This week we land our Mix of the Week with one of our all-time favourite artists and label owner of 20/20 Vision Recordings – Ralp Lawson with this epic live mix from Gottwood
“Staring out across the absolutely packed Lawn of Gottwood Festival 2024 as the sun shone through the trees on Crazy P dropping ‘Heartbreaker’ I knew I had a mission to pull off. And that was to first attempt to keep the crowd and second take it from 120bpm disco and drop it off somewhere around 135 bpm electro ready for Freakenstein to come on in full swing. Not the easiest job in the world but one I felt confident to pull off knowing the Gottwood crowd, Crazy P and the Freaky one so well after being a part of all their lives for many years. It was also a rare opportunity for me to mix up everything from balearic beats, disco and deep house as ralph lawson before passing the headphones over to my alter ego EXIT PLANET EARTH to take over the controls for electro funk LIFT OFF!’ – Ralph Lawson
Ralph Lawson is best known for his highly acclaimed 20/20 Vision record label and productions. Alongside 20/20 Vision he was a co-founding resident DJ at the legendary back-to-basics club in Leeds, where he played the very first record in November 1991. Lawson has helped the club win 5 major industry awards so far (DMC, Muzik, DJ Magazine) for Best Club and has been personally nominated for Best Breakthrough, Best DJ and Lifetime Contribution by DJ Magazine.
Lawson learnt his trade as a true resident DJ, playing every week at back to basics. He became musical director at the club, bringing many of the most important electronic music artists in the world to Leeds for the first time. These included Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Danny Tenaglia, Francois Kervorkian, Derrick Carter, Derrick May, DJ Harvey, Chez Damier & Ron Trent, Stacey Pullen and many others. Playing long sets alongside the greats helped Lawson learn and develop his own DJ skills. Ralph’s reputation spread from his Basics residency with guest appearances at the legendary Hacienda, Sub Club, Flying, Full Circle, Venus and Shindig as well as early excursions around Europe.
Ralph became one of the first UK DJs with a residency in Barcelona at The Moog club and began playing in Ibiza at Ku, Space and Amnesia from the mid-nineties. Touring started to extend across the world, to Australia, Argentina, and Japan. The USA became a firm favourite with shows at Red Dog and Smart Bar in Chicago, The End Up in San Francisco and The Sound Factory Bar, Limelight, Tunnel, Cielo and Studio B in New York. In NYC Lawson was invited to open for Danny Tenaglia at his ‘Be Yourself’ parties and even ended up producing music for the ‘De La Guarda’ show on Broadway.
Alongside long-term production partner Carl Finlow, the pair produced a series of respected releases including the classic ‘Raptures of The Deep’. 20/20 Productions forged ahead with notable remixes for David Bowie, Arthur Baker, Josh Wink, Felix Da Housecat. They also started a long running series of remixes for Blaze, most notably ‘Lovelee Dae’, ‘Funky People’ and ‘Wishing You Were Here’. Lawson also produced alongside Chez Damier as Chuggles on Prescription Underground and further projects included work for Soma, Pagan and Get Physical. Lawson founded 20/20 Vision Recordings in 1994, which has gone on to become a highly influential and pioneering record label. The record label roster grew to include a wealth of international artists including; Maya Jane Coles, Crazy P, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Audiojack and Paul Woolford.
In 2003 Lawson started the live electronic band 2020Soundsystem. The band successfully toured the world for the following decade, releasing the albums ‘No Order’ and ‘Falling’ and ‘Live at Sonar’ in the process. 2020Soundsystem became firm festival favourites with appearances at Sonar, Glastonbury, Exit, Lovebox, The Garden Festival, Creamfields, Kendall Calling, Beatherder, Rockness, T in the Park, Camp Bisco and many more. Throughout these times, Lawson always continued to be first and foremost a DJ, adding long running residencies at We Love Space Ibiza, The Loft in Barcelona, alongside the ever-faithful back-to-basics. Lawson released several mix albums, including Fabric 33 for the famous London club, having been a regular guest since the club’s inception. The album was warmly received and Lawson found himself back on major festival stages at Sonar, Love International, Electric Elephant, Hideout, Festival No.6, Eastern Electrics, Gottwood and many others.
After playing at Burning Man festival in 2012, he was invited to headline Robot Heart in New York City. The same year Lawson played for the first time at Circo Loco at DC10 in Ibiza and continued the relationship the following year on the terrace. In 2014 the 20th anniversary of 20/20 Vision was celebrated with the album ‘Content’ featuring a DJ Mix including exclusive tracks from Herbert and Maya Jane Coles and a series of international tour dates. The next project created was ‘Lost in Time’ featuring a return to collaborating with original production partners Chez Damier, Carl Finlow and Tuccillo. Spanning over three years the project featured 10 singles including ‘Hold Over Me’ licensed to Art Department’s No19 record label and ‘Lost in The Storm’ which enjoyed heavy support from DJ Harvey, Seth Troxler and Ben UFO.
In 2018 Lawson continued his output with a compilation series celebrating 25 years of his residency at back to basics. The ‘rare classics’ compilation featured a selection of hard-to-find tracks from the club’s history and included artwork from Jamie Reid, the graphic artist who defined the punk era with his album covers for the Sex Pistols. A truly timeless project created by a DJ who has lasted the test of time. Also in 2018 Lawson co-founded Inner City Electronic Festival in Leeds, continuing his work as a musical director and curator. The festival has been greeted with universal acclaim and hosted international heavyweight artists including Floating Points, Peggy Gou, Nina Kraviz, Octave One, KiNK, DJ Stingray, among many others in it’s opening editions. Looking forward 2020 will be a big year for the label and Lawson with a new album and a series of events called Exit Planet Earth.
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