Paul Dailey |
In the hideyholes and squares all around our expansive city, pockets of electronic-music action can be found churning and yearning. Take PAUL DAILEY. For almost 20 years, as a resident at after-hours club Rise and a co-founder of the DJ Mix Academy, he’s been active in all corners of our town. Each week, from his home in Charlestown, he commandeers the HARDWIRED radio show on nationwide satellite XM radio. “XM is still in the very early stages of its lifespan,” he explains from his Comcast e-mail address. “But the last time the numbers were updated, I think I got an average of 35,000 listeners per week.” When you consider that his show is two hours on one of 80 channels, those numbers are pretty impressive. “It has helped a lot in name recognition, too. I have gotten gigs in places like Nashville, Louisville, and Ann Arbor . . . all places I didn’t have any contacts prior to starting the show on XM.” Dailey has a lengthy list of experience on terrestrial radio — he got his start at Fitchburg State’s WXPL — but he’s embraced the new technology. “For one, I have complete artistic freedom to play what I want. My show also airs twice per week, for those that miss it the first time around — or want to hear it again. The only drawback would be the lack of real-time interaction with the audience — Hardwired is completely mastered from my studio in Charlestown and then submitted via FTP — but the flip is that I can be DJing in Miami at the same time my show is being played in Montana.”Dailey gets up to the Great White North for gigs as well. This weekend he has shows in Toronto, where he’ll help open a new club called Footwork and DJ an after-hours club until Sunday morning. His work has brought some of the biggest names in the techno world to Hardwired — people like Chris Liebing, Marco Bailey, Ellen Allien. Upcoming is a guest spot from one of the giants, Sven Väth from Ibiza’s Cocoon Club. “I know some well and have played with them on numerous occasions. Other people came about through my diligence with their management.” On top of all this, he writes on dance music for www.about.com, DJ Times, and Toronto’s Kick magazine. The man is nothing if not committed. “The rewards are immeasurable. DJing has been my life-long passion, and to be able to bring my sound and style to people across the continent is something I am extremely grateful for. It’s about having an outlet to play all the great promos I receive and push underground techno to a large audience.” We know the feeling. Dailey returns to Boston’s Rise next Friday, December 15, and he’s part of the five-city New Year’s Nation event at Felt, where he’ll spin at the VIP fourth floor after the ball drops.
Perhaps a young Paul Dailey is what Boston has in DJ DIE YOUNG. Our man Mistaker turned us onto him, and recent appearances at River Gods have more people talking. Die Young, a/k/a DJ AMIEM, has a few original productions on-line, the fun-time electro pop of “Me And Andy” and the hard-hitting filtered sound of “The Irreversible,” but what set our ears on fire is his “Holy Crap Mix,” which sticks you with an hour-long blend of tracks from Audion, the Field, and Hot Chip and a wild rework of Inner City’s anthemic “Big Fun.”
Thursday really is the night for techno in basstown. From the MAKE IT NEW night at Middlesex Lounge, where this writer can be seen spinning wax, to the newly launched psytrance mania at the Western Front brought to you by CIRCLE/GNOMEFATTY to the table service at UNDERBAR, there’s something for everyone. Now AVALON is entering the ring, and oh man are the folks there ready to throw down. Tonight (December 7) they’ve got Mr. UK Remix himself, PETE HELLER, spinning for four hours (“Big Love,” “Sputnik,” U2, Janet Jackson, etc.). December 14 they’re bringing JIMMY VAN M, who recently blew our little minds with his epic three-disc contribution to EQ’s Balance series, where he crosses multiple strata of electronic sound with one gaping stride. The down-tempo disc includes Circuits favorites Nathan Fake and the Egg, the mid-tempo mix has guys like Rub-N-Tug and Apparat, and the up-tempo mix goes for broke: Booka Shade, Tom Pooks, Gui Boratto, and freakin’ Trentemøller. His four-hour set at Avalon’s exclusive backroom fiesta is not one to sleep on.
And we might as well bring up DJ C again just because he’s the bomb. We got wind this week that our beat strategist has signed onto WIMM RECORDINGS to release Sonic Weapons sometime next March. Wimm is a new imprint started up by the music heads at the Warzawa shop in Tokyo. How they heard of Jake Trussell is hardly a secret . . . we’re going to wager it had something to do with the electronic information network the kids are all talking about. The infraweb or somming?
On the Web
Paul Dailey: //www.pauldailey.com/
DJ Die Young: //jamie.stormboxes.com
