About

#ThisIsTheWayWeCrashTheParty
Crash Party’s musical background stems from Breakbeat, Funk and Bass genres and his DJ sets and productions cover all these bases and more.
A party rocker with over two decades of experience behind the decks, under various aliases, and an ever-growing production back catalogue to keep the dance moving.
Crash’s production style is a mixture of cut-n-paste ethos and modern production values, marrying the two worlds in one fluid output. Genre gives way to the overall vibe - and the vibe is good times and partying from start to finish.
Crash has various releases under his belt, on such labels as Ghetto Funk, Scour Records, Cuttin’ It Fine, Breakbeat Paradise and his own label Big Beat Sundays. A collaboration track on the top 40 album "City Of Sin", by Dutty Moonshine Big Band, released on Universal Records and production credits on Aldo Vanucci's Drum n Bass chart hit "Impossible", feat. Mila Falls. Alongside these he has various remixes and original releases on 7” and digital that have gained Crash a spot in many a record box around the world.

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Biography
Who is Crash Party?

Hi, I'm Crash Party, a DJ / Producer currently based in the Southwest of the UK...but I also go by the name Dave.
Originally, I'm from Reading until I moved to Bristol in the late 90s. More recently, I have moved on from Bristol to a small village just north of Chepstow.
I started DJing at the age of 16 and soon the bug bit and I was sold for life.
I've always had a broad interest in various styles of music; playing in bands in my early teens, going to raves in later teens and generally embracing most things that sounded good... Then Big Beat happened!
I was already aware of bands and groups such as Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, but thanks to a free cassette on the front cover of the NME, I had my eyes opened to the broader spectrum of the movement called Big Beat and how it was more of a vibe than a production blueprint.
"Beat Up The NME", by Fatboy Slim, became the audio bible for me and my best friend, as we sought
out as many of the tracks as we could from the mix.
We did pretty well considering that these were the days without the Internet or Discogs, and our local HMV was good, but not that good. There are a few tracks I am still trying to track down...I’ll get there eventually!
In the mid 90s my best friend and I started to put on events and DJing together as "The Freestyle Vinyl Junkies". Our music styling was that the music played should be a vibe, rather than tied to a particular genre, as there was so much great music of differing styles available. This approach seemed to be the general take behind Big Beat as well, so it became a natural progression to fall more into that categorisation. House, Garage, Hip-Hop, Funk, Breakbeat and guitar-led music was in our record boxes. We played it all!
In the late 90s I moved to Bristol for Uni and was exposed to more and more events with the big names in Big Beat, with events like ‘Blowpop’ and ‘Giant Robot’ regularly feeding me the cream of the crop of DJs. During this time, I was regularly DJing at Breaks, Big Beat and Drum n Bass events in and around the city, from pubs to clubs and back again.
Fast forward a decade of DJing and promoting and I got into production.
Like most first-time producers I started making bootlegs and edits, while cutting my teeth on the production tools I was using. Cakewalk led to Cubase and Reason, which eventually led me to Ableton Live, and this is the DAW I still use today.
I was playing these edits and bootlegs out in my sets, and with an open-minded and genre-spanning approach to my DJing. I started making a name for myself in the student and Alt scenes of Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham and the Southwest throughout the 00's, as I mixed together Indie Alternative with Dance music of various genres. This took me all around the country as I played at some of the biggest Alt/Dance club nights at the time.
In the mid 00’s, my bootlegs gained me some notoriety around the world, and I was invited to New York in 2008 to play at the world infamous ‘Bootie NYC’ party, where a few of my bootlegs had become anthemic on their nights. Other tracks garnered millions of views on Youtube and were being played at big events around the world and even on the Radio 1.
During the 00's I had the honour of playing alongside some amazing DJs, such as Pendulum, Fingerthang, Scratch Perverts, Freestylers, Zane Lowe, Mark Ronson and many more. I was also lucky enough to play some great events including: 'Reading Festival', 'Ibiza Rocks' and 'Ashton Court Festival', alongside numerous club residencies at Gatecrasher Birmingham, Bristol Academy, Birmingham Academy and Cardiff University. as well as Student Balls around the country.
It wasn’t until the 2010s that I started releasing music, under my former ‘Dave Remix’ / ‘Dave RMX’ / 'Box Rocket' aliases, on small indie labels, including: Particle Zoo Recordings, Bulabeats, Radical Mixtape and Relative Dimensions. These early releases further developed my production ability and knowledge of how to effectively structure dance tracks.
This was also around the time that Aldo Vanucci and I created the Hardly Subtle alias. We released our debut EP on 12” vinyl and followed up with a number of 7”s over the years. I went on to produce Aldo's remix of Ruckus Roboticus "T.G.I.F." in 2012 on Dance or Die! Records. I also co-wrote and produced a track for Aldo Vanucci on each of his "Love Is Loops" vol. 1, "Alone" and vol.2, "So Good", released on Good Living Records/Jalapeno Records, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
In the mid-2010’s ‘Crash Party’ was created.
Originally, Crash Party was a more ‘Party Breaks’ orientated production, playing Ableton Live and DJ sets at Festivals and clubs around the UK. Crash Party included elements of Breakbeat, Funk, Bass music and Sample-led sounds at its core, but happily strayed into differing genres, such as Drum n Bass, Glitch Hop and House...wherever the vibe led us. To start with Crash Party was a duo, where I was working with a good friend, but due to his own personal challenges, he retired from Crash Party and I went solo in 2019.
Our first EP was released on the Ghetto Funk label in 2016 and was one of their only 100% Original releases, not relying on a famous vocal or music riff, to be featured as a debut release by an artist on the label. The release was a mid-tempo 4 tracker including a guest feature for 3 x World DMC champion JFB. We also did remix work for the label, including a remix of Second Hand Audio "Want That feat. Too Many T's.
From here we had further releases on Scour Records, again concentrating on original music in a scene that thrived on remixes and bootlegs. "Nitty Gritty" was a
lower tempo, bass led track featuring vocals from the Ragga Twins. This release came backed with a number of remixes. Our 2nd full EP, "Residential Area",
came next with 4 more Mid-Tempo/Bass Music tracks. We also produced remixes that were included on various compilations for the label.
The remixes continued on the labels Breakbeat Paradise Recordings and Cuttin’ It Fine, with the later label also releasing 2 EPs; "Funk 2 Ur
Roots" and "It's On Like That".
Our remixes started getting more and more success, and in 2018 we remixed Dutty Moonshine Big Band's cover of Nancy Sinatra's "Bang, Bang", from their debut album "Most Wanted". This track featured on the remix album, and has become a mainstay in their live shows, still being played to this day in their set finale. The track was also included on the Bombstrikes album "Bass Funk Vol. 4" mixed by Featurecast.
This then opened the opportunity for us to collaborate with Dutty Moonshine Big Band on their 2nd album "City of Sin", which was released on Universal in May 2020, peaking at no. 40 in the national album charts and hitting the no.1 spot
on the national album dance charts.
Our collaboration was on the track "Fever", which is a poignant message of resilience and unity for women everywhere, speaking up on the sexual harassment that women receive on a night out. Released on International Women’s Day, support for this track has been far and wide, with great reception wherever it has been heard, including thousands of plays on Youtube and Spotify.
Since going solo I have done original tracks and remixes for labels Roaring City, Cuttin It Fine, Breakbeat Paradise Recordings, Dead 2 Me and Swing & Bass alongside releasing some of my own originals and remixes out on Bandcamp.
In 2020, due to lockdown and the lack of in-person gigs, I started to do weekly live streamed DJ sets on Twitch. This developed into a weekly Thursday night slot and various one-off specials. During these streams I started moving my style back towards my Big Beat and Breakbeat DJing roots. This expanded in 2021 with the start of my "Big Beat Sundays" streams where I played music from the era, on vinyl, from the collection I have put together over the years. I also started a Soundcloud Mix Series, under the same name, to share the music with those that were unable to make broadcasts of the live streams. These streams and mixes are a lot of fun to play/compile as I am reminded of the great music from the era, and I started to explore what the modern equivalent was. This led me to getting involved in the Bass Funk scene, where beats and breaks meet sample culture and funk-based grooves, the nearest modern 'genre' that relates to the vibe of Big Beat.
This move to live streaming on Twitch led a small group of like minded DJs to come together and form the 'Global Funk Fam', a DJ collective that was open to all, around the World. Our ethos is to help up and coming DJ talent from aroound the world, impart the experience and knowledge we have to each other and form a community of music lovers across the globe. The community is primarily based on the Discord and Twitch platforms, with extensions across social media outlets: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Currently the Global Funk Fam community is 1.4k+ members strong and growing.
In 2021 I had my first solo 7”, "Toxic Funk Vol. 5", released on Breakbeat Paradise Recordings, which got airtime on Craig Charles’ Funk and Soul Show and Juno Chart no.1 positioning for the first few weeks of release.
I also made tracks for compilation albums on Cuttin It Fine and Breakbeat Paradise Recordings.
During 2021, I was also doing more production collaborations with Aldo Vanucci, working on tracks for his Club night brand 'Wonkylegs', as well as working towards tracks for commercial release.
In late 2021 American DJ/Producer/Label Owner, Fort Knox Five, invited me to put together a guest mix for his "Funk The World" series. I was asked to curate the 70th mix for the series and able to showcase a mix of Big Beat, Bass Funk and associated styles in the mix, and it has received great feedback. This mix was released in March 2022.
In January 2022 my wife and I had our first child, and this made things more sporadic on the music creation front, but I utilised what time I had, late at night or early in the morning, to start work on the album I have wanted to write for the past 20-odd years
Over the years I have collected samples and beats that I wanted to develop into tracks of their own, but due to the musical pigeonholes, created by different scenes and aliases, I just wasn’t able to focus on developing these ideas fully. I decided that now was the time to put pigeonholes aside and just do this for me and anyone else that liked it.
The late nights and early mornings gave me that opportunity and out of it came 10+ tracks that were whittled down to form the album "Everything Happens For A Reason", a musical-commentary on the times and events that got me to where I am today. The album took me over a year to write and I planned a number of EPs to accompany the album's release.
Throughout the remainder of 2022 I self released multiple tracks and compilations through my Bandcamp page. This was a chance to get a number of my older and unreleased tracks out into the world for everyone to enjoy.
My second 7” release came about in early 2023, this time a collaboration with DJ / Producer Paul Sitter. Our two track 7" Toxic Funk Vol. 9, released on Breakbeat Paradise Recordings.
As a follow up to this 7" release I did a Chemical Brothers / Leftfield inspired remix of Nasa Funk, for their single "Try and Buy", also releasesd on Breakbeat Paradise Recordings.
My work with Aldo Vanucci was still continuing in the background as we still put out occasional Hardly Subtle releases, but in February 2023 "Impossible" by Aldo Vanucci feat. Mila Falls, which I have production credits on for my work creating the original demo track that got Aldo the deal with Helix Records. The track has gone on to become world renown with radio and club play across the globe.
In April 2023 I made the first steps towards the release of my album by joining forces with old friend DJ Clairvo and starting 'Big Beat Sundays', a label to celebrated the sounds inspired by the 90s/00s Big Beat era. The name is taken from the Live Streams where I play the music that would be commonly heard at Big Beat Nights around the world.
"Sounds Like This EP" is the first release on my new Big Beat Sundays label as an introduction to the music we aim to release. This
wasthe first of 2 EPs planned before my album release.
Due to distribushion teething troubles the releases that were planned for Big Beat Sundays were delayed and didn't get back on track until the end of 2023 where I had was delighted to release a single from modern day Big Beater Rory Hoy. This release was the second for Big Beat Sundays.
January 2024 saw the second EP released ahead of my debut album. "Get Up (Let's Go)" is my son's song as it was the first track I wrote where he actively started moving in his cot to the music. He was a few months old at the time but seeing him react to the track drove me forward to complete it, and I vowed to release it as a track of it's own, so I did. This has proved to be quite a popular track.
February 2024 finally saw the release of my debut album 'Everything Happens For A Reason'. The release blurb gives you a hint as to what the album is all about
"Sit yourselves down and take a trip with Crash into his musical journey from the mid 90s, as a teenager, getting into the musical wonder of what is known as Big Beat, through to today where Funk Edits and Bootleg Breaks have brought the idea and feeling of Big Beat to a modern audience.
Crash has drawn inspiration from the classic producers and labels of the 90s that made Big Beat special for him, but in his own production style. The album keeps it varied from the head nodding album opener 'Branded No.1', through to the euphoric, hands in the air anthem in waiting 'Get Together'. The Pop friendly 'What'cha Waiting For?' gets you humming along and the Cut 'n' Paste inspired 'Supersonic Frequency' gets your toes tapping. Northern Soul inspired tracks 'Get Up (Lets Go)' and first EP, 'Sounds Like This', dare you to sit still while listening to these cuts. 'Right On' is written straight for the dancefloor where Funk meets pounding Beats and Rave sensibilities. 'Got 'Em This Time' and 'I Know' are dancefloor sirens as they call the crowd to let their hair down and get crazy in equal amounts. Wrapping up the album is 'Manifesto', which is the track that Crash has had planned longest, combining Hawaiian influences with Acid 303 lines and some classic vocals wrapped in the Big Beats and energy that the album revolves around.
Inspired by the sounds and vibe of the Big Beat era... Everything Happens For A Reason."
2024 continued with the news that I was coming out of DJ hiatus, having put everything on hold for parenthood, to play at the last ever Shindig Festival, the festival that launched Crash Party, and was the home of our first ever set.
This time round I was playing as part of the Global Funk fam take over of the Ghetto Funk Nightclub on the Sunday afternoon.
For my set I wrote a bespoke set of new music explicitely for the event. Unfortunately the festival gods were not smiling on me as there was a power cut less then 10 minutes into my set and that was the end of it all. British weather vs electricity was having none of it. I did record the set, after the event, and it can be heard on my SoundCloud page.
Making this set from all the original samples has set me up to develop the individual mix parts into complete tracks, plus a few fellow DJs have been asking me for the tracks, so it seemed like a good idea.
These tracks are going to be self released, in conjunction with Big Beat Sundays, on my Bandcamp page throughout the later part of this year. They will form the "Party Weapons" series that I will add to in time as ideas and remixess flow.
Towards the end of the year I am also hoping that my next my next 7" release will be out on the Toxic Funk label by Breakbeat Paradise Recordings. Similar to previous Toxic Funk releases, this is a mash up / bootleg double act for the dancefloor.
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