EDC NY After-Party | DIXON/ Nikola Baytala at Output and Fahad Haider/ Steven Letigre/ Saqib Malik in The Panther Room

When Dixon entered the Berlin club circuit in the early 90's, he established his name on the strength of djing. Back then, confidence or experience based on putting out mixes on the Internet did not matter as much as it does now. You had to do your practice, of course, but when your thing was good and tight enough to take it to the clubs, there were opportunities to do so. But those opportunities meant responsibilities. A residency did not mean playing the same club every once in a while, it meant playing the same club every week. The crowd did not consist of people that wander in and out of club nights and its guest djs as the weekly hype commanded them, it consisted of people which headed straight to a certain club night because they were sure its resident dj would deliver the goods this week as he did last week, and the next weeks to come. As long as that happened, there was no need to move on. You made your decision to return out of good experience and you stuck to it as long as it lasted.
In such a context, there is no way to learn quicker how to become a very good dj than by making people dance throughout a set that lasts the whole night, on a very regular basis. If you can't hold the crowd for hours then, you fall through. It is learning by doing, the hard way. Dixon did not only learn very quickly, he loved every moment of it. Starting out low, slow, unfolding the flow, working towards a peak, then working towards another, turning up, turning down, to find the exact point from which to swing moods, to find the perfect way to end what should be a lasting experience. Once you passed your exams in the nightclub school of that era with distinction, you can rely on it forevermore, and Dixon surely did. His residencies then and now are obviously schooled on the stylistic and technical versatility and skills, attitude, stamina and experience based on countless nights honing ways to direct a loyal crowd on the dance floor at will. Hours spent to find and select the right music to achieve the levels of intensity necessary, hours spent to plan the imminent night's structure and proceedings, and then hours spent putting it into action. Dixon was always more than happy to spend this much time on his nights, because he takes his profession seriously. It is exactly what matters most to him. He has always been and he always will be a dj first. This is the mission he embarked on, no end in sight.


DJ Nikola Baytala has become a crucial component of the minimal-techno collective known as Kontrol. But don't typecast him as a one-dimensional droid with a M-nus Records logo tattoo. He's been exploring the upper echelons of the techno/house continuum since the early '90s (including the last 10 years at The Top, a weekly event hosted by S.W.A.T., aka Special Weapons and Tactics), gaining a reputation as a DJ's DJ, with acclaim coming from house-music legends like Derrick Carter and Doc Martin. Moreover, Baytala's list of musical influences and loves is vast, eclectic, and impeccable. The following roll call just scratches the surface: dub/reggae (Lee "Scratch" Perry), jazz (Pharoah Sanders), world (Ravi Shankar, Mulatu Astatke), funk (Cymande), soul (Bill Withers), hiphop (Gang Starr), Krautrock (Can), electro (Egyptian Lover, Kraftwerk), disco (DJ Harvey), Latin (Tito Puente), soundtrack/new age (Vangelis), rock (Steely Dan), post-punk (ESG, Liquid Liquid), and post-rock (Outhud). As for his bread and butter, Baytala similarly displays excellent judgment, with a heavy preference for quality-pushers like Jeff Mills, Gas, Monolake, Robert Hood, Theo Parrish, and Mr. Fingers. When you see a DJ possess such wide-ranging, outstanding taste, it instills confidence that he/she will rarely, if ever, veer into wackness. Baytala clearly has put many hours of study into his craft, and it's paid off with smooth mixes and world-class track selection. Besides his formidable technical skills and profound knowledge, Baytala reportedly exudes a lot of personality and passion behind the decks, which must have served him well while opening for acts like Jane's Addiction. Everything I've heard by Baytala suggests that his sets avoid the supposed pitfalls of minimal dance music. They're kinetic, dynamic, and, of course, cheese-free. I can't believe I've only just recently found out about this mensch.