Anthony Pappa

about the dj

Born in the Australian outback and raised by wild dingoes, Anthony Pappa was a child prodigy when the Avalanches were mere snowballs on a mountainside. Having worked in the family business from an early age, he decided to strike out on his own and become an international renowned disc jockey, in the days when international renowned disc jockeys were as rare as tap dancing marmosets. If not rarer.

Anthony was alarmingly good from the off. Annoyingly good. At the tender age of 15, he entered Australia's DMC Mixing Championships. And won. Not content with this, he worked regularly in the clubs in native Melbourne, where he forged a reputation as one of the city's hottest DJs.In 1993, Mixmag organised a mixing competition (it was a forerunner to Muzik's Bedroom Bedlam contest) and he won that, too, with a brilliant and musically clever mix of funky and vocal house.

In 1994, frustrated at being halfway around the world from where the music he loved was happening, he hopped on a banana boat and landed in Southampton docks six weeks later armed with a bag full of records, and a cache of funnel web spiders. Hooking up with Dave Seaman and a sinister enclave of DJs and producers based in Maidenhead and Slough, he plotted his takeover of the world. He struck a friendship up with engineer/producer Alan Bremner and together they formed Freefall: by day mild mannered janitors at the Daily Globe, by evening world beating dance music makers.

Gigs began to arrive as he established himself in the UK. First a trickle, then a flood (these days,the passport rarely leaves his back pocket). Both promoters and punters noticed something particular about the way he played: smooth mixing, musically complementary, great programming. Trainspotters noticed something else again: that his record box was organised in keys. Crikey. Who's a clever dick, then?

Since gracing the cover of DJ Magazine in 2000 as part of the celebrated “Nu-Breed”, Anthony Pappa has taken his rightful place at the top table of DJ royalty. Running alongside that work at the coal face of club culture has been Anthony’s parallel career as a producer. As a classically trained drummer who can both read and write music, Anthony is rare amongst DJs in really understanding the music, and in the process of piecing it together. The man knows his way around a studio as well as a DJ booth, prompting Pete Gooding to quip he’s “the best DJ, technically, I ever saw”. Anthony was the first man Global Underground turned to front up their Nu-Breed series, and several of Anthony’s mixes for Global and for Renaissance have clocked up 100,000 + in sales.

After a couple of years focusing on his gigs at all the best clubs on the planet, in 2008 Anthony has turned his attention back to producing music. He’s set up his own label, Red Light District, home to his first original track in quite a while – Outback - released in March; and in April, Anthony has the triple disc Moments album on Hi-Note scheduled for international release, which finally gives him the scope to dig into all four corners of his record box, and demonstrate the scale of his appreciation for electronic music: “It starts off with deep house, then tech house, then finishes off with techno,” he explains. “And it goes through whatever in the middle to get there!” Building through the likes of Music Is Improper by Friendly People, Darko Esser’s Blackout and Jamie Stevens’ Keep Her Space, the album also includes cuts like Rubicon from Avilo and Stel’s Sparky’s Heartstopper - quality tracks from the best in electronic music, moulded together perfectly by Pappa - the human metronome.

An Australian of Italian extraction based in the UK, Anthony Pappa is a true internationalist, with a self-imposed mission to share his music with people all around the world. With two CDs, plus an innovative downloadable bonus mix, Moments progresses without necessarily being progressive and true to form, is truly forward thinking, a deep and urbane album of late night urban music.

Thanks to his nefarious links with Mr. Seaman, Freefall were signed to Stress Records, where they released two singles. Their debut, 'Shrug', was followed by 'Skydive', a tougher-than-leather main room anthem that said, 'we're here, and we're not going until you've noticed us'. They were duly noticed. They have also, it should be noted, done a few remixes in their time, too, including Beloved's 'Sun Rising', though 'prolific' is not a word you'd associate with Freefall.

His Resolution mix album is Anthony's 7 th in his career so far, including ones for compatriots Mushroom and Stress. Pappa was also responsible for last year's acclaimed debut for Global Underground offshoot, Nu-Breed, which saw his face (not to mention blue jacket and brown eyebrows) splattered all over every available poster site in Britain.

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http://www.anthonypappa.bigcartel.com

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