Press Release
JOURNEYS BY DJ - HISTORY
The story of Journeys by DJ begins a few years before its first release in February 1993. It was the end of the Acid House era of 1986-1989 in London. Emerging from the underground dance music press and DJing on the warehouse party scene, Tim Fielding hooked up with a collective of DJs, artists, musicians and club promoters known as The Brain. The Brain was based at a small club in Soho, plastered in luminescent Keith Haring-style graffiti and featuring many of the luminaries of today’s Electronica scene. Leftfield, Orbital, Moby, Shamen, Guy Called Gerald, they all cut their teeth on the sweaty upstairs floor of 11 Wardour St. The club drew DJs from across the board and around the world, from Graeme Park’s Madchester House to Mark Moore’s Disco camp; from the futuristic Techno of Evil Eddie Richards to Old Skool proponents of Acid Jazz; from the NY Garage of Roger S to the hardcore mayhem of Lenny D.
At one time or another, they all played The Brain. When Tim decided to start a top-flight DJ mix series, he had all the right phone numbers. 1990-1992 had been spent on Brainiak Records. Albums by Ultramarine and Infinite Wheel established Brainiak as an imprint for transcendent Electronica and Ambient Dub. The "Live at the Brain" series stood as a kind of "Live at the Roxy" of the early Techno scene. Singles by Doi-oing, Lazonby, Daydreemer, Ubik and Diceman contributed to the development of the progressive club sound. But one thing was glaringly obvious: clubbers weren’t buying enough records by artists, but bootleg tapes of the DJs they heard in the clubs. The recordings were poor; the bootleggers kept all the cash, and the DJs hated them because they had no quality control. When Billy Nasty, Judge Jules and Danny Rampling heard there was a legit DJ mix series coming out on CD, they jumped at the chance.
The first three albums, released in 1993, were licensed almost advance-free. Such was the spirit of the times and the strength of the relationships built up through The Brain, most labels contributed their music on trust. Billy, Jules and Danny signed up for £500 and a couple of mixers. [You would be unlikely to get them now for less than the price of a Porsche]. By the end of the year, the genie was finally out of the lamp. Ministry of Sound, Renaissance, React and K7 were all in on the DJ-mix vibe, and competition to secure the biggest DJs was fierce. In early 1994, JDJ released John Digweed’s first mix album, still regarded by many as the definitive Progressive House mix. Then followed World No. 1 jock Paul Oakenfold, and the first homegrown JDJ mix, "The Ultimate House Party", programmed by Tim and mixed by Jay Chappell.
The "superclub" phenomenon and the little-missed fad known as "Handbag House" soon saw a number of increasingly commercial products on the market. Pursuit of the lowest common denominator followed. The JDJ ethos was never to be a compilation album per se, but to represent the art of a DJ at the peak of his powers. The idea of "20 dance hits for the price of 3" was not what JDJ was primarily about – in fact most JDJ’s refrained from listing the tracks on the back. The advantage is that JDJ has to this day proved a much more enduring brand than DJ-mixed compilations. JDJs are still interesting to listen to, and keep selling years later when other "DJ" albums, often not programmed by the DJs at all, have gone stale.
Dance hits compilations dominated the TV-advertised market, so JDJ diversified. Albums followed from X-Press 2’s Rocky and Diesel and US "Superstar DJ" Keoki, collaboration with Moonshine Music in LA dating back to 1993. Moonshine’s President Steve Levy, a man who knows a good thing when he sees it, had chanced upon an early JDJ tape and snapped the series up right away. Back home, JDJ broke another barrier with Justin Robertson’s free DJ-mix tape on the front of Select magazine. And with the jungle sound erupting, JDJ released DJ Rap’s "Journey to the Land of Drum’n’Bass", arguably the first ambient D’n’B album; and another homegrown project, "After Hours", a classy collection of laid-back, jazzy House grooves which became a hallmark for the JDJ live sound.
1995 ended on a high note, with JDJ investing in London’s brand new club The End, and the release of Coldcut’s "70 Minutes of Madness", a Hip Hop album that kicked the DJ-mix scene right in the butt and is widely credited as one of the very best of all time. The next year saw a range of new initiatives: the JDJ World Tour; Journeys Into Jungle; the JDJ Marathon release in Japan; licensing deals in America, Australia, South Africa, GAS and Benelux; the launch of Brainiak Design, incorporating a merchandising division for JDJ and Goldie’s label, Metalheadz; JDJ’s monthly Saturday club, "Triptonite", at The End; JDJ’s tent at London’s Pride festival; JDJ’s weekly show on Face FM pirate radio; sponsorship of events and album releases; and JDJ’s own DJ agency, Marching Management.
Albums for the year were "Dance Wars" by Judge Jules and John Kelly; "CD-Scape" by Justin Robertson; "JDJ – Live at Pride" by Martin Confusion and Jay Chappell; and Terry Farley and Pete Heller’s "Musicmorphosis." JDJ International meanwhile continued with DJ Duke, Dutch maestro Dimitri and "Ich Bin Ein Bassliner" by German Uber-DJ Westbam.
In 1997, Richard Branson’s new label V2 signed the entire JDJ catalogue in a three year licensing deal. JDJ moved from the HQ at Brain Yard in Grays Inn Road to the modern canal-side space at Islington’s Wharf Road. Under V2’s auspices, JDJ released "After Hours 2" and "Triptonite", a 3-CD live recording from the club, ft. Tech-House from Jason Moore, Trance from Andrew Galea and Breakbeat from Tomislav. The JDJ tour continued apace alongside a nationwide campaign to remarket the entire series. The company, now 15 people strong, began looking more closely at opportunities presented by new technology and particularly the Internet. Tim started work on an audio-visual project to produce a narrative JDJ; Face FM changed to Interface, www.pirate-radio.com; September saw the release of "Desert Island Mix" by the legendary duo Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay. Sadly, the magic promised at the time of the V2 deal failed to materialize. "Desert Island Mix" was to prove the last Journeys by DJ - until now.
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