Looking For The Perfect Beat: 8 DJs On Their Most Prized Records

LOCKED GROOVE

Belgian beatsmith who can lock down intimate basements as well as he can vast festival stages.

If you buy records on a weekly basis, it will happen that your favourites change very quickly

Obviously I have my favourite records, but as far as value goes I don’t really think so. Almost every record I bought, I bought for a reason. I must admit I don’t really buy a lot of vinyl to play out in a club anymore as I’ve switched to USBs for the biggest part about a year ago.

So my favourites are always very varied as far as style goes. I still buy a lot of records, but more experimental stuff. Ambient, drone, minimal synth. That kind off stuff.

A lot of things influence me. At the moment I’m into a lot of old minimal synth stuff again, but that can change in the timeframe of a day. If you buy records on a weekly basis, it will happen that your favourites change very quickly. Which I think will ultimately change the way you DJ and listen to music or even produce. Which is not a bad thing I think. If I had to pick a favourite right now it’s Sam de la Rosa – ‘Chameleon’. It’s a mix between weird ambient droney stuff with vocals.

‘Enigma’ I made with a bigger floor in mind, while 'Do It Anyway' was made for a more intimate vibe.

There are definitely records I’d only play if the crowd is fully into it. You usually get a pretty rough idea if you can pull it of in the first half hour of your set I think. A good example is ‘Acid Eiffel’ – Choice, a super long acid cut with beautiful pads, but something that doesn’t really work on every floor. I don’t really think a certain club is suited for certain records. I think the crowd is the most important thing. Not so much the club.

Mathew Jonson’s ‘Level 7 (Dixon remix)’ is I think one of my favourite records from the past months and years. It works everywhere in my opinion, and for that reason I don’t think it’ll ever leave my bag. It’s just full of energy and can get almost every crowd going.

When producing, I usually just go with the flow, but it’s true that sometimes I’ll make something with a bigger or smaller floor in mind. ‘Enigma’ I made with a bigger floor in mind, while ‘Do It Anyway’ was made for a more intimate vibe.

SEAN JOHNSTON

Along with cohort Andrew Weatherall, Sean has made sub-110bpm chugging disco one of the most talked about genres of recent times.

Mostly I value records from the days before Discogs – things that I had to hunt for a long time. The Patrick Cowley mix of ‘I Feel Love’, the dub of ‘Under Cover of The Night’ by The Stones, LB Bad – ‘New Age House’ on United Sounds of America. The Progressive Instrumental remix of ‘Relight My Fire’/‘Vertigo’ by Dan Hartman. A stack of Italo things that you had to be in Trax Records on the right Tuesday afternoon in 1989 to pick up. All sentimental value though, more than anything.

I have no ultimate favourite – the thrill is in the chase for the next one.

I have no ultimate favourite – the thrill is in the chase for the next one. I just go for the ones that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up! I have no real rules – if it’s good it gets played – but I do tend to hoard things for Croatia in the summer – things that you can get away with on a boat in the sunshine that wouldn’t normally work in a club. I’m thinking of the DJ T mix of ‘Lovework’ by Black Light Smoke, Robotaki remix of DJ Shadow & Little Dragon – ‘Scale It Back’, Mark E – ‘Magazine’ for example. The Unknown Cases – ‘Ma Simba Bele’ never leaves my back as it’s about as Afro Cosmic as a record could possibly be. I bought it in 89 and I’ve still not tired of it. The Carl Craig mix of Caribou blew me away when I heard it but got a very lacklustre response the first time I aired it, but really I just keep persevering with a record I believe in till folks get it.