Jon Hussey is a DJ and producer based in Dublin, Ireland. He has been in the scene since the early nineties and has contributed greatly by hosting parties and promoting techno ever since. He made this two hour set for us showcasing a variety of techno styles mixed flawlessly.
What comes more natural to you DJing or producing?
Definitely DJing! Its definitely my more natural state, production is something I am still very much working on and I’ve had to invest a lot more time and energy into technique, theory and the actual production process – with production it definitely takes a dedicated body of time before you can create freely.
Tell us about your most memorable gig so far.
One that comes to mind is playing the last ever slot at McGruders in Dublin on St.Patricks night 2009 for the intensity and atmosphere, it was a very special venue as it had a real diverse crowd and showcased many abstract music and artistic styles under one roof in a true DIY way. Check the video link at 16:30 minutes to get an idea! Youtube.
In the techno scene today you mostly hear about artists and productions (no critique), but what about the good DJs? What is your opinion?
It was DJs who inspired me the most over the years playing great artists music in unique contexts, mixing tracks to form new chemistries. On searching for those tracks later I began to realise it was so much more than the track itself! – Often being slightly disappointed when finding the track realising it was only part of the greater set – usually a lot of the tracks that did stand out for me also turned out to be B-sides and not the main tracks!
It was the extra things like the subtleties of the long deep lingering mixed track in the background fading slowly into the noise abyss, the precise time the track was played to spark the perfect energy, how fast / slow it was played, what section of the track was played? All of which combined with the listening and dancing experience. Another element that I feel is really important to mention is the actual energy / feeling behind the the track been played i.e. If someone is playing a track they truly love that will transmit and translate to add another element or intangible layer!
I’ve had some amazing experiences from the dancefloor when all of these elements are present – some examples that stand out for me in the early days where Andrew Weatherall merging tracks and styles together in experimental ways, mixing tracks on off beats dropping them in ‘wrong’ places creating the unexpected, very cerebral and almost psychedelic mind blowing experiences. Another for different and obvious reasons would have been Jeff Mills for the sheer energy intensity of how he plays for both body and mind – pure and raw Techno power! I also experienced very similar to this when visiting Slovakia for the first time at the end of the nineties with Djs like Loktibrada and Toky who harnessed this style to the limit layering broken rhythm tracks with unreal pace, intensity and precision.
Today it has become more and more about the producer and not the Dj, to the point that I do think the DJing art has been diluted and almost standardised in a way, other than the old reliables there seems to be little appetite or platform for upcoming talented DJs hence not many of them actually take risks or push boundaries in the way of old.
There is also some amazing producers at the minute who simply are not good DJs and it’s become a norm by some promoters to automatically give them the platform to Dj or to perform in a Dj style (also it’s a much cheaper way of booking an artist to play) with many actually been billed as ‘live’ because they fit a few of their own tracks into their Dj sets? This to me is a strange concept and falls short as a true live performance, I come from an era when live meant Live with acts like Orbital and Leftfield!!
DJing and live for me have always been two very different performance energies that have completely different feels on a dancefloor and it has been DJs that have put many artists on my radar leading me to seek their live performances!
Where should you go to experience good techno music in Dublin?
The best nights over the past year or so have been the Network gigs happening once every couple of months on a larger scale featuring a great cross range of artists (kind of like mini one day Techno festivals!). Smaller once a month nights like Free Techno and Vision Collector who are giving a platform for some amazing homegrown talent are great ones to watch out for and also the consistent weekly promoters Subject, Surge and Bodytonic who are putting on quality weekly House & Techno nights with international guests in venues like the Twisted Pepper and The Grand Social are well worth checking.
What are your future plans production wise?
Over the past 2 years I’ve invested in some hardware, mostly older analogue synths and drum machines from the eighties! I’m really enjoying creating music in this way with machines as compared to fully digital in the past, it’s a tactile kinesthetic process just like DJing feeling more like a jam that you can control, manipulate and groove to – this way of working definitely fits me better!
On the release front I’m currently working on a completing a release for one of my favourite labels which will be a long overdue debut solo release from me, it will be an interesting chapter for me and even more interesting to see where it may lead me in the DJing sphere…
Tracklist:
- Biosphere – Katedra Botaniki
- Plastikman – Lost
- Elektrabel – Transcendence_Track_3
- RELAY – Untitled_3
- Yan_Cook – Cubism
- LEIRAS – Begining_of_Visions
- Stefan_Vincent – Cynosure
- Jonas_Kopp – Westphalia_(original_mix)
- Josh_Wink – Are_You_There_(Ben_Klock_remix)
- The 65d Mavericks – Beginnings End
- TINFOIL – B2 Foil 5 002
- LEIRAS – Emisario
- Nikola Gala – Love Spot
- Chris Mitchell – Drum Trax
- DJ One Finger – House Fucker (Original Mix)
- Clouds – Genista_Cave_4
- Eomac – Chob
- Sigha – My Blood Is Gold
- Tommy Four Seven – OX 2 (Original Mix)
- Lag – Sama Doma
- Mørbeck – Silver Shadow
- Boner M – Tsiu (Original Mix)
- LESTER_FITZPATRICK – Mental_Hardware
- Bleaching Agent – Akplenc
- Jonas Kopp – Starbust
- RANDOMER – Fun In The Sun
- Trus’me – It’s Slow (Truncate Raw Mix 1)
- Truncate – Bipolar
- Papers – Untitled 1
- S100 – Revoke
- RSCH 14 – Osiris_BL
- Fabrizio_Lapiana – Eisfabrik
- D’MARC_CANTU – Concrete_Box
- D Carbone – Asynthetic
- Yan_Cook – RRR
- Eduardo De La Calle – A1
- Lewis Fautzi – Hypnotic_Version_2_Original_Mix
- LB_Dub_Corp – Nearly_Africa_Dub
- Marcel Dettmann – Apron [PAS Tubed Mix 2]
- Etapp Kyle – Paradigm
- Developer – In Pure Form 07
- LEIRAS – Begining_of_Visions_Sleeparchive_Loop
- Trus’me – Hindsight (Marcelus ‘Friction’ Remix)
- Samuli_Kemppi – Resonant_Object
- Jonas_Kopp – Circinus_(original_mix)
Facebook: Jon Hussey
Soundcloud: jonhussey
Artwork: And our soul escapes