Benji B Known to many as the Deejay's DJ - and for playing the tunes first that eventually end up in the boxes of the big names - he is about to show discerning clubbers the world over that it's not just the industry insiders who deserve to witness his talents. He blends tunes from all genres of underground music ‘ whether it be broken beat, hip-hop, house, garage, jazz, soul or Detroit techno. Always reaching for the deeper side of the music with an ear open to the future, the soulful element is what links the tunes he spins. "Whether its broken beat or house or hip-hop, the beats have gotta be right. And the music has to be soulful," Benji explains. When asked to describe his DJ'ing style, Benji B refuses to be pigeonholed, but is clear about what he wants to achieve: "I guess you could say it ranges between 85 and 140 bpm! "But it has to be a journey, always a journey. I play more than one type of music, but it's all related, it's all quality and it all flows. "I'm a raver - I wanna get taken on a journey by a DJ when I go out, so I try to do the same in the mix when I play." A musician from the age of seven, Benji played saxophone for 14 years. He achieved all of the eight musical grades by the time he was 16, playing on stage at various clubs around the capital. A player and then a teacher of the gamelan (Balinese and Javanese music of Indonesia) for 10 years at the South Bank Centre in London, Benji immersed himself in all types of music from a very early age, and soon fell in love with buying records. A Londoner through and through, Benji grew up with a rich musical backdrop that enabled him to sample the very best of soulful music that the capital had to offer. As most kids his age at school were not into Public Enemy or Stevie Wonder - and he was too young to blag it into the clubs he saw advertised - Benji found that his musical influences came not from his peers, but from his radio. He says: "When I was a kid it was all about the pirates. Legal radio was Eighties pop, but at the weekend you'd get hip-hop, electro, soul, jazz, funk and acid house at different ends of the dial. Benji looks forward to spreading his musical vision further with groundbreaking interviews, live recordings and radio mixtapes of the highest quality |
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