BIOGRAPHY
Everyone once in a while a new producer just smashes their way through into the bigtime. That's what's happening with Riva Starr's sneak-in-and-blow-the-place-up approach. An act whose influence comes from blogs, wild afterparties, music that works for the kids as well as the cool ubercoolische europeans, Riva seems to have sprung onto the scene fully formed - but in reality he's been working his arse off for years.
He first released as breaks DJ Madox. His album, "Urban Plastic", got raves from luminaries from the Stantons to the Plumps to the more underground figures like Santos and Meat Katie. His collaboration with key figures John Acquaviva and Tommie Sunshine provided the hit "Running", and his own tracks and remixes earned him a Breakspoll nominations as best producer and best remixer of 2007. But while the noisier releases kept rolling, he was also working on a quieter, more contemplative sideline under his real name, the Stefano Miele project - roots music redrawn as low-fi, downbeat tunes, and so successful it earned Miele a coveted showcase on the UK's biggest leftfield radio show, Pathann on Radio1.
But right now the real action is Riva Starr. Drawing on the Brazilian and Latin rhythms of the Miele project - and Miele's own Italian roots - Riva Starr plunders the best in nu-rave, batty bass and beeping, burping synth lines to create a dirty, messy dancefloor affair. His first appearance on Jesse Rose's ubercool Frontroom label with the Thizzle EP led to a release on Claude vonStroke's pivotal Dirtybird label with the WTF?! EP - described by IDJ as "essential - 5/5". Then there were two releases in quick succession on Southern Fried - a remix of Armand van Helden's smash J'Taime, and his own EP, Scratch'n'Itch, which had raves from a stupidly wide variety of DJs - fron D Ramirez to Dan Kahuna, Dopamine to BuggedOut! regular Hannah Holland, Rene Amesz to the low-fi live-music crew of Adventures Close to Home.
And the gigs have kept apace. Just in the last month there's been a China tour, Paris, Amsterdam, two slots at the Winter Music Conference - the Dirtybird party and a huge Lot49 event - and an Italian tour. A single mix offered to the influential Discobelle blog was downloaded TWELVE THOUSAND times, and a sneaky download of a DJ edit of La Conga, his followup single on Dirtybird, lead to that single going top 5 on Beatport through pure word of mouth - no ads, a secret release with no press, and it had gone top 10 in the tech-house chart before Beatport decided maybe the track should have some advertising...
As the Scatterblog review of Riva's career says ... "It's not like he has a big trademark bassline, or some sort of analog synth style (although he does have some mad analog synths), instead he incorporates a range of different sounds. It seems like the main thing that ties each song together is just that each one has an awesome hook of some kind. Music is all about having a cool sounding something these days, it's not about ripping out some big guitar solo, or having a really musically sound piece (how many songs are based around three notes these days, but sound fresh as), Riva Starr is easily on top of all that..."
What's next? A follow-up on Southern Fried. A new sampleadelic track Maria on Get Physical's Kindish records. Collaborations with London's Batty Bass scene. Five separate remixes due out before May. And a new label, Snatch! - for the stripped-back musical types who aren't ashamed to get their rave on...
PRESS SHOTS (CLICK FOR BIG)
MUSIC
Riva Starr's LA CONGA - out on Dirtybird April 3
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE A PRODUCER BREAKS STRAIGHT THROUGH... With releases already raved about on Dirtybird, Southern Fried and Frontroom, a remix of Armand van Helden in the bag, and gigs from his native Italy to this year's Dirtybird party at the WMC, London to China, Paris to Amsterdam, Riva Starr is very definitely the biggest thing to come out of wonky in quite some time... And that's before you consider the blogs - TWELVE THOUSAND downloads of his last mix on discobelle.net. Soon to come tracks on Get Physical's Kindish and his next track on Dirtybird, out April 3 - LA CONGA.
LISTEN TO SAMPLE:
LA CONGA.
Or more about
RivaStarr, or his
most recent X podcast....
Scratch n Itch EP - Riva Starr raves on Southern Fried
"Scratch n Itch is wicked!" - Kissy Sell Out
Raves from Dan Kahuna to D Ramirez, Dopamine to Mr Cormac, Rene Amesz to Will Adventures Close to Home.
Out now on Southern Fried.
LISTEN TO A SAMPLE:
Scratch n Itch.
WTF!?! New Riva Starr Bubble EP on Dirtybird
As the label itself put it, with his Bubble EP, "Riva Starr took dirtybird back to the big basslines on which it was built". A collection of "floppy gurgling bass, stacked drums and slow-cooked BBQ funk", Riva Starr's first EP on dirtybird also had its A-side "WTF" dropped straight on to Claude VonStoke’s "At the Controls" compilation - as well as a front-page release for Beatport.
Listen:
Bubble |
WTF?!?
Riva Starr - Thizzle EP on Frontroom
It was one of Frontroom's first releases for a while. Taking a loping groove for a walk with Riva Starr's patented buzzy synth action, the Thizzle EP was two cuts, Thizzle and China Gum. Unfortunately we've only got Thizzle to show off ...
LISTEN TO SAMPLES:
Thizzle
