Life and Career
Educated at Brighton College, Clarke ran away from home at the age of 16 after his parents split up. After sleeping rough for a while, a friend offered him temporary accommodation. All that kept him going was his love for music, initially hip hop and post-punk (The Damned are a favourite of his to this day) and the money from his job in a shoe shop. He soon undertook a DJ set at the Brighton nightclub, Toppers. The night became successful and even worried a rival, at which John Digweed held residency.
In the late 1980s, Clarke used to write reviews for a few UK magazines, such as Mixmag Update, Generator and ID, and was the first to review Aphex Twin.
In the 1990s, he began producing and releasing music using the moniker 'Hardcore'. This project was subsequently licensed to the Belgian label R&S, enabling Clarke to be one of the first UK based artists to record in the R&S studio in Ghent, and get signed by the label. After this he recorded under various guises, including Graphite and Fly by Wire, but in 1993 he dropped these names and recorded only under Dave Clarke. Recognition of his talent came in 1994 when a series of EPs with the collective name of Red and his debut album Archive One received rave reviews, as they were seen as being innovative and crossing genres, something not common in the techno scene at the time. After the success of the Red series, John Peel gave Clarke his moniker, 'The Baron of Techno' (probably derived from The Red Baron), which stuck with him ever since.
His sense of rhythm and DJ skills have earned him more respect than most DJ–producers. He has a longstanding relationship with visceral, intense techno, and is considered one of the innovators of the genre, even being used as a musical reference point in the German school syllabus. He is a fan of the Detroit techno / electro sound, focusing on mechanical pulse and underlying funk. Clarke has continued to remain popular, due to his DJ style of endlessly cutting and scratching during his predominantly techno sets (although he sometimes played purely electro sets). Clarke's style is both sinister and energizing, and his live sets are rarely a disappointment. This style is evident on his two mix albums World Service and World Service 2. His album Devil's Advocate, released in 2003, is a mixture of techno and hip hop featuring Chicks on Speed and DJ Rush. He also made a relatively experimental John Peel Sessions EP under the name 'Directional Force' on the StrangeFruit label.
Clarke has now relocated to Amsterdam.
Read more about this topic: Dave Clarke (techno DJ)
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