David Delgado

“I’m a little bit of a perfectionist – this has turned out both good and bad for me. Sometimes, I can get lost in the details. When it feels like it’s in my power to make a production better, I get the urge to do whatever it takes. And take as long as is needed. I want to make it top quality.” With regular appearances in a many of legendary Berlin locales, from Club der Visionaere, which would eventually host his marathon Meltdown nights, regular appearances at Sisyphos and Kater Blau, to spots at Tresor, Panorama Bar, and the late, beloved Bar25, the Colombian DJ and producer DAVID DELGADO has confidently established himself in the upper level of the German capital’s underground firmament. Boasting a sound both dark and complicated, Delgado’s work flaunts an elasticity which separates from his contemporaries, emphasizing expertly manipulated “jazzy” drum samples behind minor-key washes and ambient chatter. Benefitting from his time as an assistant engineer in London’s top recording studios, he has worked alongside producers such as Chris Potter, Simon Duffy, Max Hayes and Adrian Hall. This interest in the details of sound dates back to his earliest musical fandom. “I was in my grandmother’s place — I must have been about seven — and my older cousin, who I really looked up to, came up to me with a copy of Michael Jackson’s Bad and said, ‘Hey, listen to this.’ I was immediately blown away, the way the music is so funky and tight, tech-y and percussive. It’s magical. His influence on my music is always present.” From Jackson, it was onto hip-hop — which wasn’t easy to track down, in Bogota back in the 90's. Then funk music and jazz, pervasive influences to this day. “I’m a big Miles Davis fan. And I’m a huge fan of Buddy Rich, whom I discovered digging in second hand stores after I followed a high-school girlfriend to New York. I would go to all the clubs with a fake I.D. I knew I could do what the DJ’s were doing, so I decided to spend all my savings on a couple of turntables and a few records. I started digging the house sound — Timo Maas’ remix of Azzido Da Bass’ Dooms Night would make me crazy, as well as Erick Morillo’s early Subliminal Records sound. I haven’t stopped since.” He made it to Manchester, then London (and further), developing his touch. Delgado also found he was being greeted with increasing enthusiasm in Berlin. A last-minute cancellation by DJ T at Club der Visionaere led to the offer of a two-hour slot at the club. He flew in. It was euphoric, never-ending, stretching from 4am until afternoon. By the end of the night, the club had adopted him, and he would soon adopt Berlin, offered a regular night -- Meltdown -- at Club der Visionaere. Soon he would be recording for Tom Clark’s lauded Highgrade label, as well as joining their booking agency. These days, Delgado is producing and remixing a lot, often with his friends and contemporaries Mihai Popoviciu and Argenis Brito, amongst others. As for his releases, he takes his time to perfect them until the music meets his standards. The newer work is dryer, more minimal, its jazziness increasingly improvisational, with artfully manipulated chords, and baselines often sampled from rare jazz records punctuated by the swell of mysterious orchestra stabs. The mood is suspended, an off-kilter swamp-like haze. His musical versatility and impeccable mixing skills, the flow of the classic and the new, allow him a canny adaptability, from a spacey early afternoon set at Club der Visionaere to the peak of Panorama Bar closing set. What’s next? His own label, Live shows and more musical expansion. “Why do I make music? The truth is, it’s not entirely obvious to me. But throughout my life music is the one thing that has never lost my attention.”