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Features
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An Englishmen, a Greek and a Mexican walk into a club…
Reported by taktikal london
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Submitted 05-10-05 18:32
No fortunately it’s not the start if some classic, politically incorrect, multicultural joke. No it’s not the annual summit for take away shop owners on Shoreditch High Street. Nor is it the modern day, politically correct re-making of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It’s a look forward to Friday 14th October at the Fridge.
At the beginning of the year Basic decided enough was enough. Tired and disillusioned by the same events booking the same line ups week in/week out and recycling the same hot air time and again… Basic decided to go it alone. They rewrote their Basic mantra with the aim of bringing a blast of innovative and fresh thinking air into a stagnant scene. Combining ‘in-form’ artists with DJs and live acts rarely scene on the London stage, they frequently boast world exclusives, London exclusives & London debut performances in an aim to reignite the traditional excitement surrounding a hard dance event.
This edition of Basic is no exception. Behind the focus of the party [The Fausto Showcase] the promoters have built a line up based on quality and innovation. Yes there are some familiar faces in the line up, but alongside them are DJs and live acts that you won’t see in your average weekend in London. Three of these figures are The Mexican, Seventh Heaven & El Greko… OK El Greko is a familiar face but it made the title more catchy than saying ‘2 English blokes walked into a pub’!
THE MEXICAN
A pancho wearing, 6 shooter carrying, cactus eating hombre?! OR a bloke from Surrey who plays everywhere from London to Helsinki, warms up for Proteus, counts a huge release on Nukleuz as one of his lesser achievements and is one of the UK’s most prominent Freeform producers? You decide!!!
The Mexican: see what happens when you suck on those cactus bushes!
Lets just clear one ironic thing up from the start. You’re not actually Mexican but as English as you can get. Why do you DJ under your alias ‘The Mexican’?
El Mexicano: Why not?!! Many people have been surprised when I meet them for the first time that I don’t have a foreign accent! I guess they expect me to turn up wearing a pancho and holding a cactus! Seriously though, I have a truly ridiculous number of nick-names [Note from Editor: so many we actually could fit them in, we like ‘Tree Beard’ the most though] and The Mexican comes from one of them. When I started writing house, trance, etc. I needed a new pseudonym and it just seemed to be the perfect choice. The closest I’ve ever been to actually being a Mexican is eating at a couple of restaurants!
Although people may only be familiar with your legendary release on Nukleuz ‘Spectrum’, you’re heavily involved with multiple genres within the dance music family. Can you tell us a bit about these?
El Mexicano:I’ve written house, hard house, hard trance, trance, breakbeat, freeform and acid techno over the years. Diversity is more interesting for me, hence why I don’t stick to just one or two styles. Since 1998, I’ve ran and co-ran a number of labels including Digital Beats, Ascendant Heights, Digital Beatz, Electronic, Electrolysis, Club Concrete, Electroplates, Electronic Phusion, Dusk Till Dawn and Electronica Exposed which have released most of these styles of music. I’ve also recorded on other labels, the most high profile being the Nukleuz Purple release as you said with Harry Diamond, but I’ve also had releases on Interflow Sounds, British Underground Dance, Alpha Projects, Proactive, Omerta Tracks, Elation, Blizzard Tracks, Camel, Fidget Hard, Bonkerz and Nu Energy. Think that’s it! It’s getting close to 100 releases now that I’ve been involved with.
The main focus though is the Electronica Exposed labels I run. Electronic focuses on freeform and has been the launch pad for producers such as Carbon Based, Alek Száhala, Pain On Creation, Re-form and AC Slater. Electroplates and Electronic Phusion are sub-labels of Electronic and are further outlets for more music from these guys. Club Concrete is a hard house label I co-run with James Xavier on behalf of the Sunday after party. We’ve had tracks licensed to Euphoria albums and featured artists such as RFO, James Xavier, George E and myself. Electrolysis is a hard trance label that I’m restarting shortly and focuses on my own productions and also the slower Carbon Based material. Finally, Dusk Till Dawn is a new label I’m label managing and is set to showcase upfront vocal hardcore from hot new act Petrol Heads, fresh off a recent remix for Riot!
Having been a high profile producer in the Freeform world, you have travelled to the likes of Finland to play along side Proteus & Co. Was that an experience?
El Mexicano:Finland is an absolutely amazing country and I’ve got many friends there. I first went over in July 2003 and played at Proteus’ event Säde in Helsinki, which was an incredible experience! I remember a couple of guys said to me “Don’t worry if you’re too drunk and do some sloppy mixes, the crowd won’t mind too much as they’re used to foreign DJs being wasted!” Firstly, I thought how pissed do I like right now! and secondly I thought I better keep an eye on how many drinks I was being fed as I knew they wanted me to get wasted! It was all good though in the end as I really enjoyed playing my set and the adrenaline kicked in proper when 800 or so people were going crazy to the tunes!
Since then, I’ve been over twice. Once for my friend DJ Rx’s Movement party, just to have a good laugh with the guys for a weekend and secondly, I played on the Finrg Tour in Lahti, which was awesome! I’m very proud to be involved with the Finns first and foremost because they are awesome people and also because I’ve had the pleasure of releasing a lot of the Finnish ‘Finrg’ hard dance music by the likes of Carbon Based, Alek Száhala, Pain On Creation, Re-form across the various labels. Can’t wait to head back over there!
It’s your Fridge debut at the Basic Fausto showcase. What do you know of the Fridge and what can we expect from you?
El Mexicano:I’ve been to the Fridge on a number of occasions, mainly to see Proteus and Alek Száhala play at Logic, and it’s one of my favourite venues to go clubbing in London. It will be my first time Djing there though, which should be a really great experience! My set will focus on some of my own hard trance productions on Electrolysis and Club Concrete, along with some slower Finrg tracks from Carbon Based and garnished with some hot upfront business from other labels and producers. I’ll be bringing bangingness to one and all!
Complete the following line: ‘An Englishmen, a Greek and a Mexican [who is really English as well] walk into a club….’
El Mexicano:AND ROCK THE FUCK OUT OF IT! [Editor’s Note: it lost something in the translation from Mexican to English, clearly].
THE GREEK
[At this point we couldn’t think of any Greek cultural stereotypes that we could take advantage of… well to be totally honest we could but to be fair El Greko is quite a big bloke with more muscles than the English Channel… so we thought better to leave it and say a few complimentary words instead!] El Greko exploded onto the hard dance scene after winning the Frantic & Harderfaster DJ competition at the former Camden Palace. Getting the maximum out of the mixer and the crowd with a blend of tight mixing, scratching and chopping he is one now one of London’s favourite sons. We present to you Greece’s finest hard dance export: El Greko!
El Greko: "...honestly the fish was this big"
As The Mexican has already tried to pull the wool over our eyes can we just clarify… you are actually Greek aren’t you… not Spanish or anything like that?
El Greko:Yes that’s right. No wool pulling here, I am Greek originally, but I’ve lived most of my life in the UK. My DJ name El Greko comes from Spanish meaning “The Greek” but that’s just a nickname coined by a Spanish friend of mine years ago and I kept it as my DJ name.
You’re now a familiar face in the London hard dance scene. Not many people realise but this is your second DJ life. In a former one you were a house DJ that had high profile gigs such as Ministry of Sound Main Room under their belt. Fill us in on how this all came about?
El Greko:I originally started DJ-ing in 1989 and was heavily involved with the original rave era. The music I played back then varied from house all the way through to jungle (DnB) and all sorts in between. When I first started playing out it seemed that everywhere I played I would get bookings for more gigs and within a year I was playing some very high profile gigs. I played from muddy fields with illegal raves all the way through to clubs like the original MOS (when it still had all the scaffolding for you old skoolers ).
In fact I didn’t get the chance to play the main room at the Ministry back then, although it was one of my goals I never achieved it… until years later that is!
In 1997 after a successful run at Djing I decided to call it a day, I was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle work and Djing and had a good career at the time which I decided to stick with and packed up my decks.
5 years later I played at a friend’s party which was literally the first time I’d touched any decks since my “retirement” and was instantly hooked again. I unpacked my decks and started spinning again. Shortly after that I won the Frantic/Harderfaster DJ competition and it all went mad again from there.
I finally got my MoS main stage debut on New Year’s Day 2004 when I played the main room for Frantic’s NYD party, following on from Eddie Halliwell. That was an amazing day which I’ll never forget.
Cracking under pressure, El Greko secretly reveals the true size of that infamous fish
As Basic Resident you have seen the party grow from humble roots to taking on London’s most legendary venue. How does it now feel to be playing host to one of the ‘Big Guns’ of the International scene: Fausto?
El Greko:Basic has been an amazing ride, from a tiny little bar in the West End to the Fridge, all within a year. I think the reason for such a meteoric rise has been the no nonsense attitude towards the music policy and the constant strive to bring fresh DJs, many of whom the London regulars have never heard before. This combination has resulted in clubbers having a very unique experience and hearing music which goes against the hard dance norm.
Fausto is a perfect example of Basic’s music policy. Although many people in the UK may not have heard of him (unless they were pendragon regulars back in the day) the man is a god in his home country (Holland) and with residencies at Dance Valley, HQ and Impulz his pedigree is impeccable. I’m sure he will blow everyone’s socks off when they see him in action. I’m even excited myself, and it takes a lot to get me excited about a DJ these days.
You’re adding the finishing touches to your debut production masterpiece at the moment. Care to tell us some more details about it and when we can expect to hear it in the clubs?
El Greko:I have recently been very keen to get some productions under my belt, but when you’re working 60-70 hour weeks finding the time can be very difficult. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) I lost my job a few months back, and so finally I have the time to get stuck in and get some tunes out.
I’m currently working on a couple of tunes which are sounding very fresh. I’m very aware of the fact that I don’t want my music to sound like the hard dance norm (hard dance by numbers to quote Lee Haslam) so have been working with various producers from outside the hard dance scene to try to get some influences from other genres into the mix.
I’m very satisfied with how things are going but I’m in no rush to get anything out there until I’m 100% happy with it. Even if I only release a few tunes a year that will be fine by me. All I can say is when I’m ready to play them out the place to hear all my tunes debut will be at Basic, so keep your ears peeled.
Complete the following sentence: ‘An Englishmen, a Greek and a Mexican walk into a club...’
El Greko:An Englishman a Greek, a Mexican… an Irishman, a Polish man, 2 lesbians, 4 lawyers, 5 politicians, Santa Clause, a blonde, an Australian and a Chihuahua walk into a club, they go up to the bar... the bartender says: "What is this? Some kind of joke?!"
Yeah yeah I know……I’ll get me coat!
THE ENGLISHMAN
After stumbling our way through the diverse national and cultural backgrounds of our previous 2 guests, we breathe a sigh of relief to find out that Seventh Heaven is infact English, with a very English name and from a VERY English place. Aside from that he happens to be tipped to be one of the biggest and most innovative producers trance has seen in many years. Having recently completed an album of his own work which is described by leading players as ‘unthinkably brilliant’ he now prepares to bring his live PA to the biggest stage yet at Basic.
Seventh Heaven: Constantine springs to mind.....
Are you actually English? Not Greek or Spanish or Mexican or Australian??
Seventh Heaven:: I’m as English as you can get! I’ve been living in London now for about 4 years, but am originally from Blackpool. So my accent is a bit messed up now… neither Northern or Southern!
The Seventh Heaven Live PA is one of the centre pieces at the October edition. Is this the first time you’ll have performed the Live P.A.?
Seventh Heaven::Nope, it will actually be the third time I’ve performed live. I did one for No Limits last year and one for Divine at Easter. Both went down an absolute storm and now getting to strut my stuff on the main stage of The Fridge is going to be a pleasure!
The question of how ‘live’ P.A.’s is rearing its head again recently. How live is the Seventh Heaven P.A.?
Seventh Heaven::Well for starters everything for this P.A. is complete new material. I’ve been hard at work every evening and weekend getting new tracks written in time for it, so performing all these tracks live out of the equipment is going to be an amazing buzz as they won’t have been even tried out in a club before. The main feature for me in my live p.a. though is going to be David Hughes singing live over ‘Tear Drops’. I wrote the track a couple of months back and really wanted a vocal on it, and after hearing a few bits of David’s work (including Jamie P vs Aurelius ft David Hughes — ‘Sorrow’, which has been hammered on Radio 1) I knew he’d do great job if I got him on the case. David wrote the vocals for ‘Tear Drops’ and he’s done a pretty fine job at it as well.
Your live PA rig is going to be on the same stage as one of the most enthusiastic and animated DJs in the world at Basic. Are you not at all concerned that Fausto may well stomp all over your valuable equipment in his trade mark stage rampages?
Seventh Heaven::Well that’s if I haven’t stomped over the equipment myself… I’m sure I’ll be jumping around on the stage just as much. I’ve got a few pretty heavy remixes to end my performance with, so I’ll have to make sure I don’t get carried away !
Complete the following sentence: ‘An Englishmen, a Greek and a Mexican walk into a club…’
Seventh Heaven::
‘Ouch’.
'Estoy en dolor.'
'Åßìáé óôïí <eth>üíï.'
Thanks to The Mexican, El Greko & Seventh Heaven for their time and tolerance.
[Strategic interview deployment by those increasingly unhinged people at taktikal london]
Photos coutesy of www.ben-thomas.com, Amy & Anders, Hoki & some bloke in Finland called Jouni Vaananen.
BASIC Presents :: FAUSTO Showcase
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On:
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Friday 14th October 2005
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At:
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The Fridge [map]
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From:
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10pm - 6am
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Cost:
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Advanced Tickets £12 + bf / M.O.T.D
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Website:
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www.basicuk.com
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Ticket Info:
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WWW.TICKETWEB.CO.UK
08700 600 100
MAD RECORDS
0207 439 0707
WWW.E-LISTLONDON.COM
0790 880 9077
CYBERDOG CAMDEN
0207 482 2842
MORE INFO:
INFO@HABITTZINC.COM
07906091769
GUEST LISTS:
GUESTLIST@HABITTZINC.COM
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Buy Online:
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Click here to buy tickets
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Holland. A Dance Music Paradise.
Just across the water from us is a place where a single DJ can sell out a football stadium concert quicker than U2. A place where Dance Music is king and Pop music is
forced to skulk in its shadow. A place where a DJ named Fausto is bigger than Westlife, Robbie Williams & Craig David combined.
Fausto Talone aka DJ Fausto is virtually a household name in the hedonistic capital of the world. Born of the same nationality of the likes of Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and many more he has risen to the lofty heights of the World Scene with a blend of unique charisma, outright enthusiasm and above all a pair of the most skilled mixing hands in the business.
Basic is once again proud to bring you another Exclusive DJ performance. For the very first time in 2005, the legendary Dance Valley, Impulz & HQ Resident will be travelling to London to perform an exclusive 2 hour showcase of Past, Present & Future international Hard Dance mayhem. With an eclectic gathering of UK supporting artists, the man himself will be taking over The Fridge for one night only. If you’re looking for that spark to re-ignite your passion for Hard Dance, and for that something that extra bit special....then you simply cannot afford to miss this extravaganza.
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Yes yes! Rinse out the 1s and 2s with the bad boys of breaks! Tom Real does Steelo – strictly!
Young gifted male seeks like minded people for fun, frolics and wild nights of debauchery!
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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