DJ RETINA BURN (AKA CHRIS BENDIX; Neon Sigh; Am I Normal?)

Current top 5 tracks:

Ryuichi Sakamoto, "1000 Knives" (Better Days)
"It was just his birthday, and I've had his '70s/'80s group Yellow Magic Orchestra in mind a lot recently. YMO later did a really bonkers version of this, but Sakamoto's 1978 edition sounds like wild video-game music that's 15 years ahead of its time."

Solat & Billy Jones, "You're Gonna Miss Me" (Basart)
"This is a real good one and best grabbed from a comp named Surinam! that I've gotten a lot of mileage out of recently. It also has Sumy on it, who has kind of been rediscovered, and pretty much every track on that comp could go in a DJ set."

The Beatniks, "Inevitable" (Statik)
"Another YMO-related thing; I've been revisiting my fervor with all these high-energy Japanese '80s groups because my friend Ricky has been on a real kick with them recently, sharing mixes. I actually wanted to mention another one from the bunch, Ippu-Do, who is sort of like a Japanese Bowie, but Sony Japan has blocked any Ippu-Do videos from US access."

Taxi-Girl, "Paris" (Virgin)
"Hey mec! Taxi-Girl and especially Daniel Darc are pretty inspirational, as far as weird French music goes. The other guy from this track weirdly ended up producing a bunch of the popular, late-career Madonna albums."

DEAD, "No Place for Us" (KdB)
"DEAD are one of my favorite bands out of France's noisy shoegaze scene. Their videos are kind of cool, too. French indie tends to have a lot of cool, pro videos, which I'm guessing is due to great amount of arts funding that happens there."

Crew/label affiliation: "I run a 'record label and events collective' named Neon Sigh, which is focused on the sound of dream-pop and shoegaze music and has featured groups and events from around the globe. I am also half of a duo with DJ Emmanuelle; we play 'weird French music' at our regular AM I Normal? night. I also want to mention Rajana Society, which I've connected with at times in our mutual support of Khmer (Cambodian) music and arts."

Styles played: "Post-punk/'80s/synth/coldwave music, international of all types, Khmer rock 'n' roll (aka 'Khmer oldies'), shoegaze/dream-pop, funk/soul/R&B, 'weird French music'... and I'm a big Prince fan from Minnesota and will play his songs at any opportunity, including a gig coming up in April."

Events organized: "I play on Neon Sigh-related gigs sometimes, and we'll start doing a lot more again after I finish school next year. Meanwhile AM I Normal? is going on regularly at Revolver Bar, and I do one-offs around town and play semi-regularly at Studio Paradiso, a great gallery offering art classes on Capitol Hill. I don't like harassing businesses for gigs, but I'm available!"

DJing philosophy: "I focus on playing to my situation and finding what feels right in the same way I remember making mixtapes ages ago. I've always had a feeling for songs that just 'sound' good next to each other. There is a lot of power in finding complementary tracks, even if the set has a high variance. Another part of my approach is the idea of playing something that isn't too obvious, but sounds like it is. Conversely, I do like to throw in a more well-known song at least every 20 or 30 minutes, because hearing one you know is a lot of fun, as well. I also like finding song selections and timings where a changeover can almost sound like a break rather than trying to beatmatch everything; it keeps the set feeling like more of a surprise. The decision-making and feeling-out process is the beauty of DJing, which Spotify hasn't been programmed to do yet."

Format: "I play vinyl or use a controller these days, and I like them about equally. I like using CDJs, too. I haven't done so in years, but I liked bringing two of these three formats to gigs and weaving a set out of it. I prefer owning an album on vinyl, but the cost is frustrating; the vinyl surge has put everything out of hand. I'm usually checking out new music via digital albums and only buying vinyl that's really important to me or that doesn't exist digitally."

Worst request: "Once in a while somebody asks for Drake or something... but really, this one time a guy asked me to play a song because it was his friend's birthday, and I didn't know the song but he had the vinyl with him and offered me a drink. I took the request and played the song because of the birthday and drink, but then he came back asking me to play more of it. I brushed it off saying that I'd try, but later one of this group came over and apologized and took the record back saying that the birthday thing was made up. DJing can be weird. Providing their own record was impressive, though."

Upcoming events:
Lost Control: '80s/post-punk 3/1 at The Hideout
Prince remembrance 4/21 at the Runaway
AM I Normal?: first Wednesdays at Revolver Bar