Biography
If you are looking for a 360 perspective on house, look no further than DJ Dan and ‘Future Retro'.
Two decades of nurturing and two years in the making, the phrase ‘good things come to those who wait' has never been more appropriate when it comes to DJ Dan's debut album, and how good does it feel?!
With twenty years in the industry stashed and still going stronger than ever, who better than Dan to reminisce the past and twist the future as he exquisitely does on his new long player set to drop globally in May.
‘Future Retro' is more than just a collection of tracks; spawned from Dan's studio, it's more a catalogue of inspirational records cut and tweaked in honour of their original format, and together with the ‘future' aspect of the record; a selection of hot, new and original material; DJ Dan presents his vision that is ‘Future Retro.' Far from being simply a remix album, ‘Future Retro' adopts the form of two separate projects. The first half presents ‘Retro', is a series of tracks taken from ‘back in the day' and reworked for 2010 and beyond. Whilst the second, the ‘Future' is fans first taste of new productions from the West Coast man.
Retrospective gems ‘Tribute to Voodoo Ray', ‘Can You Feel It?' and ‘Baby Wants to Ride' offer a vivid reminder of early rave days in the US that were sparked by Dan. Witnessed at first hand, the evolution of dance music from funk to acid house and everything in between forms the basis to the project across both the retrospective and ‘futurospective' angles of the album.
‘Operator' kicks off the retro exhibition with a breaks inspired nod to its original brother whilst the colossal re-work of Phuture's ‘Your Only Friend' is likely to stand the test of time, just like the first take has. The nature of this album affords the uniquely inspirational glance at the past but far from proving to be detrimental to the tracks representing the future, they carve their own place on the album in the same way they are sure to on music history - much like Dan has himself.
Electro monster ‘Drop Hits' is sure to test hardened club soundsystems the world over, making it perfect for the warped insurgence of the UK, the French house boom and bass loving Brazilians.
In fact, there isn't one genre not encapsulated in this album, ‘Hit the Drummer' hints at Dan's rave beginnings whilst ‘Disco Request' takes inspiration from the obvious - expertly we might add.
The American legend's debut artist album has organically transformed itself into an audible encyclopaedia of dance music, with his new productions sure to fill volume two in twenty year's time.
