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In the studio with...  It
takes a lot for any new DJ with no original productions to his credit
to gain the sort of respect 24-year-old James Zabiela now commands
from the global DJ elite. Managed by Sasha’s Excession agency,
Zabiela has just finished a residency at Ibiza’s massive Space
nightclub and has been pegged by Pioneer Electronics to consult on
the next version of their Pioneer EFX-500 effects unit—and this
only three years after winning Musik Magazine’s Bedroom Bedlam
competition for unknown DJs. Lesser DJs, envious of his relatively quick success, should instead glare covetously at his skill at the Pioneer CDJ-1000s. Live, the U.K.-based Zabiela uses two CDJ-1000s, an EFX-500 effect unit, two Technics turntables and (preferably, he notes) a Pioneer DJM-600 mixer, providing sampling and still more effects. Rocking the system like one instrument, he uses cue points, Master Tempos and transform effects to achieve a distinctive form of digital turntablism. “You can do more with a CD than you can with a record,” Zabiela insists. “You can chop a CD up and edit it live and do loads of crazy stuff and loop it. That’s why I really like it.” Zabiela applies a variety of novel applications of Pioneer’s products to his DJ sets, and it’s a big reason why the company invited him to Japan after seeing him spin at London’s PLASA Conference in 2003. Zabiela routinely exploits a feature within the EFX-500 that helps him remix on the fly with the effects unit alone, which intrigued Pioneer. “With the current effects unit, you can use the EFX to do a feedback loop in which you can constantly add things and layer,” he reveals. “You can actually create a track from scratch just by using the feedback loop and layering and layering. I really think they should make a major feature out of that.” Musically, Zabiela’s style veers from progressive to new-school breaks and funky house, and he cites producers such as Plaid, David Robertson, Jay Tripwire, Elite Force and U&K as current favorites. (His recent remixes have tackled tracks from Röyskopp on Wall of Sound and Dave Brennan on End Recordings.) Likewise, he’s developed the same versatility in his mixing style. (For a full flavor of his mix, check his excellent double-length mix comp, Sound In Motion, on the dearly departed imprint, Hooj Choons.) He can veer from smooth progressive mixing to turntablist scratching, which he can alter to his liking with the EFX-500/CDJ-600 combination. In particular, he describes a technique called “cue scratching.” “You push the sound forward, like you would with a record, and you hit the cue button whilst in cue mode,” he says. “As soon as you take the hand off the record and put it back to the start of the sound, you then use the other hand to trigger the sound, so it’s like scratching and playing the sample at the same time or alternating between a scratch and a sample. You can also make a loop and just transform within the loop so it’ll never jump out into the wrong place, which is really handy, actually.” On top of a track, Zabiela can add unique effects to his cue scratches that a vinyl DJ can’t accomplish without growing a third arm. “If you use the transform, on the loop, you can then scratch with one hand,” he says. “You don’t need to use the crossfader with the transform effect on, so you can use the other hand to apply a third effect on the jog dial, say a Jet flange or something, to cascade the scratch pattern by moving both hands in time with the dominating record.” And by using the CDJ-1000’s Master Tempo feature alongside its wide pitch range, DJs and even producers can create timestretches without a sampler. “You can add something that’s in one key [with the Master Tempo], change the pitch up to +6 and it will still be in the same key,” he says. “And you can use that now, whereas before, you’d have to put it into a rackmount sampler and spend ages getting it right.” Zabiela’s example is already showing a lot of old-school jocks that there’s still new ground to be covered in the DJ field. And at this point, Zabiela appears enthusiastic to take it all in. “DJing can be taken as far as you want to take it,” he says. “Look at those lunatics in DMC. Look at the things they do, like putting rubber bands on the turntable and playing basslines through the stylus. There’s always room for improvement. I don’t think you can ever say, ‘Oh, this is as good as I’m gonna get.’” |