Ben Zo is the founder of Bush Düf, a weekly radio show on Newtown Radio & a traveling party that planted monthly roots at Sundown in Ridgewood, Queens. He's played venues including Bossa Nova Civic Club, Mood Ring, and the gone-but-not-forgotten Chaos Computer. 

Leaning into vocal house & celestial techno, Ben Zo brings his background as a director of documentary film and video to the decks, carving out cinematic occasions for celebration and introspection.

Q: What drew you in to electronic music?
A: I listened to a lot of pop-y EDM on the radio growing up. I liked blog house as a teen. That led me to Anjuna-style bangers and Solomun’s Boiler Room set in Tulum. Then I moved to NYC pre-pandemic and attended a Bunker party and haven’t been the same since.

Q: What was your approach in making your Microrave?
A: My selections are an effort at beckoning the seated to the floor, with some otherworldly textures for occasional introspection. I lean on house and techno with a psychedelic edge.

Q: What's the slappiest track on your mix?
A: Devoye’s “Visions”, which is a great track for many contexts. His best productions are as hip-swaying as they are eye-closing and this is a great example of that.
 
Tracklist: 
1. Physical Therapy & Davis Galvin – “Sugaring”
2. Relaxer – “Feeling Great”
3. Devoye – “Visions”
4. Majorettes – “Discotheque” (Sister Zo Remix)
5. Byron the Aquarius – “Show No Emotion”
6. Paurro – “They’re Here” (Matias Aguayo Remix)
7. Viggo dyst – “CAT”
8. Emanuel Satie, Ninetoes & Tassew Wendim – “Injera” (Original Mix)
9. Tornado Wallace – “P.N.G. (Praise No Ghosts)”
10. Sam & Jack Brickel – “Resurgence”

Microraves Episode 001 -- Ben Zo

About DKAPZ: 
DKAPZ (David Kaplowitz), is an American from Northern Virginia currently been based in London for the last 20 years His musical knowledge comes from a time long ago, deep before the plague of 2020.

A video producer who has worked with everyone from BBC Radio 3 to The Royal Opera and the Sadler's Wells Theatre, he has, meanwhile, forged a parallel career as an experimental musician and sound designer

Q: What's the best party you've ever been to?
A: Might not be the kind of party you’re talking about but it might be a house party at the Haight Street Fair in 1994 where in between sets of the band I was playing with the Groove Pigs, 3 friends swarmed me and used 3 electric clippers to consensually shave my head. 

Q: What ultimately got you into electronic music?
A: I was a classically-trained as a saxophonist, but at 15 I found myself being drawn to electronic music. This led me to the University of Virginia, where I worked as an assistant at their computer music lab in the late 80s. I spent some time playing keys and sax for various post-funk bands in San Francisco (Maximum Jizz, Groove Pigs, Grassy Knoll etc.) and working at music software company OpCode before moving to London. I used the time during the lockdown in 2020 to work on my music: four releases in the past few years. 

Q: What was you approach to recording your Microrave?
A: I was drawn towards broken beat, a bit of brum n bass and some wonky techno for this mix. I started with an old favourite from the Secret Chiefs 3 and moved through some of the tracks I’ve discovered in the past couple of years, moving through towards one of my all-time favourites and what I consider to be a masterpiece, Demdike Stare’s Overstaying. Current Value’s Procedure (Platinum Scatter / ‘22 / Yuku) follows nicely from that, both tracks having eschewed the 16th note pulse in favour of irregularity so while I didn’t initially intend for these tracks to be back to back I let the mix go into psychedelic broken beat world there.

After a ILL_K’s Glitch War, I threw in one of my own tracks. Macrochronic, from my upcoming EP 3. The Union of Terrified Scientists and ended with Selector by Goooose which is an expert juxtaposition of twisted broken/syncopated beats and a distant lounge act that sounds like it’s slowly melting.

Tracklist:
1. Secret Chiefs 3 - Hagia Sophia
2. Forest Drive West - Neptune
3. Gooooose - Burning Smartphones at a Sunset Desert
4. Osheyack - Thrall
5. COIDO - Gamma
6. Demdike Stare - Overstaying
7. Current Value - Procedure
8. ILL_K - Glitch War
9. DKAPZ - Macrochronic 
10. Gooooose - Selector

Microraves Episode 002 -- DKAPZ

About Senaida:
Music is my most fluent language, even though I speak six other languages. I find it easiest to express myself through music and I’ve been doing it ever since I was three years old. I was trained as a classical pianist at a pre-college conservatory program and made my Carnegie Hall debut at 15. By that point, my interest for playing other people’s music had waned and I began teaching myself how to produce music. I wrote an EP and released it, and then I moved to New York to study at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU. During my junior year, I studied abroad in Berlin where I fell in love with club culture and techno. I could see myself curating a sonic experience for other people and connecting to them through music. I started practicing on my friend’s deck and played my first set ever on Refuge Worldwide in Berlin. My work focuses on the intersections of art, identity, technology and sustainability so I wanted to create an event that brought a variety of interdisciplinary artists together to share ideas and have conversations. I’m working on finishing an album that I had started when I was in Berlin and we’re currently crowdfunding to create a cyborg version of me for the music video.

Q: What's the best party you've ever been to?
A: This past weekend, XPIZZA celebrated their 1-year anniversary. The 13 hours of music was incredible, but everybody there is my family -- I feel lucky they've adopted me. I’d never seen the place so packed and everyone was smiling and dancing together

Undoubtedly, Cristiano knows how to host a great party, but he’s also created such a beautiful underground community and I am so grateful to have finally found a place like that.

Q: What ultimately sparked your love for electronic music? 
A: I think my love for electronic music goes back to when I was learning music history in conservatory. I had gotten through all the eras of Classical music and we were learning about minimalist music and the twelve-tone series. 

I was really interested in the sounds they were creating in the 1950s and 60s, and then I discovered Suzanne Ciani. I spent the first two years in New York obsessively collecting records, mainly trying to create a catalogue of early women electronic music pioneers such as Daphne Oram, Wendy Carlos, Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Anderson & I became particularly interested in techno after reading “Der Klang der Famile” and experiencing it in Berlin. 

Q: Describe your approach for making this mix.
A: Although I mainly play hybrid sets which include some techno, trance, IDM, breakbeat, or even ambient tracks, I wanted to keep this tight since we only had 30 minutes. I picked tracks that really resonate with me in my process of self-discovery at the moment. Since I’m so new to DJing (only been in the scene for 6.5 months), all of these tracks sound new to me and I like to place things in different contexts to tell a story. 

I’d say that first piano note we hear is a calling from my past and as the mix progresses, it gets more and more intense until all the noise and anxiety melts away. 

The last track is my favorite because my friend AM.E.R just dropped an insane Indian hip-hop/electronic dance album, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. I remember he showed one of the tracks at an early WE ARE THE FUTURE! Party and everyone was blown away. The track has these crazy beat switches at the beginning and the end, almost as if you’re waking up from a dream but you don’t know if you’re still dreaming.

Tracklist:
Liquid Soul & Zyce Feat. Solar Kid - Anjuna (Symbolic & Outsiders Remix)
Zoë Mc Pherson - Wait
The Chemical Brothers - The Darkness That You Fear (HAAi Remix)
T78, Zen - Europa
Giant Swan - RRR+1
Ani Klang - Power of 100
Funk Assault - Let Me (Ghetto Mix)
Deborah de Luca - Wild
Pleasurekraft - Tarantula (Senya Frost Bootleg)
AM.E.R - fbc

Microrave Mix 001

Microraves Episode 003 -- Senaida

30 minutes. 10 tracks. Tiny parties for your ears. Lovingly curated by David Lunch out of Ridgewood, Queens. 

Email: microravesmix@gmail.com

Interested in sending a mix? Check out the links below.

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