A.N.G.L_DJ

A.N.G.L is a DJ. He was born in Madrid and has been DJing for more than twenty years. His sound is supported by vinyl as a tool that demands concentration and gives him more intense and organic sessions. He does not deny the digital: he uses it when the context imposes it or when it adds, without fuss.

The first contact with electronics came in 1993, in the era of Trance. Labels such as Bonzai Records, Platipus, Superstition, Over Drive or Attack Records marked the pulse of those years. Clubs such as Specka, Family Club, Industrial Copera or Over Drive were the terrain where he began to understand dance music from the inside. Above specific genres, what remained of that time was an attitude: to search tirelessly, to listen with criteria and not to settle for the first thing that sounded.

Among the names that marked him at the beginning are Paul Oakenfold, Cosmic Baby, Jeff Mills, Cristian Varela, Chris Liberator, Reeko, Oliver Ho. From all of them he learned something different: precision, rawness, risk, the ability to build a story behind the dishes.

His vinyl collection was not born out of nowhere. The seed was a family collection that came from a nightclub. That collection of records was the germ of an obsession that has not stopped growing: collecting, discovering, excavating. He doesn't do it just to keep up, but for genuine enjoyment. The search for music is a long process, which requires investing many hours listening to sessions by other artists, tracking down new productions in digital or vinyl, contrasting, discarding, tuning.

When he plays, he does so mainly with two Technics chainrings. He prefers to use three, or combine vinyl with digital tools, as the session requests. He works on long mixes, letting the songs flow together for minutes, but he doesn't marry himself to a single formula: if the dynamics require it, he puts in quick transitions without any problem. He likes to play with the themes, hide them, generate tension with sounds close to Reeko or tribal rhythms such as those of Oliver Ho. His style with the table is active, but not electric: he intervenes without being heavy, without tiring, seeking that each movement makes sense within the journey.

Their current sound moves within Techno. The labels he follows and that serve as a reference now are Planet Rhythm, Backspin, Mutual Rytm and EarToGround. He does not forget stamps from the past that have marked him: T:Classixx, Intec, Primate, Missile or Lupp. That mixture of past and present defines his criteria: he is not nostalgic, but he knows where he comes from.

As for digital, he uses it when there is no possibility of DJing with vinyl, as support in analogue sets or in back-to-back sessions where the other artist prefers digital and he stays with the turntables. There is no dogmatism: it integrates the digital naturally, without diluting the character of the session. The focus is on the music, not the format.

Outside Madrid, his performance at the Rave Los Bigotes in 2023 stands out. He has played in other places, but he does not make a point of it: he prefers that the context and the session speak for themselves.

He is currently working on several productions of his own that have not yet been published. Regularly upload sessions to Hearthis and SoundCloud. In addition, she is part of a new association called TechnoTxoko, a collective project with which she shares vision and space.

A.N.G.L chooses vinyl not only for romanticism. He chooses it because it forces him to feel the music more, to fine-tune his listening, to keep alive a way of working that rewards coherence and travel over easy impact. He has been doing it for more than twenty years, and he does not need to underline it.