Bristol-born UK DJ Nick Warren's first major break was being roped in to join his mates' band on their first US tour. The band was called Massive Attack. Since those days, Warren has infected Liverpool superclub Cream with his trademark trance and progressive sound while resident there in the mid '90s and formed Way Out West with fellow Bristol producer Jody Wisternoff in 1994. Their hits included Ajare, Domination and The Gift, Intensify, Mindcircus and last month they released their latest single Muthaf**ka. JULIAN HOSGOOD writes Warren is making a return visit to Perth on Sunday, January 11, for Summadayze at Belvoir Amphitheatre.
After an abortive attempt earlier in the week, Warren is finally tracked down at 10.45 on a Saturday night while he is waiting in a Mexico City hotel room for his minders to pick him up and take him out to dinner and a show. Except of course, the show is the doof-doof variety and he's going to be on stage. "Should be quite good," he says down the line.
One of Warren's favourite places in the world seems to be South America. "Yeah, it's fantastic. Especially further down. Argentina, I think has the best crowd and the best club in the world." The love affair between Nick Warren and Argentina is well documented and he agrees with whoever it was who called the Argentinean capital the Paris of the south. "The clubs have passion. The crowds are stylish and passionate - the Argentineans are a mix of the South American blood and the European." Warren pauses for breath. "And the women they are just stunning. Unbelievable. No, really, really good."
In fact, many things have been really good for Warren in recent weeks. Muthaf**ka, his collaboration with Way Out West partner Jody Wisternoff was released on November 10, and in a few weeks Warren will join the end-of-year UK DJ migration trip and fly south to for an Australian tour ending in Perth for Summerdayze. Timo Maas was quoted in a recent Face magazine article talking about Muthaf**ka in glowing terms: "if the track was any bigger it would have to be put out on 14 inch vinyl."
"Muthaf**ka was something Jody [Wisternoff] and I put together for a bit of fun, really. It was never a serious single release because of all the samples in it! We originally released about 2,000 copies. The new album is back to our roots. It's very breaky, very rootsy and very uplifting. We have a new singer from Bristol and we worked with a German producer. Muthaf**ka is the best stuff we've done so far."
When Warren mentions his roots, many think immediately of his early days with Massive Attack - and although you could use a lot of adjectives to describe Massive Attack, breaksy, rootsy and uplifiting do not immediately spring to mind. "That was me DJing rather than producing," explains Warren. "I did bits and pieces really, but that it. FSOL's Papua New Guinea was the big thing for me."
Add Papua New Guinea to Warren's five Global Underground CDs, Budapest, Reykjavik, Brazil, Prague and Amsterdam and from the titles alone, the impression is that Warren's real fascination is foreign travel to obscure places. And the more obscure, the better. Although Reykjavik may have shed its obscurity since Bj?went international, who would have thought the Hungarian city of Budapest would have been such a dance music gem? Warren does. "Last time I was in Budapest, I played at the opera house to 2,000 people on a Thursday night. It was too crazy." Warren travels to Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Lithuania regularly and he spent last weekend in St Petersburg, Russia, working a crowd of 16,000. Still, he saves special praise for Hungary. "Since Hungary opened up to the west, it has developed an incredible dance music culture, because they're able to do what they were previously forbidden."
Warren mentions another reason why Hungary has the best parties. "It might have to do with the fact that Hungary has got all the major E factories in Europe." According to the history books Hungary has long been a world leader in chemistry, so it is only natural exposure to dance culture and free markets would find new uses for such scientific expertise. "There is this village in the middle of nowhere in Hungary, with a population of about 300," says Warren. "It still has horses and carts, but then every Saturday there are about 3,000 people who drive into the village to party." Warren won't divulge the name of the village, but insists it's worth a visit. Sounds like a trade secret.
