‘Questolous’ – New album from DJ Quest

Now this one has been a while in coming but it’s finally here. DJ Quest, legendary Bay Area tablist for various reasons (and if you don’t know even one of them you need to fix that up sharpish), is releasing a new album, titled ‘Questolous’. I’d first heard of this back in late 2005 when I had the pleasure of meeting the man at the DJs for Life conference in the UK. A good two years later and the project is done and dusted and ready to drop.

The official release date is April 1, on Zq records. And no by all accounts this isn’t an early April’s fool. The album features a bunch of guests, most of whom should also need no introduction, including T-Rock, Sniper, the also legendary Bas 1, DJ Marz, Dust One, and Eddie K. It’s nice to see so many familiar names from the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters / Space Travellers as well as other Bay Area usual suspects, especially since the likes of Billy Jam and co have seemingly gone quiet (on the internets anyways). The package itself is also pretty sweet with some larvely artwork by Herms 1.

The album itself is described by Quest as a synthetic fusion between drum-machine and vinyl, drawing on influences reaching back to the 80s all the way to the present day. Which is a pretty good descripion by all accounts. Across its sixteen tracks, the album definitely has a strong ‘classic’ feel to it, in some of the beats and Quest’s trademark cuts. But there’s also quite a few tracks which are lot more forward thinking, including the awesome bass-led ‘Submarinethump’. Production is a mix of live elements, scratching and drum machines laced with cuts, from Quest for the most part.

Fans of the classic Bay Area tablist sound will definitely find a lot to please them in the album, and there’s still plenty in there too for those who might think it’s deja vu and nothing new. Personally, the album took me by suprise, being a lot more varied and grabbing than I expected it to be and I can’t recommend it enought for those who want a change with a throwback to the older days too.

I’ll be airing a couple of tracks from the album on the forthcoming podcast (more details on that in the next post) and you can already pre-order the album from most big online stores, or check the label’s myspace page for details of distributors as well as Quest’s myspace.

Quest is also touring with Apostle throughout the rest of this month, more details on his myspace.

And for all official Quest business and more, peep the official site as well as the Scratch Hamsters site.

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