Biography
 While he`s garnering attention for his remixes of Empire Of The Sun, Roisin Murphy, Alphabeat, Ladyhawke, and his scurrilously good bootleg of Madonna and Daft Punk, Kris`s residencies at Wonky Pop (Matter) and Jodie Harsh`s Shoreditch club night, Circus, have seen him providing the weekend soundtrack for London`s fashion, media, and club crowd, playing alongside everyone from Kissy Sellout, William Orbit, FrankMuzik, and Roisin Murphy, to Sam Sparro, Larry Tee, and the Loose Cannons.
Now signed to Defected`s DJ agency, he`s been confirmed as a Space resident for 2009. With regular gigs at the likes of Fabric, Space, The End, Bungalow 8, Hoxton Pony, The Egg, The Island, and Beach Blanket Babylon, he`s tipped to become the next UK upstart to watch. His German residency (136 Grad in Hamburg) has helped spread the word, and after producing music for catwalk shows in New York, London, and Milan, his name is becoming the one to drop on the international circuit.
London clubland has been Kris" playground since the age of 14. While his peers were sitting their GCSE`s, he sneaked into clubs and became a regular face amongst the denizens that populated the capital`s nocturnal landscape. But his obsessive approach to music has deeper roots:
"As a kid the only toy I used to play with constantly was a toy record player. This was soon replaced with a real one; so most of my childhood was spent saving (or stealing) money to spend on records. Cue me driving my parents mad by picking up the needle and playing my favourite sections of a track again and again".
This turned into manipulating cassette decks and "mixing" his favourite bits of songs together to create new versions; his first experience of remixing. While still in his teens Kris had amassed a cd and vinyl collection numbering over 20,000. His musical tastes? Squarepusher and Masters At Work via Caetano Veloso and everything in between. A healthy interest in music was supported at school (he`s classically trained in most instruments bar the guitar) though when he moved to a local Grammar (John Major`s alma mater) he refused to join the choir and orchestra, and was ostracised by the music teacher - his response was to slash her car tyres (she still gave him straight A`s).
His first proper DJ gig was at the Rex Club in Piccadilly, where a friend who worked there had booked him:
"She told me that if I didn"t play she would lose her job. I was totally mortified, but then another friend gave me a copy of Traktor. I learnt how to mix within 30 minutes, it felt like the most natural thing I"ve ever done. It didn"t seem like DJing as you could manipulate tracks in a way you could only previously do in a recording studio - time stretching, sampling vocals, adding beats. When I realized this I was hooked. I started to produce little white labels from manipulating 4 different parts playing at the same time".
Musically, Kris was into fidget house and electro. In a case of "have laptop, will travel", Di Angelis soon turned every DJ set into an event, fast picking up a crowd that would follow him from venue to venue.
Technology has helped make his performances unique, and allowed him to rearrange the rulebook into his personal scrapbook. Kris" sets feature everything from Herve and The Italo Boyz to Skream, Cut Copy, Bjork and Marlena Shaw, mirroring the way late-Noughties crowds have approached the dancefloor with open minds. His weekly residency at Circus, the night started by the now infamous Jodie Harsh, typifies this attitude. There are no sacred cows, everything is up for grabs, and anyone is fair game:
"I can explore almost anything on my Mac in the right situation, hence me ending my last mix cd - which was quite a deep/tech house style mix - with Johnny Cash`s version of "Hurt", played with extra beats and held in time, even though the tempo changes frequently. There are less and less rules governing what we"re capable of, so if you want to find a way of making 1000 electro kids dance to "The Girl From Ipanema", you can - and I have".
Alongside studio partner, Sam, they"ve crafted a reputation for productions and remixes that have seen Roisin Murphy and Alphabeat cross swords with the Di Angelis sound. Chuck in some cheeky bootlegs (Ladyhawke, Madonna vs Daft Punk, and others) and suddenly the phone is ringing off the hook with remix requests.
"I guess my residency at Circus is what`s changed things the most dramatically for me. Playing there with Roisin was a turning point. She heard my white label of "Overpowered" and liked it so much that on the spot she asked me to remix her single "Movie Star". We handed in two different mixes, both of which EMI accepted. Since then we"ve been asked to remix Alphabeat`s new single, Empire Of The Sun, and a ton of dance tracks".
Club kid turned DJ turned musician turned? With Di Angelis life moving at a million miles an hour, anything is possible. |
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Defected Artists