Docu/Interviews
Crate Diggers Delves Inside J Dilla's Record Collection - Fuse
Fuse is proud to present a special edition of Crate Diggers , the series delving into the record collections of artists we love. In this edition, Talib Kweli , J. Rocc , DJ Spinna and others discuss the influence, work and legacy of revered producer J Dilla , whose productions have appeared on tracks by Busta Rhymes , Common , Erykah Badu , Janet Jackson and A Tribe Called Quest , among his influential solo work. The episode, which also features Dilla's brother, rapper Illa J, and mother Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey, also explores, for the first time, a portion of Dilla's vaunted record collection, with J. Rocc, DJ Spinna and rappers Frank Nitt and Grap Luva explaining each record's significance and history. Check out the mini-doc above for much more.
Jeff Mills AKA The Wizard: “I don’t expect it to ever truly end. Ever.” | Marcus Barnes | Music Journalist and Editor
Jeff Mills is a musician who has been at the forefront of techno music for over two decades now, having been involved with the genre since its infancy, and working as a DJ way before the music even existed. Highly regarded thanks to his forward-thinking approach to music, soundtracking the future in his own inimitable way, Jeff Mills is a highly regarded proponent of high-quality, innovative music and live performances. This year his record label, Axis, celebrates its 20th anniversary and to coincide with the anniversary he has compiled a huge book documenting some of the visual projects that have released in conjunction with the label. I was very fortunate to be able to speak to Jeff about his story so far, here’s the full version of the interview…
It may be us, but television, a fairly conservative medium, seems to finally gotten onboard the DJ thing after years of avoiding it. As soon as the names Simon and Cowell , however, were mentioned in the same breath as DJ'ing, it was a signal that there would be loads TV DJ lemmings to follow. First, there was the Super Bowl - a beastly spectacle of excess passing itself of as an All-American holiday, Madonna looking like the Crypt Keeper of the cable television show Tales From The Crypt dining on the guts of virgin children, and those goons LMFAO rocking the unplugged turntables dragging down M.I.A 's credibility with their " tight skills ". Then there was the Grammys disaster last weekend that had semi-credible artists like Deadmau5 performing with tired, corporate rock has-beens like Dave Grohl and David Guetta 's ongoing (bad) Marcel-Marceau-on-the-decks fakery.
The Rise of the fake DJ
Long before Berlin’s nightlife narrative was dominated by Berghain, Bar 25 or Watergate, there was Tresor, a bunker in the city center with a killer sound system pumping out the most uncompromising electronic music known to man or woman. The club opened during the aftermath of the Wall coming down, as a previously divided city reunified and east met west in a post-communist, ecstasy-fueled embrace. Unlike the explosion of acid house a few years earlier in London or Manchester however, tie dye T-shirt and kicker-clad crowds did not get under a groove to the sound of Chicago trax and Woodentops B-sides. Instead, Tresor, situated at the societal intersection of Eastern Bloc bleakness and the giddy excitement of a new world disorder, and, informed by the industrial and post-punk heritage of Berlin, resonated to the sound of new music from Detroit, a relentless, futuristic and inspirational style called techno.
Tresor Reflects On 20 Years
Once upon a time there was techno : an interview with Dj Skurge from Underground Resistance | Sparse
The main surprise from the last GéNéRiQ festival was obvisouly the coming of the legendary producers from Underground Resistance . UR is a label but also the name for an impressive group of producers and djs, all originating from Detroit such as Mike Banks, Jeff Mills and Robert Hood. They truly shaped the history of techno in the 90′s in the United States. Ambassadors of a futuristic aesthetic of the techno sound where everything was (and still is) played live on machines, they really transform their music into a real “propaganda” tool which enables them to spread their activists views. After seeing their brilliant – though very dark – live at the Consortium , we quietly waited for them in their hotel lobby with our colleagues from Radio Dijon Campus, until 2 am.