Typical Random Average (Original Mix) - Fassade Records

Kontrol Room is a DJ/production duo, comprising of Chris Page and Dave Johnys. After playing back-to-back Traktor sets at London’s Kai-Zen parties, they found themselves wanting to enhance the scope of their performances beyond alternately mixing tunes for the whole set. They took inspiration from Chris Liebing & Speedy J’s Collabs outfit to devise an advanced live setup for subsequent performances.  They now command 2 mixers, 2 laptops, various midi controllers and a synth during their sets. The sheer scale of their setup has had London talking and eventually dubbing the pair “Kontrol Room”.  The name stuck, and the pair continue to collaborate.

Chris’ ever-increasing dexterity as a producer, along with his avid love of technology, have led him to the fully digital DJing methods he now champions, which are a far cry from his beginnings as a DJ back in 2003. On the controversy that frequently surrounds the subject of digital DJings, Chris says: “I think too much emphasis is placed upon the skill of beat-matching. I personally feel, that that skill counts for about 10% of being an good DJ. You might be able to string together 10 tracks, solidly, but they completely fail to ignite a dance floor. What use is that? With technology thats able to free up so much time, your able to concentrate on picking the right tune, set direction, creative flair, and crowd connection”. His dark, rhythmic techno often draws upon the sounds he hears in everyday life, making heavy use of field recordings. Chris has releases on Affin, BCR, Gynoid, and Shapeless.

On shaping his production style, Dave attributes his influences from his earlier interests in hard house, house & tech house.  His debut release, Remedy EP, came in July 2011 on Resopal Schallware, followed later that year by a release on Progrezo Records. “Playing the way we do as Kontrol Room gives us the opportunity to experiment a lot with tracks, loops and samples. We’ve essentially got 10 decks each to play with which gives us enormous potential to do something different”.

Kontrol Room joint productions were the inevitable next step after Chris and Dave formed their DJ partnership. Their combined production approach takes considerable influence from the way they conduct their live sets, as well from the music they include from other artists. So far, Kontrol Room have released on Backwater Community Recordings and there’s great promise of more to come, as they continue to experiment with their latest production ideas, even during their performances.

KR