Jon Dasilva

Dasilva was inspired by the wacked-out disco of DJ's Levan and Kevorkian and sonic experiments of the likes of Can, Suicide, Adrian Sherwood, and the early 80's Hip Hop scene turning his attention instead to the decks... Soon enthralled by the dark sound of Chicago House he moved to Manchester, England his heart set on DJing at the pre-E, House haven that was Fac 51 The Haçienda. Dasilva's mixing skills and innovative style were so impressive that he was promptly invited to become one of the club’s resident DJ’s on what was to become the legendary HOT night.

Dasilva’s studio work started with a remix of The New Fast Automatic Daffodils “Big (Baka)” back in 1989, an inspired collision of Sheffield bleeps, African chants and dubbed out Indian tablas, it recently appeared on the Headman DJ mix CD (Eskimo, 2005) and in many ways sets the tone for this unpredictable and idiosyncratic producer. Jon Dasilva, “the acid house legend” (Jockey Slut Magazine), proves himself ever relevant in his own mercurial way.

Some quotes about Jon Dasilva: “I heard Jon Dasilva playing a cappella first, he was the master of that stuff and I ripped his style. He was the one DJ at the Hacienda who really constructed a set and used a cappella and sound effects, mixed in key, built a set into a soundscape. He was the person who influenced me more than any other DJ.” Sasha (Interview in Jockey Slut Magazine, 2002). "Jon Dasilva is the Eric Cantona of House music!" Mark Rae (Grand Central Recordings, 1998). "The Hot thing, everyone thinks it was just an acid house night but it wasn't because Jon Dasilva at the time was one of the greatest Djs in the world and Dasilva was Balearic. He'd never admit to being Balearic but we'd go early hours and Jon would do his warm up and it was fucking outstanding man. He'd play these really weird dubbed out reggae things and sound effects and slow disco things. Jon was incredibly Balearic. I mean no-one would play disco records at the time but Jon would make a disco record sound like a house record. At the time youd just think thats just another house record but listening back to tapes Ive got you think fucking hell, I cant believe he played that in the middle of a house set but he mixed it all in incredibly well, The thing that interested me most wasn't the house stuff but the weird records that pushed me more down that Balearic route. Mike Pickering would just be plying banging acid records, Chicago, Detroit thing but we'd queue up to get in. Once I was right at the front of the queue, sat there for an hour and half waiting to get it just so I could hear Dasilva play fucking Summer Rain Fall in the first five minutes, which is this BBC Sound Effects thing, just the sound of rain pouring down."

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