U:Move

By Steve Thorell

Who has the biggest Bass?  In 1988 Michael Hampton aka DJ Magic Mike started dropping some of the biggest bass music releases the planet has ever felt.  Throughout the 90’s if you had a 15” subwoofer in your car, chances are you owned one of his tapes or CDs.

Collectively, his releases have sold over 5 million copies world-wide. His first album, released in 1989 DJ Magic Mike and Royal Posse sold over a million copies reaching platinum status. “We didn’t find out the first album went platinum until after the second album was certified gold in 1993. We had no idea the record sold that many copies, up until then our mission was to just make records and enjoy life”

Throughout the 90’s Mike and his crew continued to push the sound of Miami Bass even further. In 2000, James Lavelle’s highly respected Mo’Wax records put out a series of three EPs called The Journey (Era of Bass Vol.1).  This eventually led to a european tour consisting of Mike and Dj Assault, another lover and producer of bass tinged electro madness.

“We were supposed to release Era of Bass Volume 2, but they lost distribution with Polygram and that was it, it was never released. It’s still sitting at my house.”

Continuing to evolve as a producer, Mike began to collaborate with long time Florida breaks pioneers like DJ Fixx, Infinity and Dynamix.  His original work still persevered the test of time though, as displayed by Miami native Dj Craze dropping the classic “Magic Mike cuts the Record” on Fabric Live 38.

Mike currently travels the country rockin’ clubs and parties alike on Saturdays. He also holds a seven year long Friday night residency in his hometown at the downtown Orlando nightclub, Antiqua.  “I incorporate of a lot of my older tracks in my sets”.  “My sound is techy with an old-school flare”.  Mike sites Axwell & Ingrosso as his favorite producers right now and is really feeling the house tracks coming out of Sweden.

With over two decades of experience, Mike knows how to rock the spot.  Whether it’s banging out some gritty electro or shaking some walls with his signature bass, Mike definitely still has the Magic.

Once again the top spots dominated by trance djs. Armin van Buuren takes the number one spot. Usual suspects Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk fall in second and third.

New additions breaking into the list this year include Deadmau5, Aly & Fila. Joachim Garrud, Bobina, Laidback Luke, Marco Lenzi, Adam Sheridan, Sean Tyas, DJ Feel, DJ Shah, John O’Callaghan, Cosmic Gate, Simon Patterson, Laurent Wolf, Signum, Tiddy, Greg Downey, Marcel Woods, Solar System, Skazi, Mike Koglin, Solar Stone, Astral Projection, Leon Boiler, and Tocadisco.

01. Armin van Buuren
02. Tiesto
03. Paul van Dyk
04. Above & Beyond
05. David Guetta
06. Ferry Corsten
07. Sasha
08. Markus Schulz
09. John Digweed
10. Infected Mushroom

11. Deadmau5
12. Carl Cox
13. Sander van Doorn
14. Paul Oakenfold
15. Richie Hawtin
16. Hernan Cattaneo
17. James Zabiela
18. Andy Moor
19. Eddie Halliwell
20. Axwell

21. Eric Prydz
22. Kyau & Albert
23. Gareth Emery
24. Sven Väth
25. ATB
26. Anderson Noise
27. Joachim Garraud
28. Bobina
29. Fedde le Grand
30. Dubfire

31. Aly & Fila
32. Judge Jules
33. Umek
34. Matt Darey
35. Ricky Stone
36. Ricardo Villalobos
37. Lange
38. Daft Punk
39. Benny Benassi
40. Bob Sinclair

41. Deep Dish
42. Mark Knight
43. Astrix
44. Marco V
45. The Thrillseekers
46. Laidback Luke
47. Danny Tenaglia
48. Menno de Jong
49. Marco Lenzi
50. Andy C

51. Offer Nissim
52. Martin Solveig
53. Adam Sheridan
54. Sean Tyas
55. DJ Feel
56. Yahel
57. Roger Sanchez
58. DJ Shah
59. Sander Kleinenberg
60. John O’Callaghan

61. Blank & Jones
62. Cosmic Gate
63. Steve Angello
64. Simon Patterson
65. Gabriel & Dresden
66. Richard Durand
67. Laurent Wolf
68. Matt Hardwick
69. Chris Liebing
70. Erick Morillo

71. DJ Hype
72. Signum
73. Justice
74. Dirty South
75. Wally Lopez
76. Magda
77. Lisa Lashes
78. Pete Tong
79. DJ Vibe
80. Bad Boy Bill

81. Tiddey
82. Greg Downey
83. Marcel Woods
84. Nick Warren
85. Solar System
86. Skazi
87. Mike Koglin
88. Mauro Picotto
89. Sebastien Leger
90. The Chemical Brothers

91. Steve Lawler
92. Fatboy Slim
93. Solarstone
94. Astral Projection
95. Leon Bolier
96. Nic Fanciulli
97. Ronski Speed
98. Tocadisco
99. Booka Shade
100. Alex M.O.R.P.H. & Woody van Eyden

Listen to the interview with Felix Cartal on Rotation Podcast 002.

For more info on Felix, check him out on Myspace.

u:move caught up with Dave Dresden, formerly of Gabriel & Dresden.  Listen to excerpts of this interview on u:move Rotation Podcast 001.

u:move - Obviously you are very ambitious, what musical influences fueled the fire in the early years for you?

Dave - My tastes ran the gamut when i was young. Since i grew up in the New York area, i was exposed to New York radio, which in the 70’s, was very progressive. There was WKTU playing disco, WRKS playing the music that was the foundation of hip hop, and Frankie Crocker on WBLS playing the hottest cuts at the Paradise Garage, i was exposed to dance music long before the masses were. In the 80’s i was extremely fond of nu romantic, new wave and power pop music. I loved Depeche Mode and the Cure just as much as I loved Journey and the Clash. I didn’t really like punk per se, but i liked all of the offshoots of it. I think a lot of the music that is hot on the dancefloor today has a lot of roots in the early 80’s disco punk scene. Around 1986 i first heard house music, and i thought it was really awesome because it just sounded so new and fresh, and that’s what forced me to be a DJ. I mixed up the styles for the first 10 years of my DJ caereer, and that’s what i feel really helped me become a good producer, combining ideas that you wouldn’t think work, and that’s one of the things i strive for when i make music.

u:move -  Since your division from the great Gabriel and Dresden duo how do you think you have grown creatively?

Dave - It was very interesting, when Josh and I were discussing going our own ways, Logic 8 and Ableton 7 were introduced. It felt like the hand of some force was descending upon me and guiding me to my next endeavor. Especially Logic 8, it has helped me get the ideas i want down, and worry more about making the music and less about setting things up so that I can make music. Working with Josh was an amazing experience where i just learned a whole bunch of crazy secrets to making great music. It was like going to college and getting paid to learn Logic. I have started and finished quite a few tracks since we parted and have been playing them in my sets to great response. I know in five years i will clearly hear the limitations of my purely solo tracks, but you can’t expect to be making the music that two industry veterans with tons of ideas can do on their own. Neither of us can do what we did together alone, but that’s what this break is about, finding our sounds so that when we do work again, we will forge ahead something new and fresh and appealing. I am excited for the future!

u:move -  I am sure that functionally things are different both on stage and in studio with one person rather than two, but have you come to notice any particular advantages of being a solo act?

Dave - For sure. One is that i don’t have to confer with anyone but myself when i’m djing. Josh admittedly has a very limited scope of what he deems good music, and i am a lot more broad. I like to play music that is both dark and serious, and i also love a fun track every so often. So, my solo sets have felt a little lighter than G&D sets. As for the studio, I am really loving just discovering new ways to do things which working solo on my laptop has afforded me. Making music is like problem solving. There are so many different ways to arrive at what is right and wrong, and i’m loving the challenge of thinking of a sound and then getting it down as i wanted it. I also am enjoying working with other producers and gaining new ideas from working with them and of course some new tricks .

u:move -  What is the most crucial part of the creative process for you?

Dave - Making what you hear in your head happen. When you start a track, you get some sounds in and then slowly you start getting a perspective of where the song is going, what the to-die-for moments are, etc. The challenge is to make sure you don’t lose a sound if you like it. To know when enough is enough and implement what you are doing. But i think the other most crucial thing to making good music is to listen it it from an outside perspective. A lot of times in the creative process you start to believe your own hype, so you need to be able to check yourself and make sure that what you are feeling is real or imagined.

u:move -  You are well known for your work on the Tong show as well as your work at Billboard.  How did you develop such a keen ear for fresh talent?

Dave - I think it stems from the fact i kept an open mind about music as a kid. I never liked things because they were fashionable. I liked them because i liked them. So it was okay to love Bon Jovi and the Communards and not feel guilty. I look for hits when i listen to music and i can spot hooks a mile away. That’s the only criteria for me when listening to music. Do i like it and why? This helps me listen to demos and know right away what is good and what is not.

u:move -  If you had to pick a favorite piece of hardware what would it be?

Dave - The Moog Voyager. It is such an interesting piece of gear with so many ways of tweaking a sound. The fact it has real voltage controlled oscillators gives sounds a warmth that you just can’t find in modern instruments. I think Deadmau5 has really extolled the virtues of this piece of gear, and it’s all over the G&D debut album. All the hottest sounds on that disc were from this keyboard.

u:move -  You have mentioned recently that you are working to develop a new application for the creation of music, can you give us any more information on this project or possibly a date we can expect to see it?

Dave - No, this is Josh’s thing. Josh started in software with his program called Mixman, and I know for a fact that Josh wants to do things outside of directly making music in the future. He has these ideas that when he tells you them, you’re like “yeah right,” but, for example,  he was talking about video games being instruments back when i started making music with him in 2001, and now look at how popular this concept is. He is definitely an innovator and i believe that he will change the world if he gets back into software creation. He had a side project while we were working called “Soundmail.org” and it’s this really cool app for emailing sound files between each other. You can see the waveform in your email and then click anywhere on it for a live stream and it was pretty seamless with very little buffering. I think he plans to sell it to someone who can market and develop the idea further.

u:move -  It’s peak time, the crowd is primed, what songs are big for you right now?

Dave - I’d say for going for the jugular at my shows right now, there’s about 4 songs i play every set that go off

1. Deadmau5 - Not Exactly (Dave Dresden’s Exactly Not Remix)

2. Serge Devant - Sweet Harmony (Dave Dresden & Trent Cantrelle Sweet Guitar
Remix)

3. Andain - Beautiful Things (Gabriel & Dresden Unplugged Mix)

4. Filo & Peri - Anthem (Dave Dresden’s Anthem For…Remix)

u:move -  Where do you see the future of dance music going?

Dave - Dance music will always borrow the great ideas from other music and make them work on the floor. That’s the one super great thing about dance music. It accepts any other music source to be inside of it. And as long as there’s producers who are pushing the boundaries, it will continue to capture people’s imaginations unlike many other genres have been able to do for as long as dance music has

For more info on Dave Dresden, check him out on Myspace