| Add Bedrock to the Fabric: John Digweed |
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| "With the dance genre out of the spotlight things have never been so healthy" |
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At this year’s Brit Awards (as I write this they’re still to happen) the Dance Award will be noticeable primarily by its absence. The powers that be have somewhat belatedly adopted the premise that given the ‘rise of rock’ in the last two years the dance genre no longer deserves its own category – replacing the dance gong with an award for best live act. Ironically the Brits board have made this move at a time when British dance music is producing some of its best new material in years – the so called death of dance music has been greatly exaggerated, what has died is the mainstream’s obsession with the genre.
“I like the fact the media have gone quiet on dance music,” DJ, producer, club promoter and label owner John Digweed admits. “They always promoted the really poor stuff anyway. You’d hear tracks getting played in high profile places and think ‘no, that shouldn’t be representing dance music’. With the genre out of the spotlight things have never been so healthy”.
And of course any decline in the popularity of dance music hasn’t affected Digweed’s career – he’d be hard pushed to fit in any more DJ gigs into his schedule even if he wanted to. Nevertheless he has found time to put together a mix for the twentieth edition of the Fabric CD franchise, the legendary compilation series coordinated by the London club of the same name.
“Keith [Reilly] from Fabric mentioned doing a mix album for them when I played at the club last June. I jumped at the chance – the line up of DJs who have been involved in this series is fantastic. It was a great opportunity. And a great chance to showcase the sounds I am playing at the moment”.
Given the pedigree of the Fabric compilations, how did Digweed go about the challenge of picking the fourteen tracks that feature on his album? “My starting point was to pick the tracks I’d play if I was doing a set at Fabric tonight. From that list you get a rough outline of the tracks. Then you listen to what you’ve got again and again. The tracks that are still doing it after all that stay in. Then you’re pretty much there – you just need to work out the running order”.
Digweed’s addition to the Fabric series lives up to the standard of its predecessors providing the deep lush sound you’d expect, taking in the likes of Slam, Infusion, Superpitcher and Bobby Peru along the way and demonstrating his ability to find the right track for the right moment. “I was coached very early on into how to programme a night,” he explains, “I was very lucky to be around some really talented DJs when I started doing support slots at clubs in Hastings.”
Hastings might not sound like DJ central, but that’s where a teenage John Digweed – enthused with the house music mix tapes he acquired from a friend’s flatmate – began his journey to the premier league of dance music. Once bitten by the house bug he used his entrepreneurial streak to overcome the obvious set backs being a teenager in Hastings can have on ambitions of DJ superstardom. “I started putting on my own nights, mainly because one of the clubs I had been working for was going in a different musical direction to what I was feeling at the time, so setting up my own night seemed to be a good way to be able to play the music I liked. Those nights went well, and we started securing bigger name DJs to headline. That meant I was on the same bill as some of the big guys. So I could send flyers from my own nights to London promoters and say, ‘look, I’m supporting Carl Cox’. And that helped me get some London gigs”.
Even though those initial London gigs soon prospered into headline sets and demand from clubs on the other side of the world as European, and especially British, dance music kicked off bigtime in the Southern hemisphere, Digweed maintained his entrpenerial edge, promoting bigger and bigger nights under his Bedrock banner, and eventually setting up his own record label.
“That seemed like a natural progression. People started giving me tapes saying ‘I’ve been making some music, could you listen to it and tell me which labels I should approach’. Eventually I started saying ‘give it to me, I’ll release it’, and things kinda went on from there”.
Throughout all of his enterprises that ability to pick the right track at the right time – to include on a mix album, sign to his label, or to simply play midway through a DJ set - has been at the centre of Digweed’s skills. If you’re not familiar with his style then his Fabric album, and the forthcoming classics mix he has put together for the Azuli label, are a good starting point before taking in one of his live five hour DJ sets. And if you are a first timer, what tips can the man himself offer? “Wear a crash helmet”.
Some John Digweed plugging:
John Digweed's 'Fabric 20 Mix' was released on 17 Jan 2005 on Fabric.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published feb 2005
