Carl Loben

An early raver, Carl began DJing in the early 90s, around the time he started writing for music magazines and getting sent lots of mind-blowing electronic records. Playing some of these electronica records out in the freestyle rooms of underground techno parties and on pirate radio in Hackney seemed like a logical extension of raving on about them in print.He got gigs at parties like Hullabaloo, Astrosplash and Shambhala’s Elektrik Temple, and also got into jungle from attending Fabio & Grooverider’s Rage night at Heaven. Indeed, he began madly evangelising in print about this new music genre (‘the UK’s answer to hip-hop’, ‘as important as jazz’, etc) that was soon to be renamed drum & bass. His DJ sets began changing accordingly.So hopelessly lost in drum & bass did Carl become that he became a fully-fledged junglist missionary. He played at a new d&b night called Movement at Bar Rumba, and at assorted squat parties around east London alongside DJs like Offshore, Megabitch, Miss Pink, Sexyrubbersole and Giselle. However, despite efforts to convert squat party freaks to d&b, he eventually moved away from junglist purism. A combination of the music getting too dark for him in the run up to the Millennium and people at house parties always asking for house music made his sets get much more eclectic.By the time of the Millennium he’d drifted into gainful employment with DJ magazine, having quit Melody Maker after the idiot new editor began taking it down the toilet.Carl has interviewed – or met - practically everyone who’s anyone in modern-day music, and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of it. Indeed, in 2003 he was headhunted by the Billboard Music Encyclopedia to write the dance section of this weighty tome.His current day job as features editor of DJmag has run in parallel with a DJ career that’s been increasingly diverse. As such he’s played everywhere from the Gatecrasher Summer Soundsystem and Glastonbury festival to the Saatchi Gallery and the ICA. From the Ministry Of Sound to, err, the Miniscule Of Sound. As the 21st Century’s progressed he’s played in Brazil, Poland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, France and Ibiza and is equally at home doing warm-up slots as peak-time sessions. He’s promoted nights in London in the last few years, and has now started up Westway Records with Barry Ashworth from the Dub Pistols.Named in homage to The Clash, Westway is an eclectic imprint that is aiming to push music forward in innovative new ways. With releases from Dogtown Clash, Madox, the Velours Brothers and the Drum Monkeys already out there with exciting new talent to come, the future’s looking good for Westway. See the video for ‘West London’s Burning’ by Dogtown Clash below on this page.With uber-underground producer Billy Borez he’s started producing as Drum Monkeys, too. Having recently remixed breakbeat stars Ils and Madox, time is now being put aside to work on original new Drum Monkeys material.Bookings: [email protected] / [email protected]
Dogtown Clash - West London Burning video on Westway records.