Olav Basoski

Born into a musical family, Olav Basoski grows a passion for clubmusic in the late seventies. Developing mixing skills in the first few years of the eighties he sets his goal at an early age; making music it'll be. His early mix tapes get legendary in his hometown Haarlem (near Amsterdam) and they are the first next to Dutch mix master Ben Liebrand's to get broadcasted on National Radio. In 1986 Olav even gets imprisoned for broadcasting his DJ tapes on pirate radio. At the dawn of the computer era he gets into producing electronic music. Being inspired by early dancefloor monsters like Baby Ford's 'Oochy Koochy' and Innercity's 'Big Fun' things start making sense. Keen at picking up production techniques at his mastering day job at (then) CBS Records he soon releases his first vinyl '6 Bells All', followed by classics such as Sil's 'Windows' and World Series of Life's 'Spread Love' thru Amsterdam based Rhythm Records in 1991, where he will stay for almost a decade. 1993 sees the birth of one of Holland's biggest housemusic labels ever; Work Records. Teaming up with DJ Erick E, Olav produces some all-time dancefloor smashes like Pancake's 'Don't Turn Your Back' and Sil's 'Villa Ducato'. From 1997 on, Olav is back on his own after splitting with Erick who wishes to concentrate more on his DJ career, Olav starts his new-found solo days with the now classic Samplitude series, becoming one of the most sought-after housemusic vinyl-series ever produced, comprising over 50 tracks in all, spread out over 13 releases. Meanwhile Olav releases the highly acclaimed 'Opium Scumbagz' on Defected and remixes everyone, from Moby to James Brown, from Bob Marley to Hatiras and from Armin van Buuren to Todd Terry. At the same time he finds himself back on the decks, playing clubs in every corner of the world, from Toronto to Tokyo to London to Ibiza to Moscow and back. He's now maintaining a busy schedule running Rootz Records, staying in touch with the dancefloor DJ'ing and never seeming to loose his greatest passion of all: making housemusic.