DJ James Zambiela beats things up at the turntable

Joseph Mangga, Contributor, Jakarta

Jakarta was once again treated to some top international DJ talent when 24-year-old James Zambiela, the world's #11-ranked DJ, played to a crowd of nearly 1,500 people at Club Centro on Jan. 24 in South Jakarta.

From Southampton, UK, Zambiela grew up with a sensory overload of the latest UK acid house, since his father worked in a nearby record store.

He started DJ-ing at 15 when his dad got him a set of decks and a mixer as a Christmas present. He immediately became an incurable vinyl addict and left school aged 16 to work in a record store and hone his DJ-ing skills.

Less than four years ago, he was a starving graphic designer by day and a struggling part-time DJ by night. Going to work each morning, frequently with only three hours sleep, he handed out homemade-mix tapes to virtually everyone he met.

One of these landed in the hands of Lee Burridge -- the current world #30 DJ, who played the Triple-Xperience party at Ancol in North Jakarta last August. He was so impressed he passed a copy onto DJ god Sasha -- world #4, who played Stadium in late 2002 -- who was looking for a deserving young up-and-comer to open for him on some upcoming gigs.

As the story goes, Sasha was listening to the mix tape in his car when he telephoned Zambiela out of the blue, offering him a dream slot with his DJ agency, Excession. They say lightning never strikes twice, but that very same month the same mix tape won the prestigious Mixmag Magazine Bedroom Bedlam competition. It must have been one helluva mix ...! As Zambiela said, in an exclusive interview with The Jakarta Post.

"When I gave them that tape it was like a mixture of all my favorite DJs at that time. I used to like Danny Howells and I liked what Lee and Sasha would do. I think every DJ is a mixture of their favorite DJs. Its kind of a weird thing."

What's even weirder is how quickly Zambiela became unquestionably the hottest young DJ sensation on the planet.

Besides headlining huge gigs in Europe and Ibiza last summer, he has also recently toured Asian cities like Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore, and now Jakarta. This was only a quick two-city Asia trip for the young spin-master, then he's straight back to England to record a two-hour Essential Mix for Radio 1 -- the highest profile dance music radio show in the UK.

"Its kind of really a privilege to be asked to do, but I'll (record) it live. I don't use Pro-Tools (i.e. a 'virtual studio' computer program used by most DJs and producers). Its kind of something I'm against. I just like the whole live thing, (making) it up as you go along, using FX units and things (like that)."

Sound in Motion -- his only commercial release to date -- is very unusual for it is more or less a live recording of his DJ mix without any overdubs or major studio manipulation whatsoever.

As Zambiela describes, "It was simply a case of me going into my bedroom, putting the tape recorder on, DJ-ing for a couple of hours, then I gave the tapes to the record company and that was that".

As for current projects, Zambiela has a song remix, Eli, coming out on Global Underground next month, plus a shadowy remix CD scheduled for release sometime in July.

"Eli is a track by Adin Lavelle, James Lavelle's (world #44 DJ) little brother. I finished it the day before I left so I played it last night (at Centro Singapore) for the first time (and) I'll play it again tonight. I'm (also) going to do a new mix CD, but it's top secret at the moment. I can't tell you what label or anything. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, (but) I'm going to try and get an even more live feel to it."

One of two things that distinguishes Zambiela from most other DJs is his ability to utilize the latest DJ gadgetry to its fullest potential, live: using the decks and effects units to create a separate lead instrument.

"Right now I'm using the Pioneer CDJ-1000 CD deck and EFX-500 unit in a much more musical way, trying to put in more of a performance rather than just 'playing records', one after another. I've also had a lot of scratch influence from (scratch hip-hop) DJs like Run-DMC and Jazzy Jeff."

During his Centro performance, this translated into extended bass drop-outs followed by spacey, improvised CD-scratch solos and full-bore assaults of FX-laden vocal and synthesizer loops.

"Sometimes (I'll use) three decks and an a cappella vocal as well. I've worked out (how) you can use the feedback delay on the Pioneer FX unit in the same way as the C-Loops feedback loop. Its kind of weird (for) it's not meant to do that," Zambiela says.

The other thing unique about Zabiela is his extensive use of "breakbeat" tracks -- quirky, off-beat, almost jazzy rhythms, squeezed somewhere in between a standard 4/4 beat.

When asked about his style, Zambiela said, "I'm a sort of a real mixture of everything, so I guess that's me. Just a mish- mash. I play a lot of break-beat, a lot a techno, a lot of house. A real mixture of anything, that acid house stuff, mellower stuff, more melodic stuff as well."

Zambiela certainly succeeded in taking everyone on a very unique musical journey that evening at Centro. For a closer impression, we asked him what he likes best about the overnight DJ-ing success that has befallen him.

"The fact I'm sitting here in Jakarta is pretty amazing for a start ...! I get to travel and see things and play music all around the world. It's like the best thing ever, so no complaints."