Rhythm Nation

I recently played both a street party celebrating the New York Knicks Championship as well as a rally for Zohran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders and three future members of congress. While neither recording came out, this mix captures the general spirit of both sets as well as the general optimistic spirit of NYC in the current moment. 🌞 Comment for a track ID.

Echo Garden - December 2025 Mix by Peter Marks

On family vacation in Utah a couple weeks ago, I made this soothing and contemplative ambient mix. Reminder that while the holidays are joyous for many, for others it can be a reminder of what they’ve lost over the years. Be kind to people out there and give them the benefit of the doubt :) Comment for a track ID.

Some dark, percussive, sexy heaters for Halloween.

Nothing like a federal government shutdown to get you to finish a mix! Just posted a recording of some balearic disco reminiscent of what I’ve been playing all summer on my rooftop (pictured). Comment for a track ID :)

While traveling the Greeks Isles with friends this past week, I channeled the ethereal energy by cooking up a mix of ambient / balearic tunes. Hope you can find peace and slow down with it! Feel free to comment for a track ID.

@petermarks on the main stage of @canyonvibration opening for @djdissolve and @aguycalledgerald. Feel free to comment for a track id!

For this month’s echo garden mix, I laid down a 100bpm progression of ethereal downtempo cuts building up to a string of balearic ballads. Exactly the kind positive, sunny and steady energy I’ve been soaking in the past month leading up to Canyon Vibration this week!

DJ Enyah (@b-in-love) live at the Echo Garden takeover Sunday Love at Flash in Washington, DC.

Echo Garden - May 2025 Mix by Peter Marks

The latest echo garden mix covers a range of downtempo flavors conveying both the optimism of spring and the melancholy of persisting winter. Includes new tracks that came out this year as well as several from 25+ years ago (that sound like they could have been released this year).

1,000% positive vibe house heaters. Inspired by seeing my teenage hero @djsashaofficial play a quality warehouse party this weekend, I threw in some late 90s progressive house tracks that got me into this music 20+ years ago. It’s an energy changeup from the chill previous two installments. Listen to it in the gym, not watering your plants :) I set out to make this mix series positive and consiste...

I'm starting 2025 with a simple goal: post one @_echogarden DJ mix a month! Similar to the Echo Garden event series, which aims to bring complimentary sounds to DC's public spaces, the Echo Garden mix series aims to bring complimentary sounds to your daily day life. Expect relatively chill "balearic" mixes, i.e. a cross-genre journey of positive and trippy vibes. While I enjoy a lot of different k...

Reyna Lopez is the Executive director of PCUN, who’s mission is to empower farmworkers and working Latinx families in Oregon by building community, increasing Latinx representation in elections, and policy advocacy on both the national and state levels. On the show, we talk about the balance of power she’s seeing shift between farmworkers and their employers, then discuss a playlist of some of mus...

This November, Oregon voters get to vote on the Right to Healthcare Amendment to the state constitution, which establishes a state obligation to ensure every Oregon resident has access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate, and affordable health care. Norman Sylvester is a long-time health care activist, a member of Health Care for All Oregon as well as a legendary boogie musician who was indu...

Two years ago, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drug possession with the passage of Measure 110. How is it going? On the show today we have Ron Williams with Health Justice Recovery, a statewide advocacy organization fully focused on implementing Measure 110. Ron is a community organizer who has resided in Portland, Oregon for nearly 40 years. On the show we get an update on Meas...

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, non-profit leader, and former 2020 presidential candidate. Yang’s New York Times bestselling book The War on Normal People helped introduce the idea of universal basic income into the political mainstream. He supports Oregon People’s Rebate, an initiative petition that would rebate about $750 to every Oregonian, every year and is paid for by...

On today's show, I share my own experience of some recent travels I had to South Africa and then playing a mix of South African house music, including some new records I picked up. The week I spent in South Africa exceeded my expectations in almost every respect. It’s more naturally beautiful than the photos make it out to be and I was moved by the history in ways I didn’t anticipate. However, wha...

House music is bigger than ever in America, yet the story of its origins are widely unknown outside of the heads who follow the records. We have a member of our organization who saw it unfold first hand. Cee White was coming of age in Chicago in the late 1980s right as house music was taking shape and came on the program to talk about it. We’ll hear stories of going to the music’s namesake venue “...

In our third interview with candidates for Portland City Council Position #3, we chat with Vadim Mozyrsky about his vision for Portland. Vadim works as an Administrative Law Judge in the field of disability law and has spent his life advocating on behalf of underserved communities with a focus on immigrant and refugee populations and issues of disability rights. Mozyrsky, a Jewish refugee from Kie...

Oregon's Kurt Schrader has taken the most money from the fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industries as almost any Democrat in congress. Jamie McLeod-Skinner is challenging him in the primary in Oregon's 5th District on May 16th. From repairing schools in war torn countries to developing climate protection policies in Silicon Valley to wildfire recovery in Oregon, Jamie has a record of producing sol...

The Oregon People’s Rebate is an initiative petition qualifying for the November 2022 election that will rebate about $750 to every Oregonian, every year. This would mean putting about $3,000 in the pockets of a family of four and is projected to significantly address childhood poverty if it passes. The revenue to fund the rebate comes from increasing the minimum tax rate for big Wall Street corpo...

Rene Gonzalez is a Portland based lawyer, small business owner, and youth soccer organizer who’s deep roots in Oregon have motivated him to stand up for change at this critical juncture. He’s running against our last guest, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, for her seat on the Portland City Council. Our hope with this interview is to better inform voters about their options for city governance and hea...

Portland, Oregon will never be the same after the events of the past two years. To City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, that’s a good thing in some ways. In our wide-ranging conversation that touched on music venues, police budgets and homelessness, Commissioner Hardesty outlined a vision for a more equitable Portland that she hopes will woo voters more than fear based messages when she runs for re-...

Manoj Mathew (@dj_manoj_pdx) is a Portland-based electronic music promoter and DJ who has been throwing raves in Portland since 1991. Manoj and I have been in touch a lot lately as we’re planning a Rhythm Nation event together on November 20th at his venue Epicenter. As we’ve been talking through the event, it became clear that Manoj’s approach to putting on events is deeply personal to the point...