DJ TIMES
FEBRUARY 2014
By Jim Tremayne
14
Brooklyn, N.Y. – As I step out of the taxi between the Wythe Hotel and Output—New York’s hottest late-night destination—I notice that the freezing rain hasn’t let up a bit. Still, I can see a line of soggy fans beginning to stretch down North 12th Street, adjoining the club. Tonight, proper techno’s on the agenda—Ben Klock and DVS1—and these crazies aren’t going to miss a beat. Klock is a Berlin legend, an original resident at Berghain, the world’s most vaunted venue for techno. Meanwhile, DVS1 (aka Zak Khutoretsky) is the rare U.S.-based DJ to regularly play the famously fussy club. But his Berlin acceptance shouldn’t surprise anyone, as his approach to the genre is as dedicated as his passions for the art of DJing and the craft of production. And like a lot of DJ/producers who’ve ultimately succeeded on their own terms, the 35-year-old Minneapolis resident has maintained a Do-ItYourself ethic since the good old rave days. In addition to producing and operating a pair of techno imprints—Hush Sound and sub-label Mistress Recordings—DVS1 continues to run renegade warehouse events in the Twin Cities. Oh, and he still spins half of his sets with vinyl. Back at Output, DVS1’s set features rumbling, energetic techno spiced with cuts from his labels and the headliner’s Klockworks imprint. Think Carl Cox in the vinyl days, but with the tracks pitched up to the breaking point. He’s the middle act, but he’s definitely got everyone’s attention. Heads are bobbing, hips are swaying and there’s plenty of, “Look! He’s playing vinyl!” The word appears to be spreading about DVS1, even beyond the techno elites, and the calendar’s filling up. After another New York gig—at Cielo, usually more of a haven for house—he’ll head back to Europe (Russia, Holland, Italy and Germany), do a jaunt to Australia and then take another North American swing. He’s come a long way from those crazy Midwestern raves of the ’90s. We caught up with DVS1 and it went like this: DJ Times: Your beginnings? DVS1: I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia—in the old Soviet Union—in 1978, but I grew up in Minneapolis. My mother and father divorced. My father moved to New York when I was four or five, my mother to Minneapolis, and I would go back and forth between the two. DJ Times: What put you on a musical path? DVS1: It was the radio, mostly. My mother got me playing piano and my father got me into cello, but it was mostly listening to the radio with fellow friends. Wish I’d stuck with piano. But that experience gave me an appreciation for it. I played eight or nine years. I played recitals. DJ Times: And dance music? DVS1: I remember being turned onto what I’d consider dance music of that time. It was music that had synthesis, music that had beats, music that you could shake and twist to. I remember as a kid saying, “Mom! Watch me dance!” DJ Times: DJing? What got you into it? DVS1: Someone took me to a party. I always say that you have a 50/50 chance of being taken to the wrong party, for starters. I was on the right side of that 50, and someone took me to a proper party. It was a rave with good music. It was somewhere in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, in Hopkins. I don’t remember the DJs—but I remember it was a good party. DJ Times: And clubs? DVS1: In Minneapolis, there was an all-ages Sundaynight dance party at our legendary nightclub, First Avenue, the club where Prince filmed “Purple Rain.” The DJ’s format was five dance records, then five hip-hop records, five grunge records—whatever. You’d kind of figured out what you liked from those five records. I always attracted to dance music. I got into hip hop later on, but I liked dance music right away. I saw my share of bands at First Avenue,
Playing Tough Techno & Throwing Devoutly Underground Events, Minnesota’s DVS1 Maintains a Quaint, Yet Effective DIY Ethic
