>>PREVIEW
URSULA 1000
Saturday, June 3
Hifi Club
Think a curvy woman in a black dress slipping olives between lips smeared in red. Think hover cars passing between clouds in glass cities. Think Dutch modular furniture. Just don’t think go-go boots, lava lamps and all the rest that comes along with the swinging ’60s.
Ursula 1000, the alias of the bespectacled Alex Gimeno and preferred DJ for the jet set crowd, is more than the loungecore music he became renowned for.
"The idea of me at home, having martinis and listening to Henry Mancini 24/7 is not the case," assures Gimeno. "At least not all the time."
On a short reprieve from sloshing about ideas for the video of the new single "Electric Boogie," Gimeno seems relaxed even if his mouth clocks a thousand thoughts per second. Beyond his own albums, he’s responsible for a myriad of remixes for such acts as Quincy Jones to The Powerpuff Girls. Whether spinning at his regular gig for supermodels in New York’s trendy ATP or blazing through Calgary’s Hifi Club, Gimeno just wants everybody to have fun. That’s something some of his critics don’t understand.
"On tour last summer in Europe, I checked out the impression from journalists out there on my last mix CD," says Gimeno. "For the most part, it got good reviews, but a lot of people found it too happy. That’s an actual quote. What do you say to that? I’m just not going to produce a Radiohead type of album, because I don’t think I can produce a record like that with all sincerity."
Every funky lounge beat and bossanova bass squiggle on his early albums begged to be chased by a few cocktails. The sound and accompanying lifestyle defined him as a DJ. Although the new album, Here Comes Tomorrow, moves beyond the loungecore sound, he can’t shake off the ’60s vibe. He admits, "There’s usually an organic retro element floating throughout my tracks. Whether that retroness is from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s or ’50s, that’s the only kind of recurring theme in the stuff I do.
"Deep down in my heart, though, I go to the mid to late ’60s. That’s the one period that hits a nerve with me for music, politics, art, design and film. I’m not just about that, but it’s a period I love dearly. There was this kind of awakening, a time people looked to this perfect future. Who wouldn’t find that appealing?"
Vietnam. JFK’s assassination. Landing on the moon. The psychotropic optimism of the ’60s could only last so long, but it’s the willingness to experiment that Gimeno takes away from that era.
"When people ask me what I spin, I have no idea what to tell them," shrugs Gimeno. "It’s such a mix of electro, house and breakbeat, but for the past couple of years I’ve been stuck in the early 1970s world, listening to a lot of glam rock with its old Hollywood glamour mixed with cabaret and over-the- top production."
Thanks to the work of local favourites the Smalltown DJs, Gimeno feels Calgary is ready for his transcontinental mishmash. So booty shakers and rump-thumpers should scrounge for their shortest shorts and mini-est of mini skirts for Ursula 1000’s night.
"The Smalltown DJs played in Miami for the Winter Music Conference. Those guys are a total trip. We’re coming from the same wavelength. The night is going to be really fun and silly." |
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