M&A #09: bez

Before he began manning the decks himself, Bez could be found on the committees of Bunker, CUCFS and KA, among others. After transforming from the booker to the booked, he’s torn it up at avant gardening, third space and rudie with his signature style of tough grime, techno and dancehall. Relentless energy, shifting rhythms and cutting vocals are expertly delivered on this urgent dancefloor mission statement.

How did you record the mix?

On Serato using a Numark Mixtrack controller.

What were you trying to do with it?

I knew there were a couple tracks I’ve had on heavy rotation recently that I really wanted to feature on the mix, so I just built around those tracks and ended up with this.

Artists on the series so far have blended different genres, but the variety of speeds and feels here is quite unique. What did you think the common thread was?

Well the couple tracks I really wanted to play were all sitting on the 70bpm range, so I just set off from there. You get a lot of grime, ambient and some techno tracks at that range, then obviously if you jump to 140 bpm you can fuck with a lot of pacier techno & dancehall tracks. So, I just went with the flow & took a few left-field turns here & there. It was super simple but also quite fun being able to flip between those ranges & explore different moods but there are v obvious spots in which that massively goes wrong lol but such is life.

You’ve been involved in a lot of BME activism in Cambridge, as well as nights like rudie, an event focused on dancehall, afrobeat, dub etc. While both house and techno were born out of black communities in Chicago and Detroit, currently festival/club line ups are criticised for a lack of racial and gender diversity. Do you think ethnic minorities (and the originators of dance music themselves) are underrepresented in the contemporary scene?

I would agree to some extent, obviously there is underrepresentation in so many aspects of life and a lot of the line-ups put out by promoters are not exempt from this. I think a lot of that is probably down to the people curating these nights/festivals though. Club nights are unique in the sense that almost anyone can put out a night, so if you’re lucky enough to have people in your city willing to do something, as we’ve seen in Cam with nights like Rudie/Third Space etc then you can get access to a much more diverse range of music/artists. So much more diverse spaces in bigger cities like London etc, and often a lot of these nights which are probs smaller/more intimate end up being a much better experience than the super commercial events.

Festivals less so, a lot of people booked in mainstream festivals are generic white males but then again, I do think a lot of that is changing at the moment for the better. Having done a bit of booking through Bunker & KA, it’s really refreshing to see that some artists are now requesting a more diverse line-up as part of their riders which can only help to force promoters to be more conscious about the nights/festivals they’re curating.

You have done a couple of mixes for Marble, each focussing on a different genre/artist. What was the thinking behind putting those together? Was it hard to develop a mix out of a smaller pool of songs, or do you think it’s something people should do more often?

When I made the first one, I was fucking with FDM a lot at the time, so I then made a mix and literally just wanted to do something with it aha. I’ve only done two so far but definitely keen to do a couple more soon. It’s definitely a real challenge pulling something together from such a small pool of tracks but it forces you to be more creative with what you’re doing. The mixes are definitely more thematic than anything else so if you’re bringing in tracks from other artists into it, you kinda have to ensure they really complement whatever it is you’re doing

Do you have any top tips for people looking to branch out into the stuff you feature there? What should we be listening to?

Algorithms lol – you’d be surprised the amount of good stuff that comes out of Soundcloud & Spotify’s algorithms if you start in the right place.

How do you dig for records/find new music? Do you have a specific process?

Don’t collect records, but I usually discover new tracks online. Lots of frequently updated playlists on spotify by artists, labels, record shops etc. Usual go-to playlists are Phonica’s, Crack mag’s, Bleep’s, Ninja Tune’s and Floating Points’ – stuff kinda then snowballs from there using the algorithms again. Lots of the artists & labels I follow on social media also frequently drop gems on their stories etc and mates are always a good source to draw fresh music from.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Soulja Boy – Kiss me thru the phone

What is the last song you listened to?

Solange’s album = bliss

Who is your favourite producer/performer at the moment?

Probably Marie Davidson, she’s been dropping a lot of whippers recently or BEA1991, she makes me feel some type of way.

What is your go to tune to bring a party up/banger?

I only ever play bangers but anything by LSDXOXO usually brings a crowd up.

What was the best party you’ve played?

Probably the first ever 3^rd Space night, first time on CDJs, played lots of fun shit, really gd vibes, it was great.

What have you got planned for the future?

The line-up I’ve put together (avec Hattie [a.k.a. HAH, mix #07]) for KA is pretty peng so really looking forward to going & playing there + few other balls in may week.

Also, hoping to headline glasto before I’m 35.

Bez's Track List:

[I haven't managed to timestamp because of exams, but mixcloud should tell you what the track playing is... I think]

artist - title

Amnesia Scanner - AS Rewind

Miss Red - War

Demdike Stare - Animal Style

Rezzett - Tarang

Superman-ram - 1500

Radioactive man - Blast Furnace (Pain Struck Stanley Dumb Remix)

DJ Stingray - Cognitive Load Theory

Craig Richards - My Friend is Losing His Mind

Headie One ft. Dave - 18Hunna (Four Tet remix)

DigDat - Air Force

Rebore Kid - Rebore Riddims

Rian Treanor - ATAXIA_B2

Marie Davidson - Workaholic Paranoid Bitch (Nina Kraviz rework)

Kedr Livanskiy - Kiska

DJ Ly-COox - Energia

DJ N.K. - Caiprinha

Mina - Mama Day Party

Objekt - Ganzfeld

Warrego Valles - No Sign of Mankind

Squarepusher - Red Hot Car