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"I just like to think people could expect from me a mixture of quality underground music that’s druggy and deep but also rocking at times – bouncy, wobbly, wonky and weird."
Yep, he delivered.
EQ Magazine
Burridge in a Nutshell
15-10-2007
http://www.eq-mag.co.uk/interview02.html
He’s one of the most difficult DJs in the world to categorise, but that’s part of what makes his sets so exciting. Now, though, Lee Burridge has put out a mix that he thinks gives the world an accurate taster of what he’s all about…
Bouncy, wobbly, wonky and weird. Not words everyone would chose to describe themselves, but ask Lee Burridge to sum himself – well, his music – up in a nutshell and that’s the phrase he uses. To be specific, Lee is talking about his new mix album, his three-disc addition to the Balance catalogue, and a mix that shows off what the mercurial Mr Burridge is all about. It’s almost impossible to pin down exactly what sort of music Lee plays out in clubs and produces via his own label Almost Anonymous, but he thinks Balance 12 is a pretty good summation of what makes him tick.
“I set out to create a mix over three discs that worked as a single piece of music when played back to back, but also worked as standalone individual mixes,” Lee says. “I think the growth over the three CDs is the closest I’ve ever come to summing myself up as a club DJ.
“Two discs have always limited me being able to represent what I do in a club, so I was so happy when Balance agreed to let me do three as it gave me the opportunity to stretch my legs and pace the mix. I read a few comments on a message board where people were asking why I’d want to do three discs – they said it would probably dilute the impact of the package – but I really feel I stepped up. And surely it’s better to own more good music than less?
“I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say and put two months into making this mix different to anything I’ve done before. I’m so happy with the end result. I don’t usually listen to my own mixes after making them but I’ve been rocking these on my iPod. I want to do four discs next time around…”
It’s hard to imagine two CDs being enough to take in the scope of Lee’s wide-ranging musical tastes, but even so, putting together a three-CD mix is a mammoth undertaking. Just ask Jimmy Van M – his three-disc Balance mix took him months to complete. Lee seemed to have an easier time of it though – on the first disc at least…
“CD one came together fairly quickly,” he says. “One track was a nightmare to edit – Jacek Sienkiewicz on Cocoon – as it’s 12 minutes long and has so many changes and sounds rolling over each other. It took me a long time to get it right. But CD two nearly didn’t get made at all. I was struggling to get a good flow – I’d find three records that worked and then it wouldn’t go anywhere. At one point I was on the phone to Balance asking what they thought about the package being two discs – but then I decided to get wasted when I got up at 9am the next day and see what happened. Now I really love CD two, and I’m glad I stuck with it. It’s the most druggy of the three and it reflects that part of a night in the club where you can’t exactly remember what happened but know you had a good time.
“I’d been thinking about CD one for a while and put together music that, for me, emotes feelings of warmth, emotion, distance, dreaminess, beauty but with underlying feelings of melancholy. I wanted to make a deeper more chilled mix that was different to the usual stereotypical ‘chill-out’ mix you get on these sort of releases. I wanted to compile a collection of tracks that you can drift off into, but that still has a house sentiment.
“CD two was always going to represent that part of the night that you get lost in, a journey with peaks and valleys and quirky sounds and layers that twist your head and screw you up. This is music for people on drugs who love falling down black holes or entering the house of mirrors and wondering which way is up and if they can ever be normal again.
“CD three is a natural progression from the last disc and has been the one I’ve been describing as ‘drummy’. I’ve noticed that most DJ mixes take their time and build up gradually, so I thought that for once I’d start out as I meant to go on. The first track really is a great description of where the whole mix goes. It’s tough with a fat bassline and sharp, nasty percussion.”
So there we have it, a snapshot of one of clubland’s most tricksy DJs, a man who really does defy genres. He might be hard to define, but that’s surely a good thing – after all, everyone likes to be surprised and that’s what Lee Burridge excels at. Some people might not get him, but that doesn’t bother Lee.
“I’m still sometimes branded as a progressive DJ, I think because of my two comps for Global Underground – although I don’t feel the music I chose for those mixes was proggy at all. I just like to think people could expect from me a mixture of quality underground music that’s druggy and deep but also rocking at times – bouncy, wobbly, wonky and weird. The night is always a ride.”
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After it ended, it turned out that my buddy labelled the discs wrong *phew* Haven't given it a proper listen since then, and I'll probably wait until I get my legit copy from HMV or where ever.
