DJ Carlito

//DJ Carlito
DJ Carlito 2015-06-23T10:27:32+01:00

Music child
In 1970, this music child was born in the city of Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam in South America. At the age of two, his parents moved to settle Schalkwijk, a suburb of Haarlem, in the Netherlands. Schalkwijk is the home of many talented artists, musicians, DJs, and producers who have achieved greatness in the world of music. Carlito grew up with people like Kid Crash, Rockattack Ten, Shy Rock aka Rollarocka, DJ/Producer Martijn ten Velden, calling themselves Homeboys from da Block, which later partly formed the P-Funk group called GOTCHA. Also, people like DJ Zki aka The Goodman, Jay KR aka Jerome, his brother Ro aka Robedope Ro, DJ Georgio, DJ Marnix, DJ Alexander Koning, DJ Marcello, and DJ Olaf Basovski, until the new generation of people like Pete Philly, Relax, Winna de Poeet, Mikula, Gregor Salto, and the list goes on and on. “At the age of 12,” says DJ Carlito, “I knew what I wanted to become: a DJ / remixer / producer.”
“For more than 25 years I have stayed underground, touching the musical surface from time to time,” says Carlito. “It started with hip hop, and by the time I got to hip house and acid house, the house virus had infected me. Early on, I was inspired by the few good DJs who really knew what was going on, peeps like DJ KC The Funkaholic, DJ Cassie 6, and DJ Dr Tjong.”
A true player with an allround vision, Carlito moved to Amsterdam where those DJs became his colleagues in a club called Club Havana. At 17, Carlito (then DJ Carlos) was the youngest DJ ever to infiltrate the Amsterdam club scene.

 

Residencies
During the 1990’s Carlos had residencies or played in the most famous clubs in Amsterdam: Club Havana, Richter, RoXY, It, Paradiso, Sinners in Heaven, Melkweg, and The Escape. Carlos played alongside DJs like Armand van Helden, Derek Carter, Ricky Montenari, Alton Miller, Mustapha, and a lot of national heroes like Graham B, Johnson, Frankie D, Brian S, Chaos and L-Dopa, Roog and Erik E, Don Diablo, Joost van Bellen, Ronny Hammond, Ritzy Lee, Urvinson, Marcello, Dimitri, Benny Rodrigues, Alan Luna and Ron van Zelst. “This list goes on and on, so for those who are not mentioned: U KNOW WHO U ARE !!!”
Unique sound
In 2000, Carlito got busy with a new sound called UK Garage, which later became 2 Step. Carlito became one of the key players of this sound, organized party’s and playing alongside people like Afrika Bambaataa, MJ Cole, Zed Bias, Artful Dodger, Craig David, Stanton Warriors, The Streets, Dee Kline and Femme Fatale just to name a few.  “My UK sound from that time mixes UK Garage / 2 Step with old school up-tempo hip hop and old school English break beat to spice it up a bit,” says Carlito. “With all the sounds I mix, I refuse to narrow my vision. I combine old and new styles of music and play music that I feel and believe in and what moves me.”

Even now in 2015 I refuse to narrow my vision for the passion I have for music, with residencies in the Supperclub/Suppercruise , 5 & 33 and Harbour Club I’m still in the game of live music players.

Ever-exciting
In 2002, Carlito teamed up with his brother, Urvinson (DJ / remixer / songwriter / producer), to launch Brothers in Harmony which includes live musicians playing over their DJ set. Since then, they’ve built a reputation for their tight, funky sets and no-nonsense musical choices. Big events and companies approach them wanting their ever-exciting sound. “Allround is the style we play,” says Carlito “It is very broad and moves across different styles of jazz into hip hop / R&B and goes from disco to different styles of house and through break beats and broken beats to uplifting rough funk and obscure rare grooves into nu-soul and nu-jazz followed by Drum & Bass, if the mood and crowd is right.”

In 2004 the brothers developed two party concepts called “For The Vibe” and “SubTone” in collaboration with designer Jarr Geerligs (www.jarr.nl) and Photographer Ula Mirowska (www.ulamirowska.com) to create a concept which involved Art/Design/Photography/Music and blending into one successful event format. Check out: www.subtone.nl  to get a glimpse of what we did and who we worked with!!!

Music Producer/Remixer

Releases As a producer / remixer, Carlito’s first 12-inch record was a remix on the Ron van Zelst track, Whatever, released on Dazzle Records (1996). After a long break, he came into contact with DJ Whale from Norway, who was visiting Amsterdam. After corresponding for a while, DJ Whale moved to Amsterdam to check out the scene and to start a label called Mid-Nite Sessions. “The track that I made with DJ Whale, Whale Carlito, (2003) was about to be released when the label moved back to Norway,” says Carlito. “They had had five successful releases. Our deep house track is still not released or signed.”
Carlito’s latest unsigned releases, Epsilon Theta and Divine Previews, are two E.P. projects with a total of four tracks on each E.P., created under his pseudonym, Logan MacRide, in co-operation with Greek producer Alex Roudos. One of the tracks, Liquid X-Pectations, was signed and released on 1 June 2006 on the 12-inch vinyl, Guitartronics (Blue Dove Records). Guitartronics received rave reviews from Frisky Radio / Interference Productions, Bedrock Breaks, Tigerhook / Bedrock / Renaissance, and others. Later in 2006, Liquid X-Pectations was released on the double compilation, Eclectic Dance (PlusRec Records, the official dance sub-label of Universal Greece).

The now and the next

Carlito is currently at work on his own dual label called Software for Soul Recordings and Hardware for Soul Recordings. The vision of Software for Soul Recordings is an allround open-minded community for upcoming artists as well as established musicians. DJ’s, remixers, producers and artists collaborate on what they like and believe in most: Music. The vision of Hardware for Soul Recordings is a harder sound with its roots laying in Techno and Drum & Bass. Learning from each other, sharing knowledge, yet staying fresh and solid, maintaining the sound that is already out there to carry on that rich heritage and remember where it came from. Between them, Hardware for Soul Recordings and Software for Soul Recordings blend all forms and styles of music to create new forms that will inspire the now and the next generations.