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Dan Mangan - mixing it up in a Mortar and Pestle
Like many things, the dance music industry is cyclic in nature. With a consistency almost as inevitable as the births, deaths and taxes adage, once world conquering internationals will, over time, be reduced to ‘Judge who?’ And all but the most devoted would have long ago stopped singing the praises of happy hardcore and big beat. However, the all mighty ‘cycle’ extends further than just to focus on successes and failures, at times becoming a comforting reminder of progress and allowing a hard working DJ to occasionally sit back and smell the roses. Take for example Melbourne breaks DJ Dan Mangan. A usual week for him would include completing his full time RMIT course in music industry production where he learns the ‘why’ of the industry, an apprenticeship at Tony Mantz’s Jack the Bear Studio teaching him the ‘how’. Consolidating his Djing career (already including supporting a number of high profile internationals including Adam Freeland) and a burgeoning list of his own productions with studio partner Jason Kelton aka Keltec. Yet the opportunity to once again mix a set for Sharif Galal’s prime time Saturday night ‘Mix Up’ on Triple J allows Mangan to reminisce of the last time he mixed a set for Sharif which proved to be the catalyst for his DJ career.
“One day I did a recovery set at someone’s house and Sharif from Triple J’s Groove Train happened to be there. When I was over playing records I sat down and Sharif said, ‘I think it’s best we get you a mix up on Triple J’. I was blown away, but forgot about it soon after until one day Phil K got a phone call from his manager and I overheard ‘Does Dan wanna do a Triple J mix up? Live from Revolver? Of course he does!’ It was at the same time as Triple J was doing Melbourne Unearthed so I guess I was unearthed too. It was my first proper gig and just happened to be broadcast live on Triple J on a Saturday night. I was really nervous, pacing up and down while Ransom did the first half of the ‘Mix Up’. To make matters worse, when I went to take over from Ransom he said ‘they’ve got no foldback! I fucked up about five mixes.’ When I heard that I broke out in sweat but luckily the set went well and I couldn’t believe it when I looked up and saw I had a dance floor. ‘Are these people like paid extra’s or something?’ I thought to myself.”
“Around that time Kiss FM was still going and I’d done a few radio gigs for them. From that radio stuff I got my first residency at Lounge’s breaks night ‘Out of Order’. Not long after that Fractured began which was a lot more in tune with the sound Jase (Keltec) and I were into, so we ended up going with Fractured.” It would be remise to write an interview with Mangan without at some stage making reference to Keltec because both as producers and DJs their stories interweave. Yet to the observant their unique styles and personalities are obvious. “He’s definitely someone who helped me grow at my own pace,” recounts Mangan. “The first time we played together was at an Out of Order head to head gig and our styles just gelled.”
As formidable as their Djing partnership is the growing reputation of their production work. Just released is their Concisio Abnocto E.P. (Latin for ‘Breaking Out’). “This record is the first release under our prog breaks guise of Mortar and Pestle,” expands Mangan. “Because we’ve done a few other tracks before under Mangan and Keltec, this was a completely different sounding record so we wanted a different name. It was completed just in time for Phil K’s Australian breaks CD for DJ mag over a year ago and there were around 40 000 circulated. We kind of forgot about it, got back to work and the record just sat there. Then one day we got this email from a guy named Mike from 3Beat Records in the UK wanting to know if it was still unsigned. And now it’s being released. It’s been getting played by the likes of Jonathan Lisle and James Zabiela which is great. There is another track on there called Voodoo In Space which started as a bootleg of Satoshi Tommie’s ‘Up in Flames’ but now is deeper with the whole vocal of the bootleg gone and it’s also been getting great responses.”
DJ wise, Mangan’s latest project is a monthly event called ‘Broken Home’ set to run on the third Friday of every month at Brown Alley. “The launch party is May28th,” Mangan reveals. “Running a breaks night with Steve from Sunny has been in the back of all our minds for years. He’s enlisted Keltec, Brewster and myself and the idea is because we’ve got less DJs we can put the night in control of three individuals and really craft the evening.”
To bring matters back a full circle, what of the upcoming Saturday night Triple J set? “It’s been delayed a bit.” admits Mangan. “But it will definitely be heard in May or June and we’ve got the whole three hours. It came about because I was talking to Sharif and he reckoned it was best that Triple J check in on my progress. Of course my progress over the last three years has had a lot to do with Keltec so it wouldn’t be a true indication if he didn’t do the set with me.”
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Published / Saturday, 05 June 2004
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