Jan Hammered EXCLUSIVE mix

Music

It seems like only yesterday, but it’s been over a decade since Jan Hammered first appeared in Manchester, and on my musical radar, beaming down from some remote village in Scandawegia via that hotbed of Balearic talent – Wigan!

With a record collection accumulated over years of trawling second hand shops from Wigan to Wolverhampton, Hot Wax in Warrington and E-Bloc & Vinyl Exchange in Manchester, inspired by the Hacienda in it’s heyday and the Balearic ‘early’ sets of Mike Woods at Legends, Jan was immediately accepted by Manchester’s Balearic ‘Aficionado’s’ as one of their own. His first residency in the city soon followed. Counterpoint was a drunken, midweek basement party of the most bizarre & excessive kind, usually ending with us both lying drunk behind the decks. Sadly it could not last, but his reputation was already growing.

His mixes had already caused much chin stroking and mutual appreciation amongst his closest friends, but then a rather splendid little mix called “Airport Airport” began to get noticed on that interweb thingy. Some people liked it. Then more people really liked it. Then an awful lot of people went completely ape-shit over it. In an era of ground breaking mixes gathering cult followings on the internet, from Harvey’s “Sarcastic Disco, Mark Seven’s “Slow Blow”, and some mixes called, er, *cough* “Cosmic Alphonsus”, “Airport Airport” captured a unique time in the renaissance of this strange music we love. There was no looking back.

After our first (non-sexual) partnership at Counterpoint, our Night Music and Estrellas residencies followed. His epic saga of mixes became much-anticipated events on sites like DJ History and Test Pressing (“Dragonfly” is my favourite). Regular guest spots around Manchester at the likes of Aficionado were soon vying for space in his schedule with requests from all over the place. Appearances at Claremont 56 parties and Folk Ibiza being highlights of a hectic DJing career, where he time and again proves you can actually make people dance to this music if you do it right!

But our Jan wasn’t going to rest on his laurels, oh no. Thor’s brainy little brother is a one man renaissance of the creative arts, somehow managing to fit in 3D & graphic design, carpentry and photography in between visits to the record store and the gig, becoming Clarmont 56’s in-house photographer, and the official photographer for my “Down To The Sea & Back” compilation along the way.

With our blonde bombshell now dabbling a little in music production what’s next? Total world domination?

The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.

Balearic Mike 2012

Jan Hammered plays…