Secret Selector Selections #39: Johnny Fredsgaard
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- Published on Friday, 18 May 2012 10:00
Tweaking Synths
Have a look at the Tweak FM website, home to the radio show Johnny hosts.
You'll find pictures of Marcell Detmann, Swayzak, Miss Kittin, DJ Hell, Steffi, Milton Bradley, MANDY, Dave Clarke ... a veritable who's who of electronic music. A list of DJ mixes longer than Resident Advisor's.
And of course, basically every Danish DJ worth mentioning.
Those pictures are from a small studio in a public school outside Copenhagen. From there, Johnny has been broadcasting techno music every Friday on a local frequency for over seven years, being the electronic music radio our dear national media corporation (DR) never really managed to maintain.
Quite humbling on behalf of my own little Friday project. And humble is exactly what Johnny is. Just a guy who loves electronic music and loves sharing it on the radio.
Now isn't that cool? Here's some of Johnny's favorite music.
Secret Selector Selections #38: DJ Noize
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- Published on Friday, 11 May 2012 12:25
Turn it up, bring the Noize
There are good DJs and there are great DJs. And then there are those who make you drop your jaw (literally) in awe struck amazement. Those few people, who do things with 1210s you need to see for yourself to believe actually happened.
I'm talking about turntablists. And DJ Noize has proven to be the best of the best on more than one occasion.
DJ Noize has won the Music Seminar DJ Battle the DMC World DJ Championship, Danish Championships and countless other battles.
In my opinion though, his biggest feat as a turntablist isn't winning pretty much every competition worth winning, but the fact that he introduced a new level of creativity to the art.
In the beginning of the 90's, people were basically battling on who had the fastest crab hand, who could juggle in abstract ways and some times, who could do stupid tricks like scratch with their feet or whatever.
Along comes a small town teenager from Denmark and serves everybody with a whole new style and impeccable technique. Dissing opponents by juggling words, playing melodies with his scratches all with such style it just looks too easy!
Like in this video: Every time I watch it, I feel sorry for 8-Ball in the first round, because he really oblivious what's gonna hit him. Knowing what's going to happen, it's tragic to see him actually think his "hehehehehe" scratch is the bomb. Then Noize comes up and puts it all into perspective.
And then he has to go through another round! Struggling with his juggling, you can just see he himself isn't even convinced when he finishes off with his "I'll kill anyone who dares to go against me".
I think he learned his lesson.
You can (and I often do) spend loads of time just watching old footage of DJ battles where Noize just punishes the competition.
Here he is again, scratching with a fish.
Let me try again. There was Noize scratching way better with a fish than most accomplished DJs do on a good day with their spank-hand.
With a fish.
But Kim Sæther, as his passport reads, isn't just a technical genius. He's a nice guy, a notorious crate digger and connoisseur of sound. When I asked him to do a secret selection, he replied "well, secret and YouTube don't quite go together in my world. Is it OK if I upload to soundcloud?"
Oh yeah. It's more than OK. Bring it OOOOOON!!!
Secret Selector Selections #37: Christina Majcher
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- Published on Friday, 04 May 2012 10:49
Wicked, Wicked!
Christina is Copenhagen's first lady of Jungle and without a doubt the baddest female raver in town.
Now, I really couldn't care less about gender in music. But after 30 weeks of secret selections, I couldn't help but notice this was turning into an exclusive club for the +30 men. I concluded that encyclopedic knowledge of obscure music is just more of a male trait.
Women usually don't really care where that one sample came from, who played drums in The Winstons or why anyone should ever care who The Winstons were. Females just aren't that passionate about music!
That's what you think until you meet Chriszka. Musical passion incarnate. She's the one you get lost from at Fusion Festival and then meet two days later with a hoarse voice all "Hey! I've raved out three crews - they got tired one by one. Gotta catch some sleep now, but wake me in three hours and we'll go to Der Dritte Raum, yeah?"
While we're standing in the corner, bobbing our heads, she's the one constantly looking like this:
And where most guys either obsess about music to feel superior in a social world they can't quite fit in to, or basically do it to get laid, Chriszka seems to be all about an insane love for great tunes and good times. Which I guess is why instead of DJ'ing or some other "look at me" type thing, she's spent the past 10 years writing about music, nightlife and culture (Danish link).
It's great to have a friend like Christina for parties and raves, because in a small and local city, where you can easily find yourself chatting to some dude you know at the bar while the maddest DJ is spinning, she always turns up with an ecstatic look that reminds you it's all about the dance floor.
So now it's time to hear from Chriszka, Copenhagen's first lady of jungle and the first ever female Secret Selector!
The Out of Breath Selection
I like to be out of breath. It usually means that I have been doing something fully absorbing and really fun.
Secret Selector Selections #36: MHM One
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- Published on Friday, 27 April 2012 12:08
Yes yes y'all, you don't stop, MHM One, rock on!
I love when people bring a slightly different edge to things. Culture is all about pushing things forward.
And that's exactly what Morten Halborg-møller aka MHM One has been doing for over a decade. From his legendary club concept Kill Your Telly, that brought visual art back into techno and techno into food (!) to his own productions and DJing, that always seem to have this nice organic edge, so much music today lacks.
And he's still pushing things forward. In the art world through his Limited Works webshop, selling hand crafted art prints and with his continued work with music, releasing tracks on Tartelet, Fantastic Friends and Fake Diamond.
Oh, and Kill Your Telly is back! Look forward to seeing what's up that club's sleeve for the future.
Let's see what mista MHM enjoys when he's not filling dance floors en Copenhagen and Berlin.
Secret Selector Selections #35: Return of Investment
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- Published on Friday, 20 April 2012 09:32
Travel to the Future!
I usually want to keep SSS personal, but the ROI crew insisted on a tag team thing. Oh well. These guys do things how they want to do them, so I'll let it pass.
Return of Investment is Michael Gaardsøe and Lau Reinholdt Kjeldsen aka Sly Nein. They have been pushing underground electronic music for years, trying to offer an alternavite to the same-old same-old club scene.
Inspired by Berling and Dublin, they have been booking quality music to secret locations in the Copenhagen hood of Nørrebro since 2009.
I love these kind of people. They aren't the guys filling the biggest rooms - they are the guys finding the great new artists and tracks. The music even upfront people think is a bit strange, but end up playing two years later.
If I wanted to know the future of electronic music, I'd ask these guys.
So pay attention folks!
