Brendan Krotz - Ret:)respect-ive STOMPer

The shaping of Melbourne's electronic music scene can be attributed to the talents of many. Brendan Krotz aka d-JCB is a long time fan of the robo groove, and has been responsible for organising some of Melbourne's most successful and more intimate dance parties. Currently Brendan is juggling his role at Stomp EQ, with a radio show on Street FM whilst still managing to find the time to organise a party or two.
TranZfusion catches up with Brendan to talk shop, summer hits and summer parties.

TranZfusion: During the height of the tech boom you worked for Sainity.com, what was that like considering the media and public hype around .com companies-

d-JCB: It was a very exciting time with concepts like payable digital downloads coming into action. When the .com crash came, it was very scary as many big & small players were wiped out. Overall it was a great experience to run a dance website from the maintenance side to the marketing side… and very different to working in retail!

TranZfusion: Now that you are working in music distribution for Stomp/EQ and you have had experience on both sides of the fence, do you perceive the internet as an opportunity or threat to the music industry-

d-JCB: I think it's great cause it allows the user to hear tunes before they're released. Plus the advantage of not wanting to deal with retail vinyl pushers ;-] Record stores will always be around cause there's nothing like hearing a tune and buying it on the spot.

TranZfusion: Do you believe P2P file sharing programs like Napster and Gnutella have changed the landscape of the music industry forever-

d-JCB: Most definitely! In the past year, there has been a large drop in sales with major record companies and they are blaming these programs. I think laws will be changed to prevent this breach in copyright, so lap it up while it's still around!

TranZfusion: How do you perceive people will listen to music in the future- Will broadband and subscription based models kill CD's-

d-JCB: The new Pioneer CDJs that allow you to scratch the sound is opening many eyes. A program called Final Scratch allows you to load in MP3 tracks or samples from laptop onto a vinyl template. As both these formats are expensive, it currently wont make any impact. But once the technology matures, that's when small record companies will feel the bite of the MP3 as there will be no need to buy vinyl. But it's also challenges the limits of turntablism as you can take it to new heights based on your skills and concepts

TranZfusion: With your role at Stomp/EQ you must get countless amounts of promo vinyl passing across your desk. Assuming your getting to listen to it a couple of months before the stores, what can we expect on the shelves for summer-

d-JCB: Tech house is already big, but is growing all the time. Plus the spawn of "elektro-clash" will have many rocking in summer. Progressive is getting groovier and a lot of house is appealing to tech heads, etc with more twisted tracks and concepts being used

TranZfusion: If you had to pick a big summer hit, at this early stage what would you anticipate it to be this year-

d-JCB: I have a white of the new Slam track on Soma featuring Dot Allison on vocals, which has a Vitalic remix! The way the vocal glides over the grinding analog bassline is "phharken schhhhick" (muffled). Also Greens Keepers 4th release on their own label has a swinging bomb called "Smoke That Cigarette"!

TranZfusion: In your eyes how healthy is the electronic music scene globally-

d-JCB: It is but it isn't. There's so many different sub-genres and tunes to support each. With this means some overkill in big genres / fads but stronger underground sounds and scenes. With this has become crews that only like one style of music which is not healthy as there are so many good sounds out there that people aren't experiencing.

Tra

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• stomp
• brendan krotz
• d-jcb