Every DJ has one.
A night when everything that can possibly go wrong does - and it does so in spectacular fashion. ClashMusic brings you DJ Disasters, featuring some of the most respected figures in the dance world reminiscing about those moments when it all went badly wrong.
Next up: Dogtanion. Real name Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau, the producer helped to found Tape Club Records back in 2006.
Steadily releasing a stream of skewed, chewed up beats the label has grown to become a cult proposition. Reflecting Dogtanion's own crate digging traits, Tape Club veers from extremes of sweet and sour.
Booked to play a birthday party a few years ago, Dogtanion set off with his equipment packed up. All he had to do was remember the correct hard drive...
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This is part DJ disaster and part DJ miracle. I have this friend - she is Tommy Cooper's granddaughter, which although not directly related to the story, does make it even weirder. She is an artist and was having her birthday party at a gallery in East London. She has sad eyes just like her Granddad and though I don't normally do birthday parties, when she asked me to DJ I couldn't say no. The whole party was sort of an installation, with people dressed up as animals and the walls painted with murals and stuff hanging from the ceiling. She is pretty out there as an artist, but when it comes to music her taste is a little more obvious. She had asked me specifically to play chart music and early 2000s hip-hop and RnB (Nelly, 50 Cent, Ja Rule, etc.), which I wouldn't normally play but she is a good friend so I said I'd do it.
I use Ableton to DJ, and have loads of music on different hard drives, so I bought loads of trashy pop and RnB and chart hip-hop and put it all on a new hard drive. But when I got to the party I realised that I'd picked up the wrong hard drive, which was full of experimental music and abstract, avant garde stuff: noise music, modern classical, black metal and drone.
There was nothing I could do. I couldn't tell Tommy Cooper's granddaughter because her eyes are so sad, and I couldn't bail on playing the party because no one else had any music. So I didn't say anything to her and just started Djing all this music as if it was normal.
At first it got ignored because people were drinking and chatting and doing all the normal things you do at a birthday party. But then people started getting into it, nodding their heads and dancing a bit. Then, when I put on some Michel Chion, the whole party exploded and people were going mental and throwing themselves around the room. It was great - the weirder the music, the more they seemed to get into it. Half of it didn't even have a proper time signature, but they didn't care.
At midnight, a cake got brought out and Tommy Cooper's granddaughter had originally asked me to play 'Happy Birthday’ by Stevie Wonder, but obviously that was on my other hard drive so instead I played 'Booji Boy's Funeral' by Devo and everyone just sang happy birthday over the top.
I kept going until 4am, until there was just a group of four people - including Tommy Cooper's granddaughter and one of the performers who'd been dressed up as a seahorse for the installation - dancing to Iannis Xenakis. Eventually the gallery staff had to cut the power.
I've never been brave enough to drop any of the songs into a set again, but it was probably the best show I’ve ever done.
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Being a generous sort, Dogtanion has also crafted a Japanese Vibez Mix for ClashMusic. Listen below...
Dogtanion - Japanese Vibez Mix by Outpost Music PR
Tracklisting:
Hype Williams/ard - Face Turn Mastered - Hyperdub
Canblaster - Clockworks - Nightshifters
Zomby - Rumours Revalations - 4AD
R Kelly - Ignition (remix) - Jive
Dogtanion - Islam - from the forthcoming album J A P A N on Tape Club Records
Kayne West - Mercy (Rl Grime and Salva Remix) - GOOD Music/Def Jam
Hermitude - Hyperparadise (Flume Remix) - Elefant Tracks
Canblaster - Triple Ring (Magnum Remix) - Nightshifters
Fis-T - Nighthunter - 502 Recordings
Harmonix - Confidence Boost (Trim) (unofficial Dogtanion edit) - R&S
Zomby - Basquiat - 4AD
Peter and Kerry - Fucking Around (Dogtanion Rolling Mix) - Tape Club Records
Ackroyd - Flags - VIDEOZZZZZZCREW
Om Unit - Vibrations (Machinedrum remix) - Civil Music
Krampfhaft - Perfect Gain Structure - Saturate Records
Machinedrum - U don't survive (Chrissy Murderbot Remix) - Planet Mu
Kwes and Micachu ft Tirzah - Nothing - from the Kwesachu mixtape vol.
2 (Kwes - Warp, Micachu - Rough Trade)
JJ - Still (Dr Dre ft. Snoop Dogg - Still Dre cover) - Aftermath
Dr Dre ft. Snoop Dogg - Still Dre - Aftermath
Devo - Booji Boy's Funeral - Rykodisc
Photo Credit: Tim Bowditch