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Breaks For Animals


A Voyage Into Trance, Vol. II

CLUB FLYERS
Mission
Industry
Sinamatic
1001 Nights
4 of Clubs
Vortex

Dave Kendall's DJ career began in 1989. Already a regular at The Mission, a dingy gothic/industrial club on 5th Street in Manhattan's East Village, one night he was asked to DJ. "It was a total disaster," he remembers. "I thought turntablism was the art of switching from one song to another with less than three seconds' silence in between. And I couldn't even manage that."

A DJ friend from TVT Records initiated Kendall in the art of the segue and the beatmatch, and he soon landed what turned into a five-year residency at "Communion", the legendary Tuesday night club at NYC's Limelight. Kendall doubled as DJ and MC, rushing from turntables to stage to introduce live artists like Peter Murphy, KMFDM and Orbital. "It was a bit hectic," he recalls. "I'd have to throw on a 10-minute mix in case I didn't get back in time."

Although "Communion" was predominantly a gothic/industrial club, Kendall became interested in the emerging techno scene. In 1990, he was asked to host "Planet Traxx," a new show on New York radio station WQHT (Hot 97). "We were the first to break out a lot of new techno and house tracks," he says. "The Shamen, Blackbox, KLF, Inner City…and we played the early releases on FFRR and (Paul Oakenfold's label) Perfecto. Plus we'd play some great underground remixes of and more mainstream acts like Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell, and Westworld."

Kendall has focused on trance, progressive and funky breaks ever since. "I've always been passionate about music that hits you on several levels," he says. "And I've always been drawn towards the dark side. Good trance music has that darkness, that bite, that melancholy, interlaced with the uplifting melodies and the power of that relentless kick-drum. So when Brian (Perera, VP of Hypnotic Records) asked me to do a mix of Hypnotic's back catalog stuff, I was all over it."

The outcome is "A Voyage Into Trance, Volume 2," a collage of groundbreaking underground tracks from Cyberjam, 10th Chapter, Shahid and many more. But the CD is more than a nonstop DJ mix; in an ambitious effort to create a more cohesive, compelling experience than a typical mix CD, Kendall placed the tracks in an order corresponding to the seven Chakras of Eastern mysticism. On top of that, he ties in more recent Western philosophy by narrating passages from Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."

"That's what it comes back to: music that stimulates on different levels," Kendall explains. "I hope 'A Voyage Into Trance, Volume 2' does that. You go on a voyage to experience new places and people and ideas, but also to realize things about yourself and to make connections between your inner and outer worlds. I think this is a real voyage."