Feature
With his edgy, charismatic take on Chicago house, Josh Caffé tells all about his ambitious debut LP – Poppa Zesque
I n Josh Caffé’s own words, “the sound of Chicago is embedded in me”. Over the past decade, the British-Ugandan DJ and producer has become an influential figure in London’s contemporary house scene, reframing past and present with his frenetic DJ sets and enigmaticsounding releases. Caffé’s exuberant vocal tones and productions can also be traced to collaborations with the legendary Robert Owens, Honey Dijon and, most recently, gritty acid house purveyors Paranoid London. Now signed to Erol Alkan’s Phantasy Sound label, Caffé’s debut LP, Poppa Zesque, takes his characteristically raw sound to new, decadent heights.
WHEN YOU THINK OF HOUSE MUSIC, DOES YOUR MIND TRAVEL BACK TO THE ORIGINATORS OR THOSE THAT MAY HAVE FOLLOWED AND HAD A MORE DIRECT INFLUENCE ON YOU?
“It definitely starts with the originators. When I started getting into house music in my late teens I was introduced to people like Jamie Principle and Robert Owens and fell in love with the music and sounds they made and what they stood for, especially from a queer black point of view.
Those early vocalists and producers still shape a lot of the stuff that I do now.”
WITH THAT IN MIND, DOES ANY ONE HOUSE TRACK APPEAL TO YOU ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE?
“I know it’s quite an obvious one but Jamie Principle’s Bad Boy is a track that I really liked. There’s a line that says,‘You might call me a freak, you might call me a queer, but I’m just a bad boy,’ and because I was an outsider in the queer scene growing up and not fully into R&B or dance music, I’ve learned to embrace those things that he was expressing lyrically.”
HOW DO YOU THINK HOUSE MUSIC HAS EVOLVED IN RECENT DECADES?
“The sound of house has obviously naturally progressed, but the need for good voices and lyrics seems to have gone a bit – you can count good vocalists that represent house music in a really good way on the fingers of one hand. That’s something I’m trying to incorporate back into the music because a lot of the lyrics and songs from old house tracks really signified what was happening on the dancefloor and in the culture.”
DO YOU THINK THAT STEP-CHANGE HAS BEEN A RESULT OF HOW PEOPLE HAVE DRIFTED TOWARDS USING ELECTRONIC RATHER THAN ACOUSTIC SOUNDS?
“I think so. It’s not a negative thing, but people are probably learning how to produce without factoring vocals into their house music productions. It does take a lot to work with a vocalist. It’s not just a case of someone turning up and singing; you need to understand the key, melody and how and where a vocal
