What’s in the DJ’s box: Luke Solomon

What’s in the DJ’s box: Luke Solomon

8 August, 2008 | 12.00PM

• Written by: Ben Raven
• Filed under: Music News: creeps, crosstown rebels, dj box, freaks, luke solomon

It’s time for another peek inside the records boxes of dance music’s finest DJs.

This week Crosstown Rebels convert and all round Creepy Freak Luke Solomon bares his vinyl for all to see.

Not many stalwarts of experimental underground house can claim to have written a top ten hit.

As one half of Freaks with long-time collaborator Justin Harris Luke Solomon’s bassline anthem became a signature tune for commercial electro house through an unexpected release on Data in 1997.

In a bizarre turn of events the track tumbled from its early beginnings as an experimental vocal track to an underground hit via a Steve Bug remix in 2003.

Then when electro house became flavour du jour for labels aiming for chart success in the wake of electro anthems like Fedde Le Grand’s ‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ the track was hauled through a series of remixes ending in its final chart position.

Now Luke is content to continue his experiments in leftfield house on Crosstown Rebels with his recent Demons EP.

Since his early days working in a record shop, to meeting Derrick Carter and forming the classic Classic Records to his headlong plunge into freakery via his Music for Freaks label he’s always been a consummate collector of daring dance music.

Take a look inside his record box and discover why.

Favourite set opener?

That’s always quite a task for me and it really depends on the overall vibe of the club and the crowd.

I generally like to play something that settles me in nicely and compliments what the other DJ has been playing prior to me.

I did a dub edit of the Osunlade mix of Ben Westbeech’s ‘So Good Today,’ which always takes a pride of place, but then so does ‘Sea of Faces’ by Greenskeepers.

Secret weapon that only you have a copy of?

That would be my mix of the Streets’ ‘Weak become Heroes.’

We originally did a Freaks mix that was released on 611.

I had the accapella in the studio and felt like I needed to update it for my own pleasure, which I did, and its mine, and no you can’t have it.

Trippiest record?

Oh man, that’s hard as I own a lot and it very much depends on my state of mind.

There are a lot of Green Velvet records.

Portamento tracks spring to mind.

But if we are taking it out of dance music and into the really trippy realm then I would have to say any number of Gong records and my Aleister Crowley spoken word album - that’s pretty trippy, but more in a scary way.

Killer vocal track?

The vocal version of Ben Westbeech’s ‘So Good Today,’

Osunlade’s mix is just wonderful. I love the vocal, I love the lyrics and I love the groove.

But going back a while , there is always Round One’s ‘I’m Your Brother’ mixed by Chez Damier and Ron Trent. 

That for me was a real turning point in my life.

A deep, wonderfully produced house record with an amazing vocal.

Then there’s Chez Damier’s ‘Close,’ I could go on forever.

Bassline weapon?

The Creeps naturally [Freaks’ ‘Creeps’ was a chart hit in 2007].

It was quite mad how that all came about, and Justin has a better memory of it than I do.

It started out as a song about a stalker with a different backing track.

We recorded Stella’s original vocal in then stripped it down and remixed it.

The bassline came about as we were looking for something that represented the actual lyric.

Various mutations and one top 10 later it would be sacrilegious to chose another.

The record that will never leave your box as long as you live?

Adonis’s ‘No Way Back’ probably, either that or Paperclip People’s ‘Throw’.

There are so few classic dance records that transcend fashion.

I have records that are on a 10-year cycle.

Things that you possibly can’t play as the kids may not be in that place at that time.

Then there are records that inspired and evolved dance music as a whole.

‘No Way Back’ does just that.

An original pressing of Adonis’ classic

The bassline remains a monstrous classic, and the vocal just does.

As for Paperclip People, well that record has the elements of what is old, what is older, and what is new again.

It’s disco, vocal and techno with some house thrown in for good measure.

The track you always get asked to play that you don’t mind playing?

I’ m actually not one for requests, and generally I am not that good at servicing people that make those requests, albeit decent ones.

For some reason I have left the record at home else or I can’t find it in my CD wallet or my record bag.

I definitely have a lot of respect for punters that request records that they think I would play, and in general they ask for records that are super current.

Come to think of it, Cobble Stone Jazz’s‘Dump Track’ comes up a fair bit.

Now that’s a record.

Oldie that everyone else has probably forgotten?

‘Promises Promises’ by Naked Eyes springs to mind. 

The original video for ‘Promises Promises’

I own a lot of weird and slightly obscure 80’s records and also a lot of better-known ones.

Interestingly, having spent a heap of time in Chicago over the years, people have turned me on to a lot of 80’s UK bands that were bigger in the US than in the UK.

The thing is though, that most of the records by these artists I knew.

Probably from watching a lot of American movies in my childhood.

Naked Eyes were one of those bands.

If you grew up through the ‘80s you will have undoubtedly heard this record but forgotten about it, and it still sounds great (well, to me anyway).

Get out of jail card?

Currently, anything by Radio Slave seems to work.

Matthew is the man of the moment, but especially ‘Bell Clap Dance.’

I love the energy, the production and the overall old school vibe with modern sounds.

Your ‘one more tune’ end of night finisher?

For some reason or another I always struggle with end of night records.

Some people have a knack for playing exactly the right record and that is a skill all of its own.

I was educated as a warm up DJ.

Through the Bar Rumba years playing before the guest DJs and later on playing before Derrick (Carter).

As I have become more experienced I have really begun to understand the end of night record a whole lot more and I own a few goodies that I have not heard a huge amount of peeps play.

Primarily it would be the Al Usher mix of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Tears Dry On Their Own,” which is naturally very topical.

Else a number of things off of Roisín Murphy’s ‘Ruby Blue,’ primarily ‘Ramalama’.

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