2004 in Liepaja
in Ventspils

with Aklais aka DJ Pluto
w/ Blindmc

with Paul Murphy
w/ Paul Murphy

with DJ Puma
w/ Puma

with DJs Moire & Melnizz
Moire & Melniz

with DJ Miks
w/ Miks

with DJ ZeDmitry
w/ ZeDmitry

with DJ Vika Baravika
w/ dj Baravika

with DJs Betons & Fabio
Betons & Fabio


w/ Roni Size

smokin' secretly :)
hiding

with Ilze
w/ Ilze
she beats me :) ...
with Marta morning wine

DJ KONE Värka Kru | FuckForFriendship
Tracks by Kone

Nominal  Rigas Vilni

Nominal  Full Moon Boogie

Kone  Trip To Vuokatti feat. You Koshkin

Just listened at home

Quotes

...Musical eclecticism would best characterize Kone sets, which allways delight everyone, who wish to dance till the morning.
ind-ex.lv

I might be glorifying it too much. But i should say it.
I ve tried to play back to back with many dj’s. And i want to expose a big respect to Kone here. When playing with him, i really got the feeling of dialogue, rather than competition. And besides that, when playing together with such a trusty partner, you got more time to play around with beats, frequencies, and, generally spending less time wearing headphones, which means greater contact with the audience, which in the end results in even fucking crazier dance orgy.
ZeDmitry, Fuckforfriendship

Absolutely awesome program! Beautiful, balanced, focused and smartly structured+delivered. Really swept away the cobwebs for me. Kudos!
EdSouth, djmix.net

Excellent !!! thanks for sharing a great mix
Programm 5, djmix.net

Just wanna say: brilliant mixset, Kone! It made my friday!
Combi

Listening to your mix again, and I'm hooked on :))) Want it into my profile.
AGG

One of the most outstanding Latvian underground DJs.
Danscotheek

Bio   Mixes   Dates   Charts   Myspace profile   FuckForFriendship   Nominal   Trips 2004

Bio

Multi-genre DJ and producer from Riga, EU.

Beginning

At the age of 12 Kone with help of books studied to play basics of piano and clarinet. In 1991-1993 organized two punk/hardcore groups, being vocalist, guitarist and song author. Living in squatts of Amsterdam left a trace on his taste, reggae and dub became strong influences. As "dance boom" reached Riga around 1994, got into dance music. First as raver, than as DJ. First public set was Dub, having just a few vinyls.

Jungle

When he first listened a tape with Jungle, given by friend, Vlad Yakovlev, he immediately liked the genre, because "it was very Dub-influenced", and started to play it. Together with DJs Betons, Ginnz and MC Dr_Ups, the core of later famous Värka Kru, he was developing and popularizing Drum'n'Bass culture in Latvia since 1996. Not only DNB movement started in LV, but also, few years later - MC in DnB. As by 2000 Drum'n'Bass became almost a mainstream, Kone refused to play it, returned back to Jungle and got deeper into genres Funk, Nu'Jazz, Breakbeat and Latino.

Electronica: Minimal or Nominal?

Minimal techno and Tech-house is what he usually plays now. "The term Minimal is a cliche. But my selection differs from mainstream. I love minimalistic approach to creating sound, yet still, melodies and uplifting mood are catching me forever. I try to change atmosphere and energy level on the dancefloor... just like waves of a sea. It keeps audience' attention, you know... some gentle surprises. From uplifting minimal-afro-house, into intelligent minimal, than into something melodic, than hypnotic. Combinations are endless." The club where you can listen hi-quality electronica in Riga is Space:Garage (closed during summer 2008).

Jazz: Creating an atmosphere

"Creating an atmosphere" is what he's famous for. "That's my another side, I play "bar sets", as I call them, even more often then minimal ones. Nice sound system, music is not loud, people don't notice it, and suddenly somebody start to dance, others join. Colleague DJs say I play Lounge, but for me it's House: intelligent, jazzy, latinish. Just the mood is subtle. Like talking, or even whispering. Screaming too, but in nice juicy way." Eclectic light but uplifting DJ sets of Nu'Jazz, Funk, Balkan, Latino, Afrobeat are what he plays in Cuba Cafe and other selected Riga' clubs.

Jamaician groove

From "third" side, Kone plays Reggae, Dub and Dancehall, delivering one of the biggest collection of 7-inches outta Jamaica in LV. "Reggae community is very strong in Latvia. Not huge, but is has noticeable grew-up in last years. We need reggae 'cause Latvian winters are so cold and grey. We need warmer vibes. Reggae is universal cure from depression."

Big names

As DJ, Kone performed together with Paul Murphy (Afro Art), Smash TV, Tobias Thomas (Kompakt),
DJ Koze, Roni Size (Full Cycle), Future Prophecies to name a few.

Producer

The only release by Kone, "Trip to Vuokatti" is mellow ambient dub journey. "It's my impression of long road to snowboarding spot in Finland. I set near driver and we listened to Jim Morrison solo album, where he read his poetry, for hours again and again. It was such a beautiful hypnotizing mellow experience. I did the base of track, and gave the loop to Yuri Koshkin, aka You, and he recorded me about an hour of guitar improvisations. Collaboration rulles!"

Kone works on new tracks, publishing some demos under Nominal alias, builds a home hardware-based studio, so watch out for some new stuff...



E-mail: k o n e (.ad.) r i x c (.dot.) l v