by Ms.E & dMarie

On a rainy spring evening in March, dmarie and I head out from the South of Market Radio-V studio across the city to the Lower Haight, on a mission to interview DJ Abstract. Over to the 606 house -- headquarters for some of San Francisco’s young music legends. We always joke about how in 30 years, kids coming to Haight Street will scope out this spot just like they track down the home of Janis Joplin and The Dead around Upper Haight! This grand, three-story Victorian has mad electronic music gear in every bedroom on every floor. The cast of characters here is always changing, with an out-of-town DJ crashing on the couch every weekend.

Click here for ABSTRACT'S DISCOGRAPHY

This is the home where Abstract, AKA Alex Posell, has built his own studio piece by piece. It’s ground zero for his evolving drum ‘n’ bass creations and his new label, Pneuma Recordings. Abstract’s evolution through music is rooted in the rhythms of jazz and hip hop and his vision continues to expand with each new discovery (and re-discovery) within the realm. Intent on moving forward, he merges new styles and new visions of sound for the innerspace of the dancefloor and beyond.

Since 1995 Abstract has been making waves in the world of drum 'n' bass with Phunckateck, a dynamic stronghold of DJs/producers. Driven by an intense passion to share the music, Abstract has taken the lead with independent releases on the Green, Thrive, Rawkus, Quantum Loop, Domestic and Zoe Magic imprints. The original Phunkateck members Noel and UFO! along with other key players in the Bay Area (including Lady Shoban and heads from the B.A.S.S. Kru ) are the true ambassadors of San Francisco culture, having initiated the first steps in pushing jungle music here years ago within a primarily house-dominated music community (Why do you think they called it San FranDISCO?). Bay Area leaders Tomas of XLR8R and dMarie of Groundscore reflect on the birth of the SF jungle scene in the Bay Guardian Online .

As the years have progressed, the collective has steadily grown. Originally, Phunckateck was UFO! and Noel. Now it’s Abstract, Juju, Mehdi, Jason Mouse, Sage and Echo plus E-Sassin and Sub Code of Sound Sphere Recordings now representing Phunckateck in Los Angeles. As intimately intertwined as this West Coast crew is, each member works with a distinctly unique palette which translates into different flavors of rhythm. They represent how deep and without walls the dimension of drum ‘n’ bass is. It truly is all music.

Dig into the word, check out the bytes from the video interview, catch the sounds of DJ Abstract’s discography and vibe to his mix in Radio-V’s Drum ‘n’ Bassment, recorded live at Eklektic in San Francisco.

I'm inspired pretty much by all music. I like all music. For the longest time I would only listen to jazz and hip hop. I'd say Charles Mingus has been one of my biggest musical influences just vibe wise. I'm really into DJ Premier’s stuff, really into Dan Bell, really into a lot of different artists from different styles. Jonny L is for me, the man right now. But I was a jazz drummer for a long time and I got exposed to all kinds of amazing music that way. To me jazz still the epitome of fine music at least in the live paradigm, jazz is it. Just in the last year I started listening to stuff I never used to like, like new wave. I never used to like it but all of a sudden I found something in it.

Yeah, you know? I guess that must be it. Most of the nineties I spent getting over the eighties, now I'm over it. I've actually been listening to some classical lately. I'm trying to explore everything. I don't actually sit at home and listen to a lot of drum 'n' bass. Except for Jonny L.

I've though about it. I've never really experimented with it before. I've heard it done really bad a lot of times and really well only a couple of times. Like when Derrick May had a Congo player with him I though that worked really well. That was really good. It would have to be done right. I'm not opposed to it it's just something I haven't done yet. I definitely in production plan on working with live musicians in the future.

It was probably the best thing I ever did, artist-wise and just life-wise. I was going to college in Minneapolis -- for the record I'm not from, I'm from LA -- but I was going to school out there and people didn’t really like jungle all that much. Actually no one really liked it out here, either. But I only found a couple of other people that were doing it and there styles and my styles weren't really seeming to coalesce at all. Every one was just so into hard techno and it was all about hard techno. That's all anyone wanted to hear. Or house, you know. I just felt really drawn back to the west coast but I didn't want to move to LA. Everything that I heard about San Francisco was cool, everyone that I met from here was cool and it just seemed like a natural progression for me to come here. It just felt right. It was one of those gut feelings I knew I had to do it. And when I came out here, right away everything started falling into place. I found an apartment without looking for it, found a job without looking for it, met some incredibly talented people that I still work with--who are dropping my dubplates on the floor!!

UFO!>>> Sorry, dude, I apologize!

Hey that's all right. Noel already dropped them in beer at The Top.

I ran into some people that just had the drive and the passion and really wanted to get shit done. I just wanted to get shit done and make something happen. It was at a time when you couldn't go out and hear jungle, you just couldn’t do it. And if you really wanted to hear some you might be able to catch some at 5AM at a rave in the ambient room on speakers this big (small). I feel really fortunate because the people I've met that I work with, and other people directly and indirectly in the scene are just really amazing. There are some really talented people out here. Really good energy.

I was very anti-dance music in college because in high school I had gone through a couple phases of being really into hip hop and listening to rock and other stuff and then when I got to college I went back into hip hop. And you know -- this is a generalization -- a lot of people who are into hip hop have an attitude that there is not other music worth listening to, accept they'll give a nod to jazz and funk because that's where a lot of the samples come from. I was kind of picking up on that whole attitude. My friends though rave was whack and so I did. One of my girlfriends at the time really got into that scene and kept bugging me to come with her to a party. I totally did a complete turnaround and became a party maniac for a while.

The energy, the vibe. The same thing that grabs everybody that gets into it. I had a spiritual experience the first time I went o a big rave, it was an amazing thing that change my life forever. My whole view of the world changed because I experienced for a short amount of time the possibility of what it could feel like to have people completely united and the walls between peoples energy broken down. And feel safe in that environment -- which is a tough thing to get in a world full of pessimism and evil and other childish things.

Anyway, so I went to a party and then I started to go to a lot of parties and I ended up at this one party, a little underground in Minneapolis and Snuggles and JJ Jellybean came up from Chicago.

UFO!>>> JJ Jelly Bean. No longer around. God bless his soul.

Yeah, JJ is no longer around. Dieselboy played at that party, too, but at the time my mind wasn't really ready for what he was playing. He was playing really abstract like Moving Shadow, weird, futuristic drum 'n' bass. I wasn't ready for it at all. I was hearing the Ragga stuff and that's what grabbed me because it was street which appealed to the hip hop side of me, it was complex which appealed to the jazz side of me and it was aggressive which appealed to the rock side of me. All of me was like YES!! This is my music. I came out of there, just like, OH MY GOD!! Ranting about it to my friends like, I heard this new music! It's crazy! It's like hip hop but it's sped up with a heavy sub-bass, Ragga vocals and they're like, OK, Alex! They had no idea what I was talking about. I was trying to tell everyone, I was so excited. I had a radio show at the college and from that moment one it was pretty much all jungle. and people would always call in and go, Excuse me? What is this?

Yeah, Energi. Flux and myself threw that party.

That's good to hear. It was especially because it was an 18 and over one.

UFO!>>> That was the vision of like YES! It's gonna take off!

There was already Saturday nights at The Top going on at that time with Noel and UFO and Siobhan who left it to them. They ran into problems at The Top but luckily our party was going, so yeah. we were just trying to keep it going and at the same time do a few warehouse parties. It's something I don't really do anymore cuz it's a bitch.

There have been so many good ones. Playing in Ireland was amazing because the Irish, especially the Northern Irish, I mean, we all know what they're like. They just got out of hand. I mean, they were screaming, throwing bottles, jumping around. Like, standing in place just screaming like their heads were going to explode, it was crazy. If they're in it they're IN IT! A lot of the local parties, I usually have a better time playing in San Francisco than anywhere else. I had a good time in New York at Jungle Nation, that was pretty fun. But it's funny, I generally have the best time playing at good local parties.