The DJ List

Thomas Zweifel

DB

RANK	SCORE ?	GENRE	LOCATION
5281	42	n/a	US

For seven years now, DB has been America's foremost breakbeat crusader, as DJ, promoter, A&R, and entrepreneur. NASA, the legendary Manhattan club he co-founded in 1992, was not only one of the earliest East Coast rave events, it was the very first club in America to push the sound of breakbeat hardcore, the British style that evolved into jungle/drum 'n' bass. From '92 onwards, I just felt that breakbeat was the most important strand of dance music, the most innovative and forward-looking," says DB, who grew up in North London and moved to New York in the late eighties. "At NASA, we went against the grain of the US rave scene, which was then ruled by techno from Belgium and Detroit and hardcore from Brooklyn. What I loved about that early jungle stuff as the way it smashed pretty strings up against brutal beats, dark synths and heavy basslines."

Soon DB was making things happen for breakbeat music at the business end, too. As the A&R director of Profile's techno sub-label Sm:)e, he secured the first domestic releases of single artist drum '' bass albums and put together the superb breakbeat mix-CDs History of our World, Parts One and Two. Meanwhile, in tandem with partners Dara and Paul Morris, DB launched America's first jungle retail store, Breakbeat Science, in downtown New York.

First and foremost though, DB is about making things happen on the dance floor. Having cut his DJ teeth at the Limelight in London, DB moved to New York in 1989, " a box of hip hop records in one hand, and a box of acid house tracks in the other". After running his his own proto-rave Manhattan nights Deep and Orange, he started NASA in '92 and began to spin at raves and clubs across the USA every weekend. "For me, a good DJ is part entertainer, part educator," says DB.

"I don't like DJs who have no regard for the dance floor, and go off on their own self–indulgent trip. At the same time, it's too easy to only play stuff that you know will fill the floor. The challenge is steering the crowd towards new music while still keeping the vibe strong and the people happy."

"The thing that keeps me interested in breakbeat," DB explains, "is the way the music just keeps evolving, whereas techno and trance seem to have stagnated. Maybe I need that ever-changing quality because I have a short attention span!"

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