Dj Harry

Rumor has it that turntables are outselling guitars at local music stores around the world. Certainly, as dance clubs pulse with energy unmatched since the days of disco, electronic music is reaching more people than ever before. This resurgence of dance clubs can, in part, be attributed to the DJ’s ability to make club music spontaneous and in-the-moment. It’s perhaps this same quality that has garnered the "jam band" culture similar success, a culture attracting droves of loyal listeners who travel with their favorite band to satisfy their obsession for the live concert experience. Both the electronic music and jamband cultures spawned from the same intention: to use music to nurture community and lead listeners on a collective journey. Both continue to amass more and more followers while flying below the radar of mainstream music. Yet despite these similarities, the scenes surrounding the musical styles have remained surprisingly disparate.

With the release of DJ Harry’s debut album, The String Cheese Remix Project (Instinct Records, SCI Fidelity Records), the Colorado-based DJ tempts listeners to forget stereotypes and stigmas by dynamically fusing the two genres. Make no mistake, this is House music: 66 minutes of spacious and textured sound dropped over deep, pulsating beats. Yet his partnership with The String Cheese Incident, a group at the forefront of today’s jamband movement, gives House music yet another dimension. With 90% of his samples taken from The String Cheese Incident’s live recording archive, Harry introduces a distinctive new strain of electronic music: organic and edgy live House. The String Cheese Remix Project skillfully captures the joyous spirit of The String Cheese Incident and the fervor of the band performing live, without sacrificing the precision and driving energy so essential in the electronic genre. In fact, the fusion of the two styles creates an impressive natural alchemy. Expect a profoundly elated, highly emotive and irresistibly melodic wall of sound with plenty of steady builds and funky breaks.

DJ Harry’s inspiration for his new House fusion began after he moved from the Midwest to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1992. Upon exiting a Grateful Dead show at the Oakland Coliseum, Harry had a chance run in with The Wicked Crew, who were spinning records in the parking lot, feeding the crowd’s insatiable thirst for boogie. It was at that moment that Harry first recognized the link between the "new beat" pumping in the parking lot and the live improvisation he had just witnessed inside the venue. While both scenes have expanded since then, those features that identify a culture (such as language, fashion, and role models) have become unique.

In 1993 Harry moved back to the Midwest and spent a year spinning on the underground warehouse rave circuit, visiting such cities as St. Louis, Phoenix and San Diego. Then, he relocated to the Rocky Mountains and introduced House music to the small mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. There he met the members of the rapidly growing jam band, The String Cheese Incident. "We’d known Harry for a while before he approached us about doing this project," explains Keith Moseley, bassist of The String Cheese Incident. "As musicians, we’re always trying new things and expanding musically, so we decided to go for it. We knew that our fans would dig the idea." In fact, fans of both thriving scenes seem open to the idea of rediscovering their common organica. Representing all risk-takers, DJ Harry’s The String Cheese Remix Project offers music’s first genuine attempt to do just that.