Warming up for A Very Very Good Friday – but then, aren’t we all?

Steeped in old skool dance music culture – his lengthy CV takes in illegal raves, pirate radio, running record stores and the label DON’T, Super Rhythm Trax, Bleeper, Hornsey Hardcore & Fat Hop – Jerome Hill is one of techno’s most ardent, dedicated and long standing ambassadors.  Ahead of his London show as part of East London clubbing mecca The Cause’s 12-hour A Very Very Good Friday spectacular on March 29 – alongside Special Request, DVS1 and many more – he kindly graces the decks for Juno Daily – In The Mix session, as well as answering some of our pressing questions…

HI JEROME – THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS.   WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW AND HAVE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY SO FAR?  BEEN UP TO ANYTHING NICE OR GOT ANYTHING INTERESTING PLANNED FOR LATER?

 Hi, no problem ! Right now am on a flight to Valencia where I’ll play tonight at Zulu Klub. It’s a Monday and I believe there’s a public holiday tomorrow.

THANKS,TOO, FOR DOING US A MIX – WHAT AS THERE ANY SPECIFIC AGENDA TO WHAT YOU CREATED? 

There wasn’t an agenda no, not really, just getting a load of tunes together that I really like. Some are old, some are new. I love searching out new stuff that excites me and nothing beats playing out something new and realising it works even better than you hoped it would but it’s also important to keep revisiting and reminding people (and myself) of the older ones that had this same effect on you. Everything was new once and most stuff will always be new for people in the club or listening so as long as it sounds good then why limit yourself to playing only the last few weeks worth of promos. You’ll probably hate half of em in another month !

YOU’VE BEEN A DJ FOR 30 YEARS, HOW DIFFERENT IS THE SCENE NOW FROM WHEN YOU STARTED?

Being able to have thousands of tunes in your pocket at every gig is a pretty massive thing, as DJs can be a lot more flexible on the night. Infact I’d follow that through and say it’s maybe contributed to a lot of people ‘jumping ship’ or just playing whatever genres they think will fit, whereas in the ‘old days’ you’d have to pick your 50 to 70 best bets and stand by them. If you weren’t going down well you’d have to double down and hopefully people would get it after a while.

I lived in Brazil 2005ish and once went to play this club somewhere in Mato Grosso. It became apparent I’d been booked for my ‘gringo’ status and not because they liked (or knew) what I played.

The DJ before me was playing really laidback hotel lobby house stuff to a very ‘showy’ crowd. A very un Techno place. I had a bag of fairly obtuse techno records, Green Velvet’s ‘Flash’ would have been the most friendly thing in that bag. I went on and exhausted anything remotely housey within 15 minutes then proceeded to die for another hour and 45 minutes as people looked over at me bemused and annoyed wondering what the f**k I was doing.

LAST YEAR YOU DROPPED AN ALBUM FOR HYPERCOLOUR CALLED ‘FLOW MECHANICS’ – TELL US ABOUT THAT.   IS THE TITLE SOMETHING TO DO WITH A WIDER CONCEPT OR JUST A NEAT TITLE?

The title was a reference to the mechanics behind a track that enables it to flow. Or something like that. Just finding that groove and letting it flow. In fact, forget all that. Let’s just say it was a neat title. I almost called it Crude Appraisal but ended up using that on my last EP for Super Rhythm Trax instead.

YOU’RE PLAYING THE CAUSE’S A VERY GOOD FRIDAY PARTY ON MARCH 29 – WHAT HAVE YOU GOT PLANNED? IS THE VENUE A FAVOURITE OF YOURS AND WHAT CAN PEOPLE LOOK FORWARD TO IN TERMS OF THE VIBE ETC?

The Cause is a great venue, partly as it’s run by ravers for ravers. Big ups the Cause. The gallery upstairs is one of my favourite rooms to play. I’ve had some very special sets in there over the last couple of years.  For this one, I’ll probably play really excellent music. Unless I have a change of heart just before. Expect techno and broke beat launching out from each other for maximum impact as well as the odd wild card!

WHAT MUSIC – OLD, NEW, DANCEFLOOR OR OTHERWISE – IS FLOATING YOUR BOAT AT THE MOMENT?

LWS, Piezo, Geto Mark, Tensal, Luke’s Anger, Peder Mannerfelt, Truncate and Blawan are all featuring very significantly in my sets at the moment and at home I’m listening to loads of comedy podcasts mainly but also old Meat Beat Manifesto albums and lots of hip-hop and rare groove type stuff.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR JEROME HILL IN THE SHORT/MEDIUM/LONG TERM?

I’m working on two new live sets which I’m hoping to have ready for later this year, there’s lots of stuff coming up on the labels (Don’t and Super Rhythm Trax) plus I have a new Itsu Uno 7” waiting to drop on Fat Hop in a few weeks. I’m also back sharing music I love by presenting the ‘Don’t Radio Show’ on SWU FM which is on the fourth Thursday of every month. For more of my favourite music, follow #jeromesrecordpicks on Instagram. Thank you.

·  Peroxide Mocha “Trip On A Train” (Noodles)

·  Kuya Neil & Akashi Fisiinaua ‘Hala’ (Bandcamp)

·  The Exaltics ‘All Of This’ (Solar One)

·  Zeta Retiucula ‘Exploit’ (Bass Agenda) 

·  Lenk ‘Kebacid’ (Blank)

·  Get Mark ‘Riddim Is A Killa’ (Bunkaball)

·  Captain Cadillac ‘Plastic’ (Booty Call)

·  Warlock ‘Black Bag Of Doom’ (Coin Op)

·  Jerome Hill ‘Stax Had The Funk’ (Hypercolour)

·  Hodge ‘Sub 100’ (Two Moons)

·  Jerome Hill ‘Snap’ (Don’t Recordings)

·  Dungeon Acid ‘Borft EP’ (Jerome Hill Edit)

·  Yant ‘Kaleidoscopic Vision’ (SK Eleven)

·  Axwl Boman ‘Nokturn’ (Pampa)

·  Rolando ‘Tunnel Vision’ (Truncate Remix) (R3)

·  Daft Punk ‘Rollin & Scratchin’ (Soma)

·  AFX ‘Elephant Song’ (Jerome Hill edit)

·  Tipper ‘Tug O’War’ (Fuel)