Jay Haze Added by Goedie, 1 December 2003

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Jay Haze has spent much of his late youth as a wanderer, a loner and a loyal vegan. Before recently relocating from Philadelphia, USA, to Amsterdam, Holland, Haze would change his residency frequently – having lived in California, Washington, Colorado, New York and upstate Pennsylvania – constantly experiencing America (and now Europe) to its fullest. Meanwhile, an artist by trade of glass, he was just getting into the techno-sounds of the mid-nineties like Frankie Bones, Adam X, and, most of all, Richie Hawtin. It wasn't long before Haze began DJing himself – offering a deep and minimal realm of techno and house – and has already dropped his heady excursions in Boulder, Rochester, New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Ft. Lauderdale, as well as internationally in Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Czech and Slovakia. During recent years, he and the Tuning Spork crew gained much recognition in Philadelphia through a variety of monthly and one-off Tuning Spork events where Haze hosted and played alongside DJs like Daniel Bell (a.k.a. DBX), Jeff Milligan (a.k.a. Algorithm), Dinky (formerly Miss Dinky), Adam Marshall, Tomas Jirku, Markus Maeta, Shawn Rudiman, Phillip Charles (of Tigerhook and Sylk 130), Chris Udoh (of Tigerhook and Wamdue Kids) and others. Two years after he launched his DJ-career, he was already producing his own tracks – and it was only a short matter of time before this prolific wonderkid would attract attention of other minimal techno fans, producers and labels across the globe. To this date, Haze's tracks have been spun by DJs like Richie Hawtin (a.k.a. Plastikman), Ricardo Villalobos, Jeff Milligan, Daniel Bell, Rob Paine (of Solomonic Sound), Sean O'Neal (a.k.a. Someone Else and Flowchart), Deep C (of Tigerhook and Wamdue Kids), Phillip Charles, Jeff Samuel and others.

Haze's minimal tech-house and experimental tracks are profoundly deep, minimal, glitch-y, abstract and vibrantly psychedelic – using elements of 4/4 rhythms, dub, his own found-sounds, and any other traditionally "unwanted" noise like static, hiss and pops. The final outcome is an intense head-trip appropriate for both the dancefloor and home-listening. And you may notice his most significant influences deeply ingrained in his unique and self-reflective sound – artists like King Tubby, Maurizio, Robert Hood, Herbert and Ricardo Villalobos.

Today, Jay Haze runs three record labels. Tuning Spork (also run by Bjoern Hartmann a.k.a. B.) is Haze's minimal tech-house label (first and only of it's kind in Philadelphia) – where he releases under the name the Architect – primarily geared to bring glitch and deepness to the dancefloor – tracks that make you shake your booty while dousing your head in minimal crackles, scrapes, scrunches, warm tones and rolling basslines that are brilliantly tripped-out, soothingly warm and tastefully funky. His second label, Future Dub, offers a Jamaican reggae-influenced side of heady and experimental techno-dub – where he releases under the names Dub Surgeon, Dub Cord and Montage Spiral. His third label is Contexterrior – dedicated to bringing you ultra-minimal, glitch-heavy, laid-back experimental tracks – where the listener becomes "sucked in" and impelled to groove 'n' sway to the clean, glitchy, warmly quirky, densely minimal, faintly dubby, head-trippin' chuggers with peculiar funky basslines and soft, delicate synth-pads that stroke your head gracefully amid the cacophonic brain-poking charmingly sculpted out of found-sounds. This is where Haze enjoys luring you into a powerful mental journey through his most dynamic production techniques.

Already, in such a short amount of time, Haze has dropped a healthy plentitude of vinyl releases – he is currently up to three solo 12" EPs on Tuning Spork, three 12" EPs on Future Dub, four EPs on Contexterrior (one of which is a split-12" with Jeff Samuel) and a variety of tracks and loops on various compilations. (See discography for more details.) Regarding future releases that he has already completed, Haze will have a track included on a Sud Electronics compilation (along with Farben, Sutekh, Tomas Jirku and Andy Vaz). Also, this inexhaustible mofo has a bushel-load of forthcoming goodies like a 12" EP on Sud, an album on Contexterrior, a split-12" with Dean DeCosta on Future Dub, another 12" EP on Future Dub, and a 12" EP on Tuning Spork.

Haze plans on bringing his brilliantly intoxicating live performance to as many countries as possible – meanwhile, he will continue pumping out several tracks a week – each being it's own unique brand of electronic minimalism that may change your life forever.

Jay Haze
Verenigde Staten
http://media.contexterrior.com

Performances

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