DJ DB has been a fixture in dance music through every renaissance the style has experienced. His archive of DJ mixes and flyers from the 90s rave era are a time capsule of electronic music's first worldwide explosion, and in NO SCHOOL LIKE THE OLD SKOOL he shares some of these treasures. Get out your notepads…Hardkiss is the group moniker of a San Francisco collective of 3 "brothers", Scott (who died on March 25), Gavin, and Robbie.
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Gavin also works as Hawke & Robbie made music under the name Little Wing…and they ran shit in SF!
I met Scott 20 years ago, while record shopping during a trip to San Francisco with Gary Pini (my partner in Sm:)e Communications). It was our first time to the Bay and we were setting up a live music event & robotics competition called Robot Wars.Scott invited Gary and I to a party he was playing in a very wealthy guys house. It was nothing like I'd ever seen before or since. What I remember was that the house was all beautiful dark Victorian wood, had a sick dj booth built into an alcove that resembled preacher's pulpit, a Jacuzzi with a disco ball above, and white orchids everywhere!In 1996, having done an official remix for Elton John, Scott somehow got the studio parts to Elton's classic "Rocketman". The result was one of the greatest weird remixes of the decade. It's a dark twisted burbling acid-infused emotional killer.I had to hound him for a good couple of months before he finally sent me a DAT tape (now thats old skool) which I cut a plate from. It wasn't an easy record to drop in a set, but late nights it would slay and I remember people actually crying.
My favorite memory of Scott is us DJing back-to-back at the one of the first Disco Biscuits festivals, Camp Bisco. It was in a field miles from anywhere, for a crowd of hippie ravers dancing in a torrential downpour. I remember us just giggling (when we weren't worrying about being electrocuted) while playing everything from house jams to rock to drum 'n' bass, watching these kids tripping out, soaked to the bone but having the best time ever.
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What I always loved about Scott as a person and as a DJ is that he simply loved- and lived- music. He refused to be a tied to a specific genre. People incorrectly use the word psychedelic to describe all kinds of things, but it's perfect to define what Scott Hardkiss infused into dance music.Sadly, the last time I saw him was a couple of years ago at the party celebrating us both getting music shows on Art Internatinal Radio aka Art On Air http://artonair.org His shows are archived there.Of all the mix tapes he did, this one from 1996 feels the most like how I remember him.
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Gavin also works as Hawke & Robbie made music under the name Little Wing…and they ran shit in SF!
I met Scott 20 years ago, while record shopping during a trip to San Francisco with Gary Pini (my partner in Sm:)e Communications). It was our first time to the Bay and we were setting up a live music event & robotics competition called Robot Wars.Scott invited Gary and I to a party he was playing in a very wealthy guys house. It was nothing like I'd ever seen before or since. What I remember was that the house was all beautiful dark Victorian wood, had a sick dj booth built into an alcove that resembled preacher's pulpit, a Jacuzzi with a disco ball above, and white orchids everywhere!In 1996, having done an official remix for Elton John, Scott somehow got the studio parts to Elton's classic "Rocketman". The result was one of the greatest weird remixes of the decade. It's a dark twisted burbling acid-infused emotional killer.I had to hound him for a good couple of months before he finally sent me a DAT tape (now thats old skool) which I cut a plate from. It wasn't an easy record to drop in a set, but late nights it would slay and I remember people actually crying.
My favorite memory of Scott is us DJing back-to-back at the one of the first Disco Biscuits festivals, Camp Bisco. It was in a field miles from anywhere, for a crowd of hippie ravers dancing in a torrential downpour. I remember us just giggling (when we weren't worrying about being electrocuted) while playing everything from house jams to rock to drum 'n' bass, watching these kids tripping out, soaked to the bone but having the best time ever.What I always loved about Scott as a person and as a DJ is that he simply loved- and lived- music. He refused to be a tied to a specific genre. People incorrectly use the word psychedelic to describe all kinds of things, but it's perfect to define what Scott Hardkiss infused into dance music.Sadly, the last time I saw him was a couple of years ago at the party celebrating us both getting music shows on Art Internatinal Radio aka Art On Air http://artonair.org His shows are archived there.Of all the mix tapes he did, this one from 1996 feels the most like how I remember him.
I don't have the skills to really write and describe Scott. Someone who does have those skills, and also had a intermittent relationship with him, is Dom Phillips, who wrote this wonderful piece when Scott passed away a few months ago.Full Hardkiss discography