***ALAS, AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THIS BLOG, DENNIS HAD TO CANCEL HIS APPEARANCE DUE TO INJURY. WE WISH HIM ALL THE BEST AND A SPEEDY RECOVERY, AND HOPE TO SEE HIM BACK IN THE UK SOON***
Saturday 27th February sees us welcome a truly heavyweight house line-up to matter: joining Nocturnal Groove’s The Shapeshifters will be a pair of geniune NYC house legends in Frankie Knuckles and Dennis Ferrer.
Ferrer returns to matter for his second appearance at the venue, having made his debut last April for Nic Fanciulli’s Saved sessions. Founder of NYC label Objektivity and mentor to teenage house sensations The Martinez Brothers, Ferrer has consistently made balancing mainstream success and underground credibility seem effortless. With a string of huge anthems to his name, including ‘Son of Raw’, ‘Sinfonia Della Notte’ and last year’s huge ‘Hey Hey’ (Beatport’s most charted track of 2009), he’s worked with the likes of Kerri Chandler, Masters At Work and Jerome Sydenham over the course of a twenty-year production career, in addition to being nominated for this year’s Grammy Awards for his remix of Dido’s ‘Don’t Believe In Love’. Widely regarded as one of the most technically-proficient producers around, you can find out more about his techniques in his recent interview with Resident Advisor:
“Look, if you’re a bad motherfucker, you’re a bad motherfucker…”
Joining Ferrer on the bill will be the man pretty much responsible for House music itself: it was during Frankie Knuckles‘ early days in Chicago that the genre took its name from the legendary Warehouse venue where he was resident: as disco evolved in the early 80s with the use of drum machines and synthesizers, it was the sets Knuckles and his fellow Warhouse DJs were playing that helped define the new strain of electronic dance music. Check out this Beatportal interview with Knuckles for the great man’s own take on the birth of house, plus this radio interview conducted with Noctunal hosts The Shapeshifters on their Galaxy FM show and their single collaboration last year, ‘The Ones You Love’:
Returning to matter themselves for the first time since their Room 2 takeover last February, The Shapeshifters will be on hand for a main room set of their own: the Anglo-Swedish duo became one of the world’s biggest dance acts in 2004 with their UK #1 hit Lola’s Theme and its follow-up ‘Back To Basics’ – through their Nocturnal Groove parties they’ve continued to be among the most in demand house acts around ever since.
Latest tracks by TheShapeshifters
In addition to that bumper bill, Defected star ATFC and Positiva’s Serbian up-and-comer Gramophonedzie will be putting in shifts to celebrate their new releases: With new album ‘ATFC In The House: London ‘10′ out now, enjoy ATFC interviews and mixes galore at his Defected micro-site; and find out a bit more about Gramophonedzie in this recent interview with The Sun, where he talks about his quiet lifestyle and the jazz influences that inform his massive upcoming single ‘Why Don’t You’, which is released on 28th February.