on decks w/ Cold Front
(Please note: The On Decks column is a monthly mix featured
exclusively on phocas.net. Once the month is over, the mix
is retired and a new one is hosted in it's place. Consequently,
to get a copy of this mix, you will need to contact the
artist for a copy.)
Like a powerful weather front that overtakes entire regions
of the country, so Cold Front has enveloped the mid west
breaks scene. Cold Front is Rj Bass and Dj Prato; with over
20 years of dj, rave and club experience between them. The
joining of these two dj’s happened in early summer
of 2005. However, their history together goes back much
further then that.
Rj Bass got his start djing in 1995 while in the army at
Ft. Riley KS. It was there that he also became a rave promoter,
throwing some of the larger and more popular raves of the
Kansas City metro area in the mid to late 90¹s. Rj¹s
style and taste in music stem from the influences of his
upbringing in South Florida, where in the 90’s, breaks
were king.
From the start Rj was all about playing the breaks, but
when he hit the KC club circuit in 98 other styles such
as house, trance and techno made their way into his sets.
As Rj continued playing out and gained popularity, he opened
up for dj¹s like Micro, Hyper, Kemek, Simply Jeff,
and many more.
In 2001 Rj landed a job writing music reviews, posting charts,
and writing scene reports for the Midwest USA on Breaksworld.com
(a very popular Breaks website that was shut down in 2003)
where his international popularity grew for a time and where
Dj Prato would discover him.
Dj Prato was influenced at an early age by the east coast
hip-hop and electro sounds from the likes of Newcleus, Grandmaster
Flash, and Run DMC and started djing in 1990. A stint djing
for a teen night in Columbia MO during college, led him
to bigger and better clubs in the area gaining him a loyal
following. Prato and his wife moved to the Kansas City area
in the mid 90¹s so that he could pursue his career
in advertising.
In
Kansas City he met up with other local dj¹s and started
playing one off events and clubs whenever he could. In 2001
Prato was browsing Breaksworld.com when he came across a
scene report for Kansas City. It was then that he discovered
the local breaks underground and contacted Rj. He passed
on a demo to Rj who at the time was playing on a weekly
basis at one of Kansas City¹s larger nightclubs. It
wasn’t long before Rj was calling Dj Prato regularly
to open shows with him and play out together.
In the spring of 2005 Rj and Prato came together to do a
weekly online radio show, and decided to pair up to form
Cold Front. Cold Front named their show Frosted Breaks,
(where the best of new and old breakbeats are featured).
The show began airing on Syde-Sho.com Radio, where they
were the first regular weekly show to incorporate special
guest sets from well known producers and dj¹s from
all over the world. Only 6 months into the show Cold Front
was invited to begin broadcasting Frosted Breaks on the
extremely popular NuSkoolBreaks.co.uk internet radio station.
They accepted the offer and now broadcast their show on
NSB Radio, reaching an even bigger audience both locally
and overseas in the UK and in Europe.
In May of 2006 Frosted Breaks celebrated its 1 year anniversary
show. The success of the show over this first year, gave
Cold Front great opportunities to work with popular aritists
JDS, Friendly, Kemek The Dope Computer, Manual Neztic, Elite
Force and many more. Today Frosted Breaks is a bonified
hit across the globe. As the show continues to gain popularity,
greater things from Cold Front are expected, including the
creation of the first Kansas City based NuSkool breakbeat
record label. Production for Cold Front is also on the rise
with Prato churning out new tracks on almost a weekly basis.
Cold Front continues to play out regularly and their live
shows have never been better. 2 turntables, 2 cd players,
Serato Scratch and tons of cutting and mixing have made
Cold Front one of the best acts in the Midwest USA.
To get more information about Cold Front and Frosted Breaks
including Frostcast the brand new Pod Cast, check out FrostedBreaks.com,
RJBass.com
or DJPrato.com!
- BT - Fibonacci Sequence (Dark Mix)
- Andy Page & Marescruiser feat. George Clinton -
Elementalelectrofunk
- Plump DJs - Blackjack
- Joey Beltram - Energy Flash (Rennie Pilgrem Remix)
- Tom Real vs. Rouge Element - He's So Hot Right Now
- Krafty Kuts & Tim Deluxe - Bass Phenomenon
- Tom Real -vs- Rouge Element - Resistance
- Manual Neztic - Del Carmen Dub
- Vandal - Mad As Hell
- Boom Jinx - Suncast (Lee Coombs Mix) b/w Twista - Overnight
Celebrity (Accapella)
- Doug Lazy - Let It Roll (Soul of Man remix)
- Santos - Electro
- Uberzone - The Freaks Beleive In Beats
