- Timeless house and techno.
- It would be easy for an artist such as Ed Davenport to slip through the cracks. An ex-pat making house music in Berlin? It's not as though they're in short supply. But take a listen to the UK producer's output since he relocated to the German capital in 2008, or the volume of gigs he picks up at venues right across the city and it's clear that Davenport has been making his mark. His journey began back in 2006 with a batch of minimal-inclined releases for labels like Leftroom and Gumption Recordings. As the decade wore-on it seemed as though he began to find his feet. A more refined strand of house/techno began to emerge as Davenport shopped his music out to a variety of leading European labels. Hamburg imprint liebe*detail became a primary partner, while 12-inches for NRK, Falkplatz, Poker Flat and Figure SPC further spread the message.
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth, Photek, Minimal Man, Jeff Mills and Rick Wilhite all feature on Davenport's predominantly "influences"-based mix for us, outlining house and techno's evolutionary steps between the "now" and "then."
What have you been up to recently?
I've been working a lot on new music, concentrating on finishing a couple of singles for NRK and Falkplatz, and also continuing with plans for my first album. That's been a slow but enjoyable processïI want to get it right!
How and where was the mix recorded?
It was recorded at home using both vinyl and digital tracks, and was edited in Ableton Live. I mixed some passages on the decks and then brought in digital tracks, edits and effects. There are some extra details that I wanted to add with software, like panning, delay and EQ.
Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix.
It's largely an 'inspirations' mix; music I've found recently that gets me excited or older tracks that still deserve time to shine. I also really wanted it to be a proper podcast that people can listen to at work or at homemnot just an hour of the latest club tools. For that reason the mix travels though quite a lot of genres along with a few surprisesiI think that's what you can expect from my DJ sets too.
You play out constantly across BerlinBare there venues you rate that people from outside the city wouldn't necessarily know about?
One of my favourite smaller clubs that's popped up in recent years is Chez Jacki, behind the old Maria club. There's very little attitude there, a great atmosphere and varied music, and the owners are really dedicated to keeping it fresh and a bit different.
What are you up to next?
Really putting a lot of time into producing new, (hopefully) timeless music. My main focus at the moment is to get my album finished. I have a lot of other ideas and projects that are in development too. There's some real moody electronica about to surface that I made with a certain US producer in Berlin, and some weird out-there droney, spacey stuff that I've been making along with some other friends these other projects keep me inspired and busy!
I've also just finished a pair of remixes for Ian Pooley that will come out on his Pooled label, and there's a great synth-heavy track with Oliver Deutschmann that will come out on Polytone soon along with a Peter Van Hoesen remix.
TracklistEchologist - Hummer - Electric Deluxe
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - President At The Train - Var�se Sarabande
Jack Dixon - Wrong Number - Take Records
Gliesers - Kuiper Belt -Youandewans Dour Version - Fullbarr Digital
Photek - Solaris - Science/Virgin
7 Citizens - Quietus -Force / Emerge Remix -Praterei
Mr. Fingers - Distant Planet - Trax
Dario Zenker - 10AM - Ilian Tape
Bandulu - Shroud - Blanco Y Negro
Minimal Man - Spiritual Edit - Guerilla
Unknown - Untitled - Herzschlag Schallplatten
Pierre LX - Index 1 - Initial Cuts
Deee-Lite - Power Of Love -Pal Joey's Dub Mix - Elektra
Ace & The Sandman - Let Your Body Talk - Trax
Minimal Man - Bocyc - Trelik
Dimi Ang�lis & Jeroen Search - Cortex - Figure SPC
95 North - Sun Goddess - Large Records
Bandulu - Lifestyle - Infonet
Morgan Geist - Kilgore - Fragmented
Rick Wilhite - Blame It On The Boogie - Music 4 Your Legs
Mick Welsh - Dissonant Dialect - Elektrosouls Recordings
Grain - Untitled - Grain/FatCat
Jeff Mills - Every Dos Has Its Day Vol. 4 C1 - Axis
Chigago Skyway - Heavens & Angels - MOS_DEEP