Various

Charles Webster mixes Strictly Rhythms Volume 4

It could be said that present day DJ culture mirrors wider celebrity culture. Attention grabbing, in your face, over the top. It’s all about big venues, big budgets and flashy showmanship. Getting noticed is all. But not every DJ tows the line. Sometimes talent speaks for itself and just occasionally you’ll find an artist who’s an antidote to the above.

Step forward Charles Webster: discreet genius.

An electronic music pioneer and a producer’s producer, Webster has operated under numerous pseudonyms; Presence, Furry Phreaks, DJ Profile, Love from San Francisco, Lo;Rise and Megatonk. Collectively those names have sold over 100,000 albums across the world but the Derbyshire boy remains understated and holds true his musical integrity.

A musical vision and an encyclopaedic knowledge of house music, plus the small detail that he counts as one of the select DJs to be included on Strictly’s first ever UK mailing list make Charles an ideal candidate to mix the latest volume in Strictly Rhythms, the mix compilation series aimed at the connoisseur. His love of the obscure, the under-rated and the brilliant allows him to pick those tracks that make up an individual mix and he confidently chooses from the furthest corners of the Strictly Rhythm vaults.

Strictly was the first great label that Charles loved and it was the early years that particularly inspired him; “I picked quite a few tracks from the first 50 releases, so they would’ve all been from around 1991”.

One such selection is After Hours’ ‘Waterfalls’ which Charles considers as “the perfect iconic benchmark for deep house”, a genre he has been championing his entire career. Roger Sanchez features under his DV8 name with ‘This Beat is Over’ and the mix takes in a classic NY garage feel with Arnold Jarvis & 636’s ‘Rain’, Instrum’s ‘Say Yeah’ (Produced by Smack Productions) and Ira Levi’s ‘Free Your Mind’. “The last word in vocal garage” says Charles.

The mix also includes UK jazzers Endangered Species’ eponymous track, Nicole Lamons’ amazingly bizarre ‘I Think You're Gonna Like It’, (produced by Ronald Burrell, one of the stars of Nu Groove Records) and Mood II Swing’s cult releases ‘Slippery Track’ and ‘Evelin’s Basement’.

Charles admits that with this particular project it was more about the track selection rather than the mix-ability. “When you pick out a selection of say 15 tracks they’re not all going to mix together, so you have to edit & tweak them to make your own remixes and re-edits. I’ve done about 5 exclusive things for this project. I’ve remixed Barbara Tucker ‘Beautiful People’, I’ve done a new a reprise mix of Michel Cleis’ ‘La Mezcla’ and I’ve done a couple of edits of some really early Strictly tracks such as New Power Generation’s ‘It’s Obsession’ and ‘After Thought’ by Underground Solution.

Passion. Discernment. Quality. Strictly Rhythms Volume 4 mixed by Charles Webster.