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Guest Mix: JD Pleks presents Umekanozal

Man, myth, and general Aberdonian techno nutter JD Pleks lays down a tribute to the almighty Slovenian techno overlord: Umek!

JD Pleks - Umekanozal

JD Pleks presents Umekanozal

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Mixed in Glasgow, July 2013
(70:25, 165 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

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Cue File

Style: Explosive techno from Slovenian techno hero Umek!

Direct link to the mix: http://sonicrampage.org/guestmixes/jdpleks/JD_Pleks_Umekanozal.mp3

Tracklisting:

01. Kemu – Akcija (Earresistible Musick)
02. Umek – Voices of Africa (Voice 7) (Primate)
03. Kemu & Shark – Afrotron (Earresistible Musick)
04. Kemu – Park Shiner (Earresistible Musick)
05. Umek – Exorcise Umek (Recycled Loops)
06. Umek – Entozan (Voodoo)
07. Umek – Voices of Africa (Voice 1) (Primate)
08. Umek – Jakaton (Bugged Out! Recordings)
09. Umek – Body Re:fuel (Recycled Loops)
10. Umek – Hivid (Consumer Recreation)
11. Umek – Zalonex (NovaMute)
12. Umek – Retoxol (Consumer Recreation)
13. Umek – Exutol (Primate)
14. Umek – Euforicin (Consumer Recreation)
15. Umek – Benozal (Primate)
16. Umek – Ranzal (Consumer Recreation)
17. Co-Fusion – Twilight (Umek Remix) (Reel Musiq)

Note from Pearsall:

Man, myth, Aberdonian … Who is JD Pleks?

Or, as you could also say, who is DJ Skelp?

For they are one and the same!

I first encountered DJ Skelp online many years ago, through the Energy UK guestbook, which at one point was a over-flowing fountain of information and conversation about hard house music. Which is hard to believe in 2013, given developments in social media since then, but yes we really used a guestbook as a conversation method! Every day you had to log in, scroll down, and then read upwards.

Good times, if technologically primitive!

Anyways, once me, Rob, and Phil decided to set up Rampage we needed another guest dj to join us for the first night, so Skelp sent me a tape, we invited him down from Aberdeen, he was fantastic, we offered him a residency, and a beautiful friendship was born …

Over time, his musical preferences developed and matured, and he got more and more into techno, and less and less into hard house, and thus was JD Pleks born! And a good thing it was too, for who doesn’t love a bit of grade A, chunky, percussive techno?

Anyways, I am very excited to finally feature a guest mix from Chris, and even more excited that it’s a very special tribute to the original Slovenian techno god … Umek!

Now over to the man himself for a few words …

Ah, the good ole days of the Energy UK guestbook. I almost failed my degree due to spending all my time on campus reading it and all my time at home on the decks. Then I started getting gigs and it got even worse for my academic career! I blame Pearsall …

My first forays into the world of underground dance music were mostly to techno clubs, seeing the likes of Dave Clarke and Claude Young tear up dancefloors. Then I saw Tony De Vit play in Edinburgh and the punk and thrash metal side of me was instantly drawn to the attitude and the nasty hoovers of his style – so began a long period of obsession with the NRG end of hard house. I still went out to techno clubs, but my record purchases were probably 95% hard house.

Slowly though, more and more techno started to creep into my record bags that I would take home from Correction Records in Aberdeen (another place responsible for my near failure to graduate!) and a lot of these tracks were made by Umek – he seemed to be one of the most prolific producers, and at the time he was also putting out music that spanned a wide range of sub-genres, from funky through tribal right up to synth-heavy earthshakers. Since about 2002-ish I have had in the back of my mind that it would be good to put together a mix all of his tracks, that took the usual route that my sets do – getting harder and faster as it progresses. It’s only taken me 11 years to finally put it together for this guestmix, and for that, I thank Pearsall!

These tracks are all vinyl pressings, but I have ripped them to digital so that I could use loops and cues in Serato Scratch Live. I had a couple of trial runs before laying down this final mix, and tried out both a faster, choppier style and this, with smoother more progressive transitions. I decided that the latter works better for listening and the former for the dancefloor. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do please check out some of my other mixes at djskelp.com or on my mixcloud page at Mixcloud.com/ChrisSkelp.