To promote his Remixes & Rarities album out on Music Man Records we have this radio mix from Dave Clarke.

“I may be established but I’ll never be establishment.”

Dave Clarke is probably one of the most important techno and electro producer/DJs around. His cut up DJ sets are the stuff of legend, where the dancefloor is constantly kept on the edge as electro, techno, Chicago jack house, booty bass and leftfield sonics are spliced and diced with razor-sharp precision. His seminal productions which stream back to 1989 include the Red Series, early output for his own Magnetic North imprint, ‘Compass’, ‘Way of Life’ and more recent albums such as ‘Devil’s Advocate’ and ‘Archive One’. So rightly so Dave Clarke remains one of the biggest techno names on the planet, headlining festivals, clubs and live gigs the world over and racking up enough air miles to visit Jupiter on a day off! Of course this didn’t go unnoticed by many of the world’s biggest artists – Depeche Mode, New Order, Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Gary Numan and Moby just to name a few – who asked him for a remix over the past 14 years. Alongside some true techno classics such as his remixes for DJ Rush, Christopher Just, Jark Prongo, Leftfield and Midfield General we have an essential package of ‘Remixes & Rarities’ culled from a life on the front line of techno innovation.

In 1988 Dave Clarke played his first foreign gig at the now-defunct Richters in Amsterdam, kick starting a global reputation that now runs from Brazil to Singapore and from Reykjavik to Auckland, New Zealand. These days his DJ diary is booked solid six months in advance and he often headlines on the summer’s international festival circuit and remains to this day a resident at Belgium’s world famous FUSE (www.fuse.be) club for the last 10 years.

By the millennium many first generation techno DJs had fallen by the wayside, drifting off up blind allies and sub-genres, but Clarke’s sets, his extraordinary mixing skills mashing up techno, electro, ghetto-tek, hip hop and even 1980s new wave numbers, remained in constant demand. He put out a number of mix CDs including 2001’s first ‘World Service’ set and last year’s second instalment which showcased his dual love for electro and techno as well as a FUSE mix on Music Man and a crowning ‘Electro Boogie’ mix in 1997. He also signed to Skint Records, celebrating the event at Hove Dog Track by presenting the prize for a race entitled ‘The Dave Clarke Inaugural Techno Dash’. This union resulted in ‘Devil’s Advocate’ in 2004, an album that reeked of dark gothic energy laced with hip hop’s surly funk, and featured Chicks On Speed, DJ Rush and the MC Mr Lif. Clarke toured the world performing live to promote the album, as well as doing a session for his only DJ hero, John Peel.

Dave Clarke currently resides in Amsterdam and has embraced the European way of life as much as they have welcomed him with open arms. He has even just established his own radio show on national Dutch radio station 3voor12 called ‘White Noise’. With a recent show (http://3voor12.vpro.nl/programmas/afleveringen/29798831) playing music ranging from upfront techno and electro tracks on legendary labels such as UR, Trax and Tresor amongst brand new CD-Rs on fledgling imprints Dave also brings in cutting edge tracks from all over the place with music from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Ciccone Youth, Massive Attack and Jah Wobble, showing his passion for music beyond the dancefloor.

“Techno and electro isn’t just dance music,” he says, “It’s a challenging alternative to all the music that bleeds kids dry and doesn’t progress anything, the music I call opium music. I’ve got absolutely no respect for it whatsoever; I want to be the alternative.” On these two CDs Mr. Clarke can easily justify his comments.

www.daveclarke.com

* Sorry, no tracklist available for this mix *