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OVER the past 18 months, the ubiquitous creeping synths of ‘At Night’
Paul Woolford
WITH 2007 out of the way, one thing DJmag can
safely say is that 2008 is already looking stellar
for 31-year-old house DJ/producer Paul Woolford.
Not only has he got a new cutting-edge electronic
Bobby Peru album ‘The Truth’ due to land on
20:20 Vision in February, but he’s just embarked
on a mammoth 18-month remix project that’ll see
him rework the entire Murk Records back
catalogue to be released through UK house label
Cr2 Records.
“The first record I heard Ralph Lawson play at
Back To Basics in 1991 was a Murk record,” says
the former Basics resident.
“I did a remix of ‘Reach For Me’ by the Funky
Green Dogs last year and they loved the mix.
That’s when the manager asked me if I’d like to do
the entire back catalogue.”
Included in the run of remixes will be Funky Green
Dogs’ ‘High Up’, Ralph Falcon’s ‘That Sound’ and
Liberty City’s ‘If You Really Want Someboy’.
Adding to the singles, there’ll be a double CD,
Anil Chawla
SINCE appearing on Nic Fanciulli’s 2005
Renaissance mix with his ‘Makes Me Feel
(Deeper)’ track alongside Dale Anderson,
Together resident Anil Chawla has constantly
shown that he is equally gifted weaving lush,
richly textured music from a studio desk as he is
from two turntables.
Whether it be the rich chugging grooves and
washing melodies of Hernan Cattaneo fave
‘Everybody Loves Candy’, the reflective
lounge-house of ‘Leftorium’ or the arresting
vocal prog of ‘Jurassic Car Park’, Chawla’s diverse
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also coming through Cr2, with the Murk originals
on one disc and all of Paul’s remixes on the other.
“I just like to keep busy,” grins Woolford, who
started making music 10 years ago.
Since then he’s released cuts under his own
name, as well as Wooly and, of course, Bobby
Peru. But it’s not just his releases that are set to
turn his year into a hotbed of bubbling, molten
lava. In February he’ll start his new monthly
residency at London club The End, where he’ll DJ
and programme a line-up alongside his pal Nic
Fanciulli. And if that’s not enough, Wooly is also
set to mix the next ‘We Love… Space’
compilation, due to land this summer.
“I’m also currently working on a collaboration
with my natural father, Paul Hesson, who is a
world-class improvisation drummer,” he says.
“He’s made around 20 albums and played live a
number of times with Squarepusher, of Warp
Records, so I think we’re going to try and come up
with something a bit different.” ■
might have penetrated everywhere from the most underground floors
earlier in its life to the tackiest sticky carpet clubs around of late thanks
to Lisa Maffia, but ‘08 will be the year Dave Spoon’s true diversity comes
shining through.
Entitled ‘Televizion’, Dave’s debut LP will drop on Mark Knight’s Toolroom
mid-‘08 and sees him fully flexing his creative muscles with deeper
electro-tech vibes, ‘80s pop influences and vocal contributions from The
Streets tour doyenne Neon and ragga toaster Sweet Irie.
“That track is really inspired by the vibe of early jungle — stuff like ‘The
Helicopter Tune’ — but delivered in a house template,” explained Spoon.
Another interesting hook-up comes through a breaksy bass-funk house
cut with jungle don DJ Zinc, whilst on another side of the spectrum the
versatile Spoon continues to work with Pete Tong.
Keeping his fingers in pies, Spoon will hand-pick remixes so he doesn’t
sacrifice the quality reached with his recent Dizzee Rascal relick, and has
projects afoot in high profile artist production and soundtracking work
for the revived empire of cult goth flicks Hammer Horror. ■
works are always characterised by a measured,
melodic beauty. And with a debut LP from him
and Dale Anderson scheduled for the summer,
this will be the year his name captures our living
rooms, as well as our dancefloors.
The Global Underground-signed LP promises to
sprinkle Chawla and Anderson’s melodic magic
across ambient, broken beats and lounge-house,
whilst early track ‘Dumkoff’ offers a freaky 4am
techno hit. Add in vocal contributions from
Jagger, of London’s irreverently funky
electro-punks Devil’s Gun, and Sneaky
Soundsystem’s Connie, and a collaboration with
Justin Robertson, and you’ve got an album that
we’re awaiting with clawing hands. ■
www.djmag.com
12/12/07 14:47:48
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Booka Shade
GERMAN electro-house duo Booka Shade have been
around for ages but it’s only in recent years they’ve
started to kick butt. By co-founding Get Physical Records
with M.A.N.D.Y and DJ T in 2002, they’ve given dance
music one of the most exciting house/techno labels of
this century.
But as artists, the duo — namely Walter Merziger and
Arno Kammermeier — socked it to us good and proper in
2005 with ‘Body Language’, the taster single taken from
their second album ‘Movements’, released in 2006 as the
follow-up to 2004’s debut ‘Memento’.
This year, they’re about to turn up the heat again with
another new production album due to land sometime
this spring.
“It will have a slightly darker mood than ‘Movements,’”
reveals Walter. “We’ve used more real instruments to get
a more organic sound this time. We’ve just done a
recording session with a symphonic orchestra, which was
really emotional, but of course, the album has the typical
Booka Shade atmospheres and so far we’re really happy.”
The Frankfurt-based duo started
making music in the early
1990s, at the same time as electronic dance bands like
Underworld were forming their sound. On their local
dance music scene Booka Shade were known for their
synth-pop tracks like ‘Kind of Good’ and ‘Silk’. Later,
singles like ‘Stupid Questions’, in 2004, set them up as
more of a minimal techno band. Then their second LP
‘Movements’ saw them re-exploring aspects of their
early synth-led sound.
“Everything changed for us in 2005 after the release of
‘Body Language’, ‘Mandarine Girl’ and ‘In White
Rooms,’” says Walter. “Then, it was on the Movements
tour in 2006/2007, where we played to crowds of up to
10,000 people and heard them sing along with the
basslines and melodies of our songs that we realised
things were really different. It seems so unreal ’cos we’re
an instrumental act with no singer in the front.”
You can check out some of these career-shifting live gigs
on the duo’s new live DVD, coming out on Get Physical in
February as a “combi pack” with the original
‘Movements’ album and lots of new remixes. It’ll be the
perfect appetizer for a new full-length slab of Booka
Shade’s emotive house and techno cuts. ■
Nicki S
MELBOURNE export Nicki S promoted legendary hard dance club
Michael
Jackson
HE’S bad. He’s bad — you know it. And if we’re talking
albums, they don’t come much badder (bad meaning
good, of course) than Jacko’s 1982-released ‘Thriller’,
which remains the biggest selling album of all time.
Now, 26 years since it was released, the troubled
Prince of pop has seen fit to put it back under the
spotlight and re-make his mark with some fresh
reworks — in a package that includes the original
album, eight bonus tracks and a DVD featuring Jacko’s
own short films from ‘Thriller’.
Drafted in to help him re-work some of these all-time
über hits is Kanye West (pictured below, who’ll be
helping out on a new version of ‘Billie
Jean’), Will.I.Am (who’ll rework ‘The Girl
Is Mine’, ‘P.Y.T’ and ‘Time’) and Akon
(who’ll join Will.I.Am to remix ‘Wanna
Be Startin’ Something’).
And if anything is going to get you
moonwalking across the
dancefloor in 2008 then it’ll
be these fresh mixes. ■
Endorphin before getting behind the decks herself, but in a very short
space of time shot to being one of the UK’s top female jocks. Her futuristic
brand of hard dance has been a hit from Canada, the USA and Ibiza to
Australia and South America and now that her sound is becoming more
psy-trance influenced, her popularity is only growing.
Forthcoming gigs include warming up for Astrix’s live set at We Love
Astrix at Turnmills, in London during February, and a tour of Argentina
in March, as well as her regular London residencies at Innovate and
Extreme Euphoria.
As label manager and A&R for Quality Trax, she signed some of the top
tracks in hard dance, and has already collaborated in the studio with some
major players.
With tracks already in the bag for her first artist album (due out in the
summer), we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do when she puts
the same energy into her own music. ■
www.djmag.com
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Benga
IT’S some six years since dubstep destroyer
Benga laid down a new territory for bass-heavy
electronica alongside Croydon-centric cohorts
Skream and Plastician but — after giving
dubstep its first genuine crossover anthem
through last year’s ubiquitous ‘Night’ — he’s
now striking out with 2008’s first definitive
dubstep LP.
Following on his seminal 2006 collection
‘Newstep’ on his own Benga Beats label, early
promos of ‘Diary of an Afro Warrior’ show Benga
twisting and turning the dubstep template into
fiercely futuristic shapes.
Through cuts like the Morse code rave-rush of
‘Night’ and the guttural sub-thuggery of ‘26
Basslines’, it’s still teeming with Benga’s
trademark rewind-demanding energy and
midnight menace, but elsewhere ‘Emotions’
adds a deeper, almost Detroitian texture, the
gorgeously loose-limbed ‘Loose Synths’ is all
sci-fi jazztronics and the dark entrancement of
‘Pleasure’ feels like James Holden on a
dubstep flex.
“I don’t want people to expect things from me
or box me in a hole,” lets out the garrulous Afro
Warrior. “Back in the days of ‘Skank’ and my
early Big Apple releases I was classed as 8-bar
or sub-low or whatever, but I’ve always wanted
to write stuff at different style tempos without
people saying it isn’t dubstep anymore.
“In any underground scene there’s always worry
about things crossing over,” he continues. “But
the people I know that are making things
happen are doing things for the right reasons.
You won’t hear me rehashing ‘Night’. People
need to keep coming with fresh sounds.”
Now the LP is locked down, the rest of ’08 will
see Benga pushing his dubstep
experimentalism further still, as well as
undertaking the exciting Magnetic Man
project with friend and fellow prodigal
dubstepper Skream.
“Skream’s one of my best friends in and out of
dubstep,” explains Benga. “He really got me
into Hot Chip, who are proper ruff. I could see
myself writing their riffs. In fact, I wouldn’t
mind working with them.”
With everyone from Tim Westwood and Gilles
Peterson to François K and Sinden already
dropping ‘Night’, this will be the year Benga
truly devastates those inside the dubstep scene
before infecting all those outside it. ■
Zombie Zombie
NEW electronic psychedelic Parisians Zombie Zombie started making
Deadset
YOU can’t be going far wrong if your debut
album is hooking props from Ricardo Villalobos,
Sinden, Laurent Garnier, Justin Robertson and
Ralph Lawson but Deadset’s maximal grooves
have been doing just that since their ‘Keys Open
Doors’ LP dropped on Jesse Rose’s Front Room.
“The one that really surprised me was Andrew
Weatherall,” admits Deadset’s Tom Mangan.
“He’s been caning a lot of the tracks, which I
didn’t expect at all.”
Slow burning but busy organic groovers that
constantly tease and talk through the mix,
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Deadset’s infectious maximal house comes
wrapped in the pedigree that the Deadset pair
— Cass and Tom Mangan — have garnered
through their countless years as Cass & Mangan,
racking up remixes for Röyskopp, The Infadels,
Miss Kittin and The Scissors Sisters, to name four.
Deadset, however, is all about a clean slate — a
new outfit, fully fresh grooves and untried
angles. And with the after-glow of ‘Keys Open
Doors’ still burning, 2008 sees Deadset launch
onto the UK club scene with gigs at Basics and a
host of other über-reputable house shindigs
locked in the diary, the honing of a full live show,
as well as quarterly four-track EP releases of the
album’s wares. ■
waves last summer after they played live with Joakim, and veteran
French DJ Gilb’r (who had already signed Joakim) saw them and snapped
them up for his Versatile imprint.
Consisting of two members, one on drums the other on all manner of
retro vintage hardware and neo nerd software, they’re as far removed
from the traditional four-piece rock act as you can get while still playing
live. In fact, there’s little about them that conforms to any of the norms.
“Etienne Jaumet and I met at the French Cinema Institute, at a Dario
Argento retrospective,” says Cosmic Neman. “Since then we’ve been
sharing a studio in Paris and experimenting with sounds and rhythm in
our research lab.”
The result of the experiments mangles old school instruments into
modern sensibilities.
“It’s all about analogue instruments, like theremin, Roland SH101, Arp
and delay pedals, and old drum machines like the Roland 808. And also
hypnotic rhythms like in krautrock,” says Cosmic.
They’ve already started building a UK following after playing The Locals
stage at The End Of The Road Festival and a mini tour. The next step is
their debut LP, out in March. ■
www.djmag.com
12/12/07 14:48:56
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Mixhell
MIXHELL is the killer electronic project of
former drummer with Brazilian rawwk
muthas Sepultura — Iggor Cavalera —
together with partner Laima Leyton. They’ve
been creating “electrobangerghettotrash”
tracks for the past couple of years and have
been picked up by those astute Dewaele
brothers to support Soulwax on a number of
European dates.
“Lately we’ve been producing some more
of our own tracks, as well as doing remixes
for Bitchee Bitchee Ya Ya Ya on Kitsune,
Toxic Avenger and Scenario Rock,” Iggor
tells DJmag.
“We’ve also been working on some art and
video projects with Surface To Air Paris, and
played a few times with LCD Soundsystem.”
A riot of beats, bass, bleeps and
pummelling live drums, fans of the Ed
Banger sound need to check MixHell right
now. Burnin’. ■
Chromatics
THE eerie, desolate disco-funk of Chromatics makes like
David Lynch getting down with the dwarf from Twin
Peaks. Having quietly forged a reputation for punk from
the weird side, with their latest album ‘Night Drive’, out
now on the Italian Do It Better label, they’ve switched
up their style completely, conjuring sumptuous, twisted
mirrorball thumps, primitive Italo keys and velvet black
melodies from the simplest components.
The mysterious Portland, Oregon, trio of Johnny Jewel
(also a member of electro misfits Glass Candy), Adam
Miller and vocalist Ruth Radelet spin opiated, slow-mo
grooves that seem to juxtapose an American mid-West,
lost highway loneliness with urbane druggy nightlife
beats and refracted strobe shimmer. Radelet’s vocals
are the key to it all: a mellifluous burr that takes
Chromatics’ sound into the strange torchsong territory
of Julee Cruise.
Their incredible cover of Kate
Bush’s ‘Running Up That
Hill’, which channels the
original’s intense
emotion through a
cosmic disco prism, vies
for attention with the
subterranean killer ‘I
Want Your Love’ on
‘Night Drive’.
Rest assured, you’ll be
hearing a lot more about
Chromatics soon. ■
King Roc
“IT really annoys me that journalists go around
calling me ‘electro-house producer King Roc,’”
lets out King Roc’s Martin Dawson, but with
2008’s continued unravelling of his intriguing
‘Chapters’ project it’s unlikely to be a fate he’ll
suffer much longer.
Released in November, the first four-track
‘Lunaris’ EP from his awaited ‘Chapters’ album
opened with the gorgeous bittersweet piano
melodies and elegant orchestral stylings of ‘The
Beginning’ — a track that engendered
comparisons with Moby at his finest from none
other than Lee Burridge. Elsewhere, the dreamy
deep techno journey ‘Lunar People’ and strafing
glacial melodies of ‘Cycles’ offered 3am
dancefloor drive with depth and melody.
“A lot of producers have gone down
this deep or minimal route
but, for me, there’s a lot of
soul and passion missing
in a lot of those records,”
continues Martin. “I
don’t need big cheesy
melodies but I’m
looking to something
with a bit more heart.”
Indeed, having remixed
everyone from
S’Express and Stakker
to The Future Sound of
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London and even trancers Above & Beyond,
Dawson admits that the once prolific spate of
remixing that partly propelled his name
eventually forced him into an artistic soul-search
for his own sound.
“I’ll be completely honest,” he extends. “I did a
lot of those remixes for income so I didn’t have
to go out and get a day job. Now that’s not so
much of an issue, I’m free to explore my desires.”
A deeply personal and cherished labour of love,
the ‘Chapters’ project is driven by Dawson’s
desire to compose rather than construct with the
box-fresh second EP — ‘Communique’ —
encompassing the melancholy electro epic of ‘A
Pocket Full of Prose’, the gently unfurling
downtempo number ‘The Growing Phrase’, more
lush techno in the creeping ‘Hello Infinity’ and
the dark pleasures of ‘Phidias Gold’.
Accompanied by artwork from Australian artist
Sebastian Godfrey, the full ‘Chapters’ concept LP
will be released mid-2008, but elsewhere Martin
will be kept busy by his 2 Armadillos project with
secretdsundazes’ Giles Smith.
“We’ve just bought a load of percussion
instruments,” he tells us. “Again, it’s about
adding a bit more realness to our music; trying to
move away from machine sounds and towards
the ‘organic’, I guess.”
Lazily pigeonhole at folly… ’08 is the year King
Roc claims his crown as a true jewel. ■
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Sinewave
MULTI-TALENTED Aussie Sinewave
— aka Spencer Scott — started out
playing in indie and metal bands in Perth
before moving to London and falling in
love with trance.
After partying at a few life-changing
raves, he joined pioneering psy-trance
label Alchemy Records with Shane Gobi
and so began his own DJ career.
Now playing live for the likes of the
Synergy Project and Antiworld, and
touring South America when he’s not
holed up in the studio perfecting the
final tracks for his first album, highlights
S’Express
from 2007 include live and DJ sets at the
incredible Burning Man festival,
supporting Infected Mushroom at
Brixton Academy and the awesome
Universo Paralello festival in Bahia,
Brazil, on New Year’s Eve.
This month it’s straight to Australia for
the Exodus Live festival and the infamous
Rainbow Serpent fest, followed by
another Brazilian tour in April.
With his debut artist album due out just
in time for the European festival season
and some successful experimental
electro sets recently under his belt under
the alias of Emoticon, how can he not
make major waves in 2008? ■
FEW people have had as much success in dance music — or successfully made that
success last as long — as Mark Moore, aka S’Express. A constant figure on London’s club
scene since the ’80s, Mark has not only seen trends come and go, he’s usually been at
the centre of them, either behind the decks or on the floor.
But one of the reasons that S’Express has endured as a name that’s both credible and
commercial is that Mark’s been careful not to revive the band or brand and turn it into
some spoof cabaret of its former self. So it’s self evident that he wasn’t going to revisit
the band on a whim.
“People are always asking me to revive S’Express and go on tour. But revivals don’t
interest me, only mutations. It’s the 20th anniversary of acid house and also the birth of
S’Express,” explains Mark. “What better way to confuse the history books? S’Express has
been kept in a Cyrogenic deep freeze waiting to be unfrozen and unleashed on an
unsuspecting world again.”
There’s no way Mark will ever escape the enormous success of ‘Theme From S’Express’,
but he is undisturbed by the legacy he must at least in part be expected to live up to.
“People still chant ‘S’Express!’ at me at random moments — it has remained my middle
name! ‘Theme From S’Express’ is one of a handful of records that can be played out at
both weddings and underground techno parties. It’s a rare breed — like ‘I Feel Love’ and
‘Blue Monday’.”
For the latest incarnation Mark’s found “fresh young blood to prey on”, as well as old
friends and faves like Billie Ray Martin, Bobby Gillespie and Pete Burns. Gene Serene
sings on new song ‘Stupid Little Girls’, while other conributors include Martin from
Selfish Cunt and Marie from Diskoboy, with Kinky Roland handling production.
“We’ve just finished a remix for Ben Watts’ Buzzin Fly label of Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia’s
‘Dead Souls,’” reveals Mark. “I’m loving it! It’s very new wave, electro and, dare I say,
one of the best things we’ve done so far.”
Mark’s been equally choosy about which labels he wants to be associated with, opting
for Parisians Kitsuné for his relaunch.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of Kitsuné, they’re one of the most interesting, exciting
and musically varied labels around,” says Mark.
With a new S’Express single possibly out in March and the phone already ringing about
tours, 2008 is already looking good for Mark Moore. ■
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Logistics
WHEN Logistics broke alongside
brother Nu:Tone and Metalheadz
visionaries Commix, the clan were
dubbed the Future Sound of Cambridge
by the dance hacks of 2003. And
following slick LPs by Nu:Tone and
Commix last year, 2008 is the year
Logistics takes centre stage with his
‘Reality Checkpoint’ LP on Hospital.
Already the warm rolling waves and
bittersweet atmospherics of ‘Reality
Checkpoint’’s title track are causing
devastation for deebee alternatives like
Marcus Intalex, Calibre and Fabio, whilst
the LP’s other offerings are finding
favour with jungle veteran Randall and
1Xtra’s Bailey.
“The LP as a whole is a bit more in your
face and straight to the point than my
last album,” admits Matt on the contrast
with 2006’s ‘Now & Then’ — winner of
Radio 1Xtra’s Xtra Bass ‘Album Of The
Year’ award. “I’ve also been listening to a
lot of Burial’s albums and that dark but
uplifting 5am feel is what I’ve really been
going for on this LP.”
Other highlights include the soaring epic
‘No Words’, whilst ‘Trying Times’ with
younger brother Pixl hits with a rolling
funk energy inspired by the Bristolreared sounds of Full Cycle. ■
www.djmag.com
12/12/07 15:07:32
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TrusMe
MANCHESTER’S rainy aspect hasn’t stopped groove
hounds from creating their own audio sunshine. Just ask
TrusMe — aka David Wolstencroft — touted as the city’s
answer to Moodymann thanks to his immaculately funky
excursions into tech-puckered disco, psych hop and jazzy
beats.
Having laid down some serious subterranean house with
underground 12”s ‘Tony Does What Tony Wants’ and
‘W.A.R.’, on the respected US stable LFM, he’s just signed
his LP ‘Working Nights’ to Fat City, consolidating his love
for funk in all its forms.
In 2008, Wolstencroft has lined up an array of hot tracks
for several different projects, including remixes for Chez
Damier, Belleruche and Aaron Jerome, some new original
material for Gilles Peterson’s forthcoming Defected
compilation and a track alongside Chez Damier, ‘I’m Just
a Sucker’, for the Prime Numbers label. ■
Moby
LET this year be known, from now on, as the
year New York dance veteran Moby re-discovered
his rave. Well, if we’re going to split hairs about,
it was during 2007 that the techno legend
actually dug out his misplaced ‘rave’ from the
bottom of his record box and dusted it down for
the dancefloor.
The result? A spanking new album ‘Last Night’,
out soon through Mute, that combines soaring,
tripped-out anthems reminiscent of gems from
his 1999-released ‘Play’ with quirky rap numbers
(courtesy of 1970s rapper Grandmaster Caz) and
the ultimate end-of-the-night tune, closing track
‘Last Night’.
“The album is supposed to be an eight-hour
night condensed into 65 minutes,” reasons
Moby, aka Richard Melville Hall. “And ‘Last Night’
is supposed to represent that feeling right before
the sun comes up.”
Moby experienced quite a few of those sunrise
moments last year while he was DJing around
the globe, in between stints back home in NYC
recording this record, his sixth studio album.
Towards the end of last year he held court in the
booth at London’s Ministry of Sound but he’s
also been playing smaller, less well-known
venues too.
“If I’m playing at really small venues I’ll play very
eclectic, very experimental sets,” explains Moby.
“But at the monthly night Degenerates that I’ve
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been DJing at Hiro, in New York City recently, I’ve
been playing more of an uptempo, big room set.”
Moby first started making music in 1982
using a basic four-track recorder. Two
years later he started DJing, playing
hip-hop in clubs around New York and
Conneticut.
A year after making his first album he
went on to bombard the UK charts in
1991 with his techno Top 10 hit ‘Go’ — it
remains an acid house classic. Since then
Moby has sold literally millions and
millions of albums.
He was one of dance music’s first mega
crossover artists and now, with
this new album, he’s gone back
to his roots.
“I live in a neighborhood in
NYC with hundreds of clubs
and bars and venues and I
go out way too often,”
chuckles Moby.
“Usually when I go out I
end up listening to DJs
playing really eclectic
dance music sets, and
that was the main
inspiration for this
album.” ■
Sutekh
PURVEYOR of what he describes as “Monsternastic
überdelic mind-melting full power ‘avin’ it psychedelic
nitro-injected foot-stomping trance”, Antiworld
resident Sutekh’s insane on-stage persona and
original haircuts stand him out from the others as
much as his driving, uplifting sound.
While he’s already shared the stage with the biggest
names in psy-trance — including Infected Mushroom
and Astrix — he’s also well-known for his love of
London’s vibrant free party scene where he plays
some of his best sets.
He recently followed Infected Mushroom at a
rammed-to-the-rafters Coronet and played a
ripper closing set at London’s Turnmills at
the last Party Proactive of 2007.
Confirmed plans for 2008 already
include playing alongside Astrix back
at Turnmills in February, before
seriously hitting the European
festival circuit.
Given the controversy surrounding his
DJ name (it means ‘demon’ in ancient
Egyptian), he’s working on
productions under a new as-yet
secret alias, as well as playing electro
under the name of the Wonky
Badger. This could be Graham
Brown’s biggest year yet. ■
www.djmag.com
12/12/07 17:58:21
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The ‘Romanian Techno Mafia’
THE Romanian Techno Mafia is just our little way of
grouping together the most exciting new DJs to hit the
techno circuit in the last few years. Three lads from
Romania, Rhadoo, Pedro and Raresh — or the RPR
Soundsystem — show just how far the dance scene in
Eastern Europe has come in the last few years.
Along with the likes of Poland, Russia and Ukraine,
Romania is an instrumental territory in promoting
cutting-edge music in this part of the world. The Polish
capital of Bucharest is now one of the most exciting cities
for music in Europe, full stop. The lynchpin of its now
much-lauded club scene is the Kristal Glam Club. And yes,
as the name suggests, it is a bit of a flash joint — but
don’t let that fool you, for within its walls is one of the
finest club set-ups in the world.
And it’s right here that the RPR crew cut their teeth,
playing alongside the very cream of the world’s house
and techno DJs. Which has evidently rubbed off, for
visiting DJs are always quick to applaud their talents.
Indeed, Raresh was tipped by many DJs in our latest Top
100 DJs poll as one-to-watch.
The trio have impressed so much over the last two years
that they are now proud residents of DC10’s infamous
Circo Loco party.
Musically, while all three do, of course, have their own
individual attributes, there is at the same time a definite
thread than runs between them. Their shared sound is
characterised by its deepness, attention to bass and
minimal yet tough feel. Simply, it’s music that makes you
want to dance. ■
Todd Terje
FIERCE neo-rave darkness; gutter-pump bass; muddy
beat filth. This is the sound of Russia’s The Proxy, one of
the latest signings to Tiga’s Turbo imprint, and the
creator of vicious mutated electronic beats that spray
sharp shards of chrome tech in all directions.
Seems like he’s been watching Russian horror flick
Nightwatch a little too intently, such are the demonic
propensities of his tracks. Perhaps this is electro, but the
kind that electrocutes rather than bounces along safely.
Last year, the young producer from Moscow damaged our
eardrums with severe rhythms like ‘Decoy’ and ‘Destroy’,
weaving boiling rages of fierce mentasms and bowelloosening frequencies into his evil funk.
In 2008, he’s got a veritable deluge of music due to drop,
including two remixes of Boys Noize for Turbo, and a no
doubt splintering relick of Tiga and Zyntherius’s own
‘Sunglasses at Night’.
September will see the release of his debut album on
Turbo, and a whole shit storm of attention. Prepare
yourself for The Proxy… ■
AFTER a couple of years sitting pretty on the
Scandinavian disco throne, Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas
finally have some serious competition on their hands.
At 26-years-old, Todd Terje — real name Terje Olsen — has
been behind some of the best disco and downtempo house
tunes of the last two years, knocking out everything from
rare edits of soul and funk classics to remixing kindred
cosmic souls like Reverso 68, Studio and Lindstrøm
himself.
Style-wise, he’s a little different from his contemporaries,
as quick to integrate lush, Balearic piano riffs, pure funk
guitars and housey percussion as laying on the dub and
hitting the reverb button.
Todd’s instrumentation has a certain classicism too, which
gives his tracks a kind of timeless air, meaning they’ll often
slip into house sets as snugly as they will spacey disco
ones. ■
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Crookers
ITALIAN duo Crookers (aka Ybot and DJ
Phra) cooked up a storm in 2007 with a
slew of remixes, including their definitive
reworking of The Chemical Brothers’
‘Salmon Dance’ and remixes of Bonde do
Role, Bumblebeez and Brodinski.
Their own fidgit house meets Ed Banger,
Baile and hip-hop influenced singles,
such as ‘Aguas De Parco’, ‘Para De
Graçinha’, ‘Atomic Baile Boy’ and ‘Soca Ali
Baba’ also blazed a trail, but it’s their
current slammer on Timbaaland Boots and
the forthcoming ‘Knobbers’ (Southern
Fried) that are likely to get things really
going for them.
As is evident from their track titles and
their willfully off-the-wall adventurous
approach to music, Ybot and Phra are
unlikely to let success go to their heads.
They met in the conventional environs of
a record shop and started to “drink beer,
smoke weed and make music together”.
Less conventionally, they describe their
main influences as “God, kick, clap and hi
hat” and ascribe landing their ‘Salmon
Dance’ remix to being “in the right place
at the right time” and “the amazing
moustaches of our beloved manager
Enrico!”
Their plans for 2008 are simple: “Buy a
house and continue making beats!”
The ‘Knobbers EP’ is their first down
payment on the mortgage. ■
Laurent Garnier
IT’S strange in these Ed Banger and Daft Punk-dominated days to think that back in
Noisia
INTENSE machine-funk tech-step,
squelchy disco breaks, warped alt.
hip-hop, Ed Bangin’ electro and crunchy
goth-house don’t normally figure in the
same sentences until you put Dutch
anti-purists Noisia into the picture.
First breaking across the early noughties,
the former students redefined the
tech-step parameters with their rattling
Ram Records thumper ‘Façade’ in 2006,
then curved a killer breakbeat ball
through the infectious funk licks of
‘Gutterpump’ before securing a
high-profile remix of Robbie Williams’
‘Bongo’ last year.
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The trio are now gearing up for a debut
album release that will cover the full
gamut of their über-detailed sonic
mosaics. “If we chose a different name
for every sub-genre we tried we’d never
get to use the same alias more than once
or twice,” lends Noisia’s Thijs De Vlieger
on their decision to keep everything
under the Noisia name.
In keeping with their role as sonic
chameleons, the trio laid down three
separate remixes — d&b, house and
electro — when asked to step up to the
plate for Moby’s ‘Alice’ single. Meanwhile,
their recent ‘Collision’ EP kept things
fierce, furious and drum-funked through
heavy-hitting tech-step hook-ups with
Phace, Black Sun Empire and Upbeats. ■
the late ’80s the idea of a French act producing good music would cause arrogant Brits
to fall off their chairs laughing. But, as Laurent recalls, his early attempts to sell French
music to the UK would lead to label executives advising him to “stick to making cheese
and perfume”. How wrong they were. Undaunted, he launched his seminal record label,
F Com, and began making a name for himself as a producer.
Over the years his work has evolved from crunchy dancefloor techno, through moody
bass swells, to jazz infused classics and punk-funk power pop. And while his music
continued to experiment, he’s also pushed boundaries in other directions, working with
films and across platform art events.
Two years ago he left his native Paris and moved to a southern French village. But any
notion that this implied a quieter lifestyle has proved entirely wrong. If anything his
working life has become even more restless. His projects for 2008 will see him “working
on a new album and the cinema adaptation of my book, ‘Electrochoc’. I’m supposed to
make music for a British movie and I’m touring live with the band from July onwards.
Looks like a busy year,” he quips.
His tour will feature the expanded live show, which began as a duo with Philippe “Man
with the Red Face” Nadaud on sax, and now features Ben Rippert on keys, Philippe
Anicaud on trumpet, Stephane le Projectioniste doing visuals and may see a
percussionist join for the first time. Musically, Laurent is promising “lots of new music,
more freestyle experiments”.
The experimentation will also extend to the places the band will perform.
“We’ve done lots of very different and unusual places and unusual for the kind of music
that we play, including a classical piano festival de La Roque D’Antheron. I love that,
that’s what keeps me alive.”
He’s yet to start work on his new album, but he’s saying it will be “more jazzy, a bit more
black roots in the music, drum & bass, house, hip-hop. The next single is an electronic
’70s funk hip-hop track — I don’t know exactly. I’m trying to get into that direction. But
you never know what’s going to be on a new album.” ■
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Cool Kids
HIP-HOP ain’t dead — it’s just been slumbering, and Cool Kids are about to give it a rude awakening. Along
with a smattering of other irreverent hip-hoppers like Spank Rock, Kid Sister and JJak Hogan, youngsters Chuck
and Mikey are turning the music on its head.
Coming on like a psychedelic jigsaw, they fit together pieces of old school rap, funkadelic and electronica and
emerge with their own unique image.
Hailing from Chicago’s Southside, the two met over a shared musical vision on Myspace and decided to start
making music. Just signed to Chocolate Industries, with a longplayer dropping sometime in 2008, they’re
already attracting attention from all over thanks to their stripped down beats and esoteric subject matter.
‘Black Mags’, with its low-slung acid bass, crisp drums and raps dedicated to their souped-up BMXs can’t fail to
catch your attention, and it’s all a far cry from the tired lyrical cul-de-sacs of many rappers.
As the next generation of hip-hop kids, who raided their parents’ record collections for albums by Eric B &
Rakim, Slick Rick and 2 Pac, Cool Kids are the bright hope who’ll be keeping us fresh frozen in 2008.
OrtzRoka
THE deep electronic beats of OrtzRoka ain’t your
typical dancefloor fodder. First surfacing with the
‘Bulb Fuel’ single, which made like Aphex Twin
muscling into the house scene, they’ve been in high
demand as remixers du jour, with versions of such
disparate acts as Peter, Bjorn & John, Dub Pistols and
Simian Mobile Disco all getting the OrtzRoka
treatment, each in radically different fashion.
As the guys themselves — Fab Ortiz and Charlie
Rokamora — assert, their ruling of the remix roost
may be down to their versatility.
“It all kickstarted when we did the Peter, Bjorn & John
‘Young Folks’ remix and started remixing people
outside of dance music,” says Fab. “Then we did Robyn
and Bloc Party. It’s allowed us to think outside of
dance music and be a bit more experimental.”
The guys have lately been hard at work on an album,
which is due to surface this summer.
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Bumblebeez
THE kaleidoscopic vision of mental Aussies Bumblebeez
is a riot of colour and every funky sound under the sun.
An LSD-laced sugar lump of disco, rock, rap, electro-funk
and a smattering of house, Bumblebeez think nothing of
writing crazed paeans to ‘Dr Love’, making unclassifiable
slices of psyche-funk like ‘Rio’ and generally swerving any
pigeonholes that you might want to shove ’em in.
Bumblebeez first appeared on the music scene in 2003
with the Beastie Boys-esque ‘White Printz’ EP. Comprised
of principal members Chris Colonna (production) and his
sister Vila (raps/vocals), they’ve clearly been influenced
by the French electro sound, and signed to Modular with
a wildly eclectic debut album — due in the spring.
‘We Rolling’ is some ill darkstep beatathon; ‘Rio’ is a
cheeky house shuffle about “flying down to Rio” and
‘Spaceships’ is sun-dappled feel-good folk rap.
Don’t doubt that there’s a big buzz on these Bumblebeez:
when the album drops there will be a sting in the tale.
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Deadmau5
STRAIGHT out of Toronto, Canada, Deadmau5 has seemingly appeared from nowhere to be one of
the most acclaimed — and played — house producers in the world. Steadily building a reputation for
massive electro tracks, the guy also known as Joel Zimmerman incorporates elements of minimal,
progressive and trance into huge tunes like ‘Faxing Berlin’ and ‘Complications’, getting everyone from
Nic Fanciulli, Pete Tong and Sébastien Léger excited.
Earning comparisons with versatile fellow traveller Eric Prydz, Deadmau5 has been highly successful at
getting his music out there via digital distribution, with his tracks becoming some of the most
downloaded on Beatport last year.
Launching two record labels, Mau5trap Recordings and Xfer Records, he’s got plans to keep the
Deadmau5 name resonating well into 2008, and he’s also got the DJ angle locked down with a
formidable run of gigs planned all over the globe, with shows in Brazil, Canada, UK and Czech Republic
in January for starters.
One thing that can’t be denied is that with such a great 2007, he can’t help but capitalise with an even
bigger 2008. This mau5 is far from dead!
Moni
WHEN it comes to deep underground techno, there can be something
of a collective inferiority complex regarding our homegrown talents, but
precocious production talent Tommy Four Seven is primed to blow them
away in 2008.
Already counting a string of hypnotic works on David Duriez’s Brique
Rouge and Parisian tech-house imprint Catwash, the 21-year-old now
steps up with his own unrestricted label — Shooting Elvis.
“It’s dark moods in general,” lends Tommy on his label’s intoxicated
aesthetic. “I find the deeper, darker sounds more hypnotic, there’s more
to connect to than something that goes wham-bam-here’s-a-riff-inyour-face-so-dance-to-it. I like to get drawn into tracks.”
Released this month, the first EP sees Tommy team up with James
Kronier for the Voodoo tech menace of ‘Wraith’ and the seething grooves
and angst-laced edginess of ‘Strix’, which receives a bumped up Remute
remix.
Melodic yet melancholy, second EP ‘Contact’ ventures on a richly
textured, subtly shifting odyssey with Mark Broom on the remix, whilst
Tommy’s Kill Brique anthem ‘Eat Me’ is set for its own remix package with
a House of Black Jacks ’80s rock remix and Justin Robertson’s acid house
reshape complimenting Tommy’s own update.
AFTER quitting her job and selling her house in Norway
to move to London and live the dream, five years on Moni
Aksdal is well on her way. In 2007 her Solid Kiss residency
at Turnmills saw her regularly pack out the club and
warm-up for the likes of Sister Bliss and Mauro Picotto,
while her residency for the sell-out Pulse boat parties
ensure a growing loyal following.
This year kicks off with a tour of Portugal, then she
returns to Norway to play for the first time for FREKT
— appropriately meaning ‘naughty’ in Norwegian. Soon
after she’s off to Brazil, with Australia and Europe to
follow later in the year for the Viking princess.
Production is just as primed, with her production team
Bluebeat signed to Funklife Records and their first remix
of ‘Survival’ due out in January. She’s also working with
the all-female Powderrom Records, with tribal techhouse and dirty house tracks in the pipeline.
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Alex Metric
ONE talent that is going to be towering above most others in 2008 is
26-year-old Alex Metric — and not just because he clocks in at the ideal
basketball player height of six foot seven (hence his adopted name).
Since releasing some of his early output on housey breaks labels Lot49,
Burrito and Spin Out, he’s developed a post-Justice noisy, bleepy, choppy
remix style that’s enlivened tunes by Gus Gus, Hard Fi, Sharam Jey, Jape and
Splittr.
Currently working on Adam Freeland’s next artist album out in Los Angeles,
he’ll be releasing his own album in the summer of 2008, preceded by an EP in
March on Marine Parade — ‘In Your Machine’.
“I’ve really gone back to my roots for the album and have been singing on all
the tracks,” Alex tells DJmag. “It’s definitely a bit different from what I’ve done
up until now. I’m going to be going out live with it, which I can hardly wait to
do. I’ve bought myself a vintage ’80s keytar and I’m ready to unleash it!”
Crowdpleaser
GREGOR Schönborn has been pleasing
crowds now for around 10 years. On top of
playing at clubs and throwing parties all
over his native Switzerland, he’s chalked
up gigs for the likes of WMF in Berlin,
Batofar in Paris and the brilliant Optimo
in Glasgow. Pretty impressive yes, but we
reckon he’s got it in him to satisfy even
more music lovers in 2008.
And due to a rather special Resident
Advisor podcast recorded late last year
— easily one of the best in the series —
this looks like it will become reality.
Displaying the Swiss producer’s awesome
versatility, the mix takes deep house,
techno, funk, soul and disco and melds
them together in a way that just really,
really works. We just can’t quite work out
how he’s done it.
His production work has been of similar
head-turning proportions. Over the last
couple of years he’s committed work to
some of the coolest underground house
labels around, including Drumpoet
Community, Trapez, Deeply Rooted House
and Geneva-based Mental Groove — for
whom he works in the daytime as a sleeve
designer. But on the basis of what we’ve
heard, we reckon 2008 could be the year
he gives up the day job!
JJak Hogan
MATT Edwards’, aka Radio Slave’s, Rekids imprint has been
one of the most exciting things to happen to British dance
music in the past few years. But just when we thought he
couldn’t really surpass himself anymore, he offers up this lot.
Quite a find, we reckon.
Hailing from Augusta, Georgia, in the United States, JJak
Hogan are without doubt one of the most original sounding
hip-hop outfits to emerge in the last five years. They boast the
psychedelic wanderings of Outkast, the atomic funk of Spank
Rock and the experimental flirtings of Anti Pop Consortium,
but production-wise they’re on another planet. Which probably
explains why Matt likes to tag them as a “space hop” act.
This makes a lot of sense — much of the synth work and
melodies share the futuristic vision of techno and, as a result,
there’s a genuine place for them on the Rekids roster.
Visionary stuff.
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