The ballots have been cast, the votes in, and we can now reveal the winners of this year’s pointblank x Defected Mix Competition. We had more entries than ever before this year and more than we even hoped for so firstly we’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to apply and send us your mixes. With almost 600 entrants, it required almost a month of man hours to listen to all of the mixes, and we enjoyed hearing them all. After whittling the list down to a final shortlist of 10, it was over to the famed A&R department at Defected to decide which three mixes would take the podium and which overall winner would win a slot to play at this year’s Defected Croatia festival alongside the likes of Basement Jaxx, Derek Carter, Honey Dijon and Masters at Work.
Without further ado – here are the winners:
- Vin Postega
- Lambert & Handle
- DJ TQ
When we contacted the winners to let them know how they had got on, we asked them to tell us a bit about their mixes and what it means to win. Read on to find out, and to listen to each mix in full.
Vin Postega
With a love of all things groovy, Vin Postega moves through house, disco, soul and jazz in his sets, with a few curveballs thrown in for good measure. His winning mix managed to nicely represent modern house music while retaining a classic feel, and of course just sound fun – one you could instantly imagine against the stunning backdrop of the Adriatic.
On winning, Vin had this to say: “Winning the Defected Competition and playing among all of my heroes is absolute a dream come true!”
Keep up with Vin on SoundCloud.
Lambert & Handle
Having met in Poland after many years of DJing and working in music individually (Handle worked at Ultra Records in New York and Lambert was first released as far back as 2000 on Sony Records), these two veterans joined forces in 2016 under their shared love of disco and of course house. On their Defected mix they said the following.
“We have been fans of Defected since its early years. It is our big dream to get signed by Simon’s label one day. Our goal was to deliver at least 18 quality house tracks in the set, carefully building the track order not forgetting about harmony, cool more obscure tracks to mix together. The set opens with our own edit specially revised for the set, it grows along the whole time, from the groovy, summer vibes to tech themes. It reflects some of the gigs we’ve played in Poland recently. We really enjoyed working on it.”
Lambert & Handle are on SoundCloud.
DJ TQ
Hailing from NYC and infusing his Caribbean roots, hip-hop influence, and soulful style into his sets, along with the spirit and energy of his home city, T.Q. has spent most of his career putting his own spin on drum and bass. With hundreds of gigs under his belts a more innate connection with the dancefloor has been cultivated, and in recent years T.Q. has turned his attention to the world of house music, and on the basis of this mix, we won’t be surprised if he takes that game by storm too. Here’s what he thought of the competition and his entry:
“They say the 3rd time’s the charm, well for me it was four because that is how many times I recorded my entry for the 2018 Defected x pointblank Mix Competition. I’ve spent over 200 USD simply on gathering tracks. Being that I’m in commute for most of my day (via subway, LIRR, or car), I have time to listen to so much music. I pay attention to what Sam Divine (and her occasional guest DJ) plays – I wanted to be sure that I didn’t include any of those tracks in my mix and bring as much originality and emotion to your headphones as possible. This was the most challenging and rewarding part of the entire competition.”
Follow DJ T.Q. here.
Vinculum
Honourable mention goes to vinculum, who’s genre-bending set was a favourite among the listeners here at PB.
Feeling inspired? We teach DJing at all levels here at pointblank, and this is just one of many opportunities open to our students. We’ve recently added our first degree course in DJing, quality assured by Middlesex University, launching next academic year. That is the BA (Hons) in Music Production and DJ Practice For more information or to book a studio tour, contact us on +44 20 7729 4884.
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