EMMA LANGRIDGE vs DAVID HAGGER

This interview, held with Emma Langridge in 2007, took place pre Global Financial Crisis, where spending in the arts was buoyant in Australia and rampant throughout the international markets. Times change ever so quickly and we have seen a dramatic downturn here in Australia throughout 2009. Economic forecasters tell us that consumer confidence is on the rise and however slow it may in fact be, the art industry welcomes it with gusto. (interview originally published on www.r-n-d.net)

It is too easy to liken Emma Langridge’s work to that of Sol LeWitt, Bridget Riley, and other post 50’s Minimalist artists, but her imagery is not as exacting. Although her approach is mathematical, and sometimes as clinical, she relishes the accident as a progression of the creative process.

Langridge abandons the canvas, preferring to work on the harder surfaces of board and aluminium. She meticulously layers the already primed surface with masking tape, on which she rules rows and rows of parallel lines that are scored with a scalpel. Alternate strips are removed, and the stenciled surface is re-painted and left to dry.

Whilst painstaking in its preparation the end result can be elusive. As the final taped sections are peeled back, the raw elements of the constructed line, their proportions and base colour resonate in complex geometric forms. The bleeding paint remains, marking human touch, and creating tension between object and observer.

‘I like that juxtaposition between the so-called perfection and the fact that it’s hand made, and that you get this kind of visual static.’

Langridge draws inspiration from the structural fundamentals of electronic music, architecture, and literature. It is in these practices that she finds the most basic of functions, the passing of information, to be at its crucial juncture. Here, the foundation, the make-up, and the communicative layering are vital, for without them nothing can exist.

DH: Abstraction, like photography, gets a bit of a rough ride here in Australia. It just isn’t as sought after or respected as it is in Europe or the US. Why do you think that is?

EL: Perhaps because Australia is traditionally a nation of knockers and abstract art is quite hard to defend to someone who thinks it is merely decorative, or worse, empty. I have had people tell me my work looks like nothing more than bathroom tiles.

DH: Rothko’s 1953 “No. 2 (Blue, Red and Green) US$72.84 million record is a good example of the gross imbalance. The Australian auction houses have not yet realised AU$10 million for any artwork, let alone an abstract work. I think being so isolated, we rarely get to see the works of other nations’ artists. Of course we see the works of the great masters, or significant others but not the grass roots artists – the emerging or mid career artists. We are not as spoilt as our international friends in that way. We seem to have a bit of an elitist society. Did you think we have a way to come before art is a part of everyday life for Australians?

EL: I think as a nation we are far from it yes, but I don’t know that we are particularly moving in that direction at any great speed. I still feel like the great majority of people still are only just accepting of the Impressionists. They still ostensibly want ‘pictures of things’.

DH: On the whole, we have been experiencing an upbeat art market in the past few years – which is promising. Do you keep an eye on what goes on around you in the art world, what your peers are doing?

EL: I tend to operate in a bit of a vacuum, partly because seeing other people’s work often makes me panic! I always feel that I should get straight into the studio and start working… that every moment should be spent there.

DH: Are there any particular artists that you admire?

EL: At the moment I am particularly keen on the work of Brisbane artist Daniel Templeman, and also local Melburnians Magda Cebokli and James Parret. Historically however, I am still hung up on Richard Serra and Ellsworth Kelly. There was a Serra piece at the Guggenheim (in Bilbao, Spain), a few years ago and it was such a visceral experience… just incredible… and formed of such simple elements.

DH: Yes. That was ‘Serpent’ piece. I didn’t get to see that on my travels, nor ‘The Matter of Time’ installation, but I too have such great admiration for Serra’s work. The sheer volume is breathtaking. You can’t help but become overwhelmed. We are considered to be a nation that loves to travel and from our late teens we are often encouraged to take that sabbatical to ‘broaden our horizons’. You have traveled to other parts of Europe. Did this change your outlook or practice at all?

EL: Absolutely. I was especially excited to see the big artists at small galleries. And seeing the same artists represented repeatedly, like Gerhardt Richter whose exhibition in Dresden was spectacular. I switched from timber to aluminium (as a support) after seeing this show. Being able to see huge collections of, for example, Cranach the elder alongside John Cage in the same space or complex was important too. It is a sign of respect that the two can stand side by side.

DH: I am recalling your Berlin works that were documented by Ken McGregor recently in his book ‘Unfinished Journeys’. Having seen some of these in the flesh, and also travelled to Berlin, I think your choice of colour was spot on. Was this intentional, or rather ingrained in your subconscious as an everyday surrounding?

EL: It was very deliberate. The paintings based on the architecture of the Hansa Viertel were mostly strange pastel combinations. Those based on the Potsdammerplatz area have exposed aluminium. I didn’t try to replicate colours accurately however, merely to grasp some of the contrasts and combinations of the architecture and I suppose the mood also.

DH: Ken also explains the connection between your art and music, particularly the Detroit techno artist Carl Craig. His use of strings and layers is held in the highest regard by the widespread music community. Tell me what it is exactly that you take from this type of music to use in your paintings.

EL: I love the building up of layers and also the analogous nature of music without words and art without figures.

DH: I find Theo Parrish, another Detroit native, has a similar arrangement to Craig in that he creates multiple layers to add and subtract from throughout the course of the track. It is so simple, yet so effective. The combination of two layers is incredibly different from any other two and this makes each track a story. To me there are direct similarities in your paintings.

EL: I like that comparison. I like the ‘dirtiness’ in a lot of electronic music as well: that looped static has a rhythm. Also I find a lot of this music has to be listened to for a long time and in a disinterested fashion, before you really see it for what it is, and are rewarded with enjoyment. I find this happens a lot with abstract work.

DH: What sparked the interest in electronic music?

EL: I started listening to it when I was at University. It really captured my mood at the time and it seemed so new and exciting. There really were no sub-categories at the time, and the Detroit guys were all so anonymous so it seemed like it had been made by aliens (or sub-aquatic beings as in the case of Drexciya!).

DH: You and your brother Martin have been Dj’ing since the early 90s when Ben Stinga’s ‘Purveyor’ record store in Perth was in operation. He had a phenomenal influence on so many people in Perth. Do you think you owe him a beer for providing an avenue for your creative output that would otherwise not have been so readily available?!

EL: Maybe a brewery!!! And another for Shamus from ‘Auditory Spiral’ (RTR FM radio show) who really pushed my horizons off the planet.

DH: I understand you had, and still have, a strong following in Perth. Melbourne is rich with artists and galleries and countless festivals. Did these things make the decision to move from Perth to Melbourne definitive, as opposed to another state or back to the UK where you were born?

EL: Hmmm. Perth-ites have a longstanding tradition of moving to Melbourne, so I was picking the obvious choice for a change of scenery, however the art galleries, cool weather and lack of insects was a big draw-card!

DH: Maybe you should have tried Queensland. Insects aside, it is without a doubt Australia’s current booming art market. Not just in terms of art trade, but also in the number of successful artists it is producing. Something in the water perhaps?

EL: I was recently in Brisbane and I am looking forward to heading up there again perhaps next winter. I think new architecture really draws people into art and makes them receptive to it, and this seems to be a really exciting time for the city.

DH: You have already mentioned Brisbane artist Daniel Templeman. Dane Lovett and your fellow Metro 5 colleague Anthony Lister, also Queenslanders, are continuing to do well as they have done for some time, and now Arryn Snowball and Gemma Smith have seemingly burst onto the scene. They are two abstract artists worth watching I think.

EL: There is a lot of great work out there, its true…

DH: So what is next for Emma Langridge? Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

EL: Hopefully I will learn to space out my productivity and work more consistently instead of in bursts as I always tend to do! In terms of actual work, I am trying to experiment in a genuine way – which is harder than you might think for someone who has restricted her practice for so long – and want to work in the print medium as well as experimenting with scale. I am very excited at the moment about a few projects coming up. Perhaps another show, this time in Sydney, involving Andrew Gaynor.

DH: I want to leave you with something I read recently in a book about Lucien Freud. Sebastian Smee was asking to Freud about artists that were of interest to him.

SS: Have you ever liked abstract painters?

LF: I love Mondrian, but I don’t think he’s abstract. De Kooning? Well, he’s not really abstract either, and the more you look the more you see.

I found that remarkably intriguing. I still can’t work out what he means. Do you subscribe to this notion of classification? In this case what is and what is not abstract?

EL: I do within myself I guess. I usually refer to my work as non-figure based because in my mind it’s not an abstraction of the subject but the creation of something new, from scratch. I like work that contains itself; it is the answer to its own question and the amalgamation of its own process.

Emma Langridge was born in Cheltenham, UK. She migrated to Western Australian as a young child before moving to Melbourne in 2001. She has exhibited extensively throughout Australia and has her work in some of Australia’s most regarded private and public collections. Emma Langridge is represented by Metro Gallery, Melbourne.

Love of the music should be driving force of any producer, performer or dj. Everything else stems from that core, that love. With that love, sampling can become a tribute, an expansion on ideas long forgotten, reconstrutruction, collage. Using this same understanding openly & respectfully, can turn djing into spiritual partecipation. It can turn a few hours of selection into essential history. Neccessary listening through movement. Theo Parrish!

Enought said…

Listen to Theo Parrish – Straight No Chaser @ Samurai FM

Check the tracklist below:

1. Jaco Pastorius – ‘Portrait of Tracy’ (Sony)
2. Hanna – ‘Hanna’s Waltz’ (?)
3. Blackbyrds – ‘Mother/Son Talk’ (Fantasy)
4. Common – ‘It’s Your World’ (Good Music)
5. Jean Luc Ponty – ‘Between you and Me’ (Atlantic)
6. Ojeda Penn – ‘Happy People’ ((?)
7. Al Jarreau – ‘Take Five’ (Warner/WEA)
8. The Crusaders – ‘Chain Reaction’ (MCA)
9. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers – ‘Cubano Chant’ (Philips)
10. Herbie Hancock – ‘Sleeping Giant’ (WEA)
11. Herbie Hancock with Bill Laswell Feat Chaka Khan – ‘The Essence’ (Transparent)
12. Miles Davis – ‘Ife” (Sony)
13. Lenny White – ‘Venusian Summer Suite’ (Wounded Bird)
14. Haki Madhabuti & Nation – ‘Medasi’ (Third World)
15. Theo Parrish – ‘Love is War for Miles’ (Peacefrog)
16. The Rebirth – ‘This Journey In’ (Cajmere Sounds)
17. Fertile Ground – ‘Yellow Daisies’ (Blackout Studios)
18. Dee Felice Trio – ‘The Cricket Sing’ (?)
19. Hanna – ‘Laughin’ (?)
20. Ronnie Laws – ‘Tidal Wave’ (Blue Note)
21. The Heath Bros – ‘Smilin’ Billy Suite’ (Strata East)
22. Georgia Anne Muldrow – ‘One For the Funk (Stones Throw)

]]> http://partiesandnightlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/theo-parrish-the-do-over-l-a-25-10-2009/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:44:00 +0000 ys http://partiesandnightlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/theo-parrish-the-do-over-l-a-25-10-2009/

Theo Parrish – The Do-Over L.A. 25-10-2009

Mirror

Theo is str8 gettin’ it!! you see that right there?!! THIS is what im talkin’ about..THIS is how WE do it! NO Robots, NO Attitudes, NO Inhibitions, NO Pretention, NO Neo Soul (what a joke..another conversation), NO Make up, NO Insecurities! FREE the F–k UP!!

0:37 (I see that James Brown, YES!)

Dude talking at 2:09 ruins the moment by the saying the “No No” of all phrases..you know he got off the cheese bus big time, right?

PS: it gets deeper..WHY do they have umbrellas out dancing in THE RAIN?…I LOVE IT!

Sunday Best, featuring the Reverend Theo Parrish

Ok, so not all of us were lucky enough to be able to attend Electric Elephant in the festival mecca de jour of Petrcane this year… Boo hoo hoo.  But lucky for us we won’t be able to forget about the love, sunshine and good times we missed out on, thanks to all the photos and videos flying about a week on from the festival in the cosmic afterglow.

Bought to you by the team behind Manchester’s Electric Chair, Electric Elephant is a small but perfectly formed party package that delivers; in terms of music, community and general good vibes – quite a feat when you consider that the summer festival landscape is both over populated and fatigued these days.  The focus is on quality with boat parties this year hosted by Electric Chair, Lowlife, Oki-Ni, Folk, Aficionado and Basement Boogaloo VS Downtown Sounds, with music brought to you by Andrew Weatherall, Theo Parrish, Daniele Baldelli, Jesse Rose, Bill Brewster, Phoreski, the Unabombers, Horsemeat Disco, Bad Passion Project, Disco Bloodbath amongst many others.

Seriously though, name dropping aside, after seeing the evidence below you will want to put Electric Elephant on your 2010 To-Do List immeeeeeediately.  See you there next year.

                             Andrew Weatherall @ Electric Elephant 2009

                                   Jesse Rose @ Electric Elephant 2009

                                 Lowlife Boat Party

                                       Oki-Ni Boat Party with Phoreski

                                    Oki-Ni Boat Party with Bad Passion Project

Spark is the new saturday night concept of Café Capital in Antwerp. It is the  follow up concept of ‘Play’, where we had the honour to dj too a few months ago.

The first international guests of this fresh new party concept were Pilooski, Shit Robot, Chymera and Detroit legend Theo Parrish. Artists who will perform in a couple of weeks are  Trus’me, Tom Trago and Âme.

An eclectic selection of fine artists like we could expect  from Café Capital. Last season they welcomed  icons like François K. and Carl Craig but also promising newcomers like Holy Ghost! and Jacques Renault.

To end this post we’ve got 2 old school goodies for you. Both space-disco tracks from 1979, the first one is from Munich Machine aka Giorgio Moroder. The second is a very beautiful and not so well-known track by Hans-Peter Stroër.

• Munich Machine – Space Warrior (1979)
• Stroër – Don’t Stay For Breakfast (1979)

Theo Parrish: »First, I’m going to say that my name’s Theo Parrish. And I’m going to hand it over to Gerd and let him do the rest of the questioning.«

RBMA: »This is Mr Theo Parrish who lives in Detroit. This man is a DJ and producer extraordinaire. Runs a little – or a big label called Sound Signature records. And he’s a man of high-tech Jazz and the saviour of House music. So give him a warm welcome again, please!« 
(applause)

Theo Parrish: »Thank you. Thanks. I guess first I’d like to play, as this song runs out, some music that inspired me as a little, little, little boy. We’re talking four or five years old. My mother used to run this whole album from side to side, to side to side and Stevie Wonder was basically the beginning of my musical education. This is where it started. This song in particular. One thing I noticed as a little boy, was that if lyrics had a certain depth, they always had a particular meaning that you could apply to your experience.

Am I beating this mic up a lot? With the ‘puhs’ and ‘tuhs’? Let’s fix it up. One two, one two. There we go. Much better. My mother told me that Stevie was singing about God, who was singing to man. And saying that always… I’ll going to let him sing.« 
(music: Stevie Wonder ‘As’ up to the bridge part, where Theo stops the record) 
»Alright I’m going to pause it right there. What I didn’t understand at this point, I don’t know if Stevie Wonder did. When I was four or five years old I didn’t know Stevie was singing a song, if he was playing on it, if all his backgrounds was him, if he was doing the drums. All I knew was that all of this sonic experience was coming from this one guy. And I was able to associate it with this. (holds up the record cover ) I would look at this and say: ”That’s Stevie Wonder, that’s him right there!”

I can see that, I can feel that, I can go in the store and I knew that wherever I went in the world, that if I saw this, that was a likeness of the individual that I associated with that music. And it wasn’t until later, when I got a lot older – not a lot older, maybe fifteen or sixteen. I went to a party at a hotel pavilion and I was living in Chicago. Lil’ Louis – I don’t know if many of you know who Lil’ Louis is. Lil’ Louis is an underground Chicago DJ. Some say the father of House music, or one of the godfathers, creators of House music.

And I walked in, and I didn’t expect to hear this on a soundsystem with a thousand to two thousand other black kids, and he’s playing this. In the beginning. We’re talking 9 pm, Hotel Pavilion downtown, 1988. And that experience from my youth just touched me directly, like: ”Oh my god! I can’t believe that this… I come to hear ’boom-tsh-boom-tsh’”, because the mix shows with Farley and all that, they would showcase a lot of the newer music. But I wasn’t really understanding what a party was about.

And a party in a lot of senses, at that point in Chicago anyway, was bridging the gap from where you knew safety was at home, to a communal experience. And this song did it. And I never understood the emotion of this song until the bridge came and the vocals came up. That’s why I pause it there. So let me do a little something here, bring it up. It’s right up in here. Right here. (music plays) Now you see where that song just hit the roof. Now, if you amplify that song maybe times ten, an eight foot by eight foot bass bottom, and multiply that times four, then doubled it. Then put mids on top. Highs on top.

Then you have something of an idea of how huge the sound was in the place. Lil’ Louis would have sound engineers come in so the sound would totally overwhelm you. The songs took on a life and a size of their own. One side of the pavilion was all sound, and this was a DJ playing. This wasn’t a Rap concert, this wasn’t a Rock concert, this wasn’t Pink Floyd but you had sound like it was. So these songs became these huge musical events. And you’re fifteen, you walk in and your DNA gets changed instantly, just walking in the spot. You’re like: ”Oh my god, I can’t believe it – this is mom’s song! Mom used to play this on Saturdays cleaning up the house.”

And now I’m getting hit in the head, and the imagination takes you places. Then it starts to make sense – some of the other songs he played in his set. This was probably nine o’clock in the evening and he’s playing this song. When the vocals came out and it dropped, up until that point I thought I was hearing the whole range of sound that was available with the speakers. He had only the mids in and he dropped the lows when the second part came, when the ‘Oooo’ comes in. Let me shut up and play. (music plays) I’d get memories of when I’d listen to it with my mother and be singing it with her. And I didn’t realise the training I was going through.

Now I’m not a singer, I couldn’t sing. A lot of times you go to school and you try and figure out what the different keys are: how to sing on key. After singing to Stevie over and over and over again, you start to be able to tell when someone is singing out of key or not, depending how good the music is that you’re listening to. That’s having an ear without having to learn. I didn’t know how it was going to apply later. I just knew that whenever a song went on, I could tell where my voice needed to be, to be in tune with the whole thing. And this is just singing to Stevie on Sundays with my ma.

Now later on when I started doing vocals, it started to make sense. ‘Wait a minute, I see where it starts to connect.’ I could just tell that’s not the right whatever. I didn’t have the terminology. I still can’t read or write music. But the whole idea was to know it, and for it to become an intimate thing. Now the other part of the album – that was always the favourite song. ‘As.’ And I always thought: ”I wonder why it’s called ‘As’? When he’s always singing ‘always’?” But then I thought ‘the first letter of ‘always’ is ‘a’ and the last letter of always is ‘s’ so that must be what it is!’ But I was just digging on how the hidden meanings of the song and all the different applications you can put on it. What the lyrics meant, and all the different emotions. The states the song goes through. And I really didn’t understand what was happening, at the time, and I dug it. Aight. I’m going to leave it, what else you want to talk about?«

RBMA: »And this is still your first copy of the album?«

Theo Parrish: »No, that’s not my first copy – that’s probably my fifth copy of that album that I’ve come across.«

RBMA: »And you were talking about Lil’ Louis and the Bizmarck, and you also mentioned Farley. Maybe you could talk a little bit about what it was in Chicago back in the day? What was going on?«

Theo Parrish: »Well a lot of what was happening, at least for me – the first time I heard somebody mix was on the radio. I was probably about twelve years old. And it was after complaining to my mother that I wanted a radio, and it was Christmas, she got me a radio. It was one of those one set deals, with the radio in it, the tape deck and the plastic turntable all in one hook up, and I was like Yeah, this is sweet. I would fool around with the dial. And at the end of the dial I heard this thing come on: “B.M.X!” I was like: ”Who’s BMX?” I was into BMX bikes! I thought: ”That’s strange! Alright, that’s a good association, I like bikes!”

But that was the call letters for the radio station WBMX! They were playing all these different types of lectures I’d never heard, or couldn’t even conceive of at the time. Because all I knew until that point was what my mother was playing for me and a little bit of what my friends were playing around – and they were off into the breakdance deal, everyone was into Soulsonic Force. That was cool, I was into that a little bit too, but this was different. This was being played on the radio, and people was calling in, everyone was really excited. You went to school the next day, and people had recorded it, and I was like: ”I got to learn how to record it!”

I didn’t know how to record it. So everybody had these mixtapes and were trading them around, it just became this huge movement. I don’t think people really understood how widespread the idea of House music on the radio in Chicago was at that time. Now, me, I’m considered a young guy coming into it. Because there were these other generation guys that were ten years older than me, that were well off into it. But for me it was this whole new world that opened up. I hadn’t even gotten to the idea that there was a place that I could go to hear it and this was before I actually went out and heard this album.

You would go to these little high school parties and there’s a couple of your contemporaries and you heard about these Mendel’s parties where you had Farley, Mike Williams, you had tons of DJ’s known and unknown, that were playing all around the city. And it was a sweep. I mean, the whole South side of Chicago – but before I go into that part, the thing to mention is that Chicago always was, from my understanding, a very, very segregated town. You had the South side and you had the North side. And at that point you’re talking mid-80’s, there was still a lot of institutionalised racism.

Ideas about how the city was going to be run, and where certain people needed to be. And those certain people that I belong to, which is African American, we needed to be on the South side. We weren’t welcome up North. So a lot of the parties and the whole idea or conception of this music was coming from the South side, from people’s struggles, from people who really were shut out. It’s strange what this music is turning into today – it’s a really interesting dynamic. I think it’s ironic.

But we owned that music. That was our language at that time. That was something that we held onto and we were playing our cards. We would go to these parties and it was something we could all be a part of. You knew, at that point in time, that no one else in the city was interested in that part of the radio dial. Just you and your friends. But you never knew how many! And later on you start to find out that some of these songs you were listening to sold over hundreds of thousands of copies within the first week of their release. Talking about the Mr Fingers EP that came out. Matter of fact, I’ll go right to that! This is the original copy I had, too. It’s beat up.«

RBMA: »Yeah, it looks like the original.«

Theo Parrish: »Yeah (laughs).

There’s some good marks on that! When this came out, this changed everything. This changed the whole idea of what this music was, where it needed to go, where it had been. Changed it all. And this was all before we started to understand what a deal was. We had no knowledge of the inner workings of the music industry, how records were made, pressed, money for spinning was not even heard of. You played records just to get recognition. And there was a guy on every single block that could play just as well as you. There was no “I’m going to go open up for Lil’ Louis.” You’d be lucky to even get a good look at the guy.

I mean, no, it wasn’t going down. It was for props. If you got lucky, you played some basement party around the corner. If you got good. But you had competition! Alright, let me put it to you this way. Chicago’s broken up into North side, South side. And you have a street that divides it. And basically, it goes up to 8700 North, and a hundred and thirty something South. Basically from 2200 South, all the way out to 7900, 179, it was all black folks. And in every city block, there was a guy just like you trying to learn how to put records together.

So the competition level was high. I liken it to how I imagine Hip Hop hit New York. That was how House music hit Chicago, and it was that much more competitive. Let me stop there, I’m going to put this record on. But before it really came down to us knowing this stuff was available, we would hear it on the radio. And I remember hearing this on the radio. It blew my mind. Now, the first one that was heard was ’Can U Feel It’. I didn’t know the name, it came into Farley’s mix CD. Ah, sorry, live mix on the radio!! There wasn’t even CD’s available.« 
(music: Mr Fingers ‘Can U Feel It’ ) 
»I had no idea this was available on vinyl, I just knew I was hearing this.

So I started to hear from my friends: ”There’s a place called Import Records, you can go buy this.” This is out, we need to go get it! And we were only allowed this much money, I had about 20 dollars a week to get through school, to get out there, eat, and make a bus fare to get home. I spent all of it at the record store. This label Trax specifically, I was like: ”I need this song that goes ‘boomp-boomp ba-doom-boom.” I kept saying it, and this guy, we know him now as Derrick Carter, he was working there and he was like: ”What’s going on? What do you want?” [and I replied] ”I need that boom-boom ba-doom-boom! It’s on Trax records.”

And he pointed to the back wall, and Trax records had three releases, but up on the wall there were these blank spots. They were the red record label with the white print. I was going: ”What else it out?” And I looked up and there was this other song, and this other song and this other song. And all I had was ten dollars, and records were $3.99 at the time. And I grabbed up this one, he had that one, and I kept wondering what the rest of ‘em sounded like. I spent money on that one and I spent money on ’Ride The Rhythm’, I spent money on ’House Music Anthem’. That’s that ’da-da-da’, everybody knows that one.«

RBMA: »Marshall Jefferson, right?«

Theo Parrish: »Yeah, Marshall Jefferson. Now, I was under the impression that this guy Mr Fingers did all of that. I wasn’t even looking at who was doing what on the record labels, I was just buying them. I got home and I was with my friends, Leron and Spencer, and we sat there and listened to them. Listened and listened. And what I didn’t understand was that there was more than one song on each one of these records, so I grabbed one and I looked and there were these other songs on it, started bouncing through it. And I forgot all about ’Can U Feel It’, because it was mellow, and remember I’m still fifteen years old, sixteen.

So, I’m hyper! Just got to have some aggression. So this served it. I was out of my mind when this [played], ”Oh my god! This is better than that one.” So I would spend all my time learning how to mix this together with the records that my friends would accumulate, and between all of us we probably had two crates between us at the time. Little kids, we didn’t know where any of this was going to go, even outside our little universe of what this was about. Let me just shut up.« 
(music: Mr Fingers ‘Amnesia’) 
»Alright, those pauses, in the middle of the track, were innovative as fuck. I’m sorry, can I say ’fuck’?«

RBMA: »You can.«

Theo Parrish: »I can say ’fuck’ in here? Alright. Really innovative! And to be able to stop in the middle of the track and leave one little note, ’dom-bommmm’. Like that, and have people going crazy when they heard that album. What went along with this was finally a chance to go out. I went out and heard these things, Lil’ Louis playing them, Ron Hardy playing them. I heard all these different guys playing them, and it was just shocking to walk into a spot and see the whole crowd react in call and response to the person playing it back and forth and I was just like: ”Oh my god!! This is amazing!”

Now when I hit the floor, it was because I wanted to dance, because that was what this music was about, it was about movement. And there was no… ah, how do I explain this? If you take away the magazines from dance music, if you can imagine what’s left. If you go back in time, you take away all of the sponsorship, you take away all of the things that make it a commodity. And you break down to a central form. You have nothing but pure experience among individuals. And if you can imagine that and then turn it into a language that’s spoken among you and shared among the youth, something that you own.

No one else owns it, no one else is claiming this. No one can put a stamp or a tag on it. If you can dig how much of a fanatic that would make a young person, as they become an adult, then you can understand that. Why you have so many individuals – like on the south side of Chicago now, if you go into an older bar, guys that are 35, 40 plus. They’re not playing, you know, The Supremes or The Four Tops, they’re playing this stuff. They’re playing older classics. And that’s another thing, that I’m going to get into, that’s the classic stuff. Basically the pieces that these were made off of. The calls and responses.

This sort of music was there and was a language before the monikers came. Like Acid House, like Progressive, like Drum’n Bass, like any of the different sub genres that are utilised to dissect the music and pimp it more or less. Way before any of that was done, so it was considered all the same thing. We weren’t really even calling it House music! It didn’t have the moniker that it had. That was Europe coming over, seeing it, saw that there was money to be made, taking it back, and that’s when next thing you know you had D-Mob walking around with ‘Aciiid!’ smiley faces. There weren’t no smiley face!! And LSD was not a part of the equation! At least not with the young kids, not with us! It was never associated.

It was something that was a lot more raw, and a lot more visceral. It was part of our language. It was something we were owning. It’s kind of like how you can imagine, alright, there’s these cats in the south with this ‘Screw’ music, they slow stuff down. It’s something that you wouldn’t understand as an outsider. And so the commodification came – this was something I noticed in retrospect. I wasn’t understanding it at the time because I was too busy trying to put two records together. So, as I was putting them together, the biggest aspiration I ever had was: ‘I want to put my name, I want to get my name on one of those posters.’ Rick knows what I’m talking about with those posters! It was a methodology.

[Sitting] in the back, that’s a teacher right there. (points to the back of the lecture room where Rick is sitting) Rick Wilhite from Detroit. He worked at a store. You can give him a hand!« 
(applause) 
»He worked in a place in Detroit, that’s where I met him, a place called Buy Right Music. Buy Right Music was important in ushering in a lot of the music that was coming out of Chicago, other places, and he was one of the main buyers who made sure that happened. When that was happening in Chicago, all I wanted to do was to mix the records, I had no idea this thing was taking off in other places. That there was any interest in what was happening, beyond in my own little back yard. Ah, bla bla bla. (laughs) Alright! Lead me man, lead me!«

RBMA: »You mentioned Ron Hardy, and he was the DJ at a club called Music Box. «

Theo Parrish: »Yeah, and a lot of other places too.«

RBMA: »And he was, maybe together with Frankie Knuckles…«

Theo Parrish: »No, he wasn’t together with Frankie Knuckles. Oh no, no, no, see…«

RBMA: »(laughs) Ok, then he was separate from Frankie Knuckles, but who was he and what does he mean to you?«

Theo Parrish: »Who was he and what does he mean? Basically, Ron Hardy was I’d say the foremost important selector of the 20th century. Easy. The most important selector of the 20th century. Because not only did he have the skills and the energy, the emotional energy and the connection to every song, but he had the balls to do whatever he wanted to do. And some people call it just insanity or craziness, but it takes guts to have the floor rocking, at peak hour, and all of a sudden he’d just drop whatever the hell he wanted to.

No matter what. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. That takes guts. So, to be able to do those things, and also to usher in new sounds every time he played, in a fashion that just hadn’t been seen before, was a pivotal thing. He broke a lot of these tracks that we take for granted. He was the first to play ‘em. In that he wasn’t very radio accessible, he wasn’t putting out any records, he maybe did a couple of mixes on a couple of things, and that was about it.

To me, in terms of EQ work, people talk about working the EQ, dropping things, bringing in the highs, bringing in the lows, la la la: the methodology he would employ was something that I haven’t seen since. You try to find people that can listen to a beat, listen to the off times, the on times, the rhythms underneath the rhythms and work the EQing, it’s nothing. But to see someone do it with that skill but to do it emotively.

So that you had people that literally – there were these posts in the Box, and cats would be climbing the walls, literally straddling the posts – we’re talking two stories up! Because the Box had a ceiling, and that ceiling was taken out. It went up another story. So we’re talking about it was two stories from the top of the ceiling to the floor. And these posts that ran up it.

You had these faithful believers that would go up in there, lose their minds and climb the posts, snap. Just snapping. Because he lit people up like that. There was no light show, no cloud of smoke, none of that. You had a strobe light in the corner, and you had a siren near the DJ booth, that was it. It wasn’t about being seen, it wasn’t about any of that. It was about that sound. It was about the music he was playing. And that sort of raw dedication is what I see as lacking these days. «

RBMA: »But you’re pretty good with the EQ’s yourself, right?«

Theo Parrish: »I’m no Ron Hardy! Nooo, I’m not Ron Hardy. I’m me. All I can do is take what little I learned – or what I think I’ve learned – from him, and other DJ’s like him. Because I think I owe more to so many other DJ’s there, than just Ron Hardy. It’s a culmination. A lot of DJ’s, they never had any kind of recognition. We’re talking about the Mike Williams, the Deon Williams and the Gene Hunt’s, the Terry Hunters.

The list goes on and on and on. All guys that would play alongside these giants that we know of, but a lot of times were either marginalised because of their attitude or whatever. Circumstantial. But were really, really solid jocks and a lot of them still play out today. But we don’t give them the time of day because we think: “Oh, he doesn’t have a ‘name’. Oh, he doesn’t put records out. Oh, he must not be worth that much.” It’s not the case, you know?«

RBMA: »And how old were you back then, as you were going to the Music Box?«

Theo Parrish: »Music Box? I was fifteen years old.«

RBMA: »So you had to sneak in.«

Theo Parrish: »I didn’t have to sneak! You just went up to the door, and if they didn’t think that you would be able to handle going up in there, then they wouldn’t let you in. But sometimes they wouldn’t look at your ID, you’d slide in there. Slide in there. Fifteen, sixteen.«

RBMA: »And when did you start to play records then, at clubs, basements?«

Theo Parrish: »Clubs? Oh, man.«

RBMA: »Wherever.«

Theo Parrish: » It wasn’t until I was 22. So from 13 to 22 I had no professional work. I was strictly bedroom. Sorry, I had three basement parties; one of them I threw when I was fifteen. That was it. Like, there was no promise of any chance to do this as a career. That was the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn’t until I went to school in Kansas City that I had a chance to actually spin for a substantial amount of money. The first amount of money I made as a DJ. I started spinning when I was 13, did my first gig when I was 15; and I made 23 dollars.

And I was happy, so happy. Because at the end of that gig everybody in the block was like ‘Yeah!’ It was great. I was known as the guy around the corner who could play the music. That was it. That was as far as it went. My biggest aspiration, as I said, at that point was to get my name on one of these posters like the big guys. I didn’t know what any of that meant, I just knew that I wanted my mother to appreciate it. To know that at least, all this bangin’ in her attic upstairs was coming to something! So that’s where that went.«

RBMA: »And what does your mother think today about it?«

Theo Parrish: »Aw, she’s all in my ear now (laughs). Telling me what people think about stuff online. Because I don’t follow online. I don’t really watch what the current status is what I’m doing. I don’t really worry too much about it. I can’t. If you’re concerned about what you’re doing, then the next song in your head, the next song you want to play, sometimes all of the information of how you’re being received is a huge distraction. It becomes a hindrance, because then you start to become boxed in by your own movement. Start going: “I did this and people liked that so maybe I should keep doing that.” That’s an issue. But she monitors all that for me.«

RBMA: »So you don’t give two cents about all that hype surrounding your person?«

Theo Parrish: »Ah, not really, no. It doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s appreciated. Because at the end of the day it allows me to be able to do what I do and not have to work another job. However, it’s really not essential. I mean, when you really get down to the idea of what you’re here to do, what’s your point, you know? Why were you given this life energy to keep on breathing. If your point is to make a song or to play a song, then that is all there needs to be. All the ideas of grandeur and the money and the fame and the ‘bla bla bla’, that’s all misplaced if you can’t do the most simple thing.

And that’s to connect individuals to the songs. Like, try to diminish as much of your ego from the process as possible. And people tend to forget that. They think: “It’s all about me, I brought the records.” No, it’s not! What about the people whose lives are trapped in these pieces of vinyl? What about that? There’s people in there. And they need to talk to the individuals who came and paid to get in. Because when you go to any party, over time, it’s a heavy thing, but if you look at it, that’s somebody’s last night on earth! Think about it.

Just by the law of numbers. If you play at a party and there’s a thousand people there, somebody there might not make it the next day. Are you going to be standing in their way, too busy talking to someone out to the side, working the EQ while they’re listening to the last song they’re going to hear? That’s the kind of thing you have to battle against, because we’re all challenged with that.

But if you have it in your head to try to minimise your self from the connection between the people that come here and the music that’s being played, then you’re in good shape.« 
RBMA: »So you always try to give your best.« 
Theo Parrish: »Well, I’m human. I make mistakes all day. And that’s the biggest thing. You can’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But you can’t be afraid to make mistakes. I try to do the best that I can under our circumstances. You just try.«

RBMA: »Some people might also say that there are a few mistakes on your records, right?«

Theo Parrish: »Oh, there’s mistakes all over the place! I mean, it’s all a work in process. In progress. All of it. I mean, I got stuff that’s mastered wrong because I tried this guy and he didn’t cut it right, there was no time, it was coming out, you make mistakes.«

RBMA: »The funny thing is that most of the time people think that it’s all done on purpose, right?«

Theo Parrish: »Right, like a lot of people think it’s a conscious decision. Well, it’s a conscious decision but not by me. Some other consciousness! Pulling my strings, saying: “Do this.” And I’m: “Ok, this feels right.” That’s the sort of thing that kind of gets lost, too. People get the idea, a lot of the time, when it comes to what they’re listening to, that it has to be crisp and clean.

And sterile, and all this stuff. And yeah, in some senses some things do need to be crisp and clean and sterile. But, if you convey a feeling, and that feeling is getting across to the individuals that come, they can be very forgiving of what’s going on sonically, if something emotive is happening at the same time, and it balances. So you can get away with maybe a clip or two, things maybe a little more blurry than you would like, and get ‘em on the emotive side. It’s give and take.«

RBMA: »So you take emotions over sound any day?«

Theo Parrish: »Not necessarily. It’s such a particular thing. On certain songs, yes. At certain parties, yes. Because, I mean, the first thing you have to realise is that every moment you experience is something that’s particular to its own time and space. Everything. So if I go into a party and I’m feeling that day, and those people are feeling that today, and I play a record that skips and nobody cares, it keeps on going. No problem. Other days I may be too hyper. I may be feeling it, the record skips, the crowd clears the floor, I get embarrassed, I try and play something to appease the crowd, they get dishevelled.

They go: ”What are you doing, I thought you were so and so?” It can all fall apart. It’s [about being] willing to walk that razorblade. That’s the part I’m concerned about. And what I want to get better at is walking the razorblade and saying: ”Ok, this is what I want to continue to do, this is what’s important.” But more than that, it’s important to other people more than it is to me. The relationship between individuals that come and the people that make that [music]. That’s the most important part.«

RBMA: »So what are the places you like the most [for] playing at?«

Theo Parrish: »Ohhh, I like Yellow in Japan (laughs). I like Yellow in Japan. I also like Plastic People«

RBMA: »Is that because of the sound system?«

Theo Parrish: »Yeah. The soundsystem, generally. That’s where it goes. The soundsystem. Also there’s a couple of places that I love because of the energy of the people. And also too, it’s not enough to say what places because on any given night you never know who’s going to show up. Every night is a different animal. There’s been places I’ve played where the sound has been just horrible – speakers on a stick, no monitors – but I’ve had a great night there and the people really made me feel at home.

So, it doesn’t matter if they get that together or not. Sometimes the emotive part of it is the best part. That’s where you can really connect. But other times the sound will be great but the crowd are just like: “Ah, yah”, stand around (scratches his chin and makes a sighing noise). “Ah, have you heard the new Masters at Work yet?” (laughter from audience) They don’t give a damn if you’re even there, it doesn’t matter. It goes back and forth, so there’s no such thing as a real favourite place to play. It’s more like there have been these high points, the memories where it’s been good. And as I get older they just tend to wash away (laughs).«

RBMA: »And speaking of soundsystems, what would be, in your mind, your ideal set-up?«

Theo Parrish: »Ok. The best soundsystem I ever went to and experienced was this place in New York called ’Love’. They have a Richard Long system in there. I didn’t know anything about a Richard Long system ‘til I went in there and found out really what it was.«

RBMA: »Richard Long was the guy who set up the system in the Paradise Garage, right?«

Theo Parrish: »Exactly. Now, this system was based after his design. Now, I admittedly know little to nothing about that whole deal! So I’m not going to sit up and start lying and say: “Yesss, he plugged this in…and that…” Nah, I don’t know (laughter from audience)! I just know when I went in there and I played ’Funky Space Reincarnation’, Marvin Gaye, that was the first time I heard everything in the record. I was like ‘Wow.’ I also noticed, too, I couldn’t back scratch on the turntables because that’s not how the tone arms were set up. Tone arms on each of the 1200’s were modified, had pulleys and weights and stuff!

It was just amazing sound and it was great. But the downfall of it was the owner of the place didn’t believe in promoting the night! A philosophical stance. He wanted people to come, and be there based on whatever the music was doing, no promotion. So, I dug that, but you know, looking out there and seeing twenty people you’re wondering: ”Are people going to show, or what am I doing wrong?” And he’s reassuring me, saying: ”Everything’s going right, this is how it should be.” Then you realise it’s something specific he’s got in mind. So you let people do their thing. But that was the best place I’ve been where the soundsystem was just retarded.«

RBMA: »And these days it’s all about promotion and hype to get a party started?«

Theo Parrish: »No, it’s not. It’s an alchemy! You got to balance the promotion versus the location, versus your DJ, versus what’s going on in the city, versus how much you’re charging at the door, versus your wait staff, versus your bar staff, versus the weather!« 
(audience laughs)

RBMA: »So you never want to open a club on your own then, right?«

Theo Parrish: »No, I think about it all the time. But all of those things in line at one point make a decent party. It’s magic every time something pops off. It sounds real clichéd and real, you know (mimes a cheesey grin and thumbs up) “It’s magic when a party happens!!” But it actually really truly is because there’s so many other things that work against you, that once it pops off, and it’s good and you know it’s good, and you try to ride it for what it is. It’s like seeing a ghost or something. You’re like: ”I’m going to go to the attic again! Maybe I’ll see that ghost one more time!” That’s as elusive as it gets.«

RBMA: »And speaking of ’Funky Space Reincarnation’, do you have it with you? Maybe?«

Theo Parrish: »No, but I got something else though. It’s close. It’s not quite the same, but it’s close. I’m going to dig a little.«

RBMA: »Because you mentioned a few minutes earlier classics, being a pivotal part of Chicago back in the day.«

Theo Parrish: »Yeah. That’s basically you weren’t given any respect in Chicago. And still, you really aren’t, among people that matter, unless you can play things that weren’t locked up with the sequencer, you know? If you could play those things and make them fit, that’s when you’re given some kind of respect. Nobody cared if you could play the new records over and over again. Nobody cared. Like: ”Ok, so what? The tempos can be matched up, they can mix themselves.

You set it on they’ll do it themselves. Who cares. But can you tell a story? Can you mess with Kool & the Gang, the drummer’s time at the beginning of the song, can you chase it and can you catch it?” That’s what mattered in Chicago when it came down to it. Because Ron Hardy, he was the guy that could play like that. A lot of other guys, Mike Williams, most of these guys can play classics and you’d be shocked. Derrick Carter. People think he can play ’boom-tsh-boom-tsh’. Nooooo, no, no, no. He can play some of those other things.«

RBMA: »So he can surf the pitch?«

Theo Parrish: »Oh yes, quite well. Oh yes. It’s no joke! (searches through his record bag) See I’m running into stuff that has nothing to do with the topic of conversation. And I think I might go there anyway. Aiight. I’m going to get real basic. James Brown, right? Some people say he was the father of not only Rap but also House music. And I kind of concur. There was a couple of tunes he did that really speak to what a party song is about. Now, the thrust of this so far has just been party this, party that, play the music, but I want to get into the projection side of things in a minute. And start talking about that transition.

Because to me, if you don’t start off as the patron in anything that you do: like say, if you play bass. If you don’t go out and hear a lot of bassists play, then you’re starting off on the wrong foot as it is. Then whatever it is that you’re aspiring to do, if you don’t start off as a patron, as a person that is paid money to get up, and hear what it is that you want to do, then you’re off on the wrong track as it starts. You need to study that, know what that is. And study the people that do it well, and do it consistently. And go and find out what the particulars are. Find out what the preparation is.«

When the house lights go up, and you beg for one more tune – let this be the one!

In early August James Murphy aka LCD Soundsystem aka DFA Records announced his 2007 iTunes Run project for Nike – “45:33″ was set for a re-release with a string of prominent remixers onboard, and now you can sample the first fruit from the batch.

“45:33″ was originally written as a digital running soundtrack for Nike, but by public (DJ) demand it was equally released as a double pack 12″ vinyl, which saw heavy rotation and support from any DJ worth their salt.

14th. September 2009 sees the release of the “45:33″ remix “album” with Runaway, Prins Thomas, Theo Parrish, Tru’s Me, Padded Cell, Pilooski, Riley Reinhold and – not least – Prince Language providing the sonic remix weaponary. Until then – all mixes are out on 12″ vinyl only during the next 4 next weeks.

Sounding like some 1989-1990 Frankie Knuckles & Satoshi Tomiie  production – The Padded Cell remix is a thing of rare, beautiful NYC early morning, DFA Space-Disco business with spine tingeling piano chords, glockenspiel, and a vocal sounding like the ghost of Anthony from The Johnsons riding on a wave of end-of-night melancholy.

Play this at 5. A.M and go hug a stranger!

MP3: LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 (Padded Cell Remix)

We already knew for a long time that the great 45:33 album by LCD Soundsystem would get a hugh remix treatment. Well, finally there are some official details available. There will be four 12″ records and a cd with all the remixes. The remix vinyls will be released at the end of september. Vinyl 1 will contain remixes by upcoming stars Runaway and Norwegian disco god Prins Thomas. The second disc will have remixes by Berlin’s techno specialist Riley Reinhold and Trus’me. For the 3th remix vinyl they asked the french producer Pilooski and the detroit legend Theo Parrish, and the 4th and last vinyl contains remixes by DC Recordings artist Padded Cell and DFA’s own Prince Language.

The 45:33 Remix package is not the only remix package coming out on DFA soon, there’s also a Juan Maclean’s Happy House remix package in the pipeline. Which will contain remixes by Lazaro Casanova, Paul Woolford, Matthew Dear and Château Flight.

Also look out for the second Still Going 12″ called Spaghetti Circus/ Untitled Love and for Modular artists Canyons, who will release their first 12″ on DFA ‘Fire Eyes’ at the end of August. Very promising stuff so keep an eye on these guys!

Another new artist on DFA, but certainly not a rookie, is Ray Mang. He will release a new 3-tracker which will contain ‘Look Into My Eyes’; Ray Mang’s own version of Tangerine Dream’s ‘Love On A Real Train’, a song where we were already looking forward to for a long time. Damn we love those trancey keys!

Last but not least there will also be a second single from Holy Ghost! ‘I Will Come Back’ And good news because it is available for free download here together with the DJ Mehdi & Classixx remixes. Later on there will be also a version by Newcleus. (Yes, the 80’s electrofunk-masters!)

Whenever you go listen to Theo Parrish dj, he plays this track only known as Mr Bumpman. It’s basically his own edit of a track by Jackie Beavers which came out in 1974 – and it’s unlikely he’ll ever release it.

So I had a go and messing about with the original (which is only about 3mins long. Used Ableton for the first time, only took me an hour and it’s rough – but I think it just about works. Lemme know what you think

ClassicCutz Part I – Playlist:

Bohannon – Dance
Cameo – It’s serious
Martin Circus – Disco Circus
Whatnauts – Almost There
Whatnauts – Hustlin’
Dexter Wansel – Disco Lights
Loleatta Holloway – Hit’n'Run
Roy Ayers – Chicago
Sun Palace – Rude Movements
Strafe – Set It Off
Jungle Wonz – Bird In A Guilded Cage
Lil Louis – The Story continues…
Tortured Soul – I Might Do Something Wrong
Larry Heard – Amnesia
Moodymann – Sweet Lovin’
Theo Parrish – Major Moments Of Instant Insanity

Duration: 0:53:52 / Filesize: 49,3 MB

Download: ClassicCutz Part I

Pendle Coven son una pareja de británicos que caen bien nada más verlos. Parece mentira que dos tipos que parecen salidos de la película “El Gran Lebowsky” estén en nómina de un sello tan cool como Modern Love. Pero así es la electrónica, o así ha sido siempre: nada es lo que parece y la imagen no cuenta –o no contaba– para hacer tal o cual música o para fichar por tal o cual sello. Por entonces, comentaban que ellos eran más de anti-Sónar y que se habían inventado una etiqueta, regressive house, para calificar su música y, de paso, demostrar al mundo su odio al progressive house que por entonces estaba en pleno auge en UK con todos esos valedores de John Digweed y Sasha, como James Holden, haciendo estragos en los charts de todo el mundo.

En todo ese tiempo, los muy perros siguieron con un volumen de publicaciones raquítico que ahora equilibran un poco con la salida al mercado de su primer álbum, “Self Assessment”. Está claro que van a lo suyo y que las exigencias del mercado se las pasan por Old Trafford. Con este álbum que les ha costado Dios y ayuda completar, los de Manchester no demuestran nada que no hubiéramos escuchado en sus maxis previos. En realidad, ellos lo que están es influenciados por el sonido de principios de los noventa, cuando en el norte de Inglaterra se hacía la mejor IDM del mundo sin necesidad de manga pastelera. A todas esta materia prima le añaden después unas capas de dub a lo Basic Channel, a los que adoran y piden, de paso, una referencia en el sello del mismo nombre que estos alemanes dirigieron hasta hace quince años atrás –no veas la guasa que le echan los dos–, con una fina y sutil película de artcore –la vertiente algo más arty del hardcore–, rebozado a veces con un traqueteo electro siempre acuático y a veces algo siniestro, seguramente en homenaje a Drexciya. Y todo con un armazón de talante minimalista que les ha ido muy bien para entrar en las maletas de DJs de techno serio y en otras de techno no tan ídem.

Nada nuevo bajo el sol, eso es cierto. Pero una cosa es tener la materia prima y otro cocinarlo con la pericia de un maestro artesano. Ellos de maestros tienen poco y de artesanos no sé yo, pero le echan pasión y sobre todo honestidad a la vida, con lo que ya tienen ganadas unas hectáreas en el cielo. Por lo menos no se han pasado descaradamente al dubstep estandarizado como algunos de los productores ingleses que, con el tiempo, han perdido la brújula de su creatividad para acabar apostando por la tendencia ganadora. Para enterarse algo mejor de qué van estos Pendle Coven recomiendo el podcast que los mancunianos realizaron en marzo para la serie de mixes de la web FACT Magazine, en el que incluían una remezcla en clave dub de Theo Parrish para Larry Heard, además de material de gente afín al sonido Pendle Coven como Minimal Man, G-Man y Claro Intelecto.

So… if you haven’t made it down to one of these yet then you have time to rectify it, but not long.  Legendary DJ and producer, Theo Parrish is doing a monthly residency at London’s finest…  Plastic People.  With Parrish spending the entire night behind the wheels of steel, the best advice I can give is to get there early before bar kick out crew, find a spot, close your eyes, and let the rest happen as it does.

Remaining dates: 6th June, 4th July, 1st August

Good video interview here:

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/video-archive/lectures/theo_parrish__3_cheers_for_the_d

And listen to this…

luister en/of download op SOUNDCLOUD

1. Fragment One (…And I Kept Hearing) – Kenneth Bager ft. Gisli
2. Township Funk (Mark Pritchard’s version Excursion) – dj Mujava
3. Illicity pt 1 – Extended Spirit
4. Birds of a feather – Mocky
5. Baby – Jay Dilla ft. Madlib & Guilty Simpson
6. Way down – N.A.S.A. ft RZA, Barbie Hatch & John Fruscianti)
7. Masengo – Mulatu Asteka & The Heliocentrics
8. The Sweetest – Nightmares On Wax
9. Cyclotron – Harmonic 313
10. Car Thief – Beastie Boys
11. When the sun goes down – Kero One ft. Ben Westbeech
12. Garactic mellow (Grooveman mix) – Cro Magnon
13. Nice up the function (remix) – Mr Scruff and Roots Manuva
14. Melt! – Flying lotus
15. Requiem pour un Comme – Serge Gainsbourg
16. The Rink – Theo Parrish
17. A little bit of feel Good (Dorian Concept Remix) – Jamie Lidell
18. Maybe so, maybe no – Mayer Hawthorne
19. Love me like this (nononsense dub) – Floating Points
20. Ride me high ( Joakim edit) – JJ Cale
21. Futuristic Abbeba – Naco Patrol
22. 45.0000 dollar (Guapa Pasea) – Gecko Turner
23. Hot hot summerday (ugly edits) – Theo Parrish
24. Honey (Seji mix) – Erykah Badu

Yello are a popular Swiss electronic band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are probably best known for this single “Oh Yeah”, which needs no introduction. It was one of the pioneering tunes that featured a rich mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals. The song became famous after being featured in the American movies Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Secret of My Success, and more recently Soul Plane. The song is the theme for Duffman on The Simpsons.

This is a bass heavy rework that always goes down well through a massive soundsystem.  A couple of years ago, when playing a big set, I would start a set with the same three tunes…this… then mix in Feldah and Koba- Is Klar (Pan-Pot remix) into Theo Parrish- Falling up (carl craig remix)!  Always worked well!!

Yello- Oh Yeah!!!(bodzin and huntemann rework)

1.) WARREN HARRIS – METROPOLITAN
2.) WARREN HARRIS – HEALING
3.) ANANDA PROJECT – EVERYTHING YOU ARE (ATLANTA RISING)
4.) RONI SIZE REPRAZENT – WATCHING WINDOWS (RONI SIZE MEETS NU YORICAN SOUL)
5.) BALANCO – METTI UNA CERA CENA (JAZZANOVA REMIX)
6.) ANANDA PROJECT – EL RIO DE LOS SUENOS
7.) CHASER – BLUE PLANET
8.) SENOR COCONUT – AROUND THE WORLD (EDIT)
9.) JAZZANOVA – LET ME SHOW YOU (HENRIK SCHWARTZ REMIX)
10.) NORMA JEAN BELL – COME INTO MY ROOM
11.) THEO PARRISH – CHEMISTRY
12.) NORMA JEAN BELL – DO YOU WANNA PARTY?

…or, if you’re not a big fan of Itunes….
http://www.beatplexity.com/mix/?id=3510

Two Helsinkian dudes I don’t know jammin’ it out with Theo parrish.

Taken from the excellent OOFT Music blog…

Since ‘Mr Scruff’ was just rocking dance floors around town , I though it might be worth sharing this amazing funk, soul, breaks, hip hop & house Essential Mix he did for BBC Radio earlier this year;

Download Here

Play Here

Track Listing:

Body and Soul – In The Beginning – National General
2. Leroy Hutson – Lucky Fellow – Curtom
3. Eddie Kendricks – Girl You Need a Change of Mind – Motown
4. Zed Bias and Jenna G – Let Me Change Your Mind – Development
5. Mr Scruff – Give Up To Get – Ninja Tuna
6. Mr Scruff – Rocking Chair – Ninja Tuna
7. Theo Parrish – Chemistry – Sound Signature
8. Arcadion – Ghostfeeder – DC
9. Ragga Twins – Wipe The Needle – Shut Up And Dance
10. Q Tip – Manwomanboogie – Motown
11. Mr Scruff with Skuff and Inja – Zen – Ninja Tuna
12. James Brown – Get On The Good Foot – Polydor
13. Mr Scruff and Quantic – Donkey Ride – Ninja Tuna
14. Mr Scruff – Fish – Ninja Tune
15. Mr Scruff – Get On Down – Ninja Tuna
16. Thomas Bangalter – On Da Rocks – Roule
17. Psychotropic – Only For The Headstrong – Raw Bass
18. Mr Scruff – Chicken In A Box – Ninja Tune
19. Mitsu The Beats – Kuro Fessional MC (instrumental mix) – Mukatsuku
20. Color Climax – Disque O Heights – Breakin Bread
21. Jazzanova – Boom Clicky Boom Klack (Mr Scruff mix) – Sonarkollektiv
22. Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime – Sire
23. Mr Scruff – Kalimba – Ninja Tuna
24. Sweet Salvation – Rock Steady – Elektra
25. Cosmic Force – Ghetto Down (Kenny Dope mix) – Truth and Soul
26. Mr Scruff – Sweetsmoke – Ninja Tuna
27. Benny Ill, Kode 9 and The Culprit – Fat Larrys Skank – Tempa
28. Nicolette – Dove Song – Shut Up And Dance
29. Channel One – Jungle Skank – Channel One

Download Here

Play Here