Electro Mix: OSC-001 – Freakbeats Volume 1
Our next episode of Cold Crushin’ Mixes is from Sydney electro DJ and Cold Crush resident
OSC-001, and is called Freakbeats Volume 1!
Play it in your car, in your bedroom whatever, but be warned – it is some serious old school party rocking shit. If it doesn’t get your ass shaking you better check your pulse. There is no tracklist…wondering why?
RETALI8 talks beats, old school parties and crate digging with OSC-001 for Cold Crush:
RETALI8: Yo, so tell me about Freakbeats Volume One
OSC-001: I wanted to do a mix that really focused on the West Coast electro funk sound.
Most mixes I hear guys would be throwing all different styles together, so I really stuck with the West Coast stuff. Towards the end I dropped a few ghetto tech tracks from Detroit, maybe some stuff from around Atlanta, and I think even an early Lil Jon production – the crunk guy. Maybe a European track or two as well, but all very West Coast influenced.
RETALI8: The mix is pretty heavy on vocals and rapping. Would you call your style more hip hop than electro?
OSC-001: I like that stuff because it’s what I was originally into. I got into electro through early hip hop stuff, back then hip hop was very electro funk sounding anyway. More drum machines than break samples, all that stuff was my first love with music. Before hip hop and electro kind of split and went in different directions.
RETALI8: You ran one of Sydney’s original series of electro parties, called Panic Zone.
OSC-001: I ran the Panic Zone parties with Blaze, we did 3 between 2003 and 2005. I had just come back from a trip overseas, from Miami and kinda around the states. I came back really inspired, really hyped to do a party that focused on old school and new school electro sounds, and to get DJs that really covered those genres well.
RETALI8: What kind of new school artists are you talking?
OSC-001: Well this is when the electro funk sound was just starting to go pretty crazy again. Before it went electroclash. Newer Detroit stuff like Aux 88, Dj Godfather, Drexciya, then the European guys…Anthony Rother, Dexter, Dynamik Bass Machine, Novamen, German and Dutch artists mostly.
RETALI8: Who played at Panic Zone?
OSC-001: Me and Blaze were playing old school electro funk, Patrick HAF was playing all the Detroit stuff, we had Dave Slade playing the newer stuff too. And Simon Caldwell playing a bit of a mix of everything.
RETALI8: So you sent me this mix without a tracklist. What’s the story?
OSC-001: I don’t like to give away my tracklists… I spent a lifetime discovering and collecting this music. Now days it is too easy for people to just go download and fileshare. If you really want to know the music, come down to the gig and ask, or try and take a look over the decks.
RETALI8: That reminds me of back in the days where some DJs (me included) would put stickers or graffiti over all the labels of their best tracks to try and keep them secret from other DJs.
OSC-001: Haha. Yeah, I did that too. It might sound odd to people now, but that’s how it was back then. Having crazy tracks that other DJs didn’t even know about.. That was what differentiated between a great DJ and and the rest of them. People were really secretive. If you asked a song they’d give you a fake name, I even remember playing radio shows back in the day, where I had to write them down a set list, so I used to just make up all the artists and track names.
Back before everyone was on the internet, you had to work for it, you had to really know your music and how to get a hold of the records. So I still have that old school mentality, I don’t like to give everything away that easily.
RETALI8: So are you against the new trend of mp3 blogs?
OSC-001: Well…for me the disadvantages are obvious, but I can also see the advantages. I just think people have it too easy now compared to back in the day, anyone can download a few mp3s and call themselves a DJ.
RETALI8: So, the opening night of Cold Crush is getting pretty close…
OSC-001: Yeah, i’m really hyped to get on the decks and put a good show on, do some good mixes and actually play some vinyl! It’s been a while since i’ve gone out to a club and actually seen DJs playing real vinyl. It’s kind of rare these days. I hope people will appreciate it. I just came back from a crate digging tour around Europe and the states, so I have a whole stack of new stuff. It will be cool to play with Simon and Patrick again too. It’s nice to play somewhere where everybody is really passionate about music.
Download this free electro mix here:
OSC-001 – Freakbeats Volume 1
Want to show some love? Or maybe you have some requests for (fake) track IDs. Leave a comment!!
See you at Cold Crush this Friday night at 202 Broadway! Click on attending right here if you havn’t already: Cold Crush: Electro Funk & Old School Rap
PS, Keep an eye out on the Cold Crush site for a look at the amazing art of the Panic Zone parties by Sydney graffiti king Scram TM – coming soon!
Great interview. Loved the throw offs about the tune names and record labels. The mix is wicked! Listening to it now. I’ll definitely have to take a quick peek in OSC-001′s record bag on friday. See you down there!