a.k.a. A-PLUSH a.k.a. kitten paws R-A-double-raw...
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, DJ Enso (born Cassady Winston) has always had a passion for building things from scratch. As a teenager, he threw drum and bass warehouse parties in Oakland, CA that began to draw crowds in the low hundreds before he decided to turn his attention to DJing and music production. This brought him in contact with local hiphop producer Roche in the summer of 2003, and together they founded the Solos Records music label. He explains the initial motivation: "Solos was borne out of our desire to support the creative explosion of art happening around us, and provide a vehicle for it to reach a wider audience. The label is a symptom of a scene. We were surrounded by people making hot shit—visual art and music—and we wanted to give them an outlet."
Over the past five years, Solos has released curiously forward-thinking music on eight full vinyl and CD projects, 25 audio/visual podcasts and through hand-to-hand combat in spontaneous media iat numerous club nights and warehouse parties in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the label’s reach has extended and artists have spread across the globe, Solos has grown into an international community of musicians, visual artists and cultural critics rooted in hiphop and experimental electronic styles. DJ Enso’s most straight-forward party track to date, High Spirits, featuring vocals from Louis, has received print and online acclaim from XLR8R, and 3HIVE, among others, leading to a healthy online response of over 38,000 downloads since its release on 2005’s Solos in Stereo compilation (CD, SOLOS-002).
DJ Enso has an ongoing series of remixes, including an uptempo electro version of Bookworm’s Since I Met You included on The Hidden Staircase Maxi-EP (12”, SOLOS-004) and a 36-minute remix/soundscape podcast released in September 2006. DJ Enso’s sample-based MPC production is fully based in hiphop, but has often veered toward the abstract soundtrack sounds of Múm and Boards of Canada interludes. This element of his sound has been described as “like a motown song peacefully dropping acid on its deathbed… underwater. "
DJ Enso relocated to Hong Kong in January 2007, expanding Solos’ reach into Asia and bringing him in contact with a new world of musical influences. His recent Mandarin language collaborations include a live vocal mashup with 60-year-old Hong Kong subway singer, and an eerie reworking of a classic Chinese poem, "Like the rain falls". Most recently, DJ Enso has produced the audio score to Akit Fong’s 2007 independent film Close to Perfect, and contributed two songs to the latest Solos In Stereo Two compilation (CD, SOLOS-009), to be released Summer 2008.
"i'm the type of person that's the type of dog that bites back"
"this shit is like a motown song peacefully dropping acid on its deathbed. underwater."
- brian william rogers
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