Detroit’s Last Vinyl Pressing Plant

Guest Interview/OTAM Mix 17: Matthew Styles – ‘Live At Beach Club Beach′

This October’s edition of the ‘Redevice invites…’ clubnight at Studio 80 in Amsterdam, is an epic roundup of the best artists from its international stable of affiliate producers, one of which is the very talented Matthew Styles.
From his residencies at the legendary Crosstown Rebels ‘Slash & Burn’ parties and Berlin’s WMF to his now monthly appearances at Berlin’s Panorama Bar and his regular features at Fabric in the U.K., his solid appreciation of what the dance-floor needs, and with an acute sense of taste, Matthew easily transgresses all house music regardless of trends.
Besides treatin’ ya to a two-and-a-half hour mix of the man, here’s an interview we did with him, which outlines his musical roots & future plans.

Be sure to pass by on the 10th of October if you’re in the Amsterdam area!

Your productions seem to be infused with classic Detroit techno, but also seem to be infected by an old-school funk flow. Could you tell us a little bit about your musical roots and your biggest influences?

When I was growing up my father was DJing in clubs and he was close with Tony, the founder of DMC. DMC was like a club for DJ’s which was very popular in the 80’s. They were famous for their DJ Only remix compilations and they also started the magazine Mixmag for DJ’s…
I remember reading these magazines a lot, and another one called something like Jocks [which became DJ magazine I think].
It was before the acid house thing. I remember people like Steve Silk Hurley, Colonel Abrahams, Shalamar, Pebbles, The Jets and stuff like that being popular. I was encouraged to use the turntables and mixer we had at home once I was old enough to be responsible for not scratching the records…
DJ friends of my dad taught me some tricks and gave me some insights, and my interest took off from there really…
Later on in the early 90’s Tony Humphries was a big influence on me, and his mix of upfront vocal style & deep techno was something very inspiring. That influence keeps me pretty open minded about what music can move a floor rhythmically and emotionally…

What have you been working on recently?

I have been doing some remixes, one for a project of Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves and Hector called ‘The Royal We’,
and also I just did a remix for Radio Slave under the Worst Case Scenario moniker I have with Ed Cartwright — which was a big honour to do.

You originate from England, and you’re currently living in Berlin. Did the move to Germany have a big influence on the way you produce and DJ nowadays?

I think the German influence was already strong before I moved here. I was coming for 7 or 8 years, to party and also to play. I had a lot of good connections here, so to move was the final logical step. It’s a slightly different approach to partying and DJ-ing: everything last’s for much longer, and I really appreciate the attitude towards music here…
I am very lucky to have been playing at the Panorama Bar so much since I have been here, and because of that I really tried to focus on what I could bring to the table in a city so full of great DJ’s. I really try to represent my influences as best as possible in terms of Dj-ing and production.

What are you up to next?

I will finish new EP’s under my own name, as mostly this year has been more about the other projects I have like the Worst Case Scenario one, also eMT, which I do with Tobi Neumann, and finally Taxi Funk, which is a project I am working on with Jorge Gonzales from Los Updates…

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 17: Matthew Styles – ‘Live At Beach Club Beach′

OTAM Mix 16: Frodo – ‘Incredible Detour’

For this mix I took a classical rooted but forward-looking approach to prototypical house and techno, first by greatly expanding its scope with timeless sounding gems, but mostly by significantly championing submerged underground sounds, consisting of dubby synthesizer melodies and funk-laden percussive rhythms. Enjoy.

Tracklist:
01. John Tejada – ‘The Locus Of Points’
02. Mr. Barth – ‘Above The Skyline’
03. Lowtec – ‘Please Go Away’
04. Marc Romboy – ‘The Awakening’
05. Frankie Knuckles – ‘Baby Wants To Ride’
06. The Persuader – ‘A1 Untitled’
07. Rick Wade – ‘Ricky’s Groove’
08. Brommage Dub – ‘Brommage Dub’
09. Gadi Mizrahi – ‘I’ll Set Your House’
10. Jesper Dahlback & Jean-Louis Huhta – ‘Midnight Express Pt. 1′
11. Kassem Mosse – ‘Untitled A1′
12. Jesper Dahlback – ‘The Lonesome Dub’
13. Isolee – ‘Albacares’
14. Kerri Chandler – ‘Keep Me Inside’
15. Delano Smith – ‘I Feel This’
16. Verdict – ‘People At Night [Portable Remix]‘
17. Iz & Diz – ‘Happy [Strip Mix]‘
18. Jus-Ed – ‘Wonderment’
19. Peaches And Prunes – ‘Welcome To The Club [Ron Hardy Re-Edit]‘

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 16: Frodo – ‘Incredible Detour’

Paris Is Burning

All i can say is, watch it if you haven’t already…

It’s Freakin’ Time

Came across some tasty must-have mixes by Chicago’s über-talented disco master DJ Rahaan. Grab ‘m while you can, lucky bitches.

Right click to save…
Rahaan – ‘Dancin If You Feel Like’
Rahaan – ‘Dance Circus’

OTAM Mix 15: Seth Troxler – ‘Keepin Whores Of The Streets’

Saturday the 15th of August 2009 the ‘Redevice invites…’ clubnights and the www.redevice.com netlabel are joining forces once again to bring you crowd-pleasing international allure, combined with a new freely downloadable internet release of the highest order. This time around our regular bi-monthly sonic crime-scene, the Studio 80 venue in Amsterdam, will host dapper escapades into digital worlds by headliner Seth Troxler. Here’s a set by Seth to get ya’ll in the mood. Capable stuff. Enjoy.

Right click to save…
OTAM Mix 15: Seth Troxler – ‘Keepin Whores Of The Streets’

Travellin’ Rhodes

Difficult Listening

Now here’s one that shaped my musical palette in a big way: Microstoria is a side project of Oval’s Markus Popp and Jan St. Werner of Mouse on Mars. Combining Oval’s fetish for CD scarification with MoM’s odd instrumentation and breezy, subtlely inchoate arrangements, Popp and St. Werner seem odd bedfellows at first, but the subtle parallels in compositional concern become clearer as the tracks roll on.

Right click to save…
Microstoria – ‘Performal’

Oddball Machines

Grasping further into the outer boundaries of recent modern avant-garde electronics, here is Ø, the solo identity of Mika Vainio of Finnish techno duo Pan Sonic, who’s work tends more toward the ambient and experimental, wedding sparse machine noises with shifting rhythms, stubbornly unmusical sonic textures, and assorted channel separation weirdness.
The increasing popularity of Pan Sonic has meant Vainio’s giving less and less time to his Ø work, but he did manage to release some of his most accomplished solo material in 1996, on his third Sähkö full-length Olento, which featured the most effective fusion of Pan Sonic’s austere minimalism with less immediate, more challenging structures.

Right click to save…
Ø – ‘Ilta’

Space Is The Place

Reblog from Moodmat