DJ OF THE WEEK 7.8.13: LARS BEHRENROTH

We’re an eclectic bunch here at 1200dreams. There are as many different genres of music as there are lovers of music. We tend to go searching for the new, innovative, ear catching and soul lifting beats and usually find what we’re looking for and expose one another to what we find.

Most days we share music that brings out something in common in all of us: Passion. It’s what moves us to continue to do what we do. Passion drives us to keep growing and learning, discovering new and rediscovering known.

That premise can be associated to many of the DJs featured on 1200dreams DJ of the Week. There is no denying that the dedication to make music a thriving lifestyle has to start with at least passion. Let’s take Lars Behrenroth, for example.

Behrenroth has been in the music industry since 1986. Born in Germany, he relocated to Los Angeles CA in 2004. His passion has led him to be a radio host (1996), remixer/producer (1997) and label owner (2008). In following that time line, you can see that with almost 30 years of experience, Behrenroth is a man driven by passion for music.

Behrenroth has played such venues as DEEP (LA), Distillery (Leipzig, Germany), Motorlounge (Detroit), Queens (Paris, France), House 22 (Pretoria, South Africa), recently at Tambor (ATL) and is scheduled to play with Ian Friday this week, Thursday, July 11, 2013 at one of NYs most established parties, Libation, in the Sullivan Room.

He attended audio engineering school in Hamburg, Germany where he completed his first remix projects in 1996, and began co-hosting “House Sound of Hamburg” (HSH) that same year. In 1998 he successfully brought the exclusive mix show to Evosonic Radio, a Europe-wide electronic and dance music radio station. The weekly three-hour show was very successful and hosted guest DJs the likes of Mateo & Matos, Paul Johnson and DJ Pierre to name a few. During this time he also signed with Hamburg labels “Records of Interest” (ROI) and “Tracks of Interest” (TOI) to join the ranks of Knee Deep, Vincenzo, and Lovebirds.

Behrenroth’s two hour radio show, “Deeper Shades of House”, started out on German radio station Jam FM and was syndicated on US nationwide satellite XM Radio and can now be heard on over 30 stations worldwide. The show features guest mixes by international DJs and was nominated for Best Podcast in the 2011 WMC IDMAs. Deeper Shades of House celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2012 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Over the last 15 years, Behrenroth has accumulated an impressive discography over a variety of labels including, Freerange, Compost, Sonar Kollektiv, Liebe*Detail. He has remixed artists such as Atjazz, Robert Owens, Liquideep, Dubtribe, MJ Cole, Arnold Jarvis, The Rurals, Beyonce, Sven Weisemann, Tamara Wellons, Black Coffee, among others. His production style covers a wide range of genres and styles, showing a versatility that has led to the next natural evolution: creating his global deep house record label, Deeper Shades Recordings, in 2008. Counting 37 digital releases on Traxsource alone, it’s evident that he has set a high standard for himself and those he works with. There is no production line at Deeper Shades Recordings. Artists and Remixers on the label include ATJAZZ, BLACKANGEL, CHRISTO, EZEL, FABIO GENITO, G.FAMILY (Michael G and Jullian Gomes), JOE DIPADOVA, JOHANNES ALBERT, JOJOFLORES, KAGISO PITSONG, MARCO FRACASSO, MATT FLORES, MATTHEW BANDY, PETEBLAS, SALVATORE AGROSI and SINAN BAYMAK.

In DSoH #419 1st hour, Behrenroth, true to his “very subjective definition” of deep house, expands whatever we may have thought of as deep house and pulls it to a new level, as only his selective experience can.

If you’ve never heard Lars Behrenroth intensely deep style, press play. You, like me, will be pulled in and become a fan of Deeper Shades of House.