FIBER Podcast 008 DJ+

FIBER Podcast

According to DJ+ there’s a big difference between mixing at home or at a club. For the 8th FIBER podcast he uses the broad spectrum of contemporary bass music to both surprise the listener and play the tracks he likes and wouldn’t normally play in a dancefloor oriented mix.

DJ+ aka Paulus van der Heiden has a broad taste in music. His early passion for IDM music prepared a road to many different genres; from ambient to breakcore and from abstract to linear. It was mostly the rougher styles that motivated him to DJ. When he began playing in 2005 his aim was to shock the public by playing the nastiest beats and dirtiest of bass lines. As a member of the dubstep oriented crews Sonic Warfare and DUBieus, he created a platform for himself to achieve this goal.

Nowadays, Paulus declares that he has matured and his sets are more composed than before. Thankfully, dubstep has undergone the same transformation and evolved into a hybrid style which is not easily categorised, much like an undefinable dreamworld with pieces of memories and objects, that have the feel of something familiar and alienating at the same time. This is also true for the ‘contemporary bass’ music aesthetic. A style that covers anything that lies between 125 and 140 BPM with a shitload of bass. A vague description but familiar at the same time as the style is packed with references to old school, rave, jungle, 2step and techno. Because of this wide basis, DJ+ has steadily been able to take advantage of his early experiences; starting off with a set that builds up to a certain vibe and when the time is right surprising the crowd with a classic. With his experience he has also come to learn and appreciate the hypnotic groove of a 4×4 beat, an influence also found in the convergence of styles within ‘contemporary bass’ music.

This hybrid style is also reflected in visual terms. As accompanying artwork for his podcast he chose the work of Dutch video artist Saskia Olde Wolbers. This London based artist makes beautiful dreamlike impressions where organic shapes blend with architectonic backgrounds. These alienating images hint to a more recognisable reality and move the viewer to be carried away, just like his mix does.