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Baker's Dozen

Aides-Memoires: Ben UFO Selects 13 Favourite Records
Rory Gibb , December 4th, 2013 05:35

Ahead of Hessle Audio's three-room takeover of Fabric this Friday, the DJ and Hessle Audio co-founder rifles through his record collection and discusses thirteen particular favourites with Rory Gibb

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Christian S - 'Jagos'

If I hear something that really blows me away, I still feel like I'm reeling from it. I think the last time [I had one of those moments] was TJ [Objekt] at Freerotation, it was absolutely amazing. I just couldn't believe that a human was doing it, hearing the sounds that he was making come out of the speakers.

At the moment I'm really enjoying the variety of shows I'm playing. It keeps me on my toes. If I've got three or four gigs in a row, the chances are they'll all be totally different and I'll play different stuff at all of them. I used to find that really stressful, and I used to approach it like 'Well, this is just what I do, deal with it'... but I think that's a bit wrong-headed and kind of dry. I think it's the job of a DJ to figure out what's going to work in what context, whilst still obviously working within the confines of what it is that DJ enjoys playing. Some people are more flexible than others in that regard, and that's fine. I don't have productions to represent, I just DJ - so how else can I keep it interesting for myself other than by playing different kinds of shows?

I've started playing more regularly to bigger crowds than I'm been used to, and I really enjoy finding records that can work in those big spaces, but still manage to be really esoteric and weird. There's one track in particular that was on the Essential Mix I've been playing loads that's called 'Jagos' by Christian S, it's an old Comeme record, and it's one with these big, rushy, descending snares. It's very druggy, there's no breakdown or anything, it just rolls, but it just sounds absolutely massive in a big room, and people react to it without exception. It blew my head off when I first heard it. We could stick this record in the list as well, actually.