15.10.2012
Guest Reviewer: Dirt Crew
Dirt Crew's Break 3000 talks about his label, the Dutch Electronic Music scene and how much he loves good sound in clubs
Dirt Crew aka James Flavour and Break 3000 launched Dirt Crew Recordings after releasing their first EP’s “Cleaning up the Ghetto Part 1+2″ on MBF. The track “Rok Da House” became one of the hottest releases of 2004, the beginning of the Electro House hype and a big hit that gave the guys worldwide recognition on the dancefloors.
Things really got wild when they remixed Sasse’s “Soul Sounds” which again went straight in the charts and was voted one of the best remixes of 2005 and has been dropped by all the top name DJ’s. Remixing for leading artists and labels like Jennifer Cardini, Silicone Soul, 2020 Vision, Crosstownrebels, Freerange and Breastfed we had to catch up with Dirt Crew ahead of their new compilation Deep Love 2.
Thanks very much for taking time out to speak to us! Can you tell the readers where you are in the world today and what you’ve been up to over the last 7 days?
Been Producing and DJ’ing as Dirt Crew since 2004 together with James Flavour.. we also started the label round that time, been going now for 8 years and I mainly take care of the A&R and signing of artists.
Did moving from Holland to Berlin have any impact on how you make music? What did Holland lack that Berlin had to offer you guys at that point in your career?
Well first I moved to Cologne where I started making music on Trapez and Traum, getting in touch with the Kompakt people definitely changed a whole lot for me.. shortly afterwards we started Dirt Crew and released our first records on MBF a sublabel of Traum Schallplatten. By that time around 2003/ 2004 there was really not much good stuff going on in Holland, the scene was pretty dead in my opinion and Germany had it all, they were just taking on new directions and the whole music scene was very exciting, 6 years ago I moved to Berlin where it was even better for me as this is the center of Electronic music for sure.
It’s pretty fair to say that you guys have helped shape the future retro renaissance that’s seen house and techno look more towards the 90’s. What stylistic changes do you predict might happen within the scene over the next few years?
hhmm. hard to say, but one good thing that recently changed is that people reduce the tempo in their tracks and sets, and more and more mix different styles into dance music, lots of Disco and 80’s / 90’s going on.. for me at the moment the music scene is better than ever…
At what point for you does house become techno? Is it down to BPMs or more than that? The boundaries seem completely blurred in 2012.
Yeah you also have slow techno .. well house is house, it will never be a techno record.. if you use funky basslines and chords its house no matter what the tempo is.. I rarely play techno tracks.. mostly it is a bit trancy electronics mixed with a techno touch… But real techno is not my thing at all, I used to play that back in the days though.. round ‘94-’95.
As producers first, what hardware and software do you find essential right now and do you ever use some of the old skool kit that helped shape the 90’s sounds in your modern music?
As I started producing in ’91 I had to learn it the hard way, with samplers, MPC1000 and Atari .. currently I am totally in my Computer..only using Logic, but as far as getting the “Old” sound I sample a lot straight from old records..mainly Disco records .. and of course we use all soft synths as well.
Read the whole interview via Trackitdown.
