The Joy of Green Velvet

Image: Green Velvet

The first time I saw Green Velvet was in Sullivan Room in New York - a brilliant small club with a brilliant music policy, and exactly the kind of place he is best viewed, because everyone can see him up on high, orchestrating the whole show.

He's a very visual DJ in that he just looks like the complete deal - just the ultimate dude. He looked to me like a James Bond villain who might have a hook for a hand, whilst wearing glasses that could easily have been welding goggles, always looking in complete control of his charges on the dancefloor.

And then there's his live talking/singing over the top of his own songs... he rigs up his DJ headphone into the microphone socket and regales us with the likes of 'Flash' (below), replete with the infamous "Cameras Ready, Prepare To Flash" refrain. 

Seeing him do that live, set off with his iconic style and a trademark cheeky look on his face... well that's quite something (and clearly well liked by other members of the Skiddle fraternity).

The other unique thing about Velvet is his sound. I really, really like his jackin' interpretation of techno, and haven't really heard anyone else do it in the way he does. So you're in the land of Derrick Carter with quite overtly US vocals and grooves, but with a bit of Adam Beyer hard-as-nails savagery on the percussion.

You can hear the Chicago in him, that's for sure, but he has a different angle to the rest of the Chi town exports from his generation. It's that otherworldly almost alien vibe that really sets him out form his peers.

And he's got a very blatant up and down style. His sets are all about building it, turning the screw further and further until it's really going off, and then dropping it in order to build again.

It can get very very intense when he takes it to a higher point - he's certainly calculated in the way he ups the ante, and while I'm not normally a fan of too many peaks and troughs in a set, he pulls it off very well indeed.

Another thing you need to know about Green Velvet, he's a born-again Christian and an outspoken evangelist, as evidenced by his 2012 smash 'Preacher man' which you can listen to above.

When you look up at him from the dancefloor, he looks like anything but, but anyone who has booked him to DJ in recent years will know how serious he takes his faith because in amongst the rider/general information that comes from his management, it urges promoters or anyone linked to the promoter to refrain from the use of blasphemous language and swear words.

Even his most famous records, 'La La Land' as well as 'Flash' and last year's 'Bigger than Prince', have a scathing satirical undercurrent, lambasting drugs and Dj culture amongst them. The man is a complete one off!

See where you can catch Green Velvet next.