Beatport Live presents Red Rack’em

Beatport Live presents Red Rack’em

29 July, 2011 | 3.47AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: bergerac, live from beatport, red rack'em

As part of our ongoing series of live sessions from Beatport’s Denver and Berlin headquarters, last night we had Berlin’s Red Rack’em stop by to drop two hours of slow-motion grooves, deep house and Detroit techno.

After the set, Red spoke to us about his selections—read on for the interview, and check out the archived session here on Beatport’s Ustream channel.

Thanks for stopping by Beatport to play for us! What’s it like to play in the Beatport booth, and have you done other live Internet mixes like this?

Thanks for asking me to come and play. I had a great time, and I think it’s the first time I have played a DJ set in an office. Well, the first time I have had permission to do it, anyway.

I really enjoyed it, but I kept forgetting I was being filmed, so I hope I didn’t pull too many strange faces when the tracks kicked in. The only other U Stream set I have played before was at Dommune in Tokyo when I was over there to launch my Early Years album in October last year. That was a really memorable set—a tiny club in Shibuya which holds 50 people but with over 3000 watching on the U Stream at the same time. I remember wishing I could read Japanese as the Dommune Twitter feed was going mental. 

Could you tell us a little about your track selection today? How did you pick out tracks for the mix, and what tunes are you particularly feeling right now?

It’s a combinaton of unreleased stuff on CDR and my latest vinyl purchases. I deliberately played the first hour of the mix on a more slow-mo tip because I felt that playing 2 hours of the same tempo would lack the dynamics of my usual DJ sets. I tried to treat it more like a club mix or radio show with a definite progression, so the first hour was mostly all below 120 BPM. Once the first hour was up, though, I did jump straight into peak-time mode. That’s my favorite way to play, but you can’t drive your car at 90mph all day can you?

Tracks I am feeling right now are… gosh there’s too many to mention but here’s a few - the new Downbeat Black label by Juju and Jordash - I saw them perform it live last year at Freerotation in Wales so it was great to play that on the mix for you guys (at about 33 minutes into the set). “Siim Ja Part” by Ajukaja is still killing it. Deep as hell but totally working on dancefloors. ”The Parkhurst” EP by Terrence Dixon. The new Falty DL on All City Records. The new Move D on Workshop. The new Recloose EP on Rush Hour is great. Wax 004 by Shed. I also played my own singles on Bergerac, “How I Program” and “Courting,” but only because people were requesting them on the U Stream chat. I generally play other people’s music as I haven’t heard their tracks as much as mine.

Are there any upfront, unreleased tracks you played that we should be keeping our eyes open for?

Well I played a couple of unreleased tracks by Franklin De Costa who’s someone who I am really keeping a close eye on right now. He sent me “Make It Fat” (which I played at about 52 minutes) this morning so I guess that was the most upfront thing I played. I played the forthcoming Mike Dehnert, which is out soon on Clone Basement Series, and my final track was the next Gerd release on Clone Royal Oak which is called “Palm Leaves” - it has a very familiar bassline. I also played “Goons” by Semtek which is coming out soon on his excellent Don’t Be Afraid label. It’s been massively doing the business for me over the last month or so.

What’s your DJ setup like? Do you play with Traktor, Serato, Ableton, CDJs, or something else?

I have 2 Technics 1200s, 1 Pioneer CDJ 1000 and a Pioneer DJM 300 mixer with no crossfader that Phil from Funky Monkey Records (RIP) in Nottingham lent me about 4 years ago. I hope he’s not reading this now. I don’t really ever DJ at home apart from when I am recording my Smugglers Inn podcasts. I am planning to start using Serato or Traktor to do my radio show so I can use my Technics to play MP3s instead of the CDJs. But in the clubs my ideal set up is 2 Technics, 2 Pioneer 1000s and a decent 4-channel mixer. I have been enjoying using Rane rotary mixers recently at clubs like Cookies in Berlin and Masters in Zagreb. It’s always nice to have something new to keep you on your toes. Ableton-wise, I am slowly preparing my Red Rack’em live set but it’s hard to find the time to devote to it when you’re playing out a lot/running a label/making tracks/being lazy.

For listeners who want to check you out in person, could you tell us about any club residencies you may have, and where you’ll be touring next?

Well, you just missed me at Chez Jacki for CDR Berlin, joining Tony Nwachukwu and Dirk Rumpff on the decks. It’s a really cool concept which started in the UK. Producers can submit their unreleased/unfinished music on CDR and it’s played in a club/bar environment to a crowd of interested music lovers. (Frank Wiedemann from Ame did an Abelton workshop as well.) Then I am off to Austria to play at the Parque Del Sol festival this weekend. I am playing with Kyle Hall at About:Blank in Berlin on August 5th and then at Tresor on August 17th. I am trying to have a quiet time on the gigs front right now as I have loads of music to release and it’s proving harder and harder to manage my time with all the traveling. I guess there’s no massive rush though in some ways. It’s not all going to stop next week, is it…

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