Stepping up for this week's Pulse Radio podcast is New York-based DJ/producer and Hallucination Limited label head Three! Three delivers to us two hours from his set at Listed Productions' PLAY after-hours party in San Francisco, which he best describes as "dub house disco." We had a chance to catch up with him ahead of a busy touring schedule in Miami during WMC 2014 to ask him a few questions about his podcast, some of his lesser known musical influences, when we can expect his new imprint to launch, and where we can see him play in Miami. Download his exclusive mix below - enjoy!
Tell us a little about the exclusive mix you made for Pulse. How did you approach it? I have a reputation for not letting many mixes out, but when I do I use real recordings of actual nights I've played rather than doing studio mixes. Usually, I'll just pull an hour for a podcast, but I decided to give two hours for this one. It's from a recent night of my residency for Listed Productions' PLAY party in San Francisco which happens at legendary gay after-hours club The End-Up. It;s an amazing crowd to play to. This night I played 6am to 10am and this is the middle of it. Musically, the vibe is what I like to call "dub house disco" plus a couple vocals. A raw, loose San Francisco vibe to me which feels right with that early morning, mixed crowd at The End-Up.
You’ve been working on a new imprint of your label Hallucination Limited called Hallucienda. What can we look forward to from the new endeavor? Yes, that's true. A new imprint called Hallucienda will launch right after WMC in the spring. Coming from my involvement with Hallucination Recordings in the 90's and then setting up its sister label Hallucination Limited in the 00's it felt like this was the next step. Clean slate, starting from scratch, but with access to the previous catalogs so the musical lineage is still there. It's two years in the making and I'm really excited about it. There willl be some very familiar names alongside newer and lesser known artists I've been working very closely with in an A&R capacity.
What are some of your lesser known influences that your fans would be surprised to hear about? Hmm… probably late 80's industrial music. Specifically anything Alain Jourgenson and Paul Barker were involved in like Ministry, Pailhead and Revolting Cocks plus other Wax Trax label acts and Skinny Puppy, Alien Sex Fiend, Nitzer Ebb. Nice band names, right? For sake of reference, in Europe they tend to call it EBM: Electronic Body Music. As with house music, Chicago was pretty much the center of the industrial music universe and those worlds intersected more than you'd think in terms of producers like Van Christie and clubs there like Medusa's. Where I was down in the southeast U.S. was probably the third largest market for it in the country. In my late teens at "alternative music" clubs in Tampa, Florida they were playing Master C&J - Dub Love on Trax Records (which is my favorite Chicago house record ever) and Maurice - This Is Acid right next to industrial records like Skinny Puppy - Assimilate and Revolting Cocks - No Devotion and this was a huge influence on me. I learned early on if you got past the fandom of only liking one thing and really looked between the lines you may discover how connected different music scenes really are from studio techniques to personnel. It really fueled my eclectic nature. Riding that influence of the urgency and moodiness of late 80's Chicago house and industrial with the ever present New York and Miami Bass electro into early 90's rave culture was really amazing.
What do you have in store for WMC 2014?
3/21 - Miami @ Visionquest pres. Super Pleasures - Treehouse
3/27 - Miami @ Last Night On Earth / Magnetic Grooves (sunset cruise) - Biscayne Lady
3/27 - Miami @ Don't Be Leftout (after-hours) - The Bank
3/28 - Miami @ Listed Prod. / PLAY - Do Not Sit On The Furniture
3/29 - Miami @ Get Lost - Ice Palace
3/30 - Miami @ Last Resort - Ice Palace
What else is on your horizon in the coming months? The sunny skies of spring and summer.