Munster Express Online

Christian Smith

Resistance has lined up another 3 great international guests for the Recession Sessions at Electric Avenue’s Loft over the coming weeks, with the return of Waterford favourite Christian Smith (Sat 30th May) and debut visits to the city by dance music legend Andrew Weatherall (Sat 4th July) and Dutch techno titan Joris Voorn (Sat 11th July).

Born in Stockholm, the DJ/producer Christian Smith has spent the last decade working relentlessly to bring his amalgamation of funky house and tribal techno to a global platform. Moving to New York in 1989, Christian discovered that, running parallel to its high profile house community, the city that never sleeps also had a thriving techno scene. All the early techno clubs had started in New York, with Joey Beltram at The Limelight and soon afterwards Jeff Mills. As much as Christian dislikes the term, his label Tronic was one of the first tech-house labels, music that house and techno DJs could play; Christian calls his style housey techno! While there’s no doubt that Christian’s distinctive work injected a much-needed sense of funk back into techno, he also made it accessible to a wider audience. His DJing is of an exceptionally high standard; Smiths willingness to travel to literally every country in the globe has been another determining factor in his ascendance.

While Smiths releases ensured his bookings continued to soar, the Swedish DJ/producer identifies the release of his first major mix CD, Tronic Treatment as another turning point in his career. Weighing in at 28 tracks and recorded live in Australia on 3 decks, the smooth mix moves from funky house through to dubby, rolling tech-house, and further into pulsating techno. In fact, as things get faster, his selection becomes more varied, with the brooding electro of Umeks “Zeta Reticula”, the dark bass powered tones of Adam Beyer’s “Remainings” and Deetron’s “A1″ before ending with the deep, Detroit stylings of James Ruskins mix of Metier. It’s one of the most compelling, hand raising, foot stamping interpretations of modern house and techno of recent years, and its no surprise that Christians profile was massively raised by this mix. Christian is still most inspired by Carl Cox and Laurent Garnier and although both DJ’s are quite different, what Christian saw in Carl was the ability to mix continuously between three turntables, and create that musical fusion.

Carl Cox is also a massive fan of Christian and it’s a Smith/Selway track that opens his current mix CD for Mixmag.