As the first female resident DJ at MJQ Concourse, Tara Davies, aka Taradactyl, is a well-known figure within Atlanta’s dance and nightlife scene. For over seven years, she’s kept heads bopping and crowds moving, blending ’80s-90s pop, funk, dance, and R&B at MJQ’s long-running party, HeartBeeps. But while Davies’ resident DJ status has earned her steady work and a loyal fanbase of partygoers, it’s also had the side effect of typecasting her as a mostly pop and ’80s DJ. “I’m much more than that and don’t often get to share the other music lover side of myself,” Davies tells Immersive.

As a means of branching out and flexing her versatility, Davies recently posted a new mix to her SoundCloud page, her first such effort in six years. Rather than shifting aggressively to ecstatic house or techno, the mix takes a far more atmospheric and languid approach, merging scene-setting artists like Burial and Four Tet with exciting new voices like Yaeji and Smerz. Overall, it’s a spiraling, cerebral effort that successfully showcases Davies’ eclectic tastes without sacrificing her ear for accessibility.

“This new mix is to put myself back on the non-pop-music map, but also to show my other interests,” Davies says. “Not only that but it showcases a lot of extraordinary women in electronic music and it’s been over six years since my last mix, so it was definitely time for a new [one].”

“I didn’t want this new mix to be loud, pumping house music, but rather an interesting mix one could easily digest and not feel overwhelmed by the vibes,” she continues. “I hope everyone can enjoy this different side of Taradactyl and take me seriously as a DJ that plays and enjoys more than just pop music. But don’t worry, I still love pop music, too.”

Check out the mix and tracklist below.

DCTL03 Tracklist
Yaeji – “Feel It Out”
Burial – “Rodent”
Laurel Halo – “Moontalk”
SASSY 009 – “Pretty Baby”
Jacques Greene – “To Say”
Negative Gemini – “Bad Baby (Club Mix)”
A.A.L. – “Some Kind of Game”
Kelly Lee Owens – “More than a Woman (KLO Remix)”
Smerz – “Oh My My”
Four Tet – “SW9 9SL”
Yves Tumor – “The Feeling When You Walk Away”

You can catch Taradactyl spinning every Saturday night at MJQ Concourse for the weekly dance party, HeartBeeps.

More Info
Web: djtaradactyl.com
Facebook: @djTaradactyl
SoundCloud: @taradactyl
Twitter: @Taradactyl9