Dinner with DJ’s: Basket O Fries
It is often said, in these modern times, that on this path of life, we are forever meant to be students. Learning something new every day until the day we die. That’s sort of how I’d describe what’s happening with dinner with DJ’s.
I now find myself coming into contact with people capable of teaching me while also being students as well. Which is especially true after my dinner with Anthony Vallez aka Basket O Fries. Here’s how it went.
We started this dinner a little late this time since we both worked that day, and agreed to meet at around 8 pm for chicken wings, March madness, music, and a lesson on drum and bass.
My living room was a classroom for the night, and my textbooks were the sounds coming out of the speakers, decided and lectured by the teacher. But not right away.
Although he was there for music, we quickly found ourselves in an extended discussion of our shared love for college basketball, which was playing the entire time he was there. We talked about the Lobos, and how we both hope they build on the success of making the tournament again.
I revealed I was a Duke fan, and he acknowledged being a fan of UNC, Duke’s biggest rival. We had been watching all the same games for the last two decades, yet from different sides of the court. The connections did not stop there. We are walking the same path, except maybe at different times.
That’s where his story began. He told me about attending West Mesa High School, the same school I attended a few years before, missing each other by just a couple of years. Then he told me about his introduction to the rave scene as a student of West Mesa.
He described what it was like going to the Wool warehouse for the first time; hearing drum and bass live and in person. Connecting it to his love for hip-hop and how jungle sprouted from that which caused the birth of drum and bass.
It all seems so connected at times and yet we don’t realize it until we go learn and see it for ourselves. He even shared that many of the people he met that night are still in his life now. Such a beautiful thing to recall.
From there he told me about attending EDC around that same time, when it was still at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. Drum and bass was bigger In LA than NM back then, but also different than the surge they are experiencing now.
Edc and Bassrush had a stage completely dedicated to drum and bass and the underground scene in LA had him traveling back and forth constantly. He was there right on the verge of it, and he could see the difference when he returned to EDC three years later. The culture was growing. It still is.
After that, Basket O Fries went on to make a major leap in his musical education, as he attended a week-long drum and bass festival in Spain called Innovation in the Sun.
How crazy the places we will go because of this music. The understanding was clear. After this kind of trip music would be different now. He would be different too.
It was at this moment that the DJ began playing the first part of his set which he properly called, the appetizer.
A smooth mix of liquid drum and bass and the sounds I remember so well from those years of adolescence when this music found us in the darkness of the night, and we, so young and unaware, surrendered to it so completely, that now we find ourselves listening back with nostalgic understanding.
It was sometime during this mix he played a Tupac song I loved so much during my youth called “Do for Love”, and it was then that I realized that he experienced something so similar to what I did. But instead of house music, like in my journey, for him it was drum and bass. We are all dancing to a different beat and yet still on the same dancefloor.
He ended his first set just as our chicken wings got there, with a drum and bass version of the old Zapp and Roger song “Computer Love”, and it reminded me of the idea again, of house music being house music before it was house music. But this isn’t house music, it’s drum and bass, so what does that mean?
I wondered these things as we began to eat, and continued to discuss more about his journey. The statement repeated in my head. Same dancefloor just a different beat.
For dinner, we chose to order out, which ended up being a wonderful idea since we had more time to discuss what is next for Basket O Fries, as his future looks stacked with chances to spread the lesson of drum and bass. A role he did not see coming all those years ago when he first started.
For years he was content with being in the crowd, supporting his friends, and just enjoying the vibe, but then the student became the teacher along the way.
First, he became a DJ, then a promoter, now one of the leaders of the 505 Junglists crew, and committed to keeping that drum and bass spirit alive here in the 505.
Creating a community, supporting arts, local vendors, and of course, up-and-coming local DJs. There’s so much we can say about where we’ve been, but what is to be done about where we are going? Who’s helping us get there?
Shortly after the games ended Basket O Fries returned to the Xdj for a mini mix of what represents the style he plays out more at the 505 Junglists shows, a style you can hear at multiple venues around the city this month.
The next one is coming up on April 12th, with a good mix of old school and new school, and a headliner from Los Angeles coming all this way just to share that Southern California sound that seems to inspire so many so often.
By the end of the mix, the postgame show was on, and we were full of too many chicken wings, yet satisfied with the lesson of the night. He took me through the years of drum and bass, and how they related to his journey, and we ended up right here back in the city we seem to both be committed to so completely now. Not the story I expected to tell when I was still a student so long ago. But then again, did any of us plan for this one?
So, in closing, I wish to say thank you to Basket O Fries for being my drum and bass teacher for the night both with your words and with your music.
I see so clearly I still have so much more to learn as a student, but it’s also good to know some teachers know exactly what this music stands for.
Also, thanks for the conversation on basketball. I think we are so committed to this culture at times, that we ignore the other parts of life we may have in common too. It was fun to experience that and to know that although this music brought us together, it doesn’t have to always be the reason we share our time, and in this case, our story.
And as always, if you enjoy these words, and the mix that goes with it, do me a favor and go to the show this April 12th. The one after that too.
Whether you’re jungle crew, a dnb kid, or just someone looking for a dancefloor for the night, the message is still the same. Go early, stay late, support the culture. It’s the way a student becomes the teacher.
See you on the dancefloor, dear friends, and maybe at the dinner table too.
Ourdancefloor.net 