DJ Silvah

Interests:

Location: Cambridge, UK

Hobbies: My first passion is spinning vinyl.  These days I have no specific genre, I’m not a fan of labels.  After that it’s family time.

Interests: I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember.  I was born in the age of Punk, brought up on The Rolling Stones, Otis Reading, Muddy Waters, Pink Floyd, ‘70s disco and Motown and ‘80s pop and electro (I was a big Duran Duran fan).  I used to play drums while at secondary school after failing miserably to pick up on either piano/keyboard or guitar.

In 1987 I picked up on the greatest sound I’d heard up until then, “Pump up the volume” by M|A|R|R|S and my eyes and ears were opened to the newly emerging Warehouse scene in the UK.  Suddenly artists like D Mobb, Farley Jackmaster Funk and Adonis were filling my ears.

By the time the mainstream had caught up and was aware of the now emerging Rave scene in 1992 I was already heavily in to the likes of The Prodigy, SL2 and Bizarre Inc.  It was about this time that I started experimenting with DJ’ing having heard mix tapes of guys like Slipmatt, Micky Finn and Carl Cox to name just a few and going to raves such Universe’s “Mind, Body and Soul” and Fantazia’s “One Step Beyond”.

In early ’94, as the Rave scene fragmented, I followed DJ’s such LTJ Bukem, Fabio and Grooverider, favouring the Jungle sound over Happy Hardcore or Techno, both of which I found impossible to listen to.

But in ’95, as Intelligent Drum ‘n’ Bass was beginning to push through the jungle sound, I found House music and the tunes by artists such Nush, Amos and the Bucketheads that were being played by guys like Pete Tong, Jeremy Healey and Boy George were as fresh to me as when I’d first heard M|A|R|R|S.

However, as House music (and in turn Trance at that time) became all too familiar and almost factory reproduced ’98 found me looking for a new sound and in stepped Speed Garage.  Tracks by Somore, Double 99 and 187 Lockdown were top picks by guys like DJ EZ, Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont and Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown and had captured the energy that was now beginning to ebb away from House music.

Moving in to 2-step/UKG in ’99 was an easy transition to make, having a fresher and more melodic feel with track from Mis’teeq, Dollaly and MJ Cole.

With a new found grimey sound to it, 4/4 Garage began to make it’s presents felt within the scene and in ’03 I found myself being drawn back to Drum ‘n’ Bass, the lure of the chunky, Hip-Hop influenced sounds becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

In ’06 I discovered an exciting new twist to the genre in the form of John B’s “Electrostep” album and his continuing experimentation with his Trance ‘n’ Bass sound.

Which brings us to now, where these days (as has been the case for a few years) I DJ purely in the confines of my own home where I spin 12”’s for nothing more than fun, cross-pollinating genres in attempt to create more appealing, less elitist mixes, putting artists like Eminem alongside The Prodigy, John B alongside ATB and Billy Idol alongside Hyper On Experience.