HNYPOT 124: Hardrock Striker Deep Inside Skylax
Tracklist
Prince – Traffic Jam (Ron Hardy edit)
Gettin heavy (jordan fields mix)
Andy hart – D2me
Carlos Nilmmns – You, the night & the music
Jan - Eye to eye
Red D – we made this jack
Phreek + 1 – passion (DJ T mix)
Deep Space Orchestra – Ghetto science institute (Neville Watson Mix)
Da rebels – come to me (night mix)
Simoncino – Warrior dance (Ron Trent remix)
Soul system – Never gonna be the same
Massimiliano pagliara – a wrong chance (tuff city kids mix)
Chloé – Diva (Plein soleil mix)
Geymatter – Tesla
Chicago Damned - If i could
The field – Up there
Norma jean – Into my room (Jan Mix)
Jason grove – The love
Jason grove – Streets
Rick poppa howard – Can your love find it’s way
Argy – Whish you were here (vocal mix)
Simoncino – inga’s creme (chez damier club mix)
Bobby konders – Poem
Carlos Nilmmns – RED
The house master boyz – House nation
Kos – Definition of love
Scope – nerve center (remix)
Matthew style – Don’t call me again
Virgo 4 – It’s a crime
Jamie Principle – Waiting on my angel
Carlos Nilmmns – For Iz
Tony Lionni – Together
Mark broom – Disco lights
Jus – ed – ice 592
Axel boman – ABBA 002
Marck archer – I want you
Stablo
Reel people – Star (rocco mix)
Kramer dashwood – Ron hardy’s ghost
Delano smith – Change is coming
Canblaster – Stoned totem
Huxley – Hey hey hey
Plus an exclusive interview with HARDROCK STRIKER:
1. What part of France are you from? What was it like growing up there and what music inspired your teenage years?
I am living in PARIS for more than 10 years now but i was originally born & raised in a parisian suburban town called Sarcelles.
Well, it was really cool & very diverse, i mean in this town you will be able to find a lot of immigrants : muslim, jewish, blacks, kurdish, turkish, pakistani, armenien & as you can imagine the list goes on & on & on. There was more than 100 ethnic groups or something !
In my town, Public Ennemy was King & later on, it was more Dre & Snoop, everybody was into hip - hop. I even had in my classroom some people who would become later some Hip - hop superstar in France (Passi & Stomy Bugsy with their band Ministère Amer). But i was not really into that in 1987 - 88, i was more into rock'n' roll (though there was some hip- hop tracks that i thought sounded terrific), let's say things like stooges, MC5, black sabbath, blue oyster cult, PIL, Factory records ect ... dreaming about USA because that was the music i wanted to do in the beginning. This is why i made the move to L.A. in 2000 when i created a business with Peter Black (our first label Parisonic / Square roots). He's the one who introduced me to house, i never wanted to do this but then i started thinking, after all Rock n roll in some ways was dead & the only way of doing something new was to merge electronic & rock or what we can call leftfield music (in 2000 progressive was everywhere & then minimal :( ). I remember again, this is the town where i met Doc Martin, Wax people, Juan & Lillyanne from Future house, i saw carl craig for the first time playing in a basement there for few bucks (can you imagine that in europe !), even DJ Harvey. That was funny because we did this track years ago called summer sleep w/ kate bush (2002) & peter told me that this track was really perfect for somebody like DJ Harvey (because i added a lot of guitar licks & basslines into it - indeed, originally i am a guitarist) so it would be cool to get his approval BUT I DID NOT KNOW WHO THE F...K HE WAS ! Finally, we met him & it is totally true & not a legend : the guy came from the beach with his surfboard, we took a coffee, spoke a little bit, he was really really cool.
2. When did you decide to start your label Skylax Records and how did you choose the name?
Well i started SKYLAX in 2004 because we had to stop our partnership in PARISONIC. We had 2 other partners but things went bad (money issue as you can imagine) & also it never really matched with those 2 other guys so we decided to stop this & i did my label. The name well, L.A.X. is the airport as you know & SKY, it went in my head like this; boom ! an explosion : yes i need to call it SKY - LAX so SKYLAX ! Hahahaha. I even found out that was also the name of a greek sailor living in the 4th century BC ! The persian gave him the mission to explore the indian ocean. You can find some old books speaking about it, well i should maybe re - issue that too !
3. I notice an evolution in styles/genres on your label, where does the diversity come from?
Well to be really honest Josh i don't think so. Basically when i had Parisonic i've been re - releasing a lot of old school tracks from Chicago via Square roots (remember, i was doing this in 2003) & on the label we get for instance some people who would be affiliated later to the Cosmic / balearic scene (lindstrom & prins thomas as jazid, they did a remix of one track from the legendary africadelic album by manu di - bango), same with Riton ect ... So i always was & still be in this kind of leftfield sound. I was always looking for some kind of "purity", it can be house, disco, italo, techno but it has to sound TRUE in my hears. Maybe also it can come from my backgound, something (reading this interview) you can easily understand now.
4. Who are your record label contemporaries around the world?
I think mathematics is doing a great job also you have a lot of other labels really interesting but to be honest i am not completely devoted to 1 or 2 labels, i am a DJ & because i am a DJ, i am working on a daily basis to find out some tracks for my gigs so it's more a job & vision that i am working on track by track. It can be one of FXHE, one on sound signature, one on mathematics, one on permanent vacation ect ...
5. Can you describe your most memorable/favorite live gig?
Well, i guess my first time on a sunday afternoon at Panorama bar was properly amazing, i was very impressed but i started to play & it's such a great place to play because you can dj for hours & hours so i had the time to build up a proper set, the crowd went completely mad, i was so proud. Berlin people are really the best for music, sharp & clever, France is hell in comparison, they don't really understand music, it takes time for them to get it. Let's say when something started to get some buzz & fame, they book you; otherwise never. They don't have this vision to book some people just because they think it's good; they need to get the approval from the scene. Once it works worldwide, for sure they will put thousands to have you, this is why US or UK DJs are asking for so much when they're coming & in a way they're totally right. But as you can imagine, thx god, they are still some crews here fighting for what they have faith in.
There was also the SKYLAX party we did at Cookies for the DJ Sprinkles album release, again, berlin is great because he played at some point some ambient & everywhere else people would have get out of the club, saying "we need you to bang the place man, what's happening !" there, they were just dancing, waiting & let the music infiltrate their bodies slowly & slowly. And to end, the last one we did at About Blank (again in berlin, greatest clubbing place on earth !) with the FUTURA crew, we had Snuff Crew (live), me & prosumer. I've played 4 hours & people enjoyed it so much, it was packed as hell & i guess this time i really bangged the place very very hard ;)
6. All of your releases are centered toward the dancefloor, is your goal to make music for people to dance to?
Our first motto is "Music for Dancers, Music as an Alternative" (MDMA), well i guess it speaks for itself ! But i think in the future i would love also to release some experimental music, pop or even hip - hop; i've been working on some tracks years ago with a very famous hip - hop singer but it never went out; maybe later ... i heard it yesterday again & it sounded still fresh to me! So to sum up, if i think it's good, i am releasing it, whatever style it can be.
7. How do you feel about the renewed interest in Italo disco and proto-House?
It's just great, i've been working a lot on that, i think i was one of the pioneer in this "revival" (though i don't like the word), all my records, DJ bookings & tracks were done
to finally reach this moment at a certain point i guess. I have signed these last years some very very talented artists who have clearly an analog sound such as DJ Sprinkles, Simoncino, Snuff Crew, Jason Grove, Andreas Gehm (aka Elec Pt 1), Joe Drive, Chris Mc Millan aka CarlosNilmmns, Carl Bias (from the legendary 80's house band Master C & J), The Rimshooters, June, Soul System ect ... Expect these soon at your local record shops ! You can also see this change with the vynil, analog gears (that costs today thousands & thousands because of this revival). People want some integrity & feel that the guys who are at the controls have faith. I am so happy to see that backlash for minimal & tech house, people are rejecting these styles today that have been the worst thing in the past years. We can say the same for the bangers.
8 What are your future plans?
Our next releases on Skylax will be Simoncino with some Chez Damier, Ron Trent & Virgo 4 remixes (!) also Jason Grove has a 12 inch comin'in on our new sub label Wax Classic, The Rimshooters (aka massimiliano pagliara & Rotciv) are in too with our other sub - label Cosmic Club : VYNIL ONLY.
To end my plans are really simple : WORK. TRUTH. FAITH. LOVE.
I am living in PARIS for more than 10 years now but i was originally born & raised in a parisian suburban town called Sarcelles.
Well, it was really cool & very diverse, i mean in this town you will be able to find a lot of immigrants : muslim, jewish, blacks, kurdish, turkish, pakistani, armenien & as you can imagine the list goes on & on & on. There was more than 100 ethnic groups or something !
In my town, Public Ennemy was King & later on, it was more Dre & Snoop, everybody was into hip - hop. I even had in my classroom some people who would become later some Hip - hop superstar in France (Passi & Stomy Bugsy with their band Ministère Amer). But i was not really into that in 1987 - 88, i was more into rock'n' roll (though there was some hip- hop tracks that i thought sounded terrific), let's say things like stooges, MC5, black sabbath, blue oyster cult, PIL, Factory records ect ... dreaming about USA because that was the music i wanted to do in the beginning. This is why i made the move to L.A. in 2000 when i created a business with Peter Black (our first label Parisonic / Square roots). He's the one who introduced me to house, i never wanted to do this but then i started thinking, after all Rock n roll in some ways was dead & the only way of doing something new was to merge electronic & rock or what we can call leftfield music (in 2000 progressive was everywhere & then minimal :( ). I remember again, this is the town where i met Doc Martin, Wax people, Juan & Lillyanne from Future house, i saw carl craig for the first time playing in a basement there for few bucks (can you imagine that in europe !), even DJ Harvey. That was funny because we did this track years ago called summer sleep w/ kate bush (2002) & peter told me that this track was really perfect for somebody like DJ Harvey (because i added a lot of guitar licks & basslines into it - indeed, originally i am a guitarist) so it would be cool to get his approval BUT I DID NOT KNOW WHO THE F...K HE WAS ! Finally, we met him & it is totally true & not a legend : the guy came from the beach with his surfboard, we took a coffee, spoke a little bit, he was really really cool.
2. When did you decide to start your label Skylax Records and how did you choose the name?
Well i started SKYLAX in 2004 because we had to stop our partnership in PARISONIC. We had 2 other partners but things went bad (money issue as you can imagine) & also it never really matched with those 2 other guys so we decided to stop this & i did my label. The name well, L.A.X. is the airport as you know & SKY, it went in my head like this; boom ! an explosion : yes i need to call it SKY - LAX so SKYLAX ! Hahahaha. I even found out that was also the name of a greek sailor living in the 4th century BC ! The persian gave him the mission to explore the indian ocean. You can find some old books speaking about it, well i should maybe re - issue that too !
3. I notice an evolution in styles/genres on your label, where does the diversity come from?
Well to be really honest Josh i don't think so. Basically when i had Parisonic i've been re - releasing a lot of old school tracks from Chicago via Square roots (remember, i was doing this in 2003) & on the label we get for instance some people who would be affiliated later to the Cosmic / balearic scene (lindstrom & prins thomas as jazid, they did a remix of one track from the legendary africadelic album by manu di - bango), same with Riton ect ... So i always was & still be in this kind of leftfield sound. I was always looking for some kind of "purity", it can be house, disco, italo, techno but it has to sound TRUE in my hears. Maybe also it can come from my backgound, something (reading this interview) you can easily understand now.
4. Who are your record label contemporaries around the world?
I think mathematics is doing a great job also you have a lot of other labels really interesting but to be honest i am not completely devoted to 1 or 2 labels, i am a DJ & because i am a DJ, i am working on a daily basis to find out some tracks for my gigs so it's more a job & vision that i am working on track by track. It can be one of FXHE, one on sound signature, one on mathematics, one on permanent vacation ect ...
5. Can you describe your most memorable/favorite live gig?
Well, i guess my first time on a sunday afternoon at Panorama bar was properly amazing, i was very impressed but i started to play & it's such a great place to play because you can dj for hours & hours so i had the time to build up a proper set, the crowd went completely mad, i was so proud. Berlin people are really the best for music, sharp & clever, France is hell in comparison, they don't really understand music, it takes time for them to get it. Let's say when something started to get some buzz & fame, they book you; otherwise never. They don't have this vision to book some people just because they think it's good; they need to get the approval from the scene. Once it works worldwide, for sure they will put thousands to have you, this is why US or UK DJs are asking for so much when they're coming & in a way they're totally right. But as you can imagine, thx god, they are still some crews here fighting for what they have faith in.
There was also the SKYLAX party we did at Cookies for the DJ Sprinkles album release, again, berlin is great because he played at some point some ambient & everywhere else people would have get out of the club, saying "we need you to bang the place man, what's happening !" there, they were just dancing, waiting & let the music infiltrate their bodies slowly & slowly. And to end, the last one we did at About Blank (again in berlin, greatest clubbing place on earth !) with the FUTURA crew, we had Snuff Crew (live), me & prosumer. I've played 4 hours & people enjoyed it so much, it was packed as hell & i guess this time i really bangged the place very very hard ;)
6. All of your releases are centered toward the dancefloor, is your goal to make music for people to dance to?
Our first motto is "Music for Dancers, Music as an Alternative" (MDMA), well i guess it speaks for itself ! But i think in the future i would love also to release some experimental music, pop or even hip - hop; i've been working on some tracks years ago with a very famous hip - hop singer but it never went out; maybe later ... i heard it yesterday again & it sounded still fresh to me! So to sum up, if i think it's good, i am releasing it, whatever style it can be.
7. How do you feel about the renewed interest in Italo disco and proto-House?
It's just great, i've been working a lot on that, i think i was one of the pioneer in this "revival" (though i don't like the word), all my records, DJ bookings & tracks were done
to finally reach this moment at a certain point i guess. I have signed these last years some very very talented artists who have clearly an analog sound such as DJ Sprinkles, Simoncino, Snuff Crew, Jason Grove, Andreas Gehm (aka Elec Pt 1), Joe Drive, Chris Mc Millan aka CarlosNilmmns, Carl Bias (from the legendary 80's house band Master C & J), The Rimshooters, June, Soul System ect ... Expect these soon at your local record shops ! You can also see this change with the vynil, analog gears (that costs today thousands & thousands because of this revival). People want some integrity & feel that the guys who are at the controls have faith. I am so happy to see that backlash for minimal & tech house, people are rejecting these styles today that have been the worst thing in the past years. We can say the same for the bangers.
8 What are your future plans?
Our next releases on Skylax will be Simoncino with some Chez Damier, Ron Trent & Virgo 4 remixes (!) also Jason Grove has a 12 inch comin'in on our new sub label Wax Classic, The Rimshooters (aka massimiliano pagliara & Rotciv) are in too with our other sub - label Cosmic Club : VYNIL ONLY.
To end my plans are really simple : WORK. TRUTH. FAITH. LOVE.
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