Fri Aug 24 – Kerri Chandler |

Fri Aug 24 – Kerri Chandler

KERRI CHANDLER

Kerri ‘Kaoz’ Chandler has been injecting soul into music since the early 90s, making him one of house music’s originators.

Kerri Chandler is a house legend, icon, inspiration, key figure, and a true house music purveyor. An ambassador of the natural and instinctive 4/4 beat, Kerri’s influences can be traced back to New Jersey growing up in a family of jazz musicians. His father, a respected deejay, provided Kerri with a rich background in the origins of soul, disco and the New York Underground Sound (known also as “Garage” music). Kerri began playing records at the Rally Record Club in East Orange, New Jersey at the tender age of thirteen and it was only a natural progression for him to become interested in production.

Since the signing of his first single SuperLover/Get It Off by Atlantic in 1991, Kerri began producing a prolific body of work that has helped coin him one of the most respected house producers in the world. This has been achieved by remaining true to his style. When listening to tracks such as the Atmosphere EP on Shelter Records and the seminal A Basement, Redlight & A Feeling album on Madhouse, one has to marvel at Kerri’s ability to not compromise his unique sound for commercial gain. His ability to blend tradition and innovation produces avant-garde music with soulful roots reaching back into the history of Afro-American music. Kerri masters rhythm and space piecing together vocals and instruments with uncanny precision delivering beautiful monster jams.

A spiritual man, Kerri prays before making a record. Each project is an attempt to inject his free spirit into a groove. His command and mastery of rhythm allows him to create fleshy excitement, not mechanical repetition. His now legendary bass-lines go from heavy and heady to playful and quirky while remaining deliriously intoxicating. His fusions, clamped to the beat of his unique thundering kick drum, redefine house music at every turn. His hooks are loving details, paying attention to horn hits, washes of synthesizers, and catchy choruses creating songs with brutal drive. A believer in peace and harmony, Kerri blames soulful house’s positive vibes for its failure to make it commercially, as its openness to influences are difficult for many to accept.

Kerri is fascinated by technology and its application to creativity. He has built his own studio and spends hours developing newer and more forward-thinking computer programs to revolutionize the way we think of traditional deejay mixing. Kerri uses his deejay sets to inject a spirit into the dance floor by playing “live” sets during which he remixes tracks whenever he can by incorporating every possible element, including visual and musical. Armed with two laptop computers, thousands of music files, his own handmade mini-mixer and a cutting-edge imagination, Kerri manages to wow audiences around the globe while inspiring debate and envy in top industry circles about his new toys.

Never straying from his roots, Kerri has proved he’s remained loyal to the underground movement by producing contemporary classics like Bar-a-Thym and Back To The Raw. The future is very bright for Kerri who is now signing and releasing productions through his new record label imprints: Max Trax, Grei Matter and Lost Tribes of Ibadan. With such a hot hand, he is the man of the house and undoubtedly will be responsible for many new classics to come.

If you think all house sounds the same, has no soul and is just four to the floor, then I suggest you do some rethinking and check out Kerri Chandler’s latest releases and back catalogue…You’ll be glad you did!

DJ MES

Bay-Area bred DJ Mes (Jason Sutton) rarely slows his groove. Since the 2004 inception of his Oakland-based label, Guesthouse Music, Mes has produced a prolific catalog of bass-heavy tracks that have scorched dance floors amid the ebb and flow of electronic music. As a DJ, his sets have inspired; as a producer, his montage of disco-dredged beats meld bump with rhythm and bass to create hot buzz in front of and beyond the speakers. In 2011, Traxsource honored Mes with the top spot on a list of 100 best house tracks of 2011 following the release of the bumpy Chicago-sound behind “Fools Gold” (Cajual Recordings).

Mes’ career dates back to the mid-1990s, when the future producer took early influence from the likes DJ Dan (Funky Techno Tribe) and Tony Hewitt (Tango Recordings). Some two decades later, it would be DJ Dan who would join the talent ranks of Guesthouse Music, Mes’ genre-defying imprint that earned him notoriety beyond numerous festival appearances, club residencies, and as co-founder of Daddy’s Records (1996). Unlike previous endeavors, Guesthouse bloomed as a personal and creative project inspired by the underground house community that embraced the sound in the U.S. and overseas. While Mes continued releasing tracks on acclaimed labels such as Nettwerk, Black Cherry, Magnetic, and Flapjack, it was his own Guesthouse Music that set the pace, releasing 150 EPs—including 40 vinyl releases—since its inception.

Mes’ ear for talent led to the unveiling of some of the most successful names in underground house, including breakout artists of 2011, J Paul Getto, who scaled the charts of Traxsource with “Need More Music” and “Paris Fried Chicken” Boundary-bending producers, such as Gramphonedzie, and classic acts, such as Cosy Creatures and The Sound Republic, exploded onto the scene under Mes’ own A&R moxie. Even while he introduced new DJs and producers to audiences, he continued creating his own body of boompty sounds.

While Mes looks ahead for talent, he creatively nods to sounds that inspired him to slide behind the decks more than 16 years ago. In 2011, Mes followed up his seminal “Fools Gold” release (Cajual Recordings) with a second EP, “Town Business.” “Love Affair,” a rework of First Choice’s classic “Love Thang,” climbed the underground charts alongside a remix of Two Ton’s Of Fun classic, “I Got the Feeling.” Even while maintaining a regular touring schedule throughout the U.S. and Europe, Mes continues partnering with the some of the scene’s most lauded producers, such as DJ Sneak and his own greatest influence, DJ Dan.

In December 2011, Mes and Guesthouse created another piece of house music history by releasing their 100th track, “3000” (J Paul Getto). For Mes, it marks the beginning of another phase of underground house evolution.

Adds Mes: “I’m always working to sign new or undiscovered music and talent to the label, and maybe even throw a curve ball to startle people with a new, unexpected style or sound. It’s what it’s all about.”

SCOTT HATFIELD

Scott Hatfield developed his passion for DJing around 1998. While working at a frame shop, he was introduced to House Music and the art of DJing by fellow coworkers. Listening to House in the back of the store lead to going to an actual event, hearing the music and being blown away by “Bad Boy Bill” live on 3 turntables.

From that point on Scott was hooked; he collected countless records and would endlessly practice to develop his own art and style of sound. Coming from an eclectic musical background his sound is fairly diverse – combining a hard-hitting tech sound with some funk, disco, a bit of jazz and a whole lot of soul.