Ben Hemsley

Yes, Alan Fitzpatrick looks a little bit like a builder and it’s slightly incongruous to see him behind a set of decks looking out over a sea of ravers losing their collective minds but in a way, that’s the beauty of DJ-ing. How successful one is at it is based pretty much entirely on skill and dedication. It’s nigh on impossible to fake your way into being a top level DJ by looking the part the way it’s very much possible in most other music scenes in the world. If you’re not willing to work hard at the craft you’re shit out of luck, and Alan Fitzpatrick has worked harder than most to get where he is, and one can see how handsomely it’s paid off in every live set that he does. Managing to take samples from sources as disparate as spoken word records and The Beatles (a few of his sets begin with a subtle sample from Tomorrow Never Knows unless I’m very much mistaken) and fuse them seamlessly with influences from funky house to minimalist techno is no mean feat, it’s even more impressive when one considers the almost rapturous reaction he gets with every set he plays. Anyone up for a master class in crowd pleasing with integrity, this is the man to see as soon as possible.