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Carl
Cox's Back to Mine collection proves Carl doesn't just provide
cutting-edge techno and state of the art banging house music. He
sometimes like to leaf through his extensive record collection and
play some of the more relaxing and soulful tunes.
Carl
Cox Autobiography:
I can't remember a time without the strains of soul music drifting
through our house. With both parents coming from Barbados I was
brought up very much in tune with a natural party ethos that went
hand in hand with a love of good music. My earliest musical memories
are of Booker T and the MGs, Aretha Franklin and, of course the
great Elvis, and I used to hijack my parents collection of 70's
soul 45's and get the whole family grooving round the lounge! I
guess the early signs were there - my passion for music combined
with an over-whelming desire to entertain as many people as possible.
By 10 I had
well and truly caught the bug and was spending every bit of my pocket
money on soul and funk records. I got my first pair of decks (just
the 2!) by the age of 15 and I started to play as many parties as
I could, discovering that I could buzz off a crowd whilst funding
my habit at the same time. As the 70's became the 80's I followed
the musical trend from soul to disco to hip-hop but it wasn't really
until I moved to Brighton in 1986 that I discovered, along with
so many others, the pure thrill of acid house.
The 'Summer
Of Love' was special for me in more ways than one. It was at the
Sunrise rave on the outskirts of London in 1988 that I had had my
biggest breakthrough yet. I was already something of a regular on
the infamous M1/Orbital rave circuit but it was at Sunrise that
I had the idea to hook up a third deck. At 10.30am on a hazy Sunday
morning I managed to tempt 15,000 partied out ravers back onto their
weary feet and kick the party back into action - it was an amazing
experience- and since then my phone has not stopped ringing with
offers for 'The 3 Deck Wizard'. I was fortunate enough to participate
in many of the events that have gone down in history as defining
moments in the history of UK club culture, such as playing the opening
night at Rampling's legendary Shoom, running The Project with Oakie
as well as holding a residency at Brighton's ZAP club.
With my reputation
as a DJ well and truly secured I was able to turn my attentions
towards producing. Initially signing to Perfecto I had my first
hit in 1992 with 'I Want You' and, believe me, no one was more surprised
than me when I found myself performing on Top Of The Pops when my
record peaked at number 23 in the UK charts!!
Despite the
fact that the follow up 'Does It Feel Good To You' also charted
in the top 40, commercial success was never what I had been aiming
for, it was all somewhat too far removed from the reality and buzz
of setting a dance floor alight. Whilst fellow spinners such as
Grooverider and Fabio moved from raves into Jungle, choosing to
focus on a very UK and London orientated sound, I couldn't escape
the American and European influences that had always been there
whilst I was growing up. I have always been very globally minded
which comes across in my choice of music, which I use to cross physical
and cultural boundaries to bring people together. Essentially my
heart lies with house and techno and it was for this reason that
I chose to take a back seat from my impending career as a pop star
and be true to myself by going underground and re-discovering my
roots.
I started by
setting up my first imprint, MMR, for Techno productions. I found
that my popularity as a DJ gave me an opportunity to take techno
to the masses and my first album FACT (Future Alliance of Communication
and Technology) has to this day sold 250,000 copies. I spent 5 years
under my own Ultimate Music Management which spawned club nights
and tours alike and set up the forward-looking Worldwide Ultimatum
to encourage the creative talents of more DJ's such as Josh Abraham's,
Trevor Rockcliffe, Earl Gray and DJ Dan. In 1996 Nicky Holloway
approached me to start a new night based on the style of music I
was playing at the time and Ultimate Base was born at Velvet Underground
along with the help of Jim Masters. Over the last 5 years Ultimate
Base has showcased some of the world's finest techno DJ's, steered
by a futuristic ideal, which very much reflects my own way of thinking.
The last several
years have been absolutely mind blowing. In between jet-setting
between gigs as far afield as South Africa, Israel, Tasmania and
Asia I kick-started my acting career in the classic UK clubbing
film 'Human Traffic' and somewhere along the way I found time to
start new labels Ultimatum Breaks and Intec to focus on providing
quality purist house and techno. I have regularly contributed Essential
mixes for Radio One and I followed up the success of FACT (1&2)
with several more mix albums including 'Phuture 2000'. My career
has been marked by a number of awards - I was awarded IDA 'DJ Of
The Year' 2 years in a row, Muzik named me as the Best British DJ
and I've had more honours from NME, Dancestar and countless other
organisations all over the world.
Out of so many
highs it is difficult to pin-point the peak for me - it is a close
call between The Love Parade and the dawn of the millennium. Playing
for a crowd of 1,500,00 up-for-it clubbers in Berlin was the ultimate
DJing experience in terms of seeing how wide reaching music can
be but then being lucky enough to see in the millennium not once
but twice - first on Bondi pavilion, then hopping on a jet over
the timeline to Honolulu, Hawaii, was also pretty special.
More recently
I have given up my residency at Base in order to concentrate on
spreading myself even further afield. But don't worry, in between
producing, writing, remixing, presenting, TV appearances, managing,
not forgetting DJing I will still be making regular appearances
at Base and hanging with the very people who got me where I am today.
Visit www.carlcox.com
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