Diskotopia / News

Posted 2010-04-22 in News Permalink

DJ Harvey Japan Tour

DJ Harvey lands this week for an epic 13-date tour of Japan.

Not many internationally renown DJs hail from my hometown of Cambridge, England and have achieved an almost cult like following the world over. But enough about me, apart from Pink Floyd I can’t think of anyone that has represented the ‘Bridge on such a level as DJ Harvey. Harvey is considered extremely influential in bringing over the disco/garage/house sound from America to the UK.

Harvey’s progression into DJing came after a trip to New York where he was inspired by the emerging hip-hop, electro and disco movement. Bringing his new found enthusiasm back home, he forged his reputation as an eclectic programmer of music, throwing outlandish, sometimes weekend-long, parties in his native Cambridge as well as Brighton, London and on the festival circuit. After a couple of years, whilst starting to inevitably include house and garage in to his sets, he began playing more parties in London; along such US DJ heavyweights as Francois Kevorkian and Kenny Carpenter.

In 1991 Harvey further cemented his reputation with his own night “Moist” at the Gardening Club in London. It was here he brought over some of the greatest New York DJs including Larry Levan, and along side them he’d play six-hour mixes of disco, house, garage and dancefloor friendly rock records. After Moist ended, Harvey began playing the bar at the Ministry Of Sound, where he later became resident 2 nights week. This resulted in the 1996 release of his mix album “Late Night Sessions”

He has released tracks under various pseudonyms on labels such as Mo’ Wax, Dorado, Ministry Of Sound, Skint and Junior Boys Own. He has produced and remixed tracks for Jamiroquai, LCD SoundSystem, Brand New Heavies, Ian Brown, Stereo MCs, Electronic, and even The Police. He is one half of the duo behind the classic and elusive Black Cock record label, on which he has recreated famous and lost edits of disco records by house music pioneers such as Larry Levan and Ron Hardy. He has also collaborated with Thomas Bullock (of Rub’N’Tug and A.R.E. Weapons) on the disco rock project Map of Africa, which released an LP in 2007 on Whatever We Want records.

Harvey’s nine hour sets in Los Angeles for his warehouse party HarveySarcasticDisco have attracted an asortment of enthusiastic music fans. and he is currently playing DJ gigs around the planet with residencies in New York, Washington and San Francisco. Not bad for a Cambridge lad.

And if that wasn’t enough, he is playing twice in Tokyo, most notably at Rainbow Disco Club alongside one half of Metro Area (Darshan Jesrani), Matt Edwards (Radio Slave), Ame and a whole lot more. Definitely a matsuri of an event to check out for disco and house fans. In Osaka he is being hosted by the legendary Osaka event crew Flower Of Life, fronted by the immortal Kansai record spinner, ALTZ.

2010/4/23 (Fri) @ NEST, Utsunomiya
2010/4/24 (Sat) @ PRECIOUS HALL, Sapporo
2010/4/25 (Sun) @ BASSMENT, Asahikawa
2010/4/28 (Wed) @ MAGO, Nagoya
2010/4/29 (Thu) @ ASIA, Aichi
2010/4/30 (Fri) @ MUGEN, Hiroshima

2010/5/1 (Sat) @ RAISE, Ohta
2010/5/2 (Sun) RAINBOW DISCO CLUB @ 晴海客船ターミナル臨港広場特設ステージ
2010/5/3 (Mon) @ DECADENT DELUXE, Fukuoka
2010/5/4 (Tue) @ PRAHA, Niigata
2010/5/5 (Wed) @ OPPA-LA, Enoshima
2010/5/7 (Fri) @ TRIANGLE, Osaka
2010/5/8 (Sat) @ eleven, Tokyo

Here’s a couple of tracks to download to get you in the mood. The first a great remix of piano house epic, House Of House’s Rushing To Paradise. The second, perhaps named after fellow disco-spinner and blogger Lovefingers, staggers along in a late-60s psychedelic/acid rock kind of groove…. enjoy!!