The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

The Centre Of Everything: John Frusciante's Favourite Electronic Music
Brian Coney , September 23rd, 2020 08:56

Electronic music isn't some casual fling for the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist. From synth-pop and ghetto house, to old-school UK rave and hardcore, it's long been a major preoccupation. As he prepares to release his thrilling, jungle-inspired new LP Maya, he guides Brian Coney through 13 indispensable titles from his collection

Djfocus_1600709538_resize_460x400

DJ Fokus - 'I Want' / 'Pulse'
Lucky Spin is one of my favourite labels. I have almost everything they released, as well as Dee Jay, which was a subsidiary of theirs. I found out a couple of years ago that a lot of that stuff on Lucky Spin - maybe most of it - was engineered by a guy called Pete Parsons. For years, I was listening and thinking, 'Why does this label's engineering sound so different to any other label, and so consistent and lush?' Pete Parsons came from a rock background and wasn't even going to raves when he was making that stuff. DJs would go into him and tell him about the raves and what kind of stuff people were liking, and he helped them realise their ideas.

When I first went dancing in L.A., they were mostly playing drum & bass because it was the early 2000s, but I do remember that every so often some DJ would come in and play jungle and I would walk out there and I would be like, 'What the fuck was that? I loved that.' Either because I was too drunk to retain information people were giving me, or they didn't know themselves, there were occasions when somebody would play this kind of music but I couldn't quite place it yet.