Welcome to Ashley Casselle’s new sci-fi infused headphone friendly podcast; a finely tuned and sequenced journey through the records you won’t (usually) hear him play in a club. However, this is beyond just a mix of off-the-beaten-path records, this is a cosmic voyage of sorts, with every element selected for both its musical quality and its adherence to the sci-fi space theme. An initial inspection of this mix and one will find bits and pieces that all subtly point to the stars.

Every track has been manipulated, re-edited or remixed specially for this compilation in the manner of a true deck pioneer, blurring the lines between dj mix and artist album, pushing some of those boundaries in the often overcrowded and cluttered world of online dj mixes. The artwork and post mix mastering on this comp are done with a view to making it an album you’ll treasure, as if it were a gatefold sleeve vinyl that you come back to at that special time of day, the time for the Dayrise Enterprise deep space Techno voyager to come out for a spin.

To quote Ashley perhaps somewhat crudely himself, this music is for ‘that time of day when you’re too tired to dance, but too fucked to sleep’.

Artist Lineup for Dayrise Enterprise #002

Avatism
Rene Breitbarth
Kevin Saunderson feat. Inner City
Kink
Usul
Pawel J
Deep Space Orchestra
Jacob Korn
Franklin De Costa

Ashley has taken this mix even one step further, and has actually conducted an interview with Deep Space Orchestra

Interview by Ashley Casselle with Deep Space Orchestra

1. Ashley Casselle: What made you decide on your act name ? Did revered New York dj, remixer  and musical pioneer François Kevorkian have anything to do with your choice ?

– Deep Space Orchestra: You know what, neither of us can actually remember exactly where the name came from! Our friend The Revenge was nagging us to choose a name as he was about to release our first proper track back in ’09 and we just kind of stumbled across DSO. I’ve been to Francois K’s Deep Space night in New York, and mighty fine it is too, but it didn’t have any bearing on us choosing our name.

2. AC: I used your excellent ‘Arrakis’ track on Dayrise Enterprise#002 which is mainly why we’re talking to each other now. I hear many things in your music, a jazz influence is present but not completely dominant. Who is the jazz head in DSO and who is the one who pushes things in other directions ?

– DSO: Chris is a serious jazzhead! SERIOUS. Boy knows his Horace Silver from his Art Blakey. I’m pretty clueless when it comes to jazz. We both like a pretty broad cross section of music though so it’s not really a push-and-pull situation in terms of setting a direction for a track.

3. AC: Do you find the touring dj lifestyle to be a Godsend, or do you find it tiring and repetitive ?

– DSO: We’ve found our travels to be pretty enjoyable on the whole. Apart from airlines losing your suitcases and stuff like that! It’s a pleasure to be paid to travel around the world and play at people’s parties. Having said all of that, we’ve not yet reached the stage where we’re away djing every single weekend of every month. I can imagine that trying to juggle that with family life and/or a day job could become pretty taxing eventually.

4. AC: Who do you both agree was your favourite artist to remix, and why ?

– DSO: Whoa, tricky question to answer. I know some producers find remixing to be a real chore and would much rather be making their own original compositions as opposed to trying to knock other people’s tracks into shape but we’ve never had that problem. It’s a blank canvas. If there are lots of lovely usable parts to be chopped up and recycled, well, great. If on the other hand there are only a small number of usable parts, then you’ve got free reign to do what you want with the remix. Probably my favourite remix we’ve done is this > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ02Mw7WEWY (featured below). Lots of really nice parts from the OG made it an enjoyable remix all round.

5. AC: In not more than five words, describe your sound.

– DSO: One-Man-Band-Trips-Over.

6. AC: How many hours a week do you spend in the studio/making music together ?

– DSO: Due to our pretty busy work and family lives, we’re really limited to just 1 evening per week and it’s been that way for a couple of years now. It forces you not to dick around playing video games all night and actually get straight into the studio and to work. This relative lack of time forces you to be decisive when working on the early stages of a track and limits the amount of time wasted working on an idea that maybe only one of the two of us is really into. If both necks are snapping to the beat, it’s straight back to the drawing board!

7. AC: If a track is mainly instrumental, is there a heated debate about what to call the tune ? Who decides ?

– DSO: We have an ever-expanding list of completely non-sensical track titles that we are slowly working our way through. We’re like sponges for the ridiculous and bizarre – if we hear something in a film or a conversation and it sounds suitably silly, it’s going on the list and will more than likely appear on a DSO record at some point down the line. Having said that,  Chocolate Handgrenade has been on the list for a number of years and is probably about as likely to adorn one of our tracks as George W Bush is of winning the Nobel Peace Prize!

8. AC: I’ve noticed recently that good honest techno has made a move onto dancefloors that were previously home to house or other, dare I say, more commercial forms of dance music. It could be argued that much of what you do is techno, do you see your own melodic take on the music edging into venues you wouldn’t have imagined playing at a year or so ago ?

– DSO: Mmmmmmm. Techno definitely seems to have become more prominent again in the last year or so, especially with guys like Blawan playing a lot of techno who were previously seen more as, and it pains me to use the term, ‘bass’ music. I think if you asked someone like Kirk Degiorgio whether techno has made a comeback, he’d probably laugh and tell you it never went away in the first place. We’ve always just played what we’ve wanted to, some house, some techno, some disco, some weirder shit and people are usually pretty receptive to it, thankfully!

9. AC: Are you both family men ? A quick glance at Si’s Facebook page shows him to be a proud Dad. How much does that affect djing schedules and the like ?

– DSO: Chris has yet to bring forth the next generation of Barker whilst Murray Jnr Mk 2 is due to arrive this summer! Juggling work, family life and music definitely requires higher logistical planning, that’s for damn sure! My wife and I are lucky that we both have a very supportive close family who help out if DSO are hitting the open road.

10. AC: What is your favourite track from the past year or so ?

– DSO: Andras – Running Late


11. AC: What made you choose your label name Use of Weapons ? have either of you served time in the military, or perhaps had a tough time on the streets of Glasgow ?

– DSO: The label name came from the extremely talented and now sadly deceased Scottish author Iain M Banks’s amazing sci-fi novel of the same name. If you’ve not read it then it’s highly recommended young man! Chris and I are both very big fans and there was just something about the imagery of the name that we both kept coming back. Being from Glasgow does also make one more likely to be able to wield a slice of deep friend pizza like a ninja shuriken so that may have been a subliminal influence when deciding upon the label name!

12. AC: I’m a self confessed Doctor Who fan (though I’d hesitate to use the word Whovian), and in the absence of a football or golfing obsession this is something I can easily get into when I need time off studio and djing work. Do you both share similar geeky sci-fi passtimes or are you out there on the terraces decked out in your team colours ?

– DSO: We are the perfect amalgamation of nerd and jock, as capable of discussing whether there is currently a better character appearing in TV or book than Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones as we are at discussing whether there is any way that Jose Mourinho could possibly be any more of a dickhead. Perfect jock/nerd supercombo.

 

-Review of Dayrise Enterprise #001 by DJMag

Mr.Casselle has gone the extra light year and pushed the boundries far beyond that of most deck technicians. Much of the techno and house on offer here sparkles and flickers with an attention to detail buried deep within the spacey grooves and blissed out dubs, music seemingly made as much for a comfy session on the sofa with your favourite space cadet as it is pumping out of a Funktion1 soundsystem in a club.

Additional mix production and editing by Pawel J at the Boxroom. Mastering by Tom Gillieron at Artspace Studios, Brixton London.

-Slow

 

 

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