Progressive Ambition
Kazell's debut mix-CD is 'Driven' toward the future - and the big rooms
Progressive house has gotten a bad rap in the last few years. It's been confused with the arrogant theatrics of progressive rock and the simplistic cheese of Germanic trance. It is reviled by trance fans for being too slow and by house fans for being too bangin'.
Yet true "progressive," besides describing the fusion of four-on-the-floor American house with British digital melody, simply means a forward-leaning sense of energy. You'll find the definition in Kazell's debut mix-CD, Driven. Here, the man born Kevin Bazell explores the genre, feeling, and technology of the sound, building a staircase of sound that is linear, layered, and lush. Kazell - along with H-Foundation, Troy Roberts, Behrouz, and the Moontribe DJs - has also defined the West Coast's own take on the genre, which means dubby bass lines, Latin percussion, minimal techno influences, and perhaps a darker, driving sense of "havin' it." (Check out Kazell and Mike Hiratzka's own track on Driven, "Prime," and you'll see what we mean.) Unlike many of his British and East Coast counterparts, Kazell has spent a lot of his deck time entertaining and sustaining the coked-up crowds of L.A.'s after-hours scene. That can do something to your music. It can make you take advantage of the situation - fuck with their heads like a stand-up comedian at last call. The result can be some twisted, evil shit that even vigilant 12-steppers could appreciate.
"I wanted to get to the suspense and the mood of an opening slot, but I wanted to get the West Coast flavor of it as well," says the 32-year-old Venice resident. "It's not just a typical progressive disc. I want to grab people's attention and show I can play the big rooms."
Kazell is actually on his first true tour this summer, playing some of the biggest rooms in the world, spreading the love and lasciviousness of West Coast up-tempo house to Miami and Mexico City and soon to New York and London. It's the culmination of more than a dozen years (take note, all you wannabe instant-superstar DJs with your shiny new turntables) of toiling in the often unglamorous terrain of the warm-up DJ, landing in the Southeast after coming to the U.S. from his hometown of Manchester, England, in 1991. Kazell has been rewarded for his early participation in the development of progressive, however, and when he finally moved to Los Angeles in the mid-'90s, he became the favored opener for local Sasha and John Digweed showcases. By the dawn of the millennium, Sasha and Digweed's mix-CDs were top sellers, and Kazell was catapulted into the big-room residency at Hollywood mega-club Spundae, a must-play on the global cover-jock circuit.
Last year the owner of Velocity Records approached Kazell and asked him if he wanted to make a mix-CD for the domestic market. He ended up getting a three-CD contract with Velocity's Black Label imprint - happily so. It's given him the opportunity to tour and spend more time in his home studio making music, including the single "Reaction," due out soon on the U.K.'s Route label.
Driven, meanwhile, is a good example of Kazell's live DJing style - a deft blend of his suspenseful, restrained warm-up sets and his relentless after-hours beat-downs. The intro features a mix of Audio Soul Project's a cappella "Community," in which a hazy male voice says: I hear so many people say we don't do it the way we used to do it, but why not focus on making us do it the way we need to do it now? Leave the past in the past and look towards the future. Indeed, Kazell never drops the ball on his journey to tomorrow. Kick drums disintegrate into a twisted, rubbery bass line in the breakbeat "The Look" by Ictus, and then it's on again to whispers of "future" and take-no-prisoners percussion on "Time Factor" by Bjorn Mandry.
"I still enjoy the idea of playing records," Kazell says. "I still like the raw element. For me it's enough to think about, just getting the tuning right and keeping the floor moving" - onward.Published: 09/18/2003
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