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DJ Flash
Intor by Brent Crampton
Photo by Morgan Claiser DJ FLASH is a DJ, re mixer and producer with 8 years of experience. With
countless residencies, guest spots, opening and headliner spots
throughout the Midwest over the years Flash has gained a reputation
inside and outside of his community as a progressive musician and a
high energy performer. As a producer, Flash has developed a style all
his own through his 3 full length self-produced albums and his remix
work for artists such as Fugazi, Classic, MC DL, Eye's Last Glance,
James D Stark & more. As a promoter, Flash has organized and developed
over 100 events throughout the years and has recently been the
co-organizer for Iowa's "515 ALIVE" electronic music festival, head
organizer for the PRESENTER series (see info below) of events & as head
resident DJ at Des Moines' LIFT OFF weekly event. Flash recently opened
a new 24 track production and recording studio in Des Moines
specializing in Dance & Urban music and is working as the head engineer
and producer there. He is the
head of Iowa's prestigious electronic production team, Twilight World
Recordings as well as owner of the new groovePRO multimedia company.
DJ Flash's music production style is all encompassing. He journeys
through all styles of electronica from jazzstep D&B to Epic Trance to
ambient Trip-Hop. However, if you were to see Flash perform live today
you could expect a high energy set consisting of a funky and
progressive blend of techno, house and breaks with accents of
turntablism and scratching.
Flash's style benefits not only from his broad experience but also from
5 years of work as a Pro Sound designer, installer & gear technician as
well as the head gear & vinyl buyer at Central Iowa's only DJ supply
store, Keeper's Music. In addition to being the sole supplier for DJs
in Central Iowa, Flash has also developed a training method for DJs
and, over the years, has helped over 20 DJs learn the finer points of
the art of DJing as well as develop their style in a live aspect as
well as a studio aspect.
Look out for Flash in action at his new monthly event in Des Moines -
Spin Cycle which will be bringing in national talent such as Nigel
Richards on August 7th.
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6th Element "Together" (Malinconik Mix)- Link Records -
Wow. This is one of those tracks you got somewhere, never played and
put away only to be found 2-3 years later, that makes you say, "damn!
where the hell has this thing been?" This whole EP is a remix of an old banger and the Malinconik Mix
specifically is an amazing progressive tribal BANGER with a huge
hands-in-the-air buildup and as any good DJ knows...tribal goes with
pretty much anything and drums get people dancing.
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Urban "Super Ball" - International House Records -
Lately I've had a hard-on for pretty much anything off of IHR. Back
in the day the stuff was good, mediocre filler fodder but nowadays Bad
Boy Bill has really turned that label around and it shows with this
track by veteran producer, "Urban". This has a really funky bass line
with a filtered, almost tech, riff that just builds and builds until
one main whiplash breakdown and frenzy buildup disrupts the whole
track. Lots of room for mixing and tricks.
-
C-Mos "2 Million Ways" (dub) - EPOS -
C-Mos (aka Conga Squad) deliver plenty of funky house...most of it is
mediocre funky disco style beats but every now and then you get a jaw dropper like this. An Amazing anthem style house tune that sounds like
elements of Casssius with Armand Van Helden, only with a little more
danger in the mix via a tech-style bass kick. It's also got a great
feel-good breakout that'll get most people up on the floor.
-
Kadoc "The Nighttrain" (Kosmonova Remix) - Nukleuz -
Call me old fashioned but I still love to drop this classic track
every now and then to see who on the floor remembers it. Now I've got 3
new remixes of it, courtesy of the peeps at the U.K. super label,
Nukleuz. All 3 of the mixes are good in their own rights including the
Warp Brothers and Bass Solution mixes but the Kosmonova mix is the one
that really sticks out for the house DJ in me. Lots of energy. All
Aboard!
-
Raoul Zerna "Funkin on the Floor" - Cymbol Recordings -
Another heavy filtered funker with a great Chicago feel to it. It has
a lot of elements that remind me of Olav Basoski's harder works. It
features a great techy filtered bass line, really progressive snares and
a cool little female vocal snippet proclaiming that the track is "
funky". She was right! It is!
-
Benny Benassi "Able to Love" (sfaction mix) - You -
Maybe I'm falling into the pit of "UK Hitz" but I love Benassi's
previous work on "Satisfaction"...you remember the award winning track
with the girl telling you to touch her that you couldn't get away from
last Winter/Spring? Well he's crossed the same vocal effect style of
that song over to a much more heavy sounding tech-house BANGER with "
Able to Love" and every now and then you just gotta throw down the
angry shit to let 'em know you mean bizzness.
-
Antoine Claraman "What!" - Cyber -
So like 4 years ago I got this amazing filtered tech-house white
label for free from a distributor that I just couldn't stop playing for
6 months. A couple months ago I order the new Antoine Claraman EP and,
lo and behold, it's the same white label from years back. So now I got
this just ridiculously sick double routine that I drop with this track,
which is just ridiculously sick in itself. It's hard filtered stuff
with a sample that goes like "what!", all hard sounding. It'd be great
if I had a Dave Chapelle sample of Lil Jon to mix it with! The flip side
is dope, too.
-
Bad Boy Bill & Hatiras "Freq'd" - International House Records
- Another excellent track from the IHR camp. In my opinion Hatiras is a
bad mutherf***er and you get one badass track here. It's a standard
house beat with this cool angry sounding new-wave-ish riff that drives
the whole thing. Lots of cool little flip-backs on it make it ultra fun
for beat juggling and doubling. Had to buy 2.
-
N.S.D. Project "in the hood" - Nine Records -
I've been really impressed with the music from the Nine label so far.
This track is by the N.S.D. project (Nique & Vitamin D ((of the
floorfillerz)) and Sean Biddle). It's pretty driving basic house with a
really funky riff and some little analog "bloops". Also lots of
flip-backs and some interesting drum programming make this one really
fun for the active DJ.
-
Intexor VS. Sinesweeper "Physical" - Spot On -
I've had this guy in and out of my crates for 3 years now. It's not
an "everyday play" type track but it goes real well with my current top
10. Plus it's one of those tracks that when you drop it, all the house
DJs around you start scrambling to trainspot, so you know it's good! It
has darker disco-ish riff that pretty much runs the whole thing. It's
got a really Joey Beltram type of vibe and that's a good thing.
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