Home News What's On Annual Poll Photos Forums DJs Features Music Venues Reviews Links

Features Introducing NEM3SI$’s new label Infinite Resistance! Mindbenderz talk ‘Lord of the Rings’ and fishing, as well as the creation of their new album ‘Celestial Gateway’! Iono-Music artists One Function, Eliyahu, Invisible Reality and Dual Vision talk Robert Miles, kids, dogs and vinyl, while we chat about their current releases! Luke&Flex talk influences, the Irish rave scene, why Flex wears a mask and Play Hard, their new EP out now on Onhcet Repbulik Xtreme! Lyktum expands on his new album ‘Home’ – talking about his love of storytelling, creating new harmonies and the concept behind his musical works. Pan talks getting caught short crossing the Sahara, acid eyeballs and tells us Trance is the Answer, plus shares his thoughts on his latest release 'Beyond the Horizon' - all from a beach in Spain! Miss C chats about living with the KLF, DJing in a huge cat’s mouth, training her brain and the upcoming super-duper Superfreq Grande party at LDN East this Saturday, 16th September! NEM3SI$ - I Live for the Night – talks superficiality, psychopaths, and bittersweet success, ahead of a plethora of evocative, emotional, and passionate upcoming melodic techno releases! Psy-Sisters Spring Blast Off! We talk to DJ competition winner ROEN along with other super talents on the lineup! Blasting towards summer festivals with Bahar Canca ahead of Psy-Sisters Spring Blast! Shyisma talks parties, UFO's, and Shotokan Karate ahead of his upcoming album 'Particles' on Iono-Music! SOME1 talks family, acid, stage fright and wolves - ahead of his upcoming album release ‘Voyager’ on Iono-Music in February 2023! The Transmission Crew tell all and talk about their first London event on 24th February 2023! NIXIRO talks body, mind and music production ahead of his release 'Planet Impulse' on Static Movement's label - Sol Music! Turning the world into a fairy tale with Ivy Orth ahead of Tribal Village’s 10th Birthday Anniversary Presents: The World Lounge Project The Psy-Sisters chat about music, achievements, aspirations and the 10-Year Anniversary Party - 18/12/22! A decade of dance music with Daniel Lesden Earth Needs a Rebirth! Discussions with Psy-Trance Artist Numayma Taking a Journey Through Time with Domino New Techno Rising Star DKLUB talks about his debut release White Rock on Onhcet Republik! PAN expands on many things including his new album 'Hyperbolic Oxymoron' due for release on the 14th April 2022 on PsyWorld Records! Psibindi talks all things music including her new collaborative EP 'Sentient Rays' on Aphid Records, her band Sentience Machine and 10 years of Psy-Sisters! N-Kore talks Jean-Michel Jarre, unfinished tracks and fatherhood! Celebrating International Women’s Day and Ten Years of Psy-Sisters with Amaluna A Catch Up with John Phantasm ahead of his upcoming set at the Tribal Village 4 Day Outdoor Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022! 'The Maestro that is Tristan talks barn owls, Shazamming and keeping it Psychedelic ahead of his upcoming performance at the Tribal Village 4 Day Event in Kent 6-9 May 2022!

Funk in the Plaza Reported by Voodoobass / Submitted 13-03-07 22:02 Anyone who’s into the breaks scene can’t help but have noticed the name Plaza De Funk cropping up rather a lot recently. Plaza De Funk, otherwise known as Marcello De Angelis moved to London from his native Italy in 2004, and since then has been making a name for himself as a producer and remixer, who, as his production moniker implies, has a love for all things funky. With releases on West Records and Mantra Breaks, garnering ‘Sureplayer’ accolades from DJ Magazine, and his remix of DJ Killer’s ‘Acid’ on Functional, now seemed like a great time to catch up with the man like Marcello to ask him a few salient questions about his take on the Funk game. Voodoobass: Hi Marcello, how's it going? Very well thanks! V: I think first we'll start off with some more obvious questions but important nonetheless. Tell us a bit about your background, and what made you decide to get into the DJing / Production game? Well, I started playing guitar in bands back home in Italy when I was 14 or 15. I honestly can't say I was such a massive fan of samplers and electronic music at the time but that all changed when I got into drum 'n' bass around 1996. So I bought a cheap E-MU sampler, an old Apple Mac with Cubase and started getting into production. Then I started to fall in love with the whole Bristol sound. I first came to London in 1998 to check the whole scene out and I was blown away. I always used to go to Movement at Bar Rumba and it was mad! I got into Breaks around the same time thanks to a seminal night called Get The Funk Out at The Dogstar in London, which also spawned Funkt at Mass. From that point there was no going back to playing in bands for me, I knew that was where I wanted to be! V: Obviously with a name like Plaza De Funk, it’s obvious that you're very into your funky stuff, but who would you say are your biggest musical influences? Too many really! As I said I used to play in bands so I can really say I love Aerosmith and The Smiths just as much as I love Prince and George Clinton. I really like a lot of Warp Records and Rephlex stuff as well - I think Squarepusher and Mu-ziq are modern day musical geniuses. But I like that experimental stuff just as much as I like a perfect pop hook and a killer funk groove - I hope you can hear that in my stuff. V: Moving on from your all-time influences, who out of your contemporaries would you say is really important to you at the moment, and why? Well as far as breakbeat goes, Plump DJs, Soul of Man and the whole Fingerlickin' crew are the ones who are pretty much responsible for creating the sound I like, so I'd have to go with them. I also really like what West, Splank! and Mantra Breaks are doing - Madox in particular is an absolute genius! Other producers I really rate are Rogue Element, Tom Real, Nick Thayer and Maelstrom. V: You're from Italy originally. Where in Italy are you from, and do you think it has influenced your style in any way? I'm from a small town up north called Rovereto, in the Italian Alps. I couldn't really say it has influenced my style in any way - the only effect it had on me is that I was always so bored there it made me want to spend as much time as possible in the studio, haha! Although the funk element probably comes from my Mediterranean heritage. I should also mention that funnily enough 5th Suite from Mantra Breaks also lives in my hometown, and I pretty much grew up listening to his sets so maybe that was a bit of an influence. V: How does the club scene over there compare to here? Oh God - it couldn't be more different. The crowds in the UK are very educated about music, they almost always know what DJ is playing and they know most of the tunes. In Italy they mostly just go to "cool" clubs where they can chase fit girls or boys. Milan is the absolute worst for this - and the few people who do know what they are talking about pose around and don't dance. I'm not saying there are no exceptions - Agatha in Rome has been the most notable one for 10 years, and there was a great club in Milan called Tunnel which has just reopened, as well as Link in Bologna and Blatta and Inesha's night Mad in Sicily in Catania. But for the most part I don't really like going to clubs back home - I'd rather have a meal with friends and a bottle of nice wine and go clubbing in the UK. V: Italy has given rise to Italo Disco and lots of Piano-led House over the years. These days it seems to be home to a lot of Electro-breaks producers. Would you say there's a specific Italian sound of today? Yeah I guess so, a label like Mantra Breaks has a very unique sound, you can recognise Santos and Madox tunes straight away. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that you can't keep a crowd on the dancefloor for 5 hours in Italy playing just breaks, you have to mix it up a bit and that shows in the productions. So the Santos sound has a lot of house contaminations, and Madox mixes it up with techno - it might not sound so new now but it definitely did when the first Mantra productions came out, they sounded totally unlike anything else around at the time. I think the Andrea Doria remix of Plastic Dreams a couple of years ago defines the Italian "sound" of today very well. And it's always pretty damn funky! V: Your sound is quite specific.. Do you produce other styles or genres under different names, or is funky breakbeat your main love? I did a couple of house productions on Oxyd a few years back, and released a tune with Irma Records as well as a trip hop/jazzy drum 'n' bass album as Cimarosa Collective. But I don't really have time to do anything else these days as I have quite a busy schedule - so it's funky breaks all the way! V: You've got a new EP, 'Get On Down' due out very soon on West Records - what can you tell us about that? I'm really happy with it, and I'm really happy to continue releasing on West. I love what they are doing as a label, they haven't had one single release that I haven't played to death and they are also really good friends so it's the best of both worlds really. It should be out within the month and has a wicked remix from JDS on the flip! V: What opportunities do we have to catch you out and about over the next month or so? I'm playing at the Pool Bar in London on the 9th of March, at a secret location in Brighton on the 8th of May, Inigo in London on the 16th of May and Lyon in France on the 17th. Hope to see you at some of these!! Photos courtesy of Plaza De Funk. Not to be reproduced without permission. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: Other Features By Voodoobass: Notes from Glade 2012 The HarderFaster guide to Production: Reason - Part Two The HarderFaster guide to Production: Reason - Part One Track Arranging 101 - from loops to magnum opus - Part 2. Track Arranging 101 - from loops to magnum opus - Part 1. The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable. Comments: From: Wub on 14th Mar 2007 08:49.08 Good work Sami, nice article. Marcello is a top notch bloke, though none of your pictures capture how short he is :hehe:

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.

Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Text Mode