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PEZZNER'S UTOPIAN ELECTRONICS

Future Perfect!

Dave Pezzner has released on labels such as Ovum, Dirtybird, Leftroom, Freerange and 8-Bit as a solo artist, as well as labels such as Classic and U-Freqs as part of Jacob London, but he's now turned to Systematic for the release of his 'Last Night In Utopia' album. 
The album is a evocative blend of widescreen house and techno, built from the ground up from the smallest sample sources. Believing that music is everywhere, he used all sorts of sounds that emanated from a spell staying in Malta and then in Rome in 2011.


“I was able to record some spots of television, and street noises,” Pezzner tells DJ Mag. “I would walk around and use my phone to take notes, capture street sounds and video, draw in inspiration, then bring these ideas back to my little hotel studio. It's different every time but usually comes from a place of experimentation.”
So 'I Forgot' pivots on a breathy female and a metronomic clunk, like an Air outtake, yet 'All Night Dancing Party' is more dancefloor-orientated — this is the pattern of the whole album, which has taken a while to finish as Dave has recently become a dad.

“I’ve had to take a step back and slow my pace down,” he admits. “I operate the opposite of a two-year-old’s schedule, so my life has become more routine-oriented than it's ever been. I used to work on tracks till 3am whenever I felt like it.  Now I go to a studio to work about 16 hours a week at best.”

Dave also admits that he's necessarily limited his DJing slots to about three times a month now (“Some shows in Seattle and the occasional weekend tour”) and he's enjoying spending time with his family, but knows things will pick up again soon.

He's been busy pretty much ever since moving to Seattle in 1992 “and quickly became fascinated with this emerging thing called 'raves'”. “At the time, people were breaking into warehouses to throw parties where DJs play unusually repetitive music,” he smirks. “My buddy Bob Hansen (of Jacob London) and I started collecting battle beats records, cheap drum machines and writing our own insanely repetitive rave music — and the rest was history.”
Jacob London had a slew of quirky offbeat house cuts throughout the noughties until Pezzner started flying solo around 2008.

Signing 'Almost Here' to Jimpster's Freerange label, he didn't have an artist name so was actually named by Jimpster himself. Since then, he's been adding to the quality, discerning electronic house canon and thinks that there's more good music around than ever. “We’ve become inundated by typical cookie-cutter electronifluff, but we’re also being flooded with some of the most inventive and inspiring music ever.”