NCV Feature of the Month

Issue #4 – Saphir’s Mix Thursdays & DJ Sarcastic Interview
Written by Deliz

Mix Thursdays is an electronic-dance-music weekly at Saphir, found at 3699 St.Laurent.

If you’ve read the ‘about NCV’ page on this website, you can see that our concept revolves around dance music as a movement, not the promotion of one particular style. If the idea seems too hard to grasp in words, I suggest going to Saphir’s Mix Thursdays. It’s one of the best places to see local underground DJs drop massive amounts of bass and kick on the dance floor! During a soiree you can hear the whole spectrum of dance music brought to you by five DJs in five hours, while buying cheap drinks at the bar and having the convenience of a dance floor a few steps away.
In early 2005, DJ Sarcastic (www.level4productions.com) and Rhys Taylor (www.brokencrew.net) joined forces, as promoters and DJs, with the idea of creating a space for Montreal’s underground community to DJ, network, and party. In Sarcastic’s words:

“Our idea is pretty transparent: to try and find a venue and administrate a night where the dozens of local promoters and hundreds of DJs from Montreal’s tightly knit underground electronic music community are able to showcase their sounds, bring their friends, and enjoy themselves in an atmosphere providing good sound and reasonably priced beverages. We mix together crews, people, sounds and tracks, Rhys and myself are responsible for trying to formulate a cohesion to each night, musically, so that the dance floor works and people enjoy themselves.”

For over a year the night has continued to grow through word of mouth, forums, and e-flyers, but the most significant aspect has been the killer line-ups, produced by Taylor, Sarcastic, and Drunken Midget productions, aka, DJ Tipsy T. With headliners like Chromeo, the UK’s Deekline, and Ali B, all playing within the last couple months, it only makes sense that the mix was voted the 4th best club night in Montreal by the Mirror, with another fourth place finish in the best bartender category by Rhys Taylor, also one -third of Broken Crew (listen to Taylor, Poontz, and Melon on “Your Radio is Broken”, CKUT’s 90.3FM).
The Mix can often be unpredictable and that’s probably why it’s garnered so much attention. Some of the highlights over the last year include a stand-up comedy night that served as the opening act to Hardsteppers, SoCalled’s live funk jam where he played his MPC and accordion live, Tony Ezzy’s live performance, and the Communism pre-party with Tittsworth and South Beach Sleaze from Baltimore. The one incident that will stay with me forever, and what best describes how a true DJ and promoter supports his scene and club night, happened at the end of summer 2005. A death metal band had been booked the same night as the Mix with the understanding that things would remain on schedule. Seeing how the concert started at 9PM and there were four bands on the bill, Sarcastic made it clear that if the show didn’t end by 11PM, the plug would be pulled. It was the only way to get them off the stage, and it worked… but the metal band got the short end of the stick. In retaliation, the singer ran towards the DJ booth, jumped-up and tried to punch the DJ but slipped and slapped him instead. Sarcastic intervened and grappled with the singer until the bouncers chased the band out the back door.
It’s that type of dedication and passion on the part of Sarcastic and the Mix crew that can be found every Thursday night at Saphir, without the violence of course. At the end of July, Mix Thursdays will open the second floor (the original space where it all began) for live bands, more DJs, and a style of music that might be more accessible to larger crowds. On the first floor, surprise guest DJs are planned for the coming months, as well as the familiar names that have been headlining on a regular basis: Jordan Dare, Sean Kosa, Mateo Murphy, Maus, Poontz, Melon, Sarcastic, GMU, A-Rock, NCV, and many more.

DJ Sarcastic Interview


Sarcastic has been involved in the Montreal underground electronic dance scene for over a decade and runs a label and promotion’s company called Level 4 Productions. He answered a couple of questions from our exhaustingly long interviewee questionnaire, and if anyone has read LallaLand in the Hour, his reads can be quite entertaining. Enjoy…

What do you consider to be the characteristics of a good DJ set and a bad one?

“A good DJ set makes people dance, often allowing them to lose themselves in the music, forgetting their pre-conceived or critical notions about the music at hand, triggering a shift in the listeners’ psyche whereby their primitive, lizard brain takes over and begins controlling their limbs, physiology and even psychology. It’s all relative, but DJs should know how to seamless meld tracks together, whether by beat matching, scratching and cutting, or by using a computer program; when two sounds collide the listener will be snapped back to the here and now, aware of their surroundings and ready to criticize. I think its also important to blend familiar tracks with unfamiliar, new sounds; tracks that you recognize can make people happy but they also solidifies the sense that you are in a familiar place. A good DJ makes people feel like they’re riding a purple elephant to outerspace … or something unfamiliar. The purple elephant analogy only works once, after that it would have to be a different mode of transportation, you get the picture.”

What are your thoughts about the laptop DJ?

“Laptop DJs can play sets that sound the exact same as Vinyl DJs, but I think that in today’s neo-capitalist consumerist ruled world, people put value on the ownership of the medium almost as much as the skills of the DJ they are listening to. Being a DJ isn’t just about knowing how to use computers or turntables, its about being a vital link in the artist-consumer food chain, about showing and telling people what constitutes good music, and ultimately about keeping the deserving artists employed. I believe that vinyl is the only duplicatable (is that even a word?) medium on the market right now, and will continue to be for some time; as new, ever-easier to copy discs and formats come out, the importance and value of vinyl will continue to rise. As such, it blows when you have to pay money to hear some dude play a medium like mp3, .wav or CDA, which anyone can burn, trade or own with facility, as opposed to paying money to see some weirdo freak lug two-hundred records that he ACTUALLY owns across the club and into the DJ booth… Part of what makes a DJ special is that he owns all these records, and needs to dig for them, and find place in his house to store them, and ultimately that they rule the material demands of his existence. Everyone has 200 gigs of music on their hard-drives, and anyone can download Ableton Live, so no, I don’t really dig laptop DJs. At the same time I don’t frown upon advancements in technology and I believe they will all have a role in the future of music, but the more that they become prevalent, the more the vinyl DJ will be recognized as special and authentic.”

What style of music is 'big' now?

“Montreal’s after hours clubs have traditionally focused on techno and house; hardcore and trance has traditionally been the domain of raves, the result is that breaks and DnB especially thrive in the clubs. Lately breaks people have really got their shit on to the point where we now have a weekly heavy on breaks (mix Thursday), a Saturday night that’s half breaks (KO @ Chaos), a on and off breaks night at Stereo (broken crew) and a monthly on Fridays (planete break). Two years ago there was only Broken Crew. Otherwise styles like grime and its cousin dubstep, Baltimore club and hyphy seem to be rising, but there’s always new trends that come and go. I believe that with any genre there’s a small percentage of good stuff, and most of it is shit.”

What style of music is on the verge of becoming the next big thing?

“Probably gore-grind that fuses electronic and live shit, like Agoraphobic Nosebleed or Genghis Khan. This shit is totally gonna blow up.”

Do you have a favorite style of music?

“No. Favorite styles are weak.”

Given the trend of music being downloaded, burned to disc, and traded,
has music lost its artistic integrity? Do people value a CDR the same
way as a purchased album?

“I find that since the advent of downloading and CD burning, buying a Cd from a band is about as rewarding as getting a flyer for their show. CDs don’t mean shit, just like DVDs don’t mean shit, just like cassettes stopped meaning anything. Vinyl on the hand just keeps increasing in coolness.”

Who are your biggest influences when it comes to production?

“Neil Young, Beach Boys and Van Dyke Parks, Black Sabbath, BEASTIE Boys, Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers (and the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo), John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Si Begg, Pink Floyd, Frankie Bones, Bill Laswell, Funkadelic and Parliament, The Orb, Richie Hawtin, Thomas Brinkmann, Three 6 Mafia (the originators), Herbie Hancock, Yes, Cari Lekebusch, Joel Mull, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound, Oliver Ho, Adam Beyer, RZA, U-God, Inspectah Deck, 4th Disciple, Wu-Tang Killarmy, Prince Paul, Muggs, Dr John the Night Tripper!!, Led Zeppelin, Mood, Main Flow, the Mission Control posse and DJ Hi Tek, Blahzay Blahzay, The Doors, Cream, Eric Clapton, Blind Faith (and Stevie Winwood n Traffic, big ups), Ginger Baker, all that shit, Mr. Bungle, John Zorn's Naked City, Secret Chiefs 3 (pwn4ge), Fantomas, 2Live Crew, John Lee Hooker, Afrika Bambataa, Genghis Tron, DJ Assault, DJ Nasty, DJ Godfather, Disco D, Deeon, Big L (Rest in Peace), Billy Joel, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, The whole Gangstarr Foundation and especially Lil Dap, Group Home, Land of the Loops, Double Dee and Steinski, DJ Food and Coldcut, Strictly Kev, London Funk All-Stars, DJ Vadim, Blockhead & all the international Ninja cats, Flanger, Skalpel, Flanger, all that good shit, Prostitute Disfigurement, DR Macabre, Paul Birken, Lenny Dee, Jimmy Crash, Adam X, Ben Sims, Last Days of Humanity, Intestinal Disgorge, The Locust, Invisible Skratch Picklz, Luke Vibert, Liturgy, Monolake, King Tubby, Mad Professor, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Megadeth, pre-black album Metallica, Slayer, Death, Pantera, pre-1996 Monster Magnet, fucking Kyuss (owns), Fu Manchu, Mobb Deep, Mortician, the Guess Who, Status Quo, Nas (early shit yo), Necrophagist, The Pretenders for the bassline in Back to Ohio, Violent Femmes for the bassline in Add it Up (they got some other good shit too), Van Morrison, The Rolling cocksucker Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Small Faces, Sleep, Bobby Womack, Strapping Young Lad, Suffy, The Ramones, Suicidal Tendencies, Hank Williams Sr. and Hank III, Ten Years After, Buddy Miles, Tom Waits, Midimiliz, Spirralianz, Delta, Tipper, Al Green, Sly & The Family Stone, Muddy Waters, Wilson FUCKING Pickett yo, Xecutioners, ZZ Top, Tears For Fears, the Jefferson Airplane, The Eagles, John Cougar Mellencamp, Joe Cocker, Joan Jett, Simon and Garfunkel, Johny Cash, The fucking Kinks yo, the Specials, Supertramp, Max Duley, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt (these guys pwn bluegrass), Primus, Rage, Tom Petty, Mike Jones, The Travelling fucking Wilburys, Tool, The Isley Brothers, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Lynyrd Skynyrd.. and other shit too.”