Interview with DJ Hi-Shock

Interview with DJ Hi-Shock

1 June, 2009 | 11.22PM

• Written by: elektrax
• Filed under: Music News : dj hi-shock, elektrax recordings

The first time I encountered DJ Hi-Shock was when I was interstate in Australia, on the tour bus-trip from hell.

It was 1995, we’d just started our label IF? in Melbourne, and released the inaugural Zeitgeist compilation of Melbourne-based artists (along with, god knows how, somehow, having scored a remix by Thomas P. Heckmann). So, we were up in Sydney with our principle acts (Voiteck, Hi-Fli and Soulenoid), my girlfriend Kristina, and ring-in Scott Armstrong (aka Guyver 3), and the amount of bickering, silliness, overwhelming circumstances, hi-jinks, substance abuse, if?-stickering, near collisions with zero car-insurance, and short-changed by the promoter of the launch party (he refused to pay up after the gig till Voiteck and Arthur A. got hold of him) seriously conspired to derail our best efforts.

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The Partridge Family we were not, but we held together through Hades, which counted for something.

Anyway, in the middle of all the madness in Sydney, I got to hear DJ Hi-Shock for the first time. He was famous even in Melbourne, and at the time was behind the import of most of the best techy vinyl from labels like Trope and AFU. His set was staggering - stadium-style techno leaking bucket-loads of acid, and it knocked all of us out.

Funnily enough, that was the last time I saw Simon play. Then I moved to Japan in 2001, so the likelihood of catching him again seemed all the more distant. But at the beginning of last year, when I started putting feelers out about taking the IF? back-catalogue into the digital terrain, I got an e-mail from Simon.

He’d just set up two labels, Elektrax and and Hypnotic Room, and at the time I had no idea he was on the cusp of setting up a virtual empire of digital classics, so we chatted a bit and I stuck out a Little Nobody back-catalogue EP of obscurities called Techelectric Tangents Vol. 1.

I had an inkling that it wouldn’t sell and that’d be the end of our brief relationship, but that didn’t take into account the passion, energy, drive and inspiration this guy exudes. A year later he’s expanded to four labels, including the phenomenal Hypnotic Room Special Edition imprint, and I’ve done 10 EPs with him, as well as 13 remix releases and two compilations, Iffy Bizness and Slam-Dunk Ninja.

“It’s all about the music, getting the sounds out there, experimenting with fresh styles - and now the new possibilities with digital platforms let me introduce not only more of my own sounds, but also to expose other great artists to a worldwide audience,” he told me recently when I recently decided to quiz him on the matter.

“Elektrax Recordings was originally started to release my own techno productions on vinyl many years ago, then I re-started the label digitally on Beatport back in 2005, releasing proper, hard-edged and deep minimalistic grooves,” Simon added.

“Since then, I’ve been getting so many new great demos with different styles of music, I felt the need to start Hypnotic Room to expose a unique variety of dubby techno, electronica and tech-house, and Elektrax Progressive for the progressive house and tech-trance sounds, in order to give those new guys a chance to get their music heard. I felt that as long as the quality is there, it deserves a release, no matter if it’s made by a well known producer or a totally unknown being from across the universe!”

You might’ve noticed that some labels and producers decry the advent of the introduction of the digital medium and the subsequent demise of vinyl, while others - like Si Begg, Dave Tarrida, Steve Stoll and Richie Hawtin, are more forgiving. Others have publicly sung the praises of the digital phenomenon, and you can count DJ Hi-Shock in their number.

“We have access to a global market, and can get releases out there much quicker,” the Australian appraised.

“More music has been purchased through digital download sales than ever before, and physical record and CD sales are have dropped to low numbers. Digital sales allow us to spend more money on marketing and promotion, as we’re able to save on shipping and the manufacturing costs of physical product, and associated costs of distribution. We still release limited vinyl, but only as part of marketing campaigns to promote a particular compilation or one of our regular label artists.”

The artists involved with his labels at this point include a cross section of old and new, known and completely not.

“The better known ones are Steve Stoll, Wyndell Long, Justin Robertson, Gayle San, Commander Tom, Bill Youngman, Luke’s Anger, Virgil Enzinger, Dave Tarrida, Orlando Voorn, Ree.K, and Shin Nishimura.”

Not content to rest there, Nielsen was quick to plow on in his impassioned fashion: “Then there’re the regular guys such as Takashi Watanabe (DJ Warp), Zen Paradox, Little Nobody, Miruga, Dale Baldwin, Dich, and M.A.Z.7. Some of the new talent includes Nash Donson, TRYB, Ken-Gee, E383, V1NZ, Thanatos, Polygon Prompt, Hologram Hookers, Son of Zev, Enclave, Bitch Shift, Koda, Darkmode, 3 Deep, Wally Stryk, Flag75, SERi, M. Uchida, Ren de Rives, Claudio Masso, FrameON, Stereo Underground and many, many more...”

Handling so many people from so many facets of electronica sounds like a bit of a nightmare to me - I have enough organizational problems just dealing with a handful of artists on the IF? roster. Simon, though, always seems unfazed.

“The attraction of working with them is, of course, the music quality, but most important is the fact that they share the labels’ vision, and for them it’s all about the music,” he said.

While Simon is gaining rapid respect for these labels’ work and the music output of others, he’s also known and respected for his own production and remix techniques, and he really did earn the ‘DJ’ part of his moniker as I mention at the beginning of this rant - he’s been one of Sydney’s best known rave and techno club DJs for 20 years, and has hence played alongside Sven Väth, Kevin Saunderson, Oliver Lieb, Thomas P. Heckmann, Commander Tom, Lenny Dee, Dr. Motte, Mijk van Dijk, Jammin’ Unit, and Atom Heart.

He also has a new EP of his own out now through Elektrax. Called Melancholia, it bears with it a remix by one of my own favorite producers, Dave Tarrida.

Claude Young perhaps paints it best in his feedback to Hi-Shock’s latest track on Melancholia EP: “DJ Hi-Shock Scores big with another club stormer. The original mix is definitely peak time material. Dave Tarrida provides a fantastic peak time mix as well. All-in-all, another hit out of the park for Elektrax. Well done!”

‘Nuff said.

Interview by Andrez Bergen, June 2009.

DJ Hi-Shock on Beatport:

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