Bill Brewster
November 22nd, 2011 by AbbyBill Brewster
Bill Brewster began DJing in in the late 80s, but he cut his teeth playing the legendary ‘Low Life’ warehouse parties in Harlem and the
East Village – he moved to NYC to run DMC’s US operation – and anyone hearing Bill today can see how these New York ‘roots’ shine through. For eclecticism, surprises, amazing unique music and sheer long-haul dedication to the dancefloor, Bill’s your man.
His other life is as a writer. Together with long-term pal Frank Broughton, Bill is author of the definitive history of DJing, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, and has contributed his acid Grimsby wit and encyclopaedic knowledge of music to just about every dance rag there is, not to mention The Guardian, Independent and Mail On Sunday. In 2002 the Brewster-Broughton double act unveiled their uniquely sardonic DJ manual – How To DJ (Properly).
This month sees the release of ‘Fac. Dance’ on Strut Records compiled by Bill Brewster. The album focuses on some of Factory Records early output, narrowing in on some key dance floor cuts that comprise some of our favorite 12 inches and late night classics.
Check out this taster mix here -
BILL BREWSTER
BIG CHILL BAR
SATURDAY 3RD DECEMBER
FREE*FREE*FREE
FAC. DANCE
Factory Records 12” Mixes & Rarities 1980 – 1987
Strut present an essential new retrospective covering the dance output of Factory Records, the seminal Manchester record label founded by Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus and designer Peter Saville.
The album turns the spotlight on some of the label’s early dancefloor-based work across key 12” mixes and rarities, from the unmistakeable production style of Martin Hannett to pioneering studio work by New Order’s Bernard Sumner and A Certain Ratio drummer Donald Johnson, under their BeMusic and DoJo monikers.
Early Factory experiments like Blurt’s avant garde mutant funk blast ‘Puppeteer’ rub shoulders with the fertile post-Joy Division period as the label’s unique, coruscating post-punk sound took shape on extended 12” cuts from A Certain Ratio, Section 25 and more. The album also expressly documents Factory’s strong links and cross-pollination with New York’s 1980s club culture, as Quando Quango and Marcel King enlisted NY remixer Mark Kamins for tough-edged club treatments. Factory artists including Quando Quango and A Certain Ratio would also perform at some of the city’s seminal nightspots, including Danceteria and the Paradise Garage.
The compilation also touches on some of the wider dancefloor directions explored by Factory during its early years – the latin jazz funk of Swamp Children and Kalima, the cool British soul of Tony Henry’s 52nd Street and a track from Factory’s only overtly reggae single, the Dennis Bovell-produced ‘See Them A’Come’ by X-O-Dus. Within FAC. DANCE are contained the grooves that would provide the blueprint for the Manchester scene of the late ‘80s and Factory’s heady later years – Happy Mondays, James, Northside and the rest.
FAC. DANCE is compiled and annotated by Bill Brewster of djhistory.com and produced in association with Factory Records Ltd.