A typical remix by Daniel Haaksman consists of Brazilian and African grooves plus a heavy bass injection. The Berlin-based DJ is connoisseur when it comes to club beats – born in Rome, the DJ, producer, label owner and journalist grew up in different countries in different parts of the world. Settled in Berlin since a few years now, he still likes to go abroad. On his journeys around the globe he is not only DJing and collecting records but is engaged in bringing together musicians from different scenes.
On November 17th at ACUD Club the remix champion is presenting his new record “Remixes 2008-2017”, a compilation of his best remixes so far. We have used the special occasion to ask him three questions about his latest release.
What is your new compilation about?
It´s a compilation with some of my remixes I´ve been doing since 2008. By now, I´ve made more than thirty, comissioned remixes. It was pretty hard to pick eleven out of this number, but I think the compilation is presenting some of the best reworks I´ve done so far.
Daniel, which artists are featured on “Remixes 2008-2017”?
The compilation kicks off with a remix I did for Brazilian Felipe Cordeiro who comes from the city of Belém, in Brazil´s North East, where the music is much more influenced from Caribbean music styles and regional sounds like Brega, Lambada or Carimbó. There´s also a cool remix I did for Colombia´s Makina Del Karibe, which I´ve been playing since years in my DJ sets, the same is for Madera Limpia´s “Loco”, a Cuban outfit, which actually was one of my very first remixes. Also there´s classic remixes I´ve done for Austrian Afro don Ku Bo, Germany´s Schlachthofbronx, New Zealand´s Weird Together and some of my recent remixes, e.g. for Populous from Italy or Samito from Canada.
It´s a pretty international line-up, how would you describe the Daniel Haaksman touch on the remixes?
It´s quite delicate to do a version of someone else´s music, you have grasp a song or tracks essence and then try to elevate it, you can make it more dancefloor friendly or just flip it into something else. I always try to do both but ground it with my particular sound which nurtures from both Brazilian and African grooves plus a heavy bass injection. And if one of my remixes sets a dancefloor on fire, I know it turned out right.
