Ferrer doesn't mince his words, but unlike many egotistical producers he can back it up with the real deal or at least six of house music's and the global dance floor's biggest records of the last four years: Sandcastles, Son Of Raw, Timbuktu, Church Lady, Most Precious Love, and The Cure & The Cause.
He makes music with a vibe, and as long it meets the criteria of 4/4, bumping, club and not sleepy’ he's a happy man. The last thing he is concerned with is fitting a genre or scene which is useful for a visionary such as Ferrer, as barriers between dance music genres currently seem as relevant as the Berlin Wall. Ironically enough, Ferrer provided the catalyst that began breaking down dance music's Iron Curtains: Ferrer’s absolutely monstrous collaboration with Jerome Sydenham, Sandcastles (2003) got the ball rolling and straddled the tech-soulful divide.
This was the one record that joined the tech crowd and the soulful crowd - you would hear it in both a tech club and a soulful club.
He is without doubt one of the most well rounded producer/song-writers in dance music, let alone house. He's produced myriad styles (ambient, acid techno, tech, gospel, Afro, soulful), and has learnt from masters including Damon Wild, Kerri Chandler and Jerome Sydenham. It's an apprenticeship that many aspiring producers would trade their right arm for, and by combining this with strong ideas and passion, his consistency and quality over the last five years has been peerless.
And the logical step for a producer at the top of his game, is an artist album: The World As I See It. Ferrer’s debut LP for King Street / Defected is an amalgamation of myriad, global sounds, expertly honed into soul-stirring house music and each track is a journey, with subtle detail: the soul from the belly gospel-tech flavored Church Lady, takes an unexpected twist four minutes in; the nourishing love song Touch The Sky is underpinned by off kilter, fuzzy electronic melodies and bongo percussion; the largely instrumental P 2 Da J is full of sharp and punchy chords and melodies, mesmerizing chanting and underpinned by a relentless, thumping bassline; similarly Son Of Raw's fuzzy electronic feel is bumping, with stabs of pads and pianos; Transitions' grooves undulate, tumbling, then pumping and steadied tribal drums; How Do I Let Go is a heartbreak elegy, recalling that desolate moment of realization that a relationship is over and will never be the same again; while Destination is pure dance floor drama which sees the Balkans on an aural collision course with Brazil and of course, underground New York house.
When he’s not producing his own music, Ferrer’s passion is developing the careers of others not only in the form of his remixes. His label Objektivity is home base for teenage DJ / producer sensations, The Martinez Brothers with whom he works closely. Filsonik, an emerging producer from the NYC underground also benefits from Ferrer’s ears and will release his first single for the label in the spring.
In the meantime, Objektivity will release the highly anticipated Ferrer / Abicah Soul co-remix of “Love Can Damage Your Health” by Telepopmusik. Thereafter, expect nothing but ground-breaking productions from the man who refuses to be painted into a stylistic box. These include a collaboration with Grammy Award winning Norwegian folk singer Ane Brun, Angela McLuskey (from Telepopmusik) and a revisit of Kevin Saunderson’s Inner City project, all culminating in a second, even more ambitious full length album.
Two weeks ago I had the chance to perform with Dennis Ferrer, a great DJ and a very cool guy.
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