DJs
Ben Wijay (UK)
In the last few years Ben Wijay has garnered recognition from dance music's biggest and best. After winning MUZIK Magazine's 2002 DJ competition he received a substantial amount of support from MUZIK and DJ's such as Ashley Beedle. Renaissance was quick to establish him as one of their new faces at Pacha and The Cross (London) and appearances at We Love Sundays at Space (Ibiza) are fast establishing Wijay's reputation on the international scene.
Although house music is the backbone of a typical Wijay set you can also expect to hear disco, techno, soul, electro, jazz-funk, soul, punk-funk, latin/world music plus his own re-edits and tracks woven into the mix.
With today's resurgence of interest in past legends such as Ron Hardy, Larry Levan & David Mancuso, many DJ's are stepping out of the safety zone and experimenting with their sound; not an approach Wijay has adopted for the sake of trend - he's been playing with this so called 'eclecticism' since day one. Indeed, back in the days when it had become unthinkable to play anything beyond your chosen pigeon hole, Wijay was ignoring protocol and mixing Roy Ayres with Derrick May or Metro Area with the B-52's.
His own club night Chameleon galvanised this style and has gathered a cult following since starting in 2003. Past guests have included Bill Brewster (Faith) and The Unabombers (Electric Chair), and Chameleon was made one of Mixmag's club nights of the year in 2004.
Since his early releases on Drop Music and DiY Discs Ben has developed a diverse production style and equally diverse fan base; Global Underground's new 'Light's Out 3' mix by Steve Lawler opens with one of Wijay's off-kilter electro house tunes - a far cry from the uplifting house track that Groove Armada used for their 'Summer Groove' compilation last year. He is currently recording a series of EP's for Phreakin Recordings and remixing several projects.
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