To be honest we’re not massive fan of people in bands being DJs, too many nights out ruined by sub-Libertines chancers with a crap selection of shit music and even worse mixing (that’s if they’re not playing some shitty pre-mixed CD and miming like idiots).
Occasionally though someone comes along who not only has great taste in music but has bothered to learn how to use the equipment and most importantly work a dancefloor, Jack from Friendly Fires is a great example and to that short but sweet list you can add Foals’ Edwin Congreave.
We’ve had the pleasure of playing alongside Edwin a few times now at places like Be and so we’ve invited him to join us this Friday when we takeover Islington’s Old Queen’s Head for a little party and figured we might as well cash in and get him to put together a mix for us and talk about his adventures on the wheels of steel.
Hello Edwin… well firstly thanks for playing our party, care to tell our readers what kind of things they can expect to hear coming out of the speakers next Friday?
Something like this mix, but with more… party. My fixed gear is classic underground house music, but I try not to be too much of a douchebag about it.
You’ve been DJ’ing for a while now, was it something you had wanted to do before you joined Foals?
It was something I did before foals–badly. I’d dj between bands at indie nights in oxford and play stupidly inappropriate minimal records that I’d bought in London the previous week. No one liked me very much. It was the sort of situation where various people were probably thinking, “what’s this arsehole trying to prove?” I don’t know what I was trying to prove. But years of djing to foals-related crowds has disciplined me into opening up the music I play, and, subsequently, the music I like. So I’ve learnt, essentially, to be fun. I think. (I suspect only un-fun people think about life in that way.)
Do you think you DJ’ing more had any influence on Foals’ records, or will have in the future?
No, not really. The others aren’t remotely interested in djing, despite my best efforts. They all like dance music, though, and the music I’ve introduced them to has had unpredictable and probably untraceable influences. For example, the B-side to our first single was heavily influenced by monolake’s plumbicon, though I doubt many fans of industrial techno would notice or be particularly enamoured with it. No matter how many records we play each other and whichever direction this myriad of influences rubs itself off, we’ll always sound like a bunch of jive-arse wannabes playing guitar too loudly.
What are your five favourite club records to play out?
Mm. I’m gonna go with crowd-pleasers that I’ve been playing for years and have yet to get bored of. “burning love” by glossy, “another excuse (dfa remix)” by soulwax, “happy house” by the juan maclean, “sinfonia della notte” by dennis ferrer, aaaand more recently the round table knights remix of “coma cat”.
What do you prefer Vinyl, CD or laptop?
It’s probably not very right-on to admit this but I think I only really got my head around djing when I moved from vinyl to cd. It freed me from the limitations of playing only the records that I either owned or thought worthy of buying. By which I mean I only bought records that I considered to be beautiful and/or a good investment in one way or another. So I owned all these brilliant techno records that I couldn’t for the life of me apply to most of the contexts in which I’d be asked to dj. I guess this is the inverse of the argument that limiting yourself to vinyl creates a more refined and disciplined aesthetic. Yeah, I guess. Once I’m a millionaire I’ll switch back.
And, no, I don’t know anything about laptop mixing. There’s nothing that turns me off in a club quicker than that glowing apple logo.
When playing what best describes your DJ style, sober party technician or substance fuelled disco shaman?
er. I’m no shaman. In fact I could probably compete for title of the world’s least charismatic djs. I regularly get told to “cheer up” by smart-arse punters. Should I admit that? Well, I’ve no interest in djs who want to throw themselves around–I’m sure they’re lovely people, but it’s kind of repellent to me. Maybe it suits a particular kind of smash-and-grab electro but it certainly doesn’t suit the kind of music I like to play. Not that I want to be po-faced. One of my favourite djs, move d, keeps himself to himself but spends his time bopping and visibly loving the music he’s playing. That’s what it’s all about if you ask me. Creating a space for yourself, and in doing so sharing it with the crowd.
My worst nightmare is those clubs where the DJ booth is smack bang in the middle of the stage with a spotlight on it. The dj is evidently expected to provide some sort of visual entertainment or status symbol or something I can’t ever relate to. Djs are supposed to stand in dark corners playing records, one after the other, while better looking people do drugs and throw themselves around. That’s it!
Who apart from yourself would you most like to DJ a Foals after party?
As much as I’d love to invite radio slave I know it’d have to be someone who our fans would actually be into. And that’s easy: tensnake. I’m a huge fan, and I think he is one of a handful of artists who successfully bridges that potentially nightmarish abyss between indie and house music. He also has a slamming collection of tunes that no party can argue with.
Apart from being invited to play in the top room of a pub with us, what has been the highlight of your DJ’ing career to date?
Hmm. playing the main room of fabric? Though I kind of fluffed that. It was all going real swell until I decided to close my set with “trycycle” by various productions, a tune I’d only heard for the first time that day and that I thought was some incredibly visionary pysched-out post-dubstep creation but was in fact a stone-cold vibe-killer that, well, I just couldn’t quite mix properly. One of the guys from simian mobile disco appeared behind me to take over, and I swear he was eating his own fist with horror.
Anyway. The highlights are usually the nights that have confounded low expectations. I played in Athens at the end of a week-long band visit to yannis’ home-island Karpathos, and we all thought it was going to some sort of close-minded indie downer after a blissed-out pastoral holiday. Turned out, of course, that we were the ignorant ones, and the party was incredible. I got to play Kenny Larkin and Pete Herbert and Andy Stott and a bunch of records I wouldn’t dream about playing in the UK while a packed out bar lapped it all up.
Tracklist:
1. Kraak & Smaak – No More Crying
2. Tony Tobias – In Your Eyes (Tensnake Remix)
3. Jumping Back Slash – Ibhithi Six
4. Cosmic Kids – Reginald’s Groove (Juan Maclean Remix)
5. B.C. X Delivery – Return To Me (Art Of Tones Returning Dub)
6. Kasper Bjorke – Alcatraz (Kenton Slash Demon Remix)
7. Osunlade – Idiosyncracy
8. Precious System – The Voice From Planet Love (Dixon’s Chic-A-Go Remix)
9. Maya Jane Coles – What They Say (Dyed Soundroom Remix)
10. Tom Demac – Jaded (Ripperton Remix)
11. Arto Mwambe – Noh Ngamebo
12. Chez Damier – Can U Feel It (Mk Dub)
13. Todd Terje – Ragysh
14. Johanna Knutsson – Heavy Baby
16. Reboot – Enjoy Music (Crazy P Remix)
17. Yann Solo – Border Line (The Bongo Man’s Big Room Remash)
18. Friendly Fires – Live Those Days Tonight (Catz ‘N’ Dogz Remix)
Download Link
Check out more from Edwin on his Soundcloud
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and here are the details for Friday… come and play.
Slutty Fringe presents…
Edwin Congreave
Slutty Fringe DJs
The Old Queen’s Head, Essex Rd, Islington
Music from 8pm till 2am
Free entry before 8 / £4 after
http://www.theoldqueenshead.com/
