Volume 14 - mixed by B-Ju

Much has happened since we gave away B-Ju's Dog Day EP in 2010, the first vinyl to come out on the Italo-German Error Broadcast label. Since the young producer from Hamburg released Prozac People last year (also on Error Broadcast), there has been a notable shift from electronic hip-hop beats to London-flavoured house sounds. The latest examples of his sound can be found on releases from Squelch & Clap and No Brainer.
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So who is this B-Ju guy?
I'm a producer and DJ of electronic music, currently living in Hamburg, Germany. Besides music I work as a copywriter for advertising which is as boring as it sounds. I also read poets and hug trees.

What's your first memory of music and how did you end up making music yourself?
The first thing I remember was the full music video of Thriller by Michael Jackson. I guess this memory had more to do with the fact that I was shitting myself than enjoying the music. When I first saw Mr. Len juggling his coloured records in Co-Flows „End to End Burners“ I wanted to become a DJ. Sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale, huh?!

More recently, there has been a change in your sound. Just one of the many sides of B-Ju?
I always heard and made music of different genres. My Dancing in your head record by Ornette Coleman is next to Ludacris' What’s your fantasy, which isn’t contradictory to me. Even if the intellectual range is monolithic.

There is now a generation of producers that was influenced by videogame sounds, do you feel like a part of that?
I'm a kid of the 8-bit generation too, but I always were a ousider when it came to videogames. All of my friends owned Nintendo consoles, I was the only one with a Sega Mega Drive. But I wouldn't say that sounds of the videogames influenced my music a lot even if you can hear some of them on my Dog Day EP. I think that most producers build on 8-bit sounds too much. That's the reason why I never could relate to a genre that is defined by that specific sound.

You don't see it often that producers release different styles under the same name. Was that a conscious decision?
Yes, it was a decision out of laziness. Promo-wise it’s probably not the best thing to release different styles of music under the same name. I still get messages from promoters like „Oh, I didn’t know that you doing club music now“. But I also start to realize that it seems to be to exhausting for people to stick to one genre. You are not a weirdo anymore if you like artists like Blawan and Shlohmo at the same. I think people are more honest about their own taste nowadays.

What are you up to next?
I’m doing some remixes and I want to release this strange record I’m working on right now. Don’t know when or where. Collabs are also planned, but I can’t say much about that right now. Playing live is a big issue for me, since a lot of people asked me about that. The thing is: I don’t want to be one of those „I trigger my tracks in Ableton, press the play button and add some random lazer effects“-musicians. That’s the reason why I want to take my time to build a live-routine.

How did you choose tracks for the mix?
When I record a mix I mostly try to choose tracks that I wouldn’t play in a club. For this particular mix I mainly took slow and deep house tracks that have a slight Hip-Hop twist. I like the idea of doing a coherent mix that listeners of all kind of genres could relate to.

Can you name some current favourites from your record bag?
Still like the latest release by 123mrk, Refined Madness, and Kidnap Kid’s Alphaville EP. Urulu's Sincerely 91 is a bomb! I also like Thundercat's album a lot.

Listen | Download | Subscribe (iTunes)01. Darling Farah – Fortune
02. Cosmin TRG – Liebe Suende
03. AppleBottom – Diamondz
04. 813 – Monogamous
05. XI – Nightlife
06. B-Ju – Cry Wolf
07. VVV – Traverse
08. aKido – Epoch (Get High)
09. Jimmy Edgar – New Touch
10. Scratcha DVA – Just Vybe (Soule:Power Mix)
11. LOL Boys – Changes (Shlohmo Remix)
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As B-Ju knows his way around the internet, you can find him on SoundCloud, Twitter, Bandcamp, YouTube and Facebook. If you want to hear more of his mixtapes, you can find them on Mixcloud!

Published on July 31, 2012