Ajax Striking Out By Alasdair Duncan
M
y first brush with Ajax was as an eager young thing way back in the day, buying the first instalment of Ministry Of Sound’s Mashed compilation series. It was a time before The Presets, before the likes of Modular and Bang Gang were defining tastes, and before electro was the go-to genre of choice for festival DJs. The album cover featured the somewhat-corny-in-retrospect tag line ‘electro – breaks – punk – house – tek’, but the mix had the feel of something new and exciting. Ajax mixed one of the compilation’s two discs, and in many ways it would prove to be his big break. I ask Ajax, real name Adrian Thomas, if he still thinks fondly on the mix, and he laughs. “You know what? I have the case right here, but I’ve lost the CDs, so I haven’t actually heard it in quite a while! That mix was done so long ago I don’t even think it was done with a computer – I think it was all done live.” Thomas is still proud of the mix, although given the transient nature of the dance community, people don’t often ask him about it these days. “A lot of people are only really in dance music for two or three years, so looking back on a mix that was done a decade ago, that’s maybe four or five generations back!” Mashed was quite a forward-thinking set, and looking at the track listing for his half, Thomas is surprised by how much of it he would include in his sets today – if he’d kept all his records. “A lot of the acts on Mashed are still around,” he says. “The Juan Maclean are still making music, Gonzales is making music and films, and there’s this one artist on there, Kid Alex, who I’m sure is actually Boys Noize.” The only problem, he says, is how much production values have changed in the last decade. “If you play tracks from that era next to tracks now, they don’t tend to have the same production quality, so they can sound a bit strange together.” This month, Ajax will play a very special set at Strike, King Street Wharf, as part of the Live On The Lanes series. A bowling alley is a unique setting for a dance show, although Thomas tells me it won’t be the first time he’s witnessed the melding of beats and bowling. “I remember being in London about four years ago and going to a party in a bowling alley there, where they had Peaches Geldof on the decks and a couple of bands playing – I think it was Midnight Juggernauts and Klaxons,” he says. “That was my first bowling alley party and it was really quite good, so I’m looking forward to this one! I mean, I’m a shit bowler, so you may get to see me fail at that – but the party itself will be great!”
“I’m looking forward to this bowling alley party. I mean, I’m a shit bowler, so you may get to see me fail at that – but the party itself will be great!” As for his set, I ask Thomas what kinds of sounds we can expect to hear. “Well, in terms of the artists I’m playing a lot at the moment, I really like What So Not, who are so good I’ve actually signed them to my label,” he says. “I really like Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and what they’re doing at the moment. I’m also really into HeavyFeet, Major Lazer and Jack Beats.” As for his signature mash-up style, Thomas has embraced all the possibilities digital has to offer. “The thing with my set at the moment is that I edit a lot of my tracks before I play them. I spend hours and hours before my sets editing tracks, so I might play something you’ll be familiar with, but it’s edited in a way that’s more conducive to my mixing style. “It makes the tracks unique, too,” he continues. “The stuff I’m playing is stuff you won’t hear anywhere else. Being able to edit digitally makes it easier to do tricks as well. When I used to play on vinyl, I used to have to ask for three turntables, and I’d have an a capella record along with two regular records. Using editing software makes it that much easier.” Also on the bill for the show is New Zealand DJ P-Money, whose cut-and-paste hip hop beats will offer a counterpoint to Ajax’s electro-based style. “P-Money is an incredible DJ,” Thomas says. “His technical skills are amazing, and he has a great cut-and-paste style, so I’m going to have to step up my game.” Before letting Thomas go, I have to ask how things are going at his label, Sweat It Out – and specifically, what’s happening with recent signings Parachute Youth. “We’re working on their next single, which should be out in a few weeks,” he says, “and hopefully they’ll have an album out by July or August. The boys will be playing a lot of festival sets, including one at Splendour, and the live show is sort of an opportunity to road-test all their material. It’s their way of figuring out what people like hearing live, and what will make it onto the album. I reckon that’s a far better method of doing it than us sitting around in a room going, ‘Oh yeah, this will be the next single’. We’re leaving it up to the crowd to decide.” Who: Ajax and P-Money
When: Thursday May 31
40 :: BRAG :: 463 :: 21:05:12
Xxxx
Where: Live On The Lanes @ Strike, King Street Wharf