“a big step forward” Hip Hop Connection, May 2007
“Sunday afternoon listening at its best” Notion, April
the soundcatcher must be some of the best music i've heard so far this year - RE:UP
Vadim destroys soundboards and bridges gaps between dub, jazz, hip hop, dusty downtempo with such ease - URB
some true next level shit... Vadim proves there's plenty of room for the art of the culture(hip hop) to evolve and grow - rapreviews.com
one of the best indie albums this year - vibe
pushing boundaries and bringing the heat - XXL
“Vadim’s production expertise continues to shine through” Music Week, March
“Vadim’s finest solo musical accomplishment to date” 5/5 iDJ, April
“the best work yet from a great unsung hero” 5/5 Mixmag, April
“This is possibly his finest collection to date” DMC Update (Issue 214)
“His most memorable and essential album yet” DJ Magazine
“you’d struggle to dislike an album so lovingly crafted by an established master of his game” Krugermagazine.com
NEW DJ Vadim Mixtape.. Live in Brooklyn "Everyone’s favourite Russian hip DJ/producer drops a mixtape gem, with a uptempo mix of disco, funk, soul, afro beat and latin grooves. There’s no tracklisting, but a cursory listen flags up plenty of classics from the likes of Fred Wesley, Gwen Gutherie, Dayton, Cameo, Raw Silk, Gil Scott-Heron, Fela Kuti, Spoonie G and many more. Even Rolf Harris pops up at one point, but don’t let that put you off. There’s no moody trip hop here, just quality feelgood music from start to finish, with of course, seemless mixing from the enigmatic ex-ninja. Anyone who drops Trouble Funk’s ‘Trouble Funk Express’ into the mix is alright with us - well worth picking up!"
Influences
al green, alchemist, astronaute, andy bey, beat junkies, coxon dodd, charlie mingus, coltrane, dego(4 hero), de la soul, dr dre, dj krush, dj griffi(solo los solo), gangstarr, george clinton/ parliament, ISP, james brown, joe gibbs, john ellis, king tubby, krs one, last poets, MAW, marley marl, miles davis, mr thing, pete rock, portishead, ray charles, roy ayres, soul II soul, sly & robbie, timberland, willie mitchel + stax, wajeed(blink 47/platinum pied pipers)
About DJ VADIM - aka luvbug vadski aka captain funkanoid
THIS IS THE BIG ONE... The East has arrived. Krush (Japan)
Vs Vadim (East Ham) - the parties over, it has become HISTORY. People will say; Where we you when Kennedy shot, Diana died and Krush Played Vadim?
DJ Vadim presents the Sound Catcher Album on BBE Records
What happens if you cross a Brazilian carnival spirit with a reggae
soundsystem and Brooklyn New York with a tour schedule that even dwarfs
British Airways flight plan? The Sound Catcher is born. DJ Vadim, the John
Coltrane of Hip Hop has been a very busy bee of late. DJ'g and touring his
group ONE SELF, remixing Fat Freddy’s Drop, Gangstarr, Ojos de Brujo, Alice
Russell...., re editing Prince, Al Green, Ann Peebles ....and now delivering
his 5th and latest DJ Vadim LP (debut for BBE) which he considers as being
'by far my most concise, precise and best work to date”. Not content with
working harder than all 7 dwarfs put together, he transplanted him self and
his 'timber yard studio' to Brooklyn New York in early 2006 where most of
the latest LP was written and produced. All work and no play can be a very
dull indeed yet The Sound Catcher isn't just about hard work. Its everything
you’ve come to expect from the 4 weetabix a day powerhouse
DJ/producer/musical incendiary and so much more: unpredictable with touches
of disco and tubby-esque dub moments, varied with brushes of blues, soul and
rap , urban grime bedlam with double time bounce and ambitious combining so
many influences and yet making it feel like they all fit. Without doubt a
major step forward from his last solo LP(the art of listening 2002 ninja
tune), new, funkafied bop.
DJ Vadim presents the Sound Catcher Soundsystem tour!
DJ Vadim - decks, mpc, effects
Deuce Eclipse - ill west coast mc
EMO - singing sweet reggae soul vocalist
Yarah Bravo - mistress of poetic innovation
Joe Tatton - killing it softly on the keys
ARE YOU READY FOR THE DJ VADIM SOUNDSYSTEM??
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be at the carnival in Rio or Notting Hill, to party on a roof top in Brooklyn, or after hours in LA, get sweaty in a dingy underground bunker in Berlin, or illegal rave in London, or swagger on the beach in Cape Town at sunrise? Few can say they have experienced music on the edge but even fewer are as experienced, travelled and well trained mix masters as DJ Vadim. He has been spinning for more than 18 years, producing since 92 and clocking in more than 1000 shows this millennium so far!!!! Yes, you did read that right, but is he any good live? The short answer is - he will bring ‘that’ party to your town and you will be rocked just as if he was your private desert island disc DJ!!! His record-selection criteria is based on the boogie-ability scale - anything that doesn't induce at least 8 out of 10 people to wildly throw shapes on the dance floor doesn't make the grade, whether its funk, soul, disco, reggae, dancehall, hip hop or jungle. And that's no easy task when you own more than 20 thousand records.
NonNonetheless, the soundsystem is running through your town and in the forefront we have - DJ Vadim. The man not content with causing seismic floor shaking DJ sets to promote his solo LPs, Vadim has been the creative lead behind many collaboratives of like-minded souls - from the early days of Russian Percussion where he introduced to us the jaw breaking killer kela and Scratch Perverts’ Mr Thing he has proceeded to bring us the soulful touch of John Ellis who became a central member of Cinematic Orchestra, then ONE SELF( DJ Vadim, Yarah Bravo and Blu Rum 13 accompanied by DJ Woody and Bongo Pete) to the present day with the new collective to present the SoundCatcher LP. Vadim's philosophy is so simple it's ingenious: he believes in sourcing the best raw talent and putting together genuinely fresh, innovative, yet damn-right funky shows that need to be seen to be believed! Vadim's creativity, drive and passion for his music reflect in all he puts his hand to.
Heavily inspired by the Jamaican/English culture of soundsystems like goodtimes’ (Norman Jay), rap attack, trojan, channel one.... DJ Vadim captures a similar temperament in the new show where nothing less than crowd upheaval is expected. Just like his DJ sets where Marvin Gaye is blended back to back with Gangstarr and then Samba into Gregory Isaacs, the new show mixes a multitude of musical elements and moods together seamlessly.
Booking information
for USA/ CANADA
chris@originsmusic.com
for EUROPE(ex germany/ france/ spain)/ASIA/ AUSTRALIA/ NEW ZEALAND/
AFRICA/ JAPAN
serena@primary.uk.com
for SPAIN/ AMERICA LATINA
jacobo@enter-group.net
for DEUTCHLAND
karin@subotage.com
for FRANCE
dun@agauchedelalune.com
DJ Vadim presents the Sound Catcher Soundsystem tour!
Hardest working man in show business? Trouper? Tireless? However you want to put it, be sure of one thing, when DJ Vadim first heard the phrase "Don’t sleep” he obviously took it literally.'
The beginning
Over the last decade few people can have put so much time and energy into the culture they love. Founder of Jazz Fudge in early 1995, A&R, producer, DJ, promoter, record collector, radio presenter, occasional painter, writer, and in-house producer/dj and cohort of Latin Grammy nominees, Spanish hip hop super group 7 Notas 7 Colorez, Vadim has certainly been keeping himself busy. And that’s before we even mention his...
DJing
...which has seen him perform in virtually every country in Europe(east and west), all over North America, Australia, New Zealand. Japan, Israel, Turkey, South America and South East Asia in just the last year. He has also performed with the likes of DJ Krush, Company Flow, The Roots, Pharcyde, Public Enemy, Beat Junkies, Dilated Peoples, Kraftwerk, supported Super Furry Animals, Morcheeba and Paul Weller as well as at events like Glastonbury and the Moscow Street Ball festival (to over 60,000 people!). To describe the man as an internationalist almost seems to sell him short.
In 1992, the Russian ex-pat bought a sampler and started working on the music that would become Abstract hallucinating Gases and Headz ain't ready. Later in the year he signed to Ninja Tune which culminated in his debut LP USSR Repertoire. From these early recordings came a remix LP USSR Reconstruction featuring DJ
Krush, Kid Koala, Mark B, Silent Poets, various 12” both for Ninja Tune and Jazz Fudge, a mix tape and CD with DJ Primecuts ( world ITF champ 99 and Scratch Pervert). In 1999 came the abstract funk collaboration LP of The Isolationist produced by Vadim, scratched by DJ Primecuts and vocalised by anti pop consortium. Relentless international tours followed with Swollen Members/Company Flow/ Jazz Fudge....and the purchase of yet more dusty vinyl's to
his already burdening collection.
This all culminated in the very successful last LP USSR: Life from the other side (Ninja Tune 1999). The LP featured Co Flow, Scratch perverts, Iriscience(from dilated peoples), Blade amongst others and caused quite a storm in USA with the track ‘your revolution’ featuring Sarah Jones. This song was banned by the FCC (USA radio regulators) for explicit and provocative lyrics, despite Jones actually satirising the attitudes and words of the mainstream rap and r&b that could be heard pumping out of the radio every day.
Time for some Russian Percussion
To promote that LP, Vadim put together a live group - The Russian Percussion - consisting of Mr thing (turntables), Killer Kela (beat box), Blu Rum 13 (mc), John Ellis (Keyboards) and himself. The response to the group was amazing and they performed together in over 600 shows in about 45 countries including most of Europe and North America. Feeling tired yet? Hang on in there. 2001 saw even more dj’ing, production and actually presenting, for the very first time... The BBC commissioned 3 radio shows including the very successful Sony award nominated programme ‘around the world in 8 relays’. Tours followed with Sarah Jones, Killa Kela as support and collaborator for Super furry Animals and Spanish and South American tours with '7 Notas 7 Colorez'
which resulted in the group being nominated by the Latin Grammies for best
Latin Hip Hop group. The Art of listening is born "…Listening” has all of
the angular abstractions of Vadim’s earlier work, but here it is combined
with a new depth of musicality, a love of bass and an interest in music and
words from around the world.
So, alongside UK MC's like Taskforce and Phi Life Cipher and the cream of US underground wordspitters like Slug, Gift of Gab, Motion Man and Vakill can be found Polish jazz legend Urzula Dudziak (a favoured sample source for 'A Tribe Called Quest' back in the day), Gruff from Super Furry Animals, Brazilian Swedish mistress of poetic innovation Yarah Bravo, Ade Soma and the Reverend Clevie Brown. Tablas and djembe drums mix with Japanese flutes, Brazilian guitars, spoken word, obscure scratched sound bites and a definite UK street sound incorporating hints of jungle bass and drums, all build the whole into something unusual and special It makes for a heady mixture, a record which Vadim describes as "a very grown up but cheeky and extremely musical album.” Urban but experimental, fresh and different, this record goes beyond not only what he has done before, but beyond much of today’s hip hop. With its global view of music, it’s new emphasis on soul, its concrete feel for the aesthetic of the sample, "The Art Of Listening” is funny, serious, unique.
The super group ONE SELF
All of this transports us to 2005 and Vadim hasn’t been idle! Something new has been brewing in East London and it isn't grime or the smell of Indian curry. Cosmopolitan, diverse, colourful, loud and definitely not middle of the road, perhaps an ideal setting for this debut international hip hop crew. After circumnavigating the globe more times than NASA collectively these artists individually are not new to this game but what better place is there to meet and fuse 3 continents together to create an album soaked in the richness of each of their backgrounds and musical upbringing. Oneself is born. However this is not what you might of expected. This is something a little different, more progressive, united, cohesive and perhaps is a re birth. One Self are - Dj Vadim, Yarah Bravo and Blu Rum 13
The future
Can one man be any more productive? Well the 4 Weetabix a day powerhouse has much more to come. Already cemented are productions for UK spitter’s Dark Circle, Foreign Beggars, Aspect’s, Kela as well as hot new Parisian super crew Bunzen, Up coming Latin lyrical reggae giant Paco Mendoza..... Music for Absolute Vodka, NOKIA. News of a 7 Notas 7 Colorez reunion, the new DJ Vadim LP - Sound Catcher out on BBE and countless other production’s, remixes dropping somewhere soon. Can it all be good? One thing for sure whether it’s Flamenco hip hop, Arabian space funk, Lettuce propelled rockets, new Vad reggae alias Junior Rankin or instro funk shiznittz Blixton Rodriguez, quality is guaranteed. hip hop but also so much more
The remix competition was brilliant. Over 2000 people downloaded the parts and
we had several hundred great mixed returned, all of them unique and many
absolutely outstanding. Thank you all. We've made 10 semi finalists and have
given till the end of June to make their finished tune, which will then be
hosted on this page and a winner chosen to be featured on the 3rd Single in
September.
