Through his work as DJ, producer, dancefloor experimentalist, remixer, collaborator and label owner, Paul Woolford has succeeded in bringing a rare level of artistry to the world of modern dance music and in doing so, made an enduring global impact. His name is synonymous with high-quality.
As we enter 2009, the projects through Woolford's Intimacy studio include Morgan Geist "The Shore" for Environ (for which Beatportal awarded a 'Bomb Alert' and DJ Mag included in their 'Killers'), remixes on the Ewan Pearson-produced band Delphic for R&S, The Juan Maclean "Happy House" for New York's DFA, DJ Hell feat P.Diddy "The DJ" for Gigolo in Berlin, and Chelonis R. Jones "The Cockpit" for Systematic, also in Germany. On top of these remixes, there is a fierce release schedule for Woolford's own singles of which there will be one-per-month on his Intimacy imprint, starting in April with "Pandemonium", followed in May with "Timebomb" and then in June with a James Zabiela re-working of "Knives". Aside from this he is also working on production and remixes for the Mercury Music Prize-nominated act Maps for Mute Records. The quality of each of these projects speaks for itself.
Initially inspired by the constant throb of the radio throughout his childhood, the seeds of his future direction were sewn by the time a record-collecting addiction kicked in properly during his teenage years. This insatiable appetite for musical stimulation has driven Woolford to explore far beyond the cutting- edge house and techno that is his stock-in-trade, and led him down more experimental paths, embracing aspects of improvised jazz through his collaborative work with Paul Hession, and taking huge inspiration from the modern composition of Steve Reich. All this is distilled within the techno dynamic that Woolford has made second-nature.
As a DJ, Woolford tours the world constantly as a guest of the finest clubs and festivals (such as... Tokyo's Womb, Madrid's Goa, Berlin's Panaramabar, Venice's Il Muretto, Chicago's Smartbar, Paris' The Mix, Manchester's Sankeys & The Electric Chair, Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo's Pacha, Riccione's Cocorico, Dusseldorf's Tribehouse, LA's Avalon, Las Vegas' Jet, Milan's Amnesia, Zurich's Q Club, a career-defining performance in 2007 at Serbia's Exit Festival, Buenos Aires' Creamfields, Global Gathering, The Glade Festival, Glastonbury ) and has a frequently exhausting schedule that runs into overdrive in the summer when his main weekly residency at WeLoveSpace on Sundays in Ibiza starts. He was awarded 'Best Newcomer' in Ibiza's DJ Awards in 2006. In addition to this, he now holds a monthly UK residency at Matter London at which he can approach things in a different manner more appropriate for this worldwide hub of dance music.
It is with this highly personal and chameleon-like ability that Woolford makes his mark, creating bespoke re-edits built purposefully for each environment, ensuring that you KNOW it is Woolford and Woolford-only in the booth when you hear them.
Many know Paul Woolford's name through the 2005 slow-burning hit "Erotic Discourse", released on 2020 Vision, the Leeds label with which he made his name initially. The success of this proved he has the ability to create a genre-defining sound and led to sales of over 15,000, capturing the imagination of DJs across the board from The Chemical Brothers, Richie Hawtin and DJ Hell to Francois Kevorkian, Laurent Garnier, Trevor Jackson and Erol Alkan. It was Erol Alkan that described the track as "a modern day psyche record" and the track became a classic.
Magazine Covers have included DJ Mag August 2006 (with Nic Fanciulli), One Week To Live October 2006, IDJ in January 2008 with a photo shoot from Tate Modern's Doris Salcedo installation "Shibboleth" (after a personal email from Woolford, Salcedo gave her express permission) and an exhaustive 5 page feature to mark the release of his "The Truth" album on 2020 Vision.
Irrespective of your position on the dancefloor or listening at home, Paul Woolford's tropes and idiosyncrasies are unmistakable and he has become a force to be reckoned with in modern dance music.
DJ Bookings (worldwide except North America): rachel@imd.dj
Promo's: PLEASE NOTE I ENDEAVOUR TO LISTEN TO AS MUCH MUSIC SENT AS TIME ALLOWS HOWEVER INEVITABLY THINGS WILL ALWAYS FALL THROUGH THE NET SO PLEASE BE PATIENT. Thank you. Send me your track
James Zabiela plays his new remix of 'Knives' in Budapest. Forthcoming on Intimacy with another version by the Winner of the Welove Remixing competition.
DJ Hell – The DJ feat. P. Diddy
Release date 28th September 2009
International Deejay Gigolo
Recordings Distributed by NEWS
'The DJ', on which P Diddy (yes, him again) shouts a lot about how "motherfuckers" should play the 13-minute versions of tracks is one of the most ridiculous, brilliant things you will have heard in a long time.’ Tony Naylor in The Guardian.
The latest single taken from the much lauded 'Teufelswerk' long player sees Hell “hooking-up” once more with hip-hop superstar P. Diddy for the freestyle jack-track “The DJ”. The pair worked together before on “Let’s Get Ill” and “Check This,” creating two classic dance floor hits. But for ‘The DJ’ these two masters wanted to set the techno world straight and send a very clear message ‘to the mother fucker plays a 4 minute version.’ That you ‘can’t get even get into your thing with a 4 minute version.’ With this in mind Hell is very pleased to present his latest single ‘The DJ feat. P. Diddy; one original track, four remixes, over one hour of music! So yes, “This goes out to all the mother fuckers that like 15-20 minute versions of a mother fucking record.”
Many of us might wonder what sort of position P. Diddy has commenting on the state of clubs and the forgotten art of playing the full version of a record. This is a man who’s own Production work with mega-stars such Notorious BIG redefined East Coast Hip Hop. But for those in the know P. Diddy is no stranger to club land. Hell himself describes P. Diddy as a man who ‘knows about techno music… When he was a kid he was going to the Sound Factory to see Junior Vasquez.’ In the higher-echelons of Dance Music history this was a very important time for US “Rave” culture, much like the European Halcyon Rave days of the early 90’s. The most striking difference being that, as with all great New York clubs from the Paradise Garage to Sound Factory, these parties went on for days and so did the records. But more recently P. Diddy has been ubiquitous in club culture, from Partying with Hell and Claude Von Stroke in Miami and tearing it up with Felix Da Housecat in Ibiza So P. Diddy has a privileged position, in that he was there then when the art of playing the long version was at its peak and he is here now, a time where blog culture and Rock Star have-a-go DJ’s line-up on mass to play low bit-rate MP3s.
Speaking about his collaboration Hell has said that P. Diddy “is a provocateur and he likes to do his own thing but at the same time he is a genius business guy… I was doing some music for him and like he said ‘You do something for me and I’ll do something for you.’ I’m very pleased he let me release that song and he’s even dissing the DJs on it, you know the crowd pleasers.” Which makes you wonder how Hell approached the Remix selection and whether this selection is sympathetic towards the message of the record? This is a question that might never be answered, because Hells approach was very straight forward, he wanted the very best DJ’s to remix what he sees as a track by a DJ for the DJ’s. Ass such the only way to approach this was to send a personal message to each collaborator/remixer. The response was the package. Paul Woolford, Deetron, Jay Haze, Sis and Radio Slave, all presenting diverse remixes that take the original vocal as the lead. Formats are still being discussed over at Gigolo HQ, but ideas so far include a E2-E4 style vinyl release for the Radio Slave mix, which will see it presented across two sides of a Long Playing vinyl. Another vinyl release is penned strictly for DJ’s, and then two separate digital packages, which include a Clean Version of the original by DJ Hell and producer &ME. On the subject of this clean version Hell was quoted in the UK Web-zine The Quietus as saying I was told I would have to clean this song before I could release it in America and I didn’t know what they meant. But they mean to cut the swearing out; which is funny because I don’t need to worry in Germany. In Germany I can say ‘motherfucker’." But with such growing anticipation from every corner of the globe Hell stepped up and bleeped his way through P. Diddy’s profanities. The result is a 9-minute blooper that has all the energy of the original with an added humor synonymous with DJ Hell. On that note we will let you enjoy the ride.
I just wanted to stop by Your Space Place and say hello. Also wanted to stop by and show some support and love. Here's sending it your way! I'll stop back by soon to see how you are doing. Have a great week!
New IANVS71 introducing new maverick jazzsters AUTRE with their compelling debut “Unheard Melody EP”. Played and supported by LocoDice, Livio & Roby, Nima Gorji.
Artist: AUTRE Title: “Unheard Melodies EP” Cat. No.: IANVS71_005 Format: 12” vinyl + digital (mp3 / wav) Tracklist: A1-Unheard Melodies A2 – Canoa Quebrada B1 – Masquerade B2 - Mismo + Funk Speeches (digital only release bonus track)
New Release from Mija Recordings available now at BEATPORT...... Celtec Twinz - Sorbit Orbit EP (MIJA002)..... With Jamie Anderson & Psycatron Remixes....... Big support from Laurent Garnier, Christian Smith, Stephan Bodzin, Dave Seaman, Lee Burridge, DJ Hell, Wally Lopez, Alan Fitzpatrick, Slam, Alex Kenji, Nick Warren, D. Ramirez, Neil Quigley and many more.
