[Manchester]- Locked - 3rd birthday- Ben Sims and CC dj's
locked 3rd Birthday
Friday 9th June 2006
£8 OTD / £7 b4 11
Email for £7 reduced entry
Ben Sims (Theory/ Hardgroove)
ComputerControlled dj’s (Sequence)
Residents Jay Knight and Adam Rayner
Joshua Brookes, Charles st, Off Oxford rd, Manchester. An awesome little venue, the reason we have been out of action for so long is because we have been holding out for this venue, Ideal fo Locked
For more info go to / contact us at:
www.lockedrecords.co.uk / lockedrecords@hotmail.com
http://www.humanshield.co.uk/locked/...d-09.06.06.jpg
Ben Sims doesnt need much of an introduction but for those of you who dont know, here is his story so far:
BEN SIMS THEORY/INGOMA (LONDON/UK)
Though clouded by the mainstream, where a career can be forged with a bag of trend-fitting twelves and an eye for opportunity, DJing demands fantastic commitment and an ear for the offbeat. Essentially, you need technicalability and musical understanding, but inherent is a history – the development of experience and gathering of influence. A club set may last for two-or-so hours, but it’s really just a distillation; the past reaching boiling
point, changing state.
Ben Sims got his first set of turntables aged ten. Immersed in pirate radio and mix-tape culture, he’d hunted down recordings from home and abroad. The States offered Levan, Cash Money, DJ Cheese, Red Alert, Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. The UK gave him Froggy, Westwood, Jah Shaka and Hardrock Soul Movement. Shifting from C-60’s to vinyl he’d applied similar vigour, finding Reggae, Funk, Disco and Rare Groove when not feeding his Hip Hop habit. He was spinning at friends’ parties and after-hours ‘blues’ houses by his mid-teens, and a few years later he played a key role in giving the emergent warehouse movement a distinct voice – the pirate station Atmosphere FM. Government policy would deal rave a succession of concussive blows, but it moved into clubs and Ben moved with it.
„My first love was definitely Hip Hop/Electro. I started collecting the records in 1983 – all my friends were either breakers or graffiti artists and I was shit at both. I became the DJ, and mixing became an obsession. Techno is a bit of a swear word to me now, being honest. I don’t think what I make or play is straight Techno, my whole sound is just a natural progression from everything I’ve been into and is as equally influenced by King Tubby, Arthur Russell or Marley Marl as it is by Todd Terry, Masters at Work or Carl Craig.”
Having become a DJ of repute, Sims was recruited by the top agency Dynamix in 1999. He quickly proved a renowned, reliable guest and, like many UK DJs, became accustomed to flying out of the country each weekend. Supported by resilient clubs – Atomic Jam, Orbit, System, Voodoo, Ultimate Base and Open to Torture – his case was indicative of the Techno scene in general; largely marginalised and left to its own electronic devices. Reports of his three-deck mixing and energetic appearances began to decorate bulletin boards, pulse-taking publications and infiltrate chat-rooms. His talent has since been recognised by peers and punters alike, and although his productions are developed beyond DJ tools, it’s time behind the decks that shapes a distinct, individual sound. Hip Hop in attitude, vast in aptitude, his dextrous club sets have become focal points in Techno line-ups.
„As much as I love playing in the UK, and I’ve tried to play here as much as possible, it would be foolish of me not to realise that my profile on the international circuit far out-shadows my domestic one. Still, the community is vital and I’ve recently started an occasional party in London called “Retro_vert” with my partner and a collective of friends to try to help give the capital a kick up the ass and it’s also a good excuse to book artists that rarely play here like A guy called Gerald, 65d Mavericks, Baby Ford,
Mark Broom, Blake Baxter, Oscar Mulero, Oliver Ho, James Ruskin, Deetron, Paul Mac, Rue East, Alan Oldham, Vince Watson and MemoryFoundation.”
Ben Sims operates five labels, and has employed a definite function for each. Hardgroove describes his core sound – funky at the centre, tough and hard at the edges. Always eager to ‘road-test’ studio work, in-set acetates quickly become Hardgroove releases if they have suitable impact on the dancefloor. Sister label, Ingoma, focuses on more tribal-infused material, but adopts similar quality control. Theory is a fluid concern, a ‘mother label’ capable of shifting in style, while Symbolism captures personal, mood-inspired tracks. Onetime side-project Native has evolved too, becoming a home for free-formed, melodic electronica. Ironically, the releases he’s synonymous with, on the joint-owned imprint Killa Bite, were quickly made and often easier for him to forget due to controversy and bootlegging though a return for the label is looking very likely with Ben doing things his way this time. In a genre that propagates sound-alikes, Ben Sims’ production has attracted widespread attention and has seen it’s far share of copycat productions. He’s been acknowledged by contemporaries as creating a positive Techno style-shift, his work supported by a broad cross-section of DJs and is regularly featured in the boxes of his own personal heroes like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Jeff Mills, Rolando etc. in addition to almost all of the high profile techno jocks on the worldwide circuit. He has remixed Green Velvet, Blake Baxter and Adam Beyer and alongside many upcoming projects he has a forthcoming artist album on the forwardthinking UK label Peacefrog. „I think my music has progressed but essentially the concepts and ideas behind each label are still the same.
Simply put, it’s just a reflection of what I’m into, what I play, or what I want to support. Each label has its own reason for existing and each is linked to the others through the concept, the music or the artists involved. I don’t like being the product, and I never want my labels to solely rely on my music. I enjoy making it and trying to push that Hardgroove-sound, rhythmic body music or just re-creating that warehouse vibe, but my thing is mixing, DJing and collecting vinyl. It’s my escapism, what I do. I love the energy of mixing and there’s so much you can add to a set or CD or show to enhance it. My studio productions are essentially just an extension of what I do on the decks, I’m a DJ first and foremost.”
The past 6 years have seen Ben attempt world domination, constantly touring and tearing up dancefloors at legendary clubs/parties like Liquid Room (Tokyo), Sonar (Barcelona), Awakenings (Amsterdam), Aria (Montreal), Limelight (NYC), Rex (Paris), La Real (Oviedo), Deliruim (Perth), Metropolis (Sofia), Circuito (Sao Paulo), Zouk (Singapore), U60 (Frankfurt), I love Techno (Belguim) Loft (Switzerland), Shine (Belfast) Florida (Fraga), Family (Toledo), Tresor (Berlin), Rockets (Osaka), Wet (Melbourne) plus
hundreds of others proving him to be one of today’s most requested DJs and among the UK’s finest exports. His two mix CDs to date “Theory of Interpretation” (Theory) and “Escapism Part One” (Primal Rhythms/Fine Audio) have both received wide praise and pushed the boundaries of an increasingly tired format, yet Ben is still surprisingly ambitious and feels there’s many more goals to reach.
Regular tours with label mates Mark Williams or Paul Mac amongst others and extensive worldwide gigging will see Ben busier than ever in 2005. Following on from success of their profile “Split”-parties in London Ben Sims and Chris Finke have decided to take the concept global with a monthly two hour radio show on www.splitmusic.net.
Ben has recently upgraded his sets by playing a lot of unreleased hot material on two additional CDJs, in true Killabite-manner making use of tracks as tools. This, alongside his standard three MK5 turntables and amazing mixing skills, makes his sets a very unique and intense experience and Sims is without a doubt one of the best and most versatile DJs worldwide.
Computer Controlled Djs (Sequence, Manchester)
Computer Controlled Djs, Steve Gravener and Steve Williams, are the team behind the cutting-edge Sequence parties in Manchester, also putting on the irregular Computer Controlled club nights from time to time. Growing up together in St Helens and close friends from an early age, they spent their teenage years travelling to grimey venues across the length of the UK, obsessively following grindcore, industrial and UK hardcore bands before getting heavily into mixing and playing out techno and more electronic influenced sounds.
They were originally part of the eclectic Music is Better promotion crew, as well as being residents at the night alongside El Diablos Social Club resident Dj Danny Webb, before the night imploded in late 2003. They used the window of opportunity to create Sequence, with an aim to create one of the most dancefloor friendly, cutting-edge nights of electronic music in the UK. They put on their first party in February 2004 to an over-capacity Attic and the rest, as they say, is history. Sequence has become one of the most successful monthly nights ever held at the venue, gathering the size of fan base and reputation in the scene within two years that took similar sized Manchester based clubs over six years to build up.
Since then they have put on some of the best parties in the UK, collaborating with the likes of ashockinghobby and Locked on larger-scale parties throughout Manchester and sharing the billing with many of the electronic music greats including Neil Landstrumm, Bitstream, Radioactive Man, Mike Dred, Dj Godfather and B12 amongst many others. The Computer Controlled Djs now spend their weekends playing their records across the UK, slowly spreading the eclectic, bass heavy sound of Sequence to anyone prepared to listen.
