Based on the sheer range of Deep House and Techno found across Ones you can tell that Ivan Dbri has had a broad spectrum of influences up to this point. Born in Mexico City and raised in Brooklyn, today he calls Canada home.
Dbri caught my attention last year with a track called “While You Sleep” which was also on Panama Red Records. I honestly didn’t realize how dope it was until I played it out a couple of times. There was one set where it happened to be THE perfect selection in the middle of a thick 2×4 vibe with a friend. I’ve been a fan ever since.
For this record, my reaction was similar to before, not really grasping how cool some of these are on my first listen. Did I mention I can be kind of a dumbass in this department? Same as before I noticed many of my DJ friends’ feedback were very enthusiastic, and so the next afternoon I threw the album on without thought while mowing my backyard. Lending my focus to another task really helps and I found myself totally into these simple sophisticated grooves.
When all was said and done I flagged 6 tracks out of 12 for spin candidates, most of them going straight to my Deep House folder. “OZ1” is super sexy with an old school sensibility. Using familiar samples, including Theo Parrish theorizing on the process of DJ’ing, he does what anyone should: he works them into HIS tracks instead of the tracks AROUND the samples. I’m not a fan of all his placements and combinations of them, but then again another DJ could easily like the other 6 that aren’t for me.
Ivan Dbri says he prefers to be influenced by the love of sound and the beauty of this musical path, not hype. His humility and artistic spirit are evident with this album. Don’t be like me and let the simplicity lull you into a false sense of boredom. None of these are prime time club rocking tracks, but they’re certainly potential purist pleasers.
