Alex Malam was first introduced to house music back in 1994 at the tender age of 15. He recalls finishing school at the end of the week to rush home and record Danny Rampling’s BBC1 radio show ‘The Love Groove Dance Party’.
Each week between 7-9pm Rampling would showcase the latest house music sounds as well as hosting guest DJ’s from across the globe, whereby the likes of David Morales, Roger Sanchez, DJ Disciple would each play a 30 minute guest mix full of exclusive gems.
It was from these early shows that Malam not only began searching for rare, US unreleased promo’s but also experienced DJ’s mixing 2 records together for the first time. It was from this point on that he decided that he wanted to become a Deejay and in 1997 bought his first pair of Technics turntables along with a Pioneer mixer.
Each weekend Malam and his mates would scour through the pages of MixMag trying to find the club night that hosted the best US DJ’s.
It was venues like Ministry of Sound, Love to Be, Hard Times, Cream and Golden that tended to hold such nights and where the likes of Vega, Knuckles, Moraes, Humpries and Sanchez could be found spinning 6-8 hour sets at a time and giving Malam the inspiration he needed to replicate such sounds.
It was around this time that he and a University friend decided to run a bi-weekly house night named SALSA, that was to be based in Malam’s hometown of Stoke on Trent. The night attracted a number of local guest Deejays as well as the likes of Joey Negro, CJ Macintosh and Alistair Whitehead who would all come together to play the latest up front funky, soulful house sounds.
As house music has progressed over the years, Malam has also seen his style take on a number of different directions with perhaps a slightly deeper more dubby edge. However his routes remain firm and whether you want to hear a MAW vocal or maybe a Defmix instrumental dropped in, you always know you are going to be taken on a house music journey
