2008 according to…ATFC

2008 according to…ATFC

9 December, 2008 | 9.54AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: 2008 roundup, atfc

“I’ll remember 2008 as the year when I apparently got my mojo back and my music seemed to fill a gap in the dance music world,” says Aydin Hasirci aka ATFC, our top house artist of 2008.

Having relocated his family to Spain from Britain earlier this year, ATFC found himself in one of those rare bubbles of creative equilibrium that artists sometimes refer to as “the zone”.

“Moving to Spain seemed to bring out a lot of creativity in me,” he says. “I began having fun in the studio again because the pressure of living in a very expensive country was lifted.

“Also, I never thought the weather affected my mood but I’m sure the sun has played its part in my success.”

The move and the sunshine is only one part of the story though. It was actually ATFC’s shrewd sense of what was missing from the world of house music that led to his rocketing 12 months.

As Aydin explains, “I saw a gap in the market between the harsh electro sounds and the fluffy vocal house that was being released and as a DJ I wanted something in between.

“The initial spark was my remix of Dubfire’s ‘Roadkill’, which led to ‘Ya Killin Me’ and then my remix of Funkerman’s ‘Speed Up’.”

That disparity between funky vocal house and the gritty edge of electro was filled by ATFC’s giant floor-filling mainroom remixes, that did a fine job of sitting in that fuzzy grey area between club credibility and mainstream consciousness.

His excellent solo productions for Toolroom (’Bad Weed’) and Defected (’Praise To The JBs’) further proved that ATFC could roll big ones for the underground too.

But don’t go calling it a new sound, says Aydin. “Everywhere I’ve visited, people have said that with those records I’ve touched on a new ‘sound’, which I’m not sure is entirely true but I’m certainly making records that some DJs felt they were missing in their sets,” he explains.

With the big room house arenas rocking to his sounds, Defected was the perfect imprint for ATFC to work with again, a relationship that started back in 2000 with the earth-shattering release of ‘Bad Habit’, incidentally reintroduced to clubland this year with a fresh lot of remixes.

ATFC also found time to mix three compilations for Defected this year, including a cover CD for the pinnacle of house music sophistication, Ibiza’s Pacha Magazine.

All in all, it’s been one helluva year for Aydin Hasirci, but he isn’t resting on his laurels just yet.

“Right now I’m just concentrating on making records for 2010 and riding the wave as long as possible,” he says.

ATFC’s top 3 records of 2008

ATFC had a massive year, but what three tracks released this year does he think were influential to the scene as a whole?

He answers, “There are, of course, many more records which could have been included but these three have some things in common. They were all Beatport No.1s, I know ‘Praise To The JBs’ and ‘Be’ were made in one day and I’d be willing to bet ‘Pjanoo’ was too, and they’re all very very simple. They have been pretty much the top three tracks at my gigs over the last 12 months.”

1. ATFC ‘Praise To The JBs’ (Defected)

This nearly never came out at all. I actually made it as a backing to the Jungle Brothers ‘I’ll House You’ acapella, something just to play out and give to a few friends.

When I finished ‘Juss-A-Beat’ for Defected we were looking for something to include on the EP and decided to take the Jungle Brothers vocals off and simply release it as an instrumental bonus track.

It’s crazy that an after-thought got to No.1 on Beatport and even crazier considering it’s just a one note samba.

People were starting to make noises about ATFC after my mix of ‘Roadkill’ came out, and then came ‘Speed Up’ and ‘Ya Killin Me’, so it was so special to nail it all home with a number one!

2. Steve Angello & Laidback Luke ‘Be’ Mixmash

This was technically around in 2007 and I managed to get hold of the full vocal version. It was such a shame that it couldn’t be released considering how well the instrumental did.

In a way it was exactly the same situation as my track ‘Praise To The JBs’. I spoke to Luke in Miami and he told me how it was made in four hours at the end of a studio session with Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso.

Seb had left and Luke and Steve had some time to kill so ‘Be’ was born, much to the frustration of Sebastian Ingrosso!

It’s another record that’s so simple it hurts and every time I’ve played I stand there wondering, ‘Why is this working so well?!’

It get the same massive reaction the first time people hear it as when they have heard it hundreds of times. I like to think it’s the magic of house music distilled down to its purest form.

3. Erick Prydz ‘Pjanoo’ (Pryda)

Again, ‘Pjanoo’ is an effortlessly simple house groove that worked from the first night I played it and in every country I’ve visited since.

Some ‘big’ records work in most countries but can be surprisingly ineffective in others. All of the tracks I’ve mentioned are get out of jail cards all around the world which is why they’re special.

There are not many that are immediate on the dancefloor. Even the most successful house records of all time have taken time to build hype and awareness and it is only then that an entire dancefloor goes uniformly crazy to it.

I’ve played these three records at times and in countries where I knew the crowd couldn’t have heard them many times if at all and they’ve always delivered.

Overall it was great to see records like this succeed, because they are simple house music records which nod to the past but are most definitely bang up to date.

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