Every 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.
Riva Starr plunders the best in tech house... Read more
Every 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.
Riva Starr plunders the best in tech house 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...
And the gigs have kept apace. Just in the last months there's been a China tour, Glastonbury, Glade and Fusion Festivals, two slots at the Winter Music Conference - the Dirtybird party and a huge Lot49 event – an Australian and US tour on the pipeline and definitely more to come...
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 with a Derrick Carter rmx. A new sampleadelic track Maria on Get Physical's Kindisch records that is already doing damages worldwide reaching the top 10 on the Beatport house chart, a new single on Jesse Rose’MADE TO PLAY...
Collaborations with London's underground scene. A few remixes due out during the summer (check out his remix for Exploited rec with the featuring of the 2 dupstep mcs Jammer&Frisco!). And a new label, Snatch! - for the stripped-back musical types who aren't ashamed to get their rave on...
“…i’m usually a safe guy – but if u touch my knobs you can expect me to crack your skull open…” (Riva Starr – drunk mode - Brick Lane, 2003) Show less
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