Dave Angel

Dave Angel was born in Chelsea, grew up in Clapham and was already lost in music by the age of 8, when his Jamaican father - a jazz horn player - taught him to play the drums. Not one for conforming, even at an early age, Angel spent little time in school, preferring truancy to chemistry and the music room to the classroom. By the age of 12 he had played his first reggae session and would jam at home with dad on classics by Mingus and Parker.
DJ-ing seemed a natural progression, first professionally on London’s pirate radio station Radio Phase One (alongside Fabio and Grooverider), then at the odd party, the odd club here and there. This was 1986, and the beginning of the revolution that was to realize Dave Angel as one of the major techno talents in the global dance village. Initially a funk DJ, the TB-303 changed his life. "When I got into techno and acid it was like ‘this is the new sound, this is the new technology’", says Dave. "I was thinking: ‘this is the music of the youth, and 20 years from now it’s going to be like the rock of the sixties’. I had to get in on it."
In 1989 a spot of bedroom recording resulted in his first vinyl outing, a cheeky reconstruction of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams. Taking the familiar tune on a dark and atmospheric journey into house, the remix - originally pressed on white label - ultimately received a legitimate release and led to a deal with Dave Dorrell’s Love label. Somewhat controversial but eminently popular (even with Eurythmics themselves), the record climbed to number 23 in the U.K. charts.
Since then Dave has put out innumerable releases on various labels, but it was his early collaboration with R & S Records that launched him on the path towards his current status of dance music figurehead. The EP’s 1st Voyage, 2nd Voyage and 3rd Voyage reflected the sound he pioneered in the DJ booth, while the other-worldly ambience techno of his The Family EP (on Apollo) and the more melodic excursions as found on the Outrageous Angel EP (on R & S' now defunct subsidiary Outrage) illustrated other aspects of his multi-faceted talent. "I see techno as contemporary jazz with future sounds", Dave says. "I’m down with technology and I was brought up listening to Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker. There are so many sounds to work with and every sound represents different feelings, so music can open different areas of experience."
This compilation, aptly entitled Classics, gives an overview of that crucial early phase in Dave Angel's career by bringing together almost all of the tracks from the releases above, which were previously only available on vinyl and/or deleted. An indispensable addition to any discerning music fan's collection, it will provide years of listening and dancing pleasure in true stereo mode.