Dubfire - Taipei Global Underground 31
(February 21, 2007)
'This mix is more about who I am, as opposed to Deep Dish. This is an extension of all my influences from day one and where my head is at currently. I've always been about pushing the envelope musically and anytime there's a new sound, I'm paying attention.'
Dubfire, February 2007
Welcome to Dubfire's Taipei Global Underground album, a 29-track mix that affirms his position as one of the leading DJs in the world. Consistently voted in the Top 10 of the DJ mag Top 100 DJs Poll with Deep Dish partner, Sharam, Ali 'Dubfire' Shirazinia has won Grammy's, released a brace of hit singles, remixed music's biggest names, and rocked the most respected clubs the world over.
While taking a break from Deep Dish as he and Sharam both pursue individual projects, Ali has mixed his first solo Global Underground album to reflect his recent DJ sets in Taipei, another shining beacon of international club culture to arise in South-east Asia.
This compilation precedes the release of his first solo single, 'I Feel Speed', a cover of Love & Rocket's New Wave classic (with Dubfire on vocals), and follows acclaimed remixes for Nitzer Ebb, Robbie Rivera, and Nic Fancuilli ' all of which are included here for your listening pleasure.
Inspirational DJs are a rare breed. Some jocks set musical agendas - others follow. Dubfire has stood firmly in the first camp for his entire career, and 'Taipei' shows him to be riding the zeitgeist once more. He's the master of the darker groove, using controlled build-ups to hold a crowd in suspense, before letting go with waves of techno-flecked electronica with enough energy to power the National Grid.
Growing up in the Washington, DC area, Dubfire spent much of his youth as a guitarist in school bands and listening to heavy doses of classic Hip-Hop, jazz/rare groove, dub reggae, new wave and industrial. Dubfire was also influenced by the local punk scene and the music of hometown bands like Fugazi and Minor Threat. Members of these bands also worked at a local record store called Yesterday And Today Records, and this is where Dubfire first picked up acts such as Kraftwerk, Ministry, Jesus & Mary Chain, Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound and Einst'rzende Neubauten. Through this heavy industrial influence, namely the sound of Chicago's famed Wax Trax! label, Dubfire discovered the Chicago house scene and what labels like Trax and D.J. International Records were releasing.
On Disc 1, Dubfire ignites the party with the likes of Francois Dubois's 'I Try' and the electro-tinged groove of Myself's 'Barbecue', before moving through the phuture sounds of Booka Shade's 'In White Rooms', Simian Mobile Disco's 'Hustler', and Deetron's 'The Afterlife'. He finishes with his outstanding cover of 'I Feel Speed', and Carl Craig's retake of X-Press 2's 'Kill 100'.
Disc 2 moves from Dubfire's labour-of-love remix of nouveau industrialists Nitzer Ebb, while further in, he flexes his considerable mixing muscle by turning his own remix of Fancuilli's 'Lucky Heather' into a 303-drenched, tripped-out electronic opus. Later, his remix of Robbie Rivera's 'Float Away' throws a chink of light into the darkness, before dropping the old school-style riffs of DJ Vibe's 'You' to steady the floor. Oliver Huntemann & Stephen Bodzin's remix of Depeche Mode's 'Everything Counts' begins the descent into lights out, 5am territory, as Dubfire unleashes track after track of quality techno, taking in such aural delights as Samuel L. Session's 'Related/Can You Relate?', Alexander Kowalski & Barca Baxant's 'Start Chasing', and Ellen Alien & Apparat's 'Jet'.
