BEN KORBEL [28:05:08] RENAINSSANCE MAN There aren't too many interviews with well known Australian DJs that include tales of a thwarted French horn career and theatrical demi-god Andrew Lloyd Webber. But that's exactly what a sneezing Ben Korbel muses about whilst promoting his latest atmospheric heavy mix, ‘Electric_03’. “My parents started me on piano lessons and doing musicianship and theory when I was five,” recounts the Sydney based DJ. “And when I was in high school I played the French horn, but when I was in grade 12 I started going to raves and when I left school the cost of buying a French horn was like four or five grand and I got a second-hand set of turntables for $400 and was going down to parties ... it just happened, I just kept buying records.” Australian dance music fans should be happy he did, with his latest mix - ‘Electric_03’ (for Balance) incorporating well matched spatial beats (think Kraftwerk via Sasha and Digweed) with soulful lounge vocals. “The whole spatial aspects of it probably started with trips to the snow. My parents would always play Andrew Lloyd Webber tracks and Fleetwood Mac and all that real sort of warm, melodic music in a sense. Then I started listening to Renaissance CDs when I was about 18 or what not and they were into the whole atmospheric house thing. But from either (type of music) I get the same emotional connection in a sense, it relaxes me and gets me into a positive spin off.” And a positive spin off is what he wants from the crowd during his live sets as well, and with a resume that takes in clubs from Italy to Ibiza and London he has learnt to adapt and give people what they want. “Sometimes people want to get really melodic, other times people want to hear percussive stuff and that changes from country to country. So somewhere like Italy and Spain it's really percussive with a tribal feel whereas if you are in London they get quite dark and gloomy, more subtle and different again from Sydney to Melbourne again. “(Brisbane) crowds are probably more like Sydney to be honest, not so serious or dark and gloomy; it probably comes with the warmer weather people are generally more positive and happy, you go out to party and that's what you want to happen.” Warm, positive, and happy. Much like his mixes themselves really. Paul Shields ‘Balance Presents Electric_03’ hits stores May 30 through Stomp. You can check Ben Korbel at barsoma June 14. back to top ^

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