Born in Argentina, reggae/dancehall selector Andrés Octavio has been making
the rounds on the San Francisco deejay circuit since 1997.
Spinning records for the past decade, Andrés spent the better part of the '90s
playing ragga jungle, drum'n'bass, breakbeats and electro, but eventually turned his focus to his
lifelong passion: reggae and dancehall. As his musical interests continued to expand,
so did the realization of his ultimate goal of playing across several
different musical genres, and in the years since Andres
can be heard playing reggae/dancehall, hip hop, ragga jungle, electro, breaks, dnb, and
glitch/idm -- sometimes all in the same week.
With a solid catalogue of releases to his credit, Andres' dj mixed cds have received much praise over
the years. These include:
-RUN DI PLACE [2005 - a 73 track dancehall mix with over 15 of Andres' own exclusive remixes]
-RUDE BOY TING [2003 - a 50 track all-reggae/dancehall mix]
-THE ELECTRO CONTROVERSY [2003 - given much aclaim due to it's bold political statement]
-ELECTROBASSandBREAKS [2002 - reviewed in the March 2002 issue of URB Magazine -
read review]
-BASICS: NU SKOOL BREAKS [2001 - first place winner in the Nubreaks.com 2001 Mixset Competition
- read review]
-MOTION [2000]
-RAGGA JUNGLE VOLUME 1 [1999 - was distributed by N2O Records and Pacific Standard
and can be found at Zion's Gate Records- Seattle, Breakbeat Science- NYC, Freeburning
Records- LA, and many places in between]
-THE MEDIA [1999 - reviewed in the October 2000 issue of URB Magazine
- read review]
-EACH ONE TEACH ONE: FREE MUMIA! [1998]
...as well as several other underground mixes.
Over the years, Andrés has been mashing up venues all around the San Francisco Bay Area --
including holding a Friday night residency at legendary club Ten15 -- and has appeared at most clubs in the city.
Additionally, Andres has also been playing across the US and abroad, making appearances in Upstate NY, NYC, DC, Arizona,
San Diego, Barcelona Spain, and Vancouver Canada. 2004 also saw Andres' temporary relocation to Melbourne, Australia, where
he has been playing on a weekly basis. In the summer of '05 Andres became a resident (alongside selectas Flavio and Ruffiki)
at one of Melbourne's top weekly reggae/dancehall/reggaeton events, BURNING NEW, which runs every Thursday at Fitzroy's
popular FIRST FLOOR.
Andrés has been billed alongside many top international and
stateside artists, including Tipper, BLIM, 2 Sinners, Bionic/Mechanoise, Meat Katie, Salim Rafiq, Dillinja,
Lemon D, Shimon, Seba, E-sassin, Reid Speed, Juju, DJ Abstract, JahYzer, Jah Warrior Shelter Sound, Coop D'Ville,
Bass Kittens, EVAC, Rude 66,
Phon.o, OST, Sutekh, Deru, L'Usine, Proem, ELM, Cybrid, an*ten*nae, The Nortec Collective,
Single Cell Orchestra, Mark Farina, Afro Mystic, DJ Rush, Krafty Kuts, Adam Freeland,
Chris Carter, Phoenecia, Richard Devine, Otto Von Schirach, Nick Forte, John Tejada, Azeem,
Paul Nice and Freaky Chakra. In early 2004 Andres was also booked as one of two official DJs for the first
annual international reggae festival CAPEFEST, taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. At CAPEFEST, Andrés
was scheduled to play reggae/dancehall sets on the main stage
before such acts as Yami Bolo, Prezident Brown, Macka B, Mutabaruka, Ini Kamoze and many
others. Although unforseen circumstances led to the cancellation of the entire festival a mere 3 days before it's
scheduled date, plans are already in the works for another Andres Octavio tour of South Africa in the near
future.
Andrés plans to continue spreading his sounds both nationally and internationally. Having shifted much of his focus
into the studio, Andrés has also gone public with some of his own dancehall riddims and remixes (which can be heard on his
TUNES page). With plans of staying in Melbourne thru July 2005, the end
of this year will see Andres' return to San Francisco, where new musical projects await.....
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