Planet Angel - Live an Ordinary Life in an Extraordinary Way

Involved From/ To: 2002 to date
Description: Chillout DJ
Contact: Click here

I’ve been a regular guest DJ, playing at both Planet Angel Chill Bar and Planet Angel Chilled since late 2003. I had been commuting from Birmingham for the events since 2002, where I had run into a number of musical influences such as DJ's U-4-IC, Monkey Pilot , Sly One, B-fly, Therapy & Tequila. 

Along with playing some Planet Angel favourites, a sprinkling of mainstream chill-out and some cheeky dubs, I’ve tried to bring more mystical, spiritual elements to the chill rooms. I use foreign instruments, ethnic voices and electronica to form a delicate blend of compositions by various musicians from around the globe.

I generally avoid long tunes and anything that sits still for too long and try to involve as many enchanting melodies as I can in my sets. I’m not afraid of toe-tapping beats in the Chill Bar, or promoting the artists I play. Artists such as Banco de Gaia, Le Cod Afrique, Joi, Amethystium, Transglobal Underground, Pete Ardron, Ikarus, Delerium, Conjure One, Wendy G define my own style and their ethno-ambience aims to enhance the mood and encourage opportunity for more intimate conversation. I also welcome the occasional appropriate request, so if you know a chill-out tune you’d love to hear at Planet Angel, let me know, I’ll even try to work it into my set when you’re around!

I’ve recently moved to London, within a few miles from The Party Venue and my life over the last few years reads like a dream advert for Planet Angel. I’ve met a wonderful fiancée, Mazz, developed a close community of friends throughout the city. After seeing the world on an expense account in export sales, I recently jumped ship to work in graphic design, marketing and IT – a more creative than capitalist field.

Oh, and why PAYGAN? It’s how I thought you spelled PAGAN when I was a kid! I would have been right if only I’d been born in the 15th century, when it was spelled with the ‘Y’! It was the name of my Aunt’s horse, and an internet handle for years but lately I draw a lot of comparisons and connections between the life I lead and the music I play with that outside civilisation, outside the mainstream, outside religion and the structure such institutions place on our lives. Also with the sense of community that has developed in my life and that of pagan communities in the past. In developing Planet Angel as a new type of creative, community experience, and through the internet perhaps we are pushing the cutting edge of community in the modern world, but still using methods and practices not far from those our ancestors used in their lives.