Ben Korbel is tired. Like some of my rather crazy ITM compatriots he’s been sitting up till the early hours of the morning working on a few extra-curricular activities. Such is the way when you are a high profile DJ and promoter in the making.
After two previous attempts at hooking up for what we jokingly came to refer to as the ‘interview chat’ Ben and I have managed to co-ordinate an hour or so in the EMI / Virgin building in Cremorne.
The venture taking up much of his time at the moment is the Australian office of the tremendously successful UK company Ministry Of Sound. Working alongside mates like fellow DJs Declan and Tim McGee, Ben is responsible for much of the marketing which goes along with each release.
Described as one who plays ‘intelligent progressive’ by a few friends in the know, Ben has unassumingly been making his name in the Sydney scene with what have been recently been referred to as “blinding sets”.
I was interested to read that he is a classically trained musician and queried whether this had been an influence on his DJing “I’ve never drawn any relation between the two, but I guess if you learn music as a little kid it’s within you.” Ben first came to our attention when he won the 3d world Bedroom Bangers competition in 1997. However it was not until a man named Phil Simmons gave Ben “a spin” at weekly Sunday event called Moontoonz, at Moretons that we really saw what he could do. Knowing the guy from school may have helped a little: “I think I sent him tape and he gave me a go straight up in my first year out of school.” Ben DJed there for about two years, before moving on to Crisp on Sundays, and then on to promoting his own parties.
Ben is one half of Vibe Republic, along with business partner Paddy Nash, most notably responsible for putting on a series of parties called ‘Sounds of Sydney’. These are on hold for the time being, but Ben is currently directing his energies into touring special events for Sounds on Sunday.
Having finished a marketing degree last year Ben also had a large input into what was shaping up to be a true taste of ‘intelligent progressive’, in Loop at the now defunct Empire nightclub.
He’s understandably reticent to talk about it after the somewhat controversial circumstances surrounding its demise. “You can’t really rationalise what was done, and why he did it. We did five weeks of what I thought was pretty good PR leading into it. I was starting to think that maybe there was a crowd who were ready for this sort of music.” Let’s hope he finds the time and a more intelligent club owner to test the theory some time in the future.
One big area I make a point of discussing is the somewhat controversial ‘progressive house’ description. It’s one which seemingly means many things to many people.
“I guess I do play progressive house, but not what I think other people define as progressive house. I’d describe it as ‘future techno’. One in two records I buy would be breakbeat, but I don’t think I would be recognised as a breakbeat DJ, nor would I care to be.” Ben likes the sounds often championed by DJs such as Adam Freeland “all the stuff he plays has big synth and melodies and is very atmospheric… all the music I play has those same elements, whether it’s over a house beat, or a break beat. I really like journey-oriented sets, like those Digweed and Sasha play.”
Ben recently made the trip down to Melbourne to catch Diggers at the Chevron and was quite literally in awe of the man’s work.
On the topic of journey sets, Ben spends a lot of time preparing for his work “There are only so many records in your box – some are really housey-groovy, some are more minimal, some are warm and melodic – you need to utilise them and program your set properly to keep an interest the whole time. If you play the wrong thing too early, then you burn the crowd out.”
I comment that I have often wondered how much of a DJ’s set is produced ‘on the fly’ so to speak “Yeah it’s really hard to judge, my brain is really drained at the end if I play what I deem a good set.” He adds that steering clear of crowd-pleasing tracks is often a lot harder, but definitely more satisfying “It’s a lot harder to create an effect over a longer period of time. If you can play what you like, and have a whole crowd of people seemingly understanding what you’re doing – that’s awesome.”
Probably Ben’s most high-profile residency to date is the silver room at Kinkidisko – a night not without its share of controversy in the lead up to February 3rd’s opening effort. So how did he find the ‘progressive room’? “I had mad time! There were more, hmmm, sort of ‘clubbers’ as I know it in that room. You only need a hundred people to fill that room to capacity.”
I query what an atmospheric progressive sound was like in such an enclosed space. “I was extremely surprised how well my music went down in that room. Particularly when you had points in the tune with a big breakdown, people weren’t just standing around, they were getting into it. No one has had any sort of confidence in that room, but all the managers said was that was the busiest they have seen the room to date.”
He’s quick to add however, that he doesn’t think it’s going to be a proverbial walk in the park “that doesn’t mean it’s going to be like that every week. I think it’s going to be really hard work. But it’s the only decent gig I’ve got at the moment,” he chuckles.
