17. Pauli Jylhankangas “nutnutnut” (Klakson)
18. Will Hofbauer “Hiccups” (The Shovel is a Shovel was a Shovel)
19. Gome “Bier & Gold” feat. Tightly (Toy Tonics)
20. The Soft Pink Truth “Locked” (Yusaid Mix) (Paralaxe Editions)
21. MC Abdul “Shouting at the Wall” (Empire)