Crevette Podcast 02 : DJ Athome

#2 - dj athome

Over the last 30 years, Maurizio “DJ Athome” Ferrara has been involved in the early psychedelic/dub scene, the queer scene in Brussels and the ‘anti circuit’ scene in Italy. As a DJ he's been welcomed as a guest at Honey Soundsystem's San Francisco parties, Berlin's Panorama Bar and various freaky bars and greasy squats around Europe. He recently made a compilation for Musique Pour La Dance called 'Spaced Out' focusing on psychedelic dub, space rock, and early electronica created in the UK's festival scene between 1986 and 1996. We sat down with him to have a chat about his compilation, Front De Cadeaux, Supreme Rallentato and much more. Happy to have Maurizio as our second podcast guest !

#2 - DJ ATHOME


Over the last 30 years, Maurizio “DJ Athome” Ferrara has been involved in the early psychedelic/dub scene, the queer scene in Brussels and the ‘anti circuit’ scene in Italy. As a DJ he's been welcomed as a guest at Honey Soundsystem's San Francisco parties, Berlin's Panorama Bar and various freaky bars and greasy squats around Europe. He recently made a compilation for Musique Pour La Dance called 'Spaced Out' focusing on psychedelic dub, space rock, and early electronica created in the UK's festival scene between 1986 and 1996. We sat down with him to have a chat about his compilation, Front De Cadeaux, Supreme Rallentato and much more. Happy to have Maurizio as our second podcast guest !


You named your podcast ‘Spaced Out!’. Can you explain why and what mood you tried to capture?
This podcast has the same name as my upcoming compilation on Musique Pour La Danse, « Spaced Out! ». I made it to introduce the compilation and to try to illustrate the vibes of my early 90’s period when I was listening to space rock, psychedelic dub and early hippie electronica from the UK festival scene.

The mix contains tracks from Irresistible Force (Mixmaster Morris), Satellite IV (Don Falcone, Kim Cascone), Space Time Continuum w/ Terrence McKenna, Divine Soma Experience, The Ullulators *, Ozric Tentacles, Revolutionary Dub Warriors *, African Head Charge, and Junk Waffles (*included in the compilation).

Any tracks you want to highlight, a personal favorite ?
My personal favorite is Divine Soma Experience's « Music is Magic ». Taken from an album that I bought in 1994. It's a long trippy track, quite difficult to describe: imagine a space rock live band adding acid bass lines, dub drumming and slowing down the beat in the same way a DJ is pitching down the track to make it deeper and longer.

Can you talk a bit about your digging routine when looking for records? Where did you find the records in this mix?
I found all these releases in my cellar! I bought them at the festivals and concerts I used to go to in the early 90's, before I moved from Liège to Brussels in 1996. One of my favorite venues was the Nijdrop in Opwijk where I saw many UK bands playing live. Crohinga Well fanzine, based in Asse, was the only way to stay informed about the scene. It had interviews and reviews with names like « Lysergic Juke Box » and « Tales From The Past » and they were the only way to order the official LP, CD and tape releases, the self released stuff and the Better Days Tapes. This fanzine became cult and rare.

 The Crohinga Well fanzine, based in Asse, was the only way to stay informed about the scene. 

The compilation focusses on psychedelic dub and space rock from the UK festival scene of the 80's & 90's, could you tell us a bit more about the idea behind it? 
It’s a long story. I started to listen to this music in the early 90’s. It was a reaction to an overdose of New Wave I guess. Me and my friends discovered the psychedelic culture and at the same time I started my studies in psychology at university. Through the countercultural ideas of people like William Burroughs, John C. Lilly, Timothy Leary and Terrence McKenna and their connection to music, I discovered psychedelic music in many forms: from space rock (Hawkwind, Gong, Ozric Tentacles, The Ullulators, Mandragora, Magic Mushroom Band) to early ambient works (The Orb, Space Time Continuum, Higher Intelligence Agency, Astralasia, Mixmaster Morris) to dub (Zion Train, Rootsman) to trance (System 7, Spiral Tribe, Eat Static) to tribal drones (TUU, Alman Mulo Band, Rapoon) to folk and world music (The Oroonies, Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart, Trance Mission).  

The idea was to select titles that could introduce and represent the atmosphere of the festivals and concerts. Strongly inspired by the John Peel Sessions on BBC Radio 1 and it's compilations like « Peel Your Head » and « Feed Your Head », released by Planet Dog. This happened fairly quickly because I never parted with this collection, which is now again at the center of my record collection. 

Where does your fascination for this music come from and how did you get introduced to it?
Everything started in Liège. The scene in Liège was actively involved with the UK scene, especially with musicians like David Borsu and painter Dany Salme. Salme created the album cover for the « Strange Trips & Pipe Dreams » album by Hawkwind’s Dave Brock and painted his portrait on the wall of a famous local pub called « Le Pot Au Lait » in 1988. At the same time, some friends involved in Le Local and Indica Sound rented a cellar to play music and organise parties with live bands. They hosted Zion Train's first ever concert in Belgium. 

How long have you been working on this compilation? It clearly didn't happen overnight. Any special anecdotes you can share?
I worked on this compilation for over a year with my friend Edouard Isar, who spent a lot of time contacting the artists to clear the rights to the music. His contribution was very important: he helped me to select the final tracks from the initial selection. I tried many times to play this music but it has never impacted the audience. I thought I was being nostalgic, so I left it all in my cellar for years. A few months before the pandemic began, I started working on the idea of a compilation focused on the period between '86 and '96, compiling tracks taken from my tapes, CDs and vinyl. When Edouard heard the selection he immediately introduced the project to his label partner Olivier, and they decided to ask me to curate the compilation for Musique Pour La Danse.

When did you start collecting this music? What is the first track you can recall that got you into it?
I’ve been collecting this music since 1990 and I still do. The first track I can recall is « Squatter in the House » by Magic Mushroom Band. It's a proto new beat / house track, which was very surprising to hear when their album came out.

You're one half of Front De Cadeaux, while your partner in crime Ugo lives in Italy. Were you still able to work on tracks together despite recent travel restrictions? Do you have any releases coming up? 
It’s a nightmare to produce together since COVID started. Usually we record in our studio located in Rome. In the past year I’ve been in Rome only 2 times, so we have to work over a distance. This is not easy, we miss the energy of being together in the studio. If everything goes well, Front de Cadeaux will release their first album in 2021, after it got postponed last year. 

You clearly have a strong connection with Rome. What binds you to this city, except that Ugo is living there? What can the scenes in Rome and Brussels learn from each other? 
In my point of view, Brussels and Rome are total opposites. When I'm in Rome, I’m with my friends who are all located in the same area of Pigneto and we don’t really move from there because we are a community. We spend a lot of time in « Pescheria », a studio managed by Ugo. We hang out, listen to and record music. It’s an open place that Ugo and his friends are magically managing for some years now, giving people the chance to use the studio to record sessions or to learn mixing and DJ’ing. We also used to organise workshops, conferences, exhibitions, etc. I dream of a place like that in Brussels.

 Supreme Rallentato is the magic of a 12" tribal house track that sounds like a perfect original dub track when played at 33 RPM pitched down by 6%. 

For those who don't know yet, what is Supreme Rallentato and how can we bring more of it into our lives? 
The Supreme Rallentato is the art of DJ'ing and/or simply playing records at the wrong speed to make them sound different. It’s not just to play something on 33 RPM instead of 45 RPM, of course you need to choose well which records to pitch down. It’s also a philosophy and an epistemological breakdown about the Sound. The magic of playing records at the wrong speed is a physical sound transformation that can make people dance at 98 BPM during peak time. This is the magic of a 12" tribal house track that sounds like a perfect original dub track when played at 33 RPM pitched down by 6%. With Front de Cadeaux we collect vinyl that we would never play at 45 RPM because they sound much better when pitched down.

You recently finished a project for De Vaartkapoen and Klara Festival, where you played in a band together with Alex Deforce, Abid Bahri and Jordi Grognard, that was formed specifically for this project.  How was the experience for you?
It was a very good experience after months of isolation! I'm used to working in a band set-up when I’m in Rome. With Front de Cadeaux, we are rarely in the studio just with the two of us as it often turns into a jam session. And since Ugo is often the one managing the set-up, I learned a lot during this sessions! 

Is there anything on your horizon you’re excited about that you want to share with us?

I’m very excited about this upcoming compilation and the early enthusiastic feedback is inspiring me to work more on this type of music research. I keep doing remixes and some are coming next. I’m working on some residencies with Jordi Grognard and Giorgi Xose. With Alex Deforce and Jordi Grognard we are considering to release « Une fois Molem ». I will spend the rest of my energy on Front de Cadeaux as this pandemic has slowed down our project even more so than our proper Supreme Rallentato :) 









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