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Room for us All

Andy Daniell is a busy chap. Not content with A&Ring for both Defected and Strictly Rhythm, he occasionally teams up with Sandy Rivera to deliver storming club anthems a la 'Whatever'. Plus, he mixes and compiles the Bargrooves compilation series, the latest edition of which - Over Ice II -  has just had a stunning makeover courtesy of Japanese artist Dragon.

We caught up with Andy ahead of the release of the album to discuss the future of compilations, his 'obsession' with Joris Voorn and comparison with the Hed Kandi brand...


You’ve compiled and mixed  a number of Bargrooves compilations now…how does this one compare to the others ?

I think with the awesome new artwork from Dragan it gives the compilation a fresh look and feeling and I really wanted to echo that with the music. Musically I think my favourate previous Bargrooves compilations that I worked on were the Summer Sessions and Over Ice, so I wanted to do something that was up there with those for me on a personal level.

Do you think there’s the demand for another house compilation?

The house compilation market is certainly crowded but I really like to think that quality can shine through. I always try to put records on there that are a cut above the rest. Also as its Bargrooves rather than Defected I can branch out musically and look to license tracks that I love and would maybe like to sign but they aren’t quite right for Defected. So this allows me to still use these tracks that are great but in a slightly different way.

There’s a good mix of ‘big’ tunes and some slightly more obscure tracks…talk us through some of them…

Yes, I think it’s important to have a good balance of more accessible records and slightly less known records. For example in house music at the moment I don’t think there is a bigger record than Dennis Ferrer's Hey Hey so obviously that HAS to be on there. On the other side a record like Precious System Voice of Planet Love that may have on a more underground tip but that doesn’t stop it being a great record so its perfect for this CD.

Joris Voorn’s name appears more than once..are you a big fan of his?

Yes I’m a huge fan of Joris and the direction he has taken in the past few years. He took over techno and now he is taking over house. Records like Chase The Mouse and his remix of Dosem's Beach Kisses are just inspired and represent real quality.

Personally, what do you think you bring to the series?

Well, I bring the music side of it! I try to dig deep and find things people may have missed and couple that with more well known record and bring it all together into something that is coherant and works for DJ’s and people who just want a good listen alike, It’s not always easy but its very rewarding once its all come together and getting to see the final product.

How would you like to see the series progress over the next year or so?

Well with Dragan’s awesome artwork I feel the visual side of thing is in some very safe hands and that only serves to inspire me to find new and exciting music coupled with some more classic titles. So for me the series progressing is continuing what we have tried to do from the start and that’s to stand for real good quality music.

Bargrooves has been described by some as "a poor man’s Hed Kandi"...how would you respond to that?

You can’t deny the impact Hed Kandi has had. Many of us bought the albums when they started but I feel recently musically they have lost their way and what made them great. I think you really have to stand for something musically, or at least stand for quality. Hed Kandi these days feels more style over substance to me personally, but I think there is enough room in this world for all of us. So we’ll keep trying to make the best quality albums that we can and hopefully people will continue to like what we do.

What are your own plans for 2010, gig and release-wise?

2010 the majority of my time will be spent working as an A&R for Defected & Strictly Rhythm. It’s so exciting to hunt down a record you love and to get someone you are passionate about to remix it and see something new be created. So as well as that I’ll be gigging on weekends as much as possible and between all that I really should find time to go in the studio again and try and make another record or two.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about..?

Our Website Editor's behavour in Amsterdam perhaps? Although I think some things are best left unsaid..Haha!


Bargrooves Over Ice II - compiled & mixed by Andy Daniell is out 8th February.

No Sleep In Amsterdam...

Ah ADE, the Amsterdam Dance Event. Every October the dance music community up’s sticks to Holland for 4 days of partying, business and god knows what else. I headed over with the rest of the Defected on the Wednesday. We arrived nice and early and headed into central Amsterdam to meet a scary drug dealer, erm I mean the dude with the keys to our apartment, he took us down a seedy dark alley through a dodgy looking door with a hole kicked in it, over about 3 roofs to where we didn’t end up staying hahaha! Me and Aaron Ross took this as our cue to leave and head to our meetings. Luckly by the time we finished our days meeting the apartment situation was all sorted and we headed to Dam Square where we were staying RIGHT NEXT TO FUN FARE!!!! LOL Oh well Amsterdam is not a place for sleeping.

So me and Aaron headed out to grab some dinner with Dennis Ferrer, his manager Shauna & Simon Dunmore. After dinner me, Dennis & Shauna decided to head over to Shlomi Aber’s Be As One party to say hi to Shlomi & Gel Abril and to meet up with DJ Gregory, Stephan Mandrax & Gregor Salto. Shlomi’s party was banging so we hung out for a bit and then decided to head over to the Innervison’s party to catch up with Dixon, Ame & Henrik Schwarz. Now I have to say this party was insane! The venue is out of this world and seeing people going nuts and I mean nuts to really quality house music is amazing. After a bit the long day of meetings was catching up with me and I had to call it a night, lightweight that I am.

Friday was the biggest night by a mile as that was the STRICTLY DEFECTED PARTY!!!!! With the line up to end all line ups!!!!! Can you tell I’m excited I’ve broken the excelmation marks out. Kenny Dope, Chocolate Puma, The Shapeshifters, ATFC, Copyright, Aaron Ross, Daniel Bovie & Roy Rox, the list goes on and on, but to cap it off is the live defected band. Hearing all the Defected and Strictly Rhythm classic’s being played live and with such love is such a pleasure to hear. So to be on a line up like this was incredible. I played pretty early but this was all the better to properly enjoy the party, which I certainly did. Everyone played their socks off and it was great to catch up with the whole crew we even had a tour bus FFS. Big pimping!

The next day was all about sleeping it off and flying home, but the fairground put paid to any sleep. So if you saw some zombies in Amsterdam airport, I’m sorry if we scared you...