Amok VRS
AMOK Warsaw / New York
“A road less traveled”, a simple phrase, which in many ways describes Amok’s musical career. In the early 90’s he frequented many of NYC’s clubs and lounges, diving in head first to soak up the amazingly diverse music scene, which was flourishing in the 90’s within the walls of many clubs. Heavy sounds of Acid and Hardcore thundered throughout the club scene each week, working partygoers into their Saturday Night frenzy. Yet something was amiss. Amok’s punk rock background kept pushing him back to his roots and finally he discovered some small black and white fliers at some of the club events. It was his first encounter with NYC’s underground illegal party circuit. Here, in the abandoned warehouses and factories, under NYC’s bridges and overpasses, in the cemeteries, decrepit old churches and ship yards was where he felt at home. It was here, in the darkest of places, where he drew his inspiration from. In 1997, he found himself at a Blackkat event hosting none other than the Spiral Tribe Sound System family. Already legendary in Europe, this was their first American tour. The hypnotizing sounds of early mental tribe with heavy, acid dripping bass lines consumed him. Fire dancers, visuals and the squatter/punk vibe of this event sent him well on his way. At that very party he ran into a mixed group of vagabonds from various NYC boroughs. Little did he know, just a couple of years later, this group would become his second family and grow to become the Renegade Virus Sound System. The Virus family grew fast and steady. In cooperation with hundreds of local and international artists and sound systems, they organized scores of events across the US and Canada, eventually reaching out as far as Poland, Russia, Israel and Peru. The cutting edge underground electronic sounds combined with the infectious Virus Renegade vibe attracted many collaborators and enthusiasts across the globe.
In the early 2000’s Renegade Virus formed close alliances with San Francisco’s Havoc Sound and NYC’s Blackkat collective, one of the oldest running party crews and sound systems in NYC, of which Amok became an integral part of shortly after. In Canada, Amok became involved with the Alt.Mtl collective, Cruz Control Sound System and Neurotic Sound System and played at many events, including five consecutive years at the annual Northtek festival, held in Ottowa.
Over time, Amok’s sound has changed and progressed, each transition echoing the eclectic flavor of the previous genre. His DJ sets are as diverse and entangling as the artists he’s shared stages with, and cover elaborate presentations of Acid House, Acid, Breaks, Broken Beat, Tribe, DnB, Ragga Jungle, Hardcore, Speedcore, Electro, Industrial, IDM and more experimental sounds of electronica. Amok is an avid vinyl collector and specializes in obscure and rare pieces, carefully researched and selected to fit his very unique sound, described by some as – “the DJ’s DJ” - playing to satisfy musical fanatics. Each set is a journey and never the same - that’s guaranteed.
His last US based project was the Septik Nexus Sound, which was a collective of NYC’s electronic music artists bent on ripping the city back from the claws of the greedy corporate mainstream waste, bringing the sounds of the underground to the streets to show New York that the underground is indeed, still thriving. Septik Nexus quickly became a recognized group by cooperating on projects such as The Danger and NYC’s Dance Parade. The Septiks first got their hands dirty in the very first annual NYC dance parade and the Halloween parade and from there proceeded to organize and contribute to free form music festivals and other projects. This loose knit family continues to grow and flourish today.
During his career, he’s shared a stage and worked with many amazing performers and DJs, such as: Lenny Dee [US], Mark N [AU], Traffik [UK], Laura Grabb [US], Africa Bambaataa [US], Grand Wizard Theodore [US], Broklyn Beats [US], CX Kidtronic [US], Tomash Gee [PL], Sven Wittekind [DE], Delta 9 [US], Aaron Spectre [US], Simon Underground [UK], Ulrich Hagen [DE], Atomic Babies [US], Agent Orange [DE], Fiend[US], Banditos [FR], Metek Sound System [FR], Tense [US], Nevermind[US], Duran Duran Duran [US], Bombardier [US], DJ Amok [DE] and many many more.
He’s performed in many cities in the North American continent, from NYC , Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Oakland through Canadian Montreal and Toronto. He’s currently residing in Poland where he’s had the pleasure of performing at many locations from Warsaw’s clubs, Gdansk, Szczecin, Wroclaw, Katowice, Bialystok, Torun, Kielce to others…
www.blackkat.org
www.renegadevirus.org
www.havocsound.org
www.bassbot.org
...growing up in nYC and areas in the 90's was a very interesting experience.. NYC was just slowly crawling out of the slimy, crack and corruption spoiled 80's where homeless and gangs ran the streets gnawing on pretty much any chance of making a hustle... it was like watching a day break and light creeping into darkest corners of the city and its kin. But as the light progressed its negative effects of blind faith put in the corporate and governing forces emerged flipping the script on all of us who believed that the city that never sleeps will remain this mecca for us, the outsiders for ever. We sat there and watched as squats, clubs, bars and other places which to us were the representations of homes and families which most of us lacked were systematically shut down for reasons no other than greed which was conveniently named "rezoning" for reasons no other than publicly sterilized esthetics and diseased political correctness.
Most of us were forced to grow up and out of the city faze, we've lost a lot of folks along the way, mainly those of us who couldn't really fit in or catch up with the growing and forceful progression of things... some started anew, some moved out and on, myself included... I'd hate to think that I'm still living the lifestyle, but I do realize that for outsiders we're still a bit crude and rough around the edges, sort of like that vinyl that you get sometimes with a hole that's a bit too small, so each time you play it sounds great, but it's always a bitch to get on with it... so you end up leaving it behind for the sake of user friendliness .. if you know what I mean hahaha...
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