Get Physical presents the second instalment of their Monza Ibiza Club mix series, a double CD mixed by Damian Lazarus and DJ T.
After last year’s inaugural mix from London-based Heidi, Vol. 2 brings together the talents of Damian Lazarus and DJ T. for two discs of future-minded, minimal and electro-influenced house and techno - the soundtrack to Monza’s third season at Ibiza.
Monza was founded in 1999 by DJ T. and Patrick Dechent in their then hometown of Frankfurt, one of the most important European centres in the development of electronic music. They continued to run Monza Frankfurt until 2004, when they parted ways with their business partners, and moved to Berlin and Ibiza respectively. Patrick revived the Monza brand in Ibiza, with a residency at the island’s Penelope club over the 2005 season, inviting DJ T., the Get Physical crew and friends from further afield to man the decks. Last year, Monza enjoyed a very successful season yet in its adopted home of Ibiza, at the legendary Space, and is set to return to the white isle for 2007, this time at Privilege.
Damian Lazarus is the mastermind behind Crosstown Rebels, widely considered to be the UK’s foremost electronic, house and techno label. This reputation is founded upon release after release of real quality and originality. Over the years, Crosstown have put out singles, albums and remixes from the likes of Pier Bucci, Kiki & Silversurfer, James Holden, Black Strobe, Mathew Jonson and 3 Channels. Crosstown’s catalogue takes in various styles of music - including abstract techno, disco and punk-funk - but the label has always been primarily focused on forward-thinking, deep and twisted electronic house music.
Damian’s career as a DJ has been an illustrious one, and he is rightly renowned as one of the freshest purveyors of underground dance music in the world. Hailing from London, he’s taken to the decks all over the globe, from Europe to South America to Australia and beyond; and last year he enjoyed a residency at Ibiza’s legendary DC-10 alongside Loco Dice. Damian is behind several seminal mix CDs, including the four Futurism and Rebel Futurism comps, Get Lost Vol. 1 (with Matthew Styles) and the critically-acclaimed Suck My Deck (2005) for Bugged Out!.
DJ T, aka Thomas Koch, is well known as the founder of Groove magazine (and its publisher for fifteen years), and co-founder of Get Physical Records in Berlin. He began the label with his friends M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade, and has been instrumental in the shaping of the Physical sound and aesthetic. He released a well- received full-length album, Boogie Playground, in 2005, and he has had club hits with tracks like ‘Funk on You’, ‘Time Out’ and ‘Freemind’. As a DJ, Thomas too has rocked clubnights and festivals around the world; and last year he provided the second chapter of Physical’s Body Language mix series (other contributors to this series include Jesse Rose, M.A.N.D.Y. and Dixon).
Lazarus takes charge of the first disc of Monza Ibiza Club Mix Vol. 2, with a typically deep, energetic and wide-ranging selection of tracks. He sets the scene with three back-to-back exclusives: Four Tet’s elegant reworking of ‘You Are Here’ by Border Community boy wonder Nathan Fake, ‘Glasgow’ by Crosstown’s resident genius Pier Bucci, and Loco Dice’s sumptuous remix of Dennis Ferrer’s piano-driven ‘Son of Raw’. The latter track in particular illustrates the collapsing of boundaries between contemporary minimal techno and old school-deep house, and is every bit as thrilling as you’d expect. Edfemin’s club hit ‘Just A Track’ whips this mix into a party-pointed frenzy, with skippy, dancefloor-friendly techno productions from Patrick Zigon, Outlines and Stefan Goldmann sandwiching another tasty exclusive: the acapella from Shackleton’s much-anticipated ‘Next to Nothing’. Shackleton has gained considerable popularity for his minimal take on dubstep through both his own work and his Skull Disco label, and has recently been remixed by Ricardo Villalobos; ‘Next to Nothing’ features the vocal talents of cult US post-punk outfit Savage Republic, and will be released as a 12″ on Crosstown Rebels later this year. Danton Eeprom, Konrad Black and homegrown Crosstown talent Jamie Jones also feature; the mix winds down in heaviness but not in intensity with Henrik Schwarz’s recent hit ‘Walk Music’, Trentemoller’s jazz-inflected ‘An Evening with Bobbi Bros’ and concludes with a bona fide comedown classic: the Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve mix of Findlay Brown. Lazarus provides an extraordinary, ambitious and intimate session which also provides the perfect entrée for Monza Ibiza Club Vol. 2’s second disc…
This second disc is masterfully assembled by DJ T. T has always been respected for his intimate understanding of dance music’s past and his committed engagement with its future ” and this Monza Mix is firmly rooted in the here and now, with a host of new tracks and Physical exclusives comprising the smooth and dynamic selection. However, while T.’s mix is always moving forward, one eye is always looking back ” looking at the history of the future, so to speak. The inclusion of Arto Mwambe’s 2007 cut ‘Ombala Mbembo’, a thrillingly modern collision of influences from the past ” the best of Chicago and Detroit and a flavour of early 90s vocal house ” is emblematic of DJ T.’s approach to the mix. A search for music which absorbs the past and embraces the future to transcend its place in time ” music which is ultimately timeless. The disc’s opener, Joakim’s edgy electro reworking of Max Berlin’s ‘Elle & Moi’, still sounds entirely relevant and contemporary; by kicking off proceedings with this track, DJ T. shows us where today’s music has come from, its roots. This is especially true of Schatrax’s ‘Mispent Years’, a 1995 house classic. The real vintage jewel in Monza Club Vol. 2’s crown, ‘Mispent Years’ sits perfectly with Claude von Stroke’s trancey, as-yet-unreleased ‘Groundhog Day’, and sounds as futuristic now as it did twelve years ago.
From then on it, it’s all about the now, with cutting edge productions from Martins Buttrich and Landsky, top-drawer minimal house and techno from Daniel Stefanik and Mike Shannon. There’s also room for the twisted pop of Junior Boys (Carl Craig’s cavernous re-rub of ‘Like A Child’) and T.’s own brooding builder ‘The Dawn’ from his new release on Get Physical. The achievements of Get Physical’s experimental sister label Kindisch are celebrated with two cuts from their young catalogue ” the deep piano house of Einzelkind and a slice of yearning, off-kilter pop from Raz Ohara. The selection is rounded off with two shimmering beauties from Hamburg’s Dial Recordings: Edfemin’s Bergwein and Pantha Du Prince’s boundary-shifting orchestral epic ‘Saturn Strobe’.
Two of modern electronic music’s most respected label-heads and DJs come together to furnish Get Physical with a double-CD compilation of impeccable taste and inarguable quality: two mixes that go way deep and provide numerous exclusives, without losing their sense of timelessness and fun.
Tracklist:
CD 1 mixed by Damian Lazarus
1. Nathan Fake ” You Are Here (Four Tet Remix)
2. Pier Bucci ” Glasgow
3. Dennis Ferrer ” Son Of Raw (Loco Dice Remix)
4. Efdemin ” Just A Track
5. Patrick Zigon ” Mental Draining
6. Outlines ” Listen To The Drums (Contains Shackleton feat. Savage Republic - Next to Nothing (acapella).
7. Marc Romboy ” Helen Cornell (Stefan Goldmann Remix)
8. Jamie Jones ” Strangers
9. Phonique ” Bang
10. Szenario ” Pleaseasy (Raudive Remix)
(Contains Ambivalent ” R U (acapella))
11. Danton Eeprom ” One Thing Leads To Another
12. Snax ” Honeymoon’s Over (Konrad Black Remix)
13. Henrik Schwarz - Walk Music
14. Trentemøller & DJ Tom ” An Evening With Bobbi Bros
15. Findlay Brown ” Losing The Will To Survive (Wizards Of The Sleeve Remix)
CD2 mixed by DJ T.
1. Max Berlin - Elle & Moi (Joakim Remix)
2. Boundzound - Louder (Martin Buttrich Remix)
3. DJ Koze Vs. Sid Le Rock - Naked (DJ Koze Remix)
4. Martin Landsky - Let Me Dance
5. Raz Ohara - Whitmey Na
6. Einzelkind - Maferefumeco
7. Matthias Tanzmann - Procon
8. Johnny Wagner - Intercity (Daniel Stefanik Remix)
9. DJ T. - The Dawn
10. Junior Boys - Like A Child (Carl Craig Remix)
11. Mike Shannon - Ghost Writer Blues
12. Arto Mwambé - Ombala Mbembo
13. Schatrax - Mispent Years (Original)
14. Claude VonStroke and Christian Martin - Groundhog Day
15. Efdemin - Bergwein
16. Pantha du Prince - Saturn Strobe
Released on Get Physical on July 31, 2007.
References: http://www.physical-music.com/
