John '00' Fleming Interview

Renowned in trance circles, recently John ‘00’ Fleming has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the burgeoning psy trance phenomenon.

Now he’s set to make dance music history, with the release of ‘Psy Trance Euphoria’ out now on Ministry of Sound. A three CD journey, incorporating two mix CDs and Fleming’s new artist album, it’s a unique concept that should catapult the psy sound further into the mainstream consciousness. DJmag.com linked with the DJ/producer to discuss psy, crossing over, and his 00.db collaboration…

You’ve gone for a brand new concept with the first edition of ‘Psy Trance Euphoria’. How did the artist album and double mix idea come about?

“I can’t take all the thanks for it, it’s my management. I’ve worked with them for many years. I approached Euphoria originally with the psy trance idea. I’ve mixed three comps for them before. You’ve got to be aware that this scene’s growing. DJmag is aware of that, you’ve put psy trance on the cover. There hasn’t been many albums out, and these people who’ve been lost in the world of trance out there, who are fed up with the regular club trance, they don’t know where to go, and there’s this hidden world of psy trance.

“You say psy trance and people think of hippies running round in a field naked. It’s not a scene like that at all, so I said let’s put an album out to showcase the world out there. I suppose I’m the ideal candidate. One week I’m playing at some psy trance festival in Brazil, the next I’m at Gatecrasher. My management said, you can’t hide the fact that the world of selling albums is bloody hard out there, with the technology, file sharing and so forth. So we said let’s combine it all into one, and they said what a brilliant idea!”

What can fans expect from the artist album segment of the new release?

“I’ve always been known to have my own take on things, I go off and do my own thing. I try not to be a follower. That’s obviously restricted to what music you can get. Whenever there’s a gap in my DJ set, of music I can’t find, I go in the studio and make it. A big chunk of it’s psy influenced, and as I missed some of the Goa aspects of today’s psy scene. I’m bringing back the lushness of some of that sound, it’s just my take on it. The reaction has been amazing. It’s my take on the psy trance world.”

How about the two CDs – what vibe were you aiming to create there? Are they both quite different?

“They’re different, people presume when you say psy trance, they just think it’s 100 miles per hour, banging acid. It’s not, there’s a complete, full world in psy trance, from breaks to progressive, to techno-influenced stuff, to the more banging stuff. I’m trying to reflect what I’ve seen in that world. So CD one’s got a deep, dark progressive vibe, which is gonna shock a lot of people. And then it progresses up to what I call morning trance. Typical, melodic, heads down, lost in the moment business. It goes to that more pounding stuff at the end. It’s my take on it, every DJ’s got a take on the scene that they’re in.”

You’ve become known for psy trance which is a shift away from the hard dance / trance you used to play. How did you first get bitten by the psy bug?

“Many people don’t know, the new generation of clubbers don’t know my history. I did come from that scene in the first place. Goa trance was my first choice. I was involved in that world from the beginning, but then I kind of did a switch, when Goa trance started to get quite commercial, and then went completely underground, like always seems to happen with these scenes. It kind of resurfaces with a different tag and a different style. When it changed, I went to the club trance world which was really good at the time. But at the moment it’s not been doing anything for me so I kind of swayed back in that direction, going back to my roots.”

This is the first psy trance edition of the Euphoria series. Has psy trance well and truly crossed over? Where does it go from here?

“Whether it will fully crossover I don’t know. The new generation of people that have been brought up on trance, what they think is trance isn’t trance, it’s a pop version of it. So, there are a lot of people hungry out there for a serious take on it, and psy trance is giving them that hit. There are commercial elements to psy trance, but the majority of it is just made for clubs and festivals, it’s pure dance music, they don’t make it to go into the charts. Some of the new generation like it, but some are going, ‘where are the drum rolls, the big melodies, the big cheesy vocal in the middle?’ They can’t get their heads around it. But many are loving it, because it’s gone back to the basis of what trance music is, stuff that trances you out.”

What’s next for John ‘00’ Fleming?

“I’ve been working really hard in the studio on new material, with Digital Blonde, we go under the name of 00.db, and it’s been really taking off for us. We’ve been doing some live sets, like we did Gatecrasher’s Magna event on Boxing Day, 7,000 people there, and we’ve got the main stage booked for the Gatecrasher Summer Soundsystem too. It’s been going mad with live enquiries, and because we’ve made so many tracks, we’ve got our own album coming out on another label. It’s all exciting stuff.”

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Tom Middleton Interview

Tom Middleton has done it all. With productions under a dizzying array of aliases, he’s also a formidable DJ, and has put his name to more compilations than you’ve had hot dinners. His latest triple CD comp, ‘3-D’, out now on Renaissance, sees him return to his house roots, with a CD of his own remixes, a deep house blend, and a more chilled third disc. DJmag.com dialed up the polymath to discuss musical tastes, ambient sounds and collaborations…

Your new ‘3-D’ triple CD mix album opus is out now. Is this a complete picture of what Tom Middleton is all about?

“Well no, this is kind of like an addendum, it’s continual. I do all these compilations, whether it’s a fascination with the cover version, as on ‘Crazy Covers’ volumes one and two, whether it’s a journey into a real sort of eclectic session as on ‘The Trip’ one and two, or the ‘Lifetracks’ project, which came out last September – before the ink was drying on that, I was straight into mixing down ‘3-D’, it’s been pretty much non-stop.

But ‘3-D’ is essentially an extension of ‘Sound of the Cosmos’, I was getting bugged for ages, email and feedback saying, ‘come on, do another one Tom!’ And doing the research for ‘Crazy Covers’ and ‘The Trip’ was great fun, but it’s been quite difficult getting DJ gigs with comps out like that, promoters don’t get it. For a promoter, you need to hear a club set.

“When ‘Sound of the Cosmos’ came out I was inundated with DJ bookings, and because I have to explore different territories, it’s been more or less four, five different projects. This was a great opportunity, I could get back to programming one CD on ‘3-D’ that’s the kind of club music that I would like people to hear. It doesn’t necessarily reflect what I play in a club - it’s just one facet of that. In a club I’ll drop drum & bass, mash-ups, a bit of hip-hop, keep it quite contemporary with a bit of electro. This album is me in club mode but more the kind of smooth mixing that you’ll hear on ‘Sound of the Cosmos’. It has a bit more longevity. There’s no big hits on there, it’s just lovely warm house music. I’m still fond of it, and let’s face it, after 16 years of deep house, it still works for me, and there must be a reason why it still works for me, why I still feel it.

To choose that over every other current cool genre, why have I decided that deep house is better than electro, minimal, maximal, Ed Banger-type stuff? The bottom line is that I choose the music, and I find a lot of the current club music to be quite two dimensional. It’s fun, with bundles of energy, but it gives an instant reaction. I don’t want to listen to that at home, I don’t want to listen to that in the car, I want a collection of beautiful nuggets that have been working really well over the years, that I’ve been putting aside and making playlists from. If it’s beautiful and warm and timeless, then it has the X-Factor I’ve been looking for, hence the club mix is not an obvious mix.”

What kind of response has there been to your recent solo album ‘Lifetracks’ which pursued a more ambient direction than you’ve made for a while?

“A lot of people are loving it because it reminds them of ’76:14’ - my album with Mark Pritchard as Global Communication. It’s the same philosophy, it’s pure emotions in sound. I haven’t really deviated from that when I’m creating. It’s ticking along nicely. With instrumental downtempo music, it’s hard to get much press on it these days, because it’s not a cool genre. But my prediction is that with the likes of The Orb about to release a comeback album I’ve got a sneaky feeling that we’re gonna see a return to interesting electronica. Because let’s face it, things work in cycles, and we’ve certainly witnessed many cycles in dance music which keep getting smaller and smaller! At the end of the day, there’s a lot of functional music that’s not very satisfying after the second or third listen, does it move beyond making me physically want to move around, or get pissed? Not really is my answer, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of debates on forums about the relevance of Daft Punk’s derivatives. Let’s face it, they’re the originators, everybody else has copied them. I love Daft Punk, they steal the show every time, because what they do better than everyone else is melody and harmony and soul. Justice have tweaked it in a different direction, I like how pop they’ve taken it actually.”

On the more chilled CD of ‘3-D’ you’ve included Harmonic 33’s ‘Rain’ which is a track by Mark Pritchard, who you used to work with. Any plans to work with Mark again in the near future?

“We were chatting on iChat the other day, and I was saying that the amount of people who’ve been keeping at me saying, ‘can you just put a band together and do Jedi Knights and Global Communications together as a live show?’ And through talking with Mark about it, I wouldn’t rule it out. It would be lovely at some point to celebrate the best of Global Communications, Jedi Knights, Link, Chameleon, an hour and 20 minutes of the classics, the various different styles over the years. I think Mark just doesn’t like getting up on stage, which is fair enough. Me, fearless, love it, bring it on is what I say!”

What would we hear in a typical Tom Middleton set at the moment?

“Everything! I spend a fortune on Beatport and Tracksource these days, the promos that you get sent digitally. I’m a 100% digital DJ these days. Dubfire has got a brilliant sound, Deadmau5, that’s really melodic and tuneful, devastating production as well. Sinden has some fun stuff, I’m dropping a bit of Justice, Ed Banger stuff. I like a groove, which is why I’m excited by Bassline. Not too into the vocals, but it’s just speed garage basically. It rocks on the dancefloor. Dropping a bit of that.”

You’ve got several new projects in the works. What’s upcoming?

“I can’t stop! I’ve got a ‘Back in the Box’ comp, ‘87-‘88 to mid ’90s only. That’s brilliant, perfect for me ’cos that’s the time that I got into dance music and house. Todd Terry, Masters at Work, Carl Craig, Derrick May, it’ll be a selection of nuggets from around that time.”

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Carl Craig Video Interview

Detroit legend Carl Craig is set to unleash his incredible double CD ‘Carl Craig Sessions’ on 3rd March.

A collection of his finest remixes and productions to date, it’s the audio odyssey that many of us have been hoping the DJ/producer would one day compile, and to cap it all, it’s mixed with sublime style by the man himself. Check out this video interview, courtesy of his label !K7 Records:

QUICKTIME: http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_big.mov http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_med.mov http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_sm.mov

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER: http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_big.wmv http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_med.wmv http://media.k7-de.com/video/CarlCraigINTW_sm.wmv

May the Force Be With You

DJ Yoda interview

There are two Yodas. One is a short green dude, and part of the rebel alliance. The other is a world famous DJ known for his decks-terity and humourous, irreverent mixing between hip hop classics, ’80s pop, and TV soundtracks. Recently, he’s moved away from the hip hop, spinning a more party-centric blend of B-More, ghetto house, electro and eclectic beats. DJ Yoda plays during the incomparable Snowbombing, which takes place between 31st March-6th April in Mayrhofen, Austria, and mixes the next edition in the Fabric Live series, due in April. We grabbed the man in question to talk changing times, soundtrack faves and his little green counterpart…

So you’re playing Snowbombing this year – are you looking forward to it?

“I’ve done it a couple of times before, and it’s just a classic one isn’t it? It’s really grown to become one of these standard annual fixtures, to become something like Ibiza. It’s nothing like any of the other festivals because of the location. I also associate it with Jagermeister now!”

Is there anyone playing that you’re looking forward to seeing yourself?

“Cuban Brothers, of course! Annie Mac, I’ve been playing out a lot with Annie at the moment, we’re both musically in a very similar place. Craze and Clever should be amazing. Those are the main ones.”

You’re known primarily as a hip hop DJ, but I saw you at Get Loaded last year and you were really mixing it up with electro, B-More, and all sorts. Have you moved in a new direction?

“I’ve totally gone in that direction, and so have a lot of hip hop DJs, mainly because hip hop has got so uninspiring recently. The good music is outside of that. One in a hundred tracks will be worth playing hip hop wise. And I’ve gone a lot more uptempo, and a lot more varied, and that Baltimore stuff fits in with what I was doing anyway because it’s taking stuff that people know but chopping it up and sticking a beat behind it, making it into a genre of its own. And I’m playing a lot of dancehall, a lot of Brazilian stuff, and trying to keep a hip hop attitude to it. The Cool Kids are good, everything they do is exciting, and I still like the stuff that Kanye does. But it’s few and far between hip hop wise.”

You’re named after the vertically challenged green mystic from the Star Wars films. What do you think of the all action fighting Yoda in the modern Star Wars films – inspired or just plain wrong?

“Plain wrong, not feeling it! I was excited about it, but the reason I’m called Yoda is really nostalgia related, growing up as a kid, collecting Star Wars figures, and the newer films tarnished that a little bit.”

What’s next for Yoda?

“This first thing to come out this year will be the Fabric mix, then after that I’ve got the next ‘How to Cut and Paste’ which is the Country and Western edition! Then I’ll be sorting out another artist album, and in between I’ll be touring with my AV show, scratching DVDs.”

What’s your favourite TV theme?

“I’d have to go for Twin Peaks, classic programme, classic theme, and I still listen to it now.”

Full House :: Interview with Gilles Peterson

Early 2008 will see the release of Gllles Peterson’s ‘in The House’ selection on Defected records and Paul Bradshaw talks to the globally renown eclectic club and radio dj about the pain, the passion and leather pegs!
“I know it sounds like a cliché but it’s all about the passion… the key ingredient is passion. Look, we’re here, listening to Jon Lucien’s ‘Mi Vida’ and I’m loving it. I’m not over it and I simply can’t fake it!” declares a charming but animated Gilles Peterson. Imbued with a boyish swagger and an irrepressible energy Gilles is a goldmine of musical knowledge and when Geraldine Hunt’s ‘’Can’t Fake That Feeling’ fills the room it seems to vindicate his point of view. “This is a TUNE, a mighty vocal. There’s nothing better than seeing the ladies shake to this one!”

The Radio 1 DJ and boss of Brownswood Records, is in the midst of a photo shoot in a small industrial flat conversion just off the City Road and spitting distance from Hoxton Square. The disc in the hi fi is a test press of his latest compilation for Defected and it’s simply entitled ‘Gilles Peterson In The House’. Interestingly it illuminates another side of Peterson’s eclectic outlook and why his roots in soul, funk, disco and fusion have ensured him a place in the higher echelons of global DJ culture.

“I know all the dj’s… on all the scenes!” he says laughing. And he’s not joking. He has notched up millions of air miles and inevitably they all meet up as they criss cross the globe spinning records or doing whatever they do with those lap tops. Plus, his role the founder of Acid Jazz and as the head honcho of Talkin’ Loud records and his own Brownswood label has led him to work with and commission music from all the dons.

He’s good friends with Laurent Garnier – “the only DJ who can join the dots between myself, DJ Marky and Carl Cox” – and, of course with Carl Cox himself. He and Carl go way back to pre rave days and following his most recent annual guest spot with Carl at Space in Ibiza he feels that musically they definitely have a lot in common. However, he still gets those cold shivers as he recalls the first time he played at Space.

“It was ten years ago. That was the most scared I’ve ever been as a DJ. I was close to crying when I went on. There were a couple of thousand Europeans who’d been going ballistic to the hardest techno. It was extreme. Carl had peaked it playing the outer limits of dance music and I had to follow him, on the Terrace, live on Radio 1, and make it feel like it was a smooth transition! I had to drop from 136 to 116 bpms… do you know what that’s like? The people were confused to the point of horror when I played my first tune but I survived and as heavy as the experience was it provided me with yet another valuable dj lesson.

“I’ve done Space every year since then and this year Carl and I have come closer to each other, sharing artists on our play lists and appreciating each other more. I’m definitely feeling the swing and funk in his sets. Also his audience is more likely to understand me now than ten years ago.”

Gilles Peterson is an outernationalist. He lives and works in close proximity to his beloved Arsenal in North London and though his roots are as a south London soul boy, he is also a fluent French speaker with family in both France and Switzerland. However, his second home is Japan. He’s been working there since the Eighties and has been a major force in promoting and cultivating the nu-jazz scene. He has a weekly radio show on the hugely influential J Wave, one of his favourite clubs is Yellow in Tokyo, he has signed punked-out jazzers Soil &”Pimp” Sessions to his Brownswood imprint and he tours there three times a year.

“I do enjoy shopping in Japan. I buy all my suits and shirts there. I’ve got definite tastes… Viz Vim for their shoes, Undercover for shirts. I’m also feeling Cool Struttin’ in Aoyama. I loved the couple who used to make the suits for UFO.” says Peterson and adds, “I never feel comfortable shopping here, in London. I only do bookshops, the record shops… the ones that are left!... and wine shops. I like the labels on the bottles… maybe it’s the collector in me.”

Quirky. That’s how I would describe Gilles Peterson and as he describes his youth you realise why.

“On a recent drive to Manchester with my MC, Earl Zinger… he’s also one half of 2 Banks of 4… we were listening to the ‘In The House’ selection,“ say Peterson. “Zinger’s feeling was, ‘That’s your history… right there.’ And I suppose it is.

“I started with disco not quite realising I was being engulfed in future classics at an early age. ‘Jingo’ by Candido, Idris Muhammed’s ‘Could Heaven Be Like This’, Silk’s ‘Space Bass… kind of disco meets jazz. That was my soul boy days: Caister, Goldmine, Cat’s Whiskers, Bogarts. Then there was Prelude records, Sharon Redd’s ‘Can You Handle It, Strikers’ ‘Body Music’… D Train and those Francois K productions.

“As a teenager I used to play a gay club in Croydon called Doctor Crippens on Sundays. I couldn’t tell my mum. Carol Jiani’s ’Hit & Run Lover’ was big but I hated it. Back then I loved all those Cerrone and Change tracks and they still sound really good to me.. In those days it was pre computers and programmed drums, so it was down to really good live drummers, like on Taste Of Honey’s ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’ . The Mizell Brothers produced that. Earth Wind & Fire, that was my house music, that’s when I grew up musically and found myself wearing leather pegs from Jones in the Kings Road, pods from a little shop in Kingston and jazz funk t-shirts that I picked up at the weekenders.

“I used to go to the Venue in Victoria and the Rainbow in Finsbury Park and hear the cream of Brit Funk. Shakatak, Hi Tension, Cache, Touchdown, UK Players… I used to love them… Freeze. I caught Luther Vandross at the Dominion on the corner of Tottenham Court Road… it was down to him and the drummer. I played ‘Never Too Much’ last Saturday in Kings Cross at the end of the session, around 5am. People still love it.

“On the “boogie” front Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson’ is very important to me. He was doing the Electric Ballroom with George Power when I was doing the Jazz Room upstairs. The ballroom was a cross between Crackers and a more modernist electro vibe comin’ in via Whodini and Nucleus. Respect is also due to Frankie Foncett, Noel Watson and, of course Norman Jay. All those guys are important.”

So, that brings us to 1987 and the dawn of Acid House. Rare Groove ruled in London town but it was about to be eclipsed.

“It was radical!” exclaims Peterson. “ But I was sceptical. We were doing our thing. Talking Loud & Saying Something at Dingwalls was kicking off. I wasn’t convinced. Maybe it was the whole association with the drugs but when I saw Michael Knot, a member of IDJ, a brilliant jazz dancer, dancing to ‘Acid Trax’ by Phuture in a dark room at the back of a pub in Teddington I changed my mind and started including it into my sets. I went to few Boys Own parties and loved it. Also, we… Bro Marco and Rob G… had a room at Babylon, Steve Swindell’s club at Heaven. Downstairs, it was Colin Favor playing early electronic techno and next door in the Future Bar was Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold. On a Thursday night, for two years, you couldn’t avoid the craziness that was Babylon.”

Twenty years on, the tunes that Gilles Peterson has included in his Defected selection never fail to stand up to the tests of time and reflect both passion and an ability to uplift the spirit. “With compilations… I must be the world record holder!” he says shaking his head. “The record collectors must hate me… ‘Oh no! Not another Peterson compilation!

“Basically, it’s like the alphabet.’ says Gilles. ”Jazz… black music got into my soul and it gave me the foundation. I got a good education because I was immersed in the culture here… pirate radio, warehouse parties, carnival, sound system… there was always a little bit of danger. I’ve had great, long-standing clubs at the Wag, Fridge, Fez, Bar Rumba, Dingwalls… Cargo. I’ve always enjoyed my own clubs but I’m also into those events or venues where I’m going to learn. Playing with Carl, Laurent or Theo Parrish… you need to put yourself outside you comfort zone.

“I’ve had great human satisfaction from what I do. I’ve met all these amazing people and then to be able to help them is as good as being a priest or a doctor. When artists or musicians like Steve Reid or Terry Callier come to London they call me through friendship and that’s great.”

“I suppose I’m a kind of cult famous person,” he continues. ”I’m rarely recognised but there are people who admire me for what I do and that motivates me. I get the best of both worlds. It is odd at times. I was at the Roundhouse for the Verve and this guy, who I had never met before, came up to me and said, ‘Hi Gilles.’ and we shook hands and talked and he turned out to be James Purnell – the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

“I’m always surprised when that happens. But I have dj’d for millions of people. I’ve been on the radio for over 25 years. People do look at me and maybe they do recognise me but sometimes I just think, ‘What are you looking at!?”