Music : Deep House, Progressive House, Tech House, Minimal Techno and Funky Techno
MUSIKA
Saturday November 8th
Featuring
DARREN EMERSON
CHRISTIAN SMITH
Derek Martin
Jamie Mckenzie
@ The Liquidroom, Victoria Street, Edinburgh
Time: 10pm – 3am
Musika are proud to present a rather special Liquidroom event featuring not 1 but 2 massive guests.
First up, Darren Emerson is one of the most influential figures in dance music, the former UNDERWORLD band member has been pushing the tech house since his early days of DJn and producing. His ground-breaking Global Underground compilations are legendary and his record label Underwater Records is one of the UKs leading dance labels.
Then we have Christian Smith. The Swedish born DJ/Producer has spent the last decade working relentlessly to bring his amalgamation of Techno to a global platform. After moving to New York in 1989, he soon met his now studio partner John Selway( in legendary New York record store Satellite Records), hence the Smith & Selway sound was born. There massive 2008 track, ‘Total Departure’ has been hailed as one of the tracks of the year in numerous dance magazines and the name Christian Smith continues to echo throughout the house/techno scene worldwide……
This one is set to be one of the Musika events of the year…..
Advanced Tickets available from Rippin Records / Tickets Scotland or online from musikanights.com
Darren Emerson
Darren Emerson is one of the most influential figures in dance music, an accolade that after a career spanning more than 17 years and counting…
Whilst growing up on a diet of hip-hop, break-dancing and later acid house, Darren bought his first set of decks at 14 and began Djing in clubs at the tender age of 16. Inspired by DJs such as Jazzy M, Darren would travel two hours on a train from his hometown in Essex to visit record stores across London for the latest vinyl. His first gig was at a club called Outers in Southend, playing early Chicago and Balearic house. He then progressed onto the Milk Bar and Limelight, djing alongside Johnny Walker and soon gaining recognition by being named as DJ of the month in both the Face and I-D magazine – soon the bookings came flooding in…
Darren chose to ditch his job as an established city trader and take on dance music full time. Recently turned 18, a friend introduced him to Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. Smith and Hyde had been in a band together for several years and needed a new injection from a DJ/Producer – in the form of Darren - and the rest is, well… Underworld.
Signed to Junior Boys Own - whom Darren was already producing for, the band released three albums: ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’, ‘Second Toughest in the Infant’ and ‘Beaucoup Fish’ - and have since sold over a million albums world-wide. Their hits include ‘Cowgirl’, ‘Rez’, ‘Dark and Long’ and of course, ‘Born Slippy’ – all classics. As well as their chart success, Underworld were renowned for their stunning and unpredictable live shows.
2000 saw Darren depart from the band and go at it solo. Although Underworld had been his passion for 10 years, it was time to branch out; expand his DJíng and work with producers he was meeting on his travels across the world.
The first collaboration saw Darren and DJ cohort Sasha produce the Ibiza classic - ‘Scorchio’ – a perfect accompaniment for Space on Sundays. Re-establishing himself as a tech-house heavyweight two Global Underground compilations soon followed; ‘Uruguay’ and ‘Singapore’ and the hugely successful Underwater Episodes 1 & 2. All proving that Darren was back to doing what he does best; showcasing a party-wise selection of deep, chunky house and funky techno cuts to perfection. Darren has also, since his first remix for Gat Décor’s ‘Passion’ on Effective Records in 1992 (Darren’s first label), remixed tracks for Fat Boy Slim, The Prodigy, Puff Daddy, Hatiras’ ‘Spaced Invader’ (Defected) Meeker and Gus Gus.
Darren started Underwater Records in 1994 - initially to release records for his friends, the label, since its inception has seen releases from Steve Mac, Mutiny, Meeker, Gus Gus, Pnau, Paul Jackson, Sharam Jey and Tim Deluxe – whose ‘Sirens/ We All Love Sax’ and ‘It Just Won’t Do’ managed to put Underwater firmly in place on the independent label spectrum. In 2003 Underwater was voted ‘label of the year’ by DJ mag and went from strength to strength releasing albums and singles from its ever growing and increasingly varied roster of artists.
Darren continues his hugely successful Underwater residency at London’s The End, which is now in its 7th year. The residency began in February 2001 and has since seen the likes of Fatboy Slim, Josh Wink, Carl Craig, Tim Deluxe, D. Ramirez and Yousef alongside up and coming talent like Serge Santiago and Deepgroove.
Having spent most of 2007 touring the globe as one of the world's most in demand DJ's, Darren has recently returned to the studio which is very exciting news indeed. In 2008 Darren is expecting to release some tasty new club tracks to serve as pre-appetizer to his eagerly awaited solo album. Darren has also put together a production team and has been working on material for other acts, which should see the light of day summer 2008.
Darren continues his unrelenting schedule of Djing around the globe - at some point he sleeps.
www.darrenemerson.com / www.myspace.com/dazemerson
Christian Smith
Born in Stockholm, the DJ/producer has spent the last decade working relentlessly to bring his amalgamation of funky house and tribal techno to a global platform. Although Swedish by birth,
Christian spent much of his youth in Frankfurt, Germany where his father was stationed as a pilot, and this turn fate played an unexpected role in determining his musical tastes.
It was the early eighties and the music at the time was early electro, soul, funk and late disco music. Groups like The SOS Band, Newcleus, funk bands like Cameo and tracks like Fade To Grey by Visage had a huge influence on Christian. Although his older brother and sister would bring home the dj mix tapes from the big clubs, with music from the pre house days. This is what Christian turned on to.
By the time Christian had turned fourteen, he looked old enough to get into the clubs himself and became, by his own admission, "a manic train spotter." Frequenting Sven Vaths Dorian Grey residency, this club had a big effect on Christian. He went to the clubs for the music and to check out the DJ's.
If Dorian Grey was Smiths introduction to the realms of electronic music, then it would be his experiences in another of dance music's capital cities that would help mould and solidify Christians deeply entrenched love for club music.
Moving to New York in 1989, Christian discovered that, running parallel to its high profile house community, the city that never sleeps also had a thriving techno scene. All the early techno clubs had started in New York, with Joey Beltram at The Limelight and soon afterwards Jeff Mills.
After finishing high school in 1992, Christian moved to Washington DC to study international business at university and, in his spare time started DJing. He never dreamt DJing would become his career. Smith nonetheless started playing at big raves in Washington and Baltimore, spinning to audiences of between 500 and 3,000 people. Lets not forget, this was the early nineties, and his choice of music was somewhat different to his trademark funky techno and house fusion, as it was the hard trance and techno days. He was playing tracks on labels like Harthouse, R&S and Music Man.
Unsurprisingly, given the nature of dance music's loosely defined early nineties status, Smiths first record Overdose as Neuromancer, came out on in 1992 on a label called Music Now, only for the imprint to release a follow up record by none other than BTs Embrace The Future. Back then Christian was already making house infused techno, probably less structured and not as well produced as nowadays.
Indeed, Christians earliest DJing experiences also played a definitive role in his future work, as he first met regular collaborator John Selway in 1993. Selway, who was playing the same rave circuit as Christian at this time was also working in New Yorks renowned Satellite Records store, the place where Smith, who was still based in Washington, would order his tunes from. John and Christian connected musically and therefore decided to hook up and make some tracks and the Smith and Selway sound was born.
In 1994, Christian set up the Tronic label, and, despite releasing three well-received records, put the label on hold until three years later, in 1997. Christian put the label on hold, as he was still a full time university student in Washington. By '97 he felt really inspired by DJing and the music that this prompted him to get working seriously with his label TRONIC. However, on completing his studies, Christian started to go to New York more frequently to collaborate with John Selway. Subsequently putting out collaborative EPs on Dave Angels Rotation label and Primate, Smiths own 1997 release, Goldrush the fourth release on Tronic also caused a serious reaction, this was the point everything took off. Tronic became a popular label and Goldrush got licensed all over the place. It was a really hard disco house tune that DJs like Sneak picked up on and it was also the first time a lot of people reacted to one of his releases. DJs like Carl Cox and Dave Angel, people who were my idols in the early days really supported it. It did so well that every month Christian had to press up more copies!
Back in Stockholm, Smith noticed that the demand for his tightly mixed, three decks DJing had increased and was booked to play all over Europe and beyond. In an interesting parallel development to Christians heightened profile, the latter part of the nineties saw Swedish producers like Adam Beyer, Joel Mull and Cari Lekebusch also attain an international following. From 1997 to 1999, the Swedish sound was really hyped. Christian comes from a different background, from a funk and soul background. A point Christian feels strongly about, and is quick to detach himself from any notions of purism. Adamant that he was listening to house before techno, he also points out that, way back in 1994, when he set up Tronic, he encountered some resistance from his distributors because he wanted to release material that was somewhere in between house and techno. The distributors advised to produce/release house or techno as it would sell better, but something in between wasn’t going to work," Christian feels that history has proved him right. As much as Christian dislikes the term, Tronic was one of the first tech-house labels, music that house and techno DJs could play; Christian calls his style housey techno!
Despite his newfound success, Christian didn't rest on his laurels, and, for rest of the nineties, he focused on DJing, producing and remixing as much as possible. Releasing more EPs on Tronic, Intec and Primevil, the Swedish DJ says that though one of his releases, Vanguard caught the attention and support of BBC Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong, he had to keep working as hard as ever. The really big crossover records like Move!, on Intec and the releases on labels like Rotation and Intec opened up his work to a lot of people.
While there's no doubt that Christians distinctive work injected a much-needed sense of funk back into techno, he made it accessible to a wider audience. His DJing is of an exceptionally high standard; Smiths willingness to travel to literally every country in the globe has been another determining factor in his ascendance.
Christian very much enjoys Asia and Eastern Europe as his favorite new places to play in. On a recent South East Asia tour, successful dates were achieved in South Korea, Kuala Lumpur and Ministry Of Sound in Bangkok. Japan is a place were Christian has a large following due to the rocking sets at Womb in Tokyo.
While Smiths releases ensured his bookings continued to soar, the Swedish DJ/producer identifies the release of his first major mix CD, Tronic Treatment as another turning point in his career. Weighing in at twenty eight tracks and recorded live in Australia on three decks, the smooth mix moves from funky house through to dubby, rolling tech-house, into pulsating techno. In fact, as things get faster, his selection becomes more varied, with the brooding electro of Umeks Zeta Reticula, the dark bass powered tones of Adam Beyers Remainings and Deetrons A1 before ending with the deep, Detroit stylings of James Ruskins mix of Metier. It’s one of the most compelling, hand raising, foot stamping interpretations of modern house and techno of recent years, and its no surprise that Christians profile was raised by the mix. His sense of diversity and unwillingness to adhere to one dimension is an ethic Christian believes is inherent in the worlds finest DJs. Christian was most inspired by Carl Cox and Laurent Garnier. Although both DJ’s are quite different what Christian saw in Carl was the ability to mix continuously between three turntables, and create that musical fusion.