Maceo Plex / DJ Tennis / David August [live] / DJ Koze

Maceo Plex aka DJ Kicks

Is it possible to zero-in on the sound of the future by re-contextualizing music of the past? Maceo Plex's meticulously crafted DJ-Kicks mix aims to do just that. "For the last three years at least, the big trend has been early '90s house," he says. "Everything's a throwback. I think it's the right time to put out something that's a little more deep and futuristic again." So while the mix includes tracks that that are up to 20-years old, the selections highlight timeless qualities he feels are missing from contemporary dance floors, and the music is painstakingly re-edited for emphasis. "Most of the tracks are really old, so they needed freshening up," he says. "A lot of them were missing percussion, or some other element I thought they could use. I think it's time for people to move on to rediscovering what electronic music is all about, which is moving forward. That futuristic sound, which is timeless."

But isn't it a bit of a contradiction, trying to bump electronic music out of a retro rut by looking to a different set of old records? Maceo Plex, whose real name is Eric Estornel, reasons it thus: "A lot of the music on there is old, but basically has the sounds and the type of vibe that I think is missing these days. I went through a lot of new music. I didn't want to select anything that everyone is playing at the moment and I definitely didn't want to select anything that was already out on digital. The whole mix is comprised of vinyl-only tracks that are not going to be out on digital other than the DJ-Kicks mix. To do that I had to go through a lot of new music and a lot of old music, and there wasn't much new music that I really loved. I mean I love a lot of new music, but there wasn't anything that I wanted to represent what I'm trying to do with the mix."

Estornel has certainly come up with a forward-thinking set that doesn't sound like much else out there. It opens with "Spatial Lobe" by Monsters From ID, a lost gem of electro typewriter beats and cosmic bleeps by two brothers from Northampton in the UK, who also released under the name Bitstream. "That is one of my favourite tracks of all time," says Estornel. "It's a really deep emotional electro track." "New York Is Alright" by TV Baby, a throb of low-resolution low-end and caustic vocals, bleeds into Estornel's collaboration with with Michael O'Sullivan, "When It All Comes To This," which sees acid house poetry set against a menacing tech house groove. "The way they go together is a really important moment in the mix," he explains. "It's a really good groove; futuristic but really soulful and funky at the same time." The thread that runs throughout the mix is a compelling darkness. "The whole mix is very dark," agrees Estornel. "But it's varied as well. It's really boring to stay one style. If you're a lover of music, you don't love one style. I think it's important to travel through different styles." The end result is an education, a lesson in how electronic music for the dancefloor is done with intelligence.

If the custom treatment of older tracks sounds likes a long-winded process, it was. "It took me at least three months. I went through my own stuff and previous DJ-Kicks mixes. Y'know, research. I think it is the most important mix series so I wanted to make sure it was music that I really loved and I want to hear in five or ten years time." Estornel continues: "I think one of the biggest moments is "Racing Tracks" by Visnadi, the edit that I did. It's got these racing car sounds and I think that the edit came out really well. It's a pretty strong moment."

In time-honoured tradition, the mix contains an exclusive track (in addition to the ten new re-edits). Maceo Plex's "Galactic Cinema" is a muscular and suitably off-world house chug. "I'm kind of known for a couple of big disco records and some really deep bassline house tracks. This track is much darker, but still pretty sexy and soulful. The whole thing is dark and futuristic."

"This mix is kind of my legacy, or, at least, part of it," says Estornel, by way of a parting thought. "In ten or twenty years I'm going to want to go back and listen to this mix and I hope it's still fresh."

Who knows. It sounds pretty timeless right now, though.


DJ Tennis is Manfredi Romano. Born in the 70's and raised between New Jersey, Sicily, and Parma in a family where music was such a small thing. He had no relatives that played musical instruments, nothing to play on at home, and no one giving music any considerable amount of love. Despite this, his creative and artistic attitude have always centered on music - singing, playing and collecting weird and noisy musical instruments at every turn. In 1988, before starting computer science studies at Pisa University (to please his grandfather) he was already playing and singing in college bands and had an indie rock radio show on a local radio station in Palermo.

Recording bands, organizing parties, and DJ'ing at the tennis club where he used to play as a semi-pro player (the Tennis moniker comes from his passion for that sport) all became his way to support the costs of his studies. But when he graduated he never imagined he would turn that hobby into his career. Still he became a DJ, while focusing first on promoting new underground music in his country. Manfredi is responsible for founding and developing some of the most important Italian underground musical events such as the Elita Festival in Milan, the Dissonanze Festival in Rome, and creating new marketing concepts around Italian clubbing.

During the last 2 decades Manfredi started producing music for theatre, movie soundtracks, and TV commercials. His production skills are eternally inspired from the psychedelic, dark, and melancholic sounds of the 60s, straight through to early 2000s IDM. A few of Manfredis influences include: Beach Boys, The Who, Talk Talk, Ultravox, XTC, Fugazi, June of 44, Suicide, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Plastikman.

In 2010, tired of the output of the current musical scene he collected all of his musical works and, with Thugfuckers Greg Oreck, started a new techno and pop label called Life and Death. The name of the label has a specific meaning, inspired by the Socratic maieutic process to give subtle and dead elements a new life as well as referring to the benefit and hypnotic power of music used in the mesmeric processes for brain therapy.

Tennis is based in Berlin where he also shares label experience and a studio with the innovative deep electronic duo Tale of Us. He has worked hard to create a crew of young and inspired musicians like Clockwork and Esperanza, among others.


Stefan Kozalla aka DJ Koze lives and works in Hamburg as a club DJ, musician (International PONY, Adolf Noise) and remixer for Chicks On Speed, Bob Sinclar, Justus Koehncke and more of the finest German bands and projects and successful producer and KOMPAKT recording artist.

Within only a few years, DJ Koze has slowly worked his way up through the German Hip-Hop scene. With his band Fischmob, he has released several successful records, steadily building up a strong fan base of young left-oriented
people.

With their mixture of straight-up Hip Hop skills (and none too subtle poiltical content), dry humor, crazy spoken samples, prank phone calls, etc... the band has found their own niche in Germany's ever-growing Hip-Hop scene. And although he's not afraid to throw down & rock the mike , it's behind the decks where DJ Koze really shines. He's got a light, subtle approach and feel which belies the fact that he took home the Runner-Up prize at the DMC DJ Championships a scant few years ago.
With their album ''Power", and various smash singles, Fischmob found their way into the German pop charts with the corresponding video enjoying a month-long, high-rotation run on both MTV & VIVA.

Although DJ Koze has had a taste of pop success with Fischmob, he's always been equally interested in experimenting with other forms of electronic music from ambient to break beats to wild sound collages from a myriad of musical genres.

An especially notable voyage in to uncharted musical waters, Adolf Noise (produced and performed by DJ Koze and his buddy Marcnesium) turned many a head around. Taking the artist into a deeper Electronic direction, "Adolf Noise" features a far more abstract and unusual use of samples and grooves while keeping the listener on his / her toes by incorporating liberal usage of football commentary, television show snippets, radio plays, and telephone terror with drug-delinquents.

It was this record, that made people, that were normally more into Techno or Electronica, sit up and take notice and it is now these people who are his biggest fans on dance floors between Tokyo and Hamburg - a development of successfully melting a world of musical styles with the power-blending strength of Club Culture.

The year 2002 made DJ Koze the deck wizard of Hamburg trio International Pony, whose debut album 'We Love Music' (Skint/Sony) was received to critical acclaim.

As a live DJ, Koze builds his sets on house and disco tracks and uses his well-honed Hip Hop skills blending it all together in a furious mix, making it seem that the term " House Rocking" was coined with him in mind.

The readers of Germany's trend-setting SPEX magazine correctly voted DJ Koze the DJ Of The Years for 1999 - 2004 - a well earned title, playing numerous shows all over the country and in different parts of the world. He was
also one of the nominees as best German DJ at 2003´s German Dance Awards.
Please take a look at his discography and check out his massive releases for Kompakt, Cologne´s finest in terms of smashing, heartwarming, minimal house. Amongst them a very deep dj mix called: "All People Is My Friend".