Twist boasts many talented and well established djs: Karim, Superfast Oz, Danny Gilligan, Tom Basquil and Steelo are all fine residents who get the crowd rocking. Having been a regular at Twist for about two years, enjoying the company, listening to fine music and having a good stomp, I am now even more excited to know that one of my best mates — Paul Batten — is gracing the Twist main room this week, playing an hour an half warm up at the official Tasty afterparty. I thought it timely to have a chat with Paul about what clubbers can expect from his Twist debut, amongst other things . . .
Who is Paul Batten?
Some of you will instantly know him from club land and attending Twist regularly, but for who’s of you that don’t, he has a passion for mixing and having been djing for the past ten years, an eclectic record collection to die for!
Paul is from Welling, Kent and annoyed his parents no end when in his bedroom, blasting out all types of dance music and building up his passion and confidence to play out in a club. It all started back in 1995 buying records such as: Shades of Rhythm, Exodus to Paradise and DJ Flavours — Roll the drums. At this time he was buying uplifting house, pumping house, trance, hard trance then onto hard house and funky techno/techno, in that order.
It was not until 1999 when Paul was in a small record shop in Bexleyheath and unexpectly listened to a sound by the legendary 0D404 — ‘Ram Raid’, that tantalised his ears and changed him to a Hard House Head! Paul then progressed with the urge to fill his room with hard house records from all sorts of record artists and record labels such as Tidy, Spinball, Twisted Traxx, Tripoli Traxx, Vicious Circle, Tinrib records, Operation 9, Do Not Bend and so on and on.
His first set of decks (how basic is this, but we have to start somewhere?!) was an all in one disco deck. These didn’t even have a pitch on them. He then progressed onto Numark belt drives which were brought for his birthday and used these for years. Eventually he scraped together money to buy some Technics 1210s, which are now his pride and joy.
Paul and his brother went straight into setting up an event at a small venue, 3-D in Dartford, named Swog. This went on for a little while, playing house, acid house, and hard house. A couple of years later Paul played under Sonik or to his mates DJ Ral Gex for Wired at George 4 when it was running on a Sunday morning, banging out classic hard house tunes such as RR Fierce — ‘Yamamba’, one of his favourite records, the harder spectrum with tracks like Grady G’s ‘Afraid of the Dark’, as well as Karim and Operation 9 for good measure.
He then went onto play at Fuel, which was a superb morning, the crowd were rocking all the way through and the hard work to get him to play there paid of. This year Paul’s best achievement has been playing a classic hard trance set at Es Paradise, Ibiza, which went down a storm and had clubbers’ hands in the air.
This week end is the official Tasty after party at Twist with Paul playing the first hour and a half in the main room. I thought it timely to have a chat with Paul to what clubbers can expect from his Twist debut, amongst other things . . .
Twist is your favourite Sunday morning hang out, are you excited to be playing a warm up set there and what can we expect?
It is a great opportunity for me and I can’t wait to play a rolling funky techno set, which will sound the bollox through the Crash sound system. I can’t give too much away about my set so you will have to see on Sunday! All I can say is one of my tunes is: Sting Theory — ‘Swarm’ (Umek remix).
This year you played for Wildchild in Ibiza, how do you feel it went?
It went really well and I hope more sets are on the way! It was an uplifting hard trance and euphoric set with tunes like ‘Carte Blanche’ and Art of Trance’s ‘Madagascar’.
Who are your most influential legends in the dance scene and why?
It has to be Fergie, mainly because he was the most influential back in the day with hard house and expanded my mind in to funky techno.
Do you listen to anything else apart from dance music?
No way!!!!
Where and when was your best clubbing experience?
My best experience was Cream at Amnesia, two years ago. Tiesto played a 3hr set and Paul van Dyk a 3hr set. I was “Off my dimes!” It was a completely liberating experience to see these in action and the atmosphere was second to none.
What are your future ambitions with your djing career?
To enjoy myself, keep the crowd rocking and maybe start producing.
You say “people don’t understand Techno like I do.” Can you explain what you mean by this?
People underestimate techno and it has got a stereotype of being boring and bland. I completely disagree with this. People will fully understand what I mean with my set this Sunday morning. Make sure you all go!!!!
Who or what DJ inspires you today the most?
That is a tough question, so many to choose from but it has to be for me; Justin Bourne. He mixes like a machine and has the ear for music undoubtedly! The Bournster is diverse with hard house because he can play a classic set with tracks like ‘Deep Swarm’, or slamming and absolutely filth. like he did for Twist some months back.
If you ever wrote an autobiography what would you call it?
Ha! I would name my book The Land of the Guggle Monkeys. This was a fast and rolling mix CD I did last year which has got me some bookings. I feel this CD sums up me and my mates!
Being a dedicated follower of the hard house genre, do you feel the scene is getting smaller? If so,, what are your reasons?
It’s definitely slowing down in my opinion, it is very sad. Clubland in London is so massive today quite often at the weekend just to many events clashing with each other and not enough clubbers are filling the clubs. Secondly, I feel that clubs are experimenting and opening the doors, which is not a bad thing with other music rather than hard dance and especially hard house.
From your experience of going to Twist, why do you think it has such a big following?
At Twist there is definitely a family unit. I know who to expect there which is nice, as well as meeting new people. Personally you know what you’re going to get music-wise, that is why I continue to go. “It does exactly what it says on the tin!”
Do you think funky techno, which you’re going to play, could fit into Twist more regularly?
Probably in the second room and leave hard house in the main room, as this is what Twist is renowned for. We will have to see what happens this week and how the dance floor reacts.
Where do you go record shopping?
I buy most of my material from Kinetic, London, Banging Tunes and HTFR. This week I was in Kinetic and was talking to Dave Randall about techno for two hours, which was great! Ha! I found some quality techno, absolutely perfect timing!
Thanks Paul! I know it will go off at Twist! I’ll be having it on the dance floor!
Photos courtesy of Getonit and Nish. Not to be reproduced without permission.
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
Comments:
From: stewon 7th Jul 2006 18:04.07 Wicked interview, cant wait to see you rip it up on Sunday mate!
From: Jennie Bon 7th Jul 2006 18:23.59 Can't wait to have Paul play at Twist After being a regular for ages and hearing a cd of his AGES ago we had a few guestslots come up and he was the first one to fill it!
From: *cheeky chick*on 7th Jul 2006 18:45.12 roll on sunday
From: richbowenukon 7th Jul 2006 19:55.14 Looking forward to this one!
From: MR_Son 7th Jul 2006 22:27.08 for Mr 4x2!!! Gutted I am going to miss this, there will be other times no doubt
From: Kamoraon 7th Jul 2006 23:02.42 Yes Paul! Looking forward to your set mate
From: Wivazedon 8th Jul 2006 11:40.17 nice one Paul,shame i cant make it, would of loved to hear you in action....i'm sure we'll be seeing behind them decks again soon thou ;-)
From: rossyon 8th Jul 2006 23:35.38 Gutted im gonna miss this, I know u will smash it fella!!
From: Type 1on 10th Jul 2006 11:26.27 Fair play! u get in there!
From: ThePropheton 10th Jul 2006 11:52.30 Nice one Paul. Finally your work has paid off! Be up there wiv ya soon bruv, but in the mean time keep smashin it up baby!!!
From: little gemon 10th Jul 2006 21:30.43 Well done Paul! Good on you babe!!
Gem xx
From: gary gorgeouson 11th Jul 2006 10:06.36 Well done geez! Heard you rocked it!
From: anushka007on 11th Jul 2006 14:26.10 cool read, good luck with your set on Sunday
From: sexyminxon 11th Jul 2006 22:22.17 OI OI Paul, wicked interview. Havent seen you for ages. Really sorry that i couldn't be there sunday. Was well knackered after helping out All Four One Sat night. See you very soon
From: richbowenukon 12th Jul 2006 23:06.05 Wicked set mate! People have RAVED about it!!!!
From: VinDieselon 13th Jul 2006 08:03.29 Great interview Dazzer! totally agree with you Paul, i loved that Amnesia two years ago with Tiesto and PVD!
From: Glyn Waterson 18th Jul 2006 17:46.52 Batten you leg-end
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