Last Thursday, thanks once again to Robpromotions and Benny Soto, one of the UK’s premier house DJs Riva Starr rocked Cielo’s Funktion One sound system at Dance.Here.Now., taking the enthusiastic crowd on a journey through with his ecletic mixture of beats that still stay grounded in house and techno. He had no trouble at all keeping the crowd up and moving although the hour grew late, with help from New Yorkers JDH & Dave P who kicked off the night with their set of disco and funky tinged house music.
Riva Starr was also gracious enough to answer a couple of our questions for us. Click through to find out what the talented and hardworking artist is up to, and check out the full photo gallery from the Cielo event HERE.
This Thursday, Cielo’s Dance.Here.Now. party is bringing one of the most talked about UK DJs, Riva Starr, to take over the legendary Funktion One sound system and rock the sunken dance floor with his distinctive brand of high quality and accessible house music.
Riva Starr is a name that should be very familiar to anyone with an interest in modern house music. Having shot to the top after a string of head turning releases and remixes on some of the most talked about labels, Riva Starr is quickly becoming one of the most talked about artists in the genre. What’s even more remarkable is how quickly Stefano Miele, aka Riva Starr managed to establish himself so prominently within a DJ/producer circuit that’s notoriously difficult to break into. It doesn’t hurt that Claude VonStroke and Jesse Rose, the two men who sit on top of the pile, happen to be two of his biggest fans.
Riva Starr has been producing and releasing a wide-range of sounds under different guises for the past 10 years, including 2 albums. Like all good producers he’s earned his stripes and his current status due to two things: hard work and talent. With a love of reinventing any music that inspires him, Stef created the term “Snatch!” as a way of describing his bootleg remix style of snatching and pick pocketing other music styles for his own. It’s also a play on words with the type of folk/Balkan/rock music he draws inspiration from, often carrying something of a gypsy spirit. Having given away a number of widely praised and blogged Snatch! mixes online, it wasn’t too long before some of them found their way into the DJ sets of some of the biggest names on the circuit.
Like all the great names in dance music the Riva Starr sound has become very distinctive. With fans as wide-ranging as Tiesto, Carl Cox, Ricardo Villalobos and Annie Mac, he manages to make high quality accessible house music that unites many different styles and tastes. He has always described it as “Snatch”, although his good friend Laidback Luke recently described his style as “Mezcla”, a universal Spanish word that’s used to describe a mixture of different things that seems to aptly apply to Stef’s music with his World influences and eclectic beats. He is set to release “I Was Drunk” on Virgin/Positiva on the 13th of September, and plans to release a Riva Starr EP on Snatch later this fall. Hit the jump to win two tickets and check out the official video for “I Was Drunk” Continue Reading
This Tuesday, Berlin-based record label Made to Play will celebrate the release of their new Scion CD sampler with a party at Love. All of the DJs on the compilation, Idiotproof, Oliver $, Riva Starr, Zombie Disco Squad, and label head Jesse Rose, will be spinning at the event, along with New York-based DJs Alex English and Gina Turner.
The sampler, called A Night at Made To Play, showcases the skills and production talent of the artists on the label. Each track is meant to reflect a different time of night at a Made to Play club night in Berlin. Scion, who has shown an enormous amount of support in the music industry, will cover the costs of the project, with all proceeds going directly back to the label and artists. The album will be available on iTunes and Beatport starting December 22, but you can preview a track from the album below.
Jesse Rose – “Morning Would”
The album release party on December 8th is a free event… Click here to RSVP.
We also have two copies of A Night at Made To Play to give away… enter the contest after the jump.
