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Paths of Rhythm (Formerly Once A DJ): Daily Summaries Delivered
by Remote CTRL
Paths of Rhythm is a conversation series about the journey a life in music takes you on. Hip hop is the starting point for a lot of these conversations, but the show ranges across house, drum and bass, radio and more — and it's not just DJs. Hosted by Adam Gow, each episode talks to DJs, writers, photographers and sound engineers about their passion for music and where it's taken them. Guests have included Carl Loben (Mixmag), Photographer Eddie Otchere, DJ Rap, Rob Da Bank, House Shoes, Cutmaster Swift and many more.
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- 1 weeks ago1h 21m
Dean Bryce - From Soundsystems and Saturday Jobs to Mercury Prizes and A&R
Dean Bryce grew up in a council house in Catford where his dad played records so loud the single-pane glass would vibrate. His dad ran a sound system called Observer and was close to Saxon, the South London sound whose cassettes travelled so far that Wyclef Jean learned English from one in Haiti — thinking they were American. Dean spent his weekends bored in Saxon's Brockley studio while records were being made around him, and it was that DIY world — pirate radio, your own label, boards pulled off boarded-up houses to build speakers — that shaped everything he's done since. He found his own music in jungle at 13, at Jungle Magic in Peckham, then garage, then a job on Deptford market bought purely to fund records. A conversation over the HMV counter with a stranger buying an MJ Cole single turned into a job in artist management the same week he met him, and from there it's been Talking Loud, BMG, sync at the height of the Cadbury's Gorilla ad, Ninja Tune, and Boiler Room. He signed Speech Debelle and won Ninja Tune their first Mercury Prize, DM'd Peggy Gou on SoundCloud and met her for a coffee in a Pret in Old Street, and set out to make Ninja Tune a label he'd actually buy records from. He now runs Don't Sleep — a label, a management company, a club night and a CIC teaching young people the parts of the industry nobody shows them — and he's back DJing with intention, because he thinks too many people playing right now aren't really DJs at all.In this episode we get into:Growing up in a Jamaican household in Catford, and a dad with thousands of recordsRed Records in Brixton, and why he ended up living thereHis dad's sound system Observer, and being raised around SaxonHow Saxon's cassettes reached New York, Jamaica and Haiti — and taught Wyclef Jean EnglishWhat actually wins a sound clash: dub plates, or sheer powerBuilding speakers from the boards off boarded-up houses, and where his independent streak comes fromJungle Magic at Laserdrome, Peckham, aged 13 — and jungle as the first music that was his, not his dad'sTape packs, happy hardcore, and jungle splitting off from breakbeat hardcoreBuying garage from 96, and where house stops and garage startsWhy the girls were all in the garage roomLearning to mix on unbranded belt-drive decks with no pitch controlPirate radio as the real goal — Upfront FM, and why it was "the internet"Working Deptford market to buy records, and never making it to the shop before closingMeeting MJ Cole's manager over the HMV counter, and a marketing meeting on day oneTuse, Roots Manuva, and hearing Witness the Fitness on cassette in his flatSorting MJ Cole's Kiss promos into three piles — and pulling out an early Streets white labelBMG in the Hey Ya era, and the OutKast party that hired out the whole London EyeSync, the Cadbury's Gorilla, most favoured nations, and why a low fee isn't always a bad dealSigning Speech Debelle and winning Ninja Tune their first Mercury PrizeMaking Ninja Tune "the label that I would buy records from" — FaltyDL, Peggy Gou, ActressThe SoundCloud DM to Peggy Gou, and a coffee in a Pret in Old StreetWhy A&R is all soft skills, and leaving no fingerprints on a recordBoiler Room from iChat messages to a 50-person company, and the lockdown moment they missedDon't Sleep, the Doja Cat email, and building a home for artists who get slept onInfinite Coles, Sweetface Killa, and handling a record people read as a dissArtist development against the TikTok microwaveComing back to DJing with intention
- Aug 13, 20261h 43m
Melo D on the mixmasters, the battles, and the junkies of the SoCal scene
This week I'm joined by DJ Melo D — a beat junkie, a world champion, and one of the most technically gifted scratch DJs to come out of Southern California. Melo D was born and raised in Cerritos in the early 1980s, right as hip hop and electro were landing on the West Coast, and he grew up hooked on KDAY airchecks, pause-button mixtapes and a friend's older brother's turntables. He got his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987, taught himself to scratch by ear on his dad's home stereo, and cut his teeth doing high school dances and quinceañeras as a mobile DJ before linking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock — the crew that would become the Beat Junkies.While studying sociology at UC Irvine, Melo D was quietly stacking up battle titles: a Vestax USA and World Championship, a DMC USA final with Babu, and an ITF World Championship with the Beat Junkies crew. That same run of form landed him a job as Quincy Jones' on-air DJ for the late-night talk show Vibe — a gig he says he only got because he had the nerve to force a James Brown routine on Quincy after his first set of battle routines fell flat. Alongside years on LA radio with Julio G at 92.3 The Beat, Melo D went on to co-found the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound with his crew, where he still teaches today.We get properly nerdy in this one — the maths behind scratch technique, why J Dilla's swing breaks DJs, how the crab scratch was actually born in a Tokyo hotel room, and what it's like being handed a job by Quincy Jones on the spot.In this episode we cover:Growing up in Cerritos during the first wave of West Coast hip hop and electroThe KDAY Mixmasters and the birth of the West Coast mix showGetting his first Technics 1200 for Christmas 1987 and teaching himself to scratchMobile DJing quinceañeras, high school dances and SoCal house partiesLinking up with DJ Curse, Rhett Matic and J Rock and forming the Beat JunkiesBalancing a sociology degree with Vestax, DMC and ITF world titlesThe golden era of turntableism and why vinyl forced so much creativityThe origin story of the crab scratch, told first-handBecoming Quincy Jones' DJ for the Vibe talk showBuilding the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound and what's hardest to teach beginnersThe vinyl renaissance and the case for BPM-labelling your records
- Jul 30, 202658 min
David Piccioni - The skinny lad from 70s Huddersfield who became one of NYC's premier DJs thanks to a punk rock mindset
Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.Other ways to support the showFollow the show on Spotify or Apple PodcastsAny feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/This week's guest is a Yorkshireman I'd heard whispered about by more than one person in the scene before I ever got him on the mic — David Piccioni. Born to an Italian father and South African mother and raised in Huddersfield, David got his real education in a punk scene that had him sneaking into soundchecks before he'd even worked out he wanted to DJ. A few years later, economics and politics at Liverpool University led him straight into throwing his own parties and playing American import records at Liverpool's Wednesday night club nights — and by 1986 he'd saved up for a one-way flight to New York with £300 in a bag and no contacts waiting for him.What followed is the kind of story you can only get firsthand: getting schooled at Paradise Garage under Larry Levan, soaking up David Mancuso's Loft, and becoming one of the biggest DJs in the city within two years. When he came home to London, David co-owned Black Market Records with Nicky Blackmarket — the shop that helped break UK jungle and drum & bass upstairs while he ran the house side — before founding Azuli Records, a label that got away with pretending to be American for years, broke Afro Medusa's "Pasilda" and Spiller's "Groove Jet," and put out the Late Night Tales and Choice compilation series. When digital killed the vinyl business, David didn't look back — he moved to Ibiza and built a restaurant instead. This one's full of stories you won't find written down anywhere else.Topics covered:Growing up in Huddersfield and sneaking into gigs during its punk sceneMissing the Sex Pistols at Ivanhoe's on Christmas DayThe move to Liverpool University and falling into DJing by accidentSaving up for a one-way flight to New York in 1986Getting schooled at Paradise Garage by Larry Levan, and David Mancuso's LoftComing home to co-own Black Market Records with Nicky BlackmarketBuilding Azuli Records — and the fake American label trick that fooled the industry for yearsBreaking Afro Medusa's "Pasilda" and turning down Spiller's "Groove Jet"Curating the Late Night Tales and Choice compilation seriesWhy Azuli couldn't survive the shift from vinyl to digitalTrading the dancefloor for a restaurant on a clifftop in Ibiza
- Jul 16, 20261h 34m
Scotty Hard on engineering for De La Soul, Gravediggers and more
Paths of Rhythm is a Remote-CTRL production. If you're looking for audio or video production, then check out https://remote-ctrl.co.uk to see how they can help.Other ways to support the showFollow the show on Spotify or Apple PodcastsAny feedback or questions? Hit up https://www.instagram.com/pathsofrhythmpodcast/This week I'm sitting down with a guy whose name might not be as famous as the records he made, but whose fingerprints are all over some of the most important hip hop of the last 35 years: Scotty Hard.Scotty grew up in Vancouver on a diet of classical guitar, jazz camp and free jazz shows, then fell hard for punk, no wave and the Ornette Coleman school of harmolodic funk before Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions convinced him New York was the only place left to go. He landed at Calliope Studios — the 24-hour home base for the Native Tongues, De La Soul, Stetsasonic and Queen Latifah — with almost no formal engineering training, learning by the skin of his teeth on sessions that ranged from editing Tone Loc's mink-coat 900-number ad to filling in on De La Soul Is Dead when the regular engineer didn't show. That one shift turned into a decades-long run with Prince Paul, which led him into the orbit of Gravediggaz, RZA and the Wu-Tang Forever sessions, New Kingdom, the Stereo MCs and PM Dawn.We talk about how he found his footing as the guy trusted to give creative input rather than just push faders, the eleven-minute Lisa Stansfield remix that became bigger than anyone in the room expected, and mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever in neighbouring rooms at the same time — including the day RZA walked in and asked him what exactly he was doing in there. We also spend a good chunk of the conversation on his long, deeply loyal relationship with Ka, one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in hip hop, and on the accident that left Scotty with a spinal cord injury and how he's kept making some of the best music of his career since. We close out talking about his new record with Steven Bernstein, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio, which takes the hip hop chop-and-flip approach and applies it to acoustic jazz.This is a long one and every minute of it is worth your time. Topics covered:Growing up in Vancouver: classical guitar, jazz camp, and opening for Ornette ColemanThe no wave and punk funk scenes that pulled him toward New YorkLanding at Calliope Studios and learning to engineer with zero formal trainingHis first-ever session: editing 2-inch tape for a Tone Loc adGetting the call to fill in on De La Soul Is Dead and starting his run with Prince PaulMaking beats on the SP12 and S900 synced to 24-track tapeKnowing when to offer a creative opinion and when to just be the engineerThe Lisa Stansfield "Been Around the World" remix that blew up bigger than anyone predictedNew Kingdom and being "too ahead of its time"How Gravediggaz came together and meeting RZAMixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever at the same time in LAWhat actually made Gravediggaz sound so dark and eerieThe challenge of mixing records you didn't record yourselfHis parallel life in jazz: Teo Macero, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Sex MobWorking with Ka on Days with Dr. Yen Lo and why Ka refused to compromise his artRemembering Ka and the Legacy Open Studio celebration of his lifeHis car accident, his spinal cord injury, and adapting his life and work around itSurprising mic choices that worked for rappers who didn't have "perfect" voicesHis one piece of outboard gear he'd tell any beatmaker to buyHis new album, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio with Steven Bernstein
- Jul 2, 20261h 20m
KnowleDJ on Vegas, Touring with pop stars, the power of the mic and more
Once A DJ is brought to you by:https://www.vinylunderground.co.uk - 10% off your next order using code onceadjhttps://www.sureshotshop.com/ - Record adapters (including customs) & accessorieshttps://myslipmats.com/ - Custom and off the shelf Slipmats, dividers and more.Once A DJ is a https://remote-ctrl.co.uk productionOther ways to support the showFollow the show on Spotify or Apple PodcastsAny feedback or questions? Hit up the Once A DJ Instagram PageSubscribe to the Once A DJ PatreonBuy your Once A DJ Sureshot 45 adapter clampsThis week I'm joined by KnowleDJ — and this is a slightly different one for the show. He's the first Canadian I've had on since about episode two, and he's built a career that doesn't really look like anyone else's. He grew up in Kelowna, a small city in British Columbia, started out as a hip hop promoter to pay his tuition, and got talked into DJing by a club owner who wanted him to do college nights. He was a "hip hopper for life" who couldn't stand the idea of playing anything else — until the money, and then the music, changed his mind. From there it's cruise ships playing to wildly diverse crowds, an economics degree feeding into how he thinks about the whole game, and eventually opening for the Backstreet Boys, Ice Cube and Ariana Grande, and running the after-parties for No Doubt's Sphere residency.What I really wanted to get into was the thinking underneath all of that. We talk about cultural deference and why you have to prove you've done the digging before a crowd trusts you. We get into ADHD, diet and the idea of conscientiousness as a cheat code. He walks me through the worst gig of his life — a Vegas set he says was sabotaged, which blacklisted him for years — and the fate-tipping opportunities that came after. There's a genuinely moving stretch about Fat Man Scoop, who mentored him and passed away the very night Knowledge told him he'd played "Be Faithful." And we finish on the economics of it all: why he built himself a "category of one," what blue ocean strategy and ikigai have to do with DJing, and why, with his book The DJ Diaries on the way, he still believes music is the answer.In this episode we get into:Growing up in Kelowna and going from hip hop promoter to open-format DJReading diverse crowds on the cruise ships, and learning that people hear music differentlyShowing cultural deference — proving you've dug deep before a crowd trusts youRebuilding the No Doubt set from scratch, and the real story behind "Don't Speak"ADHD, diet, and conscientiousness as a cheat code (the OCEAN model)The brain science of doing hard things, and telling yourself a realistic storyLearning the mic, the art of the warm-up, and getting over stage frightThe worst gig of his life and being blacklisted in VegasOpening for Ariana Grande, Backstreet Boys and Ice Cube — and reading GA crowdsFat Man Scoop's quiet, huge influence on hip hop — and a tragic full-circle momentThe economics of DJing: supply and demand, a "category of one," blue ocean strategy and ikigaiThe DJ Diaries, what's next, and the idea of the "otrovert"
- Jun 18, 20261h 14m
Reissue: DJ Nu-Mark (episode 34)
I thought I'd re-publish this one for any of the heads who missed it first time round.He doesn't really need an introduction round here — one half of the production team behind Jurassic 5, and honestly one of the best DJs I've ever seen live. I got Nu-Mark on to talk about his new book Amunu, which is part Persian cookbook, part memoir, part travel guide, and really a celebration of togetherness — family, food and music all woven together. What I love is how much ground we covered getting there.He told me about the mum who raised him with total freedom (and who, 24 years ago, told him to start making Middle Eastern beats — advice he's only just taken), about growing up half-Iranian in the States during the hostage crisis, and about buying 20,000 records for $500 as a teenager, a haul that ended up powering 85–90% of those early J5 productions. We got deep into the group: how it became Jurassic 5 when there were six of them, why he refused the single deal that everyone else signed, the fact that the UK recognised them before the US would, and the whole first EP being made on an eight-track. He's wonderfully honest about confidence too — something he says he's still working on — and about losing his father, and how it was putting his dad's old records on that finally let him cry. We finish on Lesson 6, two record collections meant to meet, and the kebabs-on-site book launch in LA. A proper one, this.In this episode:His mum, Nowruz, and the Middle Eastern beats advice he ignored for 24 yearsGrowing up half-Iranian during the Iran hostage crisisThe alphabetised 35,000-record collection (and the $500 haul of 20,000 records that built J5)Making peace with a tough upbringing, and music as therapyLosing his father, and the records that brought it outDrumming, Brazilian rhythm, and house parties that ended on slow jamsBum Rush Productions, $2 on the door and the 40 ounce posseWhy it's Jurassic 5 when there were six of themTurning down the Blunt single deal — and signing Kanye at Correct RecordsThe chemistry with Cut Chemist, and the art-first philosophyBreaking in the UK before the US, and touring like a rock bandRetaining the publishing, the long life of "What's Golden", and a surprise Pandora hitThe whole first EP made on an eight-trackThe Interscope era alongside Dre, Eminem and 50 Cent, and the Scott Storch sessionsGoing solo with the toy set, and building his own ecosystemHow Amunu came together — and the LA launch
- Jun 11, 20261h 59m
Cut Chemist: The deepest of deep dives
Cut Chemist has been on my list since the day I started this podcast, so getting him on for Episode 85 was a real full-circle moment. He's someone whose records genuinely shaped how I dig and how I think about putting samples together, and across this conversation he traces the whole arc — from kicking along to a Bobby Darin concert in the womb, to a McDonald's straw on a snare drum, to Star Wars soundtracks, to the moment hip hop landed for him in 1983.We get deep into the Hollywood scene that raised him, the Rhino Records parking-lot quarter bins where he and his friends amassed beats nobody had touched, and the Jungle Brothers album that made him realise he could make "a record made out of records."From Unity Committee into Jurassic 5, sharing the production chair with Nu-Mark, the all-45s leap into Brain Freeze with DJ Shadow, the solo tightrope of The Audience's Listening, and right up to his candlelit listening parties now — this one's a masterclass in following the unfamiliar. It's long, it's nerdy in all the right places, and I couldn't have asked for more from a guest who's influenced me this much.In this episode we cover:His earliest musical memories — parents, live drums, Carpenters and a deep sci-fi soundtrack obsessionDiscovering hip hop in 1983 via KDAY, breakdancing, graffiti and the elements one at a timePublic Enemy, Bomb Squad and why Main Source is his production templateThe Jungle Brothers album that turned him into a samplerLearning gear the hard way — reel-to-reel, Roland S10, MPC, the Pro Tools learning curveForming Jurassic 5 out of Unity Committee, and the east-coast heart in a west-coast cityPre-internet sample sleuthing and the legendary Rhino Records quarter binsFirst DJ gigs at 15, learning to cut, and the up-and-down fader style that became his ownQbert and the 1996 X-Men vs Scratch Pickles battleA digging philosophy: is the juice worth the squeeze?Sharing production with Nu-Mark, building Lesson 6, and breaking in Europe with Mr FormatThe Rare Equations mix, the Number Song remix and the all-45s origins of Brain FreezeOzomatli, Brazilian and African digging, and constructing a set like a compositionThe Audience's Listening at 20, The Garden in Brazil, and the Italy trip that changed everythingThe Good Life Cafe education and record shopping with Biz MarkieStable Sound, the Bandcamp subscription, and his candlelit psychedelic sound bathsOn Keb Darge, on Edan, and the Expert of None shows coming next
- May 20, 20261h 58m
Eddie Otchere - The Spirit Behind The Lens
Once A DJ is brought to you by:https://www.vinylunderground.co.uk - 10% off your next order using code onceadjhttps://www.sureshotshop.com/ - Record adapters (including customs) & accessorieshttps://myslipmats.com/ - Custom and off the shelf Slipmats, dividers and more.Once A DJ is a https://remote-ctrl.co.uk productionOther ways to support the showFollow the show on Spotify or Apple PodcastsAny feedback or questions? Hit up the Once A DJ Instagram PageSubscribe to the Once A DJ PatreonBuy your Once A DJ Sureshot 45 adapter clampsThis week I'm joined by Eddie Otchere — a name that might be new to some, but his work absolutely won't be. Eddie is the photographer behind some of the most iconic images of 90s hip hop, jungle and drum & bass, garage and grime. He was Metalheadz's official photographer, shot Wu-Tang Clan, Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, So Solid Crew, Estelle, Chronixx, and pretty much every rapper you cared about coming up. His work is currently exhibited at the V&A East, and he's spent the last 30 years documenting London's black music and dance culture.Eddie grew up in Brixton, Stockwell and Vauxhall, falling into record collecting at Groove Records in Soho when he was so small he couldn't see over the counter. He picked up his first camera in the late 80s — a Praktika left behind by a friend's granddad — and went on to build one of the most important visual archives of UK club culture. This is a long, deep, wide-ranging conversation, and one I came away from genuinely feeling like I'd learned something. I hope you do too.Topics covered:Growing up in South London and the village mentality of the areaEarly days at Groove Records, Red Records, Dub Vendor and the record shops of SohoGetting online in the mid-90s via Direct Connection in Stockwell — and how hip hop became the global languagePicking up a Praktika camera and falling into photography alongside record collectingWhy being analog matters in a "post-fact" world of remastered records and retconned historyThe Canon EOS 10 and learning to shoot in pitch-black clubsShooting jungle raves, Metalheadz, and protecting young people from tabloid demonisationHow Red Bull, smoking bans and changing crowd behaviour shifted the look and feel of clubsThe art of the loop — Alchemist, Dilla, No I.D. and chasing perfect samplesWorking with Wu-Tang as teenagers and learning to build a body of workPhotographing Aaliyah, Biggie, Jay-Z, Estelle and ChronixxAround the early days of grime and why he gravitated toward So Solid in South LondonDrum & bass being run by women, and the importance of Chemistry and StormThe General Levy "cancellation", gatekeeping, and protecting a cultureThe V&A East exhibition and the tension between DIY scenes and academic curationLee Scratch Perry, dub museums, and what music history should look likeMeta glasses, AI as a personal agent, and digital asset management for photographersHis advice for new photographers: intention is everything
About Paths of Rhythm (Formerly Once A DJ)
Paths of Rhythm is a conversation series about the journey a life in music takes you on. Hip hop is the starting point for a lot of these conversations, but the show ranges across house, drum and bass, radio and more — and it's not just DJs. Hosted by Adam Gow, each episode talks to DJs, writers, photographers and sound engineers about their passion for music and where it's taken them. Guests have included Carl Loben (Mixmag), Photographer Eddie Otchere, DJ Rap, Rob Da Bank, House Shoes, Cutmaster Swift and many more.
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