DJ DB has been a fixture in dance music through every renaissance the style has experienced. His archive of DJ mixes and flyers from the 90s rave era are a time capsule of electronic music’s first worldwide explosion, and in NO SCHOOL LIKE THE OLD SKOOL he shares some of these treasures. Get out your notepads…
For me, Bones (as he’s known to his friends and fans) is a name that is totally synonymous with RAVE, and therefore the perfect DJ to kick off this Old Skoolcolumn! He’s often credited as being “The Godfather of American Rave Culture,” as in 1989 he was one of the very first American DJs to be brought to the UK as the movement was first exploding there. He brought the concept back to his crew in Brooklyn, where they started throwing SRs aka Storm Raves. These were true dirty warehouse underground parties and they were wicked. (And that’s not even to mention the notoriety that BONES and his brother Adam X, aka VEN, achieved in the NYC graffiti world of the 1980s.)
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Bones is still a hardworking DJ. I’ve gotten to hear him at a couple of parties in the last year, as I’ve played right after him, and I still love the kind of house he spins.
This featured mix was recorded in 1993 and it’s a good slice of hard house and techno from that era. Below it, check out the tracklist from the original cover, a few gorgeously dated-looking Storm Rave flyers, and a picture of a young Bones in action.
