Welcome to the DJ Ambiessence webspace

My definition of “ambient” is an extremely wide one, essentially meaning atmospheric or thoughtful music and sounds, rather than throw-away or simply banging stuff. The music I play ranges from extremely ambient things and drone-based soundscapes through to trance-techno dancefloor rhythms and eclectic rock, but (as stated above) there’s always some sort of ambient essence in the mix...

Here are some examples of sets I’ve played, I often like to combine music from disparate sources:

• spacey trance and techno, including tech-house (I’m particularly into Platipus stuff);
• vintage (Tan Dream, Schulze etc) and modern (Aphex Twin et al) synthy things;
• ethnic music (such as the Guo Bros Chinese instruments) mixed with more contemporary ambience (Hillage’s Rainbow Dome springs to mind);
• classical minimalism (Reich etc) emerging from swirling electronica;
• Islamic, Buddhist and Gregorian chants blended with techno rhythms;
• spoken word passages in the mix;
• divergent dub;
• dreamswept drum ‘n’ bass;
• moments (sometimes very long ones!) of out-and-out weirdness;
• psychedelia, ancient and modern;
• the odd Krautrock, Gong, Zappa, Fripp or Floyd night;
• I also spin rock and sometimes play jazz too
• and have been known to do weddings, birthday parties and school discos...
• and my Millennium party mix of one track/artist per year from 1960-1999, in order, of course!

I use CD and vinyl decks and have been DJing since 1995.

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Transplanet (the early days)

Well, for the record, my first gig was (Is your mind ready for a trip to) Transplanet at the King’s Arms pub in Exeter on 10 March 1995. Playing a set which basically evolved into the Transplanet Travels mix, I supported live trance-techno keyboardist N-Tropic and the full-on mayhem-minded Bristol DJ Pod (thanks to Pod for letting me use his decks and indulging my first mixes, everlasting love and respect to N-Tropic - especially as I’m his “manager”!).

I played at three out of four Transplanet gigs at the Kings Arms and organised the Transplanet Tastebuds Experience with N-Tropic at theParis Street Cafe at Exeter bus station! For £3.50 punters enjoyed veg curry and garlic bread along with three DJ mixes and two live sets - complete with psychedlic decor, smartlights and smokeshow. Happy eating took place to intelligent ambient dub and “ethnodelic whooshcore” (I love inventing new musical genres), followed by bouncing around to solid trance-techno. Political consciousness may even have been raised by the Workers Aid for Bosnia stall.

The Paris Street cafe gig was the last Transplanet event to use backdrops provided by DANCE (Drugs and Narcotics Counselling & Education), a local group which aimed at educating kids about drugs, rather than peddling the ineffective “just say no” line. Thanks to Mark and the rest of the DANCE crew for their lovely environments. We then went on to sort out our own hangings - thanks to Brian for his tie-dyes and the Woodcraft Folk for the big blue parachute.

The Transplanet tag was also used for three gigs with N-Tropic at Exeter University in 1996, of which (due to a number of factors) only the first one was a really positive experience (and then we set off the smoke alarm!). Since then there have been no more trips to Transplanet, my energy has been channeled into the St David’s Ambience Society and the Future Sound of Exeter, but I may be forced to make the journey there again one day...

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I think it fair to say that the original concept of the St David’s Ambience Society was my idea, which I immediately shared with Steve (N-Tropic) Clarke to get the project underway. Fed up with hiring venues, PAs and lights and risking our own money by putting on gigs in competition with commercial clubs and pubs, we sought a free space for our more experimental music.

It just so happened that Tim Price (respect!), an old friend from my days as a leftwing political activist, ran Exeter Community Centre and had no problem with us forming a collective which then affiliated to the centre as a society able to use its facilities (namely a performance space, a postbox and a bar!). We’ve had some pretty small audiences at some of our sessions since March 1996, but more and more people have slowly realised we’ve got some good vibes going on - at the community centre and (particularly of late) elsewhere.

As secretary of the Ambience Society (“information is power” to misquote Lenin), I run it with Steve Clarke as chair and Mike Webb as treasurer. All members of the collective muck-in to varying degrees, but I tend to take the lead in timetabling events and liaising with artists, venues and the media. You can savour the full spread of Ambience Society (SAS) activities by going back to the FSOE site...

Soon after forming the Ambience Society we came up with our more “commercial” (by our standards!) alter-ego, the Future Sound of Exeter (FSOE). Promoting music for the feet as well as the mind, FSOE nights at Exeter Phoenix and the Cavern have raised funds for SAS activities. I’ve embarked on many an ethno-techno-trance journey and epic rock-mix under the FSOE banner, DJing alongside the likes of Hawkwind, the Asian Dub Foundation Soundsystem, Banco de Gaia, Gong, Astralasia, Zion Train, Global, Eat Static, System 7, Jah Wobble and Transglobal Underground - as we’ve put on big names as a platform to promote local artists. I’ve supplied atmospheric ambient openings… between act dance and rock sets.

On 15 April 1997 I staged Rites of Passage at the old Exeter & Devon Arts Centre with visual artist Nigel Code. This consisted of four deck mixing (two CD, two vinyl) inspired by Nigel’s drawings, slides of which he projected onto a six foot by ten foot screen. I put together two forty-five minute mixes and Nigel exhibited some of the original pictures in the interval. The sometimes scared images were made even darker by the brooding mixes (Hula, Part, Tan Dream, Schulze, Aphex Twin etc etc), leaving the audience sitting in solemn silence. This Ambience Society event was grant-aided by Exeter Arts Council.

In July 1999 we put on a similar event above Barts Tavern as part of Exeter Festival. Nigel projected two sets of images and the single, long mix was still dark but a little more eclectic (even the Cocteau Twins popped up). This event was the launch party for the Notional Gallery of Contemporary Art, a website set up by Nigel and Hyperactive, the Exeter cybercafe promised to bring along PCs for free surfing, but they failed to get it together - but we had an excellent dark ambient evening anyway.

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Saturday 22 August 1998 found me organising and playing on the chill out stage at the second Exeter Respect Anti-Racist Free Festival, organised by Unison, the public sector trade union. Chilled dance sounds drifted into the blue sky on a beautiful summer afternoon...

Then in 2003 and 2004 the Future Sound of Exeter transformed Exeter Respect Festival into a world music extravaganza, co-ordinated by yours truly, with free community actvities all day followed by the best musical evenings the City's ever witnessed, headlined by Transglobal Underground in 2003 and the Asian Dub Foundation in 2004…

In May 1999 I collaborated with N-Tropic to aurally interpret the liquid crystal projections of Gustav Metzger at Exeter’s Spacex Gallery. With decks and synths on the floor a-la-Klaus Schulze, we created an ever-changing ambient wash as the walls changed colour in the main gallery, with satellite speakers in the second gallery containing Metzger installations.

As well as trance-dance and eclectic sets, I have been responsible for themed evenings at Ambience Society sessions:

My Krautrock night (helped by fellow ambient DJ, The Iconoclast) featured deranged dancing to lashings of Can, Kraftwerk, Neu! and more. (We later put on a live Krautrock Karnival released a CD featuring Kraut-inspired artists from around the world.)

My (Going, going) Gong evening mixed together classic pothead pixiedom with spaced out jazz, gorgeous Tim Blake synthy bits and up-to-date System 7.

My uninterrupted five hour Zappa tribute night forced a packed house to embrace all aspects of this great man’s legacy.

In the Wake of King Fripp covered King Crimson’s diverse output, Frippertronics and all sorts of Robert Fripp collaborations.

My Floyd night involved five hours of Floyd mixed on five decks!

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I have recorded a number of mix tapes, which plenty of people have actually paid good money for. They are on sale at gigs, from me, or from The Emporium (secondhand records/hi-fi shop on Heavitree Road). All tapes are around 90 minutes long and dolby-free.

Here’s the current list...

• The Transplanet Tapes, mixing ambient effects with danceable rhythms...
• Transplanet Travels (yellow cover)
• Transplanet Tastebuds Set One (green cover)
• Transplanet Tastebuds Set Two (pink cover)
• Return to Transplanet (blue cover)
• Rites of Passage - dark ambient mixing inspired by Nigel Code’s brooding drawings, a selection of which appear on the high quality cover.
• Way of Life - drone-based ambience, vocal snatches and rumbling rhythms mixed into a deceptively mellow set.
• Tripgnosis - a trance-techno rhythmic journey based on two dance sets at the Cavern Club.
  
  

These all cost a mere £3 each!

My CD track!
I’m responsible for the final track on the St David’s Ambience Society’s first CD, The Future Sound of Exeter. Called The St David’s Ambience, audience samples from SAS sessions are given a short ambient once-over - I often end my DJ sets with this slice of delerium.

My mix disk
My debut mix CD 'Dubbed Up, Spaced Out' is ideal after-gig listening with it's chilled grooves and cosmic vibe: "excellently mixed" - TDB magazine; "a superb chilled mix after his mental set with Zion Train" - Twenty4-seven magazine.

Respect!
I mixed this disk which featured all the artists from Exeter Respect Festival 2003, combined into an ultra eclectic world music journey.

These disks cost £5 each.

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You can ring me on 01392 676550.

You can email me at paulg@unisonfree.net

A word about politics

A large part of my adult life has found me involved in some sort of leftwing politics, experience which has proved extremely valuable when applied to Future Sound of Exeter and other musical activities.

This experience has included:

All sorts of Labour Party capers, including successfully fighting expulsion in the High Court (no, I wasn’t in Militant or any other sect, but a libertarian socialist supporting Ken Livingstone’s Labour Briefing) - I’m no longer a member of Blair’s party.

Forming Exeter Anti-Fascist Action and fighting fascism and racism.

Running and forming the south west’s largest trade union branches in NALGO and then Unison.

Helping with campaigns by CND, Anti-Apartheid, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Nicaragua Solidarity, Free Tibet and more.

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I’m very happily married with two children and a busy and creative day job, running helps keep me fit and sane, and I’m generally into music for love and the buzz !

Hope you’ve had a good surf,

Love, peace and ambience everlasting,

PAUL

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